Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Infection of the CNS by Scedosporium apiospermum after near drowning. Report of a fatal case and analysis of its confounding factors

This report describes a fatal case of central nervous system pseudallescheriasis. A 32 year old white man presented with headache and meningismus 15 days after nearly drowning in a swine sewage reservoir. Computerised tomography and magnetic resonance imaging of the head revealed multiple brain granulomata, which vanished when steroid and broad spectrum antimicrobial and antifungal agents, in addition to dexamethasone, were started. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis disclosed a neutrophilic meningitis. Treatment with antibiotics and amphotericin B, together with fluconazole and later itraconazole, was ineffective. Miconazole was added through an Ommaya reservoir, but was insufficient to halt the infection. Pseudallescheria boydii was finally isolated and identified in cerebrospinal fluid cultures, a few days before death, three and a half months after the symptoms began. Diagnosis was delayed because of a reduction in the lesions after partial treatment, which prevented a stereotactic biopsy. Physicians should be aware of this condition, and provide prompt stereotactic biopsy. Confirmed cases should perhaps be treated with voriconazole, probably the most effective, currently available treatment for this agent.
Shear wave propagation in jointed rock: state of stress

The mechanical characteristics and orientation of joints determine the behaviour of rock masses, including the strength, the stiffness, and all forms of conduction and diffusion. Furthermore, the preferential orientation of joints renders the medium anisotropic. In turn, these properties affect the velocity and damping of propagating elastic waves. The purpose of this study is to investigate the propagation of long-wavelength shear waves through a rock mass with open joints filled with softer gouge, and subjected to low confinement. These conditions are selected in view of near-surface geophysical characterisation studies for geotechnical engineering applications such as foundations, tunnels and slopes. Experimental data are gathered with a slender column made of discrete elements with gouge material in the joints. The column is excited in the first torsional vibration mode to gather accurate measurements of velocity and damping for wave propagation direction normal to the joints. Data are analysed with m.
Comparative Analysis of the σB-Dependent Stress Responses in Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria innocua Strains Exposed to Selected Stress Conditions

ABSTRACT The alternative sigma factor σB contributes to transcription of stress response and virulence genes in diverse gram-positive bacterial species. The composition and functions of the Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria innocua σB regulons were hypothesized to differ due to virulence differences between these closely related species. Transcript levels in stationary-phase cells and in cells exposed to salt stress were characterized by microarray analyses for both species. In L. monocytogenes, 168 genes were positively regulated by σB; 145 of these genes were preceded by a putative σB consensus promoter. In L. innocua, 64 genes were positively regulated by σB. σB contributed to acid stress survival in log-phase cells for both species but to survival in stationary-phase cells only for L. monocytogenes. In summary, (i) the L. monocytogenes σB regulon includes >140 genes that are both directly and positively regulated by σB, including genes encoding proteins with importance in stress response, virulence, transcriptional regulation, carbohydrate metabolism, and transport; (ii) a number of L. monocytogenes genes encoding flagellar proteins show higher transcript levels in the ΔsigB mutant, and both L. monocytogenes and L. innocua ΔsigB null mutants have increased motility compared to the respective isogenic parent strains, suggesting that σB affects motility and chemotaxis; and (iii) although L. monocytogenes and L. innocua differ in σB-dependent acid stress resistance and have species-specific σB-dependent genes, the L. monocytogenes and L. innocua σB regulons show considerable conservation, with a common set of at least 49 genes that are σB dependent in both species.
Influence of maternal smoking during pregnancy on oxidant status in amniotic fluid.

