Publications by authors named "McGill C"

The main genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (). AD risk associated with disproportionately affects women. Furthermore, human and rodent studies indicate that the cognitive deficits associated with are greater in females.

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Climate change will impact the carrot seed industry globally. One adaptation strategy to limit climatic impacts on the production of commercial carrot seeds is geographical shift. However, production must be shifted to climate-optimal places that are free from weeds such as wild carrots to avoid genetic contamination via hybridization.

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The apolipoprotein ε4 allele ( ) is associated with decreased longevity, increased vulnerability to age-related declines, and disorders across multiple systems. Interventions that promote healthspan and lifespan represent a promising strategy to attenuate the development of -associated aging phenotypes. Here we studied the ability of the longevity-promoting intervention 17α-estradiol (17αE2) to protect against age-related impairments in versus the predominant genotype using early middle-aged mice with knock-in of human alleles.

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The APOE4 allele is recognized as a significant genetic risk factor to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and influences longevity. Nonetheless, some APOE4 carriers exhibit resistance to AD even in advanced age. Humanin, a mitochondrial-derived peptide comprising 24 amino acids, has variants linked to cognitive resilience and longevity.

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Article Synopsis
  • Deep learning is now widely used for predicting molecular properties, creating a demand for user-friendly software that non-experts can use.
  • Directed message-passing neural networks (D-MPNNs), particularly via the Chemprop software, have shown strong performance in these prediction tasks and come with new features like multimolecule properties and advanced uncertainty quantification.
  • The latest version of Chemprop offers improved tools for training D-MPNN models, achieving top-tier results on various datasets in molecular property prediction.
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A closed-loop, autonomous molecular discovery platform driven by integrated machine learning tools was developed to accelerate the design of molecules with desired properties. We demonstrated two case studies on dye-like molecules, targeting absorption wavelength, lipophilicity, and photooxidative stability. In the first study, the platform experimentally realized 294 unreported molecules across three automatic iterations of molecular design-make-test-analyze cycles while exploring the structure-function space of four rarely reported scaffolds.

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The mammalian innate immune system is sex-dimorphic. Neutrophils are the most abundant leukocyte in humans and represent innate immunity's first line of defense. We previously found that primary mouse bone marrow neutrophils show widespread sex-dimorphism throughout life, including at the transcriptional level.

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Background: The atypical seed storage behaviour reported in several orchid species justifies cryopreservation as a complementary conservation strategy to conventional seed banking.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the seed cryopreservation potential of five orchid species; two tropical epiphytic, Indonesian species (Dendrobium strebloceras, D. lineale), one temperate epiphytic, New Zealand species (D.

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is a rich source of polyphenols whose contents and profile may vary according to environmental conditions, harvest season, and plant tissue. The present study aimed to characterize the profile of phenolic compounds in different tissues of grown under different temperatures (25, 30, and 35 °C), using HPLC/MS, as well as their constituent phytochemicals and in vitro antioxidant activities. The in vitro antioxidant activity of the extracts was evaluated using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2-azino-bis-3-ethylenebenzothiozoline-6-sulfonicacid (ABTS), and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) methods.

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Characterizing uncertainty in machine learning models has recently gained interest in the context of machine learning reliability, robustness, safety, and active learning. Here, we separate the total uncertainty into contributions from noise in the data (aleatoric) and shortcomings of the model (epistemic), further dividing epistemic uncertainty into model bias and variance contributions. We systematically address the influence of noise, model bias, and model variance in the context of chemical property predictions, where the diverse nature of target properties and the vast chemical chemical space give rise to many different distinct sources of prediction error.

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The majority of mammalian genes encode multiple transcript isoforms that result from differential promoter use, changes in exonic splicing, and alternative 3' end choice. Detecting and quantifying transcript isoforms across tissues, cell types, and species has been extremely challenging because transcripts are much longer than the short reads normally used for RNA-seq. By contrast, long-read RNA-seq (LR-RNA-seq) gives the complete structure of most transcripts.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A study used data from 28 locations in Canterbury and Hawke's Bay from 2005 to 2022 to analyze how factors like maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation impact carrot seed yield at different growth stages.
  • * Results showed significant climate variability impacts, with minimum temperatures having the largest negative effect on yield during crucial phases, highlighting the vulnerability of carrot seed production to changing climate patterns.
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The mammalian innate immune system is sex-dimorphic. Neutrophils are the most abundant leukocyte in humans and represent innate immunity's first line of defense. We previously found that primary mouse bone marrow neutrophils show widespread sex-dimorphism throughout life, including at the transcriptional level.

