Background Anecdotal and media reports suggest that actors and performing artists are vulnerable to high levels of alcohol use. However, little empirical research is available to document the extent and correlates of alcohol use amongst these artists, particularly in an Australian context. Objective This study investigated alcohol use in a sample of Australian actors and other performing artists and its associations with sociodemographic background, psychological wellbeing, and work stress. Methods An online survey was distributed to the Equity Foundation membership representing Australian actors and performing artists. The survey included questions on sociodemographic and occupational background and psychological wellbeing (DASS-21), as well as the AUDIT questionnaire to assess self-reported alcohol consumption. A sample of 620 performing artists responded to the survey, a large majority of whom were actors. Results Australian actors and performing artists appear to consume alcohol at levels that are higher than those found in the general Australian population. About 40% of men and 31% of women were classified as drinking alcohol at potentially harmful or hazardous levels. buy TAK 165 Alcohol use was not strongly associated with age, education, or income, but it had a relationship with poorer psychological wellbeing. About 50% of respondents reported that their alcohol drinking was related to work stress as a performer. This perception was more pronounced amongst those performers who reported drinking at harmful levels. Conclusions Australian actors and performing artists appear to be an at-risk population for harmful or hazardous alcohol use.Objectives Dancers frequently perform complex jumping skills that involve achieving specific body positions while in the air. An examination of how skilled dancers achieve these aesthetic demands can provide information useful for dance training. The purpose of this study was to examine the temporal coordination of the hip and knee joints during the flight phase of a saut de chat leap, where dancers aim to achieve a split position in the air when the center of mass (COM) reaches peak height. Methods Thirty healthy, experienced dancers with 22.5±4.5 years of dance training performed 5 saut de chat leaps. The timing of peak hip and knee joint angles and velocities for the takeoff and leading legs were extracted and compared to the time when COM reached peak height in the leap using a repeated measures ANOVA, with post-hoc comparisons made using paired t-tests. Results Dancers demonstrated significant differences in timing associated with achieving the split position (main effect p less then 0.001), with only peak leading leg hip flexion occurring at a similar time to the COM reaching peak height (paired t-test p=0.074). Conclusions The results of this study provide insight into coordination patterns used by trained dancers. Trained dancers demonstrate patterns in timing that may be important for successful performance. The hip and knee coordination patterns during flight demonstrate how dancers work to achieve the desired aesthetics of a saut de chat leap. However, it appears that dancers do not reach the full split position at the height of the leap, as would be aesthetically desirable.Saccharomyces cerevisiae Coq8 is a member of the ancient UbiB atypical protein kinase family. Coq8, and its orthologs UbiB, ABC1, ADCK3, and ADCK4, are required for the biosynthesis of coenzyme Q in yeast, E. coli, A. thaliana, and humans. Each Coq8 ortholog retains nine highly conserved protein kinase-like motifs, yet its functional role in coenzyme Q biosynthesis remains mysterious. Coq8 may function as an ATPase whose activity is stimulated by coenzyme Q intermediates and phospholipids. A key yeast point mutant expressing Coq8-A197V was previously shown to result in a coenzyme Q-less, respiratory deficient phenotype. The A197V substitution occurs in the crucial Ala-rich protein kinase-like motif I of yeast Coq8. Here we show that long-term cultures of mutants expressing Coq8-A197V produce spontaneous revertants with the ability to grow on medium containing a non-fermentable carbon source. Each revertant is shown to harbor a secondary intragenic suppressor mutation within the COQ8 gene. The intragenic suppressors restore the synthesis of coenzyme Q. One class of the suppressors fully restores the levels of coenzyme Q and key Coq polypeptides necessary for the maintenance and integrity of the high-molecular mass CoQ synthome (also termed complex Q), while the other class provides only a partial rescue. Mutants harboring the first class of suppressors grow robustly under respiratory conditions, while mutants containing the second class grow more slowly under these conditions. Our work provides insight into the function of this important yet still enigmatic Coq8 family.This paper constructs the 6E evaluation index system, a comprehensive index including the dimensions of economy, effectiveness, efficiency, equity, earnings and equality, to measure the sustainable higher education development of the 31 provincial regions of China by utilizing the information entropy weight-TOPSIS method. This paper then makes a spatial and temporal analysis of the coupling coordination relationship among the dimensions of sustainable higher education development by using the coupling coordination model. In addition, this paper proposes specific and applicable countermeasures for sustainable higher education development. The results show that the comprehensive degrees of sustainable higher education development in most regions are not high, and the coastal regions and the Central-south China regions have higher grades; in addition, for most regions, the coupling coordination degrees mainly remain stable, with mild growth in the respective classifications, and the gap between the west and other regions is declining. The improved method is applicable to measure the sustainable development of higher education and to propose detailed and appropriate suggestions for further development.Objective To investigate whether leucine-rich α2-glycoprotein (LRG) can be a biomarker for the disease activity, progression, and prognosis of interstitial pneumonia (IP) in patients with dermatomyositis (DM). Methods Correlations between the clinical findings and serum LRG levels were investigated in 46 patients with DM-IP (33 with acute/subacute IP [A/SIP] and 13 patients with chronic IP [CIP], including 10 fatal cases of IP). Results The median serum LRG level of 18.4 (14.6-25.2) μg/mL in DM-IP patients was higher than that in healthy control subjects. The median levels of serum LRG at baseline and at 2 and 4 weeks after the initiation of treatment in the patients who died were significantly higher than those in the surviving patients (P = 0.026, 0.029, and 0.008, respectively). The median level of serum LRG in the DM-A/SIP patients was significantly higher than that in the DM-CIP patients (P = 0.0004), and that in the anti-MDA5-Ab-positive group was slightly higher than that in the anti-ARS-Ab-positive group.buy TAK 165