Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Errors in Colorectal Surgery

Surgery has five unique characteristics that set it apart from any other medical specialty 1. Surgery harms before it heals 2. It penetrates the patient ́s body and thus is highly invasive. According to the judgement of Judge Benjamin Cardozo in Schloendorff v Society of New York Hospitals (1914): “a surgeon who performs an operation without patient ́s consent commits an assault” 3. It is fallible, which means that surgery is predisposed to human error. Increased awareness on this topic has been developed since the Institute of Medicine “To Err is Human” was published (10) 4. A surgeon ́s decision making process is usually performed under circumstances of uncertainty 5. It is prone to risks and complications The surgeonpatient relationship is built upon trust, so it is preferable to speak about it from a fiduciary viewpoint, not as a contract. As John Gregory stated during the XVIII century, the physician (8): must be in a position to know reliably the patient ́s interest should be concernid primarily with protecting and promoting the interests of the patient should be concernid only secondarily with protecting and promoting his or her own interests The surgeon-patient relationship is attained and perfected throughout the process of the surgical informed consent, which includes the following elements: 1. Preconditions: competence and voluntary attitude of the patient 2. Information: disclosure and recommendations by the surgeon and the patient ́s understanding of the information provided. 3. Consent: decision-making (acceptance or refusal), communications, registration, and the patient ́s authorization to proceed. Errors in this process due to the lack of truthful and sincere information can result in later claims in the legal system.
Relationship between intestinal flora and inflammatory factors in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

This study was conducted to analyze the change in intestinal flora of patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and its correlation to the levels of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin-10 (IL-10) and IL-17. We selected 90 patients that were diagnosed with and treated for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis as the patient group and 80 healthy cases as the control group. We then compared the intestinal flora in the subject feces and the intestinal colonization resistance (B/E, Bifidobacterium to Enterobacter) of both groups. Using RT-PCR, we also detected IL-10 and IL-17 mRNA levels in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of both groups. Furthermore, we used the ELISA method to determine serum IL-10 and IL-17 levels in order to explore the correlation between IL-10, IL-17 and B/E. The number of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus were significantly lower in the patient group than the control group (P<0.05), while Enterobacter and Enterococcus pathogenic bacteria were significantly higher in the patient group than the control group (P<0.05). The B/E value was lower in the patient group than the control group (P<0.05). The relative expression of IL-10 and IL-17 mRNA in the patient group was significantly higher than in the control group (P<0.05). In the patient group, the serum IL-10 levels were 1.17±0.15 pg/ml, which is significantly higher than the control group serum IL-10 levels which were 0.32±0.04 pg/ml (P<0.05). The serum IL-17 levels in the patient groups were 0.96±0.11 pg/ml, which was significantly higher than the control group, which had an average of 0.28±0.01 pg/ml serum IL-17 levels (P<0.05). Pearson's correlation analysis showed that the change of B/E value of intestinal flora in the patients group were negatively correlated with serum IL-10 (r=−0.546, P<0.05), and negatively correlated with serum IL-17 (r=−0.535, P<0.05). Therefore, compared to healthy people, the expression of IL-10 and IL-17 in the peripheral blood of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver is high. The changes in intestinal flora in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis are closely related to the changes of serum IL-10 and IL-17 levels, and they are involved in the development of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.
Developmental hemostasis: laboratory and clinical implications

The pediatric hemostatic balance, which is different from that in adults, is an evolving process as the hemostatic system changes and matures throughout the time from fetal to adult life, particularly in the first months of life. The concept of developmental hemostasis was confirmed by several studies evaluating different patients’ population in various technical conditions. All these studies demonstrated that, at birth, the plasma levels of most coagulation factors were around half that found in adults, the preterm newborns having lower levels than full‐term newborns. Adult values were usually reached between a few months of age and up to above 16 years for specific parameters. If the global trends are consistent across the studies, differences in absolute values could be demonstrated that are likely due to differences in the reagents and/or the instruments used. Accordingly, it is recommended by the Perinatal and Pediatric Haemostasis Subcommittee of the Scientific and Standardization Committee of the ISTH for each laboratory to define the age‐dependent reference ranges using its own technical condition. The understanding of that concept of developmental hemostasis, which is now universally accepted, is critical to ensure optimal prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of thrombotic and hemorrhagic diseases in children. Actually, developmental hemostasis could affect the interaction between anticoagulant drugs and the coagulation system and so explain in part the discrepancy between anticoagulation in adults and in children. Finally, developmental hemostasis could probably provide a protective mechanism for neonates and children, contributing to the decreased risk of thrombosis and/or bleeding in these age‐groups.
Entropy production as correlation between system and reservoir

