Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of neuromuscular warm-up on injuries in female soccer and basketball athletes in urban public high schools: cluster randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness of coach-led neuromuscular warm-up on reducing lower extremity (LE) injuries in female athletes in a mixed-ethnicity, predominantly low-income, urban population. DESIGN Cluster randomized controlled trial. SETTING Chicago public high schools. PARTICIPANTS Of 258 coaches invited to participate, 95 (36.8%) enrolled (1558 athletes). Ninety coaches and 1492 athletes completed the study. INTERVENTIONS We randomized schools to intervention and control groups. We trained intervention coaches to implement a 20-minute neuromuscular warm-up. Control coaches used their usual warm-up. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Coach compliance was tracked by self-report and direct observation. Coaches reported weekly athlete exposures (AEs) and LE injuries causing a missed practice or game. Research assistants interviewed injured athletes. Injury rates were compared between the control and intervention groups using χ(2) and Fisher exact tests. Significance was set at P < . 05. Poisson regression analysis adjusted for clustering and covariates in an athlete subset reporting personal information (n = 855; 57.3%). RESULTS There were 28 023 intervention AEs and 22 925 control AEs. Intervention coaches used prescribed warm-up in 1425 of 1773 practices (80.4%). Intervention athletes had lower rates per 1000 AEs of gradual-onset LE injuries (0.43 vs 1.22, P < .01), acute-onset noncontact LE injuries (0.71 vs 1.61, P < .01), noncontact ankle sprains (0.25 vs 0.74, P = .01), and LE injuries treated surgically (0 vs 0.17, P = .04). Regression analysis showed significant incidence rate ratios for acute-onset noncontact LE injuries (0.33; 95% CI, 0.17-0.61), noncontact ankle sprains (0.38; 95% CI, 0.15-0.98), noncontact knee sprains (0.30; 95% CI, 0.10-0.86), and noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries (0.20; 95% CI, 0.04-0.95). CONCLUSION Coach-led neuromuscular warm-up reduces noncontact LE injuries in female high school soccer and basketball athletes from a mixed-ethnicity, predominantly low-income, urban population. TRIAL REGISTRATION CLINICALTRIALS.ORG IDENTIFIER: NCT01092286.
Abnormal sleep/wake cycles and the effect of environmental noise on sleep disruption in the intensive care unit.

UNLABELLED Little is known about sleep/wake abnormalities in intensive care and less is known about the mechanisms responsible for these abnormalities. We studied 22 (20 mechanically ventilated) medical intensive care unit (ICU) patients with continuous polysomnography (PSG) and environmental noise measurements for 24-48 h to characterize sleep-wake patterns and objectively determine the effect of environmental noise on sleep disruption. All 22 patients demonstrated sleep-wake cycle abnormalities. There were large variations in total sleep time (TST) with the mean total sleep time per 24-h study period of 8.8 +/- 5.0 h. Sleep-wake cycles were fragmented and nonconsolidated with a mean of 57 +/- 18% and 43 +/- 18% of the TST occurring during the day and night, respectively. Environmental noise was responsible for 11.5 and 17% of the overall arousals and awakenings from sleep, respectively. The mean noise arousal index was 1.9 +/- 2.1 arousals/h sleep. CONCLUSIONS (1) ICU patients are qualitatively, but not necessarily quantitatively, sleep deprived; and (2) although environmental noise is in part responsible for sleep-wake abnormalities, it is not responsible for the majority of the sleep fragmentation and may therefore not be as disruptive to sleep as the previous literature suggests.
Vg1 is an essential signaling molecule in Xenopus development

Xenopus Vg1, a transforming growth factor β (Tgfβ) family member, was one of the first maternally localized mRNAs identified in vertebrates. Its restriction to the vegetal pole of the egg made it the ideal candidate to be the mesoderm-inducing signal released by vegetal cells, but its function in vivo has never been resolved. We show that Vg1 is essential for Xenopus embryonic development, and is required for mesoderm induction and for the expression of several key Bmp antagonists. Although the original Vg1 transcript does not rescue Vg1-depleted embryos, we report that a second allele is effective. This work resolves the mystery of Vg1 function, and shows it to be an essential maternal regulator of embryonic patterning.
Mouse A6/Twinfilin Is an Actin Monomer-Binding Protein That Localizes to the Regions of Rapid Actin Dynamics

