1,720,977 research outputs found
Characterizing the spectrum of somatic alterations in canine and human cancers
No full textCancers arise as a result of deleterious somatic alterations accumulating in the genome during the process of cell division. These alterations arise either via exposure to mutagens or due to errors occurring during DNA replication. In this thesis, a systematic exploration, from discovery to analyses of somatic alterations in three diverse cancers that affect dogs and humans, was undertaken. In Studies I and II, whole-exome sequencing of dogs affected by the cancers of osteosarcoma and hemangiosarcoma were done to delineate coding mutations that can contribute to their carcinogenesis. Besides, as these cancers mirror the corresponding human disease in clinical manifestation and histological features, a secondary objective was to confirm the molecular drivers found in the canines were also influencing factors in the human cancer(s). In the osteosarcoma investigations with three breeds, we found that tumors show a high frequency of somatic copy-number alterations, affecting key cancer genes. TP53 was the most frequently altered gene, akin to human osteosarcoma. The second most mutated gene, histone methyltransferase SETD2, has known epigenetic roles in multiple cancers but not in osteosarcoma. Our study highlights the strong genetic similarities between human and dog osteosarcoma, suggesting that canine disease may serve as an excellent model for developing treatment strategies in both species. In the hemangiosarcoma study in golden retrievers, putative driver alterations were identified in the tumor suppressor TP53 and in genes involved in the cell cycle regulating PI3K pathway, including PIK3CA and PIK3R1. Furthermore, we find several somatic alterations between the dog hemangiosarcoma and human angiosarcoma overlap, indicating we can use the canine model to apprise the infrequently occurring human disease. In Study III, we implemented whole-genome sequencing methodologies to define both coding and non-coding alterations in the glioblastoma cancer genome. We find the coding somatic alterations recapitulate what has been previously seen for the cancer, including driver alterations in the genes of EGFR, PTEN, and TP53. Significantly though, using the concept of evolutionary constraint, we find an enrichment of non-coding mutations in regulatory regions, around GBM-implicated genes. The mutated regions include splice sites, promoters, and transcription factor binding sites, suggesting the importance of regulatory mutations for the pathogenesis of glioblastoma. Overall, the insights garnered from the above exome- and genome-wide surveys provide novel insights into unraveling some of the complexities associated with somatic genomic alterations in cancer genomes. It also convincingly underscores the benefits of using sequencing technologies to comprehend complex biological diseases
Microevolution of Serial Clinical Isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii and C. gattii.
Get PDFThe pathogenic species of Cryptococcus are a major cause of mortality owing to severe infections in immunocompromised as well as immunocompetent individuals. Although antifungal treatment is usually effective, many patients relapse after treatment, and in such cases, comparative analyses of the genomes of incident and relapse isolates may reveal evidence of determinative, microevolutionary changes within the host. Here, we analyzed serial isolates cultured from cerebrospinal fluid specimens of 18 South African patients with recurrent cryptococcal meningitis. The time between collection of the incident isolates and collection of the relapse isolates ranged from 124 days to 290 days, and the analyses revealed that, during this period within the patients, the isolates underwent several genetic and phenotypic changes. Considering the vast genetic diversity of cryptococcal isolates in sub-Saharan Africa, it was not surprising to find that the relapse isolates had acquired different genetic and correlative phenotypic changes. They exhibited various mechanisms for enhancing virulence, such as growth at 39°C, adaptation to stress, and capsule production; a remarkable amplification of ERG11 at the native and unlinked locus may provide stable resistance to fluconazole. Our data provide a deeper understanding of the microevolution of Cryptococcus species under pressure from antifungal chemotherapy and host immune responses. This investigation clearly suggests a promising strategy to identify novel targets for improved diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis.IMPORTANCE Opportunistic infections caused by species of the pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus lead to chronic meningoencephalitis and continue to ravage thousands of patients with HIV/AIDS. Despite receiving antifungal treatment, over 10% of patients develop recurrent disease. In this study, we collected isolates of Cryptococcus from cerebrospinal fluid specimens of 18 patients at the time of their diagnosis and when they relapsed several months later. We then sequenced and compared the genomic DNAs of each pair of initial and relapse isolates. We also tested the isolates for several key properties related to cryptococcal virulence as well as for their susceptibility to the antifungal drug fluconazole. These analyses revealed that the relapsing isolates manifested multiple genetic and chromosomal changes that affected a variety of genes implicated in the pathogenicity of Cryptococcus or resistance to fluconazole. This application of comparative genomics to serial clinical isolates provides a blueprint for identifying the mechanisms whereby pathogenic microbes adapt within patients to prolong disease
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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