Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Monthly malaria chemoprevention shows potential in an area of very high, perennial malaria transmission

Commentary on : Bigira V, Kapisi J, Clark TD, et al. Protective efficacy and safety of three antimalarial regimens for the prevention of malaria in young Ugandan children: a randomized controlled trial. PLoS Med 2014;11:e1001689[OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3]. New approaches are needed for malaria control where the burden has remained high despite scaled up coverage of long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLIN) and prompt access to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). 1 Bigira and colleagues evaluated three regimens for chemoprevention of malaria in young children in eastern Uganda, in an area of very high year-round malaria transmission and high resistance to antifolate drugs, including sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) and sulfamethoxazole. Children between 6 and 24 months of age were randomised to receive daily trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TS), monthly SP, monthly dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) or no intervention. All study participants were given LLINs. Follow-up continued to 36 months of age. The primary outcome was incidence of uncomplicated malaria, treated with artemether-lumefantrine (AL). Between 6 and 24 months of age, … [1]: {openurl}? query=rft.jtitle%253DPLoS%2BMed%26rft.volume%253D11%26rft.spage%253De1001689%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1371%252Fjournal.pmed. 1001689%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F25093754%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref? access_num=10.1371/journal.pmed. 1001689&link_type=DOI [3]: /lookup/external-ref? access_num=25093754&link_type=MED&atom=%2Febmed%2F20%2F3%2F110.atom
Selective TLC separation of lysine and threonine in pharmaceutical preparations

SUMMARY Thin-layer chromatography of α-amino acids has been performed on layers prepared from a 1:4 stannic arsenate–cellulose mixture. RF values of the amino acids were determined after development with a variety of mobile phases. Important synthetic ternary separations have been achieved on the basis of different RF values. Lysine and threonine have been selectively separated and quantitatively determined from among the mixture of amino acids present in a commercially available drug.
Oxidation of Fe(II)‐EDTA by nitrite and by two nitrate‐reducing Fe(II)‐oxidizing Acidovorax strains

The enzymatic oxidation of Fe(II) by nitrate‐reducing bacteria was first suggested about two decades ago. It has since been found that most strains are mixotrophic and need an additional organic co‐substrate for complete and prolonged Fe(II) oxidation. Research during the last few years has tried to determine to what extent the observed Fe(II) oxidation is driven enzymatically, or abiotically by nitrite produced during heterotrophic denitrification. A recent study reported that nitrite was not able to oxidize Fe(II)‐EDTA abiotically, but the addition of the mixotrophic nitrate‐reducing Fe(II)‐oxidizer, Acidovorax sp. strain 2AN, led to Fe(II) oxidation (Chakraborty & Picardal, 2013). This, along with other results of that study, was used to argue that Fe(II) oxidation in strain 2AN was enzymatically catalyzed. However, the absence of abiotic Fe(II)‐EDTA oxidation by nitrite reported in that study contrasts with previously published data. We have repeated the abiotic and biotic experiments and observed rapid abiotic oxidation of Fe(II)‐EDTA by nitrite, resulting in the formation of Fe(III)‐EDTA and the green Fe(II)‐EDTA‐NO complex. Additionally, we found that cultivating the Acidovorax strains BoFeN1 and 2AN with 10 mm nitrate, 5 mm acetate, and approximately 10 mm Fe(II)‐EDTA resulted only in incomplete Fe(II)‐EDTA oxidation of 47–71%. Cultures of strain BoFeN1 turned green (due to the presence of Fe(II)‐EDTA‐NO) and the green color persisted over the course of the experiments, whereas strain 2AN was able to further oxidize the Fe(II)‐EDTA‐NO complex. Our work shows that the two used Acidovorax strains behave very differently in their ability to deal with toxic effects of Fe‐EDTA species and the further reduction of the Fe(II)‐EDTA‐NO nitrosyl complex. Although the enzymatic oxidation of Fe(II) cannot be ruled out, this study underlines the importance of nitrite in nitrate‐reducing Fe(II)‐ and Fe(II)‐EDTA‐oxidizing cultures and demonstrates that Fe(II)‐EDTA cannot be used to demonstrate unequivocally the enzymatic oxidation of Fe(II) by mixotrophic Fe(II)‐oxidizers.
Regulation and Adaptation of Glucose Metabolism of the Parasitic Protist Leishmania donovani at the Enzyme and mRNA Levels

