Identifying Feasible Design Concepts for Products with Competing Performance Requirements by Metamodeling of Loss-Scaled Principal Components.

Engineering design often involves the determination of design variable settings to optimize competing performance requirements. In the early design stages we propose narrowing down the domain of design solutions using metamodels of principal components of the multiple performance levels that have been scaled by a multivariate quadratic loss function. The multivariate quadratic loss function is often used as the objective function in reaching optimal solutions because it utilizes the correlation structure of the design's performance metrics and penalizes off-target performance in a symmetrical manner.

Thirty new loci for age at menarche identified by a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies.

To identify loci for age at menarche, we performed a meta-analysis of 32 genome-wide association studies in 87,802 women of European descent, with replication in up to 14,731 women. In addition to the known loci at LIN28B (P = 5.4 × 10⁻⁶⁰) and 9q31.

Extensive role of the general regulatory factors, Abf1 and Rap1, in determining genome-wide chromatin structure in budding yeast.

The packaging of eukaryotic DNA into chromatin has profound consequences for gene regulation, as well as for other DNA transactions such as recombination, replication and repair. Understanding how this packaging is determined is consequently a pressing problem in molecular genetics. DNA sequence, chromatin remodelers and transcription factors affect chromatin structure, but the scope of these influences on genome-wide nucleosome occupancy patterns remains uncertain.

Mechanisms by which interleukin-6 regulates prostate-specific antigen gene expression in prostate LNCaP carcinoma cells.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is involved in regulation of cell growth and survival of prostate carcinoma cells. Previous studies suggest that IL-6 promotes prostate cancer progression through the induction of an androgen-independent response. In this study, we evaluated the mechanisms by which IL-6 regulates the gene expression of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in human prostate LNCaP carcinoma cells.

Comparison of the Global Initiative for Asthma guideline-based Asthma Control Measure and the Childhood Asthma Control Test in evaluating asthma control in children.

Background: Reliable assessment of asthma control is essential for effective treatment. While several validated tools for assessing asthma control in children are currently available, few studies have evaluated the correlations between different asthma control measures in children. This study aimed to determine the correlations between the Childhood Asthma Control Test (C-ACT) and the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guideline-based asthma control measure (ACM) with lung function parameters in children with asthma.

Efficacy and safety of the doxazosin gastrointestinal therapeutic system for the treatment of benign prostate hyperplasia.

This study was carried out to obtain information on the efficacy and safety of the controlled release formulation of the doxazosin Gastrointestinal Therapeutic System (GITS) in Taiwanese subjects with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Studies of doxazosin in Asian populations for this indication have lacked data particularly from Taiwan. This was an 8-week, post-marketing, open-label, non-comparative study.

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST elevation myocardial infarction: performance with focus on timeliness of treatment.

Objective: To review primary percutaneous coronary interventions performed for patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction with a focus on door-to-treatment time, especially after introduction of a new management programme in November 2003.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: Regional hospital, Hong Kong.

Cardiac glycosides decrease prostate specific antigen expression by down-regulation of prostate derived Ets factor.

Purpose: While cardiac glycosides are the mainstay of congestive heart failure treatment, early studies showed that pharmacological doses of cardiac glycosides inhibited prostate cancer cell line proliferation. We evaluated the mechanisms of cardiac glycosides, including digoxin, digitoxin and ouabain (Sigma®), on prostate specific antigen gene expression in vitro.

Materials And Methods: We cultured LNCaP cells (ATCC®) and used them to determine the effect of cardiac glycosides on prostate derived Ets factor and prostate specific antigen expression.

Discovery of novel bladder cancer biomarkers by comparative urine proteomics using iTRAQ technology.

A urine sample preparation workflow for the iTRAQ (isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation) technique was established. The reproducibility of this platform was evaluated and applied to discover proteins with differential levels between pooled urine samples from nontumor controls and three bladder cancer patient subgroups with different grades/stages (a total of 14 controls and 23 cancer cases in two multiplex iTRAQ runs). Combining the results of two independent clinical sample sets, a total of 638 urine proteins were identified.

Bicycle crash casualties in a highly motorized city.

The characteristics of bicycle crashes in cities where bicycles are a minor transport mode have received little attention in road safety research. However, the characteristics of these injury-inflicting bicycle crashes are expected to be very different from those happening in cities where cycling is generally considered as one of the major transport modes. Specifically, this study has the following three objectives: (1) to conduct the first scientific spatial analysis of bicycle crashes in Hong Kong; (2) to analyze the circumstances leading to bicycle crashes; and (3) to conduct an epidemiological study on injury patterns of cyclist casualties.

