Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tolerability of doxycycline monohydrate salt vs. chloroquine–proguanil in malaria chemoprophylaxis

The resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to the chloroquine–proguanil association (C/P) as antimalarial chemoprophylaxis is becoming increasingly common in Africa. Daily oral doxycycline hyclate 100 mg is effective as malaria prophylaxis. But the hyclate salt's adverse effects combined with the capsule's galenic form are incompatible with good chemoprophylaxis compliance. We conducted a randomized group study of 522 French soldiers deployed in Gabon and Chad for 4 months to determine the tolerability of short‐term malaria chemoprophylaxis with a 100‐mg daily tablet of a monohydrate doxycycline salt compared with a daily C/P capsule. At days 7 and 120, compliance was better in the doxycycline group [respectively 98.5%vs. 73.9% (P < 0.001) and 90.5%vs. 74% (P < 0.001)]. No major event (evacuation, hospitalization) was related to the medications. Epigastralgia, diarrhoea, urticaria, mouth ulcers, sun sensitization and desquamation were significantly more frequent in the C/P group (P < 0.05). There was no statistical difference for malaria incidence, vertigo, nausea and hair loss. These results suggest that doxycycline monohydrate may be safely used in short‐term malaria chemoprophylaxis. With the same efficacy as a hyclate doxycycline, doxycycline monohydrate could be a good chemoprophylaxis for short‐term travellers at particular risk of C/P resistant P. falciparum malaria.
A sustainability indicator for building projects in presence of risk/uncertainty over time: a research experience

Aim of the paper is to present the results of a research experience focused on the setting of a sustainability indicator in presence of risk/uncertainty over time. Firstly, a literature review of the most widespread methodologies for the evaluation of project economic sustainability in a life cycle perspective is presented, extrapolating the most relevant research lines; secondly, a four steps research experience is illustrated. The methodology for calculating a stochastic economic-environmental indicator is proposed, by adopting a stochastic Global Cost approach to solve Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA). The input for the analysis are modeled through Probability Distribution Functions, while the durability of components is modeled through the stochastic approach to the Factor Method.
Effect of atenolol on symptomatic ventricular arrhythmia without structural heart disease: a randomized placebo-controlled study.

BACKGROUND Ventricular arrhythmia (VA) from the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) is a common problem. Symptomatic patients are usually treated with beta-blockers. There is little data on the systematic evaluation of the efficacy of beta-blocker. We determine the efficacy of atenolol in the treatment of symtomatic VA from RVOT compared with placebo. METHODS AND RESULTS This was a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study. We prospectively studied 52 consecutive patients with symptomatic VA. Severity of symptoms, 24-hour ambulatory monitoring (AECG) and quality of life (QOL) were assessed at baseline and 1 month after atenolol. Exercise testing was performed at baseline. Average premature ventricular complex (PVC) count at baseline was 21,407 +/- 1740 beats per 24 hours, and 19% had ventricular tachycardia as measured by AECG. Results of this study showed that atenolol significantly decreased symptom frequency (P =.03), PVC count (P =.001) and average heart rate (P <.001) measured by AECG, whereas placebo significantly decreased symptom frequency (P =.002) but had no effect on PVC count (P =.78) or average heart rate (P =.44). Neither atenolol nor placebo had an effect on QOL. CONCLUSIONS Atenolol improves symptoms and decreases PVC count from ambulatory monitoring. Placebo improved symptoms to the same extent as atenolol but had no effect on severity of VA. This might be the so-called placebo effect, which is a concern when treating patients or doing research on the effects of a drug.
Binding of c-Raf1 Kinase to a Conserved Acidic Sequence within the Carboxyl-terminal Region of the HIV-1 Nef Protein*

