Rate of Heat Transfer between a Fluidized Bed and the Tube Wall at Higher Temperature

The heat transfer coefficient between a fluidized bed and the tube wall, hw, was measured in the temperature range of 500° to 800°C. Quartz and fused alumina particles were fluidized in the air stream. The coefficient hw was obtained between 70 and 800 kcal/m²·hr·°C. It increases with the flow rate of air. The effects of bed temperature and heat content and size of the particles on hw were imperceptible. By comparing the heat transfer coefficients obtained in this work with those at lower temperatures below 200°C, the difference between both coefficients was not significant

Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) polymorphisms in patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma

BACKGROUND: Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma causes over 75% of skin cancer-related deaths, and it is clear that many factors may contribute to the outcome. Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs) play an important role in the degradation and remodeling of the extracellular matrix and basement membrane that, in turn, modulate cell division, migration and angiogenesis. Some polymorphisms are known to influence gene expression, protein activity, stability, and interactions, and they were shown to be associated with certain tumor phenotypes and cancer risk. METHODS: We tested seven polymorphisms within the MMP-9 gene in 1002 patients with melanoma in order to evaluate germline genetic variants and their association with progression and known risk factors of melanoma. The polymorphisms were selected based on previously published reports and their known or potential functional relevance using in-silico methods. Germline DNA was then genotyped using pyrosequencing, melting temperature profiles, heteroduplex analysis, and fragment size analysis. RESULTS: We found that reference alleles were present in higher frequency in patients who tend to sunburn, have family history of melanoma, higher melanoma stage, intransit metastasis and desmoplastic melanomas among others. However, after adjustment for age, sex, phenotypic index, moles, and freckles only Q279R, P574R and R668Q had significant associations with intransit metastasis, propensity to tan/sunburn and primary melanoma site. CONCLUSION: This study does not provide strong evidence for further investigation into the role of the MMP-9 SNPs in melanoma progression

Identification of candidate tumour suppressor genes frequently methylated in renal cell carcinoma

Promoter region hyermethylation and transcriptional silencing is a frequent cause of tumour suppressor gene (TSG) inactivation in many types of human cancers. Functional epigenetic studies, in which gene expression is induced by treatment with demethylating agents, may identify novel genes with tumour-specific methylation. We used high-density gene expression microarrays in a functional epigenetic study of 11 renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cell lines. Twenty-eight genes were then selected for analysis of promoter methylation status in cell lines and primary RCC. Eight genes (BNC1, PDLIM4, RPRM, CST6, SFRP1, GREM1, COL14A1 and COL15A1) showed frequent (30% of RCC tested) tumour-specific promoter region methylation. Hypermethylation was associated with transcriptional silencing. Re-expression of BNC1, CST6, RPRM and SFRP1 suppressed the growth of RCC cell lines and RNA interference knock-down of BNC1, SFRP1 and COL14A1 increased the growth of RCC cell lines. Methylation of BNC1 or COL14A1 was associated with a poorer prognosis independent of tumour size, stage or grade. The identification of these epigenetically inactivated candidate RCC TSGs can provide insights into renal tumourigenesis and a basis for developing novel therapies and biomarkers for prognosis and detection. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited.Published versio

