Dong Zhou | Sichuan University (original) (raw)

Papers by Dong Zhou

Scientific reports, 2015

Although various imaging studies have focused on detecting the cerebral function underlying psych... more Although various imaging studies have focused on detecting the cerebral function underlying psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES), the nature of PNES remains poorly understood. In this study, we combined the resting state fMRI with fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and functional connectivity based on the seed voxel linear correlation approach to examine the alterations of regional and inter-regional network cerebral functions in PNES. A total of 20 healthy controls and 18 patients were enrolled. The PNES patients showed significantly increased fALFF mainly in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), parietal cortices, and motor areas, as well as decreased fALFF in the triangular inferior frontal gyrus. Thus, our results add to literature suggesting abnormalities of neural synchrony in PNES. Moreover, PNES exhibited widespread inter-regional neural network deficits, including increased (DLPFC, sensorimotor, and limbic system) and decreased (ventrolate...

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008

We demonstrate a twofold use of Wikipedia for cross-lingual information retrieval. As our main co... more We demonstrate a twofold use of Wikipedia for cross-lingual information retrieval. As our main contribution, we exploit Wikipedia hyperlinkage for query term disambiguation. We also use bilingual Wikipedia articles for dictionary extension. Our method is based on translation disambiguation; we combine the Wikipedia based technique with a method based on bigram statistics of pairs formed by translations of different source language terms.

2013 IEEE 29th International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE), 2013

ABSTRACT Database systems are nowadays increasingly deployed on multi-core commodity servers, wit... more ABSTRACT Database systems are nowadays increasingly deployed on multi-core commodity servers, with replication to guard against failures. Database engine is best designed to scale with the number of cores to offer a high degree of parallelism on a modern multi-core architecture. On the other hand, replication traditionally resorts to a certain form of serialization for data consistency among replicas. In the widely used primary/backup replication with log shipping, concurrent executions on the primary and the serialized log replay on a backup creates a serious parallelism gap. Our experiment on MySQL with a 16-core configuration shows that the serial replay of a backup can sustain only less than one third of the throughput achievable on the primary under an OLTP workload. This paper proposes KuaFu to close the parallelism gap on replicated database systems by enabling concurrent replay of transactions on a backup. KuaFu maintains write consistency on backups by tracking transaction dependencies. Concurrent replay on a backup does introduce read inconsistency between the primary and backups. KuaFu further leverages multi-version concurrency control to produce snapshots in order to restore the consistency semantics. We have implemented KuaFu on MySQL; our evaluations show that KuaFu allows a backup to keep up with the primary while preserving replication consistency.

World journal of gastroenterology : WJG, Jan 21, 2015

To compare the outcomes of hand-sewn (HS) and linearly stapled (LS) esophagogastric anastomosis f... more To compare the outcomes of hand-sewn (HS) and linearly stapled (LS) esophagogastric anastomosis for esophageal cancer. Before beginning this study, a rigorous protocol was established according to the recommendations of the Cochrane Collaboration. Databases and references were searched for all randomized controlled trials and comparative clinical studies that compared LS with HS esophagogastric anastomosis for esophageal cancer. The primary outcomes compared were anastomotic leak and stricture. Subgroup analyses were performed according to site of anastomosis. Fifteen studies were used, comprising 3203 patients (n = 2027 LS and 1176 HS). Primary outcome analysis revealed a significant decrease in anastomotic leakage (RR = 0.51, 95%CI: 0.41-0.65; P < 0.00001) associated with LS anastomosis. A significantly reduced rate of anastomotic stricture associated with LS was also found (RR = 0.56, 95%CI: 0.49-0.64; P < 0.00001). A subgroup analysis according to the site of anastomosis r...

Key Engineering Materials, 2008

Proceedings of the Twenty-Third ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles - SOSP '11, 2011

... Categories and Subject Descriptors: D.4.6 [Operating Sys-tems]: Security and Protection. ... ... more ... Categories and Subject Descriptors: D.4.6 [Operating Sys-tems]: Security and Protection. ... use the pointer of the net device structure as the principal name, and the PCI sub-system would use ... To ensure that the module has access to the same set of capabilities in both cases, the ...

