Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urban epidemic of severe leptospirosis in Brazil. Salvador Leptospirosis Study Group.

BACKGROUND Leptospirosis has, traditionally, been considered a sporadic rural disease. We describe a large urban outbreak of leptospirosis. METHODS Active surveillance for leptospirosis was established in an infectious-disease referral hospital in Salvador, Brazil, between March 10 and Nov 2, 1996. Patients meeting case criteria for severe manifestations of leptospirosis were recruited into the study. The diagnosis was confirmed in the laboratory with the microagglutination test and identification of leptospires in blood or urine. Risk factors for death were examined by multivariate analyses. FINDINGS Surveillance identified 326 cases of which 193 (59%) were laboratory-confirmed (133) or probable (60) cases. Leptospira interrogans serovar copenhageni was isolated from 87% of the cases with positive blood cultures. Most of the cases were adult (mean age 35.9 years [SD 15.9]), and 80% were male. Complications included jaundice (91%), oliguria (35%), and severe anaemia (26%). 50 cases died (case-fatality rate 15%) despite aggressive supportive care including dialysis (in 23%). Altered mental status was the strongest independent predictor of death (odds ratio 9.12 [95% CI 4.28-20.3]), age over 37 years, renal insufficiency, and respiratory insufficiency were also significant predictors of death. Before admission to hospital, 42% were misdiagnosed as having dengue fever in the outpatient clinic; an outbreak of dengue fever was taking place concurrently. INTERPRETATION An epidemic of leptospirosis has become a major urban health problem, associated with high mortality. Diagnostic confusion with dengue fever, another emerging infectious disease with a similar geographic distribution, prevents timely intervention that could minimise mortality.
Impacts of Hyperbolic Discounting on Inventory Replenishment Policy Under Inflation

Abstract Considering time inconsistency and inter-temporal preference of the decision maker who is facing inter-temporal choices, this paper employs hyperbolic discounting to reflect these characteristics in governing inventory replenishment policy under inflation. The authors take the subjective perception of the decision maker and the objective indicator from the capital market into consideration. The decision maker’s subjective perception includes confidence towards future value of money and anxiety to return the money, while the objective indicator is represented by the compounded discount rate. The results suggest that over the given planning horizon, with more confidence, inventory policy of larger order quantity and smaller order frequency should be adopted; with more anxiety within a threshold, inventory policy of smaller order quantity and larger order frequency should be adopted, and with more anxiety beyond this threshold, inventory policy keeps unchanged; with a larger discount rate, inventory policy of smaller order quantity and larger order frequency should be adopted.
Modeling the Acute and Chronic Phases of Theiler Murine Encephalomyelitis Virus Infection

ABSTRACT Theiler murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) infection of a mouse's central nervous system is biphasic: first the virus infects motor neurons (acute phase), and this is followed by a chronic phase in which the virus infects glial cells (primarily microglia and macrophages [Mϕ]) of the spinal cord white matter, leading to inflammation and demyelination. As such, TMEV-induced demyelinating disease in mice provides a highly relevant experimental animal model for multiple sclerosis. Mathematical models have proven valuable in understanding the in vivo dynamics of persistent virus infections, such as HIV-1, hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C virus infections. However, viral dynamic modeling has not been used for understanding TMEV infection. We constructed the first mathematical model of TMEV-host kinetics during acute and early chronic infections in mice and fit measured viral kinetic data with the model. The data fitting allowed us to estimate several unknown parameters, including the following: the rate of infection of neurons, 0.5 × 10−8 to 5.6 × 10−8 day−1; the percent reduction of the infection rate due to the presence of virus-specific antibodies, which reaches 98.5 to 99.9% after day 15 postinfection (p.i.); the half-life of infected neurons, 0.1 to 1.2 days; and a cytokine-enhanced macrophage source rate of 25 to 350 Mϕ/day into the spinal cord starting at 10.9 to 12.9 days p.i. The model presented here is a first step toward building a comprehensive model for TMEV-induced demyelinating disease. Moreover, the model can serve as an important tool in understanding TMEV infectious mechanisms and may prove useful in evaluating antivirals and/or therapeutic modalities to prevent or inhibit demyelination.
Prognostic Factors for Ovarian Epithelial Cancer in the Elderly: A Case-Control Study

