Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Rivermead head injury follow up questionnaire: a study of a new rating scale and other measures to evaluate outcome after head injury.

OBJECTIVE--To develop and evaluate a short (10 item) simple measure of outcome mainly for use with patients with mild to moderate head injuries. DESIGN--Two studies on patients at three and six months after injury, comparing different methods of administration (two raters and postal questionnaire), and comparing ratings with other assessments. SUBJECTS--Forty three patients seen three months after injury and 46 seen six months after injury; both groups had head injuries covering a range of severity from minor to severe. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Differences between ratings in different groups of patients (Mann-Whitney U test); differences in ratings used different methods of administration (Wilcoxon signed rank test); and correlation between ratings from the same patient (Spearman r). RESULTS--The sum total ratings were consistent between raters and between methods (postal questionnaire v face to face interview) with no evidence of selective bias between rates or methods. Ratings on individual items were also reasonably consistent. The sum total rating varied as anticipated between groups divided by clinical judgement of recovery and patient assessment of recovery, and related as expected to the extent of post-concussion symptomatology. The 10 items included covered the most important problem areas reported by patients. CONCLUSION--The Rivermead head injury follow up questionnaire (RHFUQ) is a short, simple, adequately reliable, and valid measure of outcome, across the entire range of severity, but particularly after mild to moderate head injury.
Fragment-Based De Novo Design Reveals a Small-Molecule Inhibitor of Helicobacter Pylori HtrA.

Sustained identification of innovative chemical entities is key for the success of chemical biology and drug discovery. We report the fragment-based, computer-assisted de novo design of a small molecule inhibiting Helicobacter pylori HtrA protease. Molecular binding of the designed compound to HtrA was confirmed through biophysical methods, supporting its functional activity in vitro. Hit expansion led to the identification of the currently best-in-class HtrA inhibitor. The results obtained reinforce the validity of ligand-based de novo design and binding-kinetics-guided optimization for the efficient discovery of pioneering lead structures and prototyping drug-like chemical probes with tailored bioactivity.
A video-fiberscopic study of laryngopharyngeal behaviour in the human beatbox

Abstract The human beatbox is the art of reproducing all types of sounds with the mouth while ‘adapting’ them for better control. To understand how these ‘voice virtuosos’ juggle with so many different sounds—instrumental, rhythmic, and vocal—at the same time, we have performed a descriptive analysis of three beatboxers by observing their vocal tract behaviour by fiberscopic imaging using an OCM visual scale. From an anatomical-dynamic point of view, beatboxers mobilize all the structures of their laryngopharynx separately. With this first physiological study of the human beatbox, we could observe a well-developed laryngopharyngeal system with extreme articulatory configurations to perform their art.
Editorial: Behavioral Insights for a Sustainable Energy Transition

In December 2015, 195 countries adopted the Paris Agreement, which aims at a substantial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to keep the increase in global average temperature to 2°C or less. The successful implementation of this global energy transition does not only depend on the development of new energy technologies, but also requires major changes in the patterns of individual energyrelated choices and behaviors. The behavioral sciences can thus make important contributions to the energy transition by providing insights into the factors and mechanisms that underlie these behaviors. To this end, three main challenges need to be addressed: (1) to investigate and systematize the factors that influence energy-relevant choices and behaviors; (2) based on these insights, to develop and test interventions that promote more sustainable behavior; and (3) given that individual behavior takes place in a political and economic context, to integrate behavioral insights into the context of these larger systems. These challenges are taken up in the contributions of this research topic, which cover the fields of psychology, affective science, behavioral economics, economics, sociology, consumer behavior, business science, sociology, and political science. Here, we give an overview of the contributions and discuss some implications and recommendations for a successful energy transition.
Does tetracycline bind helix 2 of prion? An integrated spectroscopical and computational study of the interaction between the antibiotic and α helix 2 human prion protein fragments

