Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development and Assessment of Plant-Based Synthetic Odor Baits for Surveillance and Control of Malaria Vectors

Background Recent malaria vector control measures have considerably reduced indoor biting mosquito populations. However, reducing the outdoor biting populations remains a challenge because of the unavailability of appropriate lures to achieve this. This study sought to test the efficacy of plant-based synthetic odor baits in trapping outdoor populations of malaria vectors. Methodology and Principal Finding Three plant-based lures ((E)-linalool oxide [LO], (E)-linalool oxide and (E)-β-ocimene [LO + OC], and a six-component blend comprising (E)-linalool oxide, (E)-β-ocimene, hexanal, β-pinene, limonene, and (E)-β-farnesene [Blend C]), were tested alongside an animal/human-based synthetic lure (comprising heptanal, octanal, nonanal, and decanal [Blend F]) and worn socks in a malaria endemic zone in the western part of Kenya. Mosquito Magnet-X (MM-X) and lightless Centre for Disease Control (CDC) light traps were used. Odor-baited traps were compared with traps baited with either solvent alone or solvent + carbon dioxide (controls) for 18 days in a series of randomized incomplete-block designs of days × sites × treatments. The interactive effect of plant and animal/human odor was also tested by combining LO with either Blend F or worn socks. Our results show that irrespective of trap type, traps baited with synthetic plant odors compared favorably to the same traps baited with synthetic animal odors and worn socks in trapping malaria vectors, relative to the controls. Combining LO and worn socks enhanced trap captures of Anopheles species while LO + Blend F recorded reduced trap capture. Carbon dioxide enhanced total trap capture of both plant- and animal/human-derived odors. However, significantly higher proportions of male and engorged female Anopheles gambiae s.l. were caught when the odor treatments did not include carbon dioxide. Conclusion and Significance The results highlight the potential of plant-based odors and specifically linalool oxide, with or without carbon dioxide, for surveillance and mass trapping of malaria vectors.
Effect of Antihelminthic Treatment on Vaccine Immunogenicity to a Seasonal Influenza Vaccine in Primary School Children in Gabon: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial

Background Helminth infections are a major public health problem, especially in the tropics. Infected individuals have an altered immune response with evidence that antibody response to vaccination is impaired. Hence, treatment of helminth infections before vaccination may be a simple intervention to improve vaccine immunogenicity. In the present study we investigated whether a single-dose antihelminthic treatment influences antibody responses to a seasonal influenza vaccine in primary school children living in Gabon, Central Africa. Methods In this placebo-controlled double-blind trial conducted in Gabon the effect of a single-dose antihelminthic treatment with 400 mg albendazole versus a placebo one month prior to immunization with a seasonal influenza vaccine was investigated. Antiviral antibody titers against all three vaccine strains were assessed by haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test at baseline (Day 0; vaccination) and four weeks (Day 28) as well as 12 weeks (Day 84) following vaccination. Vaccine-specific memory B-cell response was measured at Day 0 and Day 84 by vaccine-specific Enzyme-linked Immunospot (ELISpot) assay. The trial is registered with the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR) (PACTR201303000434188). Results 98 school children aged 6–10 years were randomly allocated to receive either antihelminthic treatment or placebo and were vaccinated one month after the treatment. The prevalence of helminths at baseline was 21%. Vaccine-specific HI titers against at least one of the three vaccine strains increased at Day 28 and Day 84 in all participants. HI titers against both influenza A strains as well as memory B-cell response were modestly higher in the antihelminthic treated group compared to the placebo group but the difference was not statistically significant. Total but not specific IgA was elevated in the antihelminthic treated group compared to the control group at Day 28. Conclusion In our setting antihelminthic treatment had no significant effect on influenza vaccine immunogenicity. A trend towards better antiviral and vaccine immunogenicity in the antihelminthic treated group encourages studies to be conducted with alternative treatment schedules or in populations with a higher helminth burden.
Characterization of phonemes by means of correlation dimension

Speech can be considered as being generated by mechanical systems with inherently nonlinear dynamics. Recently, several techniques are applied in the analysis of dynamic nonlinear systems in order to evidence and analyze some short-time nonlinear characteristics of speech production. In order to obtain an estimation of the system complexity, in this paper we study the correlation dimension (D2) corresponding to a recorder speech signal. Our study has been developed over frames of N=512 points sampled at 16 KHz, which corresponds to 32 ms of recorder signal, because this frame selection guarantee the stationary hypothesis. The correlation dimension (D2) has been calculated using the procedure given by Grassberger and Procaccia (1983), [8], and it shows significant differences between the results obtained over vowel and nasal consonants (low dimension) and fricatives sounds (high dimension). Characterization of phonemes by means of correlation dimension PACS REFERENCE: 43.25. TS (nonlinear acoustical and dinamical systems) Martínez, F. ; Guillamón, A. ; Alcaraz, J.C. Departamento de Matemática Aplicada y Estadística (Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena), Antiguo Hosital de Marina, C/ Doctor Fleming, s/n. 30202. Cartagena(ESPAÑA). Tel: 0034968325586. Fax: 0034968325633. E-mail: f.martinez@upct.es , a.guillamon@upct.es
Evidence for influence of anthropogenic surface processes on lower tropospheric and surface temperature trends

