Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Normothermic Machine Perfusion of Deceased Donor Liver Grafts Is Associated With Improved Postreperfusion Hemodynamics

Background Graft reperfusion poses a critical challenge during liver transplantation and can be associated with hemodynamic instability/postreperfusion syndrome. This is sequel to ischemia-reperfusion injury and normothermic machine preservation (NMP) may affect hemodynamic changes. Herein, we characterize postreperfusion hemodynamics in liver grafts after NMP and traditional cold preservation. Materials and methods Intraoperative records of patients receiving grafts after NMP (n = 6; NMP group) and cold storage (CS) (n = 12; CS group) were compared. The mean arterial pressure (MAP) was defined as the average pressure in the radial artery during 1 cardiac cycle by invasive monitoring. Postreperfusion syndrome was defined as MAP drop greater than 30% of baseline, lasting for 1 minute or longer within the first 5 minutes from graft reperfusion. Results Donor, recipient, demographics, and surgical parameters were evenly matched. Normothermic machine preservation grafts were perfused for 525 minutes (395-605 minutes) after initial cold ischemic time of 91 minutes (73-117 minutes), whereas in CS group cold ischemic time was 456 minutes (347-685 minutes) (P = 0.001). None developed postreperfusion syndrome in the NMP group against n = 2 (16.7%) in CS group (P = 0.529). Normothermic machine preservation group had better intraoperative MAP at 90 minutes postreperfusion (P = 0.029), achieved with a significantly less vasopressor requirement (P = <0.05) and less transfusion of blood products (P = 0.030) compared with CS group. Conclusions Normothermic machine perfusion is associated with a stable intraoperative hemodynamic profile postreperfusion, requiring significantly less vasopressor infusions and blood product transfusion after graft reperfusion and may have benefit to alleviate ischemia-reperfusion injury in liver transplantation.
Sprint Running With a Body-Weight Supporting Kite Reduces Ground Contact Time in Well-Trained Sprinters

Abstract Kratky, S and Müller, E. Sprint running with a body-weight supporting kite reduces ground contact time in well-trained sprinters. J Strength Cond Res 27(5): 1215–1222, 2013—It is well founded that ground contact time is the crucial part of sprinting because the available time window to apply force to the ground diminishes with growing running velocity. In view of this knowledge, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of body-weight support during full-effort sprints on ground contact time and selected stride parameters in 19 Austrian male elite sprinters. A kite with a lifting effect combined with a towing system to erase drag was used. The subjects performed flying 20-m sprints under 3 conditions: (a) free sprint; (b) body-weight supported sprint—normal speed (BWS-NS); and (c) body-weight supported sprint—overspeed (BWS-OS). Sprint cycle characteristics were recorded during the high-speed phase by an optical acquisition system. Additionally, running velocity was derived from the 20-m sprint time. Compared with the fastest free sprint, running velocity, step length, and step frequency remained unchanged during BWS-NS, whereas ground contact time decreased (−5.80%), and air time increased (+5.79%) (both p < 0.001). Throughout, BWS-OS ground contact time (−7.66%) was reduced, whereas running velocity (+2.72%), air time (+4.92%), step length (+1.98%) (all p < 0.001), and step frequency (+1.05%; p < 0.01) increased. Compared with BWS-NS, BWS-OS caused an increase in running velocity (+3.33%), step length (+1.92%) (both p < 0.001), and step frequency (+1.37%; p < 0.01), whereas ground contact time was diminished (−1.97%; p < 0.001). In summary, sprinting with a body-weight supporting kite appeared to be a highly specific method to simulate an advanced performance level, indicated by higher running velocities requiring reduced ground contact times. The additional application of an overspeed condition led to a further reduction of ground contact time. Therefore, we recommend body-weight supported sprinting as an additional tool in sprint training.
Comparison of acute non-haemolytic transfusion reactions in female and male patients receiving female or male blood components

summary To study the relationship between antibodies detected in patients’ and/or donors’ sera and the clinical features of acute non‐haemolytic transfusion reactions (ANHTRs), and to determine any gender‐related difference. ANHTRs range from urticaria to transfusion‐related acute lung injury (TRALI). Antibodies to human leukocyte antigen (HLA), granulocytes, platelets, and/or plasma proteins are implicated in some of the ANHTRs. A higher antibody positivity is expected for females than for males. A comparative study of ANHTRs for antibody positivity and their clinical features between females and males for both patients and donors is helpful for characterizing ANHTRs including TRALI more clearly, but such studies are few and outdated. Two hundred and twenty‐three ANHTR cases reported by 45 hospitals between October 2000 and July 2005 were analysed. The patients and 196 donors of suspect blood products were screened for antibodies to HLA Class I, HLA Class II, granulocytes, and platelets. The patients were also screened for anti‐plasma protein antibodies. The types and severity of ANHTR did not differ significantly between female and male patients. The frequency of the anti‐HLA antibodies, but not that of the non‐HLA antibodies, was significantly higher in females. Non‐HLA antibodies were significantly associated with severe reactions in females. All the TRALI cases had predisposing risk factors for acute lung injury, and 60% of the cases showed anti‐leucocyte antibodies. Although the anti‐HLA antibodies were detected more frequently in females than males, no significant association of ANHTRs including TRALI with gender, not only for patients, but also for donors, could be shown in this study.
The Plasma Lipoproteins