Proceedings of the 10th ACM symposium on Document engineering - DocEng '10, 2010

Previous work has established that specific linguistic markers present in specialised medical doc... more Previous work has established that specific linguistic markers present in specialised medical documents (clinical guidelines) can be used to support their automatic structuring within a document engineering environment. This technique is commonly used by the French Health Authority (la Haute Autorité de Santé) during elaboration of clinical guidelines to improve the quality of the final document. In this paper, we explore the readability of clinical guidelines. We discuss a structural measure of document readability that exploits the ratio between these linguistic markers (deontic structures) and the remainder of the text. We describe an experiment in which a corpus of 10 French clinical guidelines is scored for structural readability. We correlate these scores with measures of textual cohesion (computed using latent semantic analysis) and the results of a readability survey performed by a panel of domain experts. Our results suggest an association between the density of deontic structures in a clinical guideline and its overall readability. This implies that certain generic readability measures can henceforth be utilised in our document engineering environment.

PloS one, 2015

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) are important intestinal pathogens that cause diarrhea in... more Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) are important intestinal pathogens that cause diarrhea in humans and animals. Although probiotic bacteria may protect against ETEC-induced enteric infections, the underlying mechanisms are unknown. In this study, porcine intestinal epithelial J2 cells (IPEC-J2) were pre-incubated with and without Lactobacillus rhamnosus ATCC 7469 and then exposed to F4+ ETEC. Increases in TLR4 and NOD2 mRNA expression were observed at 3 h after F4+ ETEC challenge, but these increases were attenuated by L. rhamnosus treatment. Expression of TLR2 and NOD1 mRNA was up-regulated in cells pre-treated with L. rhamnosus. Pre-treatment with L. rhamnosus counteracted F4+ ETEC-induced increases in TNF-α concentration. Increased PGE2. concentrations were observed in cells infected with F4+ ETEC and in cells treated with L. rhamnosus only. A decrease in phosphorylated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was observed at 3 h after F4+ ETEC challenge in cells treated wit...

Interactive cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, Jan 15, 2015

We performed a meta-analysis in order to determine whether the molecular tumour cell detection of... more We performed a meta-analysis in order to determine whether the molecular tumour cell detection of either micrometastasis or isolated tumour cells in the bone marrow micrometastasis is indicative of a high risk of both disease recurrence and poor survival in the setting of node-negative non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Before beginning this study, a rigorous protocol was established in accordance with the recommendations of the Cochrane Collaboration. A systematic literature search of Medline, EMbase, the Cochrane Library and the Web of Science was conducted in order to identify studies regarding the prognostic value of molecular tumour cell detection in the bone marrow of node-negative NSCLC. Any study describing the use of both immunochemistry and flow cytometry to detect bone marrow metastasis was selected. We extracted the associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and hazard ratios (HRs) from the included studies and performed meta-analyses on overall survival and either disea...

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, Jan 2, 2015

Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD), also known as SOD3, is an antioxidant expressed at h... more Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD), also known as SOD3, is an antioxidant expressed at high levels in normal adult kidneys. Because oxidative stress contributes to a variety of kidney injuries, we hypothesized that EC-SOD may be protective in CKD progression. To study this hypothesis, we used a murine model of ADR nephropathy characterized by albuminuria and renal dysfunction. We found that levels of EC-SOD diminished throughout the course of disease progression and were associated with increased levels of NADPH oxidase and oxidative stress markers. EC-SOD null mice were sensitized to ADR injury, as evidenced by increases in albuminuria, serum creatinine, histologic damage, and oxidative stress. The absence of EC-SOD led to increased levels of NADPH oxidase and an increase in β-catenin signaling, which has been shown to be pathologic in a variety of kidney injuries. Exposure of EC-SOD null mice to either chronic angiotensin II infusion or to daily albumin injections also ca...

Neurology, Jan 24, 2015

To test the hypotheses that vertebral artery hypoplasia (VAH) is associated with an increased ris... more To test the hypotheses that vertebral artery hypoplasia (VAH) is associated with an increased risk of ipsilateral spontaneous vertebral artery dissection (sVAD) and that hypoplastic vertebral arteries (VAs) are more prone than dominant VAs to dissection. In this case-control study, the population comprised 112 patients with sVAD and 224 age- and sex-matched controls treated at a high-volume center between 2005 and 2013. VAH and sVAD were diagnosed by digital subtraction angiography combined with noninvasive imaging findings. Conditional logistic regression was performed to identify independent risk factors for sVAD. Relationships between sVAD and VAH and the likelihood of ipsilateral (vs contralateral) presentation were also assessed. VAH was more frequent in patients with sVAD than in controls in univariate analysis (30.4% vs 17.4%; odds ratio [OR] 2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-3.6; p = 0.008) and in multivariate regression analysis adjusted for migraine, hyperhomocysteinem...

