Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antimalarial Iron Chelator, FBS0701, Shows Asexual and Gametocyte Plasmodium falciparum Activity and Single Oral Dose Cure in a Murine Malaria Model

Iron chelators for the treatment of malaria have proven therapeutic activity in vitro and in vivo in both humans and mice, but their clinical use is limited by the unsuitable absorption and pharmacokinetic properties of the few available iron chelators. FBS0701, (S)3”-(HO)-desazadesferrithiocin-polyether [DADFT-PE], is an oral iron chelator currently in Phase 2 human studies for the treatment of transfusional iron overload. The drug has very favorable absorption and pharmacokinetic properties allowing for once-daily use to deplete circulating free iron with human plasma concentrations in the high µM range. Here we show that FBS0701 has inhibition concentration 50% (IC50) of 6 µM for Plasmodium falciparum in contrast to the IC50 for deferiprone and deferoxamine at 15 and 30 µM respectively. In combination, FBS0701 interfered with artemisinin parasite inhibition and was additive with chloroquine or quinine parasite inhibition. FBS0701 killed early stage P. falciparum gametocytes. In the P. berghei Thompson suppression test, a single dose of 100 mg/kg reduced day three parasitemia and prolonged survival, but did not cure mice. Treatment with a single oral dose of 100 mg/kg one day after infection with 10 million lethal P. yoelii 17XL cured all the mice. Pretreatment of mice with a single oral dose of FBS0701 seven days or one day before resulted in the cure of some mice. Plasma exposures and other pharmacokinetics parameters in mice of the 100 mg/kg dose are similar to a 3 mg/kg dose in humans. In conclusion, FBS0701 demonstrates a single oral dose cure of the lethal P. yoelii model. Significantly, this effect persists after the chelator has cleared from plasma. FBS0701 was demonstrated to remove labile iron from erythrocytes as well as enter erythrocytes to chelate iron. FBS0701 may find clinically utility as monotherapy, a malarial prophylactic or, more likely, in combination with other antimalarials.
Stabilization of Networked Control Systems with Data Rate Constraints

This paper investigates the stabilization problem for networked control systems (NCSs) with limited data rates over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. The notion of control with limited data rates means specifying the lower bound of data rates, above which there exists a coding and control scheme for stabilization of linear time-invariant systems. Different from the literatures, the lower bound of data rates to be presented here is determined by the rate of convergence and probability distributions of plant states. Simulations are done to verify the obtained theoretical results.
THD Analysis for Different Levels of Cascade Multilevel Inverters for Industrial Applications

Cascade Multilevel Inverters are very popular and have many applications in electric utility and for industrial drives. When these inverters are used for industrial drive directly, the THD contents in output voltage of inverters is very significant index as the performance of drive depends very much on the quality of voltage applied to drive. In this article, the THD contents of 7, 11 and 15 level cascade multilevel inverters have been analysed. The THD depends on the switching angles for different units of multilevel inverters, therefore, the switching angles are calculated first by using N-R method where certain number of harmonic components has been eliminated. Using calculated switching angles, THD analysis is carried out analytically as well as using MATLAB simulation (both results are in close agreement). As per IEEE-519 standard, the output voltage produced should satisfy the limit on THD. It has been found that the fifteen level CMLI satisfies this limit while seven and eleven level CMLI violates this limit.
Man as an Intuitive Statistician

This review considers experimental research that has used probability theory and statistics as a framework within which to study human statistical inference. The experiments have investigated estimates of proportions, means, variances, and correlations, both of samples and of populations. In some experiments, parameters of populations were stationary; in others, the parameters changed over time. The experiments also investigated the determination of sample size and trial-by-trial predictions of events to be sampled from a population. In general, the results indicate that probability theory and statistics can be used as the basis for psychological models that integrate and account for human performance in a wide range of inferential tasks. "Given . an intelligence which could comprehend all the forces of which nature is animated and the respective situation of the beings who compose it—an intelligence sufficiently vast to submit these data to analysis. nothing would be uncertain and the future , as the past, would be present to its eyes [Laplace, 1814]. " In lieu of such omnisci-ence, man must cope with an environment about which he has only fallible information, "while God may not gamble, animals and humans do, . they cannot help but to gamble in an ecology that is of essence only partly accessible to their foresight [Brunswik, 1955]. " And man gambles well. He survives and prospers while using the fallible information to infer the states of his uncertain environment and to predict future events. Man's problems with his uncertain environment are similar 'to those faced by social enterprises such as science, industry, and agriculture. Satisfactory decisions require sound inferences about prevailing and future states of the environments in which these enter-Many of the ideas expressed here have their origins in discussions and arguments with Ward Edwards, to whom we are deeply indebted. We also would like to thank Kenneth R. Ham-mond who introduced us to the probabilistic func-tionalism of the late Egon Brunswik, an approach that has influenced much of the research in this review. prises operate. Consequently, a great deal of effort has been invested in the development of coherent, formal procedures for dealing with fallible information in making inferences. These procedures, complex and sophisticated enough to have become a discipline, are called probability theory and statistics. Because of the parallels between many of the inference tasks faced by man and by social enterprises, a number of investigators have used formal statistical theory as a point of …
Diversity & Empire: Baltic Germans & Comparative Development

