Science Mapping and Country Clustering Regarding Challenges of Public Governance to Ensure Societal Well-Being

This study maps the challenges public governance faces in its mission to ensure a high level of societal well-being in European countries due to complex and multidimensional analysis, both on scientific and economic levels: bibliometric analysis, vector quantisation mapping, and clustering analysis of countries. The proposed research advocates considering relevant descriptors of the two phenomena, namely the six dimensions of public governance and the composite quality of life index, to analyse their interdependence by 2020, the year for which official statistics reveal data. Our research proposes a classification of the European Union Member States from the perspective of the progress made at the governmental decision-making level for the multidimensional approach to quality of life to identify the models of good practice. The methodological support was offered by cluster analysis and a vector quantisation method, namely K-means. KNIME software has allowed us to connect to various data sources visually. Clustering of European countries has revealed several disparities thus, Denmark and Finland (which are countries with a high level of quality of life) are examples of good practices, while countries such as Romania and Bulgaria are facing difficulties in significantly improving their quality of life due to the deficiencies of the governing act. Finally, the research highlights the channels through which public governance can substantially contribute to societal well-being, keeping in mind the relatively low importance of welfare given to formal aspects of democratic representation compared to the extent of quality governance.</em

Two variants on chromosome 17 confer prostate cancer risk, and the one in TCF2 protects against type 2 diabetes

Contains fulltext : 52115.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)We performed a genome-wide association scan to search for sequence variants conferring risk of prostate cancer using 1,501 Icelandic men with prostate cancer and 11,290 controls. Follow-up studies involving three additional case-control groups replicated an association of two variants on chromosome 17 with the disease. These two variants, 33 Mb apart, fall within a region previously implicated by family-based linkage studies on prostate cancer. The risks conferred by these variants are moderate individually (allele odds ratio of about 1.20), but because they are common, their joint population attributable risk is substantial. One of the variants is in TCF2 (HNF1beta), a gene known to be mutated in individuals with maturity-onset diabetes of the young type 5. Results from eight case-control groups, including one West African and one Chinese, demonstrate that this variant confers protection against type 2 diabetes