Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Creatine supplementation results in elevated phosphocreatine/adenosine triphosphate (ATP) ratios in the calf muscle of athletes but not in patients with myopathies

In a recent article, Tarnopolsky and Beal described the potential benefit of oral creatine supplementation for symptomatic therapy for various muscle diseases. Creatine uptake by the muscle fibers results in an elevation of intracellular phosphocreatine (PCr) levels because of the equilibrium reaction of creatine kinase. The uptake is mediated by a creatine membrane transporter. However, reduced concentrations of this transporter protein were found in various neuromuscular disorders. The aim of this letter is to compare the effects of oral creatine supplementation on PCr levels in the calf muscles of sports students performing regular muscle training, of sedentary healthy subjects, and of patients with glycogen storage disease V (McArdle’s disease), chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia, and X-chromosomal Beckertype muscular dystrophy. All supplementation studies followed a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design. The creatine dose and the duration of each treatment phase are summarized in the table. Noninvasive P magnetic resonance spectroscopy was performed with a 4.7T magnetic resonance instrument (81MHz for P) and a 5cm surface coil. P magnetic resonance spectra of the right calf were recorded at rest and analyzed for the integrals of the PCr and the -ATP signals. Integral values were corrected for partial spin saturation effects. ATP levels were assumed to be constant throughout the period. In conclusion, PCr/ATP ratios predominantly reflected alterations in PCr levels. The PCr/ATP ratio of nontreated sedentary control subjects (n 38) was 3.7 0.5. This ratio was significantly higher than the placebo values of the PCr/ATP ratio in sports students and in patients with chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia and X-chromsomal Becker-type muscular dystrophy. Only the sports students profited from creatine supplementation by a significantly increased PCr/ATP ratio. In the sedentary healthy subjects (n 5) and in all patient groups, muscle PCr/ATP ratios were not significantly altered with creatine treatment. PCr concentrations in patient muscle were not augmented, although creatine serum concentrations were increased by the supplementation (data not shown) and patients with X-chromsomal Becker-type muscular dystrophy and chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia exhibited a lower PCr/ATP ratio than healthy controls. In contrast to sports students, sedentary healthy subjects and patients did not perform regular physical training. In conclusion, physical exercise might be an essential prerequisite to stimulate the uptake of creatine in skeletal muscle fibers.
Long-Term Follow-Up of Patients With Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Who had Negative 131I Whole-Body Scan at First Evaluation After Treatment

Purpose of the ReportThe evaluation of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer is commonly based on serum thyroglobulin (Tg) measurement and 131I whole-body scan (WBS). The first follow-up (6–12 months after initial treatment) shows the response to therapy, a prognostic factor.The aims of the study were to describe the clinical outcome during a long-term follow-up of patients with negative 131I WBS in the first evaluation, and to assess clinical and histological characteristics related to the outcome in this patient population. Patients and MethodsThis retrospective study reviewed data from 209 patients followed at 2 Brazilian hospitals. A minimum of 10 years of follow-up was required. ResultsDuring mean follow-up of 13.7 ± 4.2 years, 20% of patients developed recurrence. At the end of follow-up, 21% of patients had persistent disease. The clinical and histological characteristics related to adverse outcomes (recurrence or persistent disease) were lymph node metastases at diagnosis, high risk according to American Thyroid Association (ATA) classification, and incomplete response to treatment. Stimulated Tg levels (under thyroid hormone withdrawal) and basal Tg levels (with thyroid hormone) greater than 10 ng/mL at first evaluation were associated with an adverse outcome. ConclusionNegative WBS at first evaluation should not be used as an isolated prognostic factor. This must be considered together with histopathological (ATA classification, lymph node metastases) and clinical/laboratory characteristics (stimulated and basal Tg; response to therapy).
Uncertainty in modeling dust mass balance and radiative forcing from size parameterization

