Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sengstaken–Blakemore tube: an unusual complication

Acute variceal bleeding is a life-threatening event. Endoscopic band ligation is currently the recommended treatment [1]; however, in the case of reduced variceal volume, injection therapy with polidocanol or Histoacryl may be more appropriate. If both endoscopic options fail, placement of a Sengstaken–Blakemore tube should be considered [2], although other endoscopic therapies can be used [3]. A 54-year-old man with a known history of compensated alcoholic cirrhosis presented in the emergency roomwith acute hematemesis. The vital signs were stable and laboratory workup showed mild anemia and thrombocytopenia. Upper endoscopy revealed a peptic esophagitis with confluent ulceration and a spurting variceal hemorrhage in the cardia. After injection of 10ml of 1% polidocanol, that did not control the bleeding, a Sengstaken– Blakemore tube (Cliny type 42; Create Medic Co, Yokohama, Japan) was positioned, with 250ml of air insufflated in the gastric balloon and 80ml in the esophageal balloon. For traction maintenance, a 500-ml bag of saline was used, as was regular practice. However, after 10 minutes part of the tube suddenly became exteriorized (●" Fig.1). As the video demonstrates (●" Video1) the extremity with the deflated balloon, because of spontaneous transection 3cm proximally to the balloon insertion, was still in place. It was decided to remove the tube with a snare. On revision there was no active bleeding, hence no treatment was carried out. The use of a Sengstaken–Blakemore tube is increasingly rare, mostly because of the high incidence of complications, such as aspiration pneumonia, airway obstruction, pressure necrosis of the mucosa, esophageal rupture, and cardiac inflow obstruction [4–6]. To our knowledge this is the first video showing the extraction of a Sengstaken–Blakemore tube that had transected probably because of a manufacturing defect. To prevent this situation a careful assessment of the tube must be made before placement. Besides the very successful resolution using a standard endoscopic extraction procedure, we emphasize the rarity of the video images of this unusual situation.
Store-Operated Ca2 + Entry (SOCE) Regulates Melanoma Proliferation and Cell Migration

Store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) is a major mechanism of Ca2 + import from extracellular to intracellular space, involving detection of Ca2+ store depletion in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) by stromal interaction molecule (STIM) proteins, which then translocate to plasma membrane and activate Orai Ca2+ channels there. We found that STIM1 and Orai1 isoforms were abundantly expressed in human melanoma tissues and multiple melanoma/melanocyte cell lines. We confirmed that these cell lines exhibited SOCE, which was inhibited by knockdown of STIM1 or Orai1, or by a pharmacological SOCE inhibitor. Inhibition of SOCE suppressed melanoma cell proliferation and migration/metastasis. Induction of SOCE was associated with activation of extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK), and was inhibited by inhibitors of calmodulin kinase II (CaMKII) or Raf-1, suggesting that SOCE-mediated cellular functions are controlled via the CaMKII/Raf-1/ERK signaling pathway. Our findings indicate that SOCE contributes to melanoma progression, and therefore may be a new potential target for treatment of melanoma, irrespective of whether or not Braf mutation is present.
EMI evaluation based on electromagnetic and circuit analysis for human body communication systems

In this paper, we employed a two-step approach to evaluate the electromagnetic interference (EMI) voltage at cardiac pacemaker from human body communication (HBC) signals. In the first step, we calculated the input voltage of the analogue sensing circuit of pacemaker using an electromagnetic field analysis tool by considering the pacemaker as a receiving antenna. In the second step, we evaluated the output voltage of the sensing circuit via a circuit simulation approach. The results have shown that a part of HBC signals passes through the low-pass filter of the sensing circuit as interference. Moreover, a DC offset component of the operational amplifier (opamp) in the sensing circuit is further added to the high-frequency interference voltages so that the sensing threshold of malfunction is easier to be exceeded. As a result, it is found that there may be a margin at least 25 dB for malfunction of pacemaker under a typical 1-V HBC transmit voltage and the representative sensing circuit configuration.
PPAR-γ Impairment Alters Peroxisome Functionality in Primary Astrocyte Cell Cultures

