Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pneumonectomy for in ̄ ammatory lung disease q

Objective: Recent surgical literature has highlighted the dangers of pneumonectomy for in ̄ammatory lung disease; therefore the assessment of the risk/bene®t ratio of our departmental policy. Methods: Patients undergoing pneumonectomy for in ̄ammatory lung disease during two 2-year periods, 1991±1992 and 1996±1997 inclusive, were retrospectively analyzed. Clinical indications for investigation and surgery, and radiographic ®ndings were determined. Some comparisons between the two periods were drawn. Rates of morbidity and mortality were the principle outcome measures. Results: One hundred and ®fty-®ve patients, 116 males, 39 females, with an average age of 30.2 years ranging from 1±68 years, underwent pneumonectomy for ongoing features of productive cough, haemoptysis (two emergencies) and chronic empyema all with either bronchographic or computed tomography (CT) evidence of destroyed lung. One hundred and fourteen (72%) had or had had tuberculosis at time of surgery. Histology showed bronchiectasis in 53 (34%), end-stage disease in 49 (31.6%) and active tuberculosis in 48 (30.9%). Over 90% of the patients were free of disease at discharge. Mortality was two (1.2%). Morbidity (23%) included post-pneumonectomy empyema 23 (14.8%), bleeding three (1.9%), broncho-pleural ®stula three (1.9%), with wound sepsis in one (0.6%) and thoracic duct injury in one (0.6%). Three groups were identi®ed, (1) pneumonectomy through empyema ± a risk group, (2) pneumonectomy in active tuberculosis and (3) pneumonectomy in children. Twenty-three post-pneumonectomy empyemas (PPE) occurred with 21 of these following pneumonectomies through empyema (PTE), six PPEs followed 27 PTEs for active tuberculosis. Fourteen of the 21 empyemas following pneumonectomy through empyema were initially sterilized. Finally 15/23 (65%) of all PPEs were sterilized. Pneumonectomy in active tuberculosis did not carry the mortality or morbidity experienced by others. Pneumonectomy in children was remarkably uncomplicated, with one PPE occurring. Conclusions: This ongoing study shows pneumonectomy for in ̄ammatory lung to be safe, with good results. Tuberculosis, being so common, adequate pre-operative and operative cover with anti-tuberculosis drugs may enhance results. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Capacitive Sensor for Tagless Remote Human Identification Using Body Frequency Absorption Signatures

Although useful for many applications, the practical use of tagless remote human identification is often hampered by privacy, usability, reliability, or cost concerns. In this paper, we explore the use of capacitive sensors, which appear to address most of these concerns, to identify different persons based on the unique electric and dielectric properties of their bodies given by their specific tissue composition. We present experimental results obtained by measuring the capacitance of a $16~\text {cm}\times 16~\text {cm}$ transducer plate 70 cm in front of different human bodies at different frequencies in the 5–160-kHz range. The measurements show clearly distinct signatures of capacitance variation with frequency for each person in the experiment, even after accounting for capacitance variations due to different body masses or physical dimensions. This paper focuses on the contactless identification of human body using capacitive sensors in smart home environments.
The Functions of Biological Diversity in an Age of Extinction

