Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Procedural and one-year clinical outcomes of bioresorbable vascular scaffolds for the treatment of chronic total occlusions: a single-centre experience

Summary Introduction The bioresorbable vascular scaffold system (BVS) is the latest fully absorbable vascular therapy system that is used to treat coronary artery disease. The BVS has been used in different coronary lesion subsets, such as acute thrombotic lesions, bifurcation lesions, ostial lesions and lesions originating from bypass grafts. However, data about the use of BVS in chronic total occlusions (CTO) are limited. We report our BVS experience for the treatment of CTOs in terms of procedural features and one-year clinical follow-up results. Methods An analysis was made of 41 consecutive patients with CTO lesions who were referred to our clinic between January 2013 and December 2014. A total of 52 BVS were implanted. An analysis was made of patient characteristics, procedural features [target vessel, BVS diameter, BVS length, post-dilatation rate, type of post-dilatation balloon, procedure time, fluoroscopy time, contrast volume, postprocedure reference vessel diameter (RVD), post-procedure minimal lesion diameter (MLD), type of CTO technique and rate of microcatheter use] and one-year clinical follow-up results [death, myocardial infarction, angina, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), target-lesion revascularisation (TLR) and target-vessel revascularisation (TVR)]. Descriptive and frequency statistics were used for statistical analysis. Results The mean age of the patient group was 61.9 ± 9.7 years, 85.4% were male, and 51.2 % had diabetes. Prior myocardial infarction incidence was 65.9%, 56.1% of the patients had percutaneous coronary intervention and 17.1% had a previous history of CABG. The procedure was performed via the radial route in 24.3% of the patients. The target vessel was the right coronary artery in 48.7% of the patients. Post-dilatation was performed on the implanted BVS in 97.5% of the patients, mainly by non-compliant balloon; 87.8% of the BVS were implanted by the antegrade CTO technique. Mean procedure time was 92 ± 35.6 minutes. Mean contrast volume was 146.6 ± 26.7 ml. At one year, there were no deaths. One patient had lesionrelated myocardial infarction and needed revascularisation because of early cessation of dual anti-platelet therapy. Eleven patients had angina and five of them needed target-vessel revascularisation. Conclusions BVS implantation appeared to be effective and safe in CTO lesions but randomised studies with a larger number of patients and with longer follow-up times are needed
Adapting Privacy-Preserving Computation to the Service Provider Model

There are many applications for Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMC), but practical adoption is still an issue. One reason is that the business model of the application does not match the system architecture of regular secure computation. An important business model is that of a single service provider dealing with many customers. Applications with this business model are e.g. auctions or benchmarking. This paper provides SMC in a system architecture for service providers.Furthermore we achieve an interesting performance improvement. Our SMC protocol has a significantly improved complexity if all parties behave semi-honest, but can still deal with a minority of malicious parties at the usual complexity.The solution also relates to distributed algorithmic mechanism design which proposes to build distributed algorithms that implement mechanisms that compute the result given rational players.
How accurate and usable is GDEM? A statistical assessment of GDEM using LiDAR data

A methodological framework for assessing accuracy of the GDEM product is described using four small case studies in areas of variable relief and forect canopy (Booschord in the Nether- lands, Calabria in Italy, Fishcamp in USA and Zlatibor in Serbia). Focus is put on evaluating the true accuracy of ASTER GDEM us- ing LiDAR data aggregated to 30 m resolution. Three aspects of ac- curacy have been evaluated: (a) absolute accuracy of elevations (goodness of fit between true and GDEM elevations), (2) accuracy of stream networks (goodness of fit for buffer distance maps for stream networks), and (3) accuracy of surface roughness paramet- ers (goodness of representation of nugget variation and residual er- rors). Results show that GDEM seems to be of little use in areas of low relief (st.dev. 995 could be used as the threshold level for a satisfactory fit between LiDAR and GDEM (this R-square corresponds to RMSE of . 60 seems to be satisfactory. Analysis of the short-range variability allows determination of the effective grid cell size that more closely matches the true surface roughness. These results support previous work that indicates that a more suit- able grid cell size for GDEM v1 is about 90 m.
Deficiency of Either P-Glycoprotein or Breast Cancer Resistance Protein Protect against Acute Kidney Injury

