Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TIPS for prevention of recurrent bleeding in patients with cirrhosis: meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.

PURPOSE To compare the effects of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) creation with those of endoscopic treatment with or without propranolol administration (i.e, conventional treatment) on recurrent bleeding, encephalopathy, and mortality by using meta-analysis of 11 published randomized clinical trials. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data from 11 relevant studies were retrieved by means of computerized and manual search. The combinability of the studies was assessed in terms of clinical and statistical criteria. Data were extracted on the basis of the intention-to-treat principle, and treatment effects were measured as risk differences between TIPS creation and conventional treatment. Pooled estimates were computed according to a random-effects model. RESULTS A total of 750 patients were included in 11 trials. No significant heterogeneity was found for any of the outcomes. Pooled risk differences were recurrent bleeding, -31% (95% CI, -39%, -23%); encephalopathy, +16% (95% CI, +10%, +22%); death due to all causes, +2% (95% CI, -4%, +9%); and death due to bleeding, -5% (95% CI, -11%, +6%). Clinically important complications occurred in 22% of patients and were associated with both treatments. TIPS dysfunction occurred in 55% of patients. CONCLUSION TIPS creation markedly reduces risk of rebleeding but increases risk of encephalopathy without affecting survival. Therefore, TIPS creation may not be the best first-choice therapy for prevention of recurrent variceal bleeding. Criteria for selection of candidates for TIPS creation should be assessed in future prospective studies.
The assassination of Lincoln : history and myth

'One of the standard works on the drama and events around Lincoln's death and the realities and the myths that came after.There are moments when Friend Lewis achieves laughter or a flash of poetry in a single sentence of a sober fact narrative' - Carl Sandburg. 'Indispensable.to any historian of Lincoln's times, and it is fascinating reading. Lloyd Lewis presents in substance a brilliant study of the creation of myth out of natural event, and of the deification of a national hero' - "Outlook". The Civil War officially ended at Appomattox soon after President Lincoln's second inauguration. During his first term he had been widely viewed by special-interest groups as a good-natured, indecisive bungler, and worse. In the South he was still despised, and many in the North, especially the radicals in the Republican party, distrusted and derided his leniency toward the vanquished. On the evening of April 14, 1865, an assassin's bullet irrevocably altered the way Abraham Lincoln would be viewed by Americans.In life a cunning politician, Lincoln became in death a selfless martyr. Lloyd Lewis explicates the mythology that evolved out of Lincoln's death, the outpouring of national grief, the pursuit of John Wilkes booth and the conspirators, booth's fate, and the frequent moving and reburial of Lincoln's coffin. Lloyd Lewis wrote "Sherman, Fighting Prophet" (1993), also a Bison Book. Mark E. Neely, Jr., who introduces this book, previously titled "Myths after Lincoln", is professor of history at St. Louis University. He is the author of "The Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia", "The Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd Lincoln", and "The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties".
Hereditary spastic paraparesis: a review of new developments

Hereditary spastic paraparesis (HSP) or the Strumpell-Lorrain syndrome is the name given to a heterogeneous group of inherited disorders in which the main clinical feature is progressive lower limb spasticity. Before the advent of molecular genetic studies into these disorders, several classifications had been proposed, based on the mode of inheritance, the age of onset of symptoms, and the presence or otherwise of additional clinical features. Families with autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, and X-linked inheritance have been described.
Early psychological distress among sufferers after the 2011 Northern Nagano Prefecture Earthquake

We surveyed 3078 sufferers in Tsunan (Niigata), an intermediate and mountainous area of Japan, after the 2011 Northern Nagano Prefecture Earthquake. More subjects reported fear of the earthquake or related anxiety symptoms and insomnia in Tsunan than in the control group. Female sex and older age were found to be risk factors for poor psychological outcome. Those with risk factors should be carefully followed up.
Multidrug‐resistant tuberculosis in bone marrow transplant recipient

Abstract: Multidrug‐resistant tuberculosis (TB) is an increasing problem worldwide, however only three cases have been previously described in transplant recipients, especially involving lung and heart transplant. We describe a case of multidrug‐resistant TB in an allogenic bone marrow transplant recipient with good response to second‐line therapy.
Endothelial strain and stress in atherosclerosis.