We demonstrate here that tetracycline (TC) can strongly interact (KD′ = 189 ± 7 nM) with model peptides derived from the C‐terminal globular domain of the prion protein, hPrP [173‐195], and that interaction concerns residues within the C‐terminal half of the helix 2, a short region previously indicated as endowed with ambivalent conformational behavior and implicated in PrP conversion to the β‐sheet‐rich, infective scrapie variant. Data have been confirmed by binding studies with the N‐terminal truncated 180‐195 variant that displays a dissociation constant of 483 ± 30 nM. Remarkably, TC does not influence the structure of the N‐terminally fluoresceinated peptides that both show α‐helical conformations. Docking calculations and molecular dynamics simulations suggest a direct, strong interaction of the antibiotic with exposed side chain functional groups of threonines 190‐193 on the solvent‐exposed surface of helix 2. Proteins 2007 © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Experimental tissue cyst induced Toxoplasma gondii infections in dogs

Tissue cyst induced Toxoplasma gondii infections were examined in 2 beagle dogs orally inoculated with tissue cysts. Neither dog developed clinical signs of toxoplasmosis. Both dogs developed low antibody titers to T. gondii. The MAT and IFAT were superior to the LAT and IHT tests for detecting antibodies to T. gondii.
The impact of work environment on mood disorders and suicide: Evidence and implications

The purpose of this paper is to review the evidence estimating an impact of occupational factors on mood disorders and suicide, and the efficacy of interventions. This review is based on literature searches using Medline and Psych INFO from 1966 to 2007 (keywords: work stress, job insecurity, job strain, shift work, violence, occupational health, mood disorders, depression, and suicide). To establish the relationship between occupational variables and mood disorders, we focused on clinically significant disorders rather than depressive symptoms. During the last decade, prospective epidemiological studies have suggested a predictive association between the work environment and mood disorders. Recently, increasing numbers of clinical trials have shown favorable effect size of intervention and suggested preferable return-on-investment results. However, low awareness and social stigma still decrease workers access to treatment. Mental health professionals in conjunction with employers have to devise a creative system to make the quality care being offered more accessible to employees. In addition, further outcome data is needed to evaluate the benefit of managing mood disorders in the workplace, and to foster awareness of positive implications for employees, employers, their families, and the society at large. In addition, the work environment, with its chemical (e.g. chemosensory factors, pollutants), physical (e.g. lighting, noise, temperature, outdoor views and activities), biological (e.g., chronobiological factors, allergens, infectious agents), psychological (e.g. demand-control, effort-reward balance), social (e.g. cohesiveness, support), and organizational (e.g. leadership styles) component should meet minimal standards, and may improve with striving towards the optimum.
Social adaptability index predicts access to kidney transplantation

Goldfarb‐Rumyantzev AS, Sandhu GS, Baird BC, Khattak M, Barenbaum A, Hanto DW. Social adaptability index predicts access to kidney transplantation. Clin Transplant 2011: 25: 834–842. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
Reversal of drug‐resistance by cyclosporin‐A in a patient with acute myelocytic leukaemia

The emergence of resistant leukaemia in a patient with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) was evaluated during clinical progression of the disease. At relapse, a decrease of the intracellular accumulation of daunorubicin (DNR) as determined by real time flow cytometry was associated with a relative overexpression of RNA encoding for the multidrug resistance phenotype (MDR1), and by a decreased in vitro sensitivity to DNR of clonogenic AML cells (IC50 0.8‐3.4 μm). Intracellular DNR accumulation and in vitro DNR sensitivity could be completely restored by adding cyclosporin‐A (3 μm) to the cells. At progressive relapse the patient was treated with re‐induction therapy (DNR 30 mg/m2 x 3. cytarabine 200 mg/m2 x 7) to which cyclosporin‐A was added (Cy‐A 4 mg/kg twice daily for 3 d, 2.5 mg/kg twice daily for 2 d). which resulted in elimination of the MDR1 positive AML cells with restoration of the original DNR accumulation and in vitro sensitivity. After 12 weeks the resistant clone reappeared in the blood and bone marrow.
Prevalence, incidence and geographical distribution of serovars of Salmonella on dairy farms in England and Wales

