Two diametric paradigms have been proposed to model the molecular co-evolution of microbial mutualists and their eukaryotic hosts. In one, mutualist and host exhibit an antagonistic arms race and each partner evolves rapidly to maximize their own fitness from the interaction at potential expense of the other. In the opposing model, conflicts between mutualist and host are largely resolved and the interaction is characterized by evolutionary stasis. We tested these opposing frameworks in two lineages of mutualistic rhizobia, Sinorhizobium fredii and Bradyrhizobium japonicum. To examine genes demonstrably important for host-interactions we coupled the mining of genome sequences to a comprehensive functional screen for type III effector genes, which are necessary for many Gram-negative pathogens to infect their hosts. We demonstrate that the rhizobial type III effector genes exhibit a surprisingly high degree of conservation in content and sequence that is in contrast to those of a well characterized plant pathogenic species. This type III effector gene conservation is particularly striking in the context of the relatively high genome-wide diversity of rhizobia. The evolution of rhizobial type III effectors is inconsistent with the molecular arms race paradigm. Instead, our results reveal that these loci are relatively static in rhizobial lineages and suggest that fitness conflicts between rhizobia mutualists and their host plants have been largely resolved.

Author Summary

Rhizobia are an important group of bacteria that can enter into mutually beneficial symbiotic interactions with legume plants to fix atmospheric nitrogen. However, in order to do so, a complex dialog involving the exchange of chemical and molecular signals must occur between partners. Some species of beneficial rhizobia employ a type III secretion system, a well-characterized virulence mechanism used by pathogens to inject bacterial-encoded type III effector proteins directly into host cells to coerce the host into accommodating the microbe. In this study, we generated draft genome sequences and employed computational as well as experimental methods to identify type III effectors from eight strains representing Sinorhizobium fredii and Bradyrhizobium japonicum. We demonstrate that the type III effector genes of these rhizobial species are highly conserved in content with little diversity between strains. This work is an important step towards understanding the roles for type III secretion systems and their effectors in mutualistic interactions.

Background

Zinc finger, DHHC-type containing 2 (ZDHHC2), originally named as reduced expression associated with metastasis protein (REAM), has been proposed as a putative tumor/metastasis suppressor gene and is often aberrantly decreased in human cancers. However ZDHHC2 expression pattern and its clinical significance have not yet been investigated in gastric adenocarcinoma.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunostaining were performed to detect ZDHHC2 expression in gastric adenocarcinoma, and then the correlation between ZDHHC2 expression and clinicpathologic parameters, and patient survival was analyzed. Compared to the adjacent normal tissues, ZDHHC2 expression was significantly reduced in gastric tumor tissues as shown by qRT-PCR and immunostaining. Low expression of ZDHHC2 was observed in 44.7% (211/472) of gastric adenocarcinoma patients, and was associated significantly with lymph node metastasis (p<0.001) and histological grade (p<0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that ZDHHC2 expression had a significant, independent predictive value for survival of gastric cancer patients (HR = 0.627, p = 0.001).

Conclusions/Significance

Our data suggest that reduced ZDHHC2 expression is associated with lymph node metastasis and independently predicts an unfavorable prognosis in gastric adenocarcinoma patients.

Recent advances in whole genome sequencing have brought the vision of personal genomics and genomic medicine closer to reality. However, current methods lack clinical accuracy and the ability to describe the context (haplotypes) in which genome variants co-occur in a cost-effective manner. Here we describe a low-cost DNA sequencing and haplotyping process, Long Fragment Read (LFR) technology, similar to sequencing long single DNA molecules without cloning or separation of metaphase chromosomes. In this study, ten LFR libraries were made using only ~100 pg of human DNA per sample. Up to 97% of the heterozygous single nucleotide variants (SNVs) were assembled into long haplotype contigs. Removal of false positive SNVs not phased by multiple LFR haplotypes resulted in a final genome error rate of 1 in 10 Mb. Cost-effective and accurate genome sequencing and haplotyping from 10-20 human cells, as demonstrated here, will enable comprehensive genetic studies and diverse clinical applications.

