A novel integrative risk index of papillary thyroid cancer progression combining genomic alterations and clinical factors.

Although the majority of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is indolent, a subset of PTC behaves aggressively despite the best available treatment. A major clinical challenge is to reliably distinguish early on between those patients who need aggressive treatment from those who do not. Using a large cohort of PTC samples obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we analyzed the association between disease progression and multiple forms of genomic data, such as transcriptome, somatic mutations, and somatic copy number alterations, and found that genes related to FOXM1 signaling pathway were significantly associated with PTC progression. Integrative genomic modeling was performed, controlling for demographic and clinical characteristics, which included patient age, gender, TNM stages, histological subtypes, and history of other malignancy, using a leave-one-out elastic net model and 10-fold cross validation. For each subject, the model from the remaining subjects was used to determine the risk index, defined as a linear combination of the clinical and genomic variables from the elastic net model, and the stability of the risk index distribution was assessed through 2,000 bootstrap resampling. We developed a novel approach to combine genomic alterations and patient-related clinical factors that delineates the subset of patients who have more aggressive disease from those whose tumors are indolent and likely will require less aggressive treatment and surveillance (p = 4.62 × 10-10, log-rank test). Our results suggest that risk index modeling that combines genomic alterations with current staging systems provides an opportunity for more effective anticipation of disease prognosis and therefore enhanced precision management of PTC

Overlapping genes in the human and mouse genomes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increasing evidence suggests that overlapping genes are much more common in eukaryotic genomes than previously thought. In this study we identified and characterized the overlapping genes in a set of 13,484 pairs of human-mouse orthologous genes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>About 10% of the genes under study are overlapping genes, the majority of which are different-strand overlaps. The majority of the same-strand overlaps are embedded forms, whereas most different-strand overlaps are not embedded and in the convergent transcription orientation. Most of the same-strand overlapping gene pairs show at least a tenfold difference in length, much larger than the length difference between non-overlapping neighboring gene pairs. The length difference between the two different-strand overlapping genes is less dramatic. Over 27% of the different-strand-overlap relationships are shared between human and mouse, compared to only ~8% conservation for same-strand-overlap relationships. More than 96% of the same-strand and different-strand overlaps that are not shared between human and mouse have both genes located on the same chromosomes in the species that does not show the overlap. We examined the causes of transition between the overlapping and non-overlapping states in the two species and found that 3' UTR change plays an important role in the transition.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study contributes to the understanding of the evolutionary transition between overlapping genes and non-overlapping genes and demonstrates the high rates of evolutionary changes in the un-translated regions.</p

A comparative study of the Milch method and the Spaso method in the reduction of anterior dislocation of the shoulder

Background: The Milch and Spaso methods are used for reduction of anterior shoulder dislocation of the shoulder. This study was undertaken to compare the efficacy of these two methods.Methods: Sixty patients with anterior glenohumeral dislocation were included in this study. 30 patients were reduced by each of the 2 methods and the efficacy and the pain experienced by the patient was studied.Results: Both methods were found to be equally efficacious. The pain felt by the patient was lower in the Milch method but this was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Both the Milch and the Spaso methods are equally effective methods for reduction of anterior dislocation of the shoulder

Experimental Investigation of Biogas-Biodiesel Dual Fuel Combustion in a Diesel Engine

This study is an attempt at achieving diesel fuel equivalent performance from diesel engines with maximum substitution of diesel with renewable fuels. In this context the study has been designed to analyze the influence of B20 algae biodiesel as a pilot fuel in a biodiesel biogas dual fuel engine, and results are compared to those of biodiesel and diesel operation at identical engine settings. Experiments were performed at various loads from 0 to 100 % of maximum load at a constant speed of 1500 rpm. In general, B20 algae biodiesel is compatible with diesel in terms of performance and combustion characteristics. Dual fuel mode operation displays lower thermal efficiency and higher fuel consumption than for other fuel modes of the test run across the range of engine loads. Dual fuel mode displayed lower emissions of NOx and Smoke opacity while HC and CO concentrations were considerably higher as compared to other fuels. In dual fuel mode peak pressure and heat release rate were slightly higher compared to diesel and biodiesel mode of operation for all engine loads

On the occurrence of two species of striped Ichthyophis Fitzinger, 1826 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Ichthyophiidae) from Mizoram, India

The occurrence of 2 ichthyophiid caecilians, Ichthyophis khumzhi Kamei, Wilkinson, Gower & Biju, 2009 and Ichthyophis moustakius Kamei, Wilkinson, Gower & Biju, 2009 in the state of Mizoram in northeast India is reported for the first time. These records significantly increase the known distribution range of these striped forms of Ichthyophis which were previously known only from their type localities in the state of Manipur

GC-166 - Mobile Edge Computing for Traffic Management Mechanism using HAPS (High Altitude Platform Station)

MEC (Mobile Edge Computing) is a new paradigm to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) applications by leveraging computing resources on the network edge, which can be used to improve intelligent transportation systems (ITS). HAPS is deployed in the stratosphere to provide wide coverage and strong computational capabilities. It is suitable to coordinate terrestrial resources and store the fundamental data associated with ITS-based applications. Performing task offloading and data caching at Roadside Units (RSUs) in a cooperative manner can reduce the heavy backhaul load and the retransmission of content downloading

Cell-free extract based optimization of biomolecular circuits with droplet microfluidics

Engineering an efficient biomolecular circuit often requires time-consuming iterations of optimization. Cell-free protein expression systems allow rapid testing of biocircuits in vitro, speeding the design–build–test cycle of synthetic biology. In this paper, we combine this with droplet microfluidics to densely scan a transcription–translation biocircuit space. Our system assays millions of parameter combinations per hour, providing a detailed map of function. The ability to comprehensively map biocircuit parameter spaces allows accurate modeling to predict circuit function and identify optimal circuits and conditions