bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Triamcinolone acetonide mouth rinses for treatment of erosive oral lichen planus: efficacy and risk of fungal over‐infection
Authors: González‐García A , Diniz‐Freitas M , Gándara‐Vila P , Blanco‐Carrión A , García‐García A , Gándara‐Rey JM
Published: July 2006

Objectives: To assess the efficacy of triamcinolone acetonide mouthrinse for treatment of erosive oral lichen planus (OLP), and to evaluate the risk of fungal over‐infection.

Patients and methods: Clinical records of all cases of erosive and erosive‐ulcerative OLP treated in our Oral Medicine Service over the period 1993–2003 were reviewed. All patients had been treated with mouthrinses containing triamcinolone acetonide at 0.3% (T1) or 0.5% (T2). Clinical outcome for each patient was classified at 1, 3 and 6 months after start of treatment as total remission (TR), partial remission (PR) or no remission (NR). Fungal over‐infection was also recorded.

Results: A total of 35 cases were included in the study. Clinical outcomes considering both treatment groups together (T1 + T2) were as follows: at month 1, 28.6% TR, 62.9% PR, 8.6% NR; at month 3, 57.1% TR, 37.1% PR, 5.7% NR; and at month 6, 80.0% TR, 17.1% PR, 2.9% NR. In four patients (11.4%) fungal over‐infection was noted during the study period.

Conclusion: Triamcinolone acetonide mouthrinse is an appropriate treatment for erosive OLP, in view of the high efficacy and low risk of fungal over‐infection.
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF TWO POPULAR INDIAN POTATO VARIETIES
Authors: SINGH D.K. , GOSWAMI T.K. , CHOURASIA M.K.
Published: July 2006

Physical properties of potatoes, often required for analyzing heat and mass transfer during cooling and storage applications, were determined for the Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Sinduri varieties. The average values of linear dimensions, Dp, Sp, Ra, mass, ρ, Acand A of these two varieties were measured. The Kufri Jyoti was found to have comparatively more variations in a, b and c than the Kufri Sinduri. The average values of Dp, Sp, Ra, ρ, Acand A for the Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Sinduri were found to be 4.647 and 3.692 cm; 82.45 and 86.65%; 82.99 and 91.78%; 1113.3 and 1092.1 kg/m3; 30.86 and 12.10 cm2; and 79.05 and 47.10 cm2, respectively. The average values of ε, Dv, average Dpi, λand bulk density for the Kufri Jyoti and Kufri Sinduri in a commercially used 50‐kg gunny bag were found to be 0.42 ± 0.01 and 0.43 ± 0.008; 4.998 and 4.056 cm, 4.817 ± 0.534 and 3.922 ± 0.211 cm, 0.58 and 0.57; and 647.6 and 622.5 kg/m3, respectively. Relationships were also established for calculating the A of potato as a function of volume and weight.
MONTE CARLO SIMULATION OF FAR INFRARED RADIATION HEAT TRANSFER: THEORETICAL APPROACH
Authors: TANAKA F. , MORITA K. , IWASAKI K. , VERBOVEN P. , SCHEERLINCK N. , NICOLAÏ B.
Published: July 2006

We developed radiation heat transfer models with the combination of the Monte Carlo (MC) method and computational fluid dynamic approach and two‐dimensional heat transfer models based on the fundamental quantum physics of radiation and fluid dynamics. We investigated far infrared radiation (FIR) heating in laminar and buoyancy airflow. A simple prediction model in laminar airflow was tested with an analytical solution and commercial software (CFX 4). The adequate number of photon tracks for MC simulation was established. As for the complex designs model, the predicted results agreed well with the experimental data with root mean square error of 3.8 K. Because food safety public concerns are increasing, we applied this model to the prediction of the thermal inactivation level by coupling with the microbial kinetics model. Under buoyancy airflow condition, uniformity of FIR heating was improved by selecting adequate wall temperature and emissivity.
Bargaining Stances and Outcomes in Buyer–Seller Negotiations: Experimental Results
Authors: Krause Daniel R. , Terpend Regis , Petersen Kenneth J.
Published: July 2006

Buyer–supplier relationships are affected by contractual negotiations between the respective parties. This paper examines the variables likely to influence the outcomes of a two‐party negotiation in an experiment that reproduces some of the details encountered in real‐life negotiations. The study used two‐party negotiations to examine the effect of reservation prices, aspiration prices and competitive stance on the outcome of the negotiations. The study confirms the importance of reference points, and that negotiators may adjust their reference points during the negotiation. The results also suggest that the negotiator's bargaining stance has a significant influence on settlement price and may act as a moderator of the effect of reference points on settlement price. Finally, the analysis suggests that a negative bargaining zone does not necessarily lead to an impasse; however, it increases the risk of an impasse compared with a negotiation with a positive bargaining zone.
OEM New Product Development Practices: The Case of the Automotive Industry
Authors: Quesada Gioconda , Syamil Ahmad , Doll William J.
Published: July 2006

