Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Esophageal pH monitoring: are you sure that the electrode is properly placed?

OBJECTIVE:A crucial methodological aspect of ambulatory 24-h esophageal pH monitoring is electrode placement. Lower esophageal sphincter (LES) location is recommended for standard electrode positioning. The aim of the present study was to evaluate prospectively whether LES manometric location and intragastric pH acid confirmation suffice to guarantee that the pH electrode is properly placed.METHODS:We evaluated data from 402 consecutive patients undergoing esophageal pH monitoring. LES location was determined by manometry, and the pH electrode was introduced until a pH recording <3 was obtained. Subsequently, it was positioned 5 cm above the proximal LES border. Thereafter, adequate catheter placement and absence of bends or loops were checked by fluoroscopy. Patients with bent or rolled catheters were instructed to have breakfast immediately, and catheter placement was checked again by fluoroscopy.RESULTS:When checked by fluoroscopy, the catheter was properly placed in 383 patients (95.3%). In the other 19 (4.7%), it was not located in the distal part of the esophagus owing to bending or rolling: 14 in the esophagus and five in the pharynx. After breakfast, 14 of the 19 malpositioned catheters were properly positioned whereas five remained bent or rolled. Those bent in the esophagus were more prone to unbending (12 of 14) than those bent or rolled in the pharynx (two of five). CONCLUSIONS:After LES location by manometry and demonstration of acid pH during the pH step-up technique, the pH electrode was properly placed in more than 95% of cases. Nevertheless, it cannot be completely guaranteed that the pH catheter will not bend or roll, and the pH electrode will not be malpositioned. Eating immediately after electrode placement resolves this problem in the majority (75%) of cases. Therefore, we recommend that patients undergoing esophageal pH-metric studies be instructed to eat as soon as possible after electrode placement to minimize these possible pitfalls.
Climatology of Non-Gaussian Atmospheric Statistics

AbstractA common assumption in the earth sciences is the Gaussianity of data over time. However, several independent studies in the past few decades have shown this assumption to be mostly false. To be able to study non-Gaussian climate statistics, one must first compile a systematic climatology of the higher statistical moments (skewness and kurtosis; the third and fourth central statistical moments, respectively). Sixty-two years of daily data from the NCEP–NCAR Reanalysis I project are analyzed. The skewness and kurtosis of the data are found at each spatial grid point for the entire time domain. Nine atmospheric variables were chosen for their physical and dynamical relevance in the climate system: geopotential height, relative vorticity, quasigeostrophic potential vorticity, zonal wind, meridional wind, horizontal wind speed, vertical velocity in pressure coordinates, air temperature, and specific humidity. For each variable, plots of significant global skewness and kurtosis are shown for December–Fe.
Biological and virulence characteristics of the YqhC mutant of Salmonella

Previous work by the present authors indicated a murein lipoprotein mutant of Salmonella shows a marked down‐regulation in expression of yqhC. Because YqhC is a putative DNA‐binding protein, it is likely involved in modulation of Salmonella genes. Deletion of yqhC renders Salmonella defective in invasion of intestinal epithelial cells, motility, and induction of cytotoxicity. In the present study, further attenuation in induction of inflammatory cytokines/chemokines and histopathological lesions was seen in mice infected with the yqhC mutant. On the other hand, deletion of yqhC did not significantly affect the LD50 in mice or the ability of Salmonella to survive and replicate in vivo. To better understand how YqhC affects Salmonella virulence and to identify factors potentially modulated by YqhC, comparative transcriptome and proteome analysis of the yqhC mutant and the WT Salmonella was performed. Data from these experiments indicate that deletion of yqhC significantly alters the transcription of several genes associated with the SPI‐1 encoded T3SS and flagellar regulons, correlating with the yqhC mutant phenotype. Overall, this study indicates that deletion of the yqhC gene causes a number of virulence‐related defects in vitro, but has a modest effect in vivo, despite affecting induction of inflammatory cytokines and histopathology.
N-cadherin knock-down decreases invasiveness of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in vitro.

AIM To examine the expressions of N-cadherin and E-cadherin in specimens of 62 normal esophageal epithela, 31 adjacent atypical hyperplastic epithelia and 62 esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCCs), and to investigate the roles of N-cadherin in the invasiveness of ESCC cell line EC9706 transfected by N-cadherin shRNA. METHODS PV immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression pattern of N-cadherin and E-cadherin in specimens of 62 normal esophageal epithelia, 31 adjacent atypical hyperplastic epithelia and 62 ESCCs. The invasiveness of ESCC line EC9706 was determined by transwell assay after EC9706 was transfected by N-cadherin shRNA. RESULTS The positive rates of N-cadherin decreased in the carcinoma, adjacent atypical hyperplastic and normal esophageal tissues (75.8%, 61.3% and 29.0%, P < 0.05), respectively, while those of E-cadherin increased (40.3%, 71.0% and 95.2%, P < 0.05). The increased expression of N-cadherin and decreased expression of E-cadherin were related to invasion, differentiation, and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). The expression level of N-cadherin decreased in the N-cadherin knocked down cells, and the invasiveness of those cells decreased significantly as well. The number of cells which crossed the basement membrane filter decreased from 123.40 +/- 8.23 to 49.60 +/- 6.80 (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION E-cadherin and N-cadherin expression is correlated with the invasion and aggravation of ESCC. The down-regulation of N-cadherin lowers the invasiveness of EC9706 cell line.
Efficiency Optimization of DC Solid-State Transformer for Photovoltaic Power Systems

