Theoretical determination of lifetimes of metastable states in Sc III and Y III

Lifetimes of the first two metastable states in Sc^{2+} and Y^{2+} are determined using the relativistic coupled-cluster theory. There is a considerable interest in studying the electron correlation effects in these ions as though their electronic configurations are similar to the neutral alkali atoms, their structures are very different from the latter. We have made a comparative study of the correlation trends between the above doubly ionized systems with their corresponding neutral and singly ionized iso-electronic systems. The lifetimes of the excited states of these ions are very important in the field of astrophysics, especially for the study of post-main sequence evolution of the cool giant stars.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure and 5 table

Genetically tagged TRE5-A retrotransposons reveal high amplification rates and authentic target site preference in the Dictyostelium discoideum genome

Retrotransposons contribute significantly to the evolution of eukaryotic genomes. They replicate by producing DNA copies of their own RNA, which are integrated at new locations in the host cell genome. In the gene-dense genome of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, retrotransposon TRE5-A avoids insertional mutagenesis by targeting the transcription factor (TF) IIIC/IIIB complex and integrating ∼50 bp upstream of tRNA genes. We generated synthetic TRE5-A retrotransposons (TRE5-Absr) that were tagged with a selection marker that conferred resistance to blasticidin after a complete retrotransposition cycle. We found that the TRE5-Absr elements were efficiently mobilized in trans by proteins expressed from the endogenous TRE5-A population found in D. discoideum cells. ORF1 protein translated from TRE5-Absr elements significantly enhanced retrotransposition. We observed that the 5′ untranslated region of TRE5-A could be replaced by an unrelated promoter, whereas the 3′ untranslated region of TRE5-A was essential for retrotransposition. A predicted secondary structure in the RNA of the 3′ untranslated region of TRE5-A may be involved in the retrotransposition process. The TRE5-Absr elements were capable of identifying authentic integration targets in vivo, including formerly unnoticed, putative binding sites for TFIIIC on the extrachromosomal DNA element that carries the ribosomal RNA genes

High-throughput mutational analysis of TOR1A in primary dystonia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although the c.904_906delGAG mutation in Exon 5 of <it>TOR1A </it>typically manifests as early-onset generalized dystonia, DYT1 dystonia is genetically and clinically heterogeneous. Recently, another Exon 5 mutation (c.863G>A) has been associated with early-onset generalized dystonia and some ΔGAG mutation carriers present with late-onset focal dystonia. The aim of this study was to identify <it>TOR1A </it>Exon 5 mutations in a large cohort of subjects with mainly non-generalized primary dystonia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>High resolution melting (HRM) was used to examine the entire <it>TOR1A </it>Exon 5 coding sequence in 1014 subjects with primary dystonia (422 spasmodic dysphonia, 285 cervical dystonia, 67 blepharospasm, 41 writer's cramp, 16 oromandibular dystonia, 38 other primary focal dystonia, 112 segmental dystonia, 16 multifocal dystonia, and 17 generalized dystonia) and 250 controls (150 neurologically normal and 100 with other movement disorders). Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were evaluated in an additional 8 subjects with known ΔGAG DYT1 dystonia and 88 subjects with ΔGAG-negative dystonia.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>HRM of <it>TOR1A </it>Exon 5 showed high (100%) diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. HRM was rapid and economical. HRM reliably differentiated the <it>TOR1A </it>ΔGAG and c.863G>A mutations. Melting curves were normal in 250/250 controls and 1012/1014 subjects with primary dystonia. The two subjects with shifted melting curves were found to harbor the classic ΔGAG deletion: 1) a non-Jewish Caucasian female with childhood-onset multifocal dystonia and 2) an Ashkenazi Jewish female with adolescent-onset spasmodic dysphonia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>First, HRM is an inexpensive, diagnostically sensitive and specific, high-throughput method for mutation discovery. Second, Exon 5 mutations in <it>TOR1A </it>are rarely associated with non-generalized primary dystonia.</p

