bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Leishmania infection in bats from a non-endemic region of Leishmaniasis in Brazil
Authors: GÓMEZ-HERNÁNDEZ CÉSAR , BENTO ELAINE C. , REZENDE-OLIVEIRA KARINE , NASCENTES GABRIEL A. N. , BARBOSA CECILIA G. , BATISTA LARA R. , TIBURCIO MONIQUE G. S. , PEDROSA ANDRÉ L. , LAGES-SILVA ELIANE , RAMÍREZ JUAN D. , RAMIREZ LUIS E. 
Published: August 2017

SUMMARYLeishmaniasis is a complex of zoonotic diseases caused by parasites of the genus Leishmania, which can develop in domestic as well as wild animals and humans throughout the world. Currently, this disease is spreading in rural and urban areas of non-endemic regions in Brazil. Recently, bats have gained epidemiological significance in leishmaniasis due to its close relationship with human settlements. In this study, we investigated the presence of Leishmania spp. DNA in blood samples from 448 bats belonging to four families representing 20 species that were captured in the Triangulo Mineiro and Alto Paranaiba areas of Minas Gerais State (non-endemic areas for leishmaniasis), Brazil. Leishmania spp. DNA was detected in 8·0% of the blood samples, 41·6% of which were Leishmania infantum, 38·9% Leishmania amazonensis and 19·4% Leishmania braziliensis. No positive correlation was found between Leishmania spp. and bat food source. The species with more infection rates were the insectivorous bats Eumops perotis; 22·2% (4/18) of which tested positive for Leishmania DNA. The presence of Leishmania in the bat blood samples, as observed in this study, represents epidemiological importance due to the absence of Leishmaniasis cases in the region.
African resistance to the International Criminal Court: Halting the advance of the anti-impunity norm
Authors: Mills Kurt , Bloomfield Alan 
Published: August 2017

AbstractThe creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998 marked a substantial advance in the effort to ensure all perpetrators of mass atrocities can be brought to justice. Yet significant resistance to the anti-impunity norm, and the ICC as the implementing institution, has arisen in Africa. The ICC has primarily operated in Africa, and since it sought to indict the sitting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2008 resistance from both individual African states and the African Union has increased substantially. We draw on the concept of ‘norm antipreneurs’, and the broader norm dynamics literature, to analyse how resistance has developed and manifested itself, as well as the potential effects of this resistance on the anti-impunity norm. We conclude that the antipreneur concept helped us structure and organise analysis of the case – suggesting it could be usefully deployed in other similar cases – but that this case also suggests that antipreneurs do not always enjoy substantial defensive advantages. We also conclude that African resistance to the ICC has substantially stalled the advance of the anti-impunity norm, a finding that has significant implications for the wider effort to reduce mass atrocity crimes in the contemporary era.
PRICING, REIMBURSEMENT, AND HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT OF MEDICINAL PRODUCTS IN BULGARIA
Authors: Benisheva-Dimitrova Tatyana , Sidjimova Dobriana , Cherneva Daniela , Kralimarkov Nikolay 
Published: August 2017

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the analysis, discussion, and challenges of the price and reimbursement process of medicinal products in Bulgaria in the period 2000–15 and health technology assessment (HTA) role in these processes.Methods: The dynamics of the reform, with respect to the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, are tracked by documentary review of regulations, articles, and reports in the European Union (EU), as well as analytical and historical analysis.Results: Pricing and reimbursement processes have passed through a variety of committees between 2003 and 2012. Separate units for pricing and reimbursement of medicinal products were established in Bulgaria for the first time, in 2013, when an independent body, the National Council at Prices and Reimbursement of Medicinal Products, was set up to approve medicinal products with new international nonproprietary names (INN) for reimbursement in Bulgaria. Over the course of 2 years (2013–14), thirty-three new INNs were approved for reimbursement. In December 2015, a new HTA body was introduced, and assigned to the National Centre for Public Health and Analyses.Conclusions: Although Bulgaria has current legislation on pricing and reimbursement which is in accordance with the EU rules, there is no mechanism for reporting and monitoring these processes or the financial resources annually, so as to provide an overall objective assessment and analysis by year. Therefore, this financial assessment should become a national policy objective for the future.
A cross-sectional study of acute diarrhea in Pudong, Shanghai, China: prevalence, risk factors, and healthcare-seeking practices
Authors: YU J.-X. , ZHU W.-P. , YE C.-C. , XUE C.-Y. , LAI S.-J. , ZHANG H.-L. , ZHANG Z.-K. , GENG Q.-B. , YANG W.-Z. , SUN Q. , LI Z.-J. 
Published: August 2017

