Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interdomain communication in calcium pump as revealed in the crystal structures with transmembrane inhibitors

Ca2+-ATPase of skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum is an ATP-driven Ca2+ pump consisting of three cytoplasmic domains and 10 transmembrane helices. In the absence of Ca2+, the three cytoplasmic domains gather to form a compact headpiece, but the ATPase is unstable without an inhibitor. Here we describe the crystal structures of Ca2+-ATPase in the absence of Ca2+ stabilized with cyclopiazonic acid alone and in combination with other inhibitors. Cyclopiazonic acid is located in the transmembrane region of the protein near the cytoplasmic surface. The binding site partially overlaps with that of 2,5-di-tert-butyl-1,4-dihydroxybenzene but is separate from that of thapsigargin. The overall structure is significantly different from that stabilized with thapsigargin: The cytoplasmic headpiece is more upright, and the transmembrane helices M1–M4 are rearranged. Cyclopiazonic acid primarily alters the position of the M1′ helix and thereby M2 and M4 and then M5. Because M5 is integrated into the phosphorylation domain, the whole cytoplasmic headpiece moves. These structural changes show how an event in the transmembrane domain can be transmitted to the cytoplasmic domain despite flexible links between them. They also reveal that Ca2+-ATPase has considerable plasticity even when fixed by a transmembrane inhibitor, presumably to accommodate thermal fluctuations.
Service Delivery Innovation Profile Trained Paramedics Provide Ongoing Support to Frequent 911 Callers, Reducing Use of Ambulance and Emergency Department Services

Patient Population The program serves people who frequently call 911 in situations not considered to be an emergency, patients who call 911 with low-acuity medical complaints, patients at risk for potentially preventable admissions or readmissions, and patients at risk for hospice status revocation (updated January 2013). Vulnerable Populations > Medically uninsured; Insurance Status > Uninsured Summary The Area Metropolitan Ambulance Authority (more commonly known as MedStar), an emergency medical service provider serving the Fort Worth, TX, area, uses community health paramedics to provide in-home and telephone-based support to patients who frequently call 911 and to other patient populations who are at risk for potentially preventable admissions or readmissions. Working as part of MedStar's Mobile Integrated Healthcare Practice, these paramedics conduct an indepth medical assessment, develop a customized care plan based on that assessment, and periodically visit or telephone the patient and family to support them in following the plan. Support generally continues until they can manage on their own. Three additional similar programs serve individuals with congestive heart failure, patients who can be managed transitionally at home versus an overnight observational admission in the hospital, and in-home hospice patients who are at risk for hospice revocation. These programs have significantly reduced the number of 911 calls, the number of potentially preventable emergency department visits and hospital admissions, the number of overnight observational admissions, and the number of hospice revocations, leading to declines in emergency medical services and emergency department charges and costs, and freeing up capacity in area emergency departments.
Actin Cytoskeleton Regulates Calcium Dynamics and NFAT Nuclear Duration

ABSTRACT T-cell activation by antigen-presenting cells is accompanied by actin polymerization, T-cell receptor (TCR) capping, and formation of the immunological synapse. However, whether actin-dependent events are required for T-cell function is poorly understood. Herein, we provide evidence for an unexpected negative regulatory role of the actin cytoskeleton on TCR-induced cytokine production. Disruption of actin polymerization resulted in prolonged intracellular calcium elevation in response to anti-CD3, thapsigargin, or phorbol myristate acetate plus ionomycin, leading to persistent NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cells) nuclear duration. These events were dominant, as the net effect of actin blockade was augmented interleukin 2 promoter activity. Increased surface expression of the plasma membrane Ca2+ ATPase was observed upon stimulation, which was inhibited by cytochalasin D, suggesting that actin polymerization contributes to calcium export. Our results imply a novel role for the actin cytoskeleton in modulating the duration of Ca2+-NFAT signaling and indicate that actin dynamics regulate features of T-cell activation downstream of receptor clustering.
Improve HEVC load-balancing for network streaming using adaptive tile boundary: Anonymous ICME submission

