Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The urgent need to develop new drugs and tools for the treatment of Chagas disease

Chagas disease Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which was discovered by the Brazilian Carlos Chagas in 1909, and affects people predominantly from poor rural areas of Latin America. Approximately 10–12 million people are infected in endemic areas and the disease kills more than 15,000 people each year [1]. T. cruzi is composed of hetero geneous strains that have been recently classified into six groups, TcI–VI, which have different geographical distributions and biological properties [2]. The parasite is transmitted in the feces of a triatomine insect after feeding on the blood of diverse mammals, including humans and other vertebrates. The parasite is able to penetrate the new host through broken skin or through the mucous membranes of the eyes and mouth. Vertical transmission is the second source of infection. In endemic countries, the vertical transmission rate is between less than 1 and 17% depending on geographic area [3]. Oral transmission to humans and animals has also been described after the ingestion of food and drink contaminated with the feces of an infected triatomine [4]. In nonendemic areas, vertical transmission and blood and organ donations from immigrants coming from an endemic area are the main pathways of Chagas disease transmission. In Europe (especially Spain and Portugal), the USA, Canada, Japan and Australia there are large numbers of South American immigrants who are often unaware of their infection, which has serious public health implications for the management of blood banks and healthcare provision [5]. Therefore, the compulsory screening of T. cruzi in hemoderivatives and solid organs donated by patients from Latin America should be considered. The infection goes through two clinical periods: an acute and a consecutive chronic phase [6]. The first symptoms of acute Chagas disease appear 1 week after entry of the parasite and include fever, discomfort and swelling of the lymph nodes and tissues. The most common manifestation of acute Chagas disease is Romaña’s sign, which is simply the bite mark of the vector when it is located in the eyelid. In most patients, acute Chagas disease symptoms resolve spontaneously. Nevertheless, without specific treatment during the acute phase, the infection progresses to a long asymptomatic period, which may last for years, and is known as indeterminate or asymptomatic chronic Chagas disease. It is estimated that in around one-third of those infected, clinical manifestations of different degrees of Maria J Muñoz
Multi-Family Group Intervention in a Programme for Patients With First-Episode Psychosis: a Brazilian Experience

Background: Patients’ relatives are considered crucial for treatment and recovery in psychosis but family intervention studies have shown contradictory results in firstepisode psychosis. The aims of this study were to survey caregivers’ satisfaction with the multi-family intervention delivered by our programme and to verify if knowledge acquisition about illness and treatment provided by the family intervention was considered enough and understandable. Methods: Sixty five family members of 46 first-episode patients were invited to answer a satisfaction questionnaire about the intervention. Results: Forty individuals returned the questionnaire: 31 women (77.5%) and nine men (22.5%). Most (82.5%) had daily contact with the patient and 19 (47.5%) were mothers. Regarding knowledge acquisition, approximately one third did not improve their understanding of the illness. Nonetheless, 90% of the participants believed the meetings helped them to cope with their ill relative and 95% approved the multi-family format. Conclusions: Non-specific aspects of the intervention were seen as the most useful part of the programme. An important target of treatment would be to improve the way in which the specific psychoeducational components are delivered to individuals with low formal education.
[Diammonium glycyrrhizinate does not affect efficacy of adefovir dipivoxil therapy in patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B].

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of diammonium glycyrrhizinate on the antiviral therapy with adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) in patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B. METHODS Patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B enrolled in this study were randomized to receive either ADV 10 mg/d fir 48 weeks or placebo for 24 weeks followed by ADV 10 mg/d for 24 weeks. Antiviral activities of diammonium glycyrrhizinate administered during the trial were studied with respect to virological and serologic response, and ALT normalization. RESULTS Twenty-one of 142 patients in ADV group vs. 11 of 68 patients in placebo group were treated with diammonium glycyrrhizinate. There was no significant difference in virological, serological and biochemical responses between patients with or without diammonium glycyrrhizinate in both therapy groups. During double-blind period, virological response was significantly worse in patients only receiving diammonium glycyrrhizinate than those combined with ADV. CONCLUSION Diammonium glycyrrhizinate had no antiviral activity and exerts no influence on the efficacy of ADV treatment in patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B.
Identificação e comparação de espécies do gênero Eimeria Schneider, 1875 (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) oriundas de suínos através de um algoritmo morfológico

Este artigo tem como objetivo identificar e comparar tres especies do genero Eimeria em suinos criados em condicoesrusticas no municipio de Campos dos Goytacazes, estado do Rio de Janeiro com base na avaliacao morfometrica tradicionale atraves de um algoritmo morfometrico previamente proposto. Os porcos dos quais foram coletadas fezes nao tinham sinaisclinicos caracteristicos de eimeriose. Os oocistos encontrados foram separados morfologicamente em tres tipos a partir dasmedidas dos diâmetros maior e menor dos oocistos esporulados. Foram encontradas E. neodebliecki, E. scabra e E. polita.Ao se utilizar o algoritmo morfologico para confirmacao especifica, calculou-se o indice algoritmico de E. neodebliecki (G2 =1,29 ± 0,05 e SP = 1,62 ± 0,35), o qual ainda nao havia sido estabelecido.
New high-intensity source of polarization-entangled photon pairs.

