Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using NMR and molecular dynamics to link structure and dynamics effects of the universal base 8-aza, 7-deaza, N8 linked adenosine analog

A truly universal nucleobase enables a host of novel applications such as simplified templates for PCR primers, randomized sequencing and DNA based devices. A universal base must pair indiscriminately to each of the canonical bases with little or preferably no destabilization of the overall duplex. In reality, many candidates either destabilize the duplex or do not base pair indiscriminatingly. The novel base 8-aza-7-deazaadenine (pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidin- 4-amine) N8-(2′deoxyribonucleoside), a deoxyadenosine analog (UB), pairs with each of the natural DNA bases with little sequence preference. We have utilized NMR complemented with molecular dynamic calculations to characterize the structure and dynamics of a UB incorporated into a DNA duplex. The UB participates in base stacking with little to no perturbation of the local structure yet forms an unusual base pair that samples multiple conformations. These local dynamics result in the complete disappearance of a single UB proton resonance under native conditions. Accommodation of the UB is additionally stabilized via heightened backbone conformational sampling. NMR combined with various computational techniques has allowed for a comprehensive characterization of both structural and dynamic effects of the UB in a DNA duplex and underlines that the UB as a strong candidate for universal base applications.
Design and analysis of a novel modular six-phase linear permanent-magnet vernier machine

This paper proposes a novel modular linear primary permanent-magnet vernier (LPPMV) machine. With PMs and windings placed on the primary side, this machine possesses a simple secondary side, suitable for long stroke applications such as urban rail transit. Owing to its appropriate primary structure and the Halbach PM arrays, the proposed LPPMV machine offers higher force density, higher back-EMF and lower harmonic compared to the existing one. Its performance is predicted for verification by using finite-element method.
The Underlying Mechanisms of Endovascular Exclusion of Intracranial Aneurysms by Coils

Endovascular coil treatment of intracranial aneurysms is now widely accepted. We discuss some of the arguments for the relative roles of electrothrombosis, spontaneous thrombosis, mechanical filling, haemodynamic effects and surface properties in successful coil treatment. Despite an enormous body of literature, with many theories and much data, there is limited evidence for, or understanding of, the mechanisms by which coil treatment protects against aneurysm rupture. It seems likely that electrothrombosis plays no part. Dense packing is probably important in preventing recurrence. New technologies aiming to encourage endothelialisation and increased connective tissue formation appear promising.
The Role of Spasticity in Functional Neurorehabilitation-Part II: Nonpharmacologicaland Pharmacological Management: A MultidisciplinaryApproach

The symptom/clinical sign of spasticity constitutes a negative factor when considering FNR for both the quadruped animal and the human biped. The existence of multidisciplinary protocols, based on neuroscience, is essential for patients to develop a coordinated motor function. Thus, a multi-modal approach to spastic movement disorder is required. In the quadruped animal an association between thermotherapy, transcutaneous eletrical stimulation (TENS) (50 Hz for 30 minutes) and resistance training in the under water treadmill (UWTM), followed by passive stretches, for 5 days a week during the initial stages of spasticity, has a significant and positive impact in patients’ motor coordination and functionality. It is possible to assume, through clinical evidence, that, by neuroanatomical comparison, similar protocols will reveal the same level of success if applied to the human biped. An early intervention, associated to a multimodal approach of stretching, thermotherapy, TENS and UWTM allows for a successful FNR. To complete the multidisciplinary approach, in the more severe cases it is possible to provide pharmacological support for the management of neuropathic pain and muscular relaxation. This support can be either local (botulinum toxin) or systemic.
A new arrival: evidence about differential diagnosis

