Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Location of disulphide bonds in human insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) synthesized by recombinant DNA technology.

Natural human insulin-like growth factor (IGF) I is a relatively large single chain peptide (mol. wt 7649) with a known sequence of 70 amino acids. C6----C48, C47----C52 and C18----C61 assignments have been previously proposed for the three disulphide bonds linking six cysteine residues (C6, C18, C47, C48, C52 and C61), on the basis of analogy (and homology) with proinsulin. In this work, IGF I synthesized by recombinant DNA technology (r-IGF I, with identical biological activity and chromatographic behaviour) was subjected to a three-step mass spectrometric analysis in combination with degradation methods for structural verification. Firstly, the correct molecular weight of the intact peptide was determined by high-mass fast atom bombardment (FAB) analysis. Secondly, twofold enzymatic degradation (chymotrypsin followed by V8 protease, 'FAB mapping' of the cleavage products) was employed in order that fragments with 'isolated' S-S bonds would be produced which allow an unambiguous assignment. This immediately established the C18----C61 linkage as it was contained in a singly bridged two-chain peptide. The two other S-S bonds, which cross-link C6 and the 'tight' C47 to C52 segment, remained 'unresolved' within a more complex, doubly bridged triple-chain peptide. Thirdly, further degradation of this structural block, in which cleavage of the C47-C48 bond was required to discern these bonds, was carried out by using FAB tandem mass spectrometry and (for additional corroboration) manual Edman degradation. Both procedures confirmed the original C6----C48/C47----C52 prediction. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Risk factors for gastrointestinal bleeding in critically ill patients

BACKGROUND The efficacy of prophylaxis against stress ulcers in preventing gastrointestinal bleeding in critically ill patients has led to its widespread use. The side effects and cost of prophylaxis, however, necessitate targeting preventive therapy to those patients most likely to benefit. METHODS We conducted a prospective multicenter cohort study in which we evaluated potential risk factors for stress ulceration in patients admitted to intensive care units and documented the occurrence of clinically important gastrointestinal bleeding (defined as overt bleeding in association with hemodynamic compromise or the need for blood transfusion). RESULTS Of 2252 patients, 33 (1.5 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.0 to 2.1 percent) had clinically important bleeding. Two strong independent risk factors for bleeding were identified: respiratory failure (odds ratio, 15.6) and coagulopathy (odds ratio, 4.3). Of 847 patients who had one or both of these risk factors, 31 (3.7 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.5 to 5.2 percent) had clinically important bleeding. Of 1405 patients without these risk factors, 2 (0.1 percent; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.02 to 0.5 percent) had clinically important bleeding. The mortality rate was 48.5 percent in the group with bleeding and 9.1 percent in the group without bleeding (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Few critically ill patients have clinically important gastrointestinal bleeding, and therefore prophylaxis against stress ulcers can be safely withheld from critically ill patients unless they have coagulopathy or require mechanical ventilation.
Accuracy of transrectal ultrasonography in staging rectal tumors that are clinically eligible for transanal endoscopic microsurgery

Transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM) is performed in patients with premalignant or selected stage T1 rectal lesions. Transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) is an important tool in the preoperative staging of rectal lesions to determine whether lesions are suitable for TEM or not. We analyze the accuracy of TRUS in distinguishing between rectal lesions requiring TEM or more radical excision.
Racial Differences in the Use of Epidural Analgesia for Labor

