Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Update on the Knowledge of Parasite–Vector Interactions of Chagas Disease

Abstract This review focusses on the interactions between the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, and its triatomine vector. The flagellate mainly colonizes the intestinal tract of the insect. The effect of triatomines on trypanosomes is indicated by susceptibility and refractoriness phenomena that vary according to the combination of the strains. Other effects are apparent in the different regions of the gut. In the stomach, the majority of ingested blood trypomastigotes are killed while the remaining transform to round stages. In the small intestine, these develop into epimastigotes, the main replicative stage. In the rectum, the population density is the highest and is where the infectious stage develops, the metacyclic trypomastigote. In all regions of the gut, starvation and feeding of the triatomine affect T. cruzi. In the small intestine and rectum, starvation reduces the population density and more spheromastigotes develop. In the rectum, feeding after short-term starvation induces metacyclogenesis and after long-term starvation the development of specific cells, containing several nuclei, kinetoplasts and flagella. When considering the effects of T. cruzi on triatomines, the flagellate seems to be of low pathogenicity. However, during stressful periods, which are normal in natural populations, effects occur often on the behaviour, eg, in readiness to approach the host, the period of time before defecation, dispersal and aggregation. In nymphs, the duration of the different instars and the mortality rates increase, but this seems to be induced by repeated infections or blood quality by the feeding on infected hosts. Starvation resistance is often reduced by infection. Longevity and reproduction of adults is reduced, but only after infection with some strains of T. cruzi. Only components of the surface coat of blood trypomastigotes induce an immune reaction. However, this seems to act against gut bacteria and favours the development of T. cruzi.
Clinical Efficacy of Polymyxin B in Patients Infected with Carbapenem-Resistant Organisms

Purpose Carbapenem-resistant organisms (CROs) pose great challenges for clinical treatment. Polymyxin B (PMB) is one of the “last resort” choices of CRO infections. We explored the possible factors affecting PMB efficacy. Patients and Methods This retrospective study involved CRO-infected patients treated with PMB for ≥72 h. The endpoint indicator was clinical efficacy. We compared the characteristics (demographics, pathogenic bacteria, PMB treatment) between patients who had “clinical success” (CS) and “clinical failure” (CF). Results A total of 191 patients were enrolled: 110 in the CS group and 81 in the CF group. The total cumulative dose for the CS group was higher than the CF group [1100 (700–1443.75) vs 800 (500–1112.5) mg; P = 0.001]. Treatment duration in the CS group was longer than the CF group [11 (8–14) vs 8 (6–11) days; P < 0.000]. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed mechanical ventilation, vasoactive agents, multiple-site infection, and total cumulative dose to be independently associated with clinical efficacy. Cox survival analysis for 30-day mortality also showed that the use of vasoactive agents and the total cumulative dose of PMB could influence survival time and mortality rate independently. Conclusion PMB had good efficacy and a low prevalence of adverse reactions. The total cumulative dose, duration of PMB treatment, mechanical ventilation, vasoactive agents, and multiple-site infection were factors associated with the clinical efficacy of PMB.
Acetone Extract of Cornus officinalis Leaves Exerts Anti-Melanoma Effects via Inhibiting STAT3 Signaling

