Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can sexual transmission support the enzootic cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi?

BACKGROUND Trypanosoma cruzi circulates in sylvatic habitats, mainly through blood-feeding triatomines, although other routes also contribute to its dispersion. Sexual transmission of T. cruzi is an understudied topic, especially among wild mammals. Because of the difficulties inherent to field work, experimentally infected mice are frequently used to evaluate the transmission of T. cruzi. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to evaluate the sexual transmission of T. cruzi in acutely infected mice. METHODS Male and female mice in the acute phase of Chagas disease were mated with naïve partners. Then, parasitological tests, immunohistochemistry, serological assays, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were used to detect infection. FINDINGS Parasitological analysis showed trypomastigotes in the blood of 20% of the naïve mice after mating with infected partners. Serological assays detected anti-T. cruzi antibodies in all naïve females mated with infected males and in 60% of naïve males mated with infected females. PCR showed T. cruzi nDNA bands for all naïve mice mated with infected partners. The possibility of sexual transmission was also confirmed by visualisation of amastigotes in the testes. MAIN CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate that sexual transmission of T. cruzi is an ordinary event that may contribute to maintenance of the parasite's enzootic cycle.
Hydraulic modelling of constructed reed-bed wetlands for stormwater treatment

The reed-bed filter, widely used to treat wastewater, is adapted here to treat stormwater. Modelling such systems poses problems linked tothe unsteady-state behaviour, itself a consequence of the flow variability during storm events. Under those conditions, hydraulic head variations play an important role in the infiltration processes. The goal of this study is thus to develop simplified models which can be used for the sizing and design configuration of constructed reed-bed wetlands for CSO treatment. The paper proposes five models based on Darcy and Richards approaches, but also accounting for evapotranspiration and capillarity. Those models have been validated against data for a field biofiltration systemslocated at Monash University Car park. Two models based on the concept of barrier filters and simplified Richards equations seem to perform well with good experimental agreement obtained.These conceptual models were then applied to catchments in Lyon and Nantes (France), in order to test whether such simplified models can be feasibly applied to optimise the key design and sizing parameters for constructed reed-bed wetlands. Real inflow time series data collected on these sites were used to develop and test the models. Models have shown to be sensitive to drainage layer and diverted weir level.
A new non-inferiority test based on Bayesian estimation in matched-pairs design

Non-inferiority of one treatment to another is a common issue in medical research. In this paper, a new test using an approximate p-value based on Bayesian estimation is proposed. Our test is based on only one point of the twodimension nuisance parameter space for accuracy improvement and computational purposes. The sizes and powers of our test are considered. Simulation results suggest that our test can control the type I error rates with reasonable powers while the asymptotic normal test cannot for most cases. In comparison to Sidik’s exact test, our test is much easier to implement.
Fraud on Mobile Financial Markets: Evidence from a Pilot Audit Study

Potential fraud can limit the promise of innovative mobile financial markets like Mobile Money, yet little is known about its existence, especially among the poor. In a randomized control trial across 6 low-income communities in Ghana, I evaluate the extent of fraud—overcharged transactions—on Mobile Money and explore the mechanisms underlying the results. Trained auditors visited vendor points, seeking to make actual Mobile Money transactions: either send or receive cash. Approximately 22% of transactions go fraudulent. Additional experiments indicate that fraud is higher for large amount transactions. Consumers who are financially sophisticated are less likely to suffer fraud, but market competition appears to have no effect on this.
Capsular genu syndrome

We report 5 patients with unilateral infarct and 1 with hemorrhage limited to the genu of the internal capsule. The most prominent finding was contralateral facial and lingual hemiparesis with dysarthria. Three patients also showed unilateral mastication-palatal-pharyngeal weakness, and 1 had unilateral vocal cord paresis. Mild limb involvement was limited to hand weakness in 4 patients. Our findings suggest that the majority of motor corticopontine and corticocobulbar fibers are located in the genu of the internal capsule. The faciolingual syndrome and its variants are highly suggestive of capsular genu stroke.
Brillouin lasing in a LiF whispering-gallery mode resonator and application to microwave generation

