Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ATP-binding cassette-like transporters are involved in the transport of lignin precursors across plasma and vacuolar membranes

Lignin is a complex biopolymer derived primarily from the condensation of three monomeric precursors, the monolignols. The synthesis of monolignols occurs in the cytoplasm. To reach the cell wall where they are oxidized and polymerized, they must be transported across the cell membrane. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the transport process are unclear. There are conflicting views about whether the transport of these precursors occurs by passive diffusion or is an energized active process; further, we know little about what chemical forms are required. Using isolated plasma and vacuolar membrane vesicles prepared from Arabidopsis, together with applying different transporter inhibitors in the assays, we examined the uptake of monolignols and their derivatives by these native membrane vesicles. We demonstrate that the transport of lignin precursors across plasmalemma and their sequestration into vacuoles are ATP-dependent primary-transport processes, involving ATP-binding cassette-like transporters. Moreover, we show that both plasma and vacuolar membrane vesicles selectively transport different forms of lignin precursors. In the presence of ATP, the inverted plasma membrane vesicles preferentially take up monolignol aglycones, whereas the vacuolar vesicles are more specific for glucoconjugates, suggesting that the different ATP-binding cassette-like transporters recognize different chemical forms in conveying them to distinct sites, and that glucosylation of monolignols is necessary for their vacuolar storage but not required for direct transport into the cell wall in Arabidopsis.
End-of-Life Care Decisions in the PICU: Roles Professionals Play

Objective: Describe the roles and respective responsibilities of PICU healthcare professionals in end-of-life care decisions faced by PICU parents. Design: Retrospective qualitative study. Setting: University-based tertiary care children’s hospital. Participants: Eighteen parents of children who died in the pediatric ICU and 48 PICU healthcare professionals (physicians, nurses, social workers, child-life specialists, chaplains, and case managers). Interventions: In depth, semi-structured focus groups and one-on-one interviews designed to explore experiences in end-of-life care decision making. Measurements and Main Results: We identified end-of-life care decisions that parents face based on descriptions by parents and healthcare professionals. Participants described medical and nonmedical decisions addressed toward the end of a child’s life. From the descriptions, we identified seven roles healthcare professionals play in end-of-life care decisions. The family supporter addresses emotional, spiritual, environmental, relational, and informational family needs in a nondirective way. The family advocate helps families articulate their views and needs to healthcare professionals. The information giver provides parents with medical information, identifies decisions or describes available options, and clarifies parents’ understanding. The general care coordinator helps facilitate interactions among healthcare professionals in the PICU, among healthcare professionals from different subspecialty teams, and between healthcare professionals and parents. The decision maker makes or directly influences the defined plan of action. The end-of-life care coordinator organizes and executes functions occurring directly before, during, and after dying/death. The point person develops a unique trusting relationship with parents. Conclusions: Our results describe a framework for healthcare professionals’ roles in parental end-of-life care decision making in the pediatric ICU that includes directive, value-neutral, and organizational roles. More research is needed to validate these roles. Actively ensuring attention to these roles during the decision-making process could improve parents’ experiences at the end of a child’s life.
Gender Differences in Risks and Pattern of Drug Abuse in Egypt

Background: Causes and consequences of drug abuse and dependence are different between males and females. Objective: To identify possible gender differences in the ways of first exposure to drugs, in their risks of abuse, and the pattern of drug dependence. Methods: Four hundred and fifty seven patients of drug abuse who attended outpatient clinic in Neuropsychiatry Department in Tanta University Hospital along the period from June 2006 to June 2009 were classified into two groups according to gender. The 2 groups were assessed using DSM IV semi-structured interview and compared together regarding; Age, age of beginning of drug use, duration of abuse, educational level in years, occupation, marital state, first drug used, number of abused drugs, route of use, possible risk factors, cause of asking help and comorbid psychiatric conditions. Results: Males started drug abuse earlier in age than females with longer duration of addiction. Single males are more vulnerable to abuse than females. Drug abuse is more common in female students and in male workers. Cannabis followed by opiates then alcohol and analgesics are common in males, while in females analgesics ranked first followed by anticholinergics then cannabis. Peer pressure was the most common motivating factor for drug abuse in males in contrary to family troubles and sexual abuse in females. Anxiety disorders are more common in males while depressive disorders in females. Conclusion: There are many gender differences in drug dependence should be considered while planning treatment and prevention strategies for achieving optimal outcome. [Egypt J Neurol Psychiat Neurosurg. 2010; 47(3): 413-418]
Differential Cadherin Expression in the Developing Postnatal Telencephalon of a New World Monkey

