Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) will revolutionize how the public accesses emergency services and will alter the technological landscape within which existing public safety agencies operate. A lack of systematic methodologies exists for quality control of the required geospatial data layers for NG 9-1-1 systems. The primary objective of this study was to develop and systematize a highly accurate NG 9-1-1 GIS database for Counties of Southern Illinois (CSI). The project goals included mapping relevant geospatial data layers required by and based on NENA standard data formats; conducting data quality control and standardization; and providing standardized spatial datasets for NG 9-1-1 to relevant stakeholders. The approach was developed using a conceptual model for error and uncertainty analysis of the GIS-based NG 9-1-1 system. This included the identification of various sources of input uncertainties often associated with spatial data layers; modeling the accumulation and propagation of errors; analyzing their impact on the quality of the spatial data layers; and correcting the errors. Modeling uncertainty propagation focused on positional errors and was conducted through a simulation procedure. The results showed that the original spatial datasets possessed a large account of uncertainties, especially location errors of railroads and roads. The errors had different sources, including input map errors, the use of different map projection and coordinate systems, a lack of topological structures, etc. In addition, they varied from county to county. From the error propagation simulation, it was also found that the location errors measured as root mean square error (RMSE) fluctuated when the perturbed distance of the ground control points (GCP) was less than 15 m. After that, the RMSE increased as the perturbed distance of GCPs increased. This relationship was significantly linear. In addition, the location errors from railroads were larger than those from roads.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-01T21:35:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_12056_Dissertação_Amanda Silva Coutinho.pdf: 1166104 bytes, checksum: f4756c682c195491abc65c33b3ce87fc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-26 / A osteogênese imperfeita (OI) é uma doença genética rara do tecido conjuntivo, causada por mutações em genes que participam, em geral, da formação óssea. A maioria dos pacientes é portadora de mutações nos genes que codificam o colágeno tipo 1, mas já foram descritas mutações em mais de 17 outros genes causando OI e ainda existe uma busca constante de novos genes na área cientifica. Entre as estratégias de diagnóstico molecular destaca-se a técnica de sequenciamento de nova geração (NGS), que pode sequenciar vários genes presentes em uma plataforma customizada, gerando uma grande quantidade de dados genômicos. Esses dados se tornam preciosas fontes de informação na busca de novos genes relacionados a doenças. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi realizar a busca de novos genes potencialmente causadores de OI por meio de recursos de bioinformática. Foram utilizadas estratégias de filtragem pelo programa Microsoft Office Excel 2013, bem como análises de predição de mutação. Como referência genômica foram utilizados os bancos de dados Ensembl e National Center for Biotechnology Information. Foram selecionados quatro pacientes diagnosticados clinicamente com OI que foram submetidos à técnica de NGS e apresentaram resultados normais para os genes conhecidos. Com o intuito de selecionar uma lista de genes candidatos na plataforma customizada de NGS que estivessem relacionados com os sintomas de OI, foi realizada uma busca de genes no banco de dados Ensembl envolvidos com as vias metabólicas de formação óssea, cartilaginosa ou de colágeno, que identificou 643 genes. A lista de genes candidatos foi comparada com os genes sequenciados dos pacientes, onde foram selecionados 70 genes em comum para análise. Foram realizadas filtragens in silico de forma a selecionar alterações raras na população, preditas como patogênicas e que efetivamente codifiquem uma proteína ou uma molécula de RNA funcional. Os resultados mostraram que o paciente P.1 é portador de uma mutação em heterozigose potencialmente patogênica no gene ALX1. O paciente P.2 apresentou apenas uma alteração no gene COL6A3 que foi predita como polimorfismo. O paciente P.3 apresentou mutações patogênicas em heterozigose nos genes ALPL e FKBP10. No paciente P.4 foram encontradas mutações patogênicas em heterozigose nos genes P3H1 e RYR1. Entre os cinco genes identificados, sabe-se que dois deles, FKBP10 e P3H1, estão relacionados com a OI de herança autossômica recessiva. Também já é descrito que mutações no gene ALPL causam sintomas clínicos semelhantes a OI, podendo confundir o diagnóstico. Assim, o presente estudo identificou dois genes, ALX1 e RYR1, potencialmente causadores de OI. O gene ALX1 tem um papel importante no desenvolvimento craniano e dos membros, pois atua na formação da cartilagem. Já o RYR1 codifica a rianodina, um importante receptor de cálcio nos osteoblastos. Estudos funcionais dos genes identificados são necessários para validar esta hipótese em pesquisas futuras. Os resultados deste trabalho sugerem que ferramentas de bioinformática podem direcionar a busca por novos genes relacionados a doenças genéticas. A caracterização de novas mutações em genes relacionados com OI auxilia no planejamento de estratégias mais eficientes que permitam o diagnóstico molecular da doença e o aconselhamento genético.