SUMMARYDiarrhea is a common cause of morbidity and mortality and the incidence of diarrhea in the world has changed little over the past four decades. To assess the prevalence of and healthcare practices for diarrhea, a cross-sectional study was conducted in Pudong, Shanghai, China. In October 2014, a total of 5324 community residents were interviewed. Respondents were asked if they had experienced diarrhea (defined as ⩾3 passages of watery, loose, bloody, or mucoid stools within a 24-h period) in the previous month prior to the interview. The monthly prevalence of diarrhea was 4·1% (95% CI: 3·3–4·8), corresponding to an incidence rate of 0·54 episodes per person-year. The proportion of individuals with diarrhea who sought healthcare was 21·2% (95% CI: 13·4–29·0). Diarrhea continues to impose a considerable burden on the community and healthcare system in Pudong. Young age and travel were identified as predictors of increased diarrhea occurrence.
Social and psychological consequences of not crying: possible associations with psychopathology and therapeutic relevance
Authors: Hesdorffer Dale C. , Vingerhoets Ad J.J.M. , Trimble Michael R. 
Published: August 2017

ObjectiveEmotional crying is hypothesized to serve intra- and interpersonal functions. Intrapersonal functions are assumed to facilitate the capacity to recover from emotional distress, thus promoting well-being. Interpersonal functions are postulated to have a major impact on social functioning. We hypothesized that non-criers would have lower well-being and poorer social functioning than criers.MethodsStudy participants included 475 people who reportedly lost the capacity to cry and 179 “normal” control criers. Applied measures assessed crying, well-being, empathy, attachment, social support, and connection with others. Prevalence estimates of not crying by gender were obtained from a panel survey of 2,000 Dutch households.ResultsIn the main survey, tearless cases had less connection with others, less empathy, and experienced less social support, but were equal in terms of well-being. They also reported being less moved by emotional stimuli and had a more avoidant and less anxious attachment style. In multivariate analyses, being male, having an avoidant attachment style, and lacking empathy were independent predictors of tearlessness. Some 46.1% felt that not being able to cry affected them negatively; however, despite these findings, only 2.9% had sought any kind of professional help. Loss of the capacity to cry occurred in 8.6% of the men and 6.5% of the women in the large panel survey.ConclusionsDespite reduced empathy, less connection with others, and a more avoidant/less anxious attachment type, well-being is maintained in tearless people. Additional clinical and therapeutic investigations of tearlessness may lead to clarification of bidirectional associations between psychiatric disorders (e.g., alexithymia, posttraumatic stress disorder, psychopathy) and tearlessness.
Ticker: A system for incremental ASP-based stream reasoning
Authors: BECK HARALD , EITER THOMAS , FOLIE CHRISTIAN 
Published: August 2017

AbstractIn complex reasoning tasks, as expressible by Answer Set Programming (ASP), problems often permit for multiple solutions. In dynamic environments, where knowledge is continuously changing, the question arises how a given model can be incrementally adjusted relative to new and outdated information. This paper introduces Ticker, a prototypical engine for well-defined logical reasoning over streaming data. Ticker builds on a practical fragment of the recent rule-based language LARS, which extends ASP for streams by providing flexible expiration control and temporal modalities. We discuss Ticker's reasoning strategies: first, the repeated one-shot solving mode calls Clingo on an ASP encoding. We show how this translation can be incrementally updated when new data is streaming in or time passes by. Based on this, we build on Doyle's classic justification-based truth-maintenance system to update models of non-stratified programs. Finally, we empirically compare the obtained evaluation mechanisms.
Program completion in the input language of GRINGO
Authors: HARRISON AMELIA , LIFSCHITZ VLADIMIR , RAJU DHANANJAY 
Published: August 2017

