Identification of novel genes involved in gastric carcinogenesis by suppression subtractive hybridization

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common and life-threatening types of malignancies. Identification of the differentially expressed genes in GC is one of the best approaches for establishing new diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Furthermore, these investigations could advance our knowledge about molecular biology and the carcinogenesis of this cancer. To screen for the overexpressed genes in gastric adenocarcinoma, we performed suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) on gastric adenocarcinoma tissue and the corresponding normal gastric tissue, and eight genes were found to be overexpressed in the tumor compared with those of the normal tissue. The genes were ribosomal protein L18A, RNase H2 subunit B, SEC13, eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A1, tetraspanin 8, cytochrome c oxidase subunit 2, NADH dehydrogenase subunit 4, and mitochondrially encoded ATP synthase 6. The common functions among the identified genes include involvement in protein synthesis, involvement in genomic stability maintenance, metastasis, metabolic improvement, cell signaling pathways, and chemoresistance. Our results provide new insights into the molecular biology of GC and drug discovery: each of the identified genes could be further investigated as targets for prognosis evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, evaluation of the response to new anticancer drugs, and determination of the molecular pathogenesis of GC. © The Author(s) 2014

Genome expression analysis by suppression subtractive hybridization identified overexpression of Humanin, a target gene in gastric cancer chemoresistance

Background: In cancer cells, apoptosis is an important mechanism that influences the outcome of chemotherapy and the development of chemoresistance. To find the genes involved in chemoresistance and the development of gastric cancer, we used the suppression subtractive hybridization method to identify the genes that are overexpressed in gastric cancer tissues compared to normal gastric tissues. Results: In the suppression subtractive hybridization library we constructed, the most highly overexpressed genes were humanin isoforms. Humanin is a recently identified endogenous peptide that has anti-apoptotic activity and has been selected for further study due to its potential role in the chemoresistance of gastric cancer. Upregulation of humanin isoforms was also observed in clinical samples by using quantitative real-time PCR. Among the studied isoforms, humanin isoform 3, with an expression level of 4.166 ± 1.44 fold, was the most overexpressed isoform in GC. Conclusions: The overexpression of humanin in gastric cancer suggests a role for chemoresistance and provides new insight into the biology of gastric cancer. We propose that humanin isoforms are novel targets for combating chemoresistance in gastric cancer. © 2014 Mottaghi-Dastjerdi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Generalized qudit Choi maps

Following the linear programming prescription of Ref. \cite{PRA72}, the $d\otimes d$ Bell diagonal entanglement witnesses are provided. By using Jamiolkowski isomorphism, it is shown that the corresponding positive maps are the generalized qudit Choi maps. Also by manipulating particular $d\otimes d$ Bell diagonal separable states and constructing corresponding bound entangled states, it is shown that thus obtained $d\otimes d$ BDEW's (consequently qudit Choi maps) are non-decomposable in certain range of their parameters.Comment: 22 page

Choosing Ungoverned Space: The Removal of Pakistan’s Frontier Crimes Regulation

Why do administratively competent states sometimes leave substantial swathes of their territory ungoverned? We explore this question in the context of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) in Pakistan, a British Colonial law only abrogated in 2018, that left legal decisions up to local customary councils. This contrasts with areas where the British and Pakistani state built modern political and bureaucratic institutions. Using primary legal documents we create a dataset of when and where FCR applied between 1901 and 2012. Exploiting spatial variation in the Green Revolution’s impact in the 1960s, we show that governance was preferentially extended to places where the state stood to benefit the most in terms of land revenue. Our results show that technological changes which shift the returns to control influence where states choose to govern

Identifying health seeking behaviors among middle-aged women: A qualitative study

Background and purpose: Middle age is a developmental stage. Women in this stage are capable of preserving and promoting their health. Nonetheless, there seems to be several issues affecting their health-oriented behaviors. Identifying such behaviors from the perspective of middle-aged women are of great importance in protecting and promoting their health. This study aimed at defining health seeking behaviors in middle-aged women. Materials and methods: The study was conducted by qualitative approach and conventional content analysis was adopted. The participants included 20 middle-aged women who were recruited by purposive sampling. Semi-structured face to face interviews were conducted to collect the data. Then verbatim transcription of interview data was done and categories were extracted. First, semantic similarities were identified and sub-categories were specified, then in reconsideration related subcategories were placed in a same category. Results: Four categories were identified including the status of health knowledge, understanding of health and diseases, controlling the health-oriented behaviors and "using self-soothing behaviors". Eight sub-categories were also determined: awareness of health risks, preventive/permissive behaviors, understanding of health, understanding of disease, health promoting behaviors, interactive behaviors, soothing and spiritual calming behaviors as health-seeking behaviors. Conclusion: The findings expressed behaviors that women showed in their quest for health. In fact, this quest for health is manifested in strategies that women adapted to maintain and promote their physical and mental health. In such a quest women constantly rely on their own knowledge of health, perception of health and diseases and tranquilizing and relaxing methods. © 2016, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Concept analysis of palliative care in nursing: Introducing a hybrid model