You are a primary care physician seeing a 53 year old man who was examined 2 days ago in an emergency department for an episode of syncope. He had been waiting in a long queue when he felt lightheaded and nauseated; then he lost consciousness, with no witnessed seizure activity. He has been healthy, with no known cardiac or neurological disease. In the emergency department, his vital signs and findings on cardiac and neurological examinations had been normal, as were his blood count, blood glucose concentration, and 12 lead electrocardiogram. He was given no diagnosis, and he is now worried about what caused this episode and whether it will recur. Of the many causes of syncope, you wonder which should be sought in this patient. “Differential diagnosis” refers to the methods by which we consider the possible causes of patients' clinical findings before making final diagnoses.1, 2 At its heart, differential diagnosis involves acts of selection: we consider a patient's illness and choose which disorders to pursue further. Is there high quality research that could guide our selections, such as evidence about the frequency of disorders that can cause clinical problems like syncope? If so, wouldn't it be grand if someone would find it, summarise it, and tell us about it? Beginning with this issue, Evidence-Based Medicine will do just that—search for the best new evidence about differential …
A randomized controlled trial comparing medical and expectant management of first trimester miscarriage.

BACKGROUND We aimed to determine whether outpatient treatment of miscarriage with vaginal misoprostol is more effective than expectant management in reducing the need for surgical evacuation of retained products of conception (ERPC). METHODS Of 131 eligible women with first trimester miscarriage, 104 agreed to randomization to either 600 microg misoprostol or placebo intravaginally. They were assessed the following day and administered a second dose of their allocated treatment if miscarriage was not complete. Those not successful after two doses were seen on day 7, and, if miscarriage was not complete, an ERPC was performed. RESULTS The success rate of medical management was 88.5% (46/52) compared with 44.2% (23/52) for expectant management. There was no significant difference in success rate (100 versus 85.7%) in women treated with an incomplete miscarriage. Women with early pregnancy failure had a success rate of 87% with misoprostol compared with 29% with expectant management [odds ratio (OR) 15.96; 95% confidence interval (CI) 5.26, 48.37]. The complete miscarriage rate was achieved quicker in the medical group than the expectant group by day 1 (32.7 versus 5.8%) and by day 2 (73.1 versus 13.5%) of treatment. There were no differences in side-effects, bleeding duration, analgesia use, pain score and satisfaction with treatment. Women in the expectant group made more outpatient visits (5.06 versus 4.44%; OR = -0.62, 95% CI -1.04, -0.19). More women in the medical group (90.4 versus 73.1%; OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.05, 1.50) would elect the same treatment in the future. CONCLUSIONS Medical management using 600 microg misoprostol vaginally is more effective than expectant management of early pregnancy failure. Misoprostol did not increase the side-effect profile and patient acceptability was superior to expectant management.
Chronological and Clinical Characteristics of Apnea Associated With Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection: A Retrospective Case Series

Objective Infants with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection are at risk for developing apnea. The authors compared patients with RSV infection who develop apnea with those who do not, to help ambulatory physicians risk stratify their patients with RSV infection. Methods Entry criteria were age less than 1 year, RSV infection, and presentation to the authors' pediatric emergency departments. Random and weighted sampling techniques were used to identify the study group and provide the control sample. Charts were abstracted for 34 clinical variables. Results The study group consisted of 42 patients with apnea, and the control group consisted of 198 patients without apnea. Logistic regression analysis identified 2 independent variables associated with apnea: young age and presentation with apnea. Most patients with apnea were less than 2 months of age and were ill for less than 5 days. Conclusions Age and duration of illness may help clinicians determine which previously healthy infants are at risk for apnea.
Fast global motion estimation algorithm based on elementary motion detectors

This paper presents a fast global motion estimation algorithm based on so called elementary motion detectors or EMD. EMD, modeling insect visual signal processing systems, have low computational complexity aspects and thus can be key components to realize such a fast global motion estimation algorithm. The developed algorithm is evaluated by being applied to various types of image sequences and is found to provide accurate estimation results.
Impaired wound healing in Cushing's syndrome: the role of heat shock proteins.

