Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence of Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Multidrug Resistance to Artemisinin and Piperaquine in Western Cambodia: Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine Open-Label Multicenter Clinical Assessment

ABSTRACT Western Cambodia is recognized as the epicenter of Plasmodium falciparum multidrug resistance. Recent reports of the efficacy of dihydroartemisinin (DHA)-piperaquine (PP), the latest of the artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) recommended by the WHO, have prompted further investigations. The clinical efficacy of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine in uncomplicated falciparum malaria was assessed in western and eastern Cambodia over 42 days. Day 7 plasma piperaquine concentrations were measured and day 0 isolates tested for in vitro susceptibilities to piperaquine and mefloquine, polymorphisms in the K13 gene, and the copy number of the Pfmdr-1 gene. A total of 425 patients were recruited in 2011 to 2013. The proportion of patients with recrudescent infections was significantly higher in western (15.4%) than in eastern (2.5%) Cambodia (P <10−3). Day 7 plasma PP concentrations and median 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50) of PP were independent of treatment outcomes, in contrast to median mefloquine IC50, which were found to be lower for isolates from patients with recrudescent infections (18.7 versus 39.7 nM; P = 0.005). The most significant risk factor associated with DHA-PP treatment failure was infection by parasites carrying the K13 mutant allele (odds ratio [OR], 17.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1 to 308; P = 0.04). Our data show evidence of P. falciparum resistance to PP in western Cambodia, an area of widespread artemisinin resistance. New therapeutic strategies, such as the use of triple ACTs, are urgently needed and must be tested. (This study has been registered at the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry under registration no. ACTRN12614000344695.)
Analyzing customer satisfaction: users perspective towards online shopping

Purpose - This study aims to identify and analyse the key determinants influencing customer satisfaction towards online shopping in India. Design/methodology/approach - The literature concerning major attributes of website functionality, perceived usability, perceived usefulness and customer satisfaction in online retailing were reviewed. Data were collected from 365 respondents active in online shopping for examining the constructs. The model was empirically tested using structural equation modelling. Findings - The findings of the study reveal that perceived usefulness and website functionality have a positive impact on customer satisfaction, whereas perceived usability had a significant but negative impact on customer satisfaction. Practical implications - This research will help online retailers to attract and motivate new customers for online shopping and existing customers to extend it in their daily purchase. Online retailers can improve post purchase satisfaction and eventually increase online customers. Originality/value - This is one of the preliminary study dealing with customer satisfaction towards online retailing in India. The scale has been extended to include items like satisfaction with cash on delivery mode of payment not included in previous scales. The scale of perceived usefulness has also been deepened by adding time performance, product performance and promotional performance.
Biodiversity of Exopolysaccharides Produced by Streptococcus thermophilus Strains Is Reflected in Their Production and Their Molecular and Functional Characteristics

ABSTRACT Twenty-six lactic acid bacterium strains isolated from European dairy products were identified as Streptococcus thermophilus and characterized by bacterial growth and exopolysaccharide (EPS)-producing capacity in milk and enriched milk medium. In addition, the acidification rates of the different strains were compared with their milk clotting behaviors. The majority of the strains grew better when yeast extract and peptone were added to the milk medium, although the presence of interfering glucomannans was shown, making this medium unsuitable for EPS screening. EPS production was found to be strain dependent, with the majority of the strains producing between 20 and 100 mg of polymer dry mass per liter of fermented milk medium. Furthermore, no straightforward relationship between the apparent viscosity and EPS production could be detected in fermented milk medium. An analysis of the molecular masses of the isolated EPS by gel permeation chromatography revealed a large variety, ranging from 10 to >2,000 kDa. A distinction could be made between high-molecular-mass EPS (>1,000 kDa) and low-molecular-mass EPS (<1,000 kDa). Based on the molecular size of the EPS, three groups of EPS-producing strains were distinguished. Monomer analysis of the EPS by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with amperometric detection was demonstrated to be a fast and simple method. All of the EPS from the S. thermophilus strains tested were classified into six groups according to their monomer compositions. Apart from galactose and glucose, other monomers, such as (N-acetyl)galactosamine, (N-acetyl)glucosamine, and rhamnose, were also found as repeating unit constituents. Three strains were found to produce EPS containing (N-acetyl)glucosamine, which to our knowledge was never found before in an EPS from S. thermophilus. Furthermore, within each group, differences in monomer ratios were observed, indicating possible novel EPS structures. Finally, large differences between the consistencies of EPS solutions from five different strains were assigned to differences in their molecular masses and structures.
Perception of qualitative shape from diffuse and specular reflections

