Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Histopathological analysis of cellular localization of cathepsins in abdominal aortic aneurysm wall

An important feature of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is the destruction of vessel wall, especially elastin and collagen. Besides matrix metalloproteinases, cathepsins are the most potent elastolytic enzymes. The expression of cathepsins with known elastolytic and collagenolytic activities in the individual cells within AAA has not yet been determined. The vessel wall of 32 AAA patients and 10 organ donors was analysed by immunohistochemistry for expression of cathepsins B, D, K, L and S, and cystatin C in all cells localized within AAA. Luminal endothelial cells (ECs) of AAA were positive for cathepsin D and partially for cathepsins B, K and S. Endothelial cells of the neovessels and smooth muscle cells in the media were positive for all cathepsins tested, especially for cathepsin B. In the inflammatory infiltrate all cathepsins were expressed in the following pattern: B > D = S > K = L. Macrophages showed the highest staining intensity for all cathepsins. Furthermore, weak overall expression of cystatin C was observed in all the cells localized in the AAA with the exception of the ECs. There is markedly increased expression of the various cathepsins within the AAA wall compared to healthy aorta. Our data are broadly consistent with a role for cathepsins in AAA; and demonstrate expression of cathepsins D, B and S in phagocytic cells in the inflammatory infiltrate; and also may reveal a role for cathepsin B in lymphocytes.
Cost-effectiveness of novel algorithms for rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis in HIV-infected individuals in Uganda

Objective:Xpert MTB/RIF (‘Xpert’) and urinary lateral-flow lipoarabinomannan (LF-LAM) assays offer rapid tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis. This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of novel diagnostic algorithms utilizing combinations of Xpert and LF-LAM for the detection of active TB among people living with HIV. Design:Cost-effectiveness analysis using data from a comparative study of LF-LAM and Xpert, with a target population of HIV-infected individuals with signs/symptoms of TB in Uganda. Methods:A decision-analysis model compared multiple strategies for rapid TB diagnosis:sputum smear-microscopy; sputum Xpert; smear-microscopy combined with LF-LAM; and Xpert combined with LF-LAM. Primary outcomes were the costs and DALY's averted for each algorithm. Cost-effectiveness was represented using incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER). Results:Compared with an algorithm of Xpert testing alone, the combination of Xpert with LF-LAM was considered highly cost-effective (ICER $57/DALY-averted) at a willingness to pay threshold of Ugandan GDP per capita. Addition of urine LF-LAM testing to smear-microscopy was a less effective strategy than Xpert replacement of smear-microscopy, but was less costly and also considered highly cost-effective (ICER $33 per DALY-averted) compared with continued usage of smear-microscopy alone. Cost-effectiveness of the Xpert plus LF-LAM algorithm was most influenced by HIV/ART costs and life-expectancy of patients after TB treatment. Conclusion:The addition of urinary LF-LAM to TB diagnostic algorithms for HIV-infected individuals is highly cost-effective compared with usage of either sputum smear-microscopy or Xpert alone.
Tipranavir: a protease inhibitor for multi-drug resistant HIV-1

Since the mid-1990s, combination therapies to treat HIV-1 infection have greatly reduced morbidity and mortality from AIDS in developed countries with access to the medications. However, the development of viral resistance to available antiretrovirals is one of the many limitations to therapy that has emerged. Of the 24 licensed antiretroviral medications and medication combinations in the US, tipranavir is one of the few agents to specifically target highly treatment-experienced patients with multi-drug resistant HIV-1. It displays activity against the virus that is cross-resistant to other protease inhibitors. In this review, issues in treating multi-drug resistant HIV-1 and the potential clinical utility of tipranavir in the US will be discussed.
Retinal blood flow changes in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and no diabetic retinopathy.

