Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of a Compensatory Mutant (lpg2−REV) of Leishmania major Able To Survive as Amastigotes within Macrophages without LPG2-Dependent Glycoconjugates and Its Significance to Virulence and Immunization Strategies

ABSTRACT Different Leishmania species rely to different extents on abundant glycoconjugates, such as lipophosphoglycan (LPG) and related molecules, in mammalian infections. Previously, we showed that Leishmania major deletion mutants lacking the Golgi GDP-mannose transporter LPG2, which is required for assembly of the dominant phosphoglycan (PG) repeats of LPG, were unable to survive in macrophages. These lpg2− mutants, however, retained the ability to generate asymptomatic, persistent infections in mice. In contrast, Ilg and colleagues showed that Leishmania mexicana LPG2 mutants retained virulence for mice. Here we identified a partial revertant population of the L. major lpg2− mutants (designated lpg2−REV) that had regained the ability to replicate in macrophages and induce disease pathology through a compensatory change. Like the lpg2 parent, the lpg2−REV revertant was unable to synthesize LPG2-dependent PGs in the promastigote stage and thus remained highly attenuated in the ability to induce infection. However, after considerable delay lpg2−REV revertant-infected mice exhibited lesions, and amastigotes isolated from these lesions were able to replicate within macrophages despite the fact that they were unable to synthesize PGs. Thus, in some respects, the lpg2−REV amastigotes resemble L. mexicana amastigotes. Future studies of the gene(s) responsible may shed light on the mechanisms employed by L. major to survive in the absence of LPG2-dependent glycoconjugates and may also improve the potential of the lpg2−L. major line to serve as a live parasite vaccine by overcoming its tendency to revert toward virulence.
Diabetes management via mobile phones: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND This study sought to understand the most common uses and functions of mobile phones in monitoring and managing diabetes, their potential role in a clinical setting, and the current state of research in this area. METHODS We identified peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2010. Twenty-one articles were analyzed for this systematic literature review. RESULTS The majority of studies examined the use of mobile phones from the patient's perspective. Subjects with type 1 diabetes were enrolled exclusively in over 50% of the studies. Seventy-one percent of the studies used a study-specific application, which had supplemental features in addition to text messaging. The outcomes assessed varied considerably across studies, but some positive trends were noted, such as improved self-efficacy, hemoglobin A1c, and self-management behaviors. CONCLUSIONS The studies evaluated showed promise in using mobile phones to help people with diabetes manage their condition effectively. However, many of these studies lacked sufficient sample sizes or intervention lengths to determine whether the results might be clinically or statistically significant. Future research should examine other key issues, such as provider perceptions, integration into a healthcare practice, and cost, which would provide important insight into the use of mobile phones for chronic disease management.
Empiric Treatment of Acute Diarrheal Disease with Norfloxacin

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical and microbiologic efficacy and safety of norfloxacin for acute diarrhea. DESIGN Double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical multicenter trial. SETTING Six departments of infectious disease. PARTICIPANTS Patients 12 years of age or older with a history of acute diarrhea lasting 5 or fewer days. Eighty-five percent of patients (511/598) were evaluable for efficacy. Of these evaluable patients, 70% had traveled abroad within the previous 6 weeks. INTERVENTIONS Patients received either norfloxacin, 400 mg, or placebo twice daily for 5 days. MEASUREMENTS Enteric pathogens were isolated in 51% of the evaluable patients: Campylobacter species in 29%, Salmonella species in 16%, Shigella species in 3.5%, and other pathogens in 2.6%. RESULTS Norfloxacin had a favorable overall effect compared with placebo (cure rate, 63% compared with 51%; P = 0.003). There were statistically favorable effects in culture-positive patients, patients with salmonellosis, and severely ill patients but not in culture-negative patients or patients with campylobacteriosis or shigellosis. A significant difference was noted between norfloxacin and placebo in median time to cure among all evaluable patients (3 compared with 4 days, P = 0.02) and in patients with campylobacteriosis (3 compared with 5 days, P = 0.05) but not in patients. Culture-positive, but not culture-negative patients, in the norfloxacin group had significantly fewer loose stools per day compared with patients in the placebo group from day 2 onward (P less than or equal to 0.01). Norfloxacin was significantly less effective than placebo in eliminating Salmonella species on days 12 to 17 (18% compared with 49%, P = 0.006), whereas the opposite was true for Campylobacter species (70% compared with 50%, P = 0.03). In six of nine patients tested, norfloxacin-resistant Campylobacter species (MIC, greater than or equal to 32 micrograms/mL) appeared after norfloxacin treatment. CONCLUSION Empiric treatment reduced the intensity and, to some extent, the duration of symptoms of acute diarrhea. The effect was restricted to patients who had bacterial enteropathogens or who were severely ill. The clinical usefulness of this treatment is limited by the fact that norfloxacin seems to delay the elimination of salmonella and to induce resistance in campylobacter.
Collective influence in evolutionary social dilemmas

