Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Local-scale topoclimate effects on treeline elevations: a country-wide investigation of New Zealand’s southern beech treelines

Although treeline elevations are limited globally by growing season temperature, at regional scales treelines frequently deviate below their climatic limit. The cause of these deviations relate to a host of climatic, disturbance, and geomorphic factors that operate at multiple scales. The ability to disentangle the relative effects of these factors is currently hampered by the lack of reliable topoclimatic data, which describe how regional climatic characteristics are modified by topographic effects in mountain areas. In this study we present an analysis of the combined effects of local- and regional-scale factors on southern beech treeline elevation variability at 28 study areas across New Zealand. We apply a mesoscale atmospheric model to generate local-scale (200 m) meteorological data at these treelines and, from these data, we derive a set of topoclimatic indices that reflect possible detrimental and ameliorative influences on tree physiological functioning. Principal components analysis of meteorological data revealed geographic structure in how study areas were situated in multivariate space along gradients of topoclimate. Random forest and conditional inference tree modelling enabled us to tease apart the relative effects of 17 explanatory factors on local-scale treeline elevation variability. Overall, modelling explained about 50% of the variation in treeline elevation variability across the 28 study areas, with local landform and topoclimatic effects generally outweighing those from regional-scale factors across the 28 study areas. Further, the nature of the relationships between treeline elevation variability and the explanatory variables were complex, frequently non-linear, and consistent with the treeline literature. To our knowledge, this is the first study where model-generated meteorological data, and derived topoclimatic indices, have been developed and applied to explain treeline variation. Our results demonstrate the potential of such an approach for ecological research in mountainous environments.
Skeletal muscle glycogen phosphorylase a kinetics: effects of adenine nucleotides and caffeine.

This study aimed to determine physiologically relevant kinetic and allosteric effects of P(i), AMP, ADP, and caffeine on isolated skeletal muscle glycogen phosphorylase a (Phos a). In the absence of effectors, Phos a had Vmax = 221 +/- 2 U/mg and Km = 5.6 +/- 0.3 mM P(i) at 30 degrees C. AMP and ADP each increased Phos a Vmax and decreased Km in a dose-dependent manner. AMP was more effective than ADP (e.g., 1 microM AMP vs. ADP: Vmax = 354 +/- 2 vs. 209 +/- 8 U/mg, and Km = 2.3 +/- 0.1 vs. 4.1 +/- 0.3 mM). Both nucleotides were relatively more effective at lower P(i) levels. Experiments simulating a range of contraction (exercise) conditions in which P(i), AMP, and ADP were used at appropriate physiological concentrations demonstrated that each agent singly and in combination influences Phos a activity. Caffeine (50-100 microM) inhibited Phos a (Km approximately 8-14 mM, approximately 40-50% reduction in activity at 2-10 mM P(i)). The present in vitro data support a possible contribution of substrate (P(i)) and allosteric effects to Phos a regulation in many physiological states, independent of covalent modulation of the percentage of total Phos in the Phos a form and suggest that caffeine inhibition of Phos a activity may contribute to the glycogen-sparing effect of caffeine.
Types of sleep problems in adults living with HIV/AIDS.

OBJECTIVE To characterize specific types of sleep problems experienced by adults with HIV. METHOD The design was cross-sectional involving sleep questionnaires, diaries, and wrist actigraphy. The convenience sample included 290 adults living with HIV, 22-77 years of age. Measures included self-report for sleep onset latency, and wrist actigraphy estimates of total sleep time at night, wake after sleep onset, and daytime sleep. RESULTS Nearly half (45%) of the sample slept < 6 h per night. Difficulty falling asleep was reported by 34%, and 56% had fragmented sleep according to actigraphy; 20% had both problems, and 30% were good sleepers. Participants reporting difficulty falling asleep had actigraphy and clinical measures similar to the good sleepers, but subjectively they experienced greater sleep disturbance and symptom burden (particularly anxiety and morning fatigue) and reported more use of sleep medication. Participants with fragmented sleep reported low levels of sleep disturbance and symptom burden similar to the good sleepers, despite actigraphy measures indicating they obtained less sleep both at night and during the day. Sleep fragmentation was also associated with sociodemographic factors and slightly lower CD4+ T-cell counts. Participants reporting both sleep problems had actigraphy and clinical profiles similar to those who had only fragmented sleep, but their symptom experience was similar to participants with only sleep initiation difficulties. CONCLUSIONS Findings support the need for targeting efforts to improve sleep for the majority of adults living with HIV/AIDS and tailoring interventions to the specific type of sleep problem regardless of the person's clinical and demographic profile.
The Neural Basis of Speech Perception through Lipreading and Manual Cues: Evidence from Deaf Native Users of Cued Speech

