Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gastrointestinal capsule endoscopy: from tertiary centres to primary care

The first endoscope introduced by Bruening in 1907 was a rigid instrument that allowed inspection of the upper gastrointestinal tract under a general anaesthetic.w1 Forty years later the first flexible fibreoptic instrument allowed procedures to be done under local anaesthetic or light sedation. It took a further 20 years for the technological evolution of the first colonoscope. A major advance occurred in 1999, when capsule endoscopy enabled complete visualisation of the small bowel.w2 A capsule is swallowed and propelled through the gastrointestinal tract by the action of peristalsis. It contains an imaging device, which transmits images of the intestine to sensors on the abdominal wall. Fig 1 A capsule endoscope Historically the small bowel was considered technically difficult to examine because of its length (3-5 metres), location, and tortuosity.w3 Previously the small bowel could be partly assessed by a push enteroscope, which is longer (about 2 metres) than a standard gastroscope and therefore allows examination of up to 80-120 cm beyond the ligament of Treitz (anatomically the duodenojejunal flexure), while intraoperative enteroscopy required a general anaesthetic and laparotomy. Barium follow through (small bowel meal) and enteroclysis (double contrast small bowel follow through) allow indirect examination of the small bowel but have a low diagnosis rate.1 w4 w5 Given the limitations of these other tests, there has been a surge in investigations on the practical diagnostic ability and clinical utility of capsule endoscopy. #### Summary points Capsule endoscopy—a novel method of imaging the small bowel—is safe and can be performed on an outpatient basis in both primary and secondary care It has a higher positive diagnosis rate in the detection of small bowel pathology than conventional small bowel investigations Capsule endoscopy can be used to investigate patients with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding and negative results on upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy We performed …
Aeroacoustic resonance in a rectangular cavity: Part 2 Effect of yaw and of leading and trailing edge angles

Experimental results of flow over a generic 'open' rectangular cavity having lengths of 200 and 250 mm and a depth and width of 50mm at Mach numbers ranging between 0.3 to 1.3 was reported in Part 1 [1]. In this paper, Part 2, the effect of yawing these rectangular cavities is investigated, as well as how the yawing resonant behaviour changes when the shorter cavity is transformed to a range of parallelograms by changing the leading and trailing edge angles while keeping the length to depth and width ratios fixed. The results show that small leading and trailing edge angles changes of up to 15 degrees have a small influence on resonance behaviour and for the two largest angles, 30 degrees and 45 degrees, the magnitude of resonances are suppressed at a zero yaw.
Domain-Specific Consumer Involvement in the U.S. Wine Market

An 18-item multidimensional scale was developed to measure wine consumer involvement level impact on behavior and consumption dynamics. Data were collected at wine tasting events in Portland, Oregon, U.S., yielding a final sample size of 101 respondents. Male wine consumers do not display a higher level of involvement with wine as a product than females, and neither do consumers 45 years and older in comparison with younger consumers. Consumers with high education and income levels do not use these as a basis of their involvement level with wine. Price is not more frequently used by low involvement wine drinkers in the wine purchasing decision.
Global budget of molecular hydrogen and its deuterium content: Constraints from ground station, cruise, and aircraft observations

