Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DHFR and DHPS genotypes of Plasmodium falciparum isolates from Gabon correlate with in vitro activity of pyrimethamine and cycloguanil, but not with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine treatment efficacy.

OBJECTIVES To assess the relationship between the presence of DHFR and DHPS mutations in Plasmodium falciparum, parasite in vitro resistance, and in vivo efficacy of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS Measurement of SP treatment efficacy in malaria-infected children in Gabon was combined with in vitro tests of susceptibility to pyrimethamine and cycloguanil, and molecular genotyping at several DHFR and DHPS loci of parasites isolated before treatment. DHFR was studied at codons 108, 51, and 59, whereas DHPS gene was typed at positions 436, 437, 540 and 581. RESULTS SP treatment was effective in 86% of children by day 28. Seventy-five percent of isolates were in vitro resistant to pyrimethamine and 65.5% to cycloguanil. No mutation was detected at codons 540 and 581 of the DHPS gene. Most isolates (71.8%) presented with the triple mutant DHFR genotype, whereas 64.3% combined at least three DHFR and one DHPS mutations. The increase in the number of DHFR mutations was associated with an increase in in vitro resistance to pyrimethamine and cycloguanil; three DHFR mutations conferred pyrimethamine and to a lesser extent cycloguanil resistance. Treatment failures only occurred with isolates presenting at least two DHFR mutations (S108N and C59R) and one DHPS mutation (S436A or A437G), but SP treatment of infections with such parasites gave treatment success in 82.0% of children. CONCLUSIONS DHFR mutations that lead to high-level in vitro resistance to pyrimethamine plus 1-2 DHPS mutations are not sufficient to induce in vivo failure of SP treatment in young children from Gabon.
The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013 Questions and Answers

However, large differences in undernourishment persist across countries and regions. SubSaharan Africa remains the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment, while the highest number of undernourished people is in Southern Asia. Progress in hunger reduction has been significant in Eastern Asia and South Eastern Asia as well as in Latin America and the Caribbean, while it was slower in sub-Saharan Africa. Western Asia showed no progress.
Identification of a new epitope for HIV‐neutralizing antibodies in the gp41 membrane proximal external region by an Env‐tailored phage display library

HIV controllers are a valuable source for the identification of HIV‐neutralizing antibodies, as chronic infection over decades allows extensive affinity maturation of antibodies for improved Ag recognition. We analyzed a small cohort of elite controllers (ECs) for HIV‐neutralizing antibodies using a panel of standardized HIV‐1 pseudovirions on TZM‐bl cells. An HIV‐1 Env‐tailored phage display library was generated to select epitopes targeted by neutralizing antibodies in the EC26 plasma sample showing the broadest neutralizing activity. Selected Env fragments were mostly allocated to the membrane proximal external region of gp41. After preabsorbing the EC26 plasma with the selected phage EC26‐2A4, we achieved 50% depletion of its neutralizing activity. Furthermore, antibodies affinity‐purified with the EC26‐2A4 epitope from EC26 plasma showed neutralizing activity, proving that the selected phage indeed contains an epitope targeted by neutralizing plasma antibodies. Epitope fine mapping of the purified plasma antibodies on peptide arrays identified a new epitope overlapping, but clearly distinct, from the prominent 2F5 epitope. Of note, the purified antibodies did not show autoreactivity with cardiolipin, whereas low reactivity with phosphatidylserine comparable to mAb 2F5 was observed. Thus, this new epitope represents a promising candidate for further analysis in view of HIV vaccine development.
Effect of Temperature on the Extraction of Chromium(III) from Alkaline Aqueous Solutions with Trioctylmethylammonium Chloride (Aliquat 336)

The effect of temperature was examined on the equilibrium of extraction of chromium(III) from the alkaline aqueous solutions with Aliquat 336. The stoichiometry of chromium(III) complexes in the organic phase and their conditional extraction constants at temperatures from 273 to 298 K were determined. The temperature positively affected the extraction of chromium(III). Fourteen linear correlations, reflecting the influence of temperature on the equilibrium of extraction of chromium(III) under different conditions, were established. They permitted the estimation of the thermodynamic functions describing the extraction of chromium(III) at temperatures from 273 to 298 K. The values of the enthalpy change indicated endoenergic character of the extraction of Cr(III).
Why Streams Meander

