Sample records for advaned technology cluster

  1. Comparison of the clinical performances of the AdvanSure HPV Screening Real-Time PCR, the Abbott Real-Time High-Risk HPV Test, and the Hybrid Capture High-Risk HPV DNA Test for Cervical Cancer Screening.

    PubMed

    Chung, Hae-Sun; Hahm, Chorong; Lee, Miae

    2014-09-01

    The clinical performance of three human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA commercial assays for cervical cancer screening was evaluated; the AdvanSure HPV Screening Real-Time PCR (AdvanSure PCR; LG Life Sciences) that was developed recently for the detection of both high-risk and low-risk genotypes, the Abbott RealTime High-Risk HPV Test (Abbott PCR; Abbott Molecular) and the Hybrid Capture High-Risk HPV DNA test (HC2; Qiagen). The three different HPV DNA tests were compared using cytology samples obtained from 619 women who underwent routine cervical cancer screening. The gold-standard assay was histopathological confirmation of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 2 or worse. The clinical sensitivities of the AdvanSure PCR, the Abbott PCR and the HC2 for the detection of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 2 or worse were 95.5%, 95.5% and 100%, respectively, while the clinical specificities were 61.6%, 86.4% and 83.3%, respectively. There were no significant differences in the clinical sensitivities of the Abbott PCR and the AdvanSure PCR compared to the HC2. The clinical specificities of the Abbott PCR and the AdvanSure PCR for the detection of HPV types 16/18 were 97.8% and 98.5%, respectively. For cervical cancer screening, all three tests showed relatively good clinical sensitivities, but the AdvanSure PCR had lower clinical specificity than the Abbott PCR and the HC2. The AdvanSure PCR and the Abbott PCR assays have the advantage of being automated and the ability to distinguish between HPV types 16/18 and other HPV types. The two real-time PCR assays could be useful tools in HPV testing for cervical cancer screening. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Comparison of the AdvanSure human papillomavirus screening real-time PCR, the Abbott RealTime High Risk human papillomavirus test, and the Hybrid Capture human papillomavirus DNA test for the detection of human papillomavirus.

    PubMed

    Hwang, Yusun; Lee, Miae

    2012-05-01

    We evaluated the performance of various commercial assays for the molecular detection of human papillomavirus (HPV); the recently developed AdvanSure HPV Screening real-time PCR assay (AdvanSure PCR) and the Abbott RealTime High Risk HPV PCR assay (Abbott PCR) were compared with the Hybrid Capture 2 HPV DNA Test (HC2). All 3 tests were performed on 177 samples, and any sample that showed a discrepancy in any of the 3 tests was genotyped using INNO-LiPA HPV genotyping and/or sequencing. On the basis of these results, we obtained a consensus HPV result, and the performance of each test was evaluated. We also evaluated high-risk HPV 16/18 detection by using the 2 real-time PCR assays. Among the 177 samples, 65 were negative and 75 were positive in all 3 assays; however, the results of the 3 assays with 37 samples were discrepant. Compared with the consensus HPV result, the sensitivities and specificities of HC2, AdvanSure PCR, and Abbott PCR were 97.6%, 91.7%, and 86.9% and 83.9%, 98.8%, and 100.0%, respectively. For HPV type 16/18 detection, the concordance rate between the AdvanSure PCR and Abbott PCR assays was 98.3%; however, 3 samples were discrepant (positive in AdvanSure PCR and negative in Abbott PCR) and were confirmed as HPV type 16 by INNO-LiPA genotyping and/or sequencing. For HPV detection, the AdvanSure HPV Screening real-time PCR assay and the Abbott PCR assay are less sensitive but more specific than the HC2 assay, but can simultaneously differentiate type 16/18 HPV from other types.

  3. POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF GENOMIC ON EPA REGULATORY AND RISK ASSESSMENT APPLICATIONS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Advances in molecular technology have led to the elucidation of full genomic sequences of several multicellular organisms, ranging from namatodes to man. The related molecular fields of proteomics and metabolomics are now beginning to advance rapidly as well. In addition, advan...

  4. Endoscopic placement of the small-bowel video capsule by using a capsule endoscope delivery device.

    PubMed

    Holden, Jeremy P; Dureja, Parul; Pfau, Patrick R; Schwartz, Darren C; Reichelderfer, Mark; Judd, Robert H; Danko, Istvan; Iyer, Lalitha V; Gopal, Deepak V

    2007-05-01

    Capsule endoscopy performed via the traditional peroral route is technically challenging in patients with dysphagia, gastroparesis, and/or abnormal upper-GI (UGI) anatomy. To describe the indications and outcomes of cases in which the AdvanCE capsule endoscope delivery device, which has recently been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, was used. Retrospective, descriptive, case series. Tertiary care, university hospital. We report a case series of 16 consecutive patients in whom the AdvanCE delivery device was used. The study period was May 2005 through July 2006. Endoscopic delivery of the video capsule to the proximal small bowel by using the AdvanCE delivery device. Indications, technique, and completeness of small bowel imaging in patients who underwent endoscopic video capsule delivery. The AdvanCE delivery device was used in 16 patients ranging in age from 3 to 74 years. The primary indications for endoscopic delivery included inability to swallow the capsule (10), altered UGI anatomy (4), and gastroparesis (2). Of the 4 patients with altered UGI anatomy, 3 had dual intestinal loop anatomy (ie, Bilroth-II procedure, Whipple surgery, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass) and 1 had a failed Nissen fundoplication. In all cases, the capsule was easily deployed without complication, and complete small intestinal imaging was achieved. Small patient size. Endoscopic placement of the Given PillCam by use of the AdvanCE delivery device was safe and easily performed in patients for whom capsule endoscopy would otherwise have been contraindicated or technically challenging.

  5. Transformation of Taiwan’s Reserve Force

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2017-01-01

    force roles, missions, and capabilities, based on the requirement to counter People’s Republic of China advan- tages in air and maritime power -projection... people on Taiwan increasingly identify themselves as citizens of a state that is separate and distinct from the PRC. As a result, the Chinese Communist...including short- comings in the PLA’s ability to project power significantly across the Taiwan Strait, technological advantages of Taiwan’s armed

  6. Mass test of AdvanSiD model ASD-NUV3S-P SiliconPMs for the Pixel Timing Counter of the MEG II experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rossella, M.; Bariani, S.; Barnaba, O.; Cattaneo, P. W.; Cervi, T.; Menegolli, A.; Nardò, R.; Prata, M. C.; Romano, E.; Scagliotti, C.; Simonetta, M.; Vercellati, F.

    2017-02-01

    The MEG II Timing Counter will measure the positron time of arrival with a resolution of 30 ps relying on two arrays of scintillator pixels read out by 6144 Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) from AdvanSiD. They must be characterized, measuring their breakdown voltage, to assure that the gains of the SiPMs of each pixel are as uniform as possible, to maximize the pixel resolution. To do this an automatic test system that can measure sequentially the parameters of 32 devices has been developed.

  7. Cloud computing for detecting high-order genome-wide epistatic interaction via dynamic clustering

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Backgroud Taking the advan tage of high-throughput single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping technology, large genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have been considered to hold promise for unravelling complex relationships between genotype and phenotype. At present, traditional single-locus-based methods are insufficient to detect interactions consisting of multiple-locus, which are broadly existing in complex traits. In addition, statistic tests for high order epistatic interactions with more than 2 SNPs propose computational and analytical challenges because the computation increases exponentially as the cardinality of SNPs combinations gets larger. Results In this paper, we provide a simple, fast and powerful method using dynamic clustering and cloud computing to detect genome-wide multi-locus epistatic interactions. We have constructed systematic experiments to compare powers performance against some recently proposed algorithms, including TEAM, SNPRuler, EDCF and BOOST. Furthermore, we have applied our method on two real GWAS datasets, Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) datasets, where we find some novel potential disease-related genetic factors which are not shown up in detections of 2-loci epistatic interactions. Conclusions Experimental results on simulated data demonstrate that our method is more powerful than some recently proposed methods on both two- and three-locus disease models. Our method has discovered many novel high-order associations that are significantly enriched in cases from two real GWAS datasets. Moreover, the running time of the cloud implementation for our method on AMD dataset and RA dataset are roughly 2 hours and 50 hours on a cluster with forty small virtual machines for detecting two-locus interactions, respectively. Therefore, we believe that our method is suitable and effective for the full-scale analysis of multiple-locus epistatic interactions in GWAS. PMID:24717145

  8. Radiation Hardness tests with neutron flux on different Silicon photomultiplier devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cattaneo, P. W.; Cervi, T.; Menegolli, A.; Oddone, M.; Prata, M.; Prata, M. C.; Rossella, M.

    2017-07-01

    Radiation hardness is an important requirement for solid state readout devices operating in high radiation environments common in particle physics experiments. The MEG II experiment, at PSI, Switzerland, investigates the forbidden decay μ+ → e+ γ. Exploiting the most intense muon beam of the world. A significant flux of non-thermal neutrons (kinetic energy Ek>= 0.5 MeV) is present in the experimental hall produced along the beam-line and in the hall itself. We present the effects of neutron fluxes comparable to the MEG II expected doses on several Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPMs). The tested models are: AdvanSiD ASD-NUV3S-P50 (used in MEG II experiment), AdvanSiD ASD-NUV3S-P40, AdvanSiD ASD-RGB3S-P40, Hamamatsu and Excelitas C30742-33-050-X. The neutron source is the thermal Sub-critical Multiplication complex (SM1) moderated with water, located at the University of Pavia (Italy). We report the change of SiPMs most important electric parameters: dark current, dark pulse frequency, gain, direct bias resistance, as a function of the integrated neutron fluency.

  9. Design of verification platform for wireless vision sensor networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ye, Juanjuan; Shang, Fei; Yu, Chuang

    2017-08-01

    At present, the majority of research for wireless vision sensor networks (WVSNs) still remains in the software simulation stage, and the verification platforms of WVSNs that available for use are very few. This situation seriously restricts the transformation from theory research of WVSNs to practical application. Therefore, it is necessary to study the construction of verification platform of WVSNs. This paper combines wireless transceiver module, visual information acquisition module and power acquisition module, designs a high-performance wireless vision sensor node whose core is ARM11 microprocessor and selects AODV as the routing protocol to set up a verification platform called AdvanWorks for WVSNs. Experiments show that the AdvanWorks can successfully achieve functions of image acquisition, coding, wireless transmission, and obtain the effective distance parameters between nodes, which lays a good foundation for the follow-up application of WVSNs.

  10. Preliminary engineering cost trends for highway projects.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2011-10-21

    Preliminary engineering (PE) for a highway project encompasses two efforts: planning to minimize the physical, social, and human environmental impacts of projects and engineering design to deliver the best alternative. PE efforts begin years in advan...

  11. Economic Evaluation of Advanced Winter Highway Maintenance Strategies

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1988-01-01

    Highway agencies face demands to maintain or improve the existing winter roadway level of service. The benefits of advanced winter highway maintenance strategies now become more attractive. This paper examines the potential benefits of applying advan...

  12. Economic evaluation of advanced winter highway maintenance strategies

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1998-08-19

    Highway agencies face demands to maintain or improve the existing winter roadway level of service. The benefits of advanced winter highway maintenance strategies now become more attractive. This paper examines the potential benefits of applying advan...

  13. Visual search performance during simulated radar observation with and without sweepline.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1979-01-01

    A study was conducted to determine whether or not the presence or absence of a radar sweepline influences attentional processes and, hence, the speed with which critical stimuli can be detected. The visual display was designed to approximate an advan...

  14. Performance of a bridge deck with glass fiber reinforced polymer bars as the top mat of reinforcement.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to investigate the performance of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars as reinforcement for concrete decks. Today's rapid bridge deck deterioration is calling for a replacement for steel reinforcement. The advan...

  15. Technical Criteria and Procedures for Evaluating the Crashworthiness and Occupant Protection Performance of Alternatively Designed Passenger Rail Equipment for Use in Tier I Service

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2011-10-01

    Criteria and procedures have been developed for assessing crashworthiness and occupant protection performance of alternatively designed trainsets to be used in Tier I (not exceeding 125 mph) passenger service. These criteria and procedures take advan...

  16. AN ADVANCED FLUE GAS MONITOR FOR SO2 - PHASE I

    EPA Science Inventory

    The development of an instrument for continuously monitoring SO2 levels in flue gas is proposed. The SO2 will be detected by means of an electrochemical sensor cell, which operates in a three-electrode potentiostatic mode. The proposed innovation is develop-ment of an advan...

  17. Transcriptional profiling of ileocecal valve of Holstein dairy cows infected with mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Johne’s disease is a chronic infection of the small intestine caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), an intracellular bacterium. The events of pathogen survival within the host cell(s), chronic inflammation and the progression from asymptomatic subclinical stage to an advan...

  18. Professional Development of Officers Study. Volume 1.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1985-02-21

    STAFF ASSIGNMENT. 1_Z OFFICERS ARE EL.IGIBLE FL.1 PULL -TIME ADVANICED CIVIL 0CCHOOLING AFTER COMPHRV LLYLL BRANCHPDRALIFICATIOD,.ICORFAILY-Lr EVL 8...CS ASSIGNMENT, paOFE~ w NTOR o GOALI 100% ATTEND CAS3 (9 WTEKS : 03 HLT 8 YOR*), UNT RI 0 CONTIBUKA TO EXCMPLI.IY IPRLESIONAL VALUESA It A ROLE MODEL

  19. Basic Hemorheology Advan Physiology Ed v37 n2 p129-134 Usingclassic.pdfC

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Toksvang, Linea Natalie; Berg, Ronan M.G.

    2013-01-01

    "The viscosity of the blood in narrow capillary tubes" by Robin Fahraeus and Torsten Lindqvist ("Am J Physiol" 96: 562--568, 1931) can be a valuable opportunity for teaching basic hemorheological principles in undergraduate cardiovascular physiology. This classic paper demonstrates that a progressive decline in apparent…

  20. Design and analysis of mixed cropping experiments for indigenous Pacific Islands

    Treesearch

    Mareko P. Tofinga

    1993-01-01

    Mixed cropping (including agroforestry) often gives yield advan-tages as opposed to monocropping. Many criteria have been used to assess yield advantage in crop mixtures. Some of these are presented. In addition, the relative merits of replacement, additive and bivariate factorial designs are discussed. The concepts of analysis of mixed cropping are applied to an...

  1. A self-crosslinking thermosetting monomer with both epoxy and anhydride groups derived from Tung oil fatty acids: Synthesis and properties

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    A self-crosslinking compound with epoxy groups and anhydride groups (GEMA) has been successfully synthesized from Tung oil fatty acid by reacting with maleic anhydride via the Diels-Alder reaction. GEMA has very good storage stability and can be cured with trace amounts of tertiary amine. This advan...

  2. Phacoemulsification tip vacuum pressure: Comparison of 4 devices.

    PubMed

    Payne, Marielle; Georgescu, Dan; Waite, Aaron N; Olson, Randall J

    2006-08-01

    To determine the vacuum pressure generated by 4 phacoemulsification devices measured at the phacoemulsification tip. University ophthalmology department. The effective vacuum pressures generated by the Sovereign (AMO), Millennium (Bausch & Lomb), Legacy AdvanTec (Alcon Laboratories), and Infiniti (Alcon Laboratories) phacoemulsification machines were measured with a device that isolated the phacoemulsification tip in a chamber connected to a pressure gauge. The 4 machines were tested at multiple vacuum limit settings, and the values were recorded after the foot pedal was fully depressed and the pressure had stabilized. The AdvanTec and Infiniti machines were tested with and without occlusion of the Aspiration Bypass System (ABS) side port (Alcon Laboratories). The Millennium machine was tested using venturi and peristaltic pumps. The machines generated pressures close to the expected at maximum vacuum settings between 100 mm Hg and 500 mm Hg with few intermachine variations. There was no significant difference between pressures generated using 19- or 20-gauge tips (Millennium and Sovereign). The addition of an ABS side port decreased vacuum by a mean of 12.1% (P < .0001). Although there were some variations in vacuum pressures among phacoemulsification machines, particularly when an aspiration bypass tip was used, these discrepancies are probably not clinically significant.

  3. Light Actuation of Liquid by Optoelectrowetting

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-06-01

    liquid lenses with variable focal length [7]. Transport of liquid in droplet forms offers many advan- tages. It eliminates the need for pumps and...novel mechanism for light actuation of liquid droplets. This is realized by integrating a photoconductive material underneath the electrowetting ...optoelectrowetting 2.1. General concept Fig. 1(a) shows the general electrowetting mechanism. A droplet of polarizable liquid is placed on a substrate

  4. Cryogenic Cooling of Infrared Electronics

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1986-05-01

    thermally driven, offers the potential of reducing operating and maintenance costs over the entire life cycle because of advan- tages in reduced wear due to...on demand. In addition to conventional mechanical cycles, it is possible to incorporate thermal, thermoelectric, and magnetic processes avoiding wear ...Considerable effort has been expended in improving the components of the Stirling cryocooler, especially in terms of minimizing the wear of the

  5. JPRS Report, Epidemiology.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1989-09-28

    Market Bans Export of UK Cows To Combat Disease [Godfrey Brown; London THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 27 Jul 89] 28 JPRS-TEP-89-016 28 SEPTEMBER 1989 SUB...educational, legal, ethical and media reporting aspects. More than 80 delegates from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia , Singapore, Japan, Australia, Canada...gathered that ’Stebatin’ injection used to cure kalaazar has been scanty in the market . Taking advan- tage of this situation some dishonest druggists

  6. Translations on Eastern Europe Political, Sociological, and Military Affairs No. 1482.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1977-12-06

    Soviet deliveries of complete industrial installations have become the basis of new sectors of Polish industry: machine - tool building, automotive...develop mutually advan- tageous cooperation. Poland has become an important supplier of industrial equipment and machines , and also of seagoing ships...to the USSR. Every fifth ship that sails under the Soviet flag has been built by Polish shipbuilders. We have supplied machines and equipment for

  7. OPERATION WIGWAM. Scientific Director’s Summary Report

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1980-02-01

    Base, Albuquerque, N. Mex. 1. Objectives Measure air pressures from the deep underwater nuclear explosion at the surface and at altitudes approaching...arrangpd as to take advan- tap of opportunities to obtain the effects of atomic explosives against ground and air tairgett and to acquire sclentific...atomic explosives in air and water; target response to underwater explosives ; and model scaling techniques. 3. Dr. W. 0. Penney of the Armament Research

  8. Dredged Material Analysis Tools; Performance of Acute and Chronic Sediment Toxicity Methods

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-04-01

    Chronic Sediment Toxicity Methods Jeffery Steevens, Alan Kennedy, Daniel Farrar, Cory McNemar, Mark R. Reiss, Roy K. Kropp, Jon Doi, and Todd Bridges...Research Program ERDC/EL TR-08-16 April 2008 Dredged Material Analysis Tools Performance of Acute and Chronic Sediment Toxicity Methods Jeffery...potential advan- tages and disadvantages of using chronic sediment toxicity tests with relevant benthic macroinvertebrates as part of dredged material

  9. Dredged Material Analysis Tools; Performance of Acute and Chronic Sediment Toxicity Methods

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-07-01

    Chronic Sediment Toxicity Methods Jeffery Steevens, Alan Kennedy, Daniel Farrar, Cory McNemar, Mark R. Reiss, Roy K. Kropp, Jon Doi, and Todd Bridges...Environmental Research Program ERDC/EL TR-08-16 July 2008 Revised Dredged Material Analysis Tools Performance of Acute and Chronic Sediment Toxicity ...insight into the potential advan- tages and disadvantages of using chronic sediment toxicity tests with relevant benthic macroinvertebrates as part of

  10. JPRS Report, Soviet Union, Political Affairs

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1989-05-18

    crops and grapes which go from production plan was less than half fulfilled, said Viktor here to the city market . This brings the farm a good deal...hurriedly describing the advan- that go back to the days of communal existence- tages of the market from the point of view of effective - traditions of...Ye. Dodolev; MOSKOVSKA YA PRA VDA, 31 Dec 88; 3, 4 Jan 89] ......................................................... 59 Evaluating Effectiveness of

  11. Development of a Nanotechnology Platform for Prostate Cancer Gene Therapy

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-07-01

    advan- tages of using recombinant techniques to synthesize fusion biopolymers allowing the production of biomacromolecules in a cost-effective manner...from both legs using a 3mm lancet (GoldenRod). Approximately 200ul of blood was collected in heparinized micro -Hematocrit tubes (Kontes). Blood from...NanoDDS, now entering its eighth year, began in 2003 as a US -Japan mini-symposium organized by Dr. A. Kabanov and Dr. K. Kataoka. According to Dr

  12. Robust Agent Control of an Autonomous Robot with Many Sensors and Actuators

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1993-05-01

    Overview 22 3.1 Issues of Controller Design ........................ 22 3.2 Robot Behavior Control Philosophy .................. 23 3.3 Overview of the... designed and built by our lab as an 9 Figure 1.1- Hannibal. 10 experimental platform to explore planetary micro-rover control issues (Angle 1991). When... designing the robot, careful consideration was given to mobility, sensing, and robustness issues. Much has been said concerning the advan- tages of

  13. The Sino-Vietnamese Crisis, 1975-1979: An Historical Case Study.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1985-05-01

    in the actual fighting in 1979. It treats briefly the long history of discord that has existed between China and Viet Nam and questions whether the...8217 , ,. ., , .. -. . .,-,-.,.. ... .. ,... :.... ,.... ,.J.-. ,,.. ...-5: managemenL generally assume mutual understanding and rational decisions. Decision in crisis is also treated by Oran Young in The...superior power in proximity will seek to take advan- tage of our domestic vulnerability. b) Two or more powers will combine against us if they can tem

  14. A Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Model for the Oxime TMB-4: Simulation of Rodent and Human Data

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-01-13

    concentration gradient–driven diffusion across the membranes, but also on the permeability area (PA) cross product for the tissue, which slows the pene...or slowly (mus- cle, skin, bone) perfused tissues. Diffusion limitation con- stants (permeability area cross products or PAs), metabolism and...al. 1991; Worek et al. 2005). A PBPK model has the advan- tage of interspecies and cross -route extrapolation. This PBPK model was initially developed

  15. The Collins Center Update. Volume 3, Issue 4, July-September 2001

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2001-09-01

    Centric Oper­ a tions, Assured Access, Speed of Effects , and In for ma tion/Knowl edge Advan tage—in a Small-Scale Contin gency set in 2011. The game...design also incor po rated the U.S. Air Force concept for Effects -Based Oper a tions (EBO), JFCOM’s concept for Rapid Deci­ sive Oper a tions (RDO...the “ effects based” planning process, the game illu mi nated poten tially signif i cant insights re gard ing “limited” war, rules of engage ment

  16. Development of a highly sensitive one-tube nested real-time PCR for detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

    PubMed

    Choi, Yeonim; Jeon, Bo-Young; Shim, Tae Sun; Jin, Hyunwoo; Cho, Sang-Nae; Lee, Hyeyoung

    2014-12-01

    Rapid, accurate detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is crucial in the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB), but conventional diagnostic methods have limited sensitivity and specificity or are time consuming. A new highly sensitive nucleic acid amplification test, combined nested and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in a single tube (one-tube nested real-time PCR), was developed for detecting M. tuberculosis, which takes advantage of two PCR techniques, i.e., nested PCR and real-time PCR. One-tube nested real-time PCR was designed to have two sequential reactions with two sets of primers and dual probes for the insertion sequence (IS) 6110 sequence of M. tuberculosis in a single closed tube. The minimum limits of detection of IS6110 real-time PCR and IS6110 one-tube nested real-time PCR were 100 fg/μL and 1 fg/μL of M. tuberculosis DNA, respectively. AdvanSure TB/non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) real-time PCR, IS6110 real-time PCR, and two-tube nested real-time PCR showed 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity for clinical M. tuberculosis isolates and NTM isolates. In comparison, the sensitivities of AdvanSure TB/NTM real-time PCR, single IS6110 real-time PCR, and one-tube nested real-time PCR were 91% (152/167), 94.6% (158/167), and 100% (167/167) for sputum specimens, respectively. In conclusion, IS6110 one-tube nested real-time PCR is useful for detecting M. tuberculosis due to its high sensitivity and simple manipulation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Spectroscopic Studies of Hazardous Fuel Interactions with Soils

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1993-12-01

    J. and Hohl, H. "A Comparison of Electrostatic Models for the Oxide /Solution Interface," Advan. Colloid Inrface =J. la, 265-294 (1980). 2. Soma, Y...DATE AT2 END !AT2 DUN: "AT2" < ATG OND OMD EXAMPLE OF FULL TITLE SPECIFICATION: OMD OND HZ*1*AIR OXID *05061103*D OMD OMD NOTE THAT THE TITLE IS...IRTISK(IW, 512,NSECS*IDFN+ISEC+87, 11) DE ) IEND=-4 DO 201 J=1,4 WRITE(2,1000) IDFN,ISEC WRITE(2,3000) ISTART--IEND+5 IEND-IEND+150 IF (J.EQ.4) IEND=506

  18. About the Clusters Program

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Environmental Technology Innovation Clusters Program advises cluster organizations, encourages collaboration between clusters, tracks U.S. environmental technology clusters, and connects EPA programs to cluster needs.

  19. Is Technology-Mediated Parental Monitoring Related to Adolescent Substance Use?

    PubMed

    Rudi, Jessie; Dworkin, Jodi

    2018-01-03

    Prevention researchers have identified parental monitoring leading to parental knowledge to be a protective factor against adolescent substance use. In today's digital society, parental monitoring can occur using technology-mediated communication methods, such as text messaging, email, and social networking sites. The current study aimed to identify patterns, or clusters, of in-person and technology-mediated monitoring behaviors, and examine differences between the patterns (clusters) in adolescent substance use. Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 289 parents of adolescents using Facebook and Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Cluster analyses were computed to identify patterns of in-person and technology-mediated monitoring behaviors, and chi-square analyses were computed to examine differences in substance use between the identified clusters. Three monitoring clusters were identified: a moderate in-person and moderate technology-mediated monitoring cluster (moderate-moderate), a high in-person and high technology-mediated monitoring cluster (high-high), and a high in-person and low technology-mediated monitoring cluster (high-low). Higher frequency of technology-mediated parental monitoring was not associated with lower levels of substance use. Results show that higher levels of technology-mediated parental monitoring may not be associated with adolescent substance use.

  20. Retrospective Benefit-Cost Evaluation of DOE Investment in Photovoltaic Energy Systems

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    O'Connor, Alan C.; Loomis, Ross J.; Braun, Fern M.

    2010-08-01

    This study is a retrospective analysis of net benefits accruing from DOE's investment in photovoltaic (PV) technology development. The study employed a technology cluster approach. That is, benefits measured for a subset of technologies in a meaningful cluster, or portfolio, of technologies were compared to the total investment in the cluster to provide a lower bound measure of return for the entire cluster.

  1. Application of cluster technology in location-based service

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Jing; Wang, Xiaoman; Gong, Jianya

    2005-10-01

    This paper introduces the principle, algorithmic and realization of the Load Balancing Technology. It also designs a clustered method in the application of Location-Based Service (LBS), and explains its function characteristics and its whole system structure, followed by some experimental comparisons, showing that the Cluster Technology could ensure a LBS's continuous running and the sharing of fault-tolerance and cluster.

  2. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Business and Office and Related Technology Cluster. Office Systems Technology (CIP: 52.0401--Administrative Assistant/Secretarial). Accounting Technology (CIP: 52.0302). Medical Office Technology (CIP: 52.0404--Medical Admin. Asst./Secretarial). Microcomputer Technology (CIP: 52.0490). Court Reporting Technology (CIP: 52.0405). Paralegal Technology (CIP: Paralegal/Legal Assistant).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for four programs in the postsecondary-level business and office cluster (office systems, accounting, medical office, and microcomputer technologies) and two programs in the legal cluster (court reporting and paralegal…

  3. Water Cluster Leaders Meeting Summary Report 2016

    EPA Science Inventory

    As part of its efforts to support environmental technology innovation clusters, U.S. EPA hosted a Water Technology Innovation Cluster Leaders Meeting on September 25, 2016, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The meeting was an opportunity for cluster leaders from across the globe to meet...

  4. Energy Innovation Clusters and their Influence on Manufacturing: A Case Study Perspective

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Engel-Cox, Jill; Hill, Derek

    Innovation clusters have been important for recent development of clean energy technologies and their emergence as mature, globally competitive industries. However, the factors that influence the co-location of manufacturing activities with innovation clusters are less clear. A central question for government agencies seeking to grow manufacturing as part of economic development in their location is how innovation clusters influence manufacturing. Thus, this paper examines case studies of innovation clusters for three different clean energy technologies that have developed in at least two locations: solar PV clusters in California and the province of Jiangsu in China, wind turbine clusters in Germanymore » and the U.S. Great Lakes region, and ethanol clusters in the U.S. Midwest and the state of Sao Paulo in Brazil. These case studies provide initial insight into factors and conditions that contribute to technology manufacturing facility location decisions.« less

  5. A 1.5 hour procedure for identification of Enterococcus Species directly from blood cultures.

    PubMed

    Morgan, Margie A; Marlowe, Elizabeth; Novak-Weekly, Susan; Miller, J M; Painter, T M; Salimnia, Hossein; Crystal, Benjamin

    2011-02-10

    Enterococci are a common cause of bacteremia with E. faecalis being the predominant species followed by E. faecium. Because resistance to ampicillin and vancomycin in E. faecalis is still uncommon compared to resistance in E. faecium, the development of rapid tests allowing differentiation between enterococcal species is important for appropriate therapy and resistance surveillance. The E. faecalis OE PNA FISH assay (AdvanDx, Woburn, MA) uses species-specific peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes in a fluorescence in situ hybridization format and offers a time to results of 1.5 hours and the potential of providing important information for species-specific treatment. Multicenter studies were performed to assess the performance of the 1.5 hour E. faecalis/OE PNA FISH procedure compared to the original 2.5 hour assay procedure and to standard bacteriology methods for the identification of enterococci directly from a positive blood culture bottle.

