Correlation of cadherin-17 protein expression with clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with sporadic gastric cancer

This study aimed to explore the correlations between cadherin-17 (CDH17) protein expression and the clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with sporadic gastric cancer (GC). Nine relevant studies of 1,960 patients were identified using electronic database searches supplemented with a manual search in strict accordance with inclusion and exclusion criteria. Statistical analyses were conducted using STATA 12.0 statistical software. Relative risks and 95% confidence intervals were determined, and Z test was used to measure the significance of the overall effect size. A total of nine eligible cohort studies were included in this meta-analysis. The expression of CDH17 in patients with diffuse GC was significantly higher than in those with intestinal-type GC. Moreover, the tumor depth of invasion differed significantly between patients with positive CDH17 (CDH17+) and negative CDH17 (CDH17-) GC. However, there were no significant differences between CDH17+ and CDH17- GC patients with respect to tumor node metastasis clinical stages, histological grades, or lymph node metastasis. Despite the differences in invasive depth, there was no significant difference in 5-year survival rates between CDH17+ and CDH17- GC patients. Our meta-analysis provides evidence that CDH17 protein expression may be associated with the development of GC, suggesting that CDH17 is an important biomarker that could be useful for the early diagnosis of GC. However, CDH17 levels do not appear to impact overall survival.

VAP-1 as drug target in inflammation : structural features determining ligand interactions

Vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1), which belongs to the copper amine oxidases (CAOs), is a validated drug target in inflammatory diseases. Inhibition of VAP-1 blocks the leukocyte trafficking to sites of inflammation and alleviates inflammatory reactions. In this study, a novel set of potent pyridazinone inhibitors is presented together with their X-ray structure complexes with VAP-1. The crystal structure of serum VAP-1 (sVAP-1) revealed an imidazole binding site in the active site channel and, analogously, the pyridazinone inhibitors were designed to bind into the channel. This is the first time human VAP-1 has been crystallized with a reversible inhibitor and the structures reveal detailed information of the binding mode on the atomic level. Similarly to some earlier studied inhibitors of human VAP-1, the designed pyridazinone inhibitors bind rodent VAP-1 with a lower affinity than human VAP-1. Therefore, we made homology models of rodent VAP-1 and compared human and rodent enzymes to determine differences that might affect the inhibitor binding. The comparison of the crystal structures of the human VAP-1 and the mouse VAP-1 homology model revealed key differences important for the species specific binding properties. In general, the channel in mouse VAP-1 is more narrow and polar than the channel in human VAP-1, which is wider and more hydrophobic. The differences are located in the channel leading to the active site, as well as, in the entrance to the active site channel. The information obtained from these studies is of great importance for the development and design of drugs blocking the activity of human VAP-1, as rodents are often used for in vivo testing of candidate drugs. In order to gain more insight into the selective binding properties of the different CAOs in one species a comprehensive evolutionary study of mammalian CAOs was performed. We found that CAOs can be classified into sub-families according to the residues X1 and X2 of the Thr/Ser-X1-X2-Asn-Tyr-Asp active site motif. In the phylogenetic tree, CAOs group into diamine oxidase, retina specific amine oxidase and VAP-1/serum amine oxidase clades based on the residue in the position X2. We also found that VAP-1 and SAO can be further differentiated based on the residue in the position X1. This is the first large-scale comparison of CAO sequences, which explains some of the reasons for the unique substrate specificities within the CAO family.

Situational awareness for critical infrastructure protection

Postgraduate seminar series with a title Situational Awareness for Critical Infrastructure Protection held at the Department of Military Technology of the National Defence University in 2015. This book is a collection of some of talks that were presented in the seminar. The papers address designing inter-organizational situation awareness system, principles of designing for situation awareness, situation awareness in distributed teams, vulnerability analysis in a critical system context, tactical Command, Control, Communications, Computers, & Intelligence (C4I) systems, and improving situational awareness in the circle of trust. This set of papers tries to give some insight to current issues of the situation awareness for critical infrastructure protection. The seminar has always made a publication of the papers but this has been an internal publication of the Finnish Defence Forces and has not hindered publication of the papers in international conferences. Publication of these papers in peer reviewed conferences has indeed been always the goal of the seminar, since it teaches writing conference level papers. We still hope that an internal publication in the department series is useful to the Finnish Defence Forces by offering an easy access to these papers.