ABSTRACT In our database searches, we have identified mammalian homologues of yeast actin-binding protein, twinfilin. Previous studies suggested that these mammalian proteins were tyrosine kinases, and therefore they were named A6 protein tyrosine kinase. In contrast to these earlier studies, we did not find any tyrosine kinase activity in our recombinant protein. However, biochemical analysis showed that mouse A6/twinfilin forms a complex with actin monomer and prevents actin filament assembly in vitro. A6/twinfilin mRNA is expressed in most adult tissues but not in skeletal muscle and spleen. In mouse cells, A6/twinfilin protein is concentrated to the areas at the cell cortex which overlap with G-actin-rich actin structures. A6/twinfilin also colocalizes with the activated forms of small GTPases Rac1 and Cdc42 to membrane ruffles and to cell-cell contacts, respectively. Furthermore, expression of the activated Rac1(V12) in NIH 3T3 cells leads to an increased A6/twinfilin localization to nucleus and cell cortex, whereas a dominant negative form of Rac1(V12,N17) induces A6/twinfilin localization to cytoplasm. Taken together, these studies show that mouse A6/twinfilin is an actin monomer-binding protein whose localization to cortical G-actin-rich structures may be regulated by the small GTPase Rac1.
Long-term outcomes of idiopathic membranous nephropathy in Japanese patients treated with low-dose cyclophosphamide and prednisolone.

BACKGROUND Treatment with cyclophosphamide and steroids for idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) is effective in Caucasian patients, but the cumulative cyclophosphamide dosage exceeds 10 g and includes steroid pulse therapy. Adverse effects and difficulties with repeating treatment are major limitations. We studied the long-term outcomes of low-dose cyclophosphamide and prednisolone therapy in Japanese patients, who were thought to have relatively benign IMN compared with Caucasian patients. METHODS This is a prospective cohort study of 103 consecutive Japanese patients with IMN and nephrotic syndrome. Patients were treated with cyclophosphamide (50 mg/day for the first 3 months and 25 mg/day for the next 3 months) and prednisolone (30 mg/day for the first week and the dosage was gradually tapered to withdraw by 2 years). Additional therapies were allowed for initial treatment failure or relapse. RESULTS With a mean observation period of 8.5 years, 90 patients (87.4%) achieved proteinuria of <1 g/day and 78 (75.7%) achieved complete remission. A total of 27 patients did not respond to initial treatment and 30 patients had relapses after remission. Of these patients, 39 received additional therapies. At the last observation, 12 patients had developed renal insufficiency (S-Cr >1.5 mg/dL) but only 2 patients had reached renal death. Multivariate analysis revealed that the duration without remission was the strongest risk factor for renal prognosis. There were 14 deaths, and 8 patients developed cancers during the observation period. CONCLUSION Treating nephrotic IMN in Japanese patients with low-dose cyclophosphamide and prednisolone is beneficial for long-term renal prognosis with relatively few adverse effects.
Characteristics of left ventricular rotational mechanics in patients with systemic amyloidosis, systemic hypertension and normal left ventricular mass

Introduction: Recently, two‐dimensional (2D) speckle‐tracking echocardiography has enabled assessment of a particular behaviour of left ventricular (LV) motion defined as twisting/untwisting. The aim of our study is to evaluate whether in early stage of hypertension and systemic amyloidosis, subclinical alteration of LV twist and untwist is already present even if no LV hypertrophy is evidenced.
Encoding of Predictable and Unpredictable Stimuli by Inferior Temporal Cortical Neurons