As the “brain” of the modern photovoltaic power systems, dc solid-state transformers (SSTs) are playing an increasing important role in integrating different photovoltaic modules, batteries, and supercapacitors. This paper aims at improving the conversion efficiency of dc SST for a wide operating range by minimizing the backflow power of the dc SST system. First, the mathematical model of the backflow power from both input and output sides of dc SST is obtained. Then, the penalty function is derived and an enhanced triple phase shift control (ETPS) strategy is proposed to minimize the backflow power for various transmission power and voltage conversion conditions. A comprehensive comparison of the proposed ETPS with other advanced control strategies was carried out through theoretical analysis and experimental tests. Main experimental results are illustrated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Clinical significance of costimulatory molecules CD80/CD86 expression in IgA nephropathy.

BACKGROUND IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is the most common form of human glomerulonephritis. Tubulointerstitial inflammation with infiltration of mononuclear cells plays an important role in the progression of IgAN. Activation of T cells requires costimulatory signals through binding of CD28 receptor with cognate ligands (CD80/CD86) located on antigen-presenting cells (APC). To assess the clinical significance of this regulatory pathway participation in the pathogenesis of IgAN, a comprehensive immunohistologic evaluation was conducted on renal tissue of IgAN in different phases of progressive injury. METHODS Thirty-three cases of IgAN and ten cases of non-IgA mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (PGN) with minor tissue damage as controls were investigated. Monoclonal antibodies were used to assess the expression of CD80, CD86, CD68, CD14, CD45RO, human leukocyte antigen-DR (HLA-DR), and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) in renal tissues. Clinical and expression data were compared at the time of renal biopsy. RESULTS CD80+ and CD86+ cells were observed more in IgAN patients with progressive renal injury than in mild cases and controls. CD80 was limited to tubular epithelial cells and was complemented by HLA-DR expression. CD86 was expressed in the glomerulus, periglomerular area, and peritubular interstitium. Activated T cells (CD45RO+), monocytes (CD14+), macrophages (CD68+), and CD86 showed similar distributions. Positive correlations were found between CD86+ cells and CD45RO, CD14, and CD68 positive cells and between CD80+ tubuli and peritubular interstitial CD45RO+ cells. The number of interstitial CD86 positive cells and the percentage of CD80+ tubuli were correlated with renal function. Most CD86+ cells were monocyte/macrophages. CONCLUSION This study suggested that CD80 and CD86 activate T cells in IgAN, CD80/CD86 expressions correlated with renal function at the time of renal biopsy, and monocyte/macrophages and tubular epithelial cells act as APC.
Pretransplant Cardiac Investigations in the Irish Renal Transplant Population—The Effectiveness of Our Current Screening Techniques in Predicting Cardiac Events

Background. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is prevalent among endstage renal failure patients and remains the major cause of mortality following renal transplantation. Death with a functioning transplant institute remains the most common cause of kidney graft failure. In this study we attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of the clinical history and current screening techniques available in predicting posttransplant CAD and also assess the role of coronary angiography as a pretransplant screening technique. Methods. Clinical data of 190 renal transplant patients was analyzed. Any clinical history of cardiac disease and all preoperative cardiac screening data was recorded for each patient. The study endpoints were the subsequent development of myocardial infarction (MI), undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) or death. Results. Factors that were significantly associated with reaching a study end‐point included: age at transplant [Hazard Ratio (HR) 1.91, P < 0.001], history of heart failure (HR 8.22, P < 0.001), presence of CAD on coronary angiography (HR 5.55, P = 0.033), anterior Q wave on electrocardiograph {ECG} (HR 8.6, P < 0.001), carotid artery disease (HR 3.74, P = 0.030) and history of a cerebrovascular accident (HR of 4.32, P = 0.008). The screening techniques of exercise stress testing and echocardiography were not conclusive as predictive variables of outcome. Conclusion. Clinical history and ECG results are good, practical and low‐cost screening methods. In our study exercise stress testing and echocardiography were found to be of limited value. Coronary angiography is appropriate in certain high‐risk groups but not necessary as part of screening in all potential renal transplant recipients.
Analysis of Tree Based Supervised Learning Algorithms on Medical Data