Cardiovascular diseases are by far the most prevalent cause of death in developed countries, affecting 4 million people in Europe annually. Ischemic heart disease and stroke, which have a predominant vascular origin resulting from atherosclerosis, account for most deaths (80%) of cardiovascular origin. Atherosclerosis is defined as the remodelling of the intima of large arteries through the local accumulation of lipids, inflammatory and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and fibrous tissue [1]. Together with inflammation and lipid oxidation, endothelial dysfunction is an early prognostic marker and important pathological mechanism underlying the development and progression of atherosclerotic plaques. Shear stress, generated by the frictional force of blood flow on endothelial cells (ECs) lining the inner surface of blood vessels, is directly associated with atherosclerotic plaque localization. Vascular sites prone to atherosclerotic plaque formation are those where blood flow is low or oscillatory such as curvatures, bifurcations and branch points. On the other hand, blood vessels exposed to laminar shear stress are mostly devoid of plaques [2]. Blood pressure, which stretches the vessel wall and generates radial and tangential forces, also influences atherosclerotic plaque formation. Hypertension is associated with enhanced plaque size in hypercholesterolemic mice [3], and is an independent risk factor for atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular disease in humans [4]. Much data has accumulated over the years to implicate reactive oxygen species (ROS) both in the maintenance of steady vessel wall conditions and in the vascular response to altered flow or pressure settings, establishing in the process a causal relationship between oxidative stress and the progression of atherosclerosis.
Plant genetic effects on microbial hubs impact fitness across field trials

Although complex interactions between hosts and microbial associates are increasingly well documented, we still know little about how and why hosts shape microbial communities in nature. In addition, host genetic effects on microbial communities vary widely depending on the environment, obscuring conclusions about which microbes are impacted and which plant functions are important. We characterized the leaf microbiota of 200 A. thaliana genotypes in eight field experiments and detected consistent host effects on specific, broadly distributed microbial OTU’s. Host genetics disproportionately influenced hubs within the microbial communities, with their impact then percolating through the community, as evidenced by a decline in the heritability of particular OTUs with their distance to the nearest hub. By simultaneously measuring host performance, we found that host genetics associated with microbial hubs explained over 10% of the variation in lifetime seed production among host genotypes across sites and years. We successfully cultured one of these microbial hubs and demonstrated its growth-promoting effects on plants grown in sterile conditions. Finally, genome-wide association mapping identified many putatively causal genes with small effects on the relative abundance of microbial hubs across sites and years, and these genes were enriched for those involved in the synthesis of specialized metabolites, auxins and the immune system. Using untargeted metabolomics, we corroborate the consistent association of variation in specialized metabolites and microbial hubs across field sites. Together, our results reveal that host natural variation impacts the microbial communities in consistent ways across environments and that these effects contribute to fitness variation among host genotypes.
Contabilidad de costes ecológicos completos en España: análisis exploratorio

Mediante la contabilidad de costes ecologicos completos, las empresas seran capaces de informar sobre la contribucion que sus actividades realizan al logro del desarrollo sostenible mediante la comunicacion en terminos monetarios de sus externalidades. Dado que los estudios previos se han centrado en el analisis de casos concretos, en la presente investigacion se realiza un examen de corte transversal de las percepciones de los gestores de las empresas del sector energetico espanol sobre esta nueva herramienta. Las opiniones ofrecidas por los gestores varian dependiendo del posicionamiento estrategico adoptado por las empresas, siendo aquellas con estrategias mas activas las que muestran mayor disponibilidad en cuanto a la experimentacion y posible implantacion de un sistema de costes completos.
Genome-wide patterns of population structure and admixture among Hispanic/Latino populations

Hispanic/Latino populations possess a complex genetic structure that reflects recent admixture among and potentially ancient substructure within Native American, European, and West African source populations. Here, we quantify genome-wide patterns of SNP and haplotype variation among 100 individuals with ancestry from Ecuador, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic genotyped on the Illumina 610-Quad arrays and 112 Mexicans genotyped on Affymetrix 500K platform. Intersecting these data with previously collected high-density SNP data from 4,305 individuals, we use principal component analysis and clustering methods FRAPPE and STRUCTURE to investigate genome-wide patterns of African, European, and Native American population structure within and among Hispanic/Latino populations. Comparing autosomal, X and Y chromosome, and mtDNA variation, we find evidence of a significant sex bias in admixture proportions consistent with disproportionate contribution of European male and Native American female ancestry to present-day populations. We also find that patterns of linkage-disequilibria in admixed Hispanic/Latino populations are largely affected by the admixture dynamics of the populations, with faster decay of LD in populations of higher African ancestry. Finally, using the locus-specific ancestry inference method LAMP, we reconstruct fine-scale chromosomal patterns of admixture. We document moderate power to differentiate among potential subcontinental source populations within the Native American, European, and African segments of the admixed Hispanic/Latino genomes. Our results suggest future genome-wide association scans in Hispanic/Latino populations may require correction for local genomic ancestry at a subcontinental scale when associating differences in the genome with disease risk, progression, and drug efficacy, as well as for admixture mapping.
Lung Cancer in a Fluorspar Mining Community. II. Prevalence of Respiratory Symptoms and Disability