Identifying the risk factors for comorbidity is important in psychiatric research. Empirically, studies have shown that testing multiple, correlated traits simultaneously is more powerful than testing a single trait at a time in association analysis. Furthermore, for complex diseases, especially mental illnesses and behavioral disorders, the traits are often recorded in different scales such as dichotomous, ordinal and quantitative. In the absence of covariates, nonparametric association tests have been developed for multiple complex traits to study comorbidity. However, genetic studies generally contain measurements of some covariates that may affect the relationship between the risk factors of major interest (such as genes) and the outcomes. While it is relatively easy to adjust these covariates in a parametric model for quantitative traits, it is challenging for multiple complex traits with possibly different scales. In this article, we propose a nonparametric test for multiple complex traits that can adjust for covariate effects. The test aims to achieve an optimal scheme of adjustment by using a maximum statistic calculated from multiple adjusted test statistics. We derive the asymptotic null distribution of the maximum test statistic, and also propose a resampling approach, both of which can be used to assess the significance of our test. Simulations are conducted to compare the type I error and power of the nonparametric adjusted test to the unadjusted test and other existing adjusted tests. The empirical results suggest that our proposed test increases the power through adjustment for covariates when there exist environmental effects, and is more robust to model misspecifications than some existing parametric adjusted tests. We further demonstrate the advantage of our test by analyzing a data set on genetics of alcoholism.

Background

The increase in urban migrants is one of major challenges for tuberculosis control in China. The different characteristics of tuberculosis cases between urban migrants and local residents in China have not been investigated before.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We performed a retrospective study of all pulmonary tuberculosis patients reported in Songjiang district, Shanghai, to determine the demographic, clinical and microbiological characteristics of tuberculosis cases between urban migrants and local residents. We calculated the odds ratios (OR) and performed multivariate logistic regression to identify the characteristics that were independently associated with tuberculosis among urban migrants. A total of 1,348 pulmonary tuberculosis cases were reported during 2006–2008, among whom 440 (32.6%) were local residents and 908 (67.4%) were urban migrants. Urban migrant (38.9/100,000 population) had higher tuberculosis rates than local residents (27.8/100,000 population), and the rates among persons younger than age 35 years were 3 times higher among urban migrants than among local residents. Younger age (adjusted OR per additional year at risk = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.91–0.94, p<0.001), poor treatment outcome (adjusted OR = 4.12, 95% CI: 2.65–5.72, p<0.001), and lower frequency of any comorbidity at diagnosis (adjusted OR = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.13–0.26, p = 0.013) were significantly associated with tuberculosis patients among urban migrants. There were poor treatment outcomes among urban migrants, mainly from transfers to another jurisdiction (19.3% of all tuberculosis patients among urban migrants).

Conclusions/Significance

A considerable proportion of tuberculosis cases in Songjiang district, China, during 2006–2008 occurred among urban migrants. Our findings highlight the need to develop and implement specific tuberculosis control strategies for urban migrants, such as more exhaustive case finding, improved case management and follow-up, and use of directly observed therapy (DOT).

Background

Giving cigarettes as gifts is a common practice in China, but there have been few systematic studies of this practice. The present study was designed to estimate the incidence of receiving cigarettes as gifts, correlates of this practice, and its impact on brand selection in a representative sample of urban adult smokers in China.

Methods

Data were analyzed from Wave 2 of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) China Survey, where 4843 adult urban smokers were interviewed in six major Chinese cities between October 2007 and January 2008. The incidence of most recent cigarette acquisition due to gifting and the prevalence of preferred brand selection due to having received it as a gift were estimated. Bivariate and adjusted logistic regression models were estimated to identify factors associated with these two outcomes.

Results

The incidence of receiving cigarettes as a gift at most recent cigarette acquisition was 3.5%. Smokers who received these gifted cigarettes were more likely to be female, older, have higher educational attainment, live in Beijing, and smoke fewer cigarettes per day. The prevalence of choosing one’s preferred brand due to having received it as a gift was 7.0%, and this was more likely among smokers who lived in Beijing and Guangzhou, had lower educational attainment, smoked less frequently, and had smoked their preferred brand for less than one year.