Purpose This research aims to investigate the intervention and mechanism of 50% acetone extract of C. officinalis leaves (SZYY) on melanoma xenografts. Patients and Methods Tumor size and cardiac function were measured via ultrasound. The accumulation of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) in tumor tissue was examined with near-infrared in vivo imaging. Flow cytometry was performed to assess apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in tumor and immune cells in spleen. The levels of inflammatory cytokines in serum were detected by cytometric bead array. The expression of proliferation-, apoptosis-, and angiogenesis-related proteins in tumor cells was measured to evaluate the underlying mechanisms. Subsequently, the effects of four compounds separated from SZYY on the proliferation and migration of A375 cells and STAT3 signaling were examined. The peak identification and contents of the four components were performed via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Finally, we evaluated the inhibitory effects of STAT3 overexpression on the cytotoxic activity of four constituents in A375 cells. Results SZYY inhibited the growth and glycolysis of melanoma xenograft in mice, improved cardiac function, increased the percentages of macrophages, neutrophils, and lymphocytes in spleen, reduced the levels of IL-6, IL-17A, TNF-α, and IFN-γ in serum, promoted apoptosis and oxidative stress in tumor tissues, and inhibited STAT3 phosphorylation and expression of angiogenic factors. Chemical analysis showed that SZYY is rich in loganin, rutin, triohimas C, and triohimas D, which all could restrain the proliferation and migration of A375 cells and inhibit the phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of STAT3. Moreover, STAT3 overexpression could diminish the cytotoxic activity of four compounds on A375 cells. Conclusion SZYY could exert anti-melanoma effects via inhibiting STAT3 signaling to induce apoptosis and inhibit tumor angiogenesis. Its active ingredients might be loganin, rutin, triohimas C, and triohimas D.
What Animal Cancers teach us about Human Biology

Cancers in animals present a large, underutilized reservoir of biomedical information with critical implication for human oncology and medicine in general. Discussing two distinct areas of tumour biology in non-human hosts, we highlight the importance of these findings for our current understanding of cancer, before proposing a coordinated strategy to harvest biomedical information from non-human resources and translate it into a clinical setting. First, infectious cancers that can be transmitted as allografts between individual hosts, have been identified in four distinct, unrelated groups, dogs, Tasmanian devils, Syrian hamsters and, surprisingly, marine bivalves. These malignancies might hold the key to improving our understanding of the interaction between tumour cell and immune system and, thus, allow us to devise novel treatment strategies that enhance anti-cancer immunosurveillance, as well as suggesting more effective organ and stem cell transplantation strategies. The existence of these malignancies also highlights the need for increased scrutiny when considering the existence of infectious cancers in humans. Second, it has long been understood that no linear relationship exists between the number of cells within an organism and the cancer incidence rate. To resolve what is known as Peto's Paradox, additional anticancer strategies within different species have to be postulated. These naturally occurring idiosyncrasies to avoid carcinogenesis represent novel potential therapeutic strategies.
Deregulation of apolipoprotein C2 gene in cancer: A potential metabolic vulnerability

Dear Editor, Apolipoprotein C2 (APOC2), an activator of lipoprotein lipase, participates in hydrolysis of triglycerides, very low-density lipoproteins, and high-density lipoproteins to release free fatty acids (FA). 1 FA oxidation has emerged as an important source of energy for cancer survival and growth.2 Patterns of APOC2 genomics and transcriptomic alterations in cancer remained unexplored. Here, we characterize APOC2 deregulation in cancer by analyzing 176 studies (supplementary-methods). In 46706 samples of 34 different cancers (Table S1), amplification, mutation, and deep deletion were the main identified APOC2 alterations (Figure S1A). Approximately 1% (251 patients) had at least one genetic alteration in APOC2with the highest frequency (9.72%) present in bladder cancer and gene amplification being themost common alteration. The highest frequency of deep deletions in APOC2 occurred in diffuse glioma (1.36%). APOC2 mutations occurred in 2.3% of non-melanoma skin cancer and at lower frequencies in other cancers (Table S2). Among the 26 different APOC2 missense and truncating mutations, two were previously reported in hypertriglyceridemia (Figure S1B; Tables S3 and S4). APOC2 was expressed at significantly higher levels in several malignancies (Figures 1 and S2), such as patient-derived glioblastoma stem cells (33.7-fold, p < 0.0001; Figure 1A), invasive ductal breast cancer (2.9fold, p< 0.0001; Figure 1B), centroblastic lymphoma (10.1fold, p < 0.0001; Figure 1C), early stage colorectal tumor (3.8-fold, p = 0.0001; Figure 1D), hypopharyngeal cancer (2.1-fold, p = 0.04; Figure 1E), clear cell renal cell carcinoma (5.9-fold, p < 0.001; Figure 1F), skin squamous cell carcinoma (2.3-fold, p= 0.023; Figure 1G), and gastric cancer (4.8-fold, p= 0.002; Figure 1H) compared with the corresponding normal tissues.
Risk Scoring Systems Including Electrolyte Disorders for Predicting the Incidence of Acute Kidney Injury in Hospitalized Patients

