Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immunity to the sexual stages of Plasmodium falciparum in mothers, neonates and infants subject to intense and perennial malarial transmission

The bloodmeal of a mosquito that has fed on an individual with a malarial infection may contain the parasites gametocytes as well as antibodies from the human. If antibodies against the sexual stages of the parasite are present these can prevent the fertilization of the gametes or further development of the sporogonic stages in the mosquito thereby preventing the transmission of the parasite to another human. Such transmission-blocking immunity (TBI) has been observed in sera from the inhabitants of malaria-endemic areas (Mendis et al. 1997) and has been correlated with responses to the principle sexual-stage antigens of Plasmodium falciparum - Pfs230 (Graves et al. 1988) and epitopes I and III of Pfs48/45 (Roeffen et al. 1995b). In maternal sera collected in Ifakara Tanzania - an area of intense and perennial malarial transmission - the levels of antibodies against the asexual stages of P. falciparum were found to correlate positively with those in the corresponding cord sera (Kitua et al. 1996). Maternally-acquired antibodies protected the children in this setting against symptomatic malaria for the first 4 months of their lives after which there was a significant decline in the titres of these antibodies and a tandem increase in malaria-related morbidity. It is not yet known whether antibodies to the sexual stages of the parasite are also transferred from mothers to their newborns and if so whether the levels of these antibodies follow a similar pattern of decline in infants. In the present pilot study therefore the presence and development of TBI during the first 12 months of life were explored in infants living in Ifakara. (excerpt)
Glycosylation of Eag1 (Kv10.1) Potassium Channels

N-Linked glycosylation is a common post-translational modification of membrane proteins. Here we report that mature Eag1 potassium channels carry sugar moieties linked to asparagines at positions 388 and 406. Asn-388 seems to undergo only core glycosylation, but complex sugars are bound to Asn-406. Correct complex glycosylation is required for proper trafficking of Eag1 to the plasma membrane but is also crucial for the correct function of channels already inserted in the membrane.
Preoperative indicators of clinical outcome following stereotaxic pallidotomy

We assessed the utility of preoperative clinical assessment and functional brain imaging with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and positron emission tomography (PET) in predicting the clinical outcome of stereotaxic pallidotomy for the treatment of advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). Twenty-two PD patients undergoing posteroventral pallidotomy were assessed preoperatively with the Core Assessment Program for Intracerebral Transplantation (CAPIT) ratings measured on and off levodopa; quantitative FDG/PET was also performed before surgery. Preoperative clinical and metabolic measurements were correlated with changes in off-state CAPIT ratings determined 3 months after surgery. Clinical outcome following pallidotomy was also correlated with intraoperative measures of spontaneous pallidal single-unit activity as well as postoperative MRI measurements of lesion volume and location. We found that unilateral pallidotomy resulted in variable clinical improvement in off-state CAPIT scores for the contralateral limbs (mean change 30.9 ± 15.5). Postoperative MRI revealed that pallidotomy lesions were comparable in location and volume across the patients. Clinical outcome following surgery correlated significantly with preoperative measures of CAPIT score change with levodopa administration(r = 0.60, p < 0.005) and with preoperative FDG/PET measurements of lentiform glucose metabolism (r = 0.71, p < 0.0005). Operative outcome did not correlate with intraoperative measures of spontaneous pallidal neuronal firing rate. We conclude that preoperative measurements of lentiform glucose metabolism and levodopa responsiveness may be useful indicators of motor improvement following pallidotomy. Both preoperative quantitative measures, either singly or in combination, may be helpful in selecting optimal candidates for surgery.
Circulating Periostin Levels do not Differ Between Postmenopausal Women with Normal and Low Bone Mass and are not Affected by Zoledronic Acid Treatment

Abstract Periostin is a secreted extracellular matrix protein preferentially expressed in bone by osteocytes and periosteal osteoblasts. Reduced periostin expression may affect osteoblast differentiation and collagen type I synthesis and predispose to osteoporosis and increased fracture risk. We aimed to evaluate circulating periostin levels in postmenopausal women with low bone mass, their possible correlations with clinical and laboratory parameters, as well as the 3-month effect of zoledronic acid. Serum samples for periostin, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, parathyroid hormone (PTH), C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (CTx), and total alkaline phosphatase (tALP) were obtained from 46 postmenopausal women with low bone mass at baseline and 3 months after zoledronic acid infusion and from 30 age-matched, postmenopausal controls with normal bone mass at baseline. There was no difference in periostin levels between women with normal and low bone mass (250±15 vs. 272±14 ng/ml, respectively; p=0.279). Periostin remained essentially unchanged after zoledronic acid infusion (262±18 ng/ml; p=0.130). Serum periostin levels at baseline were not affected by previous bisphosphonate treatment, and were correlated only to tALP (rs=0.351; p=0.018). In multiple linear regression analysis, tALP (B=3.17; 95% CI=0.59–5.79; p=0.018) was associated with serum periostin levels at baseline, independently from previous anti-osteoporotic treatment, age, body mass index, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D. In conclusion, serum periostin levels do not differ between postmenopausal women with normal and low bone mass and are not affected by zoledronic acid treatment. Women with higher tALP have independently higher periostin levels.
Polymorphism of the Serotonin Transporter Gene and Symptomatic Dimensions of Schizophrenia in the Korean Population