In industries where value added by suppliers contributes significantly to the final product, the competitiveness of the value chain depends upon supplier performance (cost, quality and on‐time delivery). Despite the importance of supplier performance in new product development (NPD), most research has focused on supplier performance in operations. Few studies have focused on how product development practices of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) influence OEM evaluations of supplier performance. This paper posits a model of the relationships among three factions: OEM practices that involve suppliers in design, concurrent engineering practices of the OEM and OEM assessments of supplier performance. This model is tested and cross‐validated using a sample of 406 NPD projects in Germany and the United States. The findings suggest that NPD practices of OEMs influence their perceptions of suppliers' performance.
ON THE "CERTAIN" EXACT SEQUENCE OF WHITEHEAD
Authors: BENKHALIFA MAHMOUD
Published: July 2006

This paper is devoted to the classification problem of homotopy types of a new class of simply connected CW-complexes called diagonal spaces which contains all spaces X such that H*(X, ℤ) is free. We show that two simply connected diagonal CW-complexes X and Y are homotopic if and only if their Whitehead exact sequences are isomorphic.
CHAPLYGIN GRAVITODYNAMICS
Authors: BANERJEE RABIN , GHOSH SUBIR
Published: July 2006

We consider a new approach for gravity theory coupled to Chaplygin matter in which the relativistic formulation of the latter is of crucial importance. We obtain a novel form of matter with dust-like density (~ (volume)-1) and negative pressure. We explicitly show that our results are compatible with a relativistic generalization of the energy conservation principle, derived here.
A CYCLIC INTEGRAL ON κ-MINKOWSKI NONCOMMUTATIVE SPACE–TIME
Authors: AGOSTINI ALESSANDRA , AMELINO-CAMELIA GIOVANNI , ARZANO MICHELE , D'ANDREA FRANCESCO
Published: July 2006

We examine some alternative possibilities for an action functional for κ-Minkowski noncommutative space–time. Early works on κ-Minkowski focused on κ-Poincaré covariance and the dependence of the action functional on the choice of Weyl map, renouncing to invariance under cyclic permutations of the factors composing the argument of the action functional. It has been recently suggested, focusing on a specific choice of Weyl map and setting aside the issue of κ-Poincaré covariance of the action functional, that a cyclicity-inducing measure could be introduced in implicit form. We provide an explicit formula for (and derivation of) a choice of measure which indeed ensures cyclicity of the action functional. The same choice of measure is applicable to all the most used choices of Weyl map, but we find that this "cyclicity-inducing measure" is not invariant under κ-Poincaré transformations. We also notice that the cyclicity-inducing measure can be straightforwardly derived using a map which connects the κ-Minkowski space–time coordinates and the space–time coordinates of a "canonical" noncommutative space–time, with coordinate-independent commutators.
EFFECT OF AN IMPURITY IN THE WIDE-NARROW-WIDE QUANTUM WAVEGUIDE STRUCTURE
Authors: LU JIAN-DUO , LIN YI
Published: July 2006

We present a numerical study of the influence of junction-geometries and disorder on quantum-mechanical transmission by considering the presence of an impurity in a wide-narrow-wide (W-N-W) quantum-wire junction. The device is modeled as an electron waveguide of finite cross section. Transmission and reflection probabilities as well as conductance are computed by using model expansions of the wave function together with a waveguide-matching technique. The calculations show that the transmission of the two-dimensional electron gas through the W-N-W geometry is highly sensitive to geometries of junction and can be suppressed by the presence of a repulsive or attractive impurity potential. Furthermore, the depression effect becomes more visible if the absolute value of potential strength becomes bigger.
ACTIVE CONTROL OF UNCERTAIN CHAOTIC SYSTEMS WITH PARAMETRIC PERTURBATION
Authors: ZHANG HAO , MA XI-KUI
Published: July 2006

This paper presents an active control method for controlling general uncertain chaotic systems with parameters perturbation. And a sufficient condition is drawn for the stability of the controlled chaotic systems and is applied to guiding the design of the controllers. Finally, numerical results are used to show the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.
DEFORMED HARMONIC OSCILLATOR FOR NON-HERMITIAN OPERATOR AND THE BEHAVIOR OF PT AND CPT SYMMETRIES
Authors: JANNUSSIS A. , VLACHOS K. , PAPATHEOU V. , STREKLAS A.
Published: July 2006

In the present paper we study the deformed harmonic oscillator for the non-Hermitian operator [Formula: see text] where λ,θ are real positive parameters, since the parameters α,β,m are for the general case complex.

For the case α=1,β=1 and mass m real, we find the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of energy, the coherent states, the time evolution of the operators [Formula: see text] in the Heisenberg picture and the uncertainty relations. In this case the operator ℋ is Hermitian and PT-symmetric. Also for the case m complex α=1,β=1, the operator ℋ is non-Hermitian and no more PT symmetric, but CPT symmetric with real discrete positive spectrum and the CPT symmetry is preserved. In the general case α,β,m complex, for the non-Hermitian operator ℋ, we obtain complex spectrum and for the special values of the complex parameters α,β the spectrum is real discrete and positive and the CPT symmetry is preserved. The general problem of deformed oscillator for non hermitian operators can be applied to the Solid State Physics.
USER INDEPENDENT GESTURE INTERACTION FOR SMALL HANDHELD DEVICES
Authors: KALLIO SANNA , KELA JUHA , KORPIPÄÄ PANU , MÄNTYJÄRVI JANI
Published: July 2006