We present here the first neuroimaging data for perception of Cued Speech (CS) by deaf adults who are native users of CS. CS is a visual mode of communicating a spoken language through a set of manual cues which accompany lipreading and disambiguate it. With CS, sublexical units of the oral language are conveyed clearly and completely through the visual modality without requiring hearing. The comparison of neural processing of CS in deaf individuals with processing of audiovisual (AV) speech in normally hearing individuals represents a unique opportunity to explore the similarities and differences in neural processing of an oral language delivered in a visuo-manual vs. an AV modality. The study included deaf adult participants who were early CS users and native hearing users of French who process speech audiovisually. Words were presented in an event-related fMRI design. Three conditions were presented to each group of participants. The deaf participants saw CS words (manual + lipread), words presented as manual cues alone, and words presented to be lipread without manual cues. The hearing group saw AV spoken words, audio-alone and lipread-alone. Three findings are highlighted. First, the middle and superior temporal gyrus (excluding Heschl’s gyrus) and left inferior frontal gyrus pars triangularis constituted a common, amodal neural basis for AV and CS perception. Second, integration was inferred in posterior parts of superior temporal sulcus for audio and lipread information in AV speech, but in the occipito-temporal junction, including MT/V5, for the manual cues and lipreading in CS. Third, the perception of manual cues showed a much greater overlap with the regions activated by CS (manual + lipreading) than lipreading alone did. This supports the notion that manual cues play a larger role than lipreading for CS processing. The present study contributes to a better understanding of the role of manual cues as support of visual speech perception in the framework of the multimodal nature of human communication.
Learning L2 collocations incidentally from reading

Previous studies have shown that intentional learning through explicit instruction is effective for the acquisition of collocations in a second language (L2) (e.g. Peters, 2014, 2015), but relatively little is known about the effectiveness of incidental approaches for the acquisition of L2 collocations. The present study examined the incidental acquisition of collocational knowledge when learners encounter adjective–pseudoword collocations while reading. Forty-one L2 learners read a story containing six target collocations in a classroom setting. One week after the reading they were interviewed about their knowledge of the form, meaning and collocation of the target items (at recall and recognition levels). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups, i.e. the 4-repetition group and the 8-repetition group. Results showed that collocational knowledge can be learnt incidentally from reading; that it is learnt at a similar rate to other lexical components such as form and meaning of individual words; and that the frequency manipulation in this study did not seem to have a significant effect on the acquisition of any of the aspects examined.
Pregnancy and other factors associated with higher CD4+ T-cell counts at HIV diagnosis in Southeast Michigan, 1992-2002.