Environmental Determinism? Earth's millions of species influence a wide range of environmental processes, including elemental cycling, the stability of ecosystems, and the goods and services they provide. Naeem et al. (p. 1401) review recent advances in the young and evolving field of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, explore the extent to which the field is becoming a predictive science, and indicate how the field needs to develop in order to aid worldwide efforts to achieve environmental sustainability in the face of rising rates of extinction. Ecosystems worldwide are rapidly losing taxonomic, phylogenetic, genetic, and functional diversity as a result of human appropriation of natural resources, modification of habitats and climate, and the spread of pathogenic, exotic, and domestic plants and animals. Twenty years of intense theoretical and empirical research have shown that such biotic impoverishment can markedly alter the biogeochemical and dynamic properties of ecosystems, but frontiers remain in linking this research to the complexity of wild nature, and in applying it to pressing environmental issues such as food, water, energy, and biosecurity. The question before us is whether these advances can take us beyond merely invoking the precautionary principle of conserving biodiversity to a predictive science that informs practical and specific solutions to mitigate and adapt to its loss.
Mobility training after hip fracture: a randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE to compare the effects of two different exercise programmes after hip fracture. DESIGN assessor-blinded randomised controlled trial. SETTING hospital rehabilitation units, with continued intervention at home. SUBJECTS 160 people with surgical fixation for hip fracture transferred to inpatient rehabilitation. METHOD in addition to other rehabilitation strategies, the intervention group received a higher dose (60 min/day) exercise programme conducted whilst standing and the control group received a lower dose exercise programme (30 min/day) primarily conducted whilst seated/supine. The primary outcome measures were knee extensor muscle strength in the fractured leg and walking speed, measured at 4 and 16 weeks. RESULTS 150 participants (94% of those recruited) completed the trial. There were no differences between the groups for the two primary outcome measures. Post hoc analyses revealed increased walking speed among those in the higher dose, weight-bearing exercise group with cognitive impairment at 4 and 16 weeks. CONCLUSIONS there was no benefit (or harm) due to the higher dose, weight-bearing exercise programme with respect to the primary outcome measures. However, people with hip fracture and cognitive impairment gained greater benefit from the higher dose programme than from the lower dose programme.
Adolescent Perceptions of Peer Responses to Diabetes Self-Management: A Qualitative Study

Background: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is more prevalent in adolescents than in adults, and the self-management of insulin-dependent diabetes is complex. T1D requires injections of insulin, self-management of blood testing, regular physical activity, and diet monitoring, which are challenging for growing and developing adolescents. Adolescents are often more concerned with how they are perceived by their peers than how they perceive themselves. Positive peer responses influence the self-care management of adolescents with T1D in school settings. By contrast, negative peer responses and avoidance behaviors threaten to negatively affect the health outcomes of adolescents with T1D. Evidence indicates that peer influence is crucial to the successful self-management of diabetes in adolescents. However, very few studies have investigated the effect of peer influence on adolescents with T1D. Purpose: This article describes how adolescents with T1D perceive the responses of their peers to their diabetes self-management in school settings. Methods: Ten 12- to 17-year-old adolescents with diabetes were recruited from a pediatric endocrinology clinic at a university hospital in Taiwan. Audio-recorded interview data were transcribed verbatim and reviewed for accuracy. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the narrative content of semistructured interviews with participants. The rigor of the data collection and analysis was emphasized. Results: Analysis of peer responses to the diabetes care practices of the participants revealed six themes: knowledge seeking, curiosity, enthusiasm, empathy, fearfulness, and isolation and bullying. Subthemes were categorized to illustrate how adolescents with T1D balance the challenge of diabetes self-care regimens and normal peer interactions. They were coping with the requirements of their T1D regimen and hoping to determine the perceptions of their peers toward this regimen and themselves. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: Understanding the perception of peer identity for adolescents with T1D provides information for diabetes education and assists school nurses to facilitate successful T1D management in adolescents.
Effects of Wenxin Keli on Cardiac Hypertrophy and Arrhythmia via Regulation of the Calcium/Calmodulin Dependent Kinase II Signaling Pathway

We investigated the effects of Wenxin Keli (WXKL) on the Calcium/Calmodulin dependent kinase II (CaMK II) signal transduction pathway with transverse aortic constriction (TAC) rats. Echocardiographic measurements were obtained 3 and 9 weeks after the surgery. Meanwhile, the action potentials (APDs) were recorded using the whole-cell patch clamp technique, and western blotting was used to assess components of the CaMK II signal transduction pathway. At both 3 and 9 weeks after treatment, the fractional shortening (FS%) increased in the WXKL group compared with the TAC group. The APD90 of the TAC group was longer than that of the Sham group and was markedly shortened by WXKL treatment. Western blotting results showed that the protein expressions of CaMK II, phospholamban (PLB), and ryanodine receptor 2 (RYR2) were not statistically significant among the different groups at both treatment time points. However, WXKL treatment decreased the protein level and phosphorylation of CaMK II (Thr-286) and increased the protein level and phosphorylation of PLB (Thr-17) and the phosphorylation of RYR2 (Ser-2814). WXKL also decreased the accumulation of type III collagen fibers. In conclusion, WXKL may improve cardiac function and inhibit the arrhythmia by regulating the CaMK II signal transduction pathway.
The e-EPIDEMIOLOGY Mobile Phone App for Dietary Intake Assessment: Comparison with a Food Frequency Questionnaire

