Anti-miRNA antisense inhibitors (AMOs) have demonstrated their utility in miRNA research and potential in miRNA therapy. Here we report a modified AMO approach in which multiple antisense units are engineered into a single unit that is able to simultaneously silence multiple-target miRNAs, the multiple-target AMO or MTg-AMO. We validated the technique with two separate MTg-AMOs: anti-miR-21/ant...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. Previous studies, which characterized miRNA function, revealed their involvement in fundamental biological processes. Importantly, miRNA expression is deregulated in many human diseases. Specific inhibition of miRNAs using chemically modified anti-miRNA oligonucleotides (AMOs) can be a potential th...

Information becomes a more and more valuable asset in today’s organizations. Therefore the need of creating an integrated view over all available data sources arises. Several technical problems must be overcome in the design and implementation of a system for integrating different data sources. To the main obstacles count autonomy, data heterogeneity and different query capabilities of the repo...

In this thesis we develop a wrapper for scientific data stored in ROOT files using Amos II, a functional DBMS. ROOT is an object-oriented framework for representing high-energy physics data. We investigate possible ways to represent ROOT C++ objects in a functional data model and propose a simple and fast mapping method. We define a schema to represent ROOT object storage containers, objects an...

MicroRNA (miRNA)-guided argonaute (Ago) controls gene expression upon binding to the 3' UTR of mRNA. The miRNA function can be competitively inhibited by single-stranded anti-miRNA oligonucleotides (AMOs). In this study, we constructed a novel type of AMO flanked by interstrand cross-linked 2'-O-methylated RNA duplexes (CLs) that confer a stable helical conformation. Compared with other structu...

Thomas Gilovich and Amos Tversky famously claimed that the belief in the Hot Hand in basketball is a cognitive illusion, an instance of the belief in the Law of Small Numbers. They supported this claim with a variety of orthodox statistical tests failing to show any clear evidence of a Hot Hand phenomenon. These researchers neglected to perform any power analysis on this test. Here we show that...

Together with his long-time colleague Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky, provided the intellectual infrastructure for contemporary behavioral law and economics. Prospect theory undermines the Coase Theorem, which is the bedrock of traditional law and economics; and the heuristics and biases research questions the fundamental idea of a rational self-interested decisionmaker, which is also challenged...