Transitions at CpG Dinucleotides, Geographic Clustering of TP53 Mutations and Food Availability Patterns in Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer is mainly attributed to diet, but the role exerted by foods remains unclear because involved factors are extremely complex. Geography substantially impacts on foods. Correlations between international variation in colorectal cancer-associated mutation patterns and food availabilities could highlight the influence of foods on colorectal mutagenesis. mutations from 12 countries/geographic areas. For food availabilities, we relied on data extracted from the Food Balance Sheets of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Dendrograms for mutation sites, mutation types and food patterns were constructed through Ward's hierarchical clustering algorithm and their stability was assessed evaluating silhouette values. Feature selection used entropy-based measures for similarity between clusterings, combined with principal component analysis by exhaustive and heuristic approaches. hotspots. Pearson's correlation scores, computed between the principal components of the datamatrices for mutation types, food availability and mutation sites, demonstrated statistically significant correlations between transitions at CpGs and both mutation sites and availabilities of meat, milk, sweeteners and animal fats, the energy-dense foods at the basis of “Western” diets. This is best explainable by differential exposure to nitrosative DNA damage due to foods that promote metabolic stress and chronic inflammation

Signature Verification for Offline Skilled Forgeries Using Textural Features

This study explores the effectiveness of two texturalmeasurements on signature verification for skilled forgeries. These texture features include 2D autoregressive coefficients andrun-length distributions. Signature images corresponding to 521writers from the GPDS960 database were used to evaluate theperformance of these features. Comparison of the proposedtextural features with a number of state-of-the-art featuresrealized interesting results. The run-length features outperformother features for a sufficient number of genuine signatures inthe training dataset.Scopu

Preparation Methods Keratin and Nanoparticles Keratin From Wool: A Review

Keratins are a group of fibrous proteins, These proteins are abundantly present in nature and constitute the major part of the hair, wool, horns, nails, feathers, and the stratum corneum of the skin. Among others, from an ecological and economic point of view, recovery of many organic substances discharged into the effluent of textile mills is of prime importance. This thesis review certain physical and chemical characteristics of the keratin derived utilizing five processes of chemical extraction: reduction, hydrolysis, sulfitolysis, oxidation, and production. Since keratin is a group of fibrous proteins and has many useful applications. For example: In pharmaceutical industries, plastic production, biosorption, and tissue engineering. Considering this advantage, this work mainly concentrates on nanoparticle keratin synthesis through different methods

Worldwide evaluations of quinoa: Preliminary results from post international year of quinoa FAO projects in nine countries

Chenopodium quinoa Willd., a high quality grain crop, is resistant to abiotic stresses (drought, cold, and salt) and offers an optimal source of protein. Quinoa represents a symbol of crop genetic diversity across the Andean region. In recent years, this crop has undergone a major expansion outside its countries of origin. The activities carried out within the framework of the International Year of Quinoa provided a great contribution to raise awareness on the multiple benefits of quinoa as well as to its wider cultivation at the global level. FAO is actively involved in promoting and evaluating the cultivation of quinoa in 26 countries outside the Andean region with the aim to strengthen food and nutrition security. The main goal of this research is to evaluate the adaptability of selected quinoa genotypes under different environments outside the Andean region. This paper presents the preliminary results from nine countries. Field evaluations were conducted during 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 in Asia (Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), and the Near East and North African countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Mauritania, and Yemen). In each country, the trials were carried out in different locations that globally represent the diversity of 19 agrarian systems under different agro-ecological conditions. Twenty-one genotypes of quinoa were tested using the same experimental protocol in all locations consisting in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates. Some genotypes showed higher yields and the Q18 and Q12 landraces displayed greater adaptation than others to new environmental conditions. The Q21 and Q26 landraces were evaluated with stable and satisfactory levels of yield (> 1 t.ha-1) in each of the different trial sites. This production stability is of considerable importance especially under climate change uncertainty. While these results suggest that this Andean crop is able to grow in many different environments, social, and cultural considerations remain crucial regarding its possible introduction as a staple food in new cropping systems around the world

Capturing the formation of sub-nanometer sized CdS clusters in LTL zeolite

The radiolytic preparation of sub-nanometer sized CdS clusters in LTL-type zeolite crystals in suspension is reported. The growing process of CdS in the zeolite crystals using a γ-ray irradiator (low dose rate) and a pulse electron accelerator (high dose rate) is followed by UV-vis spectroscopy. The pulse electron accelerator equipped with a transient absorption setup allowed the real-time capturing of CdS formed in the zeolite suspension. Two distinct stages during the formation of sub-nanometer sized CdS clusters in the LTL-type zeolite are identified: (i) fast formation of dispersed small oligomers exhibiting a well-defined sharp absorption peak, which is shifted from 292 to 350 nm in the course of the growth process, and (ii) formation of interconnected CdS clusters along the zeolite channels by diffusion-assisted process. Additionally, the presence of sub-nanometer sized CdS clusters in the zeolite channels is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The sub-nanometer sized CdS clusters formed in the LTL-type zeolite suspension exhibit good stability under hydrous conditions, and no coalesce in the presence of water is observed