Conclusions

The 3.5% incidence of one’s most recent cigarette acquisition due to gifting is consistent with prevalence estimates based on longer reference periods and translates into the average smoker receiving a gift of cigarettes approximately five times a year. Gifting also appears to have a significant influence on brand preference. Tobacco control interventions in China may need to denormalize the practice of giving cigarettes as gifts in order to decrease the social acceptability of smoking.

Due to the emergence of drug-resistance, first-line therapy with fluconazole (FLC) increasingly resulted in clinical failure for the treatment of candidemia. Our previous studies found that in vitro RTA2 was involved in the calcineurin-mediated resistance to FLC in C. albicans. In this study, we found that calcium-activated-calcineurin significantly reduced the in vitro sensitivity of C. albicans to FLC by blocking the impairment of FLC to the plasma membrane via Rta2p. Furthermore, we found that RTA2 itself was not involved in C. albicans virulence, but the disruption of RTA2 dramatically increased the therapeutic efficacy of FLC in a murine model of systemic candidiasis. Conversely, both re-introduction of one RTA2 allele and ectopic expression of RTA2 significantly reduced FLC efficacy in a mammalian host. Finally, we found that calcium-activated-calcineurin, through its target Rta2p, dramatically reduced the efficacy of FLC against candidemia. Given the critical roles of Rta2p in controlling the efficacy of FLC, Rta2p can be a potential drug target for antifungal therapies.

Background

Approximately 30 sex-chromosome discordant chimera cases have been reported to date, of which only four cases carried trisomy 21. Here, we present an additional case, an aborted fetus with a karyotype of 47,XX, +21/46,XY.

Case presentation

Autopsy demonstrated that this fetus was normally developed and had male genitalia. Major characteristics of Down syndrome were not observed except an enlarged gap between the first and second toes. Karyotyping of tissues cultured from the fetus revealed the same chimeric chromosomal composition detected in the amniotic fluid but with a different ratio of [47,XX,+21] to [46,XY]. Further short tandem repeat analysis indicated a double paternal contribution and single maternal contribution to the fetus, with the additional chromosome 21 in the [47,XX,+21] cell lineage originating from the paternal side.

Conclusion

We thus propose that this chimeric fetus was formed via the dispermic fertilization of a parthenogenetic ovum with one (Y) sperm and one (X,+21) sperm.

Dysregulation of mechanisms that govern the control of epithelial cell polarity, morphology and plasticity are emerging as key processes in tumor progression. In this study we report amplification and overexpression of PAR6B, an essential component in epithelial cell tight junction (TJ) formation and maintenance of apico-basal polarity, in breast cancer cell lines. Analysis of chromosome 20q13.13 in 11 breast cancer cell lines by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) identified a novel small amplicon centered at PARD6B in 5 cell lines, with copy number ranging from 7 to 27. The presence of the PARD6B amplicon correlated with PARD6B transcript and PAR6B protein abundance. Expression of related isoforms PARD6A and PARD6G were detectable at significantly lower levels. PARD6B overexpression correlated with TJ network formation in cultured cell monolayers. SiRNA-mediated inhibition of PAR6B in MCF7 resulted in loss of TJ assembly and membrane localization of atypical PKCζ (aPKC), but did not affect adherens junction formation. SiRNA-mediated inhibition of CDC42 in MCF7 also resulted in loss of TJ networks, confirming the requirement of a complete PAR6-aPKC-CDC42-PAR3 complex to activate and stabilize TJs. Immunohistochemical analysis of PAR6B expression on breast tumor microarrays indicated exquisite epithelial cell-specificity. Few quantitative differences in staining were observed between normal epithelium and adjacent tumor margins. However staining appeared reduced and cytoplasmic in more poorly differentiated tumors. We propose that quantitative imbalances in the components of pathways governing normal epithelial cell polarity arising from gain or loss of function may radically alter epithelial cell architecture and contribute to tumor progression.

Aims

To examine predictors of quitting behaviours among adult smokers in China, in light of existing knowledge from previous research in four western countries and two southeast Asian countries.

Design

Face-to-face interviews were carried out with smokers in 2006 using the International Tobacco Control (ITC) China Survey, with follow-up about 16 months later. A stratified multi-stage cluster sampling design was employed.

