bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
TIMP-1 and MMP-9 expressions in COPD patients complicated with spontaneous pneumothorax and their correlations with treatment outcomes
Authors: Li Hang , Shi Kaihu , Zhao Yang , Du Jin , Hu Dinghui , Liu Zuntao 
Published: December 2019

Objective: To study the expressions of TIMP-1 and MMP-9 in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) complicated with spontaneous pneumothorax, and their correlations with treatment outcomes.
Methods: A total of 80 COPD patients complicated with spontaneous pneumothorax treated in our hospital from December 2015 to December 2017. The serum expressions of TIMP-1 and MMP-9 in 80 COPD patients complicated with spontaneous pneumothorax (COPD group) and 52 healthy volunteers (control group) were detected by ELISA. The correlations of TIMP-1 and MMP-9 expressions with arterial blood gas parameters as well as scores of MRC breathlessness scale and St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) were analyzed.
Results: The serum expressions of TIMP-1 and MMP-9 of COPD group were significantly higher than those of control group (P<0.05), but the two groups had similar MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratios (P>0.05). For COPD group, TIMP-1 expression, MMP-9 expression, MMP-9/TIMP-1, Sa(O2) and p(O2) were not correlated (P>0.05). TIMP-1 expression was significantly positively correlated with MRC scale and SGRQ scores (P<0.05). Sa(O2), p(O2) and MRC scale score of low MMP-9 expression, low TIMP-1 expression and low MMP-9/TIMP-1 group were significantly improved compared with those of high MMP-9 expression, high TIMP-1 expression and high MMP-9/TIMP-1 group (P<0.05). MMP-9 expression, TIMP-1 expression or MMP-9/TIMP-1 was not correlated with improvement of SGRQ score. Pulmonary function improvement (Sa(O2) improvement rate ≥5% and/or p(O2) improvement rate ≥10%) was correlated with serum MMP-9 expression, baseline Sa(O2) and p(O2).
Conclusion: Increase of serum TIMP-1 and MMP-9 expressions in COPD patients was correlated with symptoms and scores of quality of life, and the expressions were also correlated with short-term treatment reactivity.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.2.1244
How to cite this:Li H, Shi K, Zhao Y, Du J, Hu D, Liu Z. TIMP-1 and MMP-9 expressions in COPD patients complicated with spontaneous pneumothorax and their correlations with treatment outcomes. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(2):192-197. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.2.1244
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Utilization of awake craniotomy for supra-tentorial tumor resection during pregnancy: A technique useful for fetal-maternal wellbeing
Authors: Kumar Dileep , Siraj Sheema , Ahsan Khalid , Shafiq Faraz 
Published: December 2019

Meningioma is the benign tumor that can also occurs during pregnancy. We are reporting a case of 29 years, 13th weeks pregnant lady, who underwent supratentorial craniotomy using awake through out approach. The case report highlights the challenges we faced during anaesthetic management, which includes psychological preparation, institution of scalp block and successful neurological monitoring. Technique proven to be useful considering pregnancy related physiological and tumor related pathological changes, the impact of which lies directly on maternal & fetal wellbeing.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.2.1853
How to cite this:Kumar D, Siraj S, Ahsan K, Shafiq F. Utilization of awake craniotomy for supra-tentorial tumor resection during pregnancy: A technique useful for fetal-maternal wellbeing. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(2):293-295. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.2.1853
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Congenital factor VII deficiency in Iraqi children (Single Centre Experience)
Authors: Khudhair Ali Ahmed , Salih Afrah Abdul-Mahdi , Kadhum Ausama Jamal 
Published: December 2019

