bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Recent developments in the epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of Fasciola infection
Authors: Webb Camille M. , Cabada Miguel M. 
Published: August 2018

Purpose of review
This review aims at describing the latest research in Fasciola epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and control in endemic countries.

Recent findings
The geographic distribution and range of reservoirs for Fasciola hepatica continues to expand. The impact of fascioliasis goes beyond human disease to affect food security and income in developed and developing countries. Promising serologic and molecular methods to diagnose fascioliasis have been described, but are not widely available. Triclabendazole remains the only highly active medication to treat human and livestock infected with juvenile and adult forms of Fasciola spp. Efforts to control fascioliasis may be hindered by the emergence of resistance to triclabendazole among livestock and subsequently in humans.

Summary
Increased awareness and surveillance are likely to uncover the real distribution and burden of fascioliasis in human. Research into new drugs or adjuvants to tackle the emerging resistance to triclabendazole is imperative to treat and control Fasciola infection.
Imported onchocerciasis in migrants and travelers
Authors: Showler Adrienne J. , Nutman Thomas B. 
Published: August 2018

Purpose of review
With increasing international travel and mass global population migration, clinicians in nonendemic countries must be familiar with imported neglected tropical diseases including onchocerciasis, which is commonly known as ‘river blindness’.

Recent findings
Imported onchocerciasis manifests differently in travelers compared with migrants from endemic areas and is likely underdiagnosed in both groups. Recent clinical studies confirm that eosinophilia is not a sensitive marker for Onchocerca volvulus, with one-third of patients having a normal eosinophil count. Novel diagnostics measuring antibodies to multiple recombinant O. volvulus antigens maintain a high sensitivity while improving specificity compared with conventional pan-filarial serologic testing. A 6-week course of doxycycline has macrofilaricidal activity through Wolbachia depletion and may be useful in nonendemic areas in addition to standard serial ivermectin.

Summary
Recent studies characterizing distinct clinical presentations in travelers and migrants may enable clinicians to better recognize imported onchocerciasis. Although novel diagnostics have improved specificity, most remain restricted to tropical disease reference laboratories and to date there is no marker of cure. Prolonged doxycycline treatment may reduce the need for serial ivermectin, though more potent short-course macrofilaricidal drugs are being developed.
Refinement of anesthetic choice in procedures preceding psychopharmacological studies
Authors: Herbst LS , Gaigher T , Siqueira AA , Joca SRL , Sampaio KN , Beijamini V 
Published: August 2018

AbstractRationalePrevious studies indicated that some general anesthetics induce long-term antidepressant and/or anxiolytic-like effects. This raises the concern about the use of anesthesia in surgeries that precede psycopharmacological tests, since it may be a potential bias on results depending on the experimental design used.ObjectivesTo evaluate whether commonly used general anesthetics in surgeries preceding psychopharmacological tests would affect rat behavior in tests predictive of antidepressant or anxiolytic-like effects. We also evaluated whether prior anesthesia would interfere in the detection of the antidepressant-like effect of imipramine or the anxiolytic-like effect of diazepam.MethodsWe tested if a single exposure to subanesthetic or anesthetic doses of 2,2,2-tribromoethanol, chloral hydrate, thiopental or isoflurane would change rat’s behavior in the forced swimming test (FST) or in the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test, at 2 hours or 7 days after administration.ResultsPrevious anesthesia with the aforementioned anesthetics did not change rat behavior in FST per se nor it changed the antidepressant-like effect induced by imipramine treatment. Rats previously anesthetized with tribromoethanol or chloral hydrate exhibited, respectively, anxiogenic-like or anxiolytic-like behavior in the EPM. Prior anesthesia with thiopental or isoflurane did not produce anyper seeffect in rat behavior in the EPM nor disturbed the anxiolytic-like effect of diazepam.ConclusionOur results suggest that, in our experimental conditions, tribromoethanol and chloral hydrate are improper anesthetics for surgeries that precede behavioral tests related to anxiety. Isoflurane or thiopental may be suitable for anesthesia before evaluation in animal models predictive of antidepressant or anxiolytic-like effect.
Boundaries in Spatial Cognition: Looking like a Boundary is More Important than Being a Boundary
Authors: Negen James , Sandri Angela , Lee Sang Ah , Nardini Marko 
Published: August 2018