BACKGROUND Approximately 20% of women in Germany are smokers, and some of them are unable to stop smoking during pregnancy. As cigarette smoke generates free radicals, it has been suggested that it may be one of the major sources of oxidant stress in pregnant women and unborn fetuses. On the other hand, the human placenta is known to be a major source of pro-oxidant agents, antioxidant enzyme systems, and hormones, and is able to keep lipid peroxidation under control in normal pregnancy. The aim of the present study was to determine whether it is possible to detect antioxidants in amniotic fluid using the Esterbauer method and to analyze whether there are any differences in the oxidant status of the amniotic fluid between smoking and non-smoking mothers. The results were confirmed by two assays measuring the total antioxidant capacity (TAC), as well as the malon dialdehyde concentration (MDA) in the amniotic fluid of smoking and non-smoking mothers. MATERIALS AND METHODS Differences in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) susceptibility to oxidation were measured using the Esterbauer method in the amniotic fluid of smoking and non-smoking mothers. RESULTS The results showed that there was a significant difference in the duration of susceptibility of LDL to oxidation between smokers and non-smokers (49.47 ± 24.78 min, n=20 and 31.94 ± 14.26 min, n=67; p=0.006). Arithmetic average of MDA was higher in smokers than in non-smokers (11 pmol/mg and 6 pmol/mg); for TAC it was vice versa 840 mM vs. 1054 mM. CONCLUSION Measuring the lag phase of LDL oxidation makes it possible to study antioxidative effects. As the lag phase was significantly longer in smokers than in non-smokers, it can be assumed that there must be a substance in the amniotic fluid of smokers which has antioxidative power, inhibits LDL oxidation, and intercepts radicals. It can be assumed that the fetoplacental unit has mechanisms to react against tobacco smoke inhaled by the mother.
Engineering and Evolution of Molecular Chaperones and Protein Disaggregases with Enhanced Activity

Cells have evolved a sophisticated proteostasis network to ensure that proteins acquire and retain their native structure and function. Critical components of this network include molecular chaperones and protein disaggregases, which function to prevent and reverse deleterious protein misfolding. Nevertheless, proteostasis networks have limits, which when exceeded can have fatal consequences as in various neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A promising strategy is to engineer proteostasis networks to counter challenges presented by specific diseases or specific proteins. Here, we review efforts to enhance the activity of individual molecular chaperones or protein disaggregases via engineering and directed evolution. Remarkably, enhanced global activity or altered substrate specificity of various molecular chaperones, including GroEL, Hsp70, ClpX, and Spy, can be achieved by minor changes in primary sequence and often a single missense mutation. Likewise, small changes in the primary sequence of Hsp104 yield potentiated protein disaggregases that reverse the aggregation and buffer toxicity of various neurodegenerative disease proteins, including α-synuclein, TDP-43, and FUS. Collectively, these advances have revealed key mechanistic and functional insights into chaperone and disaggregase biology. They also suggest that enhanced chaperones and disaggregases could have important applications in treating human disease as well as in the purification of valuable proteins in the pharmaceutical sector.
Vaccination of Rhesus Macaques with the Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed Vaccine Produces a Serum Antibody Response That Effectively Neutralizes Receptor-Bound Protective Antigen In Vitro

ABSTRACT Anthrax toxin (ATx) is composed of the binary exotoxins lethal toxin (LTx) and edema toxin (ETx). They have separate effector proteins (edema factor and lethal factor) but have the same binding protein, protective antigen (PA). PA is the primary immunogen in the current licensed vaccine anthrax vaccine adsorbed (AVA [BioThrax]). AVA confers protective immunity by stimulating production of ATx-neutralizing antibodies, which could block the intoxication process at several steps (binding of PA to the target cell surface, furin cleavage, toxin complex formation, and binding/translocation of ATx into the cell). To evaluate ATx neutralization by anti-AVA antibodies, we developed two low-temperature LTx neutralization activity (TNA) assays that distinguish antibody blocking before and after binding of PA to target cells (noncomplexed [NC] and receptor-bound [RB] TNA assays). These assays were used to investigate anti-PA antibody responses in AVA-vaccinated rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that survived an aerosol challenge with Bacillus anthracis Ames spores. Results showed that macaque anti-AVA sera neutralized LTx in vitro, even when PA was prebound to cells. Neutralization titers in surviving versus nonsurviving animals and between prechallenge and postchallenge activities were highly correlated. These data demonstrate that AVA stimulates a myriad of antibodies that recognize multiple neutralizing epitopes and confirm that change, loss, or occlusion of epitopes after PA is processed from PA83 to PA63 at the cell surface does not significantly affect in vitro neutralizing efficacy. Furthermore, these data support the idea that the full-length PA83 monomer is an appropriate immunogen for inclusion in next-generation anthrax vaccines.
Trends in Prescription Drug Spending Leading Up to Health Reform

