Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Survival of medically treated thalassemia patients in Cyprus. Trends and risk factors over the period 1980-2004.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES A large number of patients with thalassemia major have been born and treated exclusively in Cyprus. They have been managed according to standard international practice, but few have been transplanted. In 1999, a combination chelation regime with desferrioxamine and deferiprone was introduced. We analyzed survival trends in Cypriots and tried to identify factors associated with prolonged survival. DESIGN AND METHODS We had incomplete information on births pre-1974 and complete information from 1974 onwards. Clinical data were incomplete pre-1980 and complete thereafter. We analyzed data on 539 patients born after 1960 and followed over the period 1980 to the end of 2004. RESULTS There were 58 deaths, 31 (53.4%) of which where due to cardiac causes. In the complete birth cohort of 284 patients born after 1974, survival (95% CI) at 10, 20 and 30 years was 100% (0); 98.5% (96.1-99.4) and 92.7% (86.7-96.1) respectively. There was a significant trend of increasing cardiac deaths between 1980 and 2000 (p<0.001) and a decline after 2000 (p=0.06). In multivariate survival analysis, protective effects were found for female sex (hazard ratio, 0.37, 95% CI 0.21-0.66; p<0.001), and post-2000 follow-up (hazard ratio, 0.44, 95% CI 0.20-0.99; p<0.05), but not for genotype, treatment center or birth cohort. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS Most patients born after 1974 survive to at least the age of 30. There has been a marked improvement in survival for patients of all ages since 2000, which may be due to the introduction of combination chelation therapy.
Oxidized LDL impair adipocyte response to insulin by activating serine/threonine kinases Published, JLR Papers in Press, January 9, 2009.

Oxidized LDL (oxLDL) increase in patients affected by type-2 diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Likewise, insulin resistance, an impaired responsiveness of target tissues to insulin, is associated with those pathological conditions. To investigate a possible causal relationship between oxLDL and the onset of insulin resistance, we evaluated the response to insulin of 3T3-L1 adipocytes treated with oxLDL. We observed that oxLDL inhibited glucose uptake (−40%) through reduced glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) recruitment to the plasma membrane (−70%), without affecting GLUT4 gene expression. These findings were associated to the impairment of insulin signaling. Specifically, in oxLDL-treated cells insulin receptor (IR) substrate-1 (IRS-1) was highly degraded likely because of the enhanced Ser307phosphorylation. This process was largely mediated by the activation of the inhibitor of κB-kinase β (IKKβ) and the c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK). Moreover, the activation of IKKβ positively regulated the nuclear content of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), by inactivating the inhibitor of NF-κB (IκBα). The activated NF-κB further impaired per se GLUT4 functionality. Specific inhibitors of IKKβ, JNK, and NF-κB restored insulin sensitivity in adipocytes treated with oxLDL. These data provide the first evidence that oxLDL, by activating serine/threonine kinases, impaired adipocyte response to insulin affecting pathways involved in the recruitment of GLUT4 to plasma membranes (PM). This suggests that oxLDL might participate in the development of insulin resistance.
[Methods to increase participation in cancer screening programmes].

OBJECTIVE to synthesize scientific evidences about methods to increase cervical, breast and colorectal cancer screening participation. METHODS a multidisciplinary working group has been set up to define the scope of the report and to conduct the evaluation. The scope and the final evaluation have been submitted to a stakeholder committee, including the Ministry of Health, the National Screening Observatory, regional screening program coordinators, scientific societies, and Lega Italiana Lotta ai Tumori, for comments and integrations. A systematic review of the principal biomedical and social literature databases was conducted to identify experimental and observational studies, updating the existing review by Jepson and coll. (Health Technol Assess. 2000;4(14):i-vii, 1-133). RESULTS 5900 have been identified, 900 relevant for the topic.Among those, 148 reported quantitative information on intervention efficacy, other 90 came from the previous review. Organised screening programmes, based on invitation letter or on GP involvement,were consistently effective in increasing participation compared to spontaneous screening. Interventions are classified according to their target: individual, community, test simplification, health operators, health service organization. The report presents meta-analyses on efficacy, analyses of cost-effectiveness, impact on organisation and social inequality, and ethical and legal issues, of all the intervention reported in the literature. CONCLUSIONS there are several interventions consistently effective in any context, some of them have minimal impact on costs and health service resources.
Obesity: how to define central adiposity?

