Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Motor Training of Upper Extremity With Functional Electrical Stimulation in Early Stroke Rehabilitation

Background. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) allows active exercises in stroke patients with upper extremity paralysis. Objective. To investigate the effect of motor training with FES on motor recovery in acute and subacute stroke patients with severe to complete arm and/or hand paralysis. Methods. For this pilot study, 23 acute and subacute stroke patients were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 12) and control group (n = 11). Distributed over 4 weeks, FES training replaced 12 conventional training sessions in the intervention group. An Extended Barthel Index (EBI) subscore assessed the performance of activities of daily living (ADL). The Chedoke McMaster Stroke Assessment (CMSA) measured hand and arm function and shoulder pain. The Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) assessed resistance to passive movement. Unblinded assessments were performed prior to and following the end of the training period. Results. The EBI subscore and CMSA arm score improved significantly in both groups. The CMSA hand function improved significantly in the FES group. Resistance to passive movement of finger and wrist flexors increased significantly in the FES group. Shoulder pain did not change significantly. None of the outcome measures, however, demonstrated significant gain differences between the groups. Conclusions. We did not find clear evidence for superiority or inferiority of FES. Our findings, and those of similar trials, suggest that the number of sessions should be at least doubled to test for superiority of FES in these highly impaired patients and approximately 50 participants would have to be assigned to each therapeutic intervention to find significant differences.
Photodegradation alleviates the lignin bottleneck for carbon turnover in terrestrial ecosystems

Significance Understanding controls on carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems is essential to predict and mitigate human impacts on the global carbon cycle. This study identifies a general unifying mechanism to explain how photochemical mineralization of plant litter, photodegradation, affects subsequent biotic decomposition. Previous work has shown that photodegradation can be a major direct control of carbon loss in arid lands. We now demonstrate that, across a wide range of species, exposure to sunlight has large “photopriming” effects, enhancing microbial decomposition, especially due to blue–green light. Photodegradation increased availability of carbohydrates to hydrolytic enzymes, likely through reducing the bottleneck imposed by lignin in secondary cell walls. This mechanistic insight suggests that photodegradation is globally important for carbon turnover in terrestrial ecosystems. A mechanistic understanding of the controls on carbon storage and losses is essential for our capacity to predict and mitigate human impacts on the global carbon cycle. Plant litter decomposition is an important first step for carbon and nutrient turnover, and litter inputs and losses are essential in determining soil organic matter pools and the carbon balance in terrestrial ecosystems. Photodegradation, the photochemical mineralization of organic matter, has been recently identified as a mechanism for previously unexplained high rates of litter mass loss in arid lands; however, the global significance of this process as a control on carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems is not known. Here we show that, across a wide range of plant species, photodegradation enhanced subsequent biotic degradation of leaf litter. Moreover, we demonstrate that the mechanism for this enhancement involves increased accessibility to plant litter carbohydrates for microbial enzymes. Photodegradation of plant litter, driven by UV radiation, and especially visible (blue–green) light, reduced the structural and chemical bottleneck imposed by lignin in secondary cell walls. In leaf litter from woody species, specific interactions with UV radiation obscured facilitative effects of solar radiation on biotic decomposition. The generalized effect of sunlight exposure on subsequent microbial activity, mediated by increased accessibility to cell wall polysaccharides, suggests that photodegradation is quantitatively important in determining rates of mass loss, nutrient release, and the carbon balance in a broad range of terrestrial ecosystems.
The Role of Lattice Matching Techniques in the Characterization of Polymorphic Forms

An inspection of the recent literature reveals that polymorphism is a frequently encountered phenomenon. The recognition of polymorphic forms plays a vital role in the materials sciences because such structures are characterized by different crystal packing and accordingly have different physical properties. In the pharmaceutical industry, recognition of polymorphic forms can be critical for, in certain cases, a polymorphic form of a drug may be an ineffective therapeutic agent due to its unfavorable physical properties. A check of the recent literature has revealed that in some cases new polymorphic forms are not recognized. In other instances, a supposedly new polymeric form is actually the result of an incorrect structure determination. Fortunately, lattice-matching techniques, which have proved invaluable in the identification and characterization of crystal structures, represent a powerful tool for analyzing polymorphic forms. These lattice-matching methods are based on either of two strategies: (a) the reduced cell strategy–the matching of reduced cells of the respective lattices or (b) the matrix strategy–the determination of a matrix or matrices relating the two lattices coupled with an analysis of the matrix elements. Herein, these techniques are applied to three typical cases–(a) the identification of a new polymorphic form, (b) the demonstration that a substance may not be a new polymorphic form due to missed symmetry, and (c) the evaluation of pseudo polymorphism because of a missed lattice. To identify new polymorphic forms and to prevent errors, it is recommended that these lattice matching techniques become an integral part of the editorial review process of crystallography journals.
Structural Fingerprinting: Subgrouping of Comoviruses by Structural Studies of Red Clover Mottle Virus to 2.4-Å Resolution and Comparisons with Other Comoviruses