Peroxisomes provide glial cells with protective functions against the harmful effects of H2O2 on neurons and peroxisome impairment results in nervous lesions. Agonists of the γ-subtype of the Peroxisome-Proliferator-Activated-Receptors (PPAR) have been proposed as neuroprotective agents in neurodegenerative disorders. Nevertheless, the role of PPAR-γ alterations in pathophysiological mechanisms and the relevance of peroxisome functions in the PPAR-γ effects are not yet clear. In a primary cell culture of rat astrocytes, the irreversible PPAR-γ antagonist GW9662 concentration-dependently decreased the activity of catalase, the most important antioxidant defense enzyme in peroxisomes. Catalase functionality recovered in a few days and the PPAR-γ agonist rosiglitazone promoted reversal of enzymatic damage. The reversible antagonist G3335 reduced both the activity and expression of catalase in a rosiglitazone-prevented manner. G3335 reduced also the glutathione reductase expression, indicating that enzyme involved in glutathione regeneration was compromised. Neither the PPAR-α target gene Acyl-Coenzyme-A-oxidase-1 nor the mitochondrial detoxifying enzyme NADH:ubiquinone-oxidoreductase (NDFUS3) was altered by PPAR-γ inhibition. In conclusion, PPAR-γ inhibition induced impairment of catalase in astrocytes. A general decrease of the antioxidant defenses of the cell suggests that a PPAR-γ hypofunction could participate in neurodegenerative mechanisms through peroxisomal damage. This series of experiments could be a useful model for studying compounds able to restore peroxisome functionality.
Mycosis Fungoides in Iranian Population: An Epidemiological and Clinicopathological Study

Background. Mycosis fungoides (MF) is the most common subtype of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Extensive studies on Iranian MF patients are absent. The present study aimed to produce updated clinical information on Iranian MF patients. Methods. This was a retrospective, descriptive, single-center study, including all cases of MF seen in the Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Isfahan, Iran, between 2003 and 2013. Data systematically recorded for each patient included clinical, biological, histological, and molecular findings. Results. Eighty-six patients with clinical and histologic diagnosis of MF were included in the study. Thirty-nine patients (45.3%) were male. Female predominance was observed in patients (male : female ratio is 1 : 1.2). Patients were between 7 and 84 years of age (median: 41). The interval from disease onset to diagnosis ranged from 0 to 55 years (median: 1 year). Eighteen cases (20.9%) had unusual variants of MF. The most common types included hypopigmented and poikilodermatous MF. Childhood cases of MF constituted 5.8% (5/86) of all patients. The early stages were seen in 82 cases (95.34%). Conclusion. The major differences in epidemiologic characteristics of MF in Iran are the lack of male predominance and the lower age of patients at the time of diagnosis.
Evaluation of the Zeiss retinal vessel analyser

AIM To investigate the reproducibility and sensitivity of the Zeiss retinal vessel analyser, a new method for the online determination of retinal vessel diameters in healthy subjects. METHODS Two model drugs were administered, a peripheral vasoconstrictor (the α receptor agonist phenylephrine) and a peripheral vasodilator (the nitric oxide donor sodium nitroprusside) in stepwise increasing doses. Nine healthy young subjects were studied in a placebo controlled double masked three way crossover design. Subjects received intravenous infusions of either placebo or stepwise increasing doses of phenylephrine (0.5, 1, or 2 μg/kg/min) or sodium nitroprusside (0.5, 1, or 2 μg/kg/min). Retinal vessel diameters were measured with the new Zeiss retinal vessel analyser. Retinal leucocyte velocity, flow, and density were measured with the blue field entoptic technique. The reproducibility of measurements was assessed with coefficients of variation and intraclass correlation coefficients. RESULTS Placebo and phenylephrine did not influence retinal haemodynamics, although the α receptor antagonist significantly increased blood pressure. Sodium nitroprusside induced a significant increase in retinal venous and arterial diameters (p<0.001 each), leucocyte density (p=0.001), and leucocyte flow (p=0.024) despite lowering blood pressure to a significant degree. For venous and arterial vessel size measurements short term coefficients of variation were 1.3% and 2.6% and intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.98 and 0.96, respectively. The sensitivity was between 3% and 5% for retinal veins and 5% and 7% for retinal arteries. CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that the Zeiss retinal vessel analyser is an accurate system for the assessment of retinal diameters in healthy subjects. In addition, nitric oxide appears to have a strong influence on retinal vascular tone.
Endocrine disruptive effects of polychlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons on intestinal cholecystokinin in rats.