A survey of respiratory symptoms, lung function tests, and chest radiography was carried out among the fluorspar miners of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, in whom the incidence of carcinoma of the lung (De Villiers and Windish, 1964) had previously been shown to be 25 times greater than for the rest of the province. The incidence of pneumoconiosis among the exposed population was low (1·93%) and the incidence of `chronic bronchitis' comparable to that reported for miners elsewhere, enabling one to dismiss these as a relevant factor in the high incidence of carcinoma. The relevance of smoking is less easy to assess in these miners, among whom there are few non-smokers and many heavy smokers. Extrapolation from the data of Doll and Hill (1956) suggests, however, that the prevalence of heavy smoking among the miners cannot be the sole factor responsible for the higher incidence of carcinoma compared with the rest of Newfoundland, but it might well be a contributory one. It appears therefore that the main factor causing the high incidence of carcinoma among these miners was the high level of radioactivity in the air and water in the mines (De Villiers and Windish, 1964). The reduction in lung function tests appeared to be more closely related to the presence of bronchitis than to dust exposure, but the incidence of chronic bronchitis was apparently higher in men exposed for any length of time to dust risk than in men with insignificant exposure.
Hasselt: Rapid Prototyping of Multimodal Interactions with Composite Event-Driven Programming

Implementing multimodal interactions with event-driven languages results in a 'callback soup', a source code littered with a multitude of flags that have to be maintained in a self-consistent manner and across different event handlers. Prototyping multimodal interactions adds to the complexity and error sensitivity, since the program code has to be refined iteratively as developers explore different possibilities and solutions. The authors present a declarative language for rapid prototyping multimodal interactions: Hasselt permits declaring composite events, sets of events that are logically related because of the interaction they support, that can be easily bound to dedicated event handlers for separate interactions. The authors' approach allows the description of multimodal interactions at a higher level of abstraction than event languages, which saves developers from dealing with the typical 'callback soup' thereby resulting in a gain in programming efficiency and a reduction in errors when writing event handling code. They compared Hasselt with using a traditional programming language with strong support for events in a study with 12 participants each having a solid background in software development. When performing equivalent modifications to a multimodal interaction, the use of Hasselt leads to higher completion rates, lower completion times, and less code testing than when using a mainstream event-driven language.
Olympic boxing is associated with elevated levels of the neuronal protein tau in plasma

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate if olympic (amateur) boxing is associated with elevation of brain injury biomarkers in peripheral blood compared to controls. Materials and methods: Thirty olympic boxers competing in at least 47 bouts were compared to 25 controls. Blood was collected from the controls at one occasion and from the boxers within 1–6 days after a bout and after a rest period of at least 14 days. Tau concentration in plasma was determined using a novel single molecule ELISA assay and S-100B, glial fibrillary acidic protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor and amyloid β 1–42 were determined using standard immunoassays. Results: None of the boxers had been knocked-out during the bout. Plasma-tau was significantly increased in the boxers after a bout compared to controls (mean ± SD, 2.46 ± 5.10 vs. 0.79 ± 0.961 ng L−1, p = 0.038). The other brain injury markers did not differ between the groups. Plasma-tau decreased significantly in the boxers after a resting period compared to after a bout (p = 0.030). Conclusions: Olympic boxing is associated with elevation of tau in plasma. The repetitive minimal head injury in boxing may lead to axonal injuries that can be diagnosed with a blood test.
High temperature SOI CMOS technology and circuit realization for applications up to 300°C

Today an increasing number of applications in fields like power electronics or sensor signal conditioning are demanding for integrated circuits supporting an extended temperature range. Mixed signal circuits featuring analog circuitry, analog to digital converters as well as embedded microcontrollers and on-chip memories are requested to operate up to 300°C or even more. This paper outlines technological and design specific challenges as well as limiting factors for integrated circuits at high temperatures realized in a Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) CMOS technology. The technology and circuit design techniques are presented based on a complex design example. Finally performance parameters of basic building blocks measured up to 300°C are shown.
Case-based statistical learning applied to SPECT image classification

Statistical learning and decision theory play a key role in many areas of science and engineering. Some examples include time series regression and prediction, optical character recognition, signal detection in communications or biomedical applications for diagnosis and prognosis. This paper deals with the topic of learning from biomedical image data in the classification problem. In a typical scenario we have a training set that is employed to fit a prediction model or learner and a testing set on which the learner is applied to in order to predict the outcome for new unseen patterns. Both processes are usually completely separated to avoid over-fitting and due to the fact that, in practice, the unseen new objects (testing set) have unknown outcomes. However, the outcome yields one of a discrete set of values, i.e. the binary diagnosis problem. Thus, assumptions on these outcome values could be established to obtain the most likely prediction model at the training stage, that could improve the overall classification accuracy on the testing set, or keep its performance at least at the level of the selected statistical classifier. In this sense, a novel case-based learning (c-learning) procedure is proposed which combines hypothesis testing from a discrete set of expected outcomes and a cross-validated classification stage.
A mobile indoor positioning system based on iBeacon technology

