Role of HMOX1 Promoter Genetic Variants in Chemoresistance and Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia in Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Whilst the survival rates of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have increased remarkably over the last decades, the therapy resistance and toxicity are still the major causes of treatment failure. It was shown that overexpression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) promotes proliferation and chemoresistance of cancer cells. In humans, the HO-1 gene (HMOX1) expression is modulated by two polymorphisms in the promoter region: (GT)n-length polymorphism and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) A(−413)T, with short GT repeat sequences and 413-A variants linked to an increased HO-1 inducibility. We found that the short alleles are significantly more frequent in ALL patients in comparison to the control group, and that their presence may be associated with a higher risk of treatment failure, reflecting the role of HO-1 in chemoresistance. We also observed that the presence of short alleles may predispose to develop chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. In case of SNP, the 413-T variant co-segregated with short or long alleles, while 413-A almost selectively co-segregated with long alleles, hence it is not possible to determine if SNPs are actually of phenotypic significance. Our results suggest that HO-1 can be a potential target to overcome the treatment failure in ALL patients.     

Technical foundations for noninvasive assessment of changes in the width of the subarachnoid space with near-infrared transillumination-backscattering sounding (NIR-TBSS)

This paper presents technical foundations for a new technique of near-infrared transillumination-backscattering sounding, which is designed to enable noninvasive detection and monitoring of changes in the width of the subarachnoid space (SAS) and magnitude of cerebrovascular pulsation in humans. The key novelty of the technique is elimination of influence of blood flow in the scalp on the signals received from two infrared sensors-proximal and distal. A dedicated digital algorithm is used to estimate on line the ratio of the powers of received signals, referred to as two-sensor distal-to-proximal received power quotient, TQ (t). The propagation duct for NIR radiation reaching the distal sensor is the SAS filled with translucent cerebrospinal fluid. Information on slow fluctuations of the average width of the SAS is contained in the slow-variable part of the TQ (t), called the subcardiac component, and in TQ itself. Variations in frequency and magnitude of faster oscillations of the width of that space around the baseline value, dependent on cerebrovascular pulsation, are reflected in instantaneous frequency and envelope of the fast-variable component. Frequency and magnitude of the cerebrovascular pulsation depend on the action of the heart, so this fast-variable component is referred to as the cardiac component.     

Rough-fuzzy collaborative clustering.

In this study, we introduce a novel clustering architecture, in which several subsets of patterns can be processed together with an objective of finding a common structure. The structure revealed at the global level is determined by exchanging prototypes of the subsets of data and by moving prototypes of the corresponding clusters toward each other. Thereby, the required communication links are established at the level of cluster prototypes and partition matrices, without hampering the security concerns. A detailed clustering algorithm is developed by integrating the advantages of both fuzzy sets and rough sets, and a measure of quantitative analysis of the experimental results is provided for synthetic and real-world data.     

Face recognition using a fuzzy fisherface classifier

In this study, we are concerned with face recognition using fuzzy fisherface approach and its fuzzy set based augmentation. The well-known fisherface method is relatively insensitive to substantial variations in light direction, face pose, and facial expression. This is accomplished by using both principal component analysis and Fisher's linear discriminant analysis. What makes most of the methods of face recognition (including the fisherface approach) similar is an assumption about the same level of typicality (relevance) of each face to the corresponding class (category). We propose to incorporate a gradual level of assignment to class being regarded as a membership grade with anticipation that such discrimination helps improve classification results. More specifically, when operating on feature vectors resulting from the PCA transformation we complete a Fuzzy K-nearest neighbor class assignment that produces the corresponding degrees of class membership. The comprehensive experiments completed on ORL, Yale, and CNU (Chungbuk National University) face databases show improved classification rates and reduced sensitivity to variations between face images caused by changes in illumination and viewing directions. The performance is compared vis-à-vis other commonly used methods, such as eigenface and fisherface.     