The role of product features on buyer-supplier collaboration in packaging industry

The thesis presents the study relative to the collaboration between suppliers and buyers in packaging industry with the impact of product features. The main purpose of this study is to examine the importance of product characteristics on collaboration to develop better packaging and to figure out how buyer-supplier collaboration in the supply chain perspectives is conducted and managed in packaging industry. The theoretical part reviewed some basic frameworks of collaboration including the scopes and levels of collaboration, risks as well as powers of collaboration, relationship and some key factors for successful collaboration. Followed by the overviews of packaging industry with the main issues related to product characteristics in packaging. By using the qualitative method, secondary data consisting of articles, reports, websites and primary data through interviewing some well-known packaging companies and case companies are collected in the thesis. The empirical result emphasized the importance of product features’ analysis in packaging industry since it plays a central role in the materials, design process, production and innovation with the role of collaboration. Collaboration in packaging is vital for packaging companies to survive and grow in the competitive environment. Finally, some key factors for effective collaboration were summarized based on the perspectives of packaging companies. It is highly recommend building a long-run collaboration with their customers due to undeniable benefits With increasingly importance of collaboration in packaging industry, further studies may be conducted.

Individual difference factors and men's attraction to female body features /

Existing research on attraction to body features has suggested that men show general preferences for women with lower waist-to-hip ratios (WHR), larger breasts, and slender body weights. The present study intended to expand on this research by investigating several individual difference factors and their potential contribution to variation in what men find attractive in female body features. Two hundred and seventy-three men were assessed for sex-role identity, 2D:4D digit ratios (a possible marker of prenatal exposure to androgens, and thus masculinization), physical attractiveness, early sexual experiences (as indices of early sexual conditioning), and early family attitudes toward body features, as well as their current preferences for WHR, breast size, weight, and height in women. For WHR, as predicted, physical attractiveness, early sexual experiences, and lower (more masculine) right-hand 2D:4D ratios significantly predicted current preferences for more feminine (lower) WHR. Early sexual experiences significantly predicted later preferences for breast size; in addition, more masculine occupational preferences and lower (more masculine) left-hand 2D:4D ratios predicted preferences for larger breasts. Participants' height, education level, Unmitigated Agency (masculinity) scores, and early sexual experiences significantly predicted current preferences for height. Finally, early sexual experiences significantly predicted current preferences for weight. The results suggest that variation in preferences for women's bodily features can be uniquely accounted for by a number of individual difference factors. Strengths and weaknesses of the study, along with implications for future research, are discussed.

The role of personality and situational factors in forgiveness /

This study deals with personality and situational variables that influence forgiveness. The relations between empathy and forgiveness were studied, followed by the examination of the relation of these two variables to the Big Five personality traits, as well as honesty, absorption, the propensity to mystical experiences, and dissociation. Empathy was then tested as a mediating variable between the personality variables and forgiveness. Empathy and forgiveness were then studied in relation to childhood maltreatment. Finally, the effects of six different motivations to forgive were examined in relation to the personality variables. Participants were 142 undergraduate students recruited from the ftrst year psychology class at Brock University; 75% were either 18 or 19 years of age, and 84% were female. All of the variables were measured using self-report questionnaires. The relation between empathy and forgiveness was only partially replicated. In terms of personality, forgiveness was found to be related to honesty, emotionality, and agreeableness. Empathy at least partially mediated the relations between forgiveness and agreeableness, honesty and emotionality. Childhood maltreatment was negatively related to forgiveness, and positively related to openness to experience, absorption, and dissociation from reality, but not to the propensity for mystical experiences. Six different motivations for forgiveness emerged from an exploratory factor analysis. Out of these, Forgiveness to Promote Reconciliation was related to emotionality and dispositional empathy. Religious Forgiveness was related to honesty, emotionality, and mystical experiences. Forgiveness to Feel Better was related to honesty, emotionality, agreeableness, conscientiousness, absorption, mystical experiences, and empathy. Forgiveness to Assert Moral Superiority over the Injurer was negatively related to honesty, empathy, and positively related to extraversion. Forgiveness out of Fear was related to agreeableness. Finally, Altruistic Forgiveness was related to honesty, emotionality, and agreeableness, absorption and the propensity to mystical experiences. Altruistic Forgiveness correlated most highly with all the measures of forgiveness, followed by Forgiveness to Feel better. Altruistic forgiveness was also the motivation for forgiveness that correlated the highest with absorption.