  6. A 1.5 Hour Procedure for Identification of Enterococcus Species Directly from Blood Cultures

    PubMed Central

    Morgan, Margie A.; Marlowe, Elizabeth; Novak-Weekly, Susan; Miller, J.M.; Painter, T.M.; Salimnia, Hossein; Crystal, Benjamin

    2011-01-01

    Enterococci are a common cause of bacteremia with E. faecalis being the predominant species followed by E. faecium. Because resistance to ampicillin and vancomycin in E. faecalis is still uncommon compared to resistance in E. faecium, the development of rapid tests allowing differentiation between enterococcal species is important for appropriate therapy and resistance surveillance. The E. faecalis OE PNA FISH assay (AdvanDx, Woburn, MA) uses species-specific peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probes in a fluorescence in situ hybridization format and offers a time to results of 1.5 hours and the potential of providing important information for species-specific treatment. Multicenter studies were performed to assess the performance of the 1.5 hour E. faecalis/OE PNA FISH procedure compared to the original 2.5 hour assay procedure and to standard bacteriology methods for the identification of enterococci directly from a positive blood culture bottle. PMID:21339730

  7. Teaching Gene Technology in an Outreach Lab: Students' Assigned Cognitive Load Clusters and the Clusters' Relationships to Learner Characteristics, Laboratory Variables, and Cognitive Achievement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scharfenberg, Franz-Josef; Bogner, Franz X.

    2013-01-01

    This study classified students into different cognitive load (CL) groups by means of cluster analysis based on their experienced CL in a gene technology outreach lab which has instructionally been designed with regard to CL theory. The relationships of the identified student CL clusters to learner characteristics, laboratory variables, and…

  8. SBA Innovation Clusters

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-03-02

    Programs and services to help you start, grow and succeed www.sba.gov U.S. Small Business Administration Your Small Business Resource 1Approved for...Public Release SBA Innovation Clusters RADM Steven G. Smith USN (Ret) Advanced Defense Technology Cluster Coordinator U.S. Small Business ...UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) U.S. Small Business Administration ,Advanced Defense Technology Cluster,409 3rd St, SW

  9. Cluster optical coding: from biochips to counterfeit security

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Haglmueller, Jakob; Alguel, Yilmaz; Mayer, Christian; Matyushin, Viacheslav; Bauer, Georg; Pittner, Fritz; Leitner, Alfred; Aussenegg, Franz R.; Schalkhammer, Thomas G.

    2004-07-01

    Spatially tuned resonant nano-clusters allow high local field enhancement when exited by electromagnetic radiation. A number of phenomena had been described and subsequently applied to novel nano- and bionano-devices. Decisive for these types of devices and sensors is the precise nanometric assembly, coupling the local field surrounding a cluster to allow resonance with other elements interacting with this field. In particular, the distance cluster-mirror or cluster-fluorophore gives rise to a variety of enhancement phenomena. High throughput transducers using metal cluster resonance technology are based on surface-enhancement of metal cluster light absorption (SEA). The optical property for the analytical application of metal cluster films is the so-called anomalous absorption. At a well defined nanometric distance of a cluster to a mirror the reflected electromagnetic field has the same phase at the position of the absorbing cluster as the incident fields. This feedback mechanism strongly enhances the effective cluster absorption coefficient. The system is characterised by a narrow reflection minimum. Based on this SEA-phenomenon (licensed to and further developed and optimized by NovemberAG, Germany Erlangen) a number of commercial products have been constructed. Brandsealing(R) uses the patented SEA cluster technology to produce optical codings. Cluster SEA thin film systems show a characteristic color-flip effect and are extremely mechanically and thermally robust. This is the basis for its application as an unique security feature. The specific spectroscopic properties as e.g. narrow band multi-resonance of the cluster layers allow the authentication of the optical code which can be easily achieved with a mobile hand-held reader developed by november AG and Siemens AG. Thus, these features are machine-readable which makes them superior to comparable technologies. Cluster labels are available in two formats: as a label for tamper-proof product packaging, and as a direct label, where label and logo are permanently applied directly and unremovable to the product surface. Together with Infineon Technologies and HUECK FOLIEN, the SEA technology is currently developed as a direct label for e.g. SmartCards.

  10. Quantifying innovation in surgery.

    PubMed

    Hughes-Hallett, Archie; Mayer, Erik K; Marcus, Hani J; Cundy, Thomas P; Pratt, Philip J; Parston, Greg; Vale, Justin A; Darzi, Ara W

    2014-08-01

    The objectives of this study were to assess the applicability of patents and publications as metrics of surgical technology and innovation; evaluate the historical relationship between patents and publications; develop a methodology that can be used to determine the rate of innovation growth in any given health care technology. The study of health care innovation represents an emerging academic field, yet it is limited by a lack of valid scientific methods for quantitative analysis. This article explores and cross-validates 2 innovation metrics using surgical technology as an exemplar. Electronic patenting databases and the MEDLINE database were searched between 1980 and 2010 for "surgeon" OR "surgical" OR "surgery." Resulting patent codes were grouped into technology clusters. Growth curves were plotted for these technology clusters to establish the rate and characteristics of growth. The initial search retrieved 52,046 patents and 1,801,075 publications. The top performing technology cluster of the last 30 years was minimally invasive surgery. Robotic surgery, surgical staplers, and image guidance were the most emergent technology clusters. When examining the growth curves for these clusters they were found to follow an S-shaped pattern of growth, with the emergent technologies lying on the exponential phases of their respective growth curves. In addition, publication and patent counts were closely correlated in areas of technology expansion. This article demonstrates the utility of publically available patent and publication data to quantify innovations within surgical technology and proposes a novel methodology for assessing and forecasting areas of technological innovation.

  11. U.S. EPA Water Technology Innovation Cluster Leaders Meeting - "Successfully Supporting Early-Stage Companies: The Role of Technology Testing" Meeting Summary Report

    EPA Science Inventory

    The goals of this workshop were to: (1) increase the cluster leaders’ level of knowledge regarding past and current water technology testing programs, facilities and requirements; (2) learn from the experiences of technology vendors in getting innovative, commercial-ready product...

  12. How Clusters Work

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Technology innovation clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, universities, and other organizations with a focus on environmental technology. They play a key role in addressing the nation’s pressing environmental problems.

  13. 75 FR 53667 - Space Coast Regional Innovation Cluster Competition

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-09-01

    .../Defense, (4) Information Technology, and (5) Life Sciences. Please see Enterprise Florida's full strategy..., Information Technology, and Life Sciences industry clusters. Initiatives must engage stakeholders; facilitate...

  14. Using Cluster Analysis for Data Mining in Educational Technology Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Antonenko, Pavlo D.; Toy, Serkan; Niederhauser, Dale S.

    2012-01-01

    Cluster analysis is a group of statistical methods that has great potential for analyzing the vast amounts of web server-log data to understand student learning from hyperlinked information resources. In this methodological paper we provide an introduction to cluster analysis for educational technology researchers and illustrate its use through…

  15. TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IN NEUROSURGERY: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY

    PubMed Central

    Marcus, Hani J; Hughes-Hallett, Archie; Kwasnicki, Richard M; Darzi, Ara; Yang, Guang-Zhong; Nandi, Dipankar

    2015-01-01

    Object Technological innovation within healthcare may be defined as the introduction of a new technology that initiates a change in clinical practice. Neurosurgery is a particularly technologically intensive surgical discipline, and new technologies have preceded many of the major advances in operative neurosurgical technique. The aim of the present study was to quantitatively evaluate technological innovation in neurosurgery using patents and peer-reviewed publications as metrics of technology development and clinical translation respectively. Methods A patent database was searched between 1960 and 2010 using the search terms “neurosurgeon” OR “neurosurgical” OR “neurosurgery”. The top 50 performing patent codes were then grouped into technology clusters. Patent and publication growth curves were then generated for these technology clusters. A top performing technology cluster was then selected as an exemplar for more detailed analysis of individual patents. Results In all, 11,672 patents and 208,203 publications relating to neurosurgery were identified. The top performing technology clusters over the 50 years were: image guidance devices, clinical neurophysiology devices, neuromodulation devices, operating microscopes and endoscopes. Image guidance and neuromodulation devices demonstrated a highly correlated rapid rise in patents and publications, suggesting they are areas of technology expansion. In-depth analysis of neuromodulation patents revealed that the majority of high performing patents were related to Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). Conclusions Patent and publication data may be used to quantitatively evaluate technological innovation in neurosurgery. PMID:25699414

  16. A Hybrid Approach for CpG Island Detection in the Human Genome.

    PubMed

    Yang, Cheng-Hong; Lin, Yu-Da; Chiang, Yi-Cheng; Chuang, Li-Yeh

    2016-01-01

    CpG islands have been demonstrated to influence local chromatin structures and simplify the regulation of gene activity. However, the accurate and rapid determination of CpG islands for whole DNA sequences remains experimentally and computationally challenging. A novel procedure is proposed to detect CpG islands by combining clustering technology with the sliding-window method (PSO-based). Clustering technology is used to detect the locations of all possible CpG islands and process the data, thus effectively obviating the need for the extensive and unnecessary processing of DNA fragments, and thus improving the efficiency of sliding-window based particle swarm optimization (PSO) search. This proposed approach, named ClusterPSO, provides versatile and highly-sensitive detection of CpG islands in the human genome. In addition, the detection efficiency of ClusterPSO is compared with eight CpG island detection methods in the human genome. Comparison of the detection efficiency for the CpG islands in human genome, including sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, performance coefficient (PC), and correlation coefficient (CC), ClusterPSO revealed superior detection ability among all of the test methods. Moreover, the combination of clustering technology and PSO method can successfully overcome their respective drawbacks while maintaining their advantages. Thus, clustering technology could be hybridized with the optimization algorithm method to optimize CpG island detection. The prediction accuracy of ClusterPSO was quite high, indicating the combination of CpGcluster and PSO has several advantages over CpGcluster and PSO alone. In addition, ClusterPSO significantly reduced implementation time.

  17. A microfluidic device for label-free, physical capture of circulating tumor cell-clusters

    PubMed Central

    Sarioglu, A. Fatih; Aceto, Nicola; Kojic, Nikola; Donaldson, Maria C.; Zeinali, Mahnaz; Hamza, Bashar; Engstrom, Amanda; Zhu, Huili; Sundaresan, Tilak K.; Miyamoto, David T.; Luo, Xi; Bardia, Aditya; Wittner, Ben S.; Ramaswamy, Sridhar; Shioda, Toshi; Ting, David T.; Stott, Shannon L.; Kapur, Ravi; Maheswaran, Shyamala; Haber, Daniel A.; Toner, Mehmet

    2015-01-01

    Cancer cells metastasize through the bloodstream either as single migratory circulating tumor cells (CTCs) or as multicellular groupings (CTC-clusters). Existing technologies for CTC enrichment are designed primarily to isolate single CTCs, and while CTC-clusters are detectable in some cases, their true prevalence and significance remain to be determined. Here, we developed a microchip technology (Cluster-Chip) specifically designed to capture CTC-clusters independent of tumor-specific markers from unprocessed blood. CTC-clusters are isolated through specialized bifurcating traps under low shear-stress conditions that preserve their integrity and even two-cell clusters are captured efficiently. Using the Cluster-Chip, we identify CTC-clusters in 30–40% of patients with metastatic cancers of the breast, prostate and melanoma. RNA sequencing of CTC-clusters confirms their tumor origin and identifies leukocytes within the clusters as tissue-derived macrophages. Together, the development of a device for efficient capture of CTC-clusters will enable detailed characterization of their biological properties and role in cancer metastasis. PMID:25984697

  18. Technological innovation in neurosurgery: a quantitative study.

    PubMed

    Marcus, Hani J; Hughes-Hallett, Archie; Kwasnicki, Richard M; Darzi, Ara; Yang, Guang-Zhong; Nandi, Dipankar

    2015-07-01

    Technological innovation within health care may be defined as the introduction of a new technology that initiates a change in clinical practice. Neurosurgery is a particularly technology-intensive surgical discipline, and new technologies have preceded many of the major advances in operative neurosurgical techniques. The aim of the present study was to quantitatively evaluate technological innovation in neurosurgery using patents and peer-reviewed publications as metrics of technology development and clinical translation, respectively. The authors searched a patent database for articles published between 1960 and 2010 using the Boolean search term "neurosurgeon OR neurosurgical OR neurosurgery." The top 50 performing patent codes were then grouped into technology clusters. Patent and publication growth curves were then generated for these technology clusters. A top-performing technology cluster was then selected as an exemplar for a more detailed analysis of individual patents. In all, 11,672 patents and 208,203 publications related to neurosurgery were identified. The top-performing technology clusters during these 50 years were image-guidance devices, clinical neurophysiology devices, neuromodulation devices, operating microscopes, and endoscopes. In relation to image-guidance and neuromodulation devices, the authors found a highly correlated rapid rise in the numbers of patents and publications, which suggests that these are areas of technology expansion. An in-depth analysis of neuromodulation-device patents revealed that the majority of well-performing patents were related to deep brain stimulation. Patent and publication data may be used to quantitatively evaluate technological innovation in neurosurgery.

  19. Approaches to Identifying the Emerging Innovative Water Technology Industry in the United States.

    PubMed

    Wood, Allison R; Harten, Teresa; Gutierrez, Sally C

    2018-04-25

    Clean water is vital to sustaining our natural environment, human health, and our economy. As infrastructure continues to deteriorate and water resources become increasingly threatened, new technologies will be needed to ensure safe and sustainable water in the future. Though the US water industry accounts for approximately 1% gross domestic product and regional "clusters" for water technology exist throughout the country, this emerging industry has not been captured by recent studies. As use of the term "cluster" becomes more prevalent, regional mapping efforts have revealed international differences in definition yet showcase this industry's economic impact. In reality, institutional processes may inhibit altering industry coding to better describe water technology. Forgoing the benefits of national economic tracking, alternative data sets are available, which may support new ways of identifying these clusters. This work provides cluster definitions; summarizes current approaches to identifying industry activity using data, interviews, and literature; and sets a foundation for future research.

  20. Toward the 21st Century: Preparing Proactive Visionary Transformational Leaders for Building Learning Communities through Multi-Technology. Leadership I Formative Evaluation of Cluster 54.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Groff, Warren H.

    This paper presents a description and formative evaluation of National (Multi-Tech) Cluster III, Nova University's third technology-intensive doctoral program in Child and Youth Studies (CYS) in which formal instruction occurs in clusters, or groups of professionals in different geographic locations who are connected via electronic communications…

  1. Ultrafast detection in particle physics and positron emission tomography using SiPMs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dolenec, R.; Korpar, S.; Križan, P.; Pestotnik, R.

    2017-12-01

    Silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) photodetectors perform well in many particle and medical physics applications, especially where good efficiency, insensitivity to magnetic field and precise timing are required. In Cherenkov time-of-flight positron emission tomography the requirements for photodetector performance are especially high. On average only a couple of photons are available for detection and the best possible timing resolution is needed. Using SiPMs as photodetectors enables good detection efficiency, but the large sensitive area devices needed have somewhat limited time resolution for single photons. We have observed an additional degradation of the timing at very low light intensities due to delayed events in distribution of signals resulting from multiple fired micro cells. In this work we present the timing properties of AdvanSiD ASD-NUV3S-P-40 SiPM at single photon level picosecond laser illumination and a simple modification of the time-walk correction algorithm, that resulted in reduced degradation of timing resolution due to the delayed events.

  2. Illinois Occupational Skill Standards: Information Technology Operate Cluster.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Illinois Occupational Skill Standards and Credentialing Council, Carbondale.

    This document contains Illinois Occupational Skill Standards for occupations in the Information Technology Operate Cluster (help desk support, computer maintenance and technical support technician, systems operator, application and computer support specialist, systems administrator, network administrator, and database administrator). The skill…

  3. An adolescent suicide cluster and the possible role of electronic communication technology.

    PubMed

    Robertson, Lindsay; Skegg, Keren; Poore, Marion; Williams, Sheila; Taylor, Barry

    2012-01-01

    Since the development of Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) guidelines for the management of suicide clusters, the use of electronic communication technologies has increased dramatically. To describe an adolescent suicide cluster that drew our attention to the possible role of online social networking and SMS text messaging as sources of contagion after a suicide and obstacles to recognition of a potential cluster. A public health approach involving a multidisciplinary community response was used to investigate a group of suicides of New Zealand adolescents thought to be a cluster. Difficulties in identifying and managing contagion posed by use of electronic communications were assessed. The probability of observing a time-space cluster such as this by chance alone was p = .009. The cases did not belong to a single school, rather several were linked by social networking sites, including sites created in memory of earlier suicide cases, as well as mobile telephones. These facilitated the rapid spread of information and rumor about the deaths throughout the community. They made the recognition and management of a possible cluster more difficult. Relevant community agencies should proactively develop a strategy to enable the identification and management of suicide contagion. Guidelines to assist communities in managing clusters should be updated to reflect the widespread use of communication technologies in modern society.

  4. The Earth Observation Technology Cluster

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aplin, P.; Boyd, D. S.; Danson, F. M.; Donoghue, D. N. M.; Ferrier, G.; Galiatsatos, N.; Marsh, A.; Pope, A.; Ramirez, F. A.; Tate, N. J.

    2012-07-01

    The Earth Observation Technology Cluster is a knowledge exchange initiative, promoting development, understanding and communication about innovative technology used in remote sensing of the terrestrial or land surface. This initiative provides an opportunity for presentation of novel developments from, and cross-fertilisation of ideas between, the many and diverse members of the terrestrial remote sensing community. The Earth Observation Technology Cluster involves a range of knowledge exchange activities, including organisation of technical events, delivery of educational materials, publication of scientific findings and development of a coherent terrestrial EO community. The initiative as a whole covers the full range of remote sensing operation, from new platform and sensor development, through image retrieval and analysis, to data applications and environmental modelling. However, certain topical and strategic themes have been selected for detailed investigation: (1) Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles, (2) Terrestrial Laser Scanning, (3) Field-Based Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy, (4) Hypertemporal Image Analysis, and (5) Circumpolar and Cryospheric Application. This paper presents general activities and achievements of the Earth Observation Technology Cluster, and reviews state-of-the-art developments in the five specific thematic areas.

  5. Competency Index. [Health Technology Cluster.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This competency index lists the competencies included in the 62 units of the Tech Prep Competency Profiles within the Health Technologies Cluster. The unit topics are as follows: employability skills; professionalism; teamwork; computer literacy; documentation; infection control and risk management; medical terminology; anatomy, physiology, and…

  6. Farm, household, and farmer characteristics associated with changes in management practices and technology adoption among dairy smallholders.

    PubMed

    Martínez-García, Carlos Galdino; Ugoretz, Sarah Janes; Arriaga-Jordán, Carlos Manuel; Wattiaux, Michel André

    2015-02-01

    This study explored whether technology adoption and changes in management practices were associated with farm structure, household, and farmer characteristics and to identify processes that may foster productivity and sustainability of small-scale dairy farming in the central highlands of Mexico. Factor analysis of survey data from 44 smallholders identified three factors-related to farm size, farmer's engagement, and household structure-that explained 70 % of cumulative variance. The subsequent hierarchical cluster analysis yielded three clusters. Cluster 1 included the most senior farmers with fewest years of education but greatest years of experience. Cluster 2 included farmers who reported access to extension, cooperative services, and more management changes. Cluster 2 obtained 25 and 35 % more milk than farmers in clusters 1 and 3, respectively. Cluster 3 included the youngest farmers, with most years of education and greatest availability of family labor. Access to a network and membership in a community of peers appeared as important contributors to success. Smallholders gravitated towards easy to implement technologies that have immediate benefits. Nonusers of high investment technologies found them unaffordable because of cost, insufficient farm size, and lack of knowledge or reliable electricity. Multivariate analysis may be a useful tool in planning extension activities and organizing channels of communication to effectively target farmers with varying needs, constraints, and motivations for change and in identifying farmers who may exemplify models of change for others who manage farms that are structurally similar but performing at a lower level.

  7. Illinois Occupational Skill Standards: Information Technology Design/Build Cluster.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Illinois Occupational Skill Standards and Credentialing Council, Carbondale.

    This document contains Illinois Occupational Skill Standards for occupations in the Information Technology Design and Build Cluster (technical writer, programmer, system analyst, network architect, application product architect, network engineer, and database administrator). The skill standards define what an individual should know and the…

  8. Microfluidic cell isolation technology for drug testing of single tumor cells and their clusters.

    PubMed

    Bithi, Swastika S; Vanapalli, Siva A

    2017-02-02

    Drug assays with patient-derived cells such as circulating tumor cells requires manipulating small sample volumes without loss of rare disease-causing cells. Here, we report an effective technology for isolating and analyzing individual tumor cells and their clusters from minute sample volumes using an optimized microfluidic device integrated with pipettes. The method involves using hand pipetting to create an array of cell-laden nanoliter-sized droplets immobilized in a microfluidic device without loss of tumor cells during the pipetting process. Using this technology, we demonstrate single-cell analysis of tumor cell response to the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin. We find that even though individual tumor cells display diverse uptake profiles of the drug, the onset of apoptosis is determined by accumulation of a critical intracellular concentration of doxorubicin. Experiments with clusters of tumor cells compartmentalized in microfluidic drops reveal that cells within a cluster have higher viability than their single-cell counterparts when exposed to doxorubicin. This result suggests that circulating tumor cell clusters might be able to better survive chemotherapy drug treatment. Our technology is a promising tool for understanding tumor cell-drug interactions in patient-derived samples including rare cells.

  9. 75 FR 17700 - Energy Efficient Building Systems Regional Innovation Cluster Initiative-Joint Federal Funding...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-04-07

    ... economically dynamic regional innovation cluster focused on energy efficient buildings technologies and systems... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Energy Efficient Building Systems Regional Innovation Cluster Initiative... February 8, 2010, titled the Energy Efficient Building Systems Regional Innovation Cluster Initiative. A...

  10. Study on Global GIS architecture and its key technologies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Chengqi; Guan, Li; Lv, Xuefeng

    2009-09-01

    Global GIS (G2IS) is a system, which supports the huge data process and the global direct manipulation on global grid based on spheroid or ellipsoid surface. Based on global subdivision grid (GSG), Global GIS architecture is presented in this paper, taking advantage of computer cluster theory, the space-time integration technology and the virtual reality technology. Global GIS system architecture is composed of five layers, including data storage layer, data representation layer, network and cluster layer, data management layer and data application layer. Thereinto, it is designed that functions of four-level protocol framework and three-layer data management pattern of Global GIS based on organization, management and publication of spatial information in this architecture. Three kinds of core supportive technologies, which are computer cluster theory, the space-time integration technology and the virtual reality technology, and its application pattern in the Global GIS are introduced in detail. The primary ideas of Global GIS in this paper will be an important development tendency of GIS.

  11. Study on Global GIS architecture and its key technologies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Chengqi; Guan, Li; Lv, Xuefeng

    2010-11-01

    Global GIS (G2IS) is a system, which supports the huge data process and the global direct manipulation on global grid based on spheroid or ellipsoid surface. Based on global subdivision grid (GSG), Global GIS architecture is presented in this paper, taking advantage of computer cluster theory, the space-time integration technology and the virtual reality technology. Global GIS system architecture is composed of five layers, including data storage layer, data representation layer, network and cluster layer, data management layer and data application layer. Thereinto, it is designed that functions of four-level protocol framework and three-layer data management pattern of Global GIS based on organization, management and publication of spatial information in this architecture. Three kinds of core supportive technologies, which are computer cluster theory, the space-time integration technology and the virtual reality technology, and its application pattern in the Global GIS are introduced in detail. The primary ideas of Global GIS in this paper will be an important development tendency of GIS.

  12. Illinois Occupational Skill Standards: Information Technology End User Applications Cluster.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Illinois Occupational Skill Standards and Credentialing Council, Carbondale.

    These skill standards for the information technology end user applications cluster are intended to be a guide to workforce preparation program providers in defining content for their programs and to employers to establish the skills and standards necessary for job acquisition. An introduction provides the Illinois perspective; Illinois…

  13. Competency Index. [Business/Computer Technologies Cluster.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This index allows the user to scan the competencies under each title for the 28 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the 12 occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Titles of the 28 units are as follows: employability skills; professionalism; teamwork; professional and ethical standards; economic and business…

  14. 75 FR 40857 - Webinar About Advanced Defense Technologies RFP

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-07-14

    ... Defense Technologies RFP. Please visit http://www.sba.gov/clusters/index.html for more information. The RFP may be found on http://www.fedbizopps.gov . LOGISTICAL INFORMATION: The webinar will be held on Monday, July 19, 2010. For details, please visit http://www.sba.gov/clusters/index.html . SUPPLEMENTARY...

  15. Cluster Matrices for Health Occupations. Education for Employment Task Lists.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lathrop, Janice

    These cluster matrices provide duties and tasks that form the basis of instructional content for secondary, postsecondary, and adult training programs for health occupations. The eight clusters (and the job titles included in each cluster) are as follows: (1) dental assisting (dental assistant); (2) dental laboratory technology (dental laboratory…

  16. An improved clustering algorithm based on reverse learning in intelligent transportation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qiu, Guoqing; Kou, Qianqian; Niu, Ting

    2017-05-01

    With the development of artificial intelligence and data mining technology, big data has gradually entered people's field of vision. In the process of dealing with large data, clustering is an important processing method. By introducing the reverse learning method in the clustering process of PAM clustering algorithm, to further improve the limitations of one-time clustering in unsupervised clustering learning, and increase the diversity of clustering clusters, so as to improve the quality of clustering. The algorithm analysis and experimental results show that the algorithm is feasible.

  17. Tech-Prep Competency Profiles within the Engineering Technologies Cluster.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document contains 12 competency profiles for tech prep courses within the engineering technologies cluster. The document consists of the following sections: (1) systemic curriculum reform philosophy--Ohio's vision of tech prep and its six critical components; (2) an explanation of the process of developing the tech prep competencies; (3) a…

  18. Measuring the Accountability of CTE Programs: Factors that Influence Postcollege Earnings among Community College Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maguire, Kenneth J.; Starobin, Soko S.; Laanan, Frankie Santos; Friedel, Janice N.

    2012-01-01

    In this study specific factors were examined to determine their ability to influence fifth-year earnings of community college students in the Manufacturing/Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) career cluster and the Arts/Audiovisual/Technology/ Communication career cluster. State and national data sets from Iowa's Management…

  19. A Career Cluster in Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reese, Susan

    2007-01-01

    This article describes a program at Great Plains Technology Center that is not only serving its community's needs but it is also serving as a national pilot site. When Oklahoma's Great Plains Technology Center began developing its Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security Cluster in 2003, the National Partnership for Careers in Law, Public…

  20. Investigation of the application of remote sensing technology to environmental monitoring

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rader, M. L. (Principal Investigator)

    1980-01-01

    Activities and results are reported of a project to investigate the application of remote sensing technology developed for the LACIE, AgRISTARS, Forestry and other NASA remote sensing projects for the environmental monitoring of strip mining, industrial pollution, and acid rain. Following a remote sensing workshop for EPA personnel, the EOD clustering algorithm CLASSY was selected for evaluation by EPA as a possible candidate technology. LANDSAT data acquired for a North Dakota test sight was clustered in order to compare CLASSY with other algorithms.

  1. Clustered patterns of species origins of nature-derived drugs and clues for future bioprospecting.

    PubMed

    Zhu, Feng; Qin, Chu; Tao, Lin; Liu, Xin; Shi, Zhe; Ma, Xiaohua; Jia, Jia; Tan, Ying; Cui, Cheng; Lin, Jinshun; Tan, Chunyan; Jiang, Yuyang; Chen, Yuzong

    2011-08-02

    Many drugs are nature derived. Low drug productivity has renewed interest in natural products as drug-discovery sources. Nature-derived drugs are composed of dozens of molecular scaffolds generated by specific secondary-metabolite gene clusters in selected species. It can be hypothesized that drug-like structures probably are distributed in selective groups of species. We compared the species origins of 939 approved and 369 clinical-trial drugs with those of 119 preclinical drugs and 19,721 bioactive natural products. In contrast to the scattered distribution of bioactive natural products, these drugs are clustered into 144 of the 6,763 known species families in nature, with 80% of the approved drugs and 67% of the clinical-trial drugs concentrated in 17 and 30 drug-prolific families, respectively. Four lines of evidence from historical drug data, 13,548 marine natural products, 767 medicinal plants, and 19,721 bioactive natural products suggest that drugs are derived mostly from preexisting drug-productive families. Drug-productive clusters expand slowly by conventional technologies. The lack of drugs outside drug-productive families is not necessarily the result of under-exploration or late exploration by conventional technologies. New technologies that explore cryptic gene clusters, pathways, interspecies crosstalk, and high-throughput fermentation enable the discovery of novel natural products. The potential impact of these technologies on drug productivity and on the distribution patterns of drug-productive families is yet to be revealed.

