Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Azithromycin plus chloroquine: combination therapy for protection against malaria and sexually transmitted infections in pregnancy

Introduction: The first-line therapy for the intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) is sulphadoxine–pyrimethamine (SP). There is an urgent need to identify safe, well-tolerated and efficacious alternatives to SP due to widespread Plasmodium falciparum resistance. Combination therapy using azithromycin and chloroquine is one possibility that has demonstrated adequate parasitological response > 95% in clinical trials of non-pregnant adults in sub-Saharan Africa and where IPTp is a government policy in 33 countries. Areas covered: Key safety, tolerability and efficacy data are presented for azithromycin and chloroquine, alone and/or in combination, when used to prevent and/or treat P. falciparum, P. vivax, and several curable sexually transmitted and reproductive tract infections (STI/RTI). Pharmacokinetic evidence from pregnant women is also summarized for both compounds. Expert opinion: The azithromycin–chloroquine regimen that has demonstrated consistent efficacy in non-pregnant adults has been a 3-day course containing daily doses of 1 g of azithromycin and 600 mg base of chloroquine. The pharmacokinetic evidence of these compounds individually suggests that dose adjustments may not be necessary when used in combination for treatment efficacy against P. falciparum, P. vivax, as well as several curable STI/RTI among pregnant women, although clinical confirmation will be necessary. Mass trachoma-treatment campaigns have shown that azithromycin selects for macrolide resistance in the pneumococcus, which reverses following the completion of therapy. Most importantly, no evidence to date suggests that azithromycin induces pneumococcal resistance to penicillin.
Two-stage clustering via neural networks

This paper presents a two-stage approach that is effective for performing fast clustering. First, a competitive neural network (CNN) that can harmonize mean squared error and information entropy criteria is employed to exploit the substructure in the input data by identifying the local density centers. A Gravitation neural network (GNN) then takes the locations of these centers as initial weight vectors and undergoes an unsupervised update process to group the centers into clusters. Each node (called gravi-node) in the GNN is associated with a finite attraction radius and would be attracted to a nearby centroid simultaneously during the update process, creating the Gravitation-like behavior without incurring complicated computations. This update process iterates until convergence and the converged centroid corresponds to a cluster. Compared to other clustering methods, the proposed clustering scheme is free of initialization problem and does not need to pre-specify the number of clusters. The two-stage approach is computationally efficient and has great flexibility in implementation. A fully parallel hardware implementation is very possible.
Magnetic resonance changes in the temporomandibular joint in ankylosing spondylitis.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate temporomandibular joint (TMJ) involvement of patients with severe ankylosing spondylitis (AS) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS All patients with severe cervical involvement, defined as occiput-wall distance > or = 3 cm and/or < 10 degrees of cervical flexion, from a consecutive cohort of 103 patients with AS were included in the study. Patients completed a questionnaire designed to evaluate symptoms of temporomandibular disorder (TMD). Open and closed mouth sagittal T1 weighted MRI sequences of the right TMJ was performed in all patients. MR images were specifically reviewed for condylar position and morphology, as well as articular disc position and morphology. RESULTS Eleven patients were identified and included in the study. Temporomandibular symptoms were absent in 4 (37%), a single symptom was present in one (9%), 2 symptoms in one (9%), 3 symptoms in 3 (27%), and 4 symptoms in 2 (18%). Ten of the 11 patients had abnormalities on MR, including condylar alterations such as abnormal shape, erosions, and reduction in translation. Disc alterations were present in 8 patients and osteophytes in 7. Two patients were graded as having mild abnormalities, another 2 as moderate, and the remaining 6 were considered grossly abnormal. In 2 patients there were changes compatible with ankylosis of the right TMJ. CONCLUSION Although it is uncommon for patients to complain spontaneously about TMD symptoms, involvement of the TMJ in patients with severe AS appears to be frequent and, in some, severe. The effect of TMJ involvement on the overall well being and nutritional status in patients with AS remains to be determined.
To what extent are color percepts and motor choice represented in dorsal premotor cortex ?

Every day we convert sensory information into action through the process of decision-making. Here, we investigate the neural correlates of decision-making behavior in the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd). In particular, we use machine learning techniques to ask whether stimulus color or reach direction are represented in the PMd of a macaque performing a checkerboard discrimination task. Interestingly, we find that while stimulus color is not represented, motor choice is robustly represented 200-300 ms prior to movement onset. To explore whether information regarding movement onset is distributed across the population, implying that a decoder might need information from many neurons to accurately decode motor choice, we use forward feature selection to determine the minimum number of neurons needed to accurately decode motor choice. By comparing the ’minimal population’ required at different times prior to movement onset, we investigate whether the neural representation changes during the trial. We find evidence that the neural representation of motor choice evolves over the course of the trial. Understanding when these variables are represented in PMd, and how they correlate to animal behavior, will help us gain valuable insight to the underlying mechanisms of sensory decision-making and motor output.
Extreme value statistics of mid-latitude atmospheric variability with present-day and increased CO 2 concentration