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Accuracy and precision of the three-dimensional assessment of the facial surface using a 3-D laser scanner

Three-dimensional (3-D) recording of the surface of the human body or anatomical areas has gained importance in many medical specialties. Thus, it is important to determine scanner precision and accuracy in defined medical applications and to establish standards for the recording procedure. Here we evaluated the precision and accuracy of 3-D assessment of the facial area with the Minolta Vivid 910 3D Laser Scanner. We also investigated the influence of factors related to the recording procedure and the processing of scanner data on final results. These factors include lighting, alignment of scanner and object, the examiner, and the software used to convert measurements into virtual images. To assess scanner accuracy, we compared scanner data to those obtained by manual measurements on a dummy. Less than 7% of all results with the scanner method were outside a range of error of 2 mm when compared to corresponding reference measurements. Accuracy, thus, proved to be good enough to satisfy requirements for numerous clinical applications. Moreover, the experiments completed with the dummy yielded valuable information for optimizing recording parameters for best results. Thus, under defined conditions, precision and accuracy of surface models of the human face recorded with the Minolta Vivid 910 3D Scanner presumably can also be enhanced. Future studies will involve verification of our findings using test persons. The current findings indicate that the Minolta Vivid 910 3D Scanner might be used with benefit in medicine when recording the 3-D surface structures of the face
Stem cells as vectors for antitumour therapy

Recent research suggests that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are able to migrate specifically to tumours and their metastases throughout the body. This has led to considerable excitement about the possibility of modifying these cells to express anticancer molecules and using them as specific targeted anticancer agents. However, there are concerns that systemically delivered MSCs may have non-desirable effects, and there are also many unanswered questions including the mechanism of tumour homing. This review investigates the different MSC-delivered anticancer agents, addresses the questions and concerns, and tries to place this potential therapy in future cancer management.
Sustained Activity in Topographic Areas of Human Posterior Parietal Cortex during Memory-Guided Saccades

In a previous study, we identified three cortical areas in human posterior parietal cortex that exhibited topographic responses during memory-guided saccades [visual area 7 (V7), intraparietal sulcus 1 (IPS1), and IPS2], which are candidate homologs of macaque parietal areas such as the lateral intraparietal area and parietal reach region. Here, we show that these areas exhibit sustained delay-period activity, a critical physiological signature of areas in macaque parietal cortex. By varying delay duration, we disambiguated delay-period activity from sensory and motor responses. Mean time courses in the parietal areas were well fit by a linear model comprising three components representing responses to (1) the visual target, (2) the delay period, and (3) the eye movement interval. We estimated the contributions of each component: the response amplitude during the delay period was substantially smaller (<30%) than that elicited by the transient visual target. All three parietal regions showed comparable delay-period response amplitudes, with a trend toward larger responses from V7 to IPS1 and IPS2. Responses to the cue and during the delay period showed clear lateralization with larger responses to trials in which the target was placed in the contralateral visual field, suggesting that both of these components contributed to the topography we measured.
On the Complexity of Inner Product Similarity Join

A number of tasks in classification, information retrieval, recommendation systems, and record linkage reduce to the core problem of inner product similarity join (IPS join): identifying pairs of vectors in a collection that have a sufficiently large inner product. IPS join is well understood when vectors are normalized and some approximation of inner products is allowed. However, the general case where vectors may have any length appears much more challenging. Recently, new upper bounds based on asymmetric locality-sensitive hashing (ALSH) and asymmetric embeddings have emerged, but little has been known on the lower bound side. In this paper we initiate a systematic study of inner product similarity join, showing new lower and upper bounds. Our main results are: Approximation hardness of IPS join in subquadratic time, assuming the strong exponential time hypothesis. New upper and lower bounds for (A)LSH-based algorithms. In particular, we show that asymmetry can be avoided by relaxing the LSH definition to only consider the collision probability of distinct elements. A new indexing method for IPS based on linear sketches, implying that our hardness results are not far from being tight. Our technical contributions include new asymmetric embeddings that may be of independent interest. At the conceptual level we strive to provide greater clarity, for example by distinguishing among signed and unsigned variants of IPS join and shedding new light on the effect of asymmetry.
Dissecting Allele Architecture of Early Onset IBD Using High-Density Genotyping

