The relationship between learning style preferences and gender, educational major and status in first year medical students: A survey study from Iran

Background: Identifying and employing appropriate learning styles could play an important role in selecting teaching styles in order to improve education. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the relationship between learning styles preferences and gender, educational major and status in first year students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study employing the visual-aural-read/write-kinesthetic (VARK) learning style's questionnaire was done on 184 first year students of medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing and health services management at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2012. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed through experts' views and reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficients (α = 0.86). Data were analyzed using the SPSS ver.18 software and x2 test. Results: Out of 184 participants who responded to and returned the questionnaire, 122 (66.3) were female; more than two-thirds (68.5) of the enrolled students were at the professional doctorate level (medicine, pharmacy, dentistry) and 31.5 at the undergraduate level (nursing and health services management). Eighty-nine (48.4) students preferred a single-modal learning style. In contrast, the remaining 95 students (51.6) preferred multi-modal learning styles. A significant relationship between gender and single modal learning styles (P = 0.009) and between status and learning styles (P = 0.04) was observed. Conclusions: According to the results, male students preferred to use the kinesthetic learning style more than females, while, female students preferred the aural learning style. Knowledge about the learning styles of students at educational institutes is valuable and helps solve learning problems among students, and allows students to become better learners. © 2015, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

A distributed tree data structure for real-time OLAP on cloud architectures

In contrast to queries for on-line transaction processing (OLTP) systems that typically access only a small portion of a database, OLAP queries may need to aggregate large portions of a database which often leads to performance issues. In this paper we introduce CR-OLAP, a Cloud based Real-time OLAP system based on a new distributed index structure for OLAP, the distributed PDCR tree, that utilizes a cloud infrastructure consisting of (m + 1) multi-core processors. With increasing database size, CR-OLAP dynamically increases m to maintain performance. Our distributed PDCR tree data structure supports multiple dimension hierarchies and efficient query processing on the elaborate dimension hierarchies which are so central to OLAP systems. It is particularly efficient for complex OLAP queries that need to aggregate large portions of the data warehouse, such as 'report the total sales in all stores located in California and New York during the months February-May of all years'. We evaluated CR-OLAP on the Amazon EC2 cloud, using the TPC-DS benchmark data set. The tests demonstrate that CR-OLAP scales well with increasing number of processors, even for complex queries. For example, on an Amazon EC2 cloud instance with eight processors, for a TPC-DS OLAP query stream on a data warehouse with 80 million tuples where every OLAP query aggregates more than 50% of the database, CR-OLAP achieved a query latency of 0.3 seconds which can be considered a real time response

Chemotherapy use and quality of life in cancer patients at the end of life: An integrative review

Background: When curative treatments are no longer available for cancer patients, the aim of treatment is palliative. The emphasis of palliative care is on optimizing quality of life and provided support for patients nearing end of life. However, chemotherapy is often offered as a palliative therapy for patients with advanced cancer nearing death. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the state of the science relative to use of palliative chemotherapy and maintenance of quality of life in patients with advanced cancer who were at end of life. Materials and methods: Published research from January 2010 to December 2019 was reviewed using PRISMA guidelines using PubMed, Proquest, ISI web of science, Science Direct, and Scopus databases. MeSH keywords including quality of life, health related quality of life, cancer chemotherapy, drug therapy, end of life care, palliative care, palliative therapy, and palliative treatment. Findings: 13 studies were evaluated based on inclusion criteria. Most of these studies identified that reduced quality of life was associated with receipt of palliative chemotherapy in patients with advanced cancer at the end of life. Conclusion: Studies have primarily been conducted in European and American countries. Cultural background of patients may impact quality of life at end of life. More research is needed in developing countries including Mideastern and Asian countries. © 2020 The Author(s)

Genetic Determinants of Circulating Sphingolipid Concentrations in European Populations

Sphingolipids have essential roles as structural components of cell membranes and in cell signalling, and disruption of their metabolism causes several diseases, with diverse neurological, psychiatric, and metabolic consequences. Increasingly, variants within a few of the genes that encode enzymes involved in sphingolipid metabolism are being associated with complex disease phenotypes. Direct experimental evidence supports a role of specific sphingolipid species in several common complex chronic disease processes including atherosclerotic plaque formation, myocardial infarction (MI), cardiomyopathy, pancreatic beta-cell failure, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Therefore, sphingolipids represent novel and important intermediate phenotypes for genetic analysis, yet little is known about the major genetic variants that influence their circulating levels in the general population. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) between 318,237 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and levels of circulating sphingomyelin (SM), dihydrosphingomyelin (Dih-SM), ceramide (Cer), and glucosylceramide (GluCer) single lipid species (33 traits); and 43 matched metabolite ratios measured in 4,400 subjects from five diverse European populations. Associated variants (32) in five genomic regions were identified with genome-wide significant corrected p-values ranging down to 9.08 x 10(-66). The strongest associations were observed in or near 7 genes functionally involved in ceramide biosynthesis and trafficking: SPTLC3, LASS4, SGPP1, ATP10D, and FADS1-3. Variants in 3 loci (ATP10D, FADS3, and SPTLC3) associate with MI in a series of three German MI studies. An additional 70 variants across 23 candidate genes involved in sphingolipid-metabolizing pathways also demonstrate association (p = 10(-4) or less). Circulating concentrations of several key components in sphingolipid metabolism are thus under strong genetic control, and variants in these loci can be tested for a role in the development of common cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological, and psychiatric diseases