Congenital heart defects (CHD) are structural anomalies affecting the heart, are found in 1% of the population and arise during early stages of embryo development. Without surgical and medical interventions, most of the severe CHD cases would not survive after the first year of life. The improved health care for CHD patients has increased CHD prevalence significantly, and it has been estimated that the population of adults with CHD is growing ~5% per year. Understanding the causes of CHD would greatly help improve our knowledge of the pathophysiology, family counseling and planning and possibly prevention and treatment in the future. The aim of my thesis was to identify novel or known CHD genes enriched for rare coding genetic variants in isolated CHD cases and learn about the relative performance of different study designs. High-throughput next generation sequencing (NGS) was used to sequence all coding genes (whole exome) coupled with various analytical pipelines and tools to identify candidate genes in different family-based study designs. Since there is no general consensus on the underlying genetic model of isolated CHD, I developed a suite of software tools to enable different family-based exome analyses of de novo and inherited variants (chapter 2) and then piloted these tools in several gene discovery projects where the mode of inheritance was already known to identify previously described and novel pathogenic genes, before applying them to an analysis of families with two or more siblings with CHD. Based on the tools developed in chapter 2, I designed a two-stage study to investigate isolated parent-offspring trios with Tetralogy of Fallot (chapter 3). In the first stage, I used whole exome sequence data from 30 trios to identify genes with de novo coding variants. This analysis identified six de novo loss-of-function and 13 de novo missense variants. Only one gene showed recurrent de novo mutations in NOTCH1, a well known CHD gene that has mostly been associated with left ventricle outflow tract malformations (LVOT). Besides NOTCH1, the de novo analysis identified several possibly pathogenic novel genes such as ZMYM2 and ARHGAP35, that harbor de novo loss-of-function variants (frameshift and stop gain, respectively). In the second stage of the study, I designed custom baits to capture 122 candidate genes for additional sequencing using NGS in a larger sample size of 250 parent-offspring trios with isolated Tetralogy of Fallot and identified six de novo variants in four genes, half of them are loss-of-function variants. Both of NOTCH1 and its ligand JAG1 harbor two additional de novo mutations (two stop gains in NOTCH1 and one missense and a splice donor in JAG1). The analysis showed a strongly significant over-representation of de novo loss-of-function variants in NOTCH1 (P=3.8 ×10-9). To assess alternative family-based study design in CHD, I combined the analysis from 13 isolated parent-offspring trios with 112 unrelated index cases of isolated atrioventricular septal defects (AVSD) in chapter 4. Initially, I started with a case/control analysis to test the burden of rare missense variants in cases compared with 5,194 ethnically matching controls and identified the gene NR2F2 (Fisher exact test P=7.7×10-07, odds ratio=54). The de novo analysis in the AVSD trios identified two de novo missense variants in the same gene. NR2F2 encodes a pleiotropic developmental transcription factor, and decreased dosage of NR2F2 in mice has been shown to result in abnormal development of atrioventricular septa. The results from luciferase assays show that all coding sequence variants observed in patients significantly alter the activity of NR2F2 target promoters. My work has identified both known and novel CHD genes enriched for rare coding variants using next-generation sequencing data. I was able to show how using single or combined family-based study designs is an effective approach to study the genetic causes of isolated CHD subtypes. Despite the extreme heterogeneity of CHD, combining NGS data with the proper study design has proved to be an effective approach to identify novel and known CHD genes. Future studies with considerably larger sample sizes are required to yield deeper insights into the genetic causes of isolated CHD.

