Approaching the losses caused by imperfect short-term financing at the Russian farms

This study investigates whether an insufficient short-term financing causes losses for Russian agricultural farm and what is their upper boundary. The modified Bayesian formalism provides a workaround for scarce and in-complete data in our data set. This formalism is incorporated into the objective function of an optimisation model so that this function expresses the empirical dependence of profit on cash flow and debts. The model seeks for the optimal quarterly cash flow distribution within a year. Empirical application employs the data from 60 quarterly reports of six agricultural enterprises in the Moscow Region in 1995-1998. The losses per total farm expenses vary from 2.2 to 42.6% depending on a farm and a year. In more than a half of cases they are greater than 10%. The opportunities to improve farm financial performance can be revealed from individual changes in the quarterly cash flow distribution.imperfect short-term financing losses Russian agriculture Bayesian scarce missed data

Possibility of local pair existence in optimally doped SmFeAsO(1-x) in pseudogap regime

We report the analysis of pseudogap Delta* derived from resistivity experiments in FeAs-based superconductor SmFeAsO(0.85), having a critical temperature T_c = 55 K. Rather specific dependence Delta*(T) with two representative temperatures followed by a minimum at about 120 K was observed. Below T_s = 147 K, corresponding to the structural transition in SmFeAsO, Delta*(T) decreases linearly down to the temperature T_AFM = 133 K. This last peculiarity can likely be attributed to the antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering of Fe spins. It is believed that the found behavior can be explained in terms of Machida, Nokura, and Matsubara (MNM) theory developed for the AFM superconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Allosteric control of the RNA polymerase by the elongation factor RfaH

Efficient transcription of long polycistronic operons in bacteria frequently relies on accessory proteins but their molecular mechanisms remain obscure. RfaH is a cellular elongation factor that acts as a polarity suppressor by increasing RNA polymerase (RNAP) processivity. In this work, we provide evidence that RfaH acts by reducing transcriptional pausing at certain positions rather than by accelerating RNAP at all sites. We show that 'fast' RNAP variants are characterized by pause-free RNA chain elongation and are resistant to RfaH action. Similarly, the wild-type RNAP is insensitive to RfaH in the absence of pauses. In contrast, those enzymes that may be prone to falling into a paused state are hypersensitive to RfaH. RfaH inhibits pyrophosphorolysis of the nascent RNA and reduces the apparent Michaelis-Menten constant for nucleotides, suggesting that it stabilizes the post-translocated, active RNAP state. Given that the RfaH-binding site is located 75 A away from the RNAP catalytic center, these results strongly indicate that RfaH acts allosterically. We argue that despite the apparent differences in the nucleic acid targets, the time of recruitment and the binding sites on RNAP, unrelated antiterminators (such as RfaH and lambdaQ) utilize common strategies during both recruitment and anti-pausing modification of the transcription complex

Functional specialization of transcription elongation factors

Elongation factors NusG and RfaH evolved from a common ancestor and utilize the same binding site on RNA polymerase (RNAP) to modulate transcription. However, although NusG associates with RNAP transcribing most Escherichia coli genes, RfaH regulates just a few operons containing ops, a DNA sequence that mediates RfaH recruitment. Here, we describe the mechanism by which this specificity is maintained. We observe that RfaH action is indeed restricted to those several operons that are devoid of NusG in vivo. We also show that RfaH and NusG compete for their effects on transcript elongation and termination in vitro. Our data argue that RfaH recognizes its DNA target even in the presence of NusG. Once recruited, RfaH remains stably associated with RNAP, thereby precluding NusG binding. We envision a pathway by which a specialized regulator has evolved in the background of its ubiquitous paralogue. We propose that RfaH and NusG may have opposite regulatory functions: although NusG appears to function in concert with Rho, RfaH inhibits Rho action and activates the expression of poorly translated, frequently foreign genes

Use of iodine and selenium enriched fodder rations for production of fortified young lamb

The article is devoted to preventive measures to eliminate the problem of dysmicroelementosis in order to increase the productivity of young sheep. The article presents the results of studies of the influence of feeding rations on the growth and development of young sheep of the Edilbaev breed, on the level of their meat productivity and the qualitative characteristics of biologically fortified lamb. Feed additives based on Yoddar-Zn and DAFS-25 were added to the main ration of lambs at the age of four months, once a day, being added into a fodder mixture with concentrates. For the experiment the herd of lambs was divided to four groups of 25 heads each.The changes in live weight at the age of four, five, six and seven months were analyzed, and it was found that at the age of seven months, the absolute average weight gain in the experimental groups varied from 3.45 kg to 4.49 kg, in the control group it was 3.1 kg, while the largest live weight gain was recorded in group III which received both feed additives based on Yoddar-Zn and DAFS-25.There were no significant differences in the parameters of body measurements, with the exception of group III, where the chest circumference increased by 7.2%, and the height of a lamb at the withers increased in average by 8.1%. It was found that group III had the highest meat density coefficient, equal to 3.9, and the cross-sectional area of m. Longissimus dorsi was equal to 13.61 cm2. It was noted that the amount of free amino acids of the lamb group III is 18.8% higher than the meat of the control group. The lamb obtained from the animals of the experimental groups showed a higher protein content and less fat. The ratio of water to protein in all samples was slightly higher than 3.7, which corresponds to the Federa number for meat raw materials. Enriching the rations of the Edilbaevskoy sheep with feed additives Yoddar-Zn and DAFS-25 promotes the stimulation of growth and development of animals, increases the productivity and nutritional value of lamb

Automation of the Process for Obtaining Linguistic Information: State-of-the-Art Capabilities

The paper is devoted to the process automation for solution of some problems in linguistic analysis. The review part of the article describes the variety of current linguistic software. We give its classification as follows: electronic dictionaries and thesauri, text conversion programs and text generators, programs for analysis and linguistic processing of documents, natural language processing systems. For each group we mention some examples of relevant applications or web services. In addition, we discuss current capabilities of the software, their scope of use and development prospects. In the main part of the work we overview the add-on we created for the MyStem stemming utility by Ilya Segalovich. The application adds to the features of the utility a user-friendly graphical interface that is easy to learn and intuitive to users who do not specialize in information technology. The algorithm implemented in the software is based on using the results of stemming process to solve some specific problems. It intercepts the output of the MyStem utility, then reformats it and run some specific analysis. The results of this analysis are the basis for main processes of the addon. This way we can get the frequency analysis of the text, can extract any certain parts of speech, and select inciting words in the text. The examples in this part of paper show the results of all units of the software. In conclusion we made several remarks on the prospects for the development of our application

Structural basis for converting a general transcription factor into an operon-specific virulence regulator

RfaH, a paralog of the general transcription factor NusG, is recruited to elongating RNA polymerase at specific regulatory sites. The X-ray structure of Escherichia coli RfaH reported here reveals two domains. The N-terminal domain displays high similarity to that of NusG. In contrast, the alpha-helical coiled-coil C domain, while retaining sequence similarity, is strikingly different from the beta barrel of NusG. To our knowledge, such an all-beta to all-alpha transition of the entire domain is the most extreme example of protein fold evolution known to date. Both N domains possess a vast hydrophobic cavity that is buried by the C domain in RfaH but is exposed in NusG. We propose that this cavity constitutes the RNA polymerase-binding site, which becomes unmasked in RfaH only upon sequence-specific binding to the nontemplate DNA strand that triggers domain dissociation. Finally, we argue that RfaH binds to the beta' subunit coiled coil, the major target site for the initiation sigma factors