ABSTRACT Adaptation of the glucose metabolism of Leishmania donovani promastigotes (insect stage) was investigated by simultaneously measuring metabolic rates, enzyme activities, message levels, and cellular parameters under various conditions. Chemostats were used to adapt cells to different growth rates with growth rate-limiting or excess glucose concentrations. L. donovanicatabolized glucose to CO2, succinate, acetate, and pyruvate in ratios that depended on growth rate and glucose availability. Rates of glucose consumption were a linear function of growth rate and were twice as high in excess glucose-grown cells as in glucose-limited organisms. The major end product was CO2, but organic end products were also formed in ratios that varied strongly with growth conditions. The specific activities of the 14 metabolic enzymes measured varied by factors of 3 to 17. Two groups of enzymes adapted specific activities in parallel, but there was no correlation between the groups. The activities of only one group correlated with specific rates of glucose metabolism. Total RNA content per cellular protein varied by a factor of 6 and showed a linear relationship with the rate of glucose consumption. There was no correlation between steady-state message levels and activities of the corresponding enzymes, suggesting regulation at the posttranscriptional level. A comparison of the adaptation of energy metabolism in L. donovani and other species suggests that the energy metabolism ofL. donovani is inefficient but is well suited to the environmental challenges that it encounters during residence in the sandfly, its insect vector.
Primary and secondary sex ratio manipulation by zebra finches

Wild zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, breed opportunistically when there is sufficient food available, often rapidly mobilizing their reproductive systems in response to an ephemeral boom in grass seed production. For females in captivity, fecundity, attractiveness to mates and survival to reproduction are all correlated with their fledging weight. By contrast, for males, only attractiveness is related to fledging weight; the relationship between fledging weight and male mortality is much weaker and that for male fecundity is unknown. Previous work thus suggests that how much food nestlings receive will have a profound impact on their reproductive success, and that this effect may be more marked for females than for males. I manipulated the food available to domesticated breeding zebra finches to test Trivers & Willard's (1973, Science, 179, 90-92) hypothesis of adaptive sexual investment. When food availability was restricted, clutch sex ratios were significantly more male biased than when food was available in excess. Within clutches, daughters hatched sooner than sons and first-hatched chicks fledged at higher weights than those that hatched last. Chick mortality was female biased when food availability was low but male biased when food availability was unrestricted. I compared the song output of brothers of differing weight at independence, but found no significant difference between them. These data suggest that zebra finches manipulate both their primary and secondary sex ratios in relation to food availability to invest adaptively in sons and daughters, and support Trivers & Willard's hypothesis. Copyright 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Effects of NDRG2 Overexpression on Metastatic Behaviors of HCT116 Colorectal Cancer Cell Line

Purpose: N-myc downstream-regulated gene 2 (NDRG2) is frequently down-regulated in cancer, and plays an important role in the control of tumor growth and metastasis. Its manipulation has been suggested as a therapy in cancer. Here, we examined the outcome of NDRG2 overexpression on proliferation, invasion, migration and MMP activity of HCT116 colorectal cancer cell line. Methods: The HCT116 cell line (human colorectal cancer) was transfected with pCMV6-AC-GFP-NDRG2. 2,5diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to detect cell proliferation. The invasion and migration of the transfected cells were examined through transwell chambers while the MMP-9 activity was detected by the ability of the cells to digest gelatin. Results: Overexpression of NDRG2 by stable NDRG2 transfection decreased cell proliferation, migration and invasion ability, along with decreasing MMP-9 activity. Conclusion: Our data indicate that NDRG2 overexpression can suppress several aspect of tumorigenesis. Further investigations are necessitated to verify if NDRG2 molecule can be a therapeutic target in colorectal cancer.
Relationship between bone mineral density and alcohol consumption in Korean men: the Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), 2008-2009.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Drinking is a risk factor of osteoporosis, but controversy surrounds the relationship between alcohol consumption and bone mineral density (BMD). We performed an analysis of the association between alcohol consumption and BMD. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional study was performed including 2421 men, aged 40-93 years, who participated in the fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2008-2009. Alcohol intake was determined by self-administered questionnaires, and BMD was measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. ANOVA was used to determine the relationship between alcohol intake and BMD, and ANCOVA was performed after adjusting for age, body mass index, education, household income, smoking status, calcium intake, physical activity, and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. RESULTS BMD increased significantly in the lumbar spine, total femur, and femoral neck with increased alcohol intake (p for trend=0.028, <0.001, <0.001, respectively). However, after adjusting for age, the relation was no longer statistically significant in any of 3 bone sites (lumbar, p for trend=0.606; total femur, p for trend=0.342; femoral neck, p for trend=0.549). Additionally, after adjusting for all other confounders, no significant relationships were reported in the 3 bone sites (lumbar, p for trend=0.451; total femur, p for trend=0.150; femoral neck, p for trend=0.343). In the stratified analysis, there were no significant correlations according to age, smoking status, physical activity or obesity. CONCLUSIONS After adjusting for age and other confounders, no significant relationship was found between alcohol intake and BMD.
Comparison the incidence of emergence agitation between sevoflurane and desflurane after pediatric ambulatory urologic surgery.

