Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biochemical comparison of the Cu,Zn superoxide dismutases of Cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans and Cryptococcus neoformans var. gattii

Cu,Zn superoxide dismutases (SODs) have been purified to homogeneity from the two varieties of Cryptococcus neoformans, C. neoformans var. neoformans and var. gattii. The N-terminal amino acid sequences of the two enzymes were similar, though not identical, and demonstrated homology with Cu,Zn SODs from other organisms. SOD activity was present in supernatants from stationary-phase cultures of isolates of C. neoformans var. neoformans and was also present from the mid-log phase onwards in cultures of an acapsular mutant of C. neoformans var. neoformans. SOD activity was practically undetectable in culture supernatants from isolates of C. neoformans var. gattii. The C. neoformans var. neoformans SOD had a reduced relative molecular mass of 19 kDa, and in its nonreduced form the enzyme was present as a 125-kDa species. Isoelectric focusing indicated that four species with pIs of 5.9, 6.15, 6.35, and 6.6 were present. The equivalent reduced molecular mass of the C. neoformans var. gattii enzyme was 19 kDa, with a single species present under nonreducing conditions (relative molecular mass of 145 kDa) with a pI of 7.5. The activities of the enzymes from both varieties were inhibited by KCN; however, the copper chelator diethyldithiocarbamate was inhibitory only against the C. neoformans var. gattii enzyme, as was sodium azide. The C. neoformans var. neoformans SOD was not affected by preincubation for 1 h at 70 degrees C, and it also retained most of its activity when incubated at 37 degrees C relative to its activity when incubated at 20 degrees C, in contrast to the C. neoformans var. gattii enzyme. The pronounced differences in the physical and biochemical characteristics of the Cu,Zn SODs from the two Cryptococcus varieties complement recent reports illustrating the biochemical and genetic differences between C. neoformans var. neoformans and C. neoformans var. gattii, and the successful purification of the two enzymes comprises the first step in determining what role, if any, the cryptococcal Cu,Zn SODs might have in protection against externally generated superoxide.
Radiosurgical Treatment of Cavernous Sinus Meningiomas: Experience with 122 Treated Patients

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of gamma knife (GK) radiosurgery, in terms of neurological improvement and tumor growth control (TGC), for a large series of patients with cavernous sinus meningiomas. METHODS Between February 1993 and January 2002, 156 patients with cavernous sinus meningiomas (35 male and 121 female patients; mean age, 56.1 yr) were treated with GK radiosurgery in our department. GK radiosurgery was used as a first-choice treatment for 75 of 156 patients and as postoperative adjuvant therapy for 81 of 156 patients (all with Grade I meningiomas). Eligibility criteria for radiosurgery were as follows: symptomatic meningiomas and/or documented tumor progression on magnetic resonance imaging scans, conditions of high operative risk, patient refusal of microsurgery or reoperation, tumor volume of <20 cm3, and location no less than 2 mm from the optic pathways. RESULTS Follow-up data for at least 12 months were available for 122 patients (median follow-up period, 48.9 mo). Clinical conditions were improved or stable for 118 of 122 patients (97%). Neurological recovery was observed for 78.5% of patients treated with GK radiosurgery alone and for 60.5% of patients treated with adjuvant therapy (P < 0.05). Adequate TGC was documented for 119 of 122 tumors (97.5%), with shrinkage/disappearance in 75 of 122 cases (61.5%) and no variation in volume in 44 of 122 cases (36%); the overall actuarial progression-free survival rate at 5 years was 96.5%. Tumor size regression was observed for 80% of patients with follow-up periods of more than 30 months, compared with 43.5% of patients with follow-up periods of less than 30 months (P < 0.0002). Radiosurgical sequelae were transient in 4 of 122 cases (3.0%) and permanent in 1 case (1%). CONCLUSION For the follow-up periods in our series (median, >4 yr), GK radiosurgery seems to be both safe (permanent morbidity rate, 1%) and effective (97% neurological improvement/stability, 97.5% overall TGC, and 96.5% actuarial TGC at 5 yr). GK radiosurgery might be considered a first-choice treatment for selected patients with cavernous sinus meningiomas.
Human Nischarin/Imidazoline Receptor Antisera-selected Protein Is Targeted to the Endosomes by a Combined Action of a PX Domain and a Coiled-coil Region*

