Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mapping protein collapse with single-molecule fluorescence and kinetic synchrotron radiation circular dichroism spectroscopy

We have used the combination of single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer and kinetic synchrotron radiation circular dichroism experiments to probe the conformational ensemble of the collapsed unfolded state of the small cold shock protein CspTm under near-native conditions. This regime is physiologically most relevant but difficult to access experimentally, because the equilibrium signal in ensemble experiments is dominated by folded molecules. Here, we avoid this problem in two ways. One is the use of single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer, which allows the separation of folded and unfolded subpopulations at equilibrium and provides information on long-range intramolecular distance distributions. From experiments with donor and acceptor chromophores placed at different positions within the chain, we find that the distance distributions in unfolded CspTm agree surprisingly well with a Gaussian chain not only at high concentrations of denaturant, where the polypeptide chain is expanded, but also at low denaturant concentrations, where the chain is collapsed. The second, complementary approach is synchrotron radiation circular dichroism spectroscopy of collapsed unfolded molecules transiently populated with a microfluidic device that enables rapid mixing. The results indicate a β-structure content of the collapsed unfolded state of ≈20% compared with the folded protein. This suggests that collapse can induce secondary structure in an unfolded state without interfering with long-range distance distributions characteristic of a random coil, which were previously found only for highly expanded unfolded proteins.
Metabolic and clinical characteristics of women with self-reported symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome

Oligomenorrhea (menstrual disturbances) and hirsutism (excessive growth of body hair) are typical symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome, a common endocrine disorder with long-term health risks among fertile-age women. Associations between body size development and polycystic ovary syndrome symptoms in a cohort design (528 symptomatic and 1479 asymptomatic women) and endocrine, metabolic and clinical characteristics of women with self-reported symptoms of oligomenorrhea or hirsutism in a nested case-control design (518 cases and 1036 controls) were investigated in this general populationbased study. Gynecologic ultrasonographic examinations were performed in 196 cases and 67 controls to assess the morphology of the ovaries and its relationship to biochemical and clinical parameters. The study population was derived from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966, which included all births with expected birth dates in 1966 in Northern Finland and is well representative of the general female population. Polycystic ovary syndrome symptoms in adulthood were associated with obesity, particularly abdominal obesity, in adolescence and in adulthood, but not with birth weight or being small for gestational age. Hormonal changes typical of polycystic ovary syndrome, i.e. higher circulating concentrations of testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH) and insulin and lower levels of sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), were detected in women with self-reported symptoms of oligomenorrhea and/or hirsutism compared with the controls. Less favorable metabolic cardiovascular disease risk factor profiles, higher body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), and triglyceride and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations and lower high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, were detected in women with symptoms, being the most severe among women who reported both hirsutism and oligomenorrhea. Unfavorable characteristics were pronounced in the presence of overweight or obesity. Women with symptoms more often had features characteristic of polycystic ovarian morphology associated with an endocrine and clinical profile reflecting polycystic ovary syndrome. This study shows that questioning in regard to symptoms of oligomenorrhea and hirsutism is useful in detecting women at risk of polycystic ovary syndrome and associated health risks. Avoidance of being overweight is important among young women to prevent the development of insulin resistance. Systematic follow-up of women with symptoms of oligomenorrhea and hirsutism is justified for prevention and early detection of long-term health risks.
Multi–Scale Synthesized View Assessment Based on Morphological Pyramids

Abstract The Depth-Image-Based-Rendering (DIBR) algorithms used for 3D video applications introduce geometric distortions affecting the edge coherency in the synthesized images. In order to better deal with specific geometric distortions in the DIBR synthesized images, we propose full-reference metric based on multi-scale pyramid decompositions using morphological filters. The non-linear morphological filters used in multi-scale image decompositions maintain important geometric information such as edges across different resolution levels. We show that PSNR has particularly good agreement with human judgment when it is calculated between detailed images at higher scales of morphological pyramids. Consequently, we propose reduced morphological pyramid peak signal-to-noise ratio metric (MP-PSNR), taking into account only mean squared errors between pyramids’ images at higher scales. Proposed computationally efficient metric achieves significantly higher correlation with human judgment compared to the state-of-the-art image quality assessment metrics and compared to the tested metric dedicated to synthesis-related artifacts.
The Effect of Insurance Enrollment on Maternal and Child Health Care Utilization: The Case of Ghana