AbstractWe argue that turning a logic program into a set of completed definitions can be sometimes thought of as the “reverse engineering” process of generating a set of conditions that could serve as a specification for it. Accordingly, it may be useful to define completion for a large class of Answer Set Programming (ASP) programs and to automate the process of generating and simplifying completion formulas. Examining the output produced by this kind of software may help programmers to see more clearly what their program does, and to what degree its behavior conforms with their expectations. As a step toward this goal, we propose here a definition of program completion for a large class of programs in the input language of the ASP grounder gringo, and study its properties.
Representing hybrid automata by action language modulo theories
Authors: LEE JOOHYUNG , LONEY NIKHIL , MENG YUNSONG 
Published: August 2017

AbstractBoth hybrid automata and action languages are formalisms for describing the evolution of dynamic systems. This paper establishes a formal relationship between them. We show how to succinctly represent hybrid automata in an action language which in turn is defined as a high-level notation for answer set programming modulo theories—an extension of answer set programs to the first-order level similar to the way satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) extends propositional satisfiability (SAT). We first show how to represent linear hybrid automata with convex invariants by an action language modulo theories. A further translation into SMT allows for computing them using SMT solvers that support arithmetic over reals. Next, we extend the representation to the general class of non-linear hybrid automata allowing even non-convex invariants. We represent them by an action language modulo ordinary differential equations, which can be compiled into satisfiability modulo ordinary differential equations. We present a prototype systemcplus2aspmtbased on these translations, which allows for a succinct representation of hybrid transition systems that can be computed effectively by the state-of-the-art SMT solverdReal.
John Cage and George Herbert Mead: The Unknown Influence of Van Meter Ames
Authors: YANG SERENA 
Published: August 2017

AbstractAs John Cage wrote in his bookA Year from Monday, the “current use for art [is] giving instances of society suitable for social imitation—suitable because they show ways . . . people can do things without being told or telling others what to do.” Cage's ideal anarchic music emphasizes not only renouncing compositional control, but also the process of self-discovery happening to everyone, a process that leads participants to discover their creative abilities. This paper argues that Cage's penchant for self-discovery came from his understanding of George Herbert Mead's theories of the process of individuation (the “me” and the “I”). Cage discovered Mead through readingZen and American Thought(1962) by his friend Van Meter Ames, a professor of philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, who saw the compatibility between Zen and Mead's concept of self in the capacity of the “I,” a phase of self whose unpredictable steps contribute to human innovation. Cage found the possibility of overthrowing the thought of the world through triggering a self-discovery of the “I” in everyone. He realized this idea in his happenings, such as0’00”, by requiring performers to respond to the simple descriptions without specifying sound or duration.
Multifunctional quantum dot DNA hydrogels
Authors: Zhang Libing , Jean Sae Rin , Ahmed Sharif , Aldridge Peter M. , Li Xiyan , Fan Fengjia , Sargent Edward H. , Kelley Shana O. 
Published: August 2017

