Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidemiology and Natural History of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTSs), often associated with an enlargement of the prostate, are common in men over 50 years old. At least 300,000 patients with LUTSs are treated annually by physicians in Japan, and this figure is expected to increase in the coming years. It is unlikely that all of these patients have clinical benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). BPH is a very complex, heterogeneous disease condition, in which urinary symptoms, prostate size, and urinary flow are not always interdependent. In addition to the heterogeneous nature of the disease, the causes of this disease may be multiple and heterogeneous. Hormonal factors, growth factors, stromalepithelial interaction, and aging are likely involved in the disease development. ' The last decade has been fruitful for improving the understanding of the biology and pathophysiology of BPH, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of clinical BPH. Many experimental and clinical studies, although still incomplete, have clarified some aspects of the biology, which had been veiled in the past. However, more questions relating to basic and clinical issues have been raised concerning the diagnosis and treatment of BPH. In addition, clinical profiles of patients with BPH have dramatically changed over the last decade in Japan. Two decades ago, diagnosis and treatment for BPH was simple and straightforward. Most patients had typical, severe LUTSs, markedly impaired urinary flow, enlargement of the prostate, and a significant volume of residual urine. Treatment was by either of 2 surgical procedures that were the only effective treatment modality clinically proven at that time. These procedures, transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) or (subcapsular) prostatectomy, yielded favorable outcomes in most patients. Currently, patients who visit urologists for LUTSs tend to have a widely distributed severity of symptoms, ranging from very mild to severe.2 They may have a prostate of normal size and a urinary flow rate
An Innovative Technique of Transurethral Seminal Vesiculoscopy with Ultrasonic Lithotripter for Severe, Persistent Hematospermia.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Transurethral seminal vesiculoscopy (TSV) provides an efficient approach to diagnose and treat hematospermia, but still needs further improvement in manipulation and corresponding instruments. In this study, we develop an innovative technique with ultrasonic lithotripter (EMS) to treat severe, persistent hematospermia. PATIENTS AND METHODS Data of patients who underwent TSV with or without ultrasonic lithotripter between May 2012 and December 2015 was reviewed. For the innovative procedure, a 3.3F ultrasonic lithotripter was introduced through the working channel of an 8F seminal vesiculoscope to remove calculi, blood clots, or purulent material, whereas in routine procedure, the holmium laser lithotripsy was performed with lower energy (maximum power 10 W). Complication, hematospermia recurrence, the operative time, and postoperative hospitalization were recorded. RESULTS A total of 30 patients, 16 in Group A (routine TSV) and 14 in Group B (TSV with ultrasonic lithotripter procedure), were involved in this study. The median follow-up time for patients in Group A and B was 28 and 31 months, respectively. The mean operative time in Group A and B was 66 and 50 minutes, respectively (p < 0.05). All the TSV procedures in Group B were successful, except one patient had a two-stage procedure because of right seminal vesicle stones accompanying with pus. One patient in Group A had the discontinuation of the procedure because of accidental bleeding during stone fragmentation. During the follow-up, two patients in Group A had recurrent hematospermia and underwent the second TSV, whereas no recurrence happened in Group B. No epididymitis, retrograde ejaculation, rectal injury, incontinence, bladder neck contracture, or erectile dysfunction happened in both groups. CONCLUSION TSV with ultrasonic lithotripter enables a more reliable, effective, and convenient procedure to diagnose and treat severe, persistent hematospermia. It controls the recurrent hematospermia with less operative time and complication.
Clinical effectiveness.

