Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementing Preventive Chemotherapy through an Integrated National Neglected Tropical Disease Control Program in Mali

Background Mali is endemic for all five targeted major neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). As one of the five ‘fast-track’ countries supported with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funds, Mali started to integrate the activities of existing disease-specific national control programs on these diseases in 2007. The ultimate objectives are to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis and trachoma as public health problems and to reduce morbidity caused by schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis through regular treatment to eligible populations, and the specific objectives were to achieve 80% program coverage and 100% geographical coverage yearly. The paper reports on the implementation of the integrated mass drug administration and the lessons learned. Methodology/Principal Findings The integrated control program was led by the Ministry of Health and coordinated by the national NTD Control Program. The drug packages were designed according to the disease endemicity in each district and delivered through various platforms to eligible populations involving the primary health care system. Treatment data were recorded and reported by the community drug distributors. After a pilot implementation of integrated drug delivery in three regions in 2007, the treatment for all five targeted NTDs was steadily scaled up to 100% geographical coverage by 2009, and program coverage has since been maintained at a high level: over 85% for lymphatic filariasis, over 90% for onchocerciasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, around 90% in school-age children for schistosomiasis, and 76–97% for trachoma. Around 10 million people have received one or more drug packages each year since 2009. No severe cases of adverse effects were reported. Conclusions/Significance Mali has scaled up the drug treatment to national coverage through integrated drug delivery involving the primary health care system. The successes and lessons learned in Mali can be valuable assets to other countries starting up their own integrated national NTD control programs.
Next-Generation Sequencing for Binary Protein–Protein Interactions

The yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) system exploits host cell genetics in order to display binary protein–protein interactions (PPIs) via defined and selectable phenotypes. Numerous improvements have been made to this method, adapting the screening principle for diverse applications, including drug discovery and the scale-up for proteome wide interaction screens in human and other organisms. Here we discuss a systematic workflow and analysis scheme for screening data generated by Y2H and related assays that includes high-throughput selection procedures, readout of comprehensive results via next-generation sequencing (NGS), and the interpretation of interaction data via quantitative statistics. The novel assays and tools will serve the broader scientific community to harness the power of NGS technology to address PPI networks in health and disease. We discuss examples of how this next-generation platform can be applied to address specific questions in diverse fields of biology and medicine.
Evaluation of Adaptive Computing Concepts for Classical ERP Systems and Enterprise Services

To ensure the operability and reliability of large scale enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), a peak-load oriented hardware sizing is often used. Better utilization can be achieved by employing an adaptive infrastructure based on smaller computational units in combination with an intelligent allocation management. The SAP University Competence Center (German SAP HCC) at the Technische Universitat Munchen provides support for 55 ERP training systems. The evaluation of the historical load data revealed that many applications exhibit cyclical resource consumption. In this paper we show the extraction of load patterns and present self-organizing controlling concepts in the context of the SAP HCC
On-Line Dynamic Voltage Scaling on Processor with Discrete Frequency and Voltage Levels

The processors supporting the dynamic voltage scaling, called by DVS, have a feature that practically operates with discrete frequency and voltage levels. Almost of DVS algorithms select the smallest frequency level greater than the computed ideal level. Thus the system wastes a computational resource due to under-utilization. In this paper, we present an approach that the task executes its job under two adjacent discrete frequency levels, if possible, instead of the scaling factor computed by on-line dynamic voltage scaling(OLDVS) under the ideal level. This approach combines discrete DVS feature with OLDVS. So, each task can divide the given time budgets into two parts. Then the task executes its job at the lower frequency/voltage level in the first part. If the task does not complete until the end of the first part, then the scheduler increases the frequency to complete the remaining computation load with the remaining time budgets. Therefore, it can achieve more energy savings than the original OLDVS while simultaneously preserving timeliness guarantees made by real-time scheduling. Simulation results show that OLDVS provides up to 20% of additional energy savings for Intel PXA250[18] which has four discrete frequency/voltage levels.
An Open Archtecture for Multi-domain Multi-modal Conversational Systems

Multi-modal systems which can handle spontaneous speech have been popular in these days. But there are only a few multi-domain systems which consider about extensibility and scalability. This paper proposes an open architecture for the multi-domain spoken dialog systems which satis es extensibility and scalability. The key concept of the architecture is distribution and integration of the data fragments. The data fragments are information about speech input obtained from the continuous speech recognition engine. Each fragment is distributed and integrated through the hierarchy of the domain managers and the work modules. The way of the system composition is clearly de nd and the structure for the data fragment is de ned as open end. Using our architecture, a multi-domain system can be easily composed with several single domain systems and managers.
Myosin 1 controls membrane shape by coupling F-Actin to membrane

