Correlation of expression profiles between microRNAs and mRNA targets using NCI-60 data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs affecting the expression of target genes via translational repression or mRNA degradation mechanisms. With the increasing availability of mRNA and miRNA expression data, it might be possible to assess functional targets using the fact that a miRNA might down-regulate its target mRNAs. In this work we computed the correlation of expression profiles between miRNAs and target mRNAs using the NCI-60 expression data. The aim is to investigate whether the correlations between miRNA and mRNA expression profiles, either positive or negative, can be used to assist the identification of functional miRNA-mRNA relationships.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Predicted miRNA-mRNA interactions were taken from TargetScan 4.1 and miRBase release 5. Pearson correlation coefficients between the miRNA and the mRNA expression profiles were computed using NCI-60 data. The correlation coefficients were then subject to the Benjamini and Hochberg correction. Our results show that the percentage of TargetScan-predicted miRNA-mRNA interactions having negative correlation in expression profiles is higher than that of miRBase-predicted pairs. Using the experimentally validated miRNA targets listed in TarBase, genes involved in mRNA degradation show more negative correlations between miRNA and mRNA expression profiles, comparing with genes involved in translational repression. Furthermore, correlation analysis for miRNAs and mRNAs transcribed from the same genes shows that correlations of expression profiles between intronic miRNAs and host genes tend to be positive. Finally we found that a target gene might be down-regulated by more than one miRNAs sharing the same seed region.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that expression profiles can be used in the computational identification of functional miRNA-target associations. One can expect a higher chance of finding negatively correlated expression profiles for TargetScan-predicted interactions than for miRBase-predicted ones. With limited experimentally validated miRNA-target interactions, expression profiles can only serve as a supplementary role in finding interactions between miRNAs and mRNAs.</p

Trends in added sugars from packaged beverages available and purchased by US households, 2007–2012

Background: The US Food and Drug Administration's updated nutrition labeling requirements will include added sugars starting in July 2018, but no measure currently exists to identify the added sugar content of products and what it represents among purchases. Beverages are one of the first targets for reducing added sugar consumption, and hence are the focus here. Objective: Our goal was to estimate trends in added sugars in nonalcoholic packaged beverage products available in the United States and to estimate amounts of added sugars obtained from these beverages given the purchases of US households overall and by subpopulations. Design: On the basis of nutrition label data from multiple sources, we used a stepwise approach to derive the added sugar content of 160,713 beverage products recorded as purchased by US households in 2007-2012 (345,193 observations from 110,539 unique households). We estimated the amounts of added sugars obtained from packaged beverages US households reported buying in 2007-2008, 2009-2010, and 2011-2012, overall and by subpopulations based on household composition, race/ethnicity, and income. The key outcomes are added sugars in terms of per capita grams per day and the percentage of calories from packaged beverages. Results: Packaged beverages alone account for per capita consumption of 12 g/d of added sugars purchased by US households in 2007-2012, representing 32-48% of calories from packaged beverages. Whereas the absolute amount of added sugars from beverages has not changed meaningfully over time, the relative contribution of added sugars to calories from beverages has increased. Non-Hispanic black households and low-income households obtain both higher absolute and relative amounts of added sugars from beverages than non-Hispanic white households and high-income households (all P < 0.01). Conclusions: These results provide measures of added sugars from packaged beverages at both the product level and the population level in the United States and can be used for comparisons after the revised nutrition labels are implemented and for future monitoring