シンニュウセイ オ タイショウ トシタ キツエン ボウシ キョウイク シコウ ガ タバコ ニ タイスル イシキ ニ アタエル エイキョウ ノ ケントウ

大学入学早期からの喫煙防止教育の大切さがこれまでに指摘されていたが,喫煙防止教育の効果に関してほとんど検討されていない.本研究は,大学新入学時に喫煙防止教育を施行し,その前後の喫煙に対する態度や喫煙防止教育を行う意欲や自信の変化等を検討することを目的とした.2008 年4 月に,新入生74 名(男子54 名,女子20 名)を対象に喫煙防止教育を施行し,教育の直前とその一週間後に同一アンケート調査を行い,PASW Statistics 18.0 for Windows を使用し,c 2 検定及びt 検定を行った.喫煙防止教育後の喫煙者の禁煙に対する関心度や非喫煙者の喫煙に対する関心度には,有意差は見られなかった.さらに,喫煙防止教育を受けた経験が十分あるかという質問に関しては,「タバコの害」と「タバコの依存性」では教育前と有意差は無く,「禁煙指導の方法」に関してのみ,有意に上昇した.しかし,喫煙行動に対する態度に関しては,「医療施設の全面禁煙化」以外の全項目で有意に上昇した.さらに,タバコに関する社会の動きに対する関心度が有意に高まり,喫煙防止教育に対する意欲や自信も有意に上昇した.本研究は長期的な教育効果を検討するには不十分であるが,喫煙防止教育として新入生の意識向上に良い影響を与えた.Several studies have discussed the importance of educatingstudents on smoking prevention during the initial yearsof university education. In this study we examined thechanging perceptions of smoking behavior among freshmenin university just before and after 1 week of education onthe health hazards due to smoking.In April, 2008, 74 freshmen (54 boys and 20 girls) of aparamedical university were provided health education onthe hazards caused by smoking, and the changes in the perceptionsregarding the smoking behavior were examinedby the basis of a questionnaire that was answered by thestudents before and after the education;the same questionnairewas filled both the times. For statistical examination,c 2 test and t test were performed using IBM SPSS(PASW Statistics 18.0) for Windows.Even after educating the students on smoking prevention,there was no significant difference in the attitude ofsmokers toward smoking cessation and that of non-smokerstoward smoking. Although the awareness among thestudents with regard to the health hazards of smoking wasnot significantly different before and after this education,their awareness of the methods to quit smoking had increasedsignificantly. Moreover, the mean values of the differentopinions on the smoking behavior increased significantly.However, one exception was the opinions in themedical institutions that had tobacco-free environments.The mean values that increased the highest after this education,were "Implementation of non-smoking in the entireuniversity" and "The need for effective education that assistsin quitting smoking." Further, after this education, thescore of interest in social activities against smoking increased.Education on anti-smoking is vital for freshmenafter enrollment in a university

Accurate molecular classification of cancer using simple rules

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One intractable problem with using microarray data analysis for cancer classification is how to reduce the extremely high-dimensionality gene feature data to remove the effects of noise. Feature selection is often used to address this problem by selecting informative genes from among thousands or tens of thousands of genes. However, most of the existing methods of microarray-based cancer classification utilize too many genes to achieve accurate classification, which often hampers the interpretability of the models. For a better understanding of the classification results, it is desirable to develop simpler rule-based models with as few marker genes as possible.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We screened a small number of informative single genes and gene pairs on the basis of their depended degrees proposed in rough sets. Applying the decision rules induced by the selected genes or gene pairs, we constructed cancer classifiers. We tested the efficacy of the classifiers by leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) of training sets and classification of independent test sets.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We applied our methods to five cancerous gene expression datasets: leukemia (acute lymphoblastic leukemia [ALL] vs. acute myeloid leukemia [AML]), lung cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and leukemia (ALL vs. mixed-lineage leukemia [MLL] vs. AML). Accurate classification outcomes were obtained by utilizing just one or two genes. Some genes that correlated closely with the pathogenesis of relevant cancers were identified. In terms of both classification performance and algorithm simplicity, our approach outperformed or at least matched existing methods.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In cancerous gene expression datasets, a small number of genes, even one or two if selected correctly, is capable of achieving an ideal cancer classification effect. This finding also means that very simple rules may perform well for cancerous class prediction.</p

Comparative mRNA and microRNA Expression Profiling of Three Genitourinary Cancers Reveals Common Hallmarks and Cancer-Specific Molecular Events

Genome-wide gene expression profile using deep sequencing technologies can drive the discovery of cancer biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Such efforts are often limited to profiling the expression signature of either mRNA or microRNA (miRNA) in a single type of cancer.Here we provided an integrated analysis of the genome-wide mRNA and miRNA expression profiles of three different genitourinary cancers: carcinomas of the bladder, kidney and testis.Our results highlight the general or cancer-specific roles of several genes and miRNAs that may serve as candidate oncogenes or suppressors of tumor development. Further comparative analyses at the systems level revealed that significant aberrations of the cell adhesion process, p53 signaling, calcium signaling, the ECM-receptor and cell cycle pathways, the DNA repair and replication processes and the immune and inflammatory response processes were the common hallmarks of human cancers. Gene sets showing testicular cancer-specific deregulation patterns were mainly implicated in processes related to male reproductive function, and general disruptions of multiple metabolic pathways and processes related to cell migration were the characteristic molecular events for renal and bladder cancer, respectively. Furthermore, we also demonstrated that tumors with the same histological origins and genes with similar functions tended to group together in a clustering analysis. By assessing the correlation between the expression of each miRNA and its targets, we determined that deregulation of 'key' miRNAs may result in the global aberration of one or more pathways or processes as a whole.This systematic analysis deciphered the molecular phenotypes of three genitourinary cancers and investigated their variations at the miRNA level simultaneously. Our results provided a valuable source for future studies and highlighted some promising genes, miRNAs, pathways and processes that may be useful for diagnostic or therapeutic applications