Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adult intussusception. An overlooked diagnosis in the emergency department.

OBJECTIVE To study the appropriate method of diagnosis and management in adult intussusception (AI) focusing on the clinical manifestations, diagnostic tools, and management of this rare disease. METHODS This retrospective study reviewed and analyzed the demographic data, clinical features, diagnosis, management, and pathology reports of all adult patients (18 years of age and older) with a diagnosis of intussusception admitted to Sohag University Hospital, Sohag, Egypt, and Najran Armed Forces Hospital, Najran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) from January 2004 to August 2012. RESULTS From 2004-2012, 14 patients with AI were diagnosed and treated. Ages ranged from 22-63 years. Ten patients (71.4%) were males. Thirteen patients (92.9%) presented with abdominal pain. All patients were diagnosed after a CT scan, and confirmed at laparotomy. The lead point was found in all, except for 2 patients. Ileo-ileal and jejuno-jejunal intussusceptions represented most of our cases (64.3%), followed by ileocolic (28.5%), and colocolic (7.1%). The most common causes were Peutz-Jeghers polyps (5 cases), submucosal lipoma (2), and malignancy (2). Surgery was the treatment option in all except one patient. Postoperative complications occurred in 3 cases (21.4%). One patient died 28 days postoperatively due to septic shock and multiorgan failure. CONCLUSION Owing to its rarity, AI needs a high index of suspicion especially in patients attending ERs with recurrent abdominal pain. A CT scan is of prime importance in the diagnosis, and surgical treatment is the preferred method of management.
Hatred, Murder, and Male Honour: Anti-Homosexual Homicides in New South Wales, 1980-2000

Based on evidence from a study of 74 anti homosexual homicides with male victims that occurred in New South Wales between 1980 and 2000, this report analyses the social characteristics of victims and perpetrators and the situational factors involved, as well as case studies outlining specific homicide scenarios. The study also examines the links between such killings and commonplace issues of male identity. The link to various aspects of masculinity, including heterosexism and male honour, that have community support leads to a critical scrutiny of the legal issues involved, including the homosexual advance defence and the idea of homosexual panic as a legal defence.
Brand familiarity and tasting in conjoint analysis: An experimental study with Croatian beer consumers

Purpose – The aims of this paper is to determine, via an empirical study of beer consumers in Croatia, the influence of tasting on the validity of conjoint analysis (CA) under presence of familiar or unfamiliar brands.Design/methodology/approach – The research comprised a face‐to‐face survey with 403 beer consumers. The respondents were divided into four groups regarding CA experiment (familiar/unfamiliar beer brand in combination with presence or absence of beer tasting). CA validity was measured with five criteria: face validity, convergent validity, internal validity, predictive validity and subjective evaluation of conjoint task. In addition to the CA experiment, a structured questionnaire was used consisting of a few questions regarding respondents' socio‐economic characteristics, beer purchasing, and consuming behaviour.Findings – The research results confirmed that tasting as an additional presentation method has significant influence on validity of CA. However, the results of the study indicate th.
SOCIAL MEDIA IN A CONTENT COURSE FOR THE DIGITAL NATIVES

Digital technologies and the Internet have revolutionized the way people gather information and acquire new knowledge. With a click of a button or a touch on the screen, any person who is wired to the internet can access a wealth of information, ranging from books, poems, articles, graphics, animations and so much more. It is imperative that educational systems and classroom practices must change to serve our 21st century students better. This study examines the use of Edmodo as a social media to teach a course in Pedagogy to a class of digital natives. The media is used as an out-of-class communication forum to post/submit assignments and resources, discuss relevant issues, exchange information, and handle housekeeping purposes. A survey of students' responses and discussions on their participatory process leads to insights on how the social media helps achieve the required competences.
Spike-and-Wave Oscillations Based on the Properties of GABAB Receptors

