211 research outputs found

    Incidence, prevalence, and clinical course of hepatitis C following liver transplantation

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    Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the agent responsible for posttransfusion hepatitis. The incidence, timing, and clinical course of HCV positive hepatitis in liver transplant recipients are unknown. Three hundred and seventeen donor-recipient liver transplant pairs were grouped on the basis of their pretransplant HCV antibody status. The biopsy findings were examined. Four distinct groups were identified on the basis of HCV serology: group I, both were negative; group II, donor was negative and recipient was positive; group III, donor was positive and recipient was negative; group IV, both were positive. The prevalence of anti-HCV positivity in recipients was 13.6%. The rate of seroconversion was 9.2%. Histologic hepatitis not ascribable to any specific cause other than non-A, non-B (NANB) hepatitis occurred in 13.8%. The incidence of histologic chronic active hepatitis was 1.6%, and none progressed to cirrhosis. The concordance rate for a positive anti-HCV serology and NANB hepatitis was 2.8%. Of the 35 patients (group II and IV) with positive anti-HCV serology pretransplant, only 17 were positive posttransplantation. Based on these data it can be concluded that posttransplant NANB hepatitis occurred in 13.8% of liver recipients. Twenty percent of these were anti-HCV positive. Progression to histologic chronic active hepatitis occurs over a period of 1-5 years in 1.6% of cases. © 1992

    Automated Intelligent Monitoring and the Controlling Software System for Solar Panels

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    The inspection of the solar panels on a periodic basis is important to improve longevity and ensure performance of the solar system. To get the most solar potential of the photovoltaic (PV) system is possible through an intelligent monitoring & controlling system. The monitoring & controlling system has rapidly increased its popularity because of its user-friendly graphical interface for data acquisition, monitoring, controlling and measurements. In order to monitor the performance of the system especially for renewable energy source application such as solar photovoltaic (PV), data-acquisition systems had been used to collect all the data regarding the installed system. In this paper the development of a smart automated monitoring & controlling system for the solar panel is described, the core idea is based on IoT (the Internet of Things). The measurements of data are made using sensors, block management data acquisition modules, and a software system. Then, all the real-time data collection of the electrical output parameters of the PV plant such as voltage, current and generated electricity is displayed and stored in the block management. The proposed system is smart enough to make suggestions if the panel is not working properly, to display errors, to remind about maintenance of the system through email or SMS, and to rotate panels according to a sun position using the Ephemeral table that stored in the system. The advantages of the system are the performance of the solar panel system which can be monitored and analyzed

    Quantitative model for inferring dynamic regulation of the tumour suppressor gene p53

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    Background: The availability of various "omics" datasets creates a prospect of performing the study of genome-wide genetic regulatory networks. However, one of the major challenges of using mathematical models to infer genetic regulation from microarray datasets is the lack of information for protein concentrations and activities. Most of the previous researches were based on an assumption that the mRNA levels of a gene are consistent with its protein activities, though it is not always the case. Therefore, a more sophisticated modelling framework together with the corresponding inference methods is needed to accurately estimate genetic regulation from "omics" datasets. Results: This work developed a novel approach, which is based on a nonlinear mathematical model, to infer genetic regulation from microarray gene expression data. By using the p53 network as a test system, we used the nonlinear model to estimate the activities of transcription factor (TF) p53 from the expression levels of its target genes, and to identify the activation/inhibition status of p53 to its target genes. The predicted top 317 putative p53 target genes were supported by DNA sequence analysis. A comparison between our prediction and the other published predictions of p53 targets suggests that most of putative p53 targets may share a common depleted or enriched sequence signal on their upstream non-coding region. Conclusions: The proposed quantitative model can not only be used to infer the regulatory relationship between TF and its down-stream genes, but also be applied to estimate the protein activities of TF from the expression levels of its target genes

