Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Single Molecule Kinetic Analysis of Actin Filament Capping

We investigated how heterodimeric capping proteins bind to and dissociate from the barbed ends of actin filaments by observing single muscle actin filaments by total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. The barbed end rate constants for mouse capping protein (CP) association of 2.6 × 106 m-1 s-1 and dissociation of 0.0003 s-1 agree with published values measured in bulk assays. The polyphosphoinositides (PPIs), phosphatidylinositol 3,4-bisphosphate (PI(3,4)P2), PI(4,5)P2, and PI(3,4,5)P3, prevent CP from binding to barbed ends, but three different assays showed that none of these lipids dissociate CP from filaments at concentrations that block CP binding to barbed ends. The affinity of fission yeast CP for barbed ends is a thousandfold less than mouse CP, because of a slower association rate constant (1.1 × 105 m-1 s-1) and a faster dissociation rate constant (0.004 s-1). PPIs do not inhibit binding of fission yeast CP to filament ends. Comparison of homology models revealed that fission yeast CP lacks a large patch of basic residues along the actin-binding surface on mouse CP. PPIs binding to this site might interfere sterically with capping, but this site would be inaccessible when CP is bound to the end of a filament.
DRUG UTILIZATION PATTERN IN PAEDIATRIC PATIENTS IN A SECONDARY CARE HOSPITAL

Objective: The study was carried out to generate research on drug utilization pattern in paediatric patients in government headquarters hospital, Tiruppur, Tamilnadu, India using world health organization (WHO) and international network for rational use of drugs (INRUD) core indicator. Methods: The core prescribing indicators of the world health organization was used to assess the appropriate use of drugs. Index of rational drug prescribing (IRDP) developed by Zhang and Zhi was also used to find out the performance of a health care system in terms of drug utilization. Results: Out of 859 drugs in 200 cases the highest prescribed drug class is antibiotics 304(35.39%) and the majority of drugs were administered in injectable form 412(47.94%). It was analysed that a majority of prescriptions 117(58.5%) were discharged in between 4-7 d. 161(80.5%) patients were dismissed after completion of treatment. On analysing world health organization (WHO) prescribing core indicators, the average number of drugs per prescription was 4.29 which is higher than double the average number (i.e., 2). This indicates poly-pharmacy practice. 97.78% of drugs were prescribed were the generic name and percentage of encounters with antibiotic prescribed was 90.5% which is thrice greater than world health organization (WHO) standard<30%. Prescribing of injections is not within the world health organization (WHO) recommended range<20% and it was far higher showing 97.5% which is essential for paediatric inpatients. The prescribing practice in paediatric ward is in complete adherence to national essential drug list (EDL) or formulary. The mean value of the index of rational drug prescribing (IRDP) obtained was 3.09 which is very similar to that of optimal value world health organization (WHO). Conclusion: Prescription by generic name, prescribing drugs from essential drug list (EDL) and free government supply are encouraging findings in this hospital. The result shows poly-pharmacy and overuse of antibiotics are the areas to be concerned. The better clinical outcome shows rational prescribing is practised well.
Counting Afﬁne Calculator and Applications

We present an interactive tool, called iscc, for manipulating sets and relations of integer tuples bounded by aﬃne constraints over the set variables, parameters and existentially quantiﬁed variables. A distinguishing feature of iscc is that it provides a cardinality operation on sets and relations that computes a symbolic expression in terms of the parameters and domain variables for the number of elements in the set or the image of the relation. In particular, these expressions are piecewise quasipolynomials, which can be further manipulated in iscc. Besides basic operations on sets and piecewise quasipolynomials, iscc also provides an interface to code generation, lexicographic optimization, dependence analysis, transitive closures and the symbolic computation of upper bounds and sums of piecewise quasipolynomials over their domains.
Cooling-Induced Carotid Artery Dilatation: An Experimental Study in Isolated Vessels