BACKGROUND Early diagnosis of HIV infection provides the opportunity for treatment to prevent progression to AIDS and for intervention to prevent further transmission. The impact of routine screening of pregnant women and other factors on the stage of HIV disease at diagnosis were evaluated. METHODS Data were collected in 1992-2002 from the medical records of persons presenting for HIV-related care at 2 major medical centers in Detroit, Michigan. Patients were included in the analysis if they had a CD4+ T-cell count recorded within 6 months of their first positive HIV test (N = 1858). RESULTS Half of the patients (49%) had a first CD4+ T-cell count of < 200 cells/mm3 and 19% had an AIDS-defining illness at the time of HIV diagnosis. In the multivariate model, pregnant women were less likely than nonpregnant women to enter care with a CD4+ T-cell count of < 200 cells/mm3 (odds ratio, .24; 95% confidence interval, .14-.41). Even after adjusting for pregnancy, female sex was protective, as was age < 30 years. HIV-transmission risk factors, race, and time period of HIV diagnosis were not significantly associated with first CD4+ T-cell counts of < 200 cells/mm3. CONCLUSION Routinely offering HIV testing in prenatal care, as required by Michigan law, resulted in earlier diagnoses of HIV in pregnant women, as indicated by their higher CD4+ T-cell counts. Increasing routine HIV testing of all persons seeking medical care may increase the overall proportion of HIV diagnoses that are made early in the disease process.
The effect of magnetic field on hatchability of Japanese quail eggs

The effect of environmental conditions on hatching indices of poultry eggs is sufficiently important that new methods for their improvement are sought, among others through exposing the eggs during hatching to an artificially generated magnetic field of variable frequency. Hatching eggs in this study came from Pharaoh quail in the 4th month of laying. The flock was kept under optimum microclimate conditions and fed a complete feed mix containing 21% total protein and 11.7 MJ ME. The eggs ( n = 150), after weighing, were divided into 3 groups equal in respect of numbers: control (I) and two experimental (II and III). The eggs of group II and III were exposed to the action of variable magnetic field of the same intensity but different times of application. The highest percentage of dead embryos during incubation in relation to fertilised eggs was found in control group (11.36%), while the smallest was from group II (4.17%). The highest value of hatching indices calculated in relation to fertilised eggs was found in group II (91.6%), while the smallest was in group III (83.7%) with 86.3% in control group. The results point to the possibility of increasing egg hatchability indices through the use of additional vari - able magnetic field. The chicks hatched from eggs exposed to the action of this experimental agent had similar body weight. The average weight of one-day-old chicks ranged from 7.82 g (group II) to 8.05 g (group III). In the last week of rearing, mean body weight in both sexes was similar and ranged from 168 (group I) to 172 g (group III) in males, and from 186 g (group I) to 199 g (group III) in females; these differences were not statistically significant. The females of group III reached sexual maturity at 41 days, this being one and three days (non-significantly) earlier than birds in group I and II.
Angiotensin II-induced growth responses in isolated adult rat hearts. Evidence for load-independent induction of cardiac protein synthesis by angiotensin II.

Cardiac myocyte hypertrophy often occurs in response to both hemodynamic and neurohumoral factors. To study whether activation of the renin-angiotensin system by itself may induce a cardiac growth response, the acute effects of angiotensin II on cardiac protein synthesis were studied in isolated rat hearts. New protein synthesis in isolated buffer-perfused adult rat hearts was measured by incorporation of [3H]phenylalanine into cardiac proteins during a 3-hour perfusion protocol. Angiotensin II (1 x 10(-8) mol/L), administered alone or in combination with the alpha 1-blocker prazosin (1 x 10(-7) mol/L), stimulated protein synthesis in both ventricles. The rate of [3H]phenylalanine incorporation into cardiac proteins was 3.9-fold (P < .005) and 2.6-fold (P < .01) higher in angiotensin II-perfused (n = 6) than in vehicle-perfused (n = 6) left and right ventricles, respectively. The induction of new protein synthesis by angiotensin II was blocked by the angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor antagonist losartan (1 x 10(-7) mol/L, n = 5). To study the pathways of angiotensin signal transduction, protein kinase C (PKC)-epsilon as well as cardiac c-fos and c-jun mRNA levels were analyzed. Angiotensin II (1 x 10(-8) mol/L, n = 20) resulted in a transient translocation of PKC-epsilon from the cytosol to the cellular membrane. However, compared with phorbol ester stimulation (phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate [PMA], 1 x 10(-7) mol/L; n = 20), angiotensin II effects on PKC translocation were significantly less pronounced and required a more prolonged stimulation. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Uptake of 6‐[18F]fluoro‐L‐dopa and [18F]CFT reflect nigral neuronal loss in a rat model of Parkinson's disease