Accelerometer-based gesture recognition facilitates a complementary interaction modality for controlling mobile devices and home appliances. Using gestures for the task of home appliance control requires use of the same device and gestures by different persons, i.e. user independent gesture recognition. The practical application in small embedded low-resource devices also requires high computational performance. The user independent gesture recognition accuracy was evaluated with a set of eight gestures and seven users, with a total of 1120 gestures in the dataset. Twenty-state continuous HMM yielded an average of 96.9% user independent recognition accuracy, which was cross-validated by leaving one user in turn out of the training set. Continuous and discrete five-state HMM computational performances were compared with a reference test in a PC environment, indicating that discrete HMM is 20% faster. Computational performance of discrete five-state HMM was evaluated in an embedded hardware environment with a 104 MHz ARM-9 processor and Symbian OS. The average recognition time per gesture calculated from 1120 gesture repetitions was 8.3 ms. With this result, the computational performance difference between the compared methods is considered insignificant in terms of practical application. Continuous HMM is hence recommended as a preferred method due to its better suitability for a continuous-valued signal, and better recognition accuracy. The results suggest that, according to both evaluation criteria, HMM is feasible for practical user independent gesture control applications in mobile low-resource embedded environments.
AN ATTENTION BASED SPATIAL ADAPTATION SCHEME FOR H.264 VIDEOS ON MOBILES
Authors: WANG YI , LI HOUQIANG , FAN XIN , CHEN CHANG WEN
Published: July 2006

With the growing popularity of personal digital assistant devices and smart phones, consumers have become increasingly enthusiastic to watching videos from these mobile devices. However, when browsing videos in mobiles, users often feel that the display resolution greatly affects their perceptual experience with the limited screen size. In this paper, an attention based spatial video adaptation scheme is proposed to overcome the display constraints by producing and displaying the region of interest. According to the size of the target display, we automatically detect and crop the informative region in each frame to generate a smooth sequence. To avoid costly full encoding operations, we develop a set of transcoding techniques based on the H.264 standard. Experimental results show that this approach not only improves the perceptual quality but also saves the bandwidth and computation, especially for the videos which have not been well edited.
STRUCTURAL AND ELECTRICAL STUDIES ON Al1-xMgx WITH DIFFERENT CONCENTRATIONS OF Mg
Authors: ASHOUR A. , BADAWI E. , EL-SAYED N. Z.
Published: July 2006

Al 1-x Mg x with different concentrations of Mg was produced by spectroscopically technique from melting the ingredient in graphite crucibles sealed under vacuum in quartz ampoules. The samples have been characterized by X-ray studies and electrical measurements. A cubic phase of polycrystalline aluminum has been observed. There is no new phases appearing with different concentrations of Mg contents and quenching temperatures. The results show that the crystallinity (intensity of (200) plane) increases with both Mg concentration (<4.44 wt%) and quenching temperature (<898 K). The grain size of the obtained phase decreased with increasing the Mg contents. The resistivity is calculated for different concentrations of Mg at room temperature and found increasing with Mg contents. The grain size is found to be a parameter affecting the resistivity than the preferred orientation.
MICROSTRUCTURE AND ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS OF CERAMIC-LIKE COATINGS ON THE AZ91 ALLOY BY MICRO-ARC OXIDATION
Authors: CHEN CHUANZHONG , DONG QING , WANG DIANGANG
Published: July 2006

Ceramic-like coatings were deposited on the substrate of the AZ91 alloy by micro-arc oxidation (MAO). Many methods like X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and electron diffraction spectroscopy (EDS) were used to analyze the structure and composition of the coating. XRD showed that the MAO coating was mainly composed of MgO . The results of SEM showed that the coating surface possessed a porous microstructure and the pore size was in the range of 1–3 μm. EDS indicated that the coating matrix was relatively dense and had a homogeneous thickness. The element silicon from the applied electrolyte could be absorbed into the coating in the MAO process. The hardness of the MgO coatings could reach 513 HV0.025that was about four times higher than that of the substrate. It is expected that the coatings have a great potential in the surface protection of magnesium alloys.
POLAR INTERFACE-OPTICAL VIBRATIONAL SPECTRA IN A WURTZITE GaN/AlN RECTANGULAR QUANTUM WIRE
Authors: ZHANG L.
Published: July 2006

Under the dielectric continuum model and Loudon's uniaxial crystal model, the interface optical (IO) phonon modes in a quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) wurtzite rectangular quantum wire are deduced and analyzed. Numerical calculation on a wurtzite GaN/AlN rectangular wurtzite quantum wire was performed. Results reveal that the dispersion frequencies of IO modes sensitively depend on the geometric structures of the Q1D wurtzite rectangular quantum wires. The degenerating behavior of the IO phonon modes in the Q1D wurtzite rectangular quantum wire has been clearly observed for small free wave number kz in z-direction. The limited frequency behaviors of IO modes have been analyzed deeply, and detailed comparisons with those in wurtzite planar quantum wells and cylindrical quantum wires are also done. Moreover, once the anisotropy of the wurtzite material has been ignored, the present theories can be naturally reduced to the situation of Q1D cubic rectangular quantum wire systems.
AB INITIO TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT SIMULATION OF ZnO ADSORBED ON THE α-Al2O3(0001) SURFACE
Authors: YANG CHUN , YI YU , LI Y. R.
Published: July 2006

