Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The 13-kD FK506 Binding Protein, FKBP13, Interacts with a Novel Homologue of the Erythrocyte Membrane Cytoskeletal Protein 4.1

We have identified a novel generally expressed homologue of the erythrocyte membrane cytoskeletal protein 4.1, named 4.1G, based on the interaction of its COOH-terminal domain (CTD) with the immunophilin FKBP13. The 129-amino acid peptide, designated 4.1G–CTD, is the first known physiologic binding target of FKBP13. FKBP13 is a 13-kD protein originally identified by its high affinity binding to the immunosuppressant drugs FK506 and rapamycin (Jin, Y., M.W. Albers, W.S. Lane, B.E. Bierer, and S.J. Burakoff. 1991. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 88:6677– 6681); it is a membrane-associated protein thought to function as an ER chaperone (Bush, K.T., B.A. Henrickson, and S.K. Nigam. 1994. Biochem. J. [Tokyo]. 303:705–708). We report the specific association of FKBP13 with 4.1G–CTD based on yeast two-hybrid, in vitro binding and coimmunoprecipitation experiments. The histidyl-proline moiety of 4.1G–CTD is required for FKBP13 binding, as indicated by yeast experiments with truncated and mutated 4.1G–CTD constructs. In situ hybridization studies reveal cellular colocalizations for FKBP13 and 4.1G–CTD throughout the body during development, supporting a physiologic role for the interaction. Interestingly, FKBP13 cofractionates with the red blood cell homologue of 4.1 (4.1R) in ghosts, inside-out vesicles, and Triton shell preparations. The identification of FKBP13 in erythrocytes, which lack ER, suggests that FKBP13 may additionally function as a component of membrane cytoskeletal scaffolds.
Audiovisual quality fusion based on relative multimodal complexity

In multimodal presentations the perceived audiovisual quality assessment is significantly influenced by the content of both the audio and visual tracks. Based on our earlier subjective quality test for finding the optimal trade-off between audio and video quality, this paper proposes a novel method for relative multimodal complexity analysis to derive the fusion parameter in objective audiovisual quality metrics. Audio and video qualities are first estimated separately using advanced quality models, and then they are combined into the overall audiovisual quality using a linear fusion. Based on carefully designed auditory and visual features, the relative complexity analysis model across sensory modalities is proposed for deriving the fusion parameter. Experimental results have demonstrated that the content adaptive fusion parameter can improve the prediction accuracy of objective audiovisual quality metrics, compared to the fusion parameters obtained from the subjective quality tests using other known optimization methods.
Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in New Zealand: differences associated with being a practitioner in New Zealand compared to China.

AIMS While New Zealand has experienced an increase in the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) based acupuncture, very little is known about the practitioners who provide this type of treatment modality. Therefore, this study was designed to identify differences associated with being a TCM practitioner in New Zealand compared to China. METHODS Ten Auckland-based TCM practitioners were individually interviewed. The interview schedule comprised of questions that were designed to identify any potential differences in practising TCM in New Zealand compared to China. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic approach. RESULTS The main differences in practising between the two countries were related to the role and authority that a TCM practitioner had. This in turn resulted in differences between the conditions that were treated in these two countries. Differences in patient demography were also identified between the two countries. CONCLUSIONS TCM is used as a form of alternative healthcare treatment in New Zealand for non-Chinese individuals. Acupuncture is the most utilised form of TCM treatment in New Zealand, and is predominantly used for pain management purposes. TCM treatment has been utilised by individuals from a number of different ethnic groups, reflecting the ethnic diversity of the New Zealand population.
Membrane Uncoating of Intact Enveloped Viruses

