Whisky, as a high value product, is often adulterated, with adverse economic effects for both producers and consumers as well as potential public health impacts. Here we report the use of DAPCI-MS to ...analyse and chemically profile both genuine and counterfeit whisky samples employing a novel 'direct from the bottle' methodology with zero sample pre-treatment, zero solvent requirement and almost no sample usage. 25 samples have been analysed from a collection of blended Scotch whisky (n = 15) and known counterfeit whisky products (n = 10). Principal component analysis has been applied to dimensionally reduce the data and discriminate between sample groups. Additional chemometric modelling, a partial least squares regression, has correctly classified samples with 92% success rate. DAPCI-MS shows promise for simple, fast and accurate counterfeit detection with potential for generic aroma profiling and process quality monitoring applications.
Agarose encapsulated murine renal adenocarcinoma cells (RENCA macrobeads) are currently being investigated in clinical trials as a treatment for therapy-resistant metastatic colorectal cancer. We ...have previously demonstrated the capacity of RENCA macrobeads to produce diffusible substances that markedly inhibit the proliferation of epithelial-derived tumor cells outside the macrobead environment. This study examined the molecular mechanisms underlying the observed inhibition in targeted tumor cells exposed to RENCA macrobeads.
We evaluated changes in transcription factor responses, participating intracellular signaling pathways and the involvement of specific cellular receptors in targeted tumor cells exposed to RENCA macrobeads.
Factors secreted by RENCA macrobeads significantly up-regulated the activity of the MEF2 transcription factor as well as altered the transcription of MEF2b and MEF2d isoforms in targeted tumor cells. Suppression of individual or multiple MEF2 isoforms in target tumor cells markedly reduced the growth inhibitory effects of RENCA macrobeads. Furthermore, these effects were linked to the activation of the EGF receptor as attenuation of EGFR resulted in a substantial reduction of the cancer cell growth-inhibitory effect.
Since interruption of the EGFR signaling cascade did not eliminate RENCA macrobead-induced growth control, our data suggests that RENCA macrobeads exert their full growth inhibitory effects through the simultaneous activation of multiple signaling pathways. In contrast to a precision medicine approach targeting single molecular abnormalities, the RENCA macrobead functions as a biological-systems therapy to re-establish regulation in a highly dysfunctional and dysregulated cancer system.
The Plant Ontology (PO) is a community resource consisting of standardized terms, definitions, and logical relations describing plant structures and development stages, augmented by a large database ...of annotations from genomic and phenomic studies. This paper describes the structure of the ontology and the design principles we used in constructing PO terms for plant development stages. It also provides details of the methodology and rationale behind our revision and expansion of the PO to cover development stages for all plants, particularly the land plants (bryophytes through angiosperms). As a case study to illustrate the general approach, we examine variation in gene expression across embryo development stages in Arabidopsis and maize, demonstrating how the PO can be used to compare patterns of expression across stages and in developmentally different species. Although many genes appear to be active throughout embryo development, we identified a small set of uniquely expressed genes for each stage of embryo development and also between the two species. Evaluating the different sets of genes expressed during embryo development in Arabidopsis or maize may inform future studies of the divergent developmental pathways observed in monocotyledonous versus dicotyledonous species. The PO and its annotation database (http://www.planteome.org) make plant data for any species more discoverable and accessible through common formats, thus providing support for applications in plant pathology, image analysis, and comparative development and evolution.
One previously unstudied aspect of differences between sexual and asexual life stages in large‐scale transport and accumulation is density (mass per unit volume) of cells in each life stage. The ...specific density was determined for Scrippsiella lachrymosa cells in medium with and without nitrogen (N) enrichment through density‐gradient centrifugation. Growth medium without N addition is often called “encystment medium” when used for the purpose of resting cyst formation in cyst‐forming dinoflagellates; mating gametes are usually seen after 2–3 days. Significant differences in specific density were found after 2 days in encystment medium simultaneously with the observation of typical gamete swimming behavior and mating. The specific density of cells in encystment medium was 1.06 g · cm−3; whereas, the specific density of cells in growth medium was 1.11 g · cm−3. Cells in encystment medium were found to have significantly increased lipid content, reduced chlorophyll content, and reduced internal complexity. The findings may explain differential transport of less dense and chemotactically aggregating gametes into surface blooms in contrast to denser vegetative cells that perform daily vertical migration and do not aggregate. Passive accumulation of non‐migrating gametes into layers in stagnant water also can be explained, as well as sinking of zygotes when the storage of highly dense starch increases. Resting cysts had a density of over 1.14 g · cm−3 and would sink to become part of the silt fraction of the sediment. We suggest that differences in behavior and buoyancy between sexual and asexual life stages cause differences in cell accumulation, and therefore large‐scale, environmental transport could be directly dependent upon life‐cycle transitions.