We report on a high-intensity source of polarization-entangled photon pairs with high momentum definition. Type-II noncollinear phase matching in parametric down conversion produces true entanglement: No part of the wave function must be discarded, in contrast to previous schemes. With two-photon fringe visibilities in excess of 97%, we demonstrated a violation of Bell's inequality by over 100 standard deviations in less than 5 min. The new source allowed ready preparation of all four of the EPR-Bell states.
Epithelial cell-derived periostin functions as a tumor suppressor in gastric cancer through stabilizing p53 and E-cadherin proteins via the Rb/E2F1/p14ARF/Mdm2 signaling pathway

Periostin is usually considered as an oncogene in diverse human cancers, including breast, prostate, colon, esophagus, and pancreas cancers, whereas it acts as a tumor suppressor in bladder cancer. In gastric cancer, it has been demonstrated that periglandular periostin expression is decreased whereas stromal periostin expression is significantly increased as compared with normal gastric tissues. Moreover, periostin produced by stromal myofibroblasts markedly promotes gastric cancer cell growth. These observations suggest that periostin derived from different types of cells may play distinct biological roles in gastric tumorigenesis. The aim of this study was to explore the biological functions and related molecular mechanisms of epithelial cell-derived periostin in gastric cancer. Our data showed that periglandular periostin was significantly down-regulated in gastric cancer tissues as compared with matched normal gastric mucosa. In addition, its expression in metastatic lymph nodes was significantly lower than that in their primary cancer tissues. Our data also demonstrated that periglandular periostin expression was negatively associated with tumor stage. More importantly, restoration of periostin expression in gastric cancer cells dramatically suppressed cell growth and invasiveness. Elucidation of the mechanisms involved revealed that periostin restoration enhanced Rb phosphorylation and sequentially activated the transcription of E2F1 target gene p14ARF, leading to Mdm2 inactivation and the stabilization of p53 and E-cadherin proteins. Strikingly, these effects of periostin were abolished upon Rb deletion. Collectively, we have for the first time demonstrated that epithelial cell-derived periostin exerts tumor-suppressor activities in gastric cancer through stabilizing p53 and E-cadherin proteins via the Rb/E2F1/p14ARF/Mdm2 signaling pathway.
Drug information for the mentally ill: A randomized controlled trial.

Drugs play a significant role in maintaining the health of the mentally ill Lack of information is known to be one of the chief reasons for patients' failure to adhere to prescribed regimens. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of drug information leaflets for mentally ill patients on knowledge and satisfaction concerning psychotropic drug therapy. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of 249 adult general psychiatry patients (124 inpatients and 125 community patients), half assigned to the invervention (i.e., patient information leaflets; these patients also received the usual information) (n = 120) and half receiving the usual information only (n = 129). The assessments were made using a semi-structured questionnaire. The mean total knowledge score was significantly higher with intervention in both acute and community patients. Analysis of individual aspects of knowledge showed a marked lack of knowledge in the areas of side-effects and precautions, which improved significantly with intervention. Patients in the community showed a greater awareness of their drug therapy than did inpatients. Improvement in knowledge was evident in all diagnostic groups. There was no significant relationship with age, sex, level of education and number of drugs. Overall, 60% of controls and 79% of leaflet patients were satisfied with their drug information. Patient information leaflets provided a useful source of reference for the patients and the carers.
A Data Processing Middleware Based on SOA for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) emphasizes on connecting every object around us by leveraging a variety of wireless communication technologies. Heterogeneous data fusion is widely considered to be a promising and urgent challenge in the data processing of the IoT. In this study, we first discuss the development of the concept of the IoT and give a detailed description of the architecture of the IoT. And then we design a middleware platform based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) for integration of multisource heterogeneous information. New research angle regarding flexible heterogeneous information fusion architecture for the IoT is the theme of this paper. Experiments using environmental monitoring sensor data derived from indoor environment are performed for system validation. Through the theoretical analysis and experimental verification, the data processing middleware architecture represents better adaptation to multisensor and multistream application scenarios in the IoT, which improves heterogeneous data utilization value. The data processing middleware based on SOA for the IoT establishes a solid foundation of integration and interaction for diverse networks data among heterogeneous systems in the future, which simplifies the complexity of integration process and improves reusability of components in the system.
Levels of pollutants in indoor air and respiratory health in preschool children: A systematic review