A number of theories have appeared in the literature to explain why streams meander. They are. for the most part. the outgrowth of field studies by geologists and geographers. who had not the facilities to isolate the variables of flow. such as velocity. volume. slope. load. angle of attack against the banks and type of rock through which any given stream meandered. It 1s not surprising that the opinions of these men were so divergent or that they were correct only under certain circumstances. Men sent in reports of streams that meandered only after attaining some size. whereas others meandered from their very inception. There were meandering streams that degraded their channels. those that aggraded them. and still others that did neither. It seemed that no matter what the circumstances were streams meandered. However. some did not meander and some, once having produced meanders. set about trying to eliminate them (Matthes, 1948). Streams meander as intricately in salt-water swamps as in freshwater ones. Goldthwait (1987) studied the meanders ot streams subject to Udal action. Cockfield (1921) took note of the meanders of streams flowing in perennially frozen ground where debris froze to the channel bottom unless it was removed as soon as it accumulated. Geologists saw other streams that produced their curving loops in an area floored by gravel, muck. sand, volcanic ash and ground ice (Cockfield, 1921), in glaclal (Bostock. 1986) and in auriferous gravels (Spurr. 1898). They
Managing the environmental crisis in Ghana: The role of African traditional religion and culture—A case study of Berekum traditional area

This thesis examines the connection between traditional religio-cultural beliefs and practices and environmental problems in Ghana using Berekum Traditional Society as a case study. Its primary aim is to assess the nature and the level of the environmental crisis in Ghana, and to explore the possibility of combing indigenous and modern methods to address the current environmental problems in Ghana. The methodology of this thesis is located within the framework for conducting empirical studies in Religious Studies. The qualitative methods of collecting and analysing data are utilised, and since the scope of the study falls within the field of religion and environment, a brief history of global environmentalism and religion‘s entrance into attempts to address mounting global environmental problems will be provided. It will be argued that the worldview of the Berekum people, which is underpinned by their religious mentality, has played and continues to play a key role in their local ecological practices. The traditional ways through which ecological knowledge have been and are currently imparted to the youth will be examined, together with the effectiveness of these methods within a climate of modernity and the influence of Western education and culture in the area. It will be argued that Berekum people strongly believe that indigenous ways for addressing ecological problems are still relevant, and that their methods for doing so have not been completely lost in its rural communities, or in Ghana as a whole. Although it appears that indigenous religious beliefs and practices seem to be waning, with a greater percentage of the indigenous population in the study area having either converted to Christianity or Islam, I argue that indigenous religious beliefs and practices remain covertly active in the life and thought of the people. Finally, I argue that neither modern (scientific) nor traditional modes of addressing current ecological problems are individually adequate, and therefore that a synergy of the two modes is necessary in order for such problems to be tackled fully. However, I will also argue that certain challenges need to be addressed before this integration can be made possible
You Get What You Pay For : Evidence from a Jobseeker Conditional Cash Transfer Program in France ∗

Youth participation in programs designed to enhance their employability is usually low. This paper reports the results from the rst randomized conditional cash transfer program in a labor market context: Young, unskilled jobseekers in France receive a monthly cash transfer for a two-year period totaling up to e4800, conditional on their participation in the French national career guidance program. Cash transfers lead to a signi cant increase in program participation (which mainly entails meetings with counselors), and sharply reduced drop-out rates. As a result, there is a large increase in the job o ers, vocational training and career building workshops proposed to the young jobseekers. However, the jobseekers' response to these increased opportunities for employability investment is a precisely estimated zero. Moreover, we observe a signi cant reduction in employment over the rst six months. The results point to a strong impact of nancial incentives, but also to the need to condition incentives directly on outcomes of interest, rather than on intermediate targets.
Epistemic Uncertainty for NGA-West2 Models

The development of the NGA-West2 ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) is a collaborative effort with many interactions and exchange of ideas among the developers. The NGA-West2 developers indicate that additional epistemic uncertainty needs to be incorporated into the median ground motion estimation from each of the five NGA-West2 GMPEs in order to more fully represent an appropriate level of epistemic uncertainty. A proposed minimum additional epistemic uncertainty is evaluated based on statistical estimates of the uncertainty in the median predictions of each GMPE. The proposed additional epistemic uncertainty model is distance-independent but depends on magnitude, style of faulting (SOF), and spectral period. The epistemic uncertainty in the median predictions from each GMPE is then modeled using a three-point discrete approximation to a normal distribution.
The effects of spatial and temporal heterogeneity as structuring forces for parasite communities in Helisoma anceps and Physa gyrina