We construct a new age-specific mortality framework and implement an exemplar (DLGC) that provides an excellent fit to data from various countries and across long time periods while also providing ...accurate mortality forecasts by projecting parameters with ARIMA models. The model parameters have clear and reasonable interpretations that, after fitting, show stable time trends that react to major world mortality events. These trends are similar for countries with similar life-expectancies and capture mortality improvement, mortality structural change, and mortality compression over time. The parameter time plots can also be used to improve forecasting accuracy by suggesting training data periods and appropriate stochastic assumptions for parameters over time. We also give a quantitative analysis on what factors contribute to increased life expectancy and gender mortality differences during different age periods.
Ontology is the philosophical discipline which aims to understand how things in the world are divided into categories and how these categories are related together. This is exactly what information ...scientists aim for in creating structured, automated representations, called ‘ontologies,’ for managing information in fields such as science, government, industry, and healthcare. Currently, these systems are designed in a variety of different ways, so they cannot share data with one another. They are often idiosyncratically structured, accessible only to those who created them, and unable to serve as inputs for automated reasoning. This volume shows, in a non-technical way and using examples from medicine and biology, how the rigorous application of theories and insights from philosophical ontology can improve the ontologies upon which information management depends.
The Salivaomics Knowledge Base (SKB) is designed to serve as a computational infrastructure that can permit global exploration and utilization of data and information relevant to salivaomics. SKB is ...created by aligning (1) the saliva biomarker discovery and validation resources at UCLA with (2) the ontology resources developed by the OBO (Open Biomedical Ontologies) Foundry, including a new Saliva Ontology (SALO).
We define the Saliva Ontology (SALO; http://www.skb.ucla.edu/SALO/) as a consensus-based controlled vocabulary of terms and relations dedicated to the salivaomics domain and to saliva-related diagnostics following the principles of the OBO (Open Biomedical Ontologies) Foundry.
The Saliva Ontology is an ongoing exploratory initiative. The ontology will be used to facilitate salivaomics data retrieval and integration across multiple fields of research together with data analysis and data mining. The ontology will be tested through its ability to serve the annotation ('tagging') of a representative corpus of salivaomics research literature that is to be incorporated into the SKB.
The impact of qualitative olfactory disorders is underestimated. Parosmia, the distorted perception of familiar odors, and phantosmia, the experience of odors in the absence of a stimulus, can arise ...following postinfectious anosmia, and the incidences of both have increased substantially since the outbreak of COVID-19.
The aims of this study are to explore the symptoms and sequalae of postinfectious olfactory dysfunction syndrome using unstructured and unsolicited threads from social media, and to articulate the perspectives and concerns of patients affected by these debilitating olfactory disorders.
A thematic analysis and content analysis of posts in the AbScent Parosmia and Phantosmia Support group on Facebook was conducted between June and December 2020.
In this paper, we identify a novel symptom, olfactory perseveration, which is a triggered, identifiable, and usually unpleasant olfactory percept that persists in the absence of an ongoing stimulus. We also observe fluctuations in the intensity and duration of symptoms of parosmia, phantosmia, and olfactory perseveration. In addition, we identify a group of the most common items (coffee, meat, onion, and toothpaste) that trigger distortions; however, people have difficulty describing these distortions, using words associated with disgust and revulsion. The emotional aspect of living with qualitative olfactory dysfunction was evident and highlighted the detrimental impact on mental health.
Qualitative and unsolicited data acquired from social media has provided useful insights into the patient experience of parosmia and phantosmia, which can inform rehabilitation strategies and ongoing research into understanding the molecular triggers associated with parosmic distortions and research into patient benefit.
To address the challenges of information integration and retrieval, the computational genomics community increasingly has come to rely on the methodology of creating annotations of scientific ...literature using terms from controlled structured vocabularies such as the Gene Ontology (GO). Here we address the question of what such annotations signify and of how they are created by working biologists. Our goal is to promote a better understanding of how the results of experiments are captured in annotations, in the hope that this will lead both to better representations of biological reality through annotation and ontology development and to more informed use of GO resources by experimental scientists.
PDF