Setting

Beijing and other five cities in China.

Participants

A total of 4732 smokers were first surveyed in 2006. Of these, 3863 were recontacted in 2007, with a retention rate of 81.6%.

Measurements

Baseline measures of sociodemographics, dependence and interest in quitting were used prospectively to predict both making quit attempts and staying quit among those who attempted.

Findings

Overall, 25.3% Chinese smokers reported having made at least one quit attempt between Waves 1 and 2; of these, 21.7% were still stopped at Wave 2. Independent predictors of making quit attempts included having higher quitting self-efficacy, previous quit attempts, more immediate intentions to quit, longer time to first cigarette upon waking, negative opinion of smoking and having smoking restrictions at home. Independent predictors of staying quit were being older, having longer previous abstinence from smoking, and having more immediate quitting intentions.

Conclusions

Predictors of Chinese smokers’ quitting behaviours are somewhat different to those found in previous research from other countries. Nicotine dependence and self-efficacy seem to be more important for attempts than for staying quit in China, and quitting intentions are related to both attempts and staying quit.

Group 14 of Genetic Analysis Workshop 17 examined several issues related to analysis of complex traits using DNA sequence data. These issues included novel methods for analyzing rare genetic variants in an aggregated manner (often termed collapsing rare variants), evaluation of various study designs to increase power to detect effects of rare variants, and the use of machine learning approaches to model highly complex heterogeneous traits. Various published and novel methods for analyzing traits with extreme locus and allelic heterogeneity were applied to the simulated quantitative and disease phenotypes. Overall, we conclude that power is (as expected) dependent on locus-specific heritability or contribution to disease risk, large samples will be required to detect rare causal variants with small effect sizes, extreme phenotype sampling designs may increase power for smaller laboratory costs, methods that allow joint analysis of multiple variants per gene or pathway are more powerful in general than analyses of individual rare variants, population-specific analyses can be optimal when different subpopulations harbor private causal mutations, and machine learning methods may be useful for selecting subsets of predictors for follow-up in the presence of extreme locus heterogeneity and large numbers of potential predictors.

In Candida albicans, lipid rafts (also called detergent-resistant membranes, DRMs) are involved in many cellular processes and contain many important proteins. In our previous study, we demonstrated that Rta2p was required for calcineurin-mediated azole resistance and sphingoid long-chain base release in C. albicans. Here, we found that Rta2p was co-localized with raft-constituted ergosterol on the plasma membrane of C. albicans. Furthermore, this membrane expression pattern was totally disturbed by inhibitors of either ergosterol or sphingolipid synthesis. Biochemical fractionation of DRMs together with immunoblot uncovered that Rta2p, along with well-known DRM-associated proteins (Pma1p and Gas1p homologue), was associated with DRMs and their associations were blocked by inhibitors of either ergosterol or sphingolipid synthesis. Finally, we used the proteomic analysis together with immunoblot and identified that Rta2p was required for the association of 10 proteins with DRMs. These 5 proteins (Pma1p, Gas1p homologue, Erg11p, Pmt2p and Ali1p) have been reported to be DRM-associated and also that Erg11p is a well-known target of azoles in C. albicans. In conclusion, our results showed that Rta2p was predominantly localized in lipid rafts and was required for the association of certain membrane proteins with lipid rafts in C. albicans.

Background

Fruit fly embryogenesis is one of the best understood animal development systems, and the spatiotemporal gene expression dynamics in this process are captured by digital images. Analysis of these high-throughput images will provide novel insights into the functions, interactions, and networks of animal genes governing development. To facilitate comparative analysis, web-based interfaces have been developed to conduct image retrieval based on body part keywords and images. Currently, the keyword annotation of spatiotemporal gene expression patterns is conducted manually. However, this manual practice does not scale with the continuously expanding collection of images. In addition, existing image retrieval systems based on the expression patterns may be made more accurate using keywords.

Results

In this article, we adapt advanced data mining and computer vision techniques to address the key challenges in annotating and retrieving fruit fly gene expression pattern images. To boost the performance of image annotation and retrieval, we propose representations integrating spatial information and sparse features, overcoming the limitations of prior schemes.

