Predictive Web prefetching refers to the mechanism of deducing the forthcoming page accesses of a client based on its past accesses. In this paper, we present a new context for the interpretation of ...Web prefetching algorithms as Markov predictors. We identify the factors that affect the performance of Web prefetching algorithms. We propose a new algorithm called WM,,, which is based on data mining and is proven to be a generalization of existing ones. It was designed to address their specific limitations and its characteristics include all the above factors. It compares favorably with previously proposed algorithms. Further, the algorithm efficiently addresses the increased number of candidates. We present a detailed performance evaluation of WM, with synthetic and real data. The experimental results show that WM/sub o/ can provide significant improvements over previously proposed Web prefetching algorithms.
Clinical and pathological parameters of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) do not thoroughly predict patients' outcome. Despite the good outcome of stage I EOC compared with that of stages ...III and IV, the risk assessment and treatments are almost the same. However, only 20% of stage I EOC cases relapse and die, meaning that only a proportion of patients need intensive treatment and closer follow-up. Thus, the identification of cell mechanisms that could improve outcome prediction and rationalize therapeutic options is an urgent need in the clinical practice.
We have gathered together 203 patients with stage I EOC diagnosis, from whom snap-frozen tumor biopsies were available at the time of primary surgery before any treatment. Patients, with a median follow-up of 7 years, were stratified into a training set and a validation set.
Integrated analysis of miRNA and gene expression profiles allowed to identify a prognostic cell pathway, composed of 16 miRNAs and 10 genes, wiring the cell cycle, ‘Activins/Inhibins’ and ‘Hedgehog’ signaling pathways. Once validated by an independent technique, all the elements of the circuit resulted associated with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), in both univariate and multivariate models. For each patient, the circuit expressions have been translated into an activation state index (integrated signature classifier, ISC), used to stratify patients into classes of risk. This prediction reaches the 89.7% of sensitivity and 96.6% of specificity for the detection of PFS events. The prognostic value was then confirmed in the external independent validation set in which the PFS events are predicted with 75% sensitivity and 94.7% specificity. Moreover, the ISC shows higher classification performance than conventional clinical classifiers. Thus, the identified circuit enhances the understanding of the molecular mechanisms lagging behind stage I EOC and the ISC improves our capabilities to assess, at the time of diagnosis, the patient risk of relapse.
While recent building code advancements have reduced structural failures in residential buildings during hurricane events, water intrusion through the building envelope is a recurring problem. Water ...ingress poses a significant threat to the building interior and its contents. The interface between the window and the wall system has been identified as a significant source of this water ingress. The fenestration industry has made extensive efforts to develop installation methods to improve water tightness; however, the body of research needed to guide window installations in high-humidity, hurricane-prone areas is sparse. The goal of this research is to investigate the water penetration resistance of selected window installation options consistent with current construction practice of single-family homes when exposed to wind-driven rain.
Static, cyclic, as well as amplitude- and frequency-modulated sinusoidal pressure load sequences were applied with simulated wind-driven rain scenarios to 18 finished wall assemblies with integrated windows. The specimens varied in their unique combination of fenestration, installation methodology, wall structural system, and exterior finish. General conclusions were drawn regarding the effectiveness of the window installation methods to manage water intrusion, as well as the effects that the components of the surrounding wall system have on their performance. The performance of the various sealants used to create the interior moisture/air seal in drainage method window installations is also investigated. It was found that the water barrier and drainage installation methods can provide sufficient water penetration resistance in wood frame construction, while the water barrier method is preferable for windows integrated into masonry walls.
Effectively exploiting available communication bandwidth and client resources is vital in wireless mobile environments. One technique for doing so is client-side data caching, which helps reduce ...latency and conserve network resources. The SliCache generic self-tunable cache-replacement policy addresses these issues by using intelligent slicing of the cache space and novel methods for selecting which objects to purge. Performance evaluations show that SliCache improves mobile clients' access to Web objects compared to other common policies.