Nef is a membrane-associated cytoplasmic phosphoprotein that is well conserved among the different human (HIV-1 and HIV-2) and simian immunodeficiency viruses and has important roles in down-regulating the CD4 receptor and modulating T-cell signaling pathways. The ability to modulate T-cell signaling pathways suggests that Nef may physically interact with T-cell signaling proteins. In order to identify Nef binding proteins and map their site(s) of interaction, we targeted a highly conserved acidic sequence at the carboxyl-terminal region of Nef sharing striking similarity with an acidic sequence at the c-Raf1-binding site within the Ras effector region. Here, we used deletion and site-specific mutagenesis to generate mutant Nef proteins fused to bacterial glutathioneS-transferase in in vitro precipitation assays and immunoblot analysis to map the specific interaction between the HIV-1LAI Nef and c-Raf1 to a conserved acidic sequence motif containing the core sequence Asp-Asp-X-X-X-Glu (position 174–179). Significantly, we demonstrate that substitution of the nonpolar glycine residue for either or both of the conserved negatively charged aspartic acid residues at positions 174 and 175 in the full-length recombinant Nef protein background completely abrogated binding of c-Raf1 in vitro. In addition, lysates from a permanent CEM T-cell line constitutively expressing the native HIV-1 Nef protein was used to coimmunoprecipitate a stable Nef-c-Raf1 complex, suggesting that molecular interactions between Nef and c-Raf1, an important downstream transducer of cell signaling through the c-Raf1-MAP kinase pathway, occur in vivo. This interaction may account for the Nef-induced perturbations of T-cell signaling and activation pathways in vitro and in vivo.
Growth-inhibitory effects of MOB2 on human hepatic carcinoma cell line SMMC-7721.

AIM To investigate the growth-inhibiting and apoptosis-inducing effects of the gene MOB2 on human hepatic carcinoma cell line SMMC-7721. METHODS The full-length cDNA of the MOB2 gene was amplified from human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The correct full-length MOB2 cDNA was subcloned into the eukaryotic expression vector pEGFP-C1. After lipofection of the MOB2 gene into cancer cells, the levels of MOB2 protein in the cancer cells were detected by immunoblotting. To transfect the recombined plasmid vector pEGFP-CI-MOB2 into SMMC-7721 cells, the cells were cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium with 10% fetal calf serum and glutamine, and then mixed with liposomes, Lipofectamine 2000 and the plasmid vector pEGFP-CI-MOB2. RESULTS We observed the growth and proliferation of SMMC-7721 cells containing pEGFP-CI-MOB2 and analyzed their apoptosis and growth cycle phases by flow cytometry. We successfully transfected the recombined plasmid vector pEGFP-CI-MOB2 into SMMC-7721 cells and screened for a single clone cell containing MOB2. After transfection, MOB2 enhanced growth suppression, induced apoptosis, increased the ratio of G0/G1, significantly inhibited the advance of cell cycle phase, and arrested cells in G0/G1 phase. CONCLUSION MOB2 overexpression induces apoptosis and inhibits the growth of human hepatic cancer cells, which may be useful in gene therapy for hepatic carcinoma.
Cysteamine-induced depletion of somatostatinergic systems alters potentials evoked from the rat visual cortex

Abstract This study was performed in order to establish whether selective depletion of somatostatin (SS) in the rat primary visual cortex obtained by cysteamine (CSH) administration results in changes of visual evoked potentials (VEPs). VEPs in response to a contrast reversal (0.5 Hz) of an optimal sinusoidal grating (0.1 cycle/deg, contrast 90%, mean luminance 15 cd/m2) were recorded from different layers of the binocular portion of the primary visual cortex of anesthetized rats with saline injection as well as before and after CSH treatment (90 mg/kg, s.c). VEPs of CSH treated rats, as compared to those obtained either in saline-injected animals or before drug administration, are reduced in amplitude at intermediate cortical layers whereas they are increased at deeper layers. VEP changes depend on CSH treatment and not on the extended anesthesia since no alterations in the VEP profile can be observed in saline-injected animals maintained in the same experimental condition. Forty-eight hours following CSH treatment, the VEP profile is comparable to that of saline-injected animals. Immunocytochemical analysis of the visual cortex of rats recorded 7 h after CSH treatment shows a 20–30% reduction in the number of SS-containing cortical cells. The highest reduction can be observed in cortical layer 5 although a significant decrease is also found in layers 2–3. In contrast, the pattern of SS immunoreactivity of the visual cortex of rats recorded 48 h after CSH administration is similar to that obtained in control conditions. These results indicate that a selective toxin for somatostatinergic systems induces a transient decrease of SS-containing cell number in selected cortical layers. Accordingly, CSH can serve as a useful pharmacological tool for the study of somatostatinergic function in the rat visual cortex since changes in VEPs can be related to a reduction of somatostatinergic neurons associated to CSH treatment. In particular, the present results suggest that one of the possible actions of somatostatinergic neurons in the rat visual cortex is to modulate the excitatory-inhibitory balance.
Epstein-Barr Virus-Encoded Latent Membrane Protein 1 (LMP1) Induces the Expression of the Cellular MicroRNA miR-146a