Background There is a great necessity for new methods of evaluation of dietary intake that overcome the limitations of traditional self-reporting methods. Objective The objective of this study was to develop a new method, based on an app for mobile phones called e-EPIDEMIOLOGY, which was designed to collect individual consumption data for a series of foods/drinks, and to compare this app with a previously validated paper food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Methods University students >18 years of age recorded the consumption of certain foods/drinks using e-EPIDEMIOLOGY during 28 consecutive days and then filled out a paper FFQ at the end of the study period. To evaluate the agreement between the categories of habitual consumption for each of the foods/drinks included in the study, cross-classification analysis and a weighted kappa statistic were used. Results A total of 119 participants completed the study (71% female, 85/119; 29% male, 34/119). Cross-classification analysis showed that 79.8% of the participants were correctly classified into the same category and just 1.1% were misclassified into opposite categories. The average weighted kappa statistic was good (κ=.64). Conclusions The results indicate that e-EPIDEMIOLOGY generated ranks of dietary intakes that were highly comparable with the previously validated paper FFQ. However, it was noted that further testing of e-EPIDEMIOLOGY is required to establish its wider utility.
Signaling Cascades Activated by UVB in Human Melanocytes Lead to the Increased Expression of Melanocyte Receptors, Endothelin B Receptor and c‐KIT

A single exposure of normal human melanocytes (NHMs) to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation induces a distinct increase in the expression of c‐KIT and endothelin B receptor (EDNRB) and upregulates the expression of microphthalmia‐associated transcription factor (MITF). In this review, we clarify the signaling mechanisms by which UVB stimulates the expression of MITF in NHMs, thus leading to upregulation of those two important melanogenic receptors. The increased expression of MITF in UVB‐exposed NHMs is accompanied by a markedly stimulated and prolonged phosphorylation of p38/CREB. The UVB‐stimulated expression of c‐KIT and EDNRB could be completely abolished by a p38 inhibitor concomitant with a reduced phosphorylation of CREB and a downregulation of MITF expression. The UVB exposure of NHMs stimulates the phosphorylation of p38 and c‐jun N‐terminal kinase, but not ERK, followed by the increased phosphorylation of MSK1 and subsequently CREB. Postirradiation treatment with the MSK1 inhibitor H89 significantly downregulates the increased mRNA and protein expression of MITF, EDNRB and c‐KIT in UVB‐exposed NHMs. Our findings indicate for the first time that the increased expression of MITF that leads to the upregulation of melanocyte‐specific proteins in UVB‐exposed NHMs is mediated via activation of the p38/MSK1/CREB axis but not the ERK/RSK/CREB axis.
Source Partitioning Using Stable Isotopes: Coping with Too Much Variation

Background Stable isotope analysis is increasingly being utilised across broad areas of ecology and biology. Key to much of this work is the use of mixing models to estimate the proportion of sources contributing to a mixture such as in diet estimation. Methodology By accurately reflecting natural variation and uncertainty to generate robust probability estimates of source proportions, the application of Bayesian methods to stable isotope mixing models promises to enable researchers to address an array of new questions, and approach current questions with greater insight and honesty. Conclusions We outline a framework that builds on recently published Bayesian isotopic mixing models and present a new open source R package, SIAR. The formulation in R will allow for continued and rapid development of this core model into an all-encompassing single analysis suite for stable isotope research.
Risk of heterosexual HIV transmission attributable to sexually transmitted infections and non-specific genital inflammation in Zambian discordant couples, 1994–2012

