Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The β-Arrestins: Multifunctional Regulators of G Protein-coupled Receptors*

The β-arrestins (βarrs) are versatile, multifunctional adapter proteins that are best known for their ability to desensitize G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), but also regulate a diverse array of cellular functions. To signal in such a complex fashion, βarrs adopt multiple conformations and are regulated at multiple levels to differentially activate downstream pathways. Recent structural studies have demonstrated that βarrs have a conserved structure and activation mechanism, with plasticity of their structural fold, allowing them to adopt a wide array of conformations. Novel roles for βarrs continue to be identified, demonstrating the importance of these dynamic regulators of cellular signaling.
Reproducibility of the breath hydrogen measurement after a low and high fibre meal.

OBJECTIVE To assess the intra-subject variability of the breath hydrogen (H2) response to a low and a high fibre test meal. DESIGN Six week trial, consisting of three phases: screening (1 weeks), baseline period (1 week) and high fibre period (4 weeks). SETTING Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland. SUBJECTS Sixteen subjects from the hospital staff and student population were screened for breath methane (CH4) production. Seven non-CH4 producers, four males and three females, were included in the trial. All completed the study successfully. INTERVENTION Breath H2 and CH4 production were measured over a 12h period on duplicate test days after a low and high fibre meal. The high fibre meal was consumed for 4 weeks before the high fibre test days to allow for bacterial adaptation. The effect of the high fibre meal on stool output and whole gut transit time was furthermore assessed. RESULTS Individual differences in breath H2 area-under-the-curve between duplicate test days ranged from 4% to 39% after the low fibre meal and from 4% to 37% after the high fibre meal. Considerable variation was found to be inherent in the breath collection method. In two subjects, breath CH4 was detected in response to the test meals. Stool output and whole gut transit time remained unchanged. CONCLUSION Considerable differences were found between duplicate breath H2 responses to standard test meals. The variation inherent in the collection procedure emphasizes the need to collect breath samples at least in duplicate. The data presented here can be useful in future sample size calculations for similar studies.
Sensor Autonomous Navigation of a Humanoid Robot over Unknown Rough Terrain using a Laser Range

The present paper describes the integration of laser-based perception, footstep planning, and walking control of a humanoid robot for navigation over previously unknown rough terrain. A perception system that obtains the shape of the surrounding environment to an accuracy of a few centimeters is realized based on input obtained using a scanning laser range sensor. A footstep planner decides the sequence of stepping positions using the obtained terrain shape. A walking controller that can cope with a few centimeters of error in terrain shape measurement is achieved by combining the generation of a 40-ms cycle online walking pattern and a ground reaction force controller with sensor feedback. An operational interface was developed to send commands to the robot. A mixed-reality display was adopted to realize an intuitive interface. The navigation system was implemented on the HRP-2, a full-size humanoid robot. The performance of the proposed system for navigation over unknown rough terrain and the accuracy of the terrain shape measurement were investigated through several experiments.
A Cognitive Oriented Framework for IoT Big-data Management Prospective

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) environment continuously inspires any time-place-things connectivity of the smart objects in and around the universe. Day by day the rapid growth of enormous IoT objects and digital storage technology, lead to a large heterogeneous data depository, in which the IoT big-data are stored in the dissimilar database frameworks as a consequence of heterogeneous data sources. So due to large heterogeneous data sources, some incompatibilities like name, scale, structure, and level of abstraction are there in between the frameworks of IoT big-data that create threats to data management and knowledge discovery. So in this work, we need to propose a Cognitive Oriented IoT Big-data Framework (COIB-framework) along with implementation architecture, IoT big-data layering architecture, and a data organization framework for effective data management and knowledge discovery that cop-up with the large scale industrial automation applications. The discussion and analysis shows that the proposed framework and architectures creates a feasible solution in implementing IoT big-data based smart industrial applications.
On Conditioning of Constraints Arising from Variationally Consistent Discretization of Contact Problems and Duality Based Solvers

Abstract Variationally consistent approximation of the non-penetration conditions and friction laws was introduced by Wohlmuth [Acta Numer. 20 (2011) 569–734] as a powerful tool for the effective discretization of contact problems. This approach is especially useful when the potential contact interface is large and curved or when non-matching grids are applied. The point of this note is to give bounds on the singular values of the constraint matrices arising from the variationally consistent approximation and to indicate their application in the analysis of the scalable duality based domain decomposition algorithms for the solution of multi-body contact problems [Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 247–248 (2012), 37–50. ]. The theoretical results are illustrated by numerical experiments.
Molecular and functional characterization of adenylate kinase 2 gene from Leishmania donovani.