We derive an exact (classical and quantum) expression for the entropy production of a finite system placed in contact with one or several finite reservoirs, each of which is initially described by a canonical equilibrium distribution. Although the total entropy of system plus reservoirs is conserved, we show that system entropy production is always positive and is a direct measure of system–reservoir correlations and/or entanglements. Using an exactly solvable quantum model, we illustrate our novel interpretation of the Second Law in a microscopically reversible finite-size setting, with strong coupling between the system and the reservoirs. With this model, we also explicitly show the approach of our exact formulation to the standard description of irreversibility in the limit of a large reservoir.
Increasing Hamstring Flexibility Decreases Lower Extremity Overuse Injuries in Military Basic Trainees

The purpose of this intervention study was to prove that increasing flexibility of the hamstring musculotendinous unit would decrease the number of lower extremity overuse injuries that occur in military infantry basic trainees. Two different companies going through basic training at the same time were used. Hamstring flexibility was checked at the beginning and at the end of the 13-week infantry basic training course. The control company (N 148) proceeded through normal basic training. The intervention company (N 150) followed the same program but added three hamstring stretching sessions to their already scheduled fitness program. All subsequent lower extremity overuse injuries were recorded through the troop medical clinic. Hamstring flexibility increased significantly in the intervention group compared with the control group. The number of injuries was also significantly lower in the intervention group. Forty-three injuries occurred in the control group for an incidence rate of 29.1%, compared with 25 injuries in the intervention group for an incidence rate of 16.7%. Thus, in this study, the number of lower extremity overuse injuries was significantly lower in infantry basic trainees with increased hamstring flexibility.
Performance Evaluation of LTE and WiFi Technologies in Aerial Networks

In recent times, aerial platforms have been investigated to provide wireless coverage to terrestrial radio terminals. The advantages of using aerial platforms to provide wireless coverage are many including larger coverage in remote areas, better line-of-sight conditions and resilience to certain natural disasters. In this context, we investigate the performance of using LTE and Wi-Fi technologies in aerial networks. More precisely, we consider a practical urban scenario from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and perform ray-tracing simulations to characterize the path-loss of the air-to-ground channel. We then perform system-level simulations utilizing the channel-loss from ray-tracing to evaluate the performance of LTE and WiFi 802.11g technologies in aerial networks.
Field tests to measure the space-time characteristics of narrowband wireless channels in multiple-antenna systems

The potential for extraordinary improvements in channel capacity promised by space-time modem technology has necessitated a greater understanding of space-time channel characteristics. A model that coheres the essential temporal and spatial character of wireless channels would benefit space-time code design but is as yet unformulated. This study concerns itself with the development and execution of field tests to more fully characterize narrowband wireless channels in multiple-antenna systems for land mobile radio systems. Results of these tests suggest an important relationship between channel independence and the relative geometric orientation of the local scattering corridor and transmit antenna array. An explanation involving the available scattering angle at the receiver is suggested as the mechanism for this relationship.
Metagenomic assembly through the lens of validation: recent advances in assessing and improving the quality of genomes assembled from metagenomes

Metagenomic samples are snapshots of complex ecosystems at work. They comprise hundreds of known and unknown species, contain multiple strain variants and vary greatly within and across environments. Many microbes found in microbial communities are not easily grown in culture making their DNA sequence our only clue into their evolutionary history and biological function. Metagenomic assembly is a computational process aimed at reconstructing genes and genomes from metagenomic mixtures. Current methods have made significant strides in reconstructing DNA segments comprising operons, tandem gene arrays and syntenic blocks. Shorter, higher-throughput sequencing technologies have become the de facto standard in the field. Sequencers are now able to generate billions of short reads in only a few days. Multiple metagenomic assembly strategies, pipelines and assemblers have appeared in recent years. Owing to the inherent complexity of metagenome assembly, regardless of the assembly algorithm and sequencing method, metagenome assemblies contain errors. Recent developments in assembly validation tools have played a pivotal role in improving metagenomics assemblers. Here, we survey recent progress in the field of metagenomic assembly, provide an overview of key approaches for genomic and metagenomic assembly validation and demonstrate the insights that can be derived from assemblies through the use of assembly validation strategies. We also discuss the potential for impact of long-read technologies in metagenomics. We conclude with a discussion of future challenges and opportunities in the field of metagenomic assembly and validation.
The Extended Amygdala and Salt Appetite

ABSTRACT: Both chemo‐ and mechanosensitive receptors are involved in detecting changes in the signals that reflect the status of body fluids and of blood pressure. These receptors are located in the systemic circulatory system and in the sensory circumventricular organs of the brain. Under conditions of body fluid deficit or of marked changes in fluid distribution, multiple inputs derived from these humoral and neural receptors converge on key areas of the brain where the information is integrated. The result of this central processing is the mobilization of homeostatic behaviors (thirst and salt appetite), hormone release, autonomic changes, and cardiovascular adjustments. This review discusses the current understanding of the nature and role of the central and systemic receptors involved in the facilitation and inhibition of thirst and salt appetite and on particular components of the central neural network that receive and process input derived from fluid‐ and cardiovascular‐related sensory systems. Special attention is paid to the structures of the lamina terminalis, the area postrema, the lateral parabrachial nucleus, and their association with the central nucleus of the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in controlling the behaviors that participate in maintaining body fluid and cardiovascular homeostasis.
Least trimmed squares based CPBUM neural networks

