GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR ASSESSMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS ON TEFF IN ETHIOPIA

The value of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for assessing climate change impacts on crop productivity cannot be over-emphasised. This study evaluated a GIS based methodology for teff (Eragrostis tef) production in Ethiopia. We examined the spatial implications of climate change on areas suitable for teff, and estimated the effects of altered environments on teff\u2019s productivity. There was a non-linear relationship between suitability indices, the output of spatial analysis and teff yield data collected from diverse ecological zones. This served as the basis for country-wide crop yield analysis for both current and future climate scenarios. To complement this effort, a socio-economic survey was carried with a thrust of understanding the agricultural activities in the study area. With the current climatic conditions, 87.7% of Ethiopia is suitable for teff. On the other hand, approximately 67.7% of Ethiopia is expected to be suitable for teff production by 2050. Suitability index (SI) and the actual crop yield data showed a strong positive correlation (r = 74%). There is a predicted severe drop in teff yield (-0.46 t ha-1) by the year 2050. Based on the current area under teff in Ethiopia, this equals an overall reduction in national production of about 1,190,784.12 t, equivalent to a loss of US$ 651 million to farmers. The results indicate that crop yield varied significantly as a function of climatic variation and that the model is applicable in assessing the impact of climate change on crop productivity at various levels taking into consideration spatial variability of climate.On ne saurait trop insister sur la valeur des Syst\ue8mes d\u2019Information G\ue9ographiques (SIG) pour l\u2019\ue9valuation d\u2019impacts des changements climatiques sur les rendements des cultures. Cette \ue9tude a \ue9t\ue9 men\ue9e pour \ue9valuer en utilisant le SIG la production du teff (Eragrostis tef) en Ethiopie. L\u2019investigation a port\ue9 sur les implications spatiales du changement climatique sur les zones favorables \ue0 la culture du teff en Ethiopie et l\u2019estimation des effets des changements environementaux sur la productivit\ue9 du teff. L\u2019\ue9tude a r\ue9v\ue9l\ue9 une relation non lin\ue9aire entre les indices de convenance et les r\ue9sultats de l\u2019analyse spatiale et des rendements de la culture de teff dans diff\ue9rentes zones agro-\ue9cologiques. Ceci a servi de base \ue0 l\u2019analyse des rendements des cultures dans tout le pays pour le pr\ue9sent et les futurs scenarios de changement climatique. En compl\ue9ment \ue0 cet effort, une enqu\ueate socio\ue9conomique \ue9tait conduite pour comprendre le d\ue9roulement des activit\ue9s agricoles dans la zone d\u2019\ue9tude. Sous les conditions climatiques actuelles, 87.7% de l\u2019Ethiopie convient pour le teff. D\u2019autre part, il est pr\ue9dit qu\u2019environ 67.7% de l\u2019Ethiopie seront encore faborable \ue0 la culture du teff en 2050. L\u2019indice de convenance et les donn\ue9es de rendements actuels ont montr\ue9 une forte corr\ue9lation positive (r = 74%). Par ailleurs, une diminution sensible de rendement du teff (-0.46 t ha-1) a \ue9t\ue9 pr\ue9dite pour l\u2019an 2050. Sur base de la superficie actuelle sous culture de teff en Ethiopie, cette chute de rendement correspond \ue0 une r\ue9duction de la production nationale d\u2019environ 1.190.784,12 t \ue9quivalents \ue0 une perte de 651 millions de dollars pour les producteurs. Ces r\ue9sultats indiquent que les rendements des cultures ont vari\ue9 significativement en fonction de la variation climatique et que le mod\ue8le est applicable dans le cas de l\u2019\ue9valuation de l\u2019impact du changement climatique sur la productivit\ue9 des cultures \ue0 diff\ue9rents niveaux consid\ue9rant les variabilit\ue9s spatiales du climat

KIAA0101 Is Overexpressed, and Promotes Growth and Invasion in Adrenal Cancer

Background: KIAA0101 is a proliferating cell nuclear antigen-associated factor that is overexpressed in some human malignancies. Adrenocortical neoplasm is one of the most common human neoplasms for which the molecular causes are poorly understood. Moreover, it is difficult to distinguish between localized benign and malignant adrenocortical tumors. For these reasons, we studied the expression, function and possible mechanism of dysregulation of KIAA0101 in human adrenocortical neoplasm. Methodology/Principal Findings: KIAA0101 mRNA and protein expression levels were determined in 112 adrenocortical tissue samples (21 normal adrenal cortex, 80 benign adrenocortical tumors, and 11 adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). SiRNA knockdown was used to determine the functional role of KIAA0101 on cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, soft agar anchorage independent growth and invasion in the ACC cell line, NCI-H295R. In addition, we explored the mechanism of KIAA0101 dysregulation by examining the mutational status. KIAA0101 mRNA (9.7 fold) and protein expression were significantly higher in ACC (p,0.0001). KIAA0101 had sparse protein expression in only a few normal adrenal cortex samples, which was confined to adrenocortical progenitor cells. KIAA0101 expression levels were 84 % accurate for distinguishing between ACC and normal and benign adrenocortical tumor samples. Knockdown of KIAA0101 gene expression significantly decreased anchorage independent growth by 80 % and invasion by 60 % (p = 0.001; p = 0.006). W

