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Gene regulatory networks control the complex programs that drive development. Deciphering the connections between transcription factors (TFs) and target genes is challenging, in part because TFs bind to thousands of places in the genome but control expression through a subset of these binding events. We hypothesize that we can combine natural variation of expression levels and predictions of TF binding sites to identify TF targets. We gather RNA-seq data from 71 genetically distinct F1 Drosophila melanogaster embryos and calculate the correlations between TF and potential target genes' expression levels, which we call "regulatory strength." To separate direct and indirect TF targets, we hypothesize that direct TF targets will have a preponderance of binding sites in their upstream regions. Using 14 TFs active during embryogenesis, we find that 12 TFs showed a significant correlation between their binding strength and regulatory strength on downstream targets, and 10 TFs showed a significant correlation between the number of binding sites and the regulatory effect on target genes. The general roles, e.g. bicoid's role as an activator, and the particular interactions we observed between our TFs, e.g. twist's role as a repressor of sloppy paired and odd paired, generally coincide with the literature.

Background: Type I diabetes milletus (DM) is one of the most prevalent autoimmune diseases in the pediatric age group. It is characterized by pancreatic inflammation in the early stages due to autoimmune destruction of the insulin producing beta cells with subsequent fibrosis in the late stages. Conventional gray-scale ultrasonography can provide detailed information about the bio-mechanical structure of tissues when used with the new method of elastography. As tissues affected by a variety of pathologic processes display different mechanical features, stiffness differences may be used to differentiate diffuse diseases or focal lesions. Objective: To assess the role of pancreatic shear wave elastography (SWE) in children with type I diabetes in comparison to control subjects. Methods: A cross-sectional study over the course of 6 months from March 2023 till September 2023. It included 41 cases with laboratory proven type I DM on insulin therapy and 41 age and gender matched non-diabetic controls referred to our department from the outpatient pediatric clinics for and abdominal ultra-sonography. C-peptide and HbA1C of the cases were measured. Conventional B-mode ultrasonography and pancreatic SWE were performed using the General Electric Logiq P9 ultrasound system. Results: Conventional B-mode abdominal ultra-sonography together with pancreatic shear wave elastography were done to the entire study group. There was no significant difference by Bmode noted between the study subjects regarding echogenicity and homogeneity. Shear wave elastography (SWE) values of the diabetic cases and non-diabetic controls were compared and revealed a significant difference between both groups being faster in the cases than in the control group with p-value <0.05. Shear wave elastography values of the cases were compared to each other in respect to their disease duration, age, C-peptide levels and HBA1C levels and there was a statistically significant positive correlation between SWE, disease duration and age with p-value <0.001, while there was statistically significant negative correlation between mean of SWE and level of C-peptide with p-value <0.001. There was no significant correlation with HbA1c with p-value 0.116. Conclusion: Type I DM affects pancreatic tissue stiffness as evident by the difference in the mean SWE values of the diabetic cases and the non-diabetic controls. Pancreatic SWE changes significantly in correlation to disease duration, age and C-peptide. Hence, SWE might serve as a new promising non-invasive imaging modality for monitoring and following up type 1 diabetes in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast malignancy is one of the most common malignancies affecting women, representing 31% of overall tumors affecting the females around the world. The increase in breast cancer incidence is accompanied by an increase in the clinician and researchers concerns regarding the improvement of diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most sensitive breast imaging modalities, but it has a relatively low specificity. Breast MRI findings are evaluated using the standardized American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System(BI-RADS) lexicon, which uses multiple descriptors to characterize enhancing lesions. Kaiser score is a simple flowchart that includes five major diagnostic criteria (root sign, dynamic enhancement curve type, margins, internal enhancement pattern, and edema) and its diagnostic accuracy is high. Aim of the Work: The study aims to evaluate the added role of Kaiser score in score in evaluating BIRADS 4 breast lesions in breast MRI. Patients and Methods: This is a retrospective study included 22 female patients who were diagnosed with breast lesions categorized as BIRADS 4, using the Kaiser score, where the Kaiser score threshold for malignancy is -4. Results: The study investigated the diagnostic performance of Kaiser score in BIRADS 4 breast lesions. Kaiser score demonstrated 93 % sensitivity and 71.43 % specificity and 86.36% accuracy in comparison to the histopathology which is the gold standard investigation. Conclusion: Kaiser score is a simple classification model which follows an intuitive tree structure reflecting structured step by step diagnostic process for lesion differentiation, includes five major diagnostic criteria (root sign, dynamic enhancement curve type, margins, internal enhancement pattern, and oedema) and it can be reliable in predicting malignant breast lesions due to its high accuracy, which can decrease the percentage of unnecessary breast biopsies. This has a positive potential to impact healthcare costs, as well as patient concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]