The General Circulation Model ECHAM4.6 is run under perpetual January conditions with two different values of CO 2: the present concentration and five times as much. For each case, time seri es of two indexes of mid-latitude wave activity are computed. The m an activity of baroclinic waves and of planetary waves decreas es slightly, following the decrease of the mean baroclinicity of the syst em. Inference of extreme values is performed by estimating the parame ters of the Generalised Extreme Value (GEV) distribution from sequ ences of maxima over data blocks of fixed length extracted from the t ime series. The sensitivity and goodness-of-fit of the inferenc es are assessed by various graphical and numerical tools. The result s reveal no marked differences in the statistics of extreme values be tween the cases with 1 and 5 CO 2 and also suggest that the often invoked approach of relating changes of the extremes to changes in the m ean and standard deviation of the bulk statistics is not reliable. M aps corresponding to the dates of the extremes (block maxima) of the in d xes show that the relative weight of the wave activity of the Atla n ic sector increases with CO2 concentration. 3 PACS: 02.50. Tt, 02.70. -c, 47.11. -j, 92.60. Bh, 92.70. Gt
Ergodic Control and Polyhedral Approaches to PageRank Optimization

We study a general class of PageRank optimization problems which involve finding an optimal outlink strategy for a web site subject to design constraints. We consider both a continuous problem, in which one can choose the intensity of a link, and a discrete one, in which in each page, there are obligatory links, facultative links and forbidden links. We show that the continuous problem, as well as its discrete variant when there are no constraints coupling different pages, can both be modeled by constrained Markov decision processes with ergodic reward, in which the webmaster determines the transition probabilities of websurfers. Although the number of actions turns out to be exponential, we show that an associated polytope of transition measures has a concise representation, from which we deduce that the continuous problem is solvable in polynomial time, and that the same is true for the discrete problem when there are no coupling constraints. We also provide efficient algorithms, adapted to very large networks. Then, we investigate the qualitative features of optimal outlink strategies, and identify in particular assumptions under which there exists a “master” page to which all controlled pages should point. We report numerical results on fragments of the real web graph.
Nutritional Sustainability of Pet Foods12

Sustainable practices meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Applying these concepts to food and feed production, nutritional sustainability is the ability of a food system to provide sufficient energy and essential nutrients required to maintain good health in a population without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their nutritional needs. Ecological, social, and economic aspects must be balanced to support the sustainability of the overall food system. The nutritional sustainability of a food system can be influenced by several factors, including the ingredient selection, nutrient composition, digestibility, and consumption rates of a diet. Carbon and water footprints vary greatly among plant- and animal-based ingredients, production strategy, and geographical location. Because the pet food industry is based largely on by-products and is tightly interlinked with livestock production and the human food system, however, it is quite unique with regard to sustainability. Often based on consumer demand rather than nutritional requirements, many commercial pet foods are formulated to provide nutrients in excess of current minimum recommendations, use ingredients that compete directly with the human food system, or are overconsumed by pets, resulting in food wastage and obesity. Pet food professionals have the opportunity to address these challenges and influence the sustainability of pet ownership through product design, manufacturing processes, public education, and policy change. A coordinated effort across the industry that includes ingredient buyers, formulators, and nutritionists may result in a more sustainable pet food system.
The Preparation of p-PS and its Photoluminescence Properties

In this research, p-type porous silicon was successfully fabricated with a typical electrochemical etching method. The mixed solution of HF and absolute ethyl alcohol with different volume ratio was used as the electrolyte in this experiment. The anodic current density was 20 mA/cm2～60 mA/cm2. The luminous intensity of the PS samples increased with the increasing of the current density, the peaks of PL first red shift (from 692.1nm to 727.9nm) then blue shift (from 727.9nm to719.6nm). With the increasing of the concentration of HF, PS luminous intensity gradually decreases, and the peaks of PL gradually occurs red shift. And possible mechanisms of the growth and the photoluminescence of porous silicon were proposed to explain the experimental result．
Storage and Release of ATP from Astrocytes in Culture*

ATP is released from astrocytes and is involved in the propagation of calcium waves among them. Neuronal ATP secretion is quantal and calcium-dependent, but it has been suggested that ATP release from astrocytes may not be vesicular. Here we report that, besides the described basal ATP release facilitated by exposure to calcium-free medium, astrocytes release purine under conditions of elevated calcium. The evoked release was not affected by the gap-junction blockers anandamide and flufenamic acid, thus excluding purine efflux through connexin hemichannels. Sucrose-gradient analysis revealed that a fraction of ATP is stored in secretory granules, where it is accumulated down an electrochemical proton gradient sensitive to the v-ATPase inhibitor bafilomycin A1. ATP release was partially sensitive to tetanus neurotoxin, whereas glutamate release from the same intoxicated astrocytes was almost completely impaired. Finally, the activation of metabotropic glutamate receptors, which strongly evokes glutamate release, was only slightly effective in promoting purine secretion. These data indicate that astrocytes concentrate ATP in granules and may release it via a regulated secretion pathway. They also suggest that ATP-storing vesicles may be distinct from glutamate-containing vesicles, thus opening up the possibility that their exocytosis is regulated differently.
Psychosocial adjustment To Illness Scale (PAIS): a study of chronic hemodialysis patients.