Background and Purpose— Clinical and experimental studies seem to indicate that hypothermia may improve outcome in stroke victims and reduce experimental brain injury. The current interpretation is that cooling has a neuroprotective effect by reducing brain metabolism. The objective of our study was to test the hypothesis that hypothermia induces arterial vasodilatation and thereby increases cerebral blood flow. Methods— We recorded isometric tension in rabbit carotid artery strips in organ baths during stepwise cooling. The cooling responses were tested at basal tone, in noradrenaline-precontracted vessels, and after electric field stimulation. Results— Stepwise cooling from 37°C to 4°C induced reproducible graded relaxation, inversely proportional to temperature. The responses could be elicited at basal tone and in precontracted vessels. Cooling decreased the contractile responses to norepinephrine and potassium chloride. Cooling at 20°C decreased the contractile responses to electric field stimulation, while at 10°C these were totally abolished. Cooling-induced vasodilatation is not dependent on an endothelial mechanism. Conclusions— Cooling of carotid artery preparations induced a reversible graded vasodilatation and decreased or abolished the effect of vasocontractile neurotransmitters. The effect of local hypothermia could increase cerebral blood flow and may constitute a positive therapeutic modality in stroke patients.
Existing and Emerging Regional Trading Arrangements

This study presented selected existing and emerging Regional Trading Arrangements (RTAs) to show key features of the new regionalism and to determine if they help advance the cause of multilateralism. In its assessment, it found that these new RTAs go beyond mere trade in commodities and services and incorporate deeper forms of integration, such as liberalization of investment regimes, adoption of mutual recognition arrangements, and in some instances, harmonization of competition policy. Efforts are made to ensure true integration of national markets. Furthermore, the new RTAs tend to be more outward-oriented than the ones established more than two decades ago. Moreover, a number of them include both developed and developing economies, giving rise to possibilities for greater specialization in production and trade. All these suggest that the new RTAs upon up new opportunities to advance multilateral trade liberalization.
Telephone Peer Counseling of Breastfeeding Among WIC Participants: A Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE: The US Surgeon General has recommended that peer counseling to support breastfeeding become a core service of the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). As of 2008, 50% of WIC clients received services from local WIC agencies that offered peer counseling. Little is known about the effectiveness of these peer counseling programs. Randomized controlled trials of peer counseling interventions among low-income women in the United States showed increases in breastfeeding initiation and duration, but it is doubtful that the level of support provided could be scaled up to service WIC participants nationally. We tested whether a telephone peer counseling program among WIC participants could increase breastfeeding initiation, duration, and exclusivity. METHODS: We randomly assigned 1948 WIC clients recruited during pregnancy who intended to breastfeed or were considering breastfeeding to 3 study arms: no peer counseling, 4 telephone contacts, or 8 telephone contacts. RESULTS: We combined 2 treatment arms because there was no difference in the distribution of peer contacts. Nonexclusive breastfeeding duration was greater at 3 months postpartum for all women in the treatment group (adjusted relative risk: 1.22; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.10–1.34) but greater at 6 months for Spanish-speaking clients only (adjusted relative risk: 1.29; 95% CI: 1.10–1.51). The likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding cessation was less among Spanish-speaking clients (adjusted odds ratio: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.68–0.89). CONCLUSIONS: A telephone peer counseling program achieved gains in nonexclusive breastfeeding but modest improvements in exclusive breastfeeding were limited to Spanish- speaking women.
Prospective study of fluconazole therapy in systemic neonatal fungal infection.