This study was aimed to test the association between schizophrenia and a functional serotonin polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) in the upstream regulatory region. Genomic DNA analysis with polymerase chain reaction was used for 5-HTTLPR genotyping. One hundred and eleven patients with schizophrenia and 208 healthy individuals participated in this study. There were significant differences in the negative score and general psychopathology score of the positive and negative syndrome scale according to 5-HTTLPR genotypes and alleles, although no significant differences in allele or genotype frequencies between the two groups were found. These results suggest that 5-HTTLPR may contribute to the susceptibility to the symptomatology of schizophrenia but not to the development of the disorder itself, at least in the Korean population.
The problem of crime.

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Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Intra-Host Populations Are Characterized by Numerous High Frequency Variants

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is an emerging human pathogen related to SARS virus. In vitro studies indicate this virus may have a broad host range suggesting an increased pandemic potential. Genetic and epidemiological evidence indicate camels serve as a reservoir for MERS virus but the mechanism of cross species transmission is unclear and many questions remain regarding the susceptibility of humans to infection. Deep sequencing data was obtained from the nasal samples of three camels that had been experimentally infected with a human MERS-CoV isolate. A majority of the genome was covered and average coverage was greater than 12,000x depth. Although only 5 mutations were detected in the consensus sequences, 473 intrahost single nucleotide variants were identified. Many of these variants were present at high frequencies and could potentially influence viral phenotype and the sensitivity of detection assays that target these regions for primer or probe binding.
Superpulsed laser irradiation increases osteoblast activity via modulation of bone morphogenetic factors

Laser therapy is a new approach applicable in different medical fields when bone loss occurs, including orthopedics and dentistry. It has also been used to induce soft‐tissue healing, for pain relief, bone, and nerve regeneration. With regard to bone synthesis, laser exposure has been shown to increase osteoblast activity and decrease osteoclast number, by inducing alkaline phosphatase (ALP), osteopontin, and bone sialoprotein expression. Studies have investigated the effects of continuous or pulsed laser irradiation, but no data are yet available on the properties of superpulsed laser irradiation. This study thus aimed to investigate the effect of superpulsed laser irradiation on osteogenic activity of human osteoblast‐like cells, paying particular attention to investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of this type of laser radiation.
Randomised controlled trial of cognitive-behavioural therapy in early schizophrenia: Acute-phase outcomes

Background Cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) improves persistent psychotic symptoms. Aims To test the effectiveness of added CBT in accelerating remission from acute psychotic symptoms in early schizophrenia. Method A 5-week CBT programme plus routine care was compared with supportive counselling plus routine care and routine care alone in a multi-centre trial randomising 315 people with DSM–IV schizophrenia and related disorders in their first (83%) or second acute admission. Outcome assessments were blinded. Results Linear regression over 70 days showed predicted trends towards faster improvement in the CBT group. Uncorrected univariate comparisons showed significant benefits at 4 but not 6 weeks for CBTv. routine care alone on Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale total and positive sub-scale scores and delusion score and benefits v. supportive counselling for auditory hallucinations score. Conclusions CBT shows transient advantages over routine care alone or supportive counselling in speeding remission from acute symptoms in early schizophrenia.
The lagged effect of cold temperature and wind chill on cardiorespiratory mortality in Scotland

Aims: To investigate the lagged effects of cold temperature on cardiorespiratory mortality and to determine whether “wind chill” is a better predictor of these effects than “dry bulb” temperature. Methods: Generalised linear Poisson regression models were used to investigate the relation between mortality and “dry bulb” and “wind chill” temperatures in the three largest Scottish cities (Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen) between January 1981 and December 2001. Effects of temperature on mortality (lags up to one month) were quantified. Analyses were conducted for the whole year and by season (cool and warm seasons). Main results: Temperature was a significant predictor of mortality with the strongest association observed between temperature and respiratory mortality. There was a non-linear association between mortality and temperature. Mortality increased as temperatures fell throughout the range, but the rate of increase was steeper at temperatures below 11°C. The association between temperature and mortality persisted at lag periods beyond two weeks but the effect size generally decreased with increasing lag. For temperatures below 11°C, a 1°C drop in the daytime mean temperature on any one day was associated with an increase in mortality of 2.9% (95% CI 2.5 to 3.4), 3.4% (95% CI 2.6 to 4.1), 4.8% (95% CI 3.5 to 6.2) and 1.7% (95% CI 1.0 to 2.4) over the following month for all cause, cardiovascular, respiratory, and “other” cause mortality respectively. The effect of temperature on mortality was not observed to be significantly modified by season. There was little indication that “wind chill” temperature was a better predictor of mortality than “dry bulb” temperature. Conclusions: Exposure to cold temperature is an important public health problem in Scotland, particularly for those dying from respiratory disease.
Affirmative action and stereotype threat