Background:There is strong evidence that pain is undertreated in black and Hispanic patients. The association between race and ethnicity and the use of epidural analgesia for labor is not well described. Methods:Using the New York State Perinatal Database, the authors examined whether race and ethnicity were associated with the likelihood of receiving epidural analgesia for labor after adjusting for clinical characteristics, demographics, insurance coverage, and provider effect. This retrospective cohort study was based on 81,883 women admitted for childbirth between 1998 and 2003. Results:Overall, 38.3% of the patients received epidural analgesia for labor. After adjusting for clinical risk factors, socioeconomic status, and provider fixed effects, Hispanic and black patients were less likely than non-Hispanic white patients to receive epidural analgesia: The adjusted odds ratio was 0.85 (95% CI, 0.78–0.93) for white/Hispanic and 0.78 (0.74–0.83) for blacks compared with non-Hispanic whites. Compared with patients with private insurance, patients without insurance were least likely to receive epidural analgesia (adjusted odds ratio, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.64–0.89). Black patients with private insurance had similar rates of epidural use to white/non-Hispanic patients without insurance coverage: The adjusted odds ratio was 0.66 (95% CI, 0.53–0.82) for white/non-Hispanic patients without insurance versus 0.69 (0.57–0.85) for black patients with private insurance. Conclusion:Black and Hispanic women in labor are less likely than non-Hispanic white women to receive epidural analgesia. These differences remain after accounting for differences in insurance coverage, provider practice, and clinical characteristics.
Does middle hepatic vein omission in a right split graft affect the outcome of liver transplantation? A comparative study of right split livers with and without the middle hepatic vein

Preservation of the middle hepatic vein (MHV) for a right split liver transplantation (SLT) in an adult recipient is still controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the graft and patient outcomes after liver transplantation (LT) using a right split graft, according to the type of venous drainage. From February 2000 to May 2006, 33 patients received 34 cadaveric right split liver grafts. According to the type of recipient pairs (adult/adult or adult/child), the right liver graft was deprived of the MHV or not. The first group (GI, n = 15) included grafts with only the right hepatic vein (RHV) outflow, the second (GII, n = 18) included grafts with both right and MHV outflows. The 2 groups were similar for patient demographics, initial liver disease, and donor characteristics. In GI and GII, graft‐to‐recipient‐weight ratio (GRWR) was 1.2 ± 0% and 1.6 ± 0.3% (P < 0.05), and cold ischemia time was 10 hours 55 minutes ± 2 hours 49 minutes and 10 hours 47 minutes ± 3 hours 32 minutes, respectively (P = not significant). Postoperative death occurred in 1 patient in each group. Vascular complications included anastomotic strictures: 2 portal vein (PV), 1 hepatic artery (HA), and 1 RHV anastomotic strictures; all in GI. Biliary complications occurred in 20% and 22% of the patients, in GI and GII, respectively (P = not significant). There were no differences between both groups regarding postoperative outcome and blood tests at day 1‐15 except for a significantly higher cholestasis in GI. At 1 and 3 yr, patient survival was 94% for both groups and graft survival was 93% for GI and 90% for GII (P = not significant). In conclusion, our results suggest that adult right SLT without the MHV is safe and associated with similar long‐term results as compared with those of the right graft including the MHV, despite that early liver function recovered more slowly. Technical refinements in outflow drainage should be evaluated in selected cases. Liver Transpl 13:829–837, 2007. © 2007 AASLD.
Dryland summer crop classification using multi-temporal RADARSAT-2 images and objects information from optical image

This paper has proposed a new method that integrates the advantage of optical image for delineating land surface boundaries and the superiority of PolSAR data for obtaining corn information despite bad weather conditions. The comparison between the proposed method and both pixel- and object-based method was made to test their performance for corn classification. The analysis shows that the proposed method can significantly improve the overall accuracy and kappa value of the other two methods, which indicates that the proposed method was suitable for crop mapping using optical and Radarsat-2 PolSAR data.
Remote fault diagnostic model for tribological systems in marine diesel engine with two-level self-organizing map network

Many researches indicate that a great number of failures occur in the tribological system which will reduce the reliability of the marine diesel engine. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the condition and identify the fault mode of the engine. In this paper, remote fault diagnostic technology is developed to take full advantage of the online oil monitoring system and the laboratory analysis for the tribological systems. To increase the efficiency of fault diagnosis, a two-level fault diagnostic model based on self-organizing map (SOM) was established with the oil parameters from the online oil system and the experimental data from the laboratory. Based on the component map of SOM network, the attributes of the feature vector in the second level were reduced to simplify the model and the trajectory of the samples was tracked during the application of the system. The diagnostic result indicates that the remote fault diagnosis technology benefits the full acquirement of the information reflecting the engine condition and the two level fault diagnostic model can be well applied in fault diagnosis for the tribological systems in marine diesel engine with satisfactory result.
Improvement in the molecular diagnosis of Machado-Joseph disease.

