University of Cyprus

About: University of Cyprus is a education organization based out in Nicosia, Cyprus. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Large Hadron Collider & Context (language use). The organization has 3624 authors who have published 15157 publications receiving 412135 citations.

Diol-type ligands as central ‘players’ in the chemistry of high-spin molecules and single-molecule magnets

Abstract: The combination of diol-type ligands with paramagnetic transition metal ions has led to the isolation of a host of new homometallic and heterometallic clusters, high-spin molecules and single molecule magnets ranging in nuclearity from two to forty four and with spin ground states as large as S = 61/2. The ligands, whose cluster coordination chemistry is discussed in this article, are 1,3-propanediol and its derivatives, diethanolamine and its derivatives, pyridine-2,6-dimethanol and the gem-diol form of di-2-pyridyl ketone. The structural diversity of the complexes stems from the ability of the ligands to adopt a variety of bridging coordination modes depending on the positions of the two hydroxyl groups in the molecule, the presence/absence of extra donor groups and on the reaction conditions. Examples of ‘true’ reactivity chemistry involving clusters of diol-type ligands are also given. The activation of pyridine-2,6-dimethanol and di-2-pyridyl ketone by 3d-metal centres towards further reactions seems to be an emergent area of synthetic chemistry.

Assessment of the Risk Factors of Coronary Heart Events Based on Data Mining With Decision Trees

Abstract: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is one of the major causes of disability in adults as well as one of the main causes of death in the developed countries. Although significant progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of CHD, further investigation is still needed. The objective of this study was to develop a data-mining system for the assessment of heart event-related risk factors targeting in the reduction of CHD events. The risk factors investigated were: 1) before the event: a) nonmodifiable-age, sex, and family history for premature CHD, b) modifiable-smoking before the event, history of hypertension, and history of diabetes; and 2) after the event: modifiable-smoking after the event, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, and glucose. The events investigated were: myocardial infarction (MI), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). A total of 528 cases were collected from the Paphos district in Cyprus, most of them with more than one event. Data-mining analysis was carried out using the C4.5 decision tree algorithm for the aforementioned three events using five different splitting criteria. The most important risk factors, as extracted from the classification rules analysis were: 1) for MI, age, smoking, and history of hypertension; 2) for PCI, family history, history of hypertension, and history of diabetes; and 3) for CABG, age, history of hypertension, and smoking. Most of these risk factors were also extracted by other investigators. The highest percentages of correct classifications achieved were 66%, 75%, and 75% for the MI, PCI, and CABG models, respectively. It is anticipated that data mining could help in the identification of high and low risk subgroups of subjects, a decisive factor for the selection of therapy, i.e., medical or surgical. However, further investigation with larger datasets is still needed.

A Low Complexity Antenna Switching for Joint Wireless Information and Energy Transfer in MIMO Relay Channels

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate a low-complexity technique for simultaneous wireless information and energy transfer in multiple-input multiple-output relay channels. The proposed technique exploits the array configuration at the relay node and uses the antenna elements either for conventional decoding or for rectifying (rectennas). In order to keep the complexity low, a dynamic antenna switching between decoding/rectifying is proposed based on the principles of the generalized selection combiner (GSC); the L strongest paths are allocated for decoding while the remaining channel paths for rectifying (and vice versa). The optimal L as well as the allocation strategy that minimizes the outage probability are investigated via theoretical and numerical results. In addition, two performance bounds that provide the optimal performance without the limitation of GSC are proposed by solving a linear programming and a binary knapsack problem, respectively. The proposed technique is extended to scenarios with multi-user interference, where a zero-forcing receiver is used at the relay node; closed-forms expressions for the outage probability are also derived.

Defining the Role of Solid Stress and Matrix Stiffness in Cancer Cell Proliferation and Metastasis.

Abstract: Solid tumors are characterized by an abnormal stroma that contributes to the development of biomechanical abnormalities in the tumor microenvironment. In particular, these abnormalities include an increase in matrix stiffness and an accumulation of solid stress in the tumor interior. So far, it is not clearly defined whether matrix stiffness and solid stress are strongly related to each other or they have distinct roles in tumor progression. Moreover, while the effects of stiffness on tumor progression are extensively studied compared to the contribution of solid stress, it is important to ascertain the biological outcomes of both abnormalities in tumorigenesis and metastasis. In this review, we discuss how each of these parameters is evolved during tumor growth and how these parameters are influenced by each other. We further review the effects of matrix stiffness and solid stress on the proliferative and metastatic potential of cancer and stromal cells and summarize the in vitro experimental setups that have been designed to study the individual contribution of these parameters.

Sex Differences In The Adult Human Brain: Evidence From 5,216 UK Biobank Participants

Abstract: Sex differences in human brain structure and function are of substantial scientific interest because of sex-differential susceptibility to psychiatric disorders and because of the potential to explain sex differences in psychological traits. Males are known to have larger brain volumes, though the patterns of differences across brain subregions have typically only been examined in small, inconsistent studies. In addition, despite common findings of greater male variability in traits like intelligence, personality, and physical performance, variance differences in the brain have received little attention. Here we report the largest single-sample study of structural and functional sex differences in the human brain to date (2,750 female and 2,466 male participants aged 44-77 years). Males had higher cortical and sub-cortical volumes, cortical surface areas, and white matter diffusion directionality; females had thicker cortices and higher white matter tract complexity. Considerable overlap between the distributions for males and females was common, and subregional differences were smaller after accounting for global differences. There was generally greater male variance across structural measures. The modestly higher male score on two cognitive tests was partly mediated via structural differences. Functional connectome organization showed stronger connectivity for males in unimodal sensorimotor cortices, and stronger connectivity for females in the default mode network. This large-scale characterisation of neurobiological sex differences provides a foundation for attempts to understand the causes of sex differences in brain structure and function, and their associated psychological and psychiatric consequences.