In spite of the apparent success of affirmative action (AA) in the past, many oppose such policies. Opponents argue that the cost of attaining proportional representation by preferential policies is too high, reducing the quality of selected groups and stigmatizing members of the protected class. One way in which preferential policies might harm groups they are designed to benefit is by producing stereotype threat; that is, cueing a negative stereotype may lead individuals to conform to it. AA, by definition, singles out disadvantaged groups and therefore may unintentionally remind beneficiaries of relevant negative stereotypes and prime a stereotype threat effect. This paper investigates experimentally whether gender-based affirmative action, in the form of a quota, may have this unintended consequence. Using quantitative Graduate Record Examination (GRE) questions, we find that while affirmative action has a positive effect on the performance of non-high-ability women, it negatively affects high-ability women in our sample. Interestingly, there is no evidence that women (of any ability level) in the sample exert less effort under AA or in single-sex competition, or would benefit by doing so. Hence, these findings are consistent with affirmative action having an unintended negative consequence due to stereotype threat. Interestingly, men are not affected by the affirmative action policy regardless of their measured ability in this task. These results should be taken with caution, as this is the first study looking at the stereotype threat effect of AA.
Why healthcare professionals should know a little about infographics

Infographics is an abbreviated term for an information graphic. Information is presented in a logical manner, similar to storytelling, using data visualisations, text and pictures.1 Statistically, the most successful infographics, in terms of number of ‘shares’ on social media, contain an average of 396 words2 and a combination of data visualisations (bar graphs, line graphs and pie charts) and illustrations. Although 396 words may seem like an inadequate amount of text for researchers to convey their findings comprehensively, when considering this in the infographics context, the saying, ‘a picture tells a thousand words’, comes to mind. Three days after learning new information, we are likely to remember up to 6.5 times more through learning from an infographic than by reading text alone.1 Many industries, such as the business, food, …
gC1q‐R/p33, a member of a new class of multifunctional and multicompartmental cellular proteins, is involved in inflammation and infection

Human gC1q‐R (p33, p32, C1qBP, TAP) is a ubiquitously expressed, multiligand‐binding, multicompartmental cellular protein involved in various ligand‐mediated cellular responses. Although expressed on the surface of cells, an intriguing feature of the membrane‐associated form of gC1q‐R is that its translated amino acid sequence does not predict the presence of either a sequence motif compatible with a transmembrane segment or a consensus site for a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor. Moreover, the N‐terminal sequence of the pre‐pro‐protein of gC1q‐R contains a motif that targets the molecule to the mitochondria and as such was deemed unlikely to be expressed on the surface. However, several lines of experimental evidence clearly show that gC1q‐R is present in all compartments of the cell, including the extracellular cell surface. First, surface labeling of B lymphocytes with the membrane‐impermeable reagent sulfosuccinimidyl 6‐(biotinamido)hexanoate shows specific biotin incorporation into the surface‐expressed but not the intracellular form of gC1q‐R. Second, FACS and confocal laser scanning microscopic analyses using anti‐gC1q‐R IgG mAb 60.11 or 74.5. 2, and the fluorophore Alexa 488‐conjugated F(ab′)2 goat anti‐mouse IgG as a probe, demonstrated specific staining of Raji cells (>95% viable). Three‐dimensional analyses of the same cells by confocal microscopy showed staining distribution that was consistent with surface expression. Third, endothelial gC1q‐R, which is associated with the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor, and cytokeratin 1 bind 125I‐high molecular weight kininogen in a specific manner, and the binding is inhibited dose‐dependently by mAb 74.5. 2 recognizing gC1q‐R residues 204–218. Fourth, native gC1q‐R purified from Raji cell membranes but not intracellular gC1q‐R is glycosylated, as evidenced by a positive periodic acid Schiff stain as well as sensitivity to digestion with endoglycosidase H and F. Finally, cross‐linking experiments using C1q as a ligand indicate that both cC1q‐R and gC1q‐R are co‐immunoprecipitated with anti‐C1q. Taken together, the evidence accumulated to date supports the concept that in addition to its intracellular localization, gC1q‐R is expressed on the cell surface and can serve as a binding site for plasma and microbial proteins, but also challenges the existing paradigm that mitochondrial proteins never leave their designated compartment. It is therefore proposed that gC1q‐R belongs to a growing list of a class of proteins initially targeted to the mitochondria but then exported to different compartments of the cell through specific mechanisms which have yet to be identified. The designation ‘multifunctional and multicompartmental cellular proteins’ is proposed for this class of proteins.
Revealing Individual Differences in the Iowa Gambling Task

