: ABO blood types have been implicated as potential risk factors for various hemorrhagic diseases. No study has investigated the association between gastroesophageal variceal bleeding and ABO blood ...types. We aimed to evaluate the impact of ABO blood types on mortality and bleeding risk in acute gastroesophageal variceal bleeding.
: This is a retrospective observational study. Patients presenting with acute gastroesophageal varices bleeding diagnosed by endoscopy were enrolled, and were divided by blood type into a type O group and non-type O group. The outcomes were death within 30 days and the proportion of further bleeding. We used generalized linear mixed-effects models to analyze the outcomes.
: A total of 327 patients and 648 records of emergency room visits were included. The 30-day mortality was 14.8% (21 of 142 patients) in the type O group, and 16.2% (30 of 185 patients) in the non-type O group (
= 0.532). Further bleeding within 30 days occurred in 34 cases (12.6%) in the type O group, and in 26 cases (6.9%) in the non-type O group (
= 0.539).
: There was no significant difference in blood transfusion volume in 24 h, recurrent bleeding rates, or mortality between patients with blood type O and those with non-type O.
Suicide becomes a serious problem in today's society and hanging is a common method of suicide. We want to find the factors which can predict the final functional outcomes of these cases.
All ...patients who presented to Accident and Emergency Department (ED) of the National Cheng Kung University Hospital from 1st January 2005 to 31th December 2013 with a hanging injury were included in this study. All cases were divided into good outcome group and bad outcome group according to Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS). Data was analyzed by Mann-Whitney test and chi-square test.
Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) < 3, pupil dilation and no pupillary light reflex both at the scene and ED were the factors to indicate poor functional outcome. Out-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), acidosis (pH < 7.2) and the need for intubation once arriving at ED were also related to poor functional outcome. OHCA cases all had poor functional outcome.
GCS, pupil size, pupillary light reflex, OHCA and acidosis are useful as prognostic factors. GCS = 3 lead to a very poor outcome. However, the functional outcome seems good in patients with GCS>3. There parameters can help to predict the outcome before treatment.
Human thoracic stiffness varies and may affect the performance during external chest compression (ECC). The Extra Compression Spring Resusci® QCPR Anne manikin is a high-fidelity training model ...developed for ECC training that can account for varying levels of thoracic stiffness. The aim of this study was to use this training model to investigate the effects of thoracic stiffness on ECC biomechanics and qualities.
Fifty-two participants performed standard ECC on the manikin with different thoracic springs to simulate varying levels of thoracic stiffness. The MatScan Pressure Measurement system was used to investigate the ECC pressure and force distribution.
The hard spring group’s performance had a better complete recoil ratio (90.06 ± 24.84% vs. 79.75 ± 32.17% vs. 56.42 ± 40.15%, p < 0.001 at second minute), but was more inferior than the standard and soft spring groups in overall quality, ECC depth (34.17 ± 11.45 mm vs. 41.25 ± 11.42 mm vs. 51.88 ± 7.56, p < 0.001 at second minutes), corrected depth ratio, and corrected rate ratio. The hard spring group had less radial-ulnar peak pressure difference (kgf/cm2) than the other two groups (−0.28 ± 0.38 vs. −0.30 ± 0.43 vs. −0.47 ± 0.34, p = 0.01), demonstrating that more symmetrical pressure was applied in the hard spring group. The soft spring group had better ECC depth, corrected depth ratio, corrected rate ratio, and overall quality, but its performance in complete recoil was inferior, and unbalanced pressure was more liable to cause injury. Hard springs caused operator fatigue easily.
The thoracic stiffness greatly affected the performance of ECC. Our findings provided information for more effective ECC practices and training.
Biomechanics; Chest compression; Manikin; Pressure mapping; Resuscitation; Thoracic stiffness.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary for medical personnel to protect themselves from aerosol-producing procedures, especially during airway management. The tracheal intubation process has a ...significant risk based on the spreading of aerosol, especially when the medical service provider is very close to the airway of the patient. We have developed a novel conservation tent that provides a barrier for healthcare professionals and patients. Through a simulation study, the relationship between the use of the protection tent during intubation and the contamination of medical personnel before and after the movement of the protection tent was explored. A series of experiments in this article provide a theoretical basis for the verification of spray morphology during gas curing and droplet intubation. This inexpensive and simple method for using transparent cloth in the intubation of patients with unknown COVID-19 status can be applied by frontline medical personnel as an additional precautionary measure.
OBJECTIVEThe loading force applied in infant external chest compression (ECC) has not been determined. The objective of this crossover study was to quantify the actual force involved in two-thumb ...(TT)-encircling hands and two-finger (TF) methods during infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
METHODSA total of 42 emergency medical professionals performed lone rescuer infant external chest compression (ECC) with TF and TT methods. The order of two methods was arranged randomly, with an interval of 30 min in between. The force was collected by MatScan as primary outcomes. The secondary outcomes, quality of chest compressions, and fatigue level were also recorded by SkillReporter and perceived exertion scale.
RESULTSUsing the TT method, the rescuers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with higher ECC quality, but more incomplete recoil than they did using the TF method. The mean compression forces delivered in the first and second minutes were 3.53 ± 1.27 kg and 3.22 ± 1.11 kg (P = 0.012) for TF and 4.11 ± 1.80 kg and 4.04 ± 1.83 kg (P = 0.568) for TT, respectively. Pairwise comparison indicates that the compression force delivered through the TF method during the first and second minute of ECC were inferior to that delivered through the TT method. The TF method involved greater perceived exertion than the TT method (5.27 ± 4.69 vs. 4.02 ± 2.31; P = 0.007). The median perceived exertions for the TF and TT methods were 5 and 4, respectively.
