Data Mining Techniques for Wind Speed Analysis

Weather Data Mining is a form of Data mining concerned with finding hidden patterns inside largely available meteorological data, so that the information retrieved can be transformed into usable knowledge. In this paper we used meteorological data mining to analyze wind speed behavior. The data was recorded between 2004 to November 2006 daily historical data by meteorological station of Gaza. After preprocessing the data, we applied data mining techniques: association rules, classification, cluster and outlier analysis. From these four tasks, we found the most appropriate of these techniques to be applied on weather data is classification task, especially the neural networks method because the nature of the data is time series

Recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) for uncontrolled bleeding post cardiac surgery

ObjectivesTo review recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) as rescue therapy in persistent severe hemorrhage in post cardiac surgical patients at our institution.DesignA retrospective observational study.Patients and methodsFrom 2004 till April 2010, all patients who received rFVIIa for bleeding of 3ml/kg/h or more for two consecutive hours after cardiac surgery were included. Surgical bleeding management, patient temperature correction, blood products replacement, and coagulant drugs administration preceded the rFVIIa.ResultsThe mean for chest tube drainage was significantly lower after the administration of rFVIIa compared to that before (1.2±1.08 vs. 4.1±2.3ml/kg/h, P=0.042). There was a significant decrease in the median of: aPTT (43.8 vs. 46.6s, P=0.027), ACT (128.9 vs. 131.7s, P=0.05), and INR (1.0 vs. 1.43, P=0.001) after the administration of rFVIIa compared to that before. The median of fibrinogen level and the platelet count showed non-significant increase after the rFVIIa doses (2.57 vs. 2.43gm/l, P=0.34 and 106 vs. 101 X109/l, P=0.27 respectively). Six patients (3.7%) needed re-exploration after the administration of rFVIIa. Five patients (3.2%) had thrombo-embolic complications. The small dose (40–50mcg/kg) was comparable to high dose (⩾80mcg/kg) of rFVIIa in terms of: mean chest tube bleeding within the first 4h, blood products required in the first 24h, re-exploration for bleeding or thrombotic complications.ConclusionrFVIIa produced significant reduction in chest tube bleeding post cardiac surgery with reduction in the administration of blood products. Small dose rFVIIa can be considered effective for intractable bleeding after cardiac surgery

Six-year follow-up of a pulmonary autograft in the mitral position: The Ross II procedure

AbstractJ Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1999;117:614-

Ross operation in children and young adults: the Alder Hey case series

BACKGROUND: The ideal prosthesis for aortic valve replacement in children and young adults has not been found yet. In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the replacement of aortic valve with the pulmonary autograft owing to its advantages of lack of anticoagulation, potential for growth and excellent haemodynamic performance. The purpose of this study was to review our institutional experience at Alder Hey hospital with the Ross procedure in children and young adults. METHODS: From November 1996 to September 2003, 38 patients (mean age, 13.1 ± 5.7 years) underwent the Ross procedure for various aortic valve diseases using the root replacement technique. Clinical and echocardiographic follow-up was performed early (within 30 days), 3 to 6 months, and yearly after surgery. Medical records of all patients were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: There was 1 perioperative death. The patients were followed-up for a median interval of 36 months and up to 7 years. One patient died 3 years after surgery secondary to ventricular arrhythmia with overall mortality of 5.3%. Actuarial survival at 7 years was 94 ± 2.5% and there was 100% freedom from reoperation for autograft valve dysfunction or any other cause. Balloon dilatation was required in 2 patients for pulmonary homograft stenosis. The haemodynamics at the latest follow-up were also similar to those at the time of discharge after surgery. There was no progression in the degree of aortic regurgitation for 11 patients with trivial and 3 with mild regurgitation. CONCLUSION: Our experience demonstrates that Ross operation is an attractive option for aortic valve replacement in children and young adults. Not only can the operation be accomplished with a low operative risk but the valve function stays normal over a long period of time with minimal alteration in lifestyle and no need for repeated operations to replace the valve as a result of somatic growth of the children

Characterizing the morbid genome of ciliopathies

Background Ciliopathies are clinically diverse disorders of the primary cilium. Remarkable progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis of these genetically heterogeneous conditions; however, our knowledge of their morbid genome, pleiotropy, and variable expressivity remains incomplete. Results We applied genomic approaches on a large patient cohort of 371 affected individuals from 265 families, with phenotypes that span the entire ciliopathy spectrum. Likely causal mutations in previously described ciliopathy genes were identified in 85% (225/265) of the families, adding 32 novel alleles. Consistent with a fully penetrant model for these genes, we found no significant difference in their “mutation load” beyond the causal variants between our ciliopathy cohort and a control non-ciliopathy cohort. Genomic analysis of our cohort further identified mutations in a novel morbid gene TXNDC15, encoding a thiol isomerase, based on independent loss of function mutations in individuals with a consistent ciliopathy phenotype (Meckel-Gruber syndrome) and a functional effect of its deficiency on ciliary signaling. Our study also highlighted seven novel candidate genes (TRAPPC3, EXOC3L2, FAM98C, C17orf61, LRRCC1, NEK4, and CELSR2) some of which have established links to ciliogenesis. Finally, we show that the morbid genome of ciliopathies encompasses many founder mutations, the combined carrier frequency of which accounts for a high disease burden in the study population. Conclusions Our study increases our understanding of the morbid genome of ciliopathies. We also provide the strongest evidence, to date, in support of the classical Mendelian inheritance of Bardet-Biedl syndrome and other ciliopathies

Characterization of greater middle eastern genetic variation for enhanced disease gene discovery

The Greater Middle East (GME) has been a central hub of human migration and population admixture. The tradition of consanguinity, variably practiced in the Persian Gulf region, North Africa, and Central Asia1-3, has resulted in an elevated burden of recessive disease4. Here we generated a whole-exome GME variome from 1,111 unrelated subjects. We detected substantial diversity and admixture in continental and subregional populations, corresponding to several ancient founder populations with little evidence of bottlenecks. Measured consanguinity rates were an order of magnitude above those in other sampled populations, and the GME population exhibited an increased burden of runs of homozygosity (ROHs) but showed no evidence for reduced burden of deleterious variation due to classically theorized ‘genetic purging’. Applying this database to unsolved recessive conditions in the GME population reduced the number of potential disease-causing variants by four- to sevenfold. These results show variegated genetic architecture in GME populations and support future human genetic discoveries in Mendelian and population genetics