BACKGROUND Glucocorticoids impair wound healing and cause surgical morbidity. Heat shock proteins are essential to cellular stress tolerance and are associated with glucocorticoids. The adrenal heat shock protein response is under hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal-axis control, whereas the vascular response is associated with alpha-1 receptors. Because heat shock proteins affect cellular stress responses and are under hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal-axis control in other tissues, we postulated an association between heat shock proteins and glucocorticoids in healing wounds. METHODS Modified Hunt-Schilling wound chambers were implanted subcutaneously in rats. They received subcutaneous time-release dexamethasone (25 mg) or placebo pellets. Wound chamber heat shock protein 25 and heat shock protein 72/73 were serially assayed for 21 days with western analysis and immunocytochemistry. RESULTS Dexamethasone caused Cushing's syndrome with approximately 10% weekly weight-loss and adrenal atrophy. Total wound tissue decreased 90% with profound differences in molecular wound responses manifested by decreased heat shock protein 25, 72, and 73 in animals treated with dexamethasone despite equal protein loads. Furthermore, dexamethasone caused heat shock protein 72 redistribution by immunocytochemistry. CONCLUSIONS This study represents the first description of heat shock proteins in a wound healing model and demonstrates tissue-specific decrease of heat shock proteins with glucocorticoid therapy. Thus the heat shock protein response is intimately associated with normal wound healing and is profoundly altered in subjects with Cushing's syndrome. Manipulation of this response may have clinical importance in wound healing.
Comparison of TCAs and SSRIs in the Treatment of Major Depression in Hospitalized Geriatric Patients

This study compares a cohort of hospitalized geriatric patients with major depression, treated with tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), with a cohort of patients treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The groups were compared on demographic, treatment, and outcome variables. Demographically, the groups were similar and did not differ on measures of outcome or risk for side effects. We conclude that SSRIs are equal to TCAs in the treatment of major depression in hospitalized geriatric patients.
Physiologic properties and somatotopic organization of the primate motor thalamus.

1. To examine the functional organization of the primate "motor" thalamus, neuronal activity was studied systematically in awake behaving monkeys throughout the nucleus ventralis lateralis, pars oralis (VLo), nucleus ventralis posterior lateralis, pars oralis (VPLo), ventralis lateralis, pars caudalis (VLc), and portions of ventralis anterior (VA) and Area X. In addition, portions of the sensory nucleus ventralis posterior lateralis, pars caudalis (VPLc) were explored. Isolated neurons were examined for their responses to somatosensory examination and active movement (n = 919) and for their response to torque-induced joint displacements (n = 375). A total of 684 neurons was determined histologically to lie within specific subnuclei of the motor (n = 574) or sensory (n = 110) thalamus. 2. The sensorimotor response properties of neurons in the thalamic subnuclei showed clear differences in their response to somatosensory examination. In order of decreasing frequency, the percent of neurons responding to passive somatosensory examination in each subnucleus were as follows: VPLc, 96% (106/110), VPLo, 93% (252/270), VLc, 77% (43/56), VLo, 37% (59/155), Area X, 22% (12/53), and VA, 12% (5/40). Conversely, neurons that responded only to active movement were most frequent in VLo, 44% (68/155), VA, 45% (18/40), and Area X, 40% (21/53) and relatively infrequent in VLc 11% (6/56) and VPLo, 3% (7/270). In VPLc, no neurons were found that responded only to active movement (0/110). 3. A well-defined somatotopic organization was found in VLo, VPLo, and VPLc and was suggested strongly for VLc. Individual body regions were represented in a series of lamellae, organized in a partial onion skin-like arrangement with the leg represented in the outermost lamella, and the trunk, arm, and orofacial regions represented in successively deeper lamellae. In general the body representations, although present for each subnucleus thoroughly examined, i.e., VLo, VPLo, and VPLc, also were contiguous across subnuclei. Based on the available data, a clear somatotopic picture could not be discerned for Area X or VA. 4. Responses to torque application were more common in neurons in VPLo (77%; 60/78) and VLc (73%; 16/22) than in VLo (44%; 12/27). Mean latencies were shortest for neurons in VPLo (25 +/- 14 ms; mean +/- SD) and the bordering (shell) region of VPLc (22 +/- 15 ms) and were approximately twice as long in VLc (51 +/- 23 ms) and VLo (47 +/- 21 ms). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Quality Assessment of Facial Images

