413 research outputs found
Data Perturbation Independent Diagnosis and Validation of Breast Cancer Subtypes Using Clustering and Patterns
Molecular stratification of disease based on expression levels of sets of genes can help guide therapeutic decisions if such classifications can be shown to be stable against variations in sample source and data perturbation. Classifications inferred from one set of samples in one lab should be able to consistently stratify a different set of samples in another lab. We present a method for assessing such stability and apply it to the breast cancer (BCA) datasets of Sorlie et al. 2003 and Ma et al. 2003. We find that within the now commonly accepted BCA categories identified by Sorlie et al. Luminal A and Basal are robust, but Luminal B and ERBB2+ are not. In particular, 36% of the samples identified as Luminal B and 55% identified as ERBB2+ cannot be assigned an accurate category because the classification is sensitive to data perturbation. We identify a ācore clusterā of samples for each category, and from these we determine āpatternsā of gene expression that distinguish the core clusters from each other. We find that the best markers for Luminal A and Basal are (ESR1, LIV1, GATA-3) and (CCNE1, LAD1, KRT5), respectively. Pathways enriched in the patterns regulate apoptosis, tissue remodeling and the immune response. We use a different dataset (Ma et al. 2003) to test the accuracy with which samples can be allocated to the four disease subtypes. We find, as expected, that the classification of samples identified as Luminal A and Basal is robust but classification into the other two subtypes is not
Artefacts in geometric phase analysis of compound materials
The geometric phase analysis (GPA) algorithm is known as a robust and
straightforward technique that can be used to measure lattice strains in high
resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) images. It is also attractive
for analysis of aberration-corrected scanning TEM (ac-STEM) images that resolve
every atom column, since it uses Fourier transforms and does not require
real-space peak detection and assignment to appropriate sublattices. Here it is
demonstrated that in ac-STEM images of compound materials (i.e. with more than
one atom per unit cell) an additional phase is present in the Fourier
transform. If the structure changes from one area to another in the image (e.g.
across an interface), the change in this additional phase will appear as a
strain in conventional GPA, even if there is no lattice strain. Strategies to
avoid this pitfall are outlined.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, Preprint before review, submitted to
Ultramicroscopy 7 April 201
Logical Analysis of Data (LAD) model for the early diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Strokes are a leading cause of morbidity and the first cause of adult disability in the United States. Currently, no biomarkers are being used clinically to diagnose acute ischemic stroke. A diagnostic test using a blood sample from a patient would potentially be beneficial in treating the disease.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A classification approach is described for differentiating between proteomic samples of stroke patients and controls, and a second novel predictive model is developed for predicting the severity of stroke as measured by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). The models were constructed by applying the Logical Analysis of Data (LAD) methodology to the mass peak profiles of 48 stroke patients and 32 controls. The classification model was shown to have an accuracy of 75% when tested on an independent validation set of 35 stroke patients and 25 controls, while the predictive model exhibited superior performance when compared to alternative algorithms. In spite of their high accuracy, both models are extremely simple and were developed using a common set consisting of only 3 peaks.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have successfully identified 3 biomarkers that can detect ischemic stroke with an accuracy of 75%. The performance of the classification model on the validation set and on cross-validation does not deteriorate significantly when compared to that on the training set, indicating the robustness of the model. As in the case of the LAD classification model, the results of the predictive model validate the function constructed on our support-set for approximating the severity scores of stroke patients. The correlation and root mean absolute error of the LAD predictive model are consistently superior to those of the other algorithms used (Support vector machines, C4.5 decision trees, Logistic regression and Multilayer perceptron).</p
A simple model of ac hopping surface conductivity in ionic liquids
The boundary conditions proposed to discuss the charge exchange taking place in an ionic liquid in contact with non-blocking electrodes are reconsidered in a dynamic situation. Assuming that the variation of the bulk ionic current density depends linearly on the surface value of the ionic current density, the frequency dependence of the phenomenological parameter is determined. The analysis has been performed in the framework where the relaxation times are smaller than a maximum relaxation time ĻM, and that the response function is independent on the value of the relaxation time. Using simple physical considerations, an expression for the surface conductivity describing the ionic charge exchange at the electrode is obtained. According to our calculations, its frequency dependence is similar to that predicted for the electric conductivity in disordered materials when the mechanism is of the hopping type. From measurements of impedance spectroscopy, by the best fit of the experimental data, the temperature dependence of the hopping time, of the dc surface conductivity, and of the diffusion coefficient are derived. They are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions obtained with the random distribution of surface energy barrier. Keywords: Ionic liquids, Non-blocking electrodes, Electrical impedance spectroscopy, AC hopping surface conductivit
Maximum Independent Sets in Subcubic Graphs: New Results
The maximum independent set problem is known to be NP-hard in the class of
subcubic graphs, i.e. graphs of vertex degree at most 3. We present a
polynomial-time solution in a subclass of subcubic graphs generalizing several
previously known results
Sensitive methods for estimating the anchoring strength of nematic liquid crystals on Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of fatty acids
The anchoring of the nematic liquid crystal
N-(p-methoxybenzylidene)-p-butylaniline (MBBA) on Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers
of fatty acids (COOHCH) was studied as a function of the length
of the fatty acid alkyl chains, (). The monolayers were
deposited onto ITO-coated glass plates which were used to assemble sandwich
cells of various thickness that were filled with MBBA in the nematic phase. The
mechanism of relaxation from the flow-induced quasi-planar to the
surface-induced homeotropic alignment was studied for the four decreases
linearly with increasing the length of the alkyl chains which suggests that
the Langmuir-Blodgett film plays a role in the phenomenon. This fact was
confirmed by a sensitive estimation of the anchoring strength of MBBA on the
fatty acid monolayers after anchoring breaking which takes place at the
transition between two electric-field--induced turbulent states, denoted as
DSM1 and DSM2. It was found that the threshold electric field for the anchoring
breaking, which can be considered as a measure of the anchoring strength, also
decreases linearly as increases. Both methods thus possess a high
sensitivity in resolving small differences in anchoring strength. In cells
coated with mixed Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of two fatty acids ( and
) a maximum of the relaxation speed was observed when the two acids were
present in equal amount. This observation homeotropic cells by changing the
ratio between the components of the surfactant film.Comment: LaTeX article, 20 pages, 15 figures, 17 EPS files. 1 figure added,
references moved. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Significance of small voltage in impedance spectroscopy measurements on electrolytic cells
We investigate, theoretically, for what amplitude of the applied voltage to an electrolytic cell the concept of impedance is meaningful. The analysis is performed by means of a continuum model, by assuming the electrodes perfectly blocking. We show that, in the low-frequency range, the electrolytic cell behaves as a linear system only if the amplitude of the measurement voltage is small with respect to the thermal voltage V(T)=k(B)T/q, where k(B)T is the thermal energy, and q is the modulus of the electrical charge of the ions, assumed identical except for the sign of the charge. On the contrary, for large frequency, we prove that the amplitude of the applied signal has to be small with respect to a critical voltage that is frequency dependent. The same kind of analysis is presented for the case in which the diffusion coefficients of the positive ions is different from that for negative ions, and for the case where surface adsorption takes place
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