ABSTRACT Red clover mottle virus (RCMV) is a member of the comoviruses, a group of picornavirus-like plant viruses. The X-ray structure of RCMV strain S has been determined and refined to 2.4 Å. The overall structure of RCMV is similar to that of two other comoviruses, Cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) and Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV). The sequence of the coat proteins of RCMV strain O were modeled into the capsid structure of strain S without causing any distortion, confirming the close resemblance between the two strains. By comparing the RCMV structure with that of other comoviruses, a structural fingerprint at the N terminus of the small subunit was identified which allowed subgrouping of comoviruses into CPMV-like and BPMV-like viruses.
Insight into Mammalian Selenocysteine Insertion: Domain Structure and Ribosome Binding Properties of Sec Insertion Sequence Binding Protein 2

ABSTRACT The cotranslational incorporation of the unusual amino acid selenocysteine (Sec) into both prokaryotic and eukaryotic proteins requires the recoding of a UGA stop codon as one specific for Sec. The recognition of UGA as Sec in mammalian selenoproteins requires a Sec insertion sequence (SECIS) element in the 3′ untranslated region as well as the SECIS binding protein SBP2. Here we report a detailed analysis of SBP2 structure and function using truncation and site-directed mutagenesis. We have localized the RNA binding domain to a conserved region shared with several ribosomal proteins and eukaryotic translation termination release factor 1. We also identified a separate and novel functional domain N-terminal to the RNA binding domain which was required for Sec insertion but not for SECIS binding. Conversely, we showed that the RNA binding domain was necessary but not sufficient for Sec insertion and that the conserved glycine residue within this domain was required for SECIS binding. Using glycerol gradient sedimentation, we found that SBP2 was stably associated with the ribosomal fraction of cell lysates and that this interaction was not dependent on its SECIS binding activity. This interaction also occurred with purified components in vitro, and we present data which suggest that the SBP2-ribosome interaction occurs via 28S rRNA. SBP2 may, therefore, have a distinct function in selecting the ribosomes to be used for Sec insertion.
The decline in irradiation from the white dwarf in old novae

Aims. We have investigated how a flux ratio analysis of the light curves of cataclysmic variables can be used to calculate the luminosity irradiating the secondary star in the classical novae QU Vul, V Per, DD Cir, DN Gem, V1432 Aql, and WY Sge. Methods. We undertook phase-resolved, near-infrared K band photometry of QU Vul and V Per. Using data from QU Vul we show how flux ratios taken between fiducial orbital phases in the light curves of irradiated CVs can be used to measure the degree of heating of the secondary star. We compared the heating effect obtained from flux ratio analysis with more formal modelling, or by measurements taken from the literature, and found good agreement. We used the results to determine how irradiation changes with time since the nova outburst. Results. The light curve of QU Vul shows the presence of two maxima in the K band, which are displaced from phase 0.25 towards the 0.5 phase position, as would be expected from heating of the inner face of the secondary star by radiation from hot primary. Nova V Per, on the other hand shows evidence for a hot spot on the accretion disc, and it would appear that heating of the inner face is not occurring. The results of the flux ratio analysis of the objects examined are plotted as a function of time since the nova explosions occurred. There is marginal evidence for a decline in flux with time since the outburst, superimposed on considerable scatter, which is likely to be caused by the different temperature reached in each nova explosion. The decline is consistent with the declines others have seen. We conclude that it is the decline in reprocessed irradiation from the cooling white dwarf alone, rather than a decline in mass transfer rate, that could be the cause of the decrease in optical brightness seen in old novae.
Metabolomics and first-trimester prediction of early-onset preeclampsia

Objective: To evaluate the use of metabolomics for the first-trimester detection of maternal metabolic dysfunction and prediction of subsequent development of early-onset preeclampsia (PE). Study design: This was a case-control study of maternal plasma samples collected at 11–13 weeks’ gestation from 30 women who had subsequently developed PE requiring delivery before 34 weeks and 60 unaffected controls. Nuclear magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was used to identify and quantify metabolomic changes in cases versus controls. Both genetic computing and standard statistical analyses were performed to predict the development of PE from the metabolite concentrations alone as well as the combination of metabolite concentrations with maternal characteristics and first-trimester uterine artery Doppler pulsatility index (PI). Results: Significant differences between cases and controls were found for 20 metabolites. A combination of four of these metabolites (citrate, glycerol, hydroxyisovalerate, and methionine) appeared highly predictive of PE with an estimated detection rate of 75.9%, at a false-positive rate (FPR) of 4.9%. The predictive performance was improved by the addition of uterine artery Doppler PI and fetal crown-rump length (CRL) and with an estimated detection rate of 82.6%, at a FPR of 1.6%. Conclusion: A profound change in the first-trimester metabolite profile was noted in women who had subsequently developed early-onset PE. Preliminary algorithms appeared highly sensitive for first trimester prediction of early onset PE.
Regression modeling and mapping of coniferous forest basal area and tree density from discrete-return lidar and multispectral satellite data