One hundred and two patients on chronic hemodialysis were studied by the self-report version of the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale (PAIS). High agreement was found between patients' total scores (global adjustment) and physicians' assessment of the patients' adjustment. High agreement was also found between patients' reports on specific aspects of adjustment, e.g. vocational rehabilitation, psychological distress and social environment, and the physicians' assessments of the same aspects of adjustment. It is suggested that the PAIS is adequate for measuring some aspects of adjustment/maladjustment and therefore large scale studies can be undertaken, aiming at filling gaps in knowledge, clarifying contradictory information, comparing adjustment in different modalities of treatment, as well as measuring the effectiveness of different psychotherapeutic interventions.
Integrative Analysis using Coupled Latent Variable Models for Individualizing Prognoses

Complex chronic diseases (e.g., autism, lupus, and Parkinson's) are remarkably heterogeneous across individuals. This heterogeneity makes treatment difficult for caregivers because they cannot accurately predict the way in which the disease will progress in order to guide treatment decisions. Therefore, tools that help to predict the trajectory of these complex chronic diseases can help to improve the quality of health care. To build such tools, we can leverage clinical markers that are collected at baseline when a patient first presents and longitudinally over time during follow-up visits. Because complex chronic diseases are typically systemic, the longitudinal markers often track disease progression in multiple organ systems. In this paper, our goal is to predict a function of time that models the future trajectory of a single target clinical marker tracking a disease process of interest. We want to make these predictions using the histories of many related clinical markers as input. Our proposed solution tackles several key challenges. First, we can easily handle irregularly and sparsely sampled markers, which are standard in clinical data. Second, the number of parameters and the computational complexity of learning our model grows linearly in the number of marker types included in the model. This makes our approach applicable to diseases where many different markers are recorded over time. Finally, our model accounts for latent factors influencing disease expression, whereas standard regression models rely on observed features alone to explain variability. Moreover, our approach can be applied dynamically in continous-time and updates its predictions as soon as any new data is available. We apply our approach to the problem of predicting lung disease trajectories in scleroderma, a complex autoimmune disease. We show that our model improves over state-of-the-art baselines in predictive accuracy and we provide a qualitative analysis of our model's output. Finally, the variability of disease presentation in scleroderma makes clinical trial recruitment challenging. We show that a prognostic tool that integrates multiple types of routinely collected longitudinal data can be used to identify individuals at greatest risk of rapid progression and to target trial recruitment.
Boundary Condition Relaxation Method for Stepwise Pedipulation Planning of Biped Robots

A completely stepwise online pedipulation planning method is proposed. It is an analytical approach based on the general solution of the equation of motion of an approximate dynamical biped model whose mass is concentrated at the center of mass. A physically feasible referential trajectory with a constraint about the reaction force taken into account is planned only in one interval by relaxing the boundary condition, namely, by admitting a certain level of error between the desired and actually reached states, and discontinuity of zero-moment point at each end of the interval. It potentially creates responsive motions that require strong instantaneous acceleration. A semiautomatic continual pedipulation planning method is also presented. It generates a referential trajectory of the whole body only from the next desired foot placement. The validity of the proposed method is ensured through experiments with a small anthropomorphic robot.
Synthesis and characterization of Graphene in high yield with new method

Graphene's unique properties make it a good candidate for the design of next-generation electronic and optical devices. Graphene suffers from a problem that is common to many novel Materials, the lack of a method for producing it at high yields. In this study high-quality few layer graphene was synthesized via solution-phase exfoliation of graphite in N-Methyle-pyrrolidone (NMP). The presence of multi-layer graphene confirmed by Raman spectroscopy and UV-visible spectroscopy showed the absorbance peak of synthesized graphene in 310 nm and it was a proof that graphene was composed.
Planning early childhood audiologic intervention programs on a regional scale: introduction to an Italian study