The high quality and low delay video streaming is desired for all users. Especially the playback delay is much more undesirable since it is easily perceived by human eyes, and it consists of decoding delay and transfer delay. In this paper we use High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) with tiles to achieve parallel encoding/transmission/decoding, and propose to use a novel adaptive tile boundary (ATB) method to further improve the load-balancing for the whole process. Experiment results show that the proposed method can decrease at most the delay times 22.03% (average 13.83%) and the frame drop rates 41.2% (average 13.92%) under high bit-rates, as well as the delay time 17.04% (average 4.66%) and the frame drop rate 14.3% (average 5.03%) under low bit-rates, comparing with simple parallel processing scheme of using uniform tile partitioning.
Controlled clinical trial of interpersonal psychotherapy versus parenting education program for depressed pregnant women.

OBJECTIVE Antenatal depression is a significant risk factor for postpartum depression, with a 10%-12% prevalence in all pregnancies. Rates of depression are higher for pregnant women with chronic stressors, financial and housing problems, and inadequate social support. Despite the prevalence and associated family and infant morbidity, there are no controlled clinical treatment trials regarding this topic, to the authors' knowledge. APA has identified treatment of depression during pregnancy as a priority for clinical guidelines. METHOD A 16-week bilingual controlled clinical trial compared a group receiving interpersonal psychotherapy for antepartum depression to a parenting education control program. Fifty outpatient antepartum women who met DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder were randomly assigned to interpersonal psychotherapy or a didactic parenting education program. Thirty-eight women remained in the study and were included in the data analysis. Depressed mood was measured with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The Clinical Global Impression (CGI) and the Hamilton depression scale measured recovery. RESULTS The interpersonal psychotherapy treatment group showed significant improvement compared to the parenting education control program on all three measures of mood at termination. Recovery criteria were met in 60% of the women treated with interpersonal psychotherapy, according to a CGI score of < or = 2. In addition, there was a significant correlation between maternal mood and mother-infant interaction. CONCLUSIONS Interpersonal psychotherapy is an effective method of antidepressant treatment during pregnancy and should be a first-line treatment in the hierarchy of treatment for antepartum depression.
Circulating Soluble CD30 and Future Risk of Lymphoma; Evidence from Two Prospective Studies in the General Population

Background: Elevated circulating soluble CD30 (sCD30) has been previously associated with AIDS-related non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) risk. This finding was recently extended to the general population where elevated levels of sCD30 were reported in prediagnostic serum among subjects that developed NHL later in life. Methods: We carried out a replication study within the Italian European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. Plasma sCD30 concentration was measured by ELISA in prospectively collected blood of 35 B-cell lymphoma cases and 36 matched controls. Results: We observed significantly increased relative risks for lymphoma with increasing sCD30 levels [OR (95% CI) for second and third tertiles vs. first tertile: 5.5 (1.5–20.2), 4.0 (1.1–13.9), respectively]. In addition, spline analyses showed that the dose–response curve of sCD30 and lymphoma risk was monotonic and quite similar to the risks reported in the previous study. Conclusion: This replication study adds to the evidence that sCD30 is related to future lymphoma risk in a concentration-dependent manner in the general population. Impact: The results of this study strengthen the observation that chronic sustained B-cell activation plays an important role in lymphomagenesis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(9); 1925–7. ©2011 AACR.
An Adaptation of the Distance Driven Projection Method for Single Pinhole Collimators in SPECT Imaging

