Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Critical Review on the Analytical Methods for the Estimation of Clofazimine in Bulk, Biological Fluids and Pharmaceutical Formulations

ABSTRACT Clofazimine (CFZ), a riminophenazine derivative and a crucial drug in the treatment of lepromatous leprosy, has been reintroduced clinically to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. CFZ holds both antimycobacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. But, due to its highly hydrophobic, polar and photosensitive nature, it is challenging to extract and quantify the drug from different biological fluids and its pharmaceutical formulations. This has also hampered the pharmacokinetic evaluation of the CFZ. This article accentuates various analytical methods viz. Identification methods, titrimetric methods, spectrometric methods such as colorimetric, fluorometric, mass spectroscopy and UV/Vis spectroscopy, Chromatographic methods like paper chromatography, thin-layer chromatography, high-performance thin layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for the estimation of CFZ in bulk, biological fluids and its pharmaceutical formulations.
On the Dynamics of Unemployment and Wage Distributions

Postel-Vinay and Robin's (2002) sequential auction model is extended to allow for aggregate productivity shocks. Workers exhibit permanent differences in ability while firms are identical. Negative aggregate productivity shocks induce job destruction by driving the surplus of matches with low ability workers to negative values. Endogenous job destruction coupled with worker heterogeneity thus provides a mechanism for amplifying productivity shocks that offers an original solution to the unemployment volatility puzzle (Shimer, 2005). Moreover, positive or negative shocks may lead employers and employees to renegotiate low wages up and high wages down when agents' individual surpluses become negative. The model delivers rich business cycle dynamics of wage distributions and explains why both low wages and high wages are more procyclical than wages in the middle of the distribution and why wage inequality may be countercyclical, as the data seem to suggest is true.
Energy Management Strategy Development to Minimize the Operating Costs for a Fuel Cell Vehicle

This paper outlines the analysis undertaken on a small fuel cell/battery vehicle model to establish an energy management strategy to achieve a minimum trip cost over a route without any prior knowledge of the drive cycle characteristics. The study was undertaken as part of the IEEE VTS Motor Vehicles Challenge 2017. Three strategies are presented based on the vehicle model specified for the challenge. The developed energy management strategies differ from the typical fuel consumption minimization strategies in that the impacts of fuel cell degradation and battery degradation are incorporated into these minimum cost strategies. The minimum trip cost, to meet the challenge requirements, is achieved by ensuring that the fuel cell is operated at an optimum cost level to provide the vehicle''s traction power while sustaining a high state of charge on the battery.
BOUNDS ON THE NUMBER OF CONNECTED COMPONENTS FOR TROPICAL PREVARIETIES

For a tropical prevariety in R given by a system of k tropical polynomials in n variables with degrees at most d, we prove that its number of the connected components is less than ( k+7n−1 3n ) · d k+n+1 . On a number of 0-dimensional connected components a better bound ( k n ) · d n k−n+1 is obtained, which extends the Bezout bound due to B. Sturmfels from the case k = n to an arbitrary k ≥ n. Also we show that the latter bound is close to sharp, in particular, the number of connected components can depend on k.
Spatial cross-correlation properties of MmWave massive MIMO channels

To analyze the propagation characteristics of millimeter wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels, channel measurements in an office environment using a vector network analyzer (VNA) are carried out. Detailed parameter settings of the measurement system and configuration of the large receiver (Rx) antenna array are introduced. Through dividing the Rx array into several sub-arrays, characteristics like spherical wavefront, non-stationarity, and cluster evolution over the array can be found with parameter estimation using the space alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithm. For signals received by the virtual horizontal planar array, it is shown that the spatial cross-correlation functions (SCCFs) exhibit significant changes along different dimensions of the Rx horizontal planar array. Thus, it is worth taking the relative angle between transmitter (Tx) pointing direction and Rx array location into consideration while carrying out channel measurements. It is also verified that the SCCFs can be influenced by the measurement environment, the coordinates of antenna elements in the large array, as well as the operated frequencies.
Collaborative Energy and Information Transfer in Green Wireless Sensor Networks for Smart Cities