The human tissue kallikrein family (KLK for protein; KLK for gene) includes 15 members. Twelve kallikreins, including KLK6, are concurrently upregulated in ovarian cancer. However, the mechanism of ...this phenomenon remains unclear. In this study, we measured KLK6 expression in a large series of ovarian tissue cytosols and examined possible mechanisms of KLK6 up-regulation in ovarian cancer. Using a newly developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with two monoclonal antibodies, we quantified KLK6 expression in ovarian tissue cytosols, and confirmed the upregulation of KLK6 in ovarian cancer and its unfavourable prognostic value. We then examined KLK6 mRNA expression using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and established its good concordance with KLK6 protein expression. This finding suggested that the KLK6 gene is under transcriptional regulation. We then scrutinised a few mechanisms that could explain KLK6 upregulation. The relative abundance of two KLK6 mRNA transcripts was studied; we found the same differential expression pattern in all samples, regardless of KLK6 levels. Genomic mutation screening of all exons and the 5'-flanking region of the KLK6 gene identified two linked single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the 5'-untranslated region, but neither correlated with KLK6 expression. Ovarian cell lines were separately treated with five steroid hormones. None of the treatments produced significant effects on KLK6 expression. We conclude that KLK6 is transcriptionally upregulated in ovarian cancer, but probably not through alternative mRNA transcript expression, genomic mutation, or steroid hormone induction.
Although overall operative volume has remained stable since the implementation of duty hours, more detailed analyses suggest shifts in the resident operative experience. Understanding these ...differences allows educators to better appreciate the impact of the current training environment on resident preparation for practice.
National Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education case logs from 1990 to 2016 were reviewed. Statistical analysis was performed using analysis of variance and linear regression analysis.
Over the study period there was no change in total major cases. Subcategory analysis revealed an increase in skin and soft tissue, alimentary tract, abdomen, and endocrine with a concurrent decrease in breast, pediatrics, and trauma. During this time, residents completed fewer cases during their chief year, operated more during non-chief years, taught fewer operations, and assisted in minimal cases. Finally, a decrease in the variability of overall operative volume for total major cases was found as a result of 90th and 10th percentiles converging toward the median.
Although total major cases logged by residents have remained stable, the operative experience of general surgery residents has narrowed significantly. Residents are operating earlier and performing fewer teaching and first assistant cases. Surgical educators must look beyond total case numbers and be aware of these changes to ensure all residents achieve technical competency on graduation.
Members of the glutathione
S-transferase (GST) family have been shown to have functional polymorphisms that may affect drug metabolism and influence the effects of chemotherapy and survival from ...cancer. GSTM1, GSTT1, and GSTP1 genotypes were evaluated for their role in ovarian cancer treatment and survival.
DNA was extracted from tumor tissues of 215 patients diagnosed with primary epithelial ovarian cancer. GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes were determined by multiplex PCR; GSTP1 genotypes were assessed with PCR-RFLP. Associations between GST polymorphisms and risk of ovarian cancer progression or death were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards regression; subgroups of patients receiving different chemotherapeutics were also evaluated.
GST polymorphisms were not found to be associated with patient or tumor characteristics or response to treatment. However, GSTM1 null patients were less likely to have disease progression (HR: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.43–0.99) or to die (HR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.45–1.03) compared to patients with GSTM1. Patients with GSTM1 null and GSTP1 ile/val or val/val (reduced function) had a further reduction in risk of disease progression compared to patients with GSTM1 or GSTP1 ile/ile (HR: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.24–0.75). A similar association was also suggested for overall survival (HR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.36–1.05). Subgroup analyses indicated that the effects of GST on survival were more pronounced among patients treated with specific chemotherapeutics.
These findings support the idea that reduced GST function may improve ovarian cancer survival after post-operative chemotherapy; evaluation of GST functional polymorphisms may help to predict ovarian cancer prognosis.
