Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distinct stimulatory mechanisms regulate the catalytic activity of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2)

The maintenance of gene expression patterns during metazoan development is carried out, in part, by the actions of the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2). PRC2 catalyzes mono-, di-and trimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 27 (H3K27), with H3K27me2/3 being strongly associated with silenced genes. We demonstrate that EZH1 and EZH2, the two mutually exclusive catalytic subunits of PRC2, are differentially activated by various mechanisms. While both PRC2-EZH1 and PRC2-EZH2 are able to catalyze monomethylation, only PRC2-EZH2 is strongly activated by allosteric modulators and specific chromatin substrates to catalyze di-and trimethylation of H3K27. However, we also show that a PRC2 associated protein, AEBP2, can stimulate the activity of both complexes through a mechanism independent of and additive to allosteric activation. These results have strong implications regarding the cellular requirements for and accompanying adjustments in PRC2 activity, given the difference in the expression of EZH1 and EZH2 upon cellular differentiation.
Hamstring Muscle Injuries, a Rehabilitation Protocol Purpose

Context: Hamstring acute muscle injuries are prevalent in several sports including AFL football (Australian Football League), sprinting and soccer, and are often associated with prolonged time away from sport. Evidence Acquisition: In response to this, research into prevention and management of hamstring injury has increased, but epidemiological data shows no decline in injury and re-injury rates, suggesting that rehabilitation programs and return to play (RTP) criteria have to be improved. There continues to be a lack of consensus regarding how to assess performance, recovery and readiness to RTP, following hamstring strain injury. Results: The aim of this paper was to propose rehabilitation protocol for hamstring muscle injuries based on current basic science and research knowledge regarding injury demographics and management options. Conclusions: Criteria-based (subjective and objective) progression through the rehabilitation program will be outlined along with exercises for each phase, from initial injury to RTP.
Hybrid solid polymer electrolyte from diapers as separator for electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC)

EDLC was fabricated using hybrid solid polymer electrolyte from PVA-diapers and an activated carbon powder as electrode by using solution casting method. For comparison, four types of EDLC cells were constructed and tested. It was found that an EDLC with a PVA-diapers (60:40) polymer electrolyte exhibited much higher capacitance and longer cycle-life. The electrocapacitive properties of the supercapacitor (P50HD50, P60HD40, P70HD30 and P80HD20) were done using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and galvanostatic charge discharge (GCD). Results from these analysis showed that P60HD40 cell had recorded excellent rate capability and highest Csp value of 179 F g−1 (EIS), 50 F g−1 (CV), 328 F g−1 (GCD) respectively. Futher, results from ESR (GCD) analysis showed that P60HD40 composition of PVA/H3PO4 liquid electroyte gave a lower value of 88.05 Ω in the supercapacitor cell compared with another cells.EDLC was fabricated using hybrid solid polymer electrolyte from PVA-diapers and an activated carbon powder as electrode by using solution casting method. For comparison, four types of EDLC cells were constructed and tested. It was found that an EDLC with a PVA-diapers (60:40) polymer electrolyte exhibited much higher capacitance and longer cycle-life. The electrocapacitive properties of the supercapacitor (P50HD50, P60HD40, P70HD30 and P80HD20) were done using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and galvanostatic charge discharge (GCD). Results from these analysis showed that P60HD40 cell had recorded excellent rate capability and highest Csp value of 179 F g−1 (EIS), 50 F g−1 (CV), 328 F g−1 (GCD) respectively. Futher, results from ESR (GCD) analysis showed that P60HD40 composition of PVA/H3PO4 liquid electroyte gave a lower value of 88.05 Ω in the supercapacitor cell compared with another cells.
BTES and aldehydes analysis in PET-bottled water in Lebanon

