A Multi-Method Approach for Proteomic Network Inference in 11 Human Cancers.

Protein expression and post-translational modification levels are tightly regulated in neoplastic cells to maintain cellular processes known as 'cancer hallmarks'. The first Pan-Cancer initiative of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network has aggregated protein expression profiles for 3,467 patient samples from 11 tumor types using the antibody based reverse phase protein array (RPPA) technology. The resultant proteomic data can be utilized to computationally infer protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks and to study the commonalities and differences across tumor types. In this study, we compare the performance of 13 established network inference methods in their capacity to retrieve the curated Pathway Commons interactions from RPPA data. We observe that no single method has the best performance in all tumor types, but a group of six methods, including diverse techniques such as correlation, mutual information, and regression, consistently rank highly among the tested methods. We utilize the high performing methods to obtain a consensus network; and identify four robust and densely connected modules that reveal biological processes as well as suggest antibody-related technical biases. Mapping the consensus network interactions to Reactome gene lists confirms the pan-cancer importance of signal transduction pathways, innate and adaptive immune signaling, cell cycle, metabolism, and DNA repair; and also suggests several biological processes that may be specific to a subset of tumor types. Our results illustrate the utility of the RPPA platform as a tool to study proteomic networks in cancer

Cultural Aspects of Attachment Anxiety, Avoidance, and Life Satisfaction: Comparing the US and Turkey

Attachment insecurity can interfere with the experience, expression, and benefits of positive emotions, including happiness and life satisfaction (LS). However, both the pattern and effects of insecure attachment orientations on LS vary across cultures. Considering that attachment anxiety is higher in collectivist cultures and attachment avoidance is relatively high in individualistic cultures, the present chapter elaborates on the idea that anxious and avoidant attachment would have varying effects on LS in individualistic and collectivistic cultural contexts. Study 1 (N = 2456) involved a community sample of married couples in Turkey and demonstrated that attachment avoidance was a stronger predictor of LS than attachment anxiety in Turkish collectivist context. Study 2 tested the hypothesis that the roles of attachment anxiety and avoidance in predicting LS would vary between collectivistic and individualistic cultures. Mothers’ adult attachment dimensions and LS in Turkey (N = 89) and the United States (N = 91) were measured. As expected, results indicated that LS was predicted only by attachment avoidance in Turkey and by attachment anxiety in the United States. These findings are in line with the cultural fit hypothesis, suggesting that culturally incongruent attachment orientations have a stronger negative impact on individuals’ LS

Age- and region-specific hepatitis B prevalence in Turkey estimated using generalized linear mixed models: a systematic review

Toy M, Önder FO, Wörmann T, et al. Age- and region-specific hepatitis B prevalence in Turkey estimated using generalized linear mixed models: a systematic review. BMC infectious diseases. 2011;11(1): 337.BACKGROUND: To provide a clear picture of the current hepatitis B situation, the authors performed a systematic review to estimate the age- and region-specific prevalence of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in Turkey. METHODS: A total of 339 studies with original data on the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in Turkey and published between 1999 and 2009 were identified through a search of electronic databases, by reviewing citations, and by writing to authors. After a critical assessment, the authors included 129 studies, divided into categories: 'age-specific'; 'region-specific'; and 'specific population group'. To account for the differences among the studies, a generalized linear mixed model was used to estimate the overall prevalence across all age groups and regions. For specific population groups, the authors calculated the weighted mean prevalence. RESULTS: The estimated overall population prevalence was 4.57, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.58, 5.76, and the estimated total number of CHB cases was about 3.3 million. The outcomes of the age-specific groups varied from 2.84, (95% CI: 2.60, 3.10) for the 0-14-year olds to 6.36 (95% CI: 5.83, 6.90) in the 25-34-year-old group. CONCLUSION: There are large age-group and regional differences in CHB prevalence in Turkey, where CHB remains a serious health problem

Patterns and universals of mate poaching across 53 nations : the effects of sex, culture, and personality on romantically attracting another person’s partner

As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, 16,954 participants from 53 nations were administered an anonymous survey about experiences with romantic attraction. Mate poaching--romantically attracting someone who is already in a relationship--was most common in Southern Europe, South America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe and was relatively infrequent in Africa, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Evolutionary and social-role hypotheses received empirical support. Men were more likely than women to report having made and succumbed to short-term poaching across all regions, but differences between men and women were often smaller in more gender-egalitarian regions. People who try to steal another's mate possess similar personality traits across all regions, as do those who frequently receive and succumb to the poaching attempts by others. The authors conclude that human mate-poaching experiences are universally linked to sex, culture, and the robust influence of personal dispositions.peer-reviewe

Cognitive biases in aggressive drivers: does illusion of control drive us off the road?

