Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
l-Arginine Uptake by Cationic Amino Acid Transporter Promotes Intra-Macrophage Survival of Leishmania donovani by Enhancing Arginase-Mediated Polyamine Synthesis

The survival of intracellular protozoan parasite, Leishmania donovani, the causative agent of Indian visceral leishmaniasis (VL), depends on the activation status of macrophages. l-Arginine, a semi-essential amino acid plays a crucial regulatory role for activation of macrophages. However, the role of l-arginine transport in VL still remains elusive. In this study, we demonstrated that intra-macrophage survival of L. donovani depends on the availability of extracellular l-arginine. Infection of THP-1-derived macrophage/human monocyte-derived macrophage (hMDM) with Leishmania, resulted in upregulation of l-arginine transport. While investigating the involvement of the transporters, we observed that Leishmania survival was greatly impaired when the transporters were blocked either using inhibitor or siRNA-mediated downregulation. CAT-2 was found to be the main isoform associated with l-arginine transport in L. donovani-infected macrophages. l-arginine availability and its transport regulated the host arginase in Leishmania infection. Arginase and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression were reciprocally regulated when assayed using specific inhibitors and siRNA-mediated downregulation. Interestingly, induction of iNOS expression and nitric oxide production were observed in case of inhibition of arginase in infected macrophages. Furthermore, inhibition of l-arginine transport as well as arginase resulted in decreased polyamine production, limiting parasite survival inside macrophages. l-arginine availability and transport regulated Th1/Th2 cytokine levels in case of Leishmania infection. Upregulation of l-arginine transport, induction of host arginase, and enhanced polyamine production were correlated with increased level of IL-10 and decreased level of IL-12 and TNF-α in L. donovani-infected macrophages. Our findings provide clear evidence for targeting the metabolism of l-arginine and l-arginine-metabolizing enzymes as an important therapeutic and prophylactic strategy to treat VL.
Label Distribution Learning by Exploiting Sample Correlations Locally

Label distribution learning (LDL) is a novel multi-label learning paradigm proposed in recent years for solving label ambiguity. Existing approaches typically exploit label correlations globally to improve the effectiveness of label distribution learning, by assuming that the label correlations are shared by all instances. However, different instances may share different label correlations, and few correlations are globally applicable in real-world applications. In this paper, we propose a new label distribution learning algorithm by exploiting sample correlations locally (LDL-SCL). To encode the influence of local samples, we design a local correlation vector for each instance based on the clustered local samples. Then we predict the label distribution for an unseen instance based on the original features and the local correlation vector simultaneously. Experimental results demonstrate that LDL-SCL can effectively deal with the label distribution problems and perform remarkably better than the state-of-the-art LDL methods.
Public Finance in Models of Economic Growth

The recent literature on endogenous economic growth allows for effects of fiscal policy on long-term growth. If the social rate of return on investment exceeds the private return, then tax policies that encourage investment can raise the growth rate and levels of utility. An excess of the social return over the private return can reflect learning-by-doing with spillover effects, the financing of government consumption purchases with an income tax, and monopoly pricing of new types of capital goods. Tax incentives for investment are not called for if the private rate of return on investment equals the social return. This situation applies in growth models if the accumulation of a broad concept of capital does not entail diminishing returns, or if technological progress appears as an expanding variety of consumer products. In growth models that incorporate public services, the optimal tax policy hinges on the characteristics of the services. If the public services are publicly-provided private goods, which are rival and excludable, or publiclyprovided public goods, which are non-rival and non-excludable, then lump-sum taxation is superior to income taxation. Many types of public goods are subject to congestion, and are therefore rival but to some extent nonexcludable. In these cases, income taxation works approximately as a user fee and can therefore be superior to lump-sum taxation. In particular, the incentives for investment and growth are too high if taxes are lump sum. We argue that the congestion model applies to a wide array of public expenditures, including transportation facilities, public utilities, courts, and possibly national defense and police.
Correlation between clinical diagnoses and autopsy findings in critically ill children.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To examine the correlation between clinical diagnoses and autopsy findings in children who die in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). DESIGN Retrospective chart review. SETTING PICU of a university-affiliated hospital. PATIENTS A consecutive sample of patients who died in the PICU and had autopsies performed. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Of 193 patients who died during the 7 1/2-year study period, 50 (26%) had autopsies performed. The mean age was 34.7 months (range 15 hours to 17 years), and the mean length of stay in the PICU was 12.2 days (range 2 hours to 60 days). Major admitting diagnoses included postoperative cardiac surgery (19), nonoperative cardiac disease (7), hematologic/malignant disorder (5), and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (5). There were 5 cases (10%) where autopsy revealed a major finding that, if known prior to death, would have altered clinical management and might have resulted in cure or prolonged survival. In another 9 patients (18%) the autopsy revealed major findings that, if known prior to death, would not have altered management. Eight of these findings related to the cause of death and 2 of them involved the basic disease. There was no correlation between new findings and either patient age or length of stay in the PICU. CONCLUSIONS Despite modern diagnostic techniques, the autopsy continues to reveal valuable and unsuspected information.
The consolidation of a new regional elite: The case of Omsk 1987–1995