[1] The distribution and atmospheric budgets for molecular hydrogen and its deuterium component δD are simulated with the GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model and constrained by observations of H2 from the NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory network and δD observations from ship and ground stations. Our simulation includes a primary H2 source of 38.8 Tg a−1 (22.7 Tg a−1 from fossil and biofuels, 10.1 Tg a−1 from biomass burning, 6.0 Tg a−1 from the ocean) (where a is years) and a secondary photochemical source from photolysis of formaldehyde of 34.3 Tg a−1. The simulated global tropospheric mean H2 is 525 ppbv, with a tropospheric burden of 141 Tg and tropospheric lifetime of 1.9 a. Uptake by enzymes in soils accounts for 75% of the H2 sink, with the remainder due to reaction with OH. The model captures the observed latitudinal, vertical, and seasonal variations of H2. For δD we find that a photochemical source signature from methane and biogenic volatile organic compound oxidation of 162‰ yields a global mean atmospheric δD of 130‰, consistent with atmospheric observations. The model captures the observed latitudinal gradient in δD, simulating a 21‰ greater enrichment in the Southern Hemisphere because of the predominance of isotopically depleted fossil fuel emissions in the Northern Hemisphere. We find that stratospheric-tropospheric exchange results in 37‰ enrichment of tropospheric δD. Our simulation provides new simultaneous constraints on the H2 soil sink (55 ± 8 Tg a−1), the ocean source (6 ± 3 Tg a−1), and the isotopic signature for photochemical production (162 ± 57‰).
Simvastatin attenuates lipopolysaccharide-induced airway mucus hypersecretion in rats.

BACKGROUND Mucus hypersecretion in the respiratory tract and goblet cell metaplasia in the airway epithelium contribute to the morbidity and mortality associated with airway inflammatory diseases. This study aimed to examine the effect and mechanisms of simvastatin on airway mucus hypersecretion in rats treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). METHODS Mucus hypersecretion in rat airways was induced by intra-tracheal instillation of LPS. Rats treated with or without LPS were administered intra-peritoneally simvastatin (5 and 20 mg/kg) for 4 days. Expression of Muc5ac, RhoA and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) p38 in lung were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), immunohistochemistry or Western blotting. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and IL-8 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were assayed by an enzyme-linked lectin assay and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS Simvastatin attenuated LPS-induced goblet cell hyperplasia in bronchial epithelium and Muc5ac hypersecretion at both the gene and protein levels in lung (P <0.05). Moreover, simvastatin inhibited neutrophil accumulation and the increased concentration of TNF-alpha and IL-8 in BALF follows LPS stimulation (P < 0.05). The higher dose of simvastatin was associated with a more significant reduction in Muc5ac mRNA expression, neutrophil accumulation and inflammatory cytokine release. Simultaneously, the increased expression of RhoA and p38 MAPK were observed in LPS-treated lung (P <0.05). Simvastatin inhibited the expression of RhoA and p38 phosphorylation in lung following LPS stimulation (P < 0.05). However, the increased expression of p38 protein in LPS-treated lung was not affected by simvastatin administration. CONCLUSIONS Simvastatin attenuates airway mucus hypersecretion and pulmonary inflammatory damage induced by LPS. The inhibitory effect of simvastatin on airway mucus hypersecretion may be through, at least in part, the suppression of neutrophil accumulation and inflammatory cytokine release via inactivation of RhoA and p38 signaling pathway.
Policy Risk, Political Capabilities and International Investment Strategy: Evidence from the Global Electric Power Industry

Whereas conventional wisdom holds that policy risk? the risk that a government will opportunistically alter policies to expropriate a firm's profits or assets? deters foreign direct investment (FDI), we argue that multinational firms vary in their response to host-country policy risk as the result of differences in organizational capabilities for assessing and managing such risk, which are shaped by the home-country policymaking environment. Specifically, we hypothesize that firms from home countries with weaker institutional constraints on policymakers, or more intense political rent-seeking as the result of redistributive pressures among different economic or ethnic groups, will be less sensitive to host-country policy risk in their international expansion strategies. Moreover, firms from home-country environments with sufficiently weak institutional constraints or sufficiently strong redistributive pressures will seek out riskier host countries for their international investments in order to leverage their political capabilities, which may serve a source of superior performance. We find support for our hypotheses in a statistical analysis of the FDI location choices of multinational firms in the electric power industry during the period 1990 - 1999, the industry's first decade of internationalization.
Studies on the response of the transplanted kidney and the transplanted adrenal gland to thoracic inferior vena caval constriction.

