DESCRIPTION AND TYPOLOGY OF DAIRY GOAT FARMS IN GREECE

The objective is to provide a description and typology of a random sample of dairy goat farms in Greece. Dairy goat farming and its role in maintaining rural tradition and self-sufficiency of population in poor rural areas of Greece is discussed. The work is part of a large european project, SOLID that focoses in low input systems

Gefitinib in combination with gemcitabine and vinorelbine in patients with metastatic breast cancer pre-treated with taxane and anthracycline chemotherapy: A phase I/II trial

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Methylation status of the APC and RASSF1A promoter in cell-free circulating DNA and its prognostic role in patients with colorectal cancer

DNA methylation is the most frequent epigenetic alteration. Using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP), the methylation status of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) and Ras association domain family 1 isoform A (RASSF1A) genes was examined in cell-free circulating DNA from 155 plasma samples obtained from patients with early and advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). APC and RASSF1A hypermethylation was frequently observed in both early and advanced disease, and was significantly associated with a poorer disease outcome. The methylation status of the APC and RASSF1A promoters was investigated in cell-free DNA of patients with CRC. Using MSP, the promoter methylation status of APC and RASSF1A was examined in 155 blood samples obtained from patients with CRC, 88 of whom had operable CRC (oCRC) and 67 had metastatic CRC (mCRC). The frequency of APC methylation in patients with oCRC was 33%. Methylated APC promoter was significantly associated with older age (P=0.012), higher stage (P=0.014) and methylated RASSF1A status (P=0.050). The frequency of APC methylation in patients with mCRC was 53.7%. In these patients, APC methylation was significantly associated with methylated RASSF1A status (P=0.016). The frequency of RASSF1A methylation in patients with oCRC was 25%. Methylated RASSF1A in oCRC was significantly associated with higher stage (P=0.021). The frequency of RASSF1A methylation in mCRC was 44.8%. Methylated RASSF1A in mCRC was associated with moderate differentiation (P=0.012), high levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (P=0.023) and methylated APC status (P=0.016). Patients with an unmethylated APC gene had better survival in both early (81±5 vs. 27±4 months, P<0.001) and advanced disease (37±7 vs. 15±3 months, P<0.001), compared with patients with methylated APC. Patients with an unmethylated RASSF1A gene had better survival in both early (71±6 vs. 46±8 months, P<0.001) and advanced disease (28±4 vs. 16±3 months, P<0.001) than patients with methylated RASSF1A. The observed significant correlations between APC and RASSF1A promoter methylation status and survival may be indicative of a prognostic role for these genes in CRC, which requires additional testing in larger studies. © 2016, Spandidos Publications. All rights reserved

Prognostic Role of RASSF1A, SOX17 and Wif-1 Promoter Methylation Status in Cell-Free DNA of Advanced Gastric Cancer Patients

Epigenetic modification of several genes is a key component in the development of gastric cancer. The methylation status of RASSF1A, SOX17 and Wif-1 genes was evaluated in the cell free circulating DNA of 70 patients with advanced gastric cancer, using methylation-specific PCR. Patients with higher cell-free DNA concentration seem to have lower PFS, than patients with lower cell-free DNA concentration (p = 0.001). RASSF1A was the tumor suppressor gene, most frequently methylated in metastatic gastric cancer patients, followed by SOX17 and Wif-1 (74.3%, 60.0% and 47.1%, respectively). Patients having the SOX17 promoter methylated, had lower progression free survival and overall survival, than unmethylated ones (p < 0.001). Patients having the Wif-1 promoter methylated, had lower progression free survival and overall survival, than unmethylated ones (p = 0.001). Patients having the RASSF1A promoter methylated, had lower progression free survival and overall survival, than unmethylated ones (p = 0.004). Promoter methylation of the examined genes was significantly associated with a decrease in progression free survival and overall survival, comparing to that of patients without methylation. Simultaneous methylation of the above genes was associated with even worse progression free survival and overall survival. The methylation of RASSF1A, SOX-17 and Wif-1 and genes, is a frequent epigenetic event in patients with advanced gastric cancer