Abstract. This study examines the uncertainties in simulating mass balance and radiative forcing of mineral dust due to biases in the dust size parameterization. Simulations are conducted quasi-globally (180° W–180° E and 60° S–70° N) using the WRF-Chem model with three different approaches to represent dust size distribution (8-bin, 4-bin, and 3-mode). The biases in the 3-mode or 4-bin approaches against a relatively more accurate 8-bin approach in simulating dust mass balance and radiative forcing are identified. Compared to the 8-bin approach, the 4-bin approach simulates similar but coarser size distributions of dust particles in the atmosphere, while the 3-mode approach retains more fine dust particles but fewer coarse dust particles due to its prescribed σ g of each mode. Although the 3-mode approach yields up to 10 days of longer dust mass lifetime over the remote oceanic regions than the 8-bin approach, the three size approaches produce a similar dust mass lifetime (3.2 days to 3.5 days) on quasi-global average, reflecting that the global dust mass lifetime is mainly determined by the dust mass lifetime near the dust source regions. With the same global dust emission (~4600 Tg yr −1 ), the 8-bin approach produces a dust mass loading of 39 Tg, while the 4-bin and 3-mode approaches produce 3% (40.2 Tg) and 25% (49.1 Tg) higher dust mass loading, respectively. The difference in dust mass loading between the 8-bin approach and the 4-bin or 3-mode approaches has large spatial variations, with generally smaller relative difference ( −2 ) and atmospheric warming (0.39~0.96 W m −2 ) and in a tremendous difference of a factor of ~10 in dust TOA (top of atmosphere) cooling (−0.24~−2.20 W m −2 ). The impact of different size representations on dust radiative forcing efficiency is smaller. An uncertainty of a factor of 2 is quantified in dust emission estimation due to the different size parameterizations. This study also highlights the uncertainties in modeling dust mass and number loading, deposition fluxes, and radiative forcing resulting from different size parameterizations, and motivates further investigation of the impact of size parameterizations on modeling dust impacts on air quality, climate, and ecosystems.
Gastric electrical stimulation results in improved metabolic control in diabetic patients suffering from gastroparesis.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS Symptoms of gastroparesis possess a heavy impact on the quality of life; delayed gastric emptying may result in poor metabolic control in diabetics. Gastric electrical stimulation (GES) has recently been introduced as a treatment option in patients with drug refractory gastroparesis to increase the quality of life by alleviating nausea and vomiting frequencies. However, the effect of GES on metabolic control has not been assessed yet. METHODS We performed a prospective single center study on the long-term effect (12 months) of continuous high-frequency/low-energy GES on symptoms, gastric emptying (measured scintigraphically), and metabolic control (HbA1c) in insulin-dependent diabetic subjects suffering from drug-refractory gastroparesis for more than one year. RESULTS Seventeen (12 female, 5 male) patients entered the study; all were available for analysis at all time points. No therapy-associated adverse events occurred. Weekly vomiting and nausea frequencies decreased significantly at 6 and 12 months. Gastric retention rates improved significantly from 83 % (2 h) and 38 % (4 h) to 35 % (2 h)/14 % (4 h) and 25 % (2 h)/17 % (4 h) at 6 and 12 months, respectively. HbA1c values were lowered in all 17 subjects; initially, all HbA1c values were above 7.5 %; at 6 and 12 months, mean values had significantly decreased from 8.6 % to 6.2 % and 6.5 %, respectively. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION Gastric electrical stimulation offers symptom control in diabetics with drug-refractory gastroparesis and decreases gastric retention. This study, for the first time, documents a positive effect of this therapy on metabolic control as indicated by HbA1c, a surrogate marker of the risk of diabetic complications.
Allosteric Activation of Bordetella pertussis Adenylyl Cyclase by Calmodulin

