Financial capital of Malawi and Mongolia during 2005-2014

Abstract. Financial capital is among the most critical endowment of a nation. It is a driver of other sorts of capitals (e.g., human, technology, and so on), especially for developing countries. This study collected and analyzed important data for national financial capital through established indicators in two representative countries in Asia and Africa – Mongolia and Malawi. Through the analyses we observe comparable development of both countries’ national financial capital and witness the growth potential of them. Managerial and policy implications are discussed.Keywords. Financial capital, National competitiveness, Malawi, Mongolia.JEL. M10, M11, M14

River catchment rainfall series analysis using additive Holt–Winters method

Climate change is receiving more attention from researchers as the frequency of occurrence of severe natural disasters is getting higher. Tropical countries like Malaysia have no distinct four seasons; rainfall has become the popular parameter to assess climate change. Conventional ways that determine rainfall trends can only provide a general result in single direction for the whole study period. In this study, rainfall series were modelled using additive Holt–Winters method to examine the rainfall pattern in Langat River Basin, Malaysia. Nine homogeneous series of more than 25 years data and less than 10% missing data were selected. Goodness of fit of the forecasted models was measured. It was found that seasonal rainfall model forecasts are generally better than the monthly rainfall model forecasts. Three stations in the western region exhibited increasing trend. Rainfall in southern region showed fluctuation. Increasing trends were discovered at stations in the south-eastern region except the seasonal analysis at station 45253. Decreasing trend was found at station 2818110 in the east, while increasing trend was shown at station 44320 that represents the north-eastern region. The accuracies of both rainfall model forecasts were tested using the recorded data of years 2010–2012. Most of the forecasts are acceptable

Accuracy of hysteroscopic biopsy, compared to dilation and curettage, as a predictor of final pathology in patients with endometrial cancer

AbstractObjectiveTo compare the methods of transcervical resectoscopy versus dilation and curettage (D&C) for endometrial biopsy and to compare these methods for the percentage of histological upgrades at the final posthysterectomy pathology findings in endometrial cancer.Materials and methodsWe retrospectively reviewed 253 cases of uterine cancer diagnosed from May 1995 to January 2014. Included in the study were patients who received transcervical resectoscopy (TCR) or D&C biopsy as the diagnostic method and underwent laparoscopic staging at our institution. The International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO) grade in the pathological report of the biopsy and final hysterectomy were recorded. The extrauterine risk was stratified using the initial FIGO grade and depth of myometrium invasion. It was compared to the actual risk using final pathological findings.ResultsWe identified 203 cases of endometrial cancer; 18 (8.9%) patients had a higher histological grade at the final hysterectomy. Among the 203 patients, 76 patients underwent TCR biopsy and 127 underwent D&C biopsy. The histological grade was upgraded in two (2.6%) patients in the TCR group. Three (3.9%) patients had positive peritoneal washings. In the D&C group, 16 (12.6%) patients with three (2.4%) positive peritoneal washings were upgraded.ConclusionTranscervical resectoscopy could provide more precise grading information, compared to D&C (2.6% vs. 12.6%). Doctors could therefore make a more accurate staging plan, based on the preoperative risk evaluation

Functional analysis of BARD1 missense variants in homology-directed repair and damage sensitivity

The BARD1 protein, which heterodimerizes with BRCA1, is encoded by a known breast cancer susceptibility gene. While several BARD1 variants have been identified as pathogenic, many more missense variants exist that do not occur frequently enough to assign a clinical risk. In this paper, whole exome sequencing of over 10,000 cancer samples from 33 cancer types identified from somatic mutations and loss of heterozygosity in tumors 76 potentially cancer-associated BARD1 missense and truncation variants. These variants were tested in a functional assay for homology-directed repair (HDR), as HDR deficiencies have been shown to correlate with clinical pathogenicity for BRCA1 variants. From these 76 variants, 4 in the ankyrin repeat domain and 5 in the BRCT domain were found to be non-functional in HDR. Two known benign variants were found to be functional in HDR, and three known pathogenic variants were non-functional, supporting the notion that the HDR assay can be used to predict the clinical risk of BARD1 variants. The identification of HDR-deficient variants in the ankyrin repeat domain indicates there are DNA repair functions associated with this domain that have not been closely examined. In order to examine whether BARD1-associated loss of HDR function results in DNA damage sensitivity, cells expressing non-functional BARD1 variants were treated with ionizing radiation or cisplatin. These cells were found to be more sensitive to DNA damage, and variations in the residual HDR function of non-functional variants did not correlate with variations in sensitivity. These findings improve the understanding of BARD1 functional domains in DNA repair and support that this functional assay is useful for predicting the cancer association of BARD1 variants.</div

miRExpress: Analyzing high-throughput sequencing data for profiling microRNA expression

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs of 19 to 25 nt, play important roles in gene regulation in both animals and plants. In the last few years, the oligonucleotide microarray is one high-throughput and robust method for detecting miRNA expression. However, the approach is restricted to detecting the expression of known miRNAs. Second-generation sequencing is an inexpensive and high-throughput sequencing method. This new method is a promising tool with high sensitivity and specificity and can be used to measure the abundance of small-RNA sequences in a sample. Hence, the expression profiling of miRNAs can involve use of sequencing rather than an oligonucleotide array. Additionally, this method can be adopted to discover novel miRNAs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This work presents a systematic approach, miRExpress, for extracting miRNA expression profiles from sequencing reads obtained by second-generation sequencing technology. A stand-alone software package is implemented for generating miRNA expression profiles from high-throughput sequencing of RNA without the need for sequenced genomes. The software is also a database-supported, efficient and flexible tool for investigating miRNA regulation. Moreover, we demonstrate the utility of miRExpress in extracting miRNA expression profiles from two Illumina data sets constructed for the human and a plant species.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We develop miRExpress, which is a database-supported, efficient and flexible tool for detecting miRNA expression profile. The analysis of two Illumina data sets constructed from human and plant demonstrate the effectiveness of miRExpress to obtain miRNA expression profiles and show the usability in finding novel miRNAs.</p