Cadherins are cell adhesion molecules widely expressed in the nervous system, where they play various roles in neural patterning, nuclei formation, axon guidance, and synapse formation and function. Although many published articles have reported on cadherin expression in rodents and ferrets, there are limited data on their expression in primate brains. In this study, in situ hybridization analysis was performed for 10 cadherins [nine classic cadherins (Cdh4, ‐6, ‐7, ‐8, ‐9, ‐10, ‐11, ‐12, and ‐20) and T‐cadherin (Cdh13)] in the developing postnatal telencephalon of the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus). Each cadherin showed broad expression in the cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, amygdala, and hippocampus, as previously shown in the rodent brain. However, detailed expression patterns differed between rodents and marmosets. In contrast to rodents, cadherin expression was reduced overall and localized to restricted areas of the brain during the developmental process, suggesting that cadherins are more crucially involved in developmental or maturation processes rather than in neural functioning. These results also highlight the possibility that restricted/less redundant cadherin expression allows primate brains to generate functional diversity among neurons, allowing morphological and functional differences between rodents and primates. J. Comp. Neurol. 521:4027–4060, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Antiparkinsonian prescription and extrapyramidal symptoms

Park et al ([2005][1]) cite the results of clinical trials as evidence supporting their hypothesis that the use of antiparkinsonian drugs in schizophrenia is an indication of extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS). This may be true for clinical trials (most of which include young adults with no comorbidity)
Espèces introduites ou invasives des ports du Havre, d’Antifer et de Rouen (Normandie, France)

L’exploration des bassins des ports du Havre, d’Antifer et de Rouen (Normandie, France) en plongee subaquatique en scaphandre autonome, en particulier dans le cadre du programme de recherches « V.I. P. – Vie Introduite dans les Ports » du GIP Seine Aval (2010–2012) a conduit a un inventaire de 364 especes animales, dont 36 introduites pour le port du Havre, explore depuis 1978, 268 especes dont 13 introduites pour le port d’Antifer et 98 especes vegetales et animales dont 12 introduites, pour le port de Rouen. Les introductions anciennes sont distinguees des introductions recentes. Le caractere invasif ou non de chaque espece et la dynamique de l’invasion sont discutes. Contrairement aux ports d’Antifer et de Rouen dont les peuplements biologiques sont respectivement identiques a ceux du littoral ou du reseau hydrographique voisins, le port du Havre joue un role de site pionnier pour l’accueil d’especes immigrantes, role favorise par le caractere paralique de ce plan d’eau.
Thin-Film-Based Ultralow Noise SQUID Magnetometer

We report on the development of an ultralow-noise thin-film-based superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer. A niobium thin-film pickup coil is connected to the input coil of a SQUID current sensor. The low capacitance of the used submicrometer cross-type Josephson junctions enables superior noise performance of the device. Application scenarios, e.g., in geophysics and ultralow-field magnetic resonance imaging, are discussed.
Heterogeneous Networked Data Recovery From Compressive Measurements Using a Copula Prior