The modelling of the projection operator in tomographic imaging is of critical importance especially when working with algebraic methods of image reconstruction. This paper proposes a distance-driven projection method which is targeted to single-pinhole single-photon emission computed tomograghy (SPECT) imaging since it accounts for the finite size of the pinhole, and the possible tilting of the detector surface in addition to other collimator-specific factors such as geometric sensitivity. The accuracy and execution time of the proposed method is evaluated by comparing to a ray-driven approach where the pinhole is sub-sampled with various sampling schemes. A point-source phantom whose projections were generated using OpenGATE was first used to compare the resolution of reconstructed images with each method using the full width at half maximum (FWHM). Furthermore, a high-activity Mini Deluxe Phantom (Data Spectrum Corp., Durham, NC, USA) SPECT resolution phantom was scanned using a Gamma Medica X-SPECT system and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and structural similarity of reconstructed images was compared at various projection counts. Based on the reconstructed point-source phantom, the proposed distance-driven approach results in a lower FWHM than the ray-driven approach even when using a smaller detector resolution. Furthermore, based on the Mini Deluxe Phantom, it is shown that the distance-driven approach has consistently higher SNR and structural similarity compared to the ray-driven approach as the counts in measured projections deteriorates.
Characterization of highly concentrated serum lectins in spotted halibut Verasper variegatus

SUMMARY Mannose-binding lectins were purified from flatfish spotted halibut (Verasper variegatus) serum. These lectins, which we named VVL (Verasper variegatus lectin)-α (~33 kDa) and VVL-β (~30 kDa) (VVLs), under non-reducing SDS-PAGE, were surprisingly highly concentrated in serum (1·92±0·55 mg/ml; n=5), compared with other serum lectins. Both VVLs are heterodimers comprised of 2 types of subunit via inter-subunit disulfide bonds, and one subunit of VVL-α has a N-linked sugar chain. Based on N-terminal amino acid sequences, the nucleotide sequences of one subunit of VVL cDNAs were determined by 3′- and 5′-rapid amplification of the cDNA ends. The full-length VVL subunit cDNAs contained 489 bp, encoding an open reading frame of 163 amino acids. We found that VVLs bind to an ~8 kDa ciliary surface glycoprotein (a putative agglutination/immobilization antigen that we reported previously) of the fish parasite Neobenedenia girellae, and agglutinate this parasite in vitro.
RT-level TPG exploiting high-level synthesis information

High-level test pattern generation is today a widely investigated research topic. The present paper proposes a fully automated, simulation-based ATPG system, to address test pattern generation for circuits described at the RT-level. The approach is based on a set of suitable testability metrics, and the test pattern generation phase resorts to genetic algorithms. Experiments show the excellent fault coverage provided by the RT-level test patterns, when applied at the final gate-level. The approach, being based on a high-level representation, promises to be particularly suited where gate-level ATPGs are often inefficient, mainly for large circuits and for control-intensive designs.
SiC wafer bonding using surface activation method for power device

This study compared the results of room temperature direct wafer bonding of SiC-SiC accomplished by standard surface activated bonding (SAB) and modified SAB with a Si-containing Ar ion beam, in terms of bonding energy, interface structure and composition as well as the effects of rapid thermal annealing (RTA). Compared with that obtained by standard SAB, the bonding interface of modified SAB with a Si-containing Ar ion beam could be ∼30% stronger and almost completely recrystallized by RTA without oxidation. The advantages of modified SAB with a Si-containing Ar ion beam are attributed to the assumed in-situ Si-compensation during surface activation.
CVA: reducing the risk of a confused vascular analysis. The Feinberg lecture.

