Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Refined crystal structure of porcine class Pi glutathione S-transferase (pGST P1-1) at 2.1 A resolution.

The crystal structure of class Pi glutathione S-transferase from porcine lung (pGST P1-1) in complex with glutathione sulphonate has been refined at 2.11 A resolution, to a crystallographic R-factor of 16.5% for 21, 165 unique reflections. The refined structure includes 3314 protein atoms, 46 inhibitor (glutathione sulphonate) atoms and 254 water molecules. The model shows good stereochemistry, with root-mean-square deviations from ideal bond lengths and bond angles of 0.011 A and 2.8 degrees, respectively. The estimated root-mean-square co-ordinate error is 0.2 A. The protein is a dimer assembled from identical subunits of 207 amino acid residues. The tertiary structure of the pGST P1 subunit is organized as two domains, the N-terminal domain (domain I, residues 1 to 74) and the larger C-terminal domain (domain II, residues 81 to 207). Glutathione sulphonate, a competitive inhibitor, binds to the G-site region (i.e. the glutathione-binding region) of the active site located on each subunit. Each G-site is, however, structurally dependent of the neighbouring subunit as structural elements forming a fully functional G-site are provided by both subunits, with domain I as the major supporting framework. A number of direct and water-mediated polar interactions are involved in sequestering the glutathione analogue at the G-site. The extended conformation assumed by the enzyme-bound inhibitor as well as the strategic interactions between inhibitor and protein, closely resemble those observed for the physiological substrate, reduced glutathione bound at the active site of class Mu glutathione S-transferase 3-3. Hydrogen bonding between the sulphonyl moiety of the inhibitor and the hydroxyl group of an evolutionary conserved tyrosine residue, Tyr7, provides the first direct structural evidence for a catalytic protein group in glutathione S-transferases that is involved in the activation of the substrate glutathione. The catalytic role for Tyr7 has subsequently been confirmed by mutagenesis and kinetic studies. Comparison of the known crystal structures for class Pi, class Mu and class Alpha isoenzymes, indicates that the cytosolic glutathione S-transferases share a common fold and that the structural features for catalysis are similar.
Mild Cognitive Impairment Is Associated with Impaired Visual-Motor Planning When Visual Stimuli and Actions Are Incongruent

Background/Aims: This study examined cognitive-motor integration in adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Previously, we showed that the performance of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease patients declined significantly as a visually-guided movement went from having a standard mapping (vision and action spatially aligned) to having a non-standard mapping (vision and action incongruent). The present study extends this line of research by examining the performance of individuals affected by MCI. Methods: The participants made finger movements over a clear touchscreen placed in two separate spatial planes to either constantly present or remembered visual targets. These spatial plane conditions were repeated with the direction of cursor motion rotated 180° from that of hand motion. We also tested an ‘arbitrary’ condition where symbols instructed the participants to move their hand in certain directions. Results: We observe that adults with MCI took significantly longer to plan movements requiring intermediate levels of non-standard mapping, relative to healthy older adults. Conclusions: These data suggest that movements requiring rule integration is affected even in individuals at a very early stage of cognitive decline. Cognitive-motor integration may provide a sensitive means to detect functional difficulty in early cognitive impairment.
The Canadian Penal Press: A Documentation and Analysis

The penal press is a world-wide phenomenon which reached the height of its achievement in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in North America. A survey taken in the United States in 1959 found that there were more than 250 penal press publications in Canada and the United States, reaching an estimated readership of two million (Collins Bay Diamond, January, 1959). Russell Baird (1967), in his study The Penal Press (which focuses exclusively on the United States), discovered that the penal press started in the late nineteenth century, with Summary (1883) from Elmira Reformatory in New York State laying claim to being the first publication. It was followed by Our Paper (1885), Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord, and Prison Mirror (1887) of the Minnesota State Penitentiary at Stillwater (Baird, 1967). 1 The Canadian penal press officially came into being on September 1, 1950 with the publication of Kingston Penitentiary's Telescope. Since then there have been more than one hundred separate penal publications produced and published by prisoners in Canada's federal penitentiaries.
Randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation for generalized anxiety disorder: effects on anxiety and stress reactivity.