In this paper, least trimmed squares (LTS) based CPBUM neural networks are proposed to improve the outliers and noise problems of conventional neural networks. In general, the obtained training data in the real applications maybe contain the outliers and noise. Although the CPBUM neural networks have fast convergent speed, this model is difficult to deal with training data set with outliers and noise. Hence, the robust property must be enhanced for the CPBUM neural networks. In this paper, the LTS computational architecture is proposed for the CPBUM neural networks. That is, the LTS approach can trim some large noise and outliers in the training data set. After the LTS, the gradient-descent kind of learning algorithms is used as the learning algorithm to adjust the weights of the CPBUM neural networks. It tunes out that the LTS based CPBUM neural networks have fast convergent speed and robust against outliers and noise than the conventional neural networks with robust mechanism. Simulation results are provided to show the validity and applicability of the proposed neural networks.
Wave-induced drift in the presence of a flexible surface cover

Inextensible films are often used to simulate surface-active material as commonly found at sea. It is important to understand the mechanism behind wave-induced transport of surfactants with regard to e.g. oil spills in coastal areas. In this paper we compare theory, based on a Lagrangian description of motion, with observations of the wave-induced drift of thin inextensible plastic sheets in a controlled laboratory experiment. It is found that the analytical solution is able to reproduce the observed drift. In a laboratory situation with continuously generated, spatially damped waves, the drift velocity increases in time. Hence earlier theoretical treatments in which a steady state is assumed predict too low values of the drift velocity. The need for data on the time development of the drift is pointed out.
An algorithm for automatic assignment of artifact-related independent components in biomedical signal analysis

In this work an automatic assignment tool for estimated independent components within an independent component analysis is presented. The tool is applied to the problem of removing the water resonance and related artifacts from multi-dimensional proton NMR spectra. The algorithm uses local PCA to approximate the water artifact and defines a suitable cost function which is optimized using simulated annealing. The blind extraction of artifact-related source signals is effected by a recently developed algorithm called dAMUSE.
Robust Dynamic Skeleton Extraction for Blood Vessels Based on the Level Set Method

Skeleton has very important applications in objects expression, data compression, computer vision and animation. In the discrete space, the basic skeleton algorithms have two categories: one is thinning, the other is based on the distance transformation, in a high-dimensional space generated from the surface to form the ridge to create a skeleton. The skeleton which is based on the distance transform algorithm is accurate and smooth, but we must carefully check its continuity. Such a check of the continuity would be very difficult when the skeleton structure is complex. The biggest advantage of thinning algorithm is that it can ensure that the skeleton is in a row and keeps the main topology of the initial target, but the general position is not accurate. In this paper, combining thinning algorithms and level set model, a dynamic robust vascular skeleton extraction algorithm is proposed. First using thinning technology to generate initial skeleton in a row, and then based on the level set model, it will guide the initial framework to the correct position. In this paper, the skeleton extracted from our algorithm not only maintains the exact location and the smooth appearance in a row at the same time curbs the noise of the border with a good robustness.
Homogeneous Polynomially Nonquadratic Stabilization of Discrete-Time Takagi–Sugeno Systems via Nonparallel Distributed Compensation Law

This paper considers stability of discrete-time nonlinear systems in Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) form. This problem has been studied for more than 20 years with many sufficient conditions, and the asymptotically necessary and sufficient (ANS) conditions with respect to the common-quadratic Lyapunov, function, having being obtained. This paper considers general forms of homogeneous polynomially nonquadratic Lyapunov (HPNQL) function and homogeneous polynomially parameterized nonparallel distributed compensation (HPP-non-PDC) law. By generalization of the procedure based on Pólya's theorem and techniques used for parameter-dependent linear matrix inequality (PD-LMI) which have been studied previously in different contexts, ANS stability conditions with respect to the general HPNQL function are obtained.
Multiple Products Derived from Two CCL4 Loci: High Incidence of a New Polymorphism in HIV+ Patients1