Quality assessment of facial images differs from the traditional quality assessment of image and video signals with regards to its multiple goals such as to ensure its fidelity to the human visual system (HVS) model, to predict matching performance, to generate feedback on image acquisition, to guard the enrollment process, and to provide a weight for merging multimodal biometrics. In this paper, we present a quality assessment framework that complies with the requirements of ISO/IEC 19794-5 for facial biometrics and additionally ensures optimal recognition performance. This framework employs a novel classification-based score normalization process for various quality metrics and includes techniques to fuse those individual quality scores into an overall quality score which is shown to be correlated to the genuine match scores of the Facelt face recognition engine. We confirm the effectiveness of this overall quality score at satisfying multiple goals by first parameterizing ROC curves with average database quality to show the predictive nature of the metric and secondly by showing the consistency between this overall quality score and human perception of image quality.
Comparison of the health condition between the 8020 achievers and the 8020 non-achievers.

AIM To review of the difference in the health condition between 8020 achievers and 8020 non-achievers covering 25 papers which were published mainly in Japan. BACKGROUND A campaign targeting the elderly to retain at least 20 teeth by the time they reach the age of 80 years (8020) has been in place since 1991 in Japan. RESULTS The percentage of 8020 achievers increased from 10.9% in 1993, 15.3% in 1999 and 24.1% in 2005. The 8020 achievers had a tendency towards a strict upbringing and were not fond of sweets in their childhood. Physical indices such as height, weight, BMI score, bone mineral density, balance ability, grip strength, and exercise function in the 8020 achievers were better than the 8020 non-achievers. A close inverse relationship between the number of teeth and heart rate was recognised. The food intake survey showed that 8020 achievers ate many kinds of food. However, these foods were those with less kilocalories and lower levels of carbohydrate. The 8020 achievers had good activity in daily life (ADL) level, were satisfied with life, and had a higher cumulative survival rate. Oral health conditions including periodontal condition, masticatory ability, occlusal force, occlusal and maxillofacial forms in the 8020 achievers were better than the 8020 non-achievers.
Regional Integration in China: Incentive, Pattern, and Growth

We analyze the incentive, effects of regional integration (or local protection) in current China in the dynamic context by using an R&D-based endogenous growth model. Given specific assumptions on the endogenous growth model refined from Chinese characteristics, we show that economic integration always makes both regions better off. Even with completely local protection for commodities flow but having technology flow, the new balanced growth rate for two regions under integration are still higher that that under autarky. However, in the poor region with assumed low level of technology its R&D sector will diminish eventually, and its human capital in the R&D sector will move to the R&D sector in the rich region or the manufacturing sectors, in this case. Under completely economic integration with free commodities and technology flow, the new balanced growth rate is higher and the human capital in the R&D sector in both regions will be same as before integration. That is the incentive for close economic integration. The interesting thing we show is the possibility to have a worst situation that both regions have the same level of technology and there is completely local protection. Then the balanced growth rate will be lower than that under autarky.
Effectiveness of intramuscular penicillin versus oral amoxicillin in the early treatment of outpatient pediatric pneumonia