The ubiquitous and persistent nature of polychlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons (PCAHs) in our environment and the risk of exposure to PCAHs have provoked concern over their potential toxicity. In humans, exposure to PCAHs is aimed chiefly at epithelial cells residing in the intestinal mucosa, because oral intake of contaminated food is a major source of PCAHs. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to examine the effects of chronic exposure to various PCAHs [i.e. 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), 2,3,4,7,8-pentachlorodibenzofuran (PeCDF), 3,3',4,4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB-126), and 2,2'4,4'5,5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB-153)], given alone or as mixtures, on intestinal cholecystokinin (CCK) peptide and messenger RNA levels. We show that chronic PCAH treatment significantly lowers intestinal levels of stored CCK peptide. Intestinal CCK messenger RNA levels are not affected. In addition, 3,3',4,4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl treatment increased intestinal insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 levels in a dose-related manner. Acute 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin treatment of intestinal CCK cells lowered levels of CCK-processing enzymes (i.e. prohormone convertase-1 and -2). Together, these data indicate that PCAHs may decrease intestinal levels of stored CCK peptide by affecting the intestinal insulin-like growth factor system and CCK processing.
Synergistic impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation on model ecosystems

Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to biodiversity, yet separating their effects is challenging. We use a multi-trophic, trait-based, and spatially explicit general ecosystem model to examine the independent and synergistic effects of these processes on ecosystem structure. We manipulated habitat by removing plant biomass in varying spatial extents, intensities, and configurations. We found that emergent synergistic interactions of loss and fragmentation are major determinants of ecosystem response, including population declines and trophic pyramid shifts. Furthermore, trait-mediated interactions, such as a disproportionate sensitivity of large-sized organisms to fragmentation, produce significant effects in shaping responses. We also show that top-down regulation mitigates the effects of land use on plant biomass loss, suggesting that models lacking these interactions—including most carbon stock models—may not adequately capture land-use change impacts. Our results have important implications for understanding ecosystem responses to environmental change, and assessing the impacts of habitat fragmentation.
The Interaction Between Automatic Annotation and Query Expansion: a Retrieval Experiment on a Large Cultural Heritage Archive

Improving a search system for large audiovisual archives can be done in two ways: by enriching the annotations, or by enriching the query mechanism. Both operations possibly benefit from a preliminary terminological enrichment of the controlled vocabulary in use, i.e. the thesaurus. In this paper we report on a four-parts experiment in which we evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of both aspects: the added value and pitfalls of automatically generated semantic annotations over classi- cally (i.e. manually) assigned keywords and the added value and pitfalls of query expansion over pure keyword matching technique; we then in- vestigate the combination of these operations in the following setup: we create the baseline for our experiments by querying a set of documents annotated by cataloguers with keywords from the thesaurus. We then apply the same querying process on a set of annotations automatically generated from textual resources related to the documents. Thirdly, we apply a querying process enhanced with query expansion functionalities to the first set of manually annotated documents. Finally, we apply the query expansion mechanism on the automatically generated annotations. The results give insight into the interaction between the two approaches.
A novel deep learning-based approach to high accuracy breast density estimation in digital mammography

