Optimal Cropping Patterns for Profit Maximization Using a Linear Programming Model: a Case Study in Njawara Village, the Gambia

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

Diagnosis, Management, and Pathogenetic Studies in Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Syndrome

A retrospective study of 224 patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) diagnosed between 1963 and 1988 was performed to 1) establish the diagnosis of MTC in early childhood, 2) establish the role of prophylactic regional lymphadenectomy in patients with MTC, 3) study the effect of chemotherapy on MTC patients with metastatic disease, 4) study the effect of somatostatin analog 201-995 (Sandoz Pharmaceuticals) on the frequency of diarrhea in MTC, and 5) locate the common region(s) of gene deletion on chromosome 1 and examine the loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 10 in tumors. Our data indicated that a progressive rise of serum calcitonin in early childhood (rather than the expected fall with age seen in normal subjects) is diagnostic of MTC. No differences in clinical course or prognosis were observed between patients with MTC localized to the thyroid who had prophylactic neck node dissection and those who did not. Conventional chemotherapy had no significant benefit in the treatment of patients with metastatic disease. The somatostatin analog was found to be an effeciive drug in the treatment of diarrhea associated with MTC. Allelic losses were frequently found in MTCs and pheochromocytomas, and the loss of DNA sequences in these tumors appeared to involve the distal third of the short arm of chromosome 1, with a common breakpoint at 1p32

Decision Support System For Safety Warning Of Bridge – A Case Study In Central Taiwan

This study aims at developing the decision support system (DSS) for safety warning of bridge. In the DSS, real-time and forecasted radar rainfalls are used to predict flood stage, velocity and scouring depth around bridge piers for one to three hours ahead. The techniques adopted in the DSS include (1) measurement and correction models of radar rainfall, (2) a grid-based distributed rainfall-runoff model for simulating reservoir inflows, (3) models for predicting flood stages, velocities and scouring depths around bridge piers, and (4) ultimate analysis approaches for evaluating safety of pier foundation. The DSS can support the management department to decide whether they should close bridges or not during floods. The proposed DSS gave a test-run during Typhoon Morakot in 2009 in Dajia River Basin, central Taiwan. The results show the DSS has reasonable performances during floods

Role of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I in the Autocrine Regulation of Cell Growth in TT Human Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Cells

Since the TT human medullary thyroid carcinoma cell line required fewer exogenous growth factors (serum), we investigated whether this line has an autocrine mechanism by examining the effects of antibodies directed toward insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and its receptor on TT cell growth in serum-free conditions. Treating cells with anti-IGF-I antibody for four days reduced the cell number by more than 50% compared with a nonimmune IgG control. Furthermore, a monoclonal antibody to the IGF-I receptor suppressed DNA synthesis when determined by a [3H]thymidine incorporation assay. Exogenous IGF-I (20 ng/mL) stimulated [3H]thymidine incorporation in serum-free medium; approximately 70% of the IGF-I-induced stimulation was blocked by the presence of the receptor antibody. Treating TT cells with IGF-I for 48 hours increased the cell population in the S phase by 62% when analyzed by flow cytometry. These data suggest that TT cells might respond to endogenously produced IGF-I and therefore provide an in vitro model for autocrine regulation of human tumor cell growth by IGF-I

Burkitt's Lymphoma Mimicking a Primary Gynecologic Tumor

SummaryObjectiveBurkitt's lymphoma (BL) occurs mostly in children; bilateral ovarian involvement mimicking a gynecologic malignancy in adults is extremely rare. Here, we report a patient with BL mimicking a gynecologic tumorCase ReportA 50-year-old Taiwanese woman presented with the complaint of persistent lower abdominal distension with dull pain, easy satiety, and progressively increasing abdominal girth for 2 weeks. Amenorrhea was also noted for about 2 months, and her review of systems was negative for the common “B” symptoms associated with lymphoma. At our hospital, imaging studies revealed a huge pelvic mass (10.8 ×8.7 cm), suggesting a large subserous myoma or an ovarian tumor. Under the impression of pelvic mass, she underwent exploratory laparotomy. Primary ovarian sex-cord malignancy with cecum involvement was impressed by the primitive intraoperative frozen section report. Subsequently, an optimal cytoreductive operation with right hemicolectomy was performed. However, final histopathologic report was an extranodal multifocal BL.ConclusionAlthough extranodal BL in ovaries is a rare condition, it should be noted in the differential diagnosis of pelvic gynecologic malignancies

Rainfall Variation under Different Climate Change Scenarios Based on Cmip3 and Cmip5 Projections: a Case Study in Taiwan

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

Effects of Domain Selection on Singular-Value-Decomposition Based Statistical Downscaling of Monthly Rainfall Accumulation in Southern Taiwan

A singular-value-decomposition (SVD) statistical downscaling technique was developed for monthly rainfall over southern Taiwan. The statistical model was applied to seven different general circulation models. Seven different geographical domains for the large-scale atmospheric predictors were tested and their effects on rainfall projections were evaluated. Because different climate models indicate different future rainfall projections, a multi-model ensemble approach was applied to provide best guess estimates. Using the multi-model ensemble, and a range of metrics, it was found that the different predictor geographical domains had little influence on the projected monthly rainfalls. Two emission climate change scenarios (A1B and B1) were used to project the future rainfalls for the period from 2010 to 2045 across southern Taiwan. Overall, future rainfall shows an increasing trend during the May-to-October wet season and a decreasing trend during the November-to-April dry season

A Classification and Prediction Hybrid Model Construction with the IQPSO-SVM Algorithm for Atrial Fibrillation Arrhythmia

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiovascular disease (CVD); and most existing algorithms are usually designed for the diagnosis (i.e.; feature classification) or prediction of AF. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms integrate the diagnosis of AF electrocardiogram (ECG) and predict the possibility that AF will occur in the future. In this paper; we utilized the MIT-BIH AF Database (AFDB); which is composed of data from normal people and patients with AF and onset characteristics; and the AFPDB database (i.e.; PAF Prediction Challenge Database); which consists of data from patients with Paroxysmal AF (PAF; the records contain the ECG preceding an episode of PAF); and subjects who do not have documented AF. We extracted the respective characteristics of the databases and used them in modeling diagnosis and prediction. In the aspect of model construction; we regarded diagnosis and prediction as two classification problems; adopted the traditional support vector machine (SVM) algorithm; and combined them. The improved quantum particle swarm optimization support vector machine (IQPSO-SVM) algorithm was used to speed the training time. During the verification process; the clinical FZU-FPH database created by Fuzhou University and Fujian Provincial Hospital was used for hybrid model testing. The data were obtained from the Holter monitor of the hospital and encrypted. We proposed an algorithm for transforming the PDF ECG waveform images of hospital examination reports into digital data. For the diagnosis model and prediction model trained using the training set of the AFDB and AFPDB databases; the sensitivity; specificity; and accuracy measures were 99.2% and 99.2%; 99.2% and 93.3%; and 91.7% and 92.5% for the test set of the AFDB and AFPDB databases; respectively. Moreover; the sensitivity; specificity; and accuracy were 94.2%; 79.7%; and 87.0%; respectively; when tested using the FZU-FPH database with 138 samples of the ECG composed of two labels. The composite classification and prediction model using a new water-fall ensemble method had a total accuracy of approximately 91% for the test set of the FZU-FPH database with 80 samples with 120 segments of ECG with three labels