The aim of this study was to determine benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, styrene (BTES), formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and benzaldehyde in Lebanese polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-bottled water. Aldehydes were analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet–visible detection (HPLC/UV-vis) after 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) derivatisation and solid phase extraction (SPE) concentration, whereas headspace trap gas chromatograph–flame ionisation detector (GC/FID) was used for BTES determination. Both methods were validated according to the NF XP 90-210 and showed good linearity ranging from 3 (limit of quantification [LOQ]) to 15 µg L−1 for BTES and from 20 (LOQ) to 900 µg L−1 for aldehydes. No quantified contamination with BTES, acetaldehyde and benzaldehyde was determined in all analysed fresh Lebanese PET-bottled waters. Formaldehyde was quantified in 3 of the 15 samples at concentrations lower than the maximum contaminant level set by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organisation. The samples' exposure to sunlight during 5 months increases the migration of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. Similar migration increase was observed when the samples were incubated at 40°C during 10 days.
When Less is Better: A Summarization Technique that Enhances Clinical Effectiveness of Data

The increasing number of wearable sensors for monitoring of various vital parameters such as blood pressure (BP), blood glucose, or heart rate (HR), has opened up an unprecedented opportunity for personalized real-time monitoring and prediction of critical health conditions of patients. This, however, also poses the dual challenges of identifying clinically relevant information from vast volumes of sensor time-series data and of storing and communicating it to health-care providers especially in the context of rural areas of developing regions where communication bandwidth may be limited. One approach to address these challenges is data summarization, but the danger of losing clinically useful information makes it less appealing to medical practitioners. To overcome this, we develop a data summarization technique called RASPRO (Rapid Active Summarization for effective PROgnosis), which transforms raw sensor time-series data into a series of low bandwidth, medically interpretable symbols, called "motifs", which measure criticality and preserve clinical effectiveness benefits for patients. We evaluate the predictive power and bandwidth requirements of RASPRO on more than 16,000 minutes of patient monitoring data from a widely used open source challenge dataset. We find that RASPRO motifs have much higher clinical efficacy and efficiency (20-90% improvement in F1 score over bandwidths ranging from 0.2-0.75 bits/unit-time) in predicting an acute hypotensive episode (AHE) compared to Symbolic Aggregate approXimation (SAX) which is a state-of-the-art data reduction and symbolic representation method. Furthermore, the RASPRO motifs typically perform as well or much better than the original raw data time-series, but with up to 15-fold reduction in transmission/storage bandwidth thereby suggesting that less is better.
Temporal Relationship Between Lumbar Spine Surgeries, Return to Work, and Workers' Compensation Costs in a Cohort of Injured Workers

Objective: Determine the relationship between time to surgery, lost time, and insurance costs. Method: A cohort of 582 claimants undergoing lumbar spine surgery (1999 to 2002) in the state of Louisiana was observed for 7 years. Results: The shorter the time interval between injury and first lumbar surgery, the lower the cost and time lost from work. Average days lost from work and claim costs for 42% of those undergoing early lumbar surgery did not differ from injured workers who lost time from work for claims not involving lumbar surgery. Claim cost for the remaining 58% who had delayed surgery was 5.7 times greater than that for the early surgery cohort. Conclusion: The decision to perform lumbar surgery is not necessarily associated with high claim costs or longer time out from work, provided that the determination to operate is early.
Correlation detection and an operational interpretation of the Rényi mutual information

Recently, a variety of new measures of quantum Rényi mutual information and quantum Rényi conditional entropy have been proposed, and some of their mathematical properties explored. Here, we show that the Rényi mutual information attains operational significance in the context of composite hypothesis testing, when the null hypothesis is a fixed bipartite state and the alternate hypothesis consists of all product states that share one marginal with the null hypothesis. This hypothesis testing problem occurs naturally in channel coding, where it corresponds to testing whether a state is the output of a given quantum channel or of a “useless” channel whose output is independent of the channel input and environment. Similarly, we establish an operational interpretation of Rényi conditional entropy by choosing an alternative hypothesis that consists of product states that are maximally mixed on one system. Specialized to classical probability distributions, our results also establish an operational interpretation of Rényi mutual information and Rényi conditional entropy.
Unnatural sudden infant death

