Nucleophosmin as a direct inhibitor of caspase-6 and -8

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Job satisfaction of graduates in the public and private sector

The purpose of this study is to compare the job satisfaction level of graduates in the public and private sectors. There are few local researches done in this area. However, foreign researches done in the past on job satisfaction of managers in the two sectors indicated that public sector's managers reported lower organisational commitment, lower satisfaction of work needs, and lower job satisfaction as compared to private sector's managers (Buchanan, 1974; Rainey, 1983; Rhinehart, Barrek, Dewolfe, & Spaner, 1969). This study chose 500 accountancy graduates as a representative sample of the graduate population. Data was collected through questionnaires sent either by post or by hand. Results from the questionnaires were used to compute scores for general and specific satisfactions comparison between the public and private sectors. The specific satisfactions relate to 6 facets of job satisfaction. They are wages, promotional prospects, work environment, job nature, company identification and fringe benefits. Analysis of the findings found that graduates in the private sector are more satisfied than graduates in the public sector with regard to wages, promotional prospects, job nature and company identification, while equally satisfied with regard to fringe benefits and working environment. Moreover, graduates in the private sector also enjoys a higher level of general satisfaction as compared to their counterparts in the public sector.BUSINES

Prevalence of human endogenous retroviral element associates with Hodgkin's lymphoma incidence rates

Human endogenous retrovirus-H (HERV-H) is implicated in leukaemias and lymphomas, but the precise molecular mechanism underlying HERV-mediated carcinogenesis remains unknown. We determined the prevalence of HERV-H in a cross-section of the Singapore population and explored the relationship between HERV-H positivity and incidence rates for Hodgkin's lymphoma in three major ethnic groups of Singapore. We observed that Malays were 1.11 times likely (95% CI=1.05–1.17; P<0.01), and Indians 1.12 times likely (95% CI=1.07–1.18; P<0.01) to be HERV-H positive when compared to Chinese. Interestingly, the incidence rates of Hodgkin's lymphoma for the three races positively correlated to the respective prevalence rate for HERV-H positivity (r=0.9921 for male; r=0.9801 for female), suggesting that viral inheritance in human may predispose certain racial origin unfavourably to malignancy

T-Cell Receptor Rearrangement by Whole-Genome Sequencing and Copy Number Variation Analysis - A Novel Marker of T cell Clonality

109th Annual Meeting of the United-States-and-Canadian-Academy-of-Pathology (USCAP)100SUPPL 11360-136

Sampling circulating tumor cells for clinical benefits: how frequent?

10.1186/s13045-015-0174-9Journal of Hematology and Oncology817

MicroRNA expression signature as a biomarker in the diagnosis of nodal T-cell lymphomas

Abstract Background The diagnosis of T-cell lymphomas is typically established through a multiparameter approach that combines clinical, morphologic, immunophenotypic, and genetic features, utilizing a variety of histopathologic and molecular techniques. However, accurate diagnosis of such lymphomas and distinguishing them from reactive lymph nodes remains challenging due to their low prevalence and heterogeneous features, hence limiting the confidence of pathologists. We investigated the use of microRNA (miRNA) expression signatures as an adjunctive tool in the diagnosis and classification of T-cell lymphomas that involve lymph nodes. This study seeks to distinguish reactive lymph nodes (RLN) from two types of frequently occurring nodal T-cell lymphomas: nodal T-follicular helper (TFH) cell lymphomas (nTFHL) and peripheral T-cell lymphomas, not otherwise specified (nPTCL). Methods From the formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples from a cohort of 88 subjects, 246 miRNAs were quantified and analyzed by differential expression. Two-class logistic regression and random forest plot models were built to distinguish RLN from the nodal T-cell lymphomas. Gene set enrichment analysis was performed on the target genes of the miRNA to identify pathways and transcription factors that may be regulated by the differentially expressed miRNAs in each subtype. Results Using logistic regression analysis, we identified miRNA signatures that can distinguish RLN from nodal T-cell lymphomas (AUC of 0.92 ± 0.05), from nTFHL (AUC of 0.94 ± 0.05) and from nPTCL (AUC of 0.94 ± 0.08). Random forest plot modelling was also capable of distinguishing between RLN and nodal T-cell lymphomas, but performed worse than logistic regression. However, the miRNA signatures are not able to discriminate between nTFHL and nPTCL, owing to large similarity in miRNA expression patterns. Bioinformatic analysis of the gene targets of unique miRNA expression revealed the enrichment of both known and potentially understudied signalling pathways and genes in such lymphomas. Conclusion This study suggests that miRNA biomarkers may serve as a promising, cost-effective tool to aid the diagnosis of nodal T-cell lymphomas, which can be challenging. Bioinformatic analysis of differentially expressed miRNAs revealed both relevant or understudied signalling pathways that may contribute to the progression and development of each T-cell lymphoma entity. This may help us gain further insight into the biology of T-cell lymphomagenesis

Tissue-Specific microRNA Expression Profiling to Derive Novel Biomarkers for the Diagnosis and Subtyping of Small B-Cell Lymphomas

Accurate diagnosis of the most common histological subtypes of small B-cell lymphomas is challenging due to overlapping morphological features and limitations of ancillary testing, which involves a large number of immunostains and molecular investigations. In addition, a common diagnostic challenge is to distinguish reactive lymphoid hyperplasia that do not require additional stains from such lymphomas that need ancillary investigations. We investigated if tissue-specific microRNA (miRNA) expression may provide potential biomarkers to improve the pathology diagnostic workflow. This study seeks to distinguish reactive lymphoid proliferation (RL) from small B-cell lymphomas, and to further distinguish the four main subtypes of small B-cell lymphomas. Two datasets were included: a discovery cohort (n = 100) to screen for differentially expressed miRNAs and a validation cohort (n = 282) to develop classification models. The models were evaluated for accuracy in subtype prediction. MiRNA gene set enrichment was also performed to identify differentially regulated pathways. 306 miRNAs were detected and quantified, resulting in 90-miRNA classification models from which smaller panels of miRNAs biomarkers with good accuracy were derived. Bioinformatic analysis revealed the upregulation of known and other potentially relevant signaling pathways in such lymphomas. In conclusion, this study suggests that miRNA expression profiling may serve as a promising tool to aid the diagnosis of common lymphoid lesions