Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The epidemiology of professional ice hockey injuries: a prospective report of six NHL seasons

Background There is a paucity of literature examining injury and illness rates in men's professional ice hockey. This study aimed to determine injury and illness rates in the NHL over six seasons, and identify predictors of injury-related time loss in this population. Methods This study involved an inclusive cohort of hockey players from all NHL teams competing in the 2006–2007 through 2011–2012 seasons. A standardised electronic injury surveillance system was used to report injury and illness events. The primary outcome was regular season and postseason time-loss injury/illness. The secondary outcome was man-games lost from the competition. Results On the basis of the estimated athlete exposures (AEs), the overall regular season incidence density was 15.6 injuries/1000 AEs and 0.7 illnesses/1000 AEs. Based on recorded time on ice, the injury rates were roughly threefold higher at 49.4 injuries/1000 player game-hours and 2.4 illnesses/1000 player game-hours. There was a reduction in injury rates over the 6-year period, with the greatest reduction between the 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 seasons. Multivariate predictors of time loss greater than 10 days were being a goalie (OR=1.68, 95% CI 1.18 to 2.38), being injured in a road game (OR=1.43, 95% CI 1.25 to 1.63) and the mechanism of injury being a body check (OR=2.21, 95% CI 1.86 to 2.62). Conclusions There was an overall reduction in the time-loss injury and illness rates over six seasons. Being a goaltender, being injured on the road and being injured by a body check were the risk factors for time loss greater than five ‘man games’.
Antibacterial and antioxidant activity of methanol extract of Evolvulus nummularius

Objective: To evaluate the antibacterial and antioxidant activity of methanol extract of Evolvulus nummularius (L) L. Materials and Methods: Disc diffusion and broth serial dilution tests were used to determine the antibacterial activity of the methanol extract against two Gram-positive bacterial strains (Bacillus subtilus NCIM 2718, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923) and three Gram-negative bacterial strains (Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 70063 and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922). The methanol extract was subjected to preliminary phytochemical analysis. Free radical scavenging activity of the methanol extract at different concentrations was determined with 2, 2-diphenyl-1picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). Results: The susceptible organisms to the methanol extract were Escherichia coli (MIC=12.50 mg/ml) and Bacillus subtilus (MIC=3.125 mg/ml) and the most resistant strains were Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The methanol extracts exhibited radical scavenging activity with IC50 of 350 μg/ml. Conclusion: The results from the study show that methanol extract of E.nummularius has antibacterial activity. The antioxidant activity may be attributed to the presence of tannins, flavonoids and triterpenoids in the methanol extract. The antibacterial and antioxidant activity exhibited by the methanol extract can be corroborated to the usage of this plant in Indian folk medicine.
Bioactive Peptides from Angelica sinensis Protein Hydrolyzate Delay Senescence in Caenorhabditis elegans through Antioxidant Activities

Since excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) is known to be associated with aging and age-related diseases, strategies modulating ROS level and antioxidant defense systems may contribute to the delay of senescence. Here we show that the protein hydrolyzate from Angelica sinensis was capable of increasing oxidative survival of the model animal Caenorhabditis elegans intoxicated by paraquat. The hydrolyzate was then fractionated by ultrafiltration, and the antioxidant fraction (<3 kDa) was purified by gel filtration to obtain the antioxidant A. sinensis peptides (AsiPeps), which were mostly composed of peptides with <20 amino acid residues. Further studies demonstrate that AsiPeps were able to reduce the endogenous ROS level, increase the activities of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase and catalase, and decrease the content of the lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde in nematodes treated with paraquat or undergoing senescence. AsiPeps were also shown to reduce age pigments accumulation and extend lifespan but did not affect the food-intake behavior of the nematodes. Taken together, our results demonstrate that A. sinensis peptides (AsiPeps) are able to delay aging process in C. elegans through antioxidant activities independent of dietary restriction.
Differential Cross-regulation of the Human Chemokine Receptors CXCR1 and CXCR2