5 ABSTRACT Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Biochemical Sciences Candidate: Bc. Pavel Votýpka Supervisor: Doc. PharmDr. Martin Beránek, Ph.D. Consultant: Mgr. Nikola Ptáková Title of diploma thesis: Contribution of Next Generation Sequencing for Laboratory Diagnostics The endeavor to sequence the whole human genome lead not only to the knowledge acquisition regarding the human genetic information but as well to the development of new sequencing methods and technologies. In order to keep up with progress in genetic field in many clinical and research laboratories the new massive parallel sequencing equipment is being utilized. On the market are currently established four leading platforms - Illumina, Solid, Ion Torrent and 454 Life Technologies. The process of sequencing analysis can be summarized into three main steps - the sequencing library preparation, sequencing itself, variant calling and data analysis. Each part of the sequencing analysis exhibits certain specifics, we need to count with and as well its pitfalls, we need to avoid or to minimalize their impact on the analysis final result. Recently new methods termed sequencing of the 3rd generation are being developed, enabling sequence of a single DNA molecule to be determined without previous...

This paper presents the design of a graphics subroutine library, MacPac, as a contribution to the development of a standard for future graphics packages. The need for a new graphics standard, and hence the motivation for the development of MacPac, is illustrated through a detailed discussion of existing graphics standards and systems. MacPac is based on a design philosophy developed by Mark Green for the next generation of graphics packages. It addresses the hardware and software ideas of the 80's, incorporating and building upon the valuable and tested ideas of a number of existing graphics systems. The design languages used in the development of MacPac were created by Mark Green for the design of user interfaces. This work examines the effectiveness of these languages in the design of a graphics system. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:32:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_marcus_redu_eslabao.pdf: 801425 bytes, checksum: d5a120076fe65d76b21da14d5db5817b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-27 / Leptospirosis is a neglected zoonosis with global distribution. The disease is caused by pathogenic bacteria of the genus Leptospira, which affect humans and various domestic and wild animals, causing serious problems to human health and damage to livestock. The objective of this study was to determine the genome sequence of Leptospira borgpetersenii serogroup Ballum strain 4E, isolated from domestic mice (Mus musculus), one of the main reservoirs of this genus. The complete genome sequence was determined using SOLiDTM system, which generated over 85 million 50 bp reads. These reads were used to obtain scaffolds of the two chromosomes present in this organism through the ab initio sequence assembly with Velvet and Edena softwares and orientation of contigs with G4All software. With completion of the assembly process, the large chromosome was 3,071,053 bp, GC content of 40.58%, 36 tRNA, 4 rRNA and 2,908 open reading frames (ORF). The small chromosome has 305,940 bp, GC content of 40.25%, 277 ORFs, no tRNA or rRNA. A reduction in the large chromosome of 4E strain was observed compared to the large chromosome of L550 strain, where 99 genes of L550 strain are not present in the 4E strain and about 394 kb of non-coding region was also lost. The main hypothesis for this reduction is the effect of the presence of a large number of mobile genetic elements. Genome reduction has been observed in other strains of L. borgpetersenii. The Applied Biosystems SOLiD 4 method allowed determination of the genome sequence of L. borgpetersenii strain 4E, with wide coverage and accuracy. The ab initio assembly methods used allowed for complete utilization of the sequences generated. / A leptospirose é uma zoonose negligenciada com distribuição global. A doença é causada por bactérias patogênicas do gênero Leptospira, as quais acometem humanos e vários animais domésticos e silvestres, acarretando graves problemas à saúde humana e prejuízos na pecuária. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo sequenciar o genoma da Leptospira borgpetersenii sorogroupo Ballum cepa 4E, isolada de camundongo doméstico (Mus musculus), um dos principais reservatórios deste gênero. A sequência completa do genoma foi determinada através do sistema SOLiDTM, onde foram obtidas mais de 85 milhões de leituras com tamanho de 50 pb cada. Essas leituras foram utilizadas para obtenção de scaffolds dos dois cromossomos presente neste organismo, através de montagem ab initio com os softwares Velvet e Edena; e posterior orientação das contigs com o software G4All. Com a conclusão da montagem, o cromossomo maior apresentou o tamanho de 3.071.053 pb, 40,58% de conteúdo GC, 36 tRNA, 4 rRNA e 2.908 fases de leitura abertas (ORF). Para o cromossomo menor o total de bases foi de 305.940 pb, conteúdo GC de 40,25%, 277 ORFs, nenhum tRNA e rRNA foram preditos. Foi observada uma redução do cromossomo maior da cepa 4E em ralação ao cromossomo maior da cepa L550, onde 99 genes da cepa L550 não estão presentes na cepa 4E e cerca de 394 kb de região não codificante também foi perdida. A principal hipótese para a redução é o efeito da presença de um grande número de elementos móveis, processo observado no genoma de outras cepas da espécie L. borgpetersenii. O método Applied Biosystems SOLiD 4 permitiu a determinação da sequência do genoma de L. borgpetersenii cepa 4E, com ampla cobertura e acurácia. Os metodos de montagem ab initio utilizados proporcionaram aproveitar ao máximo as sequencias geradas.

