Use of wavelet-packet transforms to develop an engineering model for multifractal characterization of mutation dynamics in pathological and nonpathological gene sequences

This study uses dynamical analysis to examine in a quantitative fashion the information coding mechanism in DNA sequences. This exceeds the simple dichotomy of either modeling the mechanism by comparing DNA sequence walks as Fractal Brownian Motion (fbm) processes. The 2-D mappings of the DNA sequences for this research are from Iterated Function System (IFS) (Also known as the Chaos Game Representation (CGR)) mappings of the DNA sequences. This technique converts a 1-D sequence into a 2-D representation that preserves subsequence structure and provides a visual representation. The second step of this analysis involves the application of Wavelet Packet Transforms, a recently developed technique from the field of signal processing. A multi-fractal model is built by using wavelet transforms to estimate the Hurst exponent, H. The Hurst exponent is a non-parametric measurement of the dynamism of a system. This procedure is used to evaluate gene-coding events in the DNA sequence of cystic fibrosis mutations. The H exponent is calculated for various mutation sites in this gene. The results of this study indicate the presence of anti-persistent, random walks and persistent sub-periods in the sequence. This indicates the hypothesis of a multi-fractal model of DNA information encoding warrants further consideration.;This work examines the model\u27s behavior in both pathological (mutations) and non-pathological (healthy) base pair sequences of the cystic fibrosis gene. These mutations both natural and synthetic were introduced by computer manipulation of the original base pair text files. The results show that disease severity and system information dynamics correlate. These results have implications for genetic engineering as well as in mathematical biology. They suggest that there is scope for more multi-fractal models to be developed

Impacts of Health Information Exchange and Health Information Organization on Hospital Efficiency: A Data Envelopment Analysis

This paper aimed to determine if hospitals that participated in Health Information Exchange (HIE) and Health Information Organization (HIO) were more efficient than hospitals that did not participate. This study collected sample data from the 2017 American Hospital Association (AHA) U.S. Hospital Annual Survey dataset and the 2017 AHA IT Survey dataset. We created a DEA model to measure hospital efficiencies. Mann-Whitney Test performed the hypothesis test. Evidence showed that HIE/HIO participating hospital group had a significantly higher efficiency score than the non-participating hospital group

Ocean processes at the Antarctic continental slope

The Antarctic continental shelves and slopes occupy relatively small areas, but, nevertheless, are important for global climate, biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem functioning. Processes of water mass transformation through sea ice formation/melting and ocean-atmosphere interaction are key to the formation of deep and bottom waters as well as determining the heat flux beneath ice shelves. Climate models, however, struggle to capture these physical processes and are unable to reproduce water mass properties of the region. Dynamics at the continental slope are key for correctly modelling climate, yet their small spatial scale presents challenges both for ocean modelling and for observational studies. Cross-slope exchange processes are also vital for the flux of nutrients such as iron from the continental shelf into the mixed layer of the Southern Ocean. An © 2014 The Authors

ULF waves in the low‐latitude boundary layer and their relationship to magnetospheric pulsations: A multisatellite observation

On April 30 (day 120), 1985, the magnetosphere was compressed at 0923 UT and the subsolar magnetopause remained near 7 REgeocentric for ∼2 hours, during which the four spacecraft Spacecraft Charging At High Altitude (SCATHA), GOES 5, GOES 6, and Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers (AMPTE) CCE were all in the magnetosphere on the morning side. SCATHA was in the low-latitude boundary layer (LLBL) in the second half of this period. The interplanetary magnetic field was inferred to be northward from the characteristics of precipitating particle fluxes as observed by the low-altitude satellite Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F7 and also from absence of substorms. We used magnetic field and particle data from this unique interval to study ULF waves in the LLBL and their relationship to magnetic pulsations in the magnetosphere. The LLBL was identified from the properties of particles, including bidirectional field-aligned electron beams at ∼200 eV. In the boundary layer the magnetic field exhibited both a 5–10 min irregular compressional oscillation and a broadband (Δƒ/ƒ ∼ 1) primarily transverse oscillations with a mean period of ∼50 s and a left-hand sense of polarization about the mean field. The former can be observed by other satellites and is likely due to pressure variations in the solar wind, while the latter is likely due to a Kelvin-Helmholtz (K.-H.) instability occurring in the LLBL or on the magnetopause. Also, a strongly transverse ∼3-s oscillation was observed in the LLBL. The magnetospheric pulsations, which exhibited position dependent frequencies, may be explained in terms of field line resonance with a broadband source wave, that is, either the pressure-induced compressional wave or the K.-H. wave generated in or near the boundary layer

Implications of lowering threshold of plasma troponin concentration in diagnosis of myocardial infarction: cohort study

Objective To assess the relation between troponin concentration, assay precision, and clinical outcomes in patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome

Chemical Abundances of the Leo II Dwarf Galaxy

We use previously-published moderate-resolution spectra in combination with stellar atmosphere models to derive the first measured chemical abundance ratios in the Leo II dSph galaxy. We find that for spectra with SNR > 24, we are able to measure abundances from weak Ti, Fe and Mg lines located near the calcium infrared triplet (CaT). We also quantify and discuss discrepancies between the metallicities measured from Fe I lines and those estimated from the CaT features. We find that while the most metal-poor ([Fe/H] <-2.0]) Leo II stars have Ca and Ti abundance ratios similar to those of Galactic globular clusters, the more metal-rich stars show a gradual decline of Ti, Mg and Ca abundance ratio with increasing metallicity. Finding these trends in this distant and apparently dynamically stable dSph galaxy supports the hypothesis that the slow chemical enrichment histories of the dSph galaxies is universal, independent of any interaction with the Milky Way. Combining our spectroscopic abundances with published broadband photometry and updated isochrones, we are able to approximate stellar ages for our bright RGB stars to a relative precision of 2-3 Gyr. While the derived age-metallicity relationship of Leo II hints at some amount of slow enrichment, the data are still statistically consistent with no enrichment over the history of Leo II.Comment: Accepted to A

Characterization of the Metabolically Healthy Phenotype in Overweight and Obese British Men

We calculated the prevalence of the metabolically healthy but obese (MHO) phenotype in (n=9 177) British men (age 48.9±7.4 years) attending preventive health screening between 2000 and 2009. We examined differences in cardiorespiratory fitness (Fitness) and self-reported physical activity levels, according to whether the men were metabolically healthy (<2 components of the metabolic syndrome), and by BMI category (normal-weight, over-weight, obese). Fitness was estimated from treadmill exercise as VO2peak and classified as: Low, Moderate, or High using age-specific cut-offs. We identified 21.6% of our sample as obese, of whom 83.1% were metabolically healthy. Compared with the metabolic unhealthy obese (MUO; 3.7% of sample), MHO phenotypes were fitter (effect size d=0.21) and were more physically active (d=0.31). Logistic regression showed high fitness (OR=2.40, 95%CI 1.38-4.19), and being physically active (OR=1.71, 95% CI 1.14-2.56) to be independently associated with the MHO phenotype. Our findings agree with US data suggesting that higher cardiorespiratory fitness is a characteristic of the MHO phenotype. Our finding that meeting physical activity guidelines was associated with the MHO phenotype independent of fitness is, however, novel. If confirmed, our findings indicate that public health messages that en-courage active lifestyles to promote fitness should be encouraged regardless of weight sta-tus