Codon optimality is the primary contributor to the exceptional mutational sensitivity of CcdA antitoxin in its operonic context

Deep mutational scanning studies suggest that single synonymous mutations are typically silent and that most exposed, non active-site residues are tolerant to mutations. Here we show that the ccdA antitoxin component of the E.coli ccdAB toxin-antitoxin operonic system is unusually sensitive to mutations when studied in the operonic context. A large fraction (~80%) of single codon mutations, including many synonymous mutations in the ccdA gene show inactive phenotypes that are correlated with the E.coli codon usage frequency but retain native-like binding affinity towards cognate toxin, CcdB. Therefore, the observed phenotypic effects are largely not due to alterations in protein structure or stability, consistent with the fact that a large region of CcdA is intrinsically disordered. In select cases, proteomics studies reveal altered ratios of CcdA:CcdB protein levels in vivo, suggesting that these mutations likely alter relative translation efficiencies of the two genes in the operon. We extend these results by predicting and validating single synonymous mutations that lead to loss of function phenotypes in the relBE operon upon introduction of rarer codons. Thus, in their native context, genes are likely to be more sensitive to both synonymous and non-synonymous point mutations than inferred from previous saturation mutagenesis studies.

Investigation of Green Criteria With Clustering Analysis in Green Supplier Selection

Green supplier selection has a crucial importance for businesses. In the past, the selection of suppliers was solely based on conventional criteria such as cost, quality, and flexibility whereas expectations of businesses transformed in today's world on grounds of raised environmental awareness, public pressure, and regulations. Alternatives called green suppliers sensitive to the environment, preserving the ecological balance, managing wastes, and preventing pollution increased in value. This study analyzes practices on the selection of green suppliers. The articles between 2014 and 2021 were analyzed from the perspective of green criteria. The green criteria in the 50 articles determined are divided into 28 groups. With the k-means algorithm, these criteria groups are divided into four clusters, which was aimed to analyze the usage frequency of green criteria. This study is intended to contribute to green supplier selection practices in academia and industry in the future.

Mobile phone-assisted agricultural extension services: User competency and usage frequency in eastern Ghana

Adoption studies have mainly focused on econometric and quantitative modelling that usually assume smallholder farmers competently adopt agricultural technologies. This study provides novel insights on user competency and frequency of usage of mobile telephony for agricultural extension services among smallholder farmers and agricultural extension agents (AEAs) and key factors that impede the adoption process. The study examined users’ competencies and mobile phone usage frequency for access and delivery of agricultural extension services in Eastern Ghana. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 95 AEAs and 330 smallholder farmers in five districts of the Eastern region of Ghana and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and regression analyses were performed to analyse the data. Results showed substantial differences between AEAs and smallholder farmers’ competency in the use of mobile phones for agricultural extension services. Socio-demographic characteristics of smallholder farmers and AEAs correlated with usage frequency of mobile phones for access to extension services and delivery. Educational level, amount of weekly expenditure of money on mobile phone use, mobile phone network quality, income level, and age of both AEAs and smallholder farmers had positive and significant correlations with frequency of usage of mobile phones. User competency differentially impacts the frequency of mobile phone use in agricultural extension services between AEAs and smallholders. High call tariffs and access to recharge cards are major challenges in using mobile phones for agricultural extension in the study areas. The study shows components of the adoption theory of compatibility, and complexity where an innovation fits within the socio-cultural framework and perceived difficulty of use. Thus, the frequent use of voice calls is indicative of early stages of the diffusion process and may diversify into other applications in the future. Farmer-based organisations should be resourced to support training of farmers to use mobile phones to improve access to agricultural information dissemination. Integrating voice-based agricultural information services (IVRs) into the current SMS-based agricultural extension services in Ghana could potentially boost extension service delivery to smallholder farmers in the Eastern region and across the country. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture may partner with key stakeholders and mobile service providers to offer hands-on capacity building to smallholder farmers and AEAs in video calling/conferencing, multimedia service, and social media to enhance their competencies for improved agricultural extension services.

The Descriptions and Attitudes of Riders and Arena Owners to 656 Equestrian Sport Surfaces in Sweden

Horses in equestrian sports are commonly trained in arenas with prepared footing. Information on the number and variants of such arenas is generally unknown. This paper provides an overview of the primary construction types of riding surfaces in Sweden including details on composition, constructions principles, usage frequency, maintenance, and cost of operation as well as to investigate rider perception of the ideal arena properties using a large population of riders. Data on 656 equestrian surfaces in Sweden obtained up to 2014 are presented, of which 373 were outdoor and 283 were indoor arenas. Dressage and show-jumping were the main disciplines conducted in the arenas. Sand-mineral arenas were most common outdoors and sand-woodchips arenas most common indoors, followed by sand-fibre arenas and even fewer synthetic arenas. Comparing the three most common arena types, dragging was most often done on sand-woodchips and sand-fibre arenas. Harrowing was less often done on sand-mineral arenas compared to sand-woodchips and sand-fibre arenas. Combining dragging, harrowing, deep harrowing, and rolling, arenas with higher usage were maintained more frequently, compared to those used less frequently. It was commonly claimed that the top-layer needs renovation every other-4th year or every 5th to 10th year. Few respondents allocated more than 10,000 SEK in yearly maintenance costs, with the exception for sand-woodchips and sand-fibre arenas followed by synthetic arenas. The shortest duration perceived between required renovations was found for sand-woodchips top-layer arenas. Ideal surface properties were evaluated by 3,158 riders. Dressage and show-jumping riders differed somewhat regarding ideal spans of functional arena properties: for impact firmness, responsiveness, and grip. The current study likely included well-utilised arenas, compared to those less well-utilised. The resources necessary to keep an arena consistent over time seemed underestimated. Knowledge of maintenance and priorities for arenas are important to users and arenas managers, be they construction companies or arena managers in order to maximise the outcome of efforts for arena improvement and optimise locomotor health for horses that use them. Further, many arenas were new and research into organic arena management is important, especially if equestrians continue to build and renew arena surfaces.