Background and Objective: Factor VII (FVII) deficiency is probably one of the most common of the rare autosomal recessive coagulation disorders, with an estimated prevalence of l: 500000. All age groups can be affected with FVII deficiency. This study aimed to describe the demographic parameters, symptomatology, hemostatic values and the outcome of FVII deficiency.
Methods: This is a retrospective descriptive study of patients with congenital FVII deficiency over a period of seven years from (August 2008 to August 2015). The data were collected by reviewing the files for each patient diagnosed with FVII deficiency. Surgical interventions, complications and follow up visits were recorded.
Results: Twenty-four patients were included in this study, 17 females and seven males, below one year was the most common age at presentation. More than half of patients (58.3%) were diagnosed within six months of symptoms onset. The majority of patients had severe phenotype. The most common symptom was epitaxis (41.7%). Five out of 10 patients with FVII level < 1% have either mild to moderate phenotype of the disease without complications; while six out of 14 patients with FVII > 1% had at least one episode of severe bleeding. Three patients had hepatitis C; all were treated by blood products before the introduction of recombinant FVII in Iraq. The outcome of most patients (75%) was normal without complications at time of study.
Conclusion: Clinical manifestations of FVII deficiency are variable and they are not necessarily correlated to the FVII level.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.2.666
How to cite this:Khudhair AA, Salih AAM, Kadhum AJ. Congenital factor VII deficiency in Iraqi children (Single Centre Experience). Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(2):177-181. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.2.666
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Quality of life of students of a private medical college
Authors: Aziz Yasir , Khan Ahmad Yar , Shahid Iqra , Khan Muhammad Athar Majeed , Aisha Aisha 
Published: December 2019

Objective: To determine the quality of life of students of a private medical college in Karachi in Pakistan.
Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among 217 medical students of Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry, Karachi from June 2017 to March 2018. Students were selected by a stratified sampling method and the World Health Organization Quality of Life BREF Instruments (WHO QOL-BREF) was used for the above-mentioned study. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 21 and Analysis of variance (ANOVA). Independent t-test was used as p <0.05 significant.
Results: A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed among 2nd year, 3rd year, 4th year and final year students and the response rate was 86.8%. Among them 48.5% (n=105) students were male and 51.5% (n=112) students were female, while 9.2% (n=20) students were currently ill and the other 90.8% (n=197) were healthy.
Conclusion: Medical education influences the quality of life (QOL) of students adversely. Social relationships and environmental domain were satisfactory in private medical institutes whereas physical and psychological progress was low due to academic load which requires improvement either by physical activities such as fitness classes or other extra-curricular activities.
doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.2.668
How to cite this:Aziz Y, Khan AY, Shahid I, Khan MA, Aisha. Quality of life of students of a private medical college. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(2):255-259. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.2.668
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Standardized approaches for clinical sampling and endpoint ascertainment in tuberculous meningitis studies
Authors: Rohlwink Ursula K , Chow Felicia C , Wasserman Sean , Dian Sofiati , Lai Rachel PJ , Chaidir Lidya , Hamers Raph L , Wilkinson Robert J , Boulware David R , Cresswell Fiona V , van Laarhoven Arjan ,   Tuberculous Meningitis International Research Consortium
Published: December 2019

Tuberculous meningitis (TBM), the most severe manifestation of tuberculosis, has poorly understood immunopathology and high mortality and morbidity despite antituberculous therapy. This calls for accelerated clinical and basic science research in this field. As TBM disproportionally affects poorer communities, studies are often performed in resource-limited environments, creating challenges for data collection and harmonisation. Comparison of TBM studies has been hampered by variation in sampling strategies, study design and choice of study endpoints. Based on literature review and expert consensus, this paper provides firstly, practical recommendations to enable thorough diagnostic, pathophysiological and pharmacokinetic studies using clinical samples, and facilitates better data aggregation and comparisons across populations and settings. Secondly, we discuss clinically relevant study endpoints, including neuroimaging, functional outcome, and cause of death, with suggestions of how these could be applied in different designs for future TBM studies.
Temporal patterns of words with and without suffixes in spontaneous Hungarian
Authors: Gósy Mária , Gocsál Ákos 
Published: December 2019