The shape we perceive from a rendered surface depends on the true surface shape, but also on the surface reflectance, the illumination, the surface motion, and the viewer's position. Here we present an experiment that addresses how perceived shape depends on shading and specular reflections, where the latter include highlights [Blake and Bülthoff 1990] and environment mapped mirror reflections[Fleming et al. 2004].
Plasma micronutrients are associated with dietary intake and environmental tobacco smoke exposure in a paediatric population

Abstract Background While adult populations have been well described in terms of nutritional status, such as the concentration of nutrient biomarkers, little work has been done in healthy paediatric populations. Objective The primary objective of this analysis was to explore the determinants of plasma micronutrients in a group of healthy infants and children. Design The Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young (DAISY) has enrolled 1433 newborns at increased risk for type 1 diabetes in Denver, Colorado. A representative random sample of 257 children from the DAISY cohort between the ages of 9 months and 8 years with a total of 815 clinic visits over time was used in this analysis. Annual dietary intake was assessed over time with Willett food-frequency questionnaires that were validated in this population. Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) was assessed using a validated survey. Plasma samples were tested for vitamins, carotenoids and total lipids. Predictors of plasma micronutrients were evaluated using mixed models for longitudinal data, while adjusting for age, human leukocyte antigen genotype, type 1 diabetes family history and other potential confounders and covariates. Results Increased micronutrient intake was associated with increased levels of their respective plasma nutrient, with the exception of γ-tocopherol. Independent of dietary intake, levels of α- and β-carotene and β-cryptoxanthin were significantly lower, and γ-tocopherol was significantly higher, in children who were exposed to ETS. Conclusion Dietary intake predicts plasma micronutrient levels. Exposure to ETS potentially could have negative health effects in this young population.
"Genes to society"--the logic and process of the new curriculum for the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

In August 2009, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine implemented a new curriculum, "Genes to Society" (GTS), aimed at reframing the context of health and illness more broadly, to encourage students to explore the biologic properties of a patient's health within a larger, integrated system including social, cultural, psychological, and environmental variables. This approach presents the patient's phenotype as the sum of internal (genes, molecules, cells, and organs) and external (environment, family, and society) factors within a defined system. Unique genotypic and societal factors bring individuality and variability to the student's attention. GTS rejects the phenotypic dichotomy of health and illness, preferring to view patients along a phenotypic continuum from "asymptomatic and latent" to "critically ill. " GTS grew out of a perceived need to reformulate the student experience to meet the oncoming revolution in medicine that recognizes individuality from the genome to the environment. This article describes the five-year planning process that included the definition of objectives, development of the new curriculum, commission of a new education building, addition of enhancements in student life and faculty development, and creation of a vertical and horizontal structure, all of which culminated in the GTS curriculum. Critical ingredients in meeting the challenges of implementing GTS were leadership support, dialogue with faculty, broad engagement of the institutional community, avoidance of tunnel vision, and the use of pilot courses to test concepts and methods. GTS can be viewed as the foundation for the scientific and clinical career development of future physicians.
Kidney-specific chloride channel, OmClC-K, predominantly expressed in the diluting segment of freshwater-adapted tilapia kidney

The kidney plays an important role in osmoregulation in freshwater teleosts, which are exposed to the danger of osmotic loss of Na+ and Cl−. However, ion-transport mechanisms in the kidney are poorly understood, and ion transporters of the fish nephron have not been identified thus far. From Mozambique tilapia, Oreochromis mossambicus, we have cloned a chloride channel, which is a homologue of the mammalian kidney-specific chloride channel, ClC-K. The cDNA of the channel, named OmClC-K, encodes a protein whose amino acid sequence has high homology to Xenopus and mammalian ClC-K (Xenopus ClC-K, 41.8%; rat ClC-K2, 40.9%; rat ClC-K1, 40.1%). The mRNA of OmClC-K was expressed exclusively in the kidney, and the expression level of mRNA was increased more in freshwater-adapted fish than seawater-adapted fish. The immunohistochemical study using a specific antibody showed that OmClC-K-positive cells were specifically located in the distal nephron segments. Immunoelectron microscopy further showed that immunoreaction of OmClC-K was recognizable on the structure of basolateral membrane infoldings in the distal tubule cells. The localization of OmClC-K and its induction in hypoosmotic media suggest that OmClC-K is involved in Cl− reabsorption in the distal tubule of freshwater-adapted tilapia.
Early hearing testing of still critically ill neonates.