- Classification is one of the major tasks in data mining and has also been studied extensively in statistics, machine learning, expert systems, and different application areas on different domains over decades. Decision tree is one of the popular and practical classification approaches in data mining. It is also widely used in several research areas. Tree growing methods used to construct the decision tree may vary the performance of this classifier. Tree based classification algorithms are separated based on their attribute selection measure method. Therefore, this paper presents the comparative analysis of different tree based algorithms such as CART, ID3, J48, Random Tree and PART. Macro average accuracy, precision, recall, and F-measure are used for performance comparisons of these algorithms by using WEKA tool.
Area Optimized Architecture for AES Mix Column Operation

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), is one of the most popular cryptographic algorithm used for data protection. The cost and power consumption of the AES can be reduced considerably by optimizing the architecture of AES. This paper proposes an implementation of the AES mix columns operation which presents a compact architecture for the AES mix columns operation and its inverse. It also proposes the method of resource sharing in case of mix column and its inverse. The delay and area consumption of the hardware implementation is compared with previous work done in this area. The proposed architecture have been implemented on the most recent Xilinx Spartan FPGA, their area and delay are compared with the previous works and it is proved that proposed technique has lower area coverage and delay.
Analysis of STATCOM under 3 phase balanced reactive load

7 level cascaded voltage source inverter structure is presented as Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM). Selective harmonic elimination method, synchronous reference frame instantaneous reactive power theory [1] method is applied. DC link capacitors voltage control algorithm is also used. Performance of STATCOM is examined in instantaneous load change from capacitive to inductive and vice versa. Rapid prototyping is applied for STATCOM. Matlab simulation and Matlab-DSP coworking simulation results are compared.
Temporal variation in nephrotoxicity of low doses of isepamicin in rats

The temporal variation in the nephrotoxicity of low doses of isepamicin was studied in male Sprague-Dawley rats treated with a single daily intraperitoneal injection of saline (NaCl, 0.9%) or isepamicin (80 mg/kg of body weight) at either 0800, 1400, 2000, or 0200 h for 4 and 10 days. On day 10, the cellular regeneration (incorporation of [3H] thymidine into DNA of renal cortex) and cortical accumulation of isepamicin were significantly higher in animals treated at 1400 h than at 0200 h (P < 0.01). Immunogold labeling studies showed that isepamicin was essentially localized in the lysosomes of proximal tubular cells in all treated groups, but the density of the gold particles over the lysosomes was higher in animals treated at 1400 than at 0200 h. The results of the present study show that the renal toxicity of isepamicin was maximal at 1400 h (midlight period) and minimal at 0200 h (middark period).
The EMBL nucleotide sequence database

The EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/embl. html ) constitutes Europe's primary nucleotide sequence resource. DNA and RNA sequences are directly submitted from researchers and genome sequencing groups and collected from the scientific literature and patent applications (Fig. 1). In collaboration with DDBJ and GenBank the database is produced, maintained and distributed at the European Bioinformatics Institute. Database releases are produced quarterly and are distributed on CD-ROM. EBI's network services allow access to the most up-to-date data collection via Internet and World Wide Web interface, providing database searching and sequence similarity facilities plus access to a large number of additional databases.
Evaluating the impact of risk factors on construction projects cost in Nigeria

----------------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT----------------------------------------------------One of the challenges facing the construction in Nigeria is how to assess the risk of cost overruns and deliver projects within budget. These risks can cause losses that lead to increase in costs, time delays and lack of quality of projects. The purpose of the paper is to identify and assessed the likelihood of occurrence and degree of impact of the risk factors on construction projects within the Nigerian construction industry. In view of the foregoing, the objectives are to establish a relative significance index score for the most important risk factors affecting the performance of the projects. A self administered questionnaire was employed to the construction industry professional for their responses on the likelihood of occurrence of risk factors and the impact of these risk factors on project performance. A total seventy Eight questionnaires were sent to construction industry professionals which comprises of Contractors, Architects, Quantity Surveyors and Engineers but Fifty Eight was return which was later analyzed using descriptive statistic and analyses of variance ,(ANOVA) and subsequently exposure rating levels were determined which enable the categorization of the probabilityimpact score in Low, medium and high levels. Results of the study indicate a disparity of the ranking of the degree of occurrence and impact among the group. Based on the composite of risk factors, the cost related risk and time related risk was found to be the most likely to occur and have the most impact on project, whereas environmental risk factor was found to be low weighted risk, as it had the least likelihood to occur and the least impact score.
LVRT capability and improved control scheme of PMSG-based WECS during asymmetrical grid faults

