A case-control study of the relationship between gastric cancer and meat consumption in Iran

Background: Despite the descending trends of gastric cancer in many parts of the world, its mortality rate has still remained high globally. Meat, red and processed meat in particular, may induce gastric carcinogenesis through potential mechanisms. However, the role of this dietary aspect in the risk of gastric cancer has not well been investigated so far. Therefore, we designed a study to assess the relation between meat consumption and the risk of gastric cancer in Golestan Province, a high- risk area for gastric malignancies in Iran. Methods: Subjects of this population-based case-control study included 190 histologically confirmed case so fgastric cancer and 647 controls. Meat consumption was evaluated using a 116-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. A lifestyle questionnaire also collected data concerning demographic features, anthropometric measures, and other known risk factors of gastric cancer. We estimated crude and adjust edoddsratios(ORs) and 95 confidence intervals (CIs) for the relation between meat intake and gastric cancer. Results: After being adjusted for potential confounders, red meat intake was positively associated with gastric cancer which reached statistical significance (OR=1.87, 95 CI: 1.01-3.47, Ptrend = 0.07). On the other hand, individuals in the highest quartile of white meat consumption had astatistically significant reduced risk of gastric cancer compared to those in the lowest quartile (OR = 0.36, 95 CI: 0.19-0.68, Ptrend = 0.005). Conclusions: We observed a positive association between red meat consumption and the risk of gastric cancer, and a reverse relationship regarding white meat intake and the risk of this malignancy

Stability of glassy hierarchical networks

The structure of interactions in most animal and human societies can be best represented by complex hierarchical networks. In order to maintain close-to-optimal function both stability and adaptability are necessary. Here we investigate the stability of hierarchical networks that emerge from the simulations of an organization type with an efficiency function reminiscent of the Hamiltonian of spin glasses. Using this quantitative approach we find a number of expected (from everyday observations) and highly non-trivial results for the obtained locally optimal networks, including, for example: (i) stability increases with growing efficiency and level of hierarchy; (ii) the same perturbation results in a larger change for more efficient states; (iii) networks with a lower level of hierarchy become more efficient after perturbation; (iv) due to the huge number of possible optimal states only a small fraction of them exhibit resilience and, finally, (v) 'attacks' targeting the nodes selectively (regarding their position in the hierarchy) can result in paradoxical outcomes

Identifying Retweetable Tweets with a Personalized Global Classifier

In this paper we present a method to identify tweets that a user may find interesting enough to retweet. The method is based on a global, but personalized classifier, which is trained on data from several users, represented in terms of user-specific features. Thus, the method is trained on a sufficient volume of data, while also being able to make personalized decisions, i.e., the same post received by two different users may lead to different classification decisions. Experimenting with a collection of approx.\ 130K tweets received by 122 journalists, we train a logistic regression classifier, using a wide variety of features: the content of each tweet, its novelty, its text similarity to tweets previously posted or retweeted by the recipient or sender of the tweet, the network influence of the author and sender, and their past interactions. Our system obtains F1 approx. 0.9 using only 10 features and 5K training instances.Comment: This is a long paper version of the extended abstract titled "A Personalized Global Filter To Predict Retweets", of the same authors, which was published in the 25th ACM UMAP conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, in July 201

Pengolahan Leachate Tempat Pembuangan Akhir Sampah Menggunakan Kombinasi Teknologi Membran Mikrofiltrasi Dan Nanofiltrasi

(LANDFILL LEACHATE TREATMENT BY USING COMBINED TECHNOLOGY OF MICROFILTRATION AND NANOFILTRATION MEMBRANE)Landfill leachate treatment in Jatibarang still use the conventional system which consist of collecting pond, anaerobik pond, aerobik pond, sedimentation pond, and then discharge into the Kreo River. However, the effluent of this treatment still unqualified the permitted standard. The landfill leachate treatment by using combined technology of microfiltration and nanofiltration membrane has been chosen due to the ability to reduce Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Total Suspended Solid (TSS) and its ability to remove divalent heavy metal content (Mulder, 1996). This study has been conducted to analyze the difference two type of membranes (NF99HF, NF99) on varied pressure (4, 5, 6 kg/cm2). Furthermore, the membrane performance stated by calculate the value of permeate flux and the ability to reduce COD, TSS, and Iron. According to the analysis, almost all of the parameter has reached the quality standard on Perda Prov. Jawa Tengah No. 5/2012. Optimum condition reached by membrane NF99 at 4 kg/cm2 pressure. The rejection on membrane NF99 at 4 kg/cm2 pressure are 94,22% (COD), 58,69% (TSS), and 99,72 (Total Iron). Over all, the effluent by using combined technology of microfiltration and nanofiltration membrane has better quality than used existing installation leachate treatment