Conclusions

We perform systematic experimental studies to evaluate the proposed schemes in comparison with current methods. Experimental results indicate that the integration of spatial information and sparse features lead to consistent performance improvement in image annotation, while for the task of retrieval, sparse features alone yields better results.

Background

Methane (CH4) uptake by steppe soils is affected by a range of specific factors and is a complex process. Increased stocking rate promotes steppe degradation, with unclear consequences for gas exchanges. To assess the effects of grazing management on CH4 uptake in desert steppes, we investigated soil-atmosphere CH4 exchange during the winter-spring transition period.

Methodology/Main Finding

The experiment was conducted at twelve grazing plots denoting four treatments defined along a grazing gradient with three replications: non-grazing (0 sheep/ha, NG), light grazing (0.75 sheep/ha, LG), moderate grazing (1.50 sheep/ha, MG) and heavy grazing (2.25 sheep/ha, HG). Using an automatic cavity ring-down spectrophotometer, we measured CH4 fluxes from March 1 to April 29 in 2010 and March 2 to April 27 in 2011. According to the status of soil freeze-thaw cycles (positive and negative soil temperatures occurred in alternation), the experiment was divided into periods I and II. Results indicate that mean CH4 uptake in period I (7.51 µg CH4–C m−2 h−1) was significantly lower than uptake in period II (83.07 µg CH4–C m−2 h−1). Averaged over 2 years, CH4 fluxes during the freeze-thaw period were −84.76 µg CH4–C m−2 h−1 (NG), −88.76 µg CH4–C m−2 h−1 (LG), −64.77 µg CH4–C m−2 h−1 (MG) and −28.80 µg CH4–C m−2 h−1 (HG).

Conclusions/Significance

CH4 uptake activity is affected by freeze-thaw cycles and stocking rates. CH4 uptake is correlated with the moisture content and temperature of soil. MG and HG decreases CH4 uptake while LG exerts a considerable positive impact on CH4 uptake during spring freeze-thaw cycles in the northern desert steppe in China.

The cancer stem cell (CSC) model provides insights into pathophysiology of cancers and their therapeutic response. The CSC model has been both controversial, yet provides a foundation to explore cancer biology. In this review, we provide an overview of CSC concepts, biology and potential therapeutic avenues. We then focus on prostate CSC including (1) their purported origin as either basal-derived or luminal-derived cells; (2) markers used for prostate CSC identification; (3) alterations of signaling pathways in prostate CSCs (4) involvement of prostate CSCs in metastasis of PCa and (5) microRNA-mediated regulation of prostate CSCs. Although definitive evidence for the identification and characterization of prostate CSCs still remains unclear, future directions pursuing therapeutic targets of CSCs may provide novel insights for the treatment of PCa.

Objective

JAK2 V617F, MPL W515L and JAK2 exon 12 mutations are novel acquired mutations that induce constitutive cytokine-independent activation of the JAK-STAT pathway in myeloproliferative disorders (MPD). The discovery of these mutations provides novel mechanism for activation of signal transduction in hematopoietic malignancies. This research was to investigate their prevalence in Chinese patients with primary myelofibrosis (PMF).

Methods

We introduced allele-specific PCR (AS-PCR) combined with sequence analysis to simultaneously screen JAK2 V617F, MPL W515L and JAK2 exon 12 mutations in 30 patients with PMF.

Results

Fifteen PMF patients (50.0%) carried JAK2 V617F mutation, and only two JAK2 V617F-negative patients (6.7%) harbored MPL W515L mutation. None had JAK2 exon 12 mutations. Furthermore, these three mutations were not detected in 50 healthy controls.

Conclusion

MPL W515L and JAK2 V617F mutations existed in PMF patients but JAK2 exon 12 mutations not. JAK2 V617F and MPL W515L and mutations might contribute to the primary molecular pathogenesis in patients with PMF.

Objective

To assess the genetic contribution to late-onset sepsis in twins in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU).

Study design

A retrospective cohort analysis of twins born from 1994 to 2009 was performed on data collected from the NICUs at Yale University and the University of Connecticut. Sepsis concordance rates were compared between monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Mixed effects logistic regression (MELR) analysis was performed to determine the impact of selected non-genetic factors on late-onset sepsis. The influence of additive genetic and common and residual environmental effects were analyzed and quantified.