In de Laat and Maurellis (2004), a new framework was introduced in the form of a spatial‐thresholding trend technique for analyzing the correlation between anthropogenic surface processes (e.g. changes in land use, albedo, soil moisture, groundwater levels, solar absorption by soot or energy consumption) and lower tropospheric and surface temperature trends for the period 1979–2001. In situ measured surface and satellite‐measured lower tropospheric temperature trends were shown to be higher in the vicinity of industrialized regions, while such higher trends were not found in enhanced greenhouse gas (GHG) climate model simulations of temperature. It was suggested that surface and lower tropospheric temperature trends appeared to be influenced by anthropogenic non‐GHG processes on the earth's surface.
Clinical Prediction of Suicide and Undetermined Death: A Pseudo-Prospective Clinical and Medico-Legal Study of Substance Abusers

This study examines aspects of prediction of suicide and death of undetermined intent. We investigated all consecutive, autopsied patients between 1993 and 1997 who had been in contact with the Addiction Centre in Malmö from 1968 onwards. The staff was asked, shortly after autopsy but before they knew of the manner of death, if they thought the patient had committed suicide. The case records were blindly evaluated, and toxicological autopsy findings for alcohol in blood samples investigated. The specificity of prediction was 83% and significantly more often correct than the sensitivity, which was only 45% for suicide and for suicide/death of undetermined intent (93% versus 39%). Suicidal communication was more often considered non-serious before death of undetermined intent than before suicide. The former could be predicted by ideation but not by suicide attempt reported in case records, unlike suicide, which was predicted by both. The undetermined group also showed higher levels of alcohol in the blood at autopsy. We concluded that more serious clinical investigation of suicidal feelings, which may be hidden and not taken seriously, and treatment of alcohol use disorders with active follow-up appear urgent in the efforts to prevent suicide.
Spatial trends in leaf size of Amazonian rainforest trees

Abstract. Leaf size influences many aspects of tree function such as rates of transpiration and photosynthesis and, consequently, often varies in a predictable way in response to environmental gradients. The recent development of pan-Amazonian databases based on permanent botanical plots has now made it possible to assess trends in leaf size across environmental gradients in Amazonia. Previous plot-based studies have shown that the community structure of Amazonian trees breaks down into at least two major ecological gradients corresponding with variations in soil fertility (decreasing from southwest to northeast) and length of the dry season (increasing from northwest to south and east). Here we describe the geographic distribution of leaf size categories based on 121 plots distributed across eight South American countries. We find that the Amazon forest is predominantly populated by tree species and individuals in the mesophyll size class (20.25–182.25 cm2). The geographic distribution of species and individuals with large leaves (>20.25 cm2) is complex but is generally characterized by a higher proportion of such trees in the northwest of the region. Spatially corrected regressions reveal weak correlations between the proportion of large-leaved species and metrics of water availability. We also find a significant negative relationship between leaf size and wood density.
Growth arrest-specific gene 6 (Gas6) levels are elevated in patients with chronic renal failure.

BACKGROUND The TAM receptors (tyro3, axl and mer) and their ligands (vitamin K-dependent proteins-Gas6 and Protein S) are crucial modulators of inflammation, which may be relevant in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Gas6 and axl have multiple roles in mediating vascular atherosclerosis and injury, thrombosis and inflammation, yet nothing is known about the Gas6-axl pathway in humans with CKD. Given the prevalence of chronic inflammation and vascular disease in this population, we measured TAM ligands in patients with various levels of renal function. METHODS Gas6 and protein S were quantified in the plasma by ELISA in three patient groups: end-stage renal disease on chronic hemodialysis (HD), CKD and normal controls. RESULTS Significantly increased levels of Gas6 and protein S were found in CKD patients compared with normal controls (P < 0.01 and <0.001, respectively). In HD patients, Gas6 levels were elevated compared with controls (P < 0.001) and positively associated with low albumin (r = 0.33; P = 0.01), dialysis vintage (r = 0.36; P = 0.008) and IV iron administration (r = 0.33; P = 0.01). The levels of Gas6 rose with CKD stage and were inversely associated with estimated GFR (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Dysregulation of circulating Gas6 is associated with renal disease and inversely proportional to renal function. Low albumin and higher IV iron administration were associated with higher Gas6 levels, suggesting a possible connection between inflammation and oxidative stress mediated by iron. Protein S levels were also elevated in CKD patients, but the relevance of this finding needs to be further investigated.
Model Uncertainty, Optimal Monetary Policy and the Preferences of the Fed