In order to characterize the sensitivity of an analog of levodopa and a dopamine transporter ligand to detect defects in nigrostriatal function, the uptake of [18F]FDOPA and [18F]CFT was studied ex vivo in a rat model of Parkinson's disease. The brains of these rats were unilaterally lesioned with an intranigral injection of 6‐hydroxydopamine. The lesioned animals were divided into three groups subject to their behavior after pharmacological challenges. Circling behavior was recorded after amphetamine, apomorphine, and L‐DOPA challenge in order to predict lesion size. The spatial distribution of radioactivity after [18F]FDOPA or [18F]CFT injection in brain sections was determined with digital autoradiography. Regions of interest were left/right striatum, left/right substantia nigra, and cerebellum. The degree of unilateral lesion for each animal was confirmed by counting of nigral tyrosine hydroxylase‐positive cell bodies. With both tracers the uptake in the lesioned side was lower than in the intact side in the striatum and in the substantia nigra. In conclusion, both tracers clearly demonstrated nigrostriatal dopaminergic hypofunction and correlated with the number of nigral dopaminergic neurons. However, [18F]FDOPA showed a much higher unspecific uptake of radioactivity, due to extensive metabolism; therefore, this tracer was less sensitive than the transporter tracer [18F]CFT to detect these defects. Synapse 51:119–127, 2004. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Emergence of topological semimetals in gap closing in semiconductors without inversion symmetry

Closing of a band gap of inversion-asymmetric semiconductors always leads either to a Weyl semimetal or to a nodal-line semimetal A band gap for electronic states in crystals governs various properties of solids, such as transport, optical, and magnetic properties. Its estimation and control have been an important issue in solid-state physics. The band gap can be controlled externally by various parameters, such as pressure, atomic compositions, and external field. Sometimes, the gap even collapses by tuning some parameter. In the field of topological insulators, this closing of the gap at a time-reversal invariant momentum indicates a band inversion, that is, it leads to a topological phase transition from a normal insulator to a topological insulator. We show, through an exhaustive study on possible space groups, that the gap closing in inversion-asymmetric crystals is universal, in the sense that the gap closing always leads either to a Weyl semimetal or to a nodal-line semimetal. We consider three-dimensional spinful systems with time-reversal symmetry. The space group of the system and the wave vector at the gap closing uniquely determine which possibility occurs and where the gap-closing points or lines lie in the wave vector space after the closing of the gap. In particular, we show that an insulator-to-insulator transition never happens, which is in sharp contrast to inversion-symmetric systems.
A carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae epidemic clone in Jerusalem: sequence type 512 carrying a plasmid encoding aac(6')-Ib.

OBJECTIVES We characterized distinctive features of a hypertransmissible carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) clone that emerged at Hadassah Hospital, Ein-Kerem, Jerusalem, Israel, in 2006. METHODS Eleven CRKP isolated at Hadassah Hospital during 2005-09 were examined by antimicrobial susceptibility testing, PFGE and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Plasmids were analysed by conjugation, restriction mapping, PCR and sequencing. RESULTS Divergence from the national epidemic sequence type (ST) ST258 to ST512 was observed early on. Carbapenem resistance was conferred by bla(KPC-3) carried on a plasmid apparently closely related to pKpQIL, also from Israel. This clone also carried a 15 kb plasmid, designated pAAC154, that carries a Tn1331 derivative containing the aac(6')-Ib gene. pAAC154 does not carry a bla(KPC) gene, but is similar to pS15, a plasmid from New York that carries bla(KPC-2). CONCLUSIONS A single CRKP clone ST512 has spread efficiently in our region. In this clone, aac(6')-Ib, common in CRKP strains, is carried on a different plasmid from bla(KPC-3).
Hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation practice in the United States: a nationally representative survey.