Large-scale data collection by means of wireless sensor network and Internet-of-Things technology poses various challenges in view of the limitations in transmission, computation, and energy resources of the associated wireless devices. Compressive data gathering based on compressed sensing has been proven a well-suited solution to the problem. Existing designs exploit the spatiotemporal correlations among data collected by a specific sensing modality. However, many applications, such as environmental monitoring, involve collecting heterogeneous data that are intrinsically correlated. In this paper, we propose to leverage the correlation from multiple heterogeneous signals when recovering the data from compressive measurements. To this end, we propose a novel recovery algorithm—built upon belief-propagation principles—that leverages correlated information from multiple heterogeneous signals. To efficiently capture the statistical dependencies among diverse sensor data, the proposed algorithm uses the statistical model of copula functions. Experiments with heterogeneous air-pollution sensor measurements show that the proposed design provides significant performance improvements against the state-of-the-art compressive data gathering and recovery schemes that use classical compressed sensing, compressed sensing with side information, and distributed compressed sensing.
Evaluation of Features for Audio-to-Audio Alignment

Abstract Audio-to-audio alignment is the task of synchronizing two audio sequences with similar musical content in time. We investigated a large set of audio features for this task. The features were chosen to represent four different content-dependent similarity categories: the envelope, the timbre, note-onsets and the pitch. The features were subjected to two processing stages. First, a feature subset was selected by evaluating the alignment performance of each individual feature. Second, the selected features were combined and subjected to an automatic weighting algorithm. A new method for the objective evaluation of audio-to-audio alignment systems is proposed that enables the use of arbitrary kinds of music as ground truth data. We evaluated our algorithm by this method as well as on a data set of real recordings of solo piano music. The results showed that the feature weighting algorithm could improve the alignment accuracies compared to the results of the individual features.
The impact of sexual dysfunction on the quality of life measured by MSQoL-54 in patients with multiple sclerosis

Objective Sexual dysfunction (SD) is a common but often overlooked symptom in multiple sclerosis (MS). The aim of this study was to estimate the frequency, type, and intensity of SD in our patients with MS and to investigate its influence on all the domains of quality of life. Methods The study population comprised a cohort of 109 patients with MS (McDonald's criteria, 2001). SD was quantified by a Szasz sexual functioning scale. Health-related quality of life was measured by a disease-specific instrument MSQoL-54 (Serbian version). Results The presence of at least one symptom of SD was found in about 84% of the men and in 85% of the women. The main complaints in women were reduced libido, difficulties in achieving orgasm, and decreased vaginal lubrication; in men, the main complaints were reduced libido, incomplete erections, and premature ejaculation. In women, statistically significant negative correlations between the presence and level of SD and quality of life domains were reached for all subscales (P < 0.01), except for the Pain subscale (P = 0.112). In men, negative correlations were also observed for all domains, but they were statistically significant for physical health, physical role limitations, social function, health distress, sexual function, and sexual function satisfaction (P < 0.01). We found that the presence of all the analyzed types of sexual problems statistically significantly lowered scores on the sexual function and the sexual function satisfaction subscales in both men and women (P < 0.01). The most prominent impact on both domains was observed for the total loss of erection in men and for anorgasmia in women. Conclusions Our results reveal that frequent occurrence of SD in MS patients prominently affects all aspects of their quality of life.
Implementation of Conductive Concrete Overlay for Bridge Deck Deicing at Roca, Nebraska

Conductive concrete is a relatively new material technology developed to achieve high electrical conductivity and high mechanical strength. In research sponsored by Nebraska Department of Roads, a conductive concrete mix specifically for bridge deck deicing was developed. In this application, a conductive concrete overlay is cast on top of a bridge deck for deicing and anti-icing. This technology has been successfully implemented in a demonstration project at Roca, about 15 mi south of Lincoln, Nebraska. The Roca Spur Bridge has a 36-m (117-ft) long and 8.5-m (28-ft) wide conductive concrete inlay. Temperature sensors and a microprocessor-based controller system were installed to monitor and control the deicing operation of the inlay. The construction was completed and the bridge was opened to traffic in the spring of 2003. Data from the first deicing event showed that an average of 500 W/sq m (46 W/sq ft) was generated by the conductive concrete to raise the slab temperature about 9 deg C (16 deg F) above the ambient temperature. The details of the construction and deicing operation of the conductive concrete inlay are presented.
Bile Acids Induce Ca2+ Release from Both the Endoplasmic Reticulum and Acidic Intracellular Calcium Stores through Activation of Inositol Trisphosphate Receptors and Ryanodine Receptors*