OBJECTIVE To compare the incidence and severity of emergence agitation, recovery profile, and adverse events between desflurane and sevoflurane anesthesia in unpremedicated pediatric ambulatory urologic surgery patients. MATERIAL AND METHOD The study was conducted among 136 healthy children, aged six months to nine years, and randomized to two groups, sevoflurane and desflurane, during maintenance anesthesia with laryngeal mask airway. Recovery profile and perioperative adverse events were recorded. The emergence agitation (EA) was assessed using a 4-point scale by an anesthetist nurse in the recovery room who was blinded to the treatment. RESULTS The incidences of EA between sevoflurane/desflurane were not significantly different at 36.8%/41.2%, p = 0.73, and neither was the median (IQR) of severity (2 (1, 3)/2 (1, 3), p = 0.4). The awakening time in the desflurane group was 6.4 +/- 4.0 minutes, faster than in the sevoflurane group of 10.6 +/- 7.6 minutes (p < 0.001). The number of children having intraoperative respiratory events was significantly higher in the desflurane group (17), compared to the sevoflurane group (7) (p = 0.043). CONCLUSION The occurrence of EA and adverse events between sevoflurane and desflurane were not different, except that the overall of intraoperative respiratory events was higher in desflurane group.
Active gate voltage control of turn-on di/dt and turn-off dv/dt in insulated gate transistors

As the characteristics of insulted gate transistors [like metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs)] have been constantly improving, their utilization in power converters operating at higher and higher frequencies has become more common. However, this, in turn, leads to fast current and voltage transitions that generate large amounts of electromagnetic interferences over wide frequency ranges. In this paper, a new active gate voltage control (AGVC) method is presented. It allows us to control the values of at turn-on and at turn-off for insulated gate power transistors, by acting directly on the input gate voltage shape. In an elementary switching cell, it enables us to strongly reduce over-current generated by the reverse recovery of the free-wheeling diode at turn-on, and oscillations of the output voltage across the transistor at turn-off. In the following sections, the AGVC in open and closed-loop for IGBT is presented, and its performance is compared with that of a more conventional method, i.e., increasing the gate resistance. Robustness of the AGVC is estimated under variations of dc-voltage supply and transistor switched current.
Estudio de la ruta catabólica responsable de la degradación aeróbica del desoxicolato sódico y de otros compuestos esteroideos en Pseudomonas putida DOC21

La presencia de esteroides en el medio ambiente esta aumentando como consecuencia del vertido de subproductos industriales, residuos de la industria farmacologica y lodos de aguas residuales. Estos compuestos (o sus derivados) pueden tener un efecto peligroso sobre el ciclo de vida de diferentes animales y seres humanos por lo que se hacen necesarias estrategias biotecnologicas para aliviar la acumulacion de estos compuestos en el medio ambiente. El estudio se centra en estudiar la capacidad de la cepa de Pseudomonas putida DOC21 para degradar o para transformar ciertos esteroides lo que podria ser potencialmente util para el desarrollo de nuevas moleculas farmacologicamente interesantes.
CD103+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes are tumor-reactive intraepithelial CD8+ T cells associated with prognostic benefit and therapy response in cervical cancer