BACKGROUND In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) outcomes vary widely between hospitals, even after adjusting for patient characteristics, suggesting variations in practice as a potential etiology. However, little is known about the standards of IHCA resuscitation practice among US hospitals. OBJECTIVE To describe current US hospital practices with regard to resuscitation care. DESIGN A nationally representative mail survey. SETTING A random sample of 1000 hospitals from the American Hospital Association database, stratified into 9 categories by hospital volume tertile and teaching status (major teaching, minor teaching, and nonteaching). SUBJECTS Surveys were addressed to each hospital's cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) committee chair or chief medical/quality officer. MEASUREMENTS A 27-item questionnaire. RESULTS Responses were received from 439 hospitals with a similar distribution of admission volume and teaching status as the sample population (P = 0.50). Of the 270 (66%) hospitals with a CPR committee, 23 (10%) were chaired by a hospitalist. High frequency practices included having a rapid response team (91%) and standardizing defibrillators (88%). Low frequency practices included therapeutic hypothermia and use of CPR assist technology. Other practices such as debriefing (34%) and simulation training (62%) were more variable and correlated with the presence of a CPR committee and/or dedicated personnel for resuscitation quality improvement. The majority of hospitals (79%) reported at least 1 barrier to quality improvement, of which the lack of a resuscitation champion and inadequate training were the most common. CONCLUSIONS There is wide variability among hospitals and within practices for resuscitation care in the United States with opportunities for improvement.
Flexor tendon repair after rupture caused by volar plate fixation of the distal radius

Abstract Volar plate fixation of unstable fractures of the distal radius is preferred by a majority of surgeons today. One known complication is the rupture of flexor tendons. The aim of this paper is to present flexor tendon ruptures after volar plate fixation analysing the clinical outcome after tendon surgery, aetiology, and methods of prevention. Seventeen consecutive ruptures in 14 patients were included. The incidence was 1.4%. Three patients declined tendon surgery. Eleven patients were treated with a free tendon graft. Only two patients showed excellent results regarding mobility in the thumb and/or fingers. Analysis of radiographs demonstrated sub-optimal placement of plate or screws in all cases. Rupture of a flexor tendon is a serious complication where the functional outcome after surgical reconstruction is uncertain. Early removal of the plate when the placement is sub-optimal or when local volar tenderness appears would probably prevent many ruptures.
Clinical Analysis of Postpartum Hemorrhage Requiring Massive Transfusions at a Tertiary Center

Background: The reports on massive transfusions (MTs) in obstetrics have recently been an increasing trend. We aimed to define the clinical features, risk factors, main causes, and outcomes of MTs due to severe postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) and the frequency trends over the past 10 years. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data of 3552 PPH patients who were at ≥28 weeks of gestation in the Obstetric Department of Peking University First Hospital from January 2006 to February 2015. The clinical records of patients receiving MT with ≥5 units (approximately 1000 ml) of red blood cells within 24 h of giving birth were included. The Pearson's Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare the frequency distributions among the categorical variables of the clinical features. Results: One-hundred six women were identified with MT over the 10-year period. The MT percentage was stable between the first 5-year group (2006–2010) and the second 5-year group (2011–2015) (2.5‰ vs. 2.7‰, &khgr;2 = 154.85, P = 0.25). Although uterine atony remained the main cause of MT, there was a rising trend for placental abnormalities (especially placenta accreta) in the second 5-year group compared with the first 5-year group (34% vs. 23%, &khgr;2 = 188.26, P = 0.03). Twenty-four (23%) women underwent hysterectomy, and among all the causes of PPH, placenta accreta had the highest hysterectomy rate of 70% (17/24). No maternal death was observed. Conclusions: There was a rising trend for placental abnormalities underlying the stable incidence of MT in the PPH cases. Placenta accreta accounted for the highest risk of hysterectomy. It is reasonable to have appropriate blood transfusion backup for high-risk patients, especially those with placenta accreta.