The aim of this paper is thus to identify, evluate, and summarize in a systematic fashion all the epidemiological studies that have analyzed the association between exposure to specific indoor air pollutants and respiratory disease among children under the age of five. A search was carried out in the main biomedical bibliographica sources in December 2006 and updated in February 2008. The study period covered 12 years (1996–2007). All the selected papers were carefully read. We focused on studies that analyzed at least one indicator of respiratory health and which included one or more indoor air pollutants in relation to the respiratory health of children under the age of 5. Studies that analyzed passive smoking as the sole source of indoor air pollution were not included. Fourteen studies were considered to be relevant. The most analyzed pollutant was nitrogen dioxide, followed by volative organic compounds, airborne particulates and other pollutants; phthalates and CO2. The literature reviewed within our criteria seems to indicate that several indoor pollutants, even at the moderate levels found in the developed countries, could be harmful to the respiratory health of very young children. Future research should focus on conducting more studies, preferably making use of cohorts, with adequate techniques for measuring indooor pollution levels. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2009; 44:231–243. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Production , Manufacturing and Logistics Ordering and pricing of service products in an advance sales system with price-dependent demand

This investigation addresses a service inventory control problem in which a firm orders and sells a service which will be used or consumed by customers on a specific future date. The firm sells the product through an advance booking system, aiming to optimize product price to maximize the total expected profit. Considering situations in which product demand is price-dependent and customers with reservations may cancel advance orders, this work develops a continuous-time model to simultaneously determine the order quantity and selling prices. The analytical results reveal that the optimal ordering quantity and prices are derived via closed-form solutions. In addition, sensitivity analysis of the optimal prices with respect to the system parameters is also conducted to illustrate optimal decision characteristics. 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Generation and Detection of Alignments in Gabor Patterns

This paper presents a method to be used in psychophysical experiments to compare directly visual perception to an a contrario algorithm, on a straight patterns detection task. The method is composed of two parts. The ﬁrst part consists in building a stimulus, namely an array of oriented elements, in which an alignment is present with variable salience. The second part focuses on a detection algorithm, based on the a contrario theory, which is designed to predict which alignment will be considered as the most salient in a given stimulus.
Rapid assessment of suitable antenna positions on flying platforms

An efficient way to find suitable antenna positions on flying platforms is presented. This is achieved by use of an in-house developed Matlab tool for antenna field of view analysis. Its underlying algorithm and functionality are described. Good agreement between the simplified output of the tool and antenna patterns obtained by 3D EM full-wave simulation is shown using the example of a generic UAV platform.
Diffusion adaptation through free space optical (FSO) wireless communication channels

Free space optical (FSO) communication systems have gathered a lot of attention due to their irresistible features including faster data rates, cheap and easy implementation. Implementing distributed adaptive networks using this technology will increase the efficiency and speed of these networks. In this paper, we investigate one of the hindering problems of this application namely atmospheric turbulence. We model this turbulence with Log-normal and Gamma-Gamma distributions and study the effect of both of these models on the performance of diffusion adaptation strategies over adaptive networks. We analyze the effect of atmospheric turbulence along with noisy links among nodes for both Adapt then Combine (ATC) and Combine then adapt (CTA) diffusion algorithms and present the results in order to compare their impact. We present our simulation results with the mean square deviation (MSD) criteria. The results show that atmospheric turbulence degrade the performance of adaptive network severely and in the worst cases may avoid the convergence of the network.
The Schizosaccharomyces pombe actin‐related protein, Arp3, is a component of the cortical actin cytoskeleton and interacts with profilin.

The gene encoding the actin‐related protein Arp3 was first identified in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and is a member of an evolutionarily conserved family of actin‐related proteins. Here we present several key findings that define an essential role for Arp3p in the functioning of the cortical actin cytoskeleton. First, mutants in arp3 interact specifically with profilin and actin mutants. Second, Arp3 localizes to cortical actin patches which are required for polarized cell growth. Third, the arp3 gene is required for the reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton during the cell cycle. Finally, the Arp3 protein is present in a large protein complex. We believe that this complex may mediate the cortical functions of profilin at actin patches in S. pombe.
Segregation analysis of translocations by the study of human sperm chromosome complements.