Introduction Electrolyte disorders are common among hospitalized patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) and adversely affect the outcome. This study aimed to explore the potential role of abnormal electrolyte levels on predicting AKI and severe AKI. Methods In this retrospective, observational study, we included all hospitalized patients in our hospital in China from October 01, 2014, to September 30, 2015. Since only a few patients had arterial blood gas analysis (ABG), all subjects involved were divided into two groups: patients with ABG and patients without ABG. Severe AKI was defined as AKI stage 2 or 3 according to KDIGO guideline. Results A total of 80,091 patients were enrolled retrospectively and distributed randomly into the test cohort and the validation cohort (2:1). Logistic regression was performed in the test cohort to analyze risk factors including electrolyte disorders and elucidate the association. The test data (derivation cohort) led to AUC values of 0.758 (95% CI: 0.743–0.773; AKI with ABG), 0.751 (95% CI: 0.740–0.763; AKI without ABG), 0.733 (95% CI: 0.700–0.767; severe AKI with ABG), 0.853 (95% CI: 0.824–0.882; severe AKI without ABG). Application of the scoring system in the validation cohort led to AUC values of 0.724 (95% CI: 0.703–0.744; AKI with ABG), 0.738 (95% CI: 0.721–0.755; AKI without ABG), 0.774 (95% CI: 0.732–0.815; severe AKI with ABG), 0.794 (95% CI: 0.760–0.827; severe AKI without ABG). Hosmer–Lemeshow tests revealed a good calibration. Conclusion The risk scoring systems involving electrolyte disorders were established and validated adequately efficient to predict AKI and severe AKI in hospitalized patients. Electrolyte imbalance needs to be carefully monitored and corrections should be made on time to avoid further adverse outcome.
Coronary microvascular injury in myocardial infarction: perception and knowledge for mitochondrial quality control

Endothelial cells (ECs) constitute the innermost layer in all blood vessels to maintain the structural integrity and microcirculation function for coronary microvasculature. Impaired endothelial function is demonstrated in various cardiovascular diseases including myocardial infarction (MI), which is featured by reduced myocardial blood flow as a result of epicardial coronary obstruction, thrombogenesis, and inflammation. In this context, understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing the function of coronary ECs is essential for the early diagnosis and optimal treatment of MI. Although ECs contain relatively fewer mitochondria compared with cardiomyocytes, they function as key sensors of environmental and cellular stress, in the regulation of EC viability, structural integrity and function. Mitochondrial quality control (MQC) machineries respond to a broad array of stress stimuli to regulate fission, fusion, mitophagy and biogenesis in mitochondria. Impaired MQC is a cardinal feature of EC injury and dysfunction. Hence, medications modulating MQC mechanisms are considered as promising novel therapeutic options in MI. Here in this review, we provide updated insights into the key role of MQC mechanisms in coronary ECs and microvascular dysfunction in MI. We also discussed the option of MQC as a novel therapeutic target to delay, reverse or repair coronary microvascular damage in MI. Contemporary available MQC-targeted therapies with potential clinical benefits to alleviate coronary microvascular injury during MI are also summarized.
The relationship between job stress and mental health : study governmental staffs of Sarpol-e-Zahab