  2. The New Dual-beam Spectropluviometer Concept

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Delahaye, J. Y.; Barthes, L.; Golé, P.; Lavergnat, J.; Vinson, J. P.

    A Dual Beam Spectropluviometer (DBS) measuring the equivalent diameter D, the vertical velocity V and the time T of arrival of particles is presented. Its main advan- tage over previous optical disdrometers is the extensive measurement range of atmo- spheric precipitations near ground. In particular, 0.15 mm diameter particles can be observed in quiet laboratory conditions and 0.2 mm is the smallest diameter observed in the outdoor turbulent air velocity field. The means for obtaining such results are (i) two uniform beams of rectangular cross-section 2 mm in height, 40 mm in width and 250 mm in length, with a 2 mm vertical gap, (ii) a dual 16-bit analog to digital converter, (iii) a dedicated program for extracting the 3 parameters in real time by computing the signal slopes and determining the correlation between both channels, (iii) various means for reducing splashing and vibration. Laboratory tests and typical rain measurements are shown. The DBS is particularly suited for extensive atmospheric and radio propagation research applications where the smallest drops were not correctly estimated in the distributions because of the lack of appropriate measurement devices.

  3. Study on Data Clustering and Intelligent Decision Algorithm of Indoor Localization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Zexi

    2018-01-01

    Indoor positioning technology enables the human beings to have the ability of positional perception in architectural space, and there is a shortage of single network coverage and the problem of location data redundancy. So this article puts forward the indoor positioning data clustering algorithm and intelligent decision-making research, design the basic ideas of multi-source indoor positioning technology, analyzes the fingerprint localization algorithm based on distance measurement, position and orientation of inertial device integration. By optimizing the clustering processing of massive indoor location data, the data normalization pretreatment, multi-dimensional controllable clustering center and multi-factor clustering are realized, and the redundancy of locating data is reduced. In addition, the path is proposed based on neural network inference and decision, design the sparse data input layer, the dynamic feedback hidden layer and output layer, low dimensional results improve the intelligent navigation path planning.

  4. Cluster Beam Deposition Technology for Optical Coatings. Phase 1

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1987-05-01

    Particles 55 5.4.3 Growth of Ultrafine Particles or 61 Clusters by Gas Quenching 6.0 REFERENCES 67 APPENDIX: SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION 69 COP TR-407/5-87...approach, based on growth and transport of ultrafine particles or clusters in a quenching gas, appears more promising in our view and has been proposed for... Ultrafine Particles or Clusters by Gas quenching The apparent difficulty of making metal clusters with a Takagi-type source led us to explore other

  5. Emergy-based comparative analysis on industrial clusters: economic and technological development zone of Shenyang area, China.

    PubMed

    Liu, Zhe; Geng, Yong; Zhang, Pan; Dong, Huijuan; Liu, Zuoxi

    2014-09-01

    In China, local governments of many areas prefer to give priority to the development of heavy industrial clusters in pursuit of high value of gross domestic production (GDP) growth to get political achievements, which usually results in higher costs from ecological degradation and environmental pollution. Therefore, effective methods and reasonable evaluation system are urgently needed to evaluate the overall efficiency of industrial clusters. Emergy methods links economic and ecological systems together, which can evaluate the contribution of ecological products and services as well as the load placed on environmental systems. This method has been successfully applied in many case studies of ecosystem but seldom in industrial clusters. This study applied the methodology of emergy analysis to perform the efficiency of industrial clusters through a series of emergy-based indices as well as the proposed indicators. A case study of Shenyang Economic Technological Development Area (SETDA) was investigated to show the emergy method's practical potential to evaluate industrial clusters to inform environmental policy making. The results of our study showed that the industrial cluster of electric equipment and electronic manufacturing produced the most economic value and had the highest efficiency of energy utilization among the four industrial clusters. However, the sustainability index of the industrial cluster of food and beverage processing was better than the other industrial clusters.

  6. Stand-Alone Measurements and Characterization | Photovoltaic Research |

    Science.gov Websites

    Science and Technology Facility cluster tools offer powerful capabilities for measuring and characterizing Characterization tool suite are supplemented by the Integrated Measurements and Characterization cluster tool the Integrated M&C cluster tool using a mobile transport pod, which can keep samples under vacuum

  7. Trends of Educational Technology Research: More than a Decade of International Research in Six SSCI-Indexed Refereed Journals

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hsu, Yu-Chang; Hung, Jui-Long; Ching, Yu-Hui

    2013-01-01

    This study applied text mining methods to examine the abstracts of 2,997 international research articles published between 2000 and 2010 by six journals included in the Social Science Citation Index in the field of Educational Technology (EDTECH). A total of 19 clusters of research areas were identified, and these clusters were further analyzed in…

  8. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Horticulture Technology Cluster (Program CIP: 01.0601--Horticulture Serv. Op. & Mgmt., Gen.) (Program CIP: 01.0605--Landscaping Op. & Mgmt.). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for the course sequences in the horticulture technology programs cluster. Presented in the introductory section are a framework of programs and courses, description of the programs, and suggested course sequences for…

  9. Clustered patterns of species origins of nature-derived drugs and clues for future bioprospecting

    PubMed Central

    Zhu, Feng; Qin, Chu; Tao, Lin; Liu, Xin; Shi, Zhe; Ma, Xiaohua; Jia, Jia; Tan, Ying; Cui, Cheng; Lin, Jinshun; Tan, Chunyan; Jiang, Yuyang; Chen, Yuzong

    2011-01-01

    Many drugs are nature derived. Low drug productivity has renewed interest in natural products as drug-discovery sources. Nature-derived drugs are composed of dozens of molecular scaffolds generated by specific secondary-metabolite gene clusters in selected species. It can be hypothesized that drug-like structures probably are distributed in selective groups of species. We compared the species origins of 939 approved and 369 clinical-trial drugs with those of 119 preclinical drugs and 19,721 bioactive natural products. In contrast to the scattered distribution of bioactive natural products, these drugs are clustered into 144 of the 6,763 known species families in nature, with 80% of the approved drugs and 67% of the clinical-trial drugs concentrated in 17 and 30 drug-prolific families, respectively. Four lines of evidence from historical drug data, 13,548 marine natural products, 767 medicinal plants, and 19,721 bioactive natural products suggest that drugs are derived mostly from preexisting drug-productive families. Drug-productive clusters expand slowly by conventional technologies. The lack of drugs outside drug-productive families is not necessarily the result of under-exploration or late exploration by conventional technologies. New technologies that explore cryptic gene clusters, pathways, interspecies crosstalk, and high-throughput fermentation enable the discovery of novel natural products. The potential impact of these technologies on drug productivity and on the distribution patterns of drug-productive families is yet to be revealed. PMID:21768386

  10. Innovative Improvement and Intensification of Business Relationships Supported by Cooperative Networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vančová, Viera; Čambál, Miloš; Cagáňová, Dagmar

    2012-12-01

    Nowadays, the opportunity for companies to be involved in cluster initiatives and international business associations is a major factor that contributes to the increase of their innovative potential. Companies organized in technological clusters have greater access to mutual business contacts, faster information transfer and deployment of advanced technologies. These companies cooperate more frequently with universities and research - development institutions on innovative projects. An important benefit of cluster associations is that they create a suitable environment for innovation and the transfer of knowledge by means of international cooperation and networking. This supportive environment is not easy to access for different small and mediumsized companies, who are not members of any clusters or networks. Supplier-customer business channels expand by means of transnational networks and exchanges of experience. Knowledge potential is broadened and joint innovative projects are developed. Reflecting the growing importance of clusters as driving forces of economic and regional development, a number of cluster policies and initiatives have emerged in the last few decades, oriented to encourage the establishment of new clusters, to support existing clusters, or to assist the development of transnational cooperation. To achieve the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy, European countries should have an interest in building strong clusters and developing cluster cooperation by sharing specialized research infrastructures and testing facilities and facilitating knowledge transfer for crossborder cooperation. This requires developing a long term joint strategy in order to facilitate the development of open global clusters and innovative small and medium entrepreneurs.

  11. Disruptive Civil Technologies: Six Technologies With Potential Impacts on US Interests Out to 2025

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-04-01

    power (geopolitical, military, economic, or social cohesion). The six disruptive technologies were identified through a process carried out by...clustering, development of technology descriptors, screening, and prioritizing, analysts down-selected from 102 potentially disruptive technologies . They

  12. Technological and safety properties display biodiversity among enterococci isolated from two Egyptian cheeses, "Ras" and "Domiati".

    PubMed

    Malek, Reine; El-Attar, Aisha; Mohamed, Mariam; Anwar, Shimaa; El-Soda, Morsi; Béal, Catherine

    2012-02-15

    The technological and safety properties of 35 indigenous strains of Enterococcus faecium isolated from two Egyptian cheeses were characterised in order to determine their ability for rational manufacture of diversified and typical dairy products in the Middle East. A great diversity was observed within the 35 strains on the basis of their technological properties. A statistical analysis made it possible to distribute the 35 strains of E. faecium into different groups. Three groups were identified in terms of their acidification activity, measured by the Cinac system: a group of strains that quickly acidified milk, a second that moderately acidified milk, and a last cluster that revealed weak acidification activity. On the basis of texturing properties that were evaluated using a texturometer and a viscometer, a cluster of strains produced viscous and firm gels, a second cluster included fairly viscous, firm and cohesive gels, and a last group generated slightly viscous, but firm and very cohesive gels. By considering the aroma profiles that were determined by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, four clusters were identified. One cluster displayed a high dimethyl disulfide level, a second group of strains was highly aromatic, a third cluster led to typical "lactic" products, and the last cluster made it possible to obtain low aromatic products. None of the 35 strains proved to be β-haemolytic on the basis of the characterisation of their safety properties. The resistance to 20 antibiotics was assessed by the disc diffusion method. The 35 isolates were sensitive to 12 antibiotics, and among them, one isolate was resistant to only two antibiotics (nalixidic acid and streptomycin). The resistance to eight antibiotics was strain-dependant. Finally, this study demonstrates that some indigenous strains of E. faecium displayed interesting technological properties for cheese manufacture, together with good safety characteristics. They could be useful for the manufacture of typical products in Egypt. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Technology Discovery (9th Grade). CIP: 00.0253.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for technology educators in Mississippi, outlines a technology discovery course in which a modular instruction approach allows ninth graders to experience various workplace technologies within four career cluster areas: agriculture/natural resources technology, business/marketing technology, health/human services…

  14. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Computer Discovery (8th Grade). CIP: 00.0252.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for technology educators in Mississippi, outlines a modular instruction approach that allows eighth graders to experience various workplace technologies within four career cluster areas: agriculture/natural resources technology, business/marketing technology, health/human services technology, and…

  15. Analysis of large-scale gene expression data.

    PubMed

    Sherlock, G

    2000-04-01

    The advent of cDNA and oligonucleotide microarray technologies has led to a paradigm shift in biological investigation, such that the bottleneck in research is shifting from data generation to data analysis. Hierarchical clustering, divisive clustering, self-organizing maps and k-means clustering have all been recently used to make sense of this mass of data.

  16. Application of 2D and 3D image technologies to characterise morphological attributes of grapevine clusters.

    PubMed

    Tello, Javier; Cubero, Sergio; Blasco, José; Tardaguila, Javier; Aleixos, Nuria; Ibáñez, Javier

    2016-10-01

    Grapevine cluster morphology influences the quality and commercial value of wine and table grapes. It is routinely evaluated by subjective and inaccurate methods that do not meet the requirements set by the food industry. Novel two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) machine vision technologies emerge as promising tools for its automatic and fast evaluation. The automatic evaluation of cluster length, width and elongation was successfully achieved by the analysis of 2D images, significant and strong correlations with the manual methods being found (r = 0.959, 0.861 and 0.852, respectively). The classification of clusters according to their shape can be achieved by evaluating their conicity in different sections of the cluster. The geometric reconstruction of the morphological volume of the cluster from 2D features worked better than the direct 3D laser scanning system, showing a high correlation (r = 0.956) with the manual approach (water displacement method). In addition, we constructed and validated a simple linear regression model for cluster compactness estimation. It showed a high predictive capacity for both the training and validation subsets of clusters (R(2)  = 84.5 and 71.1%, respectively). The methodologies proposed in this work provide continuous and accurate data for the fast and objective characterisation of cluster morphology. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

  17. ClusterControl: a web interface for distributing and monitoring bioinformatics applications on a Linux cluster.

    PubMed

    Stocker, Gernot; Rieder, Dietmar; Trajanoski, Zlatko

    2004-03-22

    ClusterControl is a web interface to simplify distributing and monitoring bioinformatics applications on Linux cluster systems. We have developed a modular concept that enables integration of command line oriented program into the application framework of ClusterControl. The systems facilitate integration of different applications accessed through one interface and executed on a distributed cluster system. The package is based on freely available technologies like Apache as web server, PHP as server-side scripting language and OpenPBS as queuing system and is available free of charge for academic and non-profit institutions. http://genome.tugraz.at/Software/ClusterControl

  18. Polymer-based composites for aerospace: An overview of IMAST results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Milella, Eva; Cammarano, Aniello

    2016-05-01

    This paper gives an overview of technological results, achieved by IMAST, the Technological Cluster on Engineering of Polymeric Composite Materials and Structures, in the completed Research Projects in the aerospace field. In this sector, the Cluster developed different solutions: lightweight multifunctional fiber-reinforced polymer composites for aeronautic structures, advanced manufacturing processes (for the optimization of energy consumption and waste reduction) and multifunctional components (e.g., thermal, electrical, acoustic and fire resistance).

  19. Quantitative Analysis of Technological Innovation in Urology.

    PubMed

    Bhatt, Nikita R; Davis, Niall F; Dalton, David M; McDermott, Ted; Flynn, Robert J; Thomas, Arun Z; Manecksha, Rustom P

    2018-01-01

    To assess major areas of technological innovation in urology in the last 20 years using patent and publication data. Patent and MEDLINE databases were searched between 1980 and 2012 electronically using the terms urology OR urological OR urologist AND "surgeon" OR "surgical" OR "surgery". The patent codes obtained were grouped in technology clusters, further analyzed with individual searches, and growth curves were plotted. Growth rates and patterns were analyzed, and patents were correlated with publications as a measure of scientific support and of clinical adoption. The initial search revealed 417 patents and 20,314 publications. The top 5 technology clusters in descending order were surgical instruments including urinary catheters, minimally invasive surgery (MIS), lasers, robotic surgery, and image guidance. MIS and robotic surgery were the most emergent clusters in the last 5 years. Publication and patent growth rates were closely correlated (Pearson coefficient 0.78, P <.01), but publication growth rate remained constantly higher than patent growth, suggesting validated scientific support for urologic innovation and adoption into clinical practice. Patent metrics identify emergent technological innovations and such trends are valuable to understand progress in the field of urology. New surgical technologies like robotic surgery and MIS showed exponential growth in the last decade with good scientific vigilance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Clusters in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioeconomy: The Roles of the Public Sector.

    PubMed

    Philp, Jim; Winickoff, David E

    2017-08-01

    Government policies across the world seek to create clusters of companies and other stakeholders that specialise in a particular technology to build an 'industrial ecosystem'. This article looks at some examples of clusters created specifically with industrial biotechnology in mind and examines measures for policymakers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. Comparison of cyclic correlation and the wavelet method for symbol rate detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carr, Richard; Whitney, James

    Software defined radio (SDR) is a relatively new technology that holds a great deal of promise in the communication field in general, and, in particular the area of space communications. Tra-ditional communication systems are comprised of a transmitter and a receiver, where through prior planning and scheduling, the transmitter and receiver are pre-configured for a particu-lar communication modality. For any particular modality the radio circuitry is configured to transmit, receive, and resolve one type of modulation at a certain data rate. Traditional radio's are limited by the fact that the circuitry is fixed. Software defined radios on the other hand do not suffer from this limitation. SDR's are comprised mainly of software modules which allow them to be flexible, in that they can resolve various types of modulation types that occur at different data rates. This ability is of very high importance in space where parameters of the communications link may need to be changed due to channel fading, reduced power, or other unforeseen events. In these cases the ability to autonomously change aspects of the radio's con-figuration becomes an absolute necessity in order to maintain communications. In order for the technology to work the receiver has to be able to determine the modulation type and the data rate of the signal. The data rate of the signal is one of the first parameters to be resolved, as it is needed to find the other signal parameters such as modulation type and the signal-to-noise ratio. There are a number of algorithms that have been developed to detect or estimate the data rate of a signal. This paper will investigate two of these algorithms, namely, the cyclic correlation algorithm and a wavelet-based detection algorithm. Both of these algorithms are feature-based algorithms, meaning that they make their estimations based on certain inherent features of the signals to which they are applied. The cyclic correlation algorithm takes advan-tage of the cyclostationary nature of MPSK signals, while the wavelet-based algorithms take advantage of the fact of being able to detect transient changes in the signal, i.e., transitions from `1' to'0'. Both of these algorithms are tested under various signal-to-noise conditions to see which has the better performance, and the results are presented in this paper.

  2. Towards semantically sensitive text clustering: a feature space modeling technology based on dimension extension.

    PubMed

    Liu, Yuanchao; Liu, Ming; Wang, Xin

    2015-01-01

    The objective of text clustering is to divide document collections into clusters based on the similarity between documents. In this paper, an extension-based feature modeling approach towards semantically sensitive text clustering is proposed along with the corresponding feature space construction and similarity computation method. By combining the similarity in traditional feature space and that in extension space, the adverse effects of the complexity and diversity of natural language can be addressed and clustering semantic sensitivity can be improved correspondingly. The generated clusters can be organized using different granularities. The experimental evaluations on well-known clustering algorithms and datasets have verified the effectiveness of our approach.

  3. Towards Semantically Sensitive Text Clustering: A Feature Space Modeling Technology Based on Dimension Extension

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Yuanchao; Liu, Ming; Wang, Xin

    2015-01-01

    The objective of text clustering is to divide document collections into clusters based on the similarity between documents. In this paper, an extension-based feature modeling approach towards semantically sensitive text clustering is proposed along with the corresponding feature space construction and similarity computation method. By combining the similarity in traditional feature space and that in extension space, the adverse effects of the complexity and diversity of natural language can be addressed and clustering semantic sensitivity can be improved correspondingly. The generated clusters can be organized using different granularities. The experimental evaluations on well-known clustering algorithms and datasets have verified the effectiveness of our approach. PMID:25794172

  4. Marine Propulsion Technology Program Meets the Demand

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fowler, Howard G.

    1974-01-01

    The marine technology program cluster at Florida Keys Community College is described. Technicians are trained to maintain and repair engines and selected marine accessories through a marine propulsion technology curriculum (certificate program and associate in science degree). (EA)

  5. Text-mining analysis of mHealth research.

    PubMed

    Ozaydin, Bunyamin; Zengul, Ferhat; Oner, Nurettin; Delen, Dursun

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, because of the advancements in communication and networking technologies, mobile technologies have been developing at an unprecedented rate. mHealth, the use of mobile technologies in medicine, and the related research has also surged parallel to these technological advancements. Although there have been several attempts to review mHealth research through manual processes such as systematic reviews, the sheer magnitude of the number of studies published in recent years makes this task very challenging. The most recent developments in machine learning and text mining offer some potential solutions to address this challenge by allowing analyses of large volumes of texts through semi-automated processes. The objective of this study is to analyze the evolution of mHealth research by utilizing text-mining and natural language processing (NLP) analyses. The study sample included abstracts of 5,644 mHealth research articles, which were gathered from five academic search engines by using search terms such as mobile health, and mHealth. The analysis used the Text Explorer module of JMP Pro 13 and an iterative semi-automated process involving tokenizing, phrasing, and terming. After developing the document term matrix (DTM) analyses such as single value decomposition (SVD), topic, and hierarchical document clustering were performed, along with the topic-informed document clustering approach. The results were presented in the form of word-clouds and trend analyses. There were several major findings regarding research clusters and trends. First, our results confirmed time-dependent nature of terminology use in mHealth research. For example, in earlier versus recent years the use of terminology changed from "mobile phone" to "smartphone" and from "applications" to "apps". Second, ten clusters for mHealth research were identified including (I) Clinical Research on Lifestyle Management, (II) Community Health, (III) Literature Review, (IV) Medical Interventions, (V) Research Design, (VI) Infrastructure, (VII) Applications, (VIII) Research and Innovation in Health Technologies, (IX) Sensor-based Devices and Measurement Algorithms, (X) Survey-based Research. Third, the trend analyses indicated the infrastructure cluster as the highest percentage researched area until 2014. The Research and Innovation in Health Technologies cluster experienced the largest increase in numbers of publications in recent years, especially after 2014. This study is unique because it is the only known study utilizing text-mining analyses to reveal the streams and trends for mHealth research. The fast growth in mobile technologies is expected to lead to higher numbers of studies focusing on mHealth and its implications for various healthcare outcomes. Findings of this study can be utilized by researchers in identifying areas for future studies.

  6. Text-mining analysis of mHealth research

    PubMed Central

    Zengul, Ferhat; Oner, Nurettin; Delen, Dursun

    2017-01-01

    In recent years, because of the advancements in communication and networking technologies, mobile technologies have been developing at an unprecedented rate. mHealth, the use of mobile technologies in medicine, and the related research has also surged parallel to these technological advancements. Although there have been several attempts to review mHealth research through manual processes such as systematic reviews, the sheer magnitude of the number of studies published in recent years makes this task very challenging. The most recent developments in machine learning and text mining offer some potential solutions to address this challenge by allowing analyses of large volumes of texts through semi-automated processes. The objective of this study is to analyze the evolution of mHealth research by utilizing text-mining and natural language processing (NLP) analyses. The study sample included abstracts of 5,644 mHealth research articles, which were gathered from five academic search engines by using search terms such as mobile health, and mHealth. The analysis used the Text Explorer module of JMP Pro 13 and an iterative semi-automated process involving tokenizing, phrasing, and terming. After developing the document term matrix (DTM) analyses such as single value decomposition (SVD), topic, and hierarchical document clustering were performed, along with the topic-informed document clustering approach. The results were presented in the form of word-clouds and trend analyses. There were several major findings regarding research clusters and trends. First, our results confirmed time-dependent nature of terminology use in mHealth research. For example, in earlier versus recent years the use of terminology changed from “mobile phone” to “smartphone” and from “applications” to “apps”. Second, ten clusters for mHealth research were identified including (I) Clinical Research on Lifestyle Management, (II) Community Health, (III) Literature Review, (IV) Medical Interventions, (V) Research Design, (VI) Infrastructure, (VII) Applications, (VIII) Research and Innovation in Health Technologies, (IX) Sensor-based Devices and Measurement Algorithms, (X) Survey-based Research. Third, the trend analyses indicated the infrastructure cluster as the highest percentage researched area until 2014. The Research and Innovation in Health Technologies cluster experienced the largest increase in numbers of publications in recent years, especially after 2014. This study is unique because it is the only known study utilizing text-mining analyses to reveal the streams and trends for mHealth research. The fast growth in mobile technologies is expected to lead to higher numbers of studies focusing on mHealth and its implications for various healthcare outcomes. Findings of this study can be utilized by researchers in identifying areas for future studies. PMID:29430456

  7. Richard E. Smalley, Buckminsterfullerene (the Buckyball), and Nanotubes

    Science.gov Websites

    : 723-730; July 1997 Supersonic Bare Metal Cluster Beams. Technical Progress Report, March 16, 1984  – April 1, 1985 Includes early cold ion beam technology research Supersonic Bare Metal Cluster Beams

  8. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Machine Tool Operation/Machine Shop and Tool and Die Making Technology Cluster (Program CIP: 48.0507--Tool and Die Maker/Technologist) (Program CIP: 48.0503--Machine Shop Assistant). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for the course sequences in the machine tool operation/machine tool and tool and die making technology programs cluster. Presented in the introductory section are a framework of courses and programs, description of the…

  9. Cross Layered Multi-Meshed Tree Scheme for Cognitive Networks

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-06-01

    Meshed Tree Routing protocol wireless ad hoc networks ,” Second IEEE International Workshop on Enabling Technologies and Standards for Wireless Mesh ...and Sensor Networks , 2004 43. Chen G.; Stojmenovic I., “Clustering and routing in mobile wireless networks ,” Technical Report TR-99-05, SITE, June...Cross-layer optimization, intra-cluster routing , packet forwarding, inter-cluster routing , mesh network communications,

  10. Technology Innovation

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    EPA produces innovative technologies and facilitates their creation in line with the Agency mission to create products such as the stormwater calculator, remote sensing, innovation clusters, and low-cost air sensors.

  11. Missouri Introduction to Energy and Power Technology Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Missouri Univ., Columbia. Instructional Materials Lab.

    This guide provides materials for the first high school specialization course beyond the broad-based foundation provided by the Introduction to Industrial Technology and Exploration of Technology courses. Section I is the Instructor's Guide, which contains suggestions about how the energy and power technology cluster might be taught as a course…

  12. System and prospects of China's intercity rail transit technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gong, Ming

    2018-06-01

    City clusters and metropolitan areas in China are flourishing in the midst of the deepening urbanization in the country, thereby resulting in the emergence of intercity rail transit. Intercity railways connect mainline and urban railways for an integrated regional transportation system that underpins and leads the development of city clusters and metropolitan areas. This study explores the development mode and service characteristics of intercity rail transit, as well as proposes overviews on this system and prospects of its future technology in China.

  13. What do family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients desire in smart home technologies? Contrasted results of a wide survey.

    PubMed

    Rialle, V; Ollivet, C; Guigui, C; Hervé, C

    2008-01-01

    The authors' aim was to investigate the representations, wishes, and fears of family caregivers (FCs) regarding 14 innovative technologies (IT) for care aiding and burden alleviation, given the severe physical and psychological stress induced by dementia care, and the very slow uptake of these technologies in our society. A cluster sample survey based on a self-administered questionnaire was carried out on data collected from 270 families of patients with Alzheimer's disease or related disorders, located in the greater Paris area. Multiple Correspondence Analysis was used in addition to usual statistical tests to identify homogenous FCs clusters concerning the appreciation or rejection of the considered technologies. Two opposite clusters were clearly defined: FCs in favor of a substantial use of technology, and those rather or totally hostile. Furthermore the distributions of almost all the answers of appreciations were U-shaped. Significant relations were demonstrated between IT appreciation and FC's family or gender statuses (e.g., female FCs appreciated a tracking device for quick recovering of wandering patients more than male FCs: p = 0.0025, N = 195). The study provides further evidence of the contrasted perception of technology in dementia care at home, and suggests the development of public debates based on rigorous assessment of practices and a strict ethical aim to protect against misuse.

  14. April 27 2015 Water Cluster Leaders Meeting Report

    EPA Science Inventory

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) partnered with the Water Economy Network (WEN) to host a Water Technology Innovation Cluster Leaders Meeting on April 27, 2015, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Approximately 75 individuals attended. The meeting was organized to bring to...

  15. Teaching Gene Technology in an Outreach Lab: Students' Assigned Cognitive Load Clusters and the Clusters' Relationships to Learner Characteristics, Laboratory Variables, and Cognitive Achievement

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scharfenberg, Franz-Josef; Bogner, Franz X.

    2013-02-01

    This study classified students into different cognitive load (CL) groups by means of cluster analysis based on their experienced CL in a gene technology outreach lab which has instructionally been designed with regard to CL theory. The relationships of the identified student CL clusters to learner characteristics, laboratory variables, and cognitive achievement were examined using a pre-post-follow-up design. Participants of our day-long module Genetic Fingerprinting were 409 twelfth-graders. During the module instructional phases (pre-lab, theoretical, experimental, and interpretation phases), we measured the students' mental effort (ME) as an index of CL. By clustering the students' module-phase-specific ME pattern, we found three student CL clusters which were independent of the module instructional phases, labeled as low-level, average-level, and high-level loaded clusters. Additionally, we found two student CL clusters that were each particular to a specific module phase. Their members reported especially high ME invested in one phase each: within the pre-lab phase and within the interpretation phase. Differentiating the clusters, we identified uncertainty tolerance, prior experience in experimentation, epistemic interest, and prior knowledge as relevant learner characteristics. We found relationships to cognitive achievement, but no relationships to the examined laboratory variables. Our results underscore the importance of pre-lab and interpretation phases in hands-on teaching in science education and the need for teachers to pay attention to these phases, both inside and outside of outreach laboratory learning settings.

  16. Evaluating the Efficacy of the Cloud for Cluster Computation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Knight, David; Shams, Khawaja; Chang, George; Soderstrom, Tom

    2012-01-01

    Computing requirements vary by industry, and it follows that NASA and other research organizations have computing demands that fall outside the mainstream. While cloud computing made rapid inroads for tasks such as powering web applications, performance issues on highly distributed tasks hindered early adoption for scientific computation. One venture to address this problem is Nebula, NASA's homegrown cloud project tasked with delivering science-quality cloud computing resources. However, another industry development is Amazon's high-performance computing (HPC) instances on Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) that promises improved performance for cluster computation. This paper presents results from a series of benchmarks run on Amazon EC2 and discusses the efficacy of current commercial cloud technology for running scientific applications across a cluster. In particular, a 240-core cluster of cloud instances achieved 2 TFLOPS on High-Performance Linpack (HPL) at 70% of theoretical computational performance. The cluster's local network also demonstrated sub-100 ?s inter-process latency with sustained inter-node throughput in excess of 8 Gbps. Beyond HPL, a real-world Hadoop image processing task from NASA's Lunar Mapping and Modeling Project (LMMP) was run on a 29 instance cluster to process lunar and Martian surface images with sizes on the order of tens of gigapixels. These results demonstrate that while not a rival of dedicated supercomputing clusters, commercial cloud technology is now a feasible option for moderately demanding scientific workloads.