Neocortical and thalamic neurons are involved in the genesis of generalized spike-and-wave (SW) epileptic seizures. The cellular mechanism of SW involves complex interactions between intrinsic neuronal firing properties and multiple types of synaptic receptors, but because of the complexity of these interactions the exact details of this mechanism are unclear. In this paper these types of interactions were investigated by using biophysical models of thalamic and cortical neurons. It is shown first that, because of the particular activation properties of GABAB receptor-mediated responses, simulated field potentials can display SW waveforms if cortical pyramidal cells and interneurons generate prolonged discharges in synchrony, without any other assumptions. Here the “spike” component coincided with the synchronous firing, whereas the “wave” component was generated mostly by slow GABAB-mediated K+ currents. Second, the model suggests that intact thalamic circuits can be forced into a ∼3 Hz oscillatory mode by corticothalamic feedback. Here again, this property was attributable to the characteristics of GABAB-mediated inhibition. Third, in the thalamocortical system this property can lead to generalized ∼3 Hz oscillations with SW field potentials. The oscillation consisted of a synchronous prolonged firing in all cell types, interleaved with a ∼300 msec period of neuronal silence, similar to experimental observations during SW seizures. This model suggests that SW oscillations can arise from thalamocortical loops in which the corticothalamic feedback indirectly evokes GABAB-mediated inhibition in the thalamus. This mechanism is shown to be consistent with a number of different experimental models, and experiments are suggested to test its consistency.
Firing dynamics of thalamic neurones during genetically determined experimental absence seizures

Absence seizures (ASs) are the predominant form of seizure featuring in the idiopathic generalised epilepsies, and are the only seizure type of childhood absence epilepsy. They are characterised by behavioural arrest, impairment of consciousness and an electrographic signature of spike-and-wave discharges (SWDs) and are associated with psychosocial and cognitive impairment of development. The seizures are known to arise in the thalamocortical network, but the firing dynamics of thalamic neurones during seizure is not known. In vivo and in vitro studies have yielded contradictory results, suggesting predominant silence and regular burst firing respectively, but no studies have previously recorded from intact, single thalamic neurones in a freely moving model of absence epilepsy. In this thesis it has been shown that, in Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats from Strasbourg, thalamocortical (TC) neurones are mostly either silent or fire single spikes irregularly but synchronously during AS. T-type calcium channel-mediated bursts in neurones of the reticular thalamic nucleus (nRT) were frequently observed during full seizure expression. These cells expressed varied firing patterns ranging from regular burst firing to predominant silence, with similarly varying degrees of synchrony. It is also suggested that the nRT burst firing observed may be required for seizure generation. T-type calcium channel-mediated burst firing of TC neurones is neither necessary for, nor commonly observed in, the full generation or propagation of absence seizures These results suggest that TC neurones are predominantly silent during AS. This is compatible with the idea of a cortical seizure initiator and driver, as suggested by the cortical initiation site and cortical abnormalities observed in multiple experimental AS models. The observations herein also confirm that the temporal relationship between thalamic firing and SWDs previously observed in anaesthetised animals is maintained in the freely moving condition, but suggest that there is a greater incidence of asynchronous thalamic activity during AS (particularly of nRT neurones) than previously suggested. The firing dynamics of thalamic neurones observed are a crucial step towards understanding TC network activity during AS, and provide a significant insight into the role of the thalamus in alterations of sensation, movement, and consciousness associated with these seizures.
HIV Incidence and Associated Risk Factors Among Female Sex Workers in a High HIV-Prevalence Area of China

Background Heterosexual sex is replacing injection drug use as the main mode of HIV transmission in China. The objective of this study is to determine HIV incidence and associated risk factors among female sex workers (FSWs) in China. Methods From March 2006 to November 2009, FSWs in Kaiyuan City, Yunnan were recruited into an open cohort study. Participants were interviewed and tested for HIV and sexually transmitted infections every 6 months. A multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model with time-dependent variables was used to measure associations between independent variables and HIV seroconversion. Results During 3.5 years of follow-up, 19 incident cases of HIV infection were diagnosed, yielding an overall incidence of 1.44 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87–2.24). In the multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model, noninjection drug use (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR]: 6.7, 95% CI: 2.25–19.93), inconsistent condom use with clients in the previous week (AHR: 2.9, 95% CI: 1.03–8.34), and number of clients in the previous week ≥7 (AHR: 4.9, 95% CI: 1.81–13.13) were all independent risk factors for HIV seroconversion. Conclusion These results underscore the urgency for preventive interventions on sexual and drug use behaviors among FSWs, including condom promotion as well as sexually transmitted infection screening and treatment.
Combined event‐related fMRI and EEG evidence for temporal—parietal cortex activation during target detection