The kidney has a high capacity to regenerate after ischemic injury via several mechanisms, one of which involves bone marrow-derived (stem) cells. The ATP binding cassette transporters, P-glycoprotein and breast cancer resistance protein, are determinants for the enriched stem and progenitor cell fraction in bone marrow. Because they are upregulated after acute kidney injury, we hypothesized that both efflux pumps may play a role in protecting against renal injury. Surprisingly, transporter-deficient mice were protected against ischemia-induced renal injury. To further study this, bone marrow from irradiated wild-type mice was reconstituted by bone marrow from wild-type, P-glycoprotein- or breast cancer resistance protein-deficient mice. Four weeks later, kidney injury was induced and its function evaluated. Significantly more bone marrow-derived cells were detected in kidneys grafted with transporter-deficient bone marrow. A gender mismatch study suggested that cell fusion of resident tubular cells with bone marrow cells was unlikely. Renal function analyses indicated an absence of renal damage following ischemia-reperfusion in animals transplanted with transporter-deficient bone marrow. When wild-type bone marrow was transplanted in breast cancer resistance protein-deficient mice this protection is lost. Furthermore, we demonstrate that transporter-deficient bone marrow contained significantly more monocytes, granulocytes, and early outgrowth endothelial progenitor cells.
Human Rad50 is physically associated with human Mre11: identification of a conserved multiprotein complex implicated in recombinational DNA repair

In this report, we describe the identification and molecular characterization of a human RAD50 homolog, hRAD50. hRAD50 was included in a collection of cDNAs which were isolated by a direct cDNA selection strategy focused on the chromosomal interval spanning 5q23 to 5q31. Alterations of the 5q23-q31 interval are frequently observed in myelodysplasia and myeloid leukemia. This strategy was thus undertaken to create a detailed genetic map of that region. Saccharomyces cerevisiae RAD50 (ScRAD50) is one of three yeast RAD52 epistasis group members (ScRAD50, ScMRE11, and ScXRS2) in which mutations eliminate meiotic recombination but confer a hyperrecombinational phenotype in mitotic cells. The yeast Rad50, Mre11, and Xrs2 proteins appear to act in a multiprotein complex, consistent with the observation that the corresponding mutants confer essentially identical phenotypes. In this report, we demonstrate that the human Rad50 and Mre11 proteins are stably associated in a protein complex which may include three other proteins. hRAD50 is expressed in all tissues examined, but mRNA levels are significantly higher in the testis. Other human RAD52 epistasis group homologs exhibit this expression pattern, suggesting the involvement of human RAD52 epistasis group proteins in meiotic recombination. Human RAD52 epistasis group proteins are highly conserved and act in protein complexes that are analogous to those of their yeast counterparts. These findings indicate that the function of the RAD52 epistasis group is conserved in human cells.
Sequencing Degraded DNA from Non-Destructively Sampled Museum Specimens for RAD-Tagging and Low-Coverage Shotgun Phylogenetics

Ancient and archival DNA samples are valuable resources for the study of diverse historical processes. In particular, museum specimens provide access to biotas distant in time and space, and can provide insights into ecological and evolutionary changes over time. However, archival specimens are difficult to handle; they are often fragile and irreplaceable, and typically contain only short segments of denatured DNA. Here we present a set of tools for processing such samples for state-of-the-art genetic analysis. First, we report a protocol for minimally destructive DNA extraction of insect museum specimens, which produced sequenceable DNA from all of the samples assayed. The 11 specimens analyzed had fragmented DNA, rarely exceeding 100 bp in length, and could not be amplified by conventional PCR targeting the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene. Our approach made these samples amenable to analysis with commonly used next-generation sequencing-based molecular analytic tools, including RAD-tagging and shotgun genome re-sequencing. First, we used museum ant specimens from three species, each with its own reference genome, for RAD-tag mapping. Were able to use the degraded DNA sequences, which were sequenced in full, to identify duplicate reads and filter them prior to base calling. Second, we re-sequenced six Hawaiian Drosophila species, with millions of years of divergence, but with only a single available reference genome. Despite a shallow coverage of 0.37±0.42 per base, we could recover a sufficient number of overlapping SNPs to fully resolve the species tree, which was consistent with earlier karyotypic studies, and previous molecular studies, at least in the regions of the tree that these studies could resolve. Although developed for use with degraded DNA, all of these techniques are readily applicable to more recent tissue, and are suitable for liquid handling automation.
Effects of the androgenic growth promoter 17‐β‐trenbolone on fecundity and reproductive endocrinology of the fathead minnow