Temporal properties of words are defined by physiological, psychical, and language-specific factors. Lexical representations are assumed to be stored either in a morphologically decomposed form or in a conceptually non-decomposed form. We assumed that the duration of words with and without suffixes would refer to the route of their lexical access. Measured durations of Hungarian nouns with various lengths produced by 10 speakers in spontaneous utterances revealed significant differences, depending on the words’ morphological structures. Durations of monomorphemic nouns were shorter than those of multimorphemic nouns, irrespective of the number of syllables they contained. Our interpretation is that multimorphemic words are accessed decompositionally in spontaneous speech, meaning that stem activation of the semantic representation is followed by activation of one or more suffixes. Durational differences of monomorphemic and multimorphemic words were not stable across word lengths. The number of suffixes did not influence the words’ temporal patterns.
Kokkuvõte. Mária Gósy ja Ákos Gocsál: Sufiksiga ja sufiksita sõnade ajaline struktuur spontaanses ungari keeles. Sõnade ajalised omadused sõltuvad füsioloogilistest, psühholoogilistest ja keelespetsiifilistest teguritest. Eelduste kohaselt on sõnad mentaalses leksikonis representeeritud kas morfeemideks analüüsituna või tervikmõistena. Uurimuses lähtuti eeldusest, et sufiksiga ja sufiksita sõnade kestus viitab sellele, kuidas juurdepääs neile toimub. Mõõdeti kümne kõneleja spontaansetes lausungites produtseeritud eri pikkusega ungari nimisõnade kestust. Ilmnes, et kestus sõltus oluliselt sõna morfoloogilisest ülesehitusest. Tüvisõnade kestus oli tuletiste omast lühem, sõltumata silpide arvust sõnas. Järelduseks saadi, et juurdepääs tuletistele toimub spontaanses kõnes osade kaupa: tüve semantilise representatsiooni aktiveerimisele järgneb sufiksi või sufiksite aktiveerimine. Tüvisõnade ja tuletiste kestuserinevused olid eri pikkusega sõnade puhul erinevad. Sufiksite arv sõna ajalist struktuuri ei mõjutanud.
Märksõnad: kestus, nimisõnad, tüvisõnad ja tuletised, leksikaalne juurdepääs, spontaansed lausungid
CRIMES CONTRA O MEIO AMBIENTE E AÇÕES DO MINISTÉRIO PÚBLICO NO MUNICÍPIO DE MOSSORÓ - RN NO PERÍODO DE 2013 A 2017
Authors: Escobar Marco Lunardi , Queiroz Raimundo Alberto Costa 
Published: December 2019

Os impactos ambientais no município de Mossoró/RN é um dos temas mais debatidos pela academia, orgãos governamentais e a sociedade. Nesse contexto, o principal objetivo deste trabalho é demonstrar que tipos de possíveis crimes ambientais foram praticados no município de Mossoró/RN, com recorte temporal de 2013 a 2017 e quais as ações desenvolvidas pelo Ministério Público na tentativa de combater estas ocorrências. A pesquisa é um estudo de caso, de cunho quanti-qualitativa, que adota o método indutivo. Utilizou-se revisão bibliográfica, pesquisa documental, levantamento de informações, através da observação de campo e junto à órgãos públicos municipais e estaduais envolvidos com a questão ambiental, além de entrevistas com alguns representantes de instituições de proteção ambiental. A pesquisa quantificou uma classificação das infrações em uma análise de 91 processos penais ambientais. Constatou-se que o Ministério Público se mostra atuante, por desenvolver um importante trabalho no combate aos crimes ambientais que foram praticados no município, seja no âmbito repressivo ou preventivo, apesar da existência de fatores, que limitaram a sua atuação, como por exemplo o fato dos órgãos de fiscalização ambiental apresentarem deficiências no tocante a estrutura e ao número reduzido de efetivo.
Experiments and Analysis of a Conveying Device for Soil Separation and Clod-Crushing for a Potato Harvester
Authors: Wei ZhongCai , Li HongWen , Sun ChuanZhu , Su Guoliang , Liu WenZheng , Li Xueqiang 
Published: December 2019