Neutrophils and transfected RBL-2H3 cells were used to investigate the mechanism of cross-regulation of the human interleukin-8 (IL-8) receptors CXCR1 and CXCR2 by chemoattractants. In neutrophils, Ca2+ mobilization by the CXCR2-specific chemokine, growth-related oncogene α (Groα), was desensitized by prior exposure to the chemoattractantsN-formylated peptides (fMLP) or a complement cleavage product (C5a). In contrast, growth-related oncogene α did not desensitize the latter receptors. To investigate this phenomenon, CXCR2 was stably expressed in RBL-2H3 cells and mediated phosphoinositide hydrolysis, Ca2+ mobilization, chemotaxis, and secretion. In cells co-expressing CXCR2 and receptors for either C5a (C5aR) or fMLP (FR), CXCR2 was cross-phosphorylated and cross-desensitized by C5a and fMLP. However, neither C5aR nor FR was cross-phosphorylated or cross-desensitized by CXCR2 activation, although CXCR1 did mediate this process. Receptor internalization induced by IL-8 was more rapid and occurred at lower doses with CXCR2 than CXCR1, although both receptors mediated equipotent chemotaxis and exocytosis in RBL. Truncation of the cytoplasmic tail of CXCR2 (331T) prolonged its signaling relative to CXCR2, increased its resistance to internalization, and induced phospholipase D activation. 331T was resistant to homologous phosphorylation and cross-phosphorylation but not cross-desensitization of its Ca2+ mobilization by fMLP or C5a, indicating an inhibitory site distal to receptor/G protein coupling. In contrast to CXCR2, stimulation of 331T cross-desensitized Ca2+mobilization by both FR and C5aR. CXCR2 and the mutant 331T induced phospholipase C β3 phosphorylation to an extent equivalent to that of CXCR1. Taken together, these results suggest that CXCR1 and CXCR2 bind IL-8 to produce a group of equipotent responses, but their ability to generate other signals, including receptor internalization, cross-desensitization, and phospholipase D activation, are very different. The latter phenomena apparently require prolonged receptor activation, which in the case of CXCR2 is precluded by rapid receptor phosphorylation and internalization. Thus, receptors coupling to identical G proteins may trigger different cellular responses dependent on the length of their signaling time, which can be regulated by receptor phosphorylation.
The Tau R406W Mutation Causes Progressive Presenile Dementia with Bitemporal Atrophy

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are two frequent causes of dementia that share both clinical and neuropathological features. Common to both disorders are the neurofibrillary tangles consisting of aggregations of hyperphosphorylated tau protein. Recently, a number of different pathogenic mutations in the tau gene have been identified in families with FTD and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17). In the present study, a Swedish family with presenile degenerative dementia with bitemporal atrophy was screened for mutations in the tau gene. As a result, the R406W mutation in exon 13 was identified in all affected cases. This mutation has previously been reported in two different FTDP-17 families of Dutch and Midwestern American origin. Common features to these two kindreds and our family are the late age at onset and long duration of the disease. Our pedigree as well as the American one show early memory impairment and pronounced temporal lobar atrophy similar to AD, while the Dutch cases show more FTD features. This further illustrates the large clinical variability among cases with tau mutations and stresses the importance of genetic classification in addition to the traditional clinical classification of neurodegenerative disorders.
Spanning Planar Subgraphs of Graphs in the Torus and Klein Bottle

There are two main purposes of this article. First we show that every 3-connected graph embedded in the torus or the Klein bottle has a spanning planar subgraph which is 2-connected, and in fact has a slightly stronger connectivity property. Second, this subgraph is applied to show that every 3-connected graph that embeds in the torus or Klein bottle has both a 2-walk (a closed walk visiting every vertex exactly once or twice) and a 3-tree (a spanning tree with maximum degree at most 3). This completes the characterization of surfaces for which every embedded 3-connected graph has a 2-walk (or 3-tree).
Associations between physical activity and other health behaviors in a representative sample of US adolescents.