TARGET detection is the process of bringing a salient stimulus into conscious awareness. Target detection evokes a prominent event-related potential (ERP) component (P3) in the electroencephalogram (EEG). We combined the high spatial resolution of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with the high temporal resolution of EEG to investigate the neural generators of the P3. Event-related brain activation (ERBA) and ERPs were computed by time-locked averaging of fMRI and EEG, respectively, recorded using the same paradigm in the same subjects. Target detection elicited significantly greater ERBAs bilaterally in the temporal—parietal cortex, thalamus and anterior cingulate. Spatio-temporal modelling of ERPs based on dipole locations derived from the ERBAs indicated that bilateral sources in the temporal—parietal cortex are the main generators of the P3. The findings provide convergent fMRI and EEG evidence for significant activation of the temporal—parietal cortex 285–610 ms after stimulus onset during target detection. The methods developed here provide a novel multimodal neuroimaging technique to investigate the spatio-temporal aspects of processes underlying brain function.
Predetermined recruitment of calcium release sites underlies excitation‐contraction coupling in rat atrial myocytes

1 Excitation‐contraction coupling (E‐C coupling) was studied in isolated fluo‐3‐loaded rat atrial myocytes at 22 and 37°C using rapid confocal microscopy. 2 Within a few milliseconds of electrical excitation, spatially discrete subsarcolemmal Ca2+ signals were initiated. Twenty to forty milliseconds after stimulation the spatial overlap of these Ca2+ signals gave a ‘ring’ of elevated Ca2+ around the periphery of the cells. However, this ring was not continuous and substantial Ca2+ gradients were observed. 3 The discrete subsarcolemmal Ca2+‐release sites, which responded in a reproducible sequence to repetitive depolarisations and displayed the highest frequencies of spontaneous Ca2+ sparks in resting cells, were denoted ‘eager sites’. 4 Immunostaining atrial myocytes for type II ryanodine receptors (RyRs) revealed both subsarcolemmal ‘junctional’ RyRs, and also ‘non‐junctional’ RyRs in the central bulk of the cells. A subset of the junctional RyRs comprises the eager sites. 5 For cells paced in the presence of 1 mM extracellular Ca2+, the response was largely restricted to a subsarcolemmal ‘ring’, while the central bulk of the cell displayed a ≈5‐fold lower Ca2+ signal. Under these conditions the non‐junctional RyRs were only weakly activated during E‐C coupling. However, these channels are functional and the Ca2+ stores were at least partially loaded, since substantial homogeneous Ca2+ signals could be stimulated in the central regions of atrial myocytes by application of 2·5 mM caffeine. 6 Neither the location nor activation order of the eager sites was affected by increasing the trigger Ca2+ current (by increasing extracellular Ca2+ to 10 mM) or the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ load (following 1 min incubation in 10 mM extracellular Ca2+), although with increased SR Ca2+ load, but not greater Ca2+ influx, the delay between the sequential activation of eager sites was reduced. In addition, increasing the trigger Ca2+ current or the SR Ca2+ load changed the spatial pattern of the Ca2+ response, in that the Ca2+ signal propagated more reliably from the subsarcolemmal initiation sites into the centre of the cell. Due to the greater spatial spread of the Ca2+ signals, the averaged global Ca2+ transients increased by ≈500 %. 7 We conclude that rat atrial myocytes display a predetermined spatiotemporal pattern of Ca2+ signalling during early E‐C coupling. A consistent set of eager Ca2+ release sites with a fixed location and activation order on the junctional SR serve to initiate the cellular response. The short latency for activation of these eager sites suggests that they reflect clusters of RyRs closely coupled to voltage‐operated Ca2+ channels in the sarcolemma. Furthermore, their propensity to show spontaneous Ca2+ sparks is consistent with an intrinsically higher sensitivity to Ca2+‐induced Ca2+ release. While the subsarcolemmal Ca2+ response can be considered as stereotypic, the central bulk of the cell grades its response in direct proportion to cellular Ca2+ load and Ca2+ influx.
Detecting Naturalistic Expressions of Nonbasic Affect Using Physiological Signals