-A total of 1231 Physa gyrina and 1532 Helisoma anceps were collected over a 12-mo period from Charlie's Pond, in Stokes County, North Carolina. Similarity in the infraand component parasite communities in Helisoma anceps and Physa gyrina provided an opportunity to compare the effects of various life history traits on infection by larval trematodes in a number of different microhabitats. In order to assess the effects of microhabitat partitioning on the infection status of the two snail species, collections were made twice per month. Site location, water depth, snail depth at capture, distance from shore, type of substratum, infection status, and host size were recorded for each snail. Multivariate statistics were used to assess which variables determined a snail's infection status. Data analysis indicated that certain of the microhabitat variables are better predictors of a snail's infection status than others. Comparing uninfected snails to those infected with a specific parasite species, there was much disparity with regard to which microhabitat characteristic varied significantly. Manipulation of infracommunity structure, by excluding certain parasites, allowed examination of the influence of temporal heterogeneity as compared to interspecific trematode interactions in structuring the infraand component communities. Snails were maintained in cages in the field. Enclosures were positioned a few centimeters above the substratum to prevent infection of the snails via egg ingestion and effectively prevented the more prevalent parasite species (Halipegus occidualis in H. anceps and Halipegus eccentricus in P gyrina) from infecting the snails. Statistical analyses indicate that preventing snails from ingesting eggs of some parasites had no affect on the recruitment of other parasites. Parasite prevalences in H. anceps and P gyrina were not different in caged snails compared with those collected from the substrata of the pond.
Cellular diversity in the Drosophila midbrain revealed by single-cell transcriptomics

To understand the brain, molecular details need to be overlaid onto neural wiring diagrams so that synaptic mode, neuromodulation and critical signaling operations can be considered. Single-cell transcriptomics provide a unique opportunity to collect this information. Here we present an initial analysis of thousands of individual cells from Drosophila midbrain, that were acquired using Drop-Seq. A number of approaches permitted the assignment of transcriptional profiles to several major brain regions and cell-types. Expression of biosynthetic enzymes and reuptake mechanisms allows all the neurons to be typed according to the neurotransmitter or neuromodulator that they produce and presumably release. Some neuropeptides are preferentially co-expressed in neurons using a particular fast-acting transmitter, or monoamine. Neuromodulatory and neurotransmitter receptor subunit expression illustrates the potential of these molecules in generating complexity in neural circuit function. This cell atlas dataset provides an important resource to link molecular operations to brain regions and complex neural processes.
Electron Heating by Kinetic Alfvén Waves in Coronal Loop Turbulence

A test-particle model describing the energization of electrons in a turbulent plasma is presented. Parameters are chosen to represent turbulence in a magnetic structure of the solar corona. A fluctuating electric field component parallel to the background magnetic field, with properties similar to those of Kinetic Alfvén Waves, is assumed to be present at scales of the order of the proton Larmor radius. Electrons are stochastically accelerated by multiple interactions with such fluctuations, reaching energies of the order of 102 eV within tens to hundreds of seconds, depending on the turbulence amplitude. For values of the large-scale plasma velocity fluctuation of the order of tens of kilometers per second, the power absorbed by electrons per surface unit is of the order of that typically necessary to heat the corona. The power that electrons absorb from fluctuations is proportional to the third power of the large-scale velocity amplitude, and is comparable with the power associated with the turbulent cascade. Therefore, this mechanism can be considered as an equivalent kinetic dissipation for turbulence, and it can play a relevant role in the heating of electrons in the corona.
Unique hue judgments using saturated and desaturated Munsell samples under different light sources

The concept of unique hue has a long history and plays an important role in developing color appearance models and uniform color spaces. Past studies investigating the unique hues of surface color samples, however, only used samples with a relatively high saturation levels under various standard illuminants. In this study, ten observers were asked to select the four samples with unique hues from 40 V6C8 (Value 6 Chroma 8) and 40 V8C4 (Value 8 Chroma 4) Munsell samples under six light sources, comprising three levels of D uv (i.e., 0, -0.02, and -0.04) and two levels of CCT (i.e., 2700 and 3500 K). Significant differences were found between the two chroma levels for unique blue and yellow, with the hue angles of unique yellow and blue judged using the desaturated samples being significantly different from those defined in CIECAM02. The iso-lines of unique yellow, blue, and green derived from the observers’ judgments did not always go through the origin of the a*-b* or a ’ -b ’ planes in CIELAB and CAM02 -UCS. In short, the problems of CIECAM02, CIELAB, and CAM02-UCS identified in this study need further investigation.
A Systematic Workflow for Oscillation Diagnosis Using Transfer Entropy