ABSTRACT Experiments in the 1960s showed that Sendai virus, a paramyxovirus, fused its membrane with the host plasma membrane. After membrane fusion, the virus spontaneously “uncoated” with diffusion of the viral membrane proteins into the host plasma membrane and a merging of the host and viral membranes. This led to deposit of the viral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) and interior proteins in the cell cytoplasm. Later work showed that the common procedure then used to grow Sendai virus produced damaged, pleomorphic virions. Virions, which were grown under conditions that were not damaging, made a connecting structure between virus and cell at the region where the fusion occurred. The virus did not release its membrane proteins into the host membrane. The viral RNP was seen in the connecting structure in some cases. Uncoating of intact Sendai virus proceeds differently from uncoating described by the current standard model developed long ago with damaged virus. A model of intact paramyxovirus uncoating is presented and compared to what is known about the uncoating of other viruses.
Neuroendoscopic Surgery versus External Ventricular Drainage Alone or with Intraventricular Fibrinolysis for Intraventricular Hemorrhage Secondary to Spontaneous Supratentorial Hemorrhage: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background and Purpose Although neuroendoscopy (NE) has been applied to many cerebral diseases, the effect of NE for intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) secondary to spontaneous supratentorial hemorrhage remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of NE compared with external ventricular drainage (EVD) alone or with intraventricular fibrinolysis (IVF) on the management of IVH secondary to spontaneous supratentorial hemorrhage. Methodology/ Principal Findings A systematic search of electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, OVID, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, CBM, VIP, CNKI, and Wan Fang database) was performed to identify related studies published from 1970 to 2013. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or observational studies (OS) comparing NE with EVD alone or with IVF for the treatment of IVH were included. The quality of the included trials was assessed by Jaded scale and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). RevMan 5.1 software was used to conduct the meta-analysis. Results Eleven trials (5 RCTs and 6 ORs) involving 680 patients were included. The odds ratio (OR) showed a statistically significant difference between the NE + EVD and EVD + IVF groups in terms of mortality (OR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.16-0.59; P=0.0004), effective hematoma evacuation rate (OR, 25.50, 95%CI; 14.30, 45.45; P<0.00001), good functional outcome (GFO) (OR, 4.51; (95%CI, 2.81-7.72; P<0.00001), and the ventriculo-peritoneal (VP) shunt dependence rate (OR, 0.16; 95%CI; 0.06, 0.40; P<0.0001). Conclusion Applying neuroendoscopic approach with EVD may be a better management for IVH secondary to spontaneous supratentorial hemorrhage than NE + IVF. However, there is still no concluive evidence regarding the preference of NE vs. EVD alone in the case of IVH, because insufficient data has been published thus far. This study suggests that the NE approach with EVD could become an alternative to EVD + IVF for IVH in the future.
Measuring organizational traits of hospitals: the Revised Nursing Work Index.

BACKGROUND The organizational context in which nurses practice is important in explaining variation in patient outcomes, but research has been hampered by the absence of instruments to measure organizational attributes empirically. OBJECTIVES To report on the development and utility of the Revised Nursing Work Index (NWI-R) in measuring characteristics of professional nursing practice environments. METHODS The NWI-R was used in a national acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) care study. The sample consisted of 40 units in 20 hospitals. Of these 20 hospitals, 10 provided AIDS care in both dedicated AIDS units and general medical units, thus introducing to the design an element of internal control. The remaining 10 hospitals were selected through a matching procedure. Three of the matched control hospitals were magnet hospitals. Nurses were recruited into the study if they worked at least 16 hours per week on the study unit. The nurses completed the NWI-R in addition to other measures. RESULTS A response rate of 86% was attained. Response rates per unit ranged from 73% to 100%. Cronbach's alpha was 0.96 for the entire NWI-R, with aggregated subscale alphas of 0.84 to 0.91. Validity of the NWI-R was demonstrated by the origin of the instrument, its ability to differentiate nurses who worked within a professional practice environment from those who did not, and its ability to explain differences in nurse burnout. CONCLUSION The NWI-R has been found to capture organizational attributes that characterize professional nursing practice environments.
Morphology and interaction between lipid domains

Cellular membranes are a heterogeneous mix of lipids, proteins and small molecules. Special groupings enriched in saturated lipids and cholesterol form liquid-ordered domains, known as “lipid rafts,” thought to serve as platforms for signaling, trafficking and material transport throughout the secretory pathway. Questions remain as to how the cell maintains small fluid lipid domains, through time, on a length scale consistent with the fact that no large-scale phase separation is observed. Motivated by these examples, we have utilized a combination of mechanical modeling and in vitro experiments to show that membrane morphology plays a key role in maintaining small domain sizes and organizing domains in a model membrane. We demonstrate that lipid domains can adopt a flat or dimpled morphology, where the latter facilitates a repulsive interaction that slows coalescence and helps regulate domain size and tends to laterally organize domains in the membrane.
Predominant Enhancement of Glucose Uptake in Astrocytes versus Neurons during Activation of the Somatosensory Cortex

Glucose is the primary energetic substrate of the brain, and measurements of its metabolism are the basis of major functional cerebral imaging methods. Contrary to the general view that neurons are fueled solely by glucose in proportion to their energetic needs, recent in vitro and ex vivo analyses suggest that glucose preferentially feeds astrocytes. However, the cellular fate of glucose in the intact brain has not yet been directly observed. We have used a real-time method for measuring glucose uptake in astrocytes and neurons in vivo in male rats by imaging the trafficking of the nonmetabolizable glucose analog 6-deoxy-N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl)-aminoglucose (6-NBDG) using two-photon microscopy. During resting conditions we found that astrocytes and neurons both take up 6-NBDG at the same rate in the barrel cortex of the rat. However, during intense neuronal activity triggered by whisker stimulation, astrocytes rapidly accelerated their uptake, whereas neuronal uptake remained almost unchanged. After the stimulation period, astrocytes returned to their preactivation rates of uptake paralleling the neuronal rate of uptake. These observations suggest that glucose is taken up primarily by astrocytes, supporting the view that functional imaging experiments based on glucose analogs extraction may predominantly reflect the metabolic activity of the astrocytic network.
Role of cystatin C in renal damage and the optimum cut-off point of renal damage among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