A study of randomly selected dairy farms in England and Wales was made between October 1999 and February 2001 to estimate the prevalence and incidence of Salmonella serovars. The farms were enrolled through five milk-buying companies, which represented 63 per cent of the dairy farms in England and Wales, and they were sampled on up to four occasions (449 farms at visit 1, 272 farms at visit 2, 251 farms at visit 3 and 243 farms at visit 4). In total, 19,296 samples of pooled faecal pats and slurry were collected. The farm-specific prevalence of all serovars of Salmonella ranged from 12·1 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval [CI] 8·2 to 16·0 per cent) to 24·7 per cent (95 per cent CI 19·4 to 30·1 per cent) at each visit. The most common serovars identified were Salmonella Dublin (3·7 to 6·6 per cent farm-specific prevalence at each visit), Salmonella Agama (1·8 to 7·6 per cent) and Salmonella Typhimurium (2·6 to 4·1 per cent ) The prevalence varied by region and month of sampling and increased in late summer. The incidence rate of all serovars of Salmonella was 0·43 (95 per cent CI 0·34 to 0·54) cases per farm-year at risk. There was no significant difference between the incidence rates of the common serovars S Typhimurium (0·07), S Dublin (0·06) and S Agama (0·13). A total of 29 Salmonella serovars were isolated. Few of the isolates were resistant to the 16 antimicrobial agents tested, except the isolates of S Typhimurium DT104, of which 67·9 per cent were resistant to a least five of them.
Effectiveness of automatic shoulder belt systems in motor vehicle crashes.

CONTEXT Approximately 10 million cars with automatic shoulder belt systems are currently in use in the United States. However, reports on the effectiveness of such restraints have yielded conflicting results. OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness of automatic shoulder belt systems in reducing the risk of injury and death among front-seat passenger vehicle occupants. DESIGN, SETTING, AND SUBJECTS Analysis of data collected from the 1993-1996 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Crashworthiness Data System on front-seat occupants involved in 25,811 tow-away crashes of passenger cars, light trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Death and serious injury to specific body areas by use of manual lap and shoulder belts, automatic shoulder belts with manual lap belts, or automatic shoulder belts without lap belts, compared with no restraint use. RESULTS Use of automatic shoulder belts without lap belts was associated with a decrease in the risk of death vs no restraint use but was not statistically significant for all crashes (odds ratio [OR], 0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.42-1.06) or for frontal crashes (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.38-1.35) after adjustment for occupant age, sex, vehicle year, air-bag deployment, estimated change in vehicle speed during the crash, and principal direction of force. This association was significantly weaker than the 86% lower risk observed for use of automatic shoulder belts with lap belts (OR, 0.14; 95% CI, 0.07-0.26 vs no restraint; P<.05). Use of automatic shoulder belts without lap belts was associated with an increased risk of serious chest (OR, 2.66; 95% CI, 1.11-6.35) and abdominal (OR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.004-4.22) injuries for all crashes. CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that improperly used automatic restraint systems may be less effective than properly used systems and are associated with an increased risk of serious chest and abdominal injuries. Given the continued widespread use of these automatic systems, educational programs may be warranted. JAMA. 2000;283:2826-2828
No . E 2013 / 13 Fiscal Policy and the Nominal Term Premium Lorant Kaszab and Ales Marsal

Distortionary income taxation in a standard New Keynesian model substantially increases the nominal term-premium on long-term bonds relative to a model with lumpsum taxes. Also the empirical level of the nominal term premium can be matched with lower risk-aversion coe¢ cient in case of a model with income taxes relative to a model with long-run ination risks.
Catalytic and synergistic antibacterial potential of green synthesized silver nanoparticles: Their ecotoxicological evaluation on Poecillia reticulata

