Design Of A Web-Based Paper Submission And Reviewing System (PSRS)

Conference planning, organization and administration are very tedious tasks. In most cases the conference programme committee has to convene several meetings where submitted papers (via emails in most cases) are downloaded, discussed and accepted or rejected for presentation at the conference. This paper presents the design of a web-based conference paper management system which facilitates easy and efficient review of technical submissions to conferences. Our proposed system stores authors\' information, abstracts, papers and reviewers\' comments. The process of assignment of papers to reviewers is done using a set of objective parameters to determine the most suitable reviewers for each article. The system also collates camera ready accepted papers to generate conference proceeding for the conference. This work will reduce the amount of paperwork and the need for several meetings by the programme committee thus making conference organization a pleasure. Also the effectiveness of conference organization and management will be substantially improved. Keywords: Conference management, paper submission, paper assignment, web-based development, reviewers\' ranking, ACM Classification: H.3.5 (Web-based services)Global Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences Vol. 14 (3) 2008: pp. 357-36

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics in Nigeria

Over the past few decades, major advances in the field of molecular biology, coupled with advances in genomic technologies, have led to an explosive growth in the biological data generated by the scientific community. The critical need to process and analyze such a deluge of data and turn it into useful knowledge has caused bioinformatics to gain prominence and importance. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary research area that applies techniques, methodologies, and tools in computer and information science to solve biological problems. In Nigeria, bioinformatics has recently played a vital role in the advancement of biological sciences. As a developing country, the importance of bioinformatics is rapidly gaining acceptance, and bioinformatics groups comprised of biologists, computer scientists, and computer engineers are being constituted at Nigerian universities and research institutes. In this article, we present an overview of bioinformatics education and research in Nigeria. We also discuss professional societies and academic and research institutions that play central roles in advancing the discipline in Nigeria. Finally, we propose strategies that can bolster bioinformatics education and support from policy makers in Nigeria, with potential positive implications for other developing countries. © 2014 Fatumo et al.SAF was supported by H3ABioNet NABDA Node, Abuja, Nigeria with NIH Common Fund Award/NHGRI Grant Number U41HG006941 and Genetic Epidemiology Group at Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.Published versio

The trans-ancestral genomic architecture of glycemic traits

Glycemic traits are used to diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic health. To date, most genetic studies of glycemic traits have focused on individuals of European ancestry. Here we aggregated genome-wide association studies comprising up to 281,416 individuals without diabetes (30% non-European ancestry) for whom fasting glucose, 2-h glucose after an oral glucose challenge, glycated hemoglobin and fasting insulin data were available. Trans-ancestry and single-ancestry meta-analyses identified 242 loci (99 novel; P < 5 × 10−8), 80% of which had no significant evidence of between-ancestry heterogeneity. Analyses restricted to individuals of European ancestry with equivalent sample size would have led to 24 fewer new loci. Compared with single-ancestry analyses, equivalent-sized trans-ancestry fine-mapping reduced the number of estimated variants in 99% credible sets by a median of 37.5%. Genomic-feature, gene-expression and gene-set analyses revealed distinct biological signatures for each trait, highlighting different underlying biological pathways. Our results increase our understanding of diabetes pathophysiology by using trans-ancestry studies for improved power and resolution

In-Silico detection of chokepoints enzymes in four plasmodium species

Of the over 156 species of Plasmodium that infect vertebrates, only four infect man: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae. Other species infect other animals including birds, reptiles and rodents. The rodent malariaparasites are Plasmodium berghei, Plasmodium yoelii, Plasmodium chabaudi and Plasmodium vinckei. Since research has shown a high similarity in sequence and properties between human and rodent, we sought to study the likely similar enzymatic pathways between the parasites that infect these two organisms that may be used as drugtargets. The paper therefore, employed a computational biochemical approach to identify some choke points in the four selected species of Plasmodium: two (2) that infect humans and two (2) that infect rodents. These include- P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. berghei and P. chanbaudi respectively. In general, we identified an average of 178 chokepoint enzymes in these Plasmodium species which were common to all of them. Since there were several chokepoints enzymes common to all the species; we hypothesize that the chokepoints which are only common to a particular species could be possible drug targets to the individual parasites

In silicio prediction of antimalarial drug target candidates

AbstractThe need for new antimalarials is persistent due to the emergence of drug resistant parasites. Here we aim to identify new drug targets in Plasmodium falciparum by phylogenomics among the Plasmodium spp. and comparative genomics to Homo sapiens. The proposed target discovery pipeline is largely independent of experimental data and based on the assumption that P. falciparum proteins are likely to be essential if (i) there are no similar proteins in the same proteome and (ii) they are highly conserved across the malaria parasites of mammals. This hypothesis was tested using sequenced Saccharomycetaceae species as a touchstone. Consecutive filters narrowed down the potential target space of P. falciparum to proteins that are likely to be essential, matchless in the human proteome, expressed in the blood stages of the parasite, and amenable to small molecule inhibition. The final set of 40 candidate drug targets was significantly enriched in essential proteins and comprised proven targets (e.g. dihydropteroate synthetase or enzymes of the non-mevalonate pathway), targets currently under investigation (e.g. calcium-dependent protein kinases), and new candidates of potential interest such as phosphomannose isomerase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, signaling components, and transporters. The targets were prioritized based on druggability indices and on the availability of in vitro assays. Potential inhibitors were inferred from similarity to known targets of other disease systems. The identified candidates from P. falciparum provide insight into biochemical peculiarities and vulnerable points of the malaria parasite and might serve as starting points for rational drug discovery