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in sequence-specific cleavage, translational repression or deadenylation of specific target mRNAs resulting in post-transcriptional gene silencing. Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) infection induces cellular non-coding (nc)RNAs e.g. the “vault” RNAs or miRNAs such as miR-21, miR-155 or miR-146a. MiR-146a is up-regulated in various tumours and plays a role in innate immunity. We show that the EBV-encoded latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) induces the expression of miR-146a via NF-κB. LMP1 activates the miR-146a promoter but not a promoter with a mutation of the NF-κB-response elements. Conversely, a LMP1-mutant deficient in NF-κB-activation failed to activate the promoter. The “CAO”-LMP1 variant which has an increased potential to induce NF-κB also showed a higher ability to activate the miR-146a promoter as compared to standard B95.8-LMP1. Northern blotting revealed high levels of miR-146a and miR-155 in the Burkitt’s lymphoma cell line Jijoye which expresses LMP1 while the LMP1-deficient P3HR1 mutant derived from Jijoye expresses less miR-146a or miR-155. Likewise, EBV-latency type I Burkitt’s lymphoma cells with low LMP1 levels also contain low levels of either miR-146a or miR-155 while their levels are increased in LMP1-expressing EBV-latency type III BL cells. Expression of LMP1 in P3HR1 cells up-regulates miR-146a levels. Neither miR-146a nor miR-155 are detectable in BCBL-1 cells transformed by the Kaposi-Sarcoma Herpes virus (KSHV/HHV8). It is possible that the induction of miR-146a plays a role in the induction or maintenance of EBV latency by modulating innate immune responses to the virus infected host cell.
The Challenge of Coordinating India’s Multiple Border Forces: An Analysis of Cross-Border Infiltration Across the India-Pakistan Boundary

Introduction India’s international borders and disputed boundaries with its neighbours are guarded by five different Central Armed Police Forces, two Paramilitary Forces and the Indian Army. This Commentary employs a formal Demand and Supply economic model to understand how cross-border infiltration along the India-Pakistan boundary is impacted by coordination between themultiple border forces. Themodel shows that in the absence of coordination between the forces, defensive measures to deter infiltration will be over supplied and offensive measures will be under supplied. A surprising result of the analysis is that information sharing between the forces worsens these inefficiencies. This is a case of the Second Best result in economic theory. The commentary concludes that to optimize the use of resources for deterring infiltration, both defensive and offensive measures along the entire border must be under a single authority. Piecemeal policies may worsen the inefficiencies associated with allocation of resources towards deterrence.
Pharmacology of directionally selective ganglion cells in the rabbit retina.

In this report we describe extracellular recordings made from ON and ON-OFF directionally selective (DS) ganglion cells in the rabbit retina during perfusion with agonists and antagonists to acetylcholine (ACh), glutamate, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Nicotinic ACh agonists strongly excited DS ganglion cell in a dose-dependent manner. Dose-response curves showed a wide range of potencies, with (+/-)-exo-2-(6-chloro-3pyridinyl)-7-azabicyclo[2.2. 1] heptane dihydrochloride (epibatidine) > > > nicotine > 1,1-dimethyl-4-phenylpiperazinium iodide = carbachol. In addition, the mixed cholinergic agonist carbachol produced a small excitation, mediated by muscarinic receptors, that could be blocked by atropine. The specific nicotinic antagonists hexamethonium bromide (100 microM), dihydro-beta-erythroidine (50 microM), mecamylamine (50 microM), and tubocurarine (50 microM) blocked the responses to nicotinic agonists. In addition, nicotinic antagonists reduced the light-driven input to DS ganglion cells by approximately 50%. However, attenuated responses were still DS. We deduce that cholinergic input is not required for directional selectivity. These experiments reveal the importance of bipolar cell input mediated by glutamate. N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) excited DS ganglion cells, but NMDA antagonists did not abolish directional selectivity. However, a combined cholinergic and NMDA blockade reduced the responses of DS ganglion cells by > 90%. This indicates that most of the noncholinergic excitatory input appears to be mediated by NMDA receptors, with a small residual made up by alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)/kainate (KA) receptors. Responses to AMPA and KA were highly variable and often evoked a mixture of excitation and inhibition due to the release of ACh and GABA. Under cholinergic blockade AMPA/KA elicited a strong GABA-mediated inhibition in DS ganglion cells. AMPA/KA antagonists, such as 2,3-dihydroxy-6-nitro-7-sulfamoylbenzo (F)quinoxaline dione and GYKI-53655, promoted null responses and abolished directional selectivity due to the blockade of GABA release. We conclude that GABA release, mediated by non-NMDA glutamate receptors, is an essential part of the mechanism of directional selectivity. The source of the GABA is unknown, but may arise from starburst amacrine cells.
A 90 nm CMOS MS/RF based foundry SOC technology comprising superb 185 GHz f/sub T/ RFMOS and versatile, high-Q passive components for cost/performance optimization

