Variations In Different Parts Research Articles

Disease Burden of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Global Perspective.

Liver cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality around the world. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the primary cancer of the liver, accounting for the majority of liver cancers. The risk factors associated with HCC include chronic infections with HBV and HCV, alcoholic liver disease, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Additionally, male patients have higher risk for than females, and the risk increases with older age. Mortality rates for HCC parallel its increasing incidence rates. In this context, incidence rate for HCC shows geographic variations in different parts of the world and is heavily affected by regional differences in risk factor for liver disease. The highest incidence rates for HCC are observed in Asia and Africa, while Europe and North America have lower rates. In fact, HBV is still regarded as the leading cause of HCC globally, while HCV is the most common cause of HCC in the USA. Recently, it has been suggested that HCC cases related to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is on the rise, while the proportion of HCC attributed to alcoholic liver disease remains stable.

Clinicopathological, immunohistochemical charachtaristic and the outcome of Hodghkin lymphoma patients in Erbil city, Iraq

BACKGROUND: Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) has unique epidemiological features with diversified pathologies and exhibits considerable clinicopathological variations in different parts of the world. OBJECTIVES: We aimed in this study to assess clinic-pathological features, immunohistochemistry and outcome of HL patients treated in Erbil, northren Iraq. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective study conducted in Nanakaly Hospital for blood diseases and oncology in Erbil, North Iraq; a total of 125 patients diagnosed between January 2012 and December 2016 were involved; they were assessed for their clinical characteristics and histopathology and immunophenotyping findings and their outcome was evaluated as well. RESULTS: The median age was 28 years (range: 18–71 years); 55% were male and 41% had Stage II disease; common histological type is nodular sclerosis (51.2%) followed by mixed cellularity (43.2%); CD30 was positive in nearly all cases of classical HL, and CD15 was positive in 98.7% and CD20 was positive in 75% in nodular lymphocyte predominant subtype. Most of the patients received adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine chemotherapy, and the 5-year overall survival in our study is 70%. Advanced stage (IV), high lactate dehydrogenase level, low hemoglobin, and splenomegaly are significant predictors for poor survival. CONCLUSION: Our patient exhibited outcomes that were lower to those reported in developed countries.

Understanding geographical patterns of a city’s diurnal rhythm from aggregate data of location‐aware services

AbstractDo collective behaviors of the daily routine of a city's inhabitants form the periodical cycling of human activity at the city level (here termed the “city's diurnal rhythm”)? If the answer is yes, do there exist geographical patterns in the city's diurnal rhythm? Using a nationwide dataset of observed uses of location‐aware services in the largest Chinese social media platform, we first confirm the significant periodicity in city‐level human activity from the perspective of the aggregate degree of social media uses over a day. We then investigate geographical changes in the diurnal rhythm of human activity and its local variations in different parts of the city, and between weekdays and weekend days, over 340 Chinese cities. Our results show that a city's diurnal rhythm across the whole country exhibits both regular, nationally conspicuous shifts along geographical gradients and locally distinct spatiotemporal changes within the city. Our findings could provide insights into the characterization of the daily routine of city‐level human activity and its geographical patterns, and have potential for several issues in terms of planning, management, and decision‐making related to human population dynamics.

Pattern of Respiratory Diseases among Admitted Children in Pediatric Pulmonology Unit : A Tertiary Center Experiences