ABSTRACTLarge walls and other typical boundaries strongly influence neural activity related to navigation and the representations of spatial layouts. They are also major aids to reliable navigation behavior in young children and non-human animals. Is this because they are physical boundaries (barriers to movement), or because they present certain visual features, such as visually extended 3D surfaces? Here, these two factors were dissociated by using immersive virtual reality and real boundaries. Eighty adults recalled target locations in one of four environments: plywood, where a virtual wall coincided with a large piece of real plywood; pass through, where the virtual wall coincided with empty space and participants could pass through it; pass over, where the virtual wall was projected downward to be visible underneath a transparent floor; and cones, where the walls were replaced with traffic cones. One condition had features that were boundaries and looked like boundaries (plywood); two had features that were not boundaries but looked like boundaries (pass over/through); and one had features that were not boundaries and did not look like boundaries (cones). The precision and bias of responses changed only as a function of looking like a boundary. This suggests that variations in spatial coding are more closely linked to the visual properties of environmental layouts than to whether they contain physical boundaries (barriers to movement).
Deforming the metric of cognitive maps distorts memory
Authors: Bellmund Jacob L. S. , de Cothi William , Ruiter Tom A. , Nau Matthias , Barry Caswell , Doeller Christian F. 
Published: August 2018

AbstractEnvironmental boundaries anchor cognitive maps that support memory. However, trapezoidal boundary geometry distorts the regular firing patterns of entorhinal grid cells proposedly providing a metric for cognitive maps. Here, we test the impact of trapezoidal boundary geometry on human spatial memory using immersive virtual reality. Consistent with reduced regularity of grid patterns in rodents and a grid-cell model based on the eigenvectors of the successor representation, human positional memory was degraded in a trapezoid compared to a square environment; an effect particularly pronounced in the trapezoid’s narrow part. Congruent with spatial frequency changes of eigenvector grid patterns, distance estimates between remembered positions were persistently biased; revealing distorted memory maps that explained behavior better than the objective maps. Our findings demonstrate that environmental geometry affects human spatial memory similarly to rodent grid cell activity — thus strengthening the putative link between grid cells and behavior along with their cognitive functions beyond navigation.
Development of a multi-locus CRISPR gene drive system in budding yeast
Authors: Yan Yao , Finnigan Gregory C. 
Published: August 2018

ABSTRACTThe discovery of CRISPR/Cas gene editing has allowed for major advances in many biomedical disciplines and basic research. One arrangement of this biotechnology, a nuclease-based gene drive, can rapidly deliver a genetic element through a given population and studies in fungi and metazoans have demonstrated the success of such a system. This methodology has the potential to control biological populations and contribute to eradication of insect-borne diseases, agricultural pests, and invasive species. However, there remain challenges in the design, optimization, and implementation of gene drives including concerns regarding biosafety, containment, and control/inhibition. Given the numerous gene drive arrangements possible, there is a growing need for more advanced designs. In this study, we use budding yeast to develop an artificial multi-locus gene drive system. Our minimal setup requires only a single copy ofS. pyogenesCas9 and three guide RNAs to propagate three separate gene drives. We demonstrate how this system could be used for targeted allele replacement of native genes and to suppress NHEJ repair systems by modifying DNA Ligase IV. A multi-locus gene drive configuration provides an expanded suite of options for complex attributes including pathway redundancy, combatting evolved resistance, and safeguards for control, inhibition, or reversal of drive action.
Hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis in archaeal phylum Verstraetearchaeota reveals the shared ancestry of all methanogens
Authors: Berghuis Bojk A. , Yu Feiqiao Brian , Schulz Frederik , Blainey Paul C. , Woyke Tanja , Quake Stephen R. 
Published: August 2018