Low voltage ride-through (LVRT) requirements for wind energy conversion systems (WECSs) under asymmetrical grid faults are still under discussion. In a draft code “SDLWindV” of Germany, wind energy conversion systems (WECSs) are demanded to inject positive-sequence reactive current during asymmetrical faults, which represents the future trends of LVRT requirements for asymmetrical faults. However, such new requirements are not taken into account in most of the existing LVRT control schemes. In this paper, the capability of permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG)-based WECSs to fulfill such new requirements is evaluated, considering the voltage and current limitations of grid-side converter (GSC). Further, based on the analysis of the LVRT capability, a control scheme is proposed for PMSG-based WECSs to satisfy the new requirements. Finally, both simulations and experimental tests are carried out to verify the proposed scheme. The achieved analysis results of asymmetrical faults ride-through capability of PMSG-based WECS will provide a guideline for the design of grid codes, and the proposed scheme is expected to help PMSG-based WECSs meet the new LVRT requirements for asymmetrical faults.
von Hippel-Lindau Protein Promotes the Assembly of Actin and Vinculin and Inhibits Cell Motility 1

Mutation of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene is responsible for familial and sporadic renal cell carcinomas as well as for cancers in many other organs. According to recent studies, the VHL protein (pVHL) is a multifunctional tumor suppressor protein associated with the inhibition of angiogenesis, cell cycle exit, fibronectin matrix assembly, and proteolysis. To examine whether pVHL affects other important cellular events such as morphogenesis, adhesion, cytoskeletal organization, or motility, we introduced theVHL gene into human kidney and lung cancer cells and compared its effects with those in parental cells. Compared with non-pVHLexpressing cells, the morphogenesis of pVHL-expressing cells was remarkably changed, with cells having many focal adhesions and stress fibers and a spreading morphology. The attachment ability of non-pVHLexpressing cells was significantly increased by expression of pVHL. Additional studies showed that vinculin was translocalized from the cytoplasm to the cell membrane by the pVHL expression, indicating induction of focal adhesion formation by pVHL. Furthermore, motility of the pVHL-expressing cells was significantly reduced compared with that of non-pVHL-expressing cells (P< 0.05). These results indicate that pVHL stabilized actin organization and inhibited cell motility through focal adhesion formation. Thus, pVHL plays a crucial role in cytoskeletal organization and motility and functions as a unique suppressor protein in malignant cells.
Lucio phenomenon and Lucio leprosy

Lucio phenomenon is a peculiar reactional state associated with Lucio leprosy; both exhibit a restricted global distribution. The exact underlying pathomechanism of Lucio phenomenon, which may be fatal at times, still needs further elaboration. A case of relapse of partially treated nodular lepromatous leprosy presenting with Lucio phenomenon is reported, along with a brief review of the literature.
Automaticly Generating Web Page From A

UI is an important part of software product. Considering the complexity of web UI, generating the web page from a mockup proposes requirements for rich experience of developer. Extracting visible elements and their relationship, selecting proper tags, generating source code are time-consuming and error-prone task. In this paper, we propose a method to automate the transforming of the mockup to the web page. Our approach starts from the mockup designed by the art designers, and extracts the elements based on the color features of the edges. Then a bottom-up tag generating method based on the Random Forest is proposed to select the tags for elements. Finally the web page is generated by the definition of the elements. The generating tags can achieve an average accuracy of more than 84%, which can meet the basic requirements of the developers. Keywords—web generating, machine learning, web design
Nucleic Acid Aptamers: Emerging Applications in Medical Imaging, Nanotechnology, Neurosciences, and Drug Delivery

Recent progresses in organic chemistry and molecular biology have allowed the emergence of numerous new applications of nucleic acids that markedly deviate from their natural functions. Particularly, DNA and RNA molecules—coined aptamers—can be brought to bind to specific targets with high affinity and selectivity. While aptamers are mainly applied as biosensors, diagnostic agents, tools in proteomics and biotechnology, and as targeted therapeutics, these chemical antibodies slowly begin to be used in other fields. Herein, we review recent progress on the use of aptamers in the construction of smart DNA origami objects and MRI and PET imaging agents. We also describe advances in the use of aptamers in the field of neurosciences (with a particular emphasis on the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases) and as drug delivery systems. Lastly, the use of chemical modifications, modified nucleoside triphosphate particularly, to enhance the binding and stability of aptamers is highlighted.
Repeated Palpatory Training of Medical Students on the Virtual Haptic Back

The effectiveness of simulation-based training has been accepted with great success in many fields including medicine. Most of the simulation research and development in medicine has focused on surgery. There has been some development of hardware based biomechanical models of sections of human anatomy, such as pelvic exam simulators. More recently, with the advances in haptics technology, software and hardware based simulators are being developed for the previously ignored area of palpatory diagnosis. The Virtual Haptic Back (VHB) is a simulator based on virtual reality and haptics that is currently being used to train medical students in palpatory diagnosis. This study examined the effect of repeating the training on the VHB.