Background :_The spectrum of respiratory illness is wide and includes diseases of upper and lower airways, communicable and non-communicable types. The variation in pattern of morbidity mortality of respiratory illness may be affected by different environmental and climatic variation in different parts of the world.Objective : The present study intended to explore the pattern of respiratory illnesses seen in Bangladeshi children admitted with respiratory illnesses.Methods :_The present prospective observational study was conducted in children up to 12 years of age admitted with acute respiratory illness in pulmonology unit of Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospitalfrom July 2012 to July 2013. All children between the age limit with acute respiratory illness were included in the study. A standardized questionnaire was formulated and pretested. Then the data were collected through interview by using the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.Results : Total 1169 patients were admitted under pulmonology unit during July 2012 to June 2013 among them 324(27.7%) were admitted with respiratory diseases. Among the respiratory diseases Pneumonia (71.2%), Acute Bronchiolitis (20.1%), Bronchial Asthma (4.2%) and TB (2.7%) were commonest. Bronchopneumonia, Acute Bronchiolitis, Bronchial Asthma and TB was common among under 5 children and less common after 5 years. Male were predominate in every cases. Majority of respiratory cases were belonged to poor socioeconomic status. Pneumonia (50.7%) and Acute Bronchiolitis (58.5%) cases were found during autumn and late autumn. Asthma was common during late autumn and winter and Tuberculosis was common throughout the year. Mortality was higher among pneumonia cases.Conclusions :_Respiratory illness contributes most common cause of admission in tertiary care pediatric hospital. Bronchopneumonia is still the commonest respiratory disease with leading cause of mortality.Northern International Medical College Journal Vol.9(2) Jan 2018: 308-310

Phytochemical Screening and In-Vitro Antioxidant Activity of Peristrophe paniculata

Peristrophe paniculata is one of the traditional medicinal plant have been using in treatment of different diseases. The present study was carried out to provide scientific evidence about its medicinal use and phytochemical variation in different parts (stem, leaves and root) of it. Phytochemical studies were carried out for hexane, ethyl acetate and hydro alcoholic extracts using standard test procedures and antioxidant activity was carried on different free radicals i.e., superoxide, hydroxyl and 1, 1- diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). Hydroalcoholic, ethyl acetate and hexane extracts of P. paniculata were found to possess concentration dependent free radical scavenging activity on superoxide, hydroxyl and DPPH free radicals. Qualitative phytochemical screening of P. paniculata extracts revealed the presence of diverse in phytochemical constituents like steroids, terpenoids, flavonoids, alkaloids, glycosides, phenols, tannins and carbohydrates. The extracts of different parts gave negative and positive results for the amino acids, oils and saponins. The selected plant extracts showed concentration dependent percentage of inhibition on tested free radicals along with the standard drug ascorbic acid. The hexane extract of all parts of P. paniculata showed lower activity compared to ethyl acetate and hydroalcoholic extracts. Hydroalcoholic extract showed better activity. The variation in the activity and phytochemical constituents in them maybe due to the compounds present in them either as individually or in mixtures. The further research is need to evaluate more pharmacological activities and in isolation of the bioactive compounds from P. paniculata.

Cancer pattern among newly registered patients in a cancer hospital of South Gujarat

Background: Cancer is a chronic disease, its prevalence is increasing worldwide due to various advances exist for the diagnosis and treatment. Cancer occurs as a result of unusual growth of cells and invasion of nearby tissue and organs. At present, cancer is the second leading cause of death. Cancer distribution has a wide variation in different parts of the world. Objectives: To observe the pattern of different types of Cancer, Age and Gender wise distribution of common cancer in newly registered cancer patients at Cancer Treating Institute. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study conducted in newly registered cancer patients at D.B. Tejani Cancer Institute, Surat. Total 690 patients purposively selected from December 2015 to January 2016. Results: The most common sites of cancer in decreasing order were oral cavity (19%), female genital tract (15.1%), breast cancer (14.5%), gastrointestinal tract (11.3%), lympho-hematopoietic system (9.9%), respiratory tract (5.6%), and others. In less than 14 years, lymphatic leukemia was found to be the most common cancer in boys and ovarian cancer (25%) among girls. Conclusion: Tobacco-related cancer was more common among more than 15-year-old males, while breast cancer was the most common type of cancer in females.

Syntactic variation in ‘need’-constructions in Estonian dialects

The article contributes new data and findings to the growing field of corpus-based dialect syntax research. The focus of the paper is on variation in ‘need’-constructions (tarvis/vaja olema+ nominal complement/infinitive ‘need to’) based on the corpus of Estonian dialects. Our purpose was to demonstrate the complex nature of syntactic variation, constrained geographically, individually or by language-internal factors. The study takes a corpus-based quantitative approach to observing the geographical spread of linguistic units. We apply conditional inference tree and random forests models to capture the (co)varying parts of the construction studied. Our results show that variation in different parts of constructions is influenced by different factors, both geographical and language-internal. Lexical variation (adverbtarvis‘need’ orvaja‘need’) and omission of the copula are clearly geographically distributed, while omission of the experiencer is determined mainly by language-internal factors. However, the study has also found extensive inter-individual differences.