Over the past decade, prescription drug expenditures grew faster than any other service category and comprised an increasing share of per capita health spending. Using the 2005 and 2009 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys, this analysis identifies the sources of spending growth for prescription drugs among the nonelderly population. We find that prescription drug expenditures among the nonelderly increased by $14.9 billion (9.2%) from 2005 to 2009 and expenditures increased in 12 out of the 16 therapeutic classes. Changes in the number of users and expenditures per fill were the drivers of spending fluctuations in these categories. The main results also provide insight into generic entry, the price gap between brand and generic drugs, and from a health reform evaluation perspective, the importance of separating prepolicy secular trends in expenditures from changes attributable to specific forces, such as shifts toward generic versions of blockbuster drugs.
Pulmonary eosinophilia in mice devoid of interleukin‐5

The biology of the eosinophilic leukocyte—development, recruitment, and prolonged existence in somatic tissues—has been linked almost invariably to the actions of the “eosinophil” cytokine, interleukin‐5 (IL‐5). Here we demonstrate that pulmonary eosinophilia can occur in the absence of IL‐5, as morphologically normal eosinophils are recruited to the lungs of virus‐infected IL‐5 −/− mice with kinetics and sequelae that are indistinguishable from those of their IL‐5 +/+ counterparts. We conclude that pulmonary eosinophilia observed in response to primary paramyxovirus infection occurs via mechanisms that are distinct from those involved in eosinophil responses to allergens and in asthma. Furthermore, the presence of functional eosinophils in IL‐5 −/− mice suggests the possibility of developmentally distinct subsets of what has been presumed to be a homogeneous leukocyte population.
Quality-driven disorder handling for m-way sliding window stream joins

Sliding window join is one of the most important operators for stream applications. To produce high quality join results, a stream processing system must deal with the ubiquitous disorder within input streams which is caused by network delay, parallel processing, etc. Disorder handling involves an inevitable tradeoff between the latency and the quality of produced join results. To meet different requirements of stream applications, it is desirable to provide a user-configurable result-latency vs. result-quality tradeoff. Existing disorder handling approaches either do not provide such configurability, or support only user-specified latency constraints. In this work, we advocate the idea of quality-driven disorder handling, and propose a buffer-based disorder handling approach for sliding window joins, which minimizes sizes of input-sorting buffers, thus the result latency, while respecting user-specified result-quality requirements. The core of our approach is an analytical model which directly captures the relationship between sizes of input buffers and the produced result quality. Our approach is generic. It supports m-way sliding window joins with arbitrary join conditions. Experiments on real-world and synthetic datasets show that, compared to the state of the art, our approach can reduce the result latency incurred by disorder handling by up to 95% while providing the same level of result quality.
Environmental and farm management factors associated with tuberculosis on cattle farms in northeastern Michigan.