Iwant to thank the Stroke Council, my friends, and colleagues for giving me the privilege of delivering the 2000 William Feinberg lecture. I am particularly honored to follow Lou Caplan. Lou is near the top of the list of individuals who have had the most influence on my career. The subtitle of his classic paper, “What is Wrong with Mr. Jones,”1 has become the mantra for those of us who believe it is essential to know what we are treating before we know how to treat it; otherwise we run the risk of a “confused vascular analysis. ” I therefore honor Lou by declaring this the millennium of the stroke splitters; I confidently predict that the stroke lumpers will finally be vanquished sometime in the next 1000 years! The first time I specifically recall being told I was professionally confused was in 1976. I was finishing the third year of my neurology residency at the Cleveland Clinic. My chairman, Jack Conomy, called me into his office to tell me I was confused. He said I really did not want to take an EMG fellowship and that I should go into something “more challenging,” like stroke. I always took Jack’s advice, and to this day I cannot interpret an EMG. Shortly after starting my stroke fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in 1977, I noticed that many patients in Rochester, Minnesota, seemed to be on coumadin. I therefore asked Burt Sandok what the rationale was for using coumadin to prevent CVAs. Burt said, “You know, Tony, CVA stands for a ‘confused vascular analysis. ’ Why don’t you review the literature and get back to me? ” I didn’t realize it at the time, but this seemingly humorous anecdote would serve as the basis for my entire career. That literature review revealed many papers and …
A conditional maximized sequential probability ratio test for Pharmacovigilance

The importance of post‐marketing surveillance for drug and vaccine safety is well recognized as rare but serious adverse events may not be detected in pre‐approval clinical trials. In such surveillance, a sequential test is preferable, in order to detect potential problems as soon as possible. Various sequential probability ratio tests (SPRT) have been applied in near real‐time vaccine and drug safety surveillance, including Wald's classical SPRT with a single alternative and the Poisson‐based maximized SPRT (MaxSPRT) with a composite alternative. These methods require that the expected number of events under the null hypothesis is known as a function of time t. In practice, the expected counts are usually estimated from historical data. When a large sample size from the historical data is lacking, the SPRTs are biased due to the variance in the estimate of the expected number of events. We present a conditional maximized sequential probability ratio test (CMaxSPRT), which adjusts for the uncertainty in the expected counts. Our test incorporates the randomness and variability from both the historical data and the surveillance population. Evaluations of the statistical power for CMaxSPRT are presented under different scenarios. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Design of energy-efficient and robust ternary circuits for nanotechnology

Novel high-performance ternary circuits for nanotechnology are presented here. Each of these carbon nanotube field-effect transistor (CNFET)-based circuits implements all the possible kinds of ternary logic, including negative, positive and standard ternary logics, in one structure. The proposed designs have good driving capability and large noise margins and are robust. These circuits are designed based on the unique properties of CNFETs, such as the capability of setting the desired threshold voltage by changing the diameters of the nanotubes. This property of CNFETs makes them very suitable for the multiple- V t design method. The proposed circuits are simulated exhaustively, using Synopsys HSPICE with 32 nm-CNFET technology in various test situations and different supply voltages. Simulation results demonstrate great improvements in terms of speed, power consumption and insusceptibility to process variations with respect to other conventional and state-of-the-art 32 nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor and CNFET-based ternary circuits. For instance at 0.9 V, the proposed ternary logic and arithmetic circuits consume on average 53 and 40 less energy, respectively, compared to the CNFET-based ternary logic and arithmetic circuits, recently proposed in the literature.
Characterization of a new integron containing bla(VIM-1) and aac(6')-IIc in an Enterobacter cloacae clinical isolate from Greece.

OBJECTIVES A clinical isolate of Enterobacter cloacae exhibiting reduced susceptibility to imipenem and a positive EDTA-disc synergy test was studied for carbapenemase production. MATERIALS AND METHODS MICs were determined with standard procedures as well as using a higher inoculum. Isoelectric focusing of cell extracts was used for detection of beta-lactamases. PCR assays with primers specific for the bla(VIM) gene and the conserved segments of class 1 integrons and sequence analyses were carried out to identify the gene and to map the metallo-beta-lactamase encoding integron. Transferability of the gene was assessed with conjugation experiments using the filter mating technique. To identify the location of the bla(VIM-1) gene, Southern hybridization was carried out in genomic DNA using an internal fragment of the bla(VIM-1) gene as a probe, amplified by PCR. RESULTS The isolate was resistant to extended-spectrum beta-lactams. The MICs of carbapenems were below the resistance breakpoints but rose above resistance breakpoints when an inoculum of 10(8) cfu/mL was used. Isoelectric focusing detected a beta-lactamase with a pI of 6.1, which exhibited imipenem-hydrolysing activity in a microbiological assay. Ceftazidime and imipenem resistance were not transferable by conjugation. PCR assays identified the bla(VIM-1) gene in the variable region of a class 1 integron which also carried the aac(6')-IIc gene. The bla(VIM-1) probe hybridized with an approximately 130 kb fragment of genomic DNA, suggesting a chromosomal location of the gene. CONCLUSION We describe a novel class 1 integron containing bla(VIM-1) and aac(6')-IIc genes in an E. cloacae clinical isolate.
Estrogenic activity of Nigella damascena extracts, evaluated using a recombinant yeast screen

