Proteomics Technologies and Challenges

Proteomics is the study of proteins and their interactions in a cell. With the completion of the Human Genome Project, the emphasis is shifting to the protein compliment of the human organism. Because proteome reflects more accurately on the dynamic state of a cell, tissue, or organism, much is expected from proteomics to yield better disease markers for diagnosis and therapy monitoring. The advent of proteomics technologies for global detection and quantitation of proteins creates new opportunities and challenges for those seeking to gain greater understanding of diseases. High-throughput proteomics technologies combining with advanced bioinformatics are extensively used to identify molecular signatures of diseases based on protein pathways and signaling cascades. Mass spectrometry plays a vital role in proteomics and has become an indispensable tool for molecular and cellular biology. While the potential is great, many challenges and issues remain to be solved, such as mining low abundant proteins and integration of proteomics with genomics and metabolomics data. Nevertheless, proteomics is the foundation for constructing and extracting useful knowledge to biomedical research. In this review, a snapshot of contemporary issues in proteomics technologies is discussed

Numerical evaluation of the flange thickness effect on the contact stress and prying action in T-Stub steel connection

Este artículo presenta un estudio numérico utilizando el programa ANSYS para análisis de conexiones de acero tipo «T» denominadas «T-Stub», en las cuales puede darse el fenómeno de acción de palanca. El efecto de apalancamiento en los tornillos de la placa ha sido estudiado antes, pero la localización de las fuerzas de palanca ha sido simplificada. El efecto del espesor de las placas de conexión «T-Stub» en las áreas de contacto entre ellas y un soporte rígido ha sido investigado en este artículo diferentemente de lo que se encuentra en la literatura técnica, en que dicho fenómeno es estudiado entre bases flexibles. La conexión ha sido discretizada con elemento de sólido 3D y elementos de interfaz. En los análisis realizados se adoptan diferentes espesores de la placa y tornillos de diámetros distintos en los cuales se ha aplicado una precarga. En este artículo se presenta una discusión sobre la magnitud de los esfuerzos en los tornillos y la extensión del área de contacto efectiva entre la placa y un soporte rígido.This paper presents a numerical study of «T-Stub» steel connections using FEM analyses. In such connections prying action phenomenon may take place. Prying action effect on the bolts has been studied before but the location of the prying action forces has always been simplified. The effect of the thickness of «T-Stub» flanges on contact areas between flanges and support base is investigated in this paper. A 3D finite element model is used and interface elements are employed for the investigation. Nonlinear FE analyses are undertaken on connection with different flange thickness and bolt preload with two bolts. Nonlinear gap elements are used as interfaces. Discussion and conclusions on contact areas and stresses, prying action distributions and resultant of loads on bolts in the «T-Stub» connections are presented.Peer Reviewe

The Psychiatry Access Center: A New Opportunity for Innovative Residency Training

A recently introduced PGY-1 rotation in an innovative, managed care oriented program offers many training advantages for residents. The rotation offers first-year residents intensive interviewing-skills training, experience with obtaining and documenting the psychiatric history and physical examination, and in the process, offers early exposure to a managed care environment. The Psychiatry Access Center employs non-resident clinicians to perform urgent evaluations and all admissions to the main psychiatric hospital. The service has been tested successfully without requiring resident work, and therefore allows the integration of residents into the system via a new rotation designed to focus exclusively on educational needs

Physiological predictors of acute coronary syndromes: emerging insights from the plaque to the vulnerable patient

In this review, the authors explore the evolving evidence linking physiological assessment of coronary artery disease with plaque progression and vulnerability. Reducing adverse clinical events remains the ultimate goal for diagnostic tests, and this review highlights evidence supporting the prognostic value of physiological metrics in predicting outcomes. Historical and contemporary studies support synergy among lesion severity, ischemia, plaque vulnerability, and patient prognosis. Ischemia contributes to clinical events through association with plaque burden, but this review addresses the emerging concept that it associates with atherothrombosis via disturbed lesion hemodynamics. Biomechanical pathophysiological forces including endothelial shear stress-the frictional force generated by blood flow on the vessel wall-are increasingly linked with atherogenesis, vulnerable plaque morphology, and platelet and leukocyte activation. The authors conclude by transitioning from the model of the vulnerable plaque to the concept of the "vulnerable patient," looking more broadly at physiological contributors to Virchow's triad underpinning acute coronary syndrome

Global incidence and mortality for prostate cancer: analysis of temporal patterns and trends in 36 countries

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity globally, but its specific geographic patterns and temporal trends are under-researched. Objective: To test the hypotheses that PCa incidence is higher and PCa mortality is lower in countries with higher socioeconomic development, and that temporal trends for PCa incidence have increased while mortality has decreased over time. Design, setting, and participants: Data on age-standardized incidence and mortality rates in 2012 were retrieved from the GLOBOCAN database. Temporal patterns were assessed for 36 countries using data obtained from Cancer incidence in five continents volumes I–X and the World Health Organization mortality database. Correlations between incidence or mortality rates and socioeconomic indicators (human development index [HDI] and gross domestic product [GDP]) were evaluated. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: The average annual percent change in PCa incidence and mortality in the most recent 10 yr according to join-point regression. Results and limitations: Reported PCa incidence rates varied more than 25-fold worldwide in 2012, with the highest incidence rates observed in Micronesia/Polynesia, the USA, and European countries. Mortality rates paralleled the incidence rates except for Africa, where PCa mortality rates were the highest. Countries with higher HDI (r = 0.58) and per capita GDP (r = 0.62) reported greater incidence rates. According to the most recent 10-yr temporal data available, most countries experienced increases in incidence, with sharp rises in incidence rates in Asia and Northern and Western Europe. A substantial reduction in mortality rates was reported in most countries, except in some Asian countries and Eastern Europe, where mortality increased. Data in regional registries could be underestimated. Conclusions: PCa incidence has increased while PCa mortality has decreased in most countries. The reported incidence was higher in countries with higher socioeconomic development. Patient summary: The incidence of prostate cancer has shown high variations geographically and over time, with smaller variations in mortality