Abstract. Bruising and damage losses are the most important key factors restricting the potato harvesting mechanization. The experimental work was conducted on an in-house conveying device for soil separation and clod-crushing testbed, which could be used to set a constant potato-soil proportion. In this work, a preliminary study was carried out to clarify the soil cushioning the potatoes travelling on separation sieve at different separation stages. Impact characteristics and movement processes were also studied. An impact recording device and high-speed camera technology were employed to obtain the instantaneous dynamics of the potato-soil mixture. The peak acceleration does not exceed 28.20 g when the potato-soil proportion increases from 18.07% to 38.55%; the peak acceleration reached 105.33 g when the potato-soil proportion was 100%. The number of impacts and peak impact acceleration are positively correlated with the vibration intensity of shaking rubber wheel under the condition of the same potato-soil proportion. It is noteworthy that the influence of the potato-soil proportion on the number of impacts and the peak impact acceleration was more obvious than that of the running speed of the separation sieve. This work provides a technical reference for the further investigation of bruising minimization and potato-soil separation technology. Keywords: Impact recording, Motion characteristics, Potato, Potato-soil proportion, Potato-soil separation.
Comparison of Stationary and Moving Infrared Thermometer Measurements Aboard a Center Pivot
Authors: Colaizzi Paul D. , O’Shaughnessy Susan A. , Evett Steven R. , Andrade Manuel A. 
Published: December 2019

HighlightsStationary and moving infrared thermometers aboard a center pivot were compared.Comparisons were in terms of directional brightness temperature discrepancies.Discrepancies were within 1.8°C, and many were within 1.0°C.Larger discrepancies tended to occur for sparser vegetation cover.Abstract. Infrared thermometers (IRTs) can measure canopy temperature, which is useful for irrigation and crop management. Center pivot and lateral move irrigation systems are suitable platforms to transport IRTs across cropped fields at regular intervals. IRTs aboard center pivots, when used in conjunction with irrigation scheduling algorithms, have resulted in crop yield and crop water productivity that is equivalent to or greater than what can be achieved using soil water measurements of the root zone profile with a field-calibrated neutron probe. Irrigation scheduling algorithms perform best when stationary IRT measurements are supplemented with moving IRT arrays, where the former provides time series data and the latter provides spatially distributed data. However, the normal deflection of moving irrigation systems and other confounding factors have caused concern that moving IRT measurements may be degraded relative to stationary IRT measurements. Directional brightness temperatures (TB) measured by stationary and moving IRTs were compared over two corn and one potato season at the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bushland, Texas. Moving and stationary TB were compared in terms of root mean square error, mean absolute error, and mean bias error, and were all &lt; 1.8°C, and many were &lt; 1.0°C, and r2 = 0.95. Error terms tended to be larger for potato, which had less vegetation cover compared with corn. However, error terms were similar to previous studies of calibration and spatial variability for IRTs and thermal imagers. Therefore, TB measurements of moving IRTs did not appear to be degraded relative to TB measurements of stationary IRTs for this study. However, interpretation of stationary and moving IRT measurements may be aided by addition of low cost imagers to distinguish vegetation from soil background. Keywords: Canopy temperature, Crop management, Evapotranspiration, Irrigation, Remote sensing, Sensors.
High-spatial-resolution fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensor based on Φ-OFDR with enhanced crosstalk suppression
Authors: Li He , Liu Qingwen , Chen Dian , Deng Yuanpeng , He Zuyuan 
Published: December 2019

A high-sensitivity and high-spatial-resolution distributed acoustic sensor based on phase-sensitive optical frequency domain reflectometry (

Φ

-OFDR) is proposed. The vibration information is retrieved from the phase change of the complex Rayleigh backscattering. Inner-pulse division and rotating-vector-sum methods are employed to overcome the fading problem and to suppress the crosstalk along the fiber. For the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the waveforms of two simultaneous kilohertz-level vibrations along a 950 m fiber are recovered thanks to the enhanced crosstalk suppression ratio. The spatial resolution of 12 cm and strain resolution of

1

n

ε

/

H
z

are experimentally achieved.
Anti-interference single-photon LiDAR using stochastic pulse position modulation
Authors: Tsai Chia-Ming , Liu Yung-Chien 
Published: December 2019