CONCLUSIONFor infant CPR, the TT method involved greater loading force, lower fatigue, and higher overall ECC quality than the TF method. The optimal compression force is about 3.8–4.3 kg.
Brain-specific angiogenesis inhibitor 1 (BAI1)-associated protein 2-like 1 (BAIAP2L1), also known as insulin receptor tyrosine kinase substrate (IRTKS), is involved in plasma membrane protrusion and ...actin formation during cell morphogenesis and migration. BAIAP2L1 is recently reported to promote cell proliferation through activation of the EGFR-ERK pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma. In this study, we report the first comprehensive study of BAIAP2L1 upregulation in human ovarian cancer. Upregulation of BAIAP2L1 in ovarian tumors was first found during RNA screening and confirmed by immunohistochemical studies on ovarian cancers and other cancer types. Significant upregulation of BAIAP2L1 in ovarian cancer was validated by analyzing multiple independent cohorts in publicly available data sets. Furthermore, BAIAP2L1 protein expression in metastatic lesions was higher than the corresponding primary tumors. Functional assays in ovarian cancer cells revealed that BAIAP2L1 is involved in promoting cell proliferation and avoiding apoptosis. In conclusion, results of this study not only indicate that BAIAP2L1 can be used as a biomarker for human ovarian cancer but also reveal its role in cancer biology. Further elucidation of the role of BAIAP2L1 in context of the insulin receptor signaling pathways of cancer cells is warranted for developing cancer therapeutics by targeting cancer-specific metabolism.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Recently, heterogeneous computing that incorporates the main processor(s) with accelerator(s) for boosting the performance of applications becomes popular. While joining forces of the accelerators ...could help improve performance, it may also sometimes produce the negative results. In particular, this happens during the execution of the image processing applications. Halide, in particular, has such a problem. Our previous study found that dynamically dispatching image processing tasks to the CPU and the GPU could often lead to prolonged execution time. In this paper, we propose a profile-guided job dispatching mechanism to better harness the computing power of the different types of computing elements. The proposed mechanism assigns the computation tasks onto the proper computing elements, based on the measured performance during the early rounds of the task execution. We implemented the proposed mechanism in the Halide framework. We evaluate the efficiency of the dispatching method with two benchmarks, including bilateral grid filters and local Laplacian filters using the CPU-only, the GPU-only and the hybrid CPU-GPU configurations. Our results show that the profile-guided approach boosts the performance with 1K resolution which is 52% faster than the dynamic approach for local Laplacian filters. On the other hand, for bilateral grid filters, the difference is within 7%. For local Laplacian filters with 8K resolution, the boosted performance is 38% faster than the dynamic approach. In addition, for bilateral grid filters, the difference is within 7%. As a result, it delivers better results than dispatching mechanism in previous work. Since the high-level C++ objects are offered to the programmers and the implementation details of the proposed method are hidden from them, the programmers are allowed to focus on the application logics rather than coordinating the computation between the heterogeneous computing elements.
Spatial orientation memory plays a crucial role in animal navigation. Recent studies of tethered
Drosophila melanogaster
(fruit fly) in a virtual reality setting showed that the head direction is ...encoded in the form of an activity bump, i.e., localized neural activity, in the torus-shaped ellipsoid body (EB). However, how this system is involved in orientation working memory is not well understood. We investigated this question using free moving flies (
D. melanogaster
) in a spatial orientation memory task by manipulating two EB subsystems, C and P circuits, which are hypothesized for stabilizing and updating the activity bump, respectively. To this end, we suppressed or activated two types of inhibitory ring neurons (EIP and P) which innervate EB, and we discovered that manipulating the two inhibitory neuron types produced distinct behavioral deficits, suggesting specific roles of the inhibitory neurons in coordinating the stabilization and updating functions of the EB circuits. We further elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying such control circuits using a connectome-constrained spiking neural network model.
This study applied a prolonged DC magnetron sputtering technique to prepare two nanoporous columnar and well-crystallized titanium dioxide/tin indium oxide (TiO2/ITO) composite thin film electrodes ...for photoelectrocatalytic reactions. The visible light enabled TiO2/ITO electrode was obtained by carbon doping while sputtering thin-film TiO2 onto the proposed ITO substrate. Both photoelectrocatalytic hydrogen generation and dimethyl sulfoxides (DMSO) degradation experiments were conducted for evaluating the photoelectrocatalytic capabilities of the prepared samples. The contribution of ITO co-doping on photocatalytic activities of hetero-structured photocatalysts was investigated in the study. The experimental results show both samples primarily in anatase TiO2 crystallization phase. Due to a higher sputtering power is applied for carbon-doped TiO2/ITO (CTI) film preparation, the tin ions of ITO permeate into TiO2 film to form a crystalline Ti1−xSnxO2 interfacial layer, which results in CTI film with a higher photocatalytic oxidation rate of than the simple TiO2/ITO (STI). The dimethyl sulfoxides (DMSO) degradation rate by CTI is about 2.83-fold higher than by STI. Conversely, the STI, prepared at a lower sputtering power, produced much higher photocurrent density (∼230μAcm−2) and hydrogen yield rate (∼15.67μmolcm−2h−1) than the CTI owing to forming a higher Schottky barrier at the TiO2/ITO interface of STI film. These findings suggest that the interfacial characteristics of the TiO2/ITO film importantly affect their photocatalytic activities. This study also demonstrates that the prolonged DC magnetron sputtering technique can be applied to prepare thin-film photocatalysts with selective application purposes if suitable sputtering conditions can be carefully selected.
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