AbstractMethanogenic archaea are major contributors to the global carbon cycle and were long thought to belong exclusively to the euryarchaeotal phylum. Discovery of the methanogenesis gene cluster methyl-coenzyme M reductase (Mcr) in the Bathyarchaeota and thereafter the Verstraetearchaeota led to a paradigm shift, pushing back the evolutionary origin of methanogenesis to pre-date that of the Euryarchaeota. The methylotrophic methanogenesis found in the non-Euryarchaota distinguished itself from the predominantly hydrogenotrophic methanogens found in euryarchaeal orders as the former do not couple methanogenesis to carbon fixation through the reductive acetyl-coenzyme A (Wood-Ljungdahl) pathway, which was interpreted as evidence for independent evolution of the two methanogenesis pathways. Here, we report the discovery of a complete and divergent hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis pathway in a novel, thermophilic order of the Verstraetearchaeota which we have named Candidatus Methanohydrogenales, as well as the presence of the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway in the crenarchaeal order Desulfurococcales. Our findings support the ancient origin of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis, suggest that methylotrophic methanogenesis might be a later adaptation of specific orders, and provide insight into how transition from hydrogenotrophic to methylotrophic methanogenesis might occur.
Genomic from Plasmodium falciparum field isolates from Benin allows the identification of PfEMP1 variants by LC-MS/MS at the patient’s level
Authors: Kamaliddin Claire , Rombaut David , Guillochon Emilie , Royo Jade , Ezinmegnon Sem , Huguet Stéphanie , Guemouri Sayeh , Peirera Céline , Broussard Cédric , Alao Jules M , Aubouy Agnès , Guillonneau François , Deloron Philippe , Bertin Gwladys 
Published: August 2018

AbstractPfEMP1 are the major protein family from parasitic origin involves in the pathophysiology of severe malaria, and PfEMP1 domain subtypes are associated with the infection outcome. In addition, PfEMP1 variability in endless and current protein repository do not reflect the immense diversity of the sequences of PfEMP1 proteins. The aim of our study was to identify the different PfEMP1 variants expressed within a patient sample by mass spectrometry. We performed a proteogenomic approach to decipher at the patient’s level PfEMP1 expression in different clinical settings: cerebral malaria, severe anemia and uncomplicated malaria. The combination of whole genome sequencing approach, RNAsequencing, and mass spectrometry proteomic analysis allowed to attribute PfEMP1 sequences to each sample and classify the relative expression level of PfEMP1 proteins within each sample. We predicted PfEMP1 structures using the newly identified protein sequences. We confirmed the involvement of DBLβ in malaria pathogenesis and observed that CIDRα domains linked to ICAM-1 binding DBLβ domains displayed EPCR binding structure.
Structural basis for ligand modulation of the CCR2 conformational landscape
Authors: Taylor Bryn C. , Lee Christopher T. , Amaro Rommie E. 
Published: August 2018

AbstractCC Chemokine Receptor 2 (CCR2) is a part of the chemokine receptor family, an important class of therapeutic targets. These class A G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are involved in mammalian signaling pathways and control cell migration toward endogenous CC chemokine ligands. Chemokine receptors and their associated ligands are involved in a wide range of diseases and thus have become important drug targets. Of particular interest is CCR2, which has been implicated in cancer, autoimmunity driven type-1 diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, multiple sclerosis, asthma, atherosclerosis, neuropathic pain, and rheumatoid arthritis. Although promising, CCR2 antagonists have been largely unsuccessful to date. Here, we investigate the effect of an orthosteric and an allosteric antagonist on CCR2 dynamics by coupling long timescale molecular dynamics simulations with Markov-state model theory. We find that the antagonists shift CCR2 into several stable inactive conformations that are distinct from the crystal structure conformation, and that they disrupt a continuous internal water and sodium ion pathway preventing transitions to an active-like state. Several of these stable conformations contain a putative drug binding pocket that may be amenable to targeting with another small molecule antagonist. In the absence of antagonists, the apo dynamics reveal intermediate conformations along the activation pathway that provide insight into the basal dynamics of CCR2, and may also be useful for future drug design.
Visual servoing of dynamic wheeled mobile robots with anti-interference finite-time controllers
Authors: Chen Hua , Chen Lei , Zhang Qian , Tong Fei 
Published: August 2018