When evolutionary games are contested in structured populations, the degree of each player in the network plays an important role. If they exist, hubs often determine the fate of the population in remarkable ways. Recent research based on optimal percolation in random networks has shown, however, that the degree is neither the sole nor the best predictor of influence in complex networks. Low-degree nodes may also be optimal influencers if they are hierarchically linked to hubs. Taking this into account leads to the formalism of collective influence in complex networks, which as we show here, has far-reaching implications for the favorable resolution of social dilemmas. In particular, there exists an optimal hierarchical depth for the determination of collective influence that we use to describe the potency of players for passing their strategies, which depends on the strength of the social dilemma. Interestingly, the degree, which corresponds to the baseline depth zero, is optimal only when the temptation to defect is small. Our research reveals that evolutionary success stories are related to spreading processes which are rooted in favorable hierarchical structures that extend beyond local neighborhoods.
Cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory changes induced by different types of music in musicians and non-musicians: the importance of silence

Objective: To assess the potential clinical use, particularly in modulating stress, of changes in the cardiovascular and respiratory systems induced by music, specifically tempo, rhythm, melodic structure, pause, individual preference, habituation, order effect of presentation, and previous musical training. Design: Measurement of cardiovascular and respiratory variables while patients listened to music. Setting: University research laboratory for the study of cardiorespiratory autonomic function. Patients: 12 practising musicians and 12 age matched controls. Interventions: After a five minute baseline, presentation in random order of six different music styles (first for a two minute, then for a four minute track), with a randomly inserted two minute pause, in either sequence. Main outcome measures: Breathing rate, ventilation, carbon dioxide, RR interval, blood pressure, mid-cerebral artery flow velocity, and baroreflex. Results: Ventilation, blood pressure, and heart rate increased and mid-cerebral artery flow velocity and baroreflex decreased with faster tempi and simpler rhythmic structures compared with baseline. No habituation effect was seen. The pause reduced heart rate, blood pressure, and minute ventilation, even below baseline. An order effect independent of style was evident for mid-cerebral artery flow velocity, indicating a progressive reduction with exposure to music, independent of style. Musicians had greater respiratory sensitivity to the music tempo than did non-musicians. Conclusions: Music induces an arousal effect, predominantly related to the tempo. Slow or meditative music can induce a relaxing effect; relaxation is particularly evident during a pause. Music, especially in trained subjects, may first concentrate attention during faster rhythms, then induce relaxation during pauses or slower rhythms.
A Force-Isotropic Underactuated Finger

This paper presents the design of a new underactuated finger. The main characteristic of this two-degree-of-freedom / one-actuator finger is to be force-isotropic. This means that the intensity of the forces exerted at the center of each phalanx, on the grasped object, are identical. Until now, this characteristic was observed on some underactuated fingers for some very specific configurations only (mainly when the phalanxes were lined up). With the proposed finger, this characteristic remains true whatever the configuration of the phalanxes is.
On the existence of multiple climate regimes