Editor,—There cannot be many paediatricians who are unaware that infanticide may pose as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS); therefore, one must question the wisdom of Professor Meadow1 in deciding not to let this sleeping dog lie, in the interests of ordinary parents induced by media coverage not only to worry about whether their sleeping babies will ever wake up but whether in that case they could be accused of murder. However, he does make an important point, and that is the desirability of postmortem examinations in such cases being carried out by experienced paediatric pathologists—a threatened species. It is regrettable that when in response to public concern about cot death the Medical Research Council considered establishing a Chair in this branch of pathology, they were dissuaded by the then President of the College of Pathologists. Fortunately the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths stepped into the breach, but it is anomalous that postmortem examinations in babies are still being carried out by general pathologists. In my view, the exposure of infanticide is less important than continuing research into other causes of sudden infant death; so far very successful in reducing the incidence to half of what it used to be as well as contributing to knowledge in other ways. 1. ↵ 1. Meadow R (1999) Unnatural sudden infant death. Arch Dis Child 80:7–14. # {#article-title-3} Editor,—The question, outlined by Meadow,1-1 of which infant deaths have an unnatural cause is primarily a problem for the coroner’s pathologist rather than the paediatrician. The great majority of these infants never come to the attention of a paediatrician before or after death, and it is the pathologist who is required to advise the coroner as to what should be entered on the death certificate. As someone who has had a specialised interest in this task for over a …
Characterization of RNA binding and chaperoning activities of HIV-1 Vif protein

The viral infectivity factor (Vif) is essential for the productive infection and dissemination of HIV-1 in non-permissive cells, containing the cellular anti-HIV defense cytosine deaminases APOBEC3 (A3G and A3F). Vif neutralizes the antiviral activities of the APOBEC3G/F by diverse mechanisms including their degradation through the ubiquitin/proteasome pathway and their translational inhibition. In addition, Vif appears to be an active partner of the late steps of viral replication by interacting with Pr55Gag, reverse transcriptase and genomic RNA. Here, we expressed and purified full-length and truncated Vif proteins, and analyzed their RNA binding and chaperone properties. First, we showed by CD and NMR spectroscopies that the N-terminal domain of Vif is highly structured in solution, whereas the C-terminal domain remains mainly unfolded. Both domains exhibited substantial RNA binding capacities with dissociation constants in the nanomolar range, whereas the basic unfolded C-terminal domain of Vif was responsible in part for its RNA chaperone activity. Second, we showed by NMR chemical shift mapping that Vif and NCp7 share the same binding sites on tRNALys3, the primer of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. Finally, our results indicate that Vif has potent RNA chaperone activity and provide direct evidence for an important role of the unstructured C-terminal domain of Vif in this capacity.
Development of a microfluidic tool for understanding whole cell algal cultures

This project focuses on the development, characterisation and use of a microfluidic tool to study cells in suspension, and the motility of cells. This microfluidic tool is designed to have a low convective flow, so transport is dominated by diffusion, which allows a 2D concentration gradient to be maintained and manipulated, and cells to swim without advection. The rheology of the whole cell cultures was measured and found to shear thinning. Bubbles rising through the fluid was modelled. Despite this, it was found that bubbles rising through whole cell culture would impose a shear that correlated to the viscosity at the high shear plateau. That is bubble size did not significantly affect the apparent viscosity. The medium around bubbles of any size, from 1 mm to 100 mm, has a viscosity of 0.001 Pas. Numerical simulations are used to characterise and optimise the design and operation of the microfluidic devices. Low advection within the central chamber, with desired concentration gradients, was attainable with provided the geometry and operation were within certain limits. Recommendations regarding the geometry of the device include an inlet width to inlet neck length ratio of less than 2 and a radius of less then 400 um. The inlet velocity controlled the maximum velocity within the chamber. PDMS devices were fabricated and operated and it was found that concentration gradients could be maintained, but there were limitation regarding the syringe pump. Proof of concept is presented for visualising cells within this microfluidic device. From this thesis, it has been shown that microfluidic devices have important potential for understanding the motility of microalgae in real environments and in controlled concentration gradients, although they require careful analysis and thoughtful fabrication.
The Behavior of Aggregate Corporate Investment the Behavior of Aggregate Corporate Investment