PURPOSE The authors investigated retinal blood flow changes in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and no diabetic retinopathy compared to age-matched subjects without diabetes. They also investigated whether blood glucose levels could modulate retinal blood flow in these patients with diabetes and whether this modulation would impact retinal blood flow data used in cross-sectional studies assessing changes in retinal blood flow. METHODS Retinal blood flow was measured using video fluorescein angiography, and blood glucose levels were manipulated using glucose clamp methodologies with continuous basal insulin replacement. Blood glucose levels were clamped at 100, 200, and 300 mg/dl. Retinal blood flow measurements were performed at each blood glucose level after subjects had been stabilized for an hour at each of the different blood glucose levels. RESULTS Retinal blood flow was found to be significantly decreased (P< 0.01) in the group of patients with no diabetic retinopathy (19.4 +/- 4.6 arbitrary units [AU]) compared to retinal blood flow in subjects without diabetes (28.7 +/- 6.4 AU). During glucose clamp adjustment of blood glucose levels, it was found that as blood glucose levels were increased from euglycemia (100 mg/dl) to 200 mg/dl and to 300 mg/dl, retinal blood flow was significantly increased at the 200 mg/dl level (21.5 +/- 4.7 AU, P < 0.05) and at the 300 mg/dl level (25.9 +/- 8.8 AU, P <0.01) compared to the 100 mg/dl level (16.3 +/- 3.8 AU). In addition, the retinal blood flow at the 100 and 200 mg/dl levels was significantly reduced (P < 0.01) compared to nondiabetic retinal blood flow (28.7 +/- 6.4 AU). CONCLUSIONS Retinal blood flow was found to be decreased in patients with IDDM with no diabetic retinopathy, and acute elevations in blood glucose levels resulted in increased retinal blood flow in these patients. The acute modulation of retinal blood flow by blood glucose levels should be considered in cross-sectional studies investigating retinal blood flow changes in patients with diabetes. The results from this study indicate that if blood glucose levels are not accounted for in the analyses, larger populations would have to be studied to demonstrate statistically significant differences between groups with and without diabetes.
ATP as a mediator of mammalian central CO2 chemoreception

1 A role for P2 purinoceptors in the chemosensory response of respiratory neurones localised in the ventrolateral medulla to changes in arterial CO2 levels was investigated in the anaesthetised rat. Extracellular recordings were made from different classes of respiratory neurone and the effects of P2 receptor blockade on CO2‐evoked changes in activity investigated. 2 Increasing inspired CO2 excited 85 % of inspiratory neurones in the pre‐Bötzinger complex. In all cases, CO2‐evoked excitation was blocked by ionophoretic application of the P2receptor antagonists suramin (0·02 M) and pyridoxal‐phosphate‐6‐azophenyl‐2′,4′‐disulphonic acid (PPADS; 100 μM), but not the adenosine receptor antagonist 8‐phenyltheophylline (8‐PT; 100 μM). Suramin and PPADS often reduced ongoing activity, and blocked the excitatory effects of ATP. Inspiratory neurones were also excited by the P2X receptor agonist αβ‐methyleneATP, suggesting a specific role for P2X receptors. 3 Sixty‐six per cent of pre‐inspiratory neurones were also excited by CO2. This effect was reduced or abolished by prior application of P2 receptor antagonists. Although post‐inspiratory and expiratory neurones were excited by increasing levels of CO2, and also by ionophoretically applied ATP, the CO2‐evoked effects were unaffected by P2 receptor blockade. 4 We suggest that ATP, possibly acting via P2X purinoceptors localised within the ventral respiratory group, is involved in central chemoreception. Specifically, these distinctive CO2‐P2X‐mediated actions were observed only in inspiratory neurones (incrementing inspiratory neurones and pre‐inspiratory neurones), which appear to have purinoceptors with pH sensitivity that can account for the actions of CO2 in modifying ventilatory activity.
People re-identification using 3D descriptor with skeleton information

