Sci-Tech Resource Library | Scicasts

F5 Virtualization Guide: Seven Key Challenges You Can't Ignore

TimAdmin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:00:00 +0100

Optimize Your Virtual Network and Storage. Maximize Your Virtualization Investment.

This overview guide outlines the seven areas of concern that accompany any major virtual platform implementation or migration. These critical pain points directly impact two cornerstones of the data center: network and storage.

BioConference Live Scicasts: Virtual Event Review

TimAdmin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:00:00 +0100

Subscribe to this new Scicasts channel with free news feeds and newsletter covering the latest advances in life sciences and clinical diagnostics. This Scicasts channel was built in partnership with BioConference Live, the leading series of online-only conferences that bring together research scientists, clinicians, healthcare practitioners & professionals, physicians, and thought leaders from around the world.

Click here to access BCL Scicasts: Virtual Event Review
http://scicasts.com/bioconferencelive

Subscribe to free ISCB Scicasts Newsletter

In association with:
BioConference Live.

ISCB Scicasts: Computational Biology Focus

TimAdmin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:44:29 +0100

Subscribe to free news feeds and newsletter covering the latest trade and academic news in the field of Computational Biology from around the world, built in partnership with The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). This new Scicasts Channel addresses scientific policies and serving as a portal to information about training, education, employment, meetings and publications.

Click here to access ISCB Scicasts: Computational Biology Focus
http://scicasts.com/iscb

Subscribe to free ISCB Scicasts Newsletter

In association with:
The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB).

IT Automation for IT DecisionMakers

TimAdmin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:00:00 +0100

IT professionals, learn how to use automation to optimize your organization's service desk.

If you're like most growing companies, chances are your Help Desk evolved incident-by-incident. But sooner than you think, you'll need something more - more automation, more customization, more dedication to total efficiency. And FrontRange has put together a free Help Desk Automation Resource Pack to fill IT Professionals in on the available options. This free Pack contains both an IT Automation Success Kit and a Help Desk/Service Desk Transformation Success Kit. In them, you'll learn:

How to cut service costs while increasing service levels
How to automate call delivery with screen pops, skills-based routing, and intelligent transfer
How to automate common customer requests like status checks, password resets, and more

One day soon, you just may wake up to discover that your company has outgrown its current Help Desk's limits. Registering for this free Resource Pack is the first step to making sure that day never comes!

Eliminate the Paper Chase Across Your Campus

TimAdmin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:46:43 +0100

Discover how the University of Virginia successfully evolved its original document management project into an innovative, campus-wide ECM strategy.

By listening to this webinar, you will gain valuable insight into how forward thinking schools are finding that they can better leverage larger volumes of information and improve student services when their Enterprise Content Management system (ECM)—which includes document management, document imaging and workflow—is integrated with their student information system.

Tune in to learn how you can:

Go paperless—and more eco-friendly—in the admissions office
Boost productivity by handling a substantial increase in undergraduate applications and enrollment
Deliver real-time student service
Improve efficiencies with automated business processes through intelligent workflow
Extend the time-and cost-savings of ECM across your campus
Add value to the PeopleSoft system through seamless integration

Lower R&D IT Support Costs with Improved Scientific Data Integration and Management

TimAdmin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:00:00 +0100

A must-read for IT departments in today's science-driven industries whose R&D departments are looking to them to meet demanding innovation schedules.

In this white paper, you will gain valuable information on how IT departments can:

Easily deploy a Scientific Informatics Platform that will dramatically improve R&D productivity
Reduce R&D support costs through improved scientific data integration and management
Enable R&D to quickly access, analyze & report on data, regardless of location or format

Managing Environmental Risk

TimAdmin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:00:00 +0100

This Economist Intelligence Unit global research report is based on a survey of 320 executives responsible for risk management at their companies.

The report discusses current challenges and the importance of managing environmental risks.

How Scientific Business Intelligence Can Drive Top Line Innovation Growth

TimAdmin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:00:00 +0100

Improve scientific data management across the global R&D enterprise to improve R&D productivity.

In this white paper, you will gain valuable information on how scientists and engineers at R&D organizations can:

Easily access and aggregate both structured and unstructured data from multiple research areas into a single environment
Conduct advanced scientific analytics allowing them to integrate the applications and algorithms that work best for them
View results in the manner most effective for their needs
Unlock their data's true value by delivering the precise information they need when and how they need through real time interactive reports and dashboards.

Learn how you can do this while limiting the burden on IT resources!

Publisher: Accelrys Software

Speed Innovation and Reduce R&D Costs with Scientific Information Management

TimAdmin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:00:00 +0100

Gain greater visibility into the R&D process to improve productivity, speed innovation and achieve top line growth.

In this white paper, you will gain valuable information on how executives at today's top consumer product, materials and chemical companies can drive growth and competitive advantage with Scientific Information Management. Specifically, learn to:

Leverage years of existing research and intellectual property
Automate and streamline workflows to allow scientists to focus on science
Collaborate across the global R&D enterprise

Publisher: Accelrys Software

Bringing Your Medical and Scientific Devices to Life

TimAdmin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:59:09 +0100

Learn why medical device and scientific instrument manufacturers are exploiting 3D Interactive Technology for their marketing and sales. If science teaches us anything, it's what we don't know. This is why the scientific instrument and medical device markets are progressing at light speed.

As new and improved instruments and devices replace obsolete ones (in some cases every few months), so too must the marketing strategies and tactics for these industries. In this white paper, learn the value of 3D interactive technology for marketing professionals in medical devices and scientific instruments.

"BioXpress", a new oligonucleotide prediction software from BioXpr

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Download this free datasheet to findout more about BioXPR's new software for oligonucleotide prediction, with “Single PCR Primer” & “Taqman Probe” plugins.

BioXpress is a very user-friendly software featuring very intuitive, clear and powerful graphical user interfaces.
Thanks to its plugin-based approach “BioXpress” is a very cost-efficient solution for primers and probes design. The users only download the required program meeting their specific needs.
Refined and optimized algorithms predict any nucleotide sequences with unsurpassed success rates.

