ETHNOS: A versatile electronic tool for the development and curation of national genetic databases

National and ethnic mutation databases (NEMDBs) are emerging online repositories, recording extensive information about the described genetic heterogeneity of an ethnic group or population. These resources facilitate the provision of genetic services and provide a comprehensive list of genomic variations among different populations. As such, they enhance awareness of the various genetic disorders. Here, we describe the features of the ETHNOS software, a simple but versatile tool based on a flat-file database that is specifically designed for the development and curation of NEMDBs. ETHNOS is a freely available softw

ETHNOS : A versatile electronic tool for the development and curation of national genetic databases.

National and ethnic mutation databases (NEMDBs) are emerging online repositories, recording extensive information about the described genetic heterogeneity of an ethnic group or population. These resources facilitate the provision of genetic services and provide a comprehensive list of genomic variations among different populations. As such, they enhance awareness of the various genetic disorders. Here, we describe the features of the ETHNOS software, a simple but versatile tool based on a flat-file database that is specifically designed for the development and curation of NEMDBs. ETHNOS is a freely available software which runs more than half of the NEMDBs currently available. Given the emerging need for NEMDB in genetic testing services and the fact that ETHNOS is the only off-the-shelf software available for NEMDB development and curation, its adoption in subsequent NEMDB development would contribute towards data content uniformity, unlike the diverse contents and quality of the available gene (locus)-specific databases. Finally, we allude to the potential applications of NEMDBs, not only as worldwide central allele frequency repositories, but also, and most importantly, as data warehouses of individual-level genomic data, hence allowing for a comprehensive ethnicity-specific documentation of genomic variation

4P based forensics investigation framework for smart connected toys

© 2020 ACM. Smart Connected Toys (SCTs) have the potential to collect terabytes of sensitive personal, contextual, and usage information which may be a subject of cybercrime or used as a conduit for cybercrime resulting in a digital forensic investigation which requires the examination of the digital artifact stored, processed or transmitted by the SCT. SCT forensics is challenging in most cases due to non-availability of specialized forensics tools and standardized evidence acquisition interface port. We explore the various privacy and security challenges plaguing the SCT industry and the possible safety risk SCT poses to children as a result of a lack of serious consideration technical controls surrounding the collection, processing, and storage of children\u27s information and possible exposure to crime which will require digital forensic investigation. As a result of this gap in research and industry, we investigate current digital forensic solutions for SCTs and present an abstract forensics investigation framework with the focus on using non-conventional means which allow Investigators to successfully Plan, Preserve Process and Present (4P) as a systematic means to conduct digital forensic analysis on an SCT in a situation where SCT is complicit in a criminal investigation or a subject of crime

Evaluation of the efficacy of moxidectin in a herd of goats after long-standing consistent use

Two trials were carried out in a herd of goats, where moxidectin had been consistently used for a long-standing period, in order to monitor its field efficacy. Trial I was carried out after the drug had been used for 4 years/13 times and trial II after it had been used for 7 years/23 times. In each trial, 90 goats naturally infested with gastrointestinal nematodes were divided into three groups (n = 30) and treated as follows: groups I-A and II-A with moxidectin 1% injectable solution at a dose rate of 0.2 mg kg-1 bodyweight, groups I-B and II-B with moxidectin 0.1% oral drench at a dose rate of 0.2 mg kg-1 bodyweight, groups I-C and II-C were kept as untreated controls. Before treatment, mean faecal epg counts were >350.0 for all groups, whilst 14 days later, mean faecal epg counts were 0.0 for groups I-A, II-A, I-B and II-B (percentage reduction after moxidectin administration 100%); 56 days after treatment, mean faecal epg counts were <30.0 for groups I-A, II-A, I-B and II-B (percentage reduction after moxidectin administration >93.5%). Coprocultures revealed the following genera of nematodes in faecal samples Trichostrongylus spp., Teladorsagia spp., Haemonchus contortus, Chabertia ovina, Oesophagostomum spp. and Bunostomum spp. It is concluded that injectable and oral moxidectin are effective against gastrointestinal nematodes in goats at the dose rate of 0.2 mg kg-1 bodyweight. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Detecting Perturbed Subpathways towards Mouse Lung Regeneration Following H1N1 Influenza Infection

It has already been established by the systems-level approaches that the future of predictive disease biomarkers will not be sketched by plain lists of genes or proteins or other biological entities but rather integrated entities that consider all underlying component relationships. Towards this orientation, early pathway-based approaches coupled expression data with whole pathway interaction topologies but it was the recent approaches that zoomed into subpathways (local areas of the entire biological pathway) that provided more targeted and context-specific candidate disease biomarkers. Here, we explore the application potential of PerSubs, a graph-based algorithm which identifies differentially activated disease-specific subpathways. PerSubs is applicable both for microarray and RNA-Seq data and utilizes the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database as reference for biological pathways. PerSubs operates in two stages: first, identifies differentially expressed genes (or uses any list of disease-related genes) and in second stage, treating each gene of the list as start point, it scans the pathway topology around to build meaningful subpathway topologies. Here, we apply PerSubs to investigate which pathways are perturbed towards mouse lung regeneration following H1N1 influenza infection