We report the excitation of single Stokes Brillouin lasing using an-ultra high-quality (Q) lithium fluoride crystalline resonator pumped above given threshold. The home-made resonator has a quality factor above hundred million at 1550 nm. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of Brillouin lasing in a monofluoride crystal. Combined with the narrow linewidth of the Brillouin gain, the low threshold for oscillations, offers great potential for ultra-stable microwave generation.
Energy and Spectral Efficiency of Leakage-Based Precoding for Large-Scale MU-MIMO Systems

We study the capacity performance of signal-to-leakage-and-noise ratio precoding scheme (SLNR-PS) for large-scale multiuser multiple-input multiple-output systems. We derive capacity bounds of SLNR-PS when the number of base station antennas N is large. A trade-off between energy efficiency (EE) and spectral efficiency (SE) is defined for the case of equal power allocation. Based on this trade-off, the closed-form expressions of optimal SE and optimal number of BS antennas for maximizing EE are derived, respectively. In addition, we consider the EE optimization problem under both maximum transmit power and quality of service constraints. The energy-efficient power allocation scheme is obtained to solve this optimization problem. Numerical simulations verify the benefits of the proposed scheme.
5‐HT1a agonist ±‐ 8‐OH‐DPAT modulates basal and stress‐induced changes in medial prefrontal cortical dopamine

Serotonergic 5‐HTla agonists have recently been suggested to be effective in the treatment of human anxiety disorders. The neural mechanisms responsible for their clinical efficacy are unknown. In this study we investigated the effects of ±8‐hydroxy‐2(di‐n‐propylamino)tetralin [±8‐OH‐DPAT], a serotonergic,5‐HTIa agonist, on basal and stress‐induced changes in dopamine utilization and release in selected forebrain dopamine terminal fields in the rat. Dopamine utilization and release were respectively assessed by neurochemical analysis of ex vivo brain tissue and by microdialysis in the freely moving animal. Systemic ±8‐OH‐DPAT at doses below 225 μg/kg had no effect in any region except to slightly decrease dopamine utilization in the nucleus accumbens. However, at a dose of 225 μg/kg, ±8‐OH‐DPAT significantly increased basal dopamine utilization and release in the medial prefrontal cortex, while simultaneously decreasing serotonin release in this area. By contrast, the same dose of ±8‐OH‐DPAT decreased extracellular dopamine in the striatum. The effect of ±8‐OH‐DPAT on the response of the dopamine system to mild footshock stress was also assessed. This 5‐HTla agonist diminished the magnitude of footshock‐induced increases in prefrontal cortical dopamine utilization. These data suggest that 5‐HTIa agonists may dose‐dependently modulate both basal and stress‐induced changes in dopamine utilization in the medial prefrontal cortex. The possible relevance of these findings to the observed clinical efficacy of 5‐HT1a agonists in anxiety disorders is discussed. ©1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The State of External Respiration Function in Children with Infectious-Associated Recurrent Obstructive Bronchitis During Acute Period

1 State Institution «L.V. Gromashevskyi Institute of epidemiology and infectious diseases», Ukraine, Kyiv. 2 Kiev Medical University of UAFM, Ukraine, Kyiv 3 State Institution «National Institute of Surgery and Transplantation behalf O.O. Shalimov NAMS Ukraine» 4 Children's Clinical Hospital No5 Sviatoshynsky district. Ukraine, Kyiv. 5 Children's polyclinic No1 Sviatoshynsky district. Ukraine, Kyiv. 6 Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University. Ukraine, Mykolaiv. 7 O.O. Bohomolets National medical university Ukraine, Kyiv.
Strategic resonance and innovation in public security services in Brazil