ELITES HAVE BEEN WIDELY IDENTIFIED as central political actors in the breakdown of the Soviet system and the subsequent process of transformation in the Russian Federation.1 While a considerable body of research has focused on the nature and role of the central elite, a number of writers have highlighted the significance of elites at the regional level.2 The regional elite has, for example, been identified as instrumental to the rise of nationalist sentiments in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, at the heart of the process of transferring state assets into private control, of manipulating central-regional relations to its advantage, and of exerting increased control over developments in each locality.3 Indeed, research suggests that the regional elite has emerged as one of the principal victors of the processes of change that have affected the Russian Federation since the late 1980s. As a result of the growing power of the regional elite, Moscow has been forced to accommodate the demands of this important section of Russian society; most obviously in the form of a set of bilateral treaties with the provinces.4 Although the regional elite has been able to acquire powers and a degree of autonomy from the political centre unprecedented in modem Russian history, it has not been entirely free to establish its own sub-national political and economic networks. One centrally promoted policy that has placed a constraint on the latitude of the regional elite to act has been the series of elections conducted in the Russian Federation since 1991. Elections should pose an important challenge to the regional elite. At minimum, elections introduce an element of uncertainty into political systems, and should threaten a local elite's occupation of the strategic political positions in each region. Given the damage to the regional elite that elections could inflict and the success of this group in resisting central initiatives that challenge newly gained prerogatives, the preparedness of the regional elite to accept an externally imposed electoral process requires explanation.5 A number of reasons which might explain the acquiescence of the regional elite to elections suggest themselves. First, that the federal centre was sufficiently powerful to impose elections on the regional elite, particularly in the case of the oblasti and other non-ethnically defined administrative units, which have occupied a weaker position in their relations with Moscow than the ethnically defined regions. Second, that the regional elite felt in a position to control elections, through fraud, the deployment of the considerable resources it commands (primarily organisational and control of the media) or manipulation of the electoral process (gerrymandering, for
Intake estimation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in salmon: the inclusion of uncertainty

Dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs are given toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) in order to calculate the combined toxic equivalence (TEQ) of these contaminants in a sample of food. This study calculates the probability of an average consumer exceeding the recommended tolerable daily intake of 1–4 pg WHO-TEQ kg-1 bw day-1 as the amount of salmon in the diet is increased. Probabilistic risk analysis is used to account for the known uncertainties in this calculation. When the TEF uncertainty was excluded with no salmon consumption, the background dietary intake ranged from 1.36 to 1.78 pg TEQ kg-1 bw day-1. A weekly consumption of three standard salmon portions resulted in a 36% chance of exceeding the upper limit of the TDI. Inclusion of the TEF uncertainty increased the background dietary intake range from 2.1 to 4.4 pg TEQ kg-1 bw day-1, and the weekly consumption of one salmon portion resulted in a 79% chance of the average consumer exceeding the upper TDI. The most important factors contributing to the uncertainty in these results were, in order of magnitude, the TEF for PCB 126 and the sampling uncertainty (sample size) followed by the measurement uncertainty of PCB 126. We recommend that it is more important to increase sample size and produce more precise estimates in the TEF than to improve analytical accuracy.
Optical‐mechanical signatures of cancer cells based on fluctuation profiles measured by interferometry

We propose to establish a cancer biomarker based on the unique optical‐mechanical signatures of cancer cells measured in a noncontact, label‐free manner by optical interferometry. Using wide‐field interferometric phase microscopy (IPM), implemented by a portable, off‐axis, common‐path and low‐coherence interferometric module, we quantitatively measured the time‐dependent, nanometer‐scale optical thickness fluctuation maps of live cells in vitro. We found that cancer cells fluctuate significantly more than healthy cells, and that metastatic cancer cells fluctuate significantly more than primary cancer cells. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements validated the results. Our study shows the potential of IPM as a simple clinical tool for aiding in diagnosis and monitoring of cancer. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
An Area and Energy Efficient Ultra-Low Voltage Level Shifter With Pass Transistor and Reduced-Swing Output Buffer in 65-nm CMOS