Smart city is able to make the city source and infrastructure more efficiently utilized, which improves the quality of life for citizens. In this framework, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) play an important role to collect, process, and analyze the corresponding information. However, the massive deployment of WSNs consumes a significant energy consumption, which has raised the growing demand for green WSNs for smart cities. Exploiting the recent advance in collaborative energy and information transfer to power the WSNs and transmit the data has been considered a promising approach to realize the green WSNs for smart cities. We propose an architecture design of the green WSNs for smart cities, by exploiting the collaborative energy and information transfer protocol, and illustrate the challenging issues in this design. To achieve a green system design, the sensor nodes in WSNs harvest the energy simultaneously with the information decoding (ID) from the received radio frequency signals. Specifically, the energy-constrained sensor nodes partition the received signals into two independent groups to perform energy harvesting (EH) and ID. The sensor nodes then use the harvested energy to amplify and forward the information signals. We study the joint optimization of subcarrier grouping, subcarrier pairing, and power allocation such that the transmission rate performance is maximized with the EH constraint. The joint optimization problem is solved via dual decomposition after transforming it into an equivalent convex optimization problem. Simulation results tested with the real WSNs system data indicate that the performance of our proposed protocol can be significantly improved.
A Note on Adapting Propensity Score Matching and Selection Models to Choice Based Samples

The probability of selection into treatment plays an important role in matching and selection models. However, this probability can often not be consistently estimated, because of choice-based sampling designs with unknown sampling weights. This note establishes that the selection and matching procedures can be implemented using propensity scores fit on choice-based samples with misspecified weights, because the odds ratio of the propensity score fit on the choice-based sample is monotonically related to the odds ratio of the true propensity scores.
Spatial complexity and reservoir optimization results

The complexity of a model can significantly affect its costs of development, ease of use, and the reliability of its output. However, it is difficult to find the levels of complexity appropriate for a particular model application because few quantitative studies of the effects of complexity on model results exist. This paper attempts to classify various types of model complexity. Using three indicators of spatial complexity, network flow models of Northern California's water system are formulated and compared at six levels of spatial aggregation. The results show that less complex spatial formulations result in fewer modeled shortages and lesser economic costs. However, the model continues to respond realistically to changes in hydrology. Additional research is needed to more completely understand the effects of model complexity on results, but these results provide an indication of the magnitude of these effects for a large water resource system.
Sorting nexin 9 (SNX9) regulates levels of the transmembrane ADAM9 at the cell surface

ADAM9 is an active member of the family of transmembrane ADAMs (a disintegrin and metalloproteases). It plays a role in processes such as bone formation and retinal neovascularization, and importantly, its expression in human cancers correlates with disease stage and poor prognosis. Functionally, ADAM9 can cleave several transmembrane proteins, thereby shedding their ectodomains from the cell surface. Moreover, ADAM9 regulates cell behavior by binding cell-surface receptors such as integrin and membrane-type matrix metalloproteases. Because these functions are mainly restricted to the cell surface, understanding the mechanisms regulating ADAM9 localization and activity at this site is highly important. To this end, we here investigated how intracellular trafficking regulates ADAM9 availability at the cell surface. We found that ADAM9 undergoes constitutive clathrin-dependent internalization and subsequent degradation or recycling to the plasma membrane. We confirmed previous findings of an interaction between ADAM9 and the intracellular sorting protein, sorting nexin 9 (SNX9), as well as its close homolog SNX18. Knockdown of either SNX9 or SNX18 had no apparent effects on ADAM9 internalization or recycling. However, double knockdown of SNX9 and SNX18 decreased ADAM9 internalization significantly, demonstrating a redundant role in this process. Moreover, SNX9 knockdown revealed a nonredundant effect on overall ADAM9 protein levels, resulting in increased ADAM9 levels at the cell surface, and a corresponding increase in the shedding of Ephrin receptor B4, a well-known ADAM9 substrate. Together, our findings demonstrate that intracellular SNX9-mediated trafficking constitutes an important ADAM9 regulatory pathway.
Differential responses to beta-adrenergic stimulation in the long-QT syndrome type 1: Characterization and mechanisms

Long QT syndrome type 1 (LQT1) is caused by mutations that impair the function of the slow delayed rectifier potassium (IKs) channels. Most LQT1 patients experience arrhythmic events during beta-adrenergic stimulation (β-AS). A full description of the ionic mechanisms underlying arrhythmogenecity in LQT1 patients and their relation to β-AS is still lacking. In this study we constructed a set of stochastic human ventricular cell models reproducing experimental AP properties at baseline and following ionic inhibitions. Using the constructed models, we showed that AP duration, morphology and beat-to-beat variability in LQT1 are highly specific of the underlying ionic characteristics. Likewise, the response of individual IKs-deficient cells to β-AS can range from negligible to as much as 200% increase in AP temporal variability, recognized as a marker of arrhythmogenesis in the setting ofLQT1. By partial correlation analysis, major ionic factors driving AP changes associated with LQT1 and β-AS were ascertained.
The association of sociodemographic, behavioural and informational factors with engaging in sexual intercourse among never-married adolescents aged 15 - 24 years in Indonesia: A secondary analysis of DHS data from 2012.