People re-identification is a fundamental task for automated video-surveillance applications and has attracted attention of many researchers in past few years. Most of the studies in this field are based on 2D images and color information. In these methods it is assumed that the individuals do not change their clothes, thus these methods cannot be used for long term re-identification. To overcome this problem, we proposed a novel approach for people re-identification based on 3D information. In this paper we used a combination of 3D descriptors of body shape and skeleton data which is independent of the clothes color and illumination changes and it can be used for long term re-identification. We evaluated our work on the state-of-the-art RGB-D dataset BIWI. The results of this evaluation show that the proposed method achieved high performance in comparison to some recent methods.
Effect of tranexamic acid on surgical bleeding: systematic review and cumulative meta-analysis

Objective To assess the effect of tranexamic acid on blood transfusion, thromboembolic events, and mortality in surgical patients. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources Cochrane central register of controlled trials, Medline, and Embase, from inception to September 2011, the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, and the reference lists of relevant articles. Study selection Randomised controlled trials comparing tranexamic acid with no tranexamic acid or placebo in surgical patients. Outcome measures of interest were the number of patients receiving a blood transfusion; the number of patients with a thromboembolic event (myocardial infarction, stroke, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism); and the number of deaths. Trials were included irrespective of language or publication status. Results 129 trials, totalling 10 488 patients, carried out between 1972 and 2011 were included. Tranexamic acid reduced the probability of receiving a blood transfusion by a third (risk ratio 0.62, 95% confidence interval 0.58 to 0.65; P<0.001). This effect remained when the analysis was restricted to trials using adequate allocation concealment (0.68, 0.62 to 0.74; P<0.001). The effect of tranexamic acid on myocardial infarction (0.68, 0.43 to 1.09; P=0.11), stroke (1.14, 0.65 to 2.00; P=0.65), deep vein thrombosis (0.86, 0.53 to 1.39; P=0.54), and pulmonary embolism (0.61, 0.25 to 1.47; P=0.27) was uncertain. Fewer deaths occurred in the tranexamic acid group (0.61, 0.38 to 0.98; P=0.04), although when the analysis was restricted to trials using adequate concealment there was considerable uncertainty (0.67, 0.33 to 1.34; P=0.25). Cumulative meta-analysis showed that reliable evidence that tranexamic acid reduces the need for transfusion has been available for over 10 years. Conclusions Strong evidence that tranexamic acid reduces blood transfusion in surgery has been available for many years. Further trials on the effect of tranexamic acid on blood transfusion are unlikely to add useful new information. However, the effect of tranexamic acid on thromboembolic events and mortality remains uncertain. Surgical patients should be made aware of this evidence so that they can make an informed choice.
Connected sensor cover: self-organization of sensor networks for efficient query execution

Spatial query execution is an essential functionality of a sensor network, where a query gathers sensor data within a specific geographic region. Redundancy within a sensor network can be exploited to reduce the communication cost incurred in execution of such queries. Any reduction in communication cost would result in an efficient use of the battery energy, which is very limited in sensors. One approach to reduce the communication cost of a query is to self-organize the network, in response to a query, into a topology that involves only a small subset of the sensors sufficient to process the query. The query is then executed using only the sensors in the constructed topology. The self-organization technique is beneficial for queries that run sufficiently long to amortize the communication cost incurred in self-organization.In this paper, we design and analyze algorithms for suchself-organization of a sensor network to reduce energy consumption. In particular, we develop the notion of a connected sensor cover and design a centralized approximation algorithm that constructs a topology involving a near-optimal connected sensor cover. We prove that the size of the constructed topology is within an O(log n) factor of the optimal size, where n is the network size. We develop a distributed self-organization version of the approximation algorithm, and propose several optimizations to reduce the communication overhead of the algorithm. We also design another distributed algorithm based on node priorities that has a further lower communication overhead, but does not provide any guarantee on the size of the connected sensor cover constructed. Finally, we evaluate the distributed algorithms using simulations and show that our approaches results in significant communication cost reductions.
Prevalence of sustained hypertension and obesity in urban and rural school going children in Ludhiana.