Background: Adenylyl cyclase (AC) from Bordetella pertussis is activated when it interacts with calmodulin (CaM). Results: A triple mutant of AC, which was predicted by molecular modeling, exhibited a highly reduced affinity for CaM. Conclusion: This study suggests that a long range connection between CaM and the AC catalytic loop is crucial for AC activation. Significance: Molecular modeling identified critical molecular determinants for the allosteric activation of AC. Adenylyl cyclase (AC) toxin is an essential toxin that allows Bordetella pertussis to invade eukaryotic cells, where it is activated after binding to calmodulin (CaM). Based on the crystal structure of the AC catalytic domain in complex with the C-terminal half of CaM (C-CaM), our previous molecular dynamics simulations (Selwa, E., Laine, E., and Malliavin, T. (2012) Differential role of calmodulin and calcium ions in the stabilization of the catalytic domain of adenyl cyclase CyaA from Bordetella pertussis. Proteins 80, 1028–1040) suggested that three residues (i.e. Arg338, Asn347, and Asp360) might be important for stabilizing the AC/CaM interaction. These residues belong to a loop-helix-loop motif at the C-terminal end of AC, which is located at the interface between CaM and the AC catalytic loop. In the present study, we conducted the in silico and in vitro characterization of three AC variants, where one (Asn347; ACm1A), two (Arg338 and Asp360; ACm2A), or three residues (Arg338, Asn347, and Asp360; ACm3A) were substituted with Ala. Biochemical studies showed that the affinities of ACm1A and ACm2A for CaM were not affected significantly, whereas that of ACm3A was reduced dramatically. To understand the effects of these modifications, molecular dynamics simulations were performed based on the modified proteins. The molecular dynamics trajectories recorded for the ACm3A·C-CaM complex showed that the calcium-binding loops of C-CaM exhibited large fluctuations, which could be related to the weakened interaction between ACm3A and its activator. Overall, our results suggest that the loop-helix-loop motif at the C-terminal end of AC is crucial during CaM binding for stabilizing the AC catalytic loop in an active configuration.
Improving Multitalker Speech Communication with Advanced Audio Displays

Abstract : Historically, most of the metrics that have been used to evaluate the effectiveness of military communications systems have focused on measuring the intelligibility of a single talker in the presence of a continuous noise masker. However, many critical military operations involve complex communications tasks that require listeners to monitor, process, and respond to two or more simultaneous speech signals. Many factors can influence performance in such tasks, including the relative levels of the competing talkers, the similarities between the voices of the competing talkers, and, in audio displays that allow the different channels of speech to be spatially separated, the apparent locations of the target and masking voices. In this paper, we present an overview of the factors that can influence speech intelligibility in multitalker listening environments, and compare and contrast them to the factors that influence intelligibility in the speech-in-noise situations that are usually used to evaluate military communications systems. We also discuss the intelligibility benefits that can be achieved with advanced audio displays that use either dichotic or binaural processing to spatially separate the apparent locations of multiple simultaneous channels of speech. Finally, we describe a spatial configuration that has been shown to maximize the benefit of spatial separation in a listening configuration with up to seven simultaneous speech signals.
Conductance quantization and transport gaps in disordered graphene nanoribbons

We study numerically the effects of edge and bulk disorder on the conductance of graphene nanoribbons. We compute the conductance suppression due to Anderson localization induced by edge scattering and find that even for weak edge roughness, conductance steps are suppressed and transport gaps are induced. These gaps are approximately inversely proportional to the nanoribbon width. On/off conductance ratios grow exponentially with the nanoribbon length. Our results impose severe limitations to the use of graphene in ballistic nanowires.
Can a Toy Encourage Lower Calorie Meal Bundle Selection in Children? A Field Experiment on the Reinforcing Effects of Toys on Food Choice