Prognostic role of APC and RASSF1A promoter methylation status in cell free circulating DNA of operable gastric cancer patients

Gastric carcinogenesis is a multistep process including not only genetic mutations but also epigenetic alterations. The best known and more frequent epigenetic alteration is DNA methylation affecting tumor suppressor genes that may be involved in various carcinogenetic pathways. The aim of the present study was to investigate the methylation status of APC promoter 1A and RASSF1A promoter in cell free DNA of operable gastric cancer patients.Using methylation specific PCR, we examined the methylation status of APC promoter 1A and RASSF1A promoter in 73 blood samples obtained from patients with gastric cancer.APC and RASSF1A promoters were found to be methylated in 61 (83.6%) and 50 (68.5%) of the 73 gastric cancer samples examined, but in none of the healthy control samples ( p<. 0.001). A significant association between methylated RASSF1A promoter status and lymph node positivity was observed ( p= 0.005). Additionally, a significant correlation between a methylated APC promoter and elevated CEA ( p= 0.033) as well as CA-19.9 ( p= 0.032) levels, was noticed. The Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival, significantly favored patients with a non-methylated APC promoter status ( p= 0.008). No other significant correlations between APC and RASSF1A methylation status and different tumor variables examined was observed.Serum RASSF1A and APC promoter hypermethylation is a frequent epigenetic event in patients with early operable gastric cancer. The observed correlations between APC promoter methylation status and survival as well as between a hypermethylated RASSF1A promoter and nodal positivity may be indicative of a prognostic role for those genes in early operable gastric cancer. Additional studies, in a larger cohort of patients are required to further explore whether these findings could serve as potential molecular biomarkers of survival and/or response to specific treatments. © 2015 Elsevier B.V

Selection of powerful radio galaxies with machine learning

Context. The study of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is fundamental to discern the formation and growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their connection with star formation and galaxy evolution. Due to the significant kinetic and radiative energy emitted by powerful AGNs, they are prime candidates to observe the interplay between SMBH and stellar growth in galaxies. Aims. We aim to develop a method to predict the AGN nature of a source, its radio detectability, and redshift purely based on photometry. The use of such a method will increase the number of radio AGNs, allowing us to improve our knowledge of accretion power into an SMBH, the origin and triggers of radio emission, and its impact on galaxy evolution. Methods. We developed and trained a pipeline of three machine learning (ML) models than can predict which sources are more likely to be an AGN and to be detected in specific radio surveys. Also, it can estimate redshift values for predicted radio-detectable AGNs. These models, which combine predictions from tree-based and gradient-boosting algorithms, have been trained with multi-wavelength data from near-infrared-selected sources in the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) Spring field. Training, testing, calibration, and validation were carried out in the HETDEX field. Further validation was performed on near-infrared-selected sources in the Stripe 82 field. Results. In the HETDEX validation subset, our pipeline recovers 96% of the initially labelled AGNs and, from AGNs candidates, we recover 50% of previously detected radio sources. For Stripe 82, these numbers are 94% and 55%. Compared to random selection, these rates are two and four times better for HETDEX, and 1.2 and 12 times better for Stripe 82. The pipeline can also recover the redshift distribution of these sources with σNMAD=0.07 for HETDEX (σNMAD=0.09 for Stripe 82) and an outlier fraction of 19% (25% for Stripe 82), compatible with previous results based on broad-band photometry. Feature importance analysis stresses the relevance of near- and mid-infrared colours to select AGNs and identify their radio and redshift nature. Conclusions. Combining different algorithms in ML models shows an improvement in the prediction power of our pipeline over a random selection of sources. Tree-based ML models (in contrast to deep learning techniques) facilitate the analysis of the impact that features have on the predictions. This prediction can give insight into the potential physical interplay between the properties of radio AGNs (e.g. mass of black hole and accretion rate)