We used the yeast estrogen screen (YES) containing a human estrogen receptor to evaluate the estrogenic activity of extracts obtained from Nigella damascena seeds. Alcohol extracts obtained by direct extraction of seeds showed a low estrogenic activity, while the alcohol extract obtained after extraction with solvents of increasing polarity showed a strong estrogenic activity. This suggests the presence in Nigella of polar components whose activity can be clearly demonstrated after previous elimination of interacting apolar components that may mask the activity of more polar components. The response of both alcohol fractions follow a bell‐shaped curve indicating a concentration‐dependent relationship. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Medulloblastoma in young children

In early childhood medulloblastoma, three distinct treatment strategies are currently used by different national groups to improve survival rates and to delay or avoid craniospinal radiotherapy: (1) systemic chemotherapy and high‐dose chemotherapy, followed by radiotherapy at relapse; (2) systemic and intraventricular chemotherapy; (3) systemic chemotherapy and local conformal radiotherapy. A role for high‐dose chemotherapy to delay or avoid craniospinal radiotherapy as a part of multimodal treatment strategies, especially in young children with metastatic or postoperative residual disease, has been recognized by different co‐operative groups. Clinical and histological factors such as nodular‐desmoplastic variants are considered as important prognostic factors for risk‐adapted treatment recommendations. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2010;54:635–637. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Primary cutaneous B-cell lymphoma: classification and treatment

Purpose of review There has been confusion and debate regarding the definition, terminology, and optimal treatment of the different types of primary cutaneous B-cell lymphomas. This review presents the new World Health Organization–European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer classification for cutaneous lymphomas; describes clinicopathologic, immunophenotypic, and genetic features of the different types of cutaneous B-cell lymphomas in this classification; and discusses current views on treatment of these lymphomas. Recent findings The three main types of cutaneous B-cell lymphomas in this new classification are primary cutaneous marginal zone B-cell lymphoma, primary cutaneous follicle center lymphoma, and primary cutaneous large B-cell lymphoma (leg type). Primary cutaneous marginal zone B-cell and primary cutaneous follicle center lymphoma are indolent types with an excellent prognosis that should be treated primarily with nonaggressive therapies. Primary cutaneous large B-cell lymphoma (leg type) is an aggressive lymphoma that should be treated primarily with aggressive chemotherapy. Summary The World Health Organization–European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer classification will contribute to uniform diagnosis, management, and treatment of patients with cutaneous B-cell lymphoma and will prevent patients with indolent types of the disease from being treated inappropriately with systemic chemotherapy.
Multicarrier PWM With DC-Link Ripple Feedforward Compensation for Multilevel Inverters

Like most power converter topologies, multilevel inverters are controlled with modulation techniques that are conceptually based on nonlinear waveform synthesis assuming constant dc-link voltages. However, real applications have load and supply dependent dc-links that usually present important low frequency ripple, which is also modulated and transmitted to the load, generating undesirable low frequency voltage and current distortion. This paper introduces a simple but effective dc-link ripple feedforward strategy into traditional carrier-based modulation techniques. The dc-link ripples are measured and used to modify the carriers or the reference directly in the modulation stage. Simulation and experimental results show the accuracy of the proposed method, eliminating low order harmonics in the load current.