Causality analysis techniques, such as transfer entropy, have been proven to be useful tools for oscillation diagnosis in a variety of industrial processing applications. However, these tools have not gained widespread acceptance by industry. Causality analysis application procedures are complicated and time-consuming, requiring a large number of parameters to be selected. In this paper, a workflow for the application of transfer entropy for oscillation diagnosis is developed, emphasizing guidelines for the selection of parameters. Current parameter selection techniques require the user to search iteratively over a range of parameter values to find the optimum. With a computationally expensive technique, such as transfer entropy, this can be time-consuming. Alternatively, recommended default values are used, which may not be optimal. The process dynamics, characterized by time delay, time constants, and oscillation period, can have a strong influence on the optimal parameter selection. The relationship between process dynamics and the optimal transfer entropy parameters is investigated. These relationships are used to suggest guidelines for parameter selection. A strong relationship was found between the oscillation period and time delay and the optimal prediction horizon and time-interval parameters. The developed workflow for oscillation diagnosis was tested on an industrial case study. The workflow provided a robust systematic procedure for accurately identifying the propagation path of the oscillation.
Adaptive Response in Animals Exposed to Non-Ionizing Radiofrequency Fields: Some Underlying Mechanisms

During the last few years, our research group has been investigating the phenomenon of adaptive response in animals exposed to non-ionizing radiofrequency fields. The results from several separate studies indicated a significant increase in survival, decreases in genetic damage as well as oxidative damage and, alterations in several cellular processes in mice pre-exposed to radiofrequency fields and subsequently subjected to sub-lethal or lethal doses of γ-radiation or injected with bleomycin, a radiomimetic chemical mutagen. These observations indicated the induction of adaptive response providing the animals the ability to resist subsequent damage. Similar studies conducted by independent researchers in mice and rats have supported our observation on increased survival. In this paper, we have presented a brief review of all of our own and other independent investigations on radiofrequency fields-induced adaptive response and some underlying mechanisms discussed.
A global view of transcriptional regulation by nuclear receptors: gene expression, factor localization, and DNA sequence analysis

Recent genomic analyses of transcription factor binding, histone modification, and gene expression have provided a global view of transcriptional regulation by nuclear receptors (NRs) that complements an existing large body of literature on gene-specific studies. The picture emerging from these genomic studies indicates that NRs bind at promoter-proximal and promoter-distal enhancers in conjunction with other transcription factors (e.g., activator protein-1, Sp1 and FOXA1). This binding promotes the recruitment of coregulators that mediate the posttranslational modification of histones at promoters and enhancers. Ultimately, signaling through liganded NRs stimulates changes in the occupancy of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) or the activation of preloaded Pol II at target promoters. Chromosomal looping and/or Pol II tracking may underlie promoter-enhancer communication. Interestingly, the direct target genes of NR signaling represent a limited subset of all the genes regulated by NR ligands, with the rest being regulated through secondary effects. As suggested by previous gene-specific analyses, NR-mediated outcomes are highly cell type- and promoter-specific, highlighting the complexity of transcriptional regulation by NRs and the value of genomic analyses for identifying commonly shared patterns. Overall, NRs share common themes in their patterns of localization and transcriptional regulation across mammalian genomes. In this review, we provide an overview of recent advances in the understanding of NR-mediated transcription garnered from genomic analyses of gene expression, factor localization, and target DNA sequences.
Distribution de la diversité génétique dans les réseaux dendritiques : patrons, processus et implications pour la conservation de la biodiversité

L'objectif de cette these est de caracteriser la distribution de la diversite genetique dans les reseaux dendritiques. Premierement, nous identifions un patron de diversite genetique dans ces reseaux, ainsi que les effets de l'asymetrie de flux de genes, les differences de tailles efficaces, et les processus de colonisation sur ces patrons. Deuxiemement, nous caracterisons les patrons de diversite genetique de quatre especes de poissons (Gobio occitaniae, Squalius cephalus, Barbatula barbatula et Phoxinus phoxinus) dans le bassin de la Garonne, afin d'identifier des zones a proteger. Troisiemement, nous explorons les effets de l'asymetrie de flux de genes sur l'inference des histoires demographiques des populations. Finalement, nous combinons des methodes genetiques et demographiques pour evaluer le statut d'une espece menacee (Parachondrostoma toxostoma).
Compressed Sensing MRI Reconstruction with Multiple Sparsity Constraints on Radial Sampling

Compressed Sensing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (CS-MRI) is a promising technique for accelerating MRI acquisitions by using fewer k-space data. Exploiting more sparsity is an important approach to improving the CS-MRI reconstruction quality. We propose a novel CS-MRI framework based on multiple sparse priors to increase reconstruction accuracy. The wavelet sparsity, wavelet tree structured sparsity, and nonlocal total variation (NLTV) regularizations were integrated in the CS-MRI framework, and the optimization problem was solved using a fast composite splitting algorithm (FCSA). The proposed method was evaluated on different types of MR images with different radial sampling schemes and different sampling ratios and compared with the state-of-the-art CS-MRI reconstruction methods in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), feature similarity (FSIM), relative l2 norm error (RLNE), and mean structural similarity (MSSIM). The results demonstrated that the proposed method outperforms the traditional CS-MRI algorithms in both visual and quantitative comparisons.