Search results for " selection"
showing 10 items of 1271 documents
Pilot Study on Predictive Value of Plasmatic Levels of 9 Angiogenetic Biomarkers in Selection of Patients Candidate to Prostate Biopsy
2013
To reduce the number of negative prostate biopsies in patients with elevated PSA serum levels represents a major challenge in urological oncology. Angiogenetic factors might be involved in initial stages of prostate cancer and might represent useful tools in patients’ selection for prostate biopsy. The plasmatic levels of Angiopoietin-2, Follistatin, G-CSF, HGF, IL-8, Leptin, PDGF-BB, PECAM-1 and VEGF were measured by BioPlex immunoassay in patients undergoing prostate biopsy for palpable prostate nodule and/or elevated PSA levels (≥4 ng/mL). They were related with biopsy results. ROC curve analysis was exploited to test the diagnostic accuracy of each biomarker by AUC calculation. A poten…
Short-term occupations at high elevation during the Middle Paleolithic at Kalavan 2 (Republic of Armenia).
2021
The Armenian highlands encompasses rugged and environmentally diverse landscapes and is characterized by a mosaic of distinct ecological niches and large temperature gradients. Strong seasonal fluctuations in resource availability along topographic gradients likely prompted Pleistocene hominin groups to adapt by adjusting their mobility strategies. However, the role that elevated landscapes played in hunter-gatherer settlement systems during the Late Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic [MP]) remains poorly understood. At 1640 m above sea level, the MP site of Kalavan 2 (Armenia) is ideally positioned for testing hypotheses involving elevation-dependent seasonal mobility and subsistence strateg…
Bene : Adverb or noun?
2013
International audience; When Italian bene ‘good / well’ occurs with fare ‘do / make’, several constructs with remarkably different argument frames are involved. This paper deals with three of them: (a) Il latte fa bene ai bambini ‘Milk is good for children’; (b) Fa bene il suo lavoro ‘She does her job well’, and (c) Faresti bene a non dire niente ‘You would do well to say nothing about it’. We discuss dictionary discrepancies concerning the lexical category of 'bene' in (a), which we take to be a noun predicate, and draw a distinction between the adverbial uses in (b) and (c).
Hypoxia and hypothermia as rival agents of selection driving the evolution of viviparity in lizards
2017
[Aim]: The evolution of key innovations promotes adaptive radiations by opening access to new ecological opportunity. The acquisition of viviparity (live-bearing reproduction) has emerged as one such innovation explaining reptile proliferations into extreme climates. By evolving viviparity, females provide embryos with internally stable environments to complete development. The classical hypothesis suggests that natural selection for viviparity arises from low temperatures in cold climates, which promote prolonged egg retention in the mother's body. An alternative hypothesis proposes that declines in atmospheric oxygen at high elevations create natural selection for embryo retention to prov…
Species-specific genes under selection characterize the co-evolution of slavemaker and host lifestyles.
2017
Background The transition to a parasitic lifestyle entails comprehensive changes to the selective regime. In parasites, genes encoding for traits that facilitate host detection, exploitation and transmission should be under selection. Slavemaking ants are social parasites that exploit the altruistic behaviour of their hosts by stealing heterospecific host brood during raids, which afterwards serve as slaves in slavemaker nests. Here we search for evidence of selection in the transcriptomes of three slavemaker species and three closely related hosts. We expected selection on genes underlying recognition and raiding or defense behaviour. Analyses of selective forces in species with a slavemak…
Five Ways in Which Computational Modeling Can Help Advance Cognitive Science
2019
Abstract There is a rich tradition of building computational models in cognitive science, but modeling, theoretical, and experimental research are not as tightly integrated as they could be. In this paper, we show that computational techniques—even simple ones that are straightforward to use—can greatly facilitate designing, implementing, and analyzing experiments, and generally help lift research to a new level. We focus on the domain of artificial grammar learning, and we give five concrete examples in this domain for (a) formalizing and clarifying theories, (b) generating stimuli, (c) visualization, (d) model selection, and (e) exploring the hypothesis space.
Immune-mediated change in the expression of a sexual trait predicts offspring survival in the wild.
2011
9 pages; International audience; BACKGROUND: The "good genes" theory of sexual selection postulates that females choose mates that will improve their offspring's fitness through the inheritance of paternal genes. In spite of the attention that this hypothesis has given rise to, the empirical evidence remains sparse, mostly because of the difficulties of controlling for the many environmental factors that may covary with both the paternal phenotype and offspring fitness. Here, we tested the hypothesis that offspring sired by males of a preferred phenotype should have better survival in an endangered bird, the houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata undulata). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We…
Serum ferritin is a discriminant marker for both fibrosis and inflammation in histologically proven non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients
2011
INTRODUCTION: Differentiation between steatosis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is important as NASH progress to cirrhosis. No specific laboratory/imaging technique exists either to diagnose NASH or to select patients for liver biopsy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We evaluated serum ferritin and the features of metabolic syndrome with respect to histological inflammation and/or fibrosis in NAFLD patients. The Kleiner scoring system was used to classify NAFLD in consecutive liver biopsies. One hundred and eleven patients: median age 52.6, 64 males, obesity 62, diabetes mellitus (DM) 58, arterial hypertension 26 and hyperlipidaemia 40%. RESULTS: …
Fibrogenesis assessed by serological type III collagen formation identifies patients with progressive liver fibrosis and responders to a potential an…
2016
There are no approved treatments for liver fibrosis. To aid development of antifibrotic therapies, noninvasive biomarkers that can identify patients with progressive fibrosis and that permit monitoring of the response to antifibrotic therapy are much needed. Samples from a phase II antifibrotic trial of the glitazone farglitazar in patients with advanced hepatitis C, with matched follow-up liver biopsies, and from a phase III study of balaglitazone in patients with late-stage Type 2 diabetes (BALLET study) were analyzed for serological Pro-C3 levels in conjunction with other disease parameters. In the farglitazar study, a predefined cutoff value for Pro-C3 as a selection criterion led to t…
Should cirrhosis change our attitude towards treating non-hepatic cancer?
2011
Cirrhosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and is the end stage of any chronic liver disease. Cancer, a leading cause of death worldwide, is a growing global health issue. There are limited data in the literature on the incidence, prevalence and management of non-hepatic cancers (NHC) in cirrhotic patients. The aim of this brief review was to underline the main concerns, pitfalls and warnings regarding practice for these patients. Survival of patients with compensated cirrhosis is significantly longer than that of decompensated cirrhosis and patients with NHC and in Child-Pugh class C should not be candidates for cytotoxic chemotherapy. It is important before starting cytotoxic c…