The mechanisms involved in the marked sodium retention observed in such clinical states as congestive heart failure and advanced portal cirrhosis continue to pose a challenging problem. The role of increased renal venous pressure and of efferent nervous pathways to the kidney in effecting sodium retention, and the role of the adrenal nerves in the hypersecretion of aldosterone observed in such states demands further clarification. In investigating the role of increased venous pressure in experimental ascites produced by thoracic inferior vena caval constriction in the dog, Whelan, McCoord and Schilling (1) have reported that the kidney transplanted to the neck failed to exhibit the same degree of sodium retention as the normal kidney following thoracic caval constriction; however, the fact that one of their four experimental animals did show virtually complete sodium retention following caval constriction suggests the kidney removed from the congested circulation may respond just as the normally located kidney does to thoracic inferior vena caval constriction. In studying the mechanisms of sodium retention in dogs with experimental congestive heart failure, Barger, Muldowney and Liebowitz (2) have suggested that increased sympathetic tone of the renal nerves is an important factor in severe chronic sodium retention; other investigators (3-6) have, however, concluded that complete renal denervation has no consistent effect on sodium chloride excretion. In an investigation of the role of the adrenal nerves in the control of aldosterone secretion, Fleming and Farrell (7) have pointed out that the acutely transplanted adrenal released aldosterone at a normal or slightly
Tissue Sites of Persistent Infection and Active Replication of Equine Infectious Anemia Virus during Acute Disease and Asymptomatic Infection in Experimentally Infected Equids

ABSTRACT Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) infection of horses is characterized by recurring cycles of disease and viremia that typically progress to an inapparent infection in which clinical symptoms are absent as host immune responses maintain control of virus replication indefinitely. The dynamics of EIAV viremia and its association with disease cycles have been well characterized, but there has been to date no comprehensive quantitative analyses of the specific tissue sites of EIAV infection and replication in experimentally infected equids during acute disease episodes and during asymptomatic infections in long-term inapparent carriers. To characterize the in vivo site(s) of viral infection and replication, we developed a quantitative competitive PCR assay capable of detecting 10 copies of viral DNA and a quantitative competitive reverse transcription-PCR assay with a sensitivity of about 30 copies of viral singly spliced mRNA. Animals were experimentally infected with one of two reference viruses: the animal-passaged field isolate designated EIAVWyo and the virulent cell-adapted strain designated EIAVPV. Tissues and blood cells were isolated during the initial acute disease or from asymptomatic animals and analyzed for viral DNA and RNA levels by the respective quantitative assays. The results of these experiments demonstrated that the appearance of clinical symptoms in experimentally infected equids coincided with rapid widespread seeding of viral infection and replication in a variety of tissues. During acute disease, the predominant cellular site of viral infection and replication was the spleen, which typically accounted for over 90% of the cellular viral burden. In asymptomatic animals, viral DNA and RNA persisted in virtually all tissues tested, but at extremely low levels, a finding indicative of tight but incomplete immune control of EIAV replication. During all disease states, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were found to harbor less than 1% of the cellular viral burden. These quantitative studies demonstrate that tissues, rather than PBMC, constitute the predominant sites of virus replication during acute disease in infected equids and serve as resilient reservoirs of virus infection, even in the presence of highly effective immune responses that maintain a stringent control of virus replication in long-term inapparent carriers. Thus, these observations with EIAV, a predominantly macrophage-tropic lentivirus, highlight the role of tissues in sequestering lentiviral infections from host immune surveillance.
Cytogenetic prenatal diagnosis and its relative effectiveness in the mersey region and North Wales

The relative effectiveness of cytogenetic prenatal diagnosis in the Mersey Region and North Wales is presented by estimating the percentage detection rates of Down's syndrome annually following amniocentesis from 1978–1984 inclusive. Tables indicating the percentage of screened pregnancies, types of chromosomal aberrations detected and the occurrence of Down's syndrome in mothers in age groups of five‐year intervals are also presented.
Superabsorption of acoustic waves with bubble metascreens

A bubble meta-screen, i.e. a single layer of gas inclusions in a soft solid, can be modeled as an acoustic open resonator, whose behavior is well captured by a simple analytical expression. We show that by tuning the parameters of the meta-screen, acoustic super-absorption can be achieved over a broad frequency range, which is confirmed by finite element simulations and experiments. Bubble meta-screens can thus be used as ultra thin coatings for turning acoustic reflectors into perfect absorbers.
Demographic factors, denture status and oral health-related quality of life.