Access to and use of health services are concerns in poor countries. If implemented correctly, health insurance may help solve these concerns. Due to selection and omitted variable bias, however, it is difficult to determine whether joining an insurance scheme improves medical careâ€“seeking behaviors. This paper uses representative data for the whole country of Ghana and an instrumental variable approach to estimate the causal impact on healthcare use of participating in Ghanaâ€™s National Health Insurance Scheme. Idiosyncratic variations in membership rules at the district level provide exogenous variation in enrollment. The instrument is the existence of nonstandard verification methods to allow enrollment of children. Using the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey and a census of all district insurance offices, this paper finds that insurance membership increases the probability of (1) seeking higher-quality (but no greater quantity of) maternal services and (2) parentsâ€™ becoming more active users of child curative care. Instrumental variable estimates are larger than ordinary least squares ones, indicating that â€œcompliersâ€ have much higher returns to being insured than the average participant. Results are robust to several validity checks; this paper shows that the instrument is indeed idiosyncratic and proves that government officials did not establish less-cumbersome membership rules in districts with worse initial indicators.
A comparison of gambling behavior, problem gambling indices, and reasons for gambling among smokers and nonsmokers who gamble: evidence from a provincial gambling prevalence study.

INTRODUCTION Numerous epidemiological and clinical studies have found that tobacco use and gambling frequently cooccur. Despite high rates of smoking among regular gamblers, the extent to which tobacco potentially influences gambling behavior and vice versa is poorly understood. The current study aimed to provide more insight into this relationship by directly comparing nonsmoking and smoking gamblers on gambling behavior, problem gambling indices, and reasons for gambling. METHODS The data for this study came from the 2005 Newfoundland and Labrador Gambling Prevalence Study. Gamblers identified as nonsmokers (N = 997) were compared with gamblers who smoke (N = 622) on numerous gambling-related variables. Chi-square analyses were used to compare groups on demographic variables. Associations between smoking status and gambling criteria were assessed with a series of binary logistic regressions. RESULTS The regression analyses revealed several significant associations between smoking status and past 12-month gambling. Higher problem gambling severity scores, use of alcohol/drugs while gambling, amount of money spent gambling, use of video lottery terminals, and reasons for gambling which focused on positive reinforcement/reward and negative reinforcement/relief were all associated with smoking. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest an association between smoking and potentially problematic gambling in a population-based sample. More research focused on the potential reinforcing properties of tobacco on the development and treatment of problematic gambling is needed.
Diagnostic Approach to Palpable Breast Lump - A Quadruple Assessment

: The vast majority of the lesions that occur in the breast are benign. Much concern is given to malignant lesions of the breast because breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women in Western countries; however, benign lesions of the breast are far more frequent than malignant ones. With the use of mammography, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging of the breast and the extensive use of needle biopsies, the diagnosis of a benign breast disease can be accomplished without surgery in the majority of patients. Because the majority of benign lesions are not associated with an increased risk for subsequent breast cancer, unnecessary surgical procedures should be avoided. It is important for pathologists, radiologists, and oncologists to recognize benign lesions, both to distinguish them from in situ and invasive breast cancer and to assess a patient’s risk of developing breast cancer, so that the most appropriate treatment modality for each case can be established.
Simultaneous comparison of thoracic bioimpedance and arterial pulse waveform-derived cardiac output with thermodilution measurement