Cellular functions are intimately associated with rapid changes in membrane shape. Different mechanisms interfering with the lipid bilayer, such as the insertion of proteins with amphipatic helices or the association of a protein scaffold, trigger membrane bending. By exerting force on membranes, molecular motors can also contribute to membrane remodeling. Previous studies have shown that actin and myosin 1 participate in the invagination of the plasma membrane during endocytosis while kinesins and dynein with microtubules provide the force to elongate membrane buds at recycling endosomes and at the trans-Golgi network (TGN). Using live cell imaging we have recently shown that a myosin 1 (myosin 1b) regulates the actin dependent post-Golgi traffic of cargo and generates force that controls the assembly of F-actin foci and promotes with the actin cytoskeleton the formation of tubules at the TGN. Our data provide evidence that actin and myosin 1 can regulate membrane remodeling of organelles as well as having an unexpected role in the spatial organization of the actin cytoskeleton. Here, we discuss our results together with the role of actin and other myosins that have been implicated in the traffic of cargo.
A beta2-frequency (20–30 Hz) oscillation in nonsynaptic networks of somatosensory cortex

Beta2 frequency (20–30 Hz) oscillations appear over somatosensory and motor cortices in vivo during motor preparation and can be coherent with muscle electrical activity. We describe a beta2 frequency oscillation occurring in vitro in networks of layer V pyramidal cells, the cells of origin of the corticospinal tract. This beta2 oscillation depends on gap junctional coupling, but it survives a cut through layer 4 and, hence, does not depend on apical dendritic electrogenesis. It also survives a blockade of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptors or a blockade of GABAA receptors that is sufficient to suppress gamma (30–70 Hz) oscillations in superficial cortical layers. The oscillation period is determined by the M type of K+ current.
An efficient search algorithm for cache simulation platform

In order to reduce the design risk, cache designers need to evaluate various solutions under cache simulation platform to determine the optimal one. It will consume lots of time to exhaustive all of solutions for benchmarks, since the simulation platform is generally inefficient. In this paper, an efficient search algorithm is proposed to find the optimal cache solution efficiently. It simplifies the search complexity by reducing the search times and still guarantees the accuracy by the predictive technology for best search space and search order of cache parameters. In our experiments, with twice iterations, the efficient search algorithm will save about 68% of the simulation times with almost 75% accuracy.
Testing Memory for Unseen Visual Stimuli in Patients with Extinction and Spatial Neglect

Visual extinction after right parietal damage involves a loss of awareness for stimuli in the contralesional field when presented concurrently with ipsilesional stimuli, although contralesional stimuli are still perceived if presented alone. However, extinguished stimuli can still receive some residual on-line processing, without awareness. Here we examined whether such residual processing of extinguished stimuli can produce implicit and/or explicit memory traces lasting many minutes. We tested four patients with right parietal damage and left extinction on two sessions, each including distinct study and subsequent test phases. At study, pictures of objects were shown briefly in the right, left, or both fields. Patients were asked to name them without memory instructions (Session 1) or to make an indoor/outdoor categorization and memorize them (Session 2). They extinguished most left stimuli on bilateral presentation. During the test (up to 48 min later), fragmented pictures of the previously exposed objects (or novel objects) were presented alone in either field. Patients had to identify each object and then judge whether it had previously been exposed. Identification of fragmented pictures was better for previously exposed objects that had been consciously seen and critically also for objects that had been extinguished (as compared with novel objects), with no influence of the depth of processing during study. By contrast, explicit recollection occurred only for stimuli that were consciously seen at study and increased with depth of processing. These results suggest implicit but not explicit memory for extinguished visual stimuli in parietal patients.
Estimating the Size of the Danish Shadow Economy using the Currency Demand Approach: An Attempt

The currency demand approach pro vides some insight into the size anddevelopment of the shadow economy in Denmar k. Currency demand is statistically affected by tax rates. The difference in cur rency demand is calculated by comparing the actual tax burden over time to the l owest tax burden in the period 1952-82. The shadow economy grewsteadily to 10 p ercent (of GNP) in 1977 and then fluctuated between 7 and 10 percent (of GNP) fo r the period 1978-82. The calculated size fits nicely with the results obtained using the same method for Norway, Sweden, and West Germany. Copyright 1986 by The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
AN INDEPENDENT MEASUREMENT OF THE INCIDENCE OF Mg ii ABSORBERS ALONG GAMMA-RAY BURST SIGHT LINES: THE END OF THE MYSTERY?

