Erratum: Sequence data and association statistics from 12,940 type 2 diabetes cases and controls.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2017.179

Genome-Wide Association Study in East Asians Identifies Novel Susceptibility Loci for Breast Cancer

Genetic factors play an important role in the etiology of both sporadic and familial breast cancer. We aimed to discover novel genetic susceptibility loci for breast cancer. We conducted a four-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 19,091 cases and 20,606 controls of East-Asian descent including Chinese, Korean, and Japanese women. After analyzing 690,947 SNPs in 2,918 cases and 2,324 controls, we evaluated 5,365 SNPs for replication in 3,972 cases and 3,852 controls. Ninety-four SNPs were further evaluated in 5,203 cases and 5,138 controls, and finally the top 22 SNPs were investigated in up to 17,423 additional subjects (7,489 cases and 9,934 controls). SNP rs9485372, near the TGF-β activated kinase (TAB2) gene in chromosome 6q25.1, showed a consistent association with breast cancer risk across all four stages, with a P-value of 3.8×10−12 in the combined analysis of all samples. Adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 0.89 (0.85–0.94) and 0.80 (0.75–0.86) for the A/G and A/A genotypes, respectively, compared with the genotype G/G. SNP rs9383951 (P = 1.9×10−6 from the combined analysis of all samples), located in intron 5 of the ESR1 gene, and SNP rs7107217 (P = 4.6×10−7), located at 11q24.3, also showed a consistent association in each of the four stages. This study provides strong evidence for a novel breast cancer susceptibility locus represented by rs9485372, near the TAB2 gene (6q25.1), and identifies two possible susceptibility loci located in the ESR1 gene and 11q24.3, respectively

Student Learning Experience and Student Retention Strategies: A Transformative Approach to Quality Education

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on quality education emphasizes that reducing disparities and inequalities related to the provision of primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Generally, the higher education institutions are using both business and corporate-level strategies to reach out to face-to-face, blended, and online learning students. Against this backdrop, this study argues that to increase student retention rates in the higher education institutions, and provide higher education that enables individuals to become lifelong learners, the following retention strategies can be implemented– (1) Academic Support Programs, (2) Provision of Capable Resources, (3) high quality of instruction delivery, (4) Provision of scholarships and subsidizing higher education fees

Quantitative mass spectrometry of DENV-2 RNA-interacting proteins reveals that the DEAD-box RNA helicase DDX6 binds the DB1 and DB2 3′ UTR structures

Dengue virus (DENV) is a rapidly re-emerging flavivirus that causes dengue fever (DF), dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS), diseases for which there are no available therapies or vaccines. The DENV-2 positive-strand RNA genome contains 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs) that have been shown to form secondary structures required for virus replication and interaction with host cell proteins. In order to comprehensively identify host cell factors that bind the DENV-2 UTRs, we performed RNA chromatography, using the DENV-2 5′ and 3′ UTRs as “bait”, combined with quantitative mass spectrometry. We identified several proteins, including DDX6, G3BP1, G3BP2, Caprin1 and USP10, implicated in P body (PB) and stress granule (SG) function, and not previously known to bind DENV RNAs. Indirect immunofluorescence microscopy showed these proteins to colocalize with the DENV replication complex. Moreover, DDX6 knockdown resulted in reduced amounts of infectious particles and viral RNA in tissue culture supernatants following DENV infection. DDX6 interacted with DENV RNA in vivo during infection and in vitro this interaction was mediated by the DB1 and DB2 structures in the 3′ UTR, possibly by formation of a pseudoknot structure. Additional experiments demonstrate that, in contrast to DDX6, the SG proteins G3BP1, G3BP2, Caprin1 and USP10 bind to the variable region (VR) in the 3′ UTR. These results suggest that the DENV-2 3′ UTR is a site for assembly of PB and SG proteins and, for DDX6, assembly on the 3′ UTR is required for DENV replication