OBJECTIVE To use a newly applied hearing screening technique for early measurement in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients to learn more about the high incidence of hearing loss in this population. METHODS An automated, portable infant hearing screener that measures the auditory brain-stem response at the bedside was used at the NICU of the Hospital Nacional de Niños, San Jose, Costa Rica. Patients were evaluated early, even if they were on a ventilator. The screener tested with a 40-dB hearing level click stimulus to each ear over a bandwidth of 750 to 3000 Hz. RESULTS During a 15-month period, 92 newborns underwent 226 auditory brain-stem response tests (range, one to six tests; mean, 2 1/2 tests). Before discharge from the NICU or death, each infant was successfully screened. Of 72 infants discharged from the hospital alive, 68 passed bilaterally and four failed bilaterally, a 6% failure rate. Of 20 infants who died, 15 failed bilaterally, a 75% failure rate. Persistent bilateral failure of the test was detectable from each infant's first test and showed an association (chi-square, P<.001) with death. The overall bilateral failure rate was 21%. CONCLUSIONS Simple bedside auditory brain-stem response screening of all NICU infants was consistently possible regardless of clinical status, the early onset of hearing loss suggests that NICU treatment was not ototoxic and the unexpectedly high overall bilateral test failure rate resulted from the inclusion of patients who would have died untested if conventional testing had been done.
Role of splenectomy in chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.

AIM OF THE STUDY To evaluate the usefulness of splenectomy and factors which predict long term remission in chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). METHODS We reviewed the data of 364 patients diagnosed as chronic ITP between January 1983 to December 1996 of whom 71 patients underwent splenectomy. The patients were followed up for an average period of 58 months and the short and long term response to splenectomy were analyzed at the end of one month and 60 months, respectively. RESULTS At the end of one month after splenectomy, 82% had complete response, 7% partial response and 11% had no response. At the end of 60 months, 42% maintained complete response, 7% partial response, 34% had no response and 17% were lost to follow up. The results were statistically evaluated by using non-parametric test (Chi-square test) to age, sex, platelet count prior to treatment, initial response to steroids, time interval between diagnosis and splenectomy and post-operative platelet count. Of these factors only preoperative response to steroids (p value = 0.018303) and postoperative platelet count (p value = 0.013536) were found to be significant, statistically to predict long term remission. Age, sex, initial platelet count and time interval between diagnosis and splenectomy didn't seem to be statistically significant. CONCLUSION This study suggests, that patients with an initial complete response to steroids and a post-operative platelet count > 300 x 10(9)/L at the time of discharge were associated with a long term remission. Splenectomy in ITP is a safe procedure with minimal morbidity and mortality and gives a good long term remission in steroid- failure patients with chronic ITP.
Effect of Myrtol standardized on mucus hypersecretion and clearance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a rat model of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the effect of Myrtol standardized (GeloMyrtol® forte) in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in an animal model. A total of 93 experimental rats were randomly divided into 6 groups: control (n = 6), exposure to cigarette smoke (CS, n = 6), CS plus Myrtol standardized treatment (CS + M, n = 6), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) infection (PA, n = 25), CS + PA (n = 25), and CS + PA + M (n = 25). For all 62 CS rats, they were exposed to cigarette smoke for a period of 12 weeks. During this time period the 31 CS + M rats (CS + M; CS + PA + M) received 300 mg/kg/day Myrtol standardized intragastrically always 30 min prior to smoke exposure. For CS + PA and CS + PA + M rats, intratracheal PA inoculation was performed after the 12 weeks of smoke exposure. All intratracheal PA inoculations were followed by a post-infection examination at 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h in each 5 rats. All study animals were euthanized and their lungs were excised; the left lung was homogenized for determination of bacterial load and measurements of TNF-α and IL-6, the right lungs were preserved for histo- and immunohistochemical examinations (e. g. MUC5AC). The lungs from CS rats were pathologically similar to those of COPD patients with the characteristics of goblet cell metaplasia and MUC5AC hypersecretion. CS animals had a significantly greater number of MUC5AC positive cells in the bronchial epithelial cells, and significantly increased expression levels of TNF-α and IL-6 after PA infection. However, the administration of Myrtol standardized significantly (p = 0.002) attenuated MUC5AC hypersecretion, measured as integrity optical density (IOD), in CS+M rats (45.98 ± 6.25) as compared to CS alone (65.55 ± 11.18) rats. The same applies at different time points between CS + PA rats (65.15 ± 11.94, 75.88 ± 7.42, 81.2 ± 6.49, 75.14 ± 6.85 and 67.32 ± 10.61, respectively) and CS + PA + M rats (47.08 ± 4.78, 54.22 ± 6.59, 65.4 ± 6.12, 59.98 ± 4.96 and 48.43 ± 7.29, respectively). Similar effects were found in the production of IL-6 and TNF-α in the CS + PA + M lungs. Similarly the bacterial load of 10,980 ± 4,253 CFU in CS + PA + M was significantly lower compared to 42,400 ± 3,296 CFU in CS + PA lungs after 72 h PA infection. In conclusion, this experimental study demonstrates a significant therapeutic effect of Myrtol standardized in treating common pathological conditions, such as airway mucus hypersecretion and defect of mucociliary functions in COPD.
Dynamic Economic Dispatch Solution for a Microgrid Using Improved Ant Colony Optimization