This brief presents an ultra-low voltage level shifter (LS) with fast and energy-efficient voltage conversion from the deep subthreshold region to the superthreshold region. The proposed LS achieves better performance and increased energy efficiency by addressing the reduced swing and the slow fall transition issues in prior arts. A novel reduced-swing buffer design is proposed to attain lower standby power consumption while a pass transistor is used for improving the speed of the fall transition. The proposed LS consists of only 11 transistors occupying <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$7.45~ {\mu }\text{m}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, which obtains the smallest area among the state-of-the-art ultra-low voltage LSs. Measurement results from a test chip fabricated in 65-nm CMOS technology demonstrate that the proposed LS shows the maximum leakage and speed improvements of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$16.3{\times}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.7{\times}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> compared to the Wilson current mirror LS. The proposed LS also accomplishes the maximum switching energy reduction of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8.5{\times}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and can convert deep subthreshold voltage as low as 100 mV to the superthreshold voltage of 1.2 V.
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of modafinil for the treatment of apathy in individuals with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE This study examined the effects of modafinil on apathetic symptomatology, performance of activities of daily living (ADLs), and caregiver burden in individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHOD 23 participants with a diagnosis of mild-to-moderate probable AD according to National Institute of Neurologic and Communicative Disorder and Stroke-Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders criteria were randomized into the experimental (modafinil 200 mg daily) or control (placebo) groups. All participants were also receiving stable doses of a cholinesterase inhibitor medication. Participants completed assessments at baseline and after 8 weeks of treatment. Outcome measures included family report measures of apathy, ADL performance, and caregiver burden, as well as direct assessment of ADL performance. The study was conducted at a private psychiatric hospital in Rhode Island from September 2005 until September 2007. RESULTS Both the experimental and control groups showed reductions in apathy on the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale between baseline and final assessments (F1,20 = 18.017, P < .001, η2 = 0.474), and there was no significant additional reduction in apathy with modafinil (F1,20 = 0.008, P = .932, η2 = 0.000). Groups did not show significant changes in caregiver report of ADL performance over time (F1,19 = 0.268, P = .611). The correlation between change in apathy and change in caregiver burden was not significant (r = 0.355, P = .053), but there was a trend toward improved levels of apathy being related to decreased levels of caregiver burden. CONCLUSIONS The addition of modafinil to the standard of care treatment (cholinesterase inhibitor medication) did not result in significant additional reductions in apathy or improvements in ADL functioning. The reduction in reported apathy observed in both groups between baseline and final assessments was likely due to placebo effect. However, reductions in perceived apathetic symptomatology were correlated with reductions in reported caregiver distress and burden. Larger studies with more statistical power are needed to confirm the absence of significant effects. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01172145.
Total Variation Regularization Term-Based Low-Rank and Sparse Matrix Representation Model for Infrared Moving Target Tracking

Infrared moving target tracking plays a fundamental role in many burgeoning research areas of Smart City. Challenges in developing a suitable tracker for infrared images are particularly caused by pose variation, occlusion, and noise. In order to overcome these adverse interferences, a total variation regularization term-based low-rank and sparse matrix representation (TV-LRSMR) model is designed in order to exploit a robust infrared moving target tracker in this paper. First of all, the observation matrix that is derived from the infrared sequence is decomposed into a low-rank target matrix and a sparse occlusion matrix. For the purpose of preventing the noise pixel from being separated into the occlusion term, a total variation regularization term is proposed to further constrain the occlusion matrix. Then an alternating algorithm combing principal component analysis and accelerated proximal gradient methods is employed to separately optimize the two matrices. For long-term tracking, the presented algorithm is implemented using a Bayesien state inference under the particle filtering framework along with a dynamic model update mechanism. Both qualitative and quantitative experiments that were examined on real infrared video sequences verify that our algorithm outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in terms of precision rate and success rate.
The Modelling of Recent Mortality Trends in United Kingdom Male Assured Lives

ABSTRACT Deaths and exposures by individual calendar year and individual years of age for the U.K. male assured lives experience over the recent past are comprehensively modelled using generalised linear modelling techniques. Our principal objective is to develop a model which incorporates both the age variation in mortality and the underlying time trends in the mortality rates. The approach has considerable advantages over ad hoc methods of fitting parametric models to represent the age variation in mortality and then separately attempting to represent the time trends in the parameters of these models. The approach advocated can be seen as an extension to the conventional parametric graduation techniques used by the CMI Bureau to represent trends in mortality.
Macroeconomics and inequality

