Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wildland forest fire smoke: health effects and intervention evaluation, Hoopa, California, 1999.

OBJECTIVES To assess the health effects of exposure to smoke from the fifth largest US wildfire of 1999 and to evaluate whether participation in interventions to reduce smoke exposure prevented adverse lower respiratory tract health effects among residents of the Hoopa Valley National Indian Reservation in northwestern California. DESIGN Observational study: epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention retrospectively reviewed medical records at the local medical center and conducted survey interviews of reservation residents. SETTING Humboldt County, California. PARTICIPANTS Interviews were completed with 289 of 385 residents, representing 26% of the households on the reservation. Of the 289 participants, 92 (31.8%) had preexisting cardiopulmonary conditions. RESULTS During the weeks of the forest fire, medical visits for respiratory illnesses increased by 217 visits (from 417 to 634 visits, or by 52%) over the previous year. Survey results indicated that although 181 (62.6%) of 289 participants reported worsening lower respiratory tract symptoms, those with preexisting cardiopulmonary conditions reported more symptoms before, during, and after the smoke episode. An increased duration of the use of high-efficiency particulate air cleaners and the recollection of public service announcements were associated with a reduced odds of reporting adverse health effects of the lower respiratory tract. No protective effects were observed for duration of mask use or evacuation. CONCLUSIONS Timely actions undertaken by the clinical staff of the local medical center appeared beneficial to the respiratory health of the community. Future programs that reduce economic barriers to evacuation during smoke episodes may also improve intervention participation rates and decrease smoke exposures. Although promising, the effectiveness of these and other interventions need to be confirmed in a prospective community intervention trial.
What to do about CAM: Evidence is important but should not be the only consideration: patients' and clinicians' views matter too.

Health systems need to use resources to their maximum effect. This naturally leads them towards evidence based medicine, since those interventions that have been shown in well conducted (randomised) studies to be most effective should usually be prioritised over those where high quality evidence is lacking. Problems arise where systems have to juggle alternative choices where the …
Activation, coactivation, and costimulation of resting human natural killer cells

Summary: Natural killer (NK) cells possess potent perforin‐ and interferon‐γ‐dependent effector functions that are tightly regulated. Inhibitory receptors for major histocompatibility complex class I display variegated expression among NK cells, which confers specificity to individual NK cells. Specificity is also provided by engagement of an array of NK cell activation receptors. Target cells may express ligands for a multitude of activation receptors, many of which signal through different pathways. How inhibitory receptors intersect different signaling cascades is not fully understood. This review focuses on advances in understanding how activation receptors cooperate to induce cytotoxicity in resting NK cells. The role of activating receptors in determining specificity and providing redundancy of target cell recognition is discussed. Using Drosophila insect cells as targets, we have examined the contribution of individual receptors. Interestingly, the strength of activation is not determined simply by additive effects of parallel activation pathways. Combinations of signals from different receptors can have different outcomes: synergy, no enhancement over individual signals, or additive effects. Cytotoxicity requires combined signals for granule polarization and degranulation. The integrin leukocyte function‐associated antigen‐1 contributes a signal for polarization but not for degranulation. Conversely, CD16 alone or in synergistic combinations, such as NKG2D and 2B4, signals for phospholipase‐C‐γ‐ and phosphatidylinositol‐3‐kinase‐dependent degranulation.
Adaptive immune responses to hepatitis C virus: from viral immunobiology to a vaccine

Abstract Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes chronic infection in approximately two-thirds of cases, leading to chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, liver disease, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma in a substantial proportion of the 170 million HCV-infected individuals worldwide. It is generally accepted that the cellular immune response plays the most important role in determining the outcome of HCV infection. First, vigorous, multispecific and sustained CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses are associated with viral clearance. Second, depletion studies in chimpanzees, the only other host of HCV besides humans, have shown that both CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells are required for virus elimination. Third, the host's human leukocyte antigen alleles, which restrict the repertoire of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses, influence the outcome of infection. Of note, protective immunity has been demonstrated in population-based studies, as well as in experimentally infected chimpanzees. Thus, a detailed understanding of the mechanisms contributing to the failure of the antiviral immune response should allow successful development of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccination strategies.
The Pinholin of Lambdoid Phage 21: Control of Lysis by Membrane Depolarization

ABSTRACT The phage 21 holin, S21, forms small membrane holes that depolarize the membrane and is designated as a pinholin, as opposed to large-hole-forming holins, like Sλ. Pinholins require secreted SAR endolysins, a pairing that may represent an intermediate in the evolution of canonical holin-endolysin systems.
A retrospective review of anesthesia and perioperative care in children with medium‐chain acyl‐CoA dehydrogenase deficiency