ATP-regenerating enzymes may have an important role in maintaining ATP levels in mitochondria-like kinetoplast organelle and glycosomes in parasitic protozoa. Adenylate kinase (AK) (ATP:AMP phosphotransferase) catalyses the reversible transfer of the gamma-phosphate group from ATP to AMP, releasing two molecules of ADP. This study describes cloning and functional characterization of the gene encoding AK2 from a genomic library of Leishmania donovani and also its expression in leishmania promastigote cultures. AK2 was localized on an approximately 1.9-Mb chromosomal band as a single copy gene. L. donovani AK2 gene is expressed as a single 1.9-kb mRNA transcript that is developmentally regulated and accumulated during the early log phase. The overexpression of L. donovani AKgene in Escherichia coli yielded a 26-kDa polypeptide that could be refolded to a functional protein with AK activity. The recombinant protein was purified to apparent homogeneity. Kinetic analysis of purified L. donovani AK showed hyperbolic behaviour for both ATP and AMP, with Km values of 104 and 74 microM, respectively. The maximum enzyme activity (Vmax) was 0.18 micromol.min(-1). mg(-1) protein. P1,P5-(bis adenosine)-5'-pentaphosphate (Ap5A), the specific inhibitor of AK, competitively inhibited activity of the recombinant enzymes with estimated Ki values of 190 nM and 160 nM for ATP and AMP, respectively. Ap5A also inhibited the growth of L. donovani promastigotes in vitro which could be only partially reversed by the addition of ADP. Thus, presence of a highly regulated AK2, which may have role in maintenance of ADP/ATP levels in L. donovani, has been demonstrated.
X–rays from active galactic nuclei: relativistically broadened emission lines

The X–ray spectra of many Seyfert 1 galaxies show an iron–K emission line. Some of these lines are broad and skew, reflecting the rapid motion of the accreting gas together with the deep gravitational potential of the central black hole. The observational evidence for broad iron lines is reviewed, from ASCA to recent Chandra and XMM–Newton spectra. Examples are shown from MCG–6–30–15, for which line variability is discussed. Current results indicate that we are studying accretion flows well within 6GM/c2.
A Preliminary Limnological Investigation of Golden- Key Lake, Clemant Town, Uttranchal

The present study was undertaken to provide some baseline knowledge of the general limnology of Golden Key Lake, Clement town, which stands nearly unstudied artificial lake in Dehradun, India. The investigation was intended to get a coherent picture of the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the lake. This study was undertaken for a short period of time and therefore it should only constitute a starting point for studies imperative for management of these ecosystems of unique nature in the country. Four study sites were selected and analyzed for the main chemical variables and nutrients. An examination of the water chemistry data on comparative level revealed that both ions and nutrients were significantly higher at site I located at a point where sewage water without any treatment enters into the lake. Â Computed on an average basis the inorganic elements have been found to follow the sequence: Ca > Na> Mg > K for sites I and II, while for sites III and IV, the sequence was: Ca> Mg>Na>K.
Using a Web-based Survey to Research the Benefits of Children Gardening

A survey, targeting adults working with youth in garden situations, was designed for delivery on the KinderGARDEN World Wide Web site. The goal of this survey was to investigate adults who are actively involved in gardening with children in school, community or home gardens on their perceptions of the benefits of children participating in gardening. Three hundred-twenty completed surveys were returned via e-mail during a period of 9 months. Fourteen questions were included on the survey requesting information concerning what types of gardening situations in which children were participants and the demographics of the children involved in gardening. Results of the study cover 128,836 children (youth under 18 years old) involved in gardening, primarily with teachers in school gardens. The children involved were generally 12 years of age or under and were growing food crops. Adults gardening with children reported benefits to children’s self-esteem and reduction in stress levels. Adults were also interested in learning more about the psychological, nutritional and physical benefits of gardening. Comparisons between those adults involved in gardening found that parents’ and teachers’ ideas differed concerning the most important aspects of the gardening experience. Parents viewed food production as most important while teachers thought socializing and learning about plants were most important.
Timing-driven test point insertion for full-scan and partial-scan BIST

We propose timing-driven test point insertion methods for a full-scan based BIST scheme and for a partial-scan based BIST scheme, where the global flip-flop cycles have been broken by the scan flip-flops. The objective is to minimize the performance as well as the area impact due to the insertion of test points while achieving a high fault coverage under the pseudo-random BIST scheme. The gradient-based method is used and extended to estimate the random-pattern testability improvement factors for the test point candidates of either full-scan based or partial-scan based BIST. We also propose a symbolic computation technique to compute testability for circuits under the partial-scan based BIST scheme. Experimental results show that the performance degradation of test point insertion could be unacceptably high if the cost function used for test point selection does not include the performance penalty. Using our timing-driven algorithm, zero performance degradation and a high fault coverage can always be achieved using a small number of test points.
Earthquake Recurrence and Rupture Dynamics of Himalayan Frontal Thrust, India