This paper presents a novel approach for dynamic economic dispatch in a MicroGrid by using the improved ant colony optimization (ACO). In order to satisfy the power balance and load demand, the mathematical model of economic dispatch is given to support the MicroGrid in both grid-connected and islanded mode. By means of ACO, the dynamic economic dispatch solution is proposed in combination with sequential quadratic programming (SQP), and the essential procedure is introduced. Simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of the proposed scheme.
Problem-based model for the improvement of case-based reasoning system

Issue of using case-based reasoning concerns size control, which can be occurred after reusing the system to fix new set of problems for the next cycle. Accordingly, the algorithm of addition, deletion, partition, and selection are proposed for this reason. However, the problem-based selection model is proposed and offers two main algorithms, which are classifying and deleting obsolete, complex, and redundant problems, including selection algorithm under the concept of case-based maintenance, which is applied for the area of smart systems. According to the results, the percent of controlling case base size by using the proposed model is better than the traditional methods as 1.61–2.30 times. Besides, percent of fixing problem of the five comparative studies are lower than the proposed model approximately at most 57 times.
Collaboration and Crisis in Mega Projects: A Study in Cross Corporate Culture Conflict and its Resolution

Projects typically involve multiple partners coming together to form a temporary project organization that manages project execution. Partners begin their relationship with soaring aspirations to collaborate but as they move through the project’s various phases and they experience friction, especially those related to cultural clashes, their noble aspirations succumb to creeping, if not full blown, crisis. This, in turn, creates lost relationality and compromised execution. Thus, the question: How can project partners manage the integration of differing corporate cultures and work processes to produce the most effective and efficient outcomes? Using the mega project of the Panama Canal Expansion Program, the authors explore how a multicultural project organization moved from dysfunctional relationality to synergistic, self-reinforcing, collaboration. A “Collabyrinth” (Smits, 2013) model explores how participants learned to collaborate in a holding environment saturated with layers of complex cultural difference. The Collabyrinth is composed of six comingling elements: (1) Conflicting Conditions, (2) Submarining, (3) Seeking Consent, (4) Storytelling, (5) Crafting Reciprocal Relations, (6) Synergizing. Certain aspects of crisis management are employed to explain intra-collabyrinth dynamics. Those aspects are: (1) Coming of the Forerunners, (2) Acuteness in the Now, (3) Resolution Seeking, and (4) Constructing Relationality. Specific examples of the collabyrinth journey are provided and recommendations are made to harness the positive power of cross-corporate culture collaboration.
Uninephrectomy in Young Age or Chronic Salt Loading Causes Salt-Sensitive Hypertension in Adult Rats

The importance of nephron endowment and salt intake for the development of hypertension is under debate. The present study was designed to investigate whether reduced nephron number, after completion of nephrogenesis, or chronic salt loading causes renal injury and salt-sensitive hypertension in adulthood. Rats were operated at 3 weeks of age (after completed nephrogenesis) and then subjected to either normal or high-salt diets for 6 to 8 weeks. Four different experimental groups were used: sham-operated animals raised with normal-salt diet (controls) or high-salt diet (HS) and uninephrectomized animals raised with normal-salt diet (UNX) or high-salt diet (UNX+HS). In the adult animals, renal and cardiovascular functions were evaluated and blood pressure recorded telemetrically under different sodium conditions (normal, high, and low). Hypertension was present in UNX+HS (122±9 mm Hg), UNX (101±3 mm Hg), and HS (96±1 mm Hg) groups on normal-salt diets compared with the controls (84±2 mm Hg), and the blood pressure was salt sensitive (high- versus normal-salt diet; 23±3, 9±2, 7±2, and 1±1 mm Hg, respectively). The hypertensive groups (UNX+HS, UNX, and HS) had increased diuresis and reduced ability to concentrate urine. The glomerular filtration rate (milliliters per minute) in anesthetized rats was reduced in the UNX+HS (2.36±0.30) and UNX animals (2.00±0.31) compared with both HS animals (3.55±0.45) and controls (3.01±0.35). Hypertensive groups displayed reduced plasma renin concentrations during high sodium conditions and hypertrophic kidneys and hearts with various degrees of histopathologic changes. In conclusion, at a young age after completed nephrogenesis, uninephrectomy or chronic salt loading causes renal and cardiovascular injury with salt-sensitive hypertension.
Higher bone mineral density in Caucasian, hirsute patients of reproductive age. Positive correlation of testosterone levels with bone mineral density in hirsutism

Objective The mechanisms leading to higher bone mineral density (BMD) in hirsute patients than in healthy controls have seldom been examined. We compared the metabolic, hormonal and bone metabolic parameters in hirsute patients and female controls and correlated BMD and bone metabolic parameters with testosterone, oestradiol and metabolic parameters.