1,720,984 research outputs found
Rare PSAP Variants and Possible Interaction with GBA in REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
No full textBackground: PSAP encodes saposin C, the co-activator of glucocerebrosidase, encoded by GBA. GBA mutations are associated with idiopathic/isolated REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD), a prodromal stage of synucleinopathy. Objective: To examine the role of PSAP mutations in iRBD. Methods: We fully sequenced PSAP and performed Optimized Sequence Kernel Association Test in 1,113 iRBD patients and 2,324 controls. We identified loss-of-function (LoF) mutations, which are very rare in PSAP, in three iRBD patients and none in controls (uncorrected p = 0.018). Results: Two variants were stop mutations, p.Gln260Ter and p.Glu166Ter, and one was an in-frame deletion, p.332_333del. All three mutations have a deleterious effect on saposin C, based on in silico analysis. In addition, the two carriers of p.Glu166Ter and p.332_333del mutations also carried a GBA variant, p.Arg349Ter and p.Glu326Lys, respectively. The co-occurrence of these extremely rare PSAP LoF mutations in two (0.2%) GBA variant carriers in the iRBD cohort, is unlikely to occur by chance (estimated co-occurrence in the general population based on gnomAD data is 0.00035%). Although none of the three iRBD patients with PSAP LoF mutations have phenoconverted to an overt synucleinopathy at their last follow-up, all manifested initial signs suggestive of motor dysfunction, two were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and all showed prodromal clinical markers other than RBD. Their probability of prodromal PD, according to the Movement Disorder Society research criteria, was 98% or more. Conclusion: These results suggest a possible role of PSAP variants in iRBD and potential genetic interaction with GBA, which requires additional studies
NPC1 variants are not associated with Parkinson’s disease, REM-sleep behavior disorder or dementia with Lewy bodies in European cohorts
No full textNovel Associations of BST1 and LAMP3 With REM Sleep Behavior Disorder
No full textObjective To examine the role of genes identified through genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of Parkinson disease (PD) in the risk of isolated REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD). Methods We fully sequenced 25 genes previously identified in GWASs of PD in a total of 1,039 patients with iRBD and 1,852 controls. The role of rare heterozygous variants in these genes was examined with burden tests. The contribution of biallelic variants was further tested. To examine the potential effect of rare nonsynonymous BST1 variants on the protein structure, we performed in silico structural analysis. Finally, we examined the association of common variants using logistic regression adjusted for age and sex. Results We found an association between rare heterozygous nonsynonymous variants in BST1 and iRBD ( p = 0.0003 at coverage >50× and 0.0004 at >30×), driven mainly by 3 nonsynonymous variants (p.V85M, p.I101V, and p.V272M) found in 22 (1.2%) controls vs 2 (0.2%) patients. All 3 variants seem to be loss-of-function variants with a potential effect on the protein structure and stability. Rare noncoding heterozygous variants in LAMP3 were also associated with iRBD ( p = 0.0006 at >30×). We found no association between rare heterozygous variants in the rest of genes and iRBD. Several carriers of biallelic variants were identified, yet there was no overrepresentation in iRBD. Conclusion Our results suggest that rare coding variants in BST1 and rare noncoding variants in LAMP3 are associated with iRBD. Additional studies are required to replicate these results and to examine whether loss of function of BST1 could be a therapeutic target.Objective To examine the role of genes identified through genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of Parkinson disease (PD) in the risk of isolated REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD). Methods We fully sequenced 25 genes previously identified in GWASs of PD in a total of 1,039 patients with iRBD and 1,852 controls. The role of rare heterozygous variants in these genes was examined with burden tests. The contribution of biallelic variants was further tested. To examine the potential effect of rare nonsynonymous BST1 variants on the protein structure, we performed in silico structural analysis. Finally, we examined the association of common variants using logistic regression adjusted for age and sex. Results We found an association between rare heterozygous nonsynonymous variants in BST1 and iRBD ( p = 0.0003 at coverage >50× and 0.0004 at >30×), driven mainly by 3 nonsynonymous variants (p.V85M, p.I101V, and p.V272M) found in 22 (1.2%) controls vs 2 (0.2%) patients. All 3 variants seem to be loss-of-function variants with a potential effect on the protein structure and stability. Rare noncoding heterozygous variants in LAMP3 were also associated with iRBD ( p = 0.0006 at >30×). We found no association between rare heterozygous variants in the rest of genes and iRBD. Several carriers of biallelic variants were identified, yet there was no overrepresentation in iRBD. Conclusion Our results suggest that rare coding variants in BST1 and rare noncoding variants in LAMP3 are associated with iRBD. Additional studies are required to replicate these results and to examine whether loss of function of BST1 could be a therapeutic target
Optimisation des réacteurs microfluidiques microbiens en contrôlant la croissance et l'homogénéité du biofilm
No full textLes biofilms microbiens soit des communautés multicellulaires formées de bactéries, adhérant à une surface, entourés d'une couche de polymère extracellulaire (EPS). Parce qu'ils sont naturels, les biofilms bactériens sont de plus en plus étudiés et utilisés pour des applications en biocatalyse, en autoréparation et en tant que systèmes pouvant fonctionner efficacement dans des conditions ambiantes. La structure du biofilm est également importante, car elle peut protéger les bactéries sous les contraintes physiques, chimiques et biologiques rencontrées lors de l'opération du bioréacteur. Parmi les principaux facteurs entrant dans la régulation du développement du biofilm et de ses propriétés à maturité, on trouve les conditions hydrodynamiques et les concentrations d'éléments nutritifs appliquées. La microfluidique connait une popularité croissante parmi la communauté de recherche sur les biofilms en raison de sa capacité à mieux contrôler ces paramètres en fonction de d'autres propriétés physicochimiques importantes et même le taux de croissance. Dans ce travail, nous nous appuyons sur les travaux antérieurs de notre groupe pour résoudre deux principales limites. Tout d'abord, la tendance des biofilms à contaminer les canaux et les tubes en amont peut éroder les spécifications précises des conditions expérimentales dans les positions en aval d'où des mesures analytiques sont réalisées. La premiere partie ce travail, nous présentons un dispositif microfluidique qui varie la vitesse d'écoulement en amont pour arrêter la croissance vers l'arrière et la contamination de l'entrée pour les expériences de longue durée. Le deuxième point d'intérêt est lié à des facteurs qui provoquent une hétérogénéité dans les modèles de croissance du biofilm. On a noté que les bulles formées pendant et après l'inoculation augmentaient la croissance locale du biofilm et réduisaient l'uniformité et l'homogénéité globale. Ce mémoire étudie également les effets des bulles sur le taux de croissance et le développement secondaire du biofilm
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