BACKGROUND Direct detection of the gene mutation allows for the confirmation of the clinical diagnosis of Machado-Joseph disease (MJD), the most frequent cause of autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxia worldwide. OBJECTIVE To address the main difficulties in our national MJD predictive testing program. The first was the emergence of intermediate alleles, for which it is not yet possible to determine whether they will cause disease. The second was the issue of homoallelism, ie, homozygosity for 2 normal alleles with exactly the same (CAG)(n) length, which occurs in about 10% of all test results. METHODS A large pedigree with 1 affected patient carrying a 71 and a 51 CAG repeat and 2 asymptomatic relatives carrying the 51 CAG repeat and normal-size alleles underwent clinical and molecular studies. Intragenic haplotypes for these alleles were determined. A representative sample of the healthy population in the region was obtained to assess the distribution of the normal (CAG)(n) length. We established the genotype for 4 intragenic polymorphisms in the gene for MJD (MJD1) in 21 homoallelic individuals, to distinguish their 2 normal chromosomes. In addition, we developed a new Southern blot method to completely exclude cases of nonamplification of expanded alleles in the homoallelic individuals. RESULTS The study of the family in which the 51 CAG repeat was found suggests that the allele is apparently not associated with disease. These intermediate alleles were not present in a large sample of the healthy population from the same region. Intragenic polymorphisms allowed distinction of the 2 different normal alleles in all cases of homoallelism. The absence of an expanded allele was also confirmed by Southern blot. CONCLUSIONS We propose an improved protocol for molecular testing for MJD. These strategies, developed to overcome the practical difficulties mostly in the presymptomatic and prenatal diagnosis of MJD, should prove useful for other polyglutamine-related disorders.
Design and simulation of variable active filter without inductor by using BICMOS Technology

A monolithically microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) variable active filter is presented for obtaining a small size variable bandpass filter with high selectivity at microwave frequencies. Variable active filter have been designed in BICMOS technology and used Advanced Design system (ADS) software for Design and simulation circuits. It is controllable for both quality factor Q, varying from 55 to 85, and a center frequency wider than 700MHz at the 2GHz band. Achieved Gain above 20dB from 1.65–2.35GHz. We used active input and output impedance matching. This will be a key device in the future development of frequency variable equipment.
The focal spot model based high spatial resolution iterative reconstruction method for a dual-focus CT

The spatial resolution is one the key performance indicators of a CT system. However, in some cases, the scanned specimen is difficult to be penetrated by the x-ray of micro-focus in certain projection views due to its special shapes and the limited energy of the x-ray source, which will eventually lead to the degradation of the spatial resolution. A dual-focus CT system is adopted to address this problem. In the dual-focus CT system, a macro-focus with the higher energy and power can be used for the scanning in the views where the micro-focus source is invalid. The main idea is to combine the high resolution of micro-focus source and the stronger penetration of the high power x-ray source. But the finite focal spot size of the high energy source is another limitation to the spatial resolution of the reconstructed image. In this paper, a focal spot model based iterative reconstruction method is presented to improve the spatial resolution of the dual-focus CT system. The finite focal spot size model is built and the weighted total variation optimization based method is adopted to further suppress the noises or artifacts caused by the inconsistency between the projections of different energies. Preliminary results are shown that significant improvements in spatial resolution have been achieved by the proposed method.
Microvascular obstruction and myocardial function after acute myocardial infarction: assessment by using contrast-enhanced cine MR imaging.