In the present study, stable silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were fabricated at a rapid rate from leaf extract of medicinally important plant Alstonia macrophylla. Biosynthesized AgNPs are of spherical shape and narrow size (70 nm), exhibiting a surface plasmon resonance peak at 435 nm, and a zeta potential of –30.8 mV and have a crystalline nature. A diverse biochemical consortium of protein, terpenoids, phenolics, and flavonoids in leaf extract of A. macrophylla was found to be responsible for AgNP synthesis as evidenced from qualitative–quantitative chemical analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies. Nitroaromatic compounds are anthropogenic pollutants with long‐lasting environmental persistence and are needed to transform into less toxic derivatives. 4‐Nitrophenol and p‐nitroaniline were reduced to less hazardous and commercially useful 4‐aminophenol and p‐phenylenediamine by phytosynthesized AgNPs. Rate constants of 0.052 and 0.040 Min−1 were calculated for 4‐nitrophenol and p‐nitroaniline reduction, respectively. Thin‐layer chromatography also confirms the reduction of these nitroaromatic compounds. Combinational studies could be one of the strategies to overcome microbial resistance to antibiotics. In synergistic antibacterial assay, the highest increase in a fold area of 3.84 was reported against Staphylococcus aureus using a combination of AgNPs with penicillin. Biosynthesized AgNPs were found to be less toxic (LC50 = 9.13 ppm) than chemically synthesized AgNPs having a LC50 value of 2.86 ppm against nontarget fish Poecillia reticulata. Our green nanosynthesis method offers a faster rate of formation of stable AgNPs having antibacterial and catalytic potential with lower environmental toxicity.
Upf1p, Nmd2p, and Upf3p Regulate the Decapping and Exonucleolytic Degradation of both Nonsense-Containing mRNAs and Wild-Type mRNAs

ABSTRACT In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, rapid degradation of nonsense-containing mRNAs requires the decapping enzyme Dcp1p, the 5′-to-3′ exoribonuclease Xrn1p, and the three nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) factors, Upf1p, Nmd2p, and Upf3p. To identify specific functions for the NMD factors, we analyzed the mRNA decay phenotypes of yeast strains containing deletions of DCP1 orXRN1 and UPF1, NMD2, or UPF3. Our results indicate that Upf1p, Nmd2p, and Upf3p regulate decapping and exonucleolytic degradation of nonsense-containing mRNAs. In addition, we show that these factors also regulate the same processes in the degradation of wild-type mRNAs. The participation of the NMD factors in general mRNA degradation suggests that they may regulate an aspect of translation termination common to all transcripts.
Regional cerebellar volume and cognitive function from adolescence to late middle age

Cerebellar morphology and function have been implicated in a variety of developmental disorders, and in healthy aging. Although recent work has sought to characterize the relationships between volume and age in this structure during adolescence, young, and older adulthood, there have been no investigations of regional cerebellar volume from adolescence through late middle age. Middle age in particular has been largely understudied, and investigating this period of the lifespan may be especially important for our understanding of senescence. Understanding regional patterns of cerebellar volume with respect to age during this portion of the lifespan may provide important insight into healthy aging and cognitive function as well as pathology from adolescence into later life. We investigated regional cerebellar volume using a highly novel lobular segmentation approach in conjunction with a battery of cognitive tasks in a cross‐sectional sample of 123 individuals from 12 to 65 years old. Our results indicated that regional cerebellar volumes show different patterns with respect to age. In particular, the more posterior aspect of the neocerebellum follows a quadratic “inverse‐U” pattern while the vermis and anterior cerebellum follow logarithmic patterns. In addition, we quantified the relationships between age and a variety of cognitive assessments and found relationships between regional cerebellar volumes and performance. Finally, exploratory analyses of sex differences in the relationships between regional cerebellar volume, age, and cognition were investigated. Taken together, these results provide key insights into the development and aging of the human cerebellum, and its role in cognitive function across the lifespan. Hum Brain Mapp 36:1102–1120, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Colony-stimulating factor 1-dependent resident macrophages play a regulatory role in fighting Escherichia coli fecal peritonitis