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 2015

Activation of β-catenin, the intracellular mediator of canonical Wnt signaling, has a critical ro... more Activation of β-catenin, the intracellular mediator of canonical Wnt signaling, has a critical role in mediating podocyte injury and proteinuria. However, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we show that β-catenin triggers ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation of Wilms' tumor 1 (WT1) and functionally antagonizes its action. In mice injected with adriamycin, WT1 protein was progressively lost in glomerular podocytes at 1, 3, and 5 weeks after injection. Notably, loss of WT1 apparently did not result from podocyte depletion but was closely associated with upregulation of β-catenin. This change in WT1/β-catenin ratio was accompanied by loss of podocyte-specific nephrin, podocalyxin, and synaptopodin and acquisition of mesenchymal markers Snail1, α-smooth muscle actin, and fibroblast-specific protein 1. In vitro, overexpression of β-catenin induced WT1 protein degradation through the ubiquitin proteasomal pathway, which was blocked by MG-132. WT1 and β-catenin...

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 2015

Activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of C... more Activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of CKD and cardiovascular disease. However, current anti-RAS therapy only has limited efficacy, partly because of compensatory upregulation of renin expression. Therefore, a treatment strategy to simultaneously target multiple RAS genes is necessary to achieve greater efficacy. By bioinformatics analyses, we discovered that the promoter regions of all RAS genes contained putative T-cell factor (TCF)/lymphoid enhancer factor (LEF)-binding sites, and β-catenin induced the binding of LEF-1 to these sites in kidney tubular cells. Overexpression of either β-catenin or different Wnt ligands induced the expression of all RAS genes. Conversely, a small-molecule β-catenin inhibitor ICG-001 abolished RAS induction. In a mouse model of nephropathy induced by adriamycin, either transient therapy or late administration of ICG-001 abolished established proteinuria and kidney lesions. ICG-001 inhibited ren...

Scientific reports, 2013

Activation of β-catenin, the principal mediator of canonical Wnt signaling, is a common pathologi... more Activation of β-catenin, the principal mediator of canonical Wnt signaling, is a common pathologic finding in a wide variety of chronic kidney diseases (CKD). While β-catenin is induced predominantly in renal tubular epithelium in CKD, surprisingly, depletion of tubular β-catenin had little effect on the severity of renal fibrosis. Interestingly, less apoptosis was detected in interstitial fibroblasts in knockout mice, which was accompanied by a decreased expression of Bax and Fas ligand (FasL). Tubule-specific knockout of β-catenin diminished renal induction of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-7), which induced FasL expression in interstitial fibroblasts and potentiated fibroblast apoptosis in vitro. These results demonstrate that loss of tubular β-catenin resulted in enhanced interstitial fibroblast survival due to decreased MMP-7 expression. Our studies uncover a novel role of the tubular β-catenin/MMP-7 axis in controlling the fate of interstitial fibroblasts via epithelial-mesench...

Journal of medicinal chemistry, Jan 27, 2006

Progesterone receptors (PRs) are present in many breast tumors, and their levels are increased by... more Progesterone receptors (PRs) are present in many breast tumors, and their levels are increased by certain endocrine therapies. We describe the synthesis and PR binding affinities of a series of bromine- and iodine-substituted 16alpha,17alpha-dioxolane progestins, some of which, when appropriately radiolabeled, are potential agents for diagnostic imaging of PR-positive breast tumors using positron emission tomography (PET) and for radiotherapy. These compounds were synthesized from halogenated furanyl, phenyl, and thiophenyl aldehydes and a progestin 16alpha,17alpha,21-triol (5) in the presence of HClO4 or Sc(OTf)3 in high yields under optimized conditions. A new reagent, perfluoro-1-butanesulfonyl fluoride (PBSF), was used to convert the C-21 OH to F in high yields. The relative binding affinities (RBAs) of the most promising compounds for the PR (RBA of R5020 = 100) were 16alpha,17alpha-[(R)-1'-alpha-(5-bromofurylmethylidene)dioxyl]-21-hydroxy-19-norpregn-4-ene-3,20-dione (endo...

Schizophrenia research, Jan 17, 2006

This article has been removed, consistent with Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal. Please see ... more This article has been removed, consistent with Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.

