Plos One
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Telomere maintenance can occur in the presence of telomerase or in its absence, termed alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT). ALT adds telomere repeats using recombination-based processes and DNA repair proteins that function in homologous recombination. Our previous work reported that the RecQ-like BLM helicase is required for ALT and that it unwinds telomeric substrates in vitro. ⋯ While the loss of WRN significantly increases telomere sister chromatid exchanges (T-SCE) in these three ALT cell lines, loss of both BRCA1 and WRN does not significantly alter T-SCE. This work demonstrates that ALT cell lines use different telomerase-independent maintenance mechanisms that variably require the WRN helicase and that some cells can switch from one mechanism to another that permits telomere elongation in the absence of WRN. Our data suggest that BRCA1 localization may define these mechanisms.
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The photoplethysmogram (PPG) obtained from pulse oximetry measures local variations of blood volume in tissues, reflecting the peripheral pulse modulated by heart activity, respiration and other physiological effects. We propose an algorithm based on the correntropy spectral density (CSD) as a novel way to estimate respiratory rate (RR) and heart rate (HR) from the PPG. Time-varying CSD, a technique particularly well-suited for modulated signal patterns, is applied to the PPG. ⋯ A longer window decreases the RR error, for 120-s windows, the median RMS error (quartiles) obtained for RR was 0.95 (0.27, 6.20) breaths/min and for HR was 0.76 (0.34, 1.45) beats/min. Our experiments show that in addition to a high degree of accuracy and robustness, the CSD facilitates simultaneous and efficient estimation of RR and HR. Providing RR every minute, expands the functionality of pulse oximeters and provides additional diagnostic power to this non-invasive monitoring tool.
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Due to advances in the acquisition and analysis of medical imaging, it is currently possible to quantify the tumor phenotype. The emerging field of Radiomics addresses this issue by converting medical images into minable data by extracting a large number of quantitative imaging features. One of the main challenges of Radiomics is tumor segmentation. ⋯ Furthermore, we found that features extracted from 3D-Slicer segmentations were more robust, as the range was significantly smaller across observers (p = 3.819e-07), and overlapping with the feature ranges extracted from manual contouring (boundary lower: p = 0.007, higher: p = 5.863e-06). Our results show that 3D-Slicer segmented tumor volumes provide a better alternative to the manual delineation for feature quantification, as they yield more reproducible imaging descriptors. Therefore, 3D-Slicer can be employed for quantitative image feature extraction and image data mining research in large patient cohorts.
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To test effectivity of a two-minute training consisting of a few key-points in ventilation using the self-inflating bag (SIB). ⋯ A two-minute training of bag and mask ventilation was effective. This training could be incorporated into any training program.
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To understand teaching performance of individual faculty, the climate in which residents' learning takes place, the learning climate, may be important. There is emerging evidence that specific climates do predict specific outcomes. Until now, the effect of learning climate on the performance of the individual faculty who actually do the teaching was unknown. ⋯ Individual faculty's teaching performance evaluations are positively affected by better learning climate of residency programs.