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Micro-RNA family that modulates fibrosis and uses thereof
The present invention relates to the identification of a microRNA family, designated miR-29a-c, that is a key regulator of fibrosis in cardiac tissue. The inventors show that members of the miR-29 family are down-regulated in the heart tissue in response to stress, and are up-regulated in heart tissue of mice that are resistant to both stress and fibrosis. Also provided are methods of modulating expression and activity of the miR-29 family of miRNAs as a treatment for fibrotic disease, including cardiac hypertrophy, skeletal muscle fibrosis other fibrosis related diseases and collagen loss-related disease.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste
Bloodstream yeast infections: a 15-month survey
A 15-month survey of 412 bloodstream yeast isolates from 54 Belgian hospitals was undertaken. Candida albicans was the most common species (47.3%) followed by C. glabrata (25.7%), C. parapsilosis (8.0%), C. tropicalis (6.8%) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (5.1%). Common predisposing factors were antibacterial therapy (45%), hospitalization in intensive care units (34%), presence of in-dwelling catheters (32%), underlying cancer (23%) and major surgery (11%). Most patients had more than one predisposing factor. Fluconazole alone or in combination with another antifungal agent was the treatment of choice for 86.6% of the cases. Susceptibility testing revealed that 93.5% were susceptible to amphotericin B, 39.6% to itraconazole, 42.8% to fluconazole and 87% to voriconazole. Resistance to azoles was more common among C. glabrata isolates
Law Lost, Compliance Found: A Frontline Understanding of the Non-linear Nature of Business and Employee Responses to Law
Cancer survivors who fully participate in the PROFILES registry have better health-related quality of life than those who drop out
Purpose Attrition and subsequent missing data pose a challenge in longitudinal research in oncology. This study examined factors associated with attrition in the PROFILES registry, and its impact on observed health-related quality of life (HRQOL) estimates. Methods Sociodemographic, clinical, and HRQOL data were collected annually from a cohort of 2625 colorectal cancer survivors between 2010 and 2015. Participant characteristics according to time of dropout were compared using analysis of variance and chi-square tests. Predictors of attrition were examined in logistic regression analysis. Multilevel linear mixed models were constructed to investigate associations between attrition and HRQOL over time. Results Participants who dropped out were more likely to be female (OR = 1.23, CI = 1.02–1.47), older (OR = 1.20, CI = 1.09–1.33), less educated (OR = 1.64, CI = 1.30–2.11), and to have depressive symptoms (OR = 1.84, CI = 1.39–2.44) than full responders, and less likely to have high socioeconomic status (OR = 0.74, CI = 0.61–0.94). Participants who dropped out earlier reported significantly worse HRQOL, functioning, and psychosocial symptoms, which declined at a steeper rate over time, than full responders. Conclusions Cancer survivors’ HRQOL may be overestimated in longitudinal research due to attrition of the most unwell participants. Implications for Cancer Survivors Cancer survivors with the poorest health are at risk of dropping out of PROFILES and possibly withdrawing from other activities. Optimizing participation in PROFILES—a potential mechanism for providing information and access to support—is an avenue for keeping this group engaged
Divertor conditions relevant for fusion reactors achieved with linear plasma generator
Intense magnetized hydrogen and deuterium plasmas have been produced with electron densities up to 3.6¿×¿1020¿m-3 and electron temperatures up to 3.7¿eV with a linear plasma generator. Exposure of a W target has led to average heat and particle flux densities well in excess of 4¿MW m-2 and 1024¿m-2 s-1, respectively. We have shown that the plasma surface interactions are dominated by the incoming ions. The achieved conditions correspond very well to the projected conditions at the divertor strike zones of fusion reactors such as ITER. In addition, the machine has an unprecedented high gas efficiency
Charge dependent azimuthal correlations in Pb--Pb collisions at TeV
Separation of charges along the extreme magnetic field created in non-central
relativistic heavy--ion collisions is predicted to be a signature of local
parity violation in strong interactions. We report on results for charge
dependent two particle azimuthal correlations with respect to the reaction
plane for Pb--Pb collisions at TeV recorded in 2010 with
ALICE at the LHC. The results are compared with measurements at RHIC energies
and against currently available model predictions for LHC. Systematic studies
of possible background effects including comparison with conventional
(parity-even) correlations simulated with Monte Carlo event generators of
heavy--ion collisions are also presented.Comment: Published in the proceedings of "Quark Matter 2011", Annecy-Franc
The (co-)occurrence of problematic video gaming, substance use, and psychosocial problems in adolescents
Aims. The current study explored the nature of problematic (addictive) video gaming and the association with game type, psychosocial health, and substance use. Methods. Data were collected using a paper and pencil survey in the classroom setting. Three samples were aggregated to achieve a total sample of 8478 unique adolescents. Scales included measures of game use, game type, the Video game Addiction Test (VAT), depressive mood, negative self-esteem, loneliness, social anxiety, education performance, and use of cannabis, alcohol and nicotine (smoking). Results. Findings confirmed problematic gaming is most common amongst adolescent gamers who play multiplayer online games. Boys (60%) were more likely to play online games than girls (14%) and problematic gamers were more likely to be boys (5%) than girls (1%). High problematic gamers showed higher scores on depressive mood, loneliness, social anxiety, negative self-esteem, and self-reported lower school performance. Nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis using boys were almost twice more likely to report high PVG than non-users. Conclusions. It appears that online gaming in general is not necessarily associated with problems. However, problematic gamers do seem to play online games more often, and a small subgroup of gamers – specifically boys – showed lower psychosocial functioning and lower grades. Moreover, associations with alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis use are found. It would appear that problematic gaming is an undesirable problem for a small subgroup of gamers. The findings encourage further exploration of the role of psychoactive substance use in problematic gaming
Phase transitions for -adic Potts model on the Cayley tree of order three
In the present paper, we study a phase transition problem for the -state
-adic Potts model over the Cayley tree of order three. We consider a more
general notion of -adic Gibbs measure which depends on parameter
\rho\in\bq_p. Such a measure is called {\it generalized -adic quasi Gibbs
measure}. When equals to -adic exponent, then it coincides with the
-adic Gibbs measure. When , then it coincides with -adic quasi
Gibbs measure. Therefore, we investigate two regimes with respect to the value
of . Namely, in the first regime, one takes for some
J\in\bq_p, in the second one . In each regime, we first find
conditions for the existence of generalized -adic quasi Gibbs measures.
Furthermore, in the first regime, we establish the existence of the phase
transition under some conditions. In the second regime, when we prove the existence of a quasi phase transition. It turns out that
if and \sqrt{-3}\in\bq_p, then one finds the existence
of the strong phase transition.Comment: 27 page
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