The production of cheap CMOS cameras, which are able to capture rich multimedia content, combined with the creation of low-power circuits, gave birth to what is called
Wireless Multimedia Sensor ...Networks (WMSNs). WMSNs introduce several new research challenges, mainly related to mechanisms to deliver application-level Quality-of-Service (e.g., latency minimization). Such issues have almost completely been ignored in traditional WSNs, where the research focused on energy consumption minimization. Towards achieving this goal, the technique of cooperative caching multimedia content in sensor nodes can efficiently address the resource constraints, the variable channel capacity and the in-network processing challenges associated with WMSNs. The technological advances in gigabyte-storage flash memories make sensor caching to be the ideal solution for latency minimization. Though, with caching comes the issue of maintaining the freshness of cached contents. This article proposes a new cache consistency and replacement policy, called
NICC, to address the cache consistency issues in a WMSN. The proposed policies recognize and exploit the mediator nodes that relay on the most “central” points in the sensor network so that they can forward messages with small latency. With the utilization of mediator nodes that lie between the source node and cache nodes, both push-based and pull-based strategies can be applied in order to minimize the query latency and the communication overhead. Simulation results attest that
NICC outperforms the state-of-the-art cache consistency policy for MANETs.
Transforming growth factor- beta (TGF- beta )-mediated signals play complicated roles in the development and progression of breast tumour. The purposes of this study were to analyse the genotype of ...TGF- beta I at T29C and TGF- beta I phenotype in breast tumours, and to evaluate their associations with IGFs and clinical characteristics of breast cancer. Fresh tumour samples were collected from 348 breast cancer patients. TGF- beta I genotype and phenotype were analysed with TaqMan registered and ELISA, respectively. Members of the IGF family in tumour tissue were measured with ELISA. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to assess the association of TGF- beta I and disease outcomes. Patients with the T/T (29%) genotype at T29C had the highest TGF- beta 1,707.9 pg mg super(-1), followed by the T/C (49%), 657.8 pgmg super(-1), and C/C (22%) genotypes, 640.8 pgmg super(-1), (P = 0.210, T/T vs C/C and C/T). TGF- beta 1 concentrations were positively correlated with levels of oestrogen receptor, IGF-I, IGF-II and IGFBP-3. Survival analysis showed TGF- beta I associated with disease progression, but the association differed by disease stage. For early-stage disease, patients with the T/T genotype or high TGF- beta I had shorter overall survival compared to those without T/T or with low TGF- beta I; the hazard ratios (HR) were 3.54 (95% CI: 1.21 - 10.40) for genotype and 2.54 (95% CI: 1.10-5.89) for phenotype after adjusting for age, grade, histotype and receptor status. For late-stage disease, however, the association was different The TAT genotype was associated with lower risk of disease recurrence (HR = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.02-1.00), whereas no association was found between TGF-/ beta I phenotype and survival outcomes. The study suggests a complex role of TGF- beta I in breast cancer progression, which supports the finding of in vitro studies that TGF- beta I has conflicting effects on tumour growth and metastasis.
To assess renal transplant outcomes after donation by kidney-only (KO) versus multiple-organ (MO) donors on a national scale. The United Network for Organ Sharing database was examined for patients ...undergoing isolated kidney transplant from a deceased donor from 2000 through 2016. Comparison was made between recipients of grafts from KO versus MO donors at baseline and in a cohort of KO and MO recipients matched via propensity scoring. Outcomes of interest included delayed graft function (DGF), patient survival, and the cumulative incidence of graft loss. There were 33,326 recipients in the KO cohort versus 144,690 in the MO cohort. Donation after cardiac death donors were more prevalent in the KO group (43.8% vs 5.3%; P < 0.001). DGF occurred in 36.1 per cent of the KO versus 22.7 per cent of the MO recipients (P < 0.001). Five-year survival was 79.5 per cent versus 83.4 per cent (P < 0.001) in the KO versus MO group. After propensity matching, DGF was still more common in the KO group (33.1% vs 30.1%; P < 0.001). Patient survival was similar (79.5% KO vs 80.1% MO; P = 0.117). Cumulative incidence of graft loss was higher in the KO group (17.8% vs 16.8%). Survival outcomes from KO donors are actually quite good and should not be considered as inferior to MO donors.
PDF