Objectives Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of mortality by gynecologic cancers in Western countries. Many publications have suggested that age may be an independent prognostic factor in ovarian carcinoma. There are only few data concerning the impact of treatments and geriatric features within the elderly population. Methods/Materials We collected data of older (≥70 years old) patients treated in our institution for an invasive ovarian carcinoma between 1995 and 2011. First we described usual clinical and pathological features for these patients, as well as their outcome. We compared these parameters with that of young (<70 years old) patients treated during the same period. We then observed geriatric features in our set: Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, number of medications, Charlson index, body mass index, hemoglobin, and glomerular filtration rate. We finally looked for prognostic factors specific of the elderly population. Results One hundred nine elderly patients were identified and compared with 488 younger cases. There was no difference concerning clinicopathologic data. Surgery was more frequently complete in young women (58% vs 41.7%), and older patients received less chemotherapy courses and less taxanes (38.4% vs 67.1%). Young patients had a longer overall survival (median, 65.2 vs 26.2 months, P = 8.5E−10, log-rank test). Multivariate analyses confirmed that age was an independent prognostic factor and that within the elderly set the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, surgery results, number of chemotherapy cycles administered and performance status had a significant prognostic value. No clear correlation could be observed between geriatric characteristics and treatments administration. Conclusions Ovarian cancer prognosis is poorer for older women, but they are more frequently suboptimally treated. No correlation could be observed between geriatric factors and surgery or chemotherapy achievement. Treatment decision should be based on objective geriatric assessment in order to improve outcome in this population.
Continuous Infusion of Pantoprazole versus Ranitidine for Prevention of Ulcer Rebleeding: A U.S. Multicenter Randomized, Double-Blind Study

OBJECTIVES:No North American randomized study has compared ulcer rebleeding rates after endoscopic hemostasis in high-risk patients treated with high-dose intravenous (IV) proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) or IV histamine-2 receptor antagonists. Our hypothesis was that ulcer rebleeding with IV pantoprazole (PAN) would be lower than with IV ranitidine (RAN). METHODS:This was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, U.S. study. Patients with bleeding peptic ulcers and major stigmata of hemorrhage had endoscopic hemostasis with thermal probes with or without epinephrine injection, then were randomly assigned to IV PAN 80 mg plus 8 mg/h or IV RAN 50 mg plus 6.25 mg/h for 72 h, and subsequently had an oral PPI (1/day). Patients with signs of rebleeding had repeat endoscopy. Rebleeding rates up to 30 days were compared in an intention-to-treat analysis.RESULTS:The study was stopped early because of slow enrollment (total N = 149, PAN 72, RAN 77). Demographics, APACHE II scores, ulcer type/location, stigmata, and hemostasis used were similar. The 7- and 30-day rebleeding rate was 6.9% (5 of 72 patients) with PAN and 14.3% (11 of 77) for RAN (p = 0.19). Rebleeds occurred within 72 h in 56% and between 4 and 7 days in 44% of patients. The 30-day mortality rate was 4%. Nonbleeding severe adverse events were more common in the RAN than in the PAN group (14 [18.1%] vs 7 [9.7%], p = 0.16). CONCLUSIONS:Because of the small sample size of this study, there was an arithmetic but not significant difference in ulcer rebleeding rates.
Improvement on the catalytic performance of Mg-Zr mixed oxides for furfural-acetone aldol condensation by supporting on mesoporous carbons.

A new procedure for improving the performance of the most common catalysts used in aqueous-phase aldol condensation (Mg-Zr mixed oxides) reactions is presented. This reaction is of interest for upgrading carbohydrate feedstocks. The procedure involves supporting Mg-Zr oxides on non-microporous carbonaceous materials, such as carbon nanofibers (CNFs) or high-surface-area graphites (HSAGs), using either incipient wetness or coprecipitation procedures. The use of HSAGs together with the coprecipitation method provides the best performance. Results obtained for the cross-condensation of acetone and furfural at 323 K reveal that the catalyst performance is greatly improved compared to the bulk oxides (96.5 % conversion vs. 81.4 % with the bulk oxide; 87.8 % selectivity for C13 and C8 adducts vs. 76.2 % with the bulk oxide). This difference is even more prominent in terms of rates per catalytically active basic site (four and seven times greater for C8 and C13 adducts, respectively). The improved performance is explained in terms of a more appropriate basic site distribution and by greater interaction of the reactants with the carbon surface. In addition, deactivation behavior of the catalyst is improved by tuning the morphology of the carbonaceous support. An important enhancement of the catalytic stability can be obtained selecting a HSAG with an appropriate pore diameter. With HSAG100 the activity decreased by less than 20 % between successive reaction cycles and the selectivity for the condensation products remained almost unaltered. The decrease is greater than 80 % for the bulk oxides tested at these conditions, with important increases in the selectivity for by-product formation.
The Asymmetric Effects of Oil Price Changes on the Economic Activities in Indonesia

