Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Line Tension on the Lateral Organization of Lipid Membranes*

The principles of organization and functioning of cellular membranes are currently not well understood. The raft hypothesis suggests the existence of domains or rafts in cell membranes, which behave as protein and lipid platforms. They have a functional role in important cellular processes, like protein sorting or cell signaling, among others. Theoretical work suggests that the interfacial energy at the domain edge, also known as line tension, is a key parameter determining the distribution of domain sizes, but there is little evidence of how line tension affects membrane organization. We have investigated the effects of the line tension on the formation and stability of liquid ordered domains in model lipid bilayers with raft-like composition by means of time-lapse confocal microscopy coupled to atomic force microscopy. We varied the hydrophobic mismatch between the two phases, and consequently the line tension, by modifying the thickness of the disordered phase with phosphatidylcholines of different acyl chain length. The temperature of domain formation, the dynamics of domain growth, and the distribution of domain sizes depend strongly on the thickness difference between the domains and the surrounding membrane, which is related to line tension. When considering line tension calculated from a theoretical model, our results revealed a linear increase of the temperature of domain formation and domain growth rate with line tension. Domain budding was also shown to depend on height mismatch. Our experiments contribute significantly to our knowledge of the physical-chemical parameters that control membrane organization. Importantly, the general trends observed can be extended to cellular membranes.
Income, Income Inequality and the “Hidden Epidemic” of Traffic Fatalities

Few, if any, epidemics responsible for 20 million severe injuries and/or deaths each year, globally, receive less public attention than do traffic accidents truly making them a “hidden epidemic”. Worse yet, the epidemic is growing as evidenced by World Health Organization data which show deaths from traffic accidents increasing by 20 percent between 1990 and 2002. In this paper we examine how a country’s stage of development and its distribution of income affect its traffic fatality rate. In our theoretical analysis, we show that traffic fatalities should have a nonlinear relationship with a country’s level of per capita income while being a decreasing function of income equality. We test our model’s predictions by evaluating data from 79 countries between 1970 and 2000, taking into account other factors that influence traffic fatalities like the motorization rate, health care networks, education, and alcohol consumption and find strong evidence of the theoretical model’s predictions. Specifically, the empirical results indicate that traffic fatalities are negatively related to income equality throughout its range and also are negatively related to per capita income, above a threshold of about $11,500.
Hmga2 is dispensable for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

Hmga2 functions as a chromatin‐associated factor during development, but is not expressed in most adult tissues. Expression of Hmga2 in adult tissues has been associated with a variety of human cancers. Numerous studies have implicated Hmga2 in epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cancer progression through gain of function studies, but it is unclear whether Hgma2 is necessary for EMT, tumor formation or tumor progression. We deleted Hmga2 in two mouse models of squamous cell carcinoma and found this gene to be dispensable. In fact, EMT, tumor initiation and progression all appeared to be mostly unaffected by the absence of Hmga2. Tumors lacking the ability to induce Hmga2 proceeded to initiate cutaneous spindle cell and squamous cell carcinomas with all the typical pathological and molecular hallmarks of these cancers.
Short sleep duration and its association with energy metabolism

A growing body of observational evidence suggests that short sleep duration is a risk factor for the development of obesity. Although increased energy intake is the most prevailing causal explanation for this association, we should also consider possible effects on energy metabolism to understand fully the potential impact of short sleep duration on the regulation of energy balance. We performed a search of the literature from 1970 to 2011, including original papers, investigating the relation between short sleep and energy metabolism in animals and humans. Although the limited number of experimental studies in humans precludes any definitive conclusions about causality, short sleep duration does not seem to substantially affect total daily energy expenditure, nor is there sufficient evidence in support of any meaningful effect of restricted sleep on the specific components of energy metabolism (i.e. resting metabolic rate, intentional as well as unintentional physical activity, diet‐induced thermogenesis, and substrate utilization). As studies on rats suggest that other factors that can potentially influence energy metabolism could be affected (i.e. hormonal systems and thermoregulation), we included these factors in our literature search and found some indications in support of an up‐regulation of thyroid hormones and glucocorticoids as well as increased heat dissipation following total or severe sleep deficit. Although we found some evidence also in humans that suggests a possible effect on energy metabolism, the limitations of the studies make it difficult to draw conclusions on the effect of short sleep on energy metabolism under relevant free living conditions. To explore this area further, more studies using suitable methodology under relevant conditions to mimic real‐life situations are needed.
Severe hypoglycemia in critically ill patients: Risk factors and outcomes*