Gallstones can cause acute pancreatitis, an often fatal disease in which the pancreas digests itself. This is probably because of biliary reflux into the pancreatic duct and subsequent bile acid action on the acinar cells. Because Ca2+ toxicity is important for the cellular damage in pancreatitis, we have studied the mechanisms by which the bile acid taurolithocholic acid 3-sulfate (TLC-S) liberates Ca2+. Using two-photon plasma membrane permeabilization and measurement of [Ca2+] inside intracellular stores at the cell base (dominated by ER) and near the apex (dominated by secretory granules), we have characterized the Ca2+ release pathways. Inhibition of inositol trisphosphate receptors (IP3Rs), by caffeine and 2-APB, reduced Ca2+ release from both the ER and an acidic pool in the granular area. Inhibition of ryanodine receptors (RyRs) by ruthenium red (RR) also reduced TLC-S induced liberation from both stores. Combined inhibition of IP3Rs and RyRs abolished Ca2+ release. RyR activation depends on receptors for nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP), because inactivation by a high NAADP concentration inhibited release from both stores, whereas a cyclic ADPR-ribose antagonist had no effect. Bile acid-elicited intracellular Ca2+ liberation from both the ER and the apical acidic stores depends on both RyRs and IP3Rs.
Can Delivery Dialysis Dose Affect Survival of Acute Kidney Injury Patients?

Intensity of dialysis dose in acute kidney injury (AKI) might benefit critically ill patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of intermittent hemodialysis (IHD) dose on mortality in patients with AKI. Methods: Prospective observational study was performed on AKI patients treated with IHD. The delivered dialysis dose per session was calculated based on single-pool Kt/V urea. Patients were allocated in two groups according to the weekly delivered median Kt/V: higher intensity dialysis dose (HID: Kt/V higher than median) and lower intensity dialysis dose (LID: Kt/V lower than median). Thereafter, AKI patients were divided according to the presence or absence of sepsis and urine output. Clinical and lab characteristics and survival of AKI patients were compared. Results: A total of 121 AKI patients were evaluated. Forty-two patients did not present with sepsis and 45 did not present with oliguria. Mortality rate after 30 days was lower in the HID group without sepsis (14.3% × 47.6%; p = 0.045) and without oliguria (31.8% × 69.5%; p = 0.025). Survival curves also showed that the HID group had higher survival rate when compared with the LID group in non-septic and non-oliguric patients (p = 0.007 and p = 0.003, respectively). Conclusion: Higher dialysis doses can be associated with better survival of less seriously ill AKI patients.
Convergence analysis and experiments using an RPEM based on nonlinear ODEs and midpoint integration

A convergence analysis is performed for a recursive prediction error algorithm based on nonlinear ODEs and the midpoint integration algorithm. Several conditions are formulated such that the stability of an associated differential equation can be tied to the local and global convergence properties of the algorithm. This is used to show that the algorithm converges to a minimum point of the criterion function, which may or may not be unique. A consequence is that convergence to the true parameters is possible. As compared to previous work, complete system assumptions are integrated in the analysis, thereby generalising previous results. The theoretical analysis of this paper is complemented with numerical examples and with live data experiments.
The Advantages of the Lateral Decubitus Position After Spinal Anesthesia with Hyperbaric Tetracaine