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Detection of Genomic Changes in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading cause of death due to bacterial infections worldwide. About 8 million new cases of active TB arise each year resulting in 3 million annual deaths. Roughly 1 billion individuals are believed to harbour latent tuberculosis.

Resistance development in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Primary infections with M. tuberculosis are generally asymptomatic but will in some cases remain as a latent infection.

Tuberculosis is a secondary disease caused by reactivation of the M. tuberculosis bacteria not fully eliminated after the primary infection.

Sequencing and sequence analysis of bacterial and fungal genomes and proteins/peptides have led to a better general understanding of the pathogenesis of bacterial and fungal infections. Future understanding of the regulatory events at the molecular level will increase and be accelerated by using a variety of new technologies and technology platforms within microarrays, protein chips and sequence analysis tools (CLC bio workbenches). The aim is to develop more specific and effective drugs much faster to target e.g. the expanding multi resistance Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in human populations all over the world.

Multidrug resistant bacterial strains arise by sequential accumulation of resistance mutations for individual drugs. A diverse array of strategies is available to assist in rapid detection of drug resistance-associated gene mutations.

Bioinformatics (CLC bio workbenches) together with functional genomics and functional proteomics have been used to identify expression pattern (signature) changes in multi resistant M. tuberculosis strains.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome was sequenced in 1998 [Cole et al., 1998] (see figure 1). Today many strains of M. tuberculosis have been sequenced. In pest control laboratories, sequencing is routinely performed to monitor strain genomic changes.

Figure 1: The Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome [Cole et al., 1998]

Presently with the latest re-annotation of the M. tuberculosis genome, it is possible to assign a function to 2058 protein coding sequences (52% of the 3995 proteins predicted). Only 376 putative proteins share no homology with known proteins and thus could be unique to M. tuberculosis.

Drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Today eight agents are used in the treatment of TB. Multi drug resistant M. tuberculosis strains are resistant both to isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RFP). These agents have the most effective bactericidal activity towards M. tuberculosis. Nearly 95% of the RFP resistant strains possess a mutation in the rpoB gene encoding a DNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Approximately 90% of INH resistant strains have a mutation in the inhA, katG, and ahpG genes encoding enzymes related to a mycolic acid synthesis of cell wall. Pyrazinamide (PZA) resistant strains have a mutation in the pncA gene encoding a pyrazinamidase which degrades PZA to the bactericidal substance, pyrazinoic acid. Streptomycin resistant strains have a mutation in the rrs and rpsL gene encoding the 16S rRNA and the 12S ribosomal subunit protein, respectively. Kanamycin resistance is due to nucleotide substitutions in the rrs gene encoding 16S rRNA. Ethambutol resistant strains have a mutation in the embB gene encoding a arabinosyl transferase which catalyzes cell wall synthesis. Ethambutol resistance is in approximately 60% of organisms due to amino acid replacements at position 306 of an arabinosyltransferase encoded by the embB gene.

CLC bio provide some important bioinformatics solutions for detection and identification of mutations in selected genes of new strains of M. tuberculosis and other important pathogenic microbes. An example of this is described below.

Detection of mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis embB, rrs and pncA genes

The work flow for detecting and identifying mutations using the CLC Combined Workbench is summarized in figure 2.

Figure 2: Illustration of work flow.

The multi resistance M. tuberculosis strains are identified and the genomic DNA extracted. The encoding region of the embB, rrs and pncA genes are marked with primers using the graphical primer design. The relevant regions are sequenced automatically and assembled into contigs. BLAST searches in selected databases (both local and NCBI databases) are performed. Subsequently homologous sequences are aligned and annotations are transferred to the contig sequence.

In the next two sections, two of the steps in the work flow are described in further detail.

Zooming in on Primer design

Using the integrated GenBank search function, the annotated M. tuberculosis is downloaded. In a few clicks, the relevant genes (embB, rrs and pncA) are extracted. Guided by the CDS annotations, a set of primers are calculated for each gene (see figure 3). Using the interactive primer design functionality of the CLC Combined Workbench, the primers can be designed to match very specific needs.

Figure 3: Primer design guided by CDS annotations (the yellow boxes).

Zooming in on Assembly

The sequencing data is imported into the CLC Workbench, and during the assembly, the genes are automatically divided into separate contigs.

The inconsistencies that exist between different reads are inspected using the variance table (see figure 4).

Figure 4: Assembling of raw sequence data. The upper image is the contig variance table, showing where there are conflicts/variation between the reads. When selecting a row in the table, the bottom view automatically selects this position in the contig, and it can be inspected in more detail.

The reads are both forward and reverse, which are automatically detected during the assembly. The orientation is reflected in the color of the reads (in figure 4, the read at the top is reversed which is indicated by the red color of the residues). Quality scores are assigned in order to trim low-quality trace data, so that reads align properly. The quality scores can also be shown graphically below the sequence.

The result of the assembly is a contig sequence which is used in the following steps for BLAST searches and alignments.

The description above is only a brief example of how bioinformatics software, such as the CLC Workbenches, can be used in clinical microbiology. Although remarkable advances have been made, much remains to be learned about the molecular genetic basis of drug resistance development including M. tuberculosis. New therapeutics will be developed based on improved bioinformatic data-mining of results from bacterial drug resistance studies.

Bioinformatics in Molecular Parasitology - A case study on malaria vaccine research

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Bioinformatics, or tools for DNA and protein sequence search and analysis, have developed rapidly during the past 5 to 10 years. Using bioinformatics software solutions for sequence search and sequence analysis, in combination with other techniques, constitute a timesaving and cost-effective way to obtain important data on gene level as well as protein level - information not easily obtainable by other techniques. CLC bio has leveraged on this development and created advanced bioinformatics Workbenches that can be used for a number of scientific purposes.

One important research area is molecular parasitology as infections by parasites constitute a lethal threat to more than one billion humans worldwide.