A versatile mixed-signal and RF (MS/RF) technology based on a foundry 90 nm CMOS process was demonstrated with excellent MOS transistor f/sub T/ at 160-185 GHz. Passive elements of various process schemes were fabricated for cost/performance evaluation. To realize low-cost system-on-chip (SOC), passive elements like 0.9 /spl mu/m Cu inductors and metal-stacked capacitors (MOM) were implemented using a standard logic back-end process. For high performance MS/RF solutions, inductors with 3 /spl mu/m Cu and ultra thick 6 /spl mu/m Cu top metal were fabricated to achieve high quality factors, Q>15 at 1 GHz and peak Q>20. Precision metal-sandwiched capacitors (MIM) with unit capacitances of 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/ were characterized and compared. Comparable or better matching was observed for MIM with higher unit capacitance, implying the possibility for chip size reduction. Specifically, the advantage of better MIM matching was demonstrated for the first time on the data resolution improvement of an A-to-D converter.
Nucleotide sequence of prothrombin gene in abnormal prothrombin‐producing hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines

A protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist II, PIVKA‐II is synthesized in the liver and possesses a structure similar to prothrombin except that ten glutamic acid residues in amino‐terminal Gla domain are not completely γ‐carboxylated and are functionally inactive. This protein can be detected in the plasma of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and used as a new tumor marker. To analyze the mechanism of PIVKA‐II production in HCC tissue, the prothrombin gene of PIVKA‐II‐secreting HCC cell lines was sequenced to detect the mutation in the Gla domain and carboxylase recognition site of leader sequence located on exons I and II that may cause the inhibition of carboxylation. Exons I and II and donor and acceptor site of intron I of the prothrombin gene in two HCC cell lines, PLC/PRF/5 and huH‐2, were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the product was sequenced directly. In addition, RNA samples of these cell lines were used for complementary DNA synthesis, followed by PCR and sequencing. The nucleotide sequences of the Gla domain in both HCC cell lines were conserved. One nucleotide change was detected at nt.554 (adenine to guanine), but this did not influence the amino acid sequence. Splicing sites between exons I and II, the leader sequence of the precursor prothrombin, and protease target sites also were conserved as the reported prothrombin gene, and mutations reported for other des‐γ‐carboxy coagulation factors were not detected. These results also were confirmed by DNA analysis of seven human fresh‐frozen samples (three PIVKA‐II‐positive HCC samples and four control specimens). The mechanism of PIVKA‐II production in HCC is still unclear, but it is not caused by mutation in the prothrombin gene.
Change detection of meaningful objects in real-world scenes in adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder

Previous research suggested that adolescents with autism spectrum disorder are better than typically developing children in detecting local, non-social details within complex visual scenes. To better understand these differences, we used the image database by Sareen et al., containing the size and on-screen location information of all changes in the images, in a change blindness paradigm. In this task, an original and a modified real-world scene, separated by a gray blank, alternate repeatedly until observers detect the change. Our results indicated that participants with and without autism spectrum disorder performed similarly when scenes were presented upright, but that only the performance of the typically developing adolescents became worse in the inverted scene condition. In this condition, the correlation between performance and both image difficulty and change predictability was significantly weaker in autism spectrum disorder than in typically developing participants. We suggest that these findings result from a more locally biased search strategy in people with autism spectrum disorder, compared to typically developing participants, in tasks in which the rapid processing of global information does not help to improve change detection performance. Finally, although we found change location, change size, and age to influence participant performance, none of these was directly linked to the observed group-level differences.
Searching for unrelated donor hematopoietic stem cells: availability and speed of umbilical cord blood versus bone marrow.

