Intelligent data analysis to interpret major risk factors for diabetic patients with and without ischemic stroke in a small population

This study proposes an intelligent data analysis approach to investigate and interpret the distinctive factors of diabetes mellitus patients with and without ischemic (non-embolic type) stroke in a small population. The database consists of a total of 16 features collected from 44 diabetic patients. Features include age, gender, duration of diabetes, cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, triglyceride levels, neuropathy, nephropathy, retinopathy, peripheral vascular disease, myocardial infarction rate, glucose level, medication and blood pressure. Metric and non-metric features are distinguished. First, the mean and covariance of the data are estimated and the correlated components are observed. Second, major components are extracted by principal component analysis. Finally, as common examples of local and global classification approach, a k-nearest neighbor and a high-degree polynomial classifier such as multilayer perceptron are employed for classification with all the components and major components case. Macrovascular changes emerged as the principal distinctive factors of ischemic-stroke in diabetes mellitus. Microvascular changes were generally ineffective discriminators. Recommendations were made according to the rules of evidence-based medicine. Briefly, this case study, based on a small population, supports theories of stroke in diabetes mellitus patients and also concludes that the use of intelligent data analysis improves personalized preventive intervention

Elimusertib has anti-tumor activity in preclinical patient-derived pediatric solid tumor models

The small molecule inhibitor of ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (ATR), elimusertib, is currently being tested clinically in various cancer entities in adults and children. Its preclinical anti-tumor activity in pediatric malignancies, however, is largely unknown. We here assessed the preclinical activity of elimusertib in 38 cell lines and 32 patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models derived from common pediatric solid tumor entities. Detailed in vitro and in vivo molecular characterization of the treated models enabled the evaluation of response biomarkers. Pronounced objective response rates were observed for elimusertib monotherapy in PDX, when treated with a regimen currently used in clinical trials. Strikingly, elimusertib showed stronger anti-tumor effects than some standard of care chemotherapies, particularly in alveolar rhabdomysarcoma PDX. Thus, elimusertib has strong preclinical anti-tumor activity in pediatric solid tumor models, which may translate to clinically meaningful responses in patients

Therapeutic targeting of ATR in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma

Despite advances in multi-modal treatment approaches, clinical outcomes of patients suffering from PAX3-FOXO1 fusion oncogene-expressing alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS) remain dismal. Here we show that PAX3-FOXO1-expressing ARMS cells are sensitive to pharmacological ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3 related protein (ATR) inhibition. Expression of PAX3-FOXO1 in muscle progenitor cells is not only sufficient to increase sensitivity to ATR inhibition, but PAX3-FOXO1-expressing rhabdomyosarcoma cells also exhibit increased sensitivity to structurally diverse inhibitors of ATR. Mechanistically, ATR inhibition leads to replication stress exacerbation, decreased BRCA1 phosphorylation and reduced homologous recombination-mediated DNA repair pathway activity. Consequently, ATR inhibitor treatment increases sensitivity of ARMS cells to PARP1 inhibition in vitro, and combined treatment with ATR and PARP1 inhibitors induces complete regression of primary patient-derived ARMS xenografts in vivo. Lastly, a genome-wide CRISPR activation screen (CRISPRa) in combination with transcriptional analyses of ATR inhibitor resistant ARMS cells identifies the RAS-MAPK pathway and its targets, the FOS gene family, as inducers of resistance to ATR inhibition. Our findings provide a rationale for upcoming biomarker-driven clinical trials of ATR inhibitors in patients suffering from ARMS

3-D object mesh geometry compression with vector quantization [3-B Nesne Bilgilerinin Vektör Nicemleme Yöntemleri ile Sikiştirilmasi]

IEEE;TUBITAK;Istanbul Teknik Universitesi;aselsan;Profilo Telr@Proceedings of the IEEE 12th Signal Processing and Communications Applications Conference, SIU 2004 -- 28 April 2004 through 30 April 2004 -- Kusadasi -- 64722In this study, the objective is to develop a new combined method for efficient compression of classical 3-D object mesh representation. This can be realized in two primary steps: Mesh connectivity coding and data (geometry) compression. For realizing the first step, the algorithm of Isenburg has been employed. For the second step, vector quantization methods have been used to compress the vertex coordinate. The difference between our study and the others is that our study uses ECVQ method for vertex coordinate compression to improve the results. © 2004 IEEE

Shear thickening fluids in cork composites for impact mitigation: the role of fumed silica concentration

Cork composites have shown excellent potential in impact mitigating systems. Their sustainability greatly surpasses the currently used solutions. In addition, recent advances in developing cork composites with shear thickening fuids (STFs) have demonstrated exciting results for impact mitigation. This study explores diferent STF formulations based on polyethylene glycol (PEG), with a molecular weight of 400 g/mol, and SiO2 particles, investigating their application in layered cork composites for impact mitigation. Diferent STF formulations are investigated by processing suspensions with diferent fumed silica concentrations ranging from 10 to 60 wt.%. Using a cone–plate confguration, rheological measurements were conducted on these suspensions, which were then employed as an interfacial layer in agglomerated cork composite layered structures. These hybrid composites were then subjected to 20 J impact tests. PEG 400 exhibited fuid fnal states for silica concentrations up to 30 wt.% and crystallised at higher concentrations. Based on the results, STF within cork layers was positive regarding impact force reduction, drawing insights for future application of STF suspensions in cork composites for impact mitigation.FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.publishe

Premarital sexual attitudes and experiences in university students

Although premarital sex is common in many western societies, it is quite limited particularly in eastern societies. We aimed of in this study; on premarital sexual attitudes/ behaviors and related factors in University students. Among our subjects, we found that premarital masturbation rates among women and men were 26.47% and 83.60% respectively. We also found that the rates of having coitus with another person were 5.88% in women, and 39.92% in men. We found showed that premarital sexual attitudes and behaviors were more liberal than those in societies living within traditional Islamic culture, and more conservative than those in developed societies. Because of increase in premarital sexual experiences, in unwanted pregnancy rates and sexually transmitted diseases, sexual education and studies facilitating the access to sources of information are needed to prevent these problems from affecting youth psychologically and physiologically

Compressing mesh geometry using spectral methods and a set partitioning approach [Spektral yöntemler ve küme bölüntüleme yaklaşimlariyla 3B nesne bilgilerinin sikiştirilmasi]

2006 IEEE 14th Signal Processing and Communications Applications -- 17 April 2006 through 19 April 2006 -- Antalya -- 69461Elektronik Mühendisligi Bölümü. We propose a mesh geometry coder that utilizes spectral methods and a set partitioning approach for coding the spectral coefficients. The spectral method of [1] not only achieved high rate-distortion performance on irregular meshes, but also allowed progressive transmission of meshes by truncating the coefficient vector and performing reconstruction with a small subset of coefficients that contain most of the total energy. In this paper, mesh geometry is projected onto an orthonormal basis that is derived from the mesh topology as in [1], and the spectral coefficients are coded with the set partitioning sorting algorithm of [2]. Since the method achieves implicit bit allocation to the spectral coefficients of the three coordinates and efficiently codes the significant coefficient location information by jointly coding the zeroes in the bit planes of these coefficients the rate- distortion performance of the proposed method is superior to that of [1] as demonstrated by our experiments on common irregular meshes. The generated bit stream is also truly embedded. © 2006 IEEE