Abstract The aim of this study was to test an exploratory contribution of a model for the relationship between strategic resonance (SR) and innovation in public security services (IPSS), with the construction of two scales. The subject of this analysis are the Federal District Military Police (PMDF) and Community Security Stations (CSSs). The model for the relationship was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) of innovation in public security services (IPSS) and strategic resonance (SR) explanatory variables. The results show that the structural relationships postulated between the variables are corroborated by the global sample analyses, obtaining evidence of scale validation. We concluded that the CSSs are an IPSS, where we observed that policing is linked to interactions between the population and PMDF in a relationship comprising the human, structural and operational characteristics of the service. The main contributions of this research are the proposal of a relationship between SR and IPSS and the development and validation of two scales that measure these two constructs.
Disaster Preparedness Knowledge, Beliefs, Risk-Perceptions, and Mitigating Factors of Disaster Preparedness Behaviors of Undergraduate Students at a Large Midwest University.

Objective:Differences were assessed in disaster preparedness levels of college students at a large Midwest university based on knowledge, risk perception, beliefs, prior enrollment in a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) or first aid class, and self-efficacy was assessed. Methods: College students between the ages of 18 and 24 years old were recruited from a general education class and from students who walked by a high-traffic areain the student union to complete a 27-item survey. A disaster preparedness score was calculated based on items each participant indicated he or she currently possessed at home. Participant responses were also dichotomized into knowledge (advanced vs. basic) risk perception (high vs. low), belief (strong vs. weak), CERT or first aid enrollment (yes vs. no), and self-efficacy (high vs. low) groups based on how the participant answered specific items on the survey. An independent samplest-test was used to analyze the differences in disaster preparedness levels between each dichotomized group. Results: There was no significant difference (p=0.789) found between the strong beliefs (M=7.97, SD=3.478) and the weak beliefs group (M=7.88, SD=3.099), t(384) = -4.978. Conclusions: Based on the findings of this study, health education programs that focus on improving knowledge, self-efficacy in preparing for a disaster, and risk perception of experiencing a disaster will increase the disaster preparedness levels of college students. Universities partnering with community emergency management agencies and offering CERT or first aid classes to college students can increase the disaster preparedness levels of college students and potentially improve response and recovery after a disaster.
Category-Based Language Models for Handwriting Recognition of Marriage License Books

Handwritten marriage licenses books have been used for centuries by ecclesiastical institutions to register marriages. These documents have interesting information, useful for demography studies, organized in a list of individual marriage license records, such as an accounting book. The information in these books is usually collected by expert demographers that devote a lot of time to transcribe them. Despite the structure of the text, the automatic transcription and semantic information extraction of these documents is quite difficult due to the distinct and evolutionary vocabulary, which is composed mainly of proper names that change along the time. In this paper, we have defined some categories taking into account the semantic information included in the licenses. Then a category-based language model has been generated and integrated into the handwritten text recognition system. We study how the use of these categories can benefit not only the handwriting recognition step, but also the posterior semantic information extraction and knowledge discovery.
CAS aided braking for better energy recuperation

This paper provides a review of state-of-the-art technology and recent developments in Collision avoidance system (CAS) and Anti-lock braking systems (ABS) using the actuation of electric motors. This paper also proposes a methodology where composite ABS is assisted by collision avoidance system to enhance the safety and boost the energy recuperation in electric vehicles (EV). Considering an EV with 4 individually controlled hub motors we emphasize range extension by energy recovery through braking system. CAS is one of the safety subsystems found in automobiles and is being tried to integrate with other subsystems on board, which includes composite ABS, wherein braking is accomplished by both hydraulic friction braking and motor electric braking in combination. Energy harness is possible as motor is a part of braking system
Fluorescence In situ Hybridization Analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells in Metastatic Prostate Cancer