BACKGROUND Standard neonatal systemic antifungal therapy with amphotericin B and flucytosine can be associated with toxicity, drug resistance and the need for prolonged venous access. There is consequently a need for alternative treatment options. OBJECTIVES To assess the efficacy and safety of fluconazole in the treatment of systemic neonatal fungal infections. METHOD Open, nonrandomized evaluation of fluconazole treatment in 20 consecutively enrolled neonates with systemic fungal infection. RESULTS Clinical and microbiologic cure was achieved in 12 of 19 (63%) of infants treated. One additional infant received prior amphotericin B therapy and is included for assessment of side effects. One infant with Torulopsis glabrata infection failed treatment. Six infants died of Gram-negative bacterial infection and other intercurrent medical problems. CONCLUSION Fluconazole appeared to be safe and effective for treatment of systemic candidal infection in the neonate although more data are required in very low birth weight infants.
A Bayesian network model for estimating stoichiometric ratios of lake seston components

ABSTRACT The elemental composition of seston provides insights into how lake food webs function and how nutrients cycle through the environment. Here, we describe a Bayesian network model that simultaneously estimates relationships between dissolved and particulate nutrients, suspended volatile and nonvolatile sediments, and algal chlorophyll. The model provides direct estimates of the phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) content of phytoplankton, suspended non-living organic matter, and suspended inorganic sediment. We applied this model to data collected from reservoirs in Missouri, USA, to test the validity of our assumed relationships. The results indicate that, on average among all samples, the ratio of N and P (N:P) in phytoplankton and non-living organic matter in these reservoirs were similar, although under nutrient replete conditions, N:P in phytoplankton decreased. P content of inorganic sediment was lower than in phytoplankton and non-living organic matter. The analysis also provided a means of tracking changes in the composition of whole seston over time. In addition to informing questions regarding seston stoichiometry, this modeling approach may inform efforts to manage lake eutrophication because it can improve traditional models of relationships between nutrients and chlorophyll in lakes.
Rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy; not only for rheumatologists interested in female health issues

In this issue of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases Wallenius et al 1 report an increase in the onset of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other arthritides just after delivery ( see article on page 332 ). They have shown this by linking two national registers—namely, the Norwegian Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drug (NOR-DMARD) Register and the Medical Birth Register of Norway. This report confirms previous studies2 3 4 on RA and additionally extends our knowledge to other forms of arthritis. Owing to the low incidence of RA occurring simultaneously or just after pregnancy, the previous studies on this subject were mainly of a matched case–control design.2 4 Since every study design carries the risk of introducing its own type of bias, conformation of this finding in a different setting is important. In these previous studies it has been shown that the increased incidence of RA after delivery is accompanied by a lower incidence during pregnancy.2 4 This suggests that the increased incidence of RA after delivery is not a true increased incidence, but rather that the occurrence of RA is postponed until after delivery. How can these data be interpreted? It is clear that they can be seen in the scope of the well-known ameliorating effect of pregnancy on the course of existing RA and the flare-up of disease activity in the postpartum period. Since the first description of this phenomenon by Hench in 1938,5 this finding has been reconfirmed in several studies,6 7 most recently in a large prospective study from before conception and onwards.8 In this first large prospective study using validated instruments to determine disease activity,9 it was shown that almost half of …
Evaluation of vitamin D status in suspected cases of metabolic syndrome

Background: Metabolic syndrome is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Vitamin D has been linked to glucose metabolism and insulin regulation. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the association between the serum level of vitamin D and metabolic syndrome. This may help generate additive strategies in the prevention and management of this syndrome. The objective of the study was to compare the levels of serum vitamin D in subjects with metabolic syndrome and subjects without metabolic syndrome.Methods: A prospective study with 80 subjects was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Southern India. The sample comprised 40 subjects in the age group of (18-60 years) with metabolic syndrome as cases and 40 subjects without metabolic syndrome in the age groups of (18-60 years) as controls. The presence of any 3 of the following- fasting blood glucose (FBS ≥100mg/dl), triglycerides (TGL≥150mg/dl) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C ≤40mg/dl-men, ≤50mg/dl-women) levels, blood pressure (≥130/85mmHg or drug treatment) and abdominal waist circumference (>94 cm (37 in) in men and >80 cm (31 in) in women) were used as criteria to screen for the presence (cases) or absence (controls) of metabolic syndrome. Serum vitamin D (25-hydroxy vitamin D) levels were compared between the two groups.Results: Mann Whitney U test was used to compare the vitamin D levels between the two groups. Significantly (p=0.05) lower vitamin D levels were seen in the cases compared to the controls.Conclusions: Metabolic syndrome is associated with significantly lower serum vitamin D levels. We suggest that further studies with a larger sample size be undertaken to confirm the same.
Unsupervised Feature Selection Via Two-way Ordering in Gene Expression Analysis