PEM: The small company-dedicated software process quality evaluation method combining CMMISM and ISO/IEC 14598

Many small software organizations have recognized the need to improve their software product. Evaluating the software product alone seems insufficient since it is known that its quality is largely dependant on the process that is used to create it. Thus, small organizations are asking for evaluation of their software processes and products. The ISO/IEC 14598-5 standard is already used as a methodology basis for evaluating software products. This article explores how it can be combined with the CMMI to produce a methodology that can be tailored for process evaluation in order to improve their software processes. ^SM: CMMI is a service mark of Carnegie-Mellon University. Sylvie Trudel has over 20 years of experience in software. She worked for more than 10 years in development and implementation of management information systems and embedded real-time systems. Since 1996, she works as a process improvement specialist, implementing best practices into organizations processes from CMM and CMMI models. She performed several CMM and CMMI assessments and participated in many other CMM assessments such as CBA IPI, SCE, and other proprietary methods. She obtained a bachelors degree in computer science in 1986 from Laval University in Québec City and a Masters degree in Software Engineering at école de Technologie Supérieure (éTS) in Montréal. Sylvie is currently working as a software engineering advisor at the Centre de Recherche Informatique de Montréal (CRIM). Jean-Marc Lavoie has been working in software development for over 10 years. He performed and published a comparative study between the guide to the SWEBOK and the CMMI in 2003. Jean-Marc obtained a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering. He is pursuing a Masters degree in Software Engineering at école de Technologie Supérieure (éTS) in Montréal while working as a software architect at Trisotech. Marie-Claude Pare has been working in software development for 7 years. Marie-Claude obtained a bachelor degree in Software Engineering from école Polytechnique in Montréal. She is pursuing a Masters degree in Software Engineering at école de Technologie Supérieure (éTS) in Montréal while working as a software engineer at Motorola GSG Canada. Dr Witold Suryn is a Professor at the école de technologie supérieure, Montreal, Canada (engineering school of the Université du Québec network of institutions) where he teaches graduate and undergraduate software engineering courses and conducts research in the domain of software quality engineering, software engineering body of knowledge and software engineering fundamental principles. Dr Suryn is also the principal researcher and the director of GELOG : IQUAL, the Software Quality Engineering Research Group at école de technologie supérieure. From October 2003 Dr. Suryn holds the position of the International Secretary of ISO/IEC SC7 – System and Software Engineering.     

Identification of defect-prone classes in telecommunication software systems using design metrics

The goal of this paper is to investigate the relation between object-oriented design choices and defects in software systems, with focus on a real-time telecommunication domain. The design choices are measured using the widely accepted metrics suite proposed by Chidamber and Kemerer for object oriented languages [S.R. Chidamber, C.F. Kemerer, A metrics suite for object oriented design, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 20 (6) (1994) 476-493].This paper reports the results of an extensive case study, which strongly reinforces earlier, mainly anecdotal, evidence that design aspects related to communication between classes can be used as indicators of the most defect-prone classes.Statistical models applicable for the non-normally distributed count data are used, such as Poisson regression, negative binomial regression, and zero-inflated negative binomial regression. The performances of the models are assessed using correlations, dispersion coefficients and Alberg diagrams.The zero-inflated negative binomial regression model based on response for a class shows the best overall ability to describe the variability of the number of defects in classes.     

Nanohybrid scratch resistant coatings for teeth and bone viscoelasticity manifested in tribology

We cover teeth surfaces with nanohybrid coatings containing an inorganic ceramic and an organic copolymer constituents. We report the first ever values of scratch penetration depth and scratch recovery for bare and coated teeth. We find that uncoated teeth undergo viscoelastic recovery (healing) after microscratching – the first manifestation of bone viscoelasticity in tribology. The coatings fill "valleys" in teeth surfaces. In each case a large improvement in the scratch resistance as compared to uncoated teeth is seen. The extent of the improvement depends on the inorganic/organic component ratios in the nanohybrids. Electronic Publication