When Translation Requires Interpretation: Collaborative Computer--Assisted Translation of Ancient Texts

This paper introduces the main features of Traduco, a Web-based, collaborative Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tool developed to support the translation of ancient texts. In addition to the standard components offered by traditional CAT tools, Traduco includes a number of features designed to ease the translation of ancient texts, such as the Babylonian Talmud, posing specific structural, stylistic, linguistic and hermeneutical challenges

A large scale hearing loss screen reveals an extensive unexplored genetic landscape for auditory dysfunction

The developmental and physiological complexity of the auditory system is likely reflected in the underlying set of genes involved in auditory function. In humans, over 150 non-syndromic loci have been identified, and there are more than 400 human genetic syndromes with a hearing loss component. Over 100 non-syndromic hearing loss genes have been identified in mouse and human, but we remain ignorant of the full extent of the genetic landscape involved in auditory dysfunction. As part of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, we undertook a hearing loss screen in a cohort of 3006 mouse knockout strains. In total, we identify 67 candidate hearing loss genes. We detect known hearing loss genes, but the vast majority, 52, of the candidate genes were novel. Our analysis reveals a large and unexplored genetic landscape involved with auditory function

A pre-tRNA carrying intron features typical of Archaea is spliced in yeast

Archaeal pre-tRNAs are characterized by the presence of the bulge–helix–bulge (BHB) structure in the intron stem-and-loop region. A chimeric pre-tRNA was constructed bearing an intron of the archaeal type and the mature domain of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae suppressor SUP4 tRNA(Tyr). This pre-tRNA(ArchEuka) is correctly cleaved in several cell-free extracts and by purified splicing endonucleases. It is also cleaved and ligated in S. cerevisiae cells, providing efficient suppression of nonsense mutations in various genes

Il messianismo ebraico

Questa raccolta di saggi rappresenta un tentativo di evidenziare e analizzare la peculairità del messianismo ebraico: le sue fonti, la sua storia e i modi diversi e anche contraddittori in cui è stato recepito e attualizzato nel pensiero ebraico del Novecento. Nel Novecento, il messianismo ha svolto spesso una funzione di intensificazione di momenti prettamente filosofici - di filosofia della storia, per esempio - etici e politici, ma raramente, nei diversi pensatori che vi hanno attinto, si riscontra un'analisi approfondita o almeno accurata della tradizione religiosa e testuale da cui l'idea messianica trae origine

Identification of genetic elements in metabolism by high-throughput mouse phenotyping

Metabolic diseases are a worldwide problem but the underlying genetic factors and their relevance to metabolic disease remain incompletely understood. Genome-wide research is needed to characterize so-far unannotated mammalian metabolic genes. Here, we generate and analyze metabolic phenotypic data of 2016 knockout mouse strains under the aegis of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) and find 974 gene knockouts with strong metabolic phenotypes. 429 of those had no previous link to metabolism and 51 genes remain functionally completely unannotated. We compared human orthologues of these uncharacterized genes in five GWAS consortia and indeed 23 candidate genes are associated with metabolic disease. We further identify common regulatory elements in promoters of candidate genes. As each regulatory element is composed of several transcription factor binding sites, our data reveal an extensive metabolic phenotype-associated network of co-regulated genes. Our systematic mouse phenotype analysis thus paves the way for full functional annotation of the genome