Background and purpose: Palliative care is an important concept in nursing practice and in literature several definitions are suggested for this concept. This study aimed at analyzing the concept of palliative care and identifying its features, antecedents and consequences within Iran�s cultural context. Materials and methods: Hybrid model of concept analysis was used to clarify the meaning of palliative care. The three phases of a hybrid concept analysis included theoretical, fieldwork, and final analysis. In theoretical phase different databases including PubMed, CINAHL, Science direct, Google scholar, SID and Magiran were searched for related articles (published in 2003-2013). The search keywords were palliative care and nursing care in the titles and abstracts. In the fieldwork phase semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted through purposive sampling in eight nurses. In next step, by combining the two previous stages the final analysis was performed. Results: In final analytical phase, main themes were extracted including pain management, holistic care, spirituality based care and religious based care. Conclusion: The findings showed that palliative care is an important aspect of clinical practice. It is a holistic, humanistic and corporative care for promoting the quality of life of patients and their families that support them while considering physical, psychological, spiritual, religious, cultural and social aspects. This type of care is beneficial throughout life and also in difficult situations such as famine and it should not be used just for end-stage patients. © 2015 Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Prediction of early weight gain during psychotropic treatment using a combinatorial model with clinical and genetic markers.

Psychotropic drugs can induce significant (>5%) weight gain (WG) already after 1 month of treatment, which is a good predictor for major WG at 3 and 12 months. The large interindividual variability of drug-induced WG can be explained in part by genetic and clinical factors. The aim of this study was to determine whether extensive analysis of genes, in addition to clinical factors, can improve prediction of patients at risk for more than 5% WG at 1 month of treatment. Data were obtained from a 1-year naturalistic longitudinal study, with weight monitoring during weight-inducing psychotropic treatment. A total of 248 Caucasian psychiatric patients, with at least baseline and 1-month weight measures, and with compliance ascertained were included. Results were tested for replication in a second cohort including 32 patients. Age and baseline BMI were associated significantly with strong WG. The area under the curve (AUC) of the final model including genetic (18 genes) and clinical variables was significantly greater than that of the model including clinical variables only (AUCfinal: 0.92, AUCclinical: 0.75, P<0.0001). Predicted accuracy increased by 17% with genetic markers (Accuracyfinal: 87%), indicating that six patients must be genotyped to avoid one misclassified patient. The validity of the final model was confirmed in a replication cohort. Patients predicted before treatment as having more than 5% WG after 1 month of treatment had 4.4% more WG over 1 year than patients predicted to have up to 5% WG (P≤0.0001). These results may help to implement genetic testing before starting psychotropic drug treatment to identify patients at risk of important WG

Investigating Effective Factors of Branding Strategies in E-Learning based Universities

This study examines the factors contributing to the development of branding strategies in e-learning based universities. The purpose of this paper is to identify factors contributing to the development of branding strategies in a virtual university in Tehran. In this paper, the factors wich affecting strategy (the first stage of the strategic management process) for e-learning based universities, based on the literature and the experience of many years of activity, in this type of Iranian universities, are collected and using professors’ perspectives we can provide scientific and practical strategies that help university to create a successful brand. The survey research strategy conducted for this study. This study is an applied descriptive survey research, Data collection is based on field Studies and questionnaire is used for collecting data. The results indicated that institutional /academic factors, external environmental factors, internal environmental factors and student perceptions factors, had positive and significant effects on development of branding strategies for e-learning based universities

Finite quantum tomography via semidefinite programming

Using the the convex semidefinite programming method and superoperator formalism we obtain the finite quantum tomography of some mixed quantum states such as: qudit tomography, N-qubit tomography, phase tomography and coherent spin state tomography, where that obtained results are in agreement with those of References \cite{schack,Pegg,Barnett,Buzek,Weigert}.Comment: 25 page