Is more information always good? : investigating the impact of website interface features on e-retailer's sales performance

A number of frameworks have been suggested for online retailing, but still there exists little consensus among researchers and practitioners regarding the appropriate amount of information critical and essential to the improvement of customers' satisfaction and their purchase intention. Against this backdrop, this study contributes to the current practical and theoretical discussions and conversations about how information search and perceived risk theories can be applied to the management of online retailer website features. This paper examines the moderating role of website personalization in studying the relationship between information content provided on the top US retailers' websites, and customer satisfaction and purchase intention. The study also explores the role played by customer satisfaction and purchase intention in studying the relationship between information that is personalized to the needs of individual customers and online retailers' sales performance. Results indicate that the extent of information content features presented to online customers alone is not enough for companies looking to satisfy and motivate customers to purchase. However, information that is targeted to an individual customer influences customer satisfaction and purchase intention, and customer satisfaction in tum serves as a driver to the retailer's online sales performance.

QUANTIFICATION AND EXTRACTION OF SURFACE FEATURES FROM DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELS

Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) are important in geology and geomorphology, since elevation data contains a lot of information pertaining to geomorphological processes that influence the topography. The first derivative of topography is attitude; the second is curvature. GIS tools were developed for derivation of strike, dip, curvature and curvature orientation from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). A method for displaying both strike and dip simultaneously as colour-coded visualization (AVA) was implemented. A plug-in for calculating strike and dip via Least Squares Regression was created first using VB.NET. Further research produced a more computationally efficient solution, convolution filtering, which was implemented as Python scripts. These scripts were also used for calculation of curvature and curvature orientation. The application of these tools was demonstrated by performing morphometric studies on datasets from Earth and Mars. The tools show promise, however more work is needed to explore their full potential and possible uses.

Gender-Specific Situational Correlates of Syringe Sharing during a Single Injection Episode

Ce document est la pré-publication d'un article paru dans AIDS and Behavior 2011; 15(1): 75-85 url: http://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/10461

Urban Detection From Hyperspectral Images Using Dimension-Reduction Model and Fusion of Multiple Segmentations Based on Stuctural and Textural Features

Ce mémoire de maîtrise présente une nouvelle approche non supervisée pour détecter et segmenter les régions urbaines dans les images hyperspectrales. La méthode proposée n ́ecessite trois étapes. Tout d’abord, afin de réduire le coût calculatoire de notre algorithme, une image couleur du contenu spectral est estimée. A cette fin, une étape de réduction de dimensionalité non-linéaire, basée sur deux critères complémentaires mais contradictoires de bonne visualisation; à savoir la précision et le contraste, est réalisée pour l’affichage couleur de chaque image hyperspectrale. Ensuite, pour discriminer les régions urbaines des régions non urbaines, la seconde étape consiste à extraire quelques caractéristiques discriminantes (et complémentaires) sur cette image hyperspectrale couleur. A cette fin, nous avons extrait une série de paramètres discriminants pour décrire les caractéristiques d’une zone urbaine, principalement composée d’objets manufacturés de formes simples g ́eométriques et régulières. Nous avons utilisé des caractéristiques texturales basées sur les niveaux de gris, la magnitude du gradient ou des paramètres issus de la matrice de co-occurrence combinés avec des caractéristiques structurelles basées sur l’orientation locale du gradient de l’image et la détection locale de segments de droites. Afin de réduire encore la complexité de calcul de notre approche et éviter le problème de la ”malédiction de la dimensionnalité” quand on décide de regrouper des données de dimensions élevées, nous avons décidé de classifier individuellement, dans la dernière étape, chaque caractéristique texturale ou structurelle avec une simple procédure de K-moyennes et ensuite de combiner ces segmentations grossières, obtenues à faible coût, avec un modèle efficace de fusion de cartes de segmentations. Les expérimentations données dans ce rapport montrent que cette stratégie est efficace visuellement et se compare favorablement aux autres méthodes de détection et segmentation de zones urbaines à partir d’images hyperspectrales.