Comparison of Promoter Hypermethylation Pattern in Salivary Rinses Collected with and without an Exfoliating Brush from Patients with HNSCC

Background: Salivary rinses have been recently proposed as a valuable resource for the development of epigenetic biomarkers for detection and monitoring of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Both salivary rinses collected with and without an exfoliating brush from patients with HNSCC are used in detection of promoter hypermethylation, yet their correlation of promoter hypermethylation has not been evaluated. This study was to evaluate the concordance of promoter hypermethylation between salivary rinses collected with and without an exfoliating brush from patients with HNSCC. Methodolgy: 57 paired salivary rinses collected with or without an exfoliating brush from identical HNSCC patients were evaluated for promoter hypermethylation status using Quantitative Methylation-Specific PCR. Target tumor suppressor gene promoter regions were selected based on our previous studies describing a panel for HNSCC screening an

Association between 5-HT2A, TPH1 and GNB3 genotypes and response to typical neuroleptics: a serotonergic approach

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Schizophrenia is a common psychiatric disease affecting about 1% of population. One major problem in the treatment is finding the right the drug for the right patients. However, pharmacogenetic results in psychiatry can seldom be replicated.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We selected three candidate genes associated with serotonergic neurotransmission for the study: serotonin 2A (<it>5-HT2A</it>) receptor gene, tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (<it>TPH1</it>) gene, and G-protein beta-3 subunit (<it>GNB3</it>) gene. We recruited 94 schizophrenia patients representing extremes in treatment response to typical neuroleptics: 43 were good responders and 51 were poor responders. The control group consisted of 392 healthy blood donors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We do, in part, replicate the association between <it>5-HT2A </it>T102C polymorphism and response to typical neuroleptics. In female patients, C/C genotype was significantly more common in non-responders than in responders [OR = 6.04 (95% Cl 1.67–21.93), p = 0.005] or in the control population [OR = 4.16 (95% CI 1.46–11.84), p = 0.005]. <it>TPH1 </it>A779C C/A genotype was inversely associated with good treatment response when compared with non-responders [OR = 0.59 (95% Cl 0.36–0.98), p = 0.030] or with the controls [OR = 0.44 (95% CI 0.23–0.86, p = 0.016], and <it>GNB3 </it>C825T C/T genotype showed a trend-like positive association among the male patients with a good response compared with non-responders [OR = 3.48 (95% Cl 0.92–13.25), p = 0.061], and a clearer association when compared with the controls [OR = 4.95 (95% CI 1.56–15.70), p = 0.004].</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>More findings on the consequences of functional polymorphisms for the role of serotonin in the development of brain and serotonergic neurotransmission are needed before more detailed hypotheses regarding susceptibility and outcome in schizophrenia can be formulated. The present results may highlight some of the biological mechanisms in different courses of schizophrenia between men and women.</p

Automated workflow-based exploitation of pathway databases provides new insights into genetic associations of metabolite profiles

Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified many common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that associate with clinical phenotypes, but these SNPs usually explain just a small part of the heritability and have relatively modest effect sizes. In contrast, SNPs that associate with metabolite levels generally explain a higher percentage of the genetic variation and demonstrate larger effect sizes. Still, the discovery of SNPs associated with metabolite levels is challenging since testing all metabolites measured in typical metabolomics studies with all SNPs comes with a severe multiple testing penalty. We have developed an automated workflow approach that utilizes prior knowledge of biochemical pathways present in databases like KEGG and BioCyc to generate a smaller SNP set relevant to the metabolite. This paper explores the opportunities and challenges in the analysis of GWAS of metabolomic phenotypes and provides novel insights into the genetic basis of metabolic variation through the re-analysis of published GWAS datasets. Results: Re-analysis of the published GWAS dataset from Illig et al. (Nature Genetics, 2010) using a pathway-based workflow (http://www.myexperiment.org/packs/319.html), confirmed previously identified hits and identified a new locus of human metabolic individuality, associating Aldehyde dehydrogenase family1 L1 (ALDH1L1) with serine/glycine ratios in blood. Replication in an independent GWAS dataset of phospholipids (Demirkan et al., PLoS Genetics, 2012) identified two novel loci supported by additional literature evidence: GPAM (Glycerol-3 phosphate acyltransferase) and CBS (Cystathionine beta-synthase). In addition, the workflow approach provided novel insight into the affected pathways and relevance of some of these gene-metabolite pairs in disease development and progression. Conclusions: We demonstrate the utility of automated exploitation of background knowledge present in pathway databases for the analysis of GWAS datasets of metabolomic phenotypes. We report novel loci and potential biochemical mechanisms that contribute to our understanding of the genetic basis of metabolic variation and its relationship to disease development and progression

