Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sibling species in the Lutzomyia longipalpis complex differ in levels of mRNA expression for the salivary peptide, maxadilan

Maxadilan is a small (≈ 7 kDa) protein found in the saliva of sand fly species in the Lutzomyia longipalpis complex, vectors of the parasite causing visceral leishmaniasis, Leishmania chagasi. It is a potent vasodilator and also has immunomodulatory affects. Maxadilan recovered from different sibling species of the Lu. longipalpis complex differ in amino acid content by as much as 23%, however all variants possess equivalent vasodilatory activity. Therefore, the dramatic differences in vasodilatory activity of the saliva from different sibling species is probably due to differences in the amounts of maxadilan in their saliva. This is significant because it has been suggested that maxadilan may influence the pathogenesis of leishmanial infections. In this study we measured the amount of maxadilan messenger RNA (mRNA) per pair of salivary glands from individual sand flies by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) using a competitive method. We report a method using the gene of interest, in this case maxadilan, amplified by the PCR from genomic DNA, as a competitor in the quantitative RT‐PCR, taking advantage of differences in the size of these products due to the presence of an intron. Significant differences in amounts of maxadilan mRNA among colonies from Central and South America are described. We found a strong correlation between the amount of maxadilan mRNA detected in salivary glands of different Lu. longipalpis sibling species and previously described differences in the size of erythemas produced by the bite of these species. Therefore, variation in the amount of mRNA suggests that differences in the vasodilatory properties of saliva among the different sibling species are the result of differences in the amount of maxadilan present in the saliva and not differences in the potency of maxadilan peptide variants. The geographical distribution of species with high or low levels of maxadilan gene expression are concordant with the distribution of atypical cutaneous leishmaniasis resulting from infection with Le. chagasi, lending credence to earlier suggestions that maxadilan may be involved with visceralization of this parasite.
Inflammation/Oxidation in Chronic Rejection: Apolipoprotein A-I Mimetic Peptide Reduces Chronic Rejection of Transplanted Hearts

Background. Chronic rejection in transplanted hearts or cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is the leading cause of late death among heart transplant recipients. Strategies to control CAV traditionally have focused on lymphocyte functions. We hypothesized that D-4F, an apoA-I mimetic peptide with potent anti-inflammatory/antioxidant properties, will attenuate CAV. Methods. We used a previously characterized murine model of CAV. B6.C-H2bm12 hearts were heterotopically transplanted into C57BL/6 mice. Recipient mice were treated with either 20 &mgr;g of D-4F or carrier daily. Donor hearts were harvested on day 24 after transplantation. Results. Treatment of recipients with D-4F reduced the severity of intimal lesions (62.5±3.4% vs. 31.1±8.7%, P<0.009). Treatment also resulted in a decrease in the number of graft-infiltrating CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes and CXCR3+ T-lymphocyte subsets. Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) gene transcript in the donor hearts was up-regulated with D-4F treatment, and HO-1 blockade partially reversed the beneficial effects of D-4F. In vitro studies showed that D-4F reduced allogeneic T-lymphocyte proliferation and effector cytokine production. These processes were HO-1 independent. Conclusion. This study suggests that D-4F, a prototypical apoA-I mimetic peptide, is effective in controlling CAV via induction of HO-1 in the graft and a direct effect on T-lymphocyte function. This class of peptides with anti-inflammatory/antioxidant properties provides a novel strategy in the treatment of CAV.
Multi-level Bootstrapping For Extracting Parallel Sentences From a Quasi-Comparable Corpus

We propose a completely unsupervised method for mining parallel sentences from quasi-comparable bilingual texts which have very different sizes, and which include both in-topic and off-topic documents. We discuss and analyze different bilingual corpora with various levels of comparability. We propose that while better document matching leads to better parallel sentence extraction, better sentence matching also leads to better document matching. Based on this, we use multi-level bootstrapping to improve the alignments between documents, sentences, and bilingual word pairs, iteratively. Our method is the first method that does not rely on any supervised training data, such as a sentence-aligned corpus, or temporal information, such as the publishing date of a news article. It is validated by experimental results that show a 23% improvement over a method without multilevel bootstrapping.
18-Month mortality and perinatal exposure to zidovudine in West Africa