Objective:To determine the risk factors for development of severe hypoglycemia (defined as glucose <40 mg/dL) in critically ill patients and define the outcomes of this complication. Design:Retrospective database review, including a case-control analysis that matched each patient with severe hypoglycemia with three controls. Setting:Adult intensive care unit of a university-affiliated community hospital. Patients:A total of 102 patients with at least one episode of severe hypoglycemia extracted from a series of 5,365 medical, surgical, and cardiac patients admitted consecutively between October 1, 1999, and June 15, 2006. Interventions:A program of intensive glycemic monitoring and management, or tight glycemic control, was implemented on February 1, 2003; 2,666 patients were treated before and 2,699 after this date. Measurements and Main Results:Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified diabetes, septic shock, renal insufficiency, mechanical ventilation, severity of illness, reflected by Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score with the age component deleted, and treatment in the tight glycemic control period as independent risk factors for the development of severe hypoglycemia. Mortality was 55.9% among the 102 patients with severe hypoglycemia and 39.5% among the 306 controls (p = .0057). Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified severe hypoglycemia as an independent predictor of mortality for the entire cohort (odds ratio, 2.28; 95% confidence interval, 1.41–3.70; p = .0008). Among patients with severe hypoglycemia, only modified Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score and mechanical ventilation were identified as independent predictors of mortality. A sensitivity analysis was constructed that suggested that quadrupling the rate of severe hypoglycemia and doubling the mortality attributable to severe hypoglycemia would negate the survival benefit of tight glycemic control in this series. Conclusions:Case-control methodology and multivariable logistic regression analysis concurred that even a single episode of severe hypoglycemia was independently associated with increased risk of mortality. Safe implementation of tight glycemic control requires appropriate monitoring to reduce the risk of this complication.
Des relations trophiques à l'état de santé : allocation d'énergie chez les thons tropicaux – Cas de l'Ouest de l'océan Indien

Les thons tropicaux (thon jaune, thon obese et bonite a ventre raye) sont des especes largement exploitees dont un quart des prises mondiales provient de l'ocean Indien. Captures en bancs mixtes a la senne, ces predateurs de haut niveau trophique presentent une physiologie particuliere (e.g. thermoregulation partielle, nage obligatoire) mais differents traits de vie (e.g. taille maximale, strategie de reproduction). L’objectif est ici de contribuer a une meilleure comprehension de l'allocation d'energie chez ces especes. Pour cela un echantillonnage mensuel a ete mis en place en 2013 aux Seychelles, de maniere a collecter des thons sur une large gamme de taille et de conditions environnementales. Un premier travail methodologique nous a conduit a etudier l'effet de la teneur en lipides sur les valeurs isotopiques, et nous avons montre que l'utilisation d'equation de correction du taux de lipides lors des analyses isotopiques necessite un ajustement specifique. Au travers de traceurs ecologiques (isotopes stables du carbone et de l'azote et acides gras), une comparaison trophique des trois especes a montre qu'elles n'exploitent pas exactement les memes ressources energetiques, notamment grâce a un changement alimentaire au cours de l'ontogenie. Ce changement se traduit par l'assimilation de proies plus riches en acides gras mono-insatures pour les individus superieurs a 100 cm FL. L'etude des contenus en lipides et proteines de quatre tissus aux fonctions physiologiques differentes (muscles blanc et rouge, foie et gonades) a montre que ces especes font peu de reserves energetiques et uniquement dans le foie et le muscle rouge. Les mâles consacrent egalement moins d'energie que les femelles a la synthese de cellules germinales. D'autre part, seul l'indice gonado-somatique permet de rendre compte de variations energetiques, les autres indices testes (facteur de condition de Le Cren, indice hepato-somatique et circonference) sont de mauvais proxies du contenu energetique des tissus. Enfin, l'etude des acides gras membranaires indique une incorporation particuliere du 20:4n-6 et du 22:6n-3, dont le niveau varie avec l'ontogenie et selon les tissus. Une grande variabilite intra-specifique est cependant observee et suggere une certaine plasticite physiologique chez ces especes.
Tenure in supportive housing for homeless persons with severe mental illness.

OBJECTIVE The study examined the long-term effectiveness of approaches to housing homeless persons with serious mental illness. METHODS A total of 2,937 persons placed in high-, moderate, -and low-intensity housing were followed for up to five years. Intensity reflected on the amount of structure and degree of clients' independence. The outcome variable was tenure in housing. Cox stepwise regression was used to calculate risk ratios of becoming discontinuously housed. RESULTS Thirty percent of the sample were initially placed in high-intensity settings, 18 percent in moderate-intensity settings, and 52 percent in low-intensity settings. Those in high-intensity settings tended to be younger, to be referred from hospitals, and to have a history or diagnosis of substance abuse. Individuals in moderate-intensity settings were more likely to be female and were least likely to have substance abuse problems. Individuals in low-intensity settings were more likely to be referred by municipal shelters and to have lived in municipal shelters for four or more months. After one, two, and five years, 75 percent, 64 percent, and 50 percent, respectively, of the sample were continuously housed. Older age was associated with longer tenure, and having a history of substance abuse was associated with shorter tenure. Individuals referred from a state psychiatric center had a greater risk of shorter tenure than other types of referrals. CONCLUSIONS Results show that homeless persons with serious mental illness can remain in stable housing for periods of up to five years, supporting the premise that long-term residential stability can be enhanced by providing access to safe and affordable supportive housing.
Systematic Review of the Incidence and Characteristics of Preventable Adverse Drug Events in Ambulatory Care