Monetary policy in the US is characterized by a substantial degree of inertia. While in principle this may well be the outcome of an optimizing central bank behaviour, the ability of any derived policy rule to match the data relies on so large weights for interest rate smoothing into policy makers' preferences as to be theoretically flawed. In this paper we investigate whether such a puzzle can be interpreted as resulting from the concern of monetary authorities for potential misspecifications of the macroeconomic dynamics. Accordingly, we propose a novel thick modelling approach that incorporates model uncertainty into the identification of central bank's preferences. The thick robust policy rule shows the kind of smoothness observed in the data without resorting to implausible values for the preference parameters.
What Is the Average Retirement Age

Since working longer is the key to a secure retirement for the vast majority of older Americans, it is useful to take a look at labor force trends for those under and over age 65 for the last century. This brief proceeds in three steps. The first section describes the long-run decline in labor force participa-tion of men. The second looks at the turnaround that began in the mid-1980s. The third section discusses the trends for women, which combine their increas-ing labor force activity, on the one hand, and incen-tives to retire, on the other. The final section concludes that labor force activity of both men and women has increased significantly since the mid-1980s as many incentives now en-courage work. Several hurdles remain to continued increases, however, including the sluggish economic recovery, the move away from career employment, the availability of Social Security at 62, and employer resistance to part-time employment.
Path Dependant Option Pricing Under Levy Processes

A model is developed that can price path dependent options when the underlying process is an exponential Levy process with closed form conditional characteristic function. The model is an extension of a recent quadrature option pricing model so that it can be applied with the use of Fourier and Fast Fourier transforms. Thus the model possesses nice features of both transform and quadrature option pricing techniques since it can be applied for a very general set of underlying Levy processes and can handle exotic path dependent features. The model is applied to European and Bermudan options for geometric Brownian motion, a jump-diffusion process, a variance gamma process and a normal inverse Gaussian process. However it must be noted that the model can also price other path dependent exotic options such as lookback and Asian options.
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal

Rupert Sheldrake (1994) has written a curious book, Seven Experiments That Could Change the World: A Do-ItYourself Guide to Revolutionary Science. Sheldrake proposes an Alice Through the Looking Glass vision of things that possibly could be so but, in all probability, are not. Doing science in a controlled and thoughtful manner is a challenging and tricky operation. This is especially true of research on the paranormal, where the claims are difficult to prove because the effects are small and unreliable. Sheldrake advocates the collective participation of amateurs and nonscientists who have the "freedom to explore new areas of research. " It is certainly true that the theories and methods of science change slowly and at times scientists do appear reluctant to accept new paradigms. Anybody capable of switching on a computer and downloading Sheldrake's Web pages can become a member of Sheldrake's army of revolutionary scientific experimenters.
Combinatorial drug screening identifies compensatory pathway interactions and adaptive resistance mechanisms

Constitutively activated signaling molecules are often the primary drivers of malignancy, and are favored targets for therapeutic intervention. However, the effectiveness of targeted inhibition of cell signaling can be blunted by compensatory signaling which generates adaptive resistance mechanisms and reduces therapeutic responses. Therefore, it is important to identify and target these compensatory pathways with combinations of targeted agents to achieve durable clinical benefit. In this report, we demonstrate the use of high-throughput combinatorial drug screening as a discovery tool to identify compensatory pathways that generate resistance to the cytotoxic effects of targeted therapy. We screened 420 drug combinations in 14 different cell lines representing three cancer lineages, and assessed the ability of each combination to cause synergistic cytotoxicity. Drug substitution studies were used to validate the functionally important drug targets. Of the 84 combinations that caused robust synergy in multiple cell lines, none were synergistic in more than half of the lines tested, and we observed no pattern of lineage specificity in the observed synergies. This reflects the plasticity of cell signaling networks, even among cell lines of the same tissue of origin. Mechanistic analysis of one novel synergistic combination identified in the screen, the multi-kinase inhibitor Ro31-8220 and lapatinib, demonstrated compensatory crosstalk between the p70S6 kinase and EGF receptor pathways. In addition, we identified BAD as a node of convergence between these two pathways that may be playing a role in the enhanced apoptosis observed upon combination treatment.
Financial markets and economic growth

