Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A randomized controlled trial of clonidine added to psychostimulant medication for hyperactive and aggressive children.

OBJECTIVE To compare clonidine with placebo added to ongoing psychostimulant therapy for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder with comorbid oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder. METHOD Children 6 to 14 years of age recruited through 2000 to 2001 were randomized to receive clonidine syrup 0.10 to 0.20 mg/day (n = 38) or placebo (n = 29) for 6 weeks. Primary outcome measures were the Conduct and Hyperactive Index subscales of the parent-report Conners Behavior Checklist. Side effects were monitored using physiological measures and the Barkley Side Effect Rating Scale. RESULTS Evaluable patient analysis showed that significantly more clonidine-treated children than controls were responders on the Conduct scale (21 of 37 versus 6 of 29; chi2(1) = 8.75, p <. 01) but not the Hyperactive Index (13 of 37 versus 5 of 29). Compared with placebo, clonidine was associated with a greater reduction in systolic blood pressure measured standing and with transient sedation and dizziness. Clonidine-treated individuals had a greater reduction in a number of unwanted effects associated with psychostimulant treatment compared with placebo. CONCLUSIONS The findings support the continued use of clonidine in combination with psychostimulant medication to reduce conduct symptoms associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Treatment is well tolerated and unwanted effects are transient.
A control strategy for a class of cascade systems including saturation elements

We are considering the problem of controlling systems including, in cascade, two dynamic linear subsystems and two static nonlinear elements of the saturation type. Furthermore, the second dynamic subsystem is allowed to be of type one (i.e. include an integrator). The problem is dealt with designing a cascade control strategy consisting of two main control loops. The control signal generated by the outer loop acts as reference input for the inner loop which in turn generates the actual control signal applied to the system. It is formally shown that proposed cascade controller stabilizes the resulting closed-loop system and ensures perfect tracking of step-like output reference signals that are compatible with the system saturating elements.
The tetraspan protein Dni1p is required for correct membrane organization and cell wall remodelling during mating in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

In fungi, success of mating requires that both cells agglutinate, modify their extracellular envelopes, and fuse their plasma membranes and nuclei to produce a zygote. Here we studied the role of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe Dni1 protein in the cell fusion step of mating. Dni1p is a tetraspan protein bearing a conserved cystein motif similar to that present in fungal claudin‐related proteins. Dni1p expression is induced during mating and Dni1p concentrates as discrete patches at the cell–cell contact area and along the mating bridge. Proper Dni1p localization depends on Fus1p, actin and integrity of lipid rafts. In dni1Δ mutants, cell differentiation and agglutination are as efficient as in the wild‐type strain, but cell fusion is significantly reduced at temperatures above 25°C. We found that the defect in cell fusion was not associated with an altered cytoskeleton, with an abnormal distribution of Fus1p, or with a defect in calcium accumulation, but with a severe disorganization of the plasma membrane and cell wall at the area of cell–cell contact. These results show that Dni1p plays a relevant role in co‐ordinating membrane organization and cell wall remodelling during mating, a function that has not been described for other proteins in the fission yeast.
‘Human bocavirus in Pakistani children with gastroenteritis'

Human Bocaviruses (HBoV) have been detected in human respiratory and gastrointestinal infections worldwide. Four genotypes of HBoV (HBoV1–4) have been described; HBoV‐1 is associated with respiratory tract infections while HBoV‐2, ‐3, and ‐4 genotypes are considered as entero‐pathogenic although the exact role largely remains unclear. The global prevalence of HBoV has been reported, but the epidemiological data from Pakistan is largely unavailable to date. This study was conducted to understand the genetic diversity and disease prevalence of HBoV in hospitalized Pakistani children with acute diarrhea. During 2009, a total of 365 stool samples were collected from children hospitalized with gastrointestinal symptoms (as per WHO case definitions) at Rawalpindi General Hospital, Pakistan. Demographic and clinical data were recorded using a standardized questionnaire. The samples were tested for HBoV and rotavirus using real‐time RT‐PCR and ELISA, respectively. There were 47 (13%) samples positive for HBoV with 98% (n = 46) showing co‐infection with rotavirus. HBoV‐1 was the most frequently detected and was found in 94% samples followed by HBoV‐2 and HBoV‐3 genotypes. The mean age of infected children was 7.57 ± 5.4 months while detection was more frequent in males (n = 32, 68%). All cases recovered after 2.43 ± 1.0 mean days of treatment. On phylogenetic analysis, HBoV strains from Pakistan clustered closely with viruses from neighboring Bangladesh and China. These findings represent the first known epidemiological study in Pakistan to investigate the role of HBoV in acute gastroenteritis. The clinical data demonstrates that HBoV is not significantly associated with gastroenteritis alone and predominantly co‐infections with rotavirus are found. J. Med. Virol. 87:656–663, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Passage rate and total clearance rate from the rumen of cows fed on grass silages differing in cell-wall content