  17. Designing Web-based Telemedicine Training for Military Health Care Providers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bangert, David; Doktor, Boert; Johnson, Erik

    2001-01-01

    Interviews with 48 military health care professionals identified 20 objectives and 4 learning clusters for a telemedicine training curriculum. From these clusters, web-based modules were developed addressing clinical learning, technology, organizational issues, and introduction to telemedicine. (Contains 19 references.) (SK)

  18. Preface

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Landman, Uzi; Yannouleas, Constantine

    2001-09-01

    This special volume of The European Physical Journal D contains papers presented at the 10th International Symposium on Small Particles and Inorganic Clusters, ISSPIC 10, which was held from October 11th to 15th, 2000, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The meeting was attended by over 300 scientists from all over the world, and in it 45 invited and hot-topic lectures were given, and 330 posters were presented. In keeping with the tradition of the ISSPIC meetings, the 10th anniversary symposium was devoted to a broad and balanced overview of new results, emerging trends and perspectives pertaining to the physics and chemistry of clusters. The meeting covered experimental and theoretical investigations of gas-phase and supported clusters, nanoscale cluster-based materials, and nanometer. The sessions at ISSPIC 10 were organized as mini-symposia, and topics included: electronic and structural properties of clusters, charged clusters and photoelectron spectroscopy, fast laser spectroscopy and dynamics, cluster-surface interactions and cluster deposition, helium clusters and spectroscopy, structural evolution and thermodynamics of clusters, cluster reactivity and nano-catalysis, two-dimensional quantum dots, nano-crystals and self-assembly, mechanical, electronic and transport properties of carbon nanotubes, structure and conductance properties of nanowires, formation and stability of droplets and jets, and medical applications of colloidal clusters. Most importantly, the symposium provided an interdisciplinary forum for presentation and discussion of fundamental and methodological aspects as well as technologically oriented developments. The opening session of ISSPIC 10 was dedicated to the memory of Professor Walter D. Knight, a pioneer in the field of clusters. The work of Walter and his research group at Berkeley on electronic shells in metal clusters opened new avenues in cluster science and contributed significantly to the rapid growth of this field. We would like to take this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance extended to the symposium by the Georgia Institute of Technology and by the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research. We also thank the participants for contributing to the success of ISSPIC 10 through communicating their latest scientific results during the meeting and via the papers appearing in these proceedings.

  19. Cloud computing and validation of expandable in silico livers.

    PubMed

    Ropella, Glen E P; Hunt, C Anthony

    2010-12-03

    In Silico Livers (ISLs) are works in progress. They are used to challenge multilevel, multi-attribute, mechanistic hypotheses about the hepatic disposition of xenobiotics coupled with hepatic responses. To enhance ISL-to-liver mappings, we added discrete time metabolism, biliary elimination, and bolus dosing features to a previously validated ISL and initiated re-validated experiments that required scaling experiments to use more simulated lobules than previously, more than could be achieved using the local cluster technology. Rather than dramatically increasing the size of our local cluster we undertook the re-validation experiments using the Amazon EC2 cloud platform. So doing required demonstrating the efficacy of scaling a simulation to use more cluster nodes and assessing the scientific equivalence of local cluster validation experiments with those executed using the cloud platform. The local cluster technology was duplicated in the Amazon EC2 cloud platform. Synthetic modeling protocols were followed to identify a successful parameterization. Experiment sample sizes (number of simulated lobules) on both platforms were 49, 70, 84, and 152 (cloud only). Experimental indistinguishability was demonstrated for ISL outflow profiles of diltiazem using both platforms for experiments consisting of 84 or more samples. The process was analogous to demonstration of results equivalency from two different wet-labs. The results provide additional evidence that disposition simulations using ISLs can cover the behavior space of liver experiments in distinct experimental contexts (there is in silico-to-wet-lab phenotype similarity). The scientific value of experimenting with multiscale biomedical models has been limited to research groups with access to computer clusters. The availability of cloud technology coupled with the evidence of scientific equivalency has lowered the barrier and will greatly facilitate model sharing as well as provide straightforward tools for scaling simulations to encompass greater detail with no extra investment in hardware.

  20. Fast "swarm of detectors" and their application in cosmic rays

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shoziyoev, G. P.; Shoziyoev, Sh. P.

    2017-06-01

    New opportunities in science appeared with the latest technology of the 21st century. This paper points to creating a new architecture for detection systems of different characteristics in astrophysics and geophysics using the latest technologies related to multicopter cluster systems, alternative energy sources, cluster technologies, cloud computing and big data. The idea of a quick-deployable scaleable dynamic system of a controlled drone with a small set of different detectors for detecting various components of extensive air showers in cosmic rays and in geophysics is very attractive. Development of this type of new system also allows to give a multiplier effect for the development of various sciences and research methods to observe natural phenomena.

  1. Assembly and features of secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters in Streptomyces ansochromogenes.

    PubMed

    Zhong, Xingyu; Tian, Yuqing; Niu, Guoqing; Tan, Huarong

    2013-07-01

    A draft genome sequence of Streptomyces ansochromogenes 7100 was generated using 454 sequencing technology. In combination with local BLAST searches and gap filling techniques, a comprehensive antiSMASH-based method was adopted to assemble the secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters in the draft genome of S. ansochromogenes. A total of at least 35 putative gene clusters were identified and assembled. Transcriptional analysis showed that 20 of the 35 gene clusters were expressed in either or all of the three different media tested, whereas the other 15 gene clusters were silent in all three different media. This study provides a comprehensive method to identify and assemble secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters in draft genomes of Streptomyces, and will significantly promote functional studies of these secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters.

  2. Evaluation of Potential Locations for Siting Small Modular Reactors near Federal Energy Clusters to Support Federal Clean Energy Goals

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Belles, Randy J.; Omitaomu, Olufemi A.

    2014-09-01

    Geographic information systems (GIS) technology was applied to analyze federal energy demand across the contiguous US. Several federal energy clusters were previously identified, including Hampton Roads, Virginia, which was subsequently studied in detail. This study provides an analysis of three additional diverse federal energy clusters. The analysis shows that there are potential sites in various federal energy clusters that could be evaluated further for placement of an integral pressurized-water reactor (iPWR) to support meeting federal clean energy goals.

  3. Residual energy level based clustering routing protocol for wireless sensor networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yuan, Xu; Zhong, Fangming; Chen, Zhikui; Yang, Deli

    2015-12-01

    The wireless sensor networks, which nodes prone to premature death, with unbalanced energy consumption and a short life time, influenced the promotion and application of this technology in internet of things in agriculture. This paper proposes a clustering routing protocol based on the residual energy level (RELCP). RELCP includes three stages: the selection of cluster head, establishment of cluster and data transmission. RELCP considers the remaining energy level and distance to base station, while election of cluster head nodes and data transmitting. Simulation results demonstrate that the protocol can efficiently balance the energy dissipation of all nodes, and prolong the network lifetime.

  4. Integrin Clustering Matters: A Review of Biomaterials Functionalized with Multivalent Integrin-Binding Ligands to Improve Cell Adhesion, Migration, Differentiation, Angiogenesis, and Biomedical Device Integration.

    PubMed

    Karimi, Fatemeh; O'Connor, Andrea J; Qiao, Greg G; Heath, Daniel E

    2018-03-25

    Material systems that exhibit tailored interactions with cells are a cornerstone of biomaterial and tissue engineering technologies. One method of achieving these tailored interactions is to biofunctionalize materials with peptide ligands that bind integrin receptors present on the cell surface. However, cell biology research has illustrated that both integrin binding and integrin clustering are required to achieve a full adhesion response. This biophysical knowledge has motivated researchers to develop material systems biofunctionalized with nanoscale clusters of ligands that promote both integrin occupancy and clustering of the receptors. These materials have improved a wide variety of biological interactions in vitro including cell adhesion, proliferation, migration speed, gene expression, and stem cell differentiation; and improved in vivo outcomes including increased angiogenesis, tissue healing, and biomedical device integration. This review first introduces the techniques that enable the fabrication of these nanopatterned materials, describes the improved biological effects that have been achieved, and lastly discusses the current limitations of the technology and where future advances may occur. Although this technology is still in its nascency, it will undoubtedly play an important role in the future development of biomaterials and tissue engineering scaffolds for both in vitro and in vivo applications. © 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  5. Text grouping in patent analysis using adaptive K-means clustering algorithm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shanie, Tiara; Suprijadi, Jadi; Zulhanif

    2017-03-01

    Patents are one of the Intellectual Property. Analyzing patent is one requirement in knowing well the development of technology in each country and in the world now. This study uses the patent document coming from the Espacenet server about Green Tea. Patent documents related to the technology in the field of tea is still widespread, so it will be difficult for users to information retrieval (IR). Therefore, it is necessary efforts to categorize documents in a specific group of related terms contained therein. This study uses titles patent text data with the proposed Green Tea in Statistical Text Mining methods consists of two phases: data preparation and data analysis stage. The data preparation phase uses Text Mining methods and data analysis stage is done by statistics. Statistical analysis in this study using a cluster analysis algorithm, the Adaptive K-Means Clustering Algorithm. Results from this study showed that based on the maximum value Silhouette, generate 87 clusters associated fifteen terms therein that can be utilized in the process of information retrieval needs.

  6. Interaction of hydrogen with palladium clusters deposited on graphene

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alonso, Julio A.; Granja, Alejandra; Cabria, Iván; López, María J.

    2015-12-01

    Hydrogen adsorption on nanoporous carbon materials is a promising technology for hydrogen storage. However, pure carbon materials do not meet the technological requirements due to the week binding of hydrogen to the pore walls. Experimental work has shown that doping with Pd atoms and clusters enhances the storage capacity of porous carbons. Therefore, we have investigated the role played by the Pd dopant on the enhancement mechanisms. By performing density functional calculations, we have found that hydrogen adsorbs on Pd clusters deposited on graphene following two channels, molecular adsorption and dissociative chemisorption. However, desorption of Pd-H complexes competes with desorption of hydrogen, and consequently desorption of Pd-H complexes would spoil the beneficial effect of the dopant. As a way to overcome this difficulty, Pd atoms and clusters can be anchored to defects of the graphene layer, like graphene vacancies. The competition between molecular adsorption and dissociative chemisorption of H2 on Pd6 anchored on a graphene vacancy has been studied in detail.

  7. Quantitative Analysis of Technological Innovation in Knee Arthroplasty: Using Patent and Publication Metrics to Identify Developments and Trends.

    PubMed

    Dalton, David M; Burke, Thomas P; Kelly, Enda G; Curtin, Paul D

    2016-06-01

    Surgery is in a constant continuum of innovation with refinement of technique and instrumentation. Arthroplasty surgery potentially represents an area with highly innovative process. This study highlights key area of innovation in knee arthroplasty over the past 35 years using patent and publication metrics. Growth rates and patterns are analyzed. Patents are correlated to publications as a measure of scientific support. Electronic patent and publication databases were searched over the interval 1980-2014 for "knee arthroplasty" OR "knee replacement." The resulting patent codes were allocated into technology clusters. Citation analysis was performed to identify any important developments missed on initial analysis. The technology clusters identified were further analyzed, individual repeat searches performed, and growth curves plotted. The initial search revealed 3574 patents and 16,552 publications. The largest technology clusters identified were Unicompartmental, Patient-Specific Instrumentation (PSI), Navigation, and Robotic knee arthroplasties. The growth in patent activity correlated strongly with publication activity (Pearson correlation value 0.892, P < .01), but was growing at a faster rate suggesting a decline in vigilance. PSI, objectively the fastest growing technology in the last 5 years, is currently in a period of exponential growth that began a decade ago. Established technologies in the study have double s-shaped patent curves. Identifying trends in emerging technologies is possible using patent metrics and is useful information for training and regulatory bodies. The decline in ratio of publications to patents and the uninterrupted growth of PSI are developments that may warrant further investigation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Dynamic Trajectory Extraction from Stereo Vision Using Fuzzy Clustering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Onishi, Masaki; Yoda, Ikushi

    In recent years, many human tracking researches have been proposed in order to analyze human dynamic trajectory. These researches are general technology applicable to various fields, such as customer purchase analysis in a shopping environment and safety control in a (railroad) crossing. In this paper, we present a new approach for tracking human positions by stereo image. We use the framework of two-stepped clustering with k-means method and fuzzy clustering to detect human regions. In the initial clustering, k-means method makes middle clusters from objective features extracted by stereo vision at high speed. In the last clustering, c-means fuzzy method cluster middle clusters based on attributes into human regions. Our proposed method can be correctly clustered by expressing ambiguity using fuzzy clustering, even when many people are close to each other. The validity of our technique was evaluated with the experiment of trajectories extraction of doctors and nurses in an emergency room of a hospital.

  9. Glaucomatous patterns in Frequency Doubling Technology (FDT) perimetry data identified by unsupervised machine learning classifiers.

    PubMed

    Bowd, Christopher; Weinreb, Robert N; Balasubramanian, Madhusudhanan; Lee, Intae; Jang, Giljin; Yousefi, Siamak; Zangwill, Linda M; Medeiros, Felipe A; Girkin, Christopher A; Liebmann, Jeffrey M; Goldbaum, Michael H

    2014-01-01

    The variational Bayesian independent component analysis-mixture model (VIM), an unsupervised machine-learning classifier, was used to automatically separate Matrix Frequency Doubling Technology (FDT) perimetry data into clusters of healthy and glaucomatous eyes, and to identify axes representing statistically independent patterns of defect in the glaucoma clusters. FDT measurements were obtained from 1,190 eyes with normal FDT results and 786 eyes with abnormal FDT results from the UCSD-based Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study (DIGS) and African Descent and Glaucoma Evaluation Study (ADAGES). For all eyes, VIM input was 52 threshold test points from the 24-2 test pattern, plus age. FDT mean deviation was -1.00 dB (S.D. = 2.80 dB) and -5.57 dB (S.D. = 5.09 dB) in FDT-normal eyes and FDT-abnormal eyes, respectively (p<0.001). VIM identified meaningful clusters of FDT data and positioned a set of statistically independent axes through the mean of each cluster. The optimal VIM model separated the FDT fields into 3 clusters. Cluster N contained primarily normal fields (1109/1190, specificity 93.1%) and clusters G1 and G2 combined, contained primarily abnormal fields (651/786, sensitivity 82.8%). For clusters G1 and G2 the optimal number of axes were 2 and 5, respectively. Patterns automatically generated along axes within the glaucoma clusters were similar to those known to be indicative of glaucoma. Fields located farther from the normal mean on each glaucoma axis showed increasing field defect severity. VIM successfully separated FDT fields from healthy and glaucoma eyes without a priori information about class membership, and identified familiar glaucomatous patterns of loss.

  10. A method of operation scheduling based on video transcoding for cluster equipment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Haojie; Yan, Chun

    2018-04-01

    Because of the cluster technology in real-time video transcoding device, the application of facing the massive growth in the number of video assignments and resolution and bit rate of diversity, task scheduling algorithm, and analyze the current mainstream of cluster for real-time video transcoding equipment characteristics of the cluster, combination with the characteristics of the cluster equipment task delay scheduling algorithm is proposed. This algorithm enables the cluster to get better performance in the generation of the job queue and the lower part of the job queue when receiving the operation instruction. In the end, a small real-time video transcode cluster is constructed to analyze the calculation ability, running time, resource occupation and other aspects of various algorithms in operation scheduling. The experimental results show that compared with traditional clustering task scheduling algorithm, task delay scheduling algorithm has more flexible and efficient characteristics.

  11. A Survey on Clustering Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Xuxun

    2012-01-01

    The past few years have witnessed increased interest in the potential use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in a wide range of applications and it has become a hot research area. Based on network structure, routing protocols in WSNs can be divided into two categories: flat routing and hierarchical or clustering routing. Owing to a variety of advantages, clustering is becoming an active branch of routing technology in WSNs. In this paper, we present a comprehensive and fine grained survey on clustering routing protocols proposed in the literature for WSNs. We outline the advantages and objectives of clustering for WSNs, and develop a novel taxonomy of WSN clustering routing methods based on complete and detailed clustering attributes. In particular, we systematically analyze a few prominent WSN clustering routing protocols and compare these different approaches according to our taxonomy and several significant metrics. Finally, we summarize and conclude the paper with some future directions. PMID:23112649

  12. A survey on clustering routing protocols in wireless sensor networks.

    PubMed

    Liu, Xuxun

    2012-01-01

    The past few years have witnessed increased interest in the potential use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in a wide range of applications and it has become a hot research area. Based on network structure, routing protocols in WSNs can be divided into two categories: flat routing and hierarchical or clustering routing. Owing to a variety of advantages, clustering is becoming an active branch of routing technology in WSNs. In this paper, we present a comprehensive and fine grained survey on clustering routing protocols proposed in the literature for WSNs. We outline the advantages and objectives of clustering for WSNs, and develop a novel taxonomy of WSN clustering routing methods based on complete and detailed clustering attributes. In particular, we systematically analyze a few prominent WSN clustering routing protocols and compare these different approaches according to our taxonomy and several significant metrics. Finally, we summarize and conclude the paper with some future directions.

  13. Business and Marketing Cluster. Task Analyses.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Henrico County Public Schools, Glen Allen, VA. Virginia Vocational Curriculum and Resource Center.

    Developed in Virginia, this publication contains task analysis guides to support selected tech prep programs that prepare students for careers in the business and marketing cluster. Guides are included for accounting systems, legal systems administration, office systems technology, and retail marketing. Each task analyses guide has the following…

  14. Atomic Cluster Ionization and Attosecond Generation at Long Wavelengths

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-10-31

    fellowships for further studies in science, mathematics, engineering or technology fields: Student Metrics This section only applies to graduating...order to investigate this we use a modified Lewenstein quantum model in which the cluster is represented by a 1D Coulomb potential for the parent ion

  15. DIMM-SC: a Dirichlet mixture model for clustering droplet-based single cell transcriptomic data.

    PubMed

    Sun, Zhe; Wang, Ting; Deng, Ke; Wang, Xiao-Feng; Lafyatis, Robert; Ding, Ying; Hu, Ming; Chen, Wei

    2018-01-01

    Single cell transcriptome sequencing (scRNA-Seq) has become a revolutionary tool to study cellular and molecular processes at single cell resolution. Among existing technologies, the recently developed droplet-based platform enables efficient parallel processing of thousands of single cells with direct counting of transcript copies using Unique Molecular Identifier (UMI). Despite the technology advances, statistical methods and computational tools are still lacking for analyzing droplet-based scRNA-Seq data. Particularly, model-based approaches for clustering large-scale single cell transcriptomic data are still under-explored. We developed DIMM-SC, a Dirichlet Mixture Model for clustering droplet-based Single Cell transcriptomic data. This approach explicitly models UMI count data from scRNA-Seq experiments and characterizes variations across different cell clusters via a Dirichlet mixture prior. We performed comprehensive simulations to evaluate DIMM-SC and compared it with existing clustering methods such as K-means, CellTree and Seurat. In addition, we analyzed public scRNA-Seq datasets with known cluster labels and in-house scRNA-Seq datasets from a study of systemic sclerosis with prior biological knowledge to benchmark and validate DIMM-SC. Both simulation studies and real data applications demonstrated that overall, DIMM-SC achieves substantially improved clustering accuracy and much lower clustering variability compared to other existing clustering methods. More importantly, as a model-based approach, DIMM-SC is able to quantify the clustering uncertainty for each single cell, facilitating rigorous statistical inference and biological interpretations, which are typically unavailable from existing clustering methods. DIMM-SC has been implemented in a user-friendly R package with a detailed tutorial available on www.pitt.edu/∼wec47/singlecell.html. wei.chen@chp.edu or hum@ccf.org. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

  16. Role of design complexity in technology improvement.

    PubMed

    McNerney, James; Farmer, J Doyne; Redner, Sidney; Trancik, Jessika E

    2011-05-31

    We study a simple model for the evolution of the cost (or more generally the performance) of a technology or production process. The technology can be decomposed into n components, each of which interacts with a cluster of d - 1 other components. Innovation occurs through a series of trial-and-error events, each of which consists of randomly changing the cost of each component in a cluster, and accepting the changes only if the total cost of the cluster is lowered. We show that the relationship between the cost of the whole technology and the number of innovation attempts is asymptotically a power law, matching the functional form often observed for empirical data. The exponent α of the power law depends on the intrinsic difficulty of finding better components, and on what we term the design complexity: the more complex the design, the slower the rate of improvement. Letting d as defined above be the connectivity, in the special case in which the connectivity is constant, the design complexity is simply the connectivity. When the connectivity varies, bottlenecks can arise in which a few components limit progress. In this case the design complexity depends on the details of the design. The number of bottlenecks also determines whether progress is steady, or whether there are periods of stasis punctuated by occasional large changes. Our model connects the engineering properties of a design to historical studies of technology improvement.

  17. Tech-Prep Competency Profiles within the Business/Computer Technologies.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for educators throughout Ohio who are involved in planning and/or delivering tech prep programs within the business/computer technologies cluster, discusses and presents tech prep competency profiles (TCPs) for 12 business/computer technology occupations. The first part of the document contains the following:…

  18. Standard Systems Group (SSG) Technology Adoption Planning Workshop

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2004-04-01

    11 Figure 2: Map of SEI Technologies Against SSG (Cluster Focused on Customer Issues...them could be consolidated. The objectives were grouped into three categories ( customer focused, internal operations, and innovation & learning... customers ! • Streamlined organization with agile processes • Recognized expertise in exploring and exploiting leading IT technologies • Enterprise

  19. Next Generation Clustered Heat Maps | Informatics Technology for Cancer Research (ITCR)

    Cancer.gov

    Next-Generation (Clustered) Heat Maps are interactive heat maps that enable the user to zoom and pan across the heatmap, alter its color scheme, generate production quality PDFs, and link out from rows, columns, and individual heatmap entries to related statistics, databases and other information.

  20. Identifying Peer Institutions Using Cluster Analysis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boronico, Jess; Choksi, Shail S.

    2012-01-01

    The New York Institute of Technology's (NYIT) School of Management (SOM) wishes to develop a list of peer institutions for the purpose of benchmarking and monitoring/improving performance against other business schools. The procedure utilizes relevant criteria for the purpose of establishing this peer group by way of a cluster analysis. The…

  1. Curriculum Designs for Tech Prep Clusters. PACE '94.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schoon, Kenneth J., Ed.; Wiles, Clyde A., Ed.

    This booklet contains descriptions of various Tech Prep programs developed by PACE (Promoting Academic Excellence In Mathematics, Science & Technology for Workers of the 21st Century). Each entry includes general program descriptions, curriculum outlines, and course descriptions. The clusters and their specialty areas described in the booklet are:…

  2. Technology platforms: opportunities and development perspectives

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Belyakov, G. P.; Avramchikova, N. T.; Belyakova, G. Y.; Chuvashova, M. N.

    2016-11-01

    The term “technology platform” is used to define thematic scopes in terms of which technological priorities are formed concerning state, business, science and education cooperation that are aimed to solve the problem of state technological independence. The authors have examined the implementation of this tool so that to concentrate essential resources in priority-driven vectors of science and technological advancement of a guiding cluster of innovative technologies in the field of space applications.

  3. Construction and application of Red5 cluster based on OpenStack

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Jiaqing; Song, Jianxin

    2017-08-01

    With the application and development of cloud computing technology in various fields, the resource utilization rate of the data center has been improved obviously, and the system based on cloud computing platform has also improved the expansibility and stability. In the traditional way, Red5 cluster resource utilization is low and the system stability is poor. This paper uses cloud computing to efficiently calculate the resource allocation ability, and builds a Red5 server cluster based on OpenStack. Multimedia applications can be published to the Red5 cloud server cluster. The system achieves the flexible construction of computing resources, but also greatly improves the stability of the cluster and service efficiency.

  4. Adaptive block online learning target tracking based on super pixel segmentation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Yue; Li, Jianzeng

    2018-04-01

    Video target tracking technology under the unremitting exploration of predecessors has made big progress, but there are still lots of problems not solved. This paper proposed a new algorithm of target tracking based on image segmentation technology. Firstly we divide the selected region using simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) algorithm, after that, we block the area with the improved density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) clustering algorithm. Each sub-block independently trained classifier and tracked, then the algorithm ignore the failed tracking sub-block while reintegrate the rest of the sub-blocks into tracking box to complete the target tracking. The experimental results show that our algorithm can work effectively under occlusion interference, rotation change, scale change and many other problems in target tracking compared with the current mainstream algorithms.

  5. Carbohydrate Cluster Microarrays Fabricated on 3-Dimensional Dendrimeric Platforms for Functional Glycomics Exploration

    PubMed Central

    Zhou, Xichun; Turchi, Craig; Wang, Denong

    2009-01-01

    We reported here a novel, ready-to-use bioarray platform and methodology for construction of sensitive carbohydrate cluster microarrays. This technology utilizes a 3-dimensional (3-D) poly(amidoamine) starburst dendrimer monolayer assembled on glass surface, which is functionalized with terminal aminooxy and hydrazide groups for site-specific coupling of carbohydrates. A wide range of saccharides, including monosaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides of diverse structures, are applicable for the 3-D bioarray platform without prior chemical derivatization. The process of carbohydrate coupling is effectively accelerated by microwave radiation energy. The carbohydrate concentration required for microarray fabrication is substantially reduced using this technology. Importantly, this bioarray platform presents sugar chains in defined orientation and cluster configurations. It is, thus, uniquely useful for exploration of the structural and conformational diversities of glyco-epitope and their functional properties. PMID:19791771

  6. Mississippi State University Center for Air Sea Technology. FY93 and FY 94 Research Program in Navy Ocean Modeling and Prediction

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1994-09-30

    relational versus object oriented DBMS, knowledge discovery, data models, rnetadata, data filtering, clustering techniques, and synthetic data. A secondary...The first was the investigation of Al/ES Lapplications (knowledge discovery, data mining, and clustering ). Here CAST collabo.rated with Dr. Fred Petry...knowledge discovery system based on clustering techniques; implemented an on-line data browser to the DBMS; completed preliminary efforts to apply object

  7. Coordinate-Based Clustering Method for Indoor Fingerprinting Localization in Dense Cluttered Environments.

    PubMed

    Liu, Wen; Fu, Xiao; Deng, Zhongliang

    2016-12-02

    Indoor positioning technologies has boomed recently because of the growing commercial interest in indoor location-based service (ILBS). Due to the absence of satellite signal in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), various technologies have been proposed for indoor applications. Among them, Wi-Fi fingerprinting has been attracting much interest from researchers because of its pervasive deployment, flexibility and robustness to dense cluttered indoor environments. One challenge, however, is the deployment of Access Points (AP), which would bring a significant influence on the system positioning accuracy. This paper concentrates on WLAN based fingerprinting indoor location by analyzing the AP deployment influence, and studying the advantages of coordinate-based clustering compared to traditional RSS-based clustering. A coordinate-based clustering method for indoor fingerprinting location, named Smallest-Enclosing-Circle-based (SEC), is then proposed aiming at reducing the positioning error lying in the AP deployment and improving robustness to dense cluttered environments. All measurements are conducted in indoor public areas, such as the National Center For the Performing Arts (as Test-bed 1) and the XiDan Joy City (Floors 1 and 2, as Test-bed 2), and results show that SEC clustering algorithm can improve system positioning accuracy by about 32.7% for Test-bed 1, 71.7% for Test-bed 2 Floor 1 and 73.7% for Test-bed 2 Floor 2 compared with traditional RSS-based clustering algorithms such as K-means.

  8. Coordinate-Based Clustering Method for Indoor Fingerprinting Localization in Dense Cluttered Environments

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Wen; Fu, Xiao; Deng, Zhongliang

    2016-01-01

    Indoor positioning technologies has boomed recently because of the growing commercial interest in indoor location-based service (ILBS). Due to the absence of satellite signal in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), various technologies have been proposed for indoor applications. Among them, Wi-Fi fingerprinting has been attracting much interest from researchers because of its pervasive deployment, flexibility and robustness to dense cluttered indoor environments. One challenge, however, is the deployment of Access Points (AP), which would bring a significant influence on the system positioning accuracy. This paper concentrates on WLAN based fingerprinting indoor location by analyzing the AP deployment influence, and studying the advantages of coordinate-based clustering compared to traditional RSS-based clustering. A coordinate-based clustering method for indoor fingerprinting location, named Smallest-Enclosing-Circle-based (SEC), is then proposed aiming at reducing the positioning error lying in the AP deployment and improving robustness to dense cluttered environments. All measurements are conducted in indoor public areas, such as the National Center For the Performing Arts (as Test-bed 1) and the XiDan Joy City (Floors 1 and 2, as Test-bed 2), and results show that SEC clustering algorithm can improve system positioning accuracy by about 32.7% for Test-bed 1, 71.7% for Test-bed 2 Floor 1 and 73.7% for Test-bed 2 Floor 2 compared with traditional RSS-based clustering algorithms such as K-means. PMID:27918454

  9. Job Briefs. Career Education Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dependents Schools (DOD), Washington, DC. European Area.