The aims of the present study were to evaluate the roles of serum cystatin C (SCysC) and urinary cystatin C (UCysC) in renal function impairment and investigate the optimum cut-off point for renal function impairment among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). A total of 742 inpatients and outpatients with type 2 DM (age, 20–75 years) were enrolled in this population-based cross-sectional study. The levels of SCysC and UCysC were determined and the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CIs) of the calculated risk ratios of the different renal damage indicators were obtained. The levels of UCysC, urinary β2-microglobulin (Uβ2-MG), urinary albumin (UALB) and SCysC in the renal function impairment groups were observed in the following order: GFR-C>GFR-B>GFR-A (P<0.05 or P<0.01). According to the levels of GFR were divided into 4 groups, group GFR-A ≥ 80ml/min, GFR-B group 50–80 ml/min, group Ccr-C 20–50 ml/min, group GFR-D <20 ml/min. Following adjustment for age and gender, multivariate correlation analysis results revealed that levels of Uβ2-MG, UCysC and UALB negatively correlated with the glomerular filtration rate (GFR; P<0.05 or P<0.01). In addition, the duration of DM and the levels of SCysC and serum uric acid were shown to positively correlate with the GFR (P<0.05 or P<0.01). ORs for early renal function impairment significantly increased from the DM duration category of four years (OR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.54–1.92). Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that the optimum DM cut-off point was four years, in which 60.79% sensitivity and 69.66% specificity were observed. Therefore, UCsyC levels may be used as an efficient indicator for the evaluation of early renal function impairment among patients with type 2 DM. In addition, renal lesions may initially occur in the renal tubule and then form in the renal glomerulus of patients with type 2 DM.
Health-related beliefs and experiences of Gypsies and Travellers: a qualitative study

Objective: To illuminate findings of the survey of the health status of Gypsies and Travellers by exploring their health-related beliefs and experiences. Design: Qualitative study of a purposive subsample from in-depth interviews using framework analysis. Setting: The homes or alternative community settings of the participants in five geographically dispersed study locations in England. Participants: 27 Gypsies and Travellers with an experience of ill health, purposively sampled from a larger population participating in an epidemiological survey of health status. Results: The experience of poor health and daily encounters of ill health among extended family members were normalised and accepted. Four major themes emerged relating to health beliefs and the effect of lifestyle on health for these respondents: the travelling way; low expectations of health; self-reliance and staying in control; fatalism and fear of death. These themes dominated accounts of health experience and were relevant to the experience. These themes add richness to the health status data and inform our understanding. Conclusions: Among Gypsies and Travellers, coherent cultural beliefs and attitudes underpin health-related behaviour, and health experiences must be understood in this context. In this group, ill health is seen as normal, an inevitable consequence of adverse social experiences, and is stoically and fatalistically accepted. The provision of effective healthcare and improvement of poor health in Gypsies and Travellers will require multi-agency awareness of these issues.
Expression of multidrug resistance gene mdr1 mRNA in a subset of normal bone marrow cells

The multidrug resistance gene mdr1, encoding P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp), can be expressed at high levels in tumour cells derived from normal tissues with constitutive high expression of this gene. In myelogenous leukaemia, the incidence of increased expression of mdr1 gene contrasts with the low expression of this gene in normal bone marrow (b.m.). To detect cells expressing mdr1 gene in normal and post‐chemotherapy b.m. , we used in situ RNA hybridization and RNA phenotyping by the polymerase chain reaction for mdr1 mRNA detection. The presence of P‐gp was evaluated by immunocytochemistry with MRK16. Fifteen b.m. (eight normal and seven post chemotherapy) were tested by in situ hybridization and either PCR (three b.m.) or immunocytochemistry (11 b.m.) or both (one b.m.). With in situ mRNA hybridization, a subset (7.7%×3.1%) of b.m. cells expressed mdr1 mRNA in all cases tested, with no significant differences between normal b.m. and post chemotherapy b.m. 18% of myeloid recognizable cells and 7% of the cells with lymphoid morphology expressed mdr1 mRNA. By RNA phenotyping, the four samples tested for in situ hybridization and two additional post chemotherapy b.m. expressed mdr1. MRK16 was unable to detect a significant number of cells expressing P‐gp either by immunocytochemistry in the 12 b.m. tested for in situ hybridization (0% in nine cases; 0.4%, 1% and 3% of positive cells in three cases), or by flow cytometry in six additional normal b.m. (0–1.4% positive cells).
Surface acoustic waves propagating over a rotating piezoelectric half-space