Intensive and quantitative evaluation of the duration, intensity and frequency of tonic and cloni... more Intensive and quantitative evaluation of the duration, intensity and frequency of tonic and clonic signs of secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) in patients with pharmacoresistant partial seizures during topiramate (TPM) treatment. Thirty patients suffering from refractory partial seizures with secondarily GTCS undergoing presurgical evaluation were randomized into a low dosage (100 mg daily) and a parallel medium dosage (200 mg daily) group of TPM add-on medication (15 patients for each group). Study phases included a 3 days baseline video-EEG phase, a 10 days TPM titration phase without video-EEG and a 3 days TPM dose maintenance phase with video-EEG. During the baseline and the dose maintenance phase seizures were recorded using video-EEG monitoring and the following parameters were measured for each recorded secondarily generalized tonic and clonic signs: duration (lasting seconds), intensity (on a 0-3 scale), frequency (numbers per 24 h). A total of 46 complex partial seizures with secondarily generalized tonic-clonic signs during the baseline phase and 20 during the dose maintenance phase were intensively analyzed. More patients in the medium dosage group than in the low dosage groups were free from secondarily GTCS during the dose maintenance phase (nine vs. two, P&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;0.05). Intergroup comparison suggested that the duration of all tonic signs decreased more in the medium dosage group computing the reduction from baseline to the dose maintenance phase (P&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;0.05). There were statistically more significant reductions in the duration and intensity of clonic signs in the medium dosage group (P&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;0.05). TPM has an early dose-dependant effect on secondarily GTCS in patients with pharmacoresistant partial seizures. The present study intensively analyzed the duration, intensity, and frequency of secondarily generalized tonic and clonic signs in patients with pharmacoresistant partial seizures. The quantitative data suggested that TPM had a robust early inhibitory effect on secondarily generalized tonic-clonic signs; effects were more prominent in the medium dosage group (200 mg daily) than in the low dosage group (100 mg daily).

Paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis (PKC) is a rare neurologic disorder characterized by sudde... more Paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis (PKC) is a rare neurologic disorder characterized by sudden attacks of brief involuntary dyskinetic movement, which are precipitated by voluntary movement. The pathophysiology of PKC remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to localize cerebral functional abnormalities in idiopathic PKC with restingstate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). From seven patients with idiopathic PKC were included. The mean age of onset was 11.7 6 3.1 (range, 8-17) years and the mean disease duration was 6.9 6 5.1 (range, 1-14) years. Seven subjects of an age-and sex-matched control group were recruited. Interictal brain fMRI was performed in the PKC patients and in the normal controls. Voxel-based analysis was used to characterize the alteration of amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in patients with PKC. Difference between the patient patterns and the control was analyzed with Student t-test. The whole brain analysis indicated that the patient group had significantly increased ALFF in the bilateral putamen (P < 0.005) than normal control. fMRI could be useful to evaluate PKC with negative conventional imaging. It was suggested that abnormal cortico-striato-pallido-thalamic loop might be associated with the pathophysiology of idiopathic PKC. 2010 Movement Disorder Society

Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2004

Many studies have indicated that immune cytokines may be involved in the pathophysiology of schiz... more Many studies have indicated that immune cytokines may be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Recently, there have been reports that typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs may influence the levels of cytokines or cytokine receptors. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs on serum interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and interleukin-8 (IL-8) and to investigate the relationship between the changes in cytokines and the therapeutic outcome in schizophrenia. From April 1996 to August 1997, seventy-eight inpatients with a diagnosis of chronic schizophrenia (DSM-III-R) were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of treatment with 6 mg/day of risperidone or 20 mg/day of haloperidol. Clinical efficacy was determined using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Serum IL-2 was assayed by radioimmunometric assay, and serum IL-6 and IL-8 concentrations were measured by quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in patients and 30 sex- and age-matched normal subjects. Both risperidone and haloperidol reduced the elevated serum IL-2 concentrations in schizophrenia, and no significant difference was noted in the reduction of serum IL-2 concentrations between risperidone and haloperidol treatment. Neither risperidone nor haloperidol showed significant influence on the higher serum IL-6 or IL-8 concentrations in schizophrenia. Correlations between serum IL-2 or IL-8 concentrations at baseline and the therapeutic outcome were observed, demonstrating that patients presenting with low concentrations of serum IL-2 or IL-8 at baseline showed greater improvement and patients presenting with higher serum IL-2 or IL-8 concentrations at baseline showed less improvement after treatment. Both typical and atypical anti-psychotic drugs may at least partially normalize abnormal immune alterations in schizophrenia. Some immune parameters at baseline may be useful for predicting the neuroleptic response of schizophrenic patients.

Proceedings of the 2012 ACM symposium on Document engineering - DocEng '12, 2012

Abstract Professional users of medical information often report difficulties when attempting to l... more Abstract Professional users of medical information often report difficulties when attempting to locate specific information in lengthy documents. Sometimes these difficulties can be attributed to poorly specified section titles which fail to advertise relevant content. In this paper we describe preliminary work on a software plug-in for a document engineering environment that will assist authors when they formulate section-level headings. We describe two different algorithms which can be used to generate section titles. We ...