In this paper, we explore the long-run effects of cultural and imperial legacies in the Baltic region. Drawing evidence from the 1897 population census in the Russian Empire, we find that localities with a higher share of German historical population are inclined to be more developed in contemporary Latvia and Estonia. Furthermore, based on the Life-In-Transition Survey (LiTS), we use robust regression discontinuity and identify persistent differential patterns of socioeconomic and political preferences across the borders of the former imperial territories of Estland, Livonia (Swedish Livonia), Letgallia (Polish Livonia) and Courland. Hence, we argue for the persistence of legacies as drivers of divergent development paths in the regions of Latvia and Estonia.
Changes in neuropsychological functioning following treatment for late-life generalised anxiety disorder

Background Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) in older adults is associated with neuropsychological impairment. Aims We examined neuropsychological functioning in older adults with GAD in comparison with psychiatrically healthy older adults at baseline, and we examined changes following a 12-week placebo-controlled trial of escitalopram. Method A total of 160 participants without dementia aged ⩾60 with current GAD and 37 individuals in a comparison group without psychiatric history underwent neuropsychological assessment. Of these, 129 participants with GAD were reassessed post-treatment (trial registration: NCT00105586). Results The participants with GAD performed worse than the comparison group in information processing speed, working memory, inhibition, problem-solving (including concept formation and mental flexibility) and immediate and delayed memory. Neuropsychological functioning was correlated with everyday functioning. After treatment, those with low cognitive scores experienced working memory, delayed memory and visuospatial ability improvement and those who reported clinical improvement in anxiety exhibited improvement in the ability to engage inhibition and episodic recall. These improvements were modest and of similar magnitude in both treatment conditions. Conclusions Generalised anxiety disorder in older adults is associated with neuropsychological impairments, which are associated with functional impairment. Those with GAD who either have a low cognitive performance or report clinical improvement in anxiety post-treatment, show improvement in multiple cognitive domains. These findings underscore the importance of treatments that aid cognition as well as anxiety symptoms.
High-Resolution Genotyping of Chlamydia trachomatis Strains by Multilocus Sequence Analysis

ABSTRACT Genotyping of Chlamydia trachomatis is limited by the low sequence variation in the genome, and no adequate method is available for analysis of the spread of chlamydial infections in the community. We have developed a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) system based on five target regions and compared it with analysis of ompA, the single gene most extensively used for genotyping. Sequence determination of 16 reference strains, comprising all major serotypes, serotypes A to L3, showed that the number of genetic variants in the five separate target regions ranged from 8 to 16. The genetic variation in 47 clinical C. trachomatis isolates of representative serotypes (14 serotype D, 12 serotype E, 11 serotype G, and 10 serotype K strains) was analyzed; and the MLST system detected 32 variants, whereas 12 variants were detected by using ompA analysis. Specimens of the predominant serotype, serotype E, were differentiated into seven genotypes by MLST but into only two by ompA analysis. The MLST system was applied to C. trachomatis specimens from a population of men who have sex with men and was able to differentiate 10 specimens of one predominant ompA genotype G variant into four distinct MLST variants. To conclude, our MLST system can be used to discriminate C. trachomatis strains and can be applied to high-resolution molecular epidemiology.
Lipophilicity Assessment of Ruthenium(II)-Arene Complexes by the Means of Reversed-Phase Thin-Layer Chromatography and DFT Calculations

The lipophilicity of ten ruthenium(II)-arene complexes was assessed by reversed-phase thin-layer chromatography (RP-TLC) on octadecyl silica stationary phase. The binary solvent systems composed of water and acetonitrile were used as mobile phase in order to determine chromatographic descriptors for lipophilicity estimation. Octanol-water partition coefficient, logK OW, of tested complexes was experimentally determined using twenty-eight standard solutes which were analyzed under the same chromatographic conditions as target substances. In addition, ab initio density functional theory (DFT) computational approach was employed to calculate logK OW values from the differences in Gibbs' free solvation energies of the solute transfer from n-octanol to water. A good overall agreement between DFT calculated and experimentally determined logK OW values was established (R 2 = 0.8024–0.9658).
Incremental Cycle Detection, Topological Ordering, and Strong Component Maintenance