Below is a description of the nature of malaria and of how CLC Combined Workbench can help in discovering the secrets of malaria’s scientifically fascinating - but unfortunately often lethal - nature.

About Malaria

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in 1996 that the malaria parasite had infected more than 300,000,000 people and was responsible for more than 1,000,000 deaths annually.

Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted through the blood meal of infected mosquitoes, which transmit infecting cells, sporozoites, into the mammalian host. Within minutes, the sporozoites invade the liver (hepatocytes) and develop into what is called “merozoites” within each cell.

The merozoite-infected cells then burst, and the merozoites invade the red blood cells, producing the various symptoms associated with malaria. The life-cycle is completed when germ cells, gametocytes, are produced from the infected blood cells. When another mosqito stings, the gametozyte is transferred through the blood meal and infects this new mosquito (see figure 1). Hereafter the malaria life cycle repeats.

Upon repeated malaria infections, partial antibody-dependent immunity directed against the erythrocytic (red blood cell) stage is elicited in humans.

One of the major research foci today is development of vaccine to prevent life cycle dependent parasitic penetration of target organs e.g. liver or red blood cells.

Figure 1. Ménard, Robert, 2005: Knockout malaria vaccine? (Nature 433, 113-114).

Bioinformatics in malaria vaccine development

The complete genome of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, has been sequenced and consists of about 14.5 megabases of DNA bearing more than 6000 genes. Over 500 genes have already been predicted from direct genome sequences, and an additional 2800 unique examples have been found from processing expressed sequence tags (ESTs).

Using sequence analysis to study the genomic setup and the identity and functionality of glyco-proteins expressed on the surface of the different stage of the parasite has increase the detailed molecular understanding of how the malaria disease develops (pathogenesis).

In addition to identifying potential drug targets, further application of bioinformatics can provide information about virulence, antigenicity, evolution, and gene and protein interactions. These genomic sequence data constitute the basis of vaccine research today.

Bioinformatics in malaria vaccine development is used as a tool for

Identification of target antigen
Immunogenic analysis of target antigen
Selection of target antigen

How to use CLC bio’s software for vaccine research

An example of how bioinformatics can be applied in vaccine research is described below.

The sporozoites (see figure 1) express several proteins on the surface. Some of them have interest as target for vaccine development (see figure 2).

Figure 2.

In the laboratory, the protein of interest initially has to be isolated, purified, sequenced and subsequently cloned.

Hereafter the lab work is to isolate the DNA from overnight cultures, and then to sequence the isolated cDNA clones.

When both the protein and the DNA sequence are known, the bioinformatics tools come into play. Using database searches on both National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and the PlasmoDB, which can be downloaded and searched using CLC Combined Workbench, homologue sequences are discovered. Sequence analyses and alignment with other sequences is performed in desktop programs like CLC Combined Workbench, and these analyses make up the basis for a better understanding of the characteristics of the protein. This understanding, in turn, makes it possible to define a target for development of vaccines against malaria.

Zooming in on the analytical phase

Step 3. Automated protein annotation based on TMHMM and PFAM search

The protein sequence is imported into CLC Combined Workbench, and two types of analyses are performed:

Transmembrane Helix Prediction (TMHMM)
Finding PFAM domains

The Workbench automatically annotates the sequence. The annotations are shown graphically on the screen and the sequence is saved for further analysis.

Step 4. Alignment with proteins from previous research

The protein is now aligned with other known and relevant proteins that the user has worked with in earlier research.

Sequence similarities between the known proteins and the newly sequenced protein are investigated.

Many of the known proteins already have functional annotations in regions that are similar to regions in the unknown protein.

This is a strong indication of similar function in the unknown protein. And through CLC Combined Workbench the annotations of interest are smoothly transferred to the protein under investigation.

The protein sequence, now including a number of functional annotations is saved for further analysis.

Step 5. BLASTP against PlasmoDB

A database including plasmodium proteins is downloaded from http://www.plasmodb.org/.

The data is in a FASTA-file which the user converts to a local BLAST database through CLC Combined Workbench. This is done with a few mouse-clicks.

CLC Combined Workbench is hereafter used for performing a BLASTP search against the database to find plasmodium-specific homologues. The speed is high as the BLASTP search is performed on the user’s own computer – not through a web browser.

The BLASTP results are further analyzed in order to analyze the protein, and additional functional annotations and other types of annotations are added to the protein sequence.
Abbreviations

BLAST: Basic Local Alignment Search Tool
PlasmoDB: specific sequence database for genomic search in Plasmodium falciparum.
Erythrocytes: red blood cells
TMHMM: One of the best algorithms for transmembrane helix prediction

A Case Study on Bioinformatics in Microbial Research

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

In the effort to understand the basic conditions for life on distant planets, NASA is investigating microbial mat communities here on Earth, since microbes are believed to be the first form of life to evolve about 3 billion years ago. Microbial mat communities are layered colonies of microbes that depend heavily on each other for exchanging chemicals and energy. One of the ways to do research into microbial mat communities is to perform molecular analyses of the DNA of the various microbes.

Software from CLC bio is used in this work to help scientists focus on their research by making common bioinformatics tools ready at hand and easy to use. The integrated framework of the CLC Workbenches is designed to support work processes such as primer design, assembly and BLAST searches.

In this case study, we will explain how software from CLC bio is used by scientists at the Exobiology Branch of the NASA Ames Research Center.

Why microbial mats are interesting for exobiology research

Microbial mat communities represent, in gross morphology, some of the earliest known microbial communities on Earth (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Cross sectional view of a microbial mat from Guerrero Negro, Mexico. (NASA Microbes Image Gallery. http://microbes.arc.nasa.gov/gallery/guerrero.html).