This paper analyzes the asymmetric impact of oil price changes on the economic growth of and inflation in Indonesia by using the vector autoregression (VAR) model for the period from 1990Q1 to 2016Q4. The results show that the impact of oil price changes on the gross domestic product (GDP) is asymmetric, as a drop in oil prices decreases the GDP, whereas an increase in oil prices does not significantly affect GDP. It is crucial for Indonesia to reduce its dependency on oil, mainly as its primary source of revenue, and also consider utilizing more sources of renewable energy. At the same time, the effects of both the positive and negative changes in oil prices are found to be not statistically significant to inflation. The lack of impact of oil price changes on inflation can explain by the implementation of the fuel price subsidy in Indonesia. DOI: 10.15408/sjie.v7i1. 6052
Losing Streak: How Tasmania was gamed by the gambling industry

The story begins with the toppling of a premier, and ends with David Walsh, the man behind MONA, taking an eccentric stand against pokie machines and the political status quo. It is a story of broken politics and back-room deals. It shows how giving one company the licence to all poker machines in the most disadvantaged state in the country has lead to several hundred million dollars of profits (Mainly from problem gamblers) being diverted from public use, through a series of questionable and poorly understood deals. Losing streak is a meticulous, compelling case study in governance failure, which has implications for pokies reform throughout Australia.
UDP‐sugar pyrophosphatase of rat retina: Subcellular localization and topography

Rat retinal tissue possesses as a developmentally regulated, highly active pyrophosphatase activity that hydrolyzes UDP‐GalNAc and UDP‐Gal but not CMP‐NeuAc (Martina et al.: J Neurochem 62:1274–1280, 1995). We show here that this activity, measured with UDP‐[3H]GalNAc as substrate, is associated to the membrane fraction of rat retinal homogenates and, upon subfractionation by isopycnic centrifugation in sucrose density gradients, is concentrated in fractions enriched in light Golgi membranes. We examined also the topographic disposition of the catalytic site of the enzyme in the transverse plane of the membranes by measuring the effect of protease treatment and of added EDTA on its activity. Pronase inhibited 50% of the translocation of UDP‐[3H]GalNAc to the lumen of the Golgi vesicles but did not affect the enzyme activity either in the absence or in the presence of detergent. EDTA, a membrane‐impermeant molecule, inhibited 90% of the activity of the enzyme but did not affect translocation of UDP‐[3H]GalNAc and inhibited only 25% the incorporation of [3H]GalNAc into endogenous glycoconjugates. These results indicate that the translocation of UDP‐[3H]GalNAc was not necessary for hydrolysis to occur and strongly suggest that the catalytic site of the UDP‐sugar pyrophosphatase is oriented toward the cytosolic side of the Golgi vesicles. We speculate that this activity limits the availability of UDP‐GalNAc to its specific translocator and, consequently, the luminal concentration of the nucleotide in the Golgi vesicles. In this way, by limiting the availability of UDP‐GalNAc for the conversion of GM3 to GM2 by the GM3:N‐acetylgalactosaminyl transferase, it would contribute to the preferential use of GM3 for synthesis of GD3 and other “b” pathway gangliosides that are characteristic of the rat retina. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Evaluation of Local Comprehensive Plans Toward Sustainable Green Infrastructure in US

The benefits of green infrastructure have been verified at the site-level by many empirical studies. However, there is limited understanding of how local governments prepare and implement green infrastructure planning in practice. This study employs the content analysis method to examine the quality of local comprehensive plans regarding sustainable green infrastructure in 60 municipalities of the United States. The study uses regression analysis to explain the variance of plan quality. Study results indicate that key green infrastructure principles were not fully incorporated in the existing sampled plans, with average score of 19.6 out of 50. While plan quality scores were slightly higher in counties than in cities, both areas could significantly improve plan quality with detailed policies, action strategies, and implementation tactics for green infrastructure planning and management. Regression analysis further identified that planning capacities, as well as socio-economic characteristics of study area may impact overall plan quality. The findings of this study demonstrate the importance of incorporating detailed green infrastructure principles whenever local planners adopt or amend regional plans in order to improve plan quality and to support implementation.
Efficient Intra and Most Probable Mode (MPM) Selection Based on Statistical Texture Features

High Efficiency video coding (HEVC) Encoder could give higher compression efficiency by offering 35 intra modes. However, this increases the complexity of the encoder due to more modes participate in the decision process. Therefore, it is necessary to build a fast and efficient intra prediction algorithm that is practical for real time application. Statistical properties of reference samples and the current intra block can be investigated to find out which modes will be efficient for the current block. Therefore, an adaptive and efficient modes selection model is presented in this paper. Firstly, intra modes are efficiently short listed by calculating the Euclidean distance between the statistical features of the reference samples and the current block. Secondly, an efficient MPM selection method is proposed that selects the modes for MPM by investigating the correlation between the neigh boring blocks and the current block. Experimental results demonstrate that average BD-Rate saving of the proposed approach is -0.11%, and BD-PSNR is improved by 0.0065%.
3-Hydroxykynurenine Transaminase Identity with Alanine Glyoxylate Transaminase