BACKGROUND Increasing trend of hypertension is a worldwide phenomenon. The data on sustained hypertension in school going children is scanty in India. The present study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of sustained hypertension and obesity in apparently healthy school children in rural and urban areas of Ludhiana using standard criteria. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 2467 apparently healthy adolescent school children aged between 11-17 years from urban area and 859 students from rural area were taken as subjects. Out of total 3326 students, 189 were found to have sustained hypertension; in urban areas prevalence of sustained hypertension was 6.69% (n=165) and in rural area it was 2.56% (n=24). Males outnumbered females in both rural and urban areas. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure of hypertensive population in both urban and rural population was significantly higher than systolic and diastolic blood pressure in their normotensive counterparts (urban normotensive systolic blood pressure:115.48+/-22.74 mmHg, urban hypertensive systolic blood pressure: 137.59+/-11.91 mmHg, rural normotensive systolic blood pressure: 106.31+/-19.86 mmHg, rural hypertensive systolic blood pressure: 131.63+/-10.13 mmHg, urban normotensive diastolic blood pressure: 74.18+/-17.41 mmHg, urban hypertensive diastolic blood pressure: 84.58+/-8.14 mmHg, rural normotensive diastolic blood pressure: 68.84+/-16.96 mmHg, rural hypertensive diastolic blood pressure: 79.15+/-7.41 mmHg). Overweight populationwas significantly higher in urban area. There were 287 (11.63%) overweight students and 58 (2.35%) were obese. In rural population overweight and obese students were 44 (4.7%) and 34 (3.63%) respectively. There was significant increase in prevalence of hypertension in both rural and urban population with increased body mass index in urban students; those with normal body mass index had prevalence of hypertension of 4.52% (n=96), in overweight it was 15.33% (n=44) and in obese it was 43.10% (n=25). In rural area, the overweight students showed prevalence of sustained hypertension in 6.82% (n=3) and in obese group it was 61.76% (n=21). None of the student with normal body mass index in rural area was found to be hypertensive. The mean body mass index of hypertensive population in both rural and urban areas was significantly higher than respective normotensive population (mean body mass index in urban normotensive group: 20.34+/-3.72 kg/m2, hypertensive group: 24.91+/-4.92 kg/m2; mean body mass index in rural normotensive group: 18.41+/-3.41 kg/m2, hypertensive group: 21.37+/-3.71 kg/m2, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Prevalence of sustained hypertension is on the rise in urban area even in younger age groups. Blood pressure is frequently elevated in obese children as compared to lean subjects. This is possibly related to their sedentary lifestyle, altered eating habits, increased fat content of diet and decreased physical activities.
Rod sensitivity, cone sensitivity, and photoreceptor layer thickness in retinal degenerative diseases.

PURPOSE To evaluate the effects of selective rod and/or cone loss on frequency-domain optical coherence tomography (fdOCT) measures of photoreceptor structure in patients with retinal degenerative diseases. METHODS Six patients with cone dystrophy (CD) and eight patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) were recruited from the Southwest Eye Registry on the basis of diagnosis and ERG findings. fdOCT horizontal line scans were segmented to obtain the thicknesses of the outer segments plus RPE (OS+) and the outer nuclear layer (ONL). The normalized product ONL*OS was obtained after dividing by mean ONL*OS values of 23 normal individuals. Visual field sensitivity profiles were obtained with a modified retinal perimeter, from the horizontal midline with short- and long-wave stimuli under dark- and light-adapted conditions. RESULTS Patients with CD and normal rod-mediated sensitivity, but decreased cone-mediated sensitivity, showed normal ONL*OS outside the fovea. The total receptor layer was thinned in the fovea, consistent with loss in cone nuclei and Henle's fiber layer. Patients with RP and sensitivity in the dark that was mediated by cones showed ONL*OS thickness that was linearly related to cone sensitivity. ONL*OS thickness was linearly related to rod sensitivity in regions with greater loss of cone than rod sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS Both rods and cones can support an intact IS/OS junction and normal photoreceptor thickness measures. The product of ONL and OS thicknesses is proportional to the sensitivity mediated by the less abnormal type of photoreceptor.
Design of Base Station Positioning System Based on RSSI and GPS