As a common form of microbial community existing on Earth during the Precambrian, and dominant in the Proterozoic era, these systems are hypothesized to have played a significant role in the development of modern oceanic and atmospheric conditions. In particular, the development of oxygen photosynthesis by cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which are dominant in modern mat systems, is thought to have played a particularly large role in shaping the modern environment. Fossilized lipid biomarkers from ancient mat communities, together with their stable carbon isotopic signatures, have helped establish a connection between modern mat ecosystems and their ancient counterparts. Studies of modern mat communities can help scientists understand ancient microbial ecosystems and the impact these and similar communities have had on the development of the modern earth. Microbial mat communities from Guerrero Negro, Mexico, are living in a very harsh environment with extremely high concentrations of salt, and they are used as model modern mat systems and are a central focus of several Ames Exobiology investigations.

Hypersaline microbial mats developing in evaporation ponds of the Guerrero Negro Saltern are found growing along a salinity gradient from 6\% to 16\%. These systems are dependent on the primary production of phototrophic organisms, primarily cyanobacteria, but including diatoms and anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria. Prior studies have shown that salinity can affect population structure directly (e.g. salinity tolerances of individual organisms) and indirectly (e.g. secondary effects as a result of modified oxygen diffusion rates), and as a result modify communal carbon flow.

Research focus

Researchers at The Exobiology Branch of the NASA Ames Research Center are currently employing various molecular tools to characterize shifts in community structure of the total microbial population as a result of alterations in salinity levels. In addition to domain level analyses (Bacteria, Archae and Eukaryotes), they intend to target photosynthetic microorganisms, including oxygenic phototrophs (i.e. Diatoms and Cyanobacteria) and anoxygenic phototrophs (i.e. Green and Purple Photosynthetic Bacteria). In most hypersaline mats, cyanobacteria are the major mat building organisms, and the largest contributors to the primary production of the system (see figure 2).

Figure 2. Light microscope view of the cyanobacterium Microcoleus chthonoplastes. (NASA Microbes Image Gallery. http://microbes.arc.nasa.gov/gallery/lightms.html).

Most primary productivity occurs via oxygenic photosynthesis by cyanobacteria or diatoms, and carbon is fixed using the Calvin cycle. Anoxygenic photosynthesis can be conducted by cyanobacteria operating photosystem I, and by anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria (i.e. green and purple sulfur, and green non-sulfur). The goal is to determine the impact of these shifts on stable carbon isotope partitioning as a means to understand carbon cycling as affected by salinity. The researchers hope to achieve this by combining nucleic-acid based molecular techniques for population analysis with lipid biomarker and carbon isotope measurements for quantitative information regarding microbial population structure and information regarding anabolic pathways utilized by mat primary producers.

CLC software used for research in microbial mat communities

In the molecular analyses, the researchers target both functional genes and the 16 or 18S rRNA gene. Both functional and phylogenetic analyses are performed. An illustration of a work flow including the use of CLC software is shown in figure 3.

Figure 3. Illustration of typical work flow.

The work flow alternates between tasks performed in the lab and bioinformatics tasks where the CLC Workbench is used. First, DNA and RNA are extracted from samples taken from the evaporation ponds of the Guerrero Negro Saltern. Next, the CLC Workbench is used to design primers (described in details below) for the subsequent PCR amplification. Since the products of the PCR reactions are similar in size (bp), a denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) is performed, visualizing differences in the sequence of the products.

The PCR products are sequenced, and the resulting trace files are imported into the CLC Workbench where they are assembled (described in details below). Some of the genes are long, e.g. the dsrAB gene which is approximately 1900 bp, and therefore multiple sequence reactions have to be performed before the entire gene is covered.

Within the CLC Workbench, more bioinformatics analyses are performed: creation of phylogenetic trees, BLAST searches for similar sequences, and annotation of the new sequences.

In the end, by applying these bioinformatics tools to the samples from Guerrero Negro Saltern, the researchers have improved their knowledge about the microbes living in these communities. One more step has been taken in the effort to understand what life was like on early Earth which will indicate what to look for when trying to find life on other planets.

Zooming in on Assembly

The raw sequencing data (the reads) are imported into the CLC Workbench. They are assigned quality scores which are used to trim low-quality trace data so that the reads align properly. The quality scores are also shown graphically below the sequence (see the light green color in figure 4).

Figure 4. Assembling to the reference. Gene annotations are visual aids when determining differences from the reference sequence (the blue annotation is the 16S gene).

The reads are both forward and reverse which is automatically detected during the assembly, and the orientation is reflected in the color of the reads.

The sequences used for primer design are used as reference when assembling the reads. The gene annotations on the sequences are used during the assembly process to determine where the genes start and end. Inconsistencies are highlighted and browsed through manually in order to see whether they are caused by sequencing errors or real differences in the sequence.

A table showing the inconsistencies between the reads is used both for getting an overview of the quality of the sequencing and for browsing the inconsistencies in a convenient way (see figure 5).

Figure 5: The conflicts are shown in a table.

Because some of the genes require multiple sequence reactions, there are a lot of reads to be assembled, but the graphical overview of traces and annotations in CLC Workbench makes it easy to work even with large quantities of data.

The result of the assembly is a contig sequence which is used in the following steps for alignments, phylogeny and BLAST searches.

Zooming in on BLAST search

A major part of the work when analyzing the assembled sequences is performing BLAST searches at the NCBI database. The BLAST search is conducted from within the CLC Workbench, eliminating the need for copying and pasting into a browser.

The search is performed on the entire database, but it is limited to bacteria in order to get results that are relevant for comparison. The BLAST search is used for functional and phylogenetic comparison of the sequenced organisms with known sequences from the database.

The result of a BLAST search is shown in figure 6.

Figure 6: The graphical display of the result of a BLAST search.

This graphical view is supplemented by a table with more detailed information on the search hits (description, E-value, etc) as shown in figure 7.

Figure 7: A table with detailed information about the result of a BLAST search.

The researcher examines the similarities between the sequences, and some of the sequences are downloaded and aligned with the data from Guerrero Negro. For the conserved regions, annotations are transferred to the sequenced data, providing valuable information for the next step in the analysis which is the functional and phylogenetic characterization of the organism.