This paper enters the poverty debate by assessing the impact that a series of pro growth policies have on inequality. The authors find that improvements in education and infrastructure and lower inflation levels would lead to both growth and progressive distributional change. Instead, financial development, trade openness and decreases in the size of the government, all factors that would lead to faster growth, would be associated with increases in inequality. The authors assess whether the positive impact that these policies have on growth offsets the negative impact they have on inequality and find that while these policies are likely to be pro poor in the long run, they are also likely to lead to higher poverty in the short run.
Dynamic changes of ICA‐derived EEG functional connectivity in the resting state

An emerging issue in neuroscience is how to identify baseline state(s) and accompanying networks termed “resting state networks” (RSNs). Although independent component analysis (ICA) in fMRI studies has elucidated synchronous spatiotemporal patterns during cognitive tasks, less is known about the changes in EEG functional connectivity between eyes closed (EC) and eyes open (EO) states, two traditionally used baseline indices. Here we investigated healthy subjects (n = 27) in EC and EO employing a four‐step analytic approach to the EEG: (1) group ICA to extract independent components (ICs), (2) standardized low‐resolution tomography analysis (sLORETA) for cortical source localization of IC network nodes, followed by (3) graph theory for functional connectivity estimation of epochwise IC band‐power, and (4) circumscribing IC similarity measures via hierarchical cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling (MDS). Our proof‐of‐concept results on alpha‐band power demonstrate five statistically clustered groups with frontal, central, parietal, occipitotemporal, and occipital sources. Importantly, during EO compared with EC, graph analyses revealed two salient functional networks with frontoparietal connectivity: a more medial network with nodes in the mPFC/precuneus which overlaps with the “default‐mode network” (DMN), and a more lateralized network comprising the middle frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule, coinciding with the “dorsal attention network” (DAN). Furthermore, a separate MDS analysis of ICs supported the emergence of a pattern of increased proximity (shared information) between frontal and parietal clusters specifically for the EO state. We propose that the disclosed component groups and their source‐derived EEG functional connectivity maps may be a valuable method for elucidating direct neuronal (electrophysiological) RSNs in healthy people and those suffering from brain disorders. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
THE USE OF OZONE, OZONE PLUS UV RADIATION, AND AEROBIC MICROORGANISMS IN THE PURIFICATION OF SOME AGRO-INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATERS

ABSTRACT The oxidation of the pollutant organic matter present in wastewaters generated during different stages in the black table-olive industry was investigated by using ozone alone or combined with UV radiation; by using aerobic microorganisms; and finally, by aerobic degradation of the previously ozonated wastewaters. In the ozonation processes, the removal of substrate (COD) and aromatic compounds, the decreases in BOD5 and pH, and the ozone consumed in the reaction were evaluated. A kinetic study was conducted that led to the evaluation of the stoichiometric ratio for the chemical reaction, as well as the rate constants for the substrate reduction and ozone disappearance. In the single aerobic degradation treatment, the evolution of substrate and biomass was monitored during the process, and a kinetic study was performed by applying the Contois model to the experimental data, giving the specific biokinetic constant, the cell yield coefficient, and the rate constant for the microorganism death phase. Finally, a combined process was performed, consisting in the aerobic degradation of pre-ozonated wastewaters, and the effect of such chemical pretreatment on the substrate removal and kinetic parameters of the later biological stage is discussed.
Betulinic Acid, the first lupane-type triterpenoid isolated via bioactivity-guided fractionation, and identified by spectroscopic analysis from leaves of Nyctanthes arbor-tristis: its potential biological activities in vitro assays

Abstract Betulinic acid was first time isolated via bioactivity-guided fractionation from ethyl acetate extract of Nyctanthes arbor-tristis leaves. Its structure was established by FTIR, 1H and 13C- nuclear magnetic resonance and high-resolution mass spectrometry. It had shown excellent inhibition of anti-inflammatory properties with IC50 of 10.34 μg/mL (COX-1), 12.92 μg/mL (COX-2), 15.53 μg/mL (5-LOX), 15.21 μg/mL (Nitrite), 16.65 μg/mL (TNF-α), and also exhibited potent antioxidant activity with IC50 of 18.03 μg/mL. The anticancer activity of betulinic acid was evaluated against different human cancer cell lines. It showed significant cytotoxicity against various cancer cell lines with an IC50 of 6.53 (HepG2), 9.34 (A549), 14.92 (HL-60), 16.90 (MCF-7), 17.07 (HCT-116), 13.27 (PC-3), and 12.55 μM (HeLa). This is the first report on isolation and identification of the unreported lupane-type triterpenoid, betulinic acid from leaves of Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, which showed potent anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, and antioxidant activity in vitro assays.