The Complete Chloroplast Genome of Critically Endangered Chimonobambusa hirtinoda (Poaceae: Chimonobambusa) and Phylogenetic Analysis

Chimonobambusa hirtinoda is a threatened species and only naturally distributed in Doupeng Mountain, Duyun, Guizhou, China. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is used obtained the complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of C. hirtinoda, and then the sequence was assembled and analyze for phylogenetic and evolutionary. We also analyzed comparing the cp genome among Chimonobambusa species with previously published. The complete cp genome of C. hirtinoda has the total length of 139, 561 bp, 38.90% GC content was detected. A total of 130 genes were founded in the cp genome, including 85 protein coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, 8 rRNA. Some genes are missing and the introns occur lost in the cp genome of C. hirtinoda. A total of 48 simple sequence repeat (SSR) were detected and by measuring the codon usage frequency of amino acids, the A/U preference of the third nucleotide in the cp genome of C. hirtinoda was obtained. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis using complete cp sequences, matk gene exhibited genetic relationship within the Chimonobambusa genus.

Repetition-attenuation of auditory N1 is modulated by the phonological representations of spoken word-forms

Repeated auditory stimuli are usually found to elicit attenuated peak amplitude of the N1 component of the event related brain potential (ERP). While the repetition-attenuation of the auditory N1 has been found sensitive to some cognitive factors, less is known whether and how the representational properties of stimuli influence this physiological phenomenon. To further address this issue, we focus on the phonological representations of spoken word-forms, and hypothesise modulatory roles of two phonological features: the lexicality and its usage frequency of a word-form. To test this, we used a short-term habituation design with a factorial combination of the two features at two levels each (i.e., lexicality (real versus pseudo word-form) X frequency (high versus low frequency)). EEG was recorded from 30 native Mandarin-speaking participants while they were passively delivered with stimulations trains. Each train consisted of five presentation positions (S1 ~ S5), on which one word-form is presented repeatedly, separated by a brief, constant interstimulus interval. At the fourth presentation position (S4), we found greater N1 attenuation in low-frequency pseudo word-forms than in low-frequency real and high-frequency pseudo word-forms, respectively. The results support our representational modulation hypothesis, and provides the first evidence that representations of different phonological features interactively modulate the N1 repetition-attenuation. The brain function that underlies the phonological effects of the representational modulation on N1 repetition-attenuation might be sensory filtering.

The Relationship Pattern of Internet Usage Frequency, Generation Z Characteristics, and Teaching Method in the Millennium Era

Generation Z students mount challenges to develop teaching methods in the millennium era due to their diverse characteristics from the previous generation as they are proficient in utilizing the internet, less attentive to each other and the environment, prefer immediate things regardless of all complex processes they shall go through. This study aims to seek the relationship pattern between Generation Z clusters, teaching methods, and internet usage frequency. This study involved 222 junior high school students in Jakarta. The two-step cluster, cross-tabulation, and correspondence analysis were used for data analysis. The method used is correspondence analysis. The findings indicated that internet usage frequency has a significant relationship with Generation Z clusters and teaching methods. The results concluded that students who use the internet less than five hours prefer the full tutorial method and group assignments, and those who use the internet more than five hours prefer tutorial and field assignments

Object case variation of the pronoun mis ‘what’ in spontaneous spoken Estonian and Estonian dialects

The Estonian language makes a systematic distinction between total and partial objects on the basis of semantic and syntactic features: total objects occur in nominative or genitive, partial objects in partitive. However, in the case of the interrogative-relative pronoun mis ‘what’, the partitive mida in the expected partial object position can be replaced with the nominative mis. The aim of this paper is to determine which variables significantly affect this object case variation, how the variation differs between contemporary speech and archaic dialects and what might have possibly motivated the development of this variation. This study is based on the data in the Phonetic Corpus of Estonian Spontaneous Speech and the Corpus of Estonian Dialects. The results show that the variation is most affected by verb type, clause type, length of the following word and dialect. It is concluded that there might be multiple motivations behind this variation, mainly language contact (or a lack of it in certain areas), high usage frequency of the pronoun mis and the effect of the standardisation of language. Kokkuvõte. Hanna Pook: Pronoomeni mis käände varieerumine objekti positsioonis spontaanses eesti keeles ja eesti murretes. Eesti keeles eristatakse täis- ja osasihitist mitmete semantiliste ja süntaktilise tunnuste põhjal; täissihitis on nominatiivis või genitiivis, osasihitis partitiivis. Relatiiv-interrogatiivpronoomeni mis puhul võib aga oodatud osasihitise positsioonis asendada partitiivi mida nominatiiviga mis. Selle artikli eesmärk on välja selgitada, millised tunnused mõjutavad oluliselt pronoomeni mis objekti käände varieerumist, kuidas see varieerumine erineb vanemates kohamurretes ja tänapäevases spontaanses kõnes ning mis on selle varieerumise võimalikud põhjused ja mõjurid. Analüüs põhineb eesti keele spontaanse kõne foneetilisel korpusel ja eesti murrete korpusel. Tulemused näitavad, et mis ja mida varieerumist osaobjekti positsioonis mõjutavad kõige enam verbitüüp, lausetüüp, järgneva sõna silpide arv ja murre. On tõenäoline, et pronoomeni mis käände varieerumine on korraga olnud mõjutatud mitmest tegurist, peamiselt keelekontaktidest (või kontaktivähesusest teatud piirkondades), pronoomeni mis suurest kasutussagedusest ja keele standardiseerimisest.