ObjectivesTo study mortality in African children born to HIV-1-infected mothers exposed peripartum to zidovudine. MethodsA randomized placebo-controlled trial in Abidjan and Bobo-Dioulasso. Pregnant women received either 300 mg zidovudine twice daily from 36–38 weeks’ gestation, 600 mg during labour, and 300 mg twice daily for 7 days post-partum or a matching placebo. Determinants of mortality were studied up to 18 months, overall and among the infected children: treatment, centre, timing of infection, mother and child HIV disease. ResultsThere were 75 infant deaths among 407 live births. The risk of death at 18 months was 176/1000 in the zidovudine arm and 221 for placebo. Relative hazard (RH, zidovudine versus placebo) was 0.47 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.2–1.0] up to 230 days of life. Maternal CD4 lymphocyte count < 200/mm3 (RH 2.92; CI 1.4–6.1) and child HIV-1 infection (RH 12.6; CI 6.6–24.3) increased mortality of all children born to HIV-1-infected mothers. There were 101 children infected (40 in the zidovudine group), and 51 died. Their 18 month probability of death was 590/1000 in the zidovudine group and 510 in the placebo group. Among infected children, maternal zidovudine reduced the risk of death on or before day 230 (RH 0.18; CI 0.1–0.5). Maternal CD4 lymphocyte count < 200/mm3 (RH 3.25; CI 1.3–8.4), maternal death (RH 9.65; CI 1.7–56.0), diagnosis of paediatric infection on or before day 12 (RH 18.1; CI 4.8–69.0) and between days 13 and 45 (RH 7.63; CI 2.0–29.5), clinical paediatric AIDS (RH 5.37; CI 2.3–12.7) were risk factors for death in HIV-1-infected children. ConclusionMother-to-child transmission reduction by zidovudine is safe and beneficial to African children. The mortality of HIV-1-infected children is high. Peripartum maternal zidovudine exerts a protective effect for at least 8 months.
Improving the speed and ease of open data use through metadata, interaction mechanisms, and quality indicators

ABSTRACT The use of Open Government Data (OGD) has not kept pace with the expectations as existing OGD infrastructures mainly serve as data repositories. Many OGD infrastructures do not stimulate or support OGD use processes, and there is a lack of research regarding which functionalities can stimulate such processes. The objective of this study is to use a design science approach to evaluate whether metadata, interaction mechanisms, and data quality indicators can improve OGD use. OGD use comprises five main activities, namely searching for and finding OGD, OGD analysis, visualizing OGD, interacting about OGD, and OGD quality analysis. We expect that three OGD key infrastructure elements—metadata, interaction mechanisms, and data quality indicators—allow for improving these five OGD use activities. A prototype of an advanced OGD infrastructure was created, which implements the three OGD infrastructure elements. Three quasi-experiments with a pretest posttest control group design were conducted. The quasi-experiments showed that the prototype facilitated the usability of the novel OGD use functionalities. Our quasi-experiments supported our propositions that metadata, interaction mechanisms, and data quality indicators contribute to making OGD use easier and faster, and enhance the user experience. The infrastructure elements improved OGD use by better enabling searching, analyzing, visualizing, discussing, giving feedback on, and assessing the quality of open data. Hence, we plea for integrating metadata, interaction mechanisms, and data quality indicators in open data infrastructures to advance open data usage.
Derandomizing Isolation in Space-Bounded Settings