Four non-lactating, rumen-fistulated cows were fed ad lib. on two grass silages (first cut (FC) and second cut (SC)) harvested at different growth stages, resulting in different crude-protein (CP) and neutral-detergent-fibre (NDF) contents (FC, 152 g CP/kg, 515g NDF/kg and SC, 210 g CP/kg, 442 g NDF/kg). Voluntary intake and rumen contents, total as well as organic matter were higher for silage FC. Fractional passage rate from the rumen, calculated from the logarithmic decline in Cr-NDF rumen pool, was higher for silage FC (0·0395/h and 0·0446/h for silages SC and FC respectively). When fractional passage rates from the rumen were calculated by dividing the intake of indigestible organic matter by the mean rumen poo! of this fraction, the same differences between silages were found, although the actual levels were much lower (0·0258$sol;h and 0·0300/h for silages SC and FC respectively). The results from the present experiment suggest that disappearance rate from the rumen of particles with a size between 1·25 and 0·071 mm is the rate-limiting step in the control of rumen fill.
Diversity and Cultural Leadership in the West Midlands: A report for the West Midlands Leadership Commission

This report aims to assess and map the diversity of cultural leadership in the West Midlands region (UK). It was produced for the West Midlands Leadership Commission (WMLC) which sets out to examine why the leadership of our region is not representative of the people it serves. The focus here is on the cultural sector in the West Midlands region, in particular the arts sector, including theatre and performance, fine art, museums and galleries.
Households heterogeneity in a global CGE model: an illustration with the MIRAGE poverty module

The objective is to develop a version of the MIRAGE model of the world economy which includes households heterogeneity in order to studying the impact of trade liberalization on real income and welfare at the household level. In five developing countries, the model disaggregates the representative household into up to 80 households by country, characterized by exogenous criteria like geographic place of residence, qualifcation and gender of the household's head, (private vs. public or agriculture vs. industry vs. services) sector of activity. The sources of income and consumption structure reflect disaggregated statistical information coming from households' surveys. The new model better captures the behavior of the public agent in terms of revenues collected and in terms of expenditures. This new version of MIRAGE allows studying the impact of various policy shocks and identifying which households are expected to win, which households are expected to lose and why, while taking into account the reaction of households to these shocks in an integrated and consistent framework. We illustrate the development of this poverty module of the MIRAGE model by studying the impact of full trade liberalization on these households. This study tends to conclude that: (i) while the impact of full trade liberalization may be small at the macroeconomic level, the effect on households' real income may be quite substantial at the level with a great heterogeneity in terms of results; (ii) the major channel of transmission of trade liberalization on households' real income is productive factors' remuneration while the impact through consumption prices of commodities is limited; (iii) various domestic policies simultaneously implemented to trade liberalization like modifcation of public transfers to households or changes in income taxation may drastically change the picture and offer compensation for negative effects of this shock or amplify direct impact of full trade liberalization.
Identification and characterization of the human lactoferrin-binding protein from Neisseria meningitidis

Lactoferrin-binding activity in Neisseria meningitidis was detected by a solid-phase binding assay with horseradish peroxidase-conjugated human lactoferrin (HRP-lactoferrin). Expression of lactoferrin-binding activity was regulated by the level of iron in the medium, so that growth in the presence of the iron chelator EDDA (ethylenediamine di-ortho-hydroxyphenylacetic acid) resulted in a greater than 350-fold increase in binding activity, which was reversed by addition of excess iron. A maximal level of expression could be obtained at reasonable culture densities by using either intermediate levels of EDDA or high levels of EDDA and moderate levels of complexed iron sources such as hemoglobin and transferrin. Competition binding assays demonstrated that the binding of lactoferrin was specific for human lactoferrin in that neither bovine lactoferrin, human transferrin, nor human hemoglobin was able to block binding of HRP-lactoferrin. The binding specificity for human lactoferrin correlated with growth studies in which human but not bovine lactoferrin could support the growth of iron-starved cells. Binding of lactoferrin was not dependent on its level of iron saturation, since iron-saturated lactoferrin and apolactoferrin were equally effective at blocking binding of HRP-lactoferrin in competitive binding assays. The lactoferrin-binding protein was identified as a 105,000-molecular-weight iron-regulated outer membrane protein in three different meningococcal strains by a batch affinity method with biotinylated human lactoferrin and streptavidin-agarose.
Guidelines for Models of Skeletal Muscle Injury and Therapeutic Assessment