OBJECTIVE Mindfulness meditation has met increasing interest as a therapeutic strategy for anxiety disorders, but prior studies have been limited by methodological concerns, including a lack of an active comparison group. This is the first randomized, controlled trial comparing the manualized Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program with an active control for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a disorder characterized by chronic worry and physiologic hyperarousal symptoms. METHOD Ninety-three individuals with DSM-IV-diagnosed GAD were randomly assigned to an 8-week group intervention with MBSR or to an attention control, Stress Management Education (SME), between 2009 and 2011. Anxiety symptoms were measured with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA; primary outcome measure), the Clinical Global Impressions-Severity of Illness and -Improvement scales (CGI-S and CGI-I), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Stress reactivity was assessed by comparing anxiety and distress during pretreatment and posttreatment administration of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). RESULTS A modified intent-to-treat analysis including participants who completed at least 1 session of MBSR (n = 48) or SME (n = 41) showed that both interventions led to significant (P < .0001) reductions in HAMA scores at endpoint, but did not significantly differ. MBSR, however, was associated with a significantly greater reduction in anxiety as measured by the CGI-S, the CGI-I, and the BAI (all P values < .05). MBSR was also associated with greater reductions than SME in anxiety and distress ratings in response to the TSST stress challenge (P < .05) and a greater increase in positive self-statements (P = .004). CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that MBSR may have a beneficial effect on anxiety symptoms in GAD and may also improve stress reactivity and coping as measured in a laboratory stress challenge. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01033851.
Fuzzy disturbance observer approach to robust tracking control of nonlinear sampled systems with the guaranteed suboptimal H/sub /spl infin// performance

This paper presents a new approach to robust tracking control of the nonlinear sampled systems using a discrete-time fuzzy disturbance observer (DFDO). Novel update and control laws are proposed to guarantee that all the signals in the closed-loop control system are uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB) in a compact set. No persistence of excitation (PE) condition, nor the assumption on the slowness of the change of the fuzzy parameters, is required. In addition, a robustifying controller is designed to improve the tracking performance. Finally, a computer simulation example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness and the applicability of the suggested method.
Dissociative and Associated Psychopathological Symptoms in Patients with Epilepsy, Pseudoseizures, and Both Seizure Forms

Summary: Purpose: A controversy currently exists regarding the significance of dissociation and conversion in the pathogenesis of pseudoepileptic seizures. After the abolition of the term “hysterical neurosis” from the current diagnostic systems, these seizures were diagnosed as either Dissociative Disorders (ICD‐10) or in the DSM IV as Somatoform disorder, most often of conversion type. Recent studies of patients with Dissociative Disorders found that most patients also had conversion symptoms.
Collection strategies and cryopreservation of umbilical cord blood

summary The aim of this study was to compare (a) two different umbilical cord blood (UCB) collection methods while the placenta is still in the uterus (in utero), and (b) to evaluate the efficacy of four cryopreservation protocols based on UCB haematopoiestic stem cell (HSC) recovery. We analysed UCB samples collected with our original collection system designed for active Syringe/Flush/Syringe method or by standard in utero method. For comparing different cryopreservation procedures, dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) at final concentration of 5 and 10% was used and combined with our own controlled‐rate or uncontrolled‐rate cryopreservation. A total of 99 samples were collected. A significantly higher UCB volume, total nucleated cell and mononuclear cell were seen following the first collection strategy (n= 49; mean ± SD, 103 ± 35·4 mL; 12·34 ± 5·27 × 108; 595 ± 3·47 × 106) vs. the second strategy (n= 50; 86 ± 29·3 mL; 9·87 ± 4·47; 424 ± 2·82 × 106) respectively (P < 0·01). The discard rate was 14% for the first and 36% for the second collection strategy (P < 0·01). It was shown that the most efficient procedure was the controlled‐rate protocol combined with lower (5%) DMSO concentration. Using active Syringe/Flush/Syringe method, we collected UCB with greater volumes and with lower discard rate compared to the standard by gravity technique. The data presented also showed much better recovery of UCB cells when controlled‐rate freezing procedure and 5% DMSO were combined.
Mood instability as a precursor to depressive illness: A prospective and mediational analysis

Objective: Mood instability levels are high in depression, but temporal precedence and potential mechanisms are unknown. Hypotheses tested were as follows: (1) mood instability is associated with depression cross-sectionally, (2) mood instability predicts new onset and maintenance of depression prospectively and (3) the mood instability and depression link are mediated by sleep problems, alcohol abuse and life events. Method: Data from the National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2000 at baseline (N = 8580) and 18-month follow-up (N = 2413) were used. Regression modeling controlling for socio-demographic factors, anxiety and hypomanic mood was conducted. Multiple mediational analyses were used to test our conceptual path model. Results: Mood instability was associated with depression cross-sectionally (odds ratio: 5.28; 95% confidence interval: [3.67, 7.59]; p < 0.001) and predicted depression inception (odds ratio: 2.43; 95% confidence interval: [1.03–5.76]; p = 0.042) after controlling for important confounders. Mood instability did not predict maintenance of depression. Sleep difficulties and severe problems with close friends and family significantly mediated the link between mood instability and new onset depression (23.05% and 6.19% of the link, respectively). Alcohol abuse and divorce were not important mediators in the model. Conclusion: Mood instability is a precursor of a depressive episode, predicting its onset. Difficulties in sleep are a significant part of the pathway. Interventions targeting mood instability and sleep problems have the potential to reduce the risk of depression.
Measuring the Output Gap in Switzerland with Linear Opinion Pools