SUMMARY Non-uniform, late, or inappropriate care of childhood with permanent hearing impairment (PHI) predisposes many children to develop communicative- behaviour problems and impaired psychosocial adjustment that can persist in adolescence and adulthood.In March 2014, the CCM (Centro Controllo Malattie or Disease Control Centre) of the Italian Ministry of Health funded a project entitled " Preventing Communication Disorders: a Regional Program for Early Identification, Intervention and Care of Hearing Impaired Children". The project involved 5 tertiary centres with UNHS programs formally approved by the Region. The main purpose of the project is to define and launch an integrated regionally-based public health model for identification, diagnosis and intervention of childhood PHI. The first phase of the project investigated the state of art and produced recommendations for positive changes in identification, diagnosis, therapy and care of childhood PHI in Italy, taking into account diagnostic and treatment innovations, family empowerment, treatment alliance and an interdisciplinary approach. Recommendations drawn from this initial phase will represent the basis for a regional system for early intervention that is validated, integrated and shared between the five regions.
CRITICAL MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF STRUCTURAL LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE AND THE EFFECT OF THESE PROPERTIES ON THE DESIGN OF THE PAVEMENT STRUCTURE

IN THIS STUDY, CRITICAL MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF STRUCTURAL LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE WERE DETERMINED AND UTILIZED IN THE EVALUATION OF A DESIGN OF CONCRETE PAVEMENTS. ALSO PRESENTED ARE THE CRITICAL MECHANICAL PROPERTIES RESULTING FROM UNRESTRAINED AND RESTRAINED VOLUME CHANGES. PARTICULAR ATTENTION IS GIVEN TO COMPRESSIVE, DIRECT TENSILE, AND INDIRECT TENSILE /SPLIT CYLINDER/ STRENGTH AT VARIOUS AGES OF THE CONCRETE. THE CRITICAL PROPERTIES DETERMINED IN THIS STUDY INDICATE THAT CONCRETE PAVEMENTS CAN BE DESIGNED WITH LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE AND THAT EXPECTED PERFORMANCE INREGARD TO THE EFFECTS OF WARPING STRESSES AND PAVEMENT DEFLECTION WILL BE BETTER WHEN LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETES ARE USED. HOWEVER, THE EFFECTS OF RESTRAINED VOLUME CHANGE OF LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE ON PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE CAN BE DETRIMENTAL IF IMPROPER CURING, OR CURING FOR TOO SHORT A TIME, OCCURS. THE NEED FOR FUTHER RESEARCH INTO THE EFFECTS OF CURING ON LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE PAVEMENT PERFORMANCE IS EMPHASIZED. /AUTHOR/
SO0(1,d+1) Racah coefficients: Type I representations

We use AdS/CFT inspired methods to study the Racah coefficients for type I representations of the Lorentz group SO0(1,d+1) with d>1. For such representations (a multiple of) the Racah coefficient can be represented as an integral of a product of six bulk-to-bulk propagators over four copies of the hyperbolic space Hd+1. To compute the integrals we represent the bulk-to-bulk propagators in terms of bulk-to-boundary ones. The bulk integrals can be computed explicitly, and the boundary integrations are carried out by introducing Feynman parameters. The final result is an integral representation of the Racah coefficient given by four Barnes-Mellin type integrals.
An Expanded Eukaryotic Genetic Code

We describe a general and rapid route for the addition of unnatural amino acids to the genetic code of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Five amino acids have been incorporated into proteins efficiently and with high fidelity in response to the nonsense codon TAG. The side chains of these amino acids contain a keto group, which can be uniquely modified in vitro and in vivo with a wide range of chemical probes and reagents; a heavy atom–containing amino acid for structural studies; and photocrosslinkers for cellular studies of protein interactions. This methodology not only removes the constraints imposed by the genetic code on our ability to manipulate protein structure and function in yeast, it provides a gateway to the systematic expansion of the genetic codes of multicellular eukaryotes.
Based on Expand RBAC Grid Collaborative Design System Access Control Model

The access control is the multitudinous computer security solution one kind, also is the most direct-viewing most natural one kind of plan, but based on role access control (RBAC) is the most influential high-level access control model, however, as a result of the grid cross organization, the tendency, isomerism characteristic, established the access control in the grid coordination design system also to need to carry on the expansion to RBAC, this article has made the simple introduction to RBAC, and has analyzed it under the grid environment insufficiency, gave one kind based on to expand RBAC the grid coordination design system access control model, in did not reduce the autonomous domain in the safety control efficiency situation, could realize the virtual organization. The fine grain is authorized and guarantees the autonomous domain the security policy not to destroy. And the confirmation has been carried on under the experimental grid environment.
GRT at the SBST 2015 Tool Competition

GRT (Guided Random Testing) is an automatic test generation tool for Java code, which leverages static and dynamic program analysis to guide run-time test generation. In this paper, we summarize competition results and experiences of GRT in participating in SBST 2015, where GRT ranked first with a score of 203.73 points over 63 Java classes from 10 packages of 9 open-source software projects.