The prognostic effect of PTEN expression status in colorectal cancer development and evaluation of factors affecting it: MiR-21 and promoter methylation

Background: PTEN is a tumor suppressor gene which is involved in cellular proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Loss or down-regulation of PTEN plays an important role in human cancers development. In this study, we investigated the effect of miR-21 and promoter methylation on the PTEN expression status in CRC tissues and analyzed association of the PTEN expression status with clinicopathological features in patients with CRC. Results: The PTEN expression was positively detected in 67.2 CRC tissues and all adjacent non-cancerous samples. PTEN mRNA level was negatively correlated with miR-21 level (r = -0.595, P < 0.001). PTEN expression was also correlated directly with the PTEN mRNA level (r = 0.583, P < 0.001) and conversely with miR-21 level (r = -0.632, P < 0.001). PTEN Promoter methylation was significantly associated with PTEN expression status (p = 0.013). PTEN expression was negatively associated with tumor size (p = 0.007) and advanced tumor stage (P = 0.011). Multivariate analysis indicated that tumor stage, tumor differentiation and PTEN expression status were independent prognostic factors for overall carcinoma in CRC patients (P < 0.05). The Kaplan-Meier curve indicated a negative correlation between PTEN expression levels and survival of CRC patients (P = 0.013). Conclusions: This study suggests a high frequency of miR-21 overexpression and aberrant promoter methylation in down-regulation of PTEN expression in colorectal carcinoma. Loss of PTEN may be a prognostic factor for patients with CRC. © 2016 Yazdani et al

Remarks on Characterizations of Malinowska and Szynal

The problem of characterizing a distribution is an important problem which has recently attracted the attention of many researchers. Thus, various characterizations have been established in many different directions. An investigator will be vitally interested to know if their model fits the requirements of a particular distribution. To this end, one will depend on the characterizations of this distribution which provide conditions under which the underlying distribution is indeed that particular distribution. In this work, several characterizations of Malinowska and Szynal (2008) for certain general classes of distributions are revisited and simpler proofs of them are presented. These characterizations are not based on conditional expectation of the kth lower record values (as in Malinowska and Szynal), they are based on: (i) simple truncated moments of the random variable, (ii) hazard function

Imaging Anyons with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

Anyons are exotic quasiparticles with fractional charge that can emerge as fundamental excitations of strongly interacting topological quantum phases of matter. Unlike ordinary fermions and bosons, they may obey non-Abelian statistics—a property that would help realize fault-tolerant quantum computation. Non-Abelian anyons have long been predicted to occur in the fractional quantum Hall (FQH) phases that form in two-dimensional electron gases in the presence of a large magnetic field, such as the ν=5/2 FQH state. However, direct experimental evidence of anyons and tests that can distinguish between Abelian and non-Abelian quantum ground states with such excitations have remained elusive. Here, we propose a new experimental approach to directly visualize the structure of interacting electronic states of FQH states with the STM. Our theoretical calculations show how spectroscopy mapping with the STM near individual impurity defects can be used to image fractional statistics in FQH states, identifying unique signatures in such measurements that can distinguish different proposed ground states. The presence of locally trapped anyons should leave distinct signatures in STM spectroscopic maps, and enables a new approach to directly detect—and perhaps ultimately manipulate—these exotic quasiparticles

IC3 Resnet Accreditation User's Guide

This document is intended to provide the users from the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) with information on the supporting materials for the RESNET Accreditation of International Code Compliance Calculator (IC3) v3.3 software as an IECC Performance Path Calculation Tool. The CD that accompanies this document contains five files/folders including the electronic copy of the application and the supporting materials for the RESNET accreditation of IC3. The IC3 software is a web-based tool which was developed by the Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) to demonstrate compliance of single-family residences with the Texas Building Energy Performance Standards (TBEPS). The Desktop DOE-2 Processor (DDP) spreadsheet is the ESL’s internal desktop version that utilizes the same DOE-2 simulation as the web-based IC3. It also provides the batch entry for IC3, which allows the creating and modifying of the proposed design and standard reference design to be done manually or automatically. The simulation inputs are passed to the DOE-2 input file for the energy simulation of the proposed and standard reference designs. Finally, the DDP reports the simulation results back to the DDP spreadsheet. The user-interface of IC3 was designed to ensure simple and quick input through reduced user input fields, and simple output by reporting the code-compliance as percent above or below code only for the locations in Texas. The DDP spreadsheet has the flexibility to calculate compliance with other codes by auto-generating the corresponding standard reference designs, incorporate additional weather locations, report the simulation results in a desired manner, as well as modify several simulation inputs, which are not available in the user interface of IC3. Since the test runs for RESNET accreditation cannot be performed using the user interface of web-based IC3, a special version of DDP spreadsheet (i.e., RESNET_DDP_IC3.xls) was developed for RESNET accreditation. This spreadsheet can be uploaded to the ESL’s web server for processing, and downloaded after the processing is complete, to view the simulation results. In this manual, Section 1 presents a brief overview of the IC3. Section 2 includes the details of the specially created DDP spreadsheet (RESNET_DDP_IC3.xls) for RESNET accreditation, and Section 3 includes the instructions for replicating the test runs using this spreadsheet. Section 4 presents other helpful information, including contact information and account sign up. At last, Appendix A and B present the results of five tests required for the RESNET accreditation and the contents of the accompanying CD, respectively