Medium‐chain acyl‐CoA dehydrogenase deficiency is the most common genetically determined disorder of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation. Decompensation can result in hypoglycemia, seizures, coma, and death but may be prevented by ensuring glycogen stores do not become depleted. Perioperative care is of interest as surgery, fasting, and infection may all trigger decompensation and the safety of anesthetic agents has been questioned. Current guidelines from the British Inherited Metabolic Disease Group advise on administering fluid containing 10% glucose during the perioperative period.
Impact of the permanent ventricular pacing site on left ventricular function in children: a retrospective multicentre survey

Background Chronic right ventricular (RV) pacing is associated with deleterious effects on cardiac function. Objective In an observational multicentre study in children with isolated atrioventricular (AV) block receiving chronic ventricular pacing, the importance of the ventricular pacing site on left ventricular (LV) function was investigated. Methods Demographics, maternal autoantibody status and echocardiographic measurements on LV end-diastolic and end-systolic dimensions and volumes at age <18 years were retrospectively collected from patients undergoing chronic ventricular pacing (>1 year) for isolated AV block. LV fractional shortening (LVFS) and, if possible LV ejection fraction (LVEF) were calculated. Linear regression analyses were adjusted for patient characteristics. Results From 27 centres, 297 children were included, in whom pacing was applied at the RV epicardium (RVepi, n=147), RV endocardium (RVendo, n=113) or LV epicardium (LVepi, n=37). LVFS was significantly affected by pacing site (p=0.001), and not by maternal autoantibody status (p=0.266). LVFS in LVepi (39±5%) was significantly higher than in RVendo (33±7%, p<0.001) and RVepi (35±8%, p=0.001; no significant difference between RV-paced groups, p=0.275). Subnormal LVFS (LVFS<28%) was seen in 16/113 (14%) RVendo-paced and 21/147 (14%) RVepi-paced children, while LVFS was normal (LVFS≥28%) in all LVepi-paced children (p=0.049). These results are supported by the findings for LVEF (n=122): LVEF was <50% in 17/69 (25%) RVendo- and in 10/35 (29%) RVepi-paced patients, while LVEF was ≥50% in 17/18 (94%) LVepi-paced patients. Conclusion In children with isolated AV block, permanent ventricular pacing site is an important determinant of LV function, with LVFS being significantly higher with LV pacing than with RV pacing.
Modeling the Intensity Function of Point Process Via Recurrent Neural Networks

Event sequence, asynchronously generated with random timestamp, is ubiquitous among applications. The precise and arbitrary timestamp can carry important clues about the underlying dynamics, and has lent the event data fundamentally different from the time-series whereby series is indexed with fixed and equal time interval. One expressive mathematical tool for modeling event is point process. The intensity functions of many point processes involve two components: the background and the effect by the history. Due to its inherent spontaneousness, the background can be treated as a time series while the other need to handle the history events. In this paper, we model the background by a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) with its units aligned with time series indexes while the history effect is modeled by another RNN whose units are aligned with asynchronous events to capture the long-range dynamics. The whole model with event type and timestamp prediction output layers can be trained end-to-end. Our approach takes an RNN perspective to point process, and models its background and history effect. For utility, our method allows a black-box treatment for modeling the intensity which is often a pre-defined parametric form in point processes. Meanwhile end-to-end training opens the venue for reusing existing rich techniques in deep network for point process modeling. We apply our model to the predictive maintenance problem using a log dataset by more than 1000 ATMs from a global bank headquartered in North America.
Evaluation of inductance in a permanent magnet synchronous motor

The performance of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive highly depends on the machine parameters such as resistance, inductance and back-emf constant. The accurate knowledge of these parameters is of specific interest in the case of direct torque control method (feed forward control) and sensor-less control. The knowledge of the machine inductance always poses some extra degrees of challenge due to its dependency on the saturation effect and the non-linear B-H curve of the magnetic steels. The inductance of the PMSM is used in determining the control voltage and estimation of motor position. This paper is an attempt to provide guidance to the methodologies to determine the inductance of PMSMs using analytical and finite element (FE) modeling. The dq-model of the PMSM machine is used to calculate the synchronous inductances. The theoretical and FE simulation result are compared to the test results to verify the reliability of different techniques for inductance measurement for both theoretical and practical purpose.
In vitro xanthine oxidase and albumin denaturation inhibition assay of Barringtonia racemosa L. and total phenolic content analysis for potential anti-inflammatory use in gouty arthritis

