Epigenetic changes in FOXO3 and CHEK2 genes and their correlation with clinicopathological findings in myelodysplastic syndromes

Objectives/background: Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs) are a heterogeneous disease in terms of clinical course and response to therapy. Epigenetic changes are the primary mechanism of MDS pathogenesis. FOXO3 and CHEK2 genes play significant roles in normal cellular mechanisms and are also known as tumor suppressor genes. We aimed to clarify the correlation of epigenetic changes in these genes with clinicopathologic findings in MDS. Methods: A total of 54 newly diagnosed MDS patients referred to Shariati and Firouzgar Hospitals (Tehran, Iran) were included in the study from 2013 to 2015, comprising the following cases: 26 with refractory cytopenia with unilineage dysplasia, 10 with refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia, four refractory anemia with excess blasts-1 (RAEB-1), 11 refractory anemia with excess blasts-2 (RAEB-2), and three MDS associated with isolated deletion (5q-). Risk groups were determined according to the Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R). The methylation status of CHEK2 and FOXO3 promoters were determined by methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting analysis of sodium bisulfite-converted DNA. Expressions of CHEK2, FOXO3, and GAPDH were measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and fold changes were calculated using the ��CT method. Results: Statistical analysis revealed no promoter methylation of CHEK2 and FOXO3 in healthy control specimens. FOXO3 promoter methylation was associated with high-risk World Health Organization subgroups (p = .017), high-risk IPSS-R (p = .007), high-risk cytogenetics (p = .045), and more than 5 blasts in bone marrow (p = .001). CHEK2 promoter methylation was correlated with more than 5 blasts in bone marrow (p = .009). Conclusions: Promoter methylation of CHEK2 and especially FOXO3 is associated with adverse clinicopathological findings and disease progression in MDS. © 2020 King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centr

Comparative Seismic Analysis of Irregular Shaped Multi Storied Structure With and Without Infill

When a particular structure subjected to seismic forces, it experiences lots of effect and changes in the structure due to its plan irregularity and vertical irregularity, width to height ratio, located at which seismic zone, and so many. In this article we are focusing on the plan irregularity of structure with and without the contribution of infill. An actual fifteenth storey residential apartment type structure has been taken for our study which was initially L-shaped in plan. Further regular shape and T-shape structure is modelled with same area of actual plan and checked the effect of irregularity on the seismic performance of structure with and without the contribution of infill. The properties of infill are taken as the property of brick infill and the infill is assigned diagonally to the frame. The Linear direct integration time history analysis, imperial valley ground motions is used and analysis is performed to calculated the required aspects of structures and this dynamic analysis  is performed by using programming software SAP 2000 and Etabs 16

Influence Diffusion in Social Networks under Time Window Constraints

We study a combinatorial model of the spread of influence in networks that generalizes existing schemata recently proposed in the literature. In our model, agents change behaviors/opinions on the basis of information collected from their neighbors in a time interval of bounded size whereas agents are assumed to have unbounded memory in previously studied scenarios. In our mathematical framework, one is given a network $G=(V,E)$, an integer value $t(v)$ for each node $v\in V$, and a time window size $\lambda$. The goal is to determine a small set of nodes (target set) that influences the whole graph. The spread of influence proceeds in rounds as follows: initially all nodes in the target set are influenced; subsequently, in each round, any uninfluenced node $v$ becomes influenced if the number of its neighbors that have been influenced in the previous $\lambda$ rounds is greater than or equal to $t(v)$. We prove that the problem of finding a minimum cardinality target set that influences the whole network $G$ is hard to approximate within a polylogarithmic factor. On the positive side, we design exact polynomial time algorithms for paths, rings, trees, and complete graphs.Comment: An extended abstract of a preliminary version of this paper appeared in: Proceedings of 20th International Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity (Sirocco 2013), Lectures Notes in Computer Science vol. 8179, T. Moscibroda and A.A. Rescigno (Eds.), pp. 141-152, 201

Carbon Fibers Coated with Ternary Ni-Co-Se Alloy Particles as Low-cost Counter Electrode for Flexible Dye Sensitized Solar Cell

Compared to flat devices based on rigid substrates, cable-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells hold advantages of smaller size, light weight, facile fabrication, flexibility, and low cost, thus a promising direction for applications such as wearable electronic devices. However, most reported fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells use Pt wires as counter electrodes, which are high in cost. Herein, a flexible Pt-free counter electrode is fabricated via depositing ternary nickel cobalt selenide (Ni–Co–Se) particles on the surface of carbon fibers. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction are used to characterize the counter electrode and alloy material. Results from bare and modified carbon fiber counter electrodes reveal that Ni–Co–Se alloy particles greatly enhance electrocatalytic activity, leading to significant improvement in power conversion efficiency, which is comparable with devices using carbon fiber coated with Pt as the counter electrode. The performance increase may be attributed to the improved catalytic property of CoSe2 due to its higher composition ratio and larger crystallite size. Bending and multiple irradiation cycling tests are also performed to show the superior flexibility and durability of the novel device

Improved Irritative Voiding Symptoms 3 Years after Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer

Background: Irritative voiding symptoms are common in elderly men and following prostate radiotherapy. The impact of hypofractionated treatment on irritative voiding symptoms has not been determined. This study sought to evaluate urgency, frequency and nocturia following SBRT for prostate cancer. Methods: Patients treated with SBRT monotherapy for localized prostate cancer from August 2007 to July 2011 at Georgetown University Hospital were included in this study. Treatment was delivered using the CyberKnife® with doses of 35 Gy-36.25 Gy in 5 fractions. Patient-reported urinary symptoms were assessed using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) before treatment and at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 months post-treatment and every 6 months thereafter.Results: 204 patients at a median age of 69 years received SBRT with a median follow-up of 4.8 years. Prior to treatment, 50.0% of patients reported moderate to severe lower urinary track symptoms and 17.7% felt that urinary frequency was a moderate to big problem. The mean prostate volume was 39 cc and 8% had prior procedures for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). A mean baseline IPSS-irritative score of 4.8 significantly increased to 6.5 at 1 month (p 8) at baseline, the mean IPSS-I decreased from a baseline score of 6.8 to 4.9 at three years post-SBRT. This decrease was both statistically (p < 0.0001) and clinically significant (MID = 1.45). Only 14.6% of patients felt that urinary frequency was a moderate to big problem at three years post-SBRT (p = 0.23).Conclusions: Treatment of prostate cance

Comprehensive analysis of global research on human varicocele: a scientometric approach

Purpose: This study provides a comprehensive analysis of research trends on the etiology, mechanisms, potential risk factors, diagnosis, prognosis, surgical and non-surgical treatment of varicocele, and clinical outcomes before and after varicocele repair. Materials and Methods: Varicocele studies published between 1988 and 2020 were retrieved from the Scopus database on April 5, 2021. Original studies on human varicocele were included, irrespective of language. Retrieved articles were manually screened for inclusion in various sub-categories. Bibliometric data was subjected to scientometric analysis using descriptive statistics. Network, heat and geographic mapping were generated using relevant software. Results: In total, 1,943 original human studies on varicocele were published. These were predominantly from the northern hemisphere and developed countries, and published in journals from the United States and Germany. Network map analysis for countries showed several interconnected nodal points, with the USA being the largest, and Agarwal A. from Cleveland Clinic, USA, being a center point of worldwide varicocele research collaborations. Studies of adolescents were underrepresented compared with studies of adults. Studies on diagnostic and prognostic aspects of varicocele were more numerous than studies on varicocele prevalence, mechanistic studies and studies focusing on etiological and risk factors. Varicocele surgery was more investigated than non-surgical approaches. To evaluate the impact of varicocele and its treatment, researchers mainly analyzed basic semen parameters, although markers of seminal oxidative stress are being increasingly investigated in the last decade, while reproductive outcomes such as live birth rate were under-reported in the literature. Conclusions: This study analyzes the publication trends in original research on human varicocele spanning over the last three decades. Our analysis emphasizes areas for further exploration to better understand varicocele’s impact on men’s health and male fertility

Characteristics and Seasonal Variations of Dissolved Oxygen

Large amounts of degradable wastes including sewage water and agricultural waste or nutrients that stimulate growth of organic matter are discharged into the Caspian Sea. As a result, average dissolved oxygen concentration in deeper layers is decreasing. This paper presents distribution and seasonal variations of the concentration of dissolved oxygen over the southern shelf of the Caspian Sea adjacent to Iran. The dissolved oxygen data were collected down to 200 m depth in two areas in east (off Babolsar in Mazandaran) and west (off Kiyashahr in Gilan) of the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. Surface dissolved oxygen concentration varied between 7.1 and 10.9 mg/l. Distribution of dissolved oxygen across the depth was in accordance with the temperature structure. The presence of the seasonal thermocline during spring to mid winter significantly affected the concentration of dissolved oxygen across the depth. In autumn, in late October, the dissolved oxygen concentration ranged between 7.6 mg/l below thermocline at 40 m level to less than 5 mg/l at 160 m level and 4.2 mg/l at 200 m level. In winter in late February, in the upper 100 m mixed layer the dissolved oxygen concentration was more than 11 mg/l. The data indicates the possibility of significant decline in dissolved oxygen concentration and serious damage to marine life if algal bloom occurs during the strong seasonal thermocline. The results highlight the necessity of certain measures for an effective decrease in the inputs of degradable wastes and plant nutrients into the Caspian Sea

Steganalysis Method for LSB Replacement Based on Local Gradient of Image Histogram

In this paper we present a new accurate steganalysis method for the LSBreplacement steganography. The suggested method is based on the changes that occur in thehistogram of an image after the embedding of data. Every pair of neighboring bins of ahistogram are either inter-related or unrelated depending on whether embedding of a bit ofdata in the image could affect both bins or not. We show that the overall behavior of allinter-related bins, when compared with that of the unrelated ones, could give an accuratemeasure for the amount of the embedded data. Both analytical analysis and simulationresults show the accuracy of the proposed method. The suggested method has beenimplemented and tested for over 2000 samples and compared with the RS Steganalysismethod. Mean and variance of error were 0.0025 and 0.0037 for the suggested methodwhere these quantities were 0.0070 and 0.0182 for the RS Steganalysis. Using 4800samples, we showed that the performance of the suggested method is comparable withthose of the RS steganalysis for JPEG filtered images. The new approach is applicable forthe detection of both random and sequential LSB embedding

Jointly detecting infants' multiple facial action units expressed during spontaneous face-to-face communication

Automatic detection of spontaneous facial Action Units (AUs) in video has many applications including understanding infants' emotion-mediated interactions and development. The target AUs for detection are those essential to positive and negative emotion (i.e., AU 6, AU 12, and AU 20). Tracking and extraction of facial features is especially challenging in infants. Face shape and texture markedly differ from that in adults, jaw contour often is occult, sudden changes in pose and expression are common, and AU often occur in complex combinations. We investigate the association among AUs central to positive and negative emotion and propose a methodology for jointly detecting positively correlated facial AUs of infants during spontaneous interactions with their parents. We apply a subject-independent structural output model to (1) recognize combinations of AUs simultaneously, and (2) model the dependencies between AUs. Using this approach, we improved the reliability of automatic detection of AU 12 and AU 20 in a total 90-minute video of infant-parent interaction of 12 infants