Features of neighbourhood environments associated with obesity and related health behaviours in children: using multiple statistical approaches to identify obesogenic environments

Contexte: L'obésité chez les jeunes représente aujourd’hui un problème de santé publique à l’échelle mondiale. Afin d’identifier des cibles potentielles pour des stratégies populationnelles de prévention, les liens entre les caractéristiques du voisinage, l’obésité chez les jeunes et les habitudes de vie font de plus en plus l’objet d’études. Cependant, la recherche à ce jour comporte plusieurs incohérences. But: L’objectif général de cette thèse est d’étudier la contribution de différentes caractéristiques du voisinage relativement à l’obésité chez les jeunes et les habitudes de vie qui y sont associées. Les objectifs spécifiques consistent à: 1) Examiner les associations entre la présence de différents commerces d’alimentation dans les voisinages résidentiels et scolaires des enfants et leurs habitudes alimentaires; 2) Examiner comment l’exposition à certaines caractéristiques du voisinage résidentiel détermine l’obésité au niveau familial (chez le jeune, la mère et le père), ainsi que l’obésité individuelle pour chaque membre de la famille; 3) Identifier des combinaisons de facteurs de risque individuels, familiaux et du voisinage résidentiel qui prédisent le mieux l’obésité chez les jeunes, et déterminer si ces profils de facteurs de risque prédisent aussi un changement dans l’obésité après un suivi de deux ans. Méthodes: Les données proviennent de l’étude QUALITY, une cohorte québécoise de 630 jeunes, âgés de 8-10 ans au temps 1, avec une histoire d’obésité parentale. Les voisinages de 512 participants habitant la Région métropolitaine de Montréal ont été caractérisés à l’aide de : 1) données spatiales provenant du recensement et de bases de données administratives, calculées pour des zones tampons à partir du réseau routier et centrées sur le lieu de la résidence et de l’école; et 2) des observations menées par des évaluateurs dans le voisinage résidentiel. Les mesures du voisinage étudiées se rapportent aux caractéristiques de l’environnement bâti, social et alimentaire. L’obésité a été estimée aux temps 1 et 2 à l’aide de l’indice de masse corporelle (IMC) calculé à partir du poids et de la taille mesurés. Les habitudes alimentaires ont été mesurées au temps 1 à l'aide de trois rappels alimentaires. Les analyses effectuées comprennent, entres autres, des équations d'estimation généralisées, des régressions multiniveaux et des analyses prédictives basées sur des arbres de décision. Résultats: Les résultats démontrent la présence d’associations avec l’obésité chez les jeunes et les habitudes alimentaires pour certaines caractéristiques du voisinage. En particulier, la présence de dépanneurs et de restaurants-minutes dans le voisinage résidentiel et scolaire est associée avec de moins bonnes habitudes alimentaires. La présence accrue de trafic routier, ainsi qu’un faible niveau de prestige et d’urbanisation dans le voisinage résidentiel sont associés à l’obésité familiale. Enfin, les résultats montrent qu’habiter un voisinage obésogène, caractérisé par une défavorisation socioéconomique, la présence de moins de parcs et de plus de dépanneurs, prédit l'obésité chez les jeunes lorsque combiné à la présence de facteurs de risque individuels et familiaux. Conclusion: Cette thèse contribue aux écrits sur les voisinages et l’obésité chez les jeunes en considérant à la fois l'influence potentielle du voisinage résidentiel et scolaire ainsi que l’influence de l’environnement familial, en utilisant des méthodes objectives pour caractériser le voisinage et en utilisant des méthodes statistiques novatrices. Les résultats appuient en outre la notion que les efforts de prévention de l'obésité doivent cibler les multiples facteurs de risque de l'obésité chez les jeunes dans les environnements bâtis, sociaux et familiaux de ces jeunes.

Salient Features of the North Indian Ocean Associated with the Indian summer Monsoon

This study deals with the salient features of the north Indian ocean associated with the summer monsoon. The focus is given on the Arabian sea mini warm pool, which is a part of the Indian ocean. It primarily study the certain aspects of the atmosphere and ocean variability in the north Indian ocean. The attempt were made to understand various aspects of time –scale variability of major features occurring in the Indian summer monsoon. The result from the thesis can be utilized as an input for model studies for prediction of monsoon, understanding ocean dynamics, radar tracking and ranging etc.

Salient Features of the North Indian Ocean Associated with the Indian summer Monsoon

This study deals with the salient features of the north Indian ocean associated with the summer monsoon. The focus is given on the Arabian sea mini warm pool, which is a part of the Indian ocean. It primarily study the certain aspects of the atmosphere and ocean variability in the north Indian ocean. The attempt were made to understand various aspects of time –scale variability of major features occurring in the Indian summer monsoon. The result from the thesis can be utilized as an input for model studies for prediction of monsoon, understanding ocean dynamics, radar tracking and ranging etc.