Genome-wide association study identifies PERLD1 as asthma candidate gene

10.1186/1471-2350-12-170BMC Medical Genetics12-BMGM

Eph/Ephrin Profiling in Human Breast Cancer Reveals Significant Associations between Expression Level and Clinical Outcome

Pre-clinical studies provide compelling evidence that Eph family receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and ligands promote cancer growth, neovascularization, invasion, and metastasis. Tumor suppressive roles have also been reported for the receptors, however, creating a potential barrier for clinical application. Determining how these observations relate to clinical outcome is a crucial step for translating the biological and mechanistic data into new molecularly targeted therapies. We investigated eph and ephrin expression in human breast cancer relative to endpoints of overall and/or recurrence-free survival in large microarray datasets. We also investigated protein expression in commercial human breast tissue microarrays (TMA) and Stage I prognostic TMAs linked to recurrence outcome data. We found significant correlations between ephA2, ephA4, ephA7, ephB4, and ephB6 and overall and/or recurrence-free survival in large microarray datasets. Protein expression in TMAs supported these trends. While observed no correlation between ephrin ligand expression and clinical outcome in microarray datasets, ephrin-A1 and EphA2 protein co-expression was significantly associated with recurrence in Stage I prognostic breast cancer TMAs. Our data suggest that several Eph family members are clinically relevant and tractable targets for intervention in human breast cancer. Moreover, profiling Eph receptor expression patterns in the context of relevant ligands and in the context of stage may be valuable in terms of diagnostics and treatment

Combining grey relation analysis and entropy model for evaluating the operational performance: an empirical study

[[abstract]]Decision-making on operational performance evaluation is a complex multi-objective problem. Through the combination of grey relation analysis and information entropy, the evaluation results are more objective and reasonable. This paper would introduce entropy into the weighting calculation of the grey relational analysis method for improving the precision. The improved decision model was applied in four notebook computer original design manufacturer companies. The result presented the proposed method is practical and useful. Significantly, the proposed method provides more flexible and objective information in determine the weights vector of the criteria. Also the study result represented that the combined method had certain scientific and rationality. The evaluation model indicates that this method be more reasonable and easier to grasp than other methods. As a result, it is easier to popularize this evaluation method in enterprises.[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SSCI[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]電子版[[countrycodes]]NL

The antibody response to influenza vaccination is not impaired in type 2 diabetics

BACKGROUND: Diabetics are considered to be at high risk for complications from influenza infection and Type 2 diabetes is a significant comorbidity of obesity. Obesity is an independent risk factor for complications from infection with influenza. Annual vaccination is considered the best strategy for protecting against influenza infection and it’s complications. Our previous study reported intact antibody responses 30 days post vaccination in an obese population. This study was designed to determine the antibody response to influenza vaccination in type 2 diabetics. METHODS: Subjects enrolled were 18 or older without immunosuppressive diseases or taking immunosuppressive medications. A pre-vaccination blood draw was taken at time of enrollment, the subjects received the influenza vaccine and returned 28–32 days later for a post-vaccination blood draw. Height and weight were also obtained at the first visit and BMI was calculated. Antibody levels to the vaccine were determined by both ELISA and hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) assays. RESULTS: As reported in our previous work, obesity positively correlates with the influenza antibody response (p=0.02), while age was negatively correlated with antibody response (p<0.001). In both year 1 and year 2 of our study there was no significant difference in the percentage of the type 2 diabetic subjects classified as seroprotected or a responder to the influenza vaccine compared to the non-diabetic subjects. CONCLUSIONS: These data are important because they demonstrate that diabetics, considered a high risk group during influenza season, are able to mount an antibody response to influenza vaccination that may protect them from influenza infection

Learning to lead: tools for self assessment of leadership skills and styles

There is now general acceptance that strong clinical leadership can improve a range of important outcomes within health servies, and conversely that lack of clinical leadership and engagement contributes to poor quality of care and patient outcomes. Leadership development for clinicians has been promoted locally, nationally and internationally. However there are many uncertainties about how best to ‘teach’ leadership. Key requirements for effective leadership development at the level of the individual leader are awareness of one’s own skills and styles of leadership, and the ability to reflect on these to identify areas for development. In this chapter we report the use of two self-assessment tools that can contribute to a fuller understanding of leadership strengths and weaknesses in individuals and groups, allowing leadership development programmes to be tailored to the needs of participants and improving their effectiveness