Trenbolone acetate is a synthetic steroid that is extensively used in the United States as a growth promoter in beef cattle. The acetate is administered to livestock via slow‐release implants; some is converted by the animal to 17‐β‐trenbolone, a relatively potent androgen receptor agonist in mammalian systems. Recent studies indicate that excreted 17‐β‐trenbolone is comparatively stable in animal waste, suggesting the potential for exposure to aquatic animals via direct discharge, runoff, or both. However, little is known concerning the toxicity of trenbolone to fish. Our goal was to assess the effects of 17‐β‐trenbolone on reproductive endocrinology of the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). An in vitro competitive binding study with the fathead minnow androgen receptor demonstrated that 17‐β‐trenbolone had a higher affinity for the receptor than that of the endogenous ligand, testosterone. Male and female fish were exposed for 21 d to nominal (target) concentrations of 17‐β‐trenbolone ranging from 0.005 to 50 μg/L. Fecundity of the fish was significantly reduced by exposure to measured test concentrations ≥ 0.027 μg/ L. The 17‐β‐trenbolone was clearly androgenic in vivo at these concentrations, as evidenced by the de novo production in females of dorsal (nuptial) tubercles, structures normally present only on the heads of mature males. Plasma steroid (testosterone and β‐estradiol) and vitellogenin concentrations in the females all were significantly reduced by exposure to 17‐β‐trenbolone. The 17‐β‐trenbolone also altered reproductive physiology of male fathead minnows, albeit at concentrations much higher than those producing effects in females. Males exposed to 17‐β‐trenbolone at 41 μg/L (measured) exhibited decreased plasma concentrations of 11‐ketotestosterone and increased concentrations of β‐estradiol and vitellogenin. Overall, our studies indicate that 17‐β‐trenbolone is a potent androgen and reproductive toxicant in fish. Given the widespread use of trenbolone acetate as a growth promoter, and relative stability of its metabolites in animal wastes, further studies are warranted to assess potential ecological risk.
Microwave-assisted Extraction of Essential Oils from Herbs

Abstract Microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) has been recognized as a technique with several advantages over other extraction methods, such as reduction of costs, extraction time, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions. In this study, MAE was performed to obtain essential oils from two different herbs (basil and epazote). A factorial design was conducted in order to determine the effect of solvent quantity, power, and heating time on essential oil yields. Chemical composition, physical properties and yield percentage of essential oils from MAE were compared with essential oils obtained by steam distillation (SD). Amount of solvent and heating time significantly affected the yields (p<0.05). Chemical composition and physical properties of the essential oils from basil and epazote were not affected by the extraction method (MAE or SD), with similar yielding obtained by both methods (p<0.05).
Frequent Immediate Knowledge of Results Enhances the Increase of Throwing Velocity in Overarm Handball Performance

Abstract In the present study, the effect of frequent, immediate, augmented feedback on the increase of throwing velocity was investigated. An increase of throwing velocity of a handball set shot when knowledge of results was provided or not provided during training was compared. Fifty female and seventy-three male physical education students were assigned randomly to the experimental or control group. All participants performed two series of ten set shots with maximal effort twice a week for six weeks. The experimental group received information regarding throwing velocity measured by a radar gun immediately after every shot, whereas the control group did not receive any feedback. Measurements of maximal throwing velocity of an ordinary handball and a heavy ball were performed, before and after the training period and compared. Participants who received feedback on results attained almost a four times greater relative increase of the velocity of the normal ball (size 2) as compared to the same intervention when feedback was not provided (8.1 ± 3.6 vs. 2.7 ± 2.9%). The velocity increases were smaller, but still significant between the groups for throws using the heavy ball (5.1 ± 4.2 and 2.5 ± 5.8 for the experimental and control group, respectively). Apart from the experimental group throwing the normal ball, no differences in velocity change for gender were obtained. The results confirmed that training oriented towards an increase in throwing velocity became significantly more effective when frequent knowledge of results was provided.
Long term prognosis of Crohn's disease with onset in childhood and adolescence.