Animals and humans learn statistical regularities that are embedded in sequences of stimuli. The neural mechanisms of such statistical learning are still poorly understood. Previous work in macaque inferior temporal (IT) cortex demonstrated suppressed spiking activity to visual images of a sequence in which the stimulus order was defined by transitional probabilities (labeled as “standard” sequence), compared with a sequence in which the stimulus order was random (“random” sequence). Here, we asked whether IT neurons encode the images of the standard sequence more accurately compared with images of the random sequence. Previous human fMRI studies in different sensory modalities also found a suppressed response to expected relative to unexpected stimuli but obtained various results regarding the effect of expectation on encoding, with one study reporting an improved classification accuracy of expected stimuli despite the reduced activation level. We employed a linear classifier to decode image identity from the spiking responses of the recorded IT neurons. We found a greater decoding accuracy for images of the standard compared with the random sequence during the early part of the stimulus presentation, but further analyses suggested that this reflected the sustained, stimulus-selective activity from the previous stimulus of the sequence, which is typical for IT neurons. However, the peak decoding accuracy was lower for the standard compared with the random sequence, in line with the reduced response to the former compared with the latter images. These data suggest that macaque IT neurons represent less accurately predictable compared with unpredictable images.
A Model Health System for Australia Part 1: Directions for Reform of the Australian Health System

This paper is the first in a three-part series about the Australian health system in which I propose Australia moves toward a (single) Commonwealth funded public health system. The objectives of this first paper are to describe the main strengths and weaknesses of the current system and to outline some design principles upon which to base an argument for ways in which the health system could be systemically changed. After canvassing four systemic change options, the paper concludes that the only realistic system change option is for the Commonwealth to take full financial responsibility for the system, as both funder and purchaser. Central to my choice is not only my personal judgement or my take on the likely preference of the Australian public, but also a framework in which there are in-built incentives to find a balance that is likely to optimise health outcomes from the resources available. Later parts will describe in more detail the model of a Commonwealth funded system and how it might be implemented, and discusses some related issues including the balance of public and private financing. Whether or not such a model is politically feasible in the short term, it may help give direction to incremental reforms which should both deliver tangible benefits and make systemic reform in the longer term easier.
Architecture and intrinsic connections of the prefrontal cortex in the rhesus monkey

An investigation of the architectonic organization and intrinsic connections of the prefrontal cortex was conducted in rhesus monkeys. Cytoarchitectonic analysis indicates that in the prefrontal cortex there are two trends of gradual change in laminar characteristics that can be traced from limbic periallocortex towards isocortical areas. The stepwise change in laminar features is characterized by the emergence and gradual increase in the width of granular layer IV, by an increase in the size of pyramidal cells in layers III and V, and by a higher cell‐packing density in the supragranular layers. Myeloarchitectonic analysis reveals that the limbic areas are poorly myelinated, adjacent areas have a diffuse myelin content confined to the deep layers, and in isocortices the myelinated fibers are distributed in organized horizontal bands (of Baillarger) and a vertical plexus. Using the above architectonic criteria, we observed that one of the architectonic trends takes a radial basoventral course from the periallocortex in the caudal orbitofrontal region to the adjacent proisocortex and then to area 13. The next stage of architectonic regions includes orbital areas 12, 11, and 14, which is followed by area 10, lateral area 12, and the rostral part of ventral area 46. The last group includes the caudal part of ventral area 46 and ventral area 8. The other trend takes a mediodorsal course from the periallocortex around the rostral portion of the corpus callosum to the adjacent proisocortical areas 24, 25, and 32 and then to the medially situated isocortical areas 9, 10, and 14. The next stage includes lateral areas 10 and 9 and the rostral part of dorsal area 46. The last group includes the caudal part of dorsal area 46 and dorsal area 8.
Influence of age on diurnal variability in measurements of spirometric indices and respiratory pressures.

We evaluated variations in spirometric indices (i.e., forced vital capacity [FVC], peak expiratory flow [PEF], and forced expiratory volume in 1 sec [FEV1]) and static respiratory muscle pressures (i.e., maximum static inspiratory pressure [PImax] and maximum static expiratory pressure [PEmax]) within a span of 12 hr in 60 healthy elderly subjects, 60 young subjects, and 30 Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. There were no differences among data of FVC, PEF, FEV1, PImax, and PEmax on three separate occasions within a day in the elderly or the young. The mean coefficient of variation (CV) values of PEF and PImax on three occasions were 3.0 +/- 0.3% and 4.2 +/- 0.4% in the elderly, and 2.4 +/- 0.2% and 3.7 +/- 0.3% in the young, respectively. No subjects had more than 9% CV on each measurement in the study, suggesting that there is nosignificant daytime variation in measurement of expiratory flow and respiratory pressures in young and elderly people. However, FVC, PEF FEV1, and PImax values in the morning were smaller than those measured at the other two occasions in COPD patients. The results indicate that COPD affects diurnal variation in pulmonary function, but age alone has little impact on diurnal variation.
Examination of hypotheses in the Kolmogorov refined turbulence theory through high-resolution simulations. Part 1. Velocity field