UNLABELLED This study was approved by the Human Investigation Committee of William Beaumont Hospital, and all patients gave informed consent. The purpose of this study was to prospectively compare contrast material-enhanced cine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with more-standard MR imaging for the evaluation of microvascular obstruction and myocardial function in 80 patients (56 men, 24 women; mean age, 57 years; range, 29-80 years) with acute myocardial infarction after reperfusion therapy. Findings at contrast-enhanced cine MR imaging agreed with the global and transmural extent of microvascular obstruction at first-pass perfusion (intraclass correlation coefficient [IC] of 0.96 [P < .001] and 0.88 [P < .001], respectively) and inversion-recovery gradient-echo (IC of 0.90 [P < .001] and 0.93 [P < .001], respectively) MR imaging. There was no significant difference between myocardial function parameters before and after contrast material enhancement. Contrast-enhanced cine MR imaging reduced imaging time by 34% (11 of 32 minutes) and improved spatial resolution. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL radiology.rsnajnls. org/cgi/content/full/240/2/529/DC1
Automating Characterization Deployment in Distributed Data Stream Management Systems

Distributed data stream management systems (DDSMS) are usually composed of upper layer relational query systems (RQS) and lower layer stream processing systems (SPS). When users submit new queries to RQS, a query planner needs to be converted into a directed acyclic graph (DAG) consisting of tasks which are running on SPS. Based on different query requests and data stream properties, SPS need to configure different deployments strategies. However, how to dynamically predict deployment configurations of SPS to ensure the processing throughput and low resource usage is a great challenge. This article presents OrientStream, a framework for automating characterization deployment in DDSMS using incremental machine learning techniques. By introducing the data-level, query plan-level, operator-level, and cluster-level’s four-level feature extraction mechanism, we first use the different query workloads as training sets to predict the resource usage by DDSMS, and select the optimal resource configuration from candidate settings based on the current query requests and stream properties, then migrate the operator state by introducing dynamic reconfiguration. Finally, we validate our approach on the open source SPS–Storm. In view of the application scenarios with long monitoring cycle and non-frequent data fluctuation, experiments show that OrientStream can reduce CPU usage of 8-15 percent and memory usage of 38-48 percent, respectively.
Correlation of Serum Opsonic Activity in Cystic Fibrosis with Colonization and Disease State: Measurement of Opsonins to Pseudomonas aemginosa by Neutrophil Superoxide Anion Generation

ABSTRACT. Serum from patients with cystic fibrosis and normal controls was used to opsonize mucoid and nonmucoid Pseudomonas aemginosa particles. Opsonic activity was then determined by measuring the production of superoxide anion (O2-) from normal neutrophils stimulated with the opsonized particles. Without any opsonization, mucoid P. aeruginosa stimulated significantly more O2- than nonmucoid P. aeruginosa. Responses to nonmucoid P. aemginosa observed with heat-inactivated serum from patients with cystic fibrosis were significantly higher (p=0.008) than those observed with heat-inactivated control sera. Comparisons made between patients who were colonized with P. aeruginosa and those who were not showed that heat activated serum from colonized patients had significantly higher levels of opsonic activity than heat inactivated serum from patients who were not colonized. These differences were observed with either mucoid or nonmucoid P. aeruginosa. A negative correlation was also observed between opsonic activity and clinical status measured by Schwachman scores of colonized patients. These data indicate that in patients colonized with P. aemginosa the deterioration of their clinical status correlated with increased opsonic activity reflected in the oxidative burst response of neutrophils.
Epidemiology of pharyngeal colonization of infants with aerobic gram-negative rod bacteria

By using a selective medium, pharyngeal colonization with gram-negative rod (GNR) bacteria was determined in a cohort of 49 normal infants monitored from birth to 6 months of age. Culture swabs were diluted in 1 ml of saline for quantitation. The prevalence of GNR in the first 72 h of life was 8% and rose to 29% during the first month, 52% at 2.5 months, 67% at 4.5 months, and 62% at 6 to 7 months. Colonization was with substantial numbers of organisms, generally greater than 100 colonies per ml and frequently greater than 1,000 colonies per ml. The most common species were Klebsiella species, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter species, and Acinetobacter anitratus. Fewer infants who were breast fed rather than formula fed at the time of culture harbored GNR (26 versus 45%, P less than 0.05). The point prevalence of pharyngeal GNR colonization in our special care nursery was 12 of 47 (26%), which was found to be similar to that of age-matched normal infants. GNR carriage in normal infants does not appear to be a residual of organisms acquired at birth, and interpretations of GNR carriage in ill or hospitalized infants should be evaluated by comparison with these data in healthy infants.
Oxytocin, vasoactive-intestinal peptide, and serotonin regulate the mating-induced surges of prolactin secretion in the rat.

