Phrasal Paraphrase Based Question Reformulation for Archived Question Retrieval

Lexical gap in cQA search, resulted by the variability of languages, has been recognized as an important and widespread phenomenon. To address the problem, this paper presents a question reformulation scheme to enhance the question retrieval model by fully exploring the intelligence of paraphrase in phrase-level. It compensates for the existing paraphrasing research in a suitable granularity, which either falls into fine-grained lexical-level or coarse-grained sentence-level. Given a question in natural language, our scheme first detects the involved key-phrases by jointly integrating the corpus-dependent knowledge and question-aware cues. Next, it automatically extracts the paraphrases for each identified key-phrase utilizing multiple online translation engines, and then selects the most relevant reformulations from a large group of question rewrites, which is formed by full permutation and combination of the generated paraphrases. Extensive evaluations on a real world data set demonstrate that our model is able to characterize the complex questions and achieves promising performance as compared to the state-of-the-art methods.     

Module-based construction of plasmids for chromosomal integration of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Integration of an external gene into a fission yeast chromosome is useful to investigate the effect of the gene product. An easy way to knock-in a gene construct is use of an integration plasmid, which can be targeted and inserted to a chromosome through homologous recombination. Despite the advantage of integration, construction of integration plasmids is energy- and time-consuming, because there is no systematic library of integration plasmids with various promoters, fluorescent protein tags, terminators and selection markers; therefore, researchers are often forced to make appropriate ones through multiple rounds of cloning procedures. Here, we establish materials and methods to easily construct integration plasmids. We introduce a convenient cloning system based on Golden Gate DNA shuffling, which enables the connection of multiple DNA fragments at once: any kind of promoters and terminators, the gene of interest, in combination with any fluorescent protein tag genes and any selection markers. Each of those DNA fragments, called a ‘module’, can be tandemly ligated in the order we desire in a single reaction, which yields a circular plasmid in a one-step manner. The resulting plasmids can be integrated through standard methods for transformation. Thus, these materials and methods help easy construction of knock-in strains, and this will further increase the value of fission yeast as a model organism.     

External factors involved in the regulation of an extracellular proteinase synthesis in Bacillus megaterium

Summary A mathematical model was formulated to describe the kinetics and stoichiometry of growth and proteinase production in Bacillus megaterium. Synthesis of the extracellular proteinase in a batch culture is repressed by amino acids. The specific rate of formation of the enzyme (r _E) can be described by the formula {ie373-1}, where k ₂ and k ₃ stand for the non-repressible and repressible part of enzyme synthesis respectively, k _{S 2} is a repression coefficient and S ₂ indicates the concentration of amono acids; the values of k ₂ and k _{S 2} depend on the composition of the mixture of amino acids. Even in a high concentration, a single amino acid is less effective than a mixture of amino acids. The dependence of the proteinase repression on the concentration of an external amino acid (leucine) follows the same course as its rate of incorporation into proteins, approaching saturation at concentrations higher than 50 M (half saturation approximately 10 M). However, the total uptake of leucine did not exhibit any saturation even at 500 M external concentration.Symbols X biomass concentration, g/l - E proteinase concentration, unit/l - t time, h - S ₁ concentration of glucose, g/l - S ₂ concentration of amino acids, g/l - specific growth rate, l/h - rE specific rate of enzyme production, unit/g/h - k ₁ growth kinetic constant, l/h - k ₂ product formation kinetic constant (for non-repressible part of enzyme synthesis), unit/g - k ₃ product formation kinetic constant (for repressible portion of enzyme synthesis), unit/g - k _{S 1} saturation constant, g/l - k _{S 2} repression coefficient for a certain amino acid or amino acids mixture, g/l     

Physiological activity of immobilized cells of Claviceps fusiformis during long-term semicontinuous cultivation

Summary The 550-day semicontinuous cultivation of Claviceps fusiformis immobilized in calcium alginate is documented. The vegetative mycelium from seed or from early-production submerged culture is the best choice for immobilization. No extracellular glucans are produced by immobilized cells. Immobilized spores give low yields of clavine alkaloids. Alginate concentrations in a range of 2%–4% do not influence yield and spectrum of alkaloids. The cytoplasm of the immobilized cells becomes condensed (after 3 days), polysaccharides disappear, and centres of lipid synthesis are formed in the cytoplasm. After 60 days the cells harbour a great number of lipid particles, mitochondria are diminishing and their cristae partly disappear, indicating a decreased respiration capacity. After 350–500 days the volume of most cells is increased many times and the cells are filled with large oval bodies of electrondense material. Chloramphenicol protects immobilized cultures against bacterial contamination.     

