Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies and Network Analysis-Based Integration with Gene Expression Data Identify New Suggestive Loci and Unravel a Wnt-Centric Network Associated with Dupuytren’s Disease

Dupuytren´s disease, a fibromatosis of the connective tissue in the palm, is a common complex disease with a strong genetic component. Up to date nine genetic loci have been found to be associated with the disease. Six of these loci contain genes that code for Wnt signalling proteins. In spite of this striking first insight into the genetic factors in Dupuytren´s disease, much of the inherited risk in Dupuytren´s disease still needs to be discovered. The already identified loci jointly explain ~1% of the heritability in this disease. To further elucidate the genetic basis of Dupuytren´s disease, we performed a genome-wide meta-analysis combining three genome-wide association study (GWAS) data sets, comprising 1,580 cases and 4,480 controls. We corroborated all nine previously identified loci, six of these with genome-wide significance (p-value < 5x10-8). In addition, we identified 14 new suggestive loci (p-value < 10−5). Intriguingly, several of these new loci contain genes associated with Wnt signalling and therefore represent excellent candidates for replication. Next, we compared whole-transcriptome data between patient- and control-derived tissue samples and found the Wnt/β-catenin pathway to be the top deregulated pathway in patient samples. We then conducted network and pathway analyses in order to identify protein networks that are enriched for genes highlighted in the GWAS meta-analysis and expression data sets. We found further evidence that the Wnt signalling pathways in conjunction with other pathways may play a critical role in Dupuytren´s disease

Modulation diversity benefits in cooperative communications

\u3cp\u3eIn this paper we propose modulation diversity as a candidate diversity scheme for uncoded cooperative communication in wireless networks with decode-and-forward (DF) communication protocol. A performance analysis of such a scheme in Nakagami-m fading channels in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is presented. An upper bound on the average probability of bit error (P\u3csub\u3eb\u3c/sub\u3e) and average probability of symbol error (P\u3csub\u3es\u3c/sub\u3e) is derived for M-ary phase shift keying (MPSK) modulation schemes. It is shown that the system employing employing modulation diversity is able to provide a performance improvement of 5 dB at a bit error rate of 10\u3csup\u3e-4\u3c/sup\u3e as compared to the conventional cooperative communication systems. We introduce a power allocation factor and show that equal power allocation is not the optimal solution. Furthermore, we also analyze the effect of different rotation angles and power allocation on the system performance.\u3c/p\u3

Giant fibroadenoma of one breast: Immediate bilateral reconstruction

A rare case of giant fibroadenoma of the left breast is presented. We performed a nipple sparing subcutaneous mastectomy of the left breast. Since the patient desired larger breasts, a contralateral augmentation mammaplasty was carried out in a single stage operation. A satisfactory result was achieved. (c) 2007 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Antenna-Pattern Diversity Versus Space Diversity For Use at Handhelds

This paper investigates diversity for dual-antenna systems operating in indoor environments. First, an approximated equation of the diversity gain is derived for different combining techniques. These theoretical results show that the two-term approximation, as generally used in the literature [5], is too rough an estimate. Consequently, a new six-term approximation is derived. Next, it is demonstrated by a comparison of theoretical and experimental diversity gain values that, due to mutual coupling between the two antennas in practice, the diversity gain will not approach 0 dB if the distance between the two antennas approaches zero. Finally, it is concluded from measurements at 900 MHz that antenna-pattern diversity is a better choice than space diversity for use at handhelds

NDA SNR estimation techniques for non-equiprobable signaling using non-coherent OOK receivers

\u3cp\u3eIn this paper, non-data aided (NDA) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimation techniques for non-coherent on-off keying (OOK) receivers using non-equiprobable signal transmission is analyzed. Expectation-maximization (EM), M \u3csub\u3e1\u3c/sub\u3eM\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e and M\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3eM\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e estimators are investigated. It is shown that the performance of moments based estimators degrade in high SNR region due to bad noise estimates. Moreover, lower moment based estimator, i.e., M\u3csub\u3e1\u3c/sub\u3eM\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e is shown to be inoperable for equiprobable case. EM estimator is investigated and a noise recalibration stage is added for high SNR region. Hybrid estimators, i.e., M\u3csub\u3e1\u3c/sub\u3eM \u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e-EM and M\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3eM\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e - EM are proposed to cover a wide range of SNR for equiprobable and non-equiprobable signal transmission. The normalized mean square error (NMSE) is evaluated for each estimator. Closed form analytical expressions are derived for each of the estimators and is found to be in good agreement with the simulations.\u3c/p\u3

A 900 MHz RF energy harvesting system in 40 nm CMOS technology with efficiency peaking at 47% and higher than 30% over a 22dB wide input power range

A 900 MHz RF energy harvesting system is proposed for a far-field wireless power transfer application. The topology of a single-stage CMOS rectifier loaded with an integrated boost DC-DC converter is implemented in a 40 nm CMOS technology. The co-design of a cross-coupled CMOS rectifier and an impedance matching network is described to optimize RF-DC conversion efficiency for the target input power. Two tuning techniques are employed to improve the power conversion efficiency of the entire system over a wide input power range, which include using an input-regulated DC-DC converter to control the rectifier with an optimal output voltage, and tuning an impedance matching network to compensate the input impedance variation of the rectifier. The measurement results show the proposed system can achieve an end-to-end power conversion efficiency higher than 30% over a 22dB input power range (-10 to 12 dBm) with a peak value of 47% at 0 dBm for a 1.5 V output voltage. The maximum output voltage of the system is 2.45V with a sensitivity of -15 dBm