The goal of this research was to test whether including an inexpensive nonfood item (toy) with a smaller-sized meal bundle (420 calories), but not with the regular-sized meal bundle version (580 calories), would incentivize children to choose the smaller-sized meal bundle, even among children with overweight and obesity. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the effect in a between-subjects field experiment of a toy on smaller-sized meal choice (here, a binary choice between a smaller-sized or regular-sized meal bundles). A random sample of 109 elementary school children from two schools in the Tucson, Arizona metropolitan area (55 females; Mage = 8.53 years, SDage = 2.14; MBMI = 18.30, SDBMI = 4.42) participated. Children’s height and weight were measured and body-mass-index (BMI) was calculated, adjusting for age and sex. In our sample, 21 children were considered to be either overweight or obese. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the effect of a toy on smaller-sized meal choice. Results revealed that the inclusion of a toy with a smaller-sized meal, but not with the regular-sized version, predicted smaller-sized meal choice (P < .001), suggesting that children can be incentivized to choose less food when such is paired with a toy. BMI neither moderated nor nullified the effect of toy on smaller-sized meal choice (P = .125), suggesting that children with overweight and obesity can also be incentivized to choose less. This article is the first to suggest that fast-food restaurant chains may well utilize toys to motivate children to choose smaller-sized meal bundles. Our findings may be relevant for consumers, health advocates, policy makers, and marketers who would benefit from a strategy that presents healthier, but still desirable, meal bundle options.
A Drug Administration Decision Support System

Drug delivery is one of the most common clinical routines in hospitals, and is critical to patients' health and recovery. It includes a decision making process in which a medical doctor decides the amount (dose) and frequency (dose interval) on the basis of a set of available patients' feature data and the doctor's clinical experience (a priori adaptation). This process can be computerized in order to make the prescription procedure in a fast, objective, inexpensive, non-invasive and accurate way. This paper proposes a Drug Administration Decision Support System (DADSS) to help clinicians/patients with the initial dose computing. The system is based on a Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm for estimation of the potential drug concentration in the blood of a patient, from which a best combination of dose and dose interval is selected at the level of a DSS. The addition of the RANdom SAmple Consensus (RANSAC) technique enhances the prediction accuracy by selecting inliers for SVM modeling. Experiments are performed for the drug imatinib case study which shows more than 40% improvement in the prediction accuracy compared with previous works. An important extension to the patient features' data is also proposed in this paper.
AN EXPERIMENT ON THE PREVENTION OF SHOPLIFTING

The aim of this experiment was to evaluate the effectiveness of crime analysis and situational prevention in preventing shoplifting. Three prevention techniques were compared: electronic tagging, store redesign, and deployment of a uniformed guard. Shoplifting was measured by systematically counting specified items every day and comparing the number of missing items with the number sold, given away or used in the store. Nine stores with high shoplifting Address for correspondence: Professor David P. Farrington, Cambridge University, Institute of Criminology, 7 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DT, England.
Evolution of genome size and genomic GC content in carnivorous holokinetics (Droseraceae)

Background and Aims Studies in the carnivorous family Lentibulariaceae in the last years resulted in the discovery of the smallest plant genomes and an unusual pattern of genomic GC content evolution. However, scarcity of genomic data in other carnivorous clades still prevents a generalization of the observed patterns. Here the aim was to fill this gap by mapping genome evolution in the second largest carnivorous family, Droseraceae, where this evolution may be affected by chromosomal holokinetism in Drosera. Methods The genome size and genomic GC content of 71 Droseraceae species were measured by flow cytometry. A dated phylogeny was constructed, and the evolution of both genomic parameters and their relationship to species climatic niches were tested using phylogeny-based statistics. Key Results The 2C genome size of Droseraceae varied between 488 and 10 927 Mbp, and the GC content ranged between 37·1 and 44·7 %. The genome sizes and genomic GC content of carnivorous and holocentric species did not differ from those of their non-carnivorous and monocentric relatives. The genomic GC content positively correlated with genome size and annual temperature fluctuations. The genome size and chromosome numbers were inversely correlated in the Australian clade of Drosera. Conclusions Our results indicate that neither carnivory (nutrient scarcity) nor the holokinetism have a prominent effect on size and DNA base composition of Droseraceae genomes. However, the holokinetic drive seems to affect karyotype evolution in one of the major clades of Drosera. Our survey confirmed that the evolution of GC content is tightly connected with the evolution of genome size and also with environmental conditions.
GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT OF SPECIATION IN A RADIATION OF HAWAIIAN TETRAGNATHA SPIDERS (ARANEAE, TETRAGNATHIDAE)