Background: Care of elderly patients can be complex due to their wide number of co- morbidities. In patients presenting with acute surgical emergencies, early identi ﬁ cation and subsequent medical optimisation may reduce complications and improve outcomes post- surgery. It is therefore recommended that these surgical patients receive early supervision and input from a geriatric physician once admitted to hospital. Innovation: All patients admitted under surgical specialties and aged 78 or above were identi ﬁ ed and reviewed proactively by a geriatric consultant as part of surgical liaison service. This medical input was evaluated using an audit pro forma similar to the one designed by the National Con ﬁ dential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death. Following the results of the initial audit, a new ward-round pro forma was devised to include comprehensive geriatric assessment. A re-audit was undertaken after 5 months. Evaluation: 47 patients were identi ﬁ ed for the re-audit. All patients had comprehensive geriatric assessment carried out. The average length of stay was found to be reduced from 11 to 6 days, by a signi ﬁ cant margin of 45%. 9% of the patients went on to have surgery, and therewas no mortality post-surgery. Conclusions: Upon evaluating our service of providing medical input to all elderly surgical patients, it can be demonstrated that input from a medical geriatric consultant is of consid- erable importance to this subset of patients. Increasing surgical liaison services across the UK isthereforelikely to yield signi ﬁ cant clinical bene ﬁ ts for this population.
Seamless handover in buildings using HVAC ducts: a new system architecture

In this paper, we present an innovative solution to the handover problem in multi-story buildings using HVAC ducts for wireless communications. The proposed solution is based on a new system architecture design of the indoor wireless networks that use the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) ducts as a communication channel. Exploiting the system architecture design and the time diversity at the mobile terminal, we show that intra-floor handover can be eliminated, while inter-floor handover can be substantially reduced due to the fact that multiple floors can be served via the same access point. Our results indicate that the mean number of handovers per call achieved in the indoor wireless networks that use HVAC ducts reduces; e.g., by up to a factor of nine for the illustrative example considered in this paper compared to that of indoor wireless networks that do not use HVAC ducts. The improvement; i.e., reduction in the mean number of handovers in multi-story building, depends on the number of access points used.
WHITE GUAVA FRUIT AND PUREES: TEXTURAL AND RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES AND EFFECT OF THE TEMPERATURE

This study focuses on the effect of temperature on the rheological properties of white guava puree. The results of the textural analysis on the whole guava as well as the rheological analysis on the puree made from it showed different behaviors depending on whether the fruit was unripened or ripened. A relationship was observed between the textural properties of the whole guava and the rheological parameters of its puree. The behavior of white guava puree was thixotropic and pseudoplastic, and its rheological properties were dependent of the temperature. Its consistency coefficient decreased and its flow behavior index increased with an increase in temperature. Experimental data were fitted by the power law, and the activation energy of the process was calculated from the Arrhenius equation. Oscillation test data showed that the viscoelasticity for the guava puree was also affected by temperature. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Knowledge of the rheological properties of foods is useful for quality control, and design and evaluation of process equipment. In this study, it has demonstrated the relationship between textural properties of whole white guava fruit and rheological properties of the purees obtained from these fruits.
Biological Screening of Plant Coumarins

The variety of physiological effects of natural coumarins is extensive. Humans are exposed to them in everyday life through the handling of garden plants like Aegopodium podagraria or ingestion of fruit, vegetables or spices (e.g. Petroselinum crispum). Based on the ethnopharmacological background and reported biological activities, properties of some of the natural coumarins have been investigated more thoroughly using either pure compounds or extracts from plants containing them. The anti-inflammatory screening of twenty coumarin compounds studied with an in vitro model for elastase secretion in human neutrophils using PAF and fMLP as stimuli revealed that the ethnobotanical use of Angelica archangelica, Petroselinum crispum and Ruta graveolens as a relief for cough, colds and arthritis might be explained by the presence of linear furanocoumarins psoralen and xanthotoxin. Coumarins are considered as phytoalexins since plants produce them as defence substances when wounded or attacked by other organisms. The antimicrobial effects of methanol extracts prepared from seven plants growing in Finland, namely Aegopodium podagraria, Anethum graveolens, A. archangelica, Levisticum officinalis, P. crispum, and Peucedanum palustre, and R. graveolens, and pure coumarins occurring in them were merely observed against plant pathogens which supported the role of coumarins and furanocoumarins as defensive compounds. The agar-diffusion methods used are suitable for the bioassay-guided isolation of active substances. The phototoxicity of linear furanocoumarins (also referred to as psoralens) has been turned into a useful property when combined with controlled UVA irradiation, this PUVA treatment has been widely used for psoriasis. For screening phototoxic compounds and extracts, also others than coumarins, a microwell plate test with Artemia salina as test organism was developed. It is noteworthy, that with this test system it is possible to investigate both toxicity and phototoxicity at the same time with the same concentrations. Furthermore, osthol, a simple coumarin from Angelica archangelica, is suggested to be a useful compound for investigations on ligand-receptor interactions and for receptor-mediated regulations of intracellular free calcium concentrations.
When Amdahl Meets Young/Daly