Evaluation of: Parikh RM, Joshi SR, Pandia K. Index of central obesity is better than waist circumference in defining metabolic syndrome. Metab. Syndr. Relat. Disord. 7(6), 525–527 (2009). The metabolic syndrome, a constellation of anthropometric and metabolic abnormalities, has been studied extensively in the last decade, as well as its associated increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Various definitions and criteria have been used to diagnose the metabolic syndrome. One proposed parameter is waist circumference cut-offs according to gender and ethnicity. A novel parameter called the index of central obesity (ICO) was suggested. It takes into account the height and the waist circumference of the subjects. The article under evaluation studies the usefulness of ICO over waist circumference alone in the International Diabetes Federation definition of the metabolic syndrome in comparison with the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III definition. The results showed that the modified International Diabetes Federation definition of the metabolic syndrome incorporating ICO as a parameter of central obesity appears to improve sensitivity but reduce specificity. The modified definition identified the presence of the metabolic syndrome in shorter subjects with a waist circumference smaller than the suggested cut-offs.
Synergistic Cytotoxicity of Acidity and 3,4‐Dideoxyglucosone‐3‐ene Under the Existence of Lactate in Peritoneal Dialysis Fluid

Abstract: Of the non‐physiological compounds in glucose‐rich peritoneal dialysis fluid, we investigated the synergistic cytotoxicity of acidity and 3,4‐Dideoxyglucosone‐3‐ene(3,4‐DGE) under the existence of lactate using human peritoneal mesothelial cells (HPMC). The effect of pH on cell viability at various levels of pH (5.5, 6.7, 7.15), with or without lactate was examined by adding 1N‐HCl to phosphate buffer solution. We also examined the cytotoxic effects of 3,4‐DGE and pH (5.5, 6.7 or 7.15). Additionally, we compared the cytotoxic effects of 3,4‐DGE and pH (5.5, 6.7 or 7.15) under existence of lactate (40meq/L) or absence of lactate. The cells were exposed to these solutions for 2 or 4 h. Cell viability was determined by MTT (3‐[4, 5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl]‐2, 5‐diphenylterazolium bromide) assay. 3,4‐DGE or acidic solution alone had no significant effects on MTT viability under the absence of lactate. However, acidic solutions containing 3,4‐DGE significantly decreased MTT viability under the existence of lactate. The MTT viability of HPMC was not decreased by 3,4‐DGE or acidity alone under the absence of lactate. However, the combination of acidity and 3,4‐DGE markedly decreased MTT viability under the existence of lactate, strongly suggesting the synergistic cytotoxicity of 3,4‐DGE and acidity under the existence of lactate.
Reverse mentorships: younger workers can help veterans stay on right track.

We know that mentoring is a process where a person with more experience shares it with someone, usually younger, who has less. Now enter reverse mentoring, almost the same as traditional mentoring, but typically a junior employee shows a senior employee the way— highly unusual, you might initially think. Alan Webber, co-founder of the business magazine Fast Company, once offered this gritty observation about the process: “It’s a situation where the old fogies in an organization realize that by the time you’re in your forties and fifties, you’re not in touch with the future the same way the young twenty-something’s (are). They come with fresh eyes, open minds, and instant links to the technology of our future. ” In fact, this upside-down mentoring concept was introduced more than a decade ago by former General Electric CEO Jack Welch. Not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, but reverse mentoring is “trending. ” Interested in pursuing a reverse mentorship? Have a formal plan before you dive in, recommends Diane Piktialis, a consultant and research working group leader at The Conference Board, a business membership and research association. She focuses on issues related to the aging and multigenerational workforce and cross-generational knowledge transfer. In a 2009 article for the website Encore Careers, she cautions both parties to be aware of age stereotypes and address them head on. ‘Learn Every Day’ Formal reverse mentoring may not be practiced in your office, but it is quietly occurring daily and informally in companies worldwide, as it wears different hats such as “interning. ” “Most of our interns have very strong computer skills both from engineering, architectural level and programming software levels,” says Paul Canaris, director of clinical engineering for Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple, TX. Canaris’ last college-related computer course was in the early 80s. “Now, I learn every day from the interns,” he says. In his highly administrative job, Canaris finds he needs more in-depth knowledge of computers. He’s grateful for interns “fresh out of college who live and breathe PCs, networks and social media. They’ve really opened my eyes. ” AAMI President Mary Logan thinks reverse mentoring is really lifelong learning, no matter one’s profession. A disproportionately large segment of the healthcare technology management sector is between 45 and 70, “middle-aged,” she suggests. “We may think we hold all the cards of wisdom, but we don’t. ” Once while she mentored, reverse mentoring just happened. “I told her I’d be her mentor if she’d be mine,” remembers Logan, describing the time while, in another job, she mentored a professional in her late 20s. Logan’s younger charge ultimately helped the executive enhance her own communications technology skills. While looking for a job, Logan’s own daughter, then 25, asked her mom questions about starting About the Author
Noise reduction for curve-linear structures in real time fluoroscopy applications using directional binary masks.