SNP Analysis in Diabetes Research

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Diabetes mellitus is causing major health problems in the world and is affecting more and more people. Today nearly 200 million people have been diagnosed, and the number of new incidences is rapidly increasing, especially in the western world. The reason for this increase is not simple. Change in lifestyle and environmental factors are important factors as indicated by many clinical studies.

Identifying genetic variance related to human diabetes mellitus

In general, diabetes mellitus is a severe life threatening disease. The secondary complications are many and well described. Examples are highly increased risk of obesity, development of retinopathy, development of kidney dysfunction, and accelerated development of atherosclerosis and mucormycosis.

Diabetes mellitus types 1 and 2 are characterized by primary hyperglycemia due to dysregulation of the plasma glucose titer. Glucose uptake by somatic cells is regulated by insulin. Insulin is produced by the ß-cells in pancreas and dysfunction or apoptosis of these cells are affecting insulin expression and subsequently the plasma concentration of glucose.

Studying diabetes mellitus

The understanding of the genetic basis of diabetes mellitus and the influence of genetic variation on phenotypic traits are of great importance for medical research and development of drugs. The use of sequence analysis tools like the CLC bio workbenches are of great importance today to gain a better understanding of the complexity and of the diabetes pathogenesis.

In pre-clinical studies many different animal models have been used. The pig is a valuable model organism and is relevant to human biomedical research in areas as e.g. obesity, cardiovascular disease, and nutritional studies.

This case study describes how the CLC Combined Workbench is used to identify sequence polymorphisms in the pig genome at positions that may be related to diabetes and subsequently demonstrate how to analyze those using bioinformatics tools.

Genetics of Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes mellitus is a complex, multifactorial and polygenic disease, likely to be caused by one or more gene alterations acting in combination with non-genetic factors [Morwessel, 1998]. Since obese phenotypic traits often are seen in relation to a diabetic diagnose, genetic analysis of genes (including sequence analysis) known to be related to obesity could be interesting for the clarification of some phenotypic relations to the disease.

Identifying uncoupling proteins as diabetes type 2 candidate genes

The candidate gene approach for type 2 diabetes mellitus tests for association between particular gene variants and diabetes. So candidate genes encode proteins involved in either insulin synthesis, pathways of insulin secretion, or insulin action, where defects cause abnormal patterns [So et al., 2000] and polymorphisms in these genes may be important risk factors for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

Uncoupling proteins

Uncoupling proteins (UCP) are located in the inner mitochondrial membrane, and one of the suggested functions of UCPs is that of uncoupling by acting as a channel for proton entry into the mitochondrial matrix.

Figure 1: Location of the uncoupling protein in the intramembrane space [Gura, 1998].

Figure 2: The yellow arrow represents the uncoupling protein's function as a channel for proton entry into the matrix [Rousset et al., 2004].

Respiration and ADP phosphorylation in mitochondria are coupled, and the uncoupling proteins appear to be controlling the level of these functions. Uncoupling is when a protein acts as a proton carrier, and by the transportation of protons from the intermembrane space to the matrix a shunt between ATP synthase and the respiratory chain is created [Rousset et al., 2004]. By this mechanism UCPs might have some basic roles to play in human physiology. In addition UCP2 and UCP3 decrease membrane potential and increase thermogenesis [Dalgaard and Pedersen, 2001] and the genes encoding these proteins are thus regarded as candidate genes for studies of the diabetes type 2 often accompanying obese phenotypic traits.

As the uncoupling proteins are highly conserved among species and significant similarity is seen between e.g. the human and the pig uncoupling proteins, showing more than 90 percent identity at the level of amino acid sequence, these genes might be interesting related to the animal model research.

Work flow

CLC bio provides bioinformatics software of great importance for the detection, identification, and characterization of polymorphisms in diabetes type 2 candidate genes as e.g. the uncoupling proteins. The use of CLC Combined Workbench integrating all analyses in one program is exemplified below.

The work flow for identifying genetic variance related to human diabetes using CLC Combined Workbench is summarized in figure 3.

Figure 3: The workflow

Human and porcine DNA encoding UCP2 and UCP3 is retrieved from local and on-line databases using BLAST. The sequences are aligned to check for proper identity between species. Next, primers are designed for porcine DNA. The primers are used for PCR, and the products are subsequently sequenced. The sequencing data is assembled to the reference sequences used for designing primers, and putative polymorphisms are identified. Using the integrated SNP annotation functionality of the Combined Workbench, the possible polymorphisms are characterized and compared to known SNPs in the SNP database. Next, the coding regions of the DNA sequences are translated into protein and subjected to a number of predictions to determine the impact of the polymorphisms on the UCP proteins.

In the next sections, three of the steps in the work flow are described in further detail.

Zooming in on Annotations

During the entire work flow, the same sequences are used for both alignments, as basis for primer design, and as reference sequences in assembly and SNP identification. This means that annotation of genes, coding regions etc. are preserved during all the analyses. They can then be used to guide the inspection of alignments and BLAST hits, the location of primers, the interpretation of sequencing data etc. Small snapshots of the role of annotations in the different parts of the work flow are shown below:

Figure 4: Inspecting the result of a BLAST search. The yellow annotation represents the coding region of the UCP3 gene. The annotations make it easy to get an overview of where the hits align to the query sequence.

Figure 5: An alignment with a yellow annotation representing the coding region of the UCP3 gene for humans(top) and pigs(bottom). The translation is shown to visualize differences in the amino acid sequence between the two species.

Figure 6: Designing primers to bind just before the coding region of the UCP3 coding region. The annotations eliminate the need for remembering positions.

Figure 7: Assembling to the reference sequence where both the primer binding site (red annotation) and the coding sequence (yellow annotation) are shown.

Zooming in on SNP annotation using BLAST

Sequencing data of genes encoding the uncoupling proteins are searched for polymorphisms. In positions where a polymorphism is identified, a BLAST database search is performed for SNPs in human genes similar to the genes of interest. This helps control and verify the results.

Results of the SNP annotation using BLAST can be shown as graphics (see figure 8), in a tabular view, and as annotations on the input sequence(s).