MOTIVATION Selection of genes most relevant and informative for certain phenotypes is an important aspect in gene expression analysis. Most current methods select genes based on known phenotype information. However, certain set of genes may correspond to new phenotypes which are yet unknown, and it is important to develop novel effective selection methods for their discovery without using any prior phenotype information. RESULTS We propose and study a new method to select relevant genes based on their similarity information only. The method relies on a mechanism for discarding irrelevant genes. A two-way ordering of gene expression data can force irrelevant genes towards the middle in the ordering and thus can be discarded. Mechanisms based on variance and principal component analysis are also studied. When applied to expression profiles of colon cancer and leukemia, the unsupervised method outperforms the baseline algorithm that simply uses all genes, and it also selects relevant genes close to those selected using supervised methods. SUPPLEMENT More results and software are online: http://www.nersc. gov/~cding/2way.
Magnitude of Neonatal Jaundice and Its Associated Factor in Neonatal Intensive Care Units of Mekelle City Public Hospitals, Northern Ethiopia

Background Jaundice in the neonate is one of the most common clinical problems. Globally, every year about 1.1 million babies develop it and the vast majority reside in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Study on magnitude and local factors associated with neonatal jaundice is limited in Ethiopia. So this study was aimed at assessing magnitude and predictors of neonatal jaundice among neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care unit of public hospitals in Mekelle city, Northern Ethiopia. Methods Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2016 in neonatal intensive care unit of Mekelle city public hospitals. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select study participants. Data was collected by interviewing mothers through structured questionnaire and reviewing neonates' medical records using checklist. Multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were employed to identify factors associated with neonatal jaundice. Results A total of 209 neonates with their mothers were included. The proportion of neonatal jaundice was found to be 37.3%. Prolonged labor [AOR = 4.39; 95% CI (1.8-10.69)], being male [AOR = 3.7; 95% CI (1.54-8.87)], maternal “O” blood group [AOR = 5.05; 95% CI (1.53-16.72)], sepsis [AOR = 2.64; 95% CI (1.15-6.05)], and blood type incompatibility [AOR = 18.21; 95% CI (6.36-52.13)] were positively associated with neonatal jaundice while night time delivery [AOR 0.42; 95% CI (0.18-0.96)] showed negative association. Conclusion The magnitude of neonatal jaundice among neonates was found to be high. Duration of labor, time of delivery, sexes of neonate, sepsis, maternal blood group, and blood type incompatibility were significantly associated with neonatal jaundice. Therefore, improving newborn care and timely intervention for neonates with ABO/Rh incompatibility are recommended.
Leadership for safety: industrial experience

The importance of leadership for effective safety management has been the focus of research attention in industry for a number of years, especially in energy and manufacturing sectors. In contrast, very little research into leadership and safety has been carried out in medical settings. A selective review of the industrial safety literature for leadership research with possible application in health care was undertaken. Emerging findings show the importance of participative, transformational styles for safety performance at all levels of management. Transactional styles with attention to monitoring and reinforcement of workers’ safety behaviours have been shown to be effective at the supervisory level. Middle managers need to be involved in safety and foster open communication, while ensuring compliance with safety systems. They should allow supervisors a degree of autonomy for safety initiatives. Senior managers have a prime influence on the organisation’s safety culture. They need to continuously demonstrate a visible commitment to safety, best indicated by the time they devote to safety matters.
Aging and the development of automaticity in conjunction search.