Objective To compare the accuracy and reliability of thoracic electrical bioimpedance (TEB) and the arterial pulse waveform analysis with simultaneous measurement of thermodilution cardiac output (TD-CO) in critically ill patients. Design Prospective data collection. Setting Emergency department and critical care unit in a 2,000-bed inner-city hospital. Patients A total of 29 critically ill patients requiring invasive hemodynamic monitoring for clinical management were prospectively studied. Interventions Noninvasive cardiac output was simultaneously measured by a TEB device and by analysis of the arterial pulse waveform derived from the finger artery. Invasive cardiac output was determined by the thermodilution technique. Measurements and Main Results A total of 175 corresponding TD-CO and noninvasive hemodynamic measurements were collected in 30-min intervals. They revealed an overall bias of 0.34 L/min/m2 (95% confidence interval, 0.24–0.44 L/min/m2;p < .001) for the arterial pulse waveform analysis and of 0.61 L/min/m2 (95% confidence interval, 0.50–0.72 L/min/m2;p < .001) for the TEB. In 39.4% (n = 69) of all measurements, the discrepancy between arterial pulse waveform analysis and TD-CO was >0.50 L/min/m2. The discrepancies of the arterial pulse waveform analysis correlated positively with the magnitude of the cardiac index (r2 = 0.29;p < .001). In 56.6% (n = 99) of all measurements, the discrepancy between TEB and TD-CO was >0.50 L/min/m2. The magnitude of the discrepancies of the TEB was significantly correlated with age (r2 = 0.17;p = .02). Measurements were in phase in 93.2% of all arterial pulse waveform analysis and in 84.9% of all TEB readings (p < .001). Conclusions The arterial pulse waveform analysis exhibits a greater accuracy and reliability as compared with the TEB with regard to overall bias, number of inaccurate readings, and phase lags. The arterial pulse waveform analysis may be useful for the monitoring of hemodynamic changes. However, both methods fail to be a substitute for the TD-CO because of a substantial percentage of inaccurate readings.
‘Should I stay or should I go?’: myosin V function in organelle trafficking

Actin‐ and microtubule‐based motors can propel different cargos along filaments. Within cells, they control the distribution of membrane‐bound compartments by performing complementary tasks. Organelles make long journeys along microtubules, with class V myosins ensuring their capture and their dispersal in actin‐rich regions. Myosin Va is recruited on to diverse organelles, such as melanosomes and secretory vesicles, by a mechanism involving Rab GTPases. The role of myosin Va in the recruitment of secretory vesicles at the plasma membrane reveals that the cortical actin network cannot merely be seen as a physical barrier hindering vesicle access to release sites. In neurons, myosin Va controls the targeting of IP3 (inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate)‐sensitive Ca2+ stores to dendritic spines and the transport of mRNAs. These defects probably account for the severe neurological symptoms observed in Griscelli syndrome due to mutations in the MYO5A gene.
Dissolving microneedles for DNA vaccination: Improving functionality via polymer characterization and RALA complexation

ABSTRACT DNA vaccination holds the potential to treat or prevent nearly any immunogenic disease, including cancer. To date, these vaccines have demonstrated limited immunogenicity in vivo due to the absence of a suitable delivery system which can protect DNA from degradation and improve transfection efficiencies in vivo. Recently, microneedles have been described as a novel physical delivery technology to enhance DNA vaccine immunogenicity. Of these devices, dissolvable microneedles promise a safe, pain-free delivery system which may simultaneously improve DNA stability within a solid matrix and increase DNA delivery compared to solid arrays. However, to date little work has directly compared the suitability of different dissolvable matrices for formulation of DNA-loaded microneedles. Therefore, the current study examined the ability of 4 polymers to formulate mechanically robust, functional DNA loaded dissolvable microneedles. Additionally, complexation of DNA to a cationic delivery peptide, RALA, prior to incorporation into the dissolvable matrix was explored as a means to improve transfection efficacies following release from the polymer matrix. Our data demonstrates that DNA is degraded following incorporation into PVP, but not PVA matrices. The complexation of DNA to RALA prior to incorporation into polymers resulted in higher recovery from dissolvable matrices, and increased transfection efficiencies in vitro. Additionally, RALA/DNA nanoparticles released from dissolvable PVA matrices demonstrated up to 10-fold higher transfection efficiencies than the corresponding complexes released from PVP matrices, indicating that PVA is a superior polymer for this microneedle application.
Home-based cardiac rehabilitation is as effective as centre-based cardiac rehabilitation among elderly with coronary heart disease: results from a randomised clinical trial.