Figure 8: The graphical view of the SNP BLAST. At the top you see the sequence used as reference in the assembly with possible SNP's annotated with red arrows. Below are the hits from the SNP database. One SNP is high-lighted (M).

When annotating SNPs using BLAST, you can select which database you want to search against, e.g. human, mouse, or rat. You can also set the BLAST parameters such as filtering and gap costs.

In the graphic view you can see sequence matches between your query sequence and hit sequences in the database chosen. From here you can easily zoom in on specific regions of interest, or you can open a hit region in a new view.

Annotations on the query sequence will indicate any match from the database where a polymorphism has previously been identified, and the tabular view provides an overview of e.g. identity and positions of matching regions between query and hit sequences. From the tabular view you can easily open any of the hit sequences at the NCBI web page.

Zooming in on transmembrane helix prediction and secondary structure prediction

After translation of the sequenced genes and adding of annotations where polymorphisms were identified, transmembrane regions in the porcine uncoupling proteins 2 and 3 are predicted by CLC Combined Workbench to localize the identified polymorphisms; transmembrane location or in extracellular or intermembrane regions.

In a similar way, secondary structure of the proteins were predicted in CLC Combined Workbench. From suggested locations of the polymorphisms the complications with specific domains affecting protein structure and function are identified.

As related to uncoupling protein 3 putative topology in the inner mitochondrial membrane, a suggested location of identified polymorphisms may be helpful to predict possible impacts of the identified genetic variance.

Figure 9: Prediction of secondary structure for the analyzed uncoupling protein 3.

Facilitating Rapid Analysis and Decision Making in the Analytical Lab

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Improve the productivity of your analytical lab to make better R&D decisions, faster.

In this white paper, you will gain valuable information on how analytical labs can:

Centralize access to complex scientific data scattered across the organization to provide an integrated view of the data
Improve the lab's throughput by simplifying the analysis and sharing of the data
Evolve as the needs change without labor-intensive customization

Learn how you can improve your lab's productivity while limiting the burden on IT resources!

Publisher: Accelrys Software

Modeling & Simulation: The Return on Investment in Materials Science

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Acquire an ROI of $3 to $9 for every $1 invested in scientific research.

The use of Modeling & Simulation software suggests a cumulative ROI of $3 to $9 for every $1 invested in scientific research.

The mechanisms for these gains are:

Increased experimental efficiency leading to the reduction of direct research costs
Efficiency gains leading to broader and deeper exploration of solutions and new products
Financial gains by improving time to market for new products or line extensions
Revenue gains from the rescue of stalled product development projects
Risk management through safety testing and failure analysis

Publisher: Accelrys Software

How R&D Lab Data Integration Drives Better, Faster Decisions

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Improve the productivity of your analytical lab to make better R&D decisions, faster.

In this white paper, you will gain valuable information on how analytical labs can:

Centralize access to complex scientific data scattered across the organization to provide an integrated view of the data
Improve the lab's throughput by simplifying the analysis and sharing of the data
Evolve as the needs change without labor-intensive customization

Learn how you can improve your lab's productivity while limiting the burden on IT resources!

Offered Free by: Accelrys Software

Brandjacking Index: Online Risks in Pharmaceutical Market

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Read this report which measures how pervasive brand-based attacks are in the pharmaceutical market. In this edition of the Brandjacking Index, they return their focus to the online pharmaceuticals marketplace. They found plenty of exploits as con artists who hijack well-known brands for their own profit continue to thrive selling suspicious drugs.

They also saw increasing evidence of worsening supply chain abuses, whereby illicit Business-to-Business (B2B) sellers of pills and active pharmaceutical ingredients continue to operate with impunity. Phishing attacks are at record levels, while the number of attacks per individual organization is at an all-time high.

MarkMonitor created the Brandjacking Index to measure how pervasive brandbased attacks are and to identify the potential threats to the world's strongest brands. As in their previous reports, this edition of the Brandjacking Index tracked millions of emails and billions of web pages, including listings on online B2B exchange sites.

SYMYX: How One CRO Improved Productivity with an ELN

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Kalexsyn, a contract research organization, chose to implement an electronic lab notebook—instead of paper—from Day One.

The CEO estimates the ELN has

Shaved 25% off the time once spent on documentation
Provided workflow efficiencies
Saved thousands of dollars per year

How One CRO Improved Productivity with an ELN

Download this FREE case study!

Kalexsyn, a contract research organization, chose to implement an electronic lab notebook—instead of paper—from Day One.

The CEO estimates the ELN has

Shaved 25% off the time once spent on documentation
Provided workflow efficiencies
Saved thousands of dollars per year

Most importantly, the ELN assists with reporting experimental progress to clients, making Kalexsyn a better, more productive partner.

Download this FREE case study

Please forward this to colleagues who might be interested in learning more.

Paperfree From Day One: ELN Drives Collaborative Research at Kalexsyn

Explore the power of Symyx Notebook
www.symyx.com/notebook6

CASE STUDY: ELN Drives Collaborative Research between Partners

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Kalexsyn, a contract research organization, chose to implement an electronic lab notebook—instead of paper—from Day One.

The CEO estimates the ELN has

Shaved 25% off the time once spent on documentation
Provided workflow efficiencies
Saved thousands of dollars per year

ELN Drives Collaborative Research between Partners

Download this FREE case study!

Kalexsyn, a contract research organization, chose to implement an electronic lab notebook—instead of paper—from Day One.

The CEO estimates the ELN has

Shaved 25% off the time once spent on documentation
Provided workflow efficiencies
Saved thousands of dollars per year

Paperfree From Day One: ELN Drives Collaborative Research at Kalexsyn

Explore the power of Symyx Notebook
www.symyx.com/notebook6

Improve Business Performance and Customer Loyalty in 5 Steps

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Learn how to adopt and rethink your key business metrics, focus on continual innovation and improve quality and delivery performance.