Around 50 mammalian and 15 yeast proteins are known to contain the phox (PX) domain, the majority (about 30) of which is classified as sorting nexins (SNXs). The PX domain, a hallmark of these proteins, is a conserved stretch of about 120 amino acids and is recently shown to mediate phosphoinositide binding. A few PX domain proteins (including some SNXs) have been shown to participate in diverse cellular processes such as protein sorting, signal transduction, and vesicle fusion. In this report, we present our results supporting a role of human IRAS to act as a SNX. The mouse homologue, previously identified as Nischarin, has been shown to interact with the α5 subunit of integrin and inhibit cell migration (Alahari, S. K., Lee J. W., and Juliano R. L. (2000) J. Cell Biol. 51, 1141-1154). Its human homologue (imidazoline receptor antisera-selected (IRAS)), on the other hand, contains an NH2-terminal extension and is a larger protein of 1504 amino acids consisting of an NH2-terminal PX domain, 5 putative leucine-rich repeats, a predicted coiled-coil domain, and a long COOH-terminal region. We show that it has the ability to homo-oligomerize via its coiled-coil region. The PX domain of IRAS is essential for association with phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate-enriched endosomal membranes. However, the PX domain of IRAS alone is insufficient for its localization to endosomes, unless the coiled-coil domain was included or it is artificially dimerized by glutathione S-transferase. Interaction of human IRAS with α5 integrin is not affected by the NH2-terminal extension, and overexpression of IRAS could cause a redistribution of surface α5 integrin to intracellular endosomal structures.
A retrospective study of traumatic dental injuries.

AIM The prognosis of dental trauma cases varies depending on the time elapsed after the trauma before treatment started. The aim of this study was to examine epidemiological and dental data from traumatic injuries to primary and permanent teeth during the period from 2005 to 2010. MATERIAL AND METHODS The examinations aimed to determine the age and sex distributions of patients, the causes of tooth injury, the type of teeth injured, the monthly distribution of the trauma, the time elapsed between injury and treatment, and the classification of the traumatized teeth and their treatments. RESULTS The dental trauma records of patients with an average age of 9 years, including 120 girls (35.3%) and 220 boys (64.7%), were evaluated. The most commonly affected teeth were the maxillary central incisors (66.24%). The main cause was falls (70.1%). In primary dentition, subluxation (36.4%) was observed in the highest percentage of injured teeth, and in permanent dentition, the most common observation was uncomplicated crown fractures (44.9%). Only 18 patients (2.9%) were referred to the clinic within 1 h following the injury. The most frequent treatment for primary teeth was examination and follow up (63.9%). Restoration with composite resin (26.3%) and root canal treatment (28.6%) were the most common procedures for permanent teeth. CONCLUSION It was revealed that although the most frequent type of injury in permanent dentition was uncomplicated crown fracture, the root canal treatment was the most common treatment in permanent dentition. This finding suggests that when the checkup time after the injury was delayed, the pulp could lose vitality. This finding reveals that it is important to inform the parents about dental trauma and the importance of bringing their children fast to a dentist in trauma cases.
Transcanal Labyrinthectomy for Intractable Vertigo After Unilateral Cochlear Implantation