Hardness variation rate of precipitating electrons during Pi3 auroral pulsations

Photometric measurements of pulsating auroras have been carried out in the Pi3 range of geomagnetic pulsations with periods of 2–10 min with the use of auroral all-sky camera films obtained at the Lovozero Observatory. The new all-sky camera developed at the Polar Geophysical Institute uses the CCD matrix. This makes it possible to obtain simultaneous images in red, green, and blue spectral ranges and thus to investigate temporal luminosity variations in these spectral regions. The hardness of penetrating auroral electrons with a time resolution of a few seconds is qualitatively estimated. It is found that the energy of the electrons that cause auroras in the Pi3 pulsation range is not constant over the pulsation period. It is maximal at the lowest luminosity and minimal at its peaks. Luminosity pulsations are compared with geomagnetic pulsations, and it is established that large differences between luminosity variations in different parts of the sky explain the incomplete correspondence between the records of auroral and geomagnetic pulsations.

Hodgkin Lymphoma Outcome: A Retrospective Study from 3 Tertiary Centers in Saudi Arabia

Background: Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) exhibits considerable clinicopathological variations in different parts of the world. This study was prompted by the limited availability of HL data in developing countries (particularly long-term outcomes). Methods: We performed a retrospective review of eligible adult HL patients treated at 3 tertiary centers in Saudi Arabia between January 1997 and December 2012. Results: The review included 340 patients with a median age of 26 years (range 15-82 years); 53% were male, 74% had an advanced stage, 22% had bulky disease, and 70% had low-to-intermediate risk according to the International Prognostic Score. Nodular sclerosis was the most common histological subtype (59%). Adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD) was offered to 92% and radiotherapy to 43%. Initial therapy outcomes were complete response, partial response, and progressive disease in 91%, 5%, and 2% of patients, respectively. At a median follow-up of 39 months, the actuarial freedom from treatment failure at 5 years was 74%, with a 5-year overall survival of 91%. Multivariate analysis showed that advanced disease stage and high-risk international prognostic index independently predicted an adverse outcome. Conclusion: Our Saudi patient population exhibited outcomes that were comparable to those reported in developed countries.

Urban fabrics and urban metabolism – from sustainable to regenerative cities

This paper uses urban metabolism as a way to understand the sustainability of cities. It suggests that the city organism can reduce its metabolic footprint (resource inputs and waste outputs) whilst improving its livability. Like organisms, different cities have different metabolisms. This paper demonstrates that different parts of a city (walking, transit and automobile urban fabrics) also have different urban metabolisms. A detailed case study from the city of Perth, Australia, is used to demonstrate metabolic variations in different parts of the city. Understanding urban metabolism and the processes that drive it is the key to transitioning from ecologically extractive to sustainable cities. Through targeted improvements it is even possible for some elements of the city to become regenerative so that they restore parts of the degraded urban environment thus reversing damage to the biosphere.

Esophageal cancer in India: Current status and future perspectives

Esophageal cancer is the fourth common cause of cancer-related deaths in India. It is prevalent among both men and women. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) accounts for up to 80% of these cancers, although adenocarcinoma is on the increase due to changing lifestyles. The etiological factors for SCCs show a regional variation in different parts of India, but tobacco consumption in various forms, alcohol, hot beverages, and poor nutrition remain the predominant predisposing factors. Generally, these cancers present late and therefore have a poor prognosis. The current status of esophageal cancer in India in relation to the demographics, diagnosis, staging, multimodality treatment, surgical therapy, and the future perspectives are discussed in this review article.

Would Interstitial Fluid Flow be Responsible for Skeletal Maintenance in Tail-Suspended Rats?