To increase the efficiency in the emergency room, the goal of this research is to implement a mobile-based indoor positioning system using mobile applications (APP) with the iBeacon solution based on the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. We use the Received Signal Strength (RSS) based localization method to estimate the patients' locations. Our positioning algorithm achieves 97.22% (95% Confidence Interval = 95.90% - 98.55%) accuracy of classification. As the result, our mechanism is reliable enough to satisfy the need for medical staff to track the locations of their patients.
Vascular Function and Blood Pressure in GH Transgenic Mice.

Acromegaly is associated with cardiovascular disease. We studied vascular function and mean arterial blood pressure in transgenic mice overexpressing bovine GH. Mean arterial blood pressure was measured in conscious, unrestrained male and female bovine GH and littermate control mice during normal as well as high salt intake using telemetric devices. Structure in artificially perfused maximally dilated hindquarter vascular beds and vascular reactivity and endothelial function in small mesenteric vessels were studied in female bovine GH and control mice. Mean arterial blood pressure was increased in female bovine GH transgenic (126 ± 3 mm Hg) and male bovine GH transgenic (129 ± 4 mm Hg) compared with female (109 ± 3 mm Hg, P < 0.05) and male (111 ± 3 mm Hg, P < 0.05) controls respectively. Increased salt intake had no effect on mean arterial blood pressure. Perfusion studies showed a significant decrease in the average diameter of the female bovine GH transgenic hindquarter vascular bed (P < 0.05). The res.
Geography of house dust mite allergens.

OBJECTIVE To consider how the different distribution of house dust mites and their species in different geographical locations affects the allergens in the environment and their use. DATA SOURCES Data were obtained from Medline, Genbank and library and web searches. STUDY SELECTIONS A comprehensive description of the genetic variations of allergens is given. The distribution of house dust mites is illustrated with publications that either make pertinent observations or would be useful for a broad appreciation of their geographical distribution. RESULTS The review identifies regions where glycyphagid house dust mites have been found and the distribution of the pyroglyphid Dermatophagoides spp. The antigenic differences the allergens of D. pteronyssinus and D. farinae are outlined and how this should affect optimal allergen usage in different regions. The allelic variations within the major allergens of Dermatophagoides sp. are similarly presented. CONCLUSIONS While there is a broad knowledge of the distribution of different species of house dust mites, regions that require further examination have been identified and there are examples of incorrect use of allergens for different regions. The extension of allergy research and practice into new regions will benefit from allergen formulations designed for regional use. Specific knowledge of the allergens in the environments will be required to optimally implement some of the new molecularly-defined medicaments currently being developed for effective allergy vaccination and immunotherapy.
The DnaJ-Like Zinc-Finger Protein HCF222 Is Required for Thylakoid Membrane Biogenesis in Plants1[OPEN]

The chloroplast-located DnaJ-like protein HCF222 is indispensable for accumulation of the cytochrome b6f complex and to a lesser extent necessary for wild-type levels of PSI and PSII. To understand the biogenesis of the thylakoid membrane in higher plants and to identify auxiliary proteins required to build up this highly complex membrane system, we have characterized the allelic nuclear mutants high chlorophyll fluorescence222-1 (hcf222-1) and hcf222-2 and isolated the causal gene by map-based cloning. In the ethyl methanesulfonate-induced mutant hcf222-1, the accumulation of the cytochrome b6f (Cytb6f) complex was reduced to 30% compared with the wild type. Other thylakoid membrane complexes accumulated to normal levels. The T-DNA knockout mutant hcf222-2 showed a more severe defect with respect to thylakoid membrane proteins and accumulated only 10% of the Cytb6f complex, accompanied by a reduction in photosystem II, the photosystem II light-harvesting complex, and photosystem I. HCF222 encodes a protein of 99 amino acids in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) that has similarities to the cysteine-rich zinc-binding domain of DnaJ chaperones. The insulin precipitation assay demonstrated that HCF222 has disulfide reductase activity in vitro. The protein is conserved in higher plants and bryophytes but absent in algae and cyanobacteria. Confocal fluorescence microscopy showed that a fraction of HCF222-green fluorescent protein was detectable in the endoplasmic reticulum but that it also could be recognized in chloroplasts. A fusion construct of HCF222 containing a plastid transit peptide targets the protein into chloroplasts and was able to complement the mutational defect. These findings indicate that the chloroplast-targeted HCF222 is indispensable for the maturation and/or assembly of the Cytb6f complex and is very likely involved in thiol-disulfide biochemistry at the thylakoid membrane.