We present two online algorithms for maintaining a topological order of a directed n-vertex acyclic graph as arcs are added, and detecting a cycle when one is created. Our first algorithm handles m arc additions in O(m3/2) time. For sparse graphs (m/n = O(1)), this bound improves the best previous bound by a logarithmic factor, and is tight to within a constant factor among algorithms satisfying a natural locality property. Our second algorithm handles an arbitrary sequence of arc additions in O(n5/2) time. For sufficiently dense graphs, this bound improves the best previous bound by a polynomial factor. Our bound may be far from tight: we show that the algorithm can take Ω(n22√2 lg n) time by relating its performance to a generalization of the k-levels problem of combinatorial geometry. A completely different algorithm running in Θ(n2 log n) time was given recently by Bender, Fineman, and Gilbert. We extend both of our algorithms to the maintenance of strong components, without affecting the asymptotic time bounds.
A Framework for Enriching Job Vacancies and Job Descriptions Through Bidirectional Matching

There is a huge online data about job descriptions which has been entered by job seekers and job holders that can be utilized to give insight into the current state of jobs. Employers also produce large volume of vacancy data online which can be exploited to portray the current demand of the job market. When preparing job vacancies, taking into account the information contained in job descriptions, and vice versa, the likelihood of getting the bidirectional match of a job description and a vacancy will be improved. To improve the quality of job descriptions and job vacancies, a mediating system is required that connects and supports job designers and employers, respectively. In this paper, we propose a framework of an automatic bidirectional matching system that measures the degree of semantic similarity of job descriptions provided by job-seeker, job-holder or job-designer against the vacancy provided by employer or job-agent. The system provides suggestions to improve both job descriptions and vacancies using a combination of text mining methods.
Low-Dose Dynamic Cerebral Perfusion Computed Tomography Reconstruction via Kronecker-Basis-Representation Tensor Sparsity Regularization

Dynamic cerebral perfusion computed tomography (DCPCT) has the ability to evaluate the hemodynamic information throughout the brain. However, due to multiple 3-D image volume acquisitions protocol, DCPCT scanning imposes high radiation dose on the patients with growing concerns. To address this issue, in this paper, based on the robust principal component analysis (RPCA, or equivalently the low-rank and sparsity decomposition) model and the DCPCT imaging procedure, we propose a new DCPCT image reconstruction algorithm to improve low-dose DCPCT and perfusion maps quality via using a powerful measure, called Kronecker-basis-representation tensor sparsity regularization, for measuring low-rankness extent of a tensor. For simplicity, the first proposed model is termed tensor-based RPCA (T-RPCA). Specifically, the T-RPCA model views the DCPCT sequential images as a mixture of low-rank, sparse, and noise components to describe the maximum temporal coherence of spatial structure among phases in a tensor framework intrinsically. Moreover, the low-rank component corresponds to the “background” part with spatial–temporal correlations, e.g., static anatomical contribution, which is stationary over time about structure, and the sparse component represents the time-varying component with spatial–temporal continuity, e.g., dynamic perfusion enhanced information, which is approximately sparse over time. Furthermore, an improved nonlocal patch-based T-RPCA (NL-T-RPCA) model which describes the 3-D block groups of the “background” in a tensor is also proposed. The NL-T-RPCA model utilizes the intrinsic characteristics underlying the DCPCT images, i.e., nonlocal self-similarity and global correlation. Two efficient algorithms using alternating direction method of multipliers are developed to solve the proposed T-RPCA and NL-T-RPCA models, respectively. Extensive experiments with a digital brain perfusion phantom, preclinical monkey data, and clinical patient data clearly demonstrate that the two proposed models can achieve more gains than the existing popular algorithms in terms of both quantitative and visual quality evaluations from low-dose acquisitions, especially as low as 20 mAs.
Climatology Analysis of Aerosol Effect on Marine Water Cloud from Long-Term Satellite Climate Data Records

Satellite aerosol and cloud climate data records (CDRs) have been used successfully to study the aerosol indirect effect (AIE). Data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) now span more than 30 years and allow these studies to be conducted from a climatology perspective. In this paper, AVHRR data are used to study the AIE on water clouds over the global oceans. Correlation analysis between aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and cloud parameters, including cloud droplet effective radius (CDER), cloud optical depth (COD), cloud water path (CWP), and cloud cover fraction (CCF), is performed. For the first time from satellite observations, the long-term trend in AIE over the global oceans is also examined. Three regimes have been identified: (1) AOT 0.3, where CDER first increases with AOT and then levels off. AIE is easy to manifest in the CDER reduction in the second regime (named Regime 2), which is identified as the AIE sensitive/effective regime. The AIE manifested in the consistent changes of all four cloud variables (CDER, COD, CWP, and CCF) together is located only in limited areas and with evident seasonal variations. The long-term trend of CDER changes due to the AIE of AOT changes is detected and falls into three scenarios: Evident CDER decreasing (increasing) with significant AOT increasing (decreasing) and evident CDER decreasing with limited AOT increasing but AOT values fall in the AIE sensitive Regime 2.
Cefamandole Therapy in Anaerobic Infections