Background The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are common, complex disorders in which genetic and environmental factors are believed to interact leading to chronic inflammatory responses against the gut microbiota. Earlier genetic studies performed in mostly adult population of European descent identified 163 loci affecting IBD risk, but most have relatively modest effect sizes, and altogether explain only ~20% of the genetic susceptibility. Pediatric onset represents about 25% of overall incident cases in IBD, characterized by distinct disease physiology, course and risks. The goal of this study is to compare the allelic architecture of early onset IBD with adult onset in population of European descent. Methods We performed a fine mapping association study of early onset IBD using high-density Immunochip genotyping on 1008 pediatric-onset IBD cases (801 Crohn’s disease; 121 ulcerative colitis and 86 IBD undetermined) and 1633 healthy controls. Of the 158 SNP genotypes obtained (out of the 163 identified in adult onset), this study replicated 4% (5 SNPs out of 136) of the SNPs identified in the Crohn’s disease (CD) cases and 0.8% (1 SNP out of 128) in the ulcerative colitis (UC) cases. Replicated SNPs implicated the well known NOD2 and IL23R. The point estimate for the odds ratio (ORs) for NOD2 was above and outside the confidence intervals reported in adult onset. A polygenic liability score weakly predicted the age of onset for a larger collection of CD cases (p< 0.03, R2= 0.007), but not for the smaller number of UC cases. Conclusions The allelic architecture of common susceptibility variants for early onset IBD is similar to that of adult onset. This immunochip genotyping study failed to identify additional common variants that may explain the distinct phenotype that characterize early onset IBD. A comprehensive dissection of genetic loci is necessary to further characterize the genetic architecture of early onset IBD.
Relationship between adolescents’ family function with socio-demographic characteristics and behaviour risk factors in a primary care facility

ABSTRACT Background The family as a unit of care has great effect in tackling adolescent problems and this could be influenced by family functioning. Objective This study assesses the relationship between adolescents’ family functioning with socio-demographic characteristics and behavioural risk factors. Method The research was a cross-sectional, hospital-based study carried out at the General Outpatients Department, University College Hospital (GOPD, UCH), Ibadan, over a period of three months. Four hundred subjects were recruited using a modified Guideline for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) questionnaire, with an incorporated family APGAR (Adaptation, Partnership, Growth, Affection, Resolve) score table. The results were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 11 and the findings on the family assessment and behavioural risk factors were relayed to the respondents. Results The ages of the adolescents ranged from 10 to 19 years. Of the subjects, 8% were sexually active. Mean age for first coitus among the respondents was 15 ± 2.4 years. The rate of ingestion of alcohol and cigarette smoking was very low. The family APGAR scores obtained revealed that 84.5% subjects were rated as having a functional family (7–10 points) and 15.5% of the subjects were rated as having a dysfunctional family (0–6 points). There was a significant association between perceived family function and subjects’ occupation (p = 0.01), parent social class (p = 0.00) and subjects’ sexual activities (p = 0.00). Conclusion The majority of the adolescents were rated as having functional families. Dysfunctional families had significantly sexually active respondents.
Humoral syndromes associated with cancer.

Summary Neoplasia of a tissue occasionally results in the production of a substance with hormonal activity similar to that produced by one of the endocrine glands. This leads to syndromes that may simulate hyperfunction of an endocrine gland. The syndromes that have been well documented are: hypoglycemia, Cushing9s syndrome, polycythemia, hypercalcemia, precocious puberty, the atypical carcinoid syndrome, inappropriate secretion of an anti-diuretic substance, and hyperthyroidism. In Cushing9s syndrome and polycythemia, the substances produced have many of the physicochemical characteristics of the normal hormones, adrenocorticotropic hormone and erythropoietin respectively. However, the syndromes of hypoglycemia and hyperthyroidism are clearly not due to the production of insulin or thyroid-stimulating hormone but rather to substances that have these biologic activities. Recognition of these syndromes will result in adequate medical management and occasionally cure.
A literature survey of the operation optimization in chip shooter placement machines