This Letter introduces an anti-interference single-photon light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system with photon-driven stochastic pulse position modulation. A photon arrival sequence with a programmable minimum interval time and trigger rate was proposed to trigger laser pulses, thus providing true nature-based randomness in modulation which is beneficial for achieving better anti-interference capability. In the proposed LiDAR system, two complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are used as an optical receiver and to generate a random trigger pattern of a pulsed laser. To prevent the range ambiguity problem, an interval-time filter capable of controlling the minimum interval time is integrated into the LiDAR system. A trigger rate controller capable of adaptively controlling the driving voltage of a light-emitting diode coupled with the SPAD responsible for the generation of the random trigger sequence is also integrated for achieving a precise control of trigger rate. Finally, a proof-of-concept demonstration was provided through experiments, and the obtained results were consistent with theoretical predictions. At an effective trigger rate of 800 kHz, an excellent suppression ratio of 56.2 dB has been achieved in the presence of a 1 MHz periodic interference.
Amorphous Ga–Sb–Se thin films fabricated by co-sputtering
Authors: Halenkovič Tomáš , Gutwirth Jan , Bouška Marek , Calvez Laurent , Němec Petr , Nazabal Virginie 
Published: December 2019

Ternary chalcogenides of a Ga–Sb–Se system are prospective materials for potential applications in the field of infrared optics. This Letter deals with the optical properties and photosensitivity of Ga–Sb–Se thin films deposited by co-sputtering, enabling us to fabricate amorphous thin films outside the glass-forming region. The optical bandgap range of 1.92–1.35 eV with corresponding refractive indices at 1.55 µm ranging from 2.47 to 3.33 can be reliably covered using

G
a

2

S
e

3

and

S
b

2

S
e

3

targets. Furthermore, the prolonged irradiation by the near-bandgap light under the pure argon atmosphere leads to the irreversible photo-bleaching effect in fabricated films. The magnitude of this effect decreases monotonically with an increasing antimony content.
Luminescence lifetime imaging using a cellphone camera with an electronic rolling shutter
Authors: Xiong Bo , Fang Qiyin 
Published: December 2019

Luminescence lifetime imaging systems are typically complex and expensive instruments targeting bench-top applications. We present a low-cost approach for video frame rate luminescence lifetime imaging on the microsecond scale based on a cellphone camera. The luminescence lifetime is mapped by measuring the phase shift of optical fringes captured by a camera with an electronic rolling shutter at 30 frames per second. Luminescence lifetime imaging is validated by observing a platinum(II)-5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorphenyl)-porphyrin (PtTFPP)/polystyrene film with a non-uniform lifetime distribution. The experimental results indicate a lifetime resolution of 580 ns when a lifetime of 22 µs is measured. This device is portable, low in cost, and shows potential in point-of-care diagnostic and environment applications that measure long-lifetime luminescence.
Tissue and Cell-Free DNA-Based Epigenomic Approaches for Cancer Detection
Authors: Leal Alessandro , Sidransky David , Brait Mariana 
Published: December 2019

AbstractBACKGROUNDOver 9 million people die of cancer each year worldwide, reflecting the unmet need for effective biomarkers for both cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Cancer diagnosis is complex because the majority of malignant tumors present with long periods of latency and lack of clinical presentation at early stages. During carcinogenesis, premalignant cells experience changes in their epigenetic landscapes, such as differential DNA methylation, histone modifications, nucleosome positioning, and higher orders of chromatin changes that confer growth advantage and contribute to determining the biologic phenotype of human cancers.CONTENTRecent progress in microarray platforms and next-generation sequencing approaches has allowed the characterization of abnormal epigenetic patterns genome wide in a large number of cancer cases. The sizable amount of processed data also comes with challenges regarding data management and assessment for effective biomarker exploration to be further applied in prospective clinical trials. Epigenetics-based single or panel tests of genes are being explored for clinical management to fulfill unmet needs in oncology. The advance of these tests to the clinical routine will depend on rigorous, extensive, and independent validation in well-annotated cohort of patients and commercial development of clinical routine–friendly and adequate procedures.SUMMARYIn this review we discuss the analytic validation of tissue and cell-free DNA-based epigenomic approaches for early cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment monitoring and the clinical utility of candidate epigenetic alterations applied to colorectal, glioblastoma, breast, prostate, bladder, and lung cancer management.