BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to investigate any associations between benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the VDR gene (FokI, BsmI, ApaI and TaqαI loci) and the CYP17 gene (MspA1I locus), as well as TA repeat polymorphism in SRD5A2 gene among Lebanese men. MATERIALS AND METHODS DNA extracted from blood of 68 subjects with confirmed BPH and 79 ...

In Hong Kong, 35% of residential mortgage loans are adjustable rate mortgages with variable tenor (VRT). That is, with a change in interest rates, the loan adjusts its maturity and principal payment such that the monthly installment remains the same. In other words, instead of bearing a volatility on monthly payments as in a ®xed-tenor variable payment (VRP) mortgage, VRT mortgagors bear intere...

Purpose Giant cell tumor of bone (GCTB) is an intermittent tumor with a low probability of pulmonary metastasis. Our aim was to investigate the risk factors and establish a nomogram predictive model for GCTB pulmonary metastasis. Methods We retrospectively evaluated GCTB patients at our center from 1991 to 2014. The cohort was randomized into training and validation sets. Univariate and multi...

Cancer immunosurveillance protects the host from outgrowth of tumor cells. Natural killer (NK) cell function positively associates with reduction of cancer risk and with better survival of gastrointestinal stromal tumor patients. We expanded murine NK cells and characterized their anti-tumor activity in vitro and in vivo. Adoptive transfer of the expanded NK cells into tumor-bearing mice reduce...

This chapter deals with project profitability to society and how it is related to market-based commercial profitability. The first part discusses the sources of divergence between profitability to private companies and to society as a whole, and how commercial assessments can be modified in order to find the social surplus. The second part deals with the role of information and risk for project...

results the means ± standard deviations of the averaged emg during the lateral and frontal wp exercises were 40.1 ± 19.1, and 23.7 ± 11.3 µv, respectively. those of the percent maximal voluntary contraction during the lateral and frontal wp exercises were 51.4 ± 29.7, and 31.3 ± 20.5, respectively. gmax activity during the lateral wp exercise was significantly higher than that during the fronta...

Stocks with greater downside risk, which is measured by higher correlations conditional on downside moves of the market, have higher returns. After controlling for the market beta, the size effect and the book-to-market effect, the average rate of return on stocks with the greatest downside risk exceeds the average rate of return on stocks with the least downside risk by 6.55% per annum. Downsi...

The high volatility of the blockchain markets has driven attention investors and market participants to concentrate on diversification avenues NFTs, DeFi Tokens, Cryptocurrencies. We examined extreme risk transmission using quantile connectedness technique at median, low, conditions. find significant spillovers among with strong disconnection NFTs. Meanwhile, time-varying features characterized...