Results

170 monozygotic and 665 dizygotic twin pairs were analyzed and sepsis identified in 8.9%. Mean gestational age and birth weight of the cohort was 31.1 weeks and 1637 grams, respectively. MELR determined birth weight (regression coefficient=−0.001; 95% CI: −0.003–0.000; p=0.028), respiratory distress syndrome (regression coefficient=1.769; 95% CI: 0.943–2.596; p<0.001) and duration of total parenteral nutrition (regression coefficient=0.041; 95% CI: 0.017–0.064; p<0.001) as significant non-genetic factors. Further analysis determined 49.0% (p=0.002) of the variance in liability to late-onset sepsis was due to genetic factors alone, and 51.0% (p=0.001) the result of residual environmental factors.

Conclusions

Our data support significant genetic susceptibility to late-onset sepsis in the NICU population.

Association analysis has led to identification of many genetic variants for complex diseases. While assessing the association between genes and a disease, other factors can play an important role. The consequence of not considering covariates (such as population stratification and environmental factors) is well-documented in genetic studies. We introduce a nonparametric test of association that adjusts for covariate effects. Specifically, the adjustment is realized through weights that are constructed from genomic propensity scores that summarize the contribution of all covariates. The benefit of our test is demonstrated through an important dataset on bipolar disorder (BD) collected by the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC). When compared to other tests, our test identified an un-reported region with three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 16 that show strong evidence of association (p-value < 5×10−7). This region is near the RPGRIP1L gene known to be associated with bipolar disorder. A haplotype block including these three SNPs was further discovered to be strongly associated with bipolar disorder. It is also interesting to note that our nonparametric test did not reveal strong signals at two SNPs that were detected by a covariate-adjusted parametric test. This suggests that different methods of covariate adjustment can complement each other. Thus, we recommend using both parametric and nonparametric testing. Additionally, we performed simulation studies to compare our proposed test with the unadjusted test and an adjusted parametric test. Our finding underscores the importance of accommodating and controlling for covariate effects in discovering genetic variants associated with complex disorders.

Most memories are strengthened by additional stimuli, but it is unclear how additional stimulation or training reinforces long-term memory. To address this we examined whether long-term facilitation (LTF) of Aplysia sensorimotor synapses in cell culture - a cellular correlate of long-term sensitization of defensive withdrawal reflexes in Aplysia californica – can be prolonged by additional stimulation. We found that one-day treatment with serotonin (5-HT, 5 brief applications at 20 min intervals) produced LTF lasting about 3 days, while two days of such 5-HT treatments induced a persistent LTF lasting more than 7 days. Incubation with the protein synthesis inhibitor rapamycin during the second set of 5-HT treatments abolished all facilitation and synapse strength returned prematurely to baseline. Persistent LTF required more persistent elevation in the expression of the neurotrophin-like peptide sensorin and its secretion. Activation of protein kinase C (PKC) during the second day of 5-HT treatments, not required for LTF or changes in sensorin expression during the first set of 5-HT treatments, is critical for persistent LTF and replaces phosphoinositide 3 kinase (PI3K) activity in mediating the increase in sensorin expression. In contrast, activations of PKC during the first day of 5-HT treatments and PI3K during the second day of 5-HT treatments are unnecessary for persistent LTF or the increases in sensorin expression. Thus, additional stimuli make pre-existing plasticity labile as it recruits a new signaling cascade to regulate the synthesis of a neurotrophin-like peptide required for persistent alterations in synaptic efficacy.

Genetic markers with rare variants are spread out in the genome, making it necessary and difficult to consider them in genetic association studies. Consequently, wisely combining rare variants into “composite” markers may facilitate meaningful analyses. In this paper, we propose a novel approach of analyzing rare variant data by incorporating the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator technique. We applied this method to the Genetic Analysis Workshop 17 data, and our results suggest that this new approach is promising. In addition, we took advantage of having 200 phenotype replications and assessed the performance of our approach by means of repeated classification tree analyses. Our method and analyses were performed without knowledge of the underlying simulating model. Our method identified 38 markers (in 65 genes) that are significantly associated with the phenotype Affected and correctly identified two causal genes, SIRT1 and PDGFD.