OBJECTIVES This study examined the associations between physical activity and other health behaviors in a representative sample of US adolescents. METHODS In the 1990 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 11631 high school students provided information on physical activity; diet; substance use; and other negative health behaviors. Logistic regression analyses examined associations between physical activity and other health behaviors in a subset of 2652 high-active and 1641 low-active students. RESULTS Low activity was associated with cigarette smoking, marijuana use, lower fruit and vegetable consumption, greater television watching, failure to wear a seat belt, and low perception of academic performance. For consumption of fruit, television watching, and alcohol consumption, significant interactions were found with race/ethnicity or sex, suggesting that sociocultural factors may affect the relationships between physical activity and some health behaviors. CONCLUSIONS Low physical activity was associated with several other negative health behaviors in teenagers. Future studies should examine whether interventions for increasing physical activity in youth can be effective in reducing negative health behaviors.
Improving the Care Order Decision-Making Processes: Viewpoints of Child Welfare Workers in Four Countries

ABSTRACT This paper reports on what factors 634 child welfare workers from England, Finland, Norway, and the United States deem necessary to improve decision-making in care order proceedings. The clear picture drawn from our findings, based on data from all four countries, is that child welfare workers, to a large extent, see possibilities for improving decision-making by changing internal organizational factors and by boosting agencies’ human and financial resources. More frequent and better in-home services and collaboration with external professionals are perceived to be much less crucial in improving decisions.
Medicare and commercial inpatient resource use: impact of hospital competition.

OBJECTIVES To examine the influence of hospital competition on small-area inpatient resource use by payer. METHODS We measured hospital competition and inpatient resource use using data from the 2008 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases. Generalized linear models adjusted for patient, population, and market characteristics were used to assess the relationship between inpatient resource use and hospital competition. RESULTS Hospital competition had a similar influence on inpatient resource intensity for Medicare and privately insured patients. Hospitals in more competitive markets had significantly lower costs per discharge for both Medicare and privately insured patients. Hospital competition was not significantly associated with length of stay per discharge for either payer. CONCLUSION Findings suggest that policies or incentives that promote or encourage competition in less competitive markets may reduce variation in resource use for both Medicare and private payers.
Cytokine biomarkers to predict antitumor responses to nivolumab suggested in a phase 2 study for advanced melanoma

Promising antitumor activities of nivolumab, a fully humanized IgG4 inhibitor antibody against the programmed death‐1 protein, were suggested in previous phase 1 studies. The present phase 2, single‐arm study (JAPIC‐CTI #111681) evaluated the antitumor activities of nivolumab and explored its predictive correlates in advanced melanoma patients at 11 sites in Japan. Intravenous nivolumab 2 mg/kg was given repeatedly at 3‐week intervals to 35 of 37 patients enrolled from December 2011 to May 2012 until they experienced unacceptable toxicity, disease progression, or complete response. Primary endpoint was objective response rate. Serum levels of immune modulators were assessed at multiple time points. As of 21 October 2014, median response duration, median progression‐free survival, and median overall survival were 463 days, 169 days, and 18.0 months, respectively. The overall response rate and 1‐ and 2‐year survival rates were 28.6%, 54.3%, and 42.9%, respectively. Thirteen patients remained alive at the end of the observation period and no deaths were drug related. Grade 3–4 drug‐related adverse events were observed in 31.4% of patients. Pretreatment serum interferon‐γ, and interleukin‐6 and ‐10 levels were significantly higher in the patients with objective tumor responses than in those with tumor progression. In conclusion, giving repeated i.v. nivolumab had potent and durable antitumor effects and a manageable safety profile in advanced melanoma patients, strongly suggesting the usefulness of nivolumab for advanced melanoma and the usefulness of pretreatment serum cytokine profiles as correlates for predicting treatment efficacy.
The role of melatonin in autoimmune and atopic diseases