AbstractBiotemplated nanomaterials offer versatile functionality for multimodal imaging, biosensing, and drug delivery. There remains an unmet need for traceable and biocompatible nanomaterials that can be synthesized in a precisely controllable manner. Here, we report self-assembled quantum dot DNA hydrogels that exhibit both size and spectral tunability. We successfully incorporate DNA-templated quantum dots with high quantum yield, long-term photostability, and low cytotoxicity into a hydrogel network in a single step. By leveraging DNA-guided interactions, we introduce multifunctionality for a variety of applications, including enzyme-responsive drug delivery and cell-specific targeting. We report that quantum dot DNA hydrogels can be used for delivery of doxorubicin, an anticancer drug, to increase potency 9-fold against cancer cells. This approach also demonstrated high biocompatibility, trackability, and in vivo therapeutic efficacy in mice bearing xenografted breast cancer tumors. This work paves the way for the development of new tunable biotemplated nanomaterials with multiple synergistic functionalities for biomedical applications.
Dispersion engineering and frequency comb generation in thin silicon nitride concentric microresonators
Authors: Kim Sangsik , Han Kyunghun , Wang Cong , Jaramillo-Villegas Jose A. , Xue Xiaoxiao , Bao Chengying , Xuan Yi , Leaird Daniel E. , Weiner Andrew M. , Qi Minghao 
Published: August 2017

AbstractKerr nonlinearity-based frequency combs and solitons have been generated from on-chip microresonators. The initiation of the combs requires global or local anomalous dispersion which leads to many limitations, such as material choice, film thickness, and spectral ranges where combs can be generated, as well as fabrication challenges. Using a concentric racetrack-shaped resonator, we show that such constraints can be lifted and resonator dispersion can be engineered to be anomalous over moderately broad bandwidth. We demonstrate anomalous dispersion in a 300 nm thick silicon nitride film, suitable for semiconductor manufacturing but previously thought to result in waveguides with high normal dispersion. Together with a mode-selective, tapered coupling scheme, we generate coherent mode-locked frequency combs. Our method can realize anomalous dispersion for resonators at almost any wavelength and simultaneously achieve material and process compatibility with semiconductor manufacturing.
Ultrafast carrier thermalization in lead iodide perovskite probed with two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy
Authors: Richter Johannes M. , Branchi Federico , Valduga de Almeida Camargo Franco , Zhao Baodan , Friend Richard H. , Cerullo Giulio , Deschler Felix 
Published: August 2017

AbstractIn band-like semiconductors, charge carriers form a thermal energy distribution rapidly after optical excitation. In hybrid perovskites, the cooling of such thermal carrier distributions occurs on timescales of about 300 fs via carrier-phonon scattering. However, the initial build-up of the thermal distribution proved difficult to resolve with pump–probe techniques due to the requirement of high resolution, both in time and pump energy. Here, we use two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy with sub-10 fs resolution to directly observe the carrier interactions that lead to a thermal carrier distribution. We find that thermalization occurs dominantly via carrier-carrier scattering under the investigated fluences and report the dependence of carrier scattering rates on excess energy and carrier density. We extract characteristic carrier thermalization times from below 10 to 85 fs. These values allow for mobilities of 500 cm2 V−1 s−1 at carrier densities lower than 2 × 1019 cm−3 and limit the time for carrier extraction in hot carrier solar cells.
Characterisation of the changing genomic landscape of metastatic melanoma using cell free DNA
Authors: Cutts Anthony , Venn Oliver , Dilthey Alexander , Gupta Avinash , Vavoulis Dimitris , Dreau Helene , Middleton Mark , McVean Gil , Taylor Jenny C. , Schuh Anna 
Published: August 2017

AbstractCancer is characterised by complex somatically acquired genetic aberrations that manifest as intra-tumour and inter-tumour genetic heterogeneity and can lead to treatment resistance. In this case study, we characterise the genome-wide somatic mutation dynamics in a metastatic melanoma patient during therapy using low-input (50 ng) PCR-free whole genome sequencing of cell-free DNA from pre-treatment and post-relapse blood samples. We identify de novo tumour-specific somatic mutations from cell-free DNA, while the sequence context of single nucleotide variants showed the characteristic UV-damage mutation signature of melanoma. To investigate the behaviour of individual somatic mutations during proto-oncogene B-Raf -targeted and immune checkpoint inhibition, amplicon-based deep sequencing was used to verify and track frequencies of 212 single nucleotide variants at 10 distinct time points over 13 months of treatment. Under checkpoint inhibition therapy, we observed an increase in mutant allele frequencies indicating progression on therapy 88 days before clinical determination of non-response positron emission tomogrophy-computed tomography. We also revealed mutations from whole genome sequencing of cell-free DNA that were not present in the tissue biopsy, but that later contributed to relapse. Our findings have potential clinical applications where high quality tumour-tissue derived DNA is not available.
A unique tolerizing dendritic cell phenotype induced by the synthetic triterpenoid CDDO-DFPA (RTA-408) is protective against EAE
Authors: Wei Hsi-Ju , Pareek Tej K. , Liu Qi , Letterio John J. 
Published: August 2017