Signals from peripheral physiology (e.g., ECG, EMG, and GSR) in conjunction with machine learning techniques can be used for the automatic detection of affective states. The affect detector can be user-independent, where it is expected to generalize to novel users, or user-dependent, where it is tailored to a specific user. Previous studies have reported some success in detecting affect from physiological signals, but much of the work has focused on induced affect or acted expressions instead of contextually constrained spontaneous expressions of affect. This study addresses these issues by developing and evaluating user-independent and user-dependent physiology-based detectors of nonbasic affective states (e.g., boredom, confusion, curiosity) that were trained and validated on naturalistic data collected during interactions between 27 students and AutoTutor, an intelligent tutoring system with conversational dialogues. There is also no consensus on which techniques (i.e., feature selection or classification methods) work best for this type of data. Therefore, this study also evaluates the efficacy of affect detection using a host of feature selection and classification techniques on three physiological signals (ECG, EMG, and GSR) and their combinations. Two feature selection methods and nine classifiers were applied to the problem of recognizing eight affective states (boredom, confusion, curiosity, delight, flow/-engagement, surprise, and neutral). The results indicated that the user-independent modeling approach was not feasible; however, a mean kappa score of 0.25 was obtained for user-dependent models that discriminated among the most frequent emotions. The results also indicated that k-nearest neighbor and Linear Bayes Normal Classifier (LBNC) classifiers yielded the best affect detection rates. Single channel ECG, EMG, and GSR and three-channel multimodal models were generally more diagnostic than two--channel models.
Mining the Ovarian Cancer Ascites Proteome for Potential Ovarian Cancer Biomarkers*S

Current ovarian cancer biomarkers are inadequate because of their relatively low diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. There is a need to discover and validate novel ovarian cancer biomarkers that are suitable for early diagnosis, monitoring, and prediction of therapeutic response. We performed an in-depth proteomics analysis of ovarian cancer ascites fluid. Size exclusion chromatography and ultrafiltration were used to remove high abundance proteins with molecular mass ≥30 kDa. After trypsin digestion, the subproteome (≤30 kDa) of ascites fluid was determined by two-dimensional liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Filtering criteria were used to select potential ovarian cancer biomarker candidates. By combining data from different size exclusion and ultrafiltration fractionation protocols, we identified 445 proteins from the soluble ascites fraction using a two-dimensional linear ion trap mass spectrometer. Among these were 25 proteins previously identified as ovarian cancer biomarkers. After applying a set of filtering criteria to reduce the number of potential biomarker candidates, we identified 52 proteins for which further clinical validation is warranted. Our proteomics approach for discovering novel ovarian cancer biomarkers appears to be highly efficient because it was able to identify 25 known biomarkers and 52 new candidate biomarkers that warrant further validation.
Expression of plasma prolactin and pituitary prolactin mRNA around the broody cycle in Wan-xi White goose

A systematic evaluation of the dynamic changes of prolactin (PRL) around the whole cycle of broodiness in domestic fowl has not been performed. We started to investigate the overall changing profi le of PRL expression at both protein and mRNA levels from pre- to post-broodiness in Wan-xi White goose, an indigenous breed in East China. Th e onset of broodiness was recorded, and the plasma PRL concentration and the pituitary PRL mRNA level at 5 stages were measured, in that order, around the fi rst broody cycle. Th e expression level of pituitary PRL mRNA was highly correlated with the plasma PRL level (r = 0.92), and both changed synchronically around the broody cycle. Th ey signifi cantly increased at the onset of broodiness, but rapidly dropped during the early half period of broodiness, until the later half period of broodiness, and post-broodiness as well, where they reached a similar level as that of pre- broodiness (the laying period). Th erefore, intervention on PRL could be a useful tool in regulating goose broodiness, as well as potentially for other domestic fowls.
Endoscopic Lateral Cartilage Graft Tympanoplasty