Aim: This study was conducted to evaluate the in vitro anti-inflammatory activities and total phenolic content (TPC) of methanolic extracts of infloresence axes, endosperms, leaves, and pericarps of Barringtonia racemosa L. Methods: The anti-inflammatory study was conducted by assessing the potential through xanthine oxidase (XO) and albumin denaturation inhibition assays. Meanwhile, the TPC in the extracts were assessed by Folin-Ciocalteu assay. Results: In the XO inhibition assay, the infloresence axes extract was found to exert the highest inhibition capacity at 0.1% (w/v) with 59.54 ± 0.001% inhibition followed by leaves (58.82 ± 0.001%), pericarps (57.99 ± 0.003%), and endosperms (57.20 ± 0.003%) extracts. Similarly in the albumin denaturation inhibition assay, the infloresence axes extract had shown the greatest inhibition capacity with 70.58 ± 0.004% inhibition followed by endosperms (66.80 ± 0.024%), leaves (65.29 ± 0.006%), and pericarps extracts (43.33 ± 0.002%). Meanwhile, for TPC analysis, leaves extract was found to have the highest phenolic content (53.94 ± 0.000 mg gallic acid equivalent [GAE]/g DW) followed by infloresence axes (31.54 ± 0.001 mg GAE/g DW), endosperms (22.63 ± 0.001 mg GAE/g DW), and the least was found in pericarps (15.54 ± 0.001 mg GAE/g DW). Conclusion: The results indeed verified the in vitro anti-inflammatory activities of B. racemosa and supported its potential to be used in alleviating gouty arthritis and XO-related diseases.
STAT3 is a critical cell-intrinsic regulator of human unconventional T cell numbers and function

Wilson et al. show that individuals with loss-of-function mutations in STAT3 have reduced numbers of peripheral blood MAIT and NKT cells, but not γδ T cells. Residual MAIT cells had normal expression of RORγt, but displayed impaired secretion of IL-17A and IL-17F.
Testing for Employee Discrimination in Britain using Matched Employer-Employee Data

We use recent matched employer-employee data to directly test if white workers have a taste for racial discrimination in Britain. We formally introduce individual and firm heterogeneity into the discrimination model used by Becker (1957, 1971) which we extend to generate predictions consistent with an employee taste for discrimination. We argue firstly that white employees with a taste for discrimination should report lower levels of job satisfaction the larger the proportion of ethnic minorities at their workplace. Secondly, white employees would have to be compensated by higher wages if required to work alongside ethnic minority co-workers. Both hypotheses are clearly supported for white males in our data, after comprehensively controlling for individual, job, and workplace characteristics. The white male wage premium for working amongst only ethnic minority co-workers, as compared to working only with whites, is about 12%. Importantly, it appears that neither of these effects operates via realised racial prejudice at the workplace or white employees' feelings concerning their job security.
Incremental training intensities increases loads on the lower back of elite female rowers

Abstract Lumbar-pelvic kinematics change in response to increasing rowing stroke rates, but little is known about the effect of incremental stroke rates on changes in joint kinetics and their implications for injury. The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of incremental rowing intensities on lower limb and lumbar-pelvic kinetics. Twelve female rowers performed an incremental test on a rowing ergometer. Kinematic data of rowers’ ankle, knee, hip and lumbar-pelvic joints, as well as external forces at the handle, seat and foot-stretchers of the rowing machine were recorded. Inter-segmental moments and forces were calculated using inverse dynamics and were compared across stroke rates using repeated measures ANOVA. Rowers exhibited increases in peak ankle and L5/S1 extensor moments, reductions in peak knee moments and no change in peak hip moments, with respect to stroke rate. Large shear and compressive forces were seen at L5/S1 and increased with stroke rate (P < 0.05). This coincided with increased levels of lumbar-pelvic flexion. High levels of lumbar-pelvic loading at higher stroke rates have implications with respect to injury and indicated that technique was declining, leading to increased lumbar-pelvic flexion. Such changes are not advantageous to performance and can potentially increase the risk of developing injuries.
Processing Speed Versus Working Memory: Contributions to an Information-Processing Task in Multiple Sclerosis

Individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) often experience cognitive impairments in information processing. However, the relative contributions of processing speed abilities and working memory abilities to information-processing tasks are not yet fully understood. The current study examined the extent to which processing speed and/or working memory abilities contributed to an information-processing task, the Keeping Track Task (KTT). Forty-nine individuals with MS were given tests to assess processing speed and working memory, as well as the KTT. Regression analyses indicated that in the MS group, processing speed abilities accounted for the majority of the explained variance in KTT performance. The findings suggest that processing speed plays a significant role on KTT performance in MS. Implications for cognitive rehabilitation treatments aimed at improving processing speed abilities in MS are discussed.
The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes: Cascading Geological Hazards and Compounding Risks