Objective: To estimate the incidence and describe characteristics of preventable adverse drug events (pADEs) in ambulatory care. Data Sources: Studies were searched in PubMed (1966–March 2007), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (1970–December 2006), the Cochrane database of systematic reviews (1993–March 2007), EMBASE (1980–February 2007), and Web of Science (1945–March 2007). Key words included medication error, adverse drug reaction, iatrogenic disease, outpatient, ambulatory care, primary health care, general practice, patient admission, hospitalization, observational study, retrospective studies, health services research, and follow-up studies. Additional articles were found in the reference sections of retrieved articles. Study Selection and Data Extraction: Peer-reviewed articles assessing pADEs in ambulatory care, with detailed descriptions/frequency distributions of (1) ADE/pADE incidence, (2) clinical outcomes, (3) associated drug groups, and/or (4) underlying medication errors were included. Study country, year and design, sample size, follow-up time, ADE/pADE identification method, proportion of ADEs/pADEs and ADEs/pADEs requiring hospital admission, and frequency distribution of adverse outcome, associated drug groups, or medication errors were extracted. Data Synthesis: Twenty-nine studies met inclusion criteria: 14 were ambulatory-based and 15 were hospital-based. Seven studies enrolled only elderly patients. The median ADE incidence was 14.9 (range 4.0–91.3) per 1000 person-months, and the pADE incidence was 5.6 per 1000 person-months (1.1–10.1). The median ADE preventability rate was 21% (11–38%). The median incidence of ADEs requiring hospital admission was 0.45 (0.10–13.1) per 1000 person-months, and the median incidence of pADEs requiring hospital admission was 4.5 per 1000 person-months. Cardiovascular drugs, analgesics, and hypoglycemic agents together accounted for 86.5% of pADEs, and 77.2% of pADEs resulted in symptoms of the central nervous system, electrolyte/renal system, and gastrointestinal tract. Medication errors resulting in pADEs occurred in the prescribing and monitoring stages. The most frequent drug therapy problem and error of commission reported in ambulatory-based studies on pADEs was the use of inappropriate drugs (42.7%; 40.4–45%). For pADEs requiring hospital admission, the most frequent drug therapy problem and error of omission reported was inadequate monitoring (45.4%; range 22.2–69.8%). Failure to prescribe prophylaxis to patients taking nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs or antiplatelet drugs frequently caused gastrointestinal toxicity, whereas lack of monitoring of diuretic, hypoglycemic, and anticoagulant use caused over- or under-diuresis, hyper- or hypoglycemia, and bleeding. Conclusions: ADEs in ambulatory care are common, with many being preventable and many resulting in hospitalization. Quality improvement programs should target errors in prescribing and monitoring, especially for patients using cardiovascular, analgesic, and hypoglycemic agents.
CD72, a negative regulator of B‐cell responsiveness

The ability of lymphocytes to respond to antigenic or mitogenic stimulation is regulated not only by specific receptor proteins, but also by both positive and negative regulatory proteins that set or fine-tune the threshold for responsiveness. CD72 is one such regulatory protein on B lymphocytes. It is a member of the C-type lectin superfamily and is expressed on the surface of B cells from the pro-B through the mature B-cell stage. Studies with anti-CD72 antibodies have suggested a positive regulatory role for CD72 in B-cell activation. However, the cytoplasmic tail of CD72 contains two potential immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motifs, one of which has been shown to recruit the tyrosine phosphatase SHP- 1. These features suggest a negative regulatory role for CD72. We have generated CD72-deficient mice to elucidate the physiological role of CD72 in B-lymphocyte development and activation. Our analyses of these mice and their B-cell compartment demonstrate that CD72 is a nonredundant regulator of B-cell development and a negative regulator of B-cell responsiveness.
Glycinergic inhibition is essential for co‐ordinating cranial and spinal respiratory motor outputs in the neonatal rat