This study describes the functional characterization of a specific mosquito transaminase responsible for catalyzing the transamination of 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK) to xanthurenic acid (XA). The enzyme was purified from Aedes aegypti larvae by ammonium sulfate fractionation, heat treatment, and various chromatographic techniques, plus non-denaturing electrophoresis. The purified transaminase has a relative molecular mass of 42,500 by SDS-PAGE. N-terminal and internal sequencing of the purified protein and its tryptic fragments resolved a partial N-terminal sequence of 19 amino acid residues and 3 partial internal peptide sequences with 7, 10, and 7 amino acid residues. Using degenerate primers based on the partial internal sequences for PCR amplification and cDNA library screening, a full-length cDNA clone with a 1,167-bp open reading frame was isolated. Its deduced amino acid sequence consists of 389 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular mass of 43,239 and shares 45–46% sequence identity with mammalian alanine glyoxylate transaminases. Northern analysis shows the active transcription of the enzyme in larvae and developing eggs. Substrate specificity analysis of this mosquito transaminase demonstrates that the enzyme is active with 3-HK, kynurenine, or alanine substrates. The enzyme has greater affinity and catalytic efficiency for 3-HK than for kynurenine and alanine. The biochemical characteristics of the enzyme in conjunction with the profiles of 3-HK transaminase activity and XA accumulation during mosquito development clearly point out its physiological function in the 3-HK to XA pathway. Our data suggest that the mosquito transaminase was evolved in a manner precisely reflecting the physiological requirement of detoxifying 3-HK produced in the tryptophan oxidation pathway in the mosquito.
Endothelium‐Dependent Changes In Arterial Diameter In Old Normotensive Rats

1. In normotensive rats, removal of carotid artery endothelium results in an acute increase in diameter. This finding, observed in young animals, has not been investigated in old animals. The present study was undertaken to assess the contribution of endothelial function in the regulation of arterial stiffness in aged rats.
Endogenous growth in a multi-sector economy

There are at least three different approaches to endogenous growth (Jones and Manuelli, 1997, survey this literature). Two include nonconvexities or externalities or both. The third relies on convex models of growth in which, properly interpreted, the two welfare theorems hold (e.g., Jones and Manuelli, 1990 and Rebelo, 1991). The models in this last strand of literature are characterized by the fact that production is not limited by primary resources, so that even if the technology is stationary, unbounded production paths are feasible. For the sake of simplicity we call "convex models" the models whose equilibria satisfy the conditions of the two Fundamental Theorems of Welfare Economics, and subdivide them in "bounded models" (those whose feasible paths are limited by the availability of natural resources) and "unbounded models". In the last fifteen years, models with explicit consumption and a production side in which 'goods are made out of goods alone' (Champernowne, 1945, p. 12) has been widely used in the new growth theory, especially in that approach to endogenous growth based on the assumption that all production factors are reproducible (Lucas, 1988; Rebelo, 1991). It could be argued that any mechanism the literature has envisaged to make sustained growth possible has essentially involved the assumption that there is a 'core' of capital goods whose production does not require (either directly or indirectly) non-producibile factors. In fact the reduced form of most endogenous growth models is linear or asymptotically linear in the reproducible factors (see for example, Frankel, 1962; Romer, 1986, 1987, 1990)1. A consequence has been that in the
Expression of the Escherichia coli NRZ nitrate reductase is highly growth phase dependent and is controlled by RpoS, the alternative vegetative sigma factor

In the absence of oxygen, many bacteria preferentially use nitrate as a terminal electron acceptor for anaerobic respiration. In Escherichia coli, there are two membrane‐bound, differentially regulated nitrate reductases. While the physiological basis for this metabolic redundancy is not completely understood, during exponential growth, synthesis of NRA is greatly induced by anaerobiosis plus nitrate, whereas NRZ is expressed at a low level that is not influenced by anaerobiosis or nitrate. In the course of identifying genes controlled by the stationary phase regulatory factor RpoS (σs), we found that the expression of NRZ is induced during entry into stationary phase and highly dependent on this alternative sigma factor. Expression studies, using operon fusions and nitrate reductase assays, revealed that the NRZ operon is controlled mainly at the level of transcription and is induced 10‐fold at the onset of stationary phase in rich media. Consistent with previous reports of RpoS expression, the RpoS dependency of NRZ in minimal media was very high (several hundredfold). We also observed a fivefold stationary phase induction of NRZ in an rpoS background, indicating that other regulatory factors, besides RpoS, are probably involved in transcriptional control of NRZ. The RpoS dependence of NRZ expression was confirmed by Northern analyses using RNA extracted from wild‐type and rpoS− strains sampled in exponential and stationary phase. In toto, these data indicate that RpoS‐mediated regulation of NRZ may be an important physiological adaptation that allows the cell to use nitrate under stress‐associated conditions.