Mammographic breast density is a well-established marker for breast cancer risk. However, accurate measurement of dense tissue is a difficult task due to faint contrast and significant variations in background fatty tissue. This study presents a novel method for automated mammographic density estimation based on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). A total of 397 full-field digital mammograms were selected from Seoul National University Hospital. Among them, 297 mammograms were randomly selected as a training set and the rest 100 mammograms were used for a test set. We designed a CNN architecture suitable to learn the imaging characteristic from a multitudes of sub-images and classify them into dense and fatty tissues. To train the CNN, not only local statistics but also global statistics extracted from an image set were used. The image set was composed of original mammogram and eigen-image which was able to capture the X-ray characteristics in despite of the fact that CNN is well known to effectively extract features on original image. The 100 test images which was not used in training the CNN was used to validate the performance. The correlation coefficient between the breast estimates by the CNN and those by the expert’s manual measurement was 0.96. Our study demonstrated the feasibility of incorporating the deep learning technology into radiology practice, especially for breast density estimation. The proposed method has a potential to be used as an automated and quantitative assessment tool for mammographic breast density in routine practice.
Characterization of severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) spike glycoprotein-mediated viral entry

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is a rapidly emerging pathogen with potentially serious consequences for public health. Here we describe conditions that result not only in the efficient expression of the SARS-CoV spike (S) protein on the surface of cells, but in its incorporation into lentiviral particles that can be used to transduce cells in an S glycoprotein-dependent manner. We found that although some primate cell lines, including Vero E6, 293T and Huh-7 cells, could be efficiently transduced by SARS-CoV S glycoprotein pseudoviruses, other cells lines were either resistant or very poorly permissive to virus entry. Infection by pseudovirions could be inhibited by several lysosomotropic agents, suggesting a requirement for acidification of endosomes for efficient S-mediated viral entry. In addition, we were able to develop a cell–cell fusion assay that could be used to monitor S glycoprotein-dependent membrane fusion. Although proteolysis did not enhance the infectivity of cell-free pseudovirions, trypsin activation is required for cell–cell fusion. Additionally, there was no apparent pH requirement for S glycoprotein-mediated cell–cell fusion. Together, these studies describe important tools that can be used to study SARS-CoV S glycoprotein structure and function, including approaches that can be used to identify inhibitors of the entry of SARS-CoV into target cells.
Testing Closeness of Discrete Distributions

Given samples from two distributions over an <i>n</i>-element set, we wish to test whether these distributions are statistically close. We present an algorithm which uses sublinear in <i>n</i>, specifically, <i>O</i>(<i>n</i><sup>2/3</sup><i>ε</i><sup>−8/3</sup> log <i>n</i>), independent samples from each distribution, runs in time linear in the sample size, makes no assumptions about the structure of the distributions, and distinguishes the cases when the distance between the distributions is small (less than {<i>ε</i><sup>4/3</sup><i>n</i><sup>−1/3</sup>/32, <i>εn</i><sup>−1/2</sup>/4}) or large (more than <i>ε</i>) in ℓ<sub>1</sub> distance. This result can be compared to the lower bound of <i>Ω</i>(<i>n</i><sup>2/3</sup><i>ε</i><sup>−2/3</sup>) for this problem given by Valiant [2008]. Our algorithm has applications to the problem of testing whether a given Markov process is rapidly mixing. We present sublinear algorithms for several variants of this problem as well.
Improving speculative thread-level parallelism through module run-length prediction

Exploiting speculative thread-level parallelism across modules, e.g., methods, procedures, or functions, have shown promise. However, misspeculations and task creation overhead are known to adversely impact the speedup if too many small modules are executed speculatively. Our approach to reduce the impact of these overheads is to disable speculation on modules with a run-length below a certain threshold. We first confirm that if speculation is disabled on modules with an execution time - or run-length - shorter than a threshold comparable to the overheads, we obtain nearly as high speedup as if the overhead was zero. For example, if the overhead is 200 cycles and the run-length threshold is 500 cycles, six out of the nine applications we ran enjoyed nearly as high speedup as were the overhead zero. We then propose a mechanism by which the run-length can be predicted at run-time based on previous invocations of the module. This simple predictor achieves an accuracy between 83% and 99%. Finally, our run-length predictor is shown to improve the efficiency of module-level speculation by preventing modules with short run-lengths from occupying precious processing resources.
Levels and variations in the quality of facility-based antenatal care in Kenya: evidence from the 2010 service provision assessment