We study the possibility of deterministic and randomness-efficient isolation in space-bounded models of computation: Can one efficiently reduce instances of computational problems to equivalent instances that have at most one solution? We present results for the NL-complete problem of reachability on digraphs, and for the LogCFL-complete problem of certifying acceptance on shallow semi-unbounded circuits. A common approach employs small weight assignments that make the solution of minimum weight unique. The Isolation Lemma and other known procedures use Ω(n) random bits to generate weights of individual bitlength O(log n). We develop a derandomized version for both settings that uses O((log n)3/2) random bits and produces weights of bitlength O((log n)3/2) in logarithmic space. The construction allows us to show that every language in NL can be accepted by a nondeterministic machine that runs in polynomial time and O((log n)3/2) space, and has at most one accepting computation path on every input. Similarly, every language in LogCFL can be accepted by a nondeterministic machine equipped with a stack that does not count towards the space bound, that runs in polynomial time and O((log n)3/2) space, and has at most one accepting computation path on every input. We also show that the existence of somewhat more restricted isolations for reachability on digraphs implies that NL can be decided in logspace with polynomial advice. A similar result holds for certifying acceptance on shallow semi-unbounded circuits and LogCFL.
Talking across time: Using reported speech as a communicative resource in amnesia

Background: Patients with amnesia may have more than pure memory deficits, as evidenced by reports of subtle linguistic impairments on formal laboratory tasks in the amnesic patient HM. However, little attention has been given to the impact of memory impairments on language use in regular, colloquial interactions. We analysed reported speech use by individuals with amnesia. Reported speech (RS), in which speakers represent thoughts/words from another time and/or place, requires management of two temporal frames, making it an interesting discourse practice in which to explore the impact of memory deficits on interactional aspects of communication. We thank Michelle Nolan and Lisa Cardella for transcribing the sessions and assisting in data coding. This study was supported by Program Project Grant NINDS NS 19632, NIDCD grant 1F32DC008825, NIMH grant RO1 MH062500, and a Mary Jane Neer Research Grant of the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign. Aims: This study: (1) documents frequency, type, and temporal contexts of reported speech used in discourse samples; (2) compares reported speech use by amnesic and comparison participants; (3) examines the interactional character of reported speech use in these discourse samples. Methods and Procedures: Derived from a broader study of the discourse practices of individuals with amnesia, this study uses quantitative group comparisons and close discourse analysis to analyse reported speech episodes (RSEs) in interactional discourse samples between a clinician and each of 18 participants, 9 individuals with amnesia and 9 comparison participants (NC). Outcomes and Results: Reported speech was used by all participants. However, significantly fewer RSEs were produced in amnesia sessions (273) than in NC sessions (554). No significant group differences were observed for type or temporal domain. In addition, for the participants with amnesia, post‐amnesia past RSEs differed qualitatively from the other RSEs in the data. Conclusions: These findings have important implications for understanding the interdependent relationship of memory and language, point to the value of examining interactional aspects of communication in the empirical study of brain–behaviour relationships, and reconceptualise interaction as a target in the remediation of functional communication following brain injury.
Efficient Algorithms for Adversarial Contextual Learning

We provide the first oracle efficient sublinear regret algorithms for adversarial versions of the contextual bandit problem. In this problem, the learner repeatedly makes an action on the basis of a context and receives reward for the chosen action, with the goal of achieving reward competitive with a large class of policies. We analyze two settings: i) in the transductive setting the learner knows the set of contexts a priori, ii) in the small separator setting, there exists a small set of contexts such that any two policies behave differently on one of the contexts in the set. Our algorithms fall into the Follow-The-Perturbed-Leader family (Kalai & Vempala, 2005) and achieve regret O(T3/4√K log(N)) in the transductive setting and O(T2/3d3/4K√log(N)) in the separator setting, where T is the number of rounds, K is the number of actions, N is the number of base-line policies, and d is the size of the separator. We actually solve the more general adversarial contextual semi-bandit linear optimization problem, whilst in the full information setting we address the even more general contextual combinatorial optimization. We provide several extensions and implications of our algorithms, such as switching regret and efficient learning with predictable sequences.
Deformational posterior plagiocephaly: diagnosis and treatment.