The adsorption and the growth of ZnO on α- Al 2 O 3(0001) surface at various temperatures are theoretically calculated by using a plane wave pseudopotentials (USP) method based on density functional theory. The average adsorption energy of ZnO at 400, 600, and 800°C is 4.16±0.08, 4.25±0.11, and 4.05±0.23 eV, respectively. Temperature has a remarkable effect on the structure of the surface and the interface of ZnO /α- Al 2 O 3(0001). It is found that the Zn -hexagonal symmetry deflexion does not appear during the adsorption growth of ZnO at 400°C, and that the [Formula: see text] is parallel with the [Formula: see text] of the α- Al 2 O 3(0001), which is favorable for forming the ZnO film with the Zn -terminated surface. It can be observed from our simulation that there are two surface structures in the adsorption of ZnO at 600°C: one is the ZnO surface that has the Zn -terminated structure, and whose [Formula: see text] parallels with the substrate surface [Formula: see text], and the other is the ZnO [Formula: see text]// sapphire [Formula: see text] with the O -terminated surface. The energy barrier of the phase transition between the two different surface structures is about 1.6 eV, and the latter is more stable. Therefore, the ideal temperature for the thin film growth of ZnO on sapphire is about 600°C, and it facilitates the formation of wurtzite structure containing Zn-O–Zn-O–Zn-O double layers as a growth unit cell. At 600°C, the average bond length of ZnO is 0.190±0.01 nm, and the electron localization function value indicates that the bond of (substrate) –O–Zn–O has a distinct covalent character, whereas the ( Zn ) O–Al (substrate) shows a clear character of ionic bond. However, at the temperature of 800°C, the dissociation of Al and O atoms on the surface of the α- Al 2 O 3(0001) leads to a disordered surface and interface structure. Thus, the Zn -hexagonal symmetry structure of the ZnO film is not observed under the condition.
ARTERIAL WALL MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND KIDNEY GRAFT ARTERIAL STENOSIS
Authors: COLÌ L. , DONATI G. , TEDESCO A. , PALLOTTI G. , PETTAZZONI P. , STEFONI S.
Published: July 2006

The connection of vascular segments with different mechanical properties increases the risk of generating blood turbulent fluxes, and involves the development of complications such as atherosclerosis in the arterial vessels. The mechanical properties of arterial vessel of two different subjects, the donor and the recipient, were analyzed. To experimentally validate the effects of the arterial wall mechanical properties on blood fluxes, 352 patients who received kidney transplantation were studied, concerning the development of renal artery atherosclerotic stenosis. An anastomothic arterial stenosis was observed in 92% of transplanted patients with donor/recipient age difference > 15 years, and in 5.7% of transplanted patients with donor/recipient age difference ≤ 15 years. In conclusion, it is useful to give more consideration to the patient's age difference in organ and vessel transplantations.
ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION OF HUMAN ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAMS SEEN AS FRACTAL TIME SERIES
Authors: KULISH VLADIMIR , SOURIN ALEXEI , SOURINA OLGA
Published: July 2006

The paper presents a novel technique of nonlinear spectral analysis. This technique is based on the concept of generalized entropy of a given probability distribution, known as the Rényi entropy. This concept allows defining generalized fractal dimension of encephalogram (EEG) and determining fractal spectra of encephalographic signals. These spectra contain information of both frequency and amplitude characteristics of EEG and can be used together with well-accepted techniques of EEG analysis as an enhancement of the latter. Powered by volume visualization of the brain activity, the method provides new clues for understanding the mental processes in humans.
IN SILICO SEARCH FOR NATURAL ANTISENSE TRANSCRIPTS REVEALS THEIR DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION IN HUMAN TUMORS
Authors: KLIMOV DMITRY , SKOBLOV MIKHAIL , RYAZANTZEV ANDREI , TYAZHELOVA TATIANA , BARANOVA ANCHA
Published: July 2006

We created an algorithm that allows high-throughput mapping of sense-antisense (SA) pairs of transcripts. By this method we mapped approximately 32 000 SA pairs of human mRNAs. Collected SA pairs were divided into three groups: SA pairs based on two or more UniGene clusters (17% of all sense-antisense pairs), SA pairs based on ESTs that belong to the same UniGene cluster (42%), and SA pairs formed by UniGene cluster and non-unique unclustered transcripts (41%). To study expression patterns of natural SA pairs we created a software application "Antisense Cluster Filter". We retrieved tissue expression data for all the transcripts forming identified SA pairs, including clustered and unclustered ones. After that, we selected 108 SA pairs represented by transcripts differentially regulated in human tumors. For each of these SA pairs one of the transcripts was expressed only in tumors, another one was expressed both in non-malignant and malignant tissues. Indicated SA pairs may represent a new class of tumor markers. An example of the tumor-specific natural antisense to C3orf4 mRNA is detailed.
TRANSCRIPTION BINDING SITE PREDICTION USING MARKOV MODELS
Authors: ABNIZOVA IRINA , RUST ALISTAIR G. , ROBINSON MARK , TE BOEKHORST RENE , GILKS WALTER R.
Published: July 2006

