The third international hackathon for applying insights into large-scale genomic composition to use cases in a wide range of organisms

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Azerbaycan Türkiye ilişkileri (1992-2012) : bir dış politika bilançosu.

This study aims to examine the foreign policy of Azerbaijan toward Turkey in a historical perspective on the one hand and to analyze foreign policy formations during the Abulfaz Elchibey, Heydar Aliyev and Ilham Aliyev periods on the other. The thesis argues that One nation, two states principle does not have a validity in dictating the bilateral relations, instead a realist engagement is being favored by Azerbaijan with an emphasis on national interest. As a result, it is asserted that Azerbaijan’s foreign policy remains in a cautious and consistent manner toward Turkey.M.S. - Master of Scienc

Explaining the Diversity of Scrutiny Models. National Parliaments and the European Union: Baltic States in Comparative Perspective

A large and growing body of literature has investigated the national parliaments and their involvement in the activities of the Union. However, the literature does not fully cover all the national parliaments of new Member States which joined the EU after the largest enlargement of the Union in 2004. As well, little is known about the national parliaments of Baltic Member States. This paper aims to study the scrutiny models adopted by Baltic parliaments; it also seeks to address the question of ‗what factors do cause the differences in Baltic parliaments‘ scrutiny strategies?‘ Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia belong to the same group of countries and they have been the members of the European Union since 2004. Those countries have strong political, economic and cultural ties with similar size of population. It is interesting to learn how those three countries, which are very similar in most aspects, behave in different ways when it comes to parliamentary scrutiny of EU affairs. The analysis conducted in the research will based on prior studies of EU-15. Hence, the degree of influence of three explanatory variables is investigated in the study: 1) public support for membership; 2) party Euroscepticism; and 3) frequency of minority government

Network-based identification and prioritization of key transcriptional factors of diabetic kidney disease

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most established microvascular complications of diabetes and a key cause of end-stage renal disease. It is well established that gene susceptibility to DN plays a critical role in disease pathophysiology. Therefore, many genetic studies have been performed to categorize candidate genes in prominent diabetic cohorts, aiming to investigate DN pathogenesis and etiology. In this study, we performed a meta-analysis on the expression profiles of GSE1009, GSE30122, GSE96804, GSE99340, GSE104948, GSE104954, and GSE111154 to identify critical transcriptional factors associated with DN progression. The analysis was conducted for all individual datasets for each kidney tissue (glomerulus, tubules, and kidney cortex). We identified distinct clusters of susceptibility genes that were dysregulated in a renal compartment-specific pattern. Further, we recognized a small but a closely connected set of these susceptibility genes enriched for podocyte differentiation, several of which were characterized as genes encoding critical transcriptional factors (TFs) involved in DN development and podocyte function. To validate the role of identified TFs in DN progression, we functionally validated the three main TFs (DACH1, LMX1B, and WT1) identified through differential gene expression and network analysis using the hyperglycemic zebrafish model. We report that hyperglycemia-induced altered gene expression of the key TF genes leads to morphological abnormalities in zebrafish glomeruli, pronephric tubules, proximal and distal ducts. This study demonstrated that altered expression of these TF genes could be associated with hyperglycemia-induced nephropathy and, thus, aids in understanding the molecular drivers, essential genes, and pathways that trigger DN initiation and development

Ethnic-specific association of amylase gene copy number with adiposity traits in a large Middle Eastern biobank

Studies assessing the impact of amylase genes copy number (CN) on adiposity report conflicting findings in different global populations, likely reflecting the impact of ancestral and ethnic-specific environment and lifestyle on selection at the amylase loci. Here, we leverage population size and detailed adiposity measures from a large population biobank to resolve confounding effects and determine the relationship between salivary (AMY1) and pancreatic (AMY2A) amylase genes CN and adiposity in 2935 Qatari individuals who underwent whole-genome sequencing (WGS) as part of the Qatar Genome Programme. We observe a negative association between AMY1 CNs and trunk fat percentage in the Qatari population (P = 7.50 × 10−3) and show that Qataris of Arab descent have significantly lower CN at AMY1 (P = 1.32 × 10−10) as well as less favorable adiposity and metabolic profiles (P Other Information Published in: npj Genomic Medicine License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41525-021-00170-3</p

The link between glycemic control measures and eye microvascular complications in a clinical cohort of type 2 diabetes with microRNA-223-3p signature

Background: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a critical healthcare challenge and priority in Qatar which is listed amongst the top 10 countries in the world, with its prevalence presently at 17% double the global average. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are implicated in the pathogenesis of (T2D) and long-term microvascular complications including diabetic retinopathy (DR). Methods: In this study, a T2D cohort that accurately matches the characteristics of the general population was employed to find microRNA (miRNA) signatures that are correlated with glycemic and β cell function measurements. Targeted miRNA profiling was performed in (471) T2D individuals with or without DR and (491) (non-diabetic) healthy controls from the Qatar Biobank. Discovery analysis identified 20 differentially expressed miRNAs in T2D compared to controls, of which miR-223-3p was significantly upregulated (fold change:5.16, p = 3.6e−02) and positively correlated with glucose and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels (p-value = 9.88e−04 and 1.64e−05, respectively), but did not show any significant associations with insulin or C-peptide. Accordingly, we performed functional validation using a miR-223-3p mimic (overexpression) under control and hyperglycemia-induced conditions in a zebrafish model. Results: Over-expression of miR-223-3p alone was associated with significantly higher glucose (42.7 mg/dL, n = 75 vs 38.7 mg/dL, n = 75, p = 0.02) and degenerated retinal vasculature, and altered retinal morphology involving changes in the ganglion cell layer and inner and outer nuclear layers. Assessment of retinal angiogenesis revealed significant upregulation in the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and its receptors, including kinase insert domain receptor. Further, the pancreatic markers, pancreatic and duodenal homeobox 1, and the insulin gene expressions were upregulated in the miR-223-3p group. Conclusion: Our zebrafish model validates a novel correlation between miR-223-3p and DR development. Targeting miR-223-3p in T2D patients may serve as a promising therapeutic strategy to control DR in at-risk individuals