Abstract Background Studies have demonstrated the role of ulcerative and non-ulcerative sexually transmitted infections (STI) in HIV transmission/acquisition risk; less is understood about the role of non-specific inflammatory genital abnormalities. Methods HIV-discordant heterosexual Zambian couples were enrolled into longitudinal follow-up (1994–2012). Multivariable models estimated the effect of genital ulcers and inflammation in both partners on time-to-HIV transmission within the couple. Population-attributable fractions (PAFs) were calculated. Results A total of 207 linked infections in women occurred over 2756 couple-years (7.5/100 CY) and 171 in men over 3216 CY (5.3/100 CY). Incident HIV among women was associated with a woman’s non-STI genital inflammation (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) = 1.55; PAF = 8%), bilateral inguinal adenopathy (BIA; aHR = 2.33; PAF = 8%), genital ulceration (aHR = 2.08; PAF = 7%) and the man’s STI genital inflammation (aHR = 3.33; PAF = 5%), BIA (aHR = 3.35; PAF = 33%) and genital ulceration (aHR = 1.49; PAF = 9%). Infection among men was associated with a man’s BIA (aHR = 4.11; PAF = 22%) and genital ulceration (aHR = 3.44; PAF = 15%) as well as with the woman’s non-STI genital inflammation (aHR = 1.92; PAF = 13%) and BIA (aHR = 2.76; PAF = 14%). In HIV-M+F- couples, the man being uncircumcised. with foreskin smegma. was associated with the woman’s seroconversion (aHR = 3.16) relative to being circumcised. In F+M- couples, uncircumcised men with BIA had an increased hazard of seroconversion (aHR = 13.03 with smegma and 4.95 without) relative to being circumcised. Self-reporting of symptoms was low for ulcerative and non-ulcerative STIs. Conclusions Our findings confirm the role of STIs and highlight the contribution of non-specific genital inflammation to both male-to-female and female-to-male HIV transmission/acquisition risk. Studies are needed to characterize pathogenesis of non-specific inflammation including inguinal adenopathy. A better understanding of genital practices could inform interventions.
The Microbiological Landscape of Anaerobic Infections in Hidradenitis Suppurativa: A Prospective Metagenomic Study

Background Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a frequent and severe disease of the skin, characterized by recurrent or chronic skinfold suppurative lesions with a high impact on quality of life. Although considered inflammatory, antimicrobial treatments can improve or lead to clinical remission of HS, suggesting triggering microbial factors. Indeed, mixed anaerobic microbiota are associated with a majority of HS lesions. Our aim in this study was to characterize the landscape of anaerobic infections in HS using high-throughput sequencing. Methods We sampled and cultured 149 lesions and 175 unaffected control skinfold areas from 65 adult HS patients. The microbiome of 80 anaerobic lesions was compared to that of 88 control samples by 454 high-throughput sequencing after construction of 16S ribosomal RNA gene libraries. Results Bacterial cultures detected anaerobes in 83% of lesions vs 53% of control samples, combined with milleri group streptococci and actinomycetes in 33% and 26% of cases, respectively. High-throughput sequencing identified 43 taxa associated with HS lesions. Two gram-negative anaerobic rod taxa, Prevotella and Porphyromonas, predominated, contrasting with a reduced abundance of aerobic commensals. These rare taxa of normal skinfold microbiota were associated with lesions independently of gender, duration and familial history of HS, body mass index, and location. Two main additional taxa, Fusobacterium and Parvimonas, correlated with the clinical severity of HS. Conclusions In this study we reveal the high prevalence and particular landscape of mixed anaerobic infection in HS, paving the way for rationale targeted antimicrobial treatments.
A Novel Transmit Power Control Bit Estimation Technique for FDD-UMTS Downlink