This paper investigates the optimal number of processors to execute a parallel job, whose speedup profile obeys Amdahl's law, on a large-scale platform subject to fail-stop and silent errors. We combine the traditional checkpointing and rollback recovery strategies with verification mechanisms to cope with both error sources. We provide an exact formula to express the execution overhead incurred by a periodic checkpointing pattern of length T and with P processors, and we give first-order approximations for the optimal values T* and P* as a function of the individual processor failure rate λind. A striking result is that P* is of the order λind-1/4 if the checkpointing cost grows linearly with the number of processors, and of the order λind-1/3 if the checkpointing cost stays bounded for any P. We conduct an extensive set of simulations to support the theoretical study. The results confirm the accuracy of first-order approximation under a wide range of parameter settings.
Quantitative elucidation of a distinct spatial gradient-sensing mechanism in fibroblasts

Migration of eukaryotic cells toward a chemoattractant often relies on their ability to distinguish receptor-mediated signaling at different subcellular locations, a phenomenon known as spatial sensing. A prominent example that is seen during wound healing is fibroblast migration in platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) gradients. As in the well-characterized chemotactic cells Dictyostelium discoideum and neutrophils, signaling to the cytoskeleton via the phosphoinositide 3-kinase pathway in fibroblasts is spatially polarized by a PDGF gradient; however, the sensitivity of this process and how it is regulated are unknown. Through a quantitative analysis of mathematical models and live cell total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy experiments, we demonstrate that PDGF detection is governed by mechanisms that are fundamentally different from those in D. discoideum and neutrophils. Robust PDGF sensing requires steeper gradients and a much narrower range of absolute chemoattractant concentration, which is consistent with a simpler system lacking the feedback loops that yield signal amplification and adaptation in amoeboid cells.
The insulator protein CTCF regulates Drosophila steroidogenesis

ABSTRACT The steroid hormone ecdysone is a central regulator of insect development. In this report we show that CTCF expression in the prothoracic gland is required for full transcriptional activation of the Halloween genes spookier, shadow and noppera-bo, which encode ecdysone biosynthetic enzymes, and for proper timing of ecdysone-responsive gene expression. Loss of CTCF results in delayed and less synchronized larval development that can only be rescued by feeding larvae with both, the steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone and cholesterol. Moreover, CTCF-knockdown in prothoracic gland cells leads to increased lipid accumulation. In conclusion, the insulator protein CTCF is required for Halloween gene expression and cholesterol homeostasis in ecdysone-producing cells controlling steroidogenesis.
Quantitative measurement of fetal blood flow using Doppler ultrasound.

Summary. Blood flow in the descending human fetal aorta and in the intra‐abdominal portion of the umbilical vein was quantified using pulsed Doppler ultrasound in a longitudinal series of normal pregnancies. the accuracy of the method having been verified in vitro. The results obtained are in keeping with previous studies but indicate that, although the method is relatively simple, determination of absolute blood flow in these vessels has little clinical potential because of inherent measurement inaccuracies.
The Cost of Capital for Alternative Investments

Traditional risk factor models indicate that hedge funds capture pre-fee alphas of 6% to 10% per annum over the period from 1996 to 2012. At the same time, the hedge fund return series is not reliably distinguishable from the returns of mechanical S&P 500 put-writing strategies. We show that the high excess returns to hedge funds and put-writing are consistent with an equilibrium in which a small subset of investors specialize in bearing downside market risks. Required rates of return in such an equilibrium can dramatically exceed those suggested by traditional models, affecting inference about the attractiveness of these investments.
Evaluation of dermal and respiratory chloroform exposure in humans.