Despite the fast development of manned space flight, the mechanism and countermeasures of weightlessness osteoporosis in astronauts are still within research. It is accepted that unloading has been considered as primary factor, but the precise mechanism is still unclear. Since bone’s interstitial fluid flow (IFF) is believed to be significant to nutrient supply and waste metabolism of bone tissue, it may influence bone quality as well. We investigated IFF’s variation in different parts of body (included parietal bone, ulna, lumbar, tibia and tailbone) of rats using a tail-suspended (TS) system. Ten female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into two groups: control (CON) and tail-suspension (TS) group. And after 21 days’ experiment, the rats were injected reactive red to observe lacuna’s condition under a confocal laser scanning microscope. The variations of IFF were analyzed by the number and area of lacuna. Volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD) and microarchitecture of bones were evaluated by micro-CT. The correlation coefficients between lacuna’s number/area and vBMD were also analyzed. According to our experimental results, a 21 days’ tail-suspension could cause a decrease of IFF in lumbar, tibia and tailbone and an increase of IFF in ulna. But in parietal bone, it showed no significant change. The vBMD and microarchitecture parameters also decreased in lumbar and tibia and increased in ulna. But in parietal bone and tailbone, it showed no significant change. And correlation analysis showed significant correlation between vBMD and lacuna’s number in lumbar, tibia and ulna. Therefore, IFF decrease may be partly contribute to bone loss in tail-suspended rats, and it should be further investigated.

UNCERTAINTY ASSESSMENT OF GLOBELAND30 LAND COVER DATA SET OVER CENTRAL ASIA

GlobeLand30, the world’s first 30m-resolution global land cover data set, has recently been issued for research on global change at a fine resolution. Given the accuracy of GlobeLand30 data may show significant variation in different parts of the world and data quality at continental scale has not been validated yet, this study aims to evaluate the uncertainty of the data over Central Asia. Since it is difficult to get long-term historical ground references, GlobeLand30 data at the most recent epoch (<i>i.e.</i>, GlobeLand30-2010) was assessed. In the test, a large sample size was adopted, and more than 25 thousand samples were selected by a random sampling scheme and interpreted manually as ground references based on higher resolution imagery at the same epoch, such as images from ZY-3 (China Resources Series) satellite and Google earth. Cross validation of image interpretation by three well-trained interpreters was adopted to make the references more reliable. Error matrix and <i>Kappa</i> coefficient were utilized to quantify data accuracies in terms of classification accuracy. Results show that the GlobeLand30-2010 data presents an overall accuracy of 46% in the study area. As for specific land cover types, bare land illustrates a high user’s accuracy but a lower producer’s accuracy. At the same time, the accuracies of grassland and forest are significantly lower than other types. The majority of misclassification types come from bare land. It implies a difficulty of distinguishing grassland or forest from bare land in the study area. In addition, the confusion between shrub land and grassland also results in the misclassification. The results serve as a useful reference of data accuracy for further analysis of land cover change in Central Asia as well as the applications of GlobeLand30 data at a regional or continental scale.

A reference sample for investigating the stability of the imaging system of x-ray computed tomography

The use of x-ray computed tomography for dimensional measurements associated with engineering applications has flourished in recent years. However, error sources associated with the technology are not well understood. In this paper, a novel two-sphere reference sample has been developed and used to investigate the stability of the imaging system that consists of an x-ray tube and a detector. In contrast with other research work reported, this work considered relative positional variation along the x-, y- and z-axes. This sample is a significant improvement over the one sphere sample proposed previously, which can only be used to observe the stability of the imaging system along x- and y-axes. Temperature variations of different parts of the system have been monitored and the relationship between temperature variations and x-ray image stability has been studied. Other effects that may also influence the stability of the imaging system have been discussed. The proposed reference sample and testing method are transferable to other types of x-ray computed tomography systems, for example, systems with transmission targets and systems with sub-micrometre focal spots.