    The document contains 288 one-page job descriptions based on 1973 information for the following 11 career clusters: automotive technology, business/clerical/sales, computer technology, electricity/electronics, graphic communications, health/cosmetology, agriculture/conservation, artistic/literary/music, mechanical/transportation/construction,…

  10. NETL Research Technology

    ScienceCinema

    None

    2018-01-16

    NETL is committed to providing its researchers with the latest scientific equipment. This video highlights three technologies: the Beowulf Cluster supercomputer, the OASIS Surface Analytical and Imaging System, and the gas chromatograph-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer, or GC-ICP-MS.

  11. Building a Successful Technology Cluster

    EPA Science Inventory

    Silicon Valley is the iconic cluster—a dense regional network of companies, universities, research institutions, and other stakeholders involved in a single industry. Many regions have sought to replicate the success of Silicon Valley, which has produced technological innov...

  12. Longitudinal Study of Career Cluster Persistence from 8th Grade to 12th Grade with a Focus on the Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math Career Cluster

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wagner, Judson

    Today's technology driven global economy has put pressure on the American education system to produce more students who are prepared for careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Adding to this pressure is the demand for a more diverse workforce that can stimulate the development of new ideas and innovation. This in turn requires more female and under represented minority groups to pursue future careers in STEM. Though STEM careers include many of the highest paid professionals, school systems are dealing with exceptionally high numbers of students, especially female and under represented minorities, who begin but do not persist to STEM degree completion. Using the Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) framework that attributes student motivation to a combination of intrinsic, utility, and attainment values, this study analyzed readily available survey data to gauge students' career related values. These values were indirectly investigated through a longitudinal approach, spanning five years, on the predictive nature of 8 th grade survey-derived recommendations for students to pursue a future in a particular career cluster. Using logistic regression analysis, it was determined that this 8 th grade data, particularly in STEM, provides significantly high probabilities of a 12th grader's average grade, SAT-Math score, the math and science elective courses they take, and most importantly, interest in the same career cluster.

  13. A taxonomy of epithelial human cancer and their metastases

    PubMed Central

    2009-01-01

    Background Microarray technology has allowed to molecularly characterize many different cancer sites. This technology has the potential to individualize therapy and to discover new drug targets. However, due to technological differences and issues in standardized sample collection no study has evaluated the molecular profile of epithelial human cancer in a large number of samples and tissues. Additionally, it has not yet been extensively investigated whether metastases resemble their tissue of origin or tissue of destination. Methods We studied the expression profiles of a series of 1566 primary and 178 metastases by unsupervised hierarchical clustering. The clustering profile was subsequently investigated and correlated with clinico-pathological data. Statistical enrichment of clinico-pathological annotations of groups of samples was investigated using Fisher exact test. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and DAVID functional enrichment analysis were used to investigate the molecular pathways. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank tests were used to investigate prognostic significance of gene signatures. Results Large clusters corresponding to breast, gastrointestinal, ovarian and kidney primary tissues emerged from the data. Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma clustered together with follicular differentiated thyroid carcinoma, which supports recent morphological descriptions of thyroid follicular carcinoma-like tumors in the kidney and suggests that they represent a subtype of chromophobe carcinoma. We also found an expression signature identifying primary tumors of squamous cell histology in multiple tissues. Next, a subset of ovarian tumors enriched with endometrioid histology clustered together with endometrium tumors, confirming that they share their etiopathogenesis, which strongly differs from serous ovarian tumors. In addition, the clustering of colon and breast tumors correlated with clinico-pathological characteristics. Moreover, a signature was developed based on our unsupervised clustering of breast tumors and this was predictive for disease-specific survival in three independent studies. Next, the metastases from ovarian, breast, lung and vulva cluster with their tissue of origin while metastases from colon showed a bimodal distribution. A significant part clusters with tissue of origin while the remaining tumors cluster with the tissue of destination. Conclusion Our molecular taxonomy of epithelial human cancer indicates surprising correlations over tissues. This may have a significant impact on the classification of many cancer sites and may guide pathologists, both in research and daily practice. Moreover, these results based on unsupervised analysis yielded a signature predictive of clinical outcome in breast cancer. Additionally, we hypothesize that metastases from gastrointestinal origin either remember their tissue of origin or adapt to the tissue of destination. More specifically, colon metastases in the liver show strong evidence for such a bimodal tissue specific profile. PMID:20017941

  14. The Need for an Effective Collaboration across Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) Fields for a Meaningful Technological Development in Nigeria

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Haruna, Umar Ibrahim

    2015-01-01

    Collaboration plays a major role in interdisciplinary activities among Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) disciplines or fields. It also affects the relationships among cluster members on the management team. Although effective collaboration does not guarantee success among STEM disciplines, its absence usually assures…

  15. Further Structural Intelligence for Sensors Cluster Technology in Manufacturing

    PubMed Central

    Mekid, Samir

    2006-01-01

    With the ever increasing complex sensing and actuating tasks in manufacturing plants, intelligent sensors cluster in hybrid networks becomes a rapidly expanding area. They play a dominant role in many fields from macro and micro scale. Global object control and the ability to self organize into fault-tolerant and scalable systems are expected for high level applications. In this paper, new structural concepts of intelligent sensors and networks with new intelligent agents are presented. Embedding new functionalities to dynamically manage cooperative agents for autonomous machines are interesting key enabling technologies most required in manufacturing for zero defects production.

  16. Comprehensive Biothreat Cluster Identification by PCR/Electrospray-Ionization Mass Spectrometry

    PubMed Central

    Sampath, Rangarajan; Mulholland, Niveen; Blyn, Lawrence B.; Massire, Christian; Whitehouse, Chris A.; Waybright, Nicole; Harter, Courtney; Bogan, Joseph; Miranda, Mary Sue; Smith, David; Baldwin, Carson; Wolcott, Mark; Norwood, David; Kreft, Rachael; Frinder, Mark; Lovari, Robert; Yasuda, Irene; Matthews, Heather; Toleno, Donna; Housley, Roberta; Duncan, David; Li, Feng; Warren, Robin; Eshoo, Mark W.; Hall, Thomas A.; Hofstadler, Steven A.; Ecker, David J.

    2012-01-01

    Technology for comprehensive identification of biothreats in environmental and clinical specimens is needed to protect citizens in the case of a biological attack. This is a challenge because there are dozens of bacterial and viral species that might be used in a biological attack and many have closely related near-neighbor organisms that are harmless. The biothreat agent, along with its near neighbors, can be thought of as a biothreat cluster or a biocluster for short. The ability to comprehensively detect the important biothreat clusters with resolution sufficient to distinguish the near neighbors with an extremely low false positive rate is required. A technological solution to this problem can be achieved by coupling biothreat group-specific PCR with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (PCR/ESI-MS). The biothreat assay described here detects ten bacterial and four viral biothreat clusters on the NIAID priority pathogen and HHS/USDA select agent lists. Detection of each of the biothreat clusters was validated by analysis of a broad collection of biothreat organisms and near neighbors prepared by spiking biothreat nucleic acids into nucleic acids extracted from filtered environmental air. Analytical experiments were carried out to determine breadth of coverage, limits of detection, linearity, sensitivity, and specificity. Further, the assay breadth was demonstrated by testing a diverse collection of organisms from each biothreat cluster. The biothreat assay as configured was able to detect all the target organism clusters and did not misidentify any of the near-neighbor organisms as threats. Coupling biothreat cluster-specific PCR to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry simultaneously provides the breadth of coverage, discrimination of near neighbors, and an extremely low false positive rate due to the requirement that an amplicon with a precise base composition of a biothreat agent be detected by mass spectrometry. PMID:22768032

  17. Tech-Prep Competency Profiles within the Health Technologies Cluster.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document contains competency profiles for Ohio tech prep courses in the following 12 health technologies occupations: radiographer, respiratory care therapist, occupational therapy assistant, physical therapist assistant, registered nurse (associate degree), pharmacy technologist, medical laboratory technician, histotechnologist, emergency…

  18. Career and Technical Education as Pathways: Factors Influencing Postcollege Earnings of Selected Career Clusters

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Compton, Jonathan I.; Laanan, Frankie Santos; Starobin, Soko S.

    2010-01-01

    This study investigated the relationship between student characteristics such as gender, race/ethnicity, program of study, degree completion, and earnings outcomes for students enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) programs within the business, information technology (IT), and marketing career clusters in community colleges to determine…

  19. Plug cluster engine concept for in-space missions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Obrien, C. J.; Aukerman, C. A.

    1979-01-01

    The development of a suitable orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) engine is discussed. The OTV's dimensions are limited by those of the Space Shuttle payload bay on which it will be carried. An approach to utilize the available diameter to achieve high area ratio and thus high engine performance, is presented. Unconventional nozzles, such as clusters of small thrusters around a large diameter contoured plug, are investigated to arrive at engine designs which feature lower chamber pressures, with attendant lower heat flux, lower wall temperature, longer fatigue life, and less critical turbomachinery. Attention is also given to plug nozzle technology, high area ratio module- and scarfed bell- Plug Cluster Engine (PCE) concepts, as well as PCE performance, weight, and assessment. A conceptual design of a PCE formed from a cluster of high area ratio, scarfed, bell nozzles proved to be competitive with bell and spike nozzle engines. PCE advantages cited include increased payload length due to shorter engine length, ability to increase or decrease the number of modules and thereby the thrust, and low cost due to utilization of off-the-shelf technology.

  20. A New Way of Thinking about Technology: An Interview with Futurists Joel Barker and Scott Erickson

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morrison, James L.; Barker, Joel; Erickson, Scott

    2006-01-01

    Editor-in-chief James Morrison interviews Joel Barker and Scott Erickson, co-authors of the book "Five Regions of the Future: A New Way to Think about Technology". In their book, the authors propose an ecological model that classifies technology according to different clusters or regions, each of which entails its own perspective of technology and…

  1. Industrial Arts Performance Objectives, 1976. Four Clusters: Construction Technology, Graphic Communication Technology, Manufacturing Technology, Power and Energy Technology.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    1976

    This compilation of objectives was prepared by 35 industrial education teachers in the state of Michigan. It is indicated that these performance objectives should not be viewed as complete course objectives but rather as a listing of objectives which can be used where appropriate. After an introductory section, providing a general outline of a…

  2. Waste disposal technology transfer matching requirement clusters for waste disposal facilities in China.

    PubMed

    Dorn, Thomas; Nelles, Michael; Flamme, Sabine; Jinming, Cai

    2012-11-01

    Even though technology transfer has been part of development aid programmes for many decades, it has more often than not failed to come to fruition. One reason is the absence of simple guidelines or decision making tools that help operators or plant owners to decide on the most suitable technology to adopt. Practical suggestions for choosing the most suitable technology to combat a specific problem are hard to get and technology drawbacks are not sufficiently highlighted. Western counterparts in technology transfer or development projects often underestimate or don't sufficiently account for the high investment costs for the imported incineration plant; the differing nature of Chinese MSW; the need for trained manpower; and the need to treat flue gas, bunker leakage water, and ash, all of which contain highly toxic elements. This article sets out requirements for municipal solid waste disposal plant owner/operators in China as well as giving an attribute assessment for the prevalent waste disposal plant types in order to assist individual decision makers in their evaluation process for what plant type might be most suitable in a given situation. There is no 'best' plant for all needs and purposes, and requirement constellations rely on generalisations meaning they cannot be blindly applied, but an alignment of a type of plant to a type of owner or operator can realistically be achieved. To this end, a four-step approach is suggested and a technology matrix is set out to ease the choice of technology to transfer and avoid past errors. The four steps are (1) Identification of plant owner/operator requirement clusters; (2) Determination of different municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment plant attributes; (3) Development of a matrix matching requirement clusters to plant attributes; (4) Application of Quality Function Deployment Method to aid in technology localisation. The technology transfer matrices thus derived show significant performance differences between the various technologies available. It is hoped that the resulting research can build a bridge between technology transfer research and waste disposal research in order to enhance the exchange of more sustainable solutions in future. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. E-learning or educational leaflet: does it make a difference in oral health promotion? A clustered randomized trial.

    PubMed

    Al Bardaweel, Susan; Dashash, Mayssoon

    2018-05-10

    The early recognition of technology together with great ability to use computers and smart systems have promoted researchers to investigate the possibilities of utilizing technology for improving health care in children. The aim of this study was to compare between the traditional educational leaflets and E-applications in improving oral health knowledge, oral hygiene and gingival health in schoolchildren of Damascus city, Syria. A clustered randomized controlled trial at two public primary schools was performed. About 220 schoolchildren aged 10-11 years were included in this study and grouped into two clusters. Children in Leaflet cluster received oral health education through leaflets, while children in E-learning cluster received oral health education through an E-learning program. A questionnaire was designed to register information related to oral health knowledge and to record Plaque and Gingival indices. Questionnaire administration and clinical assessment were undertaken at baseline, 6 and at 12 weeks of oral health education. Data was analysed using one way repeated measures ANOVA, post hoc Bonferroni test and independent samples t-test. Leaflet cluster (107 participants) had statistically significant better oral health knowledge than E-learning cluster (104 participants) at 6 weeks (P < 0.05) and at 12 weeks (P < 0.05) (Leaflet cluster:100 participants, E-learning cluster:100 participants). The mean knowledge gain compared to baseline was higher in Leaflet cluster than in E-learning cluster. A significant reduction in the PI means at 6 weeks and 12 weeks was observed in both clusters (P < 0.05) when compared to baseline. Children in Leaflet cluster had significantly less plaque than those in E-learning cluster at 6 weeks (P < 0.05) and at 12 weeks (P < 0.05). Similarly, a significant reduction in the GI means at 6 weeks and 12 weeks was observed in both clusters when compared to baseline (P < 0.05). Children in Leaflet cluster had statistically significant better gingival health than E-learning cluster at 6 weeks (P < 0.05) and 12 weeks (P < 0.05). Traditional educational leaflets are an effective tool in the improvement of both oral health knowledge as well as clinical indices of oral hygiene and care among Syrian children. Leaflets can be used in school-based oral health education for a positive outcome. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ( ACTRN12618000395235 ), Date registered: 16/03/2018, retrospectively registered.

  4. An improved K-means clustering method for cDNA microarray image segmentation.

    PubMed

    Wang, T N; Li, T J; Shao, G F; Wu, S X

    2015-07-14

    Microarray technology is a powerful tool for human genetic research and other biomedical applications. Numerous improvements to the standard K-means algorithm have been carried out to complete the image segmentation step. However, most of the previous studies classify the image into two clusters. In this paper, we propose a novel K-means algorithm, which first classifies the image into three clusters, and then one of the three clusters is divided as the background region and the other two clusters, as the foreground region. The proposed method was evaluated on six different data sets. The analyses of accuracy, efficiency, expression values, special gene spots, and noise images demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in improving the segmentation quality.

  5. Fully convolutional network with cluster for semantic segmentation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ma, Xiao; Chen, Zhongbi; Zhang, Jianlin

    2018-04-01

    At present, image semantic segmentation technology has been an active research topic for scientists in the field of computer vision and artificial intelligence. Especially, the extensive research of deep neural network in image recognition greatly promotes the development of semantic segmentation. This paper puts forward a method based on fully convolutional network, by cluster algorithm k-means. The cluster algorithm using the image's low-level features and initializing the cluster centers by the super-pixel segmentation is proposed to correct the set of points with low reliability, which are mistakenly classified in great probability, by the set of points with high reliability in each clustering regions. This method refines the segmentation of the target contour and improves the accuracy of the image segmentation.

  6. Text mining to decipher free-response consumer complaints: insights from the NHTSA vehicle owner's complaint database.

    PubMed

    Ghazizadeh, Mahtab; McDonald, Anthony D; Lee, John D

    2014-09-01

    This study applies text mining to extract clusters of vehicle problems and associated trends from free-response data in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's vehicle owner's complaint database. As the automotive industry adopts new technologies, it is important to systematically assess the effect of these changes on traffic safety. Driving simulators, naturalistic driving data, and crash databases all contribute to a better understanding of how drivers respond to changing vehicle technology, but other approaches, such as automated analysis of incident reports, are needed. Free-response data from incidents representing two severity levels (fatal incidents and incidents involving injury) were analyzed using a text mining approach: latent semantic analysis (LSA). LSA and hierarchical clustering identified clusters of complaints for each severity level, which were compared and analyzed across time. Cluster analysis identified eight clusters of fatal incidents and six clusters of incidents involving injury. Comparisons showed that although the airbag clusters across the two severity levels have the same most frequent terms, the circumstances around the incidents differ. The time trends show clear increases in complaints surrounding the Ford/Firestone tire recall and the Toyota unintended acceleration recall. Increases in complaints may be partially driven by these recall announcements and the associated media attention. Text mining can reveal useful information from free-response databases that would otherwise be prohibitively time-consuming and difficult to summarize manually. Text mining can extend human analysis capabilities for large free-response databases to support earlier detection of problems and more timely safety interventions.

  7. On the modification Highly Connected Subgraphs (HCS) algorithm in graph clustering for weighted graph

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Albirri, E. R.; Sugeng, K. A.; Aldila, D.

    2018-04-01

    Nowadays, in the modern world, since technology and human civilization start to progress, all city in the world is almost connected. The various places in this world are easier to visit. It is an impact of transportation technology and highway construction. The cities which have been connected can be represented by graph. Graph clustering is one of ways which is used to answer some problems represented by graph. There are some methods in graph clustering to solve the problem spesifically. One of them is Highly Connected Subgraphs (HCS) method. HCS is used to identify cluster based on the graph connectivity k for graph G. The connectivity in graph G is denoted by k(G)> \\frac{n}{2} that n is the total of vertices in G, then it is called as HCS or the cluster. This research used literature review and completed with simulation of program in a software. We modified HCS algorithm by using weighted graph. The modification is located in the Process Phase. Process Phase is used to cut the connected graph G into two subgraphs H and \\bar{H}. We also made a program by using software Octave-401. Then we applied the data of Flight Routes Mapping of One of Airlines in Indonesia to our program.

  8. Cloud computing and validation of expandable in silico livers

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background In Silico Livers (ISLs) are works in progress. They are used to challenge multilevel, multi-attribute, mechanistic hypotheses about the hepatic disposition of xenobiotics coupled with hepatic responses. To enhance ISL-to-liver mappings, we added discrete time metabolism, biliary elimination, and bolus dosing features to a previously validated ISL and initiated re-validated experiments that required scaling experiments to use more simulated lobules than previously, more than could be achieved using the local cluster technology. Rather than dramatically increasing the size of our local cluster we undertook the re-validation experiments using the Amazon EC2 cloud platform. So doing required demonstrating the efficacy of scaling a simulation to use more cluster nodes and assessing the scientific equivalence of local cluster validation experiments with those executed using the cloud platform. Results The local cluster technology was duplicated in the Amazon EC2 cloud platform. Synthetic modeling protocols were followed to identify a successful parameterization. Experiment sample sizes (number of simulated lobules) on both platforms were 49, 70, 84, and 152 (cloud only). Experimental indistinguishability was demonstrated for ISL outflow profiles of diltiazem using both platforms for experiments consisting of 84 or more samples. The process was analogous to demonstration of results equivalency from two different wet-labs. Conclusions The results provide additional evidence that disposition simulations using ISLs can cover the behavior space of liver experiments in distinct experimental contexts (there is in silico-to-wet-lab phenotype similarity). The scientific value of experimenting with multiscale biomedical models has been limited to research groups with access to computer clusters. The availability of cloud technology coupled with the evidence of scientific equivalency has lowered the barrier and will greatly facilitate model sharing as well as provide straightforward tools for scaling simulations to encompass greater detail with no extra investment in hardware. PMID:21129207

  9. Understanding 3D human torso shape via manifold clustering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Sheng; Li, Peng; Fu, Yun

    2013-05-01

    Discovering the variations in human torso shape plays a key role in many design-oriented applications, such as suit designing. With recent advances in 3D surface imaging technologies, people can obtain 3D human torso data that provide more information than traditional measurements. However, how to find different human shapes from 3D torso data is still an open problem. In this paper, we propose to use spectral clustering approach on torso manifold to address this problem. We first represent high-dimensional torso data in a low-dimensional space using manifold learning algorithm. Then the spectral clustering method is performed to get several disjoint clusters. Experimental results show that the clusters discovered by our approach can describe the discrepancies in both genders and human shapes, and our approach achieves better performance than the compared clustering method.

  10. An efficient and scalable graph modeling approach for capturing information at different levels in next generation sequencing reads

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Next generation sequencing technologies have greatly advanced many research areas of the biomedical sciences through their capability to generate massive amounts of genetic information at unprecedented rates. The advent of next generation sequencing has led to the development of numerous computational tools to analyze and assemble the millions to billions of short sequencing reads produced by these technologies. While these tools filled an important gap, current approaches for storing, processing, and analyzing short read datasets generally have remained simple and lack the complexity needed to efficiently model the produced reads and assemble them correctly. Results Previously, we presented an overlap graph coarsening scheme for modeling read overlap relationships on multiple levels. Most current read assembly and analysis approaches use a single graph or set of clusters to represent the relationships among a read dataset. Instead, we use a series of graphs to represent the reads and their overlap relationships across a spectrum of information granularity. At each information level our algorithm is capable of generating clusters of reads from the reduced graph, forming an integrated graph modeling and clustering approach for read analysis and assembly. Previously we applied our algorithm to simulated and real 454 datasets to assess its ability to efficiently model and cluster next generation sequencing data. In this paper we extend our algorithm to large simulated and real Illumina datasets to demonstrate that our algorithm is practical for both sequencing technologies. Conclusions Our overlap graph theoretic algorithm is able to model next generation sequencing reads at various levels of granularity through the process of graph coarsening. Additionally, our model allows for efficient representation of the read overlap relationships, is scalable for large datasets, and is practical for both Illumina and 454 sequencing technologies. PMID:24564333

  11. Engineering Technologies. State Competency Profile.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document contains 397 competencies, grouped into 58 units, for tech prep programs in the engineering technologies cluster. The competencies were developed through collaboration of Ohio business, industry, and labor representatives and secondary and associate degree educators. The competencies are rated either "essential" (necessary…

  12. How do Brazilian consumers perceive a non-traditional and innovative fruit juice? An approach looking at the packaging.

    PubMed

    Romano, Karen R; Rosenthal, Amauri; Deliza, Rosires

    2015-08-01

    Consumer interest in nutritious and innovative foods encourages the development of products based on raw materials with nutraceutical potential. The health benefits provided by pomegranate have been recognized; therefore, the development of pomegranate juice may match consumer expectations regarding this goal. However, the concept has to first be accepted by the consumer. The aim of the study was to utilize a rating based conjoint analysis to investigate how Brazilian consumers perceive pomegranate juice by identifying the role of packaging attributes relevant to the consumer's intention to purchase. Five factors were considered in the study: technology used in the juice production (high hydrostatic pressure - HHP - a technology that preserves nutritional and sensory properties), antioxidants, price, preservatives, and colorant. Eight hypothetical pomegranate juice packages were created following an incomplete block design and evaluated by 150 fruit juice consumers. Three clusters were identified. The average results revealed that antioxidants were the attribute of greatest relative importance to cluster 1 (RI: 36%), followed by HHP (RI: 25%) and colorants (14%). Consumers in cluster 2 considered price as the most important attribute (RI: 41%), followed by antioxidants (RI: 21%) and HHP (RI: 18%). Cluster 3, as well as cluster 2, considered price the most important attribute (RI: 28%), followed by antioxidants (RI: 26%) and HHP (RI: 22%). The results showed that consumers valued information on the health benefits of antioxidants as well as on the technology, suggesting that both types of information may be relevant tools to increase the intention to purchase the product. The application of HHP for pomegranate juice processing was positively perceived by consumers, suggesting a potential commercial application in the Brazilian industry. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Regional Technology Assets and Opportunities: The Geographic Clustering of High-Tech Industry, Science and Innovation in Appalachia.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Feser, Edward; Goldstein, Harvey; Renski, Henry; Renault, Catherine

    A study identified 100 sub-regional concentrations of technology-related employment, research and development, and applied innovation within and immediately adjacent to the 406-county service area of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). Among the findings are that Appalachia's technology sector is comparatively small but expanding, with most…

  14. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Forestry Technology (Program CIP: 03.0401--Forest Harvesting and Production Technology). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for the course sequences in the forestry technology program cluster. Presented in the introductory section are a description of the program and suggested course sequence. Section I lists baseline competencies for the…

  15. Insights into Industry and Technology. Curriculum Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    North Dakota State Board for Vocational Education, Bismarck.

    One of a set of six guides for an industrial arts curriculum at the junior high school level, this guide provides the basic foundation to develop a one-semester course based on the following cluster concept: insights into industry and technology. An overview of industry and technology is provided to serve as an integrator or unifier of industry…

  16. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Civil Technology (Program CIP: 15.0201--Civil Engineering/Civil Technology). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for the course sequences in the civil technology programs cluster. Presented in the introductory section are a description of the program and suggested course sequence. Section I lists baseline competencies, and section…

  17. Applying the Anderson-Darling test to suicide clusters: evidence of contagion at U. S. universities?

    PubMed

    MacKenzie, Donald W

    2013-01-01

    Suicide clusters at Cornell University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) prompted popular and expert speculation of suicide contagion. However, some clustering is to be expected in any random process. This work tested whether suicide clusters at these two universities differed significantly from those expected under a homogeneous Poisson process, in which suicides occur randomly and independently of one another. Suicide dates were collected for MIT and Cornell for 1990-2012. The Anderson-Darling statistic was used to test the goodness-of-fit of the intervals between suicides to distribution expected under the Poisson process. Suicides at MIT were consistent with the homogeneous Poisson process, while those at Cornell showed clustering inconsistent with such a process (p = .05). The Anderson-Darling test provides a statistically powerful means to identify suicide clustering in small samples. Practitioners can use this method to test for clustering in relevant communities. The difference in clustering behavior between the two institutions suggests that more institutions should be studied to determine the prevalence of suicide clustering in universities and its causes.

  18. Maryland Career Clusters: Restructuring Learning for Student Achievement in a Technologically Advanced, Global Society. Second Edition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maryland State Department of Education, 2006

    2006-01-01

    Maryland Career Clusters are a resource for high schools as they reorganize into smaller learning communities. Instruction is organized around career themes, providing more students the opportunity to explore career choices while still in high school and enroll in pathway programs that enable them to successfully transition from high school to…

  19. HLM in Cluster-Randomised Trials--Measuring Efficacy across Diverse Populations of Learners

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hegedus, Stephen; Tapper, John; Dalton, Sara; Sloane, Finbarr

    2013-01-01

    We describe the application of Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) in a cluster-randomised study to examine learning algebraic concepts and procedures in an innovative, technology-rich environment in the US. HLM is applied to measure the impact of such treatment on learning and on contextual variables. We provide a detailed description of such…

  20. Integrating IS Curriculum Knowledge through a Cluster-Computing Project--A Successful Experiment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kitchens, Fred L.; Sharma, Sushil K.; Harris, Thomas

    2004-01-01

    MIS curricula in business schools are challenged to provide MIS courses that give students a strong practical understanding of the basic technologies, while also providing enough hands-on experience to solve real life problems. As an experimental capstone MIS course, the authors developed a cluster-computing project to expose business students to…

  1. Interactive Media Technologies. State Competency Profile.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document contains 143 competencies, grouped into 25 units, for tech prep programs in the interactive media technologies cluster. The competencies were developed through collaboration of Ohio business, industry, and labor representatives and secondary and associate degree educators. The competencies are rated either "essential"…

  2. Business/Computer Technologies. State Competency Profile.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document contains 272 competencies, grouped into 36 units, for tech prep programs in the business/computer technology cluster. The competencies were developed through collaboration of Ohio business, industry, and labor representatives and secondary and associate degree educators. The competencies are rated either "essential"…

  3. Ohio Information Technology Competency Profile.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Dept. of Education, Columbus.

    This profile includes a comprehensive set of information technology competencies that are grounded in core academic subject areas and built around four occupational clusters (information services and support, network systems, programming and software development, and interactive media) that reflect the job opportunities and skills required for…

  4. A comprehensive evaluation of the impact of telemonitoring in patients with long-term conditions and social care needs: protocol for the whole systems demonstrator cluster randomised trial

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background It is expected that increased demands on services will result from expanding numbers of older people with long-term conditions and social care needs. There is significant interest in the potential for technology to reduce utilisation of health services in these patient populations, including telecare (the remote, automatic and passive monitoring of changes in an individual's condition or lifestyle) and telehealth (the remote exchange of data between a patient and health care professional). The potential of telehealth and telecare technology to improve care and reduce costs is limited by a lack of rigorous evidence of actual impact. Methods/Design We are conducting a large scale, multi-site study of the implementation, impact and acceptability of these new technologies. A major part of the evaluation is a cluster-randomised controlled trial of telehealth and telecare versus usual care in patients with long-term conditions or social care needs. The trial involves a number of outcomes, including health care utilisation and quality of life. We describe the broad evaluation and the methods of the cluster randomised trial Discussion If telehealth and telecare technology proves effective, it will provide additional options for health services worldwide to deliver care for populations with high levels of need. Trial Registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN43002091 PMID:21819569

  5. Microwave Heating of Metal Power Clusters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rybakov, K. I.; Semenov, V. E.; Volkovskaya, I. I.