Eupnoeic breathing in mammals is dependent on the co‐ordinated activity of cranial and spinal motor outputs to both ventilate the lungs and adjust respiratory airflow, which they do by regulating upper‐airway resistance. We investigated the role of central glycinergic inhibition in the co‐ordination of cranial and spinal respiratory motor outflows. We developed an arterially perfused neonatal rat preparation (postnatal age 0–4 days) to assess the effects of blocking glycine receptors with systemically administered strychnine (0.5–1 μM). We recorded respiratory neurones located within the ventrolateral medulla, inspiratory phrenic nerve activity (PNA) and recurrent laryngeal nerve activity (RLNA), as well as dynamic changes in laryngeal resistance. Central recordings of postinspiratory neurones revealed an earlier onset in firing relative to the onset of inspiratory PNA after exposure to strychnine (260 ± 38.9 vs. 129 ± 26.8 ms). After glycine receptor blockade, postinspiratory neurones discharged during the inspiratory phase. Strychnine also evoked a decrease in PNA frequency (from 38.6 ± 4.7 to 30.7 ± 2.8 bursts min−1), but amplitude was unaffected. In control conditions, RLNA comprised inspiratory and postinspiratory discharges; the amplitude of the latter exceeded that of the former. However, after administration of strychnine, the amplitude of inspiratory‐related discharge increased (+65.2 ± 15.2%) and exceeded postinspiratory activity. Functionally this change in RLNA caused a paradoxical, inspiratory‐related glottal constriction during PNA. We conclude that during the first days of life in the rat, glycine receptors are essential for the formation of the eupnoeic‐like breathing pattern as defined by the co‐ordinated activity of cranial and spinal motor inspiratory and postinspiratory activities.
Postnatal development of the cerebellar cortex in the rat. I. The external germinal layer and the transitional molecular layer

The multiplication of cells in the proliferative zone of the external germinal layer and the early steps in the differentiation of basket, stellate and granule cells were studied in the cerebellar cortex of rats aged 0, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 21 and 30 days with histological, histochemical, autoradiographic and electron microscopic techniques. Between 0–9 days the proliferative zone has a constant depth of four to five cells; the bipolar cells in the underlying premigratory zone increase in depth during this period from 0–6 cells. Thereafter, there is a decline in the cell depth of both zones. In the premigratory zone there is a gradient in the length of the extruded processes of the bipolar cells (concentration of such profiles), the future parallel fibers. Presumably when the latter reach their final length, the cell body migrates downward and the parallel fiber becomes part of the upper zone of the molecular layer.
Partial discharge detection at delamination of electrode/epoxy interface in GIS spacers

Partial Discharge (PD) measurements are very promising for insulation condition monitoring in Gas Insulated Switchgears (GISs). However, for accurate PD detection and diagnosis, there is a need for better understanding of physical mechanisms behind PD activity. Accordingly, we have been investigating the PD characteristics and associated mechanisms for electrode/epoxy delamination of GIS spacers as one of the most serious defects in GIS. The gas pressure inside delamination usually changes from sub-atmospheric pressure, just after delamination initiates, to filled SF6 gas pressure in the GIS tank, after SF6 gas permeates into the delamination area. Therefore, in this paper, the PD activity at different gas pressures, from 0.02 MPa to 0.4 MPa, is acquired. The relative PD generation rate and its phase appearance are analyzed at different pressures and then discussed from the viewpoint of PD mechanism and PD detection. Experimental results show that, with increasing pressure, the peak of the PD generation rate shifts from around zero crossing like void-type discharge to around a peak of ac voltage, before PD pulses vanish at high pressure for the applied electric field stress. The obtained results could be useful for delamination diagnosis in GIS spacers.
A novel two degree-of-freedom Smith predictor for multivariable systems with multiple time delays

In this paper, a recently proposed multivariable Smith predictor scheme is modified, which leads to the remarkable improvement of regulatory capacity for both servo and regulatory performance. In the proposed scheme, a disturbance estimator is utilized to construct the closed-loop between the plant inputs and outputs for load disturbance rejection. As a result, the nominal set-point responses are decoupled from the load disturbance responses and both of which can be optimized independently. Since there is an open-loop control for the nominal set-point tracking, the nominal system stability can be easily identified. At the same time, robust stability analysis for the proposed control structure is provided in the presence of the process multiplicative uncertainties. Simulation example is included to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed control scheme.
Does the Link between Unemployment and Crime Depend on the Crime Level? A Quantile Regression Approach

Two alternative hypotheses – referred to as opportunity- and stigma-based behavior – suggest that the relationship between unemployment and crime also depends on preexisting local crime levels. In order to analyze conjectured nonlinearities between both variables, we are using quantile regressions applied to German county panel data. While both conventional OLS and quantile regressions confirm the positive link between unemployment and crime for property crimes, results for assault differ with respect to the method of estimation. Whereas conventional mean regressions do not show any significant effect (which would confirm the usual result found for violent crimes in the literature), quantile regression uncovers that size and importance of the relationship are conditional on the crime rate: The partial effect is significantly positive for moderately low and median quantiles of local assault rates.