OBJECTIVES This study investigated the association between denture status, demographic factors, and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). METHODS OHRQoL was measured using the German version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-G, 53 items), which was administered in a personal interview to 2050 subjects (60% of eligible subjects responded) 16-79 years of age in a national survey. Median regression was used to analyze the influence of denture status (no, removable, complete dentures), age, gender, education (less than 10 years of schooling, 10-12 years, more than 12 years), and residential area (rural, urban) on the OHIP-G summary score. RESULTS In bivariable analyses, compared to the base category, the OHIP-G median increased 8.0 U for subjects with removable dentures, 20.0 U for subjects with complete dentures, 1.7 U for each 10-year age period, 2.0 U for men, 3.0 U for less than 10 years of schooling (compared to > or =10 years.), and 1.0 U for urban areas (P < 0.05 for all effects except for residential area). In the multivariable analysis, compared to subjects without dentures, subjects with removable dentures had a 7.5 (95% CI: 5.2-9.8) higher OHIP-G median and subjects with complete dentures had a 18.5 (95% CI: 14.7-22.4) higher median when demographic variables were controlled. No demographic variables were statistically significant except for residential area (P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS Denture status was a stronger predictor for impaired OHRQoL than demographic variables and rendered age and education almost negligible in their influence on OHRQoL.
Convective vertical velocity and cloud internal vertical structure: An A‐Train perspective

This paper describes a novel use of A‐Train observations to estimate vertical velocities for actively growing convective plumes and to relate them to cloud internal vertical structure. Convective vertical velocity is derived from time‐delayed (1–2 min) IR measurements from MODIS and IIR. Convective vertical velocities are found to be clustered around 2–4 m/s but the distributions are positively skewed with long tails extending to larger values. Land convection during the 13:30 overpasses has higher vertical velocities than those during the 1:30 overpasses; oceanic convection shows the opposite, albeit smaller, contrast. Our results also show that convection with larger vertical velocity tends to transport larger precipitation‐size particle and/or greater amount of water substance to higher altitude and produces heavier rainfall. Finally, we discuss the implications of this study for the designs of future space‐borne missions that focus on fast‐evolving processes such as those related to clouds and precipitation.
Health-related quality of life outcome for oral cancer survivors after surgery and postoperative radiotherapy.

BACKGROUND Health-related quality of life (HRQL) data are becoming an important supplement to information pertaining to treatment outcome for cancer patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the HRQL outcome for oral cancer survivors after surgery plus postoperative radiotherapy (RT) and to investigate the variables associated with their HRQL. METHODS Sixty-six oral cancer patients with cancer-free survival after surgery plus postoperative RT of >2 years were enrolled. The Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire in the Taiwan Chinese version was self-reported by all participants at the clinics. The linear regression model was used to analyze the socio-demographic and medical-related variables correlated with the physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) in SF-36. RESULTS The mean scores of the eight functional domains in the SF-36 were markedly lower for oral cancer survivors compared with the Taiwanese and US norms. Those with older age, lower annual family income, more advanced cancer stage and flap reconstruction had significantly worse PCS, and those with lower annual family income, unemployment and more advanced cancer stage reported significantly worse MCS. This model accounts for 63% of variance in PCS, and 51% in MCS. CONCLUSIONS These results provided patient-reported evidence that oral cancer survivors lived with a worse HRQL compared with the general Taiwanese population. Socio-economic factors and cancer stage were important factors correlated with their HRQL.
The Effect of Organisational Structure and Hoteliers’ Risk Proclivity on Innovativeness