We provide new evidence on the behavior of aggregate corporate investment from 1952–2010. Investment grows rapidly following high profits and stock returns but, contrary to standard predictions, is largely unrelated to recent changes in market volatility, interest rates, or the default spread on corporate bonds. At the same time, high investment predicts negative profit growth going forward and is associated with low stock returns when investment data are publicly released, suggesting that a jump in investment coincides with bad news. Our analysis also shows that the investment decline following the financial crisis of 2008 was not unusual given the drop in GDP and profits at the end of 2008.
A comparison of sea salt emission parameterizations in northwestern Europe using a chemistry transport model setup

Abstract. Atmospheric sea salt particles affect chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere. These particles provide surface area for condensation and reaction of nitrogen, sulfur, and organic species and are a vehicle for the transport of these species. Additionally, HCl is released from sea salt. Hence, sea salt has a relevant impact on air quality, particularly in coastal regions with high anthropogenic emissions, such as the North Sea region. Therefore, the integration of sea salt emissions in modeling studies in these regions is necessary. However, it was found that sea salt concentrations are not represented with the necessary accuracy in some situations. In this study, three sea salt emission parameterizations depending on different combinations of wind speed, salinity, sea surface temperature, and wave data were implemented and compared: GO03 (Gong, 2003), SP13 (Spada et al., 2013), and OV14 (Ovadnevaite et al., 2014). The aim was to identify the parameterization that most accurately predicts the sea salt mass concentrations at different distances to the source regions. For this purpose, modeled particle sodium concentrations, sodium wet deposition, and aerosol optical depth were evaluated against measurements of these parameters. Each 2-month period in winter and summer 2008 were considered for this purpose. The shortness of these periods limits generalizability of the conclusions on other years. While the GO03 emissions yielded overestimations in the PM10 concentrations at coastal stations and underestimations of those at inland stations, OV14 emissions conversely led to underestimations at coastal stations and overestimations at inland stations. Because of the differently shaped particle size distributions of the GO03 and OV14 emission cases, the deposition velocity of the coarse particles differed between both cases which yielded this distinct behavior at inland and coastal stations. The PM10 concentrations produced by the SP13 emissions generally overestimated the measured concentrations. The sodium wet deposition was generally underestimated by the model simulations but the SP13 cases yielded the least underestimations. Because the model tends to underestimate wet deposition, this result needs to be considered critically. Measurements of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) were underestimated by all model cases in the summer and partly in winter. None of the model cases clearly improved the modeled AODs. Overall, GO03 and OV14 produced the most accurate results, but both parameterizations revealed weaknesses in some situations.
Decoupling Structure and Lexicon for Zero-Shot Semantic Parsing

Building a semantic parser quickly in a new domain is a fundamental challenge for conversational interfaces, as current semantic parsers require expensive supervision and lack the ability to generalize to new domains. In this paper, we introduce a zero-shot approach to semantic parsing that can parse utterances in unseen domains while only being trained on examples in other source domains. First, we map an utterance to an abstract, domain independent, logical form that represents the structure of the logical form, but contains slots instead of KB constants. Then, we replace slots with KB constants via lexical alignment scores and global inference. Our model reaches an average accuracy of 53.4% on 7 domains in the OVERNIGHT dataset, substantially better than other zero-shot baselines, and performs as good as a parser trained on over 30% of the target domain examples.
Synthetic polymannose as a drug carrier: synthesis, toxicity and anti-fungal activity of polymannose-amphotericin B conjugates