Volumetric muscle loss (VML) injuries present a large clinical challenge with a significant need for new interventions. While there have been numerous reviews on muscle injury models, few have critically evaluated VML models. The objective of this review is to discuss current preclinical models of VML in terms of models, analytical outcomes, and therapeutic interventions, and to provide guidelines for the future use of preclinical VML models. This is a work of the US Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the USA. Foreign copyrights may apply. Published by S. Karger AG, Basel
Responsiveness of Arthropod Herbivores and Their Natural Enemies to Modified Weed Management in Corn

ABSTRACT Alteration of weed flora as consequence of the deployment of genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops may affect higher trophic levels in agrosystems. A 4-yr study is being conducted in Spain to investigate interrelations between weeds and associated arthropods in corn fields. In a first step, the work aimed to detect the most responsive arthropods to weed management changes. To identify the most responsive arthropods, arthropod composition and abundance in herbicide-tolerant corn plots treated twice with glyphosate and untreated plots were compared for 2 yr. Plots were sampled seven times during the season by visual inspection and pitfall and yellow sticky traps to estimate abundance and activity of the main arthropod herbivores, predators, and parasitoids. As intended, the abundance and composition of weed flora was strongly altered by the differential herbicide treatments. Several groups of arthropods responded to the weed changes but in variable directions. Whereas leafhoppers and aphids were more abundant on herbicide-treated plots, the contrary was found for phytophagous thrips. Among predators, Orius sp. , spiders, and trombidids were more abundant on treated plots, whereas nabids and carabids were more abundant in untreated plots; the same case was found for carabids and spiders caught in pitfall traps. Among parasitoids, ichneumonids were more abundant in untreated plots and mymarids in treated plots. These results cannot be interpreted in terms of nontarget effects of postemergence treatments with broad-spectrum herbicides; for this, a comparison with conventional weed management practices should be done and this is the current step in the study.
Android malware detection with contrasting permission patterns

As the risk of malware is sharply increasing in Android platform, Android malware detection has become an important research topic. Existing works have demonstrated that required permissions of Android applications are valuable for malware analysis, but how to exploit those permission patterns for malware detection remains an open issue. In this paper, we introduce the contrasting permission patterns to characterize the essential differences between malwares and clean applications from the permission aspect. Then a framework based on contrasting permission patterns is presented for Android malware detection. According to the proposed framework, an ensemble classifier, Enclamald, is further developed to detect whether an application is potentially malicious. Every contrasting permission pattern is acting as a weak classifier in Enclamald, and the weighted predictions of involved weak classifiers are aggregated to the final result. Experiments on real-world applications validate that the proposed Enclamald classifier outperforms commonly used classifiers for Android Malware Detection.
Self-criticism and major depression: an evolutionary perspective.

OBJECTIVES This study sought to incorporate the personality style of self-criticism within an evolutionary framework to help explain its relationship to major depression. It was expected that self-critics would engage in poor social comparisons and have greater feelings of internal entrapment, which are both processes related to depression by evolutionary thinkers. DESIGN A cross-sectional design was employed such that participants were first interviewed and then completed several questionnaires. METHODS The sample consisted of 146 graduate students who had experienced at least one prior episode of major depression, which was confirmed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID). Participants were subsequently administered the Center for epidemiological studies depression scale (CESD), Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ), Social comparison rating scale (SCRS), and Entrapment scale (ES). RESULTS Regression analyses revealed that self-criticism significantly predicted internal entrapment and social comparison when controlling for mood and for levels of dependency. Subsequent Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) revealed that a factor of self-reported entrapment and social comparison mediated the effect of self-criticism on the number of previous episodes of depression. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that part of the reason self-critics are vulnerable to clinical episodes of depression lies in their subjective experience of entrapment and in their negative social comparisons.
Incidence, severity and preventability of medication-related visits to the emergency department: a prospective study

Background: Medication-related visits to the emergency department are an important but poorly understood phenomenon. We sought to evaluate the frequency, severity and preventability of drug-related visits to the emergency department. Methods: We performed a prospective observational study of randomly selected adults presenting to the emergency department over a 12-week period. Emergency department visits were identified as drug-related on the basis of assessment by a pharmacist research assistant and an emergency physician; discrepancies were adjudicated by 2 independent reviewers. Results: Among the 1017 patients included in the study, the emergency department visit was identified as drug-related for 122 patients (12.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 10.1%–14.2%); of these, 83 visits (68.0%, 95% CI 59.0%–76.2%) were deemed preventable. Severity was classified as mild in 15.6% of the 122 cases, moderate in 74.6% and severe in 9.8%. The most common reasons for drug-related visits were adverse drug reactions (39.3%), nonadherence (27.9%) and use of the wrong or suboptimal drug (11.5%). The probability of admission was significantly higher among patients who had a drug-related visit than among those whose visit was not drug-related (OR 2.18, 95% CI 1.46–3.27, p < 0.001), and among those admitted, the median length of stay was longer (8.0 [interquartile range 23.5] v. 5.5 [interquartile range 10.0] days, p = 0.06). Interpretation: More than 1 in 9 emergency department visits are due to drug-related adverse events, a potentially preventable problem in our health care system.
Cheese Microbial Risk Assessments — A Review

