In yeast and animals, SM-like (LSM) proteins typically exist as heptameric complexes and are involved in different aspects of RNA metabolism. Eight LSM proteins, LSM1 to 8, are highly conserved and form two distinct heteroheptameric complexes, LSM1-7 and LSM2-8,that function in mRNA decay and splicing, respectively. A search of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome identifies 11 genes encoding protei...

Key-value (KV) stores have become a backbone of largescale applications in today’s data centers. The data set of the store on a single server can grow to billions of KV items or many terabytes, while individual data items are often small (with their values as small as a couple of bytes). It is a daunting task to efficiently organize such an ultra-large KV store to support fast access. Current K...

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to investigate choice of land surface model (LSM) on the near surface wind profile, including heights reached by multi-megawatt (MW) wind turbines. Simulations of wind profiles and surface energy fluxes were made using five LSMs of varying degrees of sophistication in dealing with soil–plant–atmosphere feedbacks for the Department of Ener...

We consider the problem of detecting bounded inhomogeneous obstacles in an infinite tubular waveguide. We have in mind the application of acoustic techniques to inspect underground pipes such as sewers: In this application a loud-speaker and microphone are lowered into a man-hole. Sound pulses are created in the pipe, and the acoustic field reflected by obstructions in the pipe is measured. Fro...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS To compare several non-invasive methods of fibrosis assessment in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (platelet count, the APRI score, the Forns score, the Lok score, FIB-4, Transient Elastography [TE]), versus percutaneous liver biopsy (LB). METHODS Our study included 150 patients with chronic HCV infection in which LB, liver stiffness measurement (LSM) by means of ...

The application of liver stiffness measurement (LSM) by transient elastography (TE) in general population remains to clarify. This cohort study aimed to examine the usefulness of TE and to identify factors associated with significant liver fibrosis in community-based population.We conducted a hepatitis screening program in 2 remote villages of Southern Taiwan. All residents participated volunta...

Extreme heat events in the United States are projected to become more frequent and intense as a result of climate change. We investigated the individual and combined effects of land use and warming on the spatial and temporal distribution of daily minimum temperature (Tmin) and daily maximum heat index (HImax) during summer in Houston, Texas. Present-day (2010) and near-future (2040) parcel-lev...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Cigarette smoking is a potential risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) initiation, partially through interaction with hepatitis B virus (HBV). We examined the hypothesis that cigarette smoking might be associated with HBV-related HCC recurrence and patient survival after curative surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS Data of 302 patients with HBV infection who had u...