The fundamental hypotheses underlying Kolmogorov-Oboukhov (1962) turbulence theory (K62) are examined directly and quantitutivezy by using high-resolution numerical turbulence fields. With the use of massively parallel Connection Machine-5, we have performed direct Navier-Stokes simulations (DNS) at 5123 resolution with Taylor microscale Reynolds number up to 195. Three very different types of flow are considered: free-decaying turbulence, stationary turbulence forced at a few large scales, and a 2563 large-eddy simulation (LES) flow field. Both the forced DNS and LES flow fields show realistic inertial-subrange dynamics. The Kolmogorov constant for the k−5/3 energy spectrum obtained from the 5123 DNS flow is 1.68 ±. 15. The probability distribution of the locally averaged disspation rate εr, over a length scale r is nearly log-normal in the inertial subrange, but significant departures are observed for high-order moments. The intermittency parameter p, appearing in Kolmogorov's third hypothesis for the variance of the logarithmic dissipation, is found to be in the range of 0.20 to 0.28. The scaling exponents over both εr, and r for the conditionally averaged velocity increments $\overline{\delta_ru|\epsilon_r}$ are quantified, and the direction of their variations conforms with the refined similarity theory. The dimensionless averaged velocity increments $(\overline{\delta_ru^n|\epsilon_r})/(\epsilon_rr)^{n/3}$ are found to depend on the local Reynolds number Reεr = ε1/3rr4/3/ν in a manner consistent with the refined similarity hypotheses. In the inertial subrange, the probability distribution of δru/(εrr)1/3 is found to be universal. Because the local Reynolds number of K62, Rεr = ε1/3rr4/3/ν, spans a finite range at a given scale r as compared to a single value for the local Reynolds number Rr = ε−1/3r4/3/ν in Kolmogorov's (1941a,b) original theory (K41), the inertial range in the K62 context can be better realized than that in K41 for a given turbulence field at moderate Taylor microscale (global) Reynolds number Rλ. Consequently universal constants in the second refined similarity hypothesis can be determined quite accurately, showing a faster-than-exponential growth of the constants with order n. Finally, some consideration is given to the use of pseudo-dissipation in the context of the K62 theory where it is found that the probability distribution of locally averaged pseudo-dissipation ε′r deviates more from a log-normal model than the full dissipation εr. The velocity increments conditioned on ε′r do not follow the refined similarity hypotheses to the same degree as those conditioned on εr.
Residually finite one-relator groups

Let £ be the class of those groups (/, m) satisfying \l\ 5 ^ 1 ^ \m\ , /m^O, and / and m relatively prime. Furthermore, let 9iïl be the class of these groups (If m\ t) satisfying the conditions imposed above on I and m, and in addition the extra two conditions t> 1, and l, m and t relatively prime in pairs. The point of our initial remark is that 9ÏI looks more complicated than £. Actually £ is quite a nasty class of groups. Indeed the main result of [ l ] is that every group in £ is isomorphic to one of its proper factor groups, i.e. nonhopfian. Since finitely generated residually finite groups are hopfian (A. I. Mal'cev [2]) no group in £ is residually finite. Our contribution to Conjecture A is that the groups in 9TC are residually finite.
Characterization of the histidine mutants of Kluyveromyces lactis

Thirty‐eight different histidine mutations of Kluyveromyces lactis were isolated and genetically characterized. All of the mutations were nuclear recessive alleles. They turned out to belong to seven different complementation groups, designated hisA1 to hisA7. Five of these genes have been cloned by in vivo complementation of the Klhis mutations. Their homology to some of the histidine genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was confirmed by heterologous complementation. However, one of these KlHIS genes did not complement any mutation in the seven known histidine biosynthetic enzymes encoding genes (his1–his7) of S. cerevisiae. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Three essays on exchange rate dynamics and model uncertainty

