TheScientificWorldJournal
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TheScientificWorldJournal · Jan 2014
ReviewMolecular alterations of PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway: a therapeutic target in endometrial cancer.
It is well established that the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway plays a central role in cell growth and proliferation. It has also been suggested that its deregulation is associated with cancer. ⋯ This paper reviews alterations in the PI3K/Akt pathway, which could possibly contribute to the development of endometrial cancer. In addition, potential therapeutic targets of this pathway with emphasis on the mTOR inhibitors are also presented.
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TheScientificWorldJournal · Jan 2014
Prognostic value of C-reactive protein, leukocytes, and vitamin d in severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Inflammatory biomarkers predict mortality and hospitalisation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Yet, it remains uncertain if biomarkers in addition to reflecting disease severity add new prognostic information on severe COPD. We investigated if leukocytes, C-reactive protein (CRP), and vitamin D were independent predictors of mortality and hospitalisation after adjusting for disease severity with an integrative index, the i-BODE index. ⋯ Only leukocyte count was significantly associated with hospitalisation. Vitamin D was neither associated with mortality nor hospitalisation. Leukocytes and CRP add little information on prognosis and vitamin D does not seem to be a useful biomarker in severe COPD in a clinical setting.
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TheScientificWorldJournal · Jan 2014
Burnout in medical residents: a study based on the job demands-resources model.
Burnout is a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job. The purpose of our cross-sectional study was to estimate the burnout rates among medical residents in the largest Greek hospital in 2012 and identify factors associated with it, based on the job demands-resources model (JD-R). ⋯ Burnout among medical residents is associated with home-work interface, autonomy, professional development, and resident to specialist ratio.
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TheScientificWorldJournal · Jan 2014
A novel N-input voting algorithm for X-by-wire fault-tolerant systems.
Voting is an important operation in multichannel computation paradigm and realization of ultrareliable and real-time control systems that arbitrates among the results of N redundant variants. These systems include N-modular redundant (NMR) hardware systems and diversely designed software systems based on N-version programming (NVP). ⋯ Then, its behavior has been software implemented in different scenarios of error-injection on the system inputs. The results of analyzed evaluations through plots and statistical computations have demonstrated that this novel algorithm does not have the limitations of some popular voting algorithms such as median and weighted; moreover, it is able to significantly increase the reliability and availability of the system in the best case to 2489.7% and 626.74%, respectively, and in the worst case to 3.84% and 1.55%, respectively.