Metabolic changes associated with bud break induced by thidiazuron

Bud break in apple (Golden Delicious,Malus domestica Borkh) was induced by thidiazuron (N-phenyl-N-1,2,3-thidiazol-5-ylurea). In control and thidiazuron-treated shoots, higher amounts of soluble carbohydrates (sorbitol, fructose, glucose, sucrose) and galacturonic acid were found in the phloem, but higher amounts of starch and cell wall polysaccharides, including cellulose and xylose, were found in the xylem. A decrease in soluble carbohydrates and starch in both phloem and xylem was associated with induction of bud break by thidiazuron. However, little change in cell wall polysaccharides was found. Total carbohydrates were higher in the upper than in the lower portion of shoots. The breaking of dormancy by thidiazuron was also associated with an increase in organic acid content and respiration in buds. KCN inhibited bud respiration during all stages of development. Organic acid content was inversely related to carbohydrate content in developing buds. Axes contained more carbohydrates and organic acids than did scales.     

Expression of HLA-DR antigens on tumour cells does not contribute to skin reactivity to autologous cholesteryl hemisuccinate (CHS)-treated tumour cells in patients with metastatic melanoma

Summary Skin tests with autologous cholesteryl hemisuccinate (CHS)-treated and untreated cells were performed in ten metastatic melanoma patients. In the majority of cases evident reaction was noted with CHS-treated cells (9/10) while the reaction with untreated cells was mostly negative (7/10). Tumour cell suspensions used for skin tests were characterized for reactivity with monoclonal antibody TAL 1B5 detecting the HLA-DR alpha chain. There were no differences between CHS-treated and untreated cells with respect to HLA-DR expression and no correlation was found between grade of skin reaction to CHS-treated cells and the proportion of HLA-DR positive cells in the injected cell sample.     

Sister-chromatid exchanges in lymphocytes of workers exposed to trichloroethylene

To detect mutagenic effects of trichloroethylene (TCE) on humans, sister-chromatid exchanges (SCEs) were analyzed in lymphocytes of 22 workers occupationally exposed to TCE and 22 matched controls. Although urinalysis in the workers revealed their obvious exposure to TCE, no increase in SCE frequencies was found in lymphocytes of the workers. SCE analysis in lymphocytes could not detect mutagenic effects by occupational exposure to TCE on humans.     

Correction of congenital microtia using the tissue expander

We attempted auricular reconstruction using Radovan-type inflatable silicone expanders in six children and one adult, with the complete hypoplastic, the conchal remnant, and constricted type of microtia. Ear frameworks, including the helix, anthelix, concha, and tragus, were prepared using autologous rib cartilage. Based on the surface area of the normal adult auricle, the silicone expander was tentatively shaped and sized into a rotated semiellipse and expanded with 70 cc saline. Auricular reconstruction on the framework was completed at the time of insertion in four of the seven patients, requiring no elevation of the ear. The reconstructed auricle was satisfactory in both color and texture and had nearly normal sensation. Mild complications were noted in three of the seven patients. However, no resorption of the inserted rib cartilage has been observed 14 months to 2 years and 5 months after the operation. Slight shrinkage of the expanded skin was noted in each patient.     

Pre-activation strategy for oligodeoxyribonucleotide synthesis using triaryloxydichlorophosphoranes in the phosphotriester method.

Triaryloxydichlorophosphoranes were tested as condensing agents for oligodeoxyribonucleotide synthesis in the phosphotriester method. Tris(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)dichlorophosphorane (BDCP) was found to be a relatively stable crystalline material which could be used as a chemical reagent. A notable feature of the BDCP-promoted condensation reaction was studied by 31P-NMR. A small amount of BDCP compared to the conventional condensing agent was effective for the generation of active nucleotide intermediates and BDCP itself was quantitatively converted into an inert material, tris(2,4,6-tribromophenyl)phosphate (2). Thus, BDCP enabled us to separate the activation step from the condensation process in the phosphotriester method. This preactivation method was applied to the solid-phase synthesis.     

Thiosulfate production from cystine by the keratinolytic prokaryote Streptomyces fradiae

In cultures of Streptomyces fradiae on wool as the only source of nutrition inorganic thiosulfate (in amounts up to 0.5 mg of Na₂S₂O₃·5 H₂O/ml) was formed as the final product of metabolization of sulfur from cystine of keratin proteins. The presence of thiosulfate was proved by qualitative tests and thin-layer chromatography and estimated quantitatively by spectrophotometry, titrimetry, and capillary isotachophoresis. Metabolization of organic sulfur to thiosulfate excreted into the medium is a process not yet described in microorganisms.