    2018-01-01

    The results of simulating the rapid microwave heating of spherical clusters of metal particles to the melting point are reported. In the simulation, the cluster is subjected to a plane electromagnetic wave. The cluster size is comparable to the wavelength; the perturbations of the field inside the cluster are accounted for within an effective medium approximation. It is shown that the time of heating in vacuum to the melting point does not exceed 1 s when the electric field strength in the incident wave is about 2 kV/cm at a frequency of 24 GHz or 5 kV/cm at a frequency of 2.45 GHz. The obtained results demonstrate feasibility of using rapid microwave heating for the spheroidization of metal particles with an objective to produce high-quality powders for additive manufacturing technologies.

  6. Unconventional nozzle tradeoff study. [space tug propulsion

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Obrien, C. J.

    1979-01-01

    Plug cluster engine design, performance, weight, envelope, operational characteristics, development cost, and payload capability, were evaluated and comparisons were made with other space tug engine candidates using oxygen/hydrogen propellants. Parametric performance data were generated for existing developed or high technology thrust chambers clustered around a plug nozzle of very large diameter. The uncertainties in the performance prediction of plug cluster engines with large gaps between the modules (thrust chambers) were evaluated. The major uncertainty involves, the aerodynamics of the flow from discrete nozzles, and the lack of this flow to achieve the pressure ratio corresponding to the defined area ratio for a plug cluster. This uncertainty was reduced through a cluster design that consists of a plug contour that is formed from the cluster of high area ratio bell nozzles that have been scarfed. Light-weight, high area ratio, bell nozzles were achieved through the use of AGCarb (carbon-carbon cloth) nozzle extensions.

  7. [Advances in application of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated 9 system in stem cells research].

    PubMed

    Sun, S J; Huo, J H; Geng, Z J; Sun, X Y; Fu, X B

    2018-04-20

    Gene engineering has attracted worldwide attention because of its ability of precise location of disease mutations in genome. As a new gene editing technology, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated 9 (Cas9) system is simple, fast, and accurate to operate at a specific gene site. It overcomes the long-standing problem of conventional operation. At the same time, stem cells are a good foundation for establishing disease model in vitro. Therefore, it has great significance to combine stem cells with the rapidly developing gene manipulation techniques. In this review, we mainly focus on the mechanism of CRISPR/Cas9 technology and its application in stem cell genomic editing, so as to pave the way for promoting rapid application and development of CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

  8. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Emergency Medical Technology--Basic (Program CIP: 51.0904). Emergency Medical Technology--Paramedic (Program CIP: 51.0904). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for the course sequences in the emergency medical technology (EMT) programs cluster. Presented in the introductory section are a description of the program and suggested course sequence. Section I lists baseline…

  9. Predictors of Cyberloafing among Preservice Information Technology Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dursun, Ozcan Ozgur; Donmez, Onur; Akbulut, Yavuz

    2018-01-01

    The current mixed-method study investigated the extent of involvement in cyberloafing within classroom settings among preservice information technology teachers. Thirteen state universities were picked randomly from hierarchical clusters, which were determined according to the national university rankings. Then, a recent five-factor cyberloafing…

  10. Approaches to Identifying the Emerging Innovative Water Technology Industry in the United States

    PubMed Central

    WOOD, ALLISON R.; HARTEN, TERESA; GUTIERREZ, SALLY C.

    2018-01-01

    Clean water is vital to sustaining our natural environment, human health, and our economy. As infrastructure continues to deteriorate and water resources become increasingly threatened, new technologies will be needed to ensure safe and sustainable water in the future. Though the US water industry accounts for approximately 1% gross domestic product and regional “clusters” for water technology exist throughout the country, this emerging industry has not been captured by recent studies. As use of the term “cluster” becomes more prevalent, regional mapping efforts have revealed international differences in definition yet showcase this industry’s economic impact. In reality, institutional processes may inhibit altering industry coding to better describe water technology. Forgoing the benefits of national economic tracking, alternative data sets are available, which may support new ways of identifying these clusters. This work provides cluster definitions; summarizes current approaches to identifying industry activity using data, interviews, and literature; and sets a foundation for future research. PMID:29937546

  11. Security and Correctness Analysis on Privacy-Preserving k-Means Clustering Schemes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Chunhua; Bao, Feng; Zhou, Jianying; Takagi, Tsuyoshi; Sakurai, Kouichi

    Due to the fast development of Internet and the related IT technologies, it becomes more and more easier to access a large amount of data. k-means clustering is a powerful and frequently used technique in data mining. Many research papers about privacy-preserving k-means clustering were published. In this paper, we analyze the existing privacy-preserving k-means clustering schemes based on the cryptographic techniques. We show those schemes will cause the privacy breach and cannot output the correct results due to the faults in the protocol construction. Furthermore, we analyze our proposal as an option to improve such problems but with intermediate information breach during the computation.

  12. OCCAM: a flexible, multi-purpose and extendable HPC cluster

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aldinucci, M.; Bagnasco, S.; Lusso, S.; Pasteris, P.; Rabellino, S.; Vallero, S.

    2017-10-01

    The Open Computing Cluster for Advanced data Manipulation (OCCAM) is a multipurpose flexible HPC cluster designed and operated by a collaboration between the University of Torino and the Sezione di Torino of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare. It is aimed at providing a flexible, reconfigurable and extendable infrastructure to cater to a wide range of different scientific computing use cases, including ones from solid-state chemistry, high-energy physics, computer science, big data analytics, computational biology, genomics and many others. Furthermore, it will serve as a platform for R&D activities on computational technologies themselves, with topics ranging from GPU acceleration to Cloud Computing technologies. A heterogeneous and reconfigurable system like this poses a number of challenges related to the frequency at which heterogeneous hardware resources might change their availability and shareability status, which in turn affect methods and means to allocate, manage, optimize, bill, monitor VMs, containers, virtual farms, jobs, interactive bare-metal sessions, etc. This work describes some of the use cases that prompted the design and construction of the HPC cluster, its architecture and resource provisioning model, along with a first characterization of its performance by some synthetic benchmark tools and a few realistic use-case tests.

  13. Atomically manufactured nickel-silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Jian-Yih; Fisher, Brandon L.; Guisinger, Nathan P.; Lilley, Carmen M.

    2017-12-01

    Providing a spin-free host material in the development of quantum information technology has made silicon a very interesting and desirable material for qubit design. Much of the work and experimental progress has focused on isolated phosphorous atoms. In this article, we report on the exploration of Ni-Si clusters that are atomically manufactured via self-assembly from the bottom-up and behave as isolated quantum dots. These small quantum dot structures are probed at the atomic-scale with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, revealing robust resonance through discrete quantized energy levels within the Ni-Si clusters. The resonance energy is reproducible and the peak spacing of the quantum dot structures increases as the number of atoms in the cluster decrease. Probing these quantum dot structures on degenerately doped silicon results in the observation of negative differential resistance in both I-V and dI/dV spectra. At higher surface coverage of nickel, a well-known √19 surface modification is observed and is essentially a tightly packed array of the clusters. Spatial conductance maps reveal variations in the local density of states that suggest the clusters are influencing the electronic properties of their neighbors. All of these results are extremely encouraging towards the utilization of metal modified silicon surfaces to advance or complement existing quantum information technology.

  14. Atomically manufactured nickel–silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance

    DOE PAGES

    Cheng, Jian -Yih; Fisher, Brandon L.; Guisinger, Nathan P.; ...

    2017-05-22

    Providing a spin-free host material in the development of quantum information technology has made silicon a very interesting and desirable material for qubit design. Much of the work and experimental progress has focused on isolated phosphorous atoms. In this article, we report on the exploration of Ni–Si clusters that are atomically manufactured via self-assembly from the bottom-up and behave as isolated quantum dots. These small quantum dot structures are probed at the atomic-scale with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, revealing robust resonance through discrete quantized energy levels within the Ni–Si clusters. The resonance energy is reproducible and the peak spacingmore » of the quantum dot structures increases as the number of atoms in the cluster decrease. Probing these quantum dot structures on degenerately doped silicon results in the observation of negative differential resistance in both I–V and dI/dV spectra. At higher surface coverage of nickel, a well-known √19 surface modification is observed and is essentially a tightly packed array of the clusters. Spatial conductance maps reveal variations in the local density of states that suggest the clusters are influencing the electronic properties of their neighbors. Furthermore, all of these results are extremely encouraging towards the utilization of metal modified silicon surfaces to advance or complement existing quantum information technology.« less

  15. Atomically manufactured nickel–silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Cheng, Jian -Yih; Fisher, Brandon L.; Guisinger, Nathan P.

    Providing a spin-free host material in the development of quantum information technology has made silicon a very interesting and desirable material for qubit design. Much of the work and experimental progress has focused on isolated phosphorous atoms. In this article, we report on the exploration of Ni–Si clusters that are atomically manufactured via self-assembly from the bottom-up and behave as isolated quantum dots. These small quantum dot structures are probed at the atomic-scale with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, revealing robust resonance through discrete quantized energy levels within the Ni–Si clusters. The resonance energy is reproducible and the peak spacingmore » of the quantum dot structures increases as the number of atoms in the cluster decrease. Probing these quantum dot structures on degenerately doped silicon results in the observation of negative differential resistance in both I–V and dI/dV spectra. At higher surface coverage of nickel, a well-known √19 surface modification is observed and is essentially a tightly packed array of the clusters. Spatial conductance maps reveal variations in the local density of states that suggest the clusters are influencing the electronic properties of their neighbors. Furthermore, all of these results are extremely encouraging towards the utilization of metal modified silicon surfaces to advance or complement existing quantum information technology.« less

  16. Cluster Stability Estimation Based on a Minimal Spanning Trees Approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Volkovich, Zeev (Vladimir); Barzily, Zeev; Weber, Gerhard-Wilhelm; Toledano-Kitai, Dvora

    2009-08-01

    Among the areas of data and text mining which are employed today in science, economy and technology, clustering theory serves as a preprocessing step in the data analyzing. However, there are many open questions still waiting for a theoretical and practical treatment, e.g., the problem of determining the true number of clusters has not been satisfactorily solved. In the current paper, this problem is addressed by the cluster stability approach. For several possible numbers of clusters we estimate the stability of partitions obtained from clustering of samples. Partitions are considered consistent if their clusters are stable. Clusters validity is measured as the total number of edges, in the clusters' minimal spanning trees, connecting points from different samples. Actually, we use the Friedman and Rafsky two sample test statistic. The homogeneity hypothesis, of well mingled samples within the clusters, leads to asymptotic normal distribution of the considered statistic. Resting upon this fact, the standard score of the mentioned edges quantity is set, and the partition quality is represented by the worst cluster corresponding to the minimal standard score value. It is natural to expect that the true number of clusters can be characterized by the empirical distribution having the shortest left tail. The proposed methodology sequentially creates the described value distribution and estimates its left-asymmetry. Numerical experiments, presented in the paper, demonstrate the ability of the approach to detect the true number of clusters.

  17. Facilitating Collaboration across Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) Fields in Program Development

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ejiwale, James A.

    2014-01-01

    Collaboration plays a major role in interdisciplinary activities among Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) disciplines or fields. It also affects the relationships among cluster members on the management team. Although effective collaboration does not guarantee success among STEM disciplines, its absence usually assures…

  18. Health Technologies State Tech Prep Competency Profile.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This "tech prep" state competency profile contains all the competencies required and recommended for entry-level employees in occupations in the health technologies cluster. Introductory materials include the following: descriptions of the different types of competencies (essential ones that must be included in all new tech prep programs…

  19. Improving local clustering based top-L link prediction methods via asymmetric link clustering information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Zhihao; Lin, Youfang; Zhao, Yiji; Yan, Hongyan

    2018-02-01

    Networks can represent a wide range of complex systems, such as social, biological and technological systems. Link prediction is one of the most important problems in network analysis, and has attracted much research interest recently. Many link prediction methods have been proposed to solve this problem with various techniques. We can note that clustering information plays an important role in solving the link prediction problem. In previous literatures, we find node clustering coefficient appears frequently in many link prediction methods. However, node clustering coefficient is limited to describe the role of a common-neighbor in different local networks, because it cannot distinguish different clustering abilities of a node to different node pairs. In this paper, we shift our focus from nodes to links, and propose the concept of asymmetric link clustering (ALC) coefficient. Further, we improve three node clustering based link prediction methods via the concept of ALC. The experimental results demonstrate that ALC-based methods outperform node clustering based methods, especially achieving remarkable improvements on food web, hamster friendship and Internet networks. Besides, comparing with other methods, the performance of ALC-based methods are very stable in both globalized and personalized top-L link prediction tasks.

  20. Atomically precise (catalytic) particles synthesized by a novel cluster deposition instrument

    DOE PAGES

    Yin, C.; Tyo, E.; Kuchta, K.; ...

    2014-05-06

    Here, we report a new high vacuum instrument which is dedicated to the preparation of well-defined clusters supported on model and technologically relevant supports for catalytic and materials investigations. The instrument is based on deposition of size selected metallic cluster ions that are produced by a high flux magnetron cluster source. Furthermore, we maximize the throughput of the apparatus by collecting and focusing ions utilizing a conical octupole ion guide and a linear ion guide. The size selection is achieved by a quadrupole mass filter. The new design of the sample holder provides for the preparation of multiple samples onmore » supports of various sizes and shapes in one session. After cluster deposition onto the support of interest, samples will be taken out of the chamber for a variety of testing and characterization.« less

  1. Multicolor CCD photometry of the open cluster NGC 752

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bartašiūtė, Stanislava; Janusz, Robert; Boyle, Richard P.; Philip, A. G. Davis; Deveikis, Viktoras

    2010-01-01

    We obtained CCD observations of the open cluster NGC 752 with the 1.8m Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (Mt. Graham, Arizona) with a 4K CCD camera and eight intermediate-band filters of the Stromvil (Strömgren + Vilnius) system. Four 12‧ × 12‧ fields were observed, covering the central part of the cluster. The good-quality multicolor data made it possible to obtain precise estimates of distance moduli, metallicity and foreground reddening for individual stars down to the limiting magnitude, V = 17.5, enabling photometric identification of faint cluster members. The new observations provide an extension of the lower main sequence to three magnitudes beyond the previous (photographic) limit. A relatively small number of photometric members identified at fainter magnitudes seems to be indicative of actual dissolution of the cluster from the low-mass end.

  2. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Computer Information Systems Technology. Computer Information Systems Technology (Program CIP: 52.1201--Management Information Systems & Business Data). Computer Programming (Program CIP: 52.1201). Network Support (Program CIP: 52.1290--Computer Network Support Technology). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for two programs in the state's postsecondary-level computer information systems technology cluster: computer programming and network support. Presented in the introduction are program descriptions and suggested course…

  3. Drug Discovery Prospect from Untapped Species: Indications from Approved Natural Product Drugs

    PubMed Central

    Qin, Chu; Tao, Lin; Liu, Xin; Shi, Zhe; Zhang, Cun Long; Tan, Chun Yan; Chen, Yu Zong; Jiang, Yu Yang

    2012-01-01

    Due to extensive bioprospecting efforts of the past and technology factors, there have been questions about drug discovery prospect from untapped species. We analyzed recent trends of approved drugs derived from previously untapped species, which show no sign of untapped drug-productive species being near extinction and suggest high probability of deriving new drugs from new species in existing drug-productive species families and clusters. Case histories of recently approved drugs reveal useful strategies for deriving new drugs from the scaffolds and pharmacophores of the natural product leads of these untapped species. New technologies such as cryptic gene-cluster exploration may generate novel natural products with highly anticipated potential impact on drug discovery. PMID:22808057

  4. South Carolina Guide for Industrial Technology Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    South Carolina State Dept. of Education, Columbia. Office of Occupational Education.

    This guide is intended for teachers conducting industrial technology education (TE) courses in South Carolina. Presented first is introductory information about the mission, clusters and units, and recommended educational format of TE in South Carolina. Discussed in the seven sections are various aspects of South Carolina's modular delivery system…

  5. Spot detection and image segmentation in DNA microarray data.

    PubMed

    Qin, Li; Rueda, Luis; Ali, Adnan; Ngom, Alioune

    2005-01-01

    Following the invention of microarrays in 1994, the development and applications of this technology have grown exponentially. The numerous applications of microarray technology include clinical diagnosis and treatment, drug design and discovery, tumour detection, and environmental health research. One of the key issues in the experimental approaches utilising microarrays is to extract quantitative information from the spots, which represent genes in a given experiment. For this process, the initial stages are important and they influence future steps in the analysis. Identifying the spots and separating the background from the foreground is a fundamental problem in DNA microarray data analysis. In this review, we present an overview of state-of-the-art methods for microarray image segmentation. We discuss the foundations of the circle-shaped approach, adaptive shape segmentation, histogram-based methods and the recently introduced clustering-based techniques. We analytically show that clustering-based techniques are equivalent to the one-dimensional, standard k-means clustering algorithm that utilises the Euclidean distance.

  6. Data Mining Technologies Inspired from Visual Principle

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Zongben

    In this talk we review the recent work done by our group on data mining (DM) technologies deduced from simulating visual principle. Through viewing a DM problem as a cognition problems and treading a data set as an image with each light point located at a datum position, we developed a series of high efficient algorithms for clustering, classification and regression via mimicking visual principles. In pattern recognition, human eyes seem to possess a singular aptitude to group objects and find important structure in an efficient way. Thus, a DM algorithm simulating visual system may solve some basic problems in DM research. From this point of view, we proposed a new approach for data clustering by modeling the blurring effect of lateral retinal interconnections based on scale space theory. In this approach, as the data image blurs, smaller light blobs merge into large ones until the whole image becomes one light blob at a low enough level of resolution. By identifying each blob with a cluster, the blurring process then generates a family of clustering along the hierarchy. The proposed approach provides unique solutions to many long standing problems, such as the cluster validity and the sensitivity to initialization problems, in clustering. We extended such an approach to classification and regression problems, through combatively employing the Weber's law in physiology and the cell response classification facts. The resultant classification and regression algorithms are proven to be very efficient and solve the problems of model selection and applicability to huge size of data set in DM technologies. We finally applied the similar idea to the difficult parameter setting problem in support vector machine (SVM). Viewing the parameter setting problem as a recognition problem of choosing a visual scale at which the global and local structures of a data set can be preserved, and the difference between the two structures be maximized in the feature space, we derived a direct parameter setting formula for the Gaussian SVM. The simulations and applications show that the suggested formula significantly outperforms the known model selection methods in terms of efficiency and precision.

  7. VizieR Online Data Catalog: Stellar mass of brightest cluster galaxies (Bellstedt+, 2016)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bellstedt, S.; Lidman, C.; Muzzin, A.; Franx, M.; Guatelli, S.; Hill, A. R.; Hoekstra, H.; Kurinsky, N.; Labbe, I.; Marchesini, D.; Marsan, Z. C.; Safavi-Naeini, M.; Sifon, C.; Stefanon, M.; van de Sande, J.; van Dokkum, P.; Weigel, C.

    2017-11-01

    We utilize a sample of 98 newly imaged galaxy clusters from the RELICS (REd Lens Infrared Cluster Survey) survey within this study. The data were collected during six observing runs on three instruments over a period spanning from 2013 October to 2015 March. The instruments utilized were the SofI2 camera on the New Technology Telescope at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) La Silla Observatory in Chile, WHIRC3 on the WIYN telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory and LIRIS4 on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in La Palma, Spain. (2 data files).

  8. A New Two-Step Approach for Hands-On Teaching of Gene Technology: Effects on Students' Activities During Experimentation in an Outreach Gene Technology Lab

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scharfenberg, Franz-Josef; Bogner, Franz X.

    2011-08-01

    Emphasis on improving higher level biology education continues. A new two-step approach to the experimental phases within an outreach gene technology lab, derived from cognitive load theory, is presented. We compared our approach using a quasi-experimental design with the conventional one-step mode. The difference consisted of additional focused discussions combined with students writing down their ideas (step one) prior to starting any experimental procedure (step two). We monitored students' activities during the experimental phases by continuously videotaping 20 work groups within each approach ( N = 131). Subsequent classification of students' activities yielded 10 categories (with well-fitting intra- and inter-observer scores with respect to reliability). Based on the students' individual time budgets, we evaluated students' roles during experimentation from their prevalent activities (by independently using two cluster analysis methods). Independently of the approach, two common clusters emerged, which we labeled as `all-rounders' and as `passive students', and two clusters specific to each approach: `observers' as well as `high-experimenters' were identified only within the one-step approach whereas under the two-step conditions `managers' and `scribes' were identified. Potential changes in group-leadership style during experimentation are discussed, and conclusions for optimizing science teaching are drawn.

  9. Exploring spatial evolution of economic clusters: A case study of Beijing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Zhenshan; Sliuzas, Richard; Cai, Jianming; Ottens, Henk F. L.

    2012-10-01

    An identification of economic clusters and analysing their changing spatial patterns is important for understanding urban economic space dynamics. Previous studies, however, suffer from limitations as a consequence of using fixed geographically areas and not combining functional and spatial dynamics. The paper presents an approach, based on local spatial statistics and the case of Beijing to understand the spatial clustering of industries that are functionally interconnected by common or complementary patterns of demand or supply relations. Using register data of business establishments, it identifies economic clusters and analyses their pattern based on postcodes at different time slices during the period 1983-2002. The study shows how the advanced services occupy the urban centre and key sub centres. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) cluster is mainly concentrated in the north part of the city and circles the urban centre, and the main manufacturing clusters are evolved in the key sub centers. This type of outcomes improves understanding of urban-economic dynamics, which can support spatial and economic planning.

  10. Delivery of Colloid Micro-Newton Thrusters for the Space Technology 7 Mission

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ziemer, John K.; Randolph, Thomas M.; Franklin, Garth W.; Hruby, Vlad; Spence, Douglas; Demmons, Nathaniel; Roy, Thomas; Ehrbar, Eric; Zwahlen, Jurg; Martin, Roy; hide

    2008-01-01

    Two flight-qualified clusters of four Colloid Micro-Newton Thruster (CMNT) systems have been delivered to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The clusters will provide precise spacecraft control for the drag-free technology demonstration mission, Space Technology 7 (ST7). The ST7 mission is sponsored by the NASA New Millennium Program and will demonstrate precision formation flying technologies for future missions such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. The ST7 disturbance reduction system (DRS) will be on the ESA LISA Pathfinder spacecraft using the European gravitational reference sensor (GRS) as part of the ESA LISA Technology Package (LTP). Developed by Busek Co. Inc., with support from JPL in design and testing, the CMNT has been developed over the last six years into a flight-ready and flight-qualified microthruster system, the first of its kind. Recent flight-unit qualification tests have included vibration and thermal vacuum environmental testing, as well as performance verification and acceptance tests. All tests have been completed successfully prior to delivery to JPL. Delivery of the first flight unit occurred in February of 2008 with the second unit following in May of 2008. Since arrival at JPL, the units have successfully passed through mass distribution, magnetic, and EMI/EMC measurements and tests as part of the integration and test (I&T) activities including the integrated avionics unit (IAU). Flight software sequences have been tested and validated with the full flight DRS instrument successfully to the extent possible in ground testing, including full functional and 72 hour autonomous operations tests. Delivery of the cluster assemblies along with the IAU to ESA for integration into the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft is planned for the summer of 2008 with a planned launch and flight demonstration in late 2010.

  11. Technologies that affect the weaning rate in beef cattle production systems.

    PubMed

    Dill, Matheus Dhein; Pereira, Gabriel Ribas; Costa, João Batista Gonçalves; Canellas, Leonardo Canali; Peripolli, Vanessa; Neto, José Braccini; Sant'Anna, Danilo Menezes; McManus, Concepta; Barcellos, Júlio Otávio Jardim

    2015-10-01

    We investigated the differences between weaning rates and technologies adopted by farmers in cow-calf production systems in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. Interviews were carried out with 73 farmers about 48 technologies that could affect reproductive performance. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis using a non-hierarchical cluster method. The level of significance was set at P < 0.05. Three distinct clusters of farmers were created (R (2) = 0.90), named as low (LWR), intermediate (IWR), and high (HWR) weaning rate, with 100, 91, and 96 % of the farmers identified within their respective groups and average weaning rates of 59, 72, and 83 %, respectively. IWR and HWR farmers used more improved natural pasture, fixed-time artificial insemination, selection for birth weight, and proteinated salt compared to LWR. HWR farmers used more stocking rate control, and IWR farmers used more ultrasound to evaluate reproductive performance compared to the LWR group. IWR and HWR adopted more technologies related to nutrition and reproductive aspects of the herd in comparison to LWR. We concluded that farmers with higher technology use on farm had higher weaning rates which could be used to benefit less efficient farmers.

  12. Cluster-Based Maximum Consensus Time Synchronization for Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks.

    PubMed

    Wang, Zhaowei; Zeng, Peng; Zhou, Mingtuo; Li, Dong; Wang, Jintao

    2017-01-13

    Time synchronization is one of the key technologies in Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs), and clustering is widely used in WSNs for data fusion and information collection to reduce redundant data and communication overhead. Considering IWSNs' demand for low energy consumption, fast convergence, and robustness, this paper presents a novel Cluster-based Maximum consensus Time Synchronization (CMTS) method. It consists of two parts: intra-cluster time synchronization and inter-cluster time synchronization. Based on the theory of distributed consensus, the proposed method utilizes the maximum consensus approach to realize the intra-cluster time synchronization, and adjacent clusters exchange the time messages via overlapping nodes to synchronize with each other. A Revised-CMTS is further proposed to counteract the impact of bounded communication delays between two connected nodes, because the traditional stochastic models of the communication delays would distort in a dynamic environment. The simulation results show that our method reduces the communication overhead and improves the convergence rate in comparison to existing works, as well as adapting to the uncertain bounded communication delays.

  13. Cluster-Based Maximum Consensus Time Synchronization for Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks †

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Zhaowei; Zeng, Peng; Zhou, Mingtuo; Li, Dong; Wang, Jintao

    2017-01-01

    Time synchronization is one of the key technologies in Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs), and clustering is widely used in WSNs for data fusion and information collection to reduce redundant data and communication overhead. Considering IWSNs’ demand for low energy consumption, fast convergence, and robustness, this paper presents a novel Cluster-based Maximum consensus Time Synchronization (CMTS) method. It consists of two parts: intra-cluster time synchronization and inter-cluster time synchronization. Based on the theory of distributed consensus, the proposed method utilizes the maximum consensus approach to realize the intra-cluster time synchronization, and adjacent clusters exchange the time messages via overlapping nodes to synchronize with each other. A Revised-CMTS is further proposed to counteract the impact of bounded communication delays between two connected nodes, because the traditional stochastic models of the communication delays would distort in a dynamic environment. The simulation results show that our method reduces the communication overhead and improves the convergence rate in comparison to existing works, as well as adapting to the uncertain bounded communication delays. PMID:28098750

  14. Comparative analysis of Gram's stain, PNA-FISH and Sepsityper with MALDI-TOF MS for the identification of yeast direct from positive blood cultures.

    PubMed

    Gorton, Rebecca L; Ramnarain, P; Barker, K; Stone, N; Rattenbury, S; McHugh, T D; Kibbler, C C

    2014-10-01

    Fungaemia diagnosis could be improved by reducing the time to identification of yeast from blood cultures. This study aimed to evaluate three rapid methods for the identification of yeast direct from blood cultures; Gram's stain analysis, the AdvanDX Peptide Nucleic Acid in Situ Hybridisation Yeast Traffic Light system (PNA-FISH YTL) and Bruker Sepsityper alongside matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Fifty blood cultures spiked with a known single yeast strain were analysed by blinded operators experienced in each method. Identifications were compared with MALDI-TOF MS CHROMagar Candida culture and ITS rRNA sequence-based identifications. On first attempt, success rates of 96% (48/50) and 76% (36/50) were achieved using PNA-FISH YTL and Gram's stain respectively. MALDI-TOF MS demonstrated a success rate of 56% (28/50) when applying manufacturer's species log score thresholds and 76% (38/50) using in-house parameters, including lowering the species log score threshold to >1.5. In conclusion, PNA-FISH YTL demonstrated a high success rate successfully identifying yeast commonly encountered in fungaemia. Sepsityper(™) with MALDI-TOF MS was accurate but increased sensitivity is required. Due to the misidentification of commonly encountered yeast Gram's stain analysis demonstrated limited utility in this setting. © 2014 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

  15. NCSTRL+: Adding Multi-Discipline and Multi-Genre Support to the Dienst Protocol Using Clusters and Buckets

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nelson, Michael L.; Maly, Kurt; Shen, Stewart N. T.; Zubair, Mohammad

    1998-01-01

    We describe NCSTRL+, a unified, canonical digital library for scientific and technical information (STI). NCSTRL+ is based on the Networked Computer Science Technical Report Library (NCSTRL), a World Wide Web (WWW) accessible digital library (DL) that provides access to over 100 university departments and laboratories. NCSTRL+ implements two new technologies: cluster functionality and publishing buckets. We have extended Dienst, the protocol underlying NCSTRL, to provide the ability to cluster independent collections into a logically centralized digital library based upon subject category classification, type of organization, and genres of material. The bucket construct provides a mechanism for publishing and managing logically linked entities with multiple data forms as a single object. The NCSTRL+ prototype DL contains the holdings of NCSTRL and the NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS). The prototype demonstrates the feasibility of publishing into a multi-cluster DL, searching across clusters, and storing and presenting buckets of information.