Objective: To determine if intramuscular (IM) penicillin is more effective than oral (PO) amoxicillin in the early outpatient treatment of pediatric patients with presumed bacterial pneumonia. Methods: Prospective, randomized, evaluator‐blinded, clinical trial. Setting: Pediatric emergency department (ED) of an urban children's hospital. Patients: ED patients with radiographically confirmed pneumonias managed as outpatients. Patients with chronic illnesses, wheezing, allergy to amoxicillin or penicillin, recent antibiotic therapy, or concurrent diagnosis of another febrile illness were excluded. Interventions: Patients received either a two‐day supply of PO amoxicillin (50 mg/kg/day divided tid), or an IM injection of procaine penicillin G (PPG) (50,000 units/kg). They had a complete blood count (CBC), blood culture, and nasopharyngeal swab for viral culture done at initial visit. They returned in 24 to 36 hours for reevaluation. Outcome measures: The main measures were temperature, respiratory rate, and general appearance score; additional measures were accessory muscle use, pulse oximetry, parental report of activity/oral intake. Results: One hundred seventy patients were enrolled. There were no significant differences between the two groups at initial or follow‐up visits with respect to temperature, respiratory rate, accessory muscle use, pulse oximetry, or parental reports of activity level and oral intake. Only in the general appearance of children less than two years of age did there appear to be a difference (P = 0.03). When subanalysis excluded patients with positive viral studies (n = 17) or chest x‐rays “reread” by an attending pediatric radiologist as “no infiltrate” (n = 29), this difference disappeared (P = 0.10). Three patients in the PO group, and five in the IM group failed by all three main outcome measures (P = 1.00). Four patients in the PO group, and five in the IM group were hospitalized at the follow‐up visit (P = 1.00). Conclusion: There does not appear to be a significant difference between PO amoxicillin and IM penicillin in the early outpatient treatment of pediatric patients with presumed bacterial pneumonia.
Genetic influence on the relation between exhaled nitric oxide and pulse wave reflection

Nitric oxide has an important role in the development of the structure and function of the airways and vessel walls. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) is inversely related to the markers and risk factors of atherosclerosis. We aimed to estimate the relative contribution of genes and shared and non-shared environmental influences to variations and covariation of FENO levels and the marker of elasticity function of arteries. Adult Caucasian twin pairs (n = 117) were recruited in Hungary, Italy and in the United States (83 monozygotic and 34 dizygotic pairs; age: 48 ± 16 SD years). FENO was measured by an electrochemical sensor-based device. Pulse wave reflection (aortic augmentation index, Aixao) was determined by an oscillometric method (Arteriograph). A bivariate Cholesky decomposition model was applied to investigate whether the heritabilities of FENO and Aixao were linked. Genetic effects accounted for 58% (95% confidence interval (CI): 42%, 71%) of the variation in FENO with the remaining 42% (95%CI: 29%, 58%) due to non-shared environmental influences. A modest negative correlation was observed between FENO and Aixao (r = −0.17; 95%CI:−0.32,−0.02). FENO showed a significant negative genetic correlation with Aixao (rg = −0.25; 95%CI:−0.46,−0.02). Thus in humans, variations in FENO are explained both by genetic and non-shared environmental effects. Covariance between FENO and Aixao is explained entirely by shared genetic factors. This is consistent with an overlap among the sets of genes involved in the expression of these phenotypes and provides a basis for further genetic studies on cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
Resistance Against the Membrane Attack Complex of Complement Induced in Porcine Endothelial Cells with a Galα(1–3)Gal Binding Lectin: Up-Regulation of CD59 Expression1

Endothelial cells (EC) play central roles in vascular physiology and pathophysiology. EC activation results in proinflammatory activities with production of cytokines and expression of adhesion molecules. However, we have shown before in a model of xenotransplantation that prolonged stimulation of porcine EC with human anti-porcine IgM natural Abs can activate the cells to become resistant against cytotoxicity by the membrane attack complex of complement (MAC). Now we report the major characteristics of induction and maintenance of resistance elicited in porcine EC with Bandeiraea simplicifolia lectin that binds terminal galα(1–3)gal. Lectin-treated cells underwent little or no cytotoxicity and PGI2 release when exposed to MAC. Induction of resistance required incubation of the EC with lectin for 4 h but was not fully manifested until 16 h later. Most of the initially bound lectin remained on the cell surface for >60 h. EC-bound lectin did not inhibit binding of IgM natural Abs or activation and binding of C components, including C9, but a C-induced permeability channel of reduced size was present. Induction of resistance required protein synthesis, developed slowly, and was associated with up-regulation of expression of mRNA for the MAC inhibitor CD59 and membrane-associated CD59 protein. Resistance lasted at least 3 days, and the cells regained normal morphology and were metabolically active. This induced resistance may have a physiologic counterpart that might be amenable to pharmacologic manipulation in vascular endothelium pathophysiology.