At least since Knight (1921), economists have suspected that the distinction between risk and ‘uncertainty’ might be important in economics. However, Savage (1954) showed this distinction is meaningless if agents adhere to certain axioms, which seem to be normatively compelling. Savage’s Subjective Expected Utility (SEU) model became the dominant paradigm in economics, and remains so to this very day. Still, suspicions that the distinction matters never really died. The Ellsberg Paradox (1961) first raised doubts about the SEU model. Then, Gilboa and Schmeidler (1989) showed how to modify Savage’s axioms so that the distinction does matter. In their model, agents entertain a set of priors, and optimize against the worst-case prior. Finally, Hansen and Sargent (2008) operationalized this new approach by linking it to the engineering literature on ‘robust control’. My dissertation applies the Hansen-Sargent framework to the foreign exchange market. I show that if we think of market participants as confronting both uncertainty and risk, then we can easily explain several well known empirical puzzles in the foreign exchange market. The first chapter of my dissertation, entitled Robustness and Exchange Rate Volatility, was published in the Journal of International Economics in 2013, and is coauthored with my supervisor, Prof. Kenneth Kasa. This paper uses the monetary model of exchange rates. It assumes investors are aware of their own lack of knowledge about the economy. They respond to their ignorance strategically, by constructing forecasts that are robust to model misspecification. We show that revisions of robust forecasts are more sensitive to new information, and can easily explain observed violations of Shiller’s variance bound inequality. The second chapter, entitled Model Uncertainty and the Forward Premium Puzzle, was published in the Journal of International Money and Finance in 2014. It studies a standard twocountry Lucas (1982) asset-pricing model. The main objective is to understand the determinants of observed excess return in the foreign exchange market. The paper shows that Hansen-Jagannathan (1991) volatility bounds can be attained with both reasonable degrees of risk aversion and empirically plausible detection error probabilities. Hence, excess returns in the foreign exchange market appear to be primarily driven by a ‘model uncertainty premium’ rather than a risk premium. The third chapter, entitled Robust Learning in the Foreign Exchange Market, was recently revised and resubmitted to the Canadian Journal of Economics. Following Hansen and Sargent (2010), it assumes agents cope with uncertainty by both learning and by formulating robust decision rules. Agents entertain two competing models, differing by the persistence of consumption growth. As in my previous paper, agents continue to doubt the specification of each model. It shows that robust learning can not only explain unconditional risk premia in the foreign exchange market, but can also explain the cyclical dynamics of risk premia.
Mechanical Properties of Regenerated Bombyx mori Silk Fibers and Recombinant Silk Fibers Produced by Transgenic Silkworms

Regenerated silk fibroin fibers from the cocoons of silkworm, Bombyx mori, were prepared with hexafluoro solvents, 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) or hexafluoroacetone-trihydrate (HFA), as dope solvents and methanol as coagulation solvent. The regenerated fiber prepared from the HFIP solution showed slightly larger tensile strength when the draw ratio is 1:3 than that of native silk fiber, but the strength of the regenerated fiber with draw ratio 1:3 from the HFA solution is much lower than that of native silk fiber. This difference in the tensile strength of the regenerated silk fibers between two dope solvents comes from the difference in the long-range orientation of the crystalline region rather than that of short-range structural environment such as the fraction of β-sheet structure. The increase in the biodegradation was observed for the regenerated silk fiber compared with native silk fiber. Preparations of regenerated silk fibroin fibers containing spider silk sequences were obtained by mixing silk fibroins and silk-like proteins with characteristic sequences from a spider, Naphila clavipes, to produce drag-line silk in E. coli in the fluoro solvents. A small increase in the tensile strength was obtained by adding 5% (w/w) of the silk-like protein to the silk fibroin. The production of silk fibroin fibers with these spider silk sequences was also performed with transgenic silkworms. Small increase in the tensile strength of the fibers was obtained without significant change in the elongation-at-break.