OBJECTIVE To identify major environmental and farm management factors associated with the occurrence of tuberculosis (TB) on cattle farms in northeastern Michigan. DESIGN Case-control study. SAMPLE POPULATION 17 cattle farms with infected cattle and 51 control farms. PROCEDURE Each case farm (laboratory confirmed diagnosis of Mycobacterium bovis infection) was matched with 2 to 4 control farms (negative whole-herd test results within previous 12 months) on the basis of type of farm (dairy or beef) and location. Cattle farm data were collected from in-person interviews and mailed questionnaires. Wildlife TB data were gathered through state wildlife surveillance. Environmental data were gathered from a satellite image-based geographic information system. Multivariable conditional logistic regression for matched analysis was performed. RESULTS Major factors associated with increased farm risk of TB were higher TB prevalence among wild deer and cattle farms in the area, herd size, and ponds or creeks in cattle housing areas. Factors associated with reduced farm risk of TB were greater amounts of natural open lands in the surrounding area and reducing deer access to cattle housing areas by housing cattle in barns, barnyards, or feedlots and use of electrified wire or barbed wire for livestock fencing. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results suggest that certain environmental and management factors may be associated with risk of TB on cattle farms.
Title : Digital Learning Management Systems in Africa : rhetoric and reality

This paper reports on a survey of 358 respondents across 25 African countries into their usage of learning management systems. It concludes that while there are some enthusiastic advocates of such systems, the reality is that most African educators as yet have little knowledge about, or interest in, their usage. There remain very considerable infrastructural constraints to be overcome before they can be widely adopted for open and distance learning across the continent, and there is still reluctance in many institutions to develop systems that can enable learning resources to be made available in this way. This does not mean that the potential of high quality digital learning management systems should be ignored in Africa, but rather that much more sustained work needs to be done in human capacity development and infrastructural provision if African learners are truly to benefit from the interactive learning experiences that such systems can deliver.
A Preliminary Study of Pneumonia Etiology Among Hospitalized Children in Kenya

Abstract Background. Pneumonia is the leading cause of childhood death in the developing world. Higher-quality etiological data are required to reduce this mortality burden. Methods. We conducted a case-control study of pneumonia etiology among children aged 1–59 months in rural Kenya. Case patients were hospitalized with World Health Organization–defined severe pneumonia (SP) or very severe pneumonia (VSP); controls were outpatient children without pneumonia. We collected blood for culture, induced sputum for culture and multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and obtained oropharyngeal swab specimens for multiplex PCR from case patients, and serum for serology and nasopharyngeal swab specimens for multiplex PCR from case patients and controls. Results. Of 984 eligible case patients, 810 (84%) were enrolled in the study; 232 (29%) had VSP. Blood cultures were positive in 52 of 749 case patients (7%). A predominant potential pathogen was identified in sputum culture in 70 of 417 case patients (17%). A respiratory virus was detected by PCR from nasopharyngeal swab specimens in 486 of 805 case patients (60%) and 172 of 369 controls (47%). Only respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) showed a statistically significant association between virus detection in the nasopharynx and pneumonia hospitalization (odds ratio, 12.5; 95% confidence interval, 3.1–51.5). Among 257 case patients in whom all specimens (excluding serum specimens) were collected, bacteria were identified in 24 (9%), viruses in 137 (53%), mixed viral and bacterial infection in 39 (15%), and no pathogen in 57 (22%); bacterial causes outnumbered viral causes when the results of the case-control analysis were considered. Conclusions. A potential etiology was detected in >75% of children admitted with SP or VSP. Except for RSV, the case-control analysis did not detect an association between viral detection in the nasopharynx and hospitalization for pneumonia.
Speculation and Risk Sharing with New Financial Assets

