no_tag - Brian Appleby on Diigo

26 Oct 09

BioMed Central | Full text | Social tagging in the life sciences: characterizing a new metadata resource for bioinformatics

www.biomedcentral.com/...313 - Preview

In comparison to PubMed, document coverage and per-document metadata density were much lower for the social tagging systems.
For more traditional kinds of indexing-based applications (such as keyword-based search) to benefit substantially from socially generated metadata in the life sciences, more documents need to be tagged and more tags are needed for each document.
2 more annotations...
- young system
- These figures suggest that in order to reach the same density of distinct tags per resource as MeSH descriptors per resource produced by MEDLINE (median 11), roughly 5 to 7 social taggers would need to tag each citation.

ScienceDirect - Neuron : Spontaneous Generation of Prion Infectivity in Fatal Familial Insomnia Knockin Mice

www.sciencedirect.com/science - Preview

crucial tenet of the prion hypothesis is that misfolding of the prion protein (PrP) induced by mutations associated with familial prion disease is, in an otherwise normal mammalian brain, sufficient to generate the infectious agent. Yet this has never been demonstrated.
We engineered knockin mice to express a PrP mutation associated with a distinct human prion disease, fatal familial insomnia (FFI)
12 more annotations...
- The mice spontaneously developed a disease distinct from that of other mouse prion models and highly reminiscent of FFI.
- Unique pathology was transmitted from FFI mice to mice expressing wild-type PrP sharing the same transmission barrier.
- Thus, a single amino acid change in PrP is sufficient to induce a distinct neurodegenerative disease and the spontaneous generation of prion infectivity.
- we uncovered an unexpected phenotype in scrapie-infected mice: during the night, they travel incessantly, covering ten times more distance than control mice
- [Lugaresi et al., 1998]). Thus,
- Behavioral abnormalities in ki-3F4-FFI mice were most prominent at night (Figure 3A) but stood in sharp contrast to those of scrapie-infected mice. Rather than traveling more than controls (Steele et al., 2007), ki-3F4-FFI mice spent less time traveling and covered less distance
- T_b fluctuated over a much wider range in ki-3F4-FFI mice than in ki-3F4-WT mice
- ki-3F4-FFI mice developed both activity and temperature homeostasis abnormalities reminiscent of human FFI.
- To test for the presence of a transmissible agent, we injected a relatively conservative amount of brain homogenate (30 μl dose of material diluted 1 to 100 m/v), intracranially.
- spontaneously sick ki-3F4-FFI mice generated a transmissible agent that produced a disease in Tga20 mice that has many unique features and is distinct from scrapie.
- Even more tellingly, ki-3F4-WT mice, expressing normal levels of PrP, also became sick, developing ataxia, kyphosis, reduced body condition, and many died prematurely following injection with homogenates from spontaneously sick ki-3F4-FFI mice
- As expected, PrP KO mice injected with brain homogenates from spontaneously sick ki-3F4-FFI mice remained normal behaviorally (Figure 4E) and neuropathologically (data not shown).

25 Oct 09

Genetic susceptibility, evolution and the kuru epidemic — Philosophical Transactions B

rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org.proxy2.library.jhu.edu/...3741.full - Preview

Heterozygosity at codon 129 of the human prion protein gene (PRNP) is known to confer relative resistance to both sporadic and acquired prion diseases.
In kuru, heterozygosity is associated
with older patients and longer incubation times.
6 more annotations...
- Elderly survivors of the kuru epidemic, who had multiple exposures at mortuary
  feasts, are predominantly PRNP codon 129 heterozygotes and this group show marked Hardy–Weinberg disequilibrium.
- An increasing
  cline in 129V allele frequency centres on the kuru region, consistent with the effect of selection in elevating the frequency
  of resistant genotypes in the exposed population.
- The genetic data are thus strikingly correlated with exposure.
- Kuru may have imposed the strongest episode of recent
  human balancing selection, which may not have been an isolated episode in human history.
- In iatrogenic CJD caused by an exposure to contaminated pituitary hormones, heterozygotes have a longer mean incubation
  period than homozygotes
- All cases of vCJD to date have been methionine homozygotes,

18 Oct 09

Survey of Public Perceptions of Prion Disease Risks in Canada: What Does the Public Care About? - Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A: Current Issues

www.informaworld.com.ezproxy.welch.jhmi.edu/...section - Preview

A national public survey on public perceptions of prion disease risk in Canada was conducted from October to December 2007.
1517 Canadians were randomly selected to be representative of the adult population by region, age, and gender, as per the 2001 Census
11 more annotations...
- The survey data reveal that Canadians do not perceive mad cow disease as a salient risk but consider it more of an economic, political, social, and foreign trade issue than a public health one.
- Canadians are somewhat prepared to pay a premium to have a safer food supply, but not to the same extent that they desire extra measures pertaining to BSE risk management.
- In addition, studies regarding the possible population health repercussions of BSE (PrioNet Canada, http://www.prionetcanada.ca) are being conducted.
- How is this disease perceived compared to other food borne risks? How much knowledge do Canadians have concerning the disease? Who do they trust to get information about BSE?
- contrary to most health risks, which are generally overestimated, members of the general public did not have major concerns regarding BSE in Canada.
- They perceived the risk of being infected as minute, and did not think further cases of BSE in Canada were likely. Participants also felt that they needed to be better informed by the media and the government regarding BSE, specifically with respect to the level of risk, symptoms and routes of transmission. They also needed better information on ways to protect their families from BSE risks.
- funded through PrioNet Canada
- The Risk of Mad Cow Disease Compared to Other Food Safety Items
  