This issue of The American Journal ofHuman Genetics contains an important paper by Pellestor et al. on the segregation analysis of four reciprocal translocations by using the technique of human sperm-hamster egg fusion to provide human sperm karyotypes. It has been a short decade since Rudak et al. (1978) first published the exciting new technique which allowed our first glimpse ofhuman sperm chromosomes. Since then, research has blossomed in this new era of reproductive genetics (albeit slowly at first), and 11 laboratories in 10 different countries have published results. Balkan and Martin (1983a) reported the first study of chromosome segregation in the sperm of two men heterozygous for reciprocal translocations. Since that study, a total of 23 men with constitutional chromosomal abnormalities have been studied using sperm chromosome analysis: two men carryng inversions (Balkan et al. 1983; Martin 1986b), two men with accessory marker chromosomes (Martin et al. 1986), one male with a fragile site (Martin 1986a), one 47,XYY male (Benet and Martin 1988), four Robertsonian translocation heterozygotes (Balkan and Martin 1983b; Pellestor et al. 1987; Martin 1988a; Syme and Martin 1988), and 14 reciprocal translocations carried by 13 men (Balkan and Martin 1983a; Martin 1984; Brandriff et al. 1986; Burns et al. 1986; Martin 1988b; Martin et al. 1988; Templado et al. 1988; Pellestor et al. 1989). Therefore, the study of Pellestor et al. (1989) makes a significant contribution to our emerging knowledge in this young field. The body of data from 14 reciprocal translocations allows us some insight into the meiotic segregation of translocations in the human male. All theoretical types
The role of innovation in changing early upper paleolithic organic projectile technologies

Le Paleolithique superieur est caracterise comme etant la premiere periode pendant laquelle eurent lieu de l'innovation et des changements acceleres pour des objets de culture materielle. Six types de pointes de projectile en os et andouiller (pointes a base fendue, en losange, en forme de fusee, a un seul biais, a biais lateral, en cote de mammouth) furent examines dans une tentative d'explorer le role de l'innovation et la nature de la pensee visuelle dans le developpement et l'elaboration des techniques du Paleolithique superieur ancien. La combinaison des resultats d'analyse morphologiques, traceologiques, et experimentales ont eclaire des strategies changeantes de dessin, de realisation et de l'emploi des pointes de projectile organiques du Paleolitique superieur ancien
Endemic Asteraceae from Mauritius Islands as Potential Phytomedicines

The present study aimed at validating the phytomedicinal properties of selected species from the Asteraceae family, namely Psiadia arguta (Pa), Psiadia viscosa (Pv) Psiadia lithospermifolia (Pl) , and Distephanus populifolius (Dp). Hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol leaf extracts were studied for their antioxidant properties and antibacterial activity. The phenolics levels varied from 24.05 to 231.6 mg gallic acid equivalent/g with the maximum level in methanol extracts of Pa and Dp. The highest flavonoids and proanthocyanidins content were noted in Pa methanolic extract with 65.7 mg quercetin/g and 25.05 mg catechin/g extract, respectively. Pa polar extracts had also the maximum free radical scavenging activity(DPPH) with IC50 11.31 and 11.6 μg/ml respectively. The maximum ferric reducing potential(FRAP) was noted in Pl methanol extracts 281.60 mmol Fe2+/g extract. The antioxidant capacity based on DPPH and FRAP values were positively correlated to total phenolics, flavonoid and proanthocyanidins. All four species exhibited antimicrobial activity against the tested bacteria (both Gram-negative and Gram-positive). Hexane and ethyl acetate extracts of Psiadia species were the most promising extracts, with the lowest minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) values ranging from 19.53 to78.125 μg/ml. Keywords— antibacterial, DPPH, flavonoids, FRAP, Psiadia spp.
Gene – gene interactions in the folate metabolic pathway influence the risk for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common pediatric cancer. Genetic polymorphisms in the folate metabolic pathway may contribute to the susceptibility to childhood ALL because they affect the DNA synthesis, methylation and repair. We analysed common genetic polymorphisms of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), thymidylate synthase (TS), methionine synthase (MS) and methionine synthase reductase (MTRR) in 68 children with ALL and 258 healthy controls to investigate their influence on the risk for ALL. No significant differences in frequencies of separate polymorphisms were observed between both groups. Combined MTHFR 677CT/TT and MS 2756AG/GG genotypes showed a nonsignificant tendency to reduce the risk for ALL 2.24-fold (CI: 0.191 – 1.037, P: 0.061). The risk was significantly reduced in carriers of combined MTHFR 677CT/TT, MS 2756AG/GG and MTRR 66AG/GG genotypes (OR: 0.312; CI: 0.107 – 0.907; P: 0.032). Our results suggest that gene – gene interactions that may decrease the methylation capacity might have a protective effect on the risk for childhood ALL.