PURPOSE Recent efforts in the reconstruction of interventional devices from two distinct views require the segmentation of the object in both fluoroscopic images. Noise might decrease the quality of the segmentation and cause artifacts in the reconstruction. The noise level depends on the x-ray dose the patient is exposed to. The proposed algorithm reduces the noise and enhances the separability of curvilinear devices in background subtracted fluoroscopic images to allow a more accurate segmentation. METHODS The algorithm uses a set of binary masks to estimate a line conformity measure that determines the best direction for a directional filter kernel. If the calculated value exceeds a certain threshold, the directional kernel is used to obtain the filtered value. Otherwise, an isotropic filter kernel is used. RESULTS The evaluation was performed on a set of 36 fluoroscopic images using a vascular head phantom with three different guidewires and nine different x-ray dosages from 6 nGy/pulse to 45 nGy/pulse as well as a clinical data set containing ten images. Compared with wavelet shrinkage and the bilateral filter, the proposed algorithm increased the average contrast to noise ratio by at least 17.8% for the phantom and 68.9% for the clinical images. The accuracy of the device segmentation was improved on average by at least 17.3% and 14.0%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The proposed algorithm was able to significantly reduce the amount of noise in the images and therefore increase the quality of the device segmentations compared to both the bilateral filter and the wavelet thresholding approach for all acquired noise levels using rotating directional filter kernels near line structures and isotropic kernels for the background. The application of the proposed algorithm for the 3D reconstruction of curvilinear devices from two views would allow a more accurate reconstruction of the device.
Tracking Expression of Virally Mediated BMP-2 in Gene Therapy for Bone Repair

Ex vivo gene therapy using stem cells transduced with viral vectors is a useful method for delivering a therapeutic protein to augment bone repair in animal models. However, the duration of cell-mediated protein production and the fate of the transduced cells are unknown. We constructed an adenoviral vector encoding Myc epitope tagged bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2 gene (AdBMP-2Myc). Rat bone marrow cells transduced with this vector produced biologically active BMP-2 protein, which was confirmed by Western blot analysis and alkaline phosphatase assay. Implantation of bone marrow cells infected ex vivo with AdBMP-2Myc caused orthotopic bone formation in mouse hindlimbs and bony union of critical-sized mouse radial defects. Immunohisto-chemical analysis revealed that rBMCs expressed Myc epitope-tagged BMP-2 protein for 14 days in vivo and became incorporated in the endochondral fracture callus. This novel adenovirus encoding for epitope-tagged BMP-2 can be used for immunohistochemical tracking of transduced cells in ex vivo gene therapy for bone repair.
A novel 34‐kd protein co‐isolated with the IgM molecule in surface IgM‐expressing cells.

Plasmacytoma cells, transfected with a vector encoding a membrane‐bound IgM molecule, do not show cell surface IgM expression, although complete IgM molecules are assembled intracellularly. The isolation of a surface IgM‐positive variant allowed us to analyse molecular requirements of surface IgM expression. Only in surface IgM‐positive cells, a 34‐kd protein (B34) was found to be associated with IgM. B34 is a glycoprotein which forms a disulphide‐linked homodimer. The surface IgM‐positive variant cell line expressing B34 also contains transcripts of the pre‐B and B cell specific mb‐1 gene. The data are discussed in the context of a possible IgM‐antigen receptor complex.
Embryonic Stem Cell‐Derived Neural Progenitors Display Temporal Restriction to Neural Patterning

Neural stem cells have considerable therapeutic potential because of their ability to generate defined neuronal cell types for use in drug screening studies or cell‐based therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we differentiate mouse embryonic stem cells to neural progenitors with an initial forebrain identity in a defined system that enables systematic manipulation to generate more caudal fates, including motoneurons. We demonstrate that the ability to pattern embryonic stem cell‐derived neural progenitors is temporally restricted and show that the loss of responsiveness to morphogenetic cues correlates with constitutive expression of the basic helix‐loop‐helix transcription factors Olig2 and Mash1, epidermal growth factor receptor, and vimentin and parallels the onset of gliogenesis. We provide evidence for two temporal classes of embryonic stem cell‐derived putative radial glia that coincide with a transition from neurogenesis to gliogenesis and a concomitant loss of regional identity.
Mortgaging the Future? Indian Higher Education

Our university system is, in many parts, in a state of disrepair. In almost half the districts [340] in the country, higher education enrolments are abysmally low, almost two-third of our universities and 90 per cent of our colleges are rated as below average on quality parameters. I am concerned that in many states university appointments, including that of vice-chancellors, have been politicised and have become subject to caste and communal considerations, there are complaints of favouritism and corruption. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address at the 150th Anniversary Function of University of Mumbai, June 22, 2007.
Wide-Field Time-Resolved Fluorescence Anisotropy Imaging (TR-FAIM)

