Homework assignment 1

Literature Searches [60 points]

1. Search for articles with “swine flu” in their title in Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Knowledge.

a. How many results did you find in each database? (5)

Google Scholar: 1210, PubMed:394, Web of Knowledge: 569

b. When was the oldest article published with “swine flu” in its title? (5)

Pub med: 1976 May 14 Google Scholar: 1919 Web of Knowledge :1976

c. What is the most cited article published with “swine flu” in its title between 2000-2009? (10)

Web of knowledge:

Title: Public perceptions, anxiety, and behaviour change in relation to the swine flu outbreak: cross sectional telephone survey

Author(s): Rubin G. James; Amlot Richard; Page Lisa; et al.

Source: BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL Volume: 339 Article Number: b2651 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.b2651 Published: JUL 2 2009

Times Cited: 67 (from Web of Science)

2. Search for articles with “avian flu” in their title in Web of Knowledge. In what year was there the highest number of publications? (10)

2006: 349 results

3. How many articles on the subject of DNA were authored by Francis Crick in 1993? (10 points)

Pubmed:

3 articles Search: Crick F[au] AND 1993[dp] AND dna

4.

a. How many papers in PubMed have the word “attack” in their titles? (4)

b. Add * to attack. How many results do you get this time? (4)

c. Explain the cause for the difference. (4)
d. How many papers in PubMed have the word “bone” in their titles? (4)

e. Use the History tab to get the titles of all papers that have “attack” in their title but do not have “bone” in the title. (4)

a. 7636 attack[ti]

b. 14652 attack*[ti]

c. Searches for all titles with words that begin with attack such as attacked and attacking.

d. 174840 bone[ti]

e. 7626 #2 NOT #4


OMIM [40 points]

5.

a. Does sneezing have a genetic component? Name the syndrome(s). Has a gene responsible for the affliction been identified? (10)

b. How many documents there are about cancer with a possible contribution by chromosome 1? (10)

a.  Yes. ACHOO syndrome. No. sneezing would lead you to 3 records, the first one is ACHOO syndrome.

b.  206. cancer AND 1[chrom], or use Limits

6. What mutation yields the most common sickle cell anemia allele in African populations? (15 points)

Answer: .0243 HEMOGLOBIN S [HBB, GLU6VAL] - The change from glutamic acid to valine at site number six in sickle hemoglobin. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=141900&a=141900_AllelicVariant0243

You can find the answer by:

1.  Search for SICKLE CELL ANEMIA in OMIM

2.  In the first entry, line 3: “The most common cause of sickle cell anemia is HbS (141900.0243), with SS disease being most prevalent in Africans.”

3.  Following the link, you can identify the mutation – which is “The change from glutamic acid to valine”

7. How many Y-linked genes with known sequences are in the OMIM database?

(5 points)

48 use Limits to check chromosome Y and genes with known sequence

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