Computer controlled electronic component placement machines have become major resources in electronic equipment manufacturers. They brought speed and reliability to the assembly operations. However, these machines are quite expensive and efficient use of them is essential. Unfortunately finding out the efficient way of using them mostly leads to complex operations research problems. In this study we undertake a type of placement machines which perhaps leads the most complicated problems. These are the chip shooter machines and recently they became very popular in the industry. We survey the studies made regarding these machines; state the level of complexity undertaken, the solution algorithms suggested and the results obtained. In doing so we aimed to provide a comprehensive survey and a starting reference for those who are interested in optimizing these machines. The research areas that are open to further improvement are also indicated.
An instrument for assessment of subjective visual disability in cataract patients

AIMS/BACKGROUND The construction and validation of an instrument for the assessment of subjective visual disability in the cataract patient is described. This instrument is specifically designed for measuring the outcome of cataract surgery with respect to visual disability. METHODS Visually related activities thought to be affected by cataract were considered for the questionnaire. These were reduced by pilot study and principal components analysis to 18 items. A patient’s assessment of his/her ability to perform each task was scored on a four point scale. Scores were averaged to create an overall index of visual disability, as well as subscale indices for mobility related disability, distance/lighting/reading related disability, and near and related tasks visual disability. The questionnaire, administered verbally is entitled “The Visual Disability Assessment (VDA)”. Reliability testing included test-retest reliability, interobserver reliability (ρ, the intraclass correlation coefficient), and internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s α). Construct validation, the process for proving that a test measures what it is supposed to measure, included consideration of content validity, comparison with the established Activities of Daily Vision Scale (ADVS) and empirical support with factor analysis. RESULTS For the four indices, interobserver reliability varied from 0.92 to 0.94, test-retest reliability varied from 0.96 to 0.98, and internal consistency reliability varied from 0.80 to 0.93. The VDA compared favourably with the ADVS by correlation, but Bland–Altman analysis demonstrated that the two instruments were not clinically interchangeable. Factor analysis suggests that all test items measure a common theme, and the subgroupings reflect common themes. CONCLUSIONS The VDA is easy to administer because it has a short test time and scoring is straightforward. It has excellent interobserver, test-retest, and internal consistency reliability, and compares favourably with the ADVS, another test of visual disability. Factor analysis demonstrated that the 18 items measure a related theme, which can be assumed to be visual disability. The VDA is a valid instrument which provides a comprehensive assessment of visual disability in cataract patients and is designed to detect changes within a patient over time.
reFresh SSDs: Enabling High Endurance, Low Cost Flash in Datacenters

Storage performance and power are critical issues in modern datacenters. Solid State Drives (SSDs) offer both performance and power advantages over hard disk drives. With the advent of MLC flash, the cost-per-Gigabyte of Flash has dropped significantly enough to make it attractive for use in largescale storage in datacenters. However, flash suffers from limited endurance and wears away after a certain number of writes and erases, thereby entailing higher replacement and service costs and hence an increase in the overall server infrastructure costs. In this paper, we develop a physically-accurate model of flash memory reliability and show that there exists a tradeoff between endurance and retention time. We then quantify this tradeoff and show how to exploit it without causing data integrity problems by refreshing the data in the flash memory cells. We propose and evaluate an Earliest-Deadline First (EDF) based refresh policy that can increase the endurance limit by 6-56% for an MLC-based SSD.
An Antagonist Mutant IL-15/Fc Promotes Transplant Tolerance

Background. IL-15 is a proinflammatory and antiapoptotic T-cell growth factor that plays an important role in a variety of autoimmune disorders and transplant rejection. To inhibit IL-15 function and to target IL-15 receptor (IL-15R) bearing cells, we have generated a unique lytic antagonistic mutant IL-15/Fc fusion protein (mIL-15/Fc). Methods. In this study, we further examined the efficacy of mIL-15/Fc in preventing allograft rejection cross minor and major histocompatibility barriers. Results. A short-course treatment with mIL-15/Fc fusion protein is sufficient to prevent cardiac allograft rejection and induce antigen-specific tolerance in minor histocompatibility complex-mismatched recipients, and permit prolonged cardiac allograft survival in fully MHC mismatched recipients. In addition, mIL-15/Fc treatment, in combination with a suboptimal dose of anti-CD154 antibody, confers permanent cardiac allograft engraftment in a fully MHC-mismatched mouse strain combination. In a murine islet allograft model, mIL-15/Fc monotherapy is capable to permit permanent allograft survival in 50% fully MHC-mismatched recipients. Conclusion. Immunochemistry studies demonstrated that prolonged graft survival was accompanied by reduced intragraft mononuclear cell infiltration and pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression in the mIL-15/Fc treated recipients. Moreover, parallel experiments employing a mutated nonlytic IgG2a Fc demonstrate that the Fc portion of mIL-15/Fc contributes to the overall efficacy of the molecule in vivo.