New techniques are presented for testing the three main hypotheses about the probability distribution of the climate system: multinormal (single regime), unimodal but not multinormal (single regime), and multimodal (multiple regimes). Rather than searching for evidence that confirms the multimodal hypothesis expected from the chaos and other strongly nonlinear paradigms, our strategy is to try and reject the simplest single‐regime hypothesis of multinormality expected for aggregate indices of many local weather degrees of freedom. Concerning multiple climate regimes in the northern hemisphere, we find no strong evidence in the available monthly mean reanalysis data for rejecting the single‐regime multinormal hypothesis in favour of the multimodal hypothesis. A simple non‐parametric method is presented for transforming state space into a more homogeneous probability space that makes regimes easier to identify. A spatial point process test is used in this space to demonstrate that the hemispheric clusters are not significantly different to what could be expected from sampling a unimodal distribution. Based on the observed data, the single‐regime multinormal hypothesis can not be rejected at the 5% level of significance and so provides the simplest useful model for the probability distribution for the northern hemisphere geopotential‐height field. Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society
Psychological Distress and Dyslipidemia in Chinese Police Officers: A 4-Year Follow-Up Study in Tianjin, China

Objective: This study aimed at investigating whether psychological distress in police officers was associated with dyslipidemia. Methods: A survey was conducted to examine the psychological distress among 5867 police officers in Tianjin, China, from 2007 to 2011. Psychological distress was measured using the Symptom Check List-90-Revised. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to calculate the hazard ratios (HR) of the incidence of dyslipidemia predicted by psychological distress. Results: Among the 3300 participants without dyslipidemia at baseline (2567 with dyslipidemia), 60.5% (n = 1829) developed incident dyslipidemia 2.61 years (median) later. The adjusted HR was 1.15 (95% confidence interval, 1.05 to 1.26) after the adjustment of police classifications and other variables. The adjusted HR for police officers in charge of traffic control was 1.30 (95% confidence interval, 1.09 to 1.56). Conclusions: Further investigations for associations of psychological factors with dyslipidemia and cardiovascular diseases are needed.
Investigation into the Indonesia Power Industry for Implementation of a Competitive Generation Market

Indonesia has more than 5 big islands, yet only one of them has been deregulated, which is the Jawa-Bali-Madura system. In planning to supply more generation, state's electric utility has announced a tender for building two identical units of power plant in the area of south Kalimantan Island. After the deregulation, what would be the outcome this area has? Both units will hold a significant share of generation supply in the area, hence possibly creating a market power. Assuming each unit is owned by different generation company, gaming strategy is expected to exist between the two firms. The objective of this paper is to analyse and compare the outcome of different models and their impact on the Indonesia electricity market. Specific recommendation will be obtained to generating firm on what kind of strategy of game theory would be the most suitable for them in the new market.
Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities of methanol extracts and alkaloid fractions of four Mexican medicinal plants of Solanaceae.

BACKGROUND Methanol extracts and alkaloid fractions of different parts of four plant species belonging to Solanaceae family and used in Mexican traditional medicine were investigated for their total phenolic contents, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. MATERIALS AND METHODS The total phenolic compounds of each extract was determined according to the Folin-Ciocalteu method, while the in vitro radical scavenging activities of the extracts were assessed using the DPPH and ABTS radicals. The in vivo anti-inflammatory activity was determined using the TPA-induced mouse ear edema model. RESULTS The methanol extracts contained the highest concentrations of phenolic compounds and also exhibited the best reducing power on the DPPH and ABTS radicals, in a concentration-dependent fashion. However, the anti-inflammatory activity did not follow the same trend, as some alkaloid fractions that showed low radical reducing power exhibited the strongest anti-inflammatory activity. CONCLUSION The methanol extract obtained from the flowers of Nicotiana glauca presented the best overall performance with the largest amount of phenolic compounds (111 µg garlic acid equivalents/g of extract), the best antioxidant activity (94.80% inhibition of DPPH and 97.57% of ABTS) and the highest anti-inflammatory activity (81.93% inhibition of the inflammation).
An effective link error prediction technique for MIMO-OFDM systems with ML receiver