Purpose
The finite-time visual servoing control problem is considered for dynamic wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) with unknown control direction and external disturbance.

Design/methodology/approach
By using finite-time control method and switching design technique.

Findings
First, the visual servoing kinematic WMR model is developed, which can be converted to the dynamic chained-form systems by using a state and input feedback transformation. Then, for two decoupled subsystems of the chained-form systems, according to the finite-time stability control theory, a discontinuous three-step switching control strategy is proposed in the presence of uncertain control coefficients and external disturbance.

Originality/value
A class of discontinuous anti-interference control method has been presented for the dynamic nonholonomic systems.
The impact of foreign capital inflows on economic growth on selected African countries
Authors: Mowlaei Mohammad 
Published: August 2018

Purpose
Nowadays, foreign capital inflow (FCI) is considered as a catalyst for economic development and an important source of transferring technology and foreign exchange earnings from developed to developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to study, first, the impact of different forms of FCIs, namely, foreign direct investment (FDI), personal remittances (PR) and official development assistant (ODA) on economic growth on 26 top African countries; and, second, which of them is more effective on economic growth of the studied countries. The results of this paper are very important for host governments’ policy and help them to design their economic plans to absorb the suitable foreign inflow.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses Pooled Mean Group (PMG) econometric technique to estimate the heterogeneous panels over the period 1992–2016.

Findings
The results of the study show that all three forms of FCIs have positive and significant effects on economic growth in the long and short run. However, the PR had the most effect on economic growth in the long and short run. The study suggests that the governments should design and implement appropriate fiscal, monetary and trade policies in order to create and improve an enabling environment to attract FCIs as a supplementary source of domestic investment.

Research limitations/implications
The research limitations of this paper are as follows: data sets of FDI, PR and ODA were available not for all African countries; and, data sets that were available were of before the year 1992. Thus, the research is done for the African countries which had the data sets after the year 1992.

Practical implications
The result of this paper indicates the impact of each FDI, PR and ODA in economic growth. So, countries can take more attentions to each of them on economic planning.

Social implications
FCIs are one of the important external source of exchange for each country. So, the study of importance of each of them is necessary for economic planning.

Originality/value
Most of the previous studies have examined the impact of three different forms of FCIs on economic growth separately, on different countries and regions and using various models and econometric techniques. One of the contributions of this paper is focused on the impacts of FDI, PR and ODA on economic growth separately and simultaneously in 26 top recipient African countries and using the PMG technique which is an advanced econometrical estimation and studied less about it. The other contribution of this research is the comparison of the impact of different FCIs on economic growth, and it is very important for governments’ economic policy.
Can internal strategic alignment influence performance? An empirical research applying structural equation modelling
Authors: Prieto Vanderli Correia , de Carvalho Marly M. 
Published: August 2018

