115 research outputs found
Disparities in Early Childhood Caries
Despite remarkable reduction in the prevalence of dental caries in the United States, dental caries is still a highly prevalent disease among children who are socially disadvantaged (racial/ethnic minority, poor, rural, immigrants). Consequently, caries sequelae such as dental pain, need for dental treatment under general anesthesia, and future orthodontic treatment, are also concentrated among the most socially disadvantaged children. To make the situation more appalling, those children who need treatment the most are the ones least likely to visit the dentist. Low income children are less likely to visit the dentist in part because of family's competing needs for limited resources, shortage of pediatric dentists, and dentists not taking uninsured or publicly insured patients. In the same vein, if these children do not have access to dental care, they are deprived from effective caries preventive measures that are dentist-dependent such as sealants and professionally applied fluoride. Dentistry has done well at devising caries preventive and treatment strategies; but these strategies have missed the most needed segment of society: disadvantaged children. The challenge now is to develop innovative strategies to reach these children
Progress in regional PV power forecasting: A sensitivity analysis on the Italian case study
The increasing penetration of PV generation, driven by climate strategies and objectives, calls for accurate
production forecasting to mitigate the negative effects associated with inherent variability, such as
overgeneration, grid instability, supplementary reserve request. The regional PV power forecasting is
crucial for Transmission and Distribution system operators for a better management of energy flows. In
this work many aspects of regional PV power forecasting are investigated, by means of a comparison of
six different forecasting models applied to predict the hourly production of the following days on six
Italian bidding zones for one year. In particular, the work shows that the forecasting accuracy is mainly
affected by the algorithm and its pre and post processing, with a range of 30% in performance accuracy,
while it is less impacted by the forecasting horizon. It has been verified that the accuracy in the irra-
diation prediction, used in input to the power forecasting algorithm, has less impact compared to single
plants. The work confirms the performance improvement which can be obtained by increasing the size of
the area to which the prediction refers, through a comparison between the forecasting at bidding zone
and national level. Finally, we show that the larger the controlled forecast area, the smaller the impact on
the forecast accuracy due to the non-uniform spatial and capacity distribution of the PV fleet. This means
that as the size of the region increases, the average irradiance progressively becomes the best PV power
predictor. We refer to this phenomenon as: “input smoothing effect"
Dysregulation of NF–Y splicing drives metabolic rewiring and aggressiveness in colon cancer
NF-Y is an evolutionarily conserved transcription factor that binds specifically to the CCAAT
elements of eukaryotic genes, most of which frequently deregulated in cancer. NF-YA, the
regulatory subunit of the NF-Y complex, has two isoforms generated by alternative splicing,
NF-YAl and NF-YAs, which differ in the transactivation domain.
Transcriptomic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database highlighted a
significant increase in the expression of NF-YAs at the expense of NF-YAl in colorectal cancer
(CRC), compared to healthy tissues. Despite this, high NF-YAl levels predict lower patients’
survival and distinguish the mesenchymal molecular subtype CMS4, which is characterized by
the worst prognosis.
Through the analysis of 3D cellular models, we demonstrated that altered expression of genes
related to extracellular matrix and epithelial-mesenchymal transition sustains enhanced
migratory and invasive behavior of NF-YAl-transduced cells. Moreover, the integration of
metabolomics, bioenergetics and transcriptional analyses demonstrated a direct role for NFYAl
in metabolic flexibility of cancer cells that adjust their metabolism in response to
environmental changes to potentiate migration. The zebrafish xenograft model confirmed the
metastatic potential triggered by NF-YAl in CRC cells.
Altogether, our data highlight the transcriptional role of NF-YAl in CRC aggressiveness and
suggest splice-switching strategies to hinder NF-YAl-induced metastatic dissemination
Racial Segregation, Income Inequality, and Mortality in US Metropolitan Areas
Evidence of the association between income inequality and mortality has been mixed. Studies indicate that growing income inequalities reflect inequalities between, rather than within, racial groups. Racial segregation may play a role. We examine the role of racial segregation on the relationship between income inequality and mortality in a cross-section of US metropolitan areas. Metropolitan areas were included if they had a population of at least 100,000 and were at least 10% black (N = 107). Deaths for the time period 1991–1999 were used to calculate age-adjusted all-cause mortality rates for each metropolitan statistical area (MSA) using direct age-adjustment techniques. Multivariate least squares regression was used to examine associations for the total sample and for blacks and whites separately. Income inequality was associated with lower mortality rates among whites and higher mortality rates among blacks. There was a significant interaction between income inequality and racial segregation. A significant graded inverse income inequality/mortality association was found for MSAs with higher versus lower levels of black–white racial segregation. Effects were stronger among whites than among blacks. A positive income inequality/mortality association was found in MSAs with higher versus lower levels of Hispanic–white segregation. Uncertainty regarding the income inequality/mortality association found in previous studies may be related to the omission of important variables such as racial segregation that modify associations differently between groups. Research is needed to further elucidate the risk and protective effects of racial segregation across groups
Complete chloroplast genome sequence of MD-2 pineapple and its comparative analysis among nine other plants from the subclass Commelinidae
Determinants of premature mortality in a city population: An eight-year observational study concerning subjects aged 18–64
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