Melatonin is the main secretory product synthesized and secreted by the pineal gland during the night. Melatonin is a pleitropic molecule with a wide distribution within phylogenetically distant organisms and has a great functional versatility, including the regulation of circadian and seasonal rhythms and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It also possesses the capacity to modulate immune responses by regulation of the TH1/TH2 balance and cytokine production. Immune system eradicates infecting organisms without serious injury to host tissues, but sometimes these responses are inadequately controlled, giving rise to called hypersensitivity diseases, or inappropriately targeted to host tissues, causing the autoimmune diseases. In clinical medicine, the hypersensitivity diseases include the allergic or atopic diseases and the hallmarks of these diseases are the activation of TH2 cells and the production of IgE antibody. Regarding autoimmunity, at the present time we know that the key events in the development of autoimmunity are a failure or breakdown of the mechanisms normally responsible for maintaining self-tolerance in B lymphocytes, T lymphocytes, or both, the recognition of self-antigens by autoreactive lymphocytes, the activation of these cells to proliferate and differentiate into effector cells, and the tissue injury caused by the effector cells and their products. Melatonin treatment has been investigated in atopic diseases, in several animal models of autoimmune diseases, and has been also evaluated in clinical autoimmune diseases. This review summarizes the role of melatonin in atopic diseases (atopic dermatitis and asthma) and in several autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis rheumatoid, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, type 1 diabetes mellitus, and inflammatory bowel diseases.
Interferometric GNSS-R achievable altimetric performance and compression/denoising using the wavelet transform: An experimental study

Reflectometry using Global Navigation Satellite System's (GNSS) opportunity signals was originally conceived for altimetry [1]. However, when the GNSS signals scatter over the Earth's surface (or propagates through the atmosphere), the amplitude and polarization characteristics change, which can be used for many other remote sensing applications such as sea state, water level, soil moisture, vegetation height, snow depth monitoring, atmospheric profiling. ([2], [3] among many others). In [4] and [5], recent experimental results from an ESA-sponsored airborne campaign carried out in June and November 2011 in the Baltic sea are presented using conventional and interferometric GNSS-R, respectively. In this work the properties of the measured interferometric GNSS-R waveforms are studied, and the wavelet transform is applied to compress and denoise the waveforms. This is of interest for future missions, such as ESA's proposal of PARIS IoD, to reduce the amount of data to be stored on board and downloaded to Earth.
Error Analyses for Nyström Methods for Solving Fredholm Integral and Integro-Differential Equations

This thesis concerns the development and implementation of novel error analyses for ubiquitous Nystrom-type methods used in approximating the solution in 1-D of both Fredholm integral- and integro-differential equations of the second-kind, (FIEs) and (FIDEs). The distinctive contribution of the present work is that it offers a new systematic procedure for predicting, to spectral accuracy, error bounds in the numerical solution of FIEs and FIDEs when the solution is, as in most practical applications, a priori unknown. The classic Legendre-based Nystrom method is extended through Lagrange interpolation to admit solution of FIEs by collocation on any nodal distribution, in particular, those that are optimal for not only integration but also differentiation. This offers a coupled extension of optimal-error methods for FIEs into those for FIDEs. The so-called FIDE-Nystrom method developed herein motivates yet another approach in which (demonstrably ill-conditioned) numerical differentiation is bypassed by reformulating FIDEs as hybrid Volterra-Fredholm integral equations (VFIEs). A novel approach is used to solve the resulting VFIEs that utilises Lagrange interpolation and Gaussian quadrature for the Volterra and Fredholm components respectively. All error bounds implemented for the above numerical methods are obtained from novel, often complex extensions of an established but hitherto-unimplemented theoretical Nystrom-error framework. The bounds are computed using only the available computed numerical solution, making the methods of practical value in, e.g., engineering applications. For each method presented, the errors in the numerical solution converge (sometimes exponentially) to zero with N, the number of discrete collocation nodes; this rate of convergence is additionally confirmed via large-N asymptotic estimates. In many cases these bounds are spectrally accurate approximations of the true computed errors; in those cases that the bounds are not, the non-applicability of the theory can be predicted either a priori from the kernel or a posteriori from the numerical solution.
Testing the Differential Effect of Business Incubators on Firm Growth