Thirty-one adult patients with infections due to anaerobic bacteria were treated with cefamandole. Bacteroides fragilis group (17) and Bacteroides melaninogenicus (13) were the most frequent anaerobes isolated. Duration of therapy varied from 2 to 49 days. Results were judged satisfactory in 26 cases, and unsatisfactory in 1 case. Four cases could not be evaluated. Adverse reactions occurred in 16 patients and included positive direct Coombs' test without hemolysis, transient liver function abnormalities, phlebitis, reversible neutropenia, fever, eosinophilia, and toxic epidermal necrolysis. The more significant reactions were associated with prolonged therapy. None was lethal. These data suggest that cefamandole is effective in treatment of most anaerobic infections.
Validation of the VISA-A questionnaire for Turkish language: the VISA-A-Tr study

Objectives To evaluate the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment-Achilles (VISA-A) questionnaire for patients with Achilles tendinopathy. Design Fifty-five patients with a diagnosis of Achilles tendinopathy and 55 healthy subjects were included in the study. VISA-A questionnaires were translated and culturally adapted into Turkish. The final Turkish version (VISA-A-Tr) was tested for reliability on healthy individuals and patients. Tests for internal consistency, validity and structure were performed on 55 patients. Results The VISA-A-Tr showed good test–retest reliability (Pearson's r=0.99, p<0.001). The patients with Achilles tendinopathy had a significantly lower score (p<0.001) than the healthy individuals. The VISA-A-Tr score correlated significantly with the Stanish tendon grading system (Spearman's r=−0.86; p<0.001). Conclusion The VISA-A-Tr is a valid and reliable tool for evaluating the severity of Achilles tendinopathy.
On the mechanism of chaperone activity of the small heat-shock protein of Methanococcus jannaschii

The small heat-shock protein (sHSP) from Methanococcus jannaschii (Mj HSP16.5) forms a homomeric complex of 24 subunits and has an overall structure of a multiwindowed hollow sphere with an external diameter of ≈120 Å and an internal diameter of ≈65 Å with six square “windows” of ≈17 Å across and eight triangular windows of ≈30 Å across. This sHSP has been known to protect other proteins from thermal denaturation. Using purified single-chain monellin as a substrate and a series of methods such as protease digestion, antibody binding, and electron microscopy, we show that the substrates bind to Mj HSP16.5 at a high temperature (80°C) on the outside surface of the sphere and are prevented from forming insoluble substrate aggregates in vitro. Circular dichroism studies suggest that a very small, if any, conformational change occurs in sHSP even at 80°C, but substantial conformational changes of the substrate are required for complex formation at 80°C. Furthermore, deletion mutation studies of Mj HSP16.5 suggest that the N-terminal region of the protein has no structural role but may play an important kinetic role in the assembly of the sphere by “preassembly condensation” of multiple monomers before final assembly of the sphere.
GENETIC EVIDENCE ON THE DEMOGRAPHY OF SPECIATION IN ALLOPATRIC DOLPHIN SPECIES

Abstract Under a neutral model, the stochastic lineage sorting that leads to gene monophyly proceeds slowly in large populations. Therefore, in many recent species with large population size, the genome will have mixed support for monophyly unless historical bottlenecks have accelerated coalescence. We use genealogical patterns in mitochondrial DNA and in introns of four nuclear loci to test for historical bottlenecks during the speciation and divergence of two temperate Lagenorhynchus dolphin species isolated by tropical Pacific waters (an antitropical distribution). Despite distinct morphologies, foraging behaviors, and mitochondrial DNAs, these dolphin species are polyphyletic at all four nuclear loci. The abundance of shared polymorphisms between these sister taxa is most consistent with the maintenance of large effective population sizes (5.09 × 104 to 10.9 × 104) during 0.74–1.05 million years of divergence. A variety of population size histories are possible, however. We used gene tree coalescent probabilities to explore the rejection region for historical bottlenecks of different intensity given best estimates of effective population size under a strict isolation model of divergence. In L. obliquidens the data are incompatible with a colonization propagule of an effective size of 10 or fewer individuals. Although the ability to reject less extreme historical bottlenecks will require data from additional loci, the intermixed genealogical patterns observed between these dolphin sister species are highly probable only under an extended history of large population size. If similar demographic histories are inferred for other marine antitropical taxa, a parsimonious model for the Pleistocene origin of these distributions would not involve rare breaches of a constant dispersal barrier by small colonization propagules. Instead, a history of large population size in L. obliquidens and L. obscurus contributes to growing biological and environmental evidence that the equatorial barrier became permeable during glacial/interglacial cycles, leading to vicariant isolation of antitropical populations. Corresponding Editor: S. Edwards