In this paper, we propose an accurate link performance abstraction technique for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing systems with maximum likelihood (ML) receiver. The performance of ML detection (MLD) is estimated by using capacity bounds of two simple linear receivers. To this end, we give a simple parametrization to compute the desired per-stream signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values, which can be applied for both vertically and horizontally coded MIMO systems. Based on the per-stream SNR estimates, the block error rate performance for each encoding block is finally obtained using the received-bit information rate metrics. From extensive simulations, we verify that the proposed method is accurate in the MIMO-MLD link evaluation with very low computational complexity.
Una segunda replicación del estudio del cuestionario para la medida del riesgo basal (RB 3/17): fiabilidad, validez, estructura factorial y análisis diferenciales en una muestra de sujetos accidentados

espanolEste articulo presenta los resultados obtenidos en una validacion del cuestionario elaborado para medir Riesgo Basal efectuado en una muestra de 124 sujetos que recibian asistencia en una mutua de accidentes de trabajo. El Riesgo Basal se define como aquel riesgo que resulta intrinseco al puesto de trabajo, independiente y previo a las acciones de reduccion (o incremento) del mismo que se deriven de la conducta organizacional. Los resultados indican que el cuestionario posee una fiabilidad y validez adecuada, una estructura trifactorial y muestra perfiles diferenciales de riesgo ,basal general y de riesgo quimico en funcion del sector productivo. Estos resultados son consistentes con los obtenidos en dos estudios anteriores sobre muestras de 182 sujetos accidentados y no accidentados y 123 sujetos accidentados respectivamente. EnglishThis paper try to assess a self-manage Base-Risk Questionnaire designed to measure Base-Risk in several work settings. Base-Risk is a new construct defined as the intrinsic work-place risk without take into account the actions of reduction (or increase) derived from organizational behavior. The sample was constituted of 124 workers, a majority of them injuried at the moment of the study. The results show a reliable and valid questionnaire with a three-factorial structure, supporting the measure of the new construct. Significative statistical differences have been found between productive sectors. Results are consistents with previous studies in two samples of 182 accidented and non accidented workers and 123 accidented workers.
Emotionality of Colors: An Implicit Link between Red and Dominance

The color red has been shown to alter emotions, physiology, psychology, and behavior. Research has suggested that these alterations could possibly be due to a link between red and perceived dominance. In this study we examined if the color red is implicitly associated to the concept of dominance. In addition, we similarly hypothesized that blue is implicitly linked to rest. A modified Stroop word evaluation task was used in which 30 participants (23.07 ± 4.42 years) were asked to classify words shown in either red, blue, or gray (control condition), as being either dominant- or rest-related. The responses were recorded and analyzed for latency time and accuracy. The results revealed a significant word type × color interaction effect for both latency times, F(2,56) = 5.09, p = 0.009, ηp2 = 0.15, and accuracy, F(1.614,45.193) = 8.57, p = 0.001, ηp2 = 0.23. On average participants showed significantly shorter latency times and made less errors when categorizing dominance words shown in red, compared to blue and gray. The measured effects show strong evidence for an implicit red-dominance association and a partial red-rest disassociation. It is discussed that this association can possibly affect emotionality, with the presentation of red eliciting a dominant emotional and behavioral response.
Analysis, Design and Experimental Results of Wide Range ZVS Active-Clamped L-L Type Current-Fed DC/DC Converter for Fuel Cells to Utility Interface