Description and Comparison of the Results of the Proposed House: Habitat for Humanity at Frazier Court, Dallas, Texas, with the 2004 IECC Standard Reference House

The Energy Systems Laboratory was requested to calculate the emissions reductions associated with the Habitat for Humanity Housing Project at Frazier Court, Dallas Texas. This report presents the results of the required analysis, a set of houses was compared to a corresponding standard reference house as described in the 2004 International Energy Conservation Code (2004 IECC). The energy consumption calculations were carried out using DOE-2.1e input file RES3ST.inp (Version 4.01.07) and DDP (Version: 1.7.03). Based on this comparison, the % above/below code for the proposed house was determined. The resultant emissions calculations were carried out using eCALC software (ESL, 2006). This report also contains detailed information about the description of the proposed house in terms of its building parameters, resultant energy consumption and emission reductions. Calculations are carried out using TMY2 weather file for Tarrant County, TX which is in climate zone 3 of the IECC 2004 climate zone categories. For the 1285 sq. ft. houses, the energy consumption of the Habitat for Humanity houses is in the range of 10.3% - 11.7% above code and for the 843 sq. ft. houses, the energy consumption is in the range of 20.9% - 21.4% below code. The HERS ratings calculated by IC3 is in the range of 71.7– 74.2 for the 1285 sq. ft. houses and in the range of 79.4 – 80.6 for the 843 sq. ft. houses

Impurity induced resonant state in a pseudogap state of a high temperature superconductor

We predict a resonance impurity state generated by the substitution of one Cu atom with a nonmagnetic atom, such as Zn, in the pseudogap state of a high-T_c superconductor. The precise microscopic origin of the pseudogap is not important for this state to be formed, in particular this resonance will be present even in the absence of superconducting fluctuations in the normal state. In the presence of superconducting fluctuations, we predict the existence of a counterpart impurity peak on a symmetric bias. The nature of impurity resonance is similar to the previously studied resonance in the d-wave superconducting state.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Driver fatigue detection via differential evolution extreme learning machine technique

Fatigue driving (FD) is one of the main causes of traffic accidents. Traditionally, machine learning technologies such as back propagation neural network (BPNN) and support vector machine (SVM) are popularly used for fatigue driving detection. However, the BPNN exhibits slow convergence speed and many adjustable parameters, while it is difficult to train large-scale samples in the SVM. In this paper, we develop extreme learning machine (ELM)-based FD detection method to avoid the above disadvantages. Further, since the randomness of the weight and biases between the input layer and the hidden layer of the ELM will influence its generalization performance, we further apply a differential evolution ELM (DE-ELM) method to the analysis of the driver’s respiration and heartbeat signals, which can effectively judge the driver fatigue state. Moreover, not only will the Doppler radar and smart bracelet be used to obtain the driver respiration and heartbeat signals, but also the sample database required for the experiment will be established through extensive signal collections. Experimental results show that the DE-ELM has a better performance on driver’s fatigue level detection than the traditional ELM and SVM

Demographic Factors, Duration and Costs of Hospitalization, and Causes of Death in Patients Intoxicated with Opioids and Amphetamines

Background: Intoxications are medical emergencies and among the significant causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In recent years, prevalence of intoxication with opioids and stimulants, such as amphetamines, is increasing particularly among young people. In this study, we investigated demographic factors, duration of hospitalization, costs of hospitalization, and cause of death in patients intoxicated with amphetamines and opioids.Materials and Methods: This study was a prospective descriptive–analytic study. Sampling method was census, and Subjects were patients intoxicated with amphetamines and opioids, alone or combined, who referred to toxicology ward of Ali-Asghar hospital in Isfahan, from October 2009 to April 2010.Results: During 6 months, among 2325 subjects, 419 patients used opioids, 98 patients used amphetamines, and 25 patients used both of them. The mean age of patients in the three groups was not significantly different. Most patients were male in all groups. The most common route of intoxication was orally in opioid group and inhalation in amphetamine group. The most common cause of intoxication was intentional attempt. Vital signs at admission were normal in three groups, but the average of heart rate, body temperature, respiratory rate and blood pressure, was slightly higher in the amphetamine group than the opioid group. Duration and cost of hospitalization were not significantly different between groups. Four patients were died totally and the outcome was not significantly different between groups. The mean age and duration of hospitalization were significantly higher in died compared to living patients.Conclusion: Opioids and amphetamines accounted for high percentages of intoxication, especially in young single men with self-employed job. Therefore, control and prevention of opioids and amphetamines consumption are important ways to reduce this kind of intoxication in this group

An investigation on some biological characteristics of Capoeta buhsei in Gharachay River, Saveh

In this study we investigated biometric and morphometric traits of Capoeta buhsei in Gharachay River, Saveh. Sampling was in 5/90, 11/90 and 8/91. Sampling was by electroshoker. Samples after catching transferred to Azad university of Babols labratoar and investigated. Measurement of length was recorded by digital caliper to the nearest 0/01 mm and weight was recorded by digital balance to the nearest 0/01 g .Age determination was by observing scales in benicular loop with 40..Results of investigation of 53 male and 39 female of this species indicated that mean standard length of male and female was 131/46±23/59 mm and 152/96±25/07 mm respectively. Ratio of female to male was 0/73 :1 and with x2 -test there wasn’t a meaningful relashionship between male and female ratio