Prevalence of drugged drivers among non-fatal driver casualties presenting to a trauma centre in Hong Kong.

Objective: To investigate the prevalence and characteristics of abusive drug exposure among non-fatal motor vehicle driver casualties presenting to a designated trauma centre in Hong Kong.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Designated trauma centre/regional accident and emergency department in Hong Kong.

p53 downregulates the gene expression of mitochondrial aconitase in human prostate carcinoma cells.

Background: Mitochondrial aconitase (mACON) is regarded as the key enzyme in citrate oxidation in human prostate epithelial cells, and its abnormal expression has been implicated in tumorigenesis of the prostate. Evidence also supports a broad role for the p53 gene in suppressing prostatic tumorigenesis. We investigated whether p53 regulates mACON expression and explore the potential mechanisms responsible for its effect on prostate cancer cells.

A cross-sectional survey of snake oral bacterial flora from Hong Kong, SAR, China.

Objective: To determine the pattern of oral bacterial flora and their sensitivity to antibiotics in freshly captured native snakes in Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China.

Methods: Healthy native snakes were captured and kept in a designated centre. Snake species were identified by experienced herpetologists.

First report of GLUT1 deficiency syndrome in Chinese patients with novel and hot spot mutations in SLC2A1 gene.

Glucose transporter type 1 deficiency syndrome (GLUT1DS) is increasingly recognized as a cause of various neurological disorders but a high index of suspicion is important to make the diagnosis. We report two Chinese patients with GLUT1DS, one of which had a novel mutation in the SLC2A1 gene.

A robust method for large-scale multiple hypotheses testing.

When drawing large-scale simultaneous inference, such as in genomics and imaging problems, multiplicity adjustments should be made, since, otherwise, one would be faced with an inflated type I error. Numerous methods are available to estimate the proportion of true null hypotheses pi(0), among a large number of hypotheses tested. Many methods implicitly assume that the pi(0) is large, that is, close to 1.

Atmospheric radon in Hong Kong.

For the first time in Hong Kong, atmospheric radon concentration was continuously monitored between November 2007 and October 2008. This paper presents the results obtained during the 12-month period. The annual mean atmospheric radon concentration in Hong Kong was found to be 9.

Protective effect of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) extracts on cultured human corneal limbal epithelial cells (HCLEC).

The use of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) as a food and medicine for improving human vision has a long history all over the world. However, there is lack of convincing evidence from rigorous clinical trials or scientific research.

Risk factors associated with transrectal ultrasound guided prostate needle biopsy in patients with prostate cancer.

Background: Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided prostate needle biopsy is a commonly used diagnostic procedure. We determined associated risk factors for patients who suffered major complications and required hospitalization after TRUS-guided prostate biopsy.

Methods: A total of 1,529 patients, 27 to 92 years old (mean 67.

Bikunin loss in urine as useful marker for bladder carcinoma.

Purpose: We searched for bladder tumor markers by analyzing urine samples from patients with bladder cancer and normal individuals.

Materials And Methods: Proteins in urine samples of patients with cancer and normal subjects were systematically examined by 2-dimensional electrophoresis combined with matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Of the proteins bikunin expression was confirmed by Western blot analysis and further evaluated.

Microelectromechanical system assembled ion optics: An advance to miniaturization and assembly of electron and ion optics.

Deep-reactive ion etching of n-doped silicon-on-insulator is utilized to make ion optical components to aid in the miniaturization of mass analyzers. The microelectromechanical system components are bound to aluminum nitride substrates and employed three-dimensional assembly. The assembly methods are tested for breakdown (V(b)), durability, and alignment.

Two-color cell array screen reveals interdependent roles for histone chaperones and a chromatin boundary regulator in histone gene repression.

We describe a fluorescent reporter system that exploits the functional genomic tools available in budding yeast to systematically assess consequences of genetic perturbations on gene expression. We used our Reporter-Synthetic Genetic Array (R-SGA) method to screen for regulators of core histone gene expression. We discovered that the histone chaperone Rtt106 functions in a pathway with two other chaperones, Asf1 and the HIR complex, to create a repressive chromatin structure at core histone promoters.

Potential clinical and economic outcomes of CYP2C9 and VKORC1 genotype-guided dosing in patients starting warfarin therapy.

The US Food and Drug Administration has updated the label information for warfarin to encourage the use of genetic information before initiating treatment with the drug. We used decision-tree modeling to simulate the outcomes of CYP2C9 and vitamin K epoxide reductase complex 1 (VKORC1) genotype-guided dosing in patients in whom warfarin therapy is to be initiated. The inputs for the model were derived from the literature.