This study examines the relationship between job stress and mental health in governmental agencies of Sarpol-e-Zahab city. This research method is descriptivecorrelation. Statically population is all staffs of governmental agencies. Statically sample is 160 people from governmental staffs. Samples were tested by Job stress questionnaire (IVJSI) and public health (28GHQ). Results indicate that the positive relationship between job stress and mental health is significant. There was a significant and positive correlation between job stress and physical symptoms of anxiety and depression, but between job stress and social function symptoms is significant negative correlation; thus attention to work environment and agencies work condition cause to enhance the quality of work, employee mental health and efficiency. © 2014 Elixir All rights reserved. ARTICLE INF O Artic le hi story: Received: 26 October 2014; Received in revised form: 25 November 2014; Accepted: 8 December 2014;
Linear Complexity of Pseudorandom Binary Sequences from de Bruijn Graphs

Bruijn graph, , is a factor in a higher order de Bruijn graph, , of the same alphabet, q , which generalized a well-known binary construction of Lempel is discussed in [5]. There are three standard test batteries for empirically estimating random number quality: Diehard, STS, and Rabbit (in TestU01) test suites to test the randomness properties of binary sequences. It is shown in [6] that sequences generated recursively from de Bruijn graphs pass these test suites. It is also found that such sequences exhibit good autocorrelation and cross correlation properties [7].
Genomic model with correlation between additive and 1 dominance effects 2 3

3 Tao Xiang*†‡, Ole Fredslund Christensen‡, Zulma Gladis Vitezica§, Andres Legarra† 4 5 6 *Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of 7 Education & Key Laboratory of Swine Genetics and Breeding of Ministry of Agriculture, College 8 of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China 9 †INRA, UMR 1388 GenPhySE, F-31326 Castanet-Tolosan, France 10 ‡Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, 11 Aarhus University, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark 12 §Université de Toulouse, UMR 1388 GenPhySE, F-31326 Castanet-Tolosan, France 13 14 15 16 Email addresses: 17 TX: Tao.Xiang@mail.hzau. edu.cn 18 OFC: OleF.Christensen@mbg.au. dk 19 ZGV: Zulma.Vitezica@ensat.fr 20 AL: Andres.Legarra@inra.fr 21 22 Genetics: Early Online, published on May 9, 2018 as 10.1534/genetics.118. 301015
Measuring Efficiency of Commercial Banks in Pakistan with Data Envelopment Analysis

This study evaluates the individual and overall performance of commercial banking industry in Pakistan consists of 20 banks contains almost 90% of the share in terms of deposits, advances, total assets, profitability and labor force divided into four group large, medium, small conventional banks and a group of Islamic banks for the period which is characterized by slow economic growth and precarious macro economic indicators started from 2006 till 2010 by using non parametric technique Data Envelopment Analysis. Technical efficiency under CRS and VRS models and scale efficiency in respect of production and intermediation approaches are evaluated. This study earmarks and reason out the most efficient and inefficient banks, overall performance which is seen under slow growth in commensurate with the economic growth. Where as, Islamic banking group is less efficient but flourishing significantly among all groups. Performance of large conventional banks is less affected with economic upheavals. © 2016 Elixir All rights reserved. ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received: 21 August 2012; Received in revised form: 15 April 2016; Accepted: 21 April 2016;
Forage Potential of Intercropping Barley with Alfalfa under Agrohumic Fertilizer

This experiment was conducted to evaluation of forage potential of intercropping barley with alfalfa under agrohumic fertilizer . The experimental treatments were intercropped barley/alfalfa with 25/75; 50/50, 75/25 ratios along with their sole crops as control plots. Treatments were arranged in a split plot design based on a RCBD with 3 replications. Main factor included agrohumic at four levels (0, 5, 7 and 10 lit/1000lit water per ha). According to result, we suggest using of 7 liter/1000 liter water per ha for intercropping of barley and alfalfa, also using of 50/50 ratio for barley and alfalfa is better ratio for intercropping. © 2014 Elixir All rights reserved. Elixir Agriculture 69 (2014) 23434-23436 Agriculture Available online at www.elixirpublishers. com (Elixir International Journal)
An Unsupervised Pretraining Task for the BiDAF Model