We use the recently proposed linear opinion pool methodology of Garratt et al. (2014) to construct real-time output gap estimates for Switzerland over the out-of-sample period from 2003:Q1 to 2015:Q4. The model space consists of a large number of bivariate VAR specifications for the output gap and inflation, with each VAR specification using a different estimate of the output gap, lag order, and structural break information. We find that the linear opinion pool performs rather poorly. Real-time estimates of the output gap are no more accurate than those from some simple benchmark models, no more robust to ex post revisions than the real-time estimates of the individual univariate output gaps, and do not produce more accurate forecasts of inflation. The key driver of ‘good’ forecast performance is structural break information. Once the same structural break information is conditioned upon in all prediction models, the gain from averaging over many different pools of models that utilize various output gap estimates or lag structures in the VAR specification is of negligible magnitude.
Disease-specific training in Parkinson’s disease for care assistants: a comparison of interactive and self-study methods

Objective: To compare two approaches to providing training to care assistants in Parkinson’s disease. Design: Pragmatic parallel arm controlled trial. Setting: Training either by an interactive training day at a local medical education establishment or self study. Subjects: Care assistants recruited from local health and social care providers. Interventions: The content of both interventions was similar, covering causes, symptoms, diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, multidisciplinary management, mobility, communication, swallowing, and involving 5 hours of study time. Main measures: Knowledge about Parkinson’s (assessed by true/false quizzes and identifying ‘four facts’ about Parkinson’s) immediately post training and six weeks later; views on training methods of care assistants and employers/managers. Results: Thirty-seven employers nominated 100 care staff who were allocated to interactive training (49) and self study (51). Training completion rates (retained to six-week follow-up) were lower for self study (42.1% vs. 83.7% training day). There were no significant differences between groups on quiz or ‘four facts’ scores at baseline or six-week follow-up. Immediately post training, the self-study group (with access to written materials) had significantly higher quiz scores than the training day group (no access to materials at test). Within-group comparisons showed improvements post training. Although interactive training may be preferred, obtaining release from duties can be problematic. Conclusions: Both approaches have similar effects on knowledge of care assistants without prior specific training. Providing a variety of approaches will cater for all preferences. The findings may be generalizable to training the care workforce for other specific roles.
Bag-of-Features Methods for Acoustic Event Detection and Classification

The detection and classification of acoustic events in various environments is an important task. Its applications range from multimedia analysis to surveillance of humans or even animal life. Several of these tasks require the capability of online processing. Besides many approaches that tackle the task of acoustic event detection, methods that are based on the well known bag-of-features principle also emerged into the field. Acoustic features are calculated for all frames in a given time window. Then, applying the bag-of-features concept, these features are quantized with respect to a learned codebook and a histogram representation is computed. Bag-of-features approaches are particularly interesting for online processing as they have a low computational cost. In this paper, the bag-of-features principle and various extensions are reviewed, including soft quantization, supervised codebook learning, and temporal modeling. Furthermore, Mel and Gammatone frequency cepstral coefficients that originate from psychoacoustic models are used as the underlying feature set for the bag-of-features. The possibility of fusing the results of multiple channels in order to improve the robustness is shown. Two databases are used for the experiments: The DCASE 2013 office live dataset and the ITC-IRST multichannel dataset.
Teacher Preparedness to Teach Antiracist and Equity Education

This research study evaluated novice teachers preparedness to teach antiracist and equity education based on the training they received during their preservice teacher education program. The research study utilized a qualitative research design and semi-structured interviews were conducted with two novice teachers. The five themes that emerged from the data included comprehension of antiracist and multicultural education, preservice teacher education program, novice teacher preparedness, resources and implementation into the classroom, and limitations in the preservice teacher education program. The research findings indicated that the participants were able to articulate the differences between multicultural and antiracist education; the importance of the course instructor’s role, class discussions, and classmates in their understanding of antiracist and equity education; and that teacher preparedness and classroom implementation was determined by the accessibility of resources. Additionally, the preservice teacher training on antiracist and equity education was received differently for the racial minority and the Caucasian novice teacher. The recommendations outlined were to have antiracist and equity education as mandatory courses during preservice teacher education programs and that course structure and content should focus on providing resources to teacher candidates.
Prevalence of skin tears in the extremities among elderly residents at a nursing home in Denmark.