The Black Mango fault is a structural discontinuity that transforms motion between two segments of the active Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) in northwestern India. The Black Mango fault displays evidence of two large surface rupture earthquakes during the past 650 years, subsequent to 1294 A.D. and 1423 A.D., and possibly another rupture at about 260 A.D. Displacement during the last two earthquakes was at minimum 4.6 meters and 2.4 to 4.0 meters, respectively, and possibly larger for the 260 A.D. event. Abandoned terraces of the adjacent Markanda River record uplift due to slip on the underlying HFT of 4.8 ± 0.9 millimeters per year or greater since the mid-Holocene. The uplift rate is equivalent to rates of fault slip and crustal shortening of 9.6−3.5 +7.0 millimeters per year and 8.4−3.6 +7.3 millimeters per year, respectively, when it is assumed that the HFT dips 30° ± 10°.
Semi-supervised Distance Consistent Cross-modal Retrieval

Most of existing cross-modal retrieval approaches only exploit labeled data to train coupled projection matrices for supporting retrieval tasks across heterogeneous modalities. However, the valuable information involved in unlabeled data is unfortunately ignored. In this paper, we propose a novel Semi-Supervised Distance Consistent method (SSDC) to solve the problem. Our approach firstly models the initial correlation between different modalities by constructing the pseudo label and corresponding data of unlabeled query. Then our method learns projection matrices by adaptively optimizing the pseudo label of unlabeled data. In this way, SSDC could learn discriminative projection matrices. Experimental results on two publicly available datasets demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed approach.
Retrograde intrarenal surgery for kidney stones larger than 2.5 cm

Purpose of review The management of large intrarenal stones (>2 cm) is typically percutaneous nephrolithotomy. Although the stone-free rate (SFR) of such a procedure is high (up to 95%), the complications related mainly to the renal access are sometimes a concern. Because of the evolution in technology, it is nowadays possible to treat intrarenal stones with retrograde intrarenal surgery. It remains unclear weather or not retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) may be effective also for the treatment of larger stones (>2 cm). The purpose of this review is to provide recent data on the ureteroscopic management of kidney stones larger than 2.5 cm. Recent findings A systematic review of the literature for studies identified between January 2000 and September 2013 was performed. Only English language articles reporting on more than 10 cases treated with RIRS for intrarenal stones larger than 2.5 cm were considered for this review. Particular emphasis was given to studies published within the last 12 months. Of the 324 studies identified, only 10 were considered suitable for this review. There were a total of 441 patients with a mean stone size of 2.9 cm. The SFR with an average of 1.6 procedures was 89.3%. The overall complication rate was 8% with major complication rate of 1.9%. Summary Although not supported by high evidence because of the absence of prospective randomized studies, it appears that in selected patients with large intrarenal stones, RIRS and laser lithotripsy may offer an acceptable efficacy with low morbidity.
Mental Health and Religion : A Guide for Service Providers

It is apparent that the vast majority of research on this subject has been conducted in the U.S.A. However, there are an increasing number of publications in the U.K. and elsewhere. Despite the abundance of published studies, it is difficult to prove causality in the effect of religion on mental health although the interrelationship can be effectively demonstrated. The subject of health professionals making clinical interventions in the area of this interrelationship is widely studied and discussed. Selection of the data generation instrument for this qualitative study is discussed. Sampling is purposive for those suffering from a mental disorder but randomised for religiousness. The procedure used at interview is described and the resulting data is analysed, synthesised and the results listed. An undoubted link between religion and mental health is seen from the literature review and the qualitative study performed. The religious dimension is very important to many people suffering from mental disorders and should not be ignored by health professionals. Recommendations are made for mental health service providers which consist in ensuring the religiousness of clients is considered but that sensitivity is exercised, so that clients are given time and space both to express their religiousness and to discuss this with informed professionals if they so desire. A UK. wide controlled study is recommended.
Repair of Vertebral Artery Injury During Anterior Cervical Decompression