UNCERTAINTY ASSESSMENT OF GLOBELAND30 LAND COVER DATA SET OVER CENTRAL ASIA

Abstract. GlobeLand30, the world’s first 30m-resolution global land cover data set, has recently been issued for research on global change at a fine resolution. Given the accuracy of GlobeLand30 data may show significant variation in different parts of the world and data quality at continental scale has not been validated yet, this study aims to evaluate the uncertainty of the data over Central Asia. Since it is difficult to get long-term historical ground references, GlobeLand30 data at the most recent epoch (i.e., GlobeLand30-2010) was assessed. In the test, a large sample size was adopted, and more than 25 thousand samples were selected by a random sampling scheme and interpreted manually as ground references based on higher resolution imagery at the same epoch, such as images from ZY-3 (China Resources Series) satellite and Google earth. Cross validation of image interpretation by three well-trained interpreters was adopted to make the references more reliable. Error matrix and Kappa coefficient were utilized to quantify data accuracies in terms of classification accuracy. Results show that the GlobeLand30-2010 data presents an overall accuracy of 46% in the study area. As for specific land cover types, bare land illustrates a high user’s accuracy but a lower producer’s accuracy. At the same time, the accuracies of grassland and forest are significantly lower than other types. The majority of misclassification types come from bare land. It implies a difficulty of distinguishing grassland or forest from bare land in the study area. In addition, the confusion between shrub land and grassland also results in the misclassification. The results serve as a useful reference of data accuracy for further analysis of land cover change in Central Asia as well as the applications of GlobeLand30 data at a regional or continental scale.

Changes in Arterial Access Site and Association With Mortality in the United Kingdom: Observations From a National Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Database.

The transradial access (TRA) site has become the default access site for percutaneous coronary intervention in the United Kingdom, with randomized trials and national registry data showing reductions in mortality associated with TRA use. This study evaluates regional changes in access site practice in England and Wales over time, examines whether changes in access site practice have been uniform nationally and across different patient subgroups, and provides national estimates for the potential number of lives saved or lost associated with regional differences in access site practice. Using the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society database, we investigated outcomes for growth of TRA in different regions in England and Wales in 448 853 patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention from 2005 to 2012. Multiple logistic regression was used to quantify the effect of TRA on 30-day mortality and quantify lives saved and lost by differences in TRA adoption. TRA use increased from 14.0% to 58.6% in 417 038 PCI patients with large variations in different parts of the country. TRA was independently associated with a decreased risk of 30-day mortality (odds ratio=0.70; 95% confidence interval=0.66-0.74), with significant but small differences observed across different regions. The number of estimated lives saved was 450 (95% confidence interval=275-650), and we estimate that an additional 264 (95% confidence interval=153-399) lives would have been saved if TRA adoption were uniform nationally. TRA has become the dominant percutaneous coronary intervention approach in the United Kingdom, with a wide variation in different parts of the country. Changes in practice have contributed to mortality reductions, and inequalities have resulted in missed opportunities for further improvements.

Geochemical forms and seasonal variations of phosphorus in surface sediments of the East China Sea shelf

Geochemical characteristics of phosphorus (P) in the surface sediments of the East China Sea shelf (ECSS) were studied in spring and autumn, 2014. Distributions, seasonal variations, transformations and their influencing factors were discussed. Besides, burial fluxes of P in different seasons were also calculated. Five operationally defined forms of P, namely exchangeable or loosely sorbed P (Ads-P), iron-bound P (Fe-P), authigenic P (Au-P), detrital apatite plus other inorganic P (De-P) and organic P (OP), were obtained using a sequential extraction procedure. Generally, the concentrations of Ads-P, Fe-P, Au-P and OP decreased seaward and the concentrations of De-P increased seaward in both seasons. In spring, the average concentrations of Ads-P, Fe-P, Au-P, De-P and OP were 13.8±5.0, 21.9±7.6, 148.5±44.5, 153.1±55.8 and 91.7±21.5μgg−1, respectively. The corresponding concentrations in autumn were 11.4±4.3, 20.0±10.9, 170.4±53.6, 225.6±101.7 and 77.1±33.9μgg−1, respectively. The average percentages of P fractions in total P (TP) in spring and autumn were both in the order: De-P>Au-P>OP>Fe-P>Ads-P. The average concentrations of Bio-available P (Bio-P) were 127.4±31.4μgg−1 in spring and 108.5±47.2μgg−1 in autumn, accounting for 29.8%±7.3% and 21.5%±8.2% of corresponding TP, respectively. Seasonal variations of the primary production, hydrodynamic conditions, hypoxia and other environmental conditions were responsible for the seasonal variations of different phosphorus forms. The calculation of burial fluxes reflected that, in most parts of the studied area, TP had relative high burial fluxes in autumn, while Bio-P had relatively high burial fluxes in spring. The burial fluxes of other phosphorus forms also showed different seasonal variations in different parts of the studied area.