One of the main goals of analysing DNA sequences is to understand the temporal and positional information that specifies gene expression. An important step in this process is the recognition of gene expression regulatory elements. Experimental procedures for this are slow and costly. In this paper we present a computational non-supervised algorithm that facilitates the process by statistically identifying the most likely regions within a putative regulatory sequence. A probabilistic technique is presented, based on the approximation of regulatory DNA with a Markov chain, for the location of putative transcription factor binding sites in a single stretch of DNA. Hereto we developed a procedure to approximate the order of Markov model for a given DNA sequence that circumvents some of the prohibitive assumptions underlying Markov modeling. Application of the algorithm to data from 55 genes in five species shows the high sensitivity of this Markov search algorithm. Our algorithm does not require any prior knowledge in the form of description or cross-genomic comparison; it is context sensitive and takes DNA heterogeneity into account.
COMPARATIVE GENOMIC ANALYSIS OF TRANSCRIPTION REGULATION ELEMENTS INVOLVED IN HUMAN MAP KINASE G-PROTEIN COUPLING PATHWAY
Authors: POLOULIAKH NATALIA , NATSUME TOHRU , HARADA HAJIME , FUJIBUCHI WATARU , HORTON PAUL
Published: July 2006

The identification of cis-elements (motifs) in the regulatory regions of higher eukaryotes is an important and challenging problem in computational biology. Eukaryotic transcriptional regulatory mechanisms pose several difficulties for promoter analysis: including a high variance in the motif locations, frequently large divergence from motif consensus patterns, and a large amount of repetitive elements (confusing to many motif finding procedures). One promising approach to this difficult problem involves cross-species comparison. In this work we analyzed the full-length regulatory regions of genes involved in the G-protein coupling MAP kinase pathway and compared the results with ribosomal genes using human, mouse and rat genomic data. We found 19 high likely transcription factors (TFs) candidates for MAPK and 12 TFs for the ribosomal dataset. In the case of the MAPK dataset, regulatory regions of genes functionally grouped as receptors and MAP-core genes were found mostly highly conserved across the three species.
JOINT LEARNING OF GENE FUNCTIONS — A BAYESIAN NETWORK MODEL APPROACH
Authors: DENG XUTAO , GENG HUIMIN , ALI HESHAM H.
Published: July 2006

In this paper, we develop a machine learning system for determining gene functions from heterogeneous data sources using a Weighted Naive Bayesian network (WNB). The knowledge of gene functions is crucial for understanding many fundamental biological mechanisms such as regulatory pathways, cell cycles and diseases. Our major goal is to accurately infer functions of putative genes or Open Reading Frames (ORFs) from existing databases using computational methods. However, this task is intrinsically difficult since the underlying biological processes represent complex interactions of multiple entities. Therefore, many functional links would be missing when only one or two sources of data are used in the prediction. Our hypothesis is that integrating evidence from multiple and complementary sources could significantly improve the prediction accuracy. In this paper, our experimental results not only suggest that the above hypothesis is valid, but also provide guidelines for using the WNB system for data collection, training and predictions. The combined training data sets contain information from gene annotations, gene expressions, clustering outputs, keyword annotations, and sequence homology from public databases. The current system is trained and tested on the genes of budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our WNB model can also be used to analyze the contribution of each source of information toward the prediction performance through the weight training process. The contribution analysis could potentially lead to significant scientific discovery by facilitating the interpretation and understanding of the complex relationships between biological entities.
CHOOSING SNPs USING FEATURE SELECTION
Authors: PHUONG TU MINH , LIN ZHEN , ALTMAN RUSS B.
Published: July 2006

A major challenge for genomewide disease association studies is the high cost of genotyping large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The correlations between SNPs, however, make it possible to select a parsimonious set of informative SNPs, known as "tagging" SNPs, able to capture most variation in a population. Considerable research interest has recently focused on the development of methods for finding such SNPs. In this paper, we present an efficient method for finding tagging SNPs. The method does not involve computation-intensive search for SNP subsets but discards redundant SNPs using a feature selection algorithm. In contrast to most existing methods, the method presented here does not limit itself to using only correlations between SNPs in local groups. By using correlations that occur across different chromosomal regions, the method can reduce the number of globally redundant SNPs. Experimental results show that the number of tagging SNPs selected by our method is smaller than by using block-based methods.

Supplementary website: .
ANALYSIS OF SNP-EXPRESSION ASSOCIATION MATRICES
Authors: TSALENKO ANYA , SHARAN RODED , KRISTENSEN VESSELA , EDVARDSEN HEGE , BØRRESEN-DALE ANNE-LISE , BEN-DOR AMIR , YAKHINI ZOHAR
Published: July 2006

High throughput expression profiling and genotyping technologies provide the means to study the genetic determinants of population variation in gene expression variation. In this paper we present a general statistical framework for the simultaneous analysis of gene expression data and SNP genotype data measured for the same cohort. The framework consists of methods to associate transcripts with SNPs affecting their expression, algorithms to detect subsets of transcripts that share significantly many associations with a subset of SNPs, and methods to visualize the identified relations. We apply our framework to SNP-expression data collected from 50 breast cancer patients. Our results demonstrate an overabundance of transcript-SNP associations in this data, and pinpoint SNPs that are potential master regulators of transcription. We also identify several statistically significant transcript-subsets with common putative regulators that fall into well-defined functional categories.
STRUCTURE PREDICTION OF HELICAL TRANSMEMBRANE PROTEINS AT TWO LENGTH SCALES
Authors: CHEN ZHONG , XU YING
Published: July 2006