In two experiments, younger and older observers carried out feature searches for targets defined by their luminance contrast and orientation. Additionally, they received consistent-mapping (CM) training in luminance contrast by orientation conjunction search, followed by a brief exposure to conjunction search under reversal conditions. In Experiment 1, display size effects on reaction time suggested that both younger and older observers were conducting a parallel search in all conditions and showed equivalent disruption at reversal. Experiment 2 was a substantive replication of the first using more difficult conjunction search displays. In addition to latency, we measured the number, duration, and feature-based selectivity of fixations made during conjunction search. Display size effects were larger than in Experiment 2 and were of equivalent magnitude in younger and older people. There were no age differences in improvement in conjunction search and minimal age differences in disruption following reversal. Both age groups demonstrated early in training that they could select items possessing target features (i.e., the color white), and both age groups demonstrated that they could not completely reverse this selectivity when these features no longer defined the target. These experiments have several implications for models of visual attention and age differences therein.
Combining Structural Connectivity and Response Latencies to Model the Structure of the Visual System

Several approaches exist to ascertain the connectivity of the brain, and these approaches lead to markedly different topologies, often incompatible with each other. Specifically, recent single-cell recording results seem incompatible with current structural connectivity models. We present a novel method that combines anatomical and temporal constraints to generate biologically plausible connectivity patterns of the visual system of the macaque monkey. Our method takes structural connectivity data from the CoCoMac database and recent single-cell recording data as input and employs an optimization technique to arrive at a new connectivity pattern of the visual system that is in agreement with both types of experimental data. The new connectivity pattern yields a revised model that has fewer levels than current models. In addition, it introduces subcortical–cortical connections. We show that these connections are essential for explaining latency data, are consistent with our current knowledge of the structural connectivity of the visual system, and might explain recent functional imaging results in humans. Furthermore we show that the revised model is not underconstrained like previous models and can be extended to include newer data and other kinds of data. We conclude that the revised model of the connectivity of the visual system reflects current knowledge on the structure and function of the visual system and addresses some of the limitations of previous models.
Acid‐sensing ion channel 1a drives AMPA receptor plasticity following ischaemia and acidosis in hippocampal CA1 neurons

The hippocampal CA1 region is highly vulnerable to ischaemic stroke. Two forms of AMPA receptor (AMPAR) plasticity – an anoxic form of long‐term potentiation and a delayed increase in Ca2+‐permeable (CP) AMPARs – contribute to this susceptibility by increasing excitotoxicity. In CA1, the acid‐sensing ion channel 1a (ASIC1a) is known to facilitate LTP and contribute to ischaemic acidotoxicity. We have examined the role of ASIC1a in AMPAR ischaemic plasticity in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures exposed to oxygen glucose deprivation (a model of ischaemic stroke), and in hippocampal pyramidal neuron cultures exposed to acidosis. We find that ASIC1a activation promotes both forms of AMPAR plasticity and that neuroprotection, by inhibiting ASIC1a, circumvents any further benefit of blocking CP‐AMPARs. Our observations establish a new interaction between acidotoxicity and excitotoxicity, and provide insight into the role of ASIC1a and CP‐AMPARs in neurodegeneration. Specifically, we propose that ASIC1a activation drives certain post‐ischaemic forms of CP‐AMPAR plasticity.
On Noncrossing and Nonnesting Partitions for Classical Reflection Groups

The number of noncrossing partitions of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ with fixed block sizes has a simple closed form, given by Kreweras, and coincides with the corresponding number for nonnesting partitions. We show that a similar statement is true for the analogues of such partitions for root systems $B$ and $C$, defined recently by Reiner in the noncrossing case and Postnikov in the nonnesting case. Some of our tools come from the theory of hyperplane arrangements.