Human CCL4/macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1β and CCL3/MIP-1α are two highly related molecules that belong to a cluster of inflammatory CC chemokines located in chromosome 17. CCL4 and CCL3 were formed by duplication of a common ancestral gene, generating the SCYA4 and SCYA3 genes which, in turn, present a variable number of additional non-allelic copies (SCYA4L and SCYA3L1). In this study, we show that both CCL4 loci (SCYA4 and SCYA4L) are expressed and alternatively generate spliced variants lacking the second exon. In addition, we found that the SCYA4L locus is polymorphic and displays a second allelic variant (hereinafter SCYA4L2) with a nucleotide change in the intron 2 acceptor splice site compared with the one described originally (hereinafter SCYA4L1). Therefore, the pattern of SCYA4L2 transcripts is completely different from that of SCYA4L1, since SCYA4L2 uses several new acceptor splice sites and generates nine new mRNAs. Furthermore, we analyzed the contribution of each locus (SCYA4 and SCYA4L1/L2) to total CCL4 expression in human CD8 T cells by RT-amplified fragment length polymorphism and real-time PCR, and we found that L2 homozygous individuals (L2L2) only express half the levels of CCL4 compared with L1L1 individuals. The analysis of transcripts from the SCYA4L locus showed a lower level in L2 homozygous compared with L1 homozygous individuals (12% vs 52% of total CCL4 transcripts). A possible clinical relevance of these CCL4 allelic variants was suggested by the higher frequency of the L2 allele in a group of HIV+ individuals (n = 175) when compared with controls (n = 220, 28.6% vs 16.6% (p = 0.00016)).
Automated material handling system traffic control by means of node balancing

This paper presents a logistic algorithm that improves traffic conditions in a network-like automated material handling system (AMHS). The algorithm uses a lookahead procedure and series of nodal parameters in order to balance the flow of traffic to and from load/unload nodes. In doing so, it helps manage, distribute and allocate free AMHS vehicles more efficiently. A simulation model of the algorithm, material control system and the AMHS was developed and tested on various types of semiconductor manufacturing facility layouts. The results of the simulated algorithm demonstrate up to 30% improvement in the AMHS lot delivery time.
From Smart Camera to SmartHub: Embracing Cloud for Video Surveillance

Smart cameras were conceived to provide scalable solutions to automatic video analysis applications, such as surveillance and monitoring. Since then, many algorithms and system architectures have been proposed, which use smart cameras to distribute functionality and save bandwidth. Still, smart cameras are rarely used in commercial systems and real installations. In this paper, we investigate the reason behind the scarce commercial usage of smart cameras. We found that, in order to achieve scalability, smart cameras put additional constraints on the quality of input data to the vision algorithms, making it an unfavourable choice for future multicamera systems. We recognized that these constraints can be relaxed by following a cloud based hub architecture and propose a cloud entity, SmartHub, which provides a scalable solution with reduced constraints on the quality. A framework is proposed for designing SmartHub system for a given camera placement. Experiments show the efficacy of SmartHub based systems in multicamera scenarios.
Glycemic control, hypertension and chronic complications in type 2 diabetic subjects attending a tertiary care centre.

BACKGROUND This study was carried out to assess the association of glycemic control and hypertension with chronic complications in type 2 diabetic subjects attending a tertiary care centre in Karachi, Pakistan. METHODS This was a cross sectional analytical study. First visit of type 2 diabetic subjects to the outpatient department of Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology, from September 1996 to December 2001, were analyzed for this study. Sociodemographic attributes and clinical profiles were obtained from the computerized records of these patients retrospectively. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval were reported for independent variables associated with outcome variables. RESULTS Records of 2199 subjects (48.5% males, 51.5% females) were analyzed. Mean age of the male and female subjects was 52.2 and 50.6 years respectively. Hypertriglyceridemia [OR: 1.74; 95% CI (1.18-2.57)] and diabetic foot ulcers [OR: 2.32; 95% CI (1.14-4.01)] were significantly associated with poor glycemic control according to HbA1c. Whereas hypertriglyceridemia [OR: 2.39; 95% CI (1.42-4.03)] and hypertension [OR: 1.65; 95% CI (1.13-2.41)] were significantly associated with poor glycemic control according to FPG. Obesity [OR: 1.44; 95% CI (1.18-1.75)], Retinopathy [OR: 1.95; 95% CI (1.49-2.53)], nephropathy [OR: 1.99; 95% CI (1.45-2.75)], neuropathy [OR:1.40; 95% CI (1.15-1.71)] and presence of coronary arterial disease [OR: 1.33; 95% CI (1.02-1.72)] were found to be significantly associated with systolic blood pressure. Obesity [OR:2.07; 95% CI (1.69-2.54)], hyperglycemia [OR: 1.40; 95% CI (1.04-1.90)] and nephropathy [OR: 1.92; 95% CI (1.39-2.64)] had significant association with high diastolic blood pressure. CONCLUSION In conclusion this study shows the association of chronic complications with glycemic control and hypertension amongst type 2 diabetics in Karachi. This information needs to be verified by multicentred large scale studies in order to be helpful in planning healthcare and treatment strategies.