  16. Chromium: A Stress-Processing Framework for Interactive Rendering on Clusters

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Humphreys, G,; Houston, M.; Ng, Y.-R.

    2002-01-11

    We describe Chromium, a system for manipulating streams of graphics API commands on clusters of workstations. Chromium's stream filters can be arranged to create sort-first and sort-last parallel graphics architectures that, in many cases, support the same applications while using only commodity graphics accelerators. In addition, these stream filters can be extended programmatically, allowing the user to customize the stream transformations performed by nodes in a cluster. Because our stream processing mechanism is completely general, any cluster-parallel rendering algorithm can be either implemented on top of or embedded in Chromium. In this paper, we give examples of real-world applications thatmore » use Chromium to achieve good scalability on clusters of workstations, and describe other potential uses of this stream processing technology. By completely abstracting the underlying graphics architecture, network topology, and API command processing semantics, we allow a variety of applications to run in different environments.« less

  17. Computational study of AuSi{sub n} (n=1-9) nanoalloy clusters invoking DFT based descriptors

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ranjan, Prabhat; Kumar, Ajay; Chakraborty, Tanmoy, E-mail: tanmoy.chakraborty@jaipur.manipal.edu, E-mail: tanmoychem@gmail.com

    2016-04-13

    Nanoalloy clusters formed between Au and Si are topics of great interest today from both scientific and technological point of view. Due to its remarkable catalytic, electronic, mechanical and magnetic properties Au-Si nanoalloy clusters have extensive applications in the field of microelectronics, catalysis, biomedicine, and jewelry industry. Density Functional Theory (DFT) is a new paradigm of quantum mechanics, which is very much popular to study the electronic properties of materials. Conceptual DFT based descriptors have been invoked to correlate the experimental properties of nanoalloy clusters. In this venture, we have systematically investigated AuSi{sub n} (n=1-9) nanoalloy clusters in the theoreticalmore » frame of the B3LYP exchange correlation. The experimental properties of AuSi{sub n} (n=1-9) nanoalloy clusters are correlated in terms of DFT based descriptors viz. HOMO-LUMO gap, Electronegativity (χ), Global Hardness (η), Global Softness (S) and Electrophilicity Index (ω). The calculated HOMO-LUMO gap exhibits interesting odd-even alteration behaviour, indicating that even numbered clusters possess higher stability as compare to their neighbour odd numbered clusters. This study also reflects a very well agreement between experimental bond length and computed data.« less

  18. Elementary School Students' Understandings of Technology Concepts.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Davis, Robert S.; Ginns, Ian S.; McRobbie, Campbell J.

    2002-01-01

    Students in grades 2 (n=27), 4 (n=37), and 6 (n=28) were asked questions about artifacts or pictures. Their explanations, which revealed their understanding of such technological concepts as material properties and stability, were classified as naive, artifact related, or not artifact related. Explanations tended to cluster in a classification at…

  19. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Automotive Technology Programs (CIP: 47.0604--Automotive Mechanic/Tech.). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for the course sequences in the automotive technology programs cluster. Presented in the introductory section are a description of the program and suggested course sequence. Section I lists baseline competencies, and…

  20. Affordances of Learning Technologies in Higher Education Multicultural Environments

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Arenas, Edilson

    2015-01-01

    A cluster of research has been conducted in higher education to investigate the affordances (action possibilities) and the influence information and communication technologies (ICT) may have on students' learning experiences and outcomes. Such studies have given rise to the implementation of a wide range of educational frameworks with a great deal…

  1. Manufacturing Technology. Curriculum Guide.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    North Dakota State Board for Vocational Education, Bismarck.

    This guide provides the basic foundation to develop a one-semester course based on the cluster concept, manufacturing technology. One of a set of six guides for an industrial arts curriculum at the junior high school level, it suggests activities that allow students (1) to become familiar with and use some of the tools, materials, and processes…

  2. CRISPR and piRNAs: Fundamental Mechanisms and Key Applications of the Next Generation of Molecular Technologies in the Field of Toxicology

    EPA Science Inventory

    " Exploration into the roles of genes, the proteins that they encode, and the functions that they carry out within the cell is a founding pillar in the field of toxicology. Recent breakthroughs in clustered, regularly interspaced, short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) technology...

  3. Technology Education. A Curriculum Guide. VOC ED 226.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thode, Brad

    This curriculum guide provides ideas for implementing technology education in grades 7-12. It assumes a basic understanding of the four clusters of manufacturing, construction, communications, and power/transportation and is meant to supplement and reorganize this approach with up-to-date information and activities. One way to present a variety of…

  4. Unit-Credit Titles under Program Headings, Directory. Technology Education: Vocational Industrial, Industrial Arts, Home Economics.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Manitoba Dept. of Education and Training, Winnipeg. Curriculum Services Branch.

    This directory lists the unit-credit titles of the technology education courses offered in Manitoba, along with their corresponding department codes and course numbers. Sections A through C list the unit-credit titles of the following vocational-industrial clusters: heavy industrial (agriculture, auto body repair, building construction, building…

  5. New EUROPRACTICE microsystem design and foundry services

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salomon, Patric R.; Beernaert, Dirk; Turner, Rob

    2000-08-01

    The microsystems market for MST is predicted to grow to 38 billion dollars by the year 2002, with systems containing these components generating even higher revenues and growth. One of the barriers to successful exploitation of this technology has been the lack of access to industrial foundries capable of producing certified microsystems devices in commercial quantities. To overcome this problem, the European Commission has started the EUROPRACTICE program in 1996 with the installation of manufacturing clusters and demonstration activities to provide access to microsystems foundry services for European small and medium sized companies (SMEs). Since 1996, there has been a shift form providing 'broad technology offers' and 'raising awareness fro microsystem capabilities' to 'direct support of design needs' and 'focused services' which allow SMEs to use even complex microsystems technologies to implement their products, The third phase of EUROPRACTICE has just been launched, and contains 5 Manufacturing Clusters, 12 Designs Houses, and 7 Competence Centers, each working in different application/technology areas. The EUROPRACTICE program will be presented together with a detail description of the capabilities of the participants and information on how to access their services.

  6. Cosmology, Clusters and Calorimeters

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Figueroa-Feliciano, Enectali

    2005-01-01

    I will review the current state of Cosmology with Clusters and discuss the application of microcalorimeter arrays to this field. With the launch of Astro-E2 this summer and a slew of new missions being developed, microcalorimeters are the next big thing in x-ray astronomy. I will cover the basics and not-so-basic concepts of microcalorimeter designs and look at the future to see where this technology will go.

  7. Assessment of Patients' Perception of Telemedicine Services Using the Service User Technology Acceptability Questionnaire.

    PubMed

    Dario, Claudio; Luisotto, Elena; Dal Pozzo, Enrico; Mancin, Silvia; Aletras, Vassilis; Newman, Stanton; Gubian, Lorenzo; Saccavini, Claudio

    2016-06-01

    The purpose of this paper is to assess if similar telemedicine services integrated in the management of different chronic diseases are acceptable and well perceived by patients or if there are any negative perceptions. Participants suffering from different chronic diseases were enrolled in Veneto Region and gathered into clusters. Each cluster received a similar telemedicine service equipped with different disease-specific measuring devices. Participants were patients with diabetes (n = 163), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n = 180), congestive heart failure (n = 140) and Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices (n = 1635). The Service User Technology Acceptability Questionnaire (SUTAQ) was initially translated, culturally adapted and pretested and subsequently used to assess patients' perception of telemedicine. Data were collected after 3 months and after 12 months from the beginning of the intervention. Data for patients with implantable devices was collected only at 12 months. Results at 12 months for all clusters are similar and assessed a positive perception of telemedicine. The SUTAQ results for clusters 2 (diabetes), 5 (COPD) and 7 (CHF) after 3 months of intervention were confirmed after 12 months. Telemedicine was perceived as a viable addition to usual care. A positive perception for telemedicine services isn't a transitory effect, but extends over the course of time.

  8. High-throughput shadow mask printing of passive electrical components on paper by supersonic cluster beam deposition

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Caruso, Francesco; Bellacicca, Andrea; Milani, Paolo, E-mail: pmilani@mi.infn.it

    We report the rapid prototyping of passive electrical components (resistors and capacitors) on plain paper by an additive and parallel technology consisting of supersonic cluster beam deposition (SCBD) coupled with shadow mask printing. Cluster-assembled films have a growth mechanism substantially different from that of atom-assembled ones providing the possibility of a fine tuning of their electrical conduction properties around the percolative conduction threshold. Exploiting the precise control on cluster beam intensity and shape typical of SCBD, we produced, in a one-step process, batches of resistors with resistance values spanning a range of two orders of magnitude. Parallel plate capacitors withmore » paper as the dielectric medium were also produced with capacitance in the range of tens of picofarads. Compared to standard deposition technologies, SCBD allows for a very efficient use of raw materials and the rapid production of components with different shape and dimensions while controlling independently the electrical characteristics. Discrete electrical components produced by SCBD are very robust against deformation and bending, and they can be easily assembled to build circuits with desired characteristics. The availability of large batches of these components enables the rapid and cheap prototyping and integration of electrical components on paper as building blocks of more complex systems.« less

  9. The Quantitative Analysis of Chennai Automotive Industry Cluster

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bhaskaran, Ethirajan

    2016-07-01

    Chennai, also called as Detroit of India due to presence of Automotive Industry producing over 40 % of the India's vehicle and components. During 2001-2002, the Automotive Component Industries (ACI) in Ambattur, Thirumalizai and Thirumudivakkam Industrial Estate, Chennai has faced problems on infrastructure, technology, procurement, production and marketing. The objective is to study the Quantitative Performance of Chennai Automotive Industry Cluster before (2001-2002) and after the CDA (2008-2009). The methodology adopted is collection of primary data from 100 ACI using quantitative questionnaire and analyzing using Correlation Analysis (CA), Regression Analysis (RA), Friedman Test (FMT), and Kruskall Wallis Test (KWT).The CA computed for the different set of variables reveals that there is high degree of relationship between the variables studied. The RA models constructed establish the strong relationship between the dependent variable and a host of independent variables. The models proposed here reveal the approximate relationship in a closer form. KWT proves, there is no significant difference between three locations clusters with respect to: Net Profit, Production Cost, Marketing Costs, Procurement Costs and Gross Output. This supports that each location has contributed for development of automobile component cluster uniformly. The FMT proves, there is no significant difference between industrial units in respect of cost like Production, Infrastructure, Technology, Marketing and Net Profit. To conclude, the Automotive Industries have fully utilized the Physical Infrastructure and Centralised Facilities by adopting CDA and now exporting their products to North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia. The value chain analysis models have been implemented in all the cluster units. This Cluster Development Approach (CDA) model can be implemented in industries of under developed and developing countries for cost reduction and productivity increase.

  10. Model-based clustering for RNA-seq data.

    PubMed

    Si, Yaqing; Liu, Peng; Li, Pinghua; Brutnell, Thomas P

    2014-01-15

    RNA-seq technology has been widely adopted as an attractive alternative to microarray-based methods to study global gene expression. However, robust statistical tools to analyze these complex datasets are still lacking. By grouping genes with similar expression profiles across treatments, cluster analysis provides insight into gene functions and networks, and hence is an important technique for RNA-seq data analysis. In this manuscript, we derive clustering algorithms based on appropriate probability models for RNA-seq data. An expectation-maximization algorithm and another two stochastic versions of expectation-maximization algorithms are described. In addition, a strategy for initialization based on likelihood is proposed to improve the clustering algorithms. Moreover, we present a model-based hybrid-hierarchical clustering method to generate a tree structure that allows visualization of relationships among clusters as well as flexibility of choosing the number of clusters. Results from both simulation studies and analysis of a maize RNA-seq dataset show that our proposed methods provide better clustering results than alternative methods such as the K-means algorithm and hierarchical clustering methods that are not based on probability models. An R package, MBCluster.Seq, has been developed to implement our proposed algorithms. This R package provides fast computation and is publicly available at http://www.r-project.org

  11. Gene targeting technologies in rats: zinc finger nucleases, transcription activator-like effector nucleases, and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.

    PubMed

    Mashimo, Tomoji

    2014-01-01

    The laboratory rat has been widely used as an animal model in biomedical science for more than 150 years. Applying zinc-finger nucleases or transcription activator-like effector nucleases to rat embryos via microinjection is an efficient genome editing tool for generating targeted knockout rats. Recently, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated endonucleases have been used as an effective tool for precise and multiplex genome editing in mice and rats. In this review, the advantages and disadvantages of these site-specific nuclease technologies for genetic analysis and manipulation in rats are discussed. © 2013 The Author Development, Growth & Differentiation © 2013 Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists.

  12. The Googlization of health research: from disruptive innovation to disruptive ethics.

    PubMed

    Sharon, Tamar

    2016-11-01

    Consumer-oriented mobile technologies offer new ways of capturing multidimensional health data, and are increasingly seen as facilitators of medical research. This has opened the way for large consumer tech companies, like Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook, to enter the space of health research, offering new methods for collecting, storing and analyzing health data. While these developments are often portrayed as 'disrupting' research in beneficial ways, they also raise many ethical issues. These can be organized into three clusters: questions concerning the quality of research; privacy/informed consent; and new power asymmetries based on access to data and control over technological infrastructures. I argue that this last cluster, insofar as it may affect future research agendas, deserves more critical attention.

  13. Implementation of megaprojects for the creation of tourist clusters in Russia based on the concept of energy efficiency and sustainable construction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Orlov, Alexandr K.

    2017-10-01

    The article deals with the application of sustainable construction concept within implementation of megaprojects of tourist clusters development using energy saving technologies. The concept of sustainable construction includes the elements of green construction, energy management as well as aspects of the economic efficiency of construction projects implementation. The methodical approach to the implementation of megaprojects for the creation of tourist clusters in Russia based on the concept of energy efficiency and sustainable construction is proved. The conceptual approach to the evaluation of the ecological, social and economic components of the integral indicator of the effectiveness of the megaproject for the development of the tourist cluster is provided. The algorithm for estimation of the efficiency of innovative solutions in green construction is considered.

  14. Computational genomic identification and functional reconstitution of plant natural product biosynthetic pathways

    PubMed Central

    2016-01-01

    Covering: 2003 to 2016 The last decade has seen the first major discoveries regarding the genomic basis of plant natural product biosynthetic pathways. Four key computationally driven strategies have been developed to identify such pathways, which make use of physical clustering, co-expression, evolutionary co-occurrence and epigenomic co-regulation of the genes involved in producing a plant natural product. Here, we discuss how these approaches can be used for the discovery of plant biosynthetic pathways encoded by both chromosomally clustered and non-clustered genes. Additionally, we will discuss opportunities to prioritize plant gene clusters for experimental characterization, and end with a forward-looking perspective on how synthetic biology technologies will allow effective functional reconstitution of candidate pathways using a variety of genetic systems. PMID:27321668

  15. A taxonomy of hospitals participating in Medicare accountable care organizations.

    PubMed

    Bazzoli, Gloria J; Harless, David W; Chukmaitov, Askar S

    2017-03-03

    Medicare was an early innovator of accountable care organizations (ACOs), establishing the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and Pioneer programs in 2012-2013. Existing research has documented that ACOs bring together an array of health providers with hospitals serving as important participants. Hospitals vary markedly in their service structure and organizational capabilities, and thus, one would expect hospital ACO participants to vary in these regards. Our research identifies hospital subgroups that share certain capabilities and competencies. Such research, in conjunction with existing ACO research, provides deeper understanding of the structure and operation of these organizations. Given that Medicare was an initiator of the ACO concept, our findings provide a baseline to track the evolution of ACO hospitals over time. Hierarchical clustering methods are used in separate analyses of MSSP and Pioneer ACO hospitals. Hospitals participating in ACOs with 2012-2013 start dates are identified through multiple sources. Study data come from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, American Hospital Association, and Health Information and Management Systems Society. Five-cluster solutions were developed separately for the MSSP and Pioneer hospital samples. Both the MSSP and Pioneer taxonomies had several clusters with high levels of health information technology capabilities. Also distinct clusters with strong physician linkages were present. We examined Pioneer ACO hospitals that subsequently left the program and found that they commonly had low levels of ambulatory care services or health information technology. Distinct subgroups of hospitals exist in both the MSSP and Pioneer programs, suggesting that individual hospitals serve different roles within an ACO. Health information technology and physician linkages appear to be particularly important features in ACO hospitals. ACOs need to consider not only geographic and service mix when selecting hospital participants but also their vertical integration features and management competencies.

  16. Access and visualization using clusters and other parallel computers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Katz, Daniel S.; Bergou, Attila; Berriman, Bruce; Block, Gary; Collier, Jim; Curkendall, Dave; Good, John; Husman, Laura; Jacob, Joe; Laity, Anastasia; hide

    2003-01-01

    JPL's Parallel Applications Technologies Group has been exploring the issues of data access and visualization of very large data sets over the past 10 or so years. this work has used a number of types of parallel computers, and today includes the use of commodity clusters. This talk will highlight some of the applications and tools we have developed, including how they use parallel computing resources, and specifically how we are using modern clusters. Our applications focus on NASA's needs; thus our data sets are usually related to Earth and Space Science, including data delivered from instruments in space, and data produced by telescopes on the ground.

  17. Possibility of Exciton Mediated Superconductivity in Nano-Sized Sn/Si Core-Shell Clusters: A Process Technology towards Heterogeneous Material in Nano-Scale

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kurokawa, Yuichiro; Hihara, Takehiko; Ichinose, Ikuo; Sumiyama, Kenji

    2012-07-01

    We have produced Sn/Si core-shell cluster assemblies by a plasma-gas-condensation cluster beam deposition apparatus. For the sample with Si content = 12 at. %, the temperature dependence of electrical resistivity exhibits a metallic behavior above 10 K and the onset of superconducting transition below 6.1 K. With decreasing temperature, the thermomagnetic curve for the sample with Si content = 8 at. % begins to decrease steadily toward negative value below 7.7 K, indicating the Meissner effect. An increase in the transition temperature, TC is attributable to exciton-type superconductivity.

  18. Widget and Mobile Technologies a Forcing Function for Acquisition Change: Paradigm Shift Without Leaving Bodies Behind

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2012-04-30

    Board if it is believed that the functional or technical implementation was misunderstood ( Apple Inc., 2012). In the Android world, registered...Behind Michael Morris, Christopher Raney, Kenneth Trabue, Timothy Boyce, Kari Nip, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific Apple App Store...Leaf Clusters, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Army Achievement Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Superior Unit Award, the

  19. Data processing 1: Advancements in machine analysis of multispectral data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Swain, P. H.

    1972-01-01

    Multispectral data processing procedures are outlined beginning with the data display process used to accomplish data editing and proceeding through clustering, feature selection criterion for error probability estimation, and sample clustering and sample classification. The effective utilization of large quantities of remote sensing data by formulating a three stage sampling model for evaluation of crop acreage estimates represents an improvement in determining the cost benefit relationship associated with remote sensing technology.

  20. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Diesel Equipment Technology (CIP: 47.0605--Diesel Engine Mechanic & Repairer). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for the course sequences in the diesel equipment technology programs cluster. Presented in the introductory section are a description of the program and suggested course sequence. Section I lists baseline competencies,…

  1. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Collision Repair Technology (Program CIP: 47.0603--Auto/Autobody Repair). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for the course sequences in the collision repair technology programs cluster. Presented in the introductory section are a description of the program and suggested course sequences for 1- and 2-year certificates. Section…

  2. Satisfaction Clustering Analysis of Distance Education Computer Programming Students: A Sample of Karadeniz Technical University

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ozyurt, Hacer

    2014-01-01

    In line with recently developing technology, distant education systems based on information technologies are started to be commonly used within higher education. Students' satisfaction is one of the vital aspects in order to maintain distant education efficiently and achieving its goal. As a matter of the fact, previous studies proved that student…

  3. Teachers' Knowing How to Use Technology: Exploring a Conceptual Framework for Purposeful Learning Activity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fisher, Tony; Denning, Tim; Higgins, Chris; Loveless, Avril

    2012-01-01

    This article describes a project to apply and validate a conceptual framework of clusters of purposeful learning activity involving ICT tools. The framework, which is based in a socio-cultural perspective, is described as "DECK", and comprises the following major categories of the use of digital technologies to support learning:…

  4. The Impact of Technology-Enhanced Curriculum on Learning Advanced Algebra in US High School Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hegedus, Stephen J.; Dalton, Sara; Tapper, John R.

    2015-01-01

    We report on two large studies conducted in advanced algebra classrooms in the US, which evaluated the effect of replacing traditional algebra 2 curriculum with an integrated suite of dynamic interactive software, wireless networks and technology-enhanced curriculum on student learning. The first study was a cluster randomized trial and the second…

  5. Design and Verification of Remote Sensing Image Data Center Storage Architecture Based on Hadoop

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tang, D.; Zhou, X.; Jing, Y.; Cong, W.; Li, C.

    2018-04-01

    The data center is a new concept of data processing and application proposed in recent years. It is a new method of processing technologies based on data, parallel computing, and compatibility with different hardware clusters. While optimizing the data storage management structure, it fully utilizes cluster resource computing nodes and improves the efficiency of data parallel application. This paper used mature Hadoop technology to build a large-scale distributed image management architecture for remote sensing imagery. Using MapReduce parallel processing technology, it called many computing nodes to process image storage blocks and pyramids in the background to improve the efficiency of image reading and application and sovled the need for concurrent multi-user high-speed access to remotely sensed data. It verified the rationality, reliability and superiority of the system design by testing the storage efficiency of different image data and multi-users and analyzing the distributed storage architecture to improve the application efficiency of remote sensing images through building an actual Hadoop service system.

  6. Modeling the coevolution of topology and traffic on weighted technological networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xie, Yan-Bo; Wang, Wen-Xu; Wang, Bing-Hong

    2007-02-01

    For many technological networks, the network structures and the traffic taking place on them mutually interact. The demands of traffic increment spur the evolution and growth of the networks to maintain their normal and efficient functioning. In parallel, a change of the network structure leads to redistribution of the traffic. In this paper, we perform an extensive numerical and analytical study, extending results of Wang [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 188702 (2005)]. By introducing a general strength-coupling interaction driven by the traffic increment between any pair of vertices, our model generates networks of scale-free distributions of strength, weight, and degree. In particular, the obtained nonlinear correlation between vertex strength and degree, and the disassortative property demonstrate that the model is capable of characterizing weighted technological networks. Moreover, the generated graphs possess both dense clustering structures and an anticorrelation between vertex clustering and degree, which are widely observed in real-world networks. The corresponding theoretical predictions are well consistent with simulation results.

  7. Discovery of a Phosphonoacetic Acid Derived Natural Product by Pathway Refactoring.

    PubMed

    Freestone, Todd S; Ju, Kou-San; Wang, Bin; Zhao, Huimin

    2017-02-17

    The activation of silent natural product gene clusters is a synthetic biology problem of great interest. As the rate at which gene clusters are identified outpaces the discovery rate of new molecules, this unknown chemical space is rapidly growing, as too are the rewards for developing technologies to exploit it. One class of natural products that has been underrepresented is phosphonic acids, which have important medical and agricultural uses. Hundreds of phosphonic acid biosynthetic gene clusters have been identified encoding for unknown molecules. Although methods exist to elicit secondary metabolite gene clusters in native hosts, they require the strain to be amenable to genetic manipulation. One method to circumvent this is pathway refactoring, which we implemented in an effort to discover new phosphonic acids from a gene cluster from Streptomyces sp. strain NRRL F-525. By reengineering this cluster for expression in the production host Streptomyces lividans, utility of refactoring is demonstrated with the isolation of a novel phosphonic acid, O-phosphonoacetic acid serine, and the characterization of its biosynthesis. In addition, a new biosynthetic branch point is identified with a phosphonoacetaldehyde dehydrogenase, which was used to identify additional phosphonic acid gene clusters that share phosphonoacetic acid as an intermediate.

  8. Implementation of Self Organizing Map (SOM) as decision support: Indonesian telematics services MSMEs empowerment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tosida, E. T.; Maryana, S.; Thaheer, H.; Hardiani

    2017-01-01

    Information technology and communication (telematics) is one of the most rapidly developing business sectors in Indonesia. It has strategic position in its contribution towards planning and implementation of developmental, economics, social, politics and defence strategies in business, communication and education. Aid absorption for the national telecommunication SMEs is relatively low; therefore, improvement is needed using analysis on business support cluster of which basis is types of business. In the study, the business support cluster analysis is specifically implemented for Indonesian telecommunication service. The data for the business are obtained from the National Census of Economic (Susenas 2006). The method used to develop cluster model is an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) system called Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) algorithm. Based on Index of Davies Bouldin (IDB), the accuracy level of the cluster model is 0.37 or can be categorized as good. The cluster model is developed to find out telecommunication business clusters that has influence towards the national economy so that it is easier for the government to supervise telecommunication business.

  9. Genetic approaches of the Fe-S cluster biogenesis process in bacteria: Historical account, methodological aspects and future challenges.

    PubMed

    Py, Béatrice; Barras, Frédéric

    2015-06-01

    Since their discovery in the 50's, Fe-S cluster proteins have attracted much attention from chemists, biophysicists and biochemists. However, in the 80's they were joined by geneticists who helped to realize that in vivo maturation of Fe-S cluster bound proteins required assistance of a large number of factors defining complex multi-step pathways. The question of how clusters are formed and distributed in vivo has since been the focus of much effort. Here we review how genetics in discovering genes and investigating processes as they unfold in vivo has provoked seminal advances toward our understanding of Fe-S cluster biogenesis. The power and limitations of genetic approaches are discussed. As a final comment, we argue how the marriage of classic strategies and new high-throughput technologies should allow genetics of Fe-S cluster biology to be even more insightful in the future. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Fe/S proteins: Analysis, structure, function, biogenesis and diseases. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. First principles study of vibrational dynamics of ceria-titania hybrid clusters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Majid, Abdul; Bibi, Maryam

    2017-04-01

    Density functional theory based calculations were performed to study vibrational properties of ceria, titania, and ceria-titania hybrid clusters. The findings revealed the dominance of vibrations related to oxygen when compared to those of metallic atoms in the clusters. In case of hybrid cluster, the softening of normal modes related to exterior oxygen atoms in ceria and softening/hardening of high/low frequency modes related to titania dimmers are observed. The results calculated for monomers conform to symmetry predictions according to which three IR and three Raman active modes were detected for TiO2, whereas two IR active and one Raman active modes were observed for CeO2. The comparative analysis indicates that the hybrid cluster CeTiO4 contains simultaneous vibrational fingerprints of the component dimmers. The symmetry, nature of vibrations, IR and Raman activity, intensities, and atomic involvement in different modes of the clusters are described in detail. The study points to engineering of CeTiO4 to tailor its properties for technological visible region applications in photocatalytic and electrochemical devices.

  11. A detailed comparison of analysis processes for MCC-IMS data in disease classification—Automated methods can replace manual peak annotations

    PubMed Central

    Horsch, Salome; Kopczynski, Dominik; Kuthe, Elias; Baumbach, Jörg Ingo; Rahmann, Sven

    2017-01-01

    Motivation Disease classification from molecular measurements typically requires an analysis pipeline from raw noisy measurements to final classification results. Multi capillary column—ion mobility spectrometry (MCC-IMS) is a promising technology for the detection of volatile organic compounds in the air of exhaled breath. From raw measurements, the peak regions representing the compounds have to be identified, quantified, and clustered across different experiments. Currently, several steps of this analysis process require manual intervention of human experts. Our goal is to identify a fully automatic pipeline that yields competitive disease classification results compared to an established but subjective and tedious semi-manual process. Method We combine a large number of modern methods for peak detection, peak clustering, and multivariate classification into analysis pipelines for raw MCC-IMS data. We evaluate all combinations on three different real datasets in an unbiased cross-validation setting. We determine which specific algorithmic combinations lead to high AUC values in disease classifications across the different medical application scenarios. Results The best fully automated analysis process achieves even better classification results than the established manual process. The best algorithms for the three analysis steps are (i) SGLTR (Savitzky-Golay Laplace-operator filter thresholding regions) and LM (Local Maxima) for automated peak identification, (ii) EM clustering (Expectation Maximization) and DBSCAN (Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise) for the clustering step and (iii) RF (Random Forest) for multivariate classification. Thus, automated methods can replace the manual steps in the analysis process to enable an unbiased high throughput use of the technology. PMID:28910313

  12. STEM Career Cluster Engineering and Technology Education pathway in Georgia: Perceptions of Georgia engineering and technology education high school teachers and CTAE administrators as measured by the Characteristics of Engineering and Technology Education survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Crenshaw, Mark VanBuren

    This study examined the perceptions held by Georgia Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Career Cluster Engineering and Technology Education (ETE) high school pathway teachers and Georgia's Career, Technical and Agriculture Education (CTAE) administrators regarding the ETE pathway and its effect on implementation within their district and schools. It provides strategies for ETE teaching methods, curriculum content, STEM integration, and how to improve the ETE pathway program of study. Current teaching and curricular trends were examined in ETE as well as the role ETE should play as related to STEM education. The study, using the Characteristics of Engineering and Technology Education Survey, was conducted to answer the following research questions: (a) Is there a significant difference in the perception of ETE teaching methodology between Georgia ETE high school teachers and CTAE administrators as measured by the Characteristics of Engineering and Technology Education Survey? (b) Is there a significant difference in the perception of ETE curriculum content between Georgia ETE high school teachers and CTAE administrators as measured by the Characteristics of Engineering and Technology Education Survey? (c) Is there a significant difference in the perception of STEM integration in the ETE high school pathway between Georgia ETE high school teachers and CTAE administrators as measured by the Characteristics of Engineering and Technology Education Survey? and (d) Is there a significant difference in the perception of how to improve the ETE high school pathway between Georgia ETE high school teachers and CTAE administrators as measured by the Characteristics of Engineering and Technology Education Survey? Suggestions for further research also were offered.

  13. Megatux

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    2012-09-25

    The Megatux platform enables the emulation of large scale (multi-million node) distributed systems. In particular, it allows for the emulation of large-scale networks interconnecting a very large number of emulated computer systems. It does this by leveraging virtualization and associated technologies to allow hundreds of virtual computers to be hosted on a single moderately sized server or workstation. Virtualization technology provided by modern processors allows for multiple guest OSs to run at the same time, sharing the hardware resources. The Megatux platform can be deployed on a single PC, a small cluster of a few boxes or a large clustermore » of computers. With a modest cluster, the Megatux platform can emulate complex organizational networks. By using virtualization, we emulate the hardware, but run actual software enabling large scale without sacrificing fidelity.« less

  14. Dynamic clustering scheme based on the coordination of management and control in multi-layer and multi-region intelligent optical network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Niu, Xiaoliang; Yuan, Fen; Huang, Shanguo; Guo, Bingli; Gu, Wanyi

    2011-12-01

    A Dynamic clustering scheme based on coordination of management and control is proposed to reduce network congestion rate and improve the blocking performance of hierarchical routing in Multi-layer and Multi-region intelligent optical network. Its implement relies on mobile agent (MA) technology, which has the advantages of efficiency, flexibility, functional and scalability. The paper's major contribution is to adjust dynamically domain when the performance of working network isn't in ideal status. And the incorporation of centralized NMS and distributed MA control technology migrate computing process to control plane node which releases the burden of NMS and improves process efficiently. Experiments are conducted on Multi-layer and multi-region Simulation Platform for Optical Network (MSPON) to assess the performance of the scheme.

  15. Form gene clustering method about pan-ethnic-group products based on emotional semantic

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Dengkai; Ding, Jingjing; Gao, Minzhuo; Ma, Danping; Liu, Donghui

    2016-09-01

    The use of pan-ethnic-group products form knowledge primarily depends on a designer's subjective experience without user participation. The majority of studies primarily focus on the detection of the perceptual demands of consumers from the target product category. A pan-ethnic-group products form gene clustering method based on emotional semantic is constructed. Consumers' perceptual images of the pan-ethnic-group products are obtained by means of product form gene extraction and coding and computer aided product form clustering technology. A case of form gene clustering about the typical pan-ethnic-group products is investigated which indicates that the method is feasible. This paper opens up a new direction for the future development of product form design which improves the agility of product design process in the era of Industry 4.0.

  16. Use of keyword hierarchies to interpret gene expression patterns.

    PubMed

    Masys, D R; Welsh, J B; Lynn Fink, J; Gribskov, M; Klacansky, I; Corbeil, J

    2001-04-01

    High-density microarray technology permits the quantitative and simultaneous monitoring of thousands of genes. The interpretation challenge is to extract relevant information from this large amount of data. A growing variety of statistical analysis approaches are available to identify clusters of genes that share common expression characteristics, but provide no information regarding the biological similarities of genes within clusters. The published literature provides a potential source of information to assist in interpretation of clustering results. We describe a data mining method that uses indexing terms ('keywords') from the published literature linked to specific genes to present a view of the conceptual similarity of genes within a cluster or group of interest. The method takes advantage of the hierarchical nature of Medical Subject Headings used to index citations in the MEDLINE database, and the registry numbers applied to enzymes.

  17. A Game Theoretic Optimization Method for Energy Efficient Global Connectivity in Hybrid Wireless Sensor Networks

    PubMed Central

    Lee, JongHyup; Pak, Dohyun

    2016-01-01

    For practical deployment of wireless sensor networks (WSN), WSNs construct clusters, where a sensor node communicates with other nodes in its cluster, and a cluster head support connectivity between the sensor nodes and a sink node. In hybrid WSNs, cluster heads have cellular network interfaces for global connectivity. However, when WSNs are active and the load of cellular networks is high, the optimal assignment of cluster heads to base stations becomes critical. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a game theoretic model to find the optimal assignment of base stations for hybrid WSNs. Since the communication and energy cost is different according to cellular systems, we devise two game models for TDMA/FDMA and CDMA systems employing power prices to adapt to the varying efficiency of recent wireless technologies. The proposed model is defined on the assumptions of the ideal sensing field, but our evaluation shows that the proposed model is more adaptive and energy efficient than local selections. PMID:27589743

  18. Classification of arrhythmia using hybrid networks.

    PubMed

    Haseena, Hassan H; Joseph, Paul K; Mathew, Abraham T

    2011-12-01

    Reliable detection of arrhythmias based on digital processing of Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals is vital in providing suitable and timely treatment to a cardiac patient. Due to corruption of ECG signals with multiple frequency noise and presence of multiple arrhythmic events in a cardiac rhythm, computerized interpretation of abnormal ECG rhythms is a challenging task. This paper focuses a Fuzzy C- Mean (FCM) clustered Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) and Multi Layered Feed Forward Network (MLFFN) for the discrimination of eight types of ECG beats. Parameters such as fourth order Auto Regressive (AR) coefficients along with Spectral Entropy (SE) are extracted from each ECG beat and feature reduction has been carried out using FCM clustering. The cluster centers form the input of neural network classifiers. The extensive analysis of Massachusetts Institute of Technology- Beth Israel Hospital (MIT-BIH) arrhythmia database shows that FCM clustered PNNs is superior in cardiac arrhythmia classification than FCM clustered MLFFN with an overall accuracy of 99.05%, 97.14%, respectively.

  19. Data-Driven Packet Loss Estimation for Node Healthy Sensing in Decentralized Cluster.

    PubMed

    Fan, Hangyu; Wang, Huandong; Li, Yong

    2018-01-23

    Decentralized clustering of modern information technology is widely adopted in various fields these years. One of the main reason is the features of high availability and the failure-tolerance which can prevent the entire system form broking down by a failure of a single point. Recently, toolkits such as Akka are used by the public commonly to easily build such kind of cluster. However, clusters of such kind that use Gossip as their membership managing protocol and use link failure detecting mechanism to detect link failures cannot deal with the scenario that a node stochastically drops packets and corrupts the member status of the cluster. In this paper, we formulate the problem to be evaluating the link quality and finding a max clique (NP-Complete) in the connectivity graph. We then proposed an algorithm that consists of two models driven by data from application layer to respectively solving these two problems. Through simulations with statistical data and a real-world product, we demonstrate that our algorithm has a good performance.

  20. Recognizing millions of consistently unidentified spectra across hundreds of shotgun proteomics datasets

    PubMed Central

    Griss, Johannes; Perez-Riverol, Yasset; Lewis, Steve; Tabb, David L.; Dianes, José A.; del-Toro, Noemi; Rurik, Marc; Walzer, Mathias W.; Kohlbacher, Oliver; Hermjakob, Henning; Wang, Rui; Vizcaíno, Juan Antonio

    2016-01-01

    Mass spectrometry (MS) is the main technology used in proteomics approaches. However, on average 75% of spectra analysed in an MS experiment remain unidentified. We propose to use spectrum clustering at a large-scale to shed a light on these unidentified spectra. PRoteomics IDEntifications database (PRIDE) Archive is one of the largest MS proteomics public data repositories worldwide. By clustering all tandem MS spectra publicly available in PRIDE Archive, coming from hundreds of datasets, we were able to consistently characterize three distinct groups of spectra: 1) incorrectly identified spectra, 2) spectra correctly identified but below the set scoring threshold, and 3) truly unidentified spectra. Using a multitude of complementary analysis approaches, we were able to identify less than 20% of the consistently unidentified spectra. The complete spectrum clustering results are available through the new version of the PRIDE Cluster resource (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride/cluster). This resource is intended, among other aims, to encourage and simplify further investigation into these unidentified spectra. PMID:27493588

  1. Recognizing millions of consistently unidentified spectra across hundreds of shotgun proteomics datasets.

    PubMed

    Griss, Johannes; Perez-Riverol, Yasset; Lewis, Steve; Tabb, David L; Dianes, José A; Del-Toro, Noemi; Rurik, Marc; Walzer, Mathias W; Kohlbacher, Oliver; Hermjakob, Henning; Wang, Rui; Vizcaíno, Juan Antonio

    2016-08-01

    Mass spectrometry (MS) is the main technology used in proteomics approaches. However, on average 75% of spectra analysed in an MS experiment remain unidentified. We propose to use spectrum clustering at a large-scale to shed a light on these unidentified spectra. PRoteomics IDEntifications database (PRIDE) Archive is one of the largest MS proteomics public data repositories worldwide. By clustering all tandem MS spectra publicly available in PRIDE Archive, coming from hundreds of datasets, we were able to consistently characterize three distinct groups of spectra: 1) incorrectly identified spectra, 2) spectra correctly identified but below the set scoring threshold, and 3) truly unidentified spectra. Using a multitude of complementary analysis approaches, we were able to identify less than 20% of the consistently unidentified spectra. The complete spectrum clustering results are available through the new version of the PRIDE Cluster resource (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pride/cluster). This resource is intended, among other aims, to encourage and simplify further investigation into these unidentified spectra.

  2. Buckets, Clusters and Dienst

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nelson, Michael L.; Maly, Kurt; Shen, Stewart N. T.

    1997-01-01

    In this paper we describe NCSTRL+, a unified, canonical digital library for scientific and technical information (STI). NCSTRL+ is based on the Networked Computer Science Technical Report Library (NCSTRL), a World Wide Web (WWW) accessible digital library (DL) that provides access to over 80 university departments and laboratories. NCSTRL+ implements two new technologies: cluster functionality and publishing "buckets." We have extended the Dienst protocol, the protocol underlying NCSTRL, to provide the ability to "cluster" independent collections into a logically centralized digital library based upon subject category classification, type of organization, and genres of material. The concept of "buckets" provides a mechanism for publishing and managing logically linked entities with multiple data formats. The NCSTRL+ prototype DL contains the holdings of NCSTRL and the NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS). The prototype demonstrates the feasibility of publishing into a multi-cluster DL, searching across clusters, and storing and presenting buckets of information. We show that the overhead for these additional capabilities is minimal to both the author and the user when compared to the equivalent process within NCSTRL.

  3. Going beyond Clustering in MD Trajectory Analysis: An Application to Villin Headpiece Folding

    PubMed Central

    Rajan, Aruna; Freddolino, Peter L.; Schulten, Klaus

    2010-01-01

    Recent advances in computing technology have enabled microsecond long all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of biological systems. Methods that can distill the salient features of such large trajectories are now urgently needed. Conventional clustering methods used to analyze MD trajectories suffer from various setbacks, namely (i) they are not data driven, (ii) they are unstable to noise and changes in cut-off parameters such as cluster radius and cluster number, and (iii) they do not reduce the dimensionality of the trajectories, and hence are unsuitable for finding collective coordinates. We advocate the application of principal component analysis (PCA) and a non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) method to reduce MD trajectories and overcome the drawbacks of clustering. To illustrate the superiority of nMDS over other methods in reducing data and reproducing salient features, we analyze three complete villin headpiece folding trajectories. Our analysis suggests that the folding process of the villin headpiece is structurally heterogeneous. PMID:20419160

  4. Going beyond clustering in MD trajectory analysis: an application to villin headpiece folding.

    PubMed

    Rajan, Aruna; Freddolino, Peter L; Schulten, Klaus

    2010-04-15

    Recent advances in computing technology have enabled microsecond long all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of biological systems. Methods that can distill the salient features of such large trajectories are now urgently needed. Conventional clustering methods used to analyze MD trajectories suffer from various setbacks, namely (i) they are not data driven, (ii) they are unstable to noise and changes in cut-off parameters such as cluster radius and cluster number, and (iii) they do not reduce the dimensionality of the trajectories, and hence are unsuitable for finding collective coordinates. We advocate the application of principal component analysis (PCA) and a non-metric multidimensional scaling (nMDS) method to reduce MD trajectories and overcome the drawbacks of clustering. To illustrate the superiority of nMDS over other methods in reducing data and reproducing salient features, we analyze three complete villin headpiece folding trajectories. Our analysis suggests that the folding process of the villin headpiece is structurally heterogeneous.

  5. Modem Signature Analysis.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1982-10-01

    AD-A127 993 MODEM SIGNATURE ANALISIS (U) PAR TECHNOLOGY CORP NEW / HARTFORD NY V EDWARDS ET AL. OCT 82 RADC-TR-82-269 F30602-80-C-0264 NCLASSIFIED F/G...as an indication of the class clustering and separation between different classes in the modem data base. It is apparent from the projection that the...that as the clusters disperse, the likelihood of a sample crossing the boundary into an adjacent region and causing a symbol decision error increases. As

  6. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Technology to Study Vector-Pathogen-Host Interactions

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-10-26

    surveyed and GPS mapping completed with 35 cluster contacts enrolled all who did not have dengue infection. There were 91 Aedes aegypti mosquitoes...4. 3,455 female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were collected within the clusters with 5 DENV-1; 36 DENV-2; 22 DENV-3 and 0 DENV-4 isolated from...isolated. 47 female Aedes aegypti were collected and no viruses were isolated. Successful 11 completion of one full dengue season. On June 2011 start

  7. Laser activated nanothermolysis of leukemia cells monitored by photothermal microscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lapotko, Dmitri; Lukianova, Ekaterina; Shnip, Alexander; Zheltov, George; Potapnev, Michail; Savitsky, Valeriy; Klimovich, Olga; Oraevsky, Alexander

    2005-04-01

    We are developing new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for leukemia based on selective targeting of leukemia cells with gold nanoparticles and thermomechanical destruction of the tumor cells with laser-induced microbubbles. Clusters of spherical gold nanoparticles that have strong optical absorption of laser pulses at 532 nm served as nucleation sites of vapor microbubbles. The nanoparticles were targeted selectively to leukemia cells using leukemia-specific surface receptors and a set of two monoclonal antibodies. Application of a primary myeloid-specific antibody to tumor cells followed by targeting the cells with 30-nm nanoparticles conjugated with a secondary antibody (IgG) resulted in formation of nanoparticulate clusters due to aggregation of IgGs. Formation of clusters resulted in substantial decrease of the damage threshold for target cells. The results encourage development of Laser Activated Nanothermolysis as a Cell Elimination Therapy (LANCET) for leukemia. The proposed technology can be applied separately or in combination with chemotherapy for killing leukemia cells without damage to other blood cells. Potential applications include initial reduction of concentration of leukemia cells in blood prior to chemotherapy and treatment of residual tumor cells after the chemotherapy. Laser-induced bubbles in individual cells and cell damage were monitored by analyzing profile of photothermal response signals over the entire cell after irradiation with a single 10-ns long laser pulse. Photothermal microscopy was utilized for imaging formation of microbubbles around nanoparticulate clusters.

  8. The ToxBank Data Warehouse: Supporting the Replacement of In Vivo Repeated Dose Systemic Toxicity Testing.

    PubMed

    Kohonen, Pekka; Benfenati, Emilio; Bower, David; Ceder, Rebecca; Crump, Michael; Cross, Kevin; Grafström, Roland C; Healy, Lyn; Helma, Christoph; Jeliazkova, Nina; Jeliazkov, Vedrin; Maggioni, Silvia; Miller, Scott; Myatt, Glenn; Rautenberg, Michael; Stacey, Glyn; Willighagen, Egon; Wiseman, Jeff; Hardy, Barry

    2013-01-01

    The aim of the SEURAT-1 (Safety Evaluation Ultimately Replacing Animal Testing-1) research cluster, comprised of seven EU FP7 Health projects co-financed by Cosmetics Europe, is to generate a proof-of-concept to show how the latest technologies, systems toxicology and toxicogenomics can be combined to deliver a test replacement for repeated dose systemic toxicity testing on animals. The SEURAT-1 strategy is to adopt a mode-of-action framework to describe repeated dose toxicity, combining in vitro and in silico methods to derive predictions of in vivo toxicity responses. ToxBank is the cross-cluster infrastructure project whose activities include the development of a data warehouse to provide a web-accessible shared repository of research data and protocols, a physical compounds repository, reference or "gold compounds" for use across the cluster (available via wiki.toxbank.net), and a reference resource for biomaterials. Core technologies used in the data warehouse include the ISA-Tab universal data exchange format, REpresentational State Transfer (REST) web services, the W3C Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the OpenTox standards. We describe the design of the data warehouse based on cluster requirements, the implementation based on open standards, and finally the underlying concepts and initial results of a data analysis utilizing public data related to the gold compounds. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  9. Improving the Teaching of Science and Technology in Primary Schools--A Cluster Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chambers, Paul

    2017-01-01

    The position of science and technology in Scottish primary schools is broadly similar to most other primary schools throughout Great Britain. There are certain schools and individuals that perform at a very high level but many schools are hampered by a lack of resources, a lack of confidence in teaching the topics and some significant gaps in the…

  10. From Innovation Clusters to Datapalooza: Accelerating Innovation in Educational Technology

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Culatta, Richard

    2012-01-01

    Education in the United States is entering a very exciting moment. For the first time, all of the digital stars are aligning n such a way that the technology is available to design truly transformational learning experiences. The ubiquity of inexpensive and powerful mobile devices is creating the potential for all students to learn at any time and…

  11. Exploring How Teacher-Related Factors Relate to Student Achievement in Learning Advanced Algebra in Technology-Enhanced Classrooms

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hegedus, Stephen J.; Tapper, John; Dalton, Sara

    2016-01-01

    In this study, we examine the relationship between contextual variables related to teachers and student performance in Advanced Algebra classrooms in the USA. The data were gathered from a cluster-randomized study on the effects of SimCalc MathWorlds®, a curricular and technological intervention as a replacement for Algebra 2 curriculum, on…

  12. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Postsecondary Child Development Technology Programs (CIP: 20.0201--Child Care & Guidance Workers & Mgr). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for the course sequences in the child development technology programs cluster. Presented in the introductory section are a description of the program and suggested course sequence. Section I lists baseline competencies,…

  13. Mississippi Curriculum Framework for Fashion Marketing Technology (Program CIP: 08.0101--Apparel and Accessories Mkt. Op., Gen.). Postsecondary Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi Research and Curriculum Unit for Vocational and Technical Education, State College.

    This document, which is intended for use by community and junior colleges throughout Mississippi, contains curriculum frameworks for the course sequences in the fashion marketing technology programs cluster. Presented in the introductory section are a description of the program and suggested course sequence. Section I lists baseline competencies,…

  14. Development of a Genetic Algorithm to Automate Clustering of a Dependency Structure Matrix

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rogers, James L.; Korte, John J.; Bilardo, Vincent J.

    2006-01-01

    Much technology assessment and organization design data exists in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Tools are needed to put this data into a form that can be used by design managers to make design decisions. One need is to cluster data that is highly coupled. Tools such as the Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM) and a Genetic Algorithm (GA) can be of great benefit. However, no tool currently combines the DSM and a GA to solve the clustering problem. This paper describes a new software tool that interfaces a GA written as an Excel macro with a DSM in spreadsheet format. The results of several test cases are included to demonstrate how well this new tool works.

  15. Jungle Computing: Distributed Supercomputing Beyond Clusters, Grids, and Clouds

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Seinstra, Frank J.; Maassen, Jason; van Nieuwpoort, Rob V.; Drost, Niels; van Kessel, Timo; van Werkhoven, Ben; Urbani, Jacopo; Jacobs, Ceriel; Kielmann, Thilo; Bal, Henri E.

    In recent years, the application of high-performance and distributed computing in scientific practice has become increasingly wide spread. Among the most widely available platforms to scientists are clusters, grids, and cloud systems. Such infrastructures currently are undergoing revolutionary change due to the integration of many-core technologies, providing orders-of-magnitude speed improvements for selected compute kernels. With high-performance and distributed computing systems thus becoming more heterogeneous and hierarchical, programming complexity is vastly increased. Further complexities arise because urgent desire for scalability and issues including data distribution, software heterogeneity, and ad hoc hardware availability commonly force scientists into simultaneous use of multiple platforms (e.g., clusters, grids, and clouds used concurrently). A true computing jungle.

  16. An integrated bioinformatics approach to improve two-color microarray quality-control: impact on biological conclusions.

    PubMed

    van Haaften, Rachel I M; Luceri, Cristina; van Erk, Arie; Evelo, Chris T A

    2009-06-01

    Omics technology used for large-scale measurements of gene expression is rapidly evolving. This work pointed out the need of an extensive bioinformatics analyses for array quality assessment before and after gene expression clustering and pathway analysis. A study focused on the effect of red wine polyphenols on rat colon mucosa was used to test the impact of quality control and normalisation steps on the biological conclusions. The integration of data visualization, pathway analysis and clustering revealed an artifact problem that was solved with an adapted normalisation. We propose a possible point to point standard analysis procedure, based on a combination of clustering and data visualization for the analysis of microarray data.

  17. NASA Helps Build Colorado Economy

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2010-12-13

    Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology (CAMT) CEO Elaine Thorndike delivers remarks at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on Monday, Dec. 13, 2010, prior to the signing of an agreement with NASA that creates a Technology Acceleration Program and Regional Innovation Cluster for Aerospace and Clean Energy. A manufacturing park focused on rapid new product development and production will be developed to assist growing Colorado businesses while promoting the commercialization of technology developed for the space program. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

  18. NASA Helps Build Colorado Economy

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2010-12-13

    NIST MEP Director Roger Kilmer delivers remarks at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on Monday, Dec. 13, 2010, prior to the signing of an agreement between the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology (CAMT) and NASA that creates a Technology Acceleration Program and Regional Innovation Cluster for Aerospace and Clean Energy. A manufacturing park focused on rapid new product development and production will be developed to assist growing Colorado businesses while promoting the commercialization of technology developed for the space program. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

  19. Large-scale seismic waveform quality metric calculation using Hadoop

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Magana-Zook, S.; Gaylord, J. M.; Knapp, D. R.; Dodge, D. A.; Ruppert, S. D.

    2016-09-01

    In this work we investigated the suitability of Hadoop MapReduce and Apache Spark for large-scale computation of seismic waveform quality metrics by comparing their performance with that of a traditional distributed implementation. The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Management Center (DMC) provided 43 terabytes of broadband waveform data of which 5.1 TB of data were processed with the traditional architecture, and the full 43 TB were processed using MapReduce and Spark. Maximum performance of 0.56 terabytes per hour was achieved using all 5 nodes of the traditional implementation. We noted that I/O dominated processing, and that I/O performance was deteriorating with the addition of the 5th node. Data collected from this experiment provided the baseline against which the Hadoop results were compared. Next, we processed the full 43 TB dataset using both MapReduce and Apache Spark on our 18-node Hadoop cluster. These experiments were conducted multiple times with various subsets of the data so that we could build models to predict performance as a function of dataset size. We found that both MapReduce and Spark significantly outperformed the traditional reference implementation. At a dataset size of 5.1 terabytes, both Spark and MapReduce were about 15 times faster than the reference implementation. Furthermore, our performance models predict that for a dataset of 350 terabytes, Spark running on a 100-node cluster would be about 265 times faster than the reference implementation. We do not expect that the reference implementation deployed on a 100-node cluster would perform significantly better than on the 5-node cluster because the I/O performance cannot be made to scale. Finally, we note that although Big Data technologies clearly provide a way to process seismic waveform datasets in a high-performance and scalable manner, the technology is still rapidly changing, requires a high degree of investment in personnel, and will likely require significant changes in other parts of our infrastructure. Nevertheless, we anticipate that as the technology matures and third-party tool vendors make it easier to manage and operate clusters, Hadoop (or a successor) will play a large role in our seismic data processing.

  20. Identification of complex metabolic states in critically injured patients using bioinformatic cluster analysis.

    PubMed

    Cohen, Mitchell J; Grossman, Adam D; Morabito, Diane; Knudson, M Margaret; Butte, Atul J; Manley, Geoffrey T

    2010-01-01

    Advances in technology have made extensive monitoring of patient physiology the standard of care in intensive care units (ICUs). While many systems exist to compile these data, there has been no systematic multivariate analysis and categorization across patient physiological data. The sheer volume and complexity of these data make pattern recognition or identification of patient state difficult. Hierarchical cluster analysis allows visualization of high dimensional data and enables pattern recognition and identification of physiologic patient states. We hypothesized that processing of multivariate data using hierarchical clustering techniques would allow identification of otherwise hidden patient physiologic patterns that would be predictive of outcome. Multivariate physiologic and ventilator data were collected continuously using a multimodal bioinformatics system in the surgical ICU at San Francisco General Hospital. These data were incorporated with non-continuous data and stored on a server in the ICU. A hierarchical clustering algorithm grouped each minute of data into 1 of 10 clusters. Clusters were correlated with outcome measures including incidence of infection, multiple organ failure (MOF), and mortality. We identified 10 clusters, which we defined as distinct patient states. While patients transitioned between states, they spent significant amounts of time in each. Clusters were enriched for our outcome measures: 2 of the 10 states were enriched for infection, 6 of 10 were enriched for MOF, and 3 of 10 were enriched for death. Further analysis of correlations between pairs of variables within each cluster reveals significant differences in physiology between clusters. Here we show for the first time the feasibility of clustering physiological measurements to identify clinically relevant patient states after trauma. These results demonstrate that hierarchical clustering techniques can be useful for visualizing complex multivariate data and may provide new insights for the care of critically injured patients.

  1. [Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats: structure, function and application--a review].

    PubMed

    Cui, Yujun; Li, Yanjun; Yan, Yanfeng; Yang, Ruifu

    2008-11-01

    CRISPRs (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), the basis of spoligotyping technology, can provide prokaryotes with heritable adaptive immunity against phages' invasion. Studies on CRISPR loci and their associated elements, including various CAS (CRISPR-associated) proteins and leader sequences, are still in its infant period. We introduce the brief history', structure, function, bioinformatics research and application of this amazing immunity system in prokaryotic organism for inspiring more scientists to find their interest in this developing topic.

  2. Gathering Real World Evidence with Cluster Analysis for Clinical Decision Support.

    PubMed

    Xia, Eryu; Liu, Haifeng; Li, Jing; Mei, Jing; Li, Xuejun; Xu, Enliang; Li, Xiang; Hu, Gang; Xie, Guotong; Xu, Meilin

    2017-01-01

    Clinical decision support systems are information technology systems that assist clinical decision-making tasks, which have been shown to enhance clinical performance. Cluster analysis, which groups similar patients together, aims to separate patient cases into phenotypically heterogenous groups and defining therapeutically homogeneous patient subclasses. Useful as it is, the application of cluster analysis in clinical decision support systems is less reported. Here, we describe the usage of cluster analysis in clinical decision support systems, by first dividing patient cases into similar groups and then providing diagnosis or treatment suggestions based on the group profiles. This integration provides data for clinical decisions and compiles a wide range of clinical practices to inform the performance of individual clinicians. We also include an example usage of the system under the scenario of blood lipid management in type 2 diabetes. These efforts represent a step toward promoting patient-centered care and enabling precision medicine.

  3. Accurate Grid-based Clustering Algorithm with Diagonal Grid Searching and Merging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Feng; Ye, Chengcheng; Zhu, Erzhou

    2017-09-01

    Due to the advent of big data, data mining technology has attracted more and more attentions. As an important data analysis method, grid clustering algorithm is fast but with relatively lower accuracy. This paper presents an improved clustering algorithm combined with grid and density parameters. The algorithm first divides the data space into the valid meshes and invalid meshes through grid parameters. Secondly, from the starting point located at the first point of the diagonal of the grids, the algorithm takes the direction of “horizontal right, vertical down” to merge the valid meshes. Furthermore, by the boundary grid processing, the invalid grids are searched and merged when the adjacent left, above, and diagonal-direction grids are all the valid ones. By doing this, the accuracy of clustering is improved. The experimental results have shown that the proposed algorithm is accuracy and relatively faster when compared with some popularly used algorithms.

  4. A Multi-Discipline, Multi-Genre Digital Library for Research and Education

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nelson, Michael L.; Maly, Kurt; Shen, Stewart N. T.

    2004-01-01

    We describe NCSTRL+, a unified, canonical digital library for educational and scientific and technical information (STI). NCSTRL+ is based on the Networked Computer Science Technical Report Library (NCSTRL), a World Wide Web (WWW) accessible digital library (DL) that provides access to over 100 university departments and laboratories. NCSTRL+ implements two new technologies: cluster functionality and publishing "buckets". We have extended the Dienst protocol, the protocol underlying NCSTRL, to provide the ability to "cluster" independent collections into a logically centralized digital library based upon subject category classification, type of organization, and genres of material. The concept of "buckets" provides a mechanism for publishing and managing logically linked entities with multiple data formats. The NCSTRL+ prototype DL contains the holdings of NCSTRL and the NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS). The prototype demonstrates the feasibility of publishing into a multi-cluster DL, searching across clusters, and storing and presenting buckets of information.

  5. Deposition of hydrogenated silicon clusters for efficient epitaxial growth.

    PubMed

    Le, Ha-Linh Thi; Jardali, Fatme; Vach, Holger

    2018-06-13

    Epitaxial silicon thin films grown from the deposition of plasma-born hydrogenated silicon nanoparticles