Scientific reports, 2015

Although various imaging studies have focused on detecting the cerebral function underlying psych... more Although various imaging studies have focused on detecting the cerebral function underlying psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES), the nature of PNES remains poorly understood. In this study, we combined the resting state fMRI with fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and functional connectivity based on the seed voxel linear correlation approach to examine the alterations of regional and inter-regional network cerebral functions in PNES. A total of 20 healthy controls and 18 patients were enrolled. The PNES patients showed significantly increased fALFF mainly in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), parietal cortices, and motor areas, as well as decreased fALFF in the triangular inferior frontal gyrus. Thus, our results add to literature suggesting abnormalities of neural synchrony in PNES. Moreover, PNES exhibited widespread inter-regional neural network deficits, including increased (DLPFC, sensorimotor, and limbic system) and decreased (ventrolate...

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008

We demonstrate a twofold use of Wikipedia for cross-lingual information retrieval. As our main co... more We demonstrate a twofold use of Wikipedia for cross-lingual information retrieval. As our main contribution, we exploit Wikipedia hyperlinkage for query term disambiguation. We also use bilingual Wikipedia articles for dictionary extension. Our method is based on translation disambiguation; we combine the Wikipedia based technique with a method based on bigram statistics of pairs formed by translations of different source language terms.

2013 IEEE 29th International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE), 2013

ABSTRACT Database systems are nowadays increasingly deployed on multi-core commodity servers, wit... more ABSTRACT Database systems are nowadays increasingly deployed on multi-core commodity servers, with replication to guard against failures. Database engine is best designed to scale with the number of cores to offer a high degree of parallelism on a modern multi-core architecture. On the other hand, replication traditionally resorts to a certain form of serialization for data consistency among replicas. In the widely used primary/backup replication with log shipping, concurrent executions on the primary and the serialized log replay on a backup creates a serious parallelism gap. Our experiment on MySQL with a 16-core configuration shows that the serial replay of a backup can sustain only less than one third of the throughput achievable on the primary under an OLTP workload. This paper proposes KuaFu to close the parallelism gap on replicated database systems by enabling concurrent replay of transactions on a backup. KuaFu maintains write consistency on backups by tracking transaction dependencies. Concurrent replay on a backup does introduce read inconsistency between the primary and backups. KuaFu further leverages multi-version concurrency control to produce snapshots in order to restore the consistency semantics. We have implemented KuaFu on MySQL; our evaluations show that KuaFu allows a backup to keep up with the primary while preserving replication consistency.

World journal of gastroenterology : WJG, Jan 21, 2015

To compare the outcomes of hand-sewn (HS) and linearly stapled (LS) esophagogastric anastomosis f... more To compare the outcomes of hand-sewn (HS) and linearly stapled (LS) esophagogastric anastomosis for esophageal cancer. Before beginning this study, a rigorous protocol was established according to the recommendations of the Cochrane Collaboration. Databases and references were searched for all randomized controlled trials and comparative clinical studies that compared LS with HS esophagogastric anastomosis for esophageal cancer. The primary outcomes compared were anastomotic leak and stricture. Subgroup analyses were performed according to site of anastomosis. Fifteen studies were used, comprising 3203 patients (n = 2027 LS and 1176 HS). Primary outcome analysis revealed a significant decrease in anastomotic leakage (RR = 0.51, 95%CI: 0.41-0.65; P < 0.00001) associated with LS anastomosis. A significantly reduced rate of anastomotic stricture associated with LS was also found (RR = 0.56, 95%CI: 0.49-0.64; P < 0.00001). A subgroup analysis according to the site of anastomosis r...

Key Engineering Materials, 2008

Proceedings of the Twenty-Third ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles - SOSP '11, 2011

... Categories and Subject Descriptors: D.4.6 [Operating Sys-tems]: Security and Protection. ... ... more ... Categories and Subject Descriptors: D.4.6 [Operating Sys-tems]: Security and Protection. ... use the pointer of the net device structure as the principal name, and the PCI sub-system would use ... To ensure that the module has access to the same set of capabilities in both cases, the ...

Proceedings of the 10th ACM symposium on Document engineering - DocEng '10, 2010

Previous work has established that specific linguistic markers present in specialised medical doc... more Previous work has established that specific linguistic markers present in specialised medical documents (clinical guidelines) can be used to support their automatic structuring within a document engineering environment. This technique is commonly used by the French Health Authority (la Haute Autorité de Santé) during elaboration of clinical guidelines to improve the quality of the final document. In this paper, we explore the readability of clinical guidelines. We discuss a structural measure of document readability that exploits the ratio between these linguistic markers (deontic structures) and the remainder of the text. We describe an experiment in which a corpus of 10 French clinical guidelines is scored for structural readability. We correlate these scores with measures of textual cohesion (computed using latent semantic analysis) and the results of a readability survey performed by a panel of domain experts. Our results suggest an association between the density of deontic structures in a clinical guideline and its overall readability. This implies that certain generic readability measures can henceforth be utilised in our document engineering environment.

PloS one, 2015

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) are important intestinal pathogens that cause diarrhea in... more Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) are important intestinal pathogens that cause diarrhea in humans and animals. Although probiotic bacteria may protect against ETEC-induced enteric infections, the underlying mechanisms are unknown. In this study, porcine intestinal epithelial J2 cells (IPEC-J2) were pre-incubated with and without Lactobacillus rhamnosus ATCC 7469 and then exposed to F4+ ETEC. Increases in TLR4 and NOD2 mRNA expression were observed at 3 h after F4+ ETEC challenge, but these increases were attenuated by L. rhamnosus treatment. Expression of TLR2 and NOD1 mRNA was up-regulated in cells pre-treated with L. rhamnosus. Pre-treatment with L. rhamnosus counteracted F4+ ETEC-induced increases in TNF-α concentration. Increased PGE2. concentrations were observed in cells infected with F4+ ETEC and in cells treated with L. rhamnosus only. A decrease in phosphorylated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was observed at 3 h after F4+ ETEC challenge in cells treated wit...

Interactive cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, Jan 15, 2015

We performed a meta-analysis in order to determine whether the molecular tumour cell detection of... more We performed a meta-analysis in order to determine whether the molecular tumour cell detection of either micrometastasis or isolated tumour cells in the bone marrow micrometastasis is indicative of a high risk of both disease recurrence and poor survival in the setting of node-negative non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Before beginning this study, a rigorous protocol was established in accordance with the recommendations of the Cochrane Collaboration. A systematic literature search of Medline, EMbase, the Cochrane Library and the Web of Science was conducted in order to identify studies regarding the prognostic value of molecular tumour cell detection in the bone marrow of node-negative NSCLC. Any study describing the use of both immunochemistry and flow cytometry to detect bone marrow metastasis was selected. We extracted the associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and hazard ratios (HRs) from the included studies and performed meta-analyses on overall survival and either disea...

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, Jan 2, 2015

Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD), also known as SOD3, is an antioxidant expressed at h... more Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD), also known as SOD3, is an antioxidant expressed at high levels in normal adult kidneys. Because oxidative stress contributes to a variety of kidney injuries, we hypothesized that EC-SOD may be protective in CKD progression. To study this hypothesis, we used a murine model of ADR nephropathy characterized by albuminuria and renal dysfunction. We found that levels of EC-SOD diminished throughout the course of disease progression and were associated with increased levels of NADPH oxidase and oxidative stress markers. EC-SOD null mice were sensitized to ADR injury, as evidenced by increases in albuminuria, serum creatinine, histologic damage, and oxidative stress. The absence of EC-SOD led to increased levels of NADPH oxidase and an increase in β-catenin signaling, which has been shown to be pathologic in a variety of kidney injuries. Exposure of EC-SOD null mice to either chronic angiotensin II infusion or to daily albumin injections also ca...

Neurology, Jan 24, 2015

To test the hypotheses that vertebral artery hypoplasia (VAH) is associated with an increased ris... more To test the hypotheses that vertebral artery hypoplasia (VAH) is associated with an increased risk of ipsilateral spontaneous vertebral artery dissection (sVAD) and that hypoplastic vertebral arteries (VAs) are more prone than dominant VAs to dissection. In this case-control study, the population comprised 112 patients with sVAD and 224 age- and sex-matched controls treated at a high-volume center between 2005 and 2013. VAH and sVAD were diagnosed by digital subtraction angiography combined with noninvasive imaging findings. Conditional logistic regression was performed to identify independent risk factors for sVAD. Relationships between sVAD and VAH and the likelihood of ipsilateral (vs contralateral) presentation were also assessed. VAH was more frequent in patients with sVAD than in controls in univariate analysis (30.4% vs 17.4%; odds ratio [OR] 2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2-3.6; p = 0.008) and in multivariate regression analysis adjusted for migraine, hyperhomocysteinem...

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 2015

Activation of β-catenin, the intracellular mediator of canonical Wnt signaling, has a critical ro... more Activation of β-catenin, the intracellular mediator of canonical Wnt signaling, has a critical role in mediating podocyte injury and proteinuria. However, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we show that β-catenin triggers ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation of Wilms' tumor 1 (WT1) and functionally antagonizes its action. In mice injected with adriamycin, WT1 protein was progressively lost in glomerular podocytes at 1, 3, and 5 weeks after injection. Notably, loss of WT1 apparently did not result from podocyte depletion but was closely associated with upregulation of β-catenin. This change in WT1/β-catenin ratio was accompanied by loss of podocyte-specific nephrin, podocalyxin, and synaptopodin and acquisition of mesenchymal markers Snail1, α-smooth muscle actin, and fibroblast-specific protein 1. In vitro, overexpression of β-catenin induced WT1 protein degradation through the ubiquitin proteasomal pathway, which was blocked by MG-132. WT1 and β-catenin...

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 2015

Activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of C... more Activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays an essential role in the pathogenesis of CKD and cardiovascular disease. However, current anti-RAS therapy only has limited efficacy, partly because of compensatory upregulation of renin expression. Therefore, a treatment strategy to simultaneously target multiple RAS genes is necessary to achieve greater efficacy. By bioinformatics analyses, we discovered that the promoter regions of all RAS genes contained putative T-cell factor (TCF)/lymphoid enhancer factor (LEF)-binding sites, and β-catenin induced the binding of LEF-1 to these sites in kidney tubular cells. Overexpression of either β-catenin or different Wnt ligands induced the expression of all RAS genes. Conversely, a small-molecule β-catenin inhibitor ICG-001 abolished RAS induction. In a mouse model of nephropathy induced by adriamycin, either transient therapy or late administration of ICG-001 abolished established proteinuria and kidney lesions. ICG-001 inhibited ren...

Scientific reports, 2013

Activation of β-catenin, the principal mediator of canonical Wnt signaling, is a common pathologi... more Activation of β-catenin, the principal mediator of canonical Wnt signaling, is a common pathologic finding in a wide variety of chronic kidney diseases (CKD). While β-catenin is induced predominantly in renal tubular epithelium in CKD, surprisingly, depletion of tubular β-catenin had little effect on the severity of renal fibrosis. Interestingly, less apoptosis was detected in interstitial fibroblasts in knockout mice, which was accompanied by a decreased expression of Bax and Fas ligand (FasL). Tubule-specific knockout of β-catenin diminished renal induction of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-7), which induced FasL expression in interstitial fibroblasts and potentiated fibroblast apoptosis in vitro. These results demonstrate that loss of tubular β-catenin resulted in enhanced interstitial fibroblast survival due to decreased MMP-7 expression. Our studies uncover a novel role of the tubular β-catenin/MMP-7 axis in controlling the fate of interstitial fibroblasts via epithelial-mesench...

Journal of medicinal chemistry, Jan 27, 2006

Progesterone receptors (PRs) are present in many breast tumors, and their levels are increased by... more Progesterone receptors (PRs) are present in many breast tumors, and their levels are increased by certain endocrine therapies. We describe the synthesis and PR binding affinities of a series of bromine- and iodine-substituted 16alpha,17alpha-dioxolane progestins, some of which, when appropriately radiolabeled, are potential agents for diagnostic imaging of PR-positive breast tumors using positron emission tomography (PET) and for radiotherapy. These compounds were synthesized from halogenated furanyl, phenyl, and thiophenyl aldehydes and a progestin 16alpha,17alpha,21-triol (5) in the presence of HClO4 or Sc(OTf)3 in high yields under optimized conditions. A new reagent, perfluoro-1-butanesulfonyl fluoride (PBSF), was used to convert the C-21 OH to F in high yields. The relative binding affinities (RBAs) of the most promising compounds for the PR (RBA of R5020 = 100) were 16alpha,17alpha-[(R)-1'-alpha-(5-bromofurylmethylidene)dioxyl]-21-hydroxy-19-norpregn-4-ene-3,20-dione (endo...

Schizophrenia research, Jan 17, 2006

This article has been removed, consistent with Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal. Please see ... more This article has been removed, consistent with Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.