Supervised Domain Adaptation using Graph Embedding

Getting deep convolutional neural networks to perform well requires a large amount of training data. When the available labelled data is small, it is often beneficial to use transfer learning to leverage a related larger dataset (source) in order to improve the performance on the small dataset (target). Among the transfer learning approaches, domain adaptation methods assume that distributions between the two domains are shifted and attempt to realign them. In this paper, we consider the domain adaptation problem from the perspective of dimensionality reduction and propose a generic framework based on graph embedding. Instead of solving the generalised eigenvalue problem, we formulate the graph-preserving criterion as a loss in the neural network and learn a domain-invariant feature transformation in an end-to-end fashion. We show that the proposed approach leads to a powerful Domain Adaptation framework; a simple LDA-inspired instantiation of the framework leads to state-of-the-art performance on two of the most widely used Domain Adaptation benchmarks, Office31 and MNIST to USPS datasets.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 3 table

Thematic Trends in Complementary and Alternative Medicine Applied in Cancer-Related Symptoms

Purpose: The main goal of this study is to discover the scientific evolution of Cancer-Related Symptoms in Complementary and Alternative Medicine research area, analyzing the articles indexed in the Web of Science database from 1980 to 2013. Design/Methodology/Approach: A co-word science mapping analysis is performed under a longitudinal framework (1980 to 2013). The documental corpus is divided into two subperiods, 1980–2008 and 2009–2013. Thus, the performance and impact rates, and conceptual evolution of the research field are shown. Findings: According to the results, the co-word analysis allows us to identify 12 main thematic areas in this emerging research field: anxiety, survivors and palliative care, meditation, treatment, symptoms and cancer types, postmenopause, cancer pain, low back pain, herbal medicine, children, depression and insomnia, inflammation mediators, and lymphedema. The different research lines are identified according to the main thematic areas, centered fundamentally on anxiety and suffering prevention. The scientific community can use this information to identify where the interest is focused and make decisions in different ways. Research limitation: Several limitations can be addressed: 1) some of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine therapies may not have been included; 2) only the documents indexed in Web of Science are analyzed; and 3) the thematic areas detected could change if another dataset was considered. Practical implications: The results obtained in the present study could be considered as an evidence-based framework in which future studies could be built. Originality/value: Currently, there are no studies that show the thematic evolution of this research area

Classtalk: A Classroom Communication System for Active Learning

This pdf file is an article describing the advantages of using Classtalk technology in the classroom to enhance classroom communication. Classtalk technology cab facilitate the presentation of questions for small group work, collec the student answers and then display histograms showing how the class answered. This new communication technology can help instructors create a more interactive, student centered classroom, especially when teaching large courses. The article describes Classtalk as a very useful tool not only for engaging students in active learning, but also for enhancing the overall communication within the classroom. This article is a selection from the electronic Journal for Computing in Higher Education. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

A generic estimate of trans-Planckian modifications to the primordial power spectrum in inflation

We derive a general expression for the power spectra of scalar and tensor fluctuations generated during inflation given an arbitrary choice of boundary condition for the mode function at a short distance. We assume that the boundary condition is specified at a short-distance cutoff at a scale $M$ which is independent of time. Using a particular prescription for the boundary condition at momentum $p = M$, we find that the modulation to the power spectra of density and gravitational wave fluctuations is of order $(H/M)$, where $H$ is the Hubble parameter during inflation, and we argue that this behavior is generic, although by no means inevitable. With fixed boundary condition, we find that the shape of the modulation to the power spectra is determined entirely by the deviation of the background spacetime from the de Sitter limit.Comment: 15 pages (RevTeX), 2 figure

Population overlap and habitat segregation in wintering Black-tailed Godwits Limosa limosa

Distinct breeding populations of migratory species may overlap both spatially and temporally, but differ in patterns of habitat use. This has important implications for population monitoring and conservation. To quantify the extent to which two distinct breeding populations of a migratory shorebird, the Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa, overlap spatially, temporally and in their use of different habitats during winter. We use mid-winter counts between 1990 and 2001 to identify the most important sites in Iberia for Black-tailed Godwits. Monthly surveys of estuarine mudflats and rice-fields at one major site, the Tejo estuary in Portugal in 2005-2007, together with detailed tracking of colour-ringed individuals, are used to explore patterns of habitat use and segregation of the Icelandic subspecies L. l. islandica and the nominate continental subspecies L. l. limosa. In the period 1990-2001, over 66 000 Black-tailed Godwits were counted on average in Iberia during mid-winter (January), of which 80% occurred at just four sites: Tejo and Sado lower basins in Portugal, and Coto Dontildeana and Ebro Delta in Spain. Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits are present throughout the winter and forage primarily in estuarine habitats. Continental Black-tailed Godwits are present from December to March and primarily use rice-fields. Iberia supports about 30% of the Icelandic population in winter and most of the continental population during spring passage. While the Icelandic population is currently increasing, the continental population is declining rapidly. Although the estuarine habitats used by Icelandic godwits are largely protected as Natura 2000 sites, the habitat segregation means that conservation actions for the decreasing numbers of continental godwits should focus on protection of rice-fields and re-establishment of freshwater wetlands