Rather than trying to compete strictly by reducing costs, manufacturers must stay close to their customers, understanding and exploiting the unique value they have to offer in their marketplace. As SMB manufacturers get more sophisticated and fight back, they can take charge of their market by considering 5 steps to improving business performance and sustaining customer loyalty:

Continuous measurement and improvement
Product innovation and quality
Delivery speed and agility
Lean and "green"
Proactive alert and exception management

Read this white paper to get the details behind each of the 5 steps. They are presented with a brief discussion and examples of its impact.

Publisher: Infor

Planning and Budgeting: Improving Effectiveness through Best Practices and Technology

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

In Ventana Research's new benchmark executive summary, Robert D. Kugel, Senior VP of Research, found "an over-reliance on desktop spreadsheets and lack of consistent processes result in a lot of wasted time." Are you falling into this trap? How can you escape?

Download Ventana's executive summary which uncovers five key attributes to effective planning and budgeting:

Insight - into corporate performance and the factors driving results
Accuracy - that can support smooth operational functioning
Alignment - of corporate, departmental, and individual objectives
Agility - with coordinated responses to change
Collaboration - across the enterprise

Published by: Ventana Research; Sponsored by: Infor

No Stone Unturned: Strategies for Cash Management in Hard Times

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Under challenging economic circumstances, learn how mid-size companies are modifying their short-term cash management practices to maintain competitive positions.

While many mid-size companies have healthy balance sheets and solid credit histories, the cost of funding for nearly all businesses is likely to rise in the near term.

This survey report by CFO Research Services in collaboration with American Express revealed a notable shift in focus among finance executives as their companies prepare for the changing times. Mid-size company CFOs and their teams are now paying closer attention to short-term cash management. In response, many finance executives at mid-size companies are now leading a movement to get "back to the basics." But it's not that finance executives are being called on to do less—instead, they are re-sorting their priorities to uncover every opportunity to manage expenses and bolster working capital.

Through this survey report, explore mid-size senior finance executives' short-term cash management concerns, plans, and priorities in light of current financial-market realities.

Prepared by CFO Research Services; Sponsored by American Express.

Publisher: American Express

Surviving and Thriving in the Customer-Driven Age

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Explore how CRM can enable an organization to be agile and adaptable as market, competitive or regulatory conditions change.

It is not enough for a CRM system to provide a platform for launching new customer initiatives. The core of a transformational CRM system is the ability to respond quickly.

The benefit of choosing a responsive CRM platform is that changes can not only be made quickly, but also provide a net improvement in the customer experience. This includes both the ability to change business processes on the fly and the ability to ensure that customer information is consistent across divisions and departments even while processes, teams and customer segments are changing. Organizations need to ensure that the specific requirements of their industry - from government, to telecommunications, to oil and gas - are cost-effectively captured inside the CRM application as requirements change. And as technologies change, the organization can capitalize on new business models such as software as a service and grid computing to increase reaction times and provide new financial options.

Publisher: Oracle Corporation

What is Your Recession Sales Strategy?

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Take a comprehensive look at the strategies and tactics that companies are using now to weather--and prosper--in the current economic downturn.

This White Paper is based on a survey and packed with strategies you can use to sell more effectively in challenging times. Explore how companies are reacting to six basic strategy points because of the recession, and how most are missing opportunities as a result. Register for this White Paper to learn more about these successful sales strategies.

Published by TheCustomerCollective; Sponsored by Oracle

Publisher: Oracle Corporation

Document Process Management: The Compelling Case for an Integrated Lifecycle Strategy

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Learn how you can manage enterprise information and evidentiary records in a well documented and consistent manner, while reducing costs and increasing productivity.

IDC has found a direct correlation between effective document management and improved business performance. Yet recent research reveals that half of organizations rate their document process management processes as ineffective. This best-practices white paper gives you insight into how you can reduce costs, increase productivity, mitigate risk and enhance business performance through the strategic outsourcing of document lifecycle management.

Publisher: Océ Business Services

Generate More Leads and Close More Deals: Small Business Success Kit

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Learn how to attract and track more website visitors, ensure consistent follow-up, achieve increased sales productivity, keep valuable leads from slipping through the cracks and more with this exclusive Salesforce Small Business Success kit.

With your small business kit, you'll instantly get access to:

Sales & Marketing Success Map: See every step from first contact to close and get best practices for capturing leads and building interest
Marketing in the Google Era, a webinar from the pros to help you take advantage of search, email, web tracking and more
Free 30-day trial of Salesforce for up to five users
Special discounts on services
and more!

Publisher: Salesforce.com

Defining Your Audience: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Buyer Personas

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Avoid wasting resources on strategies and messages targeted at the wrong audience.

The best communication begins with understanding what makes your prospects tick. If you don't do this, the rest of your marketing doesn't much matter. This white paper from an industry leader in online demand management lays out tried-and-true insights into audience identification and segmenting. It covers a step-by-step guide on how to:

Uncover the key attributes of your most valuable customers
Create buyer personas to help focus your marketing efforts on finding more of them
Avoid wasting valuable resources on messages that won't work

Publisher: Bulldog Solutions

Is Your Industrial/Manufacturing Website Really Winning You Business?

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Learn how to turn visitors to your industrial/manufacturing website into customers!

This white paper focuses on the best practices and stumbling blocks associated with leading industrial/manufacturing website design as it relates to effective prospect engagement and lead generation.

Publisher: ThomasNet

Online Brand Protection: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Proactive Strategy

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Learn the four steps that comprise the ideal online brand protection strategy consisting of both technological and organizational programs.

As the Web continues to become a more dynamic and vital part of every corporation, today's enterprises need to become more proactive at anticipating exploits and abuses that can tarnish their reputation and negatively impact their business operations by consolidating their Internet domain names and putting in place a series of protective measures. This paper shows you the steps you need to take to monitor your total online presence and strategically protect your various corporate brands, trademarks, and domains.

Publisher: MarkMonitor

Organizational Agility: How Business Can Survive and Thrive in Turbulent Times

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Learn why 81 percent of executives view approaches such as knowledge management and collaboration as the main drivers for increased productivity, enhanced performance and rapid innovation.