Abstract Adaptive radiation involves the diversification of species each adapted to exploit different ecological roles. I have studied a radiation of spiders in the genus Tetragnatha (Tetragnathidae) in the Hawaiian Islands to elucidate processes involved in such diversification. The temporal framework of the Hawaiian Islands allows examination of the changing pattern of adaptive radiation over time, as lineages have generally progressed down the island chain from older to younger islands. Species of Tetragnatha in the spiny-leg clade on any one island are typically most closely related to others on the same island, and the same set of ecological forms (ecomorphs) has evolved repeatedly on different islands. These results indicate that adaptive radiation frequently involves ecological divergence between sister taxa to allow multiple close relatives to co-occur in the same habitat. The current study examines the geographical context within which these species arose. I focus on a clade of 5 species that occur on the volcano of East Maui; at any given site 3 species can co-occur, one of each of 3 different ecomorphs. Mitochondrial DNA sequences from populations of these 5 species from throughout their distribution (Maui, Lanai and Molokai) were used to infer the geographic history of the species on East Maui and to determine whether diversification likely occurred in situ, or alternatively whether diversification occurred in allopatry on different volcanoes. Although ecological differentiation between taxa is evident, allopatry is clearly implicated in the initial divergence of taxa. Further study is required to understand the nature of the interplay between allopatry and ecological divergence in species formation.
Website Usability Evaluation of Nonprofit Organizations: An Exploratory Study of Saudi Arabia

Community informatics discourse can be termed as a computing community’s response to the social responsibility initiative, which is looking at the technological support to improve communities. Nonprofit organizations are an important part of any society, so recently there are many studies on technologically supporting this segment of society. Saudi Arabia has a huge presence of nonprofit organizations, so in the study, we have evaluated the websites of Saudi nonprofit organizations in a usability evaluation experiment. The subjects were split into two group and each group contained 21 subjects. The data was collected using questionnaire which was later analyzed to understand the design problems on the websites. The findings suggest that understudy websites of nonprofit organizations have some usability issues in navigation support, content, user interface elements consistency, the presence of error and help features. In order to effectively benefit from their websites, these organizations need to improve the website design to foster better usage by the end users.
Widespread Expression of the AMPA Receptor GluR2 Subunit at Glutamatergic Synapses in the Rat Spinal Cord and Phosphorylation of GluR1 in Response to Noxious Stimulation Revealed with an Antigen-Unmasking Method

Glutamate, the principal excitatory neurotransmitter in the spinal cord, acts primarily through AMPA receptors. Although all four AMPA subunits are expressed by spinal neurons, we know little about their distribution at glutamatergic synapses. We used an antigen-unmasking technique to reveal the synaptic distribution of glutamate receptor (GluR) 1-4 subunits with confocal microscopy. After pepsin treatment, punctate staining was seen with antibodies against each subunit: GluR2-immunoreactive puncta were distributed throughout the gray matter, whereas GluR1-immunoreactive puncta were restricted to the dorsal horn and were most numerous in laminas I-II. Punctate staining for GluR3 and GluR4 was found in all laminas but was weak in superficial dorsal horn. Colocalization studies showed that GluR2 was present at virtually all (98%) puncta that were GluR1, GluR3, or GluR4 immunoreactive and that most (>90%) immunoreactive puncta in laminas IV, V, and IX showed GluR2, GluR3, and GluR4 immunoreactivity. Evidence that these puncta represented synaptic receptors was obtained with electron microscopy and by examining the association of GluR2- and GluR1-immunoreactive puncta with glutamatergic boutons (identified with vesicular glutamate transporters or markers for unmyelinated afferents). The great majority (96%) of these boutons were associated with GluR2-immunoreactive puncta. Our findings suggest that GluR2 is almost universally present at AMPA-containing synapses, whereas GluR1 is preferentially associated with primary afferent terminals. We also found a substantial, rapid increase in staining for synaptic GluR1 subunits phosphorylated on the S845 residue in the ipsilateral dorsal horn after peripheral noxious stimulation. This finding demonstrates plastic changes, presumably contributing to central sensitization, at the synaptic level.