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Advanced glycation end-products play an important role in the development of diabetic complications, so slowing down of glycated proteins’ cross-links formation have been suggested as a potential therapeutic option for the treatment of vascular diabetic complications and preventing their progression.The aim of the work was to assess the influence of novel anticrosslinking agent DF-5 on the renal advanced glycation end-products and collagen contents, body weight, blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin levels and the development of early renal disease in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.Materials and methods. 40 male Sprague-Dawley rats were used in the study. Two months after inducing diabetes, the study substance was administered intragastrically once a day for 28 days (12.5 mg/kg). Measurements included the assessment of blood glucose and HbA1c levels, the evaluation of the renal function, and the results of histology and immunohistochemical staining of kidneys.Results. A repeated intragastric administration of DF-5 for 30 days significantly reduced the level of HbA1c in the blood, but did not affect the level of fasting blood glucose. DF-5 compound significantly reduced proteinuria and prevented kidney damage in experimental animals by limiting damage of the glomeruli and tubules. It was found that DF-5 inhibits the progression of an early renal dysfunction in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetic nephropathy. This was associated with a decreased accumulation of advanced glycation end-products in the kidney, accompanied by the improvement of both renal morphology and function.Conclusion. The results obtained provide investigators with additional therapeutic options for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy and possibly other complications of diabetes.

Data mining techniques are needed in various fields. However, most data researchers do not have sufficient knowledge and experience. Due to the significant number of algorithms and parameters for data analysis, intuition-based decisions can’t lead to optimal solutions. Ontology is widely adopted to build knowledge-driven decision support systems since it is suited to encapsulate the concepts and relationships of terms associated with various domains. It is suitable for capturing knowledge by computers, allowing sharing and reusing it whenever necessary. All concepts and relationships about data analysis can be described using Web Ontology Language (OWL). Its reasoning mechanism is vital in any knowledge-based system. Ontology can be reasoned to recommend suitable solutions for a specific analysis task by considering the data characteristics and task requirements. In the previous work, we have developed a system that describes comprehensive knowledge and logical internal relationships about data mining. We found that the reasoning and query complexity is high in the large size ontology, so this paper focuses on the modeling and implementation of an ontology-based decision support system for data mining algorithm selection that contains a new sub-ontology extraction method. Extracting effective content can significantly reduce the size of the ontology. This extraction method can improve query efficiency on the premise of ensuring the quality of information.

This paper describes a microcellular type propagation environment model that is typical in the Defence Housing Authority in Pakistan. Broadband Access systems are being deployed in this environment. Propagation characteristics in this environment have been investigated in this paper for the typically deployed frequency of 3.5 GHZ. Median path loss, fading and coverage is being reported for propagation at 3.5 GHz band and has been compared with a new band that is being opened up for Broadband wireless access across the globe in the 700 MHz band. The simulation method is based on the quite commonly used ray tracing technique.

Echo cancellation technique enables full duplex transmission using the same transmission band and thereby increases the aggregate data throughput of a channel. This tutorial paper introduces high speed echo cancellation for Full Rate (ITU-T Recommendation G.992.1) and Splitterless (ITU-T Recommendation G.992.2, aliased G.Lite) ADSL Transceivers. Symmetric and multirate Asymmetric echo cancellation Transceiver structures based completely on time domain or frequency domain as well as both time and frequency domain echo cancellation have been analyzed using different algorithms for performance and computational complexity. Combined Time and Frequency Domain Echo Cancellation (TAFDEC) structure with the so called DMT algorithm appears to be most suitable to achieve lower complexity with better performance as compared to echo cancellation in either time or frequency domain using LMS algorithm

This paper investigates the radio link performance when both desired and co-channel interference signals are frequency selective and Nakagami fading. A received signal model is developed and outage expressions are found. The effect of change in the fading parameters of desired and interfering signals is investigated.

The simulation of a microcellular mobile radio propagation environment is performed using a modified ray tracing technique. The modified ray tracing also accounts for building edge diffraction using Keller's geometrical theory of diffraction. Narrowband small area statistics are investigated by fitting Nakagami, Rice and Rayleigh distributions. The physical significance of Nakagami 'm' parameter is presented. It may be used for system design.