While the traditional view of financial innovation emphasizes the risk sharing role of new financial assets, belief disagreements about these assets naturally lead to speculation, which represents a powerful economic force in the opposite direction. This paper investigates the effect of financial innovation on portfolio risks in an economy when both the risk sharing and the speculation forces are present. I consider this question in a standard mean-variance framework. Financial assets provide hedging services but they are also subject to speculation because traders do not necessarily agree about their payoffs. I define the average variance of traders' net worths as a measure of portfolio risks for this economy, and I decompose it into two components: the uninsurable variance, defined as the average variance that would obtain if there were no belief disagreements, and the speculative variance, defined as the residual variance that results from speculative trades based on belief disagreements. Financial innovation always decreases the uninsurable variance because new assets increase the possibilities for risk sharing. My main result shows that financial innovation also always increases the speculative variance. This is true even if traders completely agree about the payoffs of new assets. The intuition behind this result is the hedge-more/bet-more effect: Traders use new assets to hedge their bets on existing assets, which in turn enables them to place larger bets and take on greater risks. The net effect of financial innovation on portfolio risks depends on the quantitative strength of its effects on the uninsurable and the speculative variances. I consider a calibration of the model for new assets linked to national incomes of G7 countries, which were recommended by Athanasoulis and Shiller (2001) to facilitate risk sharing. For reasonable levels of belief disagreements, these assets would actually increase the average consumption risks of individuals in G7 countries. In addition, a profit seeking market maker would introduce a different subset of these assets than the ones proposed by Athanasoulis and Shiller (2001). The endogenous set of new assets would be directed towards increasing the opportunities for speculation rather than risk sharing.
Bioactive Lipidic Extracts from Octopus (Paraoctopus limaculatus): Antimutagenicity and Antiproliferative Studies

Fractions from an organic extract from fresh octopus (Paraoctopus limaculatus) were studied for biological activities such as antimutagenic and antiproliferative properties using Salmonella tester strains TA98 and TA100 with metabolic activation (S9) and a cancer cell line (B-cell lymphoma), respectively. A chloroform extract obtained from octopus tentacles was sequentially fractionated using thin layer chromatography (TLC), and each fraction was tested for antimutagenic and antiproliferative activities. Organic extract reduced the number of revertants caused by aflatoxin B1 showing a dose-response type of relationship. Sequential TLC fractionation of the active extracts produced several antimutagenic and/or antiproliferative fractions. Based on the results obtained, the isolated fractions obtained from octopus contain compounds with chemoprotective properties that reduce the mutagenicity of AFB1 and proliferation of cancer cell lines.
A Template-Free, Ultra-Adsorbing, High Surface Area Carbonate Nanostructure

We report the template-free, low-temperature synthesis of a stable, amorphous, and anhydrous magnesium carbonate nanostructure with pore sizes below 6 nm and a specific surface area of ∼ 800 m2 g−1, substantially surpassing the surface area of all previously described alkali earth metal carbonates. The moisture sorption of the novel nanostructure is featured by a unique set of properties including an adsorption capacity ∼50% larger than that of the hygroscopic zeolite-Y at low relative humidities and with the ability to retain more than 75% of the adsorbed water when the humidity is decreased from 95% to 5% at room temperature. These properties can be regenerated by heat treatment at temperatures below 100°C.The structure is foreseen to become useful in applications such as humidity control, as industrial adsorbents and filters, in drug delivery and catalysis.
Spatial Disassociation of Disrupted Functional Connectivity for the Default Mode Network in Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease

Purpose To investigate the aberrant functional connectivity of the default mode network (DMN) in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and their clinical relevance. Materials and Methods Resting-state functional MRI data were collected from 31 patients with ESRD (24 men, 24–61 years) and 31 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs, 21 men, 26-61years). A whole-brain seed-based functional connectivity analysis of these collected R-fMRI data was performed by locating the seeds in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to investigate the functional connectivity of the posterior and anterior DMN over the whole brain, respectively. Results Compared to the HCs, the patients exhibited significantly decreased functional connectivity with the PCC in the left middle temporal gyrus, the right anterior cingulate gyrus, and the bilateral medial superior frontal gyrus. For the vmPFC seed, only the right thalamus showed significantly decreased functional connectivity in the patients with ESRD compared to HCs. Interestingly, functional connectivity between the PCC and right medial superior frontal gyrus exhibited a significantly positive correlation with the hemoglobin level in the patients. Conclusion Our findings suggest a spatially specific disruption of functional connectivity in the DMN in patients with ESRD, thereby providing novel insights into our understanding of the neurophysiology mechanism that underlies the disease.