Cheese is generally considered a safe and nutritious food, but foodborne illnesses linked to cheese consumption have occurred in many countries. Several microbial risk assessments related to Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli infections, causing cheese-related foodborne illnesses, have been conducted. Although the assessments of microbial risk in soft and low moisture cheeses such as semi-hard and hard cheeses have been accomplished, it has been more focused on the correlations between pathogenic bacteria and soft cheese, because cheese-associated foodborne illnesses have been attributed to the consumption of soft cheeses. As a part of this microbial risk assessment, predictive models have been developed to describe the relationship between several factors (pH, Aw, starter culture, and time) and the fates of foodborne pathogens in cheese. Predictions from these studies have been used for microbial risk assessment as a part of exposure assessment. These microbial risk assessments have identified that risk increased in cheese with high moisture content, especially for raw milk cheese, but the risk can be reduced by preharvest and postharvest preventions. For accurate quantitative microbial risk assessment, more data including interventions such as curd cooking conditions (temperature and time) and ripening period should be available for predictive models developed with cheese, cheese consumption amounts and cheese intake frequency data as well as more dose-response models.
Contemporary Financial Control: Challenges, Contradictions and Digital Tools for Development

Subject This paper discusses the perspective development of modern financial control instruments due to the increasing digitization of the financial system. The paper also examines the challenges and contradictions facing financial control at the present time. Objectives The paper aims to justify the need for advanced financial control through embedding in the ecosystems of financial markets and digital financial infrastructure with the preservation and development of its external character. Methods For the study, we used methods of generalization and structural design. Results The paper says that the main contradiction of the modern financial control is the increasing discrepancy of its organizational and managerial forms to the challenges of financialisation and digitization. The paper proposes to form adapted digital instruments. Conclusions and Relevance Development of priorities of modern financial control is involves its new organization on the basis of principles of
Self-reported exposure to neurotoxic chemical combinations in the Gulf War. A cross-sectional epidemiologic study.

OBJECTIVE To identify risk factors of factor analysis-derived Gulf War-related syndromes. DESIGN A cross-sectional survey. PARTICIPANTS A total of 249 Gulf War veterans from the Twenty-fourth Reserve Naval Mobile Construction Battalion. DATA COLLECTION Participants completed standardized booklets measuring self-reported wartime exposures and present symptoms. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Associations of factor analysis-derived syndromes with risk factors for chemical interactions that inhibit butyrylcholinesterase and neuropathy target esterase. RESULTS Risk of syndrome 1 ("impaired cognition") was greater in veterans who reported wearing flea collars during the war (5 of 20, 25%) than in those who never wore them (7 of 229, 3%; relative risk [RR], 8.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.0-24.7; P<.001). Risk of syndrome 2 ("confusion-ataxia") increased with a scale of advanced adverse effects from pyridostigmine bromide (chi2 for trend, P<.001), was greater among veterans who believed they had been involved in chemical weapons exposure (18 of 108, 17%) than in those who did not (3 of 141, 2%; RR, 7.8; 95% CI, 2.3-25.9; P<.001), and was increased in veterans who had been in a sector of far northeastern Saudi Arabia on the fourth day of the air war (6 of 21, 29%) than in those who had not been (15 of 228, 7%; RR, 4.3; 95% CI, 1.9-10.0; P=.004). Effects of perceived chemical weapons exposure and advanced adverse effects from pyridostigmine were synergistic (Rothman S, 5.3; 95% CI, 1.04-26.7). Risk of syndrome 3 ("arthro-myo-neuropathy") increased with an index of frequency and amount of government-issued insect repellent containing 75% DEET (N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide) in ethanol applied during the war (chi2 for trend, P<.001) and with advanced adverse effects from pyridostigmine (chi2 for trend, P<.001). CONCLUSION Some Gulf War veterans may have delayed, chronic neurotoxic syndromes from wartime exposure to combinations of chemicals that inhibit butyrylcholinesterase and neuropathy target esterase.
Hemicrania Continua Evolving From Cluster Headache Responsive to Valproic Acid

Hemicrania continua (HC) is a rare type of primary headache characterized by a prompt and enduring response to indomethacin. We describe a patient who suffered from cluster headache evolving into ipsilateral HC, who does not tolerate a long‐term indomethacin therapy. The case was complex in terms of diagnosis, associated comorbidity, and choice of treatment; after several trials with different therapeutic regimens, we started the patient on a therapy with valproic acid and obtained an improvement of her HC.