The focus in this paper is on physical interpretation of the Nakagami fading phenomenon in multipath mobile radio propagation through its parameters m and /spl Omega/. In the case of narrowband multipath propagation, it is shown that the m parameter is interpreted in a similar fashion as the K parameter of the Rice distribution. We also formulate a geometric theory of Nakagami multipath fading and relate the m parameter with the number of resolvable multipaths in a wideband multipath propagation scenario. We provide a physical interpretation of this geometric theory which can also be shown to be supported by channel measurements reported in literature. Finally the two interpretations are used together to quantify the multipath diversity of a given channel.

The performance of an ideal RAKE receiver, which exploits time/frequency diversity, is no different than the performance of an L branch space diversity receiver as shown by Proakis (see Digital Communications, McGraw Hill Book Co., 3rd edition, p.772-806, 1995). Therefore, the expressions for average probability of error for space diversity systems can be used as a starting point for RAKE performance. This paper extends this analysis to incorporate the effects of random path arrival on RAKE BER performance assuming the path arrival may be modeled as a modified (doubly stochastic) Poisson process as was suggested by Turin et. al. (1972) and by Suzuki (1977). The analysis results in a new measure for diversity which is the average number of paths for a given length of the power delay profile. As average number of paths (the Poisson parameter) is not necessarily an integer number, the notion of order of diversity, which is generally described in integer numbers, can be extended to fractional diversity for realistic channels.

Introduction: Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer of any South Asian population and the majority of patients present with locally advanced or metastatic disease. We report on patterns offailure and survival in pathologic N1 breast cancer patients treated with mastectomy, adjuvant chemotherapy/hormonal therapy and post-mastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT). Materials and methods: Between 1995 and 2009, the hospital information system identified 400 women with pathologically confirmed N1 breast cancer. Axillary nodes were clinically palpable in 75% of the patients at presentation. All patients were treated with mastectomy (including level I-II axillary dissection). Distribution of pathologic tumor size was up to 2 cm, 2.1 to 5 cm, and more than 5 cm in 16.5%, 58.5%, and 25% of the patients, respectively. Distribution of dissected lymph nodes was one to five, six to nine, and ten and above in 9%, 6% and 85% of the patients, respectively. Median number of dissected lymph nodes were 14 (range 1–37). 92% of the patients received doxorubicin-based chemotherapy either in neo-adjuvant or adjuvant setting. All patients received PMRT, to chest wall only in 12%, to chest wall and supraclavicular fossa in 81.5%, and to chest wall, supraclavicular fossa and axilla in 6.5% of the patients. All patients with positive ER/PR receptors also received hormonal modulation. Median age was 44 years (range 21–83 years). Patterns of failure and disease-free survival (DFS) were determined. Results: Median follow-up duration was 4.4 years. Patterns of failure were, isolated local (LF) in 4%, isolated regional (RF) in 0.5%, distant failure (DF) in 32%, and loco-regional along with distant failure (LRF + DF) in 2.5% of patients. Cumulative incidence of loco-regional failure for patients with a pathologic tumor size of up to 2 cm, 2.1 to 5 cm, and more than 5 cm were 2.5%, 3%, and 5.5%, respectively. These incidences for one to five, six to nine, and more than ten dissected lymph nodes were 2%, 0%, and 9.5%, respectively. The 10 years DFS for the whole group was 55%. Conclusions: The role of PMRT may have some value in terms of loco-regional control in pathologic N1 breast cancer patients. This merits further evaluation in large-scale randomized trials. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Sarcoidosis is a terrific mimicker and can present in many different ways. The case of a middle-aged woman with Crohn's disease who attended the gastroenterology clinic for routine follow-up is presented. She had dry cough and breathlessness for a few weeks. A chest x-ray showed scattered multiple bilateral pulmonary micronodules. This finding on her chest x-ray posed a diagnostic challenge, especially in view of the fact that she was previously treated with immunosuppressants to control her Crohn's disease. A diagnosis of sarcoidosis was established by various tests including lung biopsy, which showed non-caseating granulomas. Within a few weeks of beginning systemic steroid treatment, improvement was noticed in symptoms and lung function tests.

Pulmonary hypoplasia is a rare congenital anomaly owing to the under development of lung tissue and usually present in childhood. We present an asymptomatic lady in her second decade with a unilateral hemithorax abnormality on her chest radiograph likely due to pulmonary hypoplasia. She also had evidence of previous pulmonary tuberculosis exposure with intra-pulmonary cavity and demonstrating a mass within that cavity consistent with aspergilloma. This case illustrates a rare congenital condition presenting in adulthood with evidence of chronic pulmonary infections.