Bacterial type IV secretion systems are macromolecule transporters with essential functions for horizontal gene transfer and for symbiotic and pathogenic interactions with eukaryotic host cells. Helicobacter pylori, the causative agent of type B gastritis, peptic ulcers, gastric adenocarcinoma, and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma, uses the Cag type IV secretion system to injec...

BACKGROUND Recent advances in laparoscopic and thoracoscopic surgery have made it possible to perform esophagectomy using minimally invasive techniques. The aim of this report was to present our preliminary experience with minimally invasive esophagectomy. METHODS We reviewed our experience on eight patients who underwent minimally invasive esophagectomy using either laparoscopic and/or thora...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to investigate the role and mechanism of long non-coding RNA MIAT in gastric cancer (GC). METHODS Real-time PCR was used to determine MIAT level in 120 GC tissues, and in two gastric cancer cell lines. The clinicopathological characteristics of MIAT in GC patients were analyzed. Small interfering RNA specific for MIAT (si-MIAT) and lentivector for si...

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were shown to play critical roles in cancer biology. We investigated whether H. pylori infection could promote gastric cancer by regulating lncRNAs expression. Differentially expressed lncRNAs between H. pylori positive and negative tissues were identified by microarray and validated by qRT-PCR. Our results indicated that H. pylori positive tissues have a specific...

The Push, the Pull and the Push&Pull algorithms are well-known rumor spreading protocols. In all three, in the beginning one node of a graph is informed. In the Push setting, every round every informed node chooses a neighbor uniformly at random and, if it is not already informed anyway, informs it. In the Pull setting, each round each uninformed node chooses a neighbor uniformly at random and ...

A case study approach was used to explore the adoption of an RFID-based garment manufacturing information system in a garment factory in China. The findings indicate that both the technology push factors and need pull factors influence the intention of the garment factory to adopt RFID technology. Technology push factors include relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, extendibility, and ...

Interest in Blu-ray Discs is increasing rapidly due to the release of the PS3*1 and the increasing popularity of terrestrial digital broadcasting. The necessity of blue-violet laser diodes that can support even higher recording densities and speeds is becoming stronger day by day in proportion to this increasing interest. Although we had to clear many technological hurdles in moving to this hig...

The Workshop on Multi-modal Summarization for Trend information (MuST) has been encouraging researches on summarizing trends, which are an important first step of researches on technologies for supporting interactive and explorative information utilization. While MuST in the previous cycles provided the participants with a framework for encouraging researches by sharing the same research resour...

The aim of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of innovative programmes in construction. The term 'best practice' is commonly used in industry in to describe and disseminate cases where high levels of performance have been achieved. Several terminologies are used to describe this phenomenon, the best practice being the most widely used term. Best practices usually stimulate a desire in o...