Data provision in the games industry in Scotland

This project was initiated to explore data-related issues in Scotland’s games industry, an area that has been subject to debate within industry and government. The importance of Scotland’s games industry has been highlighted by both industry and government organisations in Scotland and the UK. The industry’s success is recognised both nationally and internationally and has been used in various guises to promote Scotland, recruit talent and attract inward investment. However, despite this level of interest and visibility, questions have been raised about how accurately the industry is portrayed given some issues with accuracy, availability and relevance of data about the games industry in Scotland. Industry practitioners, support agencies, public bodies and academic organisations have expressed data-related issues in various forums including committee hearings held by the Scottish and UK governments. While data about the industry do exist, there appears to be a lack of accessible public data that can provide the requisite detail, and limited integration of that data which are available. Such issues can negatively impact on decision-making by policy-makers and industry. For example, the 2015 enquiry by the Scottish Government’s Economic Environment and Tourism Committee indicated that a lack of such data resulted in difficulties identifying the economic impact of Scotland’s games industry

Data provision in the games industry in Scotland

This project was initiated to explore data-related issues in Scotland’s games industry, an area that has been subject to debate within industry and government. The importance of Scotland’s games industry has been highlighted by both industry and government organisations in Scotland and the UK. The industry’s success is recognised both nationally and internationally and has been used in various guises to promote Scotland, recruit talent and attract inward investment. However, despite this level of interest and visibility, questions have been raised about how accurately the industry is portrayed given some issues with accuracy, availability and relevance of data about the games industry in Scotland. Industry practitioners, support agencies, public bodies and academic organisations have expressed data-related issues in various forums including committee hearings held by the Scottish and UK governments. While data about the industry do exist, there appears to be a lack of accessible public data that can provide the requisite detail, and limited integration of that data which are available. Such issues can negatively impact on decision-making by policy-makers and industry. For example, the 2015 enquiry by the Scottish Government’s Economic Environment and Tourism Committee indicated that a lack of such data resulted in difficulties identifying the economic impact of Scotland’s games industry

Influence of Solvent and Molecular Weight in Wrinkle Formation in Spin-cast Polystyrene Thin Films

The surface morphology of polystyrene thin films formed from various molecular weight polystyrene and solvent conditions is studied. When spin-cast from tetrahydrofuran (THF) wrinkles are formed at the extremities that have periodicity with wavelengths in the μm range and amplitudes in the nm range but varies with molecular weight. A mixed solvent system consisting of THF and dimethylformamide (DMF) leads to periodic structures only with THF-rich compositions. THF and DMF have similar properties relevant to spin-casting: density, surface tension, molecular weight, and viscosity but different boiling points and room temperature vapor pressures, demonstrating that formation periodicity requires a volatile solvent. The formation of the surface structures is attributed to the Marangoni effect and the film thicknesses and wave parameters are shown to be consistent with literature models

Within- and across-breed imputation of high-density genotypes in dairy and beef cattle from medium- and low-density genotypes

peer-reviewedFinancial support of the Irish Department of Agriculture Research Stimulus Fund (RSF-06-0353; RSF-06-0428; 11/SF/311), Science Foundation Ireland (09/IN.1/B2642) and the Irish dairy and beef industry are gratefully acknowledged.The objective of this study was to evaluate, using three different genotype density panels, the accuracy of imputation from lower- to higher-density genotypes in dairy and beef cattle. High-density genotypes consisting of 777 962 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were available on 3122 animals comprised of 269, 196, 710, 234, 719, 730 and 264 Angus, Belgian Blue, Charolais, Hereford, Holstein-Friesian, Limousin and Simmental bulls, respectively. Three different genotype densities were generated: low density (LD; 6501 autosomal SNPs), medium density (50K; 47 770 autosomal SNPs) and high density (HD; 735 151 autosomal SNPs). Imputation from lower- to higher-density genotype platforms was undertaken within and across breeds exploiting population-wide linkage disequilibrium. The mean allele concordance rate per breed from LD to HD when undertaken using a single breed or multiple breed reference population varied from 0.956 to 0.974 and from 0.947 to 0.967, respectively. The mean allele concordance rate per breed from 50K to HD when undertaken using a single breed or multiple breed reference population varied from 0.987 to 0.994 and from 0.987 to 0.993, respectively. The accuracy of imputation was generally greater when the reference population was solely comprised of the breed to be imputed compared to when the reference population comprised of multiple breeds, although the impactDepartment of Agriculture, Food and the MarineScience Foundation Irelan

BacillOndex: An Integrated Data Resource for Systems and Synthetic Biology

BacillOndex is an extension of the Ondex data integration system, providing a semantically annotated, integrated knowledge base for the model Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis. This application allows a user to mine a variety of B. subtilis data sources, and analyse the resulting integrated dataset, which contains data about genes, gene products and their interactions. The data can be analysed either manually, by browsing using Ondex, or computationally via a Web services interface. We describe the process of creating a BacillOndex instance, and describe the use of the system for the analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms in B. subtilis Marburg. The Marburg strain is the progenitor of the widely-used laboratory strain B. subtilis 168. We identified 27 SNPs with predictable phenotypic effects, including genetic traits for known phenotypes. We conclude that BacillOndex is a valuable tool for the systems-level investigation of, and hypothesis generation about, this important biotechnology workhorse. Such understanding contributes to our ability to construct synthetic genetic circuits in this organism

Antiproliferative Factor-Induced Changes in Phosphorylation and Palmitoylation of Cytoskeleton-Associated Protein-4 Regulate Its Nuclear Translocation and DNA Binding

Cytoskeleton-associated protein 4 (CKAP4) is a reversibly palmitoylated and phosphorylated transmembrane protein that functions as a high-affinity receptor for antiproliferative factor (APF)—a sialoglycopeptide secreted from bladder epithelial cells of patients with interstitial cystitis (IC). Palmitoylation of CKAP4 by the palmitoyl acyltransferase, DHHC2, is required for its cell surface localization and subsequent APF signal transduction; however, the mechanism for APF signal transduction by CKAP4 is unknown. In this paper, we demonstrate that APF treatment induces serine phosphorylation of residues S3, S17, and S19 of CKAP4 and nuclear translocation of CKAP4. Additionally, we demonstrate that CKAP4 binds gDNA in a phosphorylation-dependent manner in response to APF treatment, and that a phosphomimicking, constitutively nonpalmitoylated form of CKAP4 localizes to the nucleus, binds DNA, and mimics the inhibitory effects of APF on cellular proliferation. These results reveal a novel role for CKAP4 as a downstream effecter for APF signal transduction

Effect of visual feedback on the occipital-parietal-motor network in Parkinson's disease with freezing of gait.

Freezing of gait (FOG) is an elusive phenomenon that debilitates a large number of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients regardless of stage of disease, medication status, or deep brain stimulation implantation. Sensory feedback cues, especially visual feedback cues, have been shown to alleviate FOG episodes or even prevent episodes from occurring. Here, we examine cortical information flow between occipital, parietal, and motor areas during the pre-movement stage of gait in a PD-with-FOG patient that had a strong positive behavioral response to visual cues, one PD-with-FOG patient without any behavioral response to visual cues, and age-matched healthy controls, before and after training with visual feedback. Results for this case study show differences in cortical information flow between the responding PD-with-FOG patient and the other two subject types, notably, an increased information flow in the beta range. Tentatively suggesting the formation of an alternative cortical sensory-motor pathway during training with visual feedback, these results are proposed as subject for further verification employing larger cohorts of patients