We investigated the effects of lateral decubitus positioning after spinal anesthesia with hyperbaric tetracaine on the spread of sensory blockade and hemodynamic variables.One hundred ASA physical status I or II patients scheduled for elective surgery to the lower limb received spinal anesthesia at a rate of approximately 0.1 mL/s using 0.5% tetracaine in 7.5% glucose with 0.125% phenylephrine in the lateral decubitus position with the operated side dependent. They were randomly divided into three groups: patients in Group I were placed supine immediately after spinal injection; those in Group II remained in the lateral position for 10 min before being turned supine; those in Group III were kept in the lateral position for 20 min then turned supine. Neural block was assessed by cold, pinprick, and touch sensation, and a modified Bromage scale. Hemodynamic variables included blood pressure, heart rate, and the use of ephedrine for the treatment of hypotension. The median (10th, 90th percentiles) peak dermatomal level to pinprick on the dependent side in Group III was T8 (T11, T5), which was significantly lower than that in Groups I and II, which extended to T4 (T9, T3) and T5 (T10, T2), respectively (P < 0.05). The difference in the maximal cephalad spread of sensory blockade between both sides in Group III was only one dermatome but was statistically significant (P < 0.05); in contrast, there was no significant difference in the maximal sensory level between both sides in Groups I and II. The use of ephedrine for the treatment of hypotension was significantly less frequent in Group III than the other groups. We conclude that keeping a patient in the lateral decubitus position for 20 min after hyperbaric tetracaine spinal anesthesia maintains preferential anesthetic distribution to the dependent side. Despite small differences between the two sides, the restricted spread of blockade and less hemodynamic variability may be clinically advantageous. Implications: The effects of posture on the spread of hyperbaric spinal anesthesia have not been adequately investigated. The results of the present study suggest an advantage of prolonged lateral decubitus positioning after intrathecal hyperbaric tetracaine. (Anesth Analg 1998;87:879-84)
An economic evaluation of asthma in the United States.

BACKGROUND Asthma is a common chronic illness. Recently, increases in morbidity and mortality due to this disease have been reported. We studied the distribution of health care resources used for asthma in order to lay the groundwork for further policy decisions aimed at reducing the economic burden of this disorder. METHODS Estimates of direct medical expenditures and indirect costs (in 1985 dollars) were derived from data available from the National Center for Health Statistics. These cost estimates were projected to 1990 dollars. RESULTS The cost of illness related to asthma in 1990 was estimated to be $6.2 billion. Inpatient hospital services represented the largest single direct medical expenditure for this chronic condition, approaching $1.6 billion. The value of reduced productivity due to loss of school days represented the largest single indirect cost, approaching $1 billion in 1990. Although asthma is often considered to be a mild chronic illness treatable with ambulatory care, we found that 43 percent of its economic impact was associated with emergency room use, hospitalization, and death. Nearly two thirds of the visits for ambulatory care were to physicians in three primary care specialties--pediatrics, family medicine or general practice, and internal medicine. CONCLUSIONS Potential reductions in the costs related to asthma in the United States may be identified through a closer examination of the effectiveness of care associated with each category of cost. Future health policy efforts to improve the effectiveness of primary care interventions for asthma in the ambulatory setting may reduce the costs of this common illness.
AN APPRAISAL OF REGIONAL SURVEYS IN THE BASIN OF MEXICO, 1960–1975

Abstract In this paper I focus on the regional surveys undertaken in 1960–1975—their development, implementation, key accomplishments, and major shortcomings. I also point to how resulting survey data and surface collections have provided the foundations for subsequent research on a variety of specific problems, sites, and locales, and how complementary historical and ethnographical studies have contributed to interpretations of pre-Columbian settlement patterns. I consider how off-site survey can, and should, complement the more extensive regional surveys that have been carried out in the past. While lamenting the archaeological record lost to modern development, in a more positive vein I suggest lines of productive future investigation that might still be undertaken to extend the significance of past results, evaluate a series of questions and hypotheses defined by the surveys, and help conserve archaeological sites and collections for future study.