In today's knowledge age, the ability to turn information into insight in response to market movements is core to sustainability. This report conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit examines the challenges and rewards of organizational agility, particularly in tough economic times. More than 300 executives around the world were surveyed on the benefits, challenges and risks associated with creating a more agile organization.

Publisher: EMC

Sales 2.0: How Businesses are Using Online Collaboration to Spark Sales

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Evolve. Learn how Sales 2.0 is radically reshaping every facet in today's sales process.

See how this new phenomenon in collaborative selling is helping salespeople do a better job of identifying leads, of turning leads into opportunities, and of converting those leads into customer wins.

Brought to you by Techdirt Insight Community and Social Media Today for TheCustomerCollective

It's All About the Salesperson: Taking Advantage of Web 2.0

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Wondering what role Web2.0/Sales2.0 and/or social networking plays in the sales arena? This paper reveals what it is and how it can help the quota carrying sales rep sell more, faster.

It uncovers how salespeople can take advantage of Web 2.0/Sales 2.0 technology to:

Easily interact with customer information and uncover business insight that was not readily available before
Tap into the collective knowledge and experience of the broader sales community and enable sales reps to accomplish far more than what they could individually and close more business
Get the most relevant sales information when and where they need it - regardless if it's enterprise, personal, or public data.

Register for this paper and learn how Web 2.0/Sales 2.0 can help you boost sales productivity, shorten sales cycles and increase sales.

Keeping hold of your customers, especially in tough economic conditions

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

You know as much as anyone about the challenges faced by midsize organizations. There are always competitors with deeper pockets, customers demanding more for less, and suppliers giving preferential terms to larger organizations.

How can you sharpen your competitive edge? Read this white paper to learn how Oracle can help you:

Retain customers by deepening insight and improving service
Retain customers cost-effectively with optimized information insight and improved process flexibility
Use information insight and process flexibility to retain customers
Keep hold of your customers

Document Process Management: The Case for an Integrated Lifecycle Approach

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Learn how you can manage enterprise information and evidentiary records in a well documented and consistent manner, while reducing costs and increasing productivity.

Free Office Productivity Success Kit

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Now that Salesforce and Google have joined forces, you can stop juggling bloated desktop software tools--and spend more time focusing on customers, closing deals, and growing your business.

Request Your "Free Office Productivity Success Kit"

Now that Salesforce and Google have joined forces, you can stop juggling bloated desktop software tools—and spend more time focusing on customers, closing deals, and growing your business.

Your free office productivity success kit gets you up to speed on this entirely new and better way to work!

Register below for immediate access to these Kit resources:

Guided product tour videos and customer stories
Webinar featuring insights from Google and salesforce.com experts
White paper and data sheet with in-depth details
Salesforce for Google Apps Getting Started Guide
For those new to Salesforce: free 30-day trial

Publisher: Salesforce.com

Free Network Mapping Tool for Microsoft® Office Visio® Professional 2007 Users

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Don't map your network by hand – let LANsurveyor Express for Microsoft Visio Professional 2007 automatically create network diagrams for you. Fully integrated as a Visio 2007 plug-in, LANsurveyor Express is accessible directly from the Visio 2007 toolbar, making it easier than ever to get a comprehensive network map in just minutes!

LANsurveyor® Express for Microsoft® Office Visio® Professional 2007
LANsurveyor Express uses a unique, multi-level discovery method to identify every IP device on your LAN or WAN, including routers, switches, printers, servers, and workstations. LANsurveyor integrates OSI Layer 2 and Layer 3 topology data (including switch port connections) and displays network nodes in a Visio diagram, complete with colored lines representing connection speed and labels indicating the switch port information for nodes connected to your network.

LANsurveyor Express uses Visio SmartShapes® to represent your network devices and populates each node's custom properties with the node's IP address, network name, and fully-qualified domain name. This feature enables you to use Visio's built-in network device reports.

If your organization requires up-to-date network documentation for compliance audits, internal support, network security, or troubleshooting, let LANsurveyor Express automatically generate accurate, complete network diagrams for you.

Easy to Use
Simply enter your IP address range and SNMP community strings and let LANsurveyor Express do the work for you. Survey your entire LAN and WAN or just specific network segments.
Complete
LANsurveyor Express uses multiple discovery methods (including SNMP, ICMP/ping, NetBIOS, Active Directory®, Spanning Tree, and more) to identify all your network devices.
Integrated as a Visio Plug-In
LANsurveyor Express is fully integrated with Visio as a plug-in, ensuring that the product is always easy to access via the Visio toolbar. Additionally, LANsurveyor Express automatically populates Visio Smart Shapes with node information so you can run Visio reports with LANsurveyor Express data.

Prepared by SolarWinds; Sponsored by Microsoft Corporation.

Publisher: Microsoft Corporation

Replacing your Web Content Management System

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Read this white paper on replacing your CMS and the business goals you need to keep in mind.

This white paper introduces the new dynamics of the Web, and goes into when and how you should replace a CMS – with an emphasis on business goals throughout. It quickly walks through the process of evaluating a CMS and the various options available, before discussing issues of content migration, implementation and deployment, and finally how to get the most from the new system.

A new CMS alone will not solve all problems – which is why this white paper attempts to shift the focus away from technology and onto business goals and people: key elements for making technology work.

Publisher: CrownPeak

VoIP for Small Business

TimAdmin — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0100

Explore this in-depth comparison table of leading Hosted PBX systems and their services including pricing, support, and features.

This guide compares the basic functions and features of seven of the leading Hosted PBX providers for small businesses. Vendors compared include AccessLine, Aptela, Bandwidth, Covad, Global Phone, Packet 8, Speakeasy, Smoothstone and Vocalocity. This in-depth guide features side-by-side comparisons of multiple topics including the following:

Pricing per User
Features by Vendor
Security
Phone Support
Comments

Publisher: VoIP-News