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The most significant genetic risk factor for developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the ε4 allele of apolipoprotein E (APOE4). APOE genotype and biological sex are key modulators of microglial and astroglial function, which exert multiple effects on AD pathogenesis. Here, we show astroglial interactions with amyloid plaques in the EFAD transgenic mouse model of AD.

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Concussion screening among collegiate lacrosse athletes is a major safety priority. Although attention has been directed at concussion management following injury, less is known about the association between cognition and balance during preseason screening. The purpose of the study was to assess the relationship between balance and neurocognition among collegiate male lacrosse players and to examine predictive determinants of postural stability.

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The Inadequate Boundaries Questionnaire (IBQ) was created as a multi-dimensional measure of boundary violations in parent-child relationships. Use of the IBQ has been increasing; however, its psychometric properties, including its proposed five-factor structure, have yet to be comprehensively evaluated. The current study examined the factor structure, reliability, mother-adolescent agreement, and convergent and discriminant validity of the IBQ-Parent and -Youth English versions among community and clinical adolescents and their mothers.

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While investigating sex-differences in T-cell aging, , identified a role for excessive IL-7 signaling and N-glycan branching in age-related mouse and human female T-cell dysfunction. These findings point to the increasingly-recognized importance of the impact of biological sex on immune aging and delineate new targetable pathways in age-related immune dysfunction.

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Endophytic microorganisms are found within the tissues of many plants species, with some conferring several benefits to the host plant including resistance to plant diseases. In this study, two putative endophytic fungi that were previously isolated from wild seeds of , identified as and , were inoculated into cultivars of three species-, and . Both fungal endophytes were reisolated from above- and below-ground tissues of inoculated plants at four different plant-growth stages, including cotyledon, one-leaf, two-leaf, and four-leaf stages.

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Studies involving neutrophils are steadily increasing, thus creating a need for more optimized and thorough protocols for studying neutrophil function. Here, we present our protocol for extracting mouse bone marrow neutrophils, estimating the purity of isolated neutrophils, and assessing their ability to induce NETosis upon an external cue. We test two isolation protocols that can be used to attain neutrophils to assess NETosis induction.

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Changes in seed lipid composition during ageing are associated with seed viability loss in many plant species. However, due to their small seed size, this has not been previously explored in orchids. We characterized and compared the seed viability and fatty acid profiles of five orchid species before and after ageing: one tropical epiphytic orchid from Indonesia (Dendrobium strebloceras), and four temperate species from New Zealand, D.

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The rise in throughput and quality of long-read sequencing should allow unambiguous identification of full-length transcript isoforms. However, its application to single-cell RNA-seq has been limited by throughput and expense. Here we develop and characterize long-read Split-seq (LR-Split-seq), which uses combinatorial barcoding to sequence single cells with long reads.

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Polyesters synthesized from 2,2,4,4-tetramethyl-1,3-cyclobutanediol (TMCD) and terephthalic acid (TPA) are improved alternatives to toxic polycarbonates based on bisphenol A. In this work, we use ωB97X-D/LANL2DZdp calculations, in the presence of a benzaldehyde polarizable continuum model solvent, to show that esterification of TMCD and TPA will reduce and subsequently dehydrate a dimethyl tin oxide catalyst, becoming ligands on the now four-coordinate complex. This reaction then proceeds most plausibly by an intramolecular acyl-transfer mechanism from the tin complex, aided by a coordinated proton donor such as hydronium.

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Infrared (IR) spectroscopy remains an important tool for chemical characterization and identification. Chemprop-IR has been developed as a software package for the prediction of IR spectra through the use of machine learning. This work serves the dual purpose of providing a trained general-purpose model for the prediction of IR spectra with ease and providing the Chemprop-IR software framework for the training of new models.

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Cancer is caused by a compilation of hereditary and environmental factors. In the past decade, next-generation sequencing has revealed the extent to which the microbiome influences the maintenance of homeostasis and therefore the prevention of diseases such as cancer. Current research efforts explore the interaction between cancer and the microbiome, and the results are anticipated to transform how clinicians approach cancer treatment.

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