As the first step toward a multi-scale, hierarchical computational approach for membrane protein structure prediction, the packing of transmembrane helices was modeled at the residue and atom levels, respectively. For predictions at the residue level, the helix-helix and helix-membrane interactions were described by a set of knowledge-based energy functions. For predictions at the atom level, CHARMM19 force field was used. To facilitate the system to overcome energy barriers, the Wang–Landau method was employed, where a random walk is performed in the energy space with a uniform probability. Native-like structures were predicted at both levels for two model systems, each of which consists of two transmembrane helices. Interestingly, consistent results were obtained from simulations at the residue and atom levels for the same system, strongly suggesting the feasibility of a hierarchical approach for membrane protein structure predictions.
A UNIFYING FRAMEWORK FOR SEED SENSITIVITY AND ITS APPLICATION TO SUBSET SEEDS
Authors: KUCHEROV GREGORY , NOÉ LAURENT , ROYTBERG MIKHAIL
Published: July 2006

We propose a general approach to compute the seed sensitivity, that can be applied to different definitions of seeds. It treats separately three components of the seed sensitivity problem — a set of target alignments, an associated probability distribution, and a seed model — that are specified by distinct finite automata. The approach is then applied to a new concept of subset seeds for which we propose an efficient automaton construction. Experimental results confirm that sensitive subset seeds can be efficiently designed using our approach, and can then be used in similarity search producing better results than ordinary spaced seeds.
COMPARISON OF STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE CRITERIA
Authors: RÉGNIER MIREILLE , VANDENBOGAERT MATHIAS
Published: July 2006

We study and compare two classes of statistical criteria to assess the significance of exceptional words. Indeed, the Z-score-like criteria, or the normal approximation that is a strict equivalent, suffer from several drawbacks in terms of sensitivity and specificity. Thanks to the combinatorial structure of words, a computation of the exact P-value has been made possible by recent mathematical results. We study here the drawbacks of the Z-score, the choice of the threshold and the tightness to the P-value.

A major conclusion is that the normal approximation is always very poor and overestimates statistical significance.
PRECISE SHAPE MEASUREMENT OF DYNAMIC SURFACE VIA SINGLE CAMERA STEREO
Authors: AN LUPING , JIA YUNDE , PEI MINGTAO , DENG HONGBIN
Published: July 2006

In this article, a method of the precise shape measurement of dynamic surfaces via a single camera stereo vision system is presented, a cross-curve pattern is painted on the surface of an object, and the intersections of cross-curves which represent the shape of the object are measured by the stereo vision system. The system with a single camera is modeled as a virtual binocular stereo by strong calibration technique. Binocular epipolar rectification is used to make the stereo matching efficient, and principal curves theory is employed to extract curves in images for stereo matching. Under the framework of RANSAC, the curves are interpolated robustly with cubic spline based on moving-least-square (MLS). Experimental results on both static and dynamic deforming surfaces illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
REAL-TIME OBJECT TRACKING IN MOVING CAMERA
Authors: YUN BYOUNG-JU , CHO JOONG-HOON , JEONG JAE-WOO
Published: July 2006

Moving object tracking plays an important role in applications of object based video conference, video surveillance and so on. The computational complexity is very important in real-time object tracking. We assumed that the background scene is obtained before an object appears in the image and a camera moves after the object is detected. The proposed method can segment an object by using the difference image if there is no camera motion. After camera motion, it can track the object by using the backward BMA (block matching algorithm) with the HFM (human figure model). For real-time tracking, we used the ROI (region of interest) which is the tightest rectangle of the object. The simulation results show that the proposed method efficiently recognizes and tracks the moving camera as well as the fixed camera.
RAISING CAPITAL FOR MICROFINANCE: SOURCES OF FUNDING AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR EQUITY FINANCING
Authors: FEHR DAVID , HISHIGSUREN GAAMAA
Published: July 2006

On a worldwide basis, microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide financial services to the poorest households. To date, funding of MFI activities has come primarily from outright donor grants, government subsidies, and often debt capital, including debt with non-market terms favorable to the MFI. These traditional sources of MFI financing may not be sufficient to allow MFIs to provide maximum services. There is a subset of the pool of mainstream equity investors who would consider investing in MFI opportunities, even knowing that they would not expect to earn the full economic rate of return that such investments would otherwise require. However, as part of their investment evaluation process, these investors would ask: What would the market determined required expected rate of return for my MFI investment be? What return on investment (ROI) do I expect to earn on my MFI investment? Is the difference in the above two returns acceptable given my level of social motivation? How will I "monetize" my investment and when? The purpose of this article is to employ modern corporate finance techniques to address these questions.
ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF r-TUPLES OF SQUAREFREE NUMBERS IN SHORT INTERVALS
Authors: TOLEV D. I.
Published: July 2006

We consider the number of r-tuples of squarefree numbers in a short interval. We prove that it cannot be much bigger than the expected value and we also establish an asymptotic formula if the interval is not very short.
Acute Gastric Volvulus: Diagnosis and Management over 10 Years
Authors: Gourgiotis Stavros , Vougas Vasilis , Germanos Stylianos , Baratsis Sotiris
Published: July 2006