Impact of Aerosols on Convective Clouds and Precipitation

Aerosols are a critical factor in the atmospheric hydrological cycle and radiation budget. As a major reason for clouds to form and a significant attenuator of solar radiation, aerosols affect climate in several ways. Current research suggests that aerosol effects on clouds could further extend to precipitation, both through the formation of cloud particles and by exerting persistent radiative forcing on the climate system that disturbs dynamics. However, the various mechanisms behind these effects, in particular the ones connected to precipitation, are not yet well understood. The atmospheric and climate communities have long been working to gain a better grasp of these critical effects and hence to reduce the significant uncertainties in climate prediction resulting from such a lack of adequate knowledge. The central theme of this paper is to review past efforts and summarize our current understanding of the effect of aerosols on precipitation processes from theoretical analysis of microphysics, observational evidence, and a range of numerical model simulations. In addition, the discrepancy between results simulated by models, as well as that between simulations and observations will be presented. Specifically, this paper will address the following topics: (1) fundamental theories of aerosol effects on microphysics and precipitation processes, (2) observational evidence of the effect of aerosols on precipitation processes, (3) signatures of the aerosol impact on precipitation from large-scale analyses, (4) results from cloud-resolving model simulations, and (5) results from large-scale numerical model simulations. Finally, several future research directions on aerosol - precipitation interactions are suggested

Functional decline and mortality in long-term care settings: Static and dynamic approach

AbstractBackground/PurposeFunctional impairment is known to be associated with higher mortality risk and adverse health outcomes. However, little is known about whether functional decline could predict mortality among the elderly in the long-term care setting.MethodsThis is a prospective cohort study in two veteran homes in northern Taiwan with active use of the minimum data set (MDS). Evaluation tools retrieved from the MDS, including MDS Resource Utilization Group-III for Activities of Daily Living (RUG-III ADL), MDS Cognitive Scale, MDS Social engagement, triggers for resident assessment protocol (RAP) and Pain scale, were utilized for the analysis.ResultsA total of 1125 male participants were included in this study. The mean age of the participants was 83.1 ± 5.1 years, and 65 (5.8%) developed physical functional decline within a 6-month period. Participants with functional decline [odds ratio (OR) 2.305, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.002–5.303], poor baseline functional status (OR 1.116, 95% CI 1.002–1.242), positive RAP triggers for dehydration (OR 13.857, 95% CI 3.07–62.543), and underlying chronic lung diseases (OR 2.279, 95% CI 1.149–4.522), depression (OR 2.994, 95% CI 1.161–7.721), and cancer (OR 3.23, 95% CI 1.078–9.682) were more likely to have an additional 12-month mortality. By contrast, Parkinsonism (OR 3.875, 95% CI 1.169–12.841), increase in sum of RAP triggers (OR 6.096, 95% CI 2.741–13.562), and positive RAP triggers for cognitive loss (OR 3.164, 95% CI 1.612–6.212) and mood (OR 2.894, 95% CI 1.466–5.71) are strong predictors for functional decline within 6 months.ConclusionPhysical function decline within 6 months predicted the subsequent 1-year mortality, whereas increased sum of RAP triggers and positive trigger for cognitive loss and mood were associated with functional decline

Probing Primordial Gravitational Waves: Ali CMB Polarization Telescope

In this paper, we will give a general introduction to the project of Ali CMB Polarization Telescope (AliCPT), which is a Sino-US joint project led by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) and has involved many different institutes in China. It is the first ground-based Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization experiment in China and an integral part of China's Gravitational Waves Program. The main scientific goal of AliCPT project is to probe the primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) originated from the very early Universe. The AliCPT project includes two stages. The first stage referred to as AliCPT-1, is to build a telescope in the Ali region of Tibet with an altitude of 5,250 meters. Once completed, it will be the worldwide highest ground-based CMB observatory and open a new window for probing PGWs in northern hemisphere. AliCPT-1 telescope is designed to have about 7,000 TES detectors at 90GHz and 150GHz. The second stage is to have a more sensitive telescope (AliCPT-2) with the number of detectors more than 20,000. Our simulations show that AliCPT will improve the current constraint on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ by one order of magnitude with 3 years' observation. Besides the PGWs, the AliCPT will also enable a precise measurement on the CMB rotation angle and provide a precise test on the CPT symmetry. We show 3 years' observation will improve the current limit by two order of magnitude.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

Antipsychotic Prescription Trends, Patterns and Associated Factors in Taiwanese Children and Adolescents