Über das Next Generation EU Programm ist eine gemeinsame Schuldenaufnahme unter dem Dach der EU-KOMMISSION erstmals in großem Umfang ermöglicht worden. Auch wenn stets betont worden ist, dass NGEU eine Maßnahme einmaliger Natur ist, so beschreiben einige EU-Amtsträger:innen, wie etwa der EU-Kommissar für Wirtschaft, PAOLO GENTILONI, sowie EMMANUEL MACRON und MARIO DRAGHI, welche fiskalischen Möglichkeiten die Verstetigung eines solchen Programms bieten könnte. Der Beitrag untersucht daher, welche Bedingungen mit der gemeinsamen Schuldenaufnahme verbunden sind und ob diese Konditionalität für eine künftige Schuldenaufnahme aus fiskalpolitischer Sicht adäquat ist. Daraus sollen Bedingungen abgeleitet werden, die bei einer künftigen gemeinsamen Schuldenaufnahme zu beachten sind. / Through the Next Generation EU Program, joint borrowing under the umbrella of the EU Commission has been made possible on a large scale for the first time. Although it has always been stressed that NGEU is a one-off measure, some EU officials, such as EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs PAOLO GENTILONI, as well as EMMANUEL MACRON and MARIO DRAGHI, describe the fiscal opportunities that the continuation of such a program could offer. The paper therefore examines the conditions associated with joint debt borrowing and whether this conditionality is adequate for future debt borrowing from a fiscal policy perspective. From this, the paper aims to derive conditions that need to be observed for future joint debt borrowing.

Ewing sarcoma, an aggressive primary bone and soft tissue tumour is characterised by the expression of the chimeric transcription factor EWS-FLI1 in 90% of patients. This alters expression of many genes including activation of the Insulin Growth Factor (IGF) pathway via IGFBP3 supression. Phase I/II trials with an IGF-1 inhibitor have demonstrated tumour regression in a modest number of Ewing sarcoma patients. The aim of this thesis was to identify mechanisms contributing to the heterogeneity of resistance in Ewing sarcoma following inhibition with OSI-906, a dual kinase inhibitor of IGF-1 (IGF-1R) and Insulin (IR) receptors. The hypothesis was that mechanisms of resistance relate to heterogeneity of responses to signalling pathway activation and inhibition. Through selection, disruption of the pathway would identify subpopulations of cells both sensitive and resistant in their response allowing for interrogation of resistance mechanisms. A genome wide approach was taken to model the resistance profile of cell lines. Through developing a method of unbiased quantification, a panel of validated Ewing sarcoma cell lines (EuroBoNet) were imaged and segmented to assess the responses of biomarkers on signalling pathway activation. Heterogeneity was confirmed between cell lines. The application to diagnostic biopsies led to the identification of prognostic classifiers and cellular subpopulations with clinical prognostic significance. The distribution of Ki67 was found to be predictive of survival and cells with lower levels of CD99 in the cytoplasm were most discriminative. Parallel sequencing strategies (RNA-seq, whole exome sequencing, and aCGH/ SNP array) for genome-wide screening was carried out for point mutations, copy number changes and rearrangements. Systematic detection was used to characterise genomic rearrangements and functional validation performed. Resistant clones, formed via ENU mutagenesis of cell lines, were sequenced in order to demonstrate the resistance profile of OSI-906. In summary heterogeneity of Ewing sarcoma at the genomic and proteomic level can influence the signalling dependency of tumours and response to inhibitors. Genomic and proteomic profiling of tumour cells may be relevant to future developments of novel therapies.