Along with correspond by letter the development of the profession, the wireless signal blast-off the station is gradually small scaled to turn and easily operate. It results in the illegal member made use of it to carry out to break the law the crime activity, influencing the people to usually produce the living work. The want for is related to examine and position the equipment in fight break the law shoot stand break the law the activity of the criminal offence. The huge inconvenience of the traditional wireless monitor equipment physical volume in take. Positioned the calculate way through the RSSI and GPS the Base station to design the fixed position the hardware host of the instrument and the kit software of the smart terminal. Should position the instrument assurance fixed position accuracy to guarantee the equipment physical volume in the meantime of small scaled turn and then hold to turn. The examination and the fixed position function that carries out to stand to the illegal blast-off, only to the experiment and the analysis that the illegal GSM shot station to carry on examination and position.
SCD6 induces ribonucleoprotein granule formation in trypanosomes in a translation-independent manner, regulated by its Lsm and RGG domains

Trypanosomes lack many core components of ribonucleoprotein (RNP) granules identified in yeast and humans (e.g., DCP1/2). This study provides evidence for SCD6 being the core RNP granule component in trypanosomes: overexpression induces granules independent of translation, and even when SCD6 is targeted to the nucleus. Granule type and granule number are dependent on the RGG domain.
Accuracy of dimensional and angular measurements from panoramic and lateral oblique radiographs.

OBJECTIVES Dimensional and angular measurements from radiographs can be used in clinical dentistry to determine the inclination of impacted teeth, the relative position of roots and restorative abutments, and for implant site assessment. This study was carried out to assess the in-vitro accuracy of such measurements obtained from three rotational panoramic systems and two standardized lateral oblique projections (45 degrees and 60 degrees) using two cephalometric systems. METHODS Acrylic test models with wires positioned to represent the position and angulations of the teeth were used. Ten images were taken with Oralix Pan DC/1, Panelipse and Orthophos panoramic machines. Fourteen lateral oblique radiographs were also taken using two cephalometric units: an Orthophos and a Quint Sectograph. The models were repositioned between each exposure. Horizontal, vertical and angular dimensions of every tooth position on each radiograph were measured by three evaluators and compared using ANOVA at an a priori significance level of alpha = 0.05. RESULTS Assessment of vertical dimensions was consistently more accurate on lateral oblique projections than on the panoramic radiographs. In general, the most accurate horizontal measurements could also be made with the lateral oblique projections. No differences in angular measurement accuracy were found between any of the projections. The use of statistical means and standard deviations can be misleading in ranking accuracy where a consistent conversion factor can be applied. CONCLUSIONS While panoramic radiography is convenient for dimensional and angular assessments, lateral oblique radiographs taken with a standard cephalometric apparatus are an alternative when greater clinical accuracy is needed.
Associations between early-adolescent substance use and subsequent young-adult substance use disorders and psychiatric disorders among a multiethnic male sample in South Florida.

OBJECTIVES We examined the associations among early-adolescent substance use, subsequent young-adult substance use disorders, and psychiatric disorders among a community sample of males. METHODS Early-adolescent data were collected in classroom surveys (1990-1993), and young-adult data were collected in face-to-face interviews (1998-2000). RESULTS We found strong associations between early-adolescent substance use and young-adult substance use disorders and psychiatric disorders. The magnitudes of these associations varied by racial/ethnic group and were strongest among African Americans and foreign-born Hispanics, who reported the lowest early-adolescent substance use. CONCLUSIONS Early-adolescent substance use is most strongly associated with a later pattern of dysfunction among the racial/ethnic groups that reported the lowest levels of early use. The implications of our findings in the context of primary and secondary prevention are discussed.