The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of organisational structure and hoteliers’ risk proclivity on innovativeness in the context of the Japanese hotel industry. Survey questionnaires were used to collect relevant data from 115 hotels in Japan. Using a multiple regression analysis, the antecedents of innovativeness in the hotel industry are been examined. The findings are mixed with previous research but provide new insights by exploring the effect of organisational structure and hoteliers’ risk proclivity on innovativeness. As a result, we believe that this research is valuable in understanding some key important drivers in innovative activities in the context of the hotel industry.
A numerical investigation of flow around octopus-like arms: near-wake vortex patterns and force development

The fluid dynamics of cephalopods has so far received little attention in the literature, due to their complexity in structure and locomotion. The flow around octopuses, in particular, can be complicated due to their agile and dexterous arms, which frequently display some of the most diverse mechanisms of motion. The study of this flow amounts to a specific instance of the hydrodynamics problem for rough tapered cylinder geometries. The outstanding manipulative and locomotor skills of octopuses could inspire the development of advanced robotic arms, able to operate in fluid environments. Our primary aim was to study the hydrodynamic characteristics of such bio-inspired robotic models and to derive the hydrodynamic force coefficients as a concise description of the vortical flow effects. Utilizing computational fluid dynamic methods, the coefficients were computed on realistic morphologies of octopus-like arm models undergoing prescribed solid-body movements; such motions occur in nature for short durations in time, e.g. during reaching movements and exploratory behaviors. Numerical simulations were performed on translating, impulsively rotating, and maneuvering arms, around which the flow field structures were investigated. The results reveal in detail the generation of complex vortical flow structures around the moving arms. Hydrodynamic forces acting on a translating arm depend on the angle of incidence; forces generated during impulsive rotations of the arms are independent of their exact morphology and the angle of rotation; periodic motions based on a slow recovery and a fast power stroke are able to produce considerable propulsive thrust while harmonic motions are not. Parts of these results have been employed in bio-inspired models of underwater robotic mechanisms. This investigation may further assist elucidating the hydrodynamics underlying aspects of octopus locomotion and exploratory behaviors.
KGA-2727, a Novel Selective Inhibitor of a High-Affinity Sodium Glucose Cotransporter (SGLT1), Exhibits Antidiabetic Efficacy in Rodent Models

The high-affinity sodium glucose cotransporter (SGLT1) plays a critical role in glucose absorption from the gastrointestinal tract. We have developed 3-(3-{4-[3-(β-d-glucopyranosyloxy)-5-isopropyl-1H-pyrazol-4-ylmethyl]-3-methylphenoxy}propylamino)propionamide (KGA-2727), which has a pyrazole-O-glucoside structure, as the first selective SGLT1 inhibitor. KGA-2727 inhibited SGLT1 potently and highly selectively in an in vitro assay using cells transiently expressing recombinant SGLTs. In a small intestine closed loop absorption test with normal rats, KGA-2727 inhibited the absorption of glucose but not that of fructose. After oral intake of starch along with KGA-2727 in normal rats, the residual content of glucose in the gastrointestinal tract increased. In the oral glucose tolerance test with streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats, KGA-2727 attenuated the elevation of plasma glucose after glucose loading, indicating that KGA-2727 improved postprandial hyperglycemia. In Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats, chronic treatments with KGA-2727 reduced the levels of plasma glucose and glycated hemoglobin. Furthermore, KGA-2727 preserved glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and reduced urinary glucose excretion with improved morphological changes of pancreatic islets and renal distal tubules in ZDF rats. In addition, the chronic treatment with KGA-2727 increased the level of glucagon-like peptide-1 in the portal vein. Taken together, our data indicate that the selective SGLT1 inhibitor KGA-2727 had antidiabetic efficacy and allow us to propose KGA-2727 as a candidate for a novel and useful antidiabetic agent.