Surface acoustic waves (SAW) propagating over a piezoelectric half-space rotating at a constant angular rate about a fixed axis are analyzed using the linear theory of piezoelectricity, including Coriolis and centrifugal forces. Rotation sensitivity, the rotation induced change of wave speed, is studied. The dependence of the rotation sensitivity on the orientation of the rotation axis and the orientation of the material is examined. Numerical results for polarized ceramics PZT-5H are presented to show the detailed characteristics of the rotation sensitivity. The implications of the numerical results are discussed for different applications.
Convergence of Voevodsky's slice tower

We consider Voevodsky's slice tower for a finite spectrum E in the motivic stable homotopy category over a perfect field k. In case k has finite cohomological dimension, we show that the slice tower converges, in that the induced filtration on the bi-graded homotopy sheavesa,bfnE is finite, exhaustive and separated at each stalk (after inverting the exponential characteristic of k). This partially verifies a conjecture of Voevodsky. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary 14F42; Secondary 55P42
Hyaluronan contributes to the enlargement of hypertrophic lacunae in the growth plate.

Histochemical staining of the epiphysial growth plate revealed that free hyaluronan (i.e. available to the staining probe) was restricted to the zone of hypertrophy, where it was located in the pericellular space between the chondrocytes and the edge of the lacunae. Furthermore, the amount of hyaluronan staining was directly proportional to the size of the lacunae. Autoradiographic analysis of growth plates cultured with isotopically labeled glucosamine indicated that at least a portion of this hyaluronan was newly synthesized by the hypertrophic chondrocytes. Since hyaluronan can adsorb large amounts of water, it is possible that it exerted a hydrostatic pressure on the surrounding territorial matrix and thereby caused the expansion of hypertrophic lacunae. To assess this possibility, segments of the growth plate were placed in organ culture under different conditions. Under normal culture conditions, a band of hyaluronan staining migrated across the segments coinciding with the enlargement of lacunae in these regions, and the segments, as a whole, increased in size. In contrast, when the segments were cultured in the presence of hyaluronidase, which degraded the pericellular hyaluronan, the lacunae did not undergo enlargement and the overall size of the segments did not increase. These results suggest that the production of hyaluronan contributes to the enlargement of hypertrophic lacunae which is important for determining both the body's stature and proportions.
A simulation study of OBDD-based proper splitting strategies for power systems under consideration of transient stability

System splitting, also called controlled system islanding, can effectively prevent blackouts. Following the OBDD-based three-phase method given in for proper splitting strategies, which satisfy necessary steady-state constraints, This work studies the feasibility of the proper splitting strategies by means of power system transient simulations on the IEEE 118-bus system. Simulation results show that a considerable proportion of proper splitting strategies can successfully split the power system into stable islands. Furthermore, considering a general knowledge that a controlled power system can easily maintain its stability after a small disturbance, This work presents "threshold value constraint" to restrict the degrees of the disturbances caused by proper splitting strategies. An approach is proposed to select threshold values for the constraint. Further simulation results show that by checking the constraint for proper splitting strategies, feasible splitting strategies can be found, which can successfully split the system into islands satisfying transient stability constraints.
Patients With Vestibular Loss, Tullio Phenomenon, and Pressure-Induced Nystagmus: Vestibular Atelectasis?

Objective To propose an etiology for a syndrome of bilateral vestibular hypofunction and sound and/or pressure-evoked eye movements with normal hearing thresholds. Design Retrospective case series. Setting Tertiary care referral center. Patients Four patients with bilateral vestibular hypofunction, sound and/or pressure-evoked nystagmus and normal hearing thresholds were identified over a 3-year period. No evidence of other known vestibular disorders was identified. None of these patients presented with a history of exposure to toxins, radiation, aminoglycosides or chemotherapy; head trauma; or a family history of inherited vestibular loss. Main Outcome Measure All patients underwent high-resolution CT scan of the temporal bones to evaluate for labyrinthine dehiscence. Additionally, all individuals underwent audiometric testing to ANSI standards, vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP) testing using either click stimulus cervical VEMPs (cVEMPs), or tone burst ocular VEMPs (oVEMPs). Bithermal caloric stimulation was used to measure horizontal semicircular canal function, with either videonystagmography (VNG) or electronystagmography (ENG) to record eye movements. Individual responses of each of the 6 semicircular canals (SCC) to rapid head rotations were tested with the bedside head impulse test. Results We identified 4 patients with a combination of bilateral vestibular hypofunction and sound and/or pressure-induced eye movements, normal-hearing thresholds and no evidence for any other vestibular disorder. Conclusion We suggest that this unique combination of symptoms should be considered as the clinical presentation of vestibular atelectasis, which has been previously described histologically as collapse of the endolymph-containing portions of the labyrinth.