Background/Aims: Gastric volvulus is a rare, potentially life-threatening condition, which is difficult to diagnose. This study represents a series of patients with acute gastric volvulus. Methods: All patients presenting with acute gastric volvulus over a 10-year period were reviewed. Results: Twenty-one patients with a median age of 66 years were identified. Acute gastric volvulus was secondary to a paraesophageal hiatus hernia in 16 patients. The major symptoms were abdominal pain, vomiting and upper gastrointestinal bleeding/anemia. The most useful investigations were barium studies and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Treatment was open surgery in all patients. There were no major complications and no deaths. Median hospitalization was 8 days. Conclusion: Acute gastric volvulus is a rare condition which requires a high index of suspicion for diagnosis, which is usually based on imaging studies. The treatment is immediate surgery. Volvulus can be treated successfully by open surgery with minimal morbidity and short hospitalization.
Genetic Parallel Programming: Design and Implementation
Authors: Cheang Sin Man , Leung Kwong Sak , Lee Kin Hong
Published: July 2006

This paper presents a novel Genetic Parallel Programming (GPP) paradigm for evolving parallel programs running on a Multi-Arithmetic-Logic-Unit (Multi-ALU) Processor (MAP). The MAP is a Multiple Instruction-streams, Multiple Data-streams (MIMD), general-purpose register machine that can be implemented on modern Very Large-Scale Integrated Circuits (VLSIs) in order to evaluate genetic programs at high speed. For human programmers, writing parallel programs is more difficult than writing sequential programs. However, experimental results show that GPP evolves parallel programs with less computational effort than that of their sequential counterparts. It creates a new approach to evolving a feasible problem solution in parallel program form and then serializes it into a sequential programif required. The effectiveness and efficiency of GPP are investigated using a suite of 14 well-studied benchmark problems. Experimental results show that GPP speeds up evolution substantially.
Error Thresholds in Genetic Algorithms
Authors: Ochoa Gabriela
Published: July 2006

The error threshold of replication is an important notion in the quasispecies evolution model; it is a critical mutation rate (error rate) beyond which structures obtained by an evolutionary process are destroyed more frequently than selection can reproduce them. With mutation rates above this critical value, an error catastrophe occurs and the genomic information is irretrievably lost. Therefore, studying the factors that alter this magnitude has important implications in the study of evolution. Here we use a genetic algorithm, instead of the quasispecies model, as the underlying model of evolution, and explore whether the phenomenon of error thresholds is found on finite populations of bit strings evolving on complex landscapes. Our empirical results verify the occurrence of error thresholds in genetic algorithms. In this way, this notion is brought from molecular evolution to evolutionary computation. We also study the effect of modifying the most prominent evolutionary parameters on the magnitude of this critical value, and found that error thresholds depend mainly on the selection pressure and genotype length.
A Probabilistic Classifier System and Its Application in Data Mining
Authors: Muruzábal Jorge
Published: July 2006

The article is about a new Classifier System framework for classification tasks called BYP CS (for BaYesian Predictive Classifier System). The proposed CS approach abandons the focus on high accuracy and addresses a well-posed Data Mining goal, namely, that of uncovering the low-uncertainty patterns of dependence that manifest often in the data. To attain this goal, BYP CS uses a fair amount of probabilistic machinery, which brings its representation language closer to other related methods of interest in statistics and machine learning. On the practical side, the new algorithm is seen to yield stable learning of compact populations, and these still maintain a respectable amount of predictive power. Furthermore, the emerging rules self-organize in interesting ways, sometimes providing unexpected solutions to certain benchmark problems.
Locative-Media Artists in the Contested-Aware City
Authors: Townsend Anthony
Published: July 2006

The adoption of mobile devices as the computers of the 21st century marks a shift away from the fixed terminals that dominated the first 50 years of computing. Associated with this shift will be a new emphasis on context-aware computing. This article examines design approaches to context-aware computing and argues that the evolution of this technology will be characterized by an interplay between top-down systems for command and control and bottom-up systems for collective action. This process will lead to the emergence of “contested-aware cities,” in which power struggles are waged in public spaces with the assistance of context-aware systems.
Locative Arts
Authors: Hemment Drew
Published: July 2006

The author discusses the field of locative arts, focusing on works and interests from 2003 to 2004. An overview is presented of the artistic project types found within this field, and the author considers in depth a number of issues such as how projects are shaped by their reliance on positioning technologies and the importance of the social within this area of practice.
Beyond Locative Media: Giving Shape to the Internet of Things
Authors: Tuters Marc , Varnelis Kazys
Published: July 2006

Locative media has been attacked for being too eager to appeal to commercial interests as well as for its reliance on Cartesian mapping systems. If these critiques are well founded, however, they are also nostalgic, invoking a notion of art as autonomous from the circuits of mass communication technologies, which the authors argue no longer holds true. This essay begins with a survey of the development of locative media, how it has distanced itself from net art and how it has been critically received, before going on to address these critiques and ponder how the field might develop.
Art and New Technology in Mexico: The National Center for the Arts
Authors: Di Castro Andrea
Published: July 2006