Unrelated donor (URD) umbilical cord blood (UCB) has several potential advantages over URD BM for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. To examine the efficiency of donor identification for each of these URD stem cell sources, we reviewed the search processes for all pediatric and adult URD transplantation referrals to the University of Minnesota during a period of 1 year. Of 171 consecutive referrals for URD transplantation, 108 patients proceeded to a formal URD search with selection of at least 1 donor. Significantly more formal UCB searches(54%) than BM searches (21%) were performed for patients who required urgent transplantation (P < .01). At least one 4-6/6 HLA-antigen matched UCB graft but no suitable BM graft was identified for 21 of the 108 patients (19%). The median time required to obtain a URD BM donor (from formal search to clearance of a BM donor) was 49 days (range, 32-293 days) compared to a UCB search time (from formal search to a donor unit chosen) of only 13.5 days (range, 2-387 days). For patients undergoing both BM and UCB searches, 29 more days (95% confidence interval, 21-37 days) were required to identify and clear a URD BM donor than a UCB donor (P < .01). For the 76 patients who proceeded to transplantation, patients receiving UCB received a transplant a median of 25 days more rapidly than did those receiving BM (P < .01). These data confirm that the availability of banked cryopreserved URD UCB grafts allows transplantations for patients with no available BM donor and that URD UCB grafts areavailable considerably faster than are URD BM grafts. Faster availability is a particular advantage for patients requiring urgent transplantation. These unique features of UCB transplantation must be considered in comparisons of the outcomes of UCB versus BM transplant recipients and in the design of prospective trials comparing URD sources.
SiC Metal – Semiconductor – Metal Ultraviolet Photodetectors in Operation of 450 ◦ C

This work demonstrates the high-temperature operation of metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) photodetectors (PDs) up to 450 ◦C using lightly Al-doped epitaxial 4H–SiC thin films. The responsivity of the PDs under 325-nm illumination is 0.0305 A/W at 20-V bias at room temperature. The photocurrentto-dark-current ratio of the SiC MSM PDs is as high as 1.3 × 10 at 25 ◦C and is 0.62 at 450 ◦C. The rise/fall time of the PDs is increased slightly from 594 μs/684 μs to 684 μs/786 μs as the temperature increases from room temperature to 400 ◦C. These results support the use of 4H–SiC PDs in extremely high temperature applications.
sWMF: Separable weighted median filter for efficient large-disparity stereo matching

Although large disparity stereo matching is critical to the practical application of stereo vision system especially for outdoor scenes, its efficient hardware design is still a grand challenge. Motivated by the discovery that well-designed weighted median filter (WMF) can achieve satisfactory accuracy with simple box-filter aggregation, this paper proposes a separable weighted median filter (sWMF) that only has the computational complexity of O(r) and is independent of disparity range. Moreover, the proposed sWMF can be efficiently implemented as a fully pipelined architecture. Evaluation results demonstrate that, at the penalty of only 0.06% disparity error rate, the proposed sWMF design can save 12.9% Slice LUTs, 76.7% DSPs and 64.0% Block RAMs at the disparity range of 128, compared with previous WMF implementation on FPGA.
Galanin plays a role in the conditioning lesion effect in sensory neurons

Sensory neurons show enhanced neurite outgrowth in vivo and in vitro following a conditioning lesion. Previous studies have shown that these effects are dependent on two members of the gp130 family of cytokines, leukemia inhibitory factor and interleukin-6. Here, we asked whether galanin, a neuropeptide induced by these cytokines, plays a role in the conditioning lesion response. Following a conditioning lesion, neurite outgrowth in culture was reduced in sensory neurons from galanin −/− mice compared with those from wild type controls. In neurons from wild type mice, the length of the longest neurite was increased 2.4-fold after a conditioning lesion, compared with 1.8-fold in neurons from knockout animals. The results indicate that the induction of galanin plays an important role in triggering the conditioning lesion response.