  
- The majority (72%) of respondents were aware that “it was likely that cows could get mad cow disease if they ate contaminated feed prepared using cow carcasses.”
- When asked if they thought “it was likely that an animal could be infected with mad cow disease without showing symptoms” half of respondents (51%) stated that they very much or extremely believed this to be the case. Moreover, 55% of respondents thought “it was likely that humans would become infected with the human form of mad cow disease if they ate contaminated beef.” Lastly, 43% believed very much or extremely that “it is likely that wild game could develop diseases similar to mad cow disease.”
- Just over one quarter of respondents (26%) worried that wild game could have an illness similar to mad cow disease. Moreover, if these animals were found to have a similar illness to BSE, 25% of respondents would still eat wild game, whereas 47% of respondents would stop altogether.

20 Sep 09

PLoS ONE: A Principal Component Analysis of 39 Scientific Impact Measures

www.plosone.org/...10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0006022 - Preview

Science is a gift economy; value is defined as the degree to which one's ideas have freely contributed to knowledge and impacted the thinking of others.
usage-based measur
9 more annotations...
- citation-based measures
- The pattern of clusters indicate that some measures express a more distinct aspect of scientific impact and will thus be farther removed from all other measures.
- some citation measures are positioned close to the cluster of usage measures in terms of their PC1 coordinates.
- usage measures are equally rapid indicators, if not more so
- present usage rates predict future citation rates
- Consequently, the PCA results could be interpreted in terms of a separation of measures along two dimensions: “Rapid” vs. “Delayed” (PC1) and “Popularity” vs. “Prestige” (PC2).
- Surprisingly, most usage-based measures would then fall in the “Rapid, “Prestige” quadrant
- Citaton Cites per doc (ID 4) and Citation Journal Impact Factor (ID:5) have the lowest values indicating that they represent the most particular view of scientific impact
- usage-based measures are actually stronger indicators of scientific Prestige than many presently available citation measures. Contrary to expectations, the IF as well as the SJR most strongly express scientific Popularity.

10 Sep 09

Post-publication sharing of data and tools : Article : Nature

www.nature.com/...461171a.html - Preview

We recommend that it becomes mandatory for scientific papers to explain where and how to access data and resources generated as part of the investigation.
When it comes to compliance, journals and funding agencies have the most important role in enforcement and should clearly state their distribution and data-deposition policies, the consequences of non-compliance, and consistently enforce their policy.
5 more annotations...
- In a 2006 survey of major journals, Anderson et al.¹⁴ found that on average only 83% of supplementary data were still accessible a year after publication (for one journal this was as low as 33%) and that it seemed that approximately 10% of all data that was supposed to be available through a supplementary website was never available at all.
- A good model is provided by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's Bioinformatics and Biological Resources Fund, which provides dedicated funding for development and sustainability of public resources and informatics tools.
- For both attributes data must be formatted in a standard way, conform to standard structure and semantics and have appropriate metadata attached.
- As an antidote to these concerns, the Rome meeting strongly encouraged sharing behaviours that promote a 'research commons'
- The heart of a research commons is one in which academic research is not impeded by restrictions on use and access to data and materials, in line with the principles of the Creative Commons¹¹.

09 Sep 09

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on TED.com

www.ted.com/...izabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html - Preview

Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web | Video on TED.com

www.ted.com/...rners_lee_on_the_next_web.html - Preview

01 Sep 09

Hopkins Fast Facts

www.hopkinsfastfacts.org/rSessions.html - Preview

26 Aug 09

8 Things you can do with an enterprise wiki - SMWForum

smwforum.ontoprise.com/...can_do_with_an_enterprise_wiki - Preview

21 Aug 09

Can Consciousness be Created in Software?

ieet.org/...rothblatt20090815 - Preview

16 Aug 09

5 Ways to Build an Interactive Blog - Home - Four Elements | Integrating Web 2.0, SEO & Our Future Web

the4eblog.com/...build-an-interactive-blog.html - Preview

The Future Human Evolution Website | HumansFuture.org

www.humansfuture.org - Preview

07 Aug 09

Research Integrity Training Videos

www.hopkinsmedicine.org/...index.html - Preview

30 Jul 09

PLoS Conversations on Vimeo

vimeo.com/...plosconversations - Preview

25 Jul 09

Download GSplit 3 - G.D.G. Software

www.gdgsoft.com/...gsplit.aspx - Preview

MIM Gene map

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...getmap.cgi - Preview

HLCS, HCS
SOD1, ALS1

03 Jul 09

Lifehacker - Enigma Desktop 2.0 Released, Adds Installer, Widget Manager, and Templates - Enigma