BACKGROUND participation in centre-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is known to reduce morbidity and mortality but participation rates among the elderly are low. Establishing alternative programmes is important, and home-based CR is the predominant alternative. However, no studies have investigated the effect of home-based CR among a group of elderly patients with coronary heart disease with a long-term follow-up. METHODS randomised clinical trial comparing home-based CR with comprehensive centre-based CR among patients ≥ 65 years with coronary heart disease. RESULTS seventy-five patients participated. There were no significant differences in exercise capacity after the intervention between home and centre-based CR. Adjusted mean differences of peak VO₂ = 0.9 ml/kg/min (95% CI -0.7, 2.4) and of 6 min walk test = -18.7 m (95% CI -56.4, 18.9). In addition, no differences were found in the secondary outcomes of systolic blood pressure (-0.6 mmHg, 95% CI -11.3, 10.0), LDL cholesterol (0.3 mmol/l, 95% CI -0.04, 0.7), HDL cholesterol (0.2 mmol/l, 95% CI -0.01, 0.3), body composition, proportion of smokers and health-related quality of life. A group of patients who did not have an effect of either programmes were characterised by higher age, living alone and having COPD. At 12 months of follow-up, both groups had a significant decline in exercise capacity. CONCLUSIONS home-based CR is as effective as centre-based CR in improving exercise capacity, risk factor control and health-related quality of life. However, a group of patients did not improve regardless of the type of intervention. Continued follow-up is essential in order to maintain the gained improvements.
Safety and Efficacy of Percutaneous Renal Biopsy by Physicians-in-Training in an Academic Teaching Setting

Objectives The safety and efficacy of percutaneous renal biopsy (PKB) are relatively little studied in a training setting. We sought to review our recent experience with bedside PKB in our training program. Methods We performed a retrospective cohort review of our consecutive 2.5-year renal biopsy experience (May 2007–November 2009) at the University of Mississippi Nephrology Fellowship. All of the biopsies were performed exclusively by renal fellows using real-time ultrasound (US) visualization within the framework of a structured US-PKB training course. Results A total of 64 patients underwent PKB during the index period; 50 (78.1%) of these procedures were performed on native kidneys. Participant age was 39.8 ± 13.7 years, blood pressures measured 140.1/85.3 ± 21.5/14.9 mm Hg, serum creatinine was 3.05 ± 3.15 mg/dL, and median random urine protein:creatinine ratio was 2.38 (25%–75% interquartile range 0.49–7.32). The biopsied kidneys measured 11.8 (±1.6) cm. We recovered 18.8 ± 11.5 glomeruli per procedure; two biopsies were unsuccessful. Focal glomerular sclerosis and lupus nephritis (22% and 25%, respectively) predominated among the specimens. Only three specimens returned with no diagnostic changes. There was a close correlation between preceding history and recovered diagnoses of diabetic changes and lupus nephritis (r 0.605 and 0.842; P < 0.0001 for both). Initial hemoglobin of 10.8 ± 1.8 g/dL dropped to 10.2 (1.9) g/dL after the procedure (P < 0.0001). Five (7.8%) patients needed transfusion; one patient experienced persistent urine leakage; however, none of the patients needed surgical or radiological intervention or died. Conclusions In the setting of a well-structured training environment, US-guided PKB is a reasonably safe and valuable component of renal fellowship training.
Specific numerical chromosomal aberrations induced by adriamycin

