BACKGROUND Verbal autopsy (VA) is used to estimate the causes of death in areas with incomplete vital registration systems. The King and Lu method (KL) for direct estimation of cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMFs) from VA studies is an analysis technique that estimates CSMFs in a population without predicting individual-level cause of death as an intermediate step. In previous studies, KL...

Low-dose CT (computed tomography) sinogram data have been shown to be signal-dependent with an analytical relationship between the sample mean and sample variance. Spatially-invariant low-pass linear filters, such as the Butterworth and Hanning filters, could not adequately handle the data noise and statistics-based nonlinear filters may be an alternative choice, in addition to other choices of...

Ovarian tumors are primarily derived from the layer of epithelium surrounding the ovary termed the ovarian surface epithelium (OSE). Although extensive research has focused on established ovarian tumors, relatively little is known about the normal biology of the OSE that gives rise to ovarian cancer. The local expression and actions of growth factors are likely involved in both normal and tumor...

The utility of serum KL-6 as a tumor marker for breast cancer was evaluated in this study. The sera from 146 patients with breast cancer, 13 with benign breast disease, and 108 healthy individuals were measured for KL-6 titer using a sandwich enzyme immunoassay method. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 15-3 (CA15-3) titers were also tested in the same sera from the patient...

OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to examine the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of KL-21, a novel plant product (produced by Naturin Natural Products, İzmir, Turkey), on 232B4 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells and to determine the cytotoxic effects on healthy BEAS-2B human bronchial epithelial cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS The cytotoxic effect of KL-21 was determined by MTT cell pr...

  Background: The role of arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM) for painful degenerative meniscal tears (PDMT) is currently controversial. To define the rate of early (1 to 5 years) conversion to total knee replacement (TKR) and their predictors after APM for PDMT in patients with knee osteoarthritis and more than 50 years of age. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of patients more than...

The receptor tyrosine kinase Kit and its cognate ligand KL/steel factor are encoded at the white spotting (W) and Steel (Sl) loci of the mouse, respectively. Mutations at both the W and the Sl loci affect hematopoiesis including the stem ceil hierarchy, erythropoiesis, and mast cells, as well as gametogenesis and mdanogenesis. In addition, mutant mice display an increased sensitivity to lethal ...

subject to q(f |u) = ∏ i q(fi|u) and ∫ dfiq(fi|u) = 1. It is noted that KL(a||b) is the measurement of information “lost” when using b to approximate a. It was argued in [1] that it is appropriate to use this KL divergence as an approximation measure since we are trying to find a sparse representation u and its relationship with f to approximate p by q. The KL divergence above can be expanded a...

We report a case of KL-6 producing peritoneal malignant mesothelioma. A 56-year-old woman was referred to our hospital on November 2005 with severe abdominal distention. Peritoneal malignant mesothelioma with epithelioid type was diagnosed by clinical symptoms, laboratory investigations, imaging studies, and immunohistochemical examination of known tumor markers. In addition, high serum and asc...

Factors that control recruitment of theca cells from ovarian stromal-interstitial cells are important for early follicle development in the ovary. During recruitment, theca cells organize into distinct layers around early developing follicles and establish essential cell-cell interactions with granulosa cells. Recruitment of theca cells from ovarian stromal stem cells is proposed to involve cel...