Identification of genomic markers correlated with sensitivity in solid tumors to Dasatinib using sparse principal components

Background: Differential analysis techniques are commonly used to offer scientists a dimension reduction procedure and an interpretable gateway to variable selection, especially when confronting high-dimensional genomic data. Huang et al. used a gene expression profile of breast cancer cell lines to identify genomic markers which are highly correlated with in vitro sensitivity of a drug Dasatinib. They considered three statistical methods to identify differentially expressed genes and finally used the results from the intersection. But the statistical methods that are used in the paper are not sufficient to select the genomic markers. Methods: In this paper we used three alternative statistical methods to select a combined list of genomic markers and compared the genes that were proposed by Huang et al. We then proposed to use sparse principal component analysis (PCA) to identify a final list of genomic markers. The sparse PCA incorporates correlation into account among the genes and helps to draw a successful genomic markers discovery. Results: We present a new and a small set of genomic markers to separate out the groups of patients effectively who are sensitive to the drug Dasatinib. The analysis procedure will also encourage scientists in identifying genomic markers that can help to separate out two groups

Insight review on impact of infrastructural development in driving the SDGs in developing nations: a case study of Nigeria

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize the dominance of infrastructure as a panacea for the nation’s development to improve the quality of people’s lives. In Nigeria, inadequate infrastructure has impaired the prospect of attaining some of these SDGs. Some of the identified barriers causing the poor implementations of SDGs in Nigeria include poverty, poor accountability, inadequate domestic water supply, poor energy supply, poor human capital development initiatives, poor transportation and telecommunication networks, illiteracy level, and environmental degradation. But while the SDGs are a non-enforced agreement, the way and manner of implementation and the conditions under which the state acts in accordance with the agenda were not properly spelled out. However, the success of the SDGs in Nigeria requires commitment from government at all levels to provide adequate funding, financial prudence, stable polity, sound policies, availability of functional infrastructural facilities and ensuring value for money. This will result in achieved opportunities such as the establishment of new businesses, boosting of employment rate, ample growth opportunities, enhance riskadjusted financial returns to investors, an increase in the rate of youth and adults in formal education and non-formal education, and promoting environment friendliness. This review further recommends that government should address the challenges faced in the area of power, telecommunication, corruption and access to agrarian areas in the country in order to have an inclusive infrastructural development that is positively driving growth. Moreover, assessment of projects should include initial capital investment, operational cost, maintenance, and disposal of the asset which will guarantee more sustainable infrastructure projects that are likely to perform much better through the lifecycle. Thus, successfully achieving the SDGs must involve innovative approaches to infrastructure financing and sustainable public procurement