Genome-wide association study identifies novel loci associated with circulating phospho- and sphingolipid concentrations.

Phospho- and sphingolipids are crucial cellular and intracellular compounds. These lipids are required for active transport, a number of enzymatic processes, membrane formation, and cell signalling. Disruption of their metabolism leads to several diseases, with diverse neurological, psychiatric, and metabolic consequences. A large number of phospholipid and sphingolipid species can be detected and measured in human plasma. We conducted a meta-analysis of five European family-based genome-wide association studies (N = 4034) on plasma levels of 24 sphingomyelins (SPM), 9 ceramides (CER), 57 phosphatidylcholines (PC), 20 lysophosphatidylcholines (LPC), 27 phosphatidylethanolamines (PE), and 16 PE-based plasmalogens (PLPE), as well as their proportions in each major class. This effort yielded 25 genome-wide significant loci for phospholipids (smallest P-value = 9.88×10(-204)) and 10 loci for sphingolipids (smallest P-value = 3.10×10(-57)). After a correction for multiple comparisons (P-value<2.2×10(-9)), we observed four novel loci significantly associated with phospholipids (PAQR9, AGPAT1, PKD2L1, PDXDC1) and two with sphingolipids (PLD2 and APOE) explaining up to 3.1% of the variance. Further analysis of the top findings with respect to within class molar proportions uncovered three additional loci for phospholipids (PNLIPRP2, PCDH20, and ABDH3) suggesting their involvement in either fatty acid elongation/saturation processes or fatty acid specific turnover mechanisms. Among those, 14 loci (KCNH7, AGPAT1, PNLIPRP2, SYT9, FADS1-2-3, DLG2, APOA1, ELOVL2, CDK17, LIPC, PDXDC1, PLD2, LASS4, and APOE) mapped into the glycerophospholipid and 12 loci (ILKAP, ITGA9, AGPAT1, FADS1-2-3, APOA1, PCDH20, LIPC, PDXDC1, SGPP1, APOE, LASS4, and PLD2) to the sphingolipid pathways. In large meta-analyses, associations between FADS1-2-3 and carotid intima media thickness, AGPAT1 and type 2 diabetes, and APOA1 and coronary artery disease were observed. In conclusion, our study identified nine novel phospho- and sphingolipid loci, substantially increasing our knowledge of the genetic basis for these traits

Genome-wide association and functional follow-up reveals new loci for kidney function

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important public health problem with a genetic component. We performed genome-wide association studies in up to 130,600 European ancestry participants overall, and stratified for key CKD risk factors. We uncovered 6 new loci in association with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), the primary clinical measure of CKD, in or near MPPED2, DDX1, SLC47A1, CDK12, CASP9, and INO80. Morpholino knockdown of mpped2 and casp9 in zebrafish embryos revealed podocyte and tubular abnormalities with altered dextran clearance, suggesting a role for these genes in renal function. By providing new insights into genes that regulate renal function, these results could further our understanding of the pathogenesis of CKD

Genome-wide association study identifies six new loci influencing pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure.

Numerous genetic loci have been associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in Europeans. We now report genome-wide association studies of pulse pressure (PP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP). In discovery (N = 74,064) and follow-up studies (N = 48,607), we identified at genome-wide significance (P = 2.7 × 10(-8) to P = 2.3 × 10(-13)) four new PP loci (at 4q12 near CHIC2, 7q22.3 near PIK3CG, 8q24.12 in NOV and 11q24.3 near ADAMTS8), two new MAP loci (3p21.31 in MAP4 and 10q25.3 near ADRB1) and one locus associated with both of these traits (2q24.3 near FIGN) that has also recently been associated with SBP in east Asians. For three of the new PP loci, the estimated effect for SBP was opposite of that for DBP, in contrast to the majority of common SBP- and DBP-associated variants, which show concordant effects on both traits. These findings suggest new genetic pathways underlying blood pressure variation, some of which may differentially influence SBP and DBP