Genomic copy number variation in Mus musculus.

BACKGROUND: Copy number variation is an important dimension of genetic diversity and has implications in development and disease. As an important model organism, the mouse is a prime candidate for copy number variant (CNV) characterization, but this has yet to be completed for a large sample size. Here we report CNV analysis of publicly available, high-density microarray data files for 351 mouse tail samples, including 290 mice that had not been characterized for CNVs previously. RESULTS: We found 9634 putative autosomal CNVs across the samples affecting 6.87% of the mouse reference genome. We find significant differences in the degree of CNV uniqueness (single sample occurrence) and the nature of CNV-gene overlap between wild-caught mice and classical laboratory strains. CNV-gene overlap was associated with lipid metabolism, pheromone response and olfaction compared to immunity, carbohydrate metabolism and amino-acid metabolism for wild-caught mice and classical laboratory strains, respectively. Using two subspecies of wild-caught Mus musculus, we identified putative CNVs unique to those subspecies and show this diversity is better captured by wild-derived laboratory strains than by the classical laboratory strains. A total of 9 genic copy number variable regions (CNVRs) were selected for experimental confirmation by droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). CONCLUSION: The analysis we present is a comprehensive, genome-wide analysis of CNVs in Mus musculus, which increases the number of known variants in the species and will accelerate the identification of novel variants in future studies

Malignant Tumors of the Central Nervous System

Malignant tumors of the central nervous system in adults comprise a heterogeneous group of malignancies, the largest subgroups comprising astrocytomas, ependymomas, and oligodendrogliomas. Glioblastomas are the most common tumor type, and they have dismal prognosis. Due to differences in cell type of origin, as well as pathogenesis, it is plausible that their etiology also differs between tumor types. The etiology of malignant CNS tumors is largely unknown and no occupational risk factors have been definitively identified. High doses of ionizing radiation increase the risk, but in occupational settings the dose levels appear too small to result in discernible excesses. Several studies have assessed possible effect of extremely low frequency and radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, but the results are inconsistent. Increased brain tumor risk has been reported in agricultural workers, but no specific exposure has been linked to them. Pesticides have been analyzed in several studies without showing a clear increase in risk.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Private state in public media : potential subjective elements in french-speaking (online) news

Digital media have come to constitute an inherent part of the nowadays mass media universe. In the context of the Web 2.0, legacy journalism has to face competing products which become more and more important in the public news reception. This thesis presents an investigation of the language use in legacy news and digital media, elucidating the pivotal question whether the expression of private state is similar (or not) in traditional and participatory media, and in different types of participatory media, i.e. citizen press and network journalism. Every news medium is linked to a given image or association, established by stereotypes of its journalists, the readership, and a particular news style. Therefore, it was assumed that private states are expressed differently in the three media, and that authorial presence and evaluative language use distinguish media from one another. Following a discourse analytic research angle by means of a corpus linguistic approach, including quantitative and qualitative sample analyses, the study investigated different types of potential subjective elements, i.e., linguistic means which can be used to express private states in a rather implicit, objective seeming way.(LALE - Langues et lettres) -- UCL, 201