Purpose: To assess the feasibility of characterizing gene copy number alteration by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of circulating tumor cells (CTC) isolated using the CellSearch system in patients with progressive castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer. Experimental Design: We used probe combinations that included the androgen receptor (AR) and MYC genes for FISH analysis of CTC samples collected from 77 men with castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer. Results: High-level chromosomal amplification of AR was detected in 38% and relative gain of MYC in 56% of samples analyzed. No such abnormalities were detected in samples with CTC counts of <10, reflecting ascertainment difficulty in these lower count samples. Conclusion: The CTC isolated from our patient cohort present a very similar molecular cytogenetic profile to that reported for late-stage tumors and show that FISH analysis of CTC can be a valuable, noninvasive surrogate for routine tumor profiling. That as many as 50% of these patients have substantial amplification of the AR locus indicates that androgen signaling continues to play an important role in late-stage prostate cancer.
Modellazione comportamentale di circuiti digitali integrati per verifiche di integrita' di segnale e compatibilita' elettromagnetica

Questa memoria riassume le piu recenti attivita di ricerca svolte dall’Unita di Torino (Elettronica) nel campo della modellazione di circuiti digitali integrati per la verifiche di Compatibilita Elettromagnetica e dell’Integrita di Segnale in sistemi elettronici ad alte prestazioni. Negli ultimi anni, l’attivita di ricerca svolta dal gruppo si e concentrata sull’applicazione di metodologie mutuate dalla teoria del controllo e dell’identificazione per la modellazione comportamentale di circuiti digitali integrati. La metodologia generale proposta e denominata Mπlog (Macromodeling via Parametric Identification of LOgic Gates) [1], si basa sulla stima di modelli parametrici non lineari a partire da misure/simulazioni alle porte esterne dei dispositivi logici. La struttura di modello assunta e la stessa per ogni classe di dispositivo e conduce a modelli parametrici che sono facilmente stimabili e che risultano sufficientemente accurati per le simulazioni in oggetto ma notevolmente piu efficienti dei tradizionali modelli basati sulla fisica dei dispositivi. Inoltre, poiche i modelli proposti sono descritti da equazioni, nascondono le informazioni proprietarie sulla struttura interna dei dispositivi e sono facilmente implementabili in ogni simulatore circuitale come sottocircuiti SPICE.
Knowledge, attitude and reported practice of primary school teachers on specified school health activities in Danuphyu Township, Ayeyarwaddy Region, Myanmar

Schools are important settings for comprehensive health promotion. School exerts the most influence on the lives of children and youth. Schools can play a key role in supporting students’ health and, by extension, the health of their families and communities. This school-based cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in Danuphyu Town-ship from June to November, 2012. This study aimed to identify the levels of knowledge, attitude and practice of primary school teachers concerning four school health activities: comprehensive school health education; healthy school environments; prevention and control of communicable diseases; and nutritional promotion and food safety. The sample consisted of 97 teachers from 23 primary schools were randomly selected to participate in the study. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. It was found that 62.9% of teachers achieved a high level of knowledge scores (mean knowledge score of 39.10 with SD 3.087); 57.7% had a positive attitude towards school health activities; 52.6% of teachers achieved high reported practice scores (with mean practice score of 66.07 and SD 4.17); teachers from urban areas, over 50 years of age, and with service duration of 20-24 years, are statistically significantly associated with higher levels of reported practice; teachers with high knowledge and posi-tive attitude scores achieved higher reported practice scores, but these associations are not statistically significant. Overall, over 50% of the teachers had a high knowledge, a positive attitude and high practice scores relating to school health activities, and this shows that favorable conditions exist at the schools among the teachers for further strengthening the school health program of Myanmar. Enhancing teachers' involvement in school health activities would establish good outcomes of the school health promotion program. Provision of continuous training of teach-ers in school health would further enhance knowledge of teachers, and would gradually inculcate positive attitudes among them. This would lead towards more involvement of teachers in school health activities. South East Asia Journal of Public Health 2013; 3(1): 24-29 DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/seajph.v3i1. 17707
Practices and Problems in the Technological Interventions in Distance Learning in Colleges/Universities of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The principal aim in undertaking this research was to assess the current practices and problems in technological interventions in distance learning in Distance Education colleges and universities of Addis Ababa and forward possible suggestions for the improvement and better use of technologies to the universities/colleges. A descriptive survey method was employed for the study. The sample colleges/universities comprised of Unity University, Alpha University College, Saint Mary’s University College and Ethiopian Civil Service College from Addis Ababa. A total of 77 academic staff and 123 students participated in the study. Major statistical tools applied in the study were the mean values, ttest, percentages, the chi-square, correlation and one way ANOVA. Findings depicted that the colleges/universities were only in the first generation of technology backed by only a little support from the second generation. Only a few factors were found to be considered when selecting technologies. It was also revealed that the technologies were integrated only with the objectives and content of the instructional design. It was found that learner support system (which was not supported by technologies) was in existence. The Institutions felt that the Government did not take significant initiative in supporting the Distance Learning (DL) institutions in their efforts. While the attitude of learners towards technology in general and in relation to DL in particular was negative that of the academic staff was positive.
Tolerance and adverse event profile with sorafenib in Indian patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract Background: The current standard of treatment for advanced hepatocellular cancer Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is Sorafenib. Data regarding its tolerance and adverse event profile in Indian patients is scarce. Materials and Methods: The primary aim of this analysis was to assess the adverse events (Grade 3 and Grade 4 as per CTCAE v4.0) and requirements for dose reduction with sorafenib in advanced HCC. Details of consecutive patients started on 800 mg/day dosing were obtained from a prospectively maintained database (over a period of 6 months) and analyzed. Results: Thirty-nine patients were available for inclusion in the study. Median age was 58 years (range: 20–75). All patients were classified as Barcelona clinic liver cancer C. Common side effects seen were liver dysfunction (38.5%), hand-foot-syndrome-rash (HFSR) (Grade 2 and 3-25.6%), fatigue (Grade 2 and Grade 3–10.3%), and diarrhea (7.7%). Dose reduction was required in 43.6% of patients. Drug interruptions/cessation was required in 38.5% of patients within the first four months of treatment. Nearly 41% of patients required cessation of sorafenib due to intolerable side-effects while 28.2% stopped sorafenib due to progressive disease. At a median follow-up of 4.9 months, median event-free survival (EFS) was 4.20 months (95% confidence interval: 3.343–5.068). Conclusion: A higher incidence of liver dysfunction and HFSR is seen in Indian patients as compared to published data. A significant proportion of patients required cessation of sorafenib due to adverse events in our series. However, EFS remains on par with that seen in larger studies with sorafenib in advanced HCC.
Effect of Penetration Modifiers on the Dermal and Transdermal Delivery of Drugs and Cosmetic Active Ingredients

In this study the effect of 2 penetration modifiers, dimethyl isosorbide (DMI) and diethylene glycol monoethyl ether (DGME) on the skin delivery of hydroquinone (HQ), salicylic acid (SA) and octadecenedioic acid (DIOIC) was investigated. Ten percent DMI and DGME were separately formulated into oil-in-water emulsions containing 1.8% HQ, SA and DIOIC, respectively. Skin delivery and the flux across split-thickness human skin of the active ingredients were determined using Franz diffusion cells. An emulsion with 10% water incorporated instead of the water-soluble penetration modifiers served as a control. The study showed that neither 10% DMI nor 10% DGME significantly enhanced the skin permeation of the various lipophilic active ingredients or the uptake into the skin. It was hypothesized that the addition of the penetration modifiers to the emulsions not only enhanced the solubility of the various active ingredients in the skin but also in the formulation, resulting in a reduced thermodynamic activity and hence a weaker driving force for penetration. Therefore, the effect of DMI and DGME on the solubility of the active ingredients in the skin was counteracted by a simultaneous reduction in the thermodynamic activity in the formulation.