This research examines whether business incubators produce a differential effect on the growth of firms. Given that there is no direct estimate for the counterfactual (simultaneously measuring the economic growth of a firm outside and inside of an incubator), the authors use a propensity score matching technique to control for the factors that are related to both firm growth and the probability that an incubator manager would accept that firm for incubation. The analysis indicates that incubators have a significant positive impact on firm job creation, and this impact is not reduced if a matched comparison group is used. Furthermore, this study finds that incubated firms receive five times as many business services (legal, financial, marketing, etc.) as their nonincubated cohort. This may account for the networking effect found in previous studies.
Teaching about energy. Which concepts should be taught at which educational level

Participants More than 30 colleagues participate to the Workshop offering an important contribution to the wide discussion. Here we report the names and the e-mail addesses, thanking the Girep Committee for the decision to recognize a GIREP Thematic Group on Energy Teaching and Learning. Pavlo Antonov <pavelantonovua@gmail.com>, Esther Bagno <esther.bagno@weizmann.ac.il>, Ugo Besson <ugo.besson@unipv.it>, bblondin@cesi.fr, Marina Castells <marina.castells@ub.edu>, Michele D'Anna <danna@liceolocarno.ch>, Maria José de Almeida <ze@fis.uc. pt>, Bat Sheva Eylon <Batsheva.Eylon@weizmann.ac.il>, Igal Galili <igal@vms.huji. ac.il>, Zofia Golab-Meyer <meyer@th.if. uj.edu. pl>, Paula Heron <pheron@phys.washington. edu>, Pedro Jorge <pedroj@lip.pt>, Dimitrios Koliopoulos <dkoliop@upatras.gr>, Yaron Lehavi <yarlehavi@gmail.com>, Olga Lendaltseva <oendalceva@yandex.ru>, Paul Logman <logman@uva.nl>, Mariani Cristina <cristina.mariani@unimore.it>, mbu.danna@gmail.com, Michelini Marisa <marisa.michelini@uniud.it>, marisa.michelini@uniud.it, Ana Rita Mota <anaritalopesmota@gmail.com>, Valerie Munier <valerie.munier@montpellier.iufm. fr>, Nikos Papadouris <npapa@ucy.ac. cy>, Gesche Pospiech <gesche.pospiech@tu-dresden.de>, Joel Rosenberg <jrosenberg@berkeley.edu>, Lorenzo Santi <lorenzo.santi@uniud.it>, sassi elena <sassi@na.infn. it>, Alberto Stefanel <stefanel@libero.it>, Laurence Viennot <laurence.viennot@univ-paris-diderot.fr>
Alterations in Cerebrovascular Reactivity after Positive Pressure Ventilation

ABSTRACT: Pressure ventilation of the newborn can adversely affect the cardiovascular system. Increasing airway pressure increases cerebral venous pressure, thus stressing brain vasculature. To test the hypothesis that cerebral venous distension caused by mechanical ventilation alters cerebral microvascular responses, we studied cerebrovascular responses before, during, and after positive pressure ventilation. Anesthetized newborn pigs were ventilated with a standard time-cycled, pressure-limited infant respirator. Pial arterioles were measured in response to hypercapnia, topical isoproterenol, and topical norepinephrine during control [mean airway pressure (Paw) = 0.9 ± 0.05 kPa (4.8 ± 0.3 cm H2O)] conditions, during 40–60 min of increased Paw [2.5 ± 0.2 kPa (13.9 ± 1.3 cm H2O)], and when the Paw was lowered again. Pial arteriolar dilation in response to hypercapnia was not changed by increasing Paw. Similarly, responses to isoproterenol and norepinephrine were unaltered during raised Paw. However, a significant decrease in responses to topical isoproterenol and norepinephrine was observed after increased Paw. These experiments show that specific prostanoid-independent cerebrovascular responses are altered subsequent to pressure ventilation, whereas prostanoid-dependent dilation to hypercapnia was not affected. These changes suggest that the newborn cerebral vasculature is affected by positive pressure ventilation, further raising the possibility that ventilation-induced alterations in microvascular responses could make the brain more vulnerable to added stresses after pressure ventilation.