The incidence of Crohn's disease rises sharply from the age of 13 and the disease is rare below the age of 9 years. About a quarter of all cases are diagnosed before the age of 21.1 No epidemiological studies of incidence confined to an artificial 'paediatric' age group have been done, but in the Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto eight new cases of Crohn's disease compared with 12 patients with coeliac disease are seen annually,2 drawn from a population of about five million. As paediatric gastroenterology has become established, there has been an increasing interest in the presentation, course, and prognosis of Crohn's disease in childhood. The paper by Puntis et al in this issue describes the largest series of paediatric patients collected in the United Kingdom.s5 The patient have been followed up for a long period by the same group (on average 16-5 years), so that estimates of prognosis in the long term are more likely to be accurate than in other studies with a short follow up, or a review by questionnaire.6 Many studies have shown that the overall prognosis of Crohn's disease in adults is better than formerly supposed, with a cumulative risk of death about twice normal during long term follow up. Cooke and his colleagues calculated a cumulative relative risk of 10 times in the first five years after diagnosis, falling to 2*4-fold at 15 years.7 This low mortality may disguise considerable morbidity. Follow up of 512 patients suffering from Crohn's disease with onset in childhood showed that only a third regarded themselves in optimal health on average 7-7 years later. In the Birmingham series on the other hand, 52 of the 58 live patients considered themselves well, despite recurrent disease in 14. This is confirmed by the adult series from the same centre where of 121 live adults, only two were not leading normal lives free of restriction.7 Previous studies, however, have shown that the patients' estimate of their state of health correlates more closely with their personality than with the extent or activity of their disease.4 Accurate mortality statistics of Crohn's disease presenting in childhood are impossible to extract from published studies which only quote crude figures. These may not be representative as they come from major referral centres, but nine of the 67 children in the Birmingham series died (average follow up period 16.5 years) while the death rate in the 512 American children studied by.Farmer and Mitchener was low at 2.4% (13 children), but the average follow up was only 7*7 years. It is likely that the overall prognosis of Crohn's disease presenting in childhood is similar to that of the adult disease although there are a number of unique features when the disease starts early in life.
Mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation has significantly decreased during the last three decades: 35 years of follow-up in 1627 pacemaker patients.

AIM The impact of atrial fibrillation (AF) on mortality is not fully understood. We therefore sought to investigate long-term effects of AF on mortality in patients with the need for pacemaker (PM) therapy. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 1627 PM recipients with AF at implantation were followed in a single-centre, longitudinal study for up to 35 years. Baseline factors affecting survival and long-term follow-up were analysed. A total of 7362 patient-years of follow-up (PM implanted between 1971 and 2000, followed until 31 December 31 2005) were analysed. Female PM recipients lived significantly longer than male (P = 0.025; mean survival 91.9 vs. 72.1 months) despite older age at time of inclusion. Mean survival times almost doubled for patients implanted in the last decade, with 139.8 months in the nineties vs. 66.8 months in the seventies and 75.7 months in the eighties (P < 0.001). Male gender, age at implantation, non-syncopal bradycardia, and decade of implantation influenced survival. CONCLUSION Life expectancy in AF patients after PM implantation has doubled within the last three decades, with a mean survival in the overall population of 7.6 years for women and 6.0 years for men. Survival is influenced by several simple baseline characteristics, which may help to identify patients with very long survival times.
Mixed-Mode Fracture of Notched Unidirectional and Off-Axis Laminates under Tensile Loading