Objective: Document the use of transcanal labyrinthectomy to treat disabling attacks of vertigo after unilateral cochlear implantation. Patient: A 46-year-old woman with severe-profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss secondary to enlarged vestibular aqueducts underwent cochlear implantation for her right ear with a Nucleus Freedom device. The surgery was uneventful, and postoperative imaging confirmed that the electrode was positioned properly. She developed episodic vertigo 10 to 14 days after the implant surgery, which failed to improve with aggressive vestibular rehabilitation therapy. Plugging of the round window for possible perilymphatic fistula did not relieve her symptoms. Intervention: Right transcanal labyrinthectomy supplemented by filling the vestibule with gentamicin-soaked Gelfoam and then a customized vestibular rehabilitation program. Main Outcome Measure: Comparison of vestibular symptoms and cochlear implant performance before and after transcanal labyrinthectomy. Results: The patient had immediate relief of symptoms, and the function of the cochlear implant was not adversely affected. Conclusion: Transcanal labyrinthectomy may be an effective method to ablate the vestibular end organ after unilateral cochlear implantation. It can offer relief of disabling vertigo without adversely affecting the performance of the implant.
A Time-Aware Personalized Point-of-Interest Recommendation via High-Order Tensor Factorization

Recently, location-based services (LBSs) have been increasingly popular for people to experience new possibilities, for example, personalized point-of-interest (POI) recommendations that leverage on the overlapping of user trajectories to recommend POI collaboratively. POI recommendation is yet challenging as it suffers from the problems known for the conventional recommendation tasks such as data sparsity and cold start, and to a much greater extent. In the literature, most of the related works apply collaborate filtering to POI recommendation while overlooking the personalized time-variant human behavioral tendency. In this article, we put forward a fourth-order tensor factorization-based ranking methodology to recommend users their interested locations by considering their time-varying behavioral trends while capturing their long-term preferences and short-term preferences simultaneously. We also propose to categorize the locations to alleviate data sparsity and cold-start issues, and accordingly new POIs that users have not visited can thus be bubbled up during the category ranking process. The tensor factorization is carefully studied to prune the irrelevant factors to the ranking results to achieve efficient POI recommendations. The experimental results validate the efficacy of our proposed mechanism, which outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches significantly.
Stop! That is close enough. How body postures influence human-robot proximity

In this paper we present a study that investigates human-robot interpersonal distances and the influence of posture, either sitting or standing on the interpersonal distances. The study is based on a human approaching a robot and a robot approaching a human, in which the human/robot maintain either a sitting or standing posture while being approached. We collected and analysed data from twenty-two participants and the results revealed that robot posture has a significant impact on the interpersonal distances in human-robot interactions. Previous interactions with a robot, and lower negative attitudes towards robots also impacted interpersonal distances. Although the effects of gender, height and age did not yield significant results, we discuss their influence on the interpersonal distances between humans and robots and how they are of interest for future research. We present design implications for human-robot interaction research and humanoid robot design.
Clinical features and prognosis of patients with acute aortic dissection in China

Objective To evaluate the clinical features, risk factors, and prognostic significance of different Stanford types of acute aortic dissection (AAD). Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data and prognostic predictors in 105 patients with AAD (37 with Stanford type A and 68 with Stanford type B) at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital and Tianjin 4th Central Hospital from January 2014 to November 2015. Results Patients with Marfan syndrome and bicuspid aortic valve constituted 24.3% and 8.1%, respectively, of patients with type A AAD; these proportions were significantly higher than those of patients with type B AAD (7.4% and 0.0%, respectively). The proportion of iatrogenic causes of type A AAD (8.1%) was significantly higher than that of type B AAD (0.0%). Computed tomography angiography showed that the proportion of involvement of the aortic arch and pericardial effusion (86.5% and 18.9%, respectively) in patients with type A AAD were higher than those in patients with type B AAD (23.5% and 5.9%, respectively). Endovascular treatment was performed in a higher proportion of patients with type B than A AAD (70.6% vs. 5.4%, respectively). Conclusion Systolic blood pressure, pericardial effusion, periaortic hematoma, conservative treatment, and open surgery were independent predictors of increased mortality in patients with AAD.
Prevalence of dental caries and treatment needs in children in coastal areas of West Bengal