Transplante de medula óssea na drepanocitose

Trabalho Final do Curso de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, 2017A Drepanocitose é uma patologia crónica que cursa com lesão de órgãos-alvo, algo que se verifica precocemente na infância e, inclusivamente, em doentes assintomáticos. Associa-se a uma redução da esperança média de vida, com a maioria dos doentes a atingir a 5ª década de vida. O transplante de células estaminais hematopoiéticas é o único tratamento curativo. A mortalidade associada ao transplante aumenta com a idade e o transplante tem melhores resultados em doentes que não têm lesão de órgãos-alvo. Infelizmente, os critérios de elegibilidade de transplante estão direccionados para doentes que manifestam complicações secundárias à doença e em geral com idades inferiores a 16 anos. É importante ter em conta que doentes assintomáticos já têm lesão de órgãos-alvo e como tal, os critérios de elegibilidade de transplante deveriam ser questionados. Para tornar mais abrangente o pequeno pool de dadores com compatibilidade HLA têm sido explorados outros tipos de dador, além do irmão-dador, para garantir uma maior possibilidade de transplante aos doentes. De facto, o transplante proveniente de um dador sem parentesco com compatibilidade HLA tem tido resultados comparáveis ao proveniente de irmão-dador. À medida que o mismatching relativo ao dador vai aumentando, a probabilidade de encontrar um dador adequado ao doente é maior, algo que deve ser considerado, principalmente em doentes com fenótipo mais severo. Tendo em conta o princípio da não-maleficiência e a ponderação dos riscos e benefícios, tem-se questionado se doentes assintomáticos se devem submeter a transplante e sujeitar à toxicidade do regime de condicionamento. Os regimes não-mieloablativos associados a menor toxicidade são preconizados para adultos mas verifica-se que têm outcomes semelhantes ao regime mieloablativo em crianças, criando mais abertura para a realização de transplante associado a condicionamento não-mieloablativo em crianças que podem ser ainda assintomáticas.Sickle cell disease is a chronic pathology that leads to end-organ damage, something that occurs early in childhood and even in asymptomatic patients. It is associated with a reduction in the average life expectancy, with most patients reaching the 5th decade. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the only curative treatment. Mortality associated with transplantation increases with age and transplantation has better results in patients who do not have end-organ damage. Unfortunately, the eligibility criteria for transplantation are targeted for patients who manifest secondary complications of the disease and generally are aimed for patients under 16 years of age. It is important to note that asymptomatic patients already have established end-organ damage and as such, the eligibility criteria for transplantation should be questioned. To make the small pool of HLA-compatible donors more extensive, other donor types, in addition to the HLA-matched sibling donors, have been explored to ensure a greater chance of transplantation for patients. In fact, transplantation from an unrelated donor with HLA compatibility has had comparable results to the ones from HLA-matched sibling donors. As donor mismatching increases, the likelihood of finding a suitable donor for the patient is greater, something that should be considered, especially in patients with a more severe phenotype. Taking into account the principle of non-maleficence and the risk-benefit balance, it has been questioned whether asymptomatic patients should undergo transplantation and be subjected to conditioning regimen’s toxicity. The non-myeloablative regimens associated with lower toxicity are recommended for adults but it has been noted that in children they have similar outcomes to the myeloablative regimen, creating more openness to the transplantation associated with non-myeloablative regimen in children who may still be asymptomatic

Catechin prevents ultraviolet B-induced human keratinocyte death via inhibition of JNK phosphorylation

Abstract High levels of (+)-catechin are found in the skin and seed of many fruits such as apples and grapes. Dietary supplementation with (+)-catechin has been demonstrated to protect epidermal cells against damage induced by ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation. However, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood yet. To determine whether (+)-catechin protects keratinocytes from UVB-induced damage, the viability of UVB-and H 2 O 2 -treated cells was determined by cell viability assay. Intracellular H 2 O 2 level was measured by flow cytometry. UVB-or H 2 O 2 -induced signaling pathways were detected by Western blotting. The results indicated that (+)-catechin inhibited UVB-and H 2 O 2 -induced keratinocyte death. In parallel, intracellular H 2 O 2 generation in keratinocytes irradiated by UVB was inhibited by (+)-catechin in a concentration-dependent manner. (+)-Catechin also inhibited UVB-and H 2 O 2 -induced JNK activation in keratinocytes. However, it had little inhibitory effect on UVB-and H 2 O 2 -induced ERK and p38 activation even at a higher concentration, suggesting indirectly that JNK activation is required for the induction of apoptosis in keratinocytes exposed to UVB. Finally, we compared the cytotoxicity of (+)-catechin and (−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) on keratinocytes. Cell viability assay showed that (+)-catechin was relatively nontoxic at higher doses. Taken together, our results demonstrate that (+)-catechin inhibits UVB-and oxidative stress-induced H 2 O 2 production and JNK activation and enhances human keratinocyte survival. However, although it seems that (+)-catechin and EGCG are equally effective in preventing keratinocyte death, (+)-catechin is relatively nontoxic and thus is suitable for developing as an anti-ageing agent for skin care