We compared the utility of discrete-return light detection and ranging (lidar) data and multispectral satellite imagery, and their integration, for modeling and mapping basal area and tree density across two diverse coniferous forest landscapes in north-central Idaho. We applied multiple linear regression models subset from a suite of 26 predictor variables derived from discrete-return lidar data (2 m post spacing), advanced land imager (ALI) multispectral (30 m) and panchromatic (10 m) data, or geographic X, Y, and Z location. In general, the lidar-derived variables had greater utility than the ALI variables for predicting the response variables, especially basal area. The variables most useful for predicting basal area were lidar height variables, followed by lidar intensity; those most useful for predicting tree density were lidar canopy cover variables, again followed by lidar intensity. The best integrated models selected via a best-subsets procedure explained ~90% of variance in both response variables. Natural-logarithm-transformed response variables were modeled. Predictions were then transformed from the natural logarithm scale back to the natural scale, corrected for transformation bias, and mapped across the two study areas. This study demonstrates that fundamental forest structure attributes can be modeled to acceptable accuracy and mapped with currently available remote sensing technologies.
Rayleigh-Taylor convective dissolution in confined porous media

Numerical simulations are used here to analyze the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in confined and isotropic porous media. The Rayleigh-Taylor instability phenomena arise when a layer of heavy fluid sits on top of a layer of a lighter fluid. Small fluctuations of the interface separating the two fluid layers produce larger structures that eventually drive the flow into a nonlinear convective stage. The flow is initially controlled by diffusion, but rather quickly the action of gravity produces efficient fluid mixing in the entire domain. The single parameter controlling the flow is the Rayleigh number, which is the dimensionless ratio of diffusive to convective timescales. The flow evolution is often parametrized by the mixing length (a suitably defined extension of the mixing region), which, according to Gopalakrishnan et al. [Phys. Rev. Fluids 2, 012501(R) (2017)], has a linear growth. From the analysis of a broad range of simulations spanning three orders of magnitude of the Rayleigh number, we could observe a superlinear asymptotic growth of the mixing length. The present results, which are in line with previous simulations, allow us to evaluate precisely the superlinear evolution coefficient. We further provide simple scaling arguments to justify the observed superlinear growth.
OFDM Signal Detection in Doubly Selective Channels with Whitening of Residual Intercarrier Interference and Noise

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission in time-varying channels suffers from intercarrier interference (ICI). Existing ICI countermeasures usually address a few dominant ICI terms only and treat the residual as similar to white noise. We show that the residual ICI has high normalized autocorrelation and that this normalized autocorrelation is insensitive to the maximum Doppler frequency and the multipath channel profile, among other things. The residual ICI can thus be whitened in a largely channel-independent manner, leading to significantly improved detection performance. Simulation results confirm the theoretical analysis. In particular, they show that the proposed technique can lower the ICI-induced error floor by several orders of magnitude in maximum-likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) designed to address a few dominant ICI terms.
Biogeography of pelagic bacterioplankton across an antagonistic temperature–salinity gradient in the Red Sea

The Red Sea is a unique marine ecosystem with contrasting gradients of temperature and salinity along its north‐to‐south axis. It is an extremely oligotrophic environment that is characterized by perpetual year‐round water column stratification, high annual solar irradiation, and negligible riverine and precipitation inputs. In this study, we investigated whether the contemporary environmental conditions shape community assemblages by pyrosequencing 16S rRNA genes of bacteria in surface water samples collected from the northeastern half of this water body. A combined total of 1855 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were recovered from the ‘small‐cell’ and ‘large‐cell’ fractions. Here, a few major OTUs affiliated with Cyanobacteria and Proteobacteria accounted for ∼93% of all sequences, whereas a tail of ‘rare’ OTUs represented most of the diversity. OTUs allied to Surface 1a/b SAR11 clades and Prochlorococcus related to the high‐light‐adapted (HL2) ecotype were the most widespread and predominant sequence types. Interestingly, the frequency of taxa that are typically found in the upper mesopelagic zone was significantly elevated in the northern transects compared with those in the central, presumably as a direct effect of deep convective mixing in the Gulf of Aqaba and water exchange with the northern Red Sea. Although temperature was the best predictor of species richness across all major lineages, both spatial and environmental distances correlated strongly with phylogenetic distances. Our results suggest that the bacterial diversity of the Red Sea is as high as in other tropical seas and provide evidence for fundamental differences in the biogeography of pelagic communities between the northern and central regions.
Role of Annexin A5 in Cisplatin-induced Toxicity in Renal Cells