In 2006, Prochter et al. reported a statistically significant enhancement of very strong Mg ii absorption systems intervening the sight lines to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) relative to the incidence of such absorption along quasar sight lines. This counterintuitive result has inspired a diverse set of astrophysical explanations (e.g., dust, gravitational lensing) but none of these has obviously resolved the puzzle. Using the largest set of GRB afterglow spectra available, we reexamine the purported enhancement. In an independent sample of GRB spectra with a survey path three times larger than Prochter et al., we measure the incidence per unit redshift of ⩾1 Å rest-frame equivalent width Mg ii absorbers at z ≈ 1 to be ℓ(z) = 0.18 ± 0.06. This is fully consistent with current estimates for the incidence of such absorbers along quasar sight lines. Therefore, we do not confirm the original enhancement and suggest those results suffered from a statistical fluke. Signatures of the original result do remain in our full sample (ℓ(z) shows an ≈1.5 enhancement over ℓ(z)QSO), but the statistical significance now lies at ≈90% c.l. Restricting our analysis to the subset of high-resolution spectra of GRB afterglows (which overlaps substantially with Prochter et al.), we still reproduce a statistically significant enhancement of Mg ii absorption. The reason for this excess, if real, is still unclear since there is no connection between the rapid afterglow follow-up process with echelle (or echellette) spectrographs and the detectability of strong Mg ii doublets. Only a larger sample of such high-resolution data will shed some light on this matter.
The Combination of Three Components Derived from Sheng MaiSan Protects Myocardial Ischemic Diseases and Inhibits Oxidative Stress via Modulating MAPKs and JAK2-STAT3 Signaling Pathways Based on Bioinformatics Approach

GRS is a drug combination of three components including ginsenoside Rb1, ruscogenin and schisandrin. It derived from the well-known TCM formula Sheng MaiSan, a widely used traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in clinic. The present study illuminates its underlying mechanisms against myocardial ischemic diseases based on the combined methods of bioinformatic prediction and experimental verification. A protein database was established through constructing the drug-protein network. And the target-pathway interaction network clustered the potential signaling pathways and targets of GRS in treatment of myocardial ischemic diseases. Several target proteins, such as NFKB1, STAT3 and MAPK14, were identified as the candidate key proteins, and MAPKs and JAK-STAT signaling pathway were suggested as the most related pathways, which were in accordance with the gene ontology analysis. Then, the predictive results were further validated and we found that GRS treatment alleviated hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-induced cardiomyocytes injury via suppression of MDA levels and ROS generation, and potential mechanisms might related to the suppression of activation of MAPKs and JAK2-STAT3 signaling pathways. Conclusively, our results offer the evidence that GRS attenuates myocardial ischemia injury via regulating oxidative stress and MAPKs and JAK2-STAT3 signaling pathways, which supplied some new insights for its prevention and treatment of myocardial ischemia diseases.
Primate Chaperones Hsc70 (Constitutive) and Hsp70 (Induced) Differ Functionally in Supporting Growth and Prion Propagation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Hsp70's are highly conserved essential protein chaperones that assist protein folding and prevent protein aggregation. They have modular structures consisting of ATPase, substrate-binding, and C-terminal domains. Substrate binding and release is regulated by ATP hydrolysis and nucleotide exchange, which in turn are regulated by cochaperones. Eukaryotes have constitutive (Hsc70) and stress-inducible (iHsp70) isoforms, but their functions have not been systematically compared. Using a yeast system to evaluate heterologous Hsp70's we find that primate Hsc70 supported growth but iHsp70 did not. Plant Hsc70 and iHsp70 counterparts behaved similarly, implying evolutionary conservation of this distinction. Swapping yeast and primate Hsp70 domains showed that (i) the Hsc70–iHsp70 distinction resided in the ATPase domain, (ii) substrate-binding domains of Hsp70's within and across species functioned similarly regarding growth, (iii) C-terminal domain function was important for growth, and (iv) Hsp70 functions important for cell growth and prion propagation were separable. Enzymatic analysis uncovered a correlation between substrate affinity and prion phenotype and showed that ATPase and protein-folding activities were generally similar. Our data support a view that intrinsic activities of Hsp70 isoforms are comparable, and functional differences in vivo lie mainly in complex interactions of Hsp70 with cochaperones.
Image Retrieval with Generative Model for Typicality

One of the most common image retrieval tasks is to find the most typical image that depicts the object specified by a query. Existing image search engines cannot efficiently do this since their search results are often a mixture of images belonging to various semantic concepts. We therefore introduce a probabilistic model for typicality. Our model consists of images, symbolic features, and latent semantic concepts (aspects). The aspect with highest probability is assumed to represent typicality. By collecting a large number of images, we can estimate parameters using EM algorithm. The estimated parameters are used to quantify the level of typicality for each image. Based on the proposed method, we have implemented a system, for ranking images by their typicality. Experiments using both artificial and real data showed the effectiveness of our method.
Measuring radiant emissions from entire prescribed fires with ground, airborne and satellite sensors – RxCADRE 2012