AbstractTolerogenic dendritic cells (DCs) have emerged as relevant clinical targets for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders. However, the pathways essential for conferring the tolerizing DC phenotype and optimal methods for their induction remain an intense area of research. Triterpenoids are a class of small molecules with potent immunomodulatory activity linked to activation of Nrf2 target genes, and can also suppress the manifestations of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Here we demonstrate that DCs are a principal target of the immune modulating activity of triterpenoids in the context of EAE. Exposure of DCs to the new class of triterpenoid CDDO-DFPA (RTA-408) results in the induction of HO-1, TGF-β, and IL-10, as well as the repression of NF-κB, EDN-1 and pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-12, and TNFα. CDDO-DFPA exposed DCs retained expression of surface ligands and capacity for antigen uptake but were impaired to induce Th1 and Th17 cells. TGF-β was identified as the factor mediating suppression of T cell proliferation by CDDO-DFPA pretreated DCs, which failed to passively induce EAE. These findings demonstrate the potential therapeutic utility of CDDO-DFPA in the treatment and prevention of autoimmune disorders, and its capacity to induce tolerance via modulation of the DC phenotype.
Low-dose cryo electron ptychography via non-convex Bayesian optimization
Authors: Pelz Philipp Michael , Qiu Wen Xuan , Bücker Robert , Kassier Günther , Miller R. J. Dwayne 
Published: August 2017

AbstractElectron ptychography has seen a recent surge of interest for phase sensitive imaging at atomic or near-atomic resolution. However, applications are so far mainly limited to radiation-hard samples, because the required doses are too high for imaging biological samples at high resolution. We propose the use of non-convex Bayesian optimization to overcome this problem, and show via numerical simulations that the dose required for successful reconstruction can be reduced by two orders of magnitude compared to previous experiments. As an important application we suggest to use this method for imaging single biological macromolecules at cryogenic temperatures and demonstrate 2D single-particle reconstructions from simulated data with a resolution up to 5.4 Å at a dose of 20e
−
/Å2. When averaging over only 30 low-dose datasets, a 2D resolution around 3.5 Å is possible for macromolecular complexes even below 100 kDa. With its independence from the microscope transfer function, direct recovery of phase contrast, and better scaling of signal-to-noise ratio, low-dose cryo electron ptychography may become a promising alternative to Zernike phase-contrast microscopy.
Accessibility explains preferred thiol-disulfide isomerization in a protein domain
Authors: Kolšek Katra , Aponte-Santamaría Camilo , Gräter Frauke 
Published: August 2017

AbstractDisulfide bonds are key stabilizing and yet potentially labile cross-links in proteins. While spontaneous disulfide rearrangement through thiol-disulfide exchange is increasingly recognized to play an important physiological role, its molecular determinants are still largely unknown. Here, we used a novel hybrid Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics scheme to elucidate the molecular principles of thiol-disulfide exchange in proteins, for a mutated immunoglobulin domain as a model system. Unexpectedly, using simple proximity as the criterion for thiol-disulfide exchange, our method correctly predicts the experimentally observed regiospecificity and selectivity of the cysteine-rich protein. While redox reactivity has been examined primarily on the level of transition states and activation barriers, our results argue for accessibility of the disulfide by the attacking thiol given the highly dynamic and sterically demanding protein as a major bottleneck of thiol-disulfide exchange. This scenario may be similarly at play in other proteins with or without an evolutionarily designed active site.