Temperature Distribution Pattern of Brassica chinensis during Vacuum Cooling

The temperature distribution of leafy vegetables is often less uniform than that of other vegetables during the vacuum cooling process, a factor that can cause undesired effects such as frostbite. Brassica chinensis, a type of classical leafy vegetable, was used as a model in this paper to optimize vacuum cooling technology for the whole and fresh-cut leafy vegetables. We found that noticeable temperature differences between the leaf and the petiole occurred, which resulted from their structural difference. Temperature variations of different parts of the leaf were also observed, indicating that cooling rate of leaf margin was quicker than the other parts. Our experiments show that using a moderate volumetric displacement of the chamber (0.033 s−1) is beneficial for obtaining a relative uniform temperature distribution of the leaf part.

Hodgkin's Lymphoma Outcome: A Retrospective Study from Three Tertiary Centers in Saudi Arabia

Background: Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) demonstrates considerable clinicopathologic variations in different parts of the world. Prompted by the limited availability of data particularly the long-term outcome of HL in developing countries, we carried out this retrospective data analyses.Methods: A retrospective review of eligible adult HL patients managed at three tertiary centers in Saudi Arabia between January 1997 to December 2012.Results: The review included 340 patients with median age of 26 years (range15-82). 53% of patients were male, 74% had an advanced stage, 19% had bulky disease, and 70% had low to intermediate risk according to Hasenclever index. Nodular sclerosis was the most common histological subtype (59%). ABVD was given to 92% and radiotherapy to 43%. Response to initial therapy was complete, partial, and disease progression was reported in 91%, 5%, and 2 % of patients, respectively. At a median follow-up of 50 months, the actuarial freedom from treatment-failure at 5-year was 74%, and with an overall survival of 91%. Multivariate analysis showed that advanced disease stage and high-risk international prognostic index independently projected an adverse outcome.Conclusion: This study confirms that our patients population demonstrated a comparable outcome to that reported from developed countries. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Somatic Variation of T-Cell Receptor Genes Strongly Associate with HLA Class Restriction

Every person carries a vast repertoire of CD4+ T-helper cells and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells for a healthy immune system. Somatic VDJ recombination at genomic loci that encode the T-cell receptor (TCR) is a key step during T-cell development, but how a single T cell commits to become either CD4+ or CD8+ is poorly understood. To evaluate the influence of TCR sequence variation on CD4+/CD8+ lineage commitment, we sequenced rearranged TCRs for both α and β chains in naïve T cells isolated from healthy donors and investigated gene segment usage and recombination patterns in CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subsets. Our data demonstrate that most V and J gene segments are strongly biased in the naïve CD4+ and CD8+ subsets with some segments increasing the odds of being CD4+ (or CD8+) up to five-fold. These V and J gene associations are highly reproducible across individuals and independent of classical HLA genotype, explaining ~11% of the observed variance in the CD4+ vs. CD8+ propensity. In addition, we identified a strong independent association of the electrostatic charge of the complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) in both α and β chains, where a positively charged CDR3 is associated with CD4+ lineage and a negatively charged CDR3 with CD8+ lineage. Our findings suggest that somatic variation in different parts of the TCR influences T-cell lineage commitment in a predominantly additive fashion. This notion can help delineate how certain structural features of the TCR-peptide-HLA complex influence thymic selection.