Background: Sexual and reproductive health education and services are often of poor quality in Indonesia and although sexual intercourse among adolescents is not socially accepted, a change of norms is observable, putting adolescents at risk to acquire unwanted health outcomes.Aim: To analyse associations of behavioural, sociodemographic and informational factors with engaging in sexual intercourse among never-married adolescents aged 15 - 24 in Indonesia and to analyse potential differences in age groups.Methods: Data from 19,649 never-married male and female adolescents who ever went to school, obtained from the 2012 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey, was used for analysis. Multiple logistic regression was applied to test for significance separately and after adjusting for variables.Results: Among all adolescents, factors associated with engaging in sexual intercourse were: older age, male sex, ever drank alcohol, smoking and ever used drugs. After stratifying for age, the same associations were found for older and younger adolescents. Additionally, among younger adolescents (15 - 19 years), those from poorer households, with a higher educational level and those currently attending school were more likely to engage in sexual intercourse. Among older adolescents (20 - 24 years), those from poorer households and rural areas were more likely to engage in sexual intercourse.Conclusions: Interventions are needed to equip male adolescents, those who ever drank alcohol, were currently smoking or ever used drugs with sufficient knowledge and tools to make informed decisions. Further qualitative research is needed to investigate the behaviour of adolescents towards sexual intercourse more in depth.
Medication safety programs in primary care: a scoping review protocol

Review objective/question: The objective of this scoping review is to examine the characteristics of medication safety programs in the primary care setting and to map evidence on the outcome measures used to assess the effectiveness of medication safety programs in improving patient safety. The current review will be guided by the following research questions:What are the types of medication safety programs described in literature on primary care? What are the outcome measures reported in studies addressing medication safety programs in primary care assessing patient safety?
Profile-based Nearest Neighbor Method for Pattern Recognition

We propose a nearest neighbor method of pattern recognition which is based on a weighted distance measure between patterns derived from profiles. There are a few new ingredients to the proposed method, compared to the conventional nearest neighbor methods. The distance measure is defined as a weighted sum of each pattern component, and the weight parameters are optimized. We introduce a second-layer prediction procedure analogous to that in neural network methods. We first construct a pattern database, where the classification of each pattern is already known. Prediction for a query pattern is performed by examining patterns close to it. We apply the proposed method to predict the protein secondary structure of the proteins in the CB513 set and 29 proteins from CASP5 in blind fashion. We find that the performance of our approach, especially with the second-layer prediction, is almost comparable to the state-of-the-art method based on neural network methods.
QUANTITATION OF RESISTANCE TRAINING USING THE SESSION RATING OF PERCEIVED EXERTION METHOD

The purpose of this study was to apply the session rating of perceived exertion (RPE) method, which is known to work with aerobic training, to resistance training. Ten men (26.1 ± 10.2 years) and 10 women (22.2 ± 1.8 years), habituated to both aerobic and resistance training, performed 3 × 30 minutes aerobic training bouts on the cycle ergometer at intensities of 56%, 71%, and 83% VO2 peak and then rated the global intensity using the session RPE technique (e.g., 0–10) 30 minutes after the end of the session. They also performed 3 3 30 minutes resistance exercise bouts with 2 sets of 6 exercises at 50% (15 repetitions), 70% (10 repetitions), and 90% (4 repetitions) of 1 repetition maximum (1RM). After each set the exercisers rated the intensity of that exercise using the RPE scale. Thirty minutes after the end of the bout they rated the intensity of the whole session and of only the lifting components of the session, using the session RPE method. The rated intensity of exercise increased with the %VO2 peak and the %1RM. There was a general correspondence between the relative intensity (%VO2 peak and % 1RM) and the session RPE. Between different types of resistance exercise at the same relative intensity, the average RPE after each lift varied widely. The resistance training session RPE increased as the intensity increased despite a decrease in the total work performed (p < 0.05). Mean RPE and session RPE–lifting only also grew with increased intensity (p < 0.05). In many cases, the mean RPE, session RPE, and session RPE–lifting only measurements were different at given exercise intensities (p < 0.05). The session RPE appears to be a viable method for quantitating the intensity of resistance training, generally comparable to aerobic training. However, the session RPE may meaningfully underestimate the average intensity rated immediately after each set.
Monitoring urban transformation in the old foreign concessions of Shanghai from 1987 to 2012