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a well–studied experimental paradigm known to simulate both intact and impaired real-world decision making in choice tasks that involve uncertain payoffs. Prior work has used computational reinforcement learning models to successfully reproduce a range of task phenomena. In this prior work a set of models were fit to individual decision making data, the best-fit models were selected based on group-averaged metrics, and then theoretical conclusions were drawn based on group-averaged parameters. In the present work we investigate the performance of this class of reinforcement learning models in fitting individual data. This class of learning models has provided a useful starting point for characterizing decision making performance in the aggregate. However, we demonstrate that no one best-fit model aptly captures individual differences and our results caution against using aggregate parameters from best fit models to characterize decision making across populations as has been done in prior work.
‘Mina 'ngumZulu phaqa’ 1 Language and identity among multilingual Grade 9 learners at a private desegregated high school in South Africa

This article presents data from a study that focuses on how multilingual Grade 9 learners at a formerly white, private school use language to position themselves and others, and thus use it as an identity-building resource. Data was collected using ethnographic and participatory research methods. The article engages with the concern that African learners attending English medium, multiracial schools are losing their proficiency in African languages. In contrast, the analysis demonstrates that some learners in fact retain African languages and use these as a primary marker of ethnic identities and ideas of ethnic purity. This purity is, in turn, not constructed in a staidly ‘traditional’ manner, but is negotiated through joking and satire. Notions of ethnic purity are also often discursively constructed through the use of English, illustrating the contradictory nature of identities.
Density parameter estimation of skewed α-stable distributions

Over the last few years, there has been a great interest in /spl alpha/-stable distributions for modeling impulsive data. As a critical step in modeling with /spl alpha/-stable distributions, the problem of estimating the parameters of stable distributions have been addressed by several works in the literature. However, many of these works consider only the special case of symmetric stable random variables. This is an important restriction, however, since most real-life signals are skewed. The existing techniques on estimating skewed distribution parameters are either computationally too expensive, require lookup tables, or have poor convergence properties. We introduce three novel classes of estimators for the parameters of general stable distributions, which are generalizations of the methods previously suggested for parameter estimation of symmetric stable distributions. These estimators exploit expressions we develop for fractional lower order, negative order, and logarithmic moments and tail statistics. We also introduce simple transformations that allow one to use existing symmetric stable parameter estimation techniques. Techniques suggested in this paper provide the only closed-form solutions we are aware of for parameters that may be efficiently computed. Simulation results show that at least one of our new estimators has better performance than the existing techniques over most of the parameter space. Furthermore, our techniques require substantially less computation.
Optimizing Sparse Tensor Times Matrix on Multi-core and Many-Core Architectures

This paper presents the optimized design and implementation of sparse tensor-times-dense matrix multiply (SpTTM) for CPU and GPU platforms. This primitive is a critical bottleneck in data analysis and mining applications based on tensor methods, such as the Tucker decomposition. We first design and implement sequential SpTTM to avoid explicit data transformations between a tensor and a matrix, which is the conventional approach. We further optimize SpTTM on multicore CPU and GPU systems by parallelizing, avoiding locks, and exploiting data locality. Our sequential SpTTM is up to 3.5× faster than the SpTTM from Tensor Toolbox and 1.5× over that from Cyclops Tensor Framework. Our parallel algorithms show 4.1× speedup on multicore Intel Core i7 and 18.8× speedup on NVIDIA K40c GPU over our sequential SpTTM respectively.
LncRNA‐PAGBC acts as a microRNA sponge and promotes gallbladder tumorigenesis

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play roles in the development and progression of many cancers; however, the contributions of lncRNAs to human gallbladder cancer (GBC) remain largely unknown. In this study, we identify a group of differentially expressed lncRNAs in human GBC tissues, including prognosis‐associated gallbladder cancer lncRNA (lncRNA‐PAGBC), which we find to be an independent prognostic marker in GBC. Functional analysis indicates that lncRNA‐PAGBC promotes tumour growth and metastasis of GBC cells. More importantly, as a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA), lncRNA‐PAGBC competitively binds to the tumour suppressive microRNAs miR‐133b and miR‐511. This competitive role of lncRNA‐PAGBC is required for its ability to promote tumour growth and metastasis and to activate the AKT/mTOR pathway. Moreover, lncRNA‐PAGBC interacts with polyadenylate binding protein cytoplasmic 1 (PABPC1) and is stabilized by this interaction. This work provides novel insight on the molecular pathogenesis of GBC.