OBJECTIVE This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of helmet therapy (DOC band) in the correction of patients with moderate to severe posterior deformational plagiocephaly. DESIGN In this prospective study, the infants were evaluated using 18 anthropometric measurements. PATIENTS The charts of 248 patients seen between August 1, 1995, and July 31, 1999, were reviewed, and 125 met the criteria for inclusion in the study. All the patients had posterior deformational plagiocephaly with no other craniofacial deformities or medical conditions. Treatment was instituted prior to 1 year of age, and all patients were compliant with DOC band usage and had complete anthropometric measurements. RESULTS The study recorded a 41.56% (p < .001) reduction in cranial vault asymmetry and a 40.23% (p <.001) reduction in cranial base asymmetry. Orbitotragial asymmetry was improved 18.72% (p = .0738). The age at which treatment was begun was not a significant factor in predicting treatment outcomes.
Ja n 20 05 Giant Radio Pulses from the Crab Pulsar

Individual giant radio pulses (GRPs) from the Crab pulsar last only a few microseconds. However, during that time they rank among the brightest objects in the radio sky reaching peak flux densities of up to 1500 Jy even at high radio frequencies. Our observations show that GRPs can be found in all phases of ordinary radio emission including the two high frequency components (HFCs) visible only between 5 and 9 GHz (Moffett & Hankins 1996). This leads us to believe that there is no difference in the emission mechanism of the main pulse (MP), inter pulse (IP) and HFCs. High resolution dynamic spectra from our recent observations of giant pulses with the Effelsberg telescope at a center frequency of 8.35 GHz show distinct spectral maxima within our observational bandwidth of 500 MHz for individual pulses. Their narrow band components appear to be brighter at higher frequencies (8.6 GHz) than at lower ones (8.1 GHz). Moreover, there is an evidence for spectral evolution within and between those structures. High frequency features occur earlier than low frequency ones. Strong plasma turbulence might be a feasible mechanism for the creation of the high energy densities of ∼ 6.7 × 10 4 erg cm −3 and brightness temperatures of ∼ 10 31 K. Subject headings: pulsars – PSR B0531+21 – PSR J0534+2200 – Crab pulsar – giant radio pulses 1. Observational Techniques Observations with the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope began on 25 November 2003 and ended on 28 November 2003. We used a secondary focus cooled HEMT receiver with a center frequency of 8.35 GHz, providing two circularly polarized IF signals with a system temperature of 25 K on both channels. With a sky temperature of 8 K, and a contribution of 33 K from the Crab nebula, the effective system temperature was 70 K. Two detection systems were used. First, a polarimeter with 1.1 GHz bandwidth detected total power of the left-hand and right-hand circularly polarized signals (LHC and RHC respectively) as well as cos ∠(LHC, RHC) and sin ∠(LHC, RHC). These four signals were then recorded by the standard Effelsberg Pulsar Observation System (EPOS). With the Crab pulsar's dispersion measure of 56.8 pc cm −3 , we had an un–dedispersed time resolution of t sample = 890 µs, while – 3 – our sampling resolution was fixed at ∼ 640 µs. EPOS was therefore set to continuously record data blocks containing 20 …
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy: a series of witnessed deaths

OBJECTIVES Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) represents a significant category of mortality in the population with chronic epilepsy. A consistent feature is that most of these deaths are unwitnessed. The aim was to identify witnessed deaths, examine the circumstances, and relate these findings to the proposed mechanisms for SUDEP. METHODS During the course of case ascertainment for a control study on SUDEP, witnessed deaths were identified and the circumstances examined in detail. Cases were notified by coroners, neurologists, and bereaved families. The findings were related to the proposed mechanisms for SUDEP which include central and obstructive apnoea and cardiac arrhythmia. RESULTS One hundred and thirty five SUDEP cases have been identified to date, of which 15 were witnessed deaths. Twelve deaths were associated with convulsive seizures, one collapse occurred 5 minutes after a generalised seizure, another collapse occurred after an aura and one patient died while in a probable post ictal state. Witnesses reported that 12 of the 15 cases experienced respiratory difficulty. CONCLUSIONS Most sudden epilepsy deaths are unwitnessed. Where witnessed most occur in association with a seizure and respiratory compromise is a prominent feature. Positioning or stimulation of respiration may be important in the prevention of these deaths.
THE BIOGEOGRAPHIC ORIGIN OF ARCTIC ENDEMIC SEAWEEDS: A THERMOGEOGRAPHIC VIEW 1