lifehacker.com/...r-widget-manager-and-templates - Preview

30 Jun 09

Antibody-based immunotherapeutic attempts in experimental animal models of prion diseases; Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents - 19(7):Pages 907-917 - Informa Pharmaceutical Science

www.informapharmascience.com/...13543770902988530 - Preview

vCJD is more transmissible among human populations than is BSE from cattle to humans.
approaches to enhance the function of PrP^C might be alternatively therapeutic against prion diseases
4 more annotations...
- the accumulation of PrP^Sc is well correlated to pathological changes, including gliosis, spongiform changes and neuronal cell death
- purified PrP^Sc was shown to be toxic to cultured cells, inducing apoptotic cell death
- neurotoxic effects were reported with some anti-prion mAbs or Fab fragments
- Because PrP^C is a host-encoded glycoprotein expressed in various normal tissues, no immune responses are evoked against PrP^C under physiological conditions as well as PrP^Sc in prion diseases. LRP/LR is also a host-encoded protein. Therefore, exogenously injected antibodies against PrP and LRP/LR might cause autoimmune reactions in vivo

ScienceDirect - Brain Research : Effects of clioquinol on memory impairment and the neurochemical modifications induced by scrapie infection in golden hamsters

www.sciencedirect.com/science - Preview

Clioquinol (5-chloro-7-iodo-8-quinolinol) chelates zinc and copper, which are involved in the deposition of amyloid plaques and acts as an antioxidant; increased lipid peroxidation has also been demonstrated in the early phases of PrP propagation
The results show that clioquinol counteracts the massive memory deficit induced by scrapie infection
11 more annotations...
- This effect is not paralleled by neurochemical changes because the levels of all of the biogenic amines and their metabolites were reduced despite clioquinol treatment.
- The main biochemical change induced by clioquinol was a marked reduction in lipid peroxidation at all time points. The antioxidant effect of clioquinol can reduce functional impairment and thus improve memory, but clioquinol does not reduce PrP deposition or synapse loss, as indicated by the unchanged Western blot, histopathological and histochemical findings.
- Clioquinol (5-chloro-7-iodo-8-quinolinol) acts as a zinc and copper chelator.
- It has been found in two in vitro experimental models of TSE that 12 days' treatment with clioquinol reduces PrP^res formation in cultured cells, and that the contact of clioquinol with partially purified PrP reduces PrP^res in a dose-dependent manner (Formentin et al., 2006). These findings suggest that the drug affects metal–protein interactions and the PrP conversion processes.
- Furthermore, by reducing copper and zinc ions, clioquinol also acts as an antioxidant.
- Clioquinol treatment significantly improved passive avoidance to a level similar to that observed in the non-infected control animals.
- The Western blot, histochemistry and histopathology findings on day 80 were similar in the clioquinol-treated and untreated infected animals
- Eighty days after infection, the levels of all of the biogenic amines and their metabolites were reduced in the rest of the brain and in the striata of the infected animals (Table 2 shows the data in the rest of the brain); clioquinol treatment did not have any effect on any amine or metabolite.
- It was less at all time points in the clioquinol-treated animals, although a slight increase after 60 days was still observed
- clioquinol does not reduce PrP deposition or s
- Furthermore, as indicated by the data from the present study, the beneficial effect of clioquinol is mainly due to its antioxidant effect.

Brian Appleby's Library tagged no_tag → View Popular

BioMed Central | Full text | Social tagging in the life sciences: characterizing a new metadata resource for bioinformatics

ScienceDirect - Neuron : Spontaneous Generation of Prion Infectivity in Fatal Familial Insomnia Knockin Mice

Genetic susceptibility, evolution and the kuru epidemic — Philosophical Transactions B

Survey of Public Perceptions of Prion Disease Risks in Canada: What Does the Public Care About? - Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A: Current Issues

The Risk of Mad Cow Disease Compared to Other Food Safety Items

PLoS ONE: A Principal Component Analysis of 39 Scientific Impact Measures

Post-publication sharing of data and tools : Article : Nature

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity | Video on TED.com

Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web | Video on TED.com

Hopkins Fast Facts

8 Things you can do with an enterprise wiki - SMWForum

Can Consciousness be Created in Software?

5 Ways to Build an Interactive Blog - Home - Four Elements | Integrating Web 2.0, SEO & Our Future Web

The Future Human Evolution Website | HumansFuture.org

Research Integrity Training Videos

PLoS Conversations on Vimeo

Download GSplit 3 - G.D.G. Software

MIM Gene map

Lifehacker - Enigma Desktop 2.0 Released, Adds Installer, Widget Manager, and Templates - Enigma

Antibody-based immunotherapeutic attempts in experimental animal models of prion diseases; Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents - 19(7):Pages 907-917 - Informa Pharmaceutical Science

ScienceDirect - Brain Research : Effects of clioquinol on memory impairment and the neurochemical modifications induced by scrapie infection in golden hamsters

Selected Tags

Sponsored Links

Top Contributors

Groups interested in no_tag

KDR Tau Chapter

alwaha

1PPPRET-PM

Erotica

Digital Citizenship/Cyberbullying Video Clips

Web 2.0 Tools