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of skin tears in the extremities and explore factors in relation to skin tears in elderly residents at a Danish nursing home. METHOD The study was designed as a point prevalence survey and conducted at a nursing home with 140 residents >65 years of age. The residents were assessed for presence, number and location of skin tears. Data were collected using a data collection sheet developed for this study. The survey team consisted of four expert nurses from a university hospital (two dermatology and two wound care nurses). Data were collected over a period of 10 hours spread over two days. RESULTS Of the 128 participating residents six had skin tears, yielding a prevalence of 4.6 %. In total, 10 skin tears were observed in the 6 residents. The frequency of previous skin tears was 19.5 %. This frequency was significantly higher in residents with skin tears than in those without skin tears (83.3 % versus 16.4 %, p<0.001). Analysis of the relation between skin tears or previous skin tears versus without skin tears or previous skin tears showed significant differences related to the presence of ecchymosis (76.9 %versus 14.7 %, p<0.0001). There were no other significant factors observed. CONCLUSION The low prevalence found in this study may reflect the focus on prevention of skin tears that the nursing home has maintained over the past year. Nevertheless, the appropriate prevention and management of residents with skin tears is an ongoing challenge for health professionals.
Towards a Reference Model for Open Access and Knowledge Sharing, Lessons from Systems Research

The Open Access Movement has been striving to grant universal unrestricted access to the knowledge and data outputs of publicly funded research. leveraging the real time, virtually cost free publishing opportunities offered by the internet and the web. However, evidence suggests that in the systems engineering domain open access policies are not widely adopted. This paper presents the rationale, methodology and results of an evidence based inquiry that investigates the dichotomy between policy and practice in Open Access (OA) of systems engineering research in the UK, explores entangled dimensions of the problem space from a socio-technical perspective, and issues a set of recommendations, including a reference model outline for knowledge sharing in systems
Rapid identification of Salmonella serovars in feces by specific detection of virulence genes, invA and spvC, by an enrichment broth culture-multiplex PCR combination assay

In order to make a rapid and definite diagnosis of Salmonella enteritis in children, an enrichment broth culture-multiplex PCR combination assay was devised to identify Salmonella serovars directly from fecal samples. Two pairs of oligonucleotide primers were prepared according to the sequences of the chromosomal invA and plasmid spvC genes. PCR with these two primers would produce either one amplicon (from the invA gene) or two amplicons (from the invA and spvC genes), depending on whether or not the Salmonella bacteria contained a virulence plasmid. The fecal sample was diluted 10- to 20-fold into gram-negative enrichment broth and incubated to eliminate inhibitory compounds and also to allow selective enrichment of the bacteria. One or two amplicons were obtained, the expected result if Salmonella bacteria were present. The detection limit of this PCR was about 200 bacteria per reaction mixture. The primers were specific, as no amplification products were obtained with 18 species and 22 isolates of non-Salmonella bacteria tested which could be present in the feces or cause contamination. In contrast, when 23 commonly seen Salmonella serovars (38 isolates) were tested, all were shown to carry the invA gene and seven concomitantly harbored the spvC gene of the virulence plasmid. This assay was applied to the diagnosis of Salmonella enteritis in 57 children who were suffering from mucoid and/or bloody diarrhea. Of the 57 children, 38 were PCR positive and 22 were culture positive. There were two culture-positive samples that were not detected by PCR. Thus, this PCR assay showed an efficiency of 95% (38 of 40), which is much higher than the 60% (24 of 40) by culture alone. Not only is this method more sensitive, rapid, and efficient but it will cause only an incremental increase in the cost of stool processing, since enrichment cultivation of fecal samples from diarrheal patients using gram-negative enrichment broth is a routine practice for identification in many diagnostic microbiology laboratories. This PCR method, therefore, has clinical application.
Accuracy analysis of propagating-path identification using FDTD method and compressive sensing

In this paper, we propose a propagating path identification method using Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method and compressive sensing. In this study, Yee cells are regarded as array antenna, and the compressive sensing is introduced to identify direction-of-arrival of the radio waves. In this method, the signal is alternately transmitted between two antennas, and the DOAs are estimated for each case. By using estimated DOA information for these two cases, the propagating paths can be identified. Also, we evaluated the impact of the number of the array antenna elements and element separation on the accuracy in estimating the propagating paths.