Fluorescence in situ hybridization with 7, 17, X, and Y chromosome‐specific DNA probe was used to investigate the ability of Adriamycin (AM) to induce aneuploidy in interphase human lymphocytes. The reliability of the probes was tested by hybridization to metaphases and interphase nuclei of untreated normal lymphocytes. Two signals were scored in over 87% of the analyzed nuclei with chromosome 7 and 17 probes, whereas one signal was recorded in over 86% of the nuclei with chromosomes X and Y. The same conditions and probe concentrations were used for hybridizing the four probes to interphase nuclei of AM‐treated and untreated lymphocytes, cultured from healthy individuals and cancer patients. AM was found to induce significant increases of trisomy 7 and 17 in lymphocytes cultured from healthy individuals and cancer patients, where the interphase nuclei showed three spots in over 70% and 72% of the cells, respectively. Only 6% of interphase nuclei of untreated cells cultured from healthy individuals and cancer patients showed three spots. No significant increase in X or Y aneuploidy was induced by exposure to AM. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 33:161–166, 1999 © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effect of Compensatory Growth on Carcass Characteristics of Sudanese Desert Lambs

This study was conducted to detect the effect of compensatory growth on carcass characteristics of the Sudanese desert lambs. Twelve lambs (Hamri ecotype) of the same initial weight (23±16 Kg) were used in this experiment. The animals were randomly divided into two groups. The first group (A) was adlibitum offered a high energy diet (10. 50 MJ/Kg DM) for 60 days. While the second group (B) was given a low energy diet (8.03 MJ/Kg DM) throughout the same period (60 days). Lambs of the second group were found just to maintain their weight. After that period the lambs from the second group were offered the high energy diet (10. 50 MJ/Kg DM) until they reached the final weight obtained by the first group. It spent 45 days to reach that weight. At the end of the experiment four animals from each group were chosen randomly for slaughter to obtain carcass data and physical and chemical meat analysis. The results showed that hot and cold carcass weights, dressing percentage were not significantly different between treatments. Similarly dressing percentage was not significantly different between treatments. Body components were not significantly different between treatments except mesenteric fat which was significantly (p<0.05) higher in rehabilitated lamb group. The proportion of muscle and fat were significantly greater in the rehabilitated lambs than in free fed lambs. Meat chemical analysis were not significantly different between the two groups, however the fat was significantly (p<0.05) greater in rehabilitated lamb group. Meat quality attributes showed significantly higher colour co-ordinates (L) and (a) and superior water holding capacity in rehabilitated lambs group than in free fed lamb group.
New techniques for trail bounds and application to differential trails in Keccak

We present new techniques to efficiently scan the space of high-probability differential trails in bit-oriented ciphers. Differential trails consist in sequences of state patterns that we represent as ordered lists of basic components in order to arrange them in a tree. The task of generating trails with probability above some threshold starts with the traversal of the tree. Our choice of basic components allows us to efficiently prune the tree based on the fact that we can tightly bound the probability of all descendants for any node. Then we extend the state patterns resulting from the tree traversal into longer trails using similar bounding techniques. We apply these techniques to the 4 largest Keccak- f permutations, for which we are able to scan the space of trails with weight per round of 15. This space is orders of magnitude larger than previously best result published on Keccak- f [1600] that reached 12, which in turn is orders of magnitude larger than any published results achieved with standard tools, that reached at most 9. As a result we provide new and improved bounds for the minimum weight of differential trails on 3, 4, 5 and 6 rounds. We also report on new trails that are, to the best of our knowledge, the ones with the highest known probability.
Neck sprain. Associated factors.

One hundred thirty-six cases of uncomplicated neck sprain were studied to determine the relationship between the great disparity in duration of symptoms and various factors not directly related to the injury. The factors studied were the following: age, sex, race, occupation, marital status, hospitalization, associated medical conditions, habits, roentgenographic findings, extent of car damage, emotional factors, extensiveness of the medical history, treatment, and litigation. Only in the last four factors was there any association with the duration of symptoms that, in this study, varied from complete recovery in three days to persistence of symptoms for more than five years. This great disparity in duration of symptoms was not related to the degree of injury. As one would expect, however, the more severe the injury, the longer was the median duration of workdays lost.