A novel transmit power control (TPC) bit estimation technique for FDD-UMTS downlink is proposed. Conventional FDD-UMTS downlink TPC bit estimation algorithm is based on coherent detection, which utilizes pilot bits for channel estimation and uses this estimate to remove the wireless channel effect on TPC bits. However, joint utilization of pilot and TPC bits can improve the detection performance as well as minimize the inherent overhead caused by excessive pilot bits usage in the transmission. In the proposed algorithm, pilot and TPC bits are used collectively for non-coherent detection of the power control command. Power increase and decrease orders are represented by two orthogonal vectors which are made up of pilot and TPC bits. TPC bit error rate (BER) performance comparisons of conventional and proposed algorithms are presented for various multi-path channels and slot formats. It is shown that in all the slot formats and different channel conditions, the proposed algorithm provides superior performances in terms of TPC bit error rate. This performance gain can go up to 15 dB at practical TPC BER (10-2) with certain channel conditions and slot formats.
Enhancing Dynamic Capacity Scheduler for Data Intensive Jobs

Management of Big Data is a Challenging issue. The MapReduce environment is the widely used key solution for data intensive jobs. We will analyze map reduce pipelining and along with processing of Map phase and Reduce phase. Core schedulers FIFO, Fair and Capacity Schedulers have been discussed. The Scheduler assigns MapReduce task to the resources and there is a challenge to the scheduler to schedule the task in a way that it is scalable. Existing work shows the performance of the Hadoop depends upon input data and configuration of the cluster. In this paper, we have analyzed the execution time for data intensive jobs with increasing volume of the data set. We have also compared the execution time of the task with existing scheduler and our proposed method for the scheduler.
Improving the latency of 802.11 hand-offs using neighbor graphs

The 802.11 IEEE Standard has enabled low cost and effective wireless LAN services (WLAN). With the sales and deployment of WLAN based networks exploding, many people believe that they will become the fourth generation cellular system (4G) or a major portion of it. However, the small cell size of WLAN creates frequent hand-offs for mobile users. If the latency of these hand-offs is high, as previous studies have shown, then the users of synchronous multimedia applications such as voice over IP (VoIP) will experience excessive jitter. The dominating factor in WLAN hand-offs has been shown to be the discovery of the candidate set of next access points. In this paper, we describe the use of a novel and efficient discovery method using neighbor graphs and non-overlap graphs. Our method reduces the total number of probed channels as well as the total time spent waiting on each channel. Our implementation results show that this approach reduces the overall probe time significantly when compared to other approaches. Furthermore, simulation results show that the effectiveness of our method improves as the number of non-overlapping channels increases, such as in the 5 GHz band used by the IEEE 802.11a standard.
False positivity of anti aquaporin-4 antibodies in natalizumab-treated patients

Background: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) represent a differential diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Detection of anti-aquaporin-4 antibodies (AQP4-Ab) is the strongest argument to confirm NMOSD. Diagnosing NMOSD is a major concern because specific MS disease modifying drugs can lead to neurological worsening. Objective: To report the case of two natalizumab (NTZ) treated patients who presented a false positive result for AQP4-Ab. Methods: A retrospective analysis of NTZ-treated patients who were tested positive for AQP4-Ab in our MS center. Results: Two patients treated by NTZ presented a false positive result. Conclusions: Clinicians should be aware of potential technical issues in detecting AQP4-Ab in NTZ-treated patients leading to false positive results.
Modelling Fluid Flow and Heat Transport in Fractured Porous Media

Flow in porous media is an important and well-researched topic in both academia and the industry. More accurate mathematical models are constantly sought after. Fractures in a porous medium can be an important contributor to the overall dynamics of a porous system, and several conceptual models for fractured porous media has been proposed over the years. We investigate a selection of these models, by starting with the basics of non-fractured porous media. We discuss the effects of fractures, concerning both single-phase fluid flow and heat transport, and review a few different approaches for the modelling of fractured porous media. Three different models, and equivalent continuum model, a dual continuum model and a discrete fracture model, are compared through analysis and numerical experiments. Our simulations show that the equivalent continuum model is unreliable and coming up short to the other two, from which we obtain comparable results.