    Coronary angiography enhancement for visualization

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    High quality visualization on X-ray angiograms is of great significance both for the diagnosis of vessel abnormalities and for coronary interventions. Algorithms for improving the visualization of detailed vascular structures without significantly increasing image noise are currently demanded in the market. A new algorithm called stick-guided lateral inhibition (SGLI) is presented for increasing the visibility of coronary vascular structures. A validation study was set up to compare the SGLI algorithm with the conventional unsharp masking (UM) algorithm on 20 still frames of coronary angiographic images. Ten experienced QCA analysts and nine cardiologists from various centers participated in the validation. Sample scoring value (SSV) and observer agreement value (OAV) were defined to evaluate the validation result, in terms of enhancing performance and observer agreement, respectively. The mean of SSV was concluded to be 77.1 ± 11.9%, indicating that the SGLI algorithm performed significantly better than the UM algorithm (P-value < 0.001). The mean of the OAV was concluded to be 70.3%, indicating that the average agreement with respect to a senior cardiologist was 70.3%. In conclusion, this validation study clearly demonstrates the superiority of the SGLI algorithm in the visualization of coronary arteries from X-ray angiograms

    Use of tobacco and alcohol by Swiss primary care physicians: a cross-sectional survey

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    BACKGROUND: Health behaviours among doctors has been suggested to be an important marker of how harmful lifestyle behaviours are perceived. In several countries, decrease in smoking among physicians was spectacular, indicating that the hazard was well known. Historical data have shown that because of their higher socio-economical status physicians take up smoking earlier. When the dangers of smoking become better known, physicians began to give up smoking at a higher rate than the general population. For alcohol consumption, the situation is quite different: prevalence is still very high among physicians and the dangers are not so well perceived. To study the situation in Switzerland, data of a national survey were analysed to determine the prevalence of smoking and alcohol drinking among primary care physicians. METHODS: 2'756 randomly selected practitioners were surveyed to assess subjective mental and physical health and their determinants, including smoking and drinking behaviours. Physicians were categorised as never smokers, current smokers and former smokers, as well as non drinkers, drinkers (AUDIT-C < 4 for women and < 5 for men) and at risk drinkers (higher scores). RESULTS: 1'784 physicians (65%) responded (men 84%, mean age 51 years). Twelve percent were current smokers and 22% former smokers. Sixty six percent were drinkers and 30% at risk drinkers. Only 4% were never smokers and non drinkers. Forty eight percent of current smokers were also at risk drinkers and 16% of at risk drinkers were also current smokers. Smoking and at risk drinking were more frequent among men, middle aged physicians and physicians living alone. When compared to a random sample of the Swiss population, primary care physicians were two to three times less likely to be active smokers (12% vs. 30%), but were more likely to be drinkers (96% vs. 78%), and twice more likely to be at risk drinkers (30% vs. 15%). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of current smokers among Swiss primary care physicians was much lower than in the general population in Switzerland, reflecting that the hazards of smoking are well known to doctors. However, the opposite was found for alcohol use, underlining the importance of making efforts in this area to increase awareness among physicians of the dangers of alcohol consumption

    Novel Evolved Immunoglobulin (Ig)-Binding Molecules Enhance the Detection of IgM against Hepatitis C Virus

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    Detection of specific antibodies against hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most widely available test for viral diagnosis and monitoring of HCV infections. However, narrowing the serologic window of anti-HCV detection by enhancing anti-HCV IgM detection has remained to be a problem. Herein, we used LD5, a novel evolved immunoglobulin-binding molecule (NEIBM) with a high affinity for IgM, to develop a new anti-HCV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using horseradish peroxidase-labeled LD5 (HRP-LD5) as the conjugated enzyme complex. The HRP-LD5 assay showed detection efficacy that is comparable with two kinds of domestic diagnostic kits and the Abbott 3.0 kit when tested against the national reference panel. Moreover, the HRP-LD5 assay showed a higher detection rate (55.9%, 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) 0.489, 0.629) than that of a domestic diagnostic ELISA kit (Chang Zheng) (53.3%, 95% CI 0.463, 0.603) in 195 hemodialysis patient serum samples. Five serum samples that were positive using the HRP-LD5 assay and negative with the conventional anti-HCV diagnostic ELISA kits were all positive for HCV RNA, and 4 of them had detectable antibodies when tested with the established anti-HCV IgM assay. An IgM confirmation study revealed the IgM reaction nature of these five serum samples. These results demonstrate that HRP-LD5 improved anti-HCV detection by enhancing the detection of anti-HCV IgM, which may have potential value for the early diagnosis and screening of hepatitis C and other infectious diseases
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