The author chronicles the history of Mexico's Centro Nacional de las Artes (National Center for the Arts) in Mexico City, and in particular the Multimedia Center, a space dedicated to the creation and teaching of the arts and preservation of cultural heritage through the use of new technologies such as CD-ROMs, the Internet and teleconferencing, as well as exhibitions. After 10 years of operation, the Multimedia Center faces new types of challenges as the new technologies become successfully integrated into creative practice. In response to the changing environment, the center is moving toward collaborations with similar institutions internationally and toward new funding models.
THE MEANING OF IN AHIQAR SAYING 15 1
Authors: Wee John Zhu-En
Published: July 2006

The (Ahiqar saying 15) means "to cause to appear rare." This meaning of yqr (H stem) also occurs in Prov. xxv 17 and is suggested by the ABAB parallelism of this Ahiqar saying.
The Puzzle of the Psychiatric Interview
Authors: Stanghellini Giovanni
Published: July 2006

The psychiatric interview plays a critical role in clinical assessment and therapy. Problems with assessment reliability and validity that were apparent in nosological and diagnostic discrepancies plagued the field of psychiatry historically. Technical approaches including structured interviews were developed to address these problems. Although these approaches decreased diagnostic variance, they focused narrowly on eliciting signs and symptoms conforming to previously agreed diagnostic categories, necessarily restricting the range and richness of experiences and narratives that are elicited. This restriction inhibits the utility of assessment in furthering the interpersonal rapport and exploration that is essential to the task of therapy. The author reviews critiques of technical approaches to psychiatric assessment and highlights critical, often unexamined, epistemological assumptions and questions. In light of these critiques, he proposes a phenomenological approach to psychiatric assessment focused on narratives that situate particular experiences in the broader life context. In this approach the assessor functions as a participant observer, relying on the same empathic skills that inform effective therapy. It is argued that without over turning the advances in assessment reliability gained through technical approaches to the psychiatric interview, a phenomenological approach can illuminate, enrich, and broaden psychiatric assessment, increasing its effectiveness in psychopathological understanding and in therapy.
Racialization in the Age of Empire: Japanese and Filipino Labor in Colonial Hawai`i
Authors: Jung Moon-Kie
Published: July 2006

In the past few decades, the social sciences have turned decidedly away from essentialist and reductionist ways of theorizing race and its articulations with nation and class. Though invaluable in advancing the social-scientific study and critique of race and racism, this turn has led many to conceptualize race increasingly as an empty signifier whose articulations with nation and class are wholly a matter of contingency This article suggests that we reengage the project of theorizing the insistent, historically recurrent articulations of race, nation, and class without falling into the old traps of essentialism, reductionism, and ahistoricism. Taking colonial Hawai`i as an example, this article analyzes how these categories articulated to racialize Japanese and Filipino migrant labor differentially in the age of empire.
Racial Profiling and Immigration Law Enforcement: Rounding Up of Usual Suspects in the Latino Community
Authors: Romero Mary
Published: July 2006

Critical race theorists have applied the concepts of micro-aggressions and macro-aggressions to characterize the racial affronts minorities encounter in the criminal justice system, particularly in the War on Drugs and in the use of racial profiling. Building on LatCrit and critical race scholars, I analyze the function that immigration raids serve as a policing practice that maintains and reinforces subordinated status among working-class Latino citizens and immigrations. Using a case study approach, I analyze a five day immigration raid in 1997. locally referred to as the “Chandler Roundup.” Immigration policing constructed citizenship as visibly inscribed on bodies in specific urban spaces rather than “probable cause.” The Chandler Roundup fits into a larger pattern of immigration law enforcement practices that produce harms of reduction and repression and place Mexican Americans at risk before the law and designate them as second-class citizens with inferior rights. Latino residents experienced racial affronts targeted at their “Mexicanness” indicated by skin-color, bilingual speaking abilities, or shopping in neighborhoods highly populated by Latinos. During immigration inspections, individuals stopped were demeaned, humiliated and embarrassed. Stops and searches conducted without cause were intimidating and frightening, particularly when conducted with the discretionary use of power and force by law enforcement agents. In urban barrios, the costly enterprise of selected stops and searches, race-related police abuse, and harassment results in deterring political participation, identifying urban space racially, classifying immigrants as deserving and undeserving by nationalities, and serves to drive a wedge dividing Latino neighborhoods on the basis of citizenship status.
The Ability to Distinguish Ritual Actions in Children[1]
Authors: Richert Rebekah A.
Published: July 2006

Research on children's religious understanding has recently focused on outlining how and when children develop a variety of religious concepts, however there is a noticeable lack of research into children's understanding of religious rituals. We present three studies exploring children's developing understanding of religious rituals. In Experiment 1, children ages 5 to 11 were told stories about novel actions that were done for functional reasons or ritual reasons. Older children were more flexible than younger children about the functional actions, and all children remained generally inflexible about the ritual actions, claiming that it would be somewhat bad to change how rituals are done. In Experiment 2, children ages 6 to 11 were asked about the flexibility of a familiar ritual (i.e., baptism) and a familiar functional action (i.e., bath). In this case, children of all ages were far more flexible about the functional actions than the ritual actions. In Experiment 3, children ages 4 to 12 were asked about the efficacy of a baptism if the pastor performing the baptism performed the wrong actions. The older children were more likely than younger children to claim that the baptism could still work even if the pastor made mistakes.