Intensive and quantitative evaluation of the duration, intensity and frequency of tonic and cloni... more Intensive and quantitative evaluation of the duration, intensity and frequency of tonic and clonic signs of secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) in patients with pharmacoresistant partial seizures during topiramate (TPM) treatment. Thirty patients suffering from refractory partial seizures with secondarily GTCS undergoing presurgical evaluation were randomized into a low dosage (100 mg daily) and a parallel medium dosage (200 mg daily) group of TPM add-on medication (15 patients for each group). Study phases included a 3 days baseline video-EEG phase, a 10 days TPM titration phase without video-EEG and a 3 days TPM dose maintenance phase with video-EEG. During the baseline and the dose maintenance phase seizures were recorded using video-EEG monitoring and the following parameters were measured for each recorded secondarily generalized tonic and clonic signs: duration (lasting seconds), intensity (on a 0-3 scale), frequency (numbers per 24 h). A total of 46 complex partial seizures with secondarily generalized tonic-clonic signs during the baseline phase and 20 during the dose maintenance phase were intensively analyzed. More patients in the medium dosage group than in the low dosage groups were free from secondarily GTCS during the dose maintenance phase (nine vs. two, P&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;0.05). Intergroup comparison suggested that the duration of all tonic signs decreased more in the medium dosage group computing the reduction from baseline to the dose maintenance phase (P&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;0.05). There were statistically more significant reductions in the duration and intensity of clonic signs in the medium dosage group (P&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;0.05). TPM has an early dose-dependant effect on secondarily GTCS in patients with pharmacoresistant partial seizures. The present study intensively analyzed the duration, intensity, and frequency of secondarily generalized tonic and clonic signs in patients with pharmacoresistant partial seizures. The quantitative data suggested that TPM had a robust early inhibitory effect on secondarily generalized tonic-clonic signs; effects were more prominent in the medium dosage group (200 mg daily) than in the low dosage group (100 mg daily).

Paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis (PKC) is a rare neurologic disorder characterized by sudde... more Paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis (PKC) is a rare neurologic disorder characterized by sudden attacks of brief involuntary dyskinetic movement, which are precipitated by voluntary movement. The pathophysiology of PKC remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to localize cerebral functional abnormalities in idiopathic PKC with restingstate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). From seven patients with idiopathic PKC were included. The mean age of onset was 11.7 6 3.1 (range, 8-17) years and the mean disease duration was 6.9 6 5.1 (range, 1-14) years. Seven subjects of an age-and sex-matched control group were recruited. Interictal brain fMRI was performed in the PKC patients and in the normal controls. Voxel-based analysis was used to characterize the alteration of amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in patients with PKC. Difference between the patient patterns and the control was analyzed with Student t-test. The whole brain analysis indicated that the patient group had significantly increased ALFF in the bilateral putamen (P < 0.005) than normal control. fMRI could be useful to evaluate PKC with negative conventional imaging. It was suggested that abnormal cortico-striato-pallido-thalamic loop might be associated with the pathophysiology of idiopathic PKC. 2010 Movement Disorder Society

Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2004

Many studies have indicated that immune cytokines may be involved in the pathophysiology of schiz... more Many studies have indicated that immune cytokines may be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Recently, there have been reports that typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs may influence the levels of cytokines or cytokine receptors. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs on serum interleukin-2 (IL-2), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and interleukin-8 (IL-8) and to investigate the relationship between the changes in cytokines and the therapeutic outcome in schizophrenia. From April 1996 to August 1997, seventy-eight inpatients with a diagnosis of chronic schizophrenia (DSM-III-R) were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of treatment with 6 mg/day of risperidone or 20 mg/day of haloperidol. Clinical efficacy was determined using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Serum IL-2 was assayed by radioimmunometric assay, and serum IL-6 and IL-8 concentrations were measured by quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in patients and 30 sex- and age-matched normal subjects. Both risperidone and haloperidol reduced the elevated serum IL-2 concentrations in schizophrenia, and no significant difference was noted in the reduction of serum IL-2 concentrations between risperidone and haloperidol treatment. Neither risperidone nor haloperidol showed significant influence on the higher serum IL-6 or IL-8 concentrations in schizophrenia. Correlations between serum IL-2 or IL-8 concentrations at baseline and the therapeutic outcome were observed, demonstrating that patients presenting with low concentrations of serum IL-2 or IL-8 at baseline showed greater improvement and patients presenting with higher serum IL-2 or IL-8 concentrations at baseline showed less improvement after treatment. Both typical and atypical anti-psychotic drugs may at least partially normalize abnormal immune alterations in schizophrenia. Some immune parameters at baseline may be useful for predicting the neuroleptic response of schizophrenic patients.

Proceedings of the 2012 ACM symposium on Document engineering - DocEng '12, 2012

Abstract Professional users of medical information often report difficulties when attempting to l... more Abstract Professional users of medical information often report difficulties when attempting to locate specific information in lengthy documents. Sometimes these difficulties can be attributed to poorly specified section titles which fail to advertise relevant content. In this paper we describe preliminary work on a software plug-in for a document engineering environment that will assist authors when they formulate section-level headings. We describe two different algorithms which can be used to generate section titles. We ...