Quality of care is emerging as an important concern for low- and middle-income countries working to expand and improve coverage. However, there is limited systematic, large-scale empirical guidance to inform policy design. Our study operationalized indicators for six dimensions of quality of care that are captured in currently available, standardized Service Provision Assessments. We implemented these measures to assess the levels and heterogeneity of antenatal care in Kenya. Using our indicator mix, we find that performance is low overall and that there is substantial variation across provinces, management authority and facility type. Overall, facilities performed highest in the dimensions of efficiency and acceptability/patient-centeredness, and lowest on effectiveness and accessibility. Public facilities generally performed worse or similarly to private or faith-based facilities. We illustrate how these data and methods can provide readily-available, low-cost decision support for policy.
Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 9 Activity Regulates Neutrophil Spontaneous Apoptosis

Neutrophils are the most abundant leukocyte and play a central role in the immune defense against rapidly dividing bacteria. However, they are also the shortest lived cell in the blood with a lifespan in the circulation of 5.4 days. The mechanisms underlying their short lifespan and spontaneous entry into apoptosis are poorly understood. Recently, the broad range cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor R-roscovitine was shown to increase neutrophil apoptosis, implicating CDKs in the regulation of neutrophil lifespan. To determine which CDKs were involved in regulating neutrophil lifespan we first examined CDK expression in human neutrophils and found that only three CDKs: CDK5, CDK7 and CDK9 were expressed in these cells. The use of CDK inhibitors with differing selectivity towards the various CDKs suggested that CDK9 activity regulates neutrophil lifespan. Furthermore CDK9 activity and the expression of its activating partner cyclin T1 both declined as neutrophils aged and entered apoptosis spontaneously. CDK9 is a component of the P-TEFb complex involved in transcriptional regulation and its inhibition will preferentially affect proteins with short half-lives. Treatment of neutrophils with flavopiridol, a potent CDK9 inhibitor, increased apoptosis and caused a rapid decline in the level of the anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1, whilst Bcl2A was unaffected. We propose that CDK9 activity is a key regulator of neutrophil lifespan, preventing apoptosis by maintaining levels of short lived anti-apoptotic proteins such as Mcl-1. Furthermore, as inappropriate inhibition of neutrophil apoptosis contributes to chronic inflammatory diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, CDK9 represents a novel therapeutic target in such diseases.
Vehicle logo recognition by spatial-SIFT combined with logistic regression

An efficient recognition framework requires both good feature representation and effective classification methods. This paper proposes such a framework based on a spatial Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) combined with a logistic regression classifier. The performance of the proposed framework is compared to that of state-of-the-art methods based on the Histogram of Orientation Gradients, SIFT features, Support Vector Machine and K-Nearest Neighbours classifiers. By testing with the largest vehicle logo data-set, it is shown that the proposed framework can achieve a classification accuracy of 99:93%, the best among all studied methods. Moreover, the proposed framework shows robustness when noise is added in both training and testing images.
Chemical Visualization of an Attractant Peptide, LURE

The pollen tube attractant peptide LUREs of Torenia fournieri are diffusible peptides that attract pollen tubes in vitro. Here, we report a method enabling the direct visualization of a LURE peptide without inhibiting its attraction activity by conjugating it with the Alexa Fluor 488 fluorescent dye. After purifying and refolding the recombinant LURE2 with a polyhistidine tag, its amino groups were targeted for conjugation with the Alexa Fluor dye. Labeling of LURE2 was confirmed by its fluorescence and mass spectrometry. In our in vitro assay using gelatin beads, Alexa Fluor 488-labeled LURE2 appeared to have the same activity as unlabeled LURE2. Using the labeled LURE2, the relationship between the spatiotemporal change of distribution and activity of LURE2 was examined. LURE2 attracted pollen tubes when embedded in gelatin beads, but hardly at all when in agarose beads. Direct visualization suggested that the significant difference between these conditions was the retention of LURE2 in the gelatin bead, which might delay diffusion of LURE2 from the bead. Direct visualization of LURE peptide may open the way to studying the spatiotemporal dynamics of LURE in pollen tube attraction.