Microorganisms play central roles in planet Earth’s geochemical cycles, in food production, and in health and disease of humans and livestock. In spite of this, most microbial life forms remain unknown and unnamed, their ecological importance and potential technological applications beyond the realm of speculation. This is due both to the magnitude of microbial diversity and to technological limitations. Of the many advances that have enabled microbiology to reach new depth and breadth in the past decade, one of the most important is affordable high-throughput DNA sequencing. This technology plays a central role in each paper in this thesis. Papers I and II are focused on developing methods to survey microbial diversity based on marker gene amplification and sequencing. In Paper I we proposed a computational strategy to design primers with the highest coverage among a given set of sequences and applied it to drastically improve one of the most commonly used primer pairs for ecological surveys of prokaryotes. In Paper II this strategy was applied to an eukaryotic marker gene. Despite their importance in the food chain, eukaryotic microbes are much more seldom surveyed than bacteria. Paper II aimed at making this domain of life more amenable to high-throughput surveys. In Paper III, the primers designed in papers I and II were applied to water samples collected up to twice weekly from 2011 to 2013 at an offshore station in the Baltic proper, the Linnaeus Microbial Observatory. In addition to tracking microbial communities over these three years, we created predictive models for hundreds of microbial populations, based on their co-occurrence with other populations and environmental factors. In paper IV we explored the entire metagenomic diversity in the Linnaeus Microbial Observatory. We used computational tools developed in our group to construct draft genomes of abundant bacteria and archaea and described their phylogeny, seasonal dynamics and potential physiology. We were also able to establish that, rather than being a mixture of genomes from fresh and saline water, the Baltic Sea plankton community is composed of brackish specialists which diverged from other aquatic microorganisms thousands of years before the formation of the Baltic itself. / <p>QC 20150505</p>

Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1) is a multifunctional protein primarily expressed in neuronal cells and involved in numerous cellular processes. UCHL1 has been linked with neurodegenerative diseases and a wide range of cancers but its specific role remains unknown. Previous UCHL1 knockdown studies have shown that UCHL1 controls the expression of pro- and anti-apoptotic genes as well as genes involved in cell cycle regulation but it is unknown how UCHL1 regulates these genes. We have shown that UCHL1 is cross-linked to DNA in DU145 but not in LNCaP or PC3 prostate cancer cells. Therefore, we hypothesized that UCHL1 regulates the expression of pro- or anti-apoptotic genes as well as the genes involved in the cell cycle through its interaction with DNA. By utilizing ChIP and ChIP-seq analyses it is possible to determine the UCHL1 target sequences on the genomic DNA. It was shown that UCHL1 is only expressed in DU145 but not in LNCaP, PC3 or C4-2 prostate cancer cell lines. Additionally, UCHL1 is expressed and cross-linked to DNA in HEK293T cells. It is believed that UCHL1 is silenced by upstream promoter methylation when it is not expressed. However, treatment with the epigenetic drugs 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine and trichostatin A (TSA) did not result in induction of UCHL1 expression in LNCaP, PC3 or C4-2 prostate cancer cell lines. UCHL1 is also associated with p53. However, ChIP assay results have shown that UCHL1 and p53 do not bind to genomic DNA of upstream promoter regions CDKN1A and BAX genes. Additionally, through UCHL1 ChIP-seq analyses in DU145 and HEK293T cells, we discovered that UCHL1 co-localizes to the DNA with the shelterin complex shedding light on a new role of UCHL1 that has never been described before. / October 2014