Abstract Polymannose (PM) having a weight-average molar mass (Mw) of 30–53 kDa was synthesized by the polycondensation of mannose using phosphorous acid as the catalyst and characterized by various techniques such as NMR, IR, GPC and polarimetry. 2D NMR results confirmed the presence of (1 → 6)-linked α-D-mannose residues as backbone with O-3 and O-2 substituted linear or branched chains in PM. Amphotericin B (AmB) was conjugated to periodate-oxidized PM through Schiff’s linkages at 20 wt% concentration. The AmB-PM conjugates were highly soluble in phosphate buffered saline (180–250 mg/mL), exhibited negligible hemolytic potential to human erythrocytes even at a concentration of 200 μg/mL (equivalent to ~40 μg/mL AmB) and were non-toxic to human embryonic kidney (HEK293T) cells even at a concentration of 250 μg/mL (equivalent to ~50 μg/mL AmB). The minimum inhibitory concentration of the AmB-PM conjugates against C. albicans, C. parapsilosis and C. neoformans was in the range of 0.5–1.0 μg/mL. Mannose receptors are widely expressed on myeloid cells such as macrophages, neutrophils, and dendritic cells. Therefore, apart from treating fungal infections, AmB-PM conjugates also may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of macrophage-associated diseases such as leishmaniasis where mannose receptors are overexpressed.
Communication Skills of Physicians and Patients’ Satisfaction

Background: The communication skills of physicians is an effective step of making effective relationship between doctor and patient. It plays essential role through diagnosis and treatment processes. This current study was performed to investigate the impact of communication skillfulness of physicians on patients’ satisfaction. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was done to determine the impact of communication capability of practitioners on patients’ satisfaction. The DiMatto’s Patient Satisfaction Scale was administered among patients referring to the all 8 specialized clinics of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The validity and reliability of Persian translation of questionnaire of DiMatto’s Patient Satisfaction was verified by 10 specialists. The validity of the questionnaire was measured by content and structural analysis, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. The data were analyzed by software package of SPSS version 16 using Pearson’s correlation coefficient, U Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-wallis Test, Regression. Results: The study showed that there was a significant correlation between patients’ satisfaction and the communication skills of physicians (devoting the appropriate time for visiting the patients, explaining diagnosis and treatment procedures). In addition, the therapeutic skills of physicians, their friendly manners, respecting the patients’ feelings, and careful examination of patients by physician, revealed a significant correlation with patient satisfaction (P <0.05). However, we did not find strong correlation between effective listening to patients and patient’s satisfaction. Conclusion: Communication skills of physician play an important role on patients’ satisfaction; therefore, we propose strongly to improve the communication skills of physicians by improving the communication skills through related training courses.
Comparative diagnostic test accuracy of post-esophagectomy water-soluble computed tomography and fluoroscopic swallow studies: A meta-analysis

Abstract Aims: Both fluoroscopic water-soluble contrast swallow (FWSCS) and CT water-soluble contrast swallow (CTWSCS) are widely performed as a routine in the post-esophagectomy patient to assess for anastomotic leak. Several prospective studies have compared FWSCS and CTWSCS; however, no synthesis of the data exists. Materials and Methods: Systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies comparing FWSCS and CTWSCS in the adult patient following esophagectomy for malignancy was performed in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Results: Three diagnostic test accuracy studies met the inclusion criteria, directly comparing FWSCS and CTWSCS in 185 patients. FWSCS demonstrated high specificity (98%), but low sensitivity (64%). CTWSCS can be categorized as normal, mediastinal gas without contrast leak, or leakage of oral contrast. Visible leakage of oral contrast demonstrated high specificity (98%) but low sensitivity (56%). The presence of mediastinal gas increased sensitivity (84%), but reduced specificity (85%). The higher sensitivity of CTWSCS over FWSCS failed to reach significance (P = 0.125). Conclusion: CTWSCS shares the high specificity of FWSCS. Its higher sensitivity increases its utility as a rule-out test in the postoperative period. Additional factors that may influence decision-making are described.