Chloroform is a known contaminant of chlorinated drinking water and of swimming pool water disinfected with chlorine or one of its derivatives. Few data exist regarding the importance of dermal and inhalation exposure routes to the chloroform body burden resulting from domestic and recreational use of chlorinated water. In our experimental study involving 11 male swimmers, we quantified the body burden resulting from exposure to various concentrations of chloroform in water and air of an indoor swimming pool, during a daily 55-min exercise period. From the first to the sixth exercise period, CHCl3 mean concentration in water was increased from 159 micrograms/l to 553 micrograms/l. Corresponding mean air CHCl3 level ranged from 597 ppb to 1630 ppb. To dissociate the dermal exposure route from that of inhalation, swimmers used scuba tanks during an additional exercise period. Chloroform concentrations were measured in alveolar air before and after each exercise period, as well as after 35 min of physical activity. Chloroform levels in water and air were measured every 10 min. We examined the relationship between alveolar air concentration (a measure of body burden) at 35 and 55 min and environmental chloroform concentrations by using multiple regression models. The natural logarithm of alveolar air concentration was strongly correlated with aqueous chloroform concentration both at 35 (p2 < 0.001, r2 = 0.75) and 55 min (p < 0.001, r2 = 0.86). The relationship with air concentrations was also statistically significant (35 min: p < 0.001, r2 = 0.58, 55 min: p < 0.001, r2 = 0.63). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) ImagesFigure 1.Figure 2. AFigure 2. BFigure 3. AFigure 3. B
Chronic Nicotine Treatment Up-Regulates α3 and α7 Acetylcholine Receptor Subtypes Expressed by the Human Neuroblastoma Cell Line SH-SY5Y

SUMMARY Chronic exposure to nicotine has been reported to increase the number of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) in brain. The mechanism of up-regulation for the a4b2 AChR subtype, which accounts for the majority of high affinity nicotine binding in mammalian brain, has previously been shown to involve a decrease in the rate of a4b2 AChR turnover. Here, we report an investigation of the extent and mechanism of nicotine-induced up-regulation of a3 AChRs and a7 AChR subtypes expressed in the human neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y. Up-regulation of human a3 AChRs and a7 AChRs, unlike a4b2 AChRs, requires much higher nicotine concentrations than are encountered in smokers; the extent of increase of surface AChRs is much less; and the mechanisms of up-regulation are different than with a4b2 AChRs. The mechanisms of up-regulation may be different for a3 AChRs or a7 AChRs. Chronic treatment with nicotine or carbamylcholine, but not d-tubocurarine, mecamylamine, or dihydro-b-erythroidine, induced a 500 ‐ 600% increase in the number of a3 AChRs but only a 30% increase in a7 AChRs. Chronic nicotine treatment did not increase affinity for nicotine or increase the amount of RNA for a 3o r a 7 subunits. The effect of nicotine on up-regulation of a7 AChRs was partially blocked by either d-tubocurarine or mecamylamine. The effect of nicotine treatment on the number of a3 AChRs was only slightly blocked by the antagonists d-tubocurarine, mecamylamine, or dihydro-b-erythroidine at concentrations that efficiently block a3 AChR function. Most of the nicotineinduced increase in a3 AChRs was found to be intracellular. The a3 AChRs, which accumulate intracellularly, were shown to have been previously exposed on the cell surface by their susceptibility to antigenic modulation. The data suggest that chronic exposure to nicotine may induce a conformation of cell surface a3 AChRs that at least in this cell line are consequently internalized but not immediately destroyed.
Hypertension Clinical Studies Detection of Hypertensive Left Ventricular Hypertrophy