Methods Vertebral artery injury is a rarely described complication of anterior cervical decompression. The authors performed a retrospective review of their operative database for the purposes of defining the optimal management of this complication and its avoidance. Results Four of 1,215 (0.3%) patients undergoing anteior cervical operation sustained arterial injuries. In three cases, primary repair of the artery was succesful; in one case, the artery was exposed and ligated. There were no postoperative ischemic compllcations. Artery laceration occurred during decompression (n=2), screw tapping (n=1), and during soft tissue retraction (n=1). Conclusions Injury to the vertebral artery during anterior approaches can be avoided by preoperative identification of anomalous arteries and by intraoperative attention to the midline. When the artery is injured, primary repair may be the optimal management strategy.
Time-varying autoregressive model for spectral analysis of microseismic experiments and long-period volcanic events

S U M M A R Y Recent studies show that the frequency content of continuous passive recordings contains useful information for the study of hydraulic fracturing experiments as well as longstanding applications in volcano and global seismology. The short-time Fourier transform (STFT) is usually used to obtain the time–frequency representation of a seismic trace. Yet, this transform has two main disadvantages, namely its fixed time–frequency resolution and spectral leakage. Here, we describe two methods based on autoregressive (AR) models: the short-time autoregressive method (ST-AR) and the Kalman smoother (KS). These two methods allow for the AR coefficients to vary over time in order to follow time-varying frequency contents. The outcome of AR methods depends mainly on the number of AR coefficients. We use a robust approach to estimate the optimum order of the AR methods that best matches the spectral comparison between Fourier and AR spectra. Comparing the outcomes of the three methods on a synthetic signal, a long-period volcanic event, and microseismic data, we show that the STFT and both AR methods are able to track fast changes in frequency content. The STFT provides reasonable results even for noisy data using a simple and effective algorithm. The coefficients of the AR filter are defined at all time in the case of the KS. However, its better time resolution is slightly offset by a lower frequency resolution and its computational complexity. The ST-AR has a high spectral resolution and the lowest sensitivity to background noises, facilitating the identification of the various frequency components. The estimated AR coefficients can also be used to extract parts of the signal. The study of long-term phenomena, such as resonance frequencies, or transient events, such as long-period events, could help to gain further insight on reservoir deformation during hydraulic fracturing experiments as well as global or volcano seismological signals.
Non‐H1‐receptor effects of antihistamines

Visit any international allergy meeting and you will soon learn that there are a plethora of very potent and effective histamine H1‐receptor antagonists, or antihistamines as they are more often called. Thus, in order to make any particular antihistamine stand out therapeutically or commercially from the others, additional properties, e.g. anti‐inflammatory properties, are often claimed. But are these claims valid and, if so, are the ‘additional properties' clinically relevant? This document will review the evidence behind some of the ‘additional properties' of antihistamines and lay the basis for discussion of their relevance.
The tiered model of psychosocial intervention in cancer: a community based approach

Clinical practice guidelines for the management of psychosocial distress in people with cancer have been produced in Australia and North America and these provide direction for the provision of psychosocial care for patients with cancer and their families. This report describes a tiered intervention model to operationalise psychosocial care in oncology in the community and outlines a framework for integrating services across sectors. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Persistent paraneoplastic neurologic syndrome after successful therapy of Hodgkin's disease

Abstract: Paraneoplastic neurologic syndromes may develop in Hodgkin's disease (HD). We describe three young female patients with neurological disorders, not explained by other causes, preceding diagnosis or relapse of HD. The lack of response of the paraneoplastic syndrome to successful treatment of HD among our three patients emphasizes the poor prognosis of longstanding paraneoplastic neurologic symptoms in HD.
Older women's prehospital experiences of their first myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND Few qualitative studies have been conducted on older women's experiences of myocardial infarction (MI) and, in particular, the time before they seek medical care. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to explore older women's prehospital experiences of their first MI. METHODS Qualitative content analysis was performed on data from individual interviews with 20 women, aged 65 to 80 years (mean, 73.0 years). The participants were interviewed 3 days after admission to a hospital for a confirmed first MI. RESULTS The women perceived their symptoms as a strange and unfamiliar development from indistinct physical sensations to persistent and overwhelming chest pain. Throughout the prehospital phase, they used different strategies such as downplaying and neglecting the symptoms. The symptoms were seen as intrusions in their daily lives, against which the participants defended themselves to remain in control and to maintain social responsibilities. As their symptoms evolved into constant chest pain, the women began to realize the seriousness of their symptoms. When the pain became unbearable, the women took the decision to seek medical care. CONCLUSION Understanding the complex experiences of older women in the prehospital phase is essential to reducing their patient decision times. The findings of this study should be incorporated into the education of professionals involved in the care of cardiac patients, including those who answer informational and emergency telephone lines.