ABSTRACT Human papilloma virus (HPV)-induced cervical cancer constitutively expresses viral E6/E7 oncoproteins and is an excellent target for T cell-based immunotherapy. However, not all tumor-infiltrating T cells confer equal benefit to patients, with epithelial T cells being superior to stromal T cells. To assess whether the epithelial T cell biomarker CD103 could specifically discriminate the beneficial antitumor T cells, association of CD103 with clinicopathological variables and outcome was analyzed in the TCGA cervical cancer data set (n = 304) and by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in an independent cohort (n = 460). Localization of CD103+ cells in the tumor was assessed by immunofluorescence. Furthermore, use of CD103 as a response biomarker was assessed in an in vivo E6/E7+ tumor model. Our results show that CD103 gene expression was strongly correlated with cytotoxic T cell markers (e.g. CD8/GZMB/PD1) in the TCGA series. In line with this, CD103+ cells in the IHC series co-expressed CD8 and were preferentially located in cervical tumor epithelium. High CD103+ cell infiltration was strongly associated with an improved prognosis in both series, and appeared to be a better predictor of outcome than CD8. Interestingly, the prognostic benefit of CD103 in both series seemed limited to patients receiving radiotherapy. In a preclinical mouse model, HPV E6/E7-targeted therapeutic vaccination in combination with radiotherapy increased the intratumoral number of CD103+ CD8+ T cells, providing a potential mechanistic basis for our results. In conclusion, CD103 is a promising marker for rapid assessment of tumor-reactive T cell infiltration of cervical cancers and a promising response biomarker for E6/E7-targeted immunotherapy.
Frequency-Specific Functional Connectivity Density as an Effective Biomarker for Adolescent Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Several neuropsychiatric diseases have been found to influence the frequency-specific spontaneous functional brain organization (SFBO) in resting state, demonstrating that the abnormal brain activities of different frequency bands are associated with various physiological and psychological dysfunctions. However, little is known about the frequency specificities of SFBO in adolescent generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Here, a novel complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise method was applied to decompose the time series of each voxel across all participants (31 adolescent patients with GAD and 28 matched healthy controls; HCs) into four frequency-specific bands with distinct intrinsic oscillation. The functional connectivity density (FCD) of different scales (short-range and long-range) was calculated to quantify the SFBO changes related to GAD within each above frequency-specific band and the conventional frequency band (0.01–0.08 Hz). Support vector machine classifier was further used to examine the discriminative ability of the frequency-specific FCD values. The results showed that adolescent GAD patients exhibited abnormal alterations of both short-range and long-range FCD (S-FCD and L-FCD) in widespread brain regions across three frequency-specific bands. Positive correlation between the State Anxiety Inventory (SAI) score and increased L-FCD in the fusiform gyrus in the conventional frequency band was found in adolescents with GAD. Both S-FCD and L-FCD in the insula in the lower frequency band (0.02–0.036 Hz) had the highest classification performance compared to all other brain regions with inter-group difference. Furthermore, a satisfactory classification performance was achieved by combining the discrepant S-FCD and L-FCD values in all frequency bands, with the area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.9414 and the corresponding sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 87.15, 92.92, and 89.83%, respectively. This study indicates that the alterations of SFBO in adolescent GAD are frequency dependence and the frequency-specific FCD can potentially serve as a valuable biomarker in discriminating GAD patients from HCs. These findings may provide new insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms of adolescent GAD.
Multi-channel MRI segmentation of eye structures and tumors using patient-specific features

Retinoblastoma and uveal melanoma are fast spreading eye tumors usually diagnosed by using 2D Fundus Image Photography (Fundus) and 2D Ultrasound (US). Diagnosis and treatment planning of such diseases often require additional complementary imaging to confirm the tumor extend via 3D Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). In this context, having automatic segmentations to estimate the size and the distribution of the pathological tissue would be advantageous towards tumor characterization. Until now, the alternative has been the manual delineation of eye structures, a rather time consuming and error-prone task, to be conducted in multiple MRI sequences simultaneously. This situation, and the lack of tools for accurate eye MRI analysis, reduces the interest in MRI beyond the qualitative evaluation of the optic nerve invasion and the confirmation of recurrent malignancies below calcified tumors. In this manuscript, we propose a new framework for the automatic segmentation of eye structures and ocular tumors in multi-sequence MRI. Our key contribution is the introduction of a pathological eye model from which Eye Patient-Specific Features (EPSF) can be computed. These features combine intensity and shape information of pathological tissue while embedded in healthy structures of the eye. We assess our work on a dataset of pathological patient eyes by computing the Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) of the sclera, the cornea, the vitreous humor, the lens and the tumor. In addition, we quantitatively show the superior performance of our pathological eye model as compared to the segmentation obtained by using a healthy model (over 4% DSC) and demonstrate the relevance of our EPSF, which improve the final segmentation regardless of the classifier employed.
Antenatal sonographic detection of a fetal theca lutein cyst: a clue to maternal diabetes mellitus.

0278·4297186 $0.00 + . 25 Ultrasonography showed polyhydrnmnios and a fo. male fetus with a large multiseptatecl cystic abdominal mass about 10 cm in cl inmetcr, cs.tending from the <lome of the urinarv bladder to the interior surfoc:e of the liver (fig. l}. Oth~r organs including the fotal kidneys ap• pea red normal. In the sc. ~ m performed six clays prior to delivery, the hiparietal diameter measured 9. 5 cm, and the abdominal diameters 12.0 and 11.5 cm . The esti· mated fetal weight was 3950 g, using the Shepard Formula: ' Five clays later, after artificial rupture of the mem· lmmes, 4300 ml of clear amniotic fluid was ohtained . A hah>• girl weighing 37.55 g (97th percentile for 35 weeks' gestation} \\ '< L~ vaginallv de livered , with Apgar scores of 6 and 8 at one and five minutes. respccth·ely. The hahy appeared normal except for mt 1thdominal girth of 40 cm. An ultmsound examination ol" the newborn ahclomen again demonstrated a multiseptated cystic ~ thclomin a l mass that was separate from the live 1·, kidncvs , and hlaclder (fig . 2). · Because of' signs of ahdom inal distention , suq.i;cn • was performed the following d ar. A large cys tic ·mass weighing 305 g and containing clear fluid was found arising from the right m•ary (fig. 3). A right salpingo-oophorectomy was perfonned. The follop i:m tuhe had to be sacrificed because it was compressed hr and ad-