The risk of adverse cardiovascular events is higher in persons with electrocardiographic evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy, and the decision to treat patients with antihypertensive drugs is often determined by the presence of hypertrophy. In this study a number of electrocardiographic criteria for detection of left ventricular hypertrophy were applied to a population of 85 hypertensive subjects in an ongoing outpatient hypertension evaluation and treatment program. Included were one set of criteria in common use and three sets of criteria employed in prospective clinical trials. The results were compared with those obtained by M-mode echocardiography and left ventricular wall thickness of 12 mm or more, which was taken as an indicator of hypertrophy. By this criterion, 34 patients (40%) had left ventricular hypertrophy. The most sensitive of the electrocardiographic criteria allowed detection of only 13 (38%) of those hypertensive subjects with anatomicalechocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy. Although the echocardiogram is more time-consuming to obtain and more expensive than the electrocardiogram, its superior sensitivity suggests that the echocardiogram should be used for evaluating patients with high blood pressure, especially those without electrocardiographic evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy, to detect anatomical left ventricular hypertrophy. (Hypertension 7: 948-954, 1985)
Recess Physical Activity and Perceived School Environment among Elementary School Children

Differences in recess physical activity (PA) according to perceived school environment among elementary school children were examined. Participants were 103 children from two schools in Japan. PA was measured using accelerometry for seven consecutive days. Time spent in sedentary or PA (light, moderate, or vigorous) during their morning recess (25 min) and lunch recess (15 min) was determined. The School Physical Activity Environment Scale (three factors: equipment, facility, and safety) was used to investigate perceived school environment. Environmental factor scores were assigned to low or high groups for each factor by median. An analysis of covariance, with grade as the covariate, was conducted separately by gender to examine differences in PA between two groups. During lunch recess, boys in the high-equipment group spent significantly more time in moderate PA (high: 1.5; low: 0.8 min) whereas girls in this group spent less time in light PA (9.3, 11.0). Boys in the high-facility group spent significantly less time in sedentary (2.3, 3.9) and more time in vigorous PA (2.4, 1.4) during lunch recess, and girls spent more time in moderate (2.1, 1.2) and vigorous PA (1.9, 1.3) during morning recess. Differences were observed in recess PA according to school environment perceptions. The present study may be useful for further intervention studies for the promotion of PA during recess.
Potential for North American Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) to Transmit Rift Valley Fever Virus

ABSTRACT To determine which arthropods should be targeted for control should Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) be detected in North America, we evaluated Culex erraticus (Dyar and Knab), Culex erythrothorax Dyar, Culex nigripalpus Theobald, Culex pipiens L. , Culex quinquefasciatus Say, Culex tarsalis Coquillett, Aedes dorsalis (Wiedemann), Aedes vexans (Meigen), Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say, and Culicoides sonorensis Wirth and Jones from the western, midwestern, and southern United States for their ability to transmit RVFV. Female mosquitoes were allowed to feed on adult hamsters inoculated with RVFV, after which engorged mosquitoes were incubated for 7–21 d at 26°C, then allowed to refeed on susceptible hamsters, and tested to determine infection, dissemination, and transmission rates. Other specimens were inoculated intrathoracically, held for 7 d, and then allowed to feed on a susceptible hamster to check for a salivary gland barrier. When exposed to hamsters with viremias ≥108.8 plaque-forming units/ml blood, Cx. tarsalis transmitted RVFV efficiently (infection rate = 93%, dissemination rate = 56%, and estimated transmission rate = 52%). In contrast, when exposed to the same virus dose, none of the other species tested transmitted RVFV efficiently. Estimated transmission rates for Cx. erythrothorax, Cx. pipiens, Cx. erraticus, and Ae. dorsalis were 10, 8, 4, and 2%, respectively, and for the remaining species were ≤1%. With the exception of Cx. tarsalis and Cx. pipiens, all species tested had moderate to major salivary gland barriers. None of the C. sonorensis became infected and none of the An. quadrimaculatus tested transmitted RVFV by bite, even after intrathoracic inoculation, indicating that these species would not be competent vectors of RVFV. Although Ae. vexans from Florida and Louisiana were relatively efficient vectors of RVFV, specimens of this species captured in Colorado or California were virtually incompetent, illustrating the need to evaluate local population for their ability to transmit a pathogen. In addition to laboratory vector competence, factors such as seasonal density, host feeding preference, longevity, and foraging behavior should be considered when determining the potential role that these species could play in RVFV transmission.