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of internal strategic alignment (ISA) on business performance. A model is developed in which internal alignment is explained by the covariance between vertical and horizontal alignment. The perspective of business strategy implementation is adopted in order to support the theoretical relationship between the variables.Design/methodology/approachThe partial least squares method, a structural equation modeling technique, is applied to estimate the model.FindingsThe results provide empirical validation for the model and confirm the positive relationship between internal alignment and business performance.Practical implicationsThe ISA model is an essential aid for executives when implementing strategies and the validated research instrument can be applied for firms as a diagnosis of internal alignment in the organization.Originality/valueThe research contributed to meet the need for studies involving strategy implementation, as its formulation has already been emphasized, as well as to the need for models of strategic internal alignment that include activities relevant to the successful execution of the strategy, and to the need for alignment studies based on a holistic perspective.
Corruption and supply chain management toward the sustainable development goals era
Authors: Monteiro Marcelo de Sousa , Viana Fernando Luiz E. , Sousa-Filho José Milton de 
Published: August 2018

Purpose
This paper aims to identify academic literature studies on corruption in the supply chain management (SCM) from 2005 to 2016 to propose a research agenda. The review links this possible new course of research within the sustainable development goals (SDGs) framework, proposed by the United Nations from 2015 to 2030.

Design/methodology/approach
A literature review method was used in the academic research to identify which approaches are used for corruption in SCM. The analysis of the context of SDGs required an integrated approach once the goals are interconnected.

Findings
Despite the increase in research studies in 2015, there is still little research focusing specifically on corruption in SCM. There is a broad opportunity to connect the research on corruption in SCM with the context of the practice to achieve the SDGs.

Originality/value
Considering the economic, social and environmental risks of corruption practices in SCM and the scarce academic literature on these themes together, a research agenda with interdisciplinary groups is suggested to deepen the subjects. There are some questions related to corruption in SCM and its connections with practice to achieve the SDGs.
Axe of kindness: introducing appreciative exnovation
Authors: November Eben David 
Published: August 2018

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a model of exnovation that integrates the spirit of appreciative inquiry (AI) yet addresses some of AI’s assumptions.

Design/methodology/approach
Draws on the ample AI literature, sparse exnovation literature, and uses conceptual reasoning to develop a new process called appreciative exnovation.

Findings
This paper proposes a 4-phase model of appreciative exnovation. Specifically, this paper suggests that appreciative exnovation can produce valuable future knowledge while accomplishing the necessary task of removal of innovations incongruent with current organizational needs.

Originality/value
This paper is the first to link AI and exnovation concepts. It has also critically questioned key assumptions of AI. It is also the first to suggest that exnovation may be initiated on a bottom-up basis.
Towards semantically-aided domain specific business process modeling
Authors: Lagos Nikolaos , Mos Adrian , Cortes-cornax Mario 
Published: August 2018

Purpose
Domain-specific process modeling has been proposed in the literature as a solution to several problems in business process management. The problems arise when using only the generic Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) standard for modeling. This language includes domain ambiguity and difficult long-term model evolution. Domain-specific modeling involves developing concept definitions, domain-specific processes and eventually industry-standard BPMN models. This entails a multi-layered modeling approach, where any of these artifacts can be modified by various stakeholders and changes done by one person may influence models used by others. There is therefore a need for tool support to keep track of changes done and their potential impacts. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a multi-context systems-based approach to infer the impacts that changes may cause in the models; and alsothe authors incrementally map components of business process models to ontologies.

Findings
Advantages of the framework include: identifying conflicts/inconsistencies across different business modeling layers; expressing rich information on the relations between two layers; calculating the impact of changes taking place in one layer to the rest of the layers; and selecting incrementally the most appropriate semantic models on which the transformations can be based.

Research limitations/implications
The authors consider this work as one of the foundational bricks that will enable further advances toward the governance of multi-layer business process modeling systems. Extensive usability tests would enable to further confirm the findings of the paper.

Practical implications
The approach described here should improve the maintainability, reuse and clarity of business process models and in extension improve data governance in large organizations. The approaches described here should improve the maintainability, reuse and clarity of business process models. This can improve data governance in large organizations and for large collections of processes by aiding various stakeholders to understand problems with process evolutions, changes and inconsistencies with business goals.

Originality/value
This paper fulfills an identified gap to enabling semantically aided domain–specific process modeling.