The primary goal of this project is to determine whether pretraining a BiDAF model can improve its performance [1]. Over the past few years and particularly since "Attention is All You Need" was published, the NLP community has moved away from LSTM-based architectures because of the benefits seen by attention-only networks with extensive pre-training [2, 3]. The aim of this project was to determine if results can be improved on a BiDAF model simply by pretraining on a similar task to that used in the original BERT paper [4]. While the BERT paper used a Masked Language Model (MLM) and Next Sentence Predictions (NSP), this paper utilizes what I believe to be a novel variant of MLM, termed Obscured Replacement Language Model (ORLM), to achieve minor performance gains over baseline BiDAF training, as judged by the EM and F1 scores. Further, pretraining the BiDAF model with this method decreases the amount of training required on the SQuAD 2.0 training dataset to achieve similar performances, while boosting task-specific metrics such as the AvNA score.
High Dynamic Range Measurement with Arrayed Frequency Converter

When measuring multicarrier communication systems such as an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) or UWB wireless signal, there is a problem that the effective measuring dynamic range of the measuring instrument may be reduced, since the peak‐to‐average power ratio (PAPR) of the measured signal is significantly high. In order to solve this problem, we propose a technique that maintains the measuring dynamic range by dividing the measured signal into multiple bandwidths to decrease the measured signal power. We made a prototype of the measuring equipment, confirmed the operation of the algorithm, and verified the effectiveness of dynamic range improvement is 5 to 8 dB in relation to a conventional circuit. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 184(2): 28–35, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.22367
PII: S0925-4773(99)00224-5

The PC3 gene is transiently expressed during neurogenesis in precursor cells of the telencephalic ventricular/subventricular zone, and is rapidly downregulated before cell migration and differentiation. It is thought to have a role in controlling cell proliferation, but its precise function is not known. Here we present evidence that PC3, when overexpressed in vitro by retroviral-mediated gene transfer, acts by interfering with the normal pattern of cell division. Firstly, we report evidence that PC3 overexpression reduces the rate of cell proliferation in both NIH 3T3 cells and embryonic precursor cells from the rat cerebral cortex. Secondly, when studying the pattern of BrdU dilution in clones of cortical precursors, we observe that clones transduced with PC3 show an asymmetric pattern of BrdU dilution more frequently than clones transduced with a control vector. We discuss the hypothesis that the higher number of PC3 transduced clones showing an asymmetric pattern of BrdU dilution may be due to an increase in asymmetric cell divisions. q 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0925-4773(99)00230-0

The gene encoding the tissue speci®c transcription factor HNF1a is expressed in vertebrates in tissues of endodermal origin such as the liver and the gut as well as in the kidney, a mesoderm derived organ. Using a 6 kb HNF1a promoter fragment linked to GFP we observed green ̄uorescence in transgenic embryos restricted to the liver and gut as well as to the pronephros, the embryonic kidney. By deletion and mutation analysis of the HNF1a promoter we succeeded in dissecting the HNF1a promoter into two entities that are either active in the endoderm or the mesoderm. In conclusion, our data establish that the generation of transgenic Xenopus allows the functional dissection of promoters in the context of the entire organism. q 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S0042-6989(98)00033-9

Previous work has shown that a single dot moving in a consistent direction is easily detected among noise dots in Brownian motion (Watamaniuk et al., Vis Res 1995;35:65–77). In this study we calculated the predictions of a commonly-used psychophysical motion model for a motion trajectory in noise. This model assumes local motion energy detectors optimally tuned to the signal, followed by a decision stage that implements the maximum rule. We first show that local motion detectors do indeed explain the detectability of brief trajectories (100 ms) that fall within a single unit, but that they severely underestimate the detectability of extended trajectories that span multiple units. For instance, a 200 ms trajectory is approximately three times more detectable than two isolated 100 ms trajectories presented together within an equivalent temporal interval. This result suggests a nonlinear interaction among local motion units. This interaction is not restricted to linear trajectories because circular trajectories with curvatures larger than 1° are almost as detectable as linear trajectories. Our data are consistent with a flexible network that feeds forward excitation among units tuned to similar directions of motion. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.