A wide range zero-voltage switching (ZVS) active-clamped L-L type current-fed isolated dc-dc converter is proposed for fuel cells to utility interface application. The proposed converter maintains ZVS of all switches from full load down to very light load condition for wide input voltage variation. Detailed operation, analysis, design, simulation and experimental results for the proposed converter are presented. The auxiliary active clamping circuit absorbs the turn-off voltage spike and also assists in achieving ZVS of main switches. The ZVS of auxiliary switches and main switches is achieved by the energy stored in the boost inductors and series inductor (aided by parallel inductor), respectively. Rectifier diodes operate with zero-current switching. An experimental converter rated at 200 W has been designed, built and tested in the laboratory to verify the analysis, design and performance of the proposed converter for wide variations in input voltage and load.
Symbolic Melodic Similarity: State of the Art and Future Challenges

Fostered by the introduction of the Music Information Retrieval Evaluation Exchange (MIREX) competition, the number of systems that calculate symbolic melodic similarity has recently increased considerably. To understand the state of the art, we provide a comparative analysis of existing algorithms. The analysis is based on eight criteria that help to characterize the systems, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. We also propose a taxonomy that classifies algorithms based on their approach. Both taxonomy and criteria are fruitfully exploited to provide input for new, forthcoming research in the area.
Pairwide and Multiple Identification of Three-Dimensional Common Substructures in Proteins

In this paper, we present an algorithm to find three-dimensional substructures common to two or more molecules. The basic algorithm is devoted to pairwise structural comparison. Given two sets of atomic coordinates, it finds the largest subsets of atoms which are "similar" in the sense that all internal distances are approximately conserved. The basic idea of the algorithm is to recursively build subsets of increasing sizes, combining two sets of size k to build a set of size k + 1. The algorithm can be used "as is" for small molecules or local parts of proteins (about 30 atoms). When a high number of atoms is involved, we use a two step procedure. First we look for common "local" fragments by using the previous algorithm, and then we gather these fragments by using a Branch and Bound technique. We also extend the basic algorithm to perform multiple comparisons, by using one of the structures as a reference point (pivot) to which all other structures are compared. The solution is the largest subsets of atoms common to the pivot and at least q other structures. Although both algorithms are theoretically exponential in the number of atoms, experiments performed on biological data and using realistic parameters show that the solution is obtained within a few minutes. Finally, an application to the determination of the structural core of seven globins is presented.
Screening for Excessive Alcohol Use and Brief Counseling of Adults — 17 States and the District of Columbia, 2014

Excessive and/or risky alcohol use* resulted in $249 billion in economic costs in 2010 (1) and >88,000 deaths in the United States every year from 2006 to 2010 (2). It is associated with birth defects and disabilities (e.g., fetal alcohol spectrum disorders [FASDs]), increases in chronic diseases (e.g., heart disease and breast cancer), and injuries and violence (e.g., motor vehicle crashes, suicide, and homicide). † Since 2004, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has recommended alcohol misuse screening and brief counseling (also known as alcohol screening and brief intervention or ASBI) for adults aged ≥18 years (3). § Among adults, ASBI reduces episodes of binge-level consumption, reduces weekly alcohol consumption, and increases compliance with recommended drinking limits in those who have an intervention in comparison to those who do not (3). A recent study suggested that health care providers rarely talk with patients about alcohol use (4). To estimate the prevalence of U.S. adults who reported receiving elements of ASBI, CDC analyzed 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from 17 states¶ and the District of Columbia (DC). Weighted crude and age-standardized overall and state-level prevalence estimates were calculated by selected drinking patterns and demographic characteristics. Overall, 77.7% of adults (age-standardized estimate) reported being asked about alcohol use by a health professional in person or on a form during a checkup, but only 32.9% reported being asked about binge-level alcohol consumption (3). Among binge drinkers, only 37.2% reported being asked about alcohol use and advised about the harms of drinking too much, and only 18.1% reported being asked about alcohol use and advised to reduce or quit drinking. Widespread implementation of ASBI and other evidence-based interventions could help reduce excessive alcohol use in adults and related harms.