This paper is concerned with morphological change analysis in the old foreign concessions of Shanghai from 1969 to 2010. To that end, we use a series of 17 Landsat TM and Landsat ETM + images on which we estimate some feature parameters. The analysis of the resulting time series enables to isolate changes from traditional constructions to new buildings or gardens. Our results show that 70% of the old urban pattern was converted in modern high-rise buildings and green spaces.
Meeting report – Emerging Concepts in Cell Organization

ABSTRACT New concepts in cell organization emerged in a medieval castle during a snowy week in January 2017 in the middle of the Austrian Alps. The occasion was the 10th Annaberg EMBO workshop in Goldegg am See; organized by Gabriele Seethaler, Catherine Rabouille and Marino Zerial. There were 95 participants, including many who gave talks and presented posters, enjoying a familial and trusting atmosphere that stimulated lively exchange of (unpublished) results, new ideas and thoughts.
On Evaluating Social Proximity-Aware Spatial Range Queries

Spatial range queries are used on a daily basis in real-life applications, such as Google Maps and Yelp. Many of those applications may need to rank the spatial objects, enclosed by the spatial range, before presenting the result to the end-user. Existing systems rank spatial objects according to different rules, such as average user rating, distance to the user's location, etc… The popularity of social networks allowed many applications to leverage the social graph in delivering a social-proximity aware ranked list of spatial objects. In this paper, we formally define a query that returns the top-k spatial objects in a given spatial region and rank them according to the social proximity of these objects to the querying user (SKNNGEO). Furthermore, a framework that integrates a joint search on both the social and spatial domains is proposed to efficiently solve the SKNNGEO query. The paper evaluates the proposed approach using real dataset extracted from the Yelp application. Extensive experiments show that the proposed approach outperform existing baseline approaches in processing SKNNGEO query.
Functional neuroimaging biomarkers in migraine: diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic implications.

INTRODUCTION in current migraine clinical practice conventional neuroimaging examinations are often sought to exclude possible causes of secondary headaches or migraine-associated disorders. Contrariwise, although advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has improved tremendously our understanding of human brain processes in migraine patients, to the state of the art they have not superseded the conventional neuroimaging techniques in the migraine clinical setting. METHODS a comprehensive review was conducted of PubMed citations by entering the key word "marker" AND/OR "biomarker" combined with "migraine" AND/OR "headache. " Other key words included "imaging" OR "neuroimaging", "structural" OR "functional". The only restriction was English-language publication. The abstracts of all articles meeting these criteria were reviewed, and full text was retrieved and examined for relevant references. RESULTS several authors tried to identify imaging biomarkers able to identify different migraine phenotypes or, even better, to follow-up the same migraine patients during the course of the disease, to predict the evolution into more severe phenotypes and, finally, the response to specific treatment. CONCLUSIONS the identification of diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic advanced neuroimaging biomarkers in the migraine clinical setting, in order to approach to patients in a more and more rational and "tailored" way, is extremely intriguing and futuristic. Unfortunately, reliable and robust neuroimaging biomarkers are still lacking for migraine, probably due to both not completely understood pathogenesis and clinical and neuroimaging heterogeneity. Although further longitudinal advanced neuroimaging studies, aimed to identify effective neuroimaging biomarkers, are needed, this review aims to collect the main and most recent works on this topic.
Estimating Counterfactual Risk Under Hypothetical Interventions in the Presence of Competing Events: Crystalline Silica Exposure and Mortality From 2 Causes of Death

Abstract Exposure to silica has been linked to excess risk of lung cancer and nonmalignant respiratory disease mortality. In this study we estimated risk for both these outcomes in relation to occupational silica exposure as well as the reduction in risk that would result from hypothetical interventions on exposure in a cohort of exposed workers. Analyses were carried out using data from an all-male study population consisting of 2,342 California diatomaceous earth workers regularly exposed to crystalline silica and followed between 1942 and 2011. We estimated subdistribution risk for each event under the natural course and interventions of interest using the parametric g-formula to adjust for healthy-worker survivor bias. The risk ratio for lung cancer mortality, comparing an intervention in which a theoretical maximum exposure limit was set at 0.05 mg/m3 (the current US regulatory limit) with the observed exposure concentrations, was 0.86 (95% confidence interval: 0.63, 1.22). The corresponding risk ratio for nonmalignant respiratory disease mortality was 0.69 (95% confidence interval: 0.52, 0.93). Our findings suggest that risks from both outcomes would have been considerably lower if historical silica exposures in this cohort had not exceeded current regulatory limits.