Frequency of common CYP3A5 gene variants in healthy Polish newborn infants

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases catalyze the metabolism of approximately 40-60 % of widely used drugs with a A6986G CYP3A5 polymorphism determining expresser (A6986, *1) and reduced- expresser (*3) variants with modified drug metabolism activity. In this report, the allele frequency of CYP3A5 *1 and *3 (A6986 or G6986, respectively) was analyzed by the PCR-RFLP technique in a cohort of 200 Polish newborns from the West Pomeranian region. Of the studied group, 1 % (n = 2/200) proved homozygous for the CYP3A5*1 allele, 89 % (n = 178/200) for the *3 allele, and 10 % (n = 20/200) were heterozygous for *1/*3. Similar frequencies were found in other Caucasian European populations. This study provides basic genetic data related to the metabolism of drugs, with a narrow therapeutic window in a Polish population. Key words: CYP3A5 variants, pharmacogenetics, drug metabolis

Heavy-tailed statistics in short-message communication

Short-message (SM) is one of the most frequently used communication channels in the modern society. In this Brief Report, based on the SM communication records provided by some volunteers, we investigate the statistics of SM communication pattern, including the interevent time distributions between two consecutive short messages and two conversations, and the distribution of message number contained by a complete conversation. In the individual level, the current empirical data raises a strong evidence that the human activity pattern, exhibiting a heavy-tailed interevent time distribution, is driven by a non-Poisson nature.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures and 1 tabl

60 GHz MAC Standardization: Progress and Way Forward

Communication at mmWave frequencies has been the focus in the recent years. In this paper, we discuss standardization efforts in 60 GHz short range communication and the progress therein. We compare the available standards in terms of network architecture, medium access control mechanisms, physical layer techniques and several other features. Comparative analysis indicates that IEEE 802.11ad is likely to lead the short-range indoor communication at 60 GHz. We bring to the fore resolved and unresolved issues pertaining to robust WLAN connectivity at 60 GHz. Further, we discuss the role of mmWave bands in 5G communication scenarios and highlight the further efforts required in terms of research and standardization

Short communication: a hierarchy of items within Eysenck’s EPI

Based on the recent finding of a hierarchical scale for Neuroticism in the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, two further personality inventories: the Eysenck Personality Inventory and Goldberg’s International Personality Item Pool were analysed using the Mokken Scaling Procedure for hierarchical scales. Items from two dimensions of the Eysenck Personality Inventory: Neuroticism and Extraversion produced hierarchical scales of 12 and five items, respectively. The Neuroticism items ran from items expressing mild to more extreme worry and the Extraversion items ran from mild sociability to more extreme ‘showing off’. The utility of hierarchical scales in personality measurement is discussed in terms of furthering theoretical understanding of personality and also practical application. In addition, the reasons why only one of these scales should produce hierarchical sets of items is discussed

tissue of rat adjuvant-induced arthritis

Triptolide has been clinically used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis, in which chemokine receptors play an important role in immune and inflammatory responses. To investigate the effect of triptolide on CCR5, we used complete Freund’s adjuvant to produce adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) in rats. Our data show that both CCR5 mRNA and protein levels in synovial tissue of rats with AIA are significantly higher than those in normal rats. Triptolide can significantly inhibit rat AIA-induced overexpression of CCR5 at both mRNA and protein levels. These results may contribute to better understanding of the therapeutic effects of triptolide in rheumatoid arthritis. Key words: triptolide, CCR5, adjuvant induced arthritis, rheumatoid arthriti

Random Access Protocols with Collision Resolution in a Noncoherent Setting

Wireless systems are increasingly used for Machine-Type Communication (MTC), where the users sporadically send very short messages. In such a setting, the overhead imposed by channel estimation is substantial, thereby demanding noncoherent communication. In this paper we consider a noncoherent setup in which users randomly access the medium to send short messages to a common receiver. We propose a transmission scheme based on Gabor frames, where each user has a dedicated codebook of M possible codewords, while the codebook simultaneously serves as an ID for the user. The scheme is used as a basis for a simple protocol for collision resolution.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; EDIT: A version of this work has been submitted for publication in the IEEE Wireless Communication Letters Journa