A sequence of two strike-slip earthquakes occurred on 14 and 16 April 2016 in the intraplate region of Kyushu Island, Japan, apart from subduction zones, and caused significant damage and disruption to the Kumamoto region. The analyses of regional seismic catalog and available strong motion recordings reveal striking characteristics of the events, such as migrating seismicity, earthquake surface rupture, and major foreshock-mainshock earthquake sequences. To gain valuable lessons from the events, a UK Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT) was dispatched to Kumamoto, and earthquake damage surveys were conducted to relate observed earthquake characteristics to building and infrastructure damage caused by the earthquakes. The lessons learnt from the reconnaissance mission have important implications on current seismic design practice regarding the required seismic resistance of structures under multiple shocks and the seismic design of infrastructure subject to large ground deformation. The observations also highlight the consequences of cascading geological hazards on community resilience. To share the gathered damage data widely, geo-tagged photos are organized using Google Earth and the kmz file is made publicly available.
Functional centrality: detecting lethality of proteins in protein interaction networks.

Identifying lethal proteins is important for understanding the intricate mechanism governing life. Researchers have shown that the lethality of a protein can be computed based on its topological position in the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Performance of current approaches has been less than satisfactory as the lethality of a protein is a functional characteristic that cannot be determined solely by network topology. Furthermore, a significant number of lethal proteins have low connectivity in the interaction networks but are overlooked by most current methods. Our work reveals that a protein's lethality correlates more strongly with its "functional centrality" than pure topological centrality. We define functional centrality as the topological centrality within a subnetwork of proteins with similar functions. Evaluation experiments on four Saccharomyces cerevisiae PPI datasets showed that NFC performed significantly better than all the other existing computational techniques. Our method was able to detect low connectivity lethal proteins that were previously undetected by conventional methods. The results and an online version of NFC is available at http://lethalproteins.i2r. a-star.edu. sg.
Proof of Page's conjecture on the average entropy of a subsystem.

Page conjectured very recently [Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1291 (1993)] that if a quantum system of Hilbert space dimension [ital mn] is in a random pure state, the average entropy of a subsystem of dimension [ital m][le][ital n] is given by [ital S][sub [ital m],][ital n]=[ital tsum][sub [ital k]=[ital n]+1][sup [ital m][ital n]]1/[ital k][minus]([ital m][minus]1)/2[ital n]. We outline a proof of this elegant formula.
Quality of Life after Infection in Total Joint Replacement

Purpose. To compare the health-related quality of life and functional outcomes of patients with and without periprosthetic infection after total joint replacement (TJR). Methods. 62 uncomplicated TJRs and 34 TJRs complicated with deep infection were compared using a visual analogue scale for satisfaction, the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index, Assessment of Quality of Life, and Short Form-36. Results. Patients with complicated TJR had significantly poorer satisfaction in outcome (p<0.0001) and disease-specific functional outcomes (p<0.0001). Six of the 8 health-related quality-of-life scores were also significantly poorer (p<0.05). These results persisted after controlling for age, sex, and follow-up period in a multiple regression analysis. Conclusion. Infection following TJR reduces patient satisfaction and seriously impairs functional health status and health-related quality of life. When hospitals are balancing the costs of preventative measures with the costs of treating infection in TJR, the effect on patients' quality of life must be considered. Our findings argue strongly for allocation of health care resources to minimise the occurrence of infection after TJR.
Organophosphate-Related Alterations in Myelin and Axonal Transport in the Living Mammalian Brain

Abstract : The overall goal of this project is to determine the underlying mechanisms for the neurological symptoms associated with Gulf War Illness. The central hypothesis is that subthreshold exposures to organophosphates-OPs (defined as exposures not associated with acute signs of toxicity) may have adversely affected axonal transport and/or myelin integrity in affected individuals. We are studying two OPs, a representative insecticide that was used in the first gulf war, chlorpyrifos (CPF), and a representative, nerve agent, diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP) in rats. The first two years of this proposal have been primarily dedicated to Specific Aim #1: which has been designed to evaluate OP effects on axonal transport in the living rat brain using manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) of the optic nerve axonal projections from the retina to the superior colliculus. The following procedures have been conducted to date (N=6): 1) baseline MRI scans; 2) daily injections of vehicle or chlorpyrifos (3.0-18.0 mg/kg) x 14 days; 2) a second MRI scan on the day following the last drug injection; 3) a third scan after a 4 week (OP-free) washout period. For each animal, a separate 6 hour and 24 hour scan was performed after Mn2+ eye injection. For this work a manuscript is currently under review for publication. In this work we also evaluated the effects of an acute (single) exposure to CPF. We have also completed the MR scanning portion for the DFP study and a preliminary analysis indicates similar results (persistent impairments of axonal transport). The experiments for specific aim #2 (devoted to the evaluation of OP-related effects on myelin with diffusion tensor imaging-(DTI) and histology are currently underway.