An Ecosystem with HTII Response and Predators' Genetic Variability

A new model to investigate environmental effects of genetically distinguishable predators is presented. The Holling type II response function, modelling feeding satiation, leads to persistent system's oscillations, as in classical population models. An almost complete classification of the cases arising in the Routh–Hurwitz stability conditions mathematically characterizes the paper. It is instrumental as a guideline in the numerical experiments leading to the findings on the limit cycles. This result extends what found in an earlier parallel investigation containing a standard bilinear response function

The prognostic value of basal DNA damage level in peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients affected by bladder cancer

Bladder cancer (BC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies of the urinary tract, with the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient of all cancers, due to the high rate of recurrences requiring continuous surveillance. An early diagnosis is essential to improve survival of patients with BC. Noninvasive and sensitive molecular biomarkers are needed to improve current strategies for the detection and monitoring of BC. Previous studies suggested that elevated DNA damage levels and suboptimal nucleotide excision DNA repair (NER) may be associated with BC

Genomic and phenotypic insights from an atlas of genetic effects on DNA methylation

Characterizing genetic influences on DNA methylation (DNAm) provides an opportunity to understand mechanisms underpinning gene regulation and disease. In the present study, we describe results of DNAm quantitative trait locus (mQTL) analyses on 32,851 participants, identifying genetic variants associated with DNAm at 420,509 DNAm sites in blood. We present a database of >270,000 independent mQTLs, of which 8.5% comprise long-range (trans) associations. Identified mQTL associations explain 15–17% of the additive genetic variance of DNAm. We show that the genetic architecture of DNAm levels is highly polygenic. Using shared genetic control between distal DNAm sites, we constructed networks, identifying 405 discrete genomic communities enriched for genomic annotations and complex traits. Shared genetic variants are associated with both DNAm levels and complex diseases, but only in a minority of cases do these associations reflect causal relationships from DNAm to trait or vice versa, indicating a more complex genotype–phenotype map than previously anticipated

A Genome-Wide Association Study of Diabetic Kidney Disease in Subjects With Type 2 Diabetes

dentification of sequence variants robustly associated with predisposition to diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has the potential to provide insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms responsible. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of DKD in type 2 diabetes (T2D) using eight complementary dichotomous and quantitative DKD phenotypes: the principal dichotomous analysis involved 5,717 T2D subjects, 3,345 with DKD. Promising association signals were evaluated in up to 26,827 subjects with T2D (12,710 with DKD). A combined T1D+T2D GWAS was performed using complementary data available for subjects with T1D, which, with replication samples, involved up to 40,340 subjects with diabetes (18,582 with DKD). Analysis of specific DKD phenotypes identified a novel signal near GABRR1 (rs9942471, P = 4.5 x 10(-8)) associated with microalbuminuria in European T2D case subjects. However, no replication of this signal was observed in Asian subjects with T2D or in the equivalent T1D analysis. There was only limited support, in this substantially enlarged analysis, for association at previously reported DKD signals, except for those at UMOD and PRKAG2, both associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate. We conclude that, despite challenges in addressing phenotypic heterogeneity, access to increased sample sizes will continue to provide more robust inference regarding risk variant discovery for DKD.Peer reviewe

A Cost Effective and User Friendly Approach to Design Wireline Formation Tests

Mini-DSTs are gaining more and more popularity as a possible alternative to conventional well testing especially where there are major environmental and economical constraints. The increased offshore exploration activity, which often implies highly risky and huge operational costs, makes the conventional well testing less attractive in favor of other technologies that can provide some of the key dynamic information about the well-reservoir system through relatively quick and less expensive operations. The design phase is recognized to be one of the most critical aspects in order to guarantee an acceptable value of information in exploration scenarios where very limited data is available. The success of any mini-DST operation can be significantly compromised if two major issues are not addressed in the design phase: possibility to clearly identify the radial flow behaviour, and avoidance of noise in the pressure response due to the gauge resolution. The paper describes a new user-friendly approach for mini-DST design so as to easily identify whether this technology can be successfully applied. The charts allow avoidance of the use of dedicated software, implying additional costs and requiring trained personnel. The approach is based on the use of dimensionless and dimensional charts, which are of general validity because they can be applied to any lithological environment and for any type of hydrocarbon. Field applications proved the charts to be very powerful because they could predict the range of effectiveness of mini-DST‟