Osteopetrotic op/op mice have less than 5% of the normal number of macrophages in the peritoneal cavity (W. Wiktor-Jedrzejczak, A. Ahmed, C. Szczylik, and R.R. Skelly, J. Exp. Med. 156:1516-1527, 1982). Fecal peritonitis was induced by intraperitoneal injection of 0.5 ml of 5% autoclaved feces in saline along with Escherichia coli grown from feces of mice of the same colony and added in doses ranging between 10 and 10(6) CFU. Such infection led to a septic shock and either was lethal within 24 h or became cured without additional treatment of the mice. The op/op mice survived administration of 30-times-smaller doses of bacteria compared with their normal littermates. Analysis of the kinetics of cellular changes in the peritoneal cavity associated with such infection revealed that this increased susceptibility of macrophage-deficient mice cannot be explained by a direct role of macrophages in combating the infection. Instead, it appeared that the increased susceptibility to fatal fecal peritonitis was most likely due to delayed and impaired recruitment of neutrophils to the site of infection in mutant mice. The increased susceptibility of the op/op mice to E. coli fecal peritonitis was not due to their possible increased sensitivity to endotoxin, since the mutant mice tolerated lipopolysaccharide doses more than twice those tolerated by control littermates. On the other hand, their susceptibility to exogenous tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-1 alpha was increased. Both mutant op/op and control mice were able to survive secondary challenge with 10(6) E. coli (administered along with feces) lethal for both types of mice on primary challenge. These data suggest that colony-stimulating factor 1-dependent resident peritoneal macrophages play a role in controlling primary infection by recruiting neutrophils and are not required for efficient response to secondary infection.
Novel Insights into Regulation of Asparagine Synthetase in Conifers

Asparagine, a key amino acid for nitrogen storage and transport in plants, is synthesized via the ATP-dependent reaction catalyzed by the enzyme asparagine synthetase (AS; EC 6.3.5.4). In this work, we present the molecular analysis of two full-length cDNAs that encode asparagine synthetase in maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.), PpAS1, and PpAS2. Phylogenetic analyses of the deduced amino acid sequences revealed that both genes are class II AS, suggesting an ancient origin of these genes in plants. A comparative study of PpAS1 and PpAS2 gene expression profiles showed that PpAS1 gene is highly regulated by developmental and environmental factors, while PpAS2 is expressed constitutively. To determine the molecular mechanisms underpinning the differential expression of PpAS1, the promoter region of the gene was isolated and putative binding sites for MYB transcription factors were identified. Gel mobility shift assays showed that a MYB protein from Pinus taeda (PtMYB1) was able to interact with the promoter region of PpAS1. Furthermore, transient expression analyses in pine cells revealed a negative effect of PtMYB1 on PpAS1 expression. The potential role of MYB factors in the transcriptional regulation of PpAS1 in vascular cells is discussed.
Determinants of housing bubbles' duration in OECD countries

We study the determinants of housing price bubbles' duration for a set of OECD countries between 1970 and 2015. Our topic of study is of major importance, as duration is a proxy for other dimensions, such as the magnitude of bubbles, the extent of macroeconomic imbalances, and the chance that a rational bubble turns into an irrational one. We answer two related questions: (i) Does prolonged domestic monetary‐policy easing increase the duration of housing price bubbles? (ii) Does prolonged monetary‐policy easing in the United States influence the housing bubbles' duration in other OECD countries? We show that the answer to the first question is a clear yes but that the answer to the second question is not as clear. Our main result is that monetary‐policy tightening can accelerate the termination of a housing bubble. In this sense, our findings provide support for ‘leaning against the wind’ policies.