Background: There is increasing evidence that annexin A5 is related to cytotoxicity, but the precise function has yet to be elucidated. Results: Cisplatin induces mitochondrial translocation of annexin A5, and annexin A5 mediates VDAC oligomerization. Conclusion: Annexin A5 may play a role as a mediator of cisplatin-induced apoptosis in renal epithelial cells. Significance: Learning how annexin A5 is involved in the apoptotic pathway is crucial for understanding cisplatin-induced toxicity. Annexin A5 belongs to a large family of calcium-binding and phospholipid-binding proteins and may act as an endogenous regulator of various pathophysiological processes. There is increasing evidence that annexin A5 is related to cytotoxicity, but the precise function of this protein has yet to be elucidated. In this study, we aimed to verify the function of annexin A5 in the apoptosis of renal epithelial cells. Real-time PCR and Western blot analysis, together with immunofluorescence analysis, showed that the expression of annexin A5 significantly increased in the presence of cisplatin in both human and rat renal epithelial cells. With regard to the mechanism of cisplatin-induced apoptosis, apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) release into the cytosol was observed, and the underlying mechanism was identified as voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) oligomerization. Mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) was found to be greatly disrupted in cisplatin-treated cells. Moreover, cisplatin strongly induced translocation of annexin A5 into mitochondria. To understand the functional significance of annexin A5 in renal cell death, we used a siRNA-mediated approach to knock down annexin A5. Annexin A5 depletion by siRNA led to decreased annexin A5 translocation into mitochondria and significantly reduced VDAC oligomerization and AIF release. Annexin A5 siRNA also increased cell viability compared with the control. Moreover, expression of annexin A5 was induced by other nephrotoxicants such as CdCl2 and bacitracin. Taken together, our data suggest that annexin A5 may play a crucial role in cisplatin-induced toxicity by mediating the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway via the induction and oligomerization of VDAC.
Modeling of voltage induction of a resonant electrostatic induction motor using 2-phase slider and a single coil

This paper describes a resonant electrostatic induction motor utilizing LC resonance between two-phase slider electrodes and a single coil. Resonant electrostatic motors have been studied in literature, which utilize three-phase sliders. As a three-phase slider requires three coils to realize LC resonance, the resulting motor system became large due to the relatively large volume of coils compared to the original electrostatic motors. The new resonant electrostatic motor described in this paper utilizes two-phase slider, which requires only one coil to realize resonance. This leads to reduction of the total volume of the motor system. The paper models the behavior of the resonant motor to obtain the induction voltage in such a configuration. The obtained theoretical voltage is compared with experimental results, which agree well at a low voltage region. At a high voltage, however, the experimental results show non-linearity and hysteresis, which does not appear in the theoretical model. The cause of the non-linearity and hysteresis is revealed through a numerical simulation, which indicates the gap variation in the prototype motor caused the non-linear behavior.
A COMPARISON OF THREE INDIRECT METHODS FOR ESTIMATING AVERAGE LEVELS OF GENE FLOW

Three methods for estimating the average level of gene flow in natural population are discussed and compared. The three methods are FST, rare alleles, and maximum likelihood. All three methods yield estimates of the combination of parameters (the number of migrants [Nm] in a demic model or the neighborhood size [4πDσ2] in a continuum model) that determines the relative importance of gene flow and genetic drift. We review the theory underlying these methods and derive new analytic results for the expectation of FST in stepping‐stone and continuum models when small sets of samples are taken. We also compare the effectiveness of the different methods using a variety of simulated data. We found that the FST and rare‐alleles methods yield comparable estimates under a wide variety of conditions when the population being sampled is demographically stable. They are roughly equally sensitive to selection and to variation in population structure, and they approach their equilibrium values at approximately the same rate. We found that two different maximum‐likelihood methods tend to yield biased estimates when relatively small numbers of locations are sampled but more accurate estimates when larger numbers are sampled. Our conclusion is that, although FST and rare‐alleles methods are expected to be equally effective in analyzing ideal data, practical problems in estimating the frequencies of rare alleles in electrophoretic studies suggest that FST is likely to be more useful under realistic conditions.
Journal of Inflammation Anti-inflammatory Effects of the Gorgonian Pseudopterogorgia Elisabethae Collected at the Islands of Providencia and San Andrés (sw Caribbean)

Background: We are reporting for the first time the in vivo anti-inflammatory activity of extracts and fractions, and in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of pure compounds, all isolated from Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae collected at the Providencia (chemotype 1) and San Andrés (chemotype 2) Islands (SW Caribbean).