Cancer is in general not a result of an abnormality of a single gene but a consequence of changes in many genes, it is therefore of great importance to understand the roles of different oncogenic and tumor suppressor pathways in tumorigenesis. In recent years, there have been many computational models developed to study the genetic alterations of different pathways in the evolutionary process of cancer. However, most of the methods are knowledge-based enrichment analyses and inflexible to analyze user-defined pathways or gene sets. In this paper, we develop a nonparametric and data-driven approach to testing for the dynamic changes of pathways over the cancer progression. Our method is based on an expansion and refinement of the pathway being studied, followed by a graph-based multivariate test, which is very easy to implement in practice. The new test is applied to the rich Cancer Genome Atlas data to study the (epi)genetic alterations of 186 KEGG pathways in the development of serous ovarian cancer. To make use of the comprehensive data, we incorporate three data types in the analysis representing gene expression level, copy number and DNA methylation level. Our analysis suggests a list of nine pathways that are closely associated with serous ovarian cancer progression, including cell cycle, ERBB, JAK-STAT signaling and p53 signaling pathways. By pairwise tests, we found that most of the identified pathways contribute only to a particular transition step. For instance, the cell cycle and ERBB pathways play key roles in the early-stage transition, while the ECM receptor and apoptosis pathways contribute to the progression from stage III to stage IV. The proposed computational pipeline is powerful in detecting important pathways and gene sets that drive cancers at certain stage(s). It offers new insights into the understanding of molecular mechanism of cancer initiation and progression. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
This paper reports on the experimental study, which conducted a series of triaxial tests for the asphalt concrete using hydrated lime as a mineral additive. Three HMA mixes, prepared by the specification for wearing, levelling and base layers, were studied under three different temperatures. The test results have demonstrated that, compared with the control mixes excluding HL, the permanent deformation resistance of the HL modified mixes has significant improvement. The deformation has been reduced at the same load repetition number, meanwhile the flow number has been considerably increased. The degree of improvement in permanent deformation resistance using HL is more pronounced at high stress deviation states and high temperature.
... Show MoreTillage tools are subject to friction and low-stress abrasive wear processes with the potential deterioration of the desired soil quality, loss of mechanical weed efficacy, and downtime for replacing worn tools. Limited experimental methods exist to quantify investigate the effect of wear-resistant coatings on shape parameters of soil-engaging tools. ASTM standard sand/rubber wheel abrasion and pin-on-disk tests are not able to simulate wear characteristics of the complex shape of the tillage tools. Even though the tribology of tillage tools can be realistic from field tests, tillage wear tests under field conditions are expensive and often challenging to generate repeatable engineeri
Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of in vitro long-term simulation of oral conditions on the bond strength of PEEK CAD/CAM lingual retainers.
Material and methods: The sample consisted of 12 PEEK CAD/CAM retainers each composed of 2 centrally perforated 3x4mm pads joined by a connector. They were treated by 98% sulfuric acid for 1 minute and then conditioned with Single Bond Universal and bonded to the lingual surface of premolar teeth by 3M Transbond TM System. Half of the retainers were artificially aged using a 30-day water storage and 5000 thermocycling protocol before bond strength testing to compare with the non-aged specimens.
Results: The artificially aged retainers showed a marginally
... Show MoreBreast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent tract cancer in the world, including Iraq. The classified breast tumors to benign, malignant, and radiotherapy. Cancer treatment depends on certain stages such as mastectomy then chemotherapy alone or with radiation therapy or endocrine therapy according to the prognostic features obtained from the pathology report. The present study included 100 females. The women were split into two groups, control group that consisted of 50 apparently healthy females and 50 patients with BC group who undergo the radiotherapy. The current study highlighted on some of the anthropometric measurements, including the oxidative stress index malondialdehyde (MDA), the concentrations of total antioxidant capacity (TAC), s
... Show MoreBreast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent tract cancer in the world, including Iraq. The classified breast tumors to benign, malignant, and radiotherapy. Cancer treatment depends on certain stages such as mastectomy then chemotherapy alone or with radiation therapy or endocrine therapy according to the prognostic features obtained from the pathology report. The present study included 100 females. The women were split into two groups, control group that consisted of 50 apparently healthy females and 50 patients with BC group who undergo the radiotherapy. The current study highlighted on some of the anthropometric measurements, including the oxidative stress index malondialdehyde (MDA), the concentrations of total antioxidant capacity (TAC), s
... Show MoreBackground: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Iraq and the United Kingdom. While the disease is frequently diagnosed among middleaged Iraqi women at advanced stages accounting for the second cause of cancer-related deaths, breast cancer often affects elderly British women yielding the highest survival of all registered malignancies in the UK. Objective: To compare the clinical and pathological profiles of breast cancer among Iraqi and British women; correlating age at diagnosis with the tumor characteristics, receptor-defined biomarkers and phenotype patterns. Methods: This comparative retrospective study included the clinical and pathological characteristics of (1,940) consecutive female patients who were diagnosed with invasive b
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The research stems from the problem that focuses on a number of questions. They are as follows: What is the extent of interest in the topic of efficiency by the banks and their role in raising the efficiency of the banking business and its development? Is the banking efficiency used in Iraqi banks clear and specific for the Iraqi banking sector? How the banking sector efficiency is measured and what are the approaches adopted in determining the banking inputs and outputs? What is the level of efficiency in the research sample of the banks and what are the causes of its decline or rise in private banks individually and in the Iraqi banking sector in general?
The re
... Show MoreThe main purpose of this research aims to measure the role of banking strategies marketing in achieving competitive advantage within a sample of Iraqi private banks, and in order to achieve this purpose, the researcher depend on number of sober research approaches which consisted of descriptive, analytical and practical methodologies, to strengthen concepts addressed by the research, size of the sample was (56) individuals which makes up the senior leadership represented (Chairman and members of the Board of Directors, Commissioners and their assistants and department heads) while the primary tool for research (questionnaire), which has been designed based on a number of solemn scientific metrics, after adapted these metrics commen
... Show MoreThe research aims to shed light on the ethics of information systems and their role in achieving banking excellence for a sample of private banks in the province of Baghdad. It is important to focus on studying the ethics of banking information systems, which has become one of the most important basic and strategic resources that banks rely on to achieve outstanding performance. Achieving banking leadership in the Iraqi banking market. The researchers adopted the descriptive analytical approach to the research, and the questionnaire was considered as a main tool for collecting information in addition to personal interviews. The research reached the most important results that there is an acceptable correlation relationship between the ethic
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