This study evaluated the prescription trends, patterns and associated factors of antipsychotic medication in children and adolescents. We conducted a retrospective study by using the database of outpatient health insurance files of a psychiatric center in Northern Taiwan from 2004 to 2013. A total of 173,209 outpatient health insurance files were included. The average age of the study patients was 11.3 (±3.9) years. Of all visits of the patients, 13.4% were prescribed antipsychotics. The prescription rate of all antipsychotic medication types in all the outpatients aged ≤18 years increased yearly by 0.6%. The prescription rate of first-generation antipsychotics decreased with an estimated average annual percent change of 5.6% (p < .001). By contrast, the prescription rate of second-generation antipsychotics increased with an estimated average annual percent change of 3.4% (p <.001). Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to examine clinical factors (age, sex and diagnosis) associated with antipsychotic prescription. After adjusting for other variables, antipsychotic prescription was found to be increased by 1.31 times every year with age and by 1.06 times in the male patients. The patients with diagnoses other than schizophrenia appeared less likely to be prescribed antipsychotics. Antipsychotic medications are being increasingly prescribed to children and adolescents in recent years. T he efficacy and safety of antipsychotics in children and adolescents warrant clinical attention

Applying latent tree analysis to classify Traditional Chinese Medicine syndromes (Zheng) in patients with psoriasis vulgari

OBJECTIVE To treat patients with psoriasis vulgaris using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), one must stratify patients into subtypes (known as TCM syndromes or Zheng) and apply appropriate TCM treatments to different subtypes. However, no unified symptom-based classification scheme of subtypes (Zheng) exists for psoriasis vulgaris. The present paper aims to classify patients with psoriasis vulgaris into different subtypes via the analysis of clinical TCM symptom and sign data. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was carried out in Beijing from 2005-2008, collecting clinical TCM symptom and sign data from 2764 patients with psoriasis vulgaris. Roughly 108 symptoms and signs were initially analyzed using latent tree analysis, with a selection of the resulting latent variables then used as features to cluster patients into subtypes. RESULTS The initial latent tree analysis yielded a model with 43 latent variables. The second phase of the analysis divided patients into three subtype groups with clear TCM Zheng connotations: 'blood deficiency and wind dryness'; 'blood heat'; and 'blood stasis'. CONCLUSIONS Via two-phase analysis of clinic symptom and sign data, three different Zheng subtypes were identified for psoriasis vulgaris. Statistical characteristics of the three subtypes are presented. This constitutes an evidence-based solution to the syndromedifferentiation problem that exists with psoriasis vulgaris

Weekly and Holiday-Related Patterns of Panic Attacks in Panic Disorder: A Population-Based Study

Background: While chronobiological studies have reported seasonal variation in panic attacks (PA) episodes, information on the timing of PA by week-days may enable better understanding of the triggers of PA episodes and thereby provide pointers for suitable interventional approaches to minimize PA attacks. This study investigated weekly variation in potential PA admissions including associations with holidays using a population-based longitudinal, administrative claims-based dataset in an Asian population. Methods: This study used ambulatory care data from the ‘‘Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000. We identified 993 patients with panic disorder (PD), and they had 4228 emergency room (ER) admissions for potential PA in a 3-year period between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2011. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine associations between the potential PA admissions and holidays/weekend days/work-days of the week. Results: The daily mean number of potential PA admissions was 3.96 (standard deviation 2.05). One-way ANOVA showed significant differences in potential PA admissions by holiday and day of the week (p,0.001). Daily frequencies showed a trough on Wednesday-Thursday, followed by a sharp increase on Saturday and a peak on Sunday. Potential PA admissions were higher than the daily mean for the sample patients by 29.4% and 22.1%, respectively on Sundays and holidays. Furthermore, the weekly variations were similar for females and males, although females always had higher potential PA admissions on both weekdays and holidays than the males. Conclusions: We found that potential PA admissions among persons with PD varied systematically by day of the week, with a significant peak on weekends and holidays