Combined artificial bee colony algorithm and machine learning techniques for prediction of online consumer repurchase intention

A novel paradigm in the service sector i.e. services through the web is a progressive mechanism for rendering offerings over diverse environments. Internet provides huge opportunities for companies to provide personalized online services to their customers. But prompt novel web services introduction may unfavorably affect the quality and user gratification. Subsequently, prediction of the consumer intention is of supreme importance in selecting the web services for an application. The aim of study is to predict online consumer repurchase intention and to achieve this objective a hybrid approach which a combination of machine learning techniques and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm has been used. The study is divided into three phases. Initially, shopping mall and consumer characteristic’s for repurchase intention has been identified through extensive literature review. Secondly, ABC has been used to determine the feature selection of consumers’ characteristics and shopping malls’ attributes (with > 0.1 threshold value) for the prediction model. Finally, validation using K-fold cross has been employed to measure the best classification model robustness. The classification models viz., Decision Trees (C5.0), AdaBoost, Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Neural Network (NN), are utilized for prediction of consumer purchase intention. Performance evaluation of identified models on training-testing partitions (70-30%) of the data set, shows that AdaBoost method outperforms other classification models with sensitivity and accuracy of 0.95 and 97.58% respectively, on testing data set. This study is a revolutionary attempt that considers both, shopping mall and consumer characteristics in examine the consumer purchase intention.N/

Application of ultrasounds to ripening of red fruit-wines

W pracy przedstawiono wyniki badań wybranych właściwości win owocowych poddanych działaniu ultradźwięków. Młode wina owocowe (porzeczkowe, wiśniowe i aroniowe) obrabiano ultradźwiękami o częstotliwości 25 kHz i 45 kHz i mocy przetwornika 2W/cm2 w czasie od 1 minuty do 15 minut. Analizowano zmiany kwasowości win, zawartość związków polifenolowych ogółem, barwników polimerowych, „chemicznego wieku” wina, przeprowadzono analizę sensoryczną win. Właściwości win pod wpływem ultradźwięków uległy zmianie, a kierunek tych zmian świadczył o postępującym procesie dojrzewania.Paper presented the results of testing selected features of the fruit-wines subjected to ultrasonic treatment. New fruit-wines (of the currants, cherries and aronia) were treated by ultrasonic of the frequencies 25 and 45 kHz at converter power 2 W/cm2 for the time ranging from 1 min to 15 min. The changes in wine acidity, content of total polyphenolic compounds, content of polymeric dyes, “chemical ripeness” of wine, were analyzed. The wines were also subjected to sensory assessment. Under the influence of ultrasounds the wine features changed; the character of these changes proved advanced ripening process

Evaluation of the physicochemical properties of the traditional vegetable oil produced in the Lublin Region

Celem pracy była ocena właściwości fizykochemicznych olejów rzepakowego i lnianego. Materiał badawczy stanowiły dwa oleje lniane i dwa rzepakowe pochodzące od lokalnych producentów. W olejach oznaczono liczbę kwasową i nadtlenkową, barwę olejów oraz skład kwasów tłuszczowych. Barwę olejów oznaczono metodą spektrofotometryczną, skład wyższych kwasów tłuszczowych metodą chromatografii gazowej. Badane oleje lniane i rzepakowe spełniały wymagania w zakresie składu kwasów tłuszczowych, natomiast miały za wysokie wartości liczb kwasowej i nadtlenkowej.The aim of the research was the evaluation of physicochemical properties of rape oil and linseed oil. Two kinds of linseed oil and rape oil made by local producers constituted the research material. Acidic value and peroxide value, the oil colour and fatty acid composition were marked in the oil. The oil colour was marked by the spectrophotometric method; the fatty acid composition was marked by the chromatography method. The investigated linseed oil and rape oil satisfied the requirements for fatty acid composition while the values were too high for the acid value and the peroxidevalue