The mixed-mode fracture of matrix dominated composite laminates con taining central holes and cracks was studied using some graphite/epoxy off-axis AS4/3502 balanced symmetric laminates, [±ϕ2] s . The uniaxial failure of a 0° laminate, which is the main load carrier of multidirectional laminates, was also investigated. Interesting results were observed for the [± ϕ 2] s laminates with a central normal crack. In this paper, the terms "notch sensitivity" and the "notched shape sensitivity" are distinguished, defined and classified with examples. Anisotropic finite width correction factors were applied to inter polate the experimental data. In general, the predicted notched strength and the failure initiation locations correlate reasonably well with the experimental results.
Predictors of chronic bronchitis in South African adults.

SETTING National household survey of adults in South Africa, a middle income country. OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence and predictors of chronic bronchitis. DESIGN A stratified national probability sample of households was selected. All adults in the selected households were interviewed. Chronic bronchitis was defined as chronic productive cough. Socio-demographic predictors were wealth, education, race, age and urban residence. Personal and exposure variables included history of tuberculosis, domestic exposure to smoky fuels, occupational exposures, smoking and body mass index. RESULTS The overall prevalence of chronic bronchitis was 2.3% in men and 2.8% in women. The strongest predictor of chronic bronchitis was a history of tuberculosis (men, odds ratio [OR] 4.9; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.6-9.2; women, OR 6.6; 95%CI 3.7-11.9). Other risk factors were smoking, occupational exposure (in men), domestic exposure to smoky fuel (in women) and (in univariate analysis only) being underweight. Wealth and particularly education were protective. CONCLUSION The pattern of chronic bronchitis in South Africa suggests a combination of risk factors that includes not only smoking but also tuberculosis, occupational exposures in men and domestic fuel exposure in women. Control of these risk factors requires public health action across a broad front. The protective role of education requires elucidation.
Matrix Metalloproteinases Expression Correlates with Survival in Patients with Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

OBJECTIVES:The matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of zinc-dependent endopeptidases capable of degrading the extracellular matrix and play important roles in malignancies. We evaluated the expression of four MMPs in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and assessed the association between MMP expression and clinicopathologic characteristics and disease-free survival time.METHODS:We evaluated MMP1, MMP7, MMP9, and MMP13 expression in tissues from 208 patients with ESCC using immunohistochemistry (IHC), and correlated MMP expression to clinicopathologic characteristics and disease-free survival time. To confirm MMP9 expression at different levels, we simultaneously performed RT-PCR, Western blotting, and IHC on tissues from a separate cohort of 23 patients with ESCC.RESULTS:IHC analysis showed that 63.0%, 41.8%, 49.0%, and 32.2% of 208 ESCC samples were positive for MMP1, MMP7, MMP9, and MMP13, respectively. MMPs were strongly expressed in the cytoplasm of cancer cells, especially in the invasive margin, and weakly expressed in stromal cells. No immunostaining was detected in non-cancerous esophageal mucosa. MMP9 expression was positively associated with poor tumor cell differentiation (P = 0.001), vessel permeation (P = 0.027), and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.027). MMP9 expression was a negative, independent predictor of disease-free survival time (Hazard ratio, 1.470; 95% CI, 1.105 ∼ 1.955; P = 0.008). The expression of MMP7 (median survival time: 23 months for MMP7 positive patients, >77 months for MMP7 negative patients; P = 0.001) and MMP13 (median survival time: 18 months for MMP13 positive patients, 39 months for MMP13 negative patients; P = 0.014) correlated negatively with disease-free survival in relatively early stage ESCC patients. Co-expression of MMP7, MMP9, and MMP13 in relatively early stage ESCC samples identified patients with a poor prognosis (13 months median survival time) compared to those lacking MMP7, MMP9, and MMP13 expression (58 months median survival time, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS:MMP9 expression is a negative, independent prognostic factor in ESCC and correlates with tumor cell differentiation, vessel permeation, and lymph node metastasis. MMP7, MMP9, and MMP13 may function in early stage ESCC, and their co-expression predicts poor outcome for relatively early stage ESCC patients.