The Arctic is geologically and biogeographically young, and the origin of its seaweed flora has been widely debated. The Arctic littoral biogeographic region dates from the latest Tertiary and Pleistocene. Following the opening of Bering Strait, about 3.5 mya, the “Great Trans‐Arctic Biotic Interchange” populated the Arctic with a fauna strongly dominated by species of North Pacific origin. The Thermogeographic Model (TM) demonstrates why climate and geography continued to support this pattern in the Pleistocene. Thus, Arctic and Atlantic subarctic species of seaweeds are likely to be evolutionarily “based” in the North Pacific, subarctic species are likely to be widespread in the warmer Arctic, and species of Atlantic Boreal or warmer origin are unlikely in the Arctic and Subarctic. Although Arctic seaweeds have been thought to have a greater affinity with the North Atlantic, we have reanalyzed the Arctic endemic algal flora, using the Thermogeographic Model and evolutionary trees based on molecular data, to demonstrate otherwise. There are 35 congeneric species of the six, abundant Arctic Rhodophyta that we treat in this paper; 32 of these species (91%) occur in the North Pacific, two species (6%) occur in the Boreal or warmer Atlantic Ocean, and a single species is panoceanic, but restricted to the Subarctic. Laminaria solidungula J. Agardh, a kelp Arctic “endemic” species, has 18 sister species. While only eleven (61%) occur in the North Pacific, this rapidly dispersing and evolving genus is a terminal member of a diverse family and order (Laminariales) widely accepted to have evolved in the North Pacific. Thus, both the physical/time‐based TM and the dominant biogeographic pattern of relatives of Arctic macrophytes suggest strong compliance with the evidence of zoology, geology, and paleoclimatology that the Arctic marine flora is largely of Pacific origin.
Sex Allocation in Relation to Host Races in the Brood-Parasitic Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus)

Sex allocation theory and empirical evidence both suggest that natural selection should favour maternal control of offspring sex ratio in relation to their ability to invest in the offspring. Generalist parasites constitute a particularly interesting group to test this theory as different females commonly utilize different host species showing large variation in provisioning ability. The common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) is a generalist brood parasite that lays its eggs in the nest of many different passerine birds, but each female tends to specialize on one particular host species giving rise to highly specialized host races. The different host species show large variation in their ability to invest in the parasitic offspring, presenting an opportunity for female cuckoos to bias offspring sex ratio in relation to host species quality. Here, we investigate host-race specific sex allocation controlling for maternal identity in the common cuckoo. We found no evidence of any significant relationship between host race and sex ratio in one sympatric population harbouring three different host races, or in a total of five geographically separated populations. There was also no significant association between host quality, as determined by species-specific female host body mass, and cuckoo sex ratio. Finally, we found no significant relationship between individual cuckoo maternal quality, as determined by her egg volume, and sex ratio within each host race. We conclude that the generalist brood-parasitic common cuckoo show no significant sex-ratio bias in relation to host race and discuss this finding in light of gene flow and host adaptations.
Central Nervous System Drug Disposition: The Relationship between in Situ Brain Permeability and Brain Free Fraction

The dispositions of 50 marketed central nervous system (CNS) drugs into the brain have been examined in terms of their rat in situ (P) and in vitro apparent membrane permeability (Papp) alongside lipophilicity and free fraction in rat brain tissue. The inter-relationship between these parameters highlights that both permeability and brain tissue binding influence the uptake of drugs into the CNS. Hydrophilic compounds characterized by low brain tissue binding display a strong correlation (R2 = 0.82) between P and Papp, whereas the uptake of more lipophilic compounds seems to be influenced by both Papp and brain free fraction. A nonlinear relationship is observed between logPoct and P over the 6 orders of magnitude range in lipophilicity studied. These findings corroborate recent reports in the literature that brain penetration is a function of both rate and extent of drug uptake into the CNS.