In female rats the mating stimulus induces a bimodal pattern of PRL secretion. A surge of PRL occurs at approximately 0300 h, called the nocturnal surge (N). Another surge occurs at 1700 h on the same day, called the diurnal surge (D). By lowering dopaminergic tone pharmacologically, we have recently demonstrated the existence of an endogenous rhythm stimulatory to PRL secretion in female rats. The periods of this stimulatory influence coincide with the periods of the N and D surges of PRL that occur in mated rats. In addition, we have shown that the 0300 h component of this endogenous rhythm is regulated by oxytocin (OT) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), and the 1700 h component is regulated by OT and serotonin (5-HT). In this study, we investigated the roles of OT, VIP, and 5-HT in controlling the N and D surges of PRL in ovariectomized (OVX) rats receiving a physiological dopamine-lowering stimulus, copulomimetic stimulation. Blood samples were obtained the day before the experiments between 1700 and 1900 h to verify that the rats used were having surges of PRL in response to cervical stimulation (CS). The role of OT was studied by infusing the OT antagonist 1-deamino-2-D-Trp4-Val8-Orn-OT (OT-A; 0.5 micrograms/kg.min) beginning at either 0100 or 1500 h and continuing for 5 h on day 2 after the last CS. Serial blood samples were obtained immediately before infusion and 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 240, and 300 min after the start of infusion. The samples overlapped either the N or D surge of PRL. All rats used in these studies demonstrated D surges of PRL the day before the experiment. Saline infusion had no effect on either the N or D surge of PRL in OVX-CS rats. However, infusion of OT-A completely blocked both the N and D surges of PRL. The role of VIP was studied by infusing the VIP antagonist [4-D-Cl-Phe6-Leu17]VIP (VIP-A; 01 micrograms/kg.min) beginning at either 0100 or 1500 h and continuing for 5 h. VIP-A completely blocked both the N and D surges of PRL. To study the role of 5-HT, rats received an acute treatment with p-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA; 250 mg/kg, sc) at either 0100 or 1500 h, and blood samples were taken as before. PCPA had no effect on the N surge of PRL. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Overexpression of cellular inhibitor of apoptosis protein 2 is an early event in the progression of pancreatic cancer

Aim: To determine the role of two antiapoptotic proteins of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein family, cellular inhibitor of apoptosis protein 1 (cIAP1) and cellular inhibitor of apoptosis protein 2 (cIAP2), in human pancreatic carcinogenesis. Methods: mRNA levels were measured in pancreatic tissues and pancreatic cancer cell lines by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR. Protein expression was assessed in pancreatic cancer cell lines by immunoblotting and in pancreatic tissues by immunohistochemistry, and correlated with pathological and survival data. Results: cIAP1 expression was constantly high in non-neoplastic pancreatic tissues, in pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) lesions, as well as in a subset of primary and metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC), and a preferential cytoplasmatic localisation was observed in the tumour tissues. cIAP1 expression was rare in a cohort of cystic tumours. cIAP2 mRNA levels were significantly higher (2.4 fold) in PDAC than in normal tissues. cIAP2 protein was overexpressed in PDAC, and was detectable in low- and high-grade PanIN lesions. Moreover, cIAP2 was often expressed in pancreatic cystic tumours. cIAP1 and cIAP2 mRNA and protein were detected in all the examined cell lines. Survival analysis revealed a shorter survival in patients with cIAP1/cIAP2-positive tumours. Conclusions: cIAP1 might contribute to the regulation of the apoptotic process in the normal and in the neoplastic pancreas, depending on its subcellular localisation. Overexpression of cIAP2 is a common and early event in the progression of pancreatic cancer, and could therefore potentially influence the important pathophysiological aspects of PDAC, such as anoikis or chemoresistance.