Objective: This study was carried out to measure the caries prevalence and treatment needs in school children of 6-14 year old residing in coastal areas of West Bengal. Materials and Methods: A total of 1764 children of 6-14 years age group, studying in different primary and high schools of the coastal areas were examined using World Health Organization criteria (1997) to record the prevalence of dental caries. The treatment needs were also calculated according to that given criteria. Statistical Analysis: The results were subjected to statistical analysis using the Chi-square test and unpaired ‘t’ test. Results: Dental caries were founded low in the studied population. The overall all caries prevalence in the permanent dentition was 28.06%, in boys it was 25.39% and in girls it was 30.86%. Therefore caries prevalence in female was higher and which was statistically highly significant (P < 0.05). The most frequently required treatment was one surface filling followed by other treatments irrespective of sex and age group. Discussion: The presence of sea foods containing high fluoride and least availability of refined carbohydrate in the diet may be the reason of lower prevalence. Conclusion: child oral health is always a matter of concern for a developing country so further research is required to explore actual causes.
The effects of unconventional monetary policy in the euro area

How effective are unconventional monetary policies? Through which mechanisms do they work? Central banks have been conducting monetary policy through unconventional means such as expanding their balance sheets or forward guidance because the conventional instrument of monetary policy, the short-term policy rate, has been at or close to the zero lower bound since shortly after the fall of Lehmann Brothers. These unconventional monetary policies are new and bring with them many questions, which were addressed in the CPB policy brief â€˜Onderweg naar normaal monetair beleidâ€™ [CPB policy brief 2017/07, 8 June 2017]. Understanding how and why unconventional monetary policy works is a crucial first step for answering subsequent questions, such as the likely effects of the withdrawal of unconventional monetary policy, or about how domestic policy makers can best respond. This discussion paper contains a detailed presentation of the new scientific evidence we reported in the policy brief, and adds to the relatively scarce literature in this field We estimate the effects of unconventional monetary policy shocks on output and inflation in the euro area using data from 2009 to 2016, which covers the period of all of the major unconventional monetary policies that the ECB has used. We employ a two stage estimation strategy: first, we identify unconventional monetary policy shocks in a dedicated euro area level structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model. Subsequently we use these unconventional monetary policy shocks in country level models. By estimating the effects of unconventional monetary policy shocks in the individual countries of the euro area, we aim to shed some light on the most important transmission mechanisms through which unconventional monetary policy works.
Infection of Vascular Endothelial Cells with Human Cytomegalovirus under Fluid Shear Stress Reveals Preferential Entry and Spread of Virus in Flow Conditions Simulating Atheroprone Regions of the Artery

ABSTRACT Atherosclerosis is a major pathogenic factor in cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading cause of mortality in developed countries. While risk factors for atherosclerosis tend to be systemic, the distribution of atherosclerotic plaques within the vasculature is preferentially located at branch points and curves where blood flow is disturbed and shear stress is low. It is now widely accepted that hemodynamic factors can modulate endothelial gene expression and function and influence the pathophysiological changes associated with atherosclerosis. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a ubiquitous pathogen, has long been proposed as a risk factor for atherosclerosis. To date, the role of HCMV in atherogenesis has been explored only in static conditions, and it is not known how HCMV infection is influenced by the physiological context of flow. In this study, we utilized a parallel-plate flow system to simulate the effects of shear stresses in different regions of the vasculature in vitro. We found that endothelial cells cultured under low shear stress, which simulates the flow condition of atheroprone regions in vivo, are more permissive to HCMV infection than cells experiencing high shear stress or static conditions. Cells exposed to low shear stress show increased entry of HCMV compared to cells exposed to high shear stress or static conditions. Viral structural gene expression, viral titers, and viral spread are also enhanced in endothelial cells exposed to low shear stress. These results suggest that hemodynamic factors modulate HCMV infection of endothelial cells, thus providing new insights into the induction/acceleration of atherosclerosis by HCMV.
Boosting short circuit current with rationally designed periodic Si nanopillar surface texturing for thin film solar cell