AbstractAnger has been shown to be a motivating factor in aggression and it is widely accepted that driving anger may lead to aggressive driving. However, the link between anger and aggressive driving is likely to be mediated by drivers’ pre-existing cognitive biases and the subsequent situational evaluations made. This study investigated the extent to which optimism bias, illusion of control beliefs and driver anger predict self-reported hostile driving behaviours. A total of 220 licensed drivers (106 men; 114 women) completed a self-report questionnaire measuring trait driving anger, optimism bias, illusion of control and driving behaviour. Structural Equation Modelling showed that trait driving anger and illusion of control beliefs account for 37% of the variance in hostile driving behaviour scores. Optimism biases were unrelated to hostile driving behaviours. Thus, driving anger propensities and feelings of control over the situation, but not a general tendency to underestimate the likelihood of adverse outcomes, predict aggressive driving

Attachment (In)Security and Threat Priming Influence Signal Detection Performance

This study examined whether the subliminal priming of threat and attachment figure availability interfere with cognitive attentional performance in conditions of uncertainty among individuals with differing attachment orientations. University students (N = 225) first completed a scale to identify names of their significant attachment figures (WHOTO) and self-report measures of attachment anxiety and avoidance and were then administered a computerized signal detection task assessing their cognitive attentional performance under conditions of threat and attachment figure availability priming. Findings revealed that both attachment anxiety and avoidance posed risk factors for cognitive performance but in different patterns. While attachment avoidance made individuals more prone to errors in missing a signal that was present, attachment anxiety increased the error rate for false alarms. These findings are discussed in relation to previous work in the field and their implications for potential cultural differences. © 2017, The Author(s) 2017

Psychometric evaluation of adult attachment measures on Turkish samples and a cross-cultural comparison

In recent years, adult attachment styles (secure, fearful, preoccupied, and dismissing) have been widely investigated within the framework of four-category model (Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991). In three consecutive studies, the reliability and validity of two commonly used measures of attachment styles were examined on the Turkish sample and a cross-cultural comparison with a U.S. sample was made. Results of the Study I revealed that both the single and multi-item measures of attachment styles (Relationships Questionnaire; Re and Relationships Scales Questionnaire; RSQ) have satisfactory level of reliability, stability and convergent validity. However these two measures did not correspond bl classifying respondents into the four attachment groups in an acceptable degree. Study 2, first, replicated the results of study I and second, demonstrated that the four attachment styles can be sufficiently identified among Turkish students. Supporting the construct validity of the attachment scales, findings indicated that the four attachment styles were organized around the two underlying dimensions of attachment (models of self and others), and they were related to the outcome variables employed in the study consistent with the assumptions of attachment, theory. The final study permitted a comparison of Turkish sample with American students from the perspective of four- category model. It was found that although the attachment scales had compatible psychometric quality in both cultures, the RSQ was relatively more consistent than the Re across the two samples. Furthermore, cultural differences in attachment styles were found especially among the insecure styles and students with preoccupied styles in the Turkish sample and those with dismissing and fearful styles in the American sample seemed to be overrepresented Findings were discussed in the light of attachment literature regarding the measurement issues and cross-cultural differences.status: publishe

Studies on gastrointestinal helminth of three Lacertid Lizard species, Podarcis muralis, Podarcis siculus and Ophisops elegans (Sauria: Lacertidae) from Bursa, North-Western Turkey

A total of 80 specimens of three species of lacertid Podarcis muralis (39), Podarcis siculus (18) and Ophisops elegans (23) from Bursa were examined for helminths. One species of Digenea, Plagiorchis elegans, 1 species of Cestoda, Mesocestoides sp. (tetrathyridium); and 3 species of Nematoda, Skrjabinodon medinae, Spauligodon saxicolae and Skrjabinelazia hoffmanni were found. The helminths reported in this study are generalist helminths that infect a number of lizards

System-based emotions in Turkey and support for versus opposition to the Gezi Park protests

Research on system justification theory has found that ideological justification of the status quo is associated with increased positive emotion and decreased negative emotion and, consequently, a lack of support for system-challenging protest. However, almost all of this research has been conducted in “WEIRD” (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) countries. Here we investigated the role of system-level emotions in mediating the negative association between system justification and collective action in the authoritarian political context of Turkey. We hypothesized that system justification would be associated with opposition to system-challenging collective action, and the association would be mediated by system-level emotions, even after adjusting for individual- and group-level emotions. These hypotheses were investigated in studies involving university students (Study 1, N = 132) and two community samples recruited during the Gezi Park protests of 2013 (Study 2, N = 256; Study 3, N = 1024). In all three studies, system justification was associated with fewer negative system-level emotions and less support for protests against the status quo. These findings demonstrate that ideological processes associated with system justification—both directly and indirectly, through system-level emotional processes—undermine support for social change and promote social stability, even in a highly repressive political context