Microtensile bond strength of ceramic to resin using different silanes

Oral Session - Dental Materials 1: Adhesion - Bond Strength Testing and Mechanisms: 9. Cement Adhesion to Ceramics: no. 27OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess the micro-tensile bond strength of a leucite-reinforced feldspathic ceramic to a resin cement using different types of silane primers. METHODS: 18 leucite-reinforced feldspathic ceramic blocks (Ceramco II, Dentsply) in dimensional of 6×6×6 mm were fabricated. The ceramic blocks were ground on wet SiC papers and then cleansed ultrasonically in distilled water. The bonding ceramic surfaces were treated with different silane solutions as follows: Commercial silane as control: Monobond S (Ivoclar-Vivadent); methacryloxypropyl silane and experimental silanes with two concentrations (1% and 2.5%): amino, isocyanate, styryl, and acrylate silanes. The silane application method consisted of ...postprin

Anomalous diffusion in the citation time series of scientific publications

We analyze the citation time-series of manuscripts in three different fields of science; physics, social science and technology. The evolution of the time-series of the yearly number of citations, namely the citation trajectories, diffuse anomalously, their variance scales with time proportional to t (2H ), where H not equal 1/2. We provide detailed analysis of the various factors that lead to the anomalous behavior: non-stationarity, long-ranged correlations and a fat-tailed increment distribution. The papers exhibit a high degree of heterogeneity across the various fields, as the statistics of the highest cited papers is fundamentally different from that of the lower ones. The citation data is shown to be highly correlated and non-stationary; as all the papers except the small percentage of them with high number of citations, die out in time

Il-1� C376a transversion variant and risk of idiopathic male infertility in Iranian men: A genetic association study

Background: IL-1α produced by Sertoli cells is considered to act as a growth factor for spermatogonia. In this study, we investigated the association of the C376A polymorphism in IL-1α with male infertility in men referring to the Kashan IVF Center. Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, 2 ml of blood was collected from 230 fertile and 230 infertile men. After DNA extraction, the C376A variant was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). In addition, the molecular effects of the C376A transversion were analysed using bioinformatics tools. Results: A significant association was observed between the homozygous genotype CC with male infertility [odds ratio (OR)=1.97, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.14-3.41, P=0.016)]. Carriers of C (AC+CC) showed a similar risk for male infertility (OR=1.78, 95% CI=1.06-2.99, P=0.030). Also, allelic analysis showed that the C allele is associated with male infertility (OR=1.43, 95% CI=1.09-1.88, P=0.011). In sub-group analysis, we found that the AC genotype is associated with asthenozoospermia (OR=2.38, 95% CI=1.03-5.53, P=0.043). In addition, carriers of C were at high risk for asthenozoospermia (OR=2.25, 95% CI=1.01-4.10, P=0.047). Also, C allele was significantly associated with oligozoospermia (OR=1.44, 95% CI=1.01-2.06, P=0.049) and non-obstructive azoospermia (OR=1.67, 95% CI =1.04-2.68, P=0.034). Finally, in silico analysis showed that the C376A polymorphism could alter splicing especially in the acceptor site. Conclusion: This is the preliminary report on the association of IL-1α C376A polymorphism with male infertility in the Kashan population. This association shows that the IL-1α gene may be a biomarker for male infertility, and therefore needs additional investigations in future studies to validate this. Keywords: Genetic Polymorphism, Interleukin-1α, Male Infertility, Spermatogenesi

Nanocasting Synthesis of Ultrafine WO3 Nanoparticles for Gas Sensing Applications

Ultrafine WO3 nanoparticles were synthesized by nanocasting route, using mesoporous SiO2 as a template. BET measurements showed a specific surface area of 700 m 2/gr for synthesized SiO2, while after impregnation and template removal, this area was reduced to 43 m 2/gr for WO3 nanoparticles. HRTEM results showed single crystalline nanoparticles with average particle size of about 5 nm possessing a monoclinic structure, which is the favorite crystal structure for gas sensing applications. Gas sensor was fabricated by deposition of WO3 nanoparticles between electrodes via low frequency AC electrophoretic deposition. Gas sensing measurements showed that this material has a high sensitivity to very low concentrations of NO2 at 250°C and 300°C