This work experimentally investigates the impact of the large-scale rational-designed periodic Si nanopillar (SiNP) array structural parameters (e.g. diameter/ periodicity/ height) on the reflectance and hence the absorption of the SiNP array for the first time, and the results are in consistence with our theoretical prediction [1]. Owing to the significantly enhanced light absorption of the optimized SiNP array texturing, a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 34.3mA/cm2 is realized on planar p-n SiNP surface textured solar cell, which is the highest to date among reported Si nanowire (SiNW)/SiNP based solar cells. This is in distinct comparison to Jsc of 18.1 mA/cm2 demonstrated on the solar cell without SiNP, which makes the SiNP array a suitable and promising texturing technology for thin film photovoltaic application (alike the micrometer-scale surface texturing commonly used in Si wafer solar cell).
Measurable effects of local alcohol licensing policies on population health in England

Background English alcohol policy is implemented at local government level, leading to variations in how it is put into practice. We evaluated whether differences in the presence or absence of cumulative impact zones and the ‘intensity’ of licensing enforcement—both aimed at regulating the availability of alcohol and modifying the drinking environment—were associated with harm as measured by alcohol-related hospital admissions. Methods Premises licensing data were obtained at lower tier local authority (LTLA) level from the Home Office Alcohol and Late Night Refreshment Licensing data for 2007–2012, and LTLAs were coded as ‘passive’, low, medium or highly active based on whether they made use of cumulative impact areas and/or whether any licences for new premises were declined. These data were linked to 2009–2015 alcohol-related hospital admission and alcohol-related crime rates obtained from the Local Alcohol Profiles for England. Population size and deprivation data were obtained from the Office of National Statistics. Changes in directly age-standardised rates of people admitted to hospital with alcohol-related conditions were analysed using hierarchical growth modelling. Results Stronger reductions in alcohol-related admission rates were observed in areas with more intense alcohol licensing policies, indicating an ‘exposure–response’ association, in the 2007–2015 period. Local areas with the most intensive licensing policies had an additional 5% reduction (p=0.006) in 2015 compared with what would have been expected had these local areas had no active licensing policy in place. Conclusions Local licensing policies appear to be associated with a reduction in alcohol-related hospital admissions in areas with more intense licensing policies.
The Anabolic Effect of Epidural Blockade Requires Energy and Substrate Supply

Background The authors examined the hypothesis that continuous thoracic epidural blockade with local anesthetic and opioid, in contrast to patient-controlled intravenous analgesia with morphine, stimulates postoperative whole body protein synthesis during combined provision of energy (4 mg · kg−1 · min−1 glucose) and amino acids (0.02 ml · kg−1 · min−1 Travasol™ 10%, equivalent to approximately 2.9 g · kg−1 · day−1). Methods Sixteen patients were randomly assigned to undergo a 6-h stable isotope infusion study (3 h fasted, 3 h feeding) on the second day after colorectal surgery performed with or without perioperative epidural blockade. Protein synthesis, breakdown and oxidation, glucose production, and clearance were measured by l-[1-13C]leucine and [6,6-2H2]glucose. Results Epidural blockade did not affect protein and glucose metabolism in the fasted state. Parenteral alimentation decreased endogenous protein breakdown and glucose production to the same extent in both groups. Administration of glucose and amino acids was associated with an increase in whole body protein synthesis that was modified by the type of analgesia, i.e., protein synthesis increased by 13% in the epidural group (from 93.3 ± 16.6 to 104.5 ± 11.1 &mgr;mol · kg−1 · h−1) and by 4% in the patient-controlled analgesia group (from 90.0 ± 27.1 to 92.9 ± 14.8 &mgr;mol · kg−1 · h−1;P = 0.054). Conclusions Epidural blockade accentuates the stimulating effect of parenteral alimentation on whole body protein synthesis.