Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Pattern Discovery In Brain Imaging Genetics Via Scca Modeling With A Generic Non-Convex Penalty, Lei Du, Kefei Liu, Xiaohui Yao, Jingwen Yan, Shannon L. Risacher, Junwei Han, Lei Guo, Andrew J. Saykin, Li Shen, Michael W. Weiner, Paul Aisen, Ronald Petersen, Clifford R. Jack, William Jagust, John Q. Trojanowki, Arthur W. Toga, Laurel Beckett, Robert C. Green, John Morris, Leslie M. Shaw, Zaven Khachaturian, Greg Sorensen, Maria Carrillo, Lew Kuller, Marc Raichle, Steven Paul, Peter Davies, Howard Fillit, Franz Hefti, David Holtzman, Charles D. Smith, Gregory Jicha, Peter A. Hardy, Partha Sinha, Elizabeth Oates, Gary Conrad

Neurology Faculty Publications

Brain imaging genetics intends to uncover associations between genetic markers and neuroimaging quantitative traits. Sparse canonical correlation analysis (SCCA) can discover bi-multivariate associations and select relevant features, and is becoming popular in imaging genetic studies. The L1-norm function is not only convex, but also singular at the origin, which is a necessary condition for sparsity. Thus most SCCA methods impose ℓ₁-norm onto the individual feature or the structure level of features to pursuit corresponding sparsity. However, the ℓ₁-norm penalty over-penalizes large coefficients and may incurs estimation bias. A number of non-convex penalties are proposed to reduce …

Anaplasma Phagocytophilum Infection Modulates Expression Of Megakaryocyte Cell Cycle Genes Through Phosphatidylinositol-3-Kinase Signaling, Supreet Khanal, Hameeda Sultana, John D. Catravas, Jason A. Carlyon, Girish Neelakanta

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis infects neutrophils and other cells from hematopoietic origin. Using human megakaryocytic cell line, MEG-01, we show that expression of cell cycle genes in these cells are altered upon A. phagocytophilum infection. Expression of several cell cycle genes in MEG-01 cells was significantly up regulated at early and then down regulated at later stages of A. phagocytophilum infection. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assays revealed reduced cellular cytotoxicity in MEG-01 cells upon A. phagocytophilum infection. The levels of both PI3KCA (p110 alpha, catalytic subunit) and PI3KR1 (p85, regulatory subunit) of Class …

Quantitative Limits On Small Molecule Transport Via The Electropermeome - Measuring And Modeling Single Nanosecond Perturbations, Esin B. Sözer, Zachary A. Levine, P. Thomas Vernier

Bioelectrics Publications

The detailed molecular mechanisms underlying the permeabilization of cell membranes by pulsed electric fields (electroporation) remain obscure despite decades of investigative effort. To advance beyond descriptive schematics to the development of robust, predictive models, empirical parameters in existing models must be replaced with physics- and biology-based terms anchored in experimental observations. We report here absolute values for the uptake of YO-PRO-1, a small-molecule fluorescent indicator of membrane integrity, into cells after a single electric pulse lasting only 6 ns. We correlate these measured values, based on fluorescence microphotometry of hundreds of individual cells, with a diffusion-based geometric analysis of pore-mediated …

Electrotransfer Of Plasmid Dna Radiosensitizes B16f10 Tumors Through Activation Of Immune Response, Monika Savarin, Urska Kamensek, Maja Cemazar, Richard Heller, Gregor Sersa

Bioelectrics Publications

Background. Tumor irradiation combined with adjuvant treatments, either vascular targeted or immunomodulatory, is under intense investigation. Gene electrotransfer of therapeutic genes is one of these approaches. The aim of this study was to determine, whether gene electrotransfer of plasmid encoding shRNA for silencing endoglin, with vascular targeted effectiveness, can radiosensitize melanoma B16F10 tumors.

Materials and methods. The murine melanoma Bl6F10 tumors, growing on the back of C57BI/6 mice, were treated by triple gene electrotransfer and irradiation. The antitumor effect was evaluated by determination of tumor growth delay and proportion of tumor free mice. Furthermore, histological analysis of tumors (necrosis, apoptosis, …

Phylogenomic Analysis Of Copepoda (Arthropoda, Crustacea) Reveals Unexpected Similarities With Earlier Proposed Morphological Phylogenies, Seong-Il Eyun

Nebraska Center for Biotechnology: Faculty and Staff Publications

Background: Copepods play a critical role in marine ecosystems but have been poorly investigated in phylogenetic studies. Morphological evidence supports the monophyly of copepods, whereas interordinal relationships continue to be debated. In particular, the phylogenetic position of the order Harpacticoida is still ambiguous and inconsistent among studies. Until now, a small number of molecular studies have been done using only a limited number or even partial genes and thus there is so far no consensus at the order-level.

Results: This study attempted to resolve phylogenetic relationships among and within four major copepod orders including Harpacticoida and the phylogenetic position of …