Objective To describe a novel technique for lateral graft tympanoplasty. Study Design Case series with chart review. Setting Tertiary care university hospital. Subjects and Methods Pediatric and adult patients with tympanic membrane perforations deemed unfavorable for a medial graft technique due to the perforation characteristics or myringitis. Results Between 2014 and 2016, 34 ears from 31 patients underwent a transcanal endoscopic lateral cartilage graft tympanoplasty. The mean age was 24.4 years (range, 6-71 years), and 22 patients (65%) were younger than 18 years. All patients had tympanic membrane perforations. Eighteen patients (53%) had total or near-total perforations, leaving a minimal anterior remnant, and 16 patients (47%) had extensive myringitis. A bisected tragal cartilage-perichondrium shield graft was used in 33 patients (97%). The mean (SD) follow-up length was 9.8 (5.7) months. Initial perforation closure rate was 88.2% (30/34). Three of the persistent perforations underwent a revision endoscopic medial graft tympanoplasty with successful closure, leaving a final closure rate of 97.1% (33/34). Five patients (15%) required topical therapy for postoperative myringitis. Mean (SD) pure-tone average and air-bone gap significantly improved by 11.5 (10.7) dB (P < .001) and 11.4 (10.6) dB (P < .001), respectively. Twenty-seven patients (79%) closed their air-bone gap within 20 dB. Conclusion Transcanal endoscopic lateral cartilage graft tympanoplasty is feasible, and initial data support favorable outcomes. Further data are necessary for evaluation of long-term results and efficacy comparisons.
Downregulation of survivin expression exerts antitumoral effects on mouse breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo

Metastasis constantly occurs in the majority of cases of primary breast cancer at late stage or following surgical treatment. Survivin, a member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein family, has long been recognized as a promising anticancer target, but its antitumor effects remain largely unexplored. In order to elucidate the role of survivin in breast cancer metastasis, short interfering RNA (siRNA) was used in the present study to specifically downregulate survivin expression in the murine breast cancer cell line 4T1. The results demonstrated that blocking the expression of survivin by siRNA inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion abilities of murine breast cancer cells in vitro. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-C is a lymphatic endothelial cell-stimulating factor that may lead to the formation of lymphatic vessels in lymph nodes. In the present study, the inhibition of survivin by siRNA was able to reduce the overexpression of VEGF-C in 4T1 cells. Furthermore, intratumoral injections of the survivin-siRNA significantly inhibited the growth of orthotopically transplanted 4T1 tumors in vivo. In addition, the number of pulmonary metastases and the microlymphatic vessel density were significantly reduced in vivo, following transfection with survivin-siRNA. The results of the present study suggested that the Akt/hypoxia-inducible factor-1α signaling pathway participates in the survivin-mediated downregulation of VEGF-C expression observed in breast cancer cells treated with survivin-siRNA. Therefore, the use of siRNA specifically targeting survivin may be a potential anticancer method in the future.
Convergence-provable statistical timing analysis with level-sensitive latches and feedback loops

Statistical timing analysis has been widely applied to predict the timing yield of VLSI circuits when process variations become significant. Existing statistical latch timing methods are either having exponential complexity or unable to treat the random variable's self-dependence caused by the coexistence of level-sensitive latches and feedback loops. In this paper, an efficient iterative statistical timing algorithm with provable convergence is proposed for latch-based circuits with feedback loops. Based on a new notion of iteration mean, we prove that the algorithm converges unconditionally. Moreover, we show that the converged value of iteration mean ca be used to predict the circuit yield during design time. Tested by ISCAS'89 benchmark circuits, the proposed algorithm shows a error of 1.1% and speedup of 303 times on average when compared with the Monte Carlo simulation