The present thesis is a contribution to the analysis of the relationship between the real and the financial sector of the economy. The corresponding gap in the scientific literature is closed. It is concluded that the classical concept of the "wages fund," after some modifications, can serve as a useful tool in the macroeconomic analysis of the financial market. This approach simplifies the study and the exact description of the real functions accomplished by the financial market. It is maintained that the function of this market consists in allocating the available fund of consumers' goods - the wages fund - to those places where it is needed the most. So there is a very close relationship between the financial market and the satisfaction of human needs. The second important concept for the analysis of the relationship between the real and the financial sector is the value of money. We argue that money is only accepted in business and on the financial market because it has the power to purchase consumers' goods. If it did not have this power, nobody would be ready to exchange a real good against it. So in allocating the monetary savings, the financial market, in real terms, indeed allocates the available consumers' good. The analysis of the value of money thus opens up the way to a new conception of the real side of the financial market based on the wages fund theory. We apply our results to empirical data of the German economic crisis of 1873, which very much resembles the recent financial crisis on the occidental financial markets.
Smart City Analytics: state of the art and future perspectives

In accordance with a ‘people centred’ vision, this paper critically examines current approaches to smart cities benchmarking. In particular, by means of correlation analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) we put in evidence present limitations of city rankings and, as well, the emergence of different perspectives for data interpretations. To follow, a possible redesign of the ‘Smart Cities Analytics’ grounded on the traces left by individuals, is suggested. In particular, as an example, we focus on the potentiality offered by automatic text analysis to extract people perceptions and expectations that, in turns, demonstrate the need to integrate bottom-up and top-down approaches to city benchmarking. Finally a novel definition of smart city based on the territorial state of flow is proposed and, as a consequence, a novel path toward smart city benchmarking suggested.
Electroweak radiative corrections to polarized Mo/ller scattering asymmetries

One loop electroweak radiative corrections to left-right parity-violating Mo/ller scattering ({ital e}{sup {minus}}{ital e}{sup {minus}}{r_arrow}{ital e}{sup {minus}}{ital e}{sup {minus}}) asymmetries are presented. They reduce the standard model (tree level) prediction by 40{plus_minus}3{percent} where the main shift and uncertainty stem from hadronic vacuum polarization loops. A similar reduction also occurs for the electron-electron atomic parity-violating interaction. That effect can be attributed to an increase of sin{sup 2}{theta}{sub {ital W}}({ital q}{sup 2}) by 3{percent} in running from {ital q}{sup 2}={ital m}{sub {ital Z}}{sup 2} to 0. The sensitivity of the asymmetry to {open_quote}{open_quote}new physics{close_quote}{close_quote} is also discussed. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society. }
Relation between troponin T concentration and mortality in patients presenting with an acute stroke: observational study

Abstract Objective: To assess whether a raised serum troponin T concentration would be an independent predictor of death in patients with an acute ischaemic stroke. Design: Observational study. Setting: Auckland Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. Subjects: All 181 patients with an acute ischaemic stroke admitted over nine months in 1997-8, from a total of 8057 patients admitted to the acute medical service. Main outcome measures: Blood samples for measuring troponin T concentration were collected 12-72 hours after admission; other variables previously associated with severity of stroke were also recorded and assessed as independent predictors of inpatient mortality. Results: Troponin T concentration was raised (>0.1 μg/l) in 17% (30) of patients admitted with an acute ischaemic stroke. Thirty one patients died in hospital (12/30 (40%) patients with a raised troponin T concentration v 19/151 (13%) patients with a normal concentration (relative risk 3.2 (95% confidence 1.7 to 5.8; P=0.0025)). Of 17 possible predictors of death, assessed in a multivariate stepwise model, only a raised troponin T concentration (P=0.0002), age (P=0.0008), and an altered level of consciousness at presentation (P=0.0074) independently predicted an adverse outcome. Conclusions: Serum troponin T concentration at hospital admission is a powerful predictor of mortality in patients admitted with an acute ischaemic stroke.
Pyrosequencing-Based Assessment of Soil pH as a Predictor of Soil Bacterial Community Structure at the Continental Scale

ABSTRACT Soils harbor enormously diverse bacterial populations, and soil bacterial communities can vary greatly in composition across space. However, our understanding of the specific changes in soil bacterial community structure that occur across larger spatial scales is limited because most previous work has focused on either surveying a relatively small number of soils in detail or analyzing a larger number of soils with techniques that provide little detail about the phylogenetic structure of the bacterial communities. Here we used a bar-coded pyrosequencing technique to characterize bacterial communities in 88 soils from across North and South America, obtaining an average of 1,501 sequences per soil. We found that overall bacterial community composition, as measured by pairwise UniFrac distances, was significantly correlated with differences in soil pH (r = 0.79), largely driven by changes in the relative abundances of Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes across the range of soil pHs. In addition, soil pH explains a significant portion of the variability associated with observed changes in the phylogenetic structure within each dominant lineage. The overall phylogenetic diversity of the bacterial communities was also correlated with soil pH (R2 = 0.50), with peak diversity in soils with near-neutral pHs. Together, these results suggest that the structure of soil bacterial communities is predictable, to some degree, across larger spatial scales, and the effect of soil pH on bacterial community composition is evident at even relatively coarse levels of taxonomic resolution.