Existing methods for analyzing rare variant data focus on collapsing a group of rare variants into a single common variant; collapsing is based on an intuitive function of the rare variant genotype information, such as an indicator function or a weighted sum. It is more natural, however, to take into account the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) interactions informed directly by the data. We propose a novel tree-based method that automatically detects SNP interactions and generates candidate markers from the original pool of rare variants. In addition, we utilize the advantage of having 200 phenotype replications in the Genetic Analysis Workshop 17 data to assess the candidate markers by means of repeated logistic regressions. This new approach shows potential in the rare variant analysis. We correctly identify the association between gene FLT1 and phenotype Affect, although there exist other false positives in our results. Our analyses are performed without knowledge of the underlying simulating model.

Summary

Regularization methods are characterized by loss functions measuring data fits and penalty terms constraining model parameters. The commonly used quadratic loss is not suitable for classification with binary responses, whereas the loglikelihood function is not readily applicable to models where the exact distribution of observations is unknown or not fully specified. We introduce the penalized Bregman divergence by replacing the negative loglikelihood in the conventional penalized likelihood with Bregman divergence, which encompasses many commonly used loss functions in the regression analysis, classification procedures and machine learning literature. We investigate new statistical properties of the resulting class of estimators with the number pn of parameters either diverging with the sample size n or even nearly comparable with n, and develop statistical inference tools. It is shown that the resulting penalized estimator, combined with appropriate penalties, achieves the same oracle property as the penalized likelihood estimator, but asymptotically does not rely on the complete specification of the underlying distribution. Furthermore, the choice of loss function in the penalized classifiers has an asymptotically relatively negligible impact on classification performance. We illustrate the proposed method for quasilikelihood regression and binary classification with simulation evaluation and real-data application.

The goal of this study was to investigate the lipid accumulation and lipotoxicity of free fatty acids (FFAs) induced in HepG2 cells. HepG2 cells were co-incubated with various concentrations of FFAs for 24h and the intracellular lipid contents were observed by Oil Red O and Nile Red staining methods. The lipotoxicity of HepG2 cells were then detected by Hoechest 33342/PI, Annexin V-FITC/PI double-staining and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-di phenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) experiment tests. The experiments showed a lipid accumulation and lipotoxicity by increasing FFA concentration gradients. Through cell morphological observation and quantitative analysis, FFAs have shown to increase in a dose-dependent manner compared with the control group. The data collected from hoechst 33342/PI, annexin V-FITC/PI double staining and also MTT experiments showed that cell apoptosis and necrosis significantly increased with increasing FFA concentrations. Apoptosis was not obvious in the 1 mM FFAs-treated group compared to the other two groups. In a certain concentration range, FFAs induced intracellular lipid accumulation and lipotoxicity of HepG2 cells in a dose-dependent manner.

Despite the great progress made towards smoke-free environments, only 9% of countries worldwide mandate smoke-free restaurants and bars. Smoking was generally not regulated in restaurants and bars in China before 2008. This study was designed to examine the public attitudes towards banning smoking in these places in China. A convenience sample of 814 restaurants and bars was selected in five Chinese cities and all owners of these venues were interviewed in person by questionnaire in 2007. Eighty six percent of current nonsmoking subjects had at least one-day exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) at work in the past week. Only 51% of subjects knew SHS could cause heart disease. Only 17% and 11% of subjects supported prohibiting smoking completely in restaurants and in bars, respectively, while their support for restricting smoking to designated areas was much higher. Fifty three percent of subjects were willing to prohibit or restrict smoking in their own venues. Of those unwilling to do so, 82% thought smoking bans would reduce revenue, and 63% thought indoor air quality depended on ventilation rather than smoking bans. These results showed that there was support for smoking bans among restaurant or bar owners in China despite some knowledge gaps. To facilitate smoking bans in restaurants and bars, it is important to promote health education on specific hazards of SHS, provide country-specific evidence on smoking bans and hospitality revenues, and disseminate information that restricting smoking and ventilation alone cannot eliminate SHS hazards.