Traditional medicinal plant knowledge and use by local healers in Sekoru District, Jimma Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia

The knowledge and use of medicinal plant species by traditional healers was investigated in Sekoru District, Jimma Zone, Southwestern Ethiopia from December 2005 to November 2006. Traditional healers of the study area were selected randomly and interviewed with the help of translators to gather information on the knowledge and use of medicinal plants used as a remedy for human ailments in the study area. In the current study, it was reported that 27 plant species belonging to 27 genera and 18 families were commonly used to treat various human ailments. Most of these species (85.71%) were wild and harvested mainly for their leaves (64.52%). The most cited ethnomedicinal plant species was Alysicarpus quartinianus A. Rich., whose roots and leaves were reported by traditional healers to be crushed in fresh and applied as a lotion on the lesions of patients of Abiato (Shererit). No significant correlation was observed between the age of traditional healers and the number of species reported and the indigenous knowledge transfer was found to be similar. More than one medicinal plant species were used more frequently than the use of a single species for remedy preparations. Plant parts used for remedy preparations showed significant difference with medicinal plant species abundance in the study area

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Challenges and Pitfalls in the Management of Parathyroid Carcinoma: 17-Year Follow-Up of a Case and Review of the Literature

A 29-year-old man presented to his primary care physician with nausea, severe weight loss and muscle weakness. He had a hard, fixed neck swelling. He was severely hypercalcaemic with 10-fold increased parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentrations. A diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism was established and the patient was referred for parathyroidectomy. At neck exploration, an enlarged parathyroid gland with invasive growth into the thyroid gland was found and removed, lymph nodes were cleared and hemithyroidectomy was performed. A suspected diagnosis of parathyroid carcinoma was confirmed histologically. Serum calcium and PTH levels normalised post-operatively, but hyperparathyroidism recurred within 3 years of surgery. Over the following 17 years, control of hypercalcaemia represented the most difficult challenge despite variable success achieved with repeated surgical interventions, embolisations, radiofrequency ablation of metastases and treatment with calcimimetics, bisphosphonates and haemodialysis using low-dialysate calcium. In this paper, we report the challenges and pitfalls we encountered in the management of our patient over nearly two decades of follow-up and review recent literature on the topic

PIK3CA Mutations Frequently Coexist with RAS and BRAF Mutations in Patients with Advanced Cancers

Oncogenic mutations of PIK3CA, RAS (KRAS, NRAS), and BRAF have been identified in various malignancies, and activate the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and RAS/RAF/MEK pathways, respectively. Both pathways are critical drivers of tumorigenesis.Tumor tissues from 504 patients with diverse cancers referred to the Clinical Center for Targeted Therapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center starting in October 2008 were analyzed for PIK3CA, RAS (KRAS, NRAS), and BRAF mutations using polymerase chain reaction-based DNA sequencing.PIK3CA mutations were found in 54 (11%) of 504 patients tested; KRAS in 69 (19%) of 367; NRAS in 19 (8%) of 225; and BRAF in 31 (9%) of 361 patients. PIK3CA mutations were most frequent in squamous cervical (5/14, 36%), uterine (7/28, 25%), breast (6/29, 21%), and colorectal cancers (18/105, 17%); KRAS in pancreatic (5/9, 56%), colorectal (49/97, 51%), and uterine cancers (3/20, 15%); NRAS in melanoma (12/40, 30%), and uterine cancer (2/11, 18%); BRAF in melanoma (23/52, 44%), and colorectal cancer (5/88, 6%). Regardless of histology, KRAS mutations were found in 38% of patients with PIK3CA mutations compared to 16% of patients with wild-type (wt)PIK3CA (p = 0.001). In total, RAS (KRAS, NRAS) or BRAF mutations were found in 47% of patients with PIK3CA mutations vs. 24% of patients wtPIK3CA (p = 0.001). PIK3CA mutations were found in 28% of patients with KRAS mutations compared to 10% with wtKRAS (p = 0.001) and in 20% of patients with RAS (KRAS, NRAS) or BRAF mutations compared to 8% with wtRAS (KRAS, NRAS) or wtBRAF (p = 0.001).PIK3CA, RAS (KRAS, NRAS), and BRAF mutations are frequent in diverse tumors. In a wide variety of tumors, PIK3CA mutations coexist with RAS (KRAS, NRAS) and BRAF mutations

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin