BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE. Neuroimmunological diseases (“NIDs”) including multiple sclerosis (“MS”), neuromyelitis optica (“NMO”) and myasthenia gravis (“MG”) are chronic inflammatory diseases of the nervous system and are common causes of neurological disability in adults. The effects of NIDs are characterised by attacks of neurological symptoms and signs with variable recovery. MS patients can additionally develop a progressive clinical course. The clinical course of NIDs is highly variable. People with NIDs often receive immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory treatments, sequentially or in combination. There is a global requirement for patients, doctors, regulators and the pharmaceutical industry to understand the risk factors, course and outcomes of these diseases including: • Short and long-term outcomes of NIDs as assessed by standard clinical rating scales and outcome measures • Clinical and paraclinical outcome predictors including imaging results, blood tests and self-monitoring devices and applications • Medication exposure patterns and their short and long-term efficacy • Individualised prediction of treatment response • Safety of medications in the real-world setting, in particular long-term safety • Pregnancy and infant risks and outcomes in women exposed to medications during conception, in pregnancy and during breastfeeding The challenges for multi-centre investigator-initiated clinical research of this nature include harmonisation of protocols and minimum datasets, a suitably flexible data collection platform, retention of data ownership, the identification of collaborators, ongoing communication between study sites, data quality assurance, legal data storage, data management platforms and study governance. The MSBase Foundation provides Investigators with the best possible logistic solutions to meet these challenges at no cost.
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE. The chemical composition of sorghum biomass will significantly influence the logistics of harvesting, transport, storage, processing, pretreatment processes, conversion efficiency and yield of biofuels per dry ton. Therefore, an early objective of this project is to characterize the range of biomass composition present in sorghum germplasm and to identify biomass composition traits that need to be selected for during the breeding process. In addition, the capability to conduct rapid NIR-based composition analysis for sorghum will allow allelic variation that modulates composition to be mapped and the corresponding genes identified and patented. CERES is establishing a state-of-the-art biomass composition-testing laboratory in California. This laboratory will be able to carry out chemical analysis of biomass required to establish standard curves for NIR-based analysis. TAES/CERES propose to establish a biomass composition-testing laboratory at TAES in order to assay several thousand samples generated each cycle of sorghum breeding and to enable genetic analysis of composition traits. The details of this activity are described below.
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE sequencing platforms allow sequence-based genotyping — sequencing platforms allow digital expression profiling — (i.e., Genome Sequencer-20 System, Solexa, ABI-based systems) — Sb genome sequence/genetic map alignment allows sequence/SNP mapping — haplotypes or graphical genotypes are revealed at sufficient marker density — graphical genotypes of germplasm will allow better parent/progeny selection — graphical genotyping will accelerate QTL mapping to gene discovery — graphical genotyping may replace targeted marker-assisted-breeding — TAES has developed a graphical genotyping method called Restriction Site Localized sequencing technology (RSL sequencing technology) — TAES has tested RSL-technology on rice/sorghum using 454 technology — RSL-sequencing provides a way to sequence genomes at specific sites — RSL provides a way to re-sequence the same sub-sample of any genome — the number of sites sequenced can be varied depending on need — Solexa can collect 1B bp of sequence per run (25-35bp/read) (~$3,000/run) — sequence sampling every ~4 kbp (two reads/site) = 10 Mbp of sequence — predicted SNP discovery rate = 1 SNP/82kbp (@ 1SNP/1000bp) — indexing allows ~100 genotypes per run (~$30/genotype for sequencing) — more genotypes can be run at lower sequence/SNP coverage — @ $3/~500 marker-genotype this may replace the need for MAB — a high quality genome sequence aligned to a genetic map is required
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE. Provide a detailed description, including the issue to be addressed and potential findings.
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE. Scientists at TAES have been developed a sorghum genome technology platform consisting of integrated genetic, cytogenetic and comparative genome maps since 1998. The TAES sorghum genetic map contains over 3,000 DNA markers based on data collected from 137 RIL lines derived from BTx623 X IS3620C. A physical map that is aligned to the sorghum genetic map has been constructed from ~16X deep BAC libraries, HICF fingerprinting, 6D BAC pooling, and ~5,000 EST-STS linkers. BACs from this map have been end-sequences and sequence scanned providing information for aligning DOE sequence assemblies to the map. The sorghum genome sequence assemblies produced by DOE based on 8X shotgun coverage of the genome are large (up to 14 Mbp). Test alignment of DOE sequence assemblies to SBI03 is promising revealing 6 miss-assemblies in the euchromatic region (~47Mbp) that were easily corrected. Funding is requested to accelerate the next set of sorghum genome map platform improvements including aligning the DOE [***] to the TAES [***] and [***] followed by [***] and resolution of issues related to [***] [***]/[***]. In addition, [***] of the [***] will be done in a targeted manner ([***], [***]/[***]) at different levels depending on need (automated [***] and by [***] analysis, [***] models, [***], etc.). For example, DOE funding will allow implementation of [***] of sorghum [***] matching [***] in [***] in 20[***] in collaboration with Xxxxxx Xxxx/Xxxxxxx Xxxxx (Cold Spring Harbor). We will focus [***] efforts on [***] relevant to [***] with funding from DOE. We also plan to bring in [***] of [***] (from prior [***], RT-PCR data, plus [***]/[***] data when it becomes available). Comparative genetic maps and the comparative aligned genome sequences focused on sorghum, rice, maize, and switchgrass will be updated on a regular basis. The TAES sorghum genome map platform is a key resource for all future QTL mapping, annotation, and gene discovery projects done at TAES and those carried out in collaboration with CERES. As such, the genome map/sequence platform provides our group an advantage in terms of gene discovery/IP capture. For QTL mapping and gene discovery research it would be ideal if TAES and CERES were operating with a common genome sequence/genetic map framework. If CERES provides funding to help TAES to continue development of the TAES genome map/sequence platform, then TAES will make the genome map/sequence platform available to CERES with regular quality and annotatio...
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE. (a) In July 2005, the United States Government announced a five-year,
(b) PMI is committed to continuing its support of NMCPs in achieving high coverage levels of IRS, to ensure that malaria transmission levels are knocked down and kept down, while simultaneously expanding the capacity of NMCPs to plan, execute, and monitor IRS programs.
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE. <Explain the purpose and rationale for the proposal, including previous/related projects, Cabinet/University Council decisions, etc. Please document with whom you have consulted in the development of this project.>
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE why next generation institutional transnationalism?
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE. 1. What are the basic terms of the agreement for students interested in attending a community or technical college in Washington?
2. Now that 10th-grade students are also taking the Smarter Balanced high school assessment (in addition to 11th-graders), are their scores included in the placement agreement?
3. Does the same placement agreement apply to all of the community and technical colleges?
4. Based on the Smarter Balanced scores alone, can colleges offer students placement into additional college-level courses beyond what is defined in this agreement?
5. Does the system placement reciprocity agreement currently in place extend to placement arrangements based on the Smarter Balanced high school assessment scores if they go beyond the terms of the statewide agreement?
6. Will Smarter Balanced scores from students from other states be honored?
7. Are the scores from the Smarter Balanced high school assessment used as part of the admissions process at Washington baccalaureate institutions?
8. Will Smarter Balanced scores be used for placement into both English and math courses and any other courses that require those subjects as prerequisites?
9. Can students choose any course in a course sequence up to the course/s offered as part of the agreement?
10. How does the agreement affect students in professional-technical pathways?
11. Are additional placement processes available to all students if they want a higher-level course than what is specified in the agreement?
12. In the agreement what does the reference to “terminal” math courses mean?
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE. 1.1 Overview Pancreatic cancer continues to be a very lethal disease. It was estimated that in 2016, 53,070 Americans would be diagnosed with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA), and 41,780 would die from the disease. This makes pancreatic cancer the third leading cause of death from cancer in the US.1 Furthermore it is projected that by 2030, PDA will be the second leading cause of death from cancer in the US. Worldwide, PDA is the twelfth most common cancer, accounting for an estimate of > 300,000 deaths a year. 2 Detection of pancreatic cancer has been notoriously very late in the disease and therefore the 5-year survival rate is only 8%. Right now, the only potential cure for pancreatic cancer is surgical resection (if the disease is caught early). However only about 20% of PDA patients are eligible for potentially curable resection and unfortunately most (> 80%) have reoccurrence of their cancer within 2 years of resection, and those reoccurrences are almost universally fatal. 3,4 But there is some hope. Recently there are regimens that actually improve survival for patients with advanced stage IV PDA. Xxxxxx and colleagues have developed the Folfirinox regimen, which in a large randomized trial improved survival over gemcitabine as a single agent.5 Xxx Xxxx and colleagues developed the nanoparticle albumin (nab) associated paclitaxel plus gemcitabine regimen which improved survival over single agent gemcitabine again in a single randomized trial.6 Even more recently Xxxxxxx and colleagues have presented a combined regimen of nab-paclitaxel + gemcitabine + cisplatin in a small 24 patient phase Ib/II trial that gave a response rate of 71% with 2 patients having complete response and a median survival of 16+ months.7
1.2 A major developing problem in the care of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer With the greater chance of getting patients with advanced pancreatic cancer into remission, there is a new challenge - keeping the patient in partial or complete remission. The rough parts of trying to keep patients in remission include: • Cumulative toxicities of the treatment regimens keeping one from continuing the chemotherapeutic regimen. • Patients get to a maximum amount of tumor shrinkage but that shrinkage often stops after a partial response is reached, e.g. we can see it is likely the patient is no longer benefitting from that regimen or we can see resistance developing. • Patients get tired of the treatment regimen and want a rest There are...