Polarization-resolved fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) can provide information about the rotational diffusion of a fluorophore. We have developed a wide-field time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy imaging (TR-FAIM) system to quantitatively image both the fluorescence lifetime and the rotational correlation time of a fluorophore. Upon excitation with linearly polarized light, we simultaneously image the parallel and perpendicular polarization components of the fluorescence emission employing a polarization-resolved imager in front of a time-gated intensified CCD. We demonstrate this technique by imaging the rotational correlation time of fluorescein in solutions of varying viscosity in a multiwell plate and in live cells. Introduction
Exponential stabilization for a class of uncertain stochastic systems with time delays

In this paper, we consider the problem of robust exponential control for a class of uncertain stochastic systems with time delays. New delay-dependent sufficient conditions on the existence of linear memoryless state feedback controllers are formulated in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI), which guarantee the robustly stochastically exponentially stable in mean square of the resulting closed-loop systems for all admissible parametric uncertainties. A numerical example is included to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
A Parallel Graph Laplacian Solver

Problems from graph drawing, spectral clustering, network flow and graph partitioning all can be expressed as Laplacian matrices. Theoretically fast approaches to solving these problems exist, but in practice these techniques are slow. Two practical approaches have been proposed and work well in serial. However, as problem sizes increase and single core speeds stagnate, parallelism is essential to solve problems quickly. We present a modified version of Livne and Brandt’s Lean Algebraic Multigrid algorithm with good parallel performance. We are esspecially interested in performance on scale-free graphs.
Exploring Consumer Behavior in the Context of Fast Food Industry in Dhaka City

People in the Indian subcontinent have long been known for the delicious foodstuffs they prepare, serve, and eat. Times gone by suggest that they have used up a lot of their time, energy, and wealth to arrange their meals. But with the turn of the century, and changes in the socio-economic shape of the country, the scenario has changed; and people in Bangladesh, particularly busy city dwellers, now a day don’t seem to be having that much time, and energy, if not wealth, available to devote them for such passion for eating. A number of eating out facilities particularly fast food chains came up to cater to this lucrative market. Assuming from the cultural background of people being keen on eating; in this research we have explored the overall consumers’ behavior towards fast food restaurants in Dhaka city. More particularly, our findings reveal that we have found out the relationship of customers’ attributes related perception, quality and value related perception and convenience related perception with income, age and overall customer service for fast food restaurants. Quality and value related perception is influenced by income. There is a relationship of attributes related perception and quality and value related perception with overall customer service. Moreover people are loyal to have their food in their favorite fast food restaurants in terms of price and they are interested to travel further for their favorite restaurants.
An Audit of Pain/Discomfort Experienced during Image‐Guided Breast Biopsy Procedures

Abstract: A prospective audit of 221 breast biopsies was carried out to assess the pain/discomfort experienced during image‐guided breast biopsies. The only significant factor in pain scores was the size of the needle used. Fine‐needle aspiration cytology using a 21‐gauge needle was found to cause the most discomfort.
COOPERATION OF CHARGES IN PHOTOSYNTHETIC O2 EVOLUTION–I. A LINEAR FOUR STEP MECHANISM

Abstract— Using isolated chloroplasts and techniques as described by Joliot and Joliot[6] we studied the evolution of O2 in weak light and light flashes to analyze the interactions between light induced O2 precursors and their decay in darkness. The following observations and conclusions are reported: 1. Light flashes always produce the same number of oxidizing equivalents either as precursor or as O2. 2. The number of unstable precursor equivalents present during steady state photosynthesis is ∼ 1.2 per photochemical trapping center. 3. The cooperation of the four photochemically formed oxidizing equivalents occurs essentially in the individual reaction centers and the final O2 evolution step is a one quantum process. 4. The data are compatible with a linear four step mechanism in which a trapping center, or an associated catalyst, (S) successively accumulates four + charges. The S4+ state produces O2 and returns to the ground state S0. 5. Besides S0 also the first oxidized state S+ is stable in the dark, the two higher states, S2+ and S3+ are not. 6. The relaxation times of some of the photooxidation steps were estimated. The fastest reaction, presumably S*1←S2, has a (first) half time ≤ 200 μsec. The S*2 state and probably also the S*0 state are processed somewhat more slowly (˜ 300–400 μsec).
A PVT-tolerant relaxation oscillator in 65nm CMOS

A fully-integrated CMOS relaxation oscillator (ROSC) using a process-voltage-temperature (PVT) insensitive current reference generator is presented. The oscillator is designed to generate a clock frequency of 64.4kHz in 65-nm CMOS technology for switched-capacitor circuit applications. The Monte-Carlo simulation results have shown that the ROSC is able to achieve 3.66% in the process sensitivity (σ/μ). The output frequency variation is 1.71% over the temperature range from −20°C to 100°C and 0.73% over the supply variation from 1.2V to 2V. The power consumption of ROSC is 4. 32µW at 1.2V supply. It has displayed better figure-of merit (FOM) against PVT variations with respect to other reported prior-art works.