Characterising radiation from wildland fires is an important focus of fire science because radiation relates directly to the combustion process and can be measured across a wide range of spatial extents and resolutions. As part of a more comprehensive set of measurements collected during the 2012 Prescribed Fire Combustion and Atmospheric Dynamics Research (RxCADRE) field campaign, we used ground, airborne and spaceborne sensors to measure fire radiative power (FRP) from whole fires, applying different methods to small (2 ha) and large (>100 ha) burn blocks. For small blocks (n = 6), FRP estimated from an obliquely oriented long-wave infrared (LWIR) camera mounted on a boom lift were compared with FRP derived from combined data from tower-mounted radiometers and remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS). For large burn blocks (n = 3), satellite FRP measurements from the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensors were compared with near-coincident FRP measurements derived from a LWIR imaging system aboard a piloted aircraft. We describe measurements and consider their strengths and weaknesses. Until quantitative sensors exist for small RPAS, their use in fire research will remain limited. For oblique, airborne and satellite sensors, further FRP measurement development is needed along with greater replication of coincident measurements, which we show to be feasible.
Product Diversity, Trade, and Welfare

A two-sector general equilibrium model, where one sector features monopolistic competition, is employed to show that the opening up of international trade migh decrease the likelihood that a market economy exhibits excessive brand proliferation, relative to a first best optimum. The paper also considers the welfare improving potential of the second-best regulatory policies. One is a behavioral regulation that controls each firm's output, but leaves entry and exit free; the other is a structural regulation that determines the number of firms active on the market, but leaves to each firm to determine its output level. It is shown that the opening up of international trade tends to make structural regulation relatively more welfare improving than behavioral regulation.
Biofield Treatment: An Effective Strategy for Modulating the Physical and Thermal Properties of O-Nitrophenol, M-Nitrophenol and P-Tertiary Butyl Phenol

Phenolic compounds are commonly used for diverse applications such as in pharmaceuticals, chemicals, rubber, dyes and pigments. The objective of present research was to study the impact of Mr. Trivedi’s biofield treatment on physical and thermal properties of phenol derivatives such as o-nitrophenol (ONP), m-nitrophenol (MNP) and p-tertiary butyl phenol (TBP). The study was performed in two groups (control and treated). The control and treated compounds were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and surface area analysis. XRD analysis showed increase in crystallite size by 16.05% in treated ONP as compared to control. However, the treated MNP showed decrease in crystallite size by 16.17% as compared to control. The treated TBP showed increase in crystallite size by 5.20% as compared to control. DSC of treated MNP exhibited increase in melting temperature with respect to control, which may be correlated to higher thermal stability of treated sample. However, the treated TBP exhibited no significant change in melting temperature with respect to control. TGA analysis of treated ONP and TBP showed an increase in maximum thermal decomposition temperature (Tmax) as compared to control. However, the treated MNP showed slight decrease in Tmax in comparison with control sample. Surface area analysis of treated ONP showed decrease in surface area by 65.5%. However, surface area was increased by 40.7% in treated MNP as compared to control. These results suggest that biofield treatment has significant effect on physical and thermal properties of ONP, MNP and TBP.
Let's Eat Out: Americans Weigh Taste, Convenience, and Nutrition

Whether eating out or buying carry-out, Americans are consuming more and more of their calories from full-service and fast-food restaurant fare. The share of daily caloric intake from food purchased and/or eaten away from home increased from 18 percent to 32 percent between the late 1970s and the middle 1990s, and the away-from-home market grew to account for about half of total food expenditures in 2004, up from 34 percent in 1974. Analysis of a survey of U.S. consumers indicates that respondents want convenience and an enjoyable dining experience, but the desire for health also plays a role as does diet-health knowledge.
Active Learning of Functional Networks from Spike Trains

Learning functional networks from spike trains is a fundamental problem with many critical applications in neuroscience. However, most of existing works focus on inferring the functional network purely from observational data, which could lead to undiscovered or spurious connections. We demonstrate that by adopting experimental data with interventions applied, the accuracy of the inferred network can be significantly improved. Nevertheless, doing interventions in real experiments is often expensive and must be chosen with care. Hence, in this paper, we design an active learning framework to iteratively choose interventions and learn the functional network. In particular, we propose two models, the variance model and the validation model, to effectively select the most informative interventions. The variance model works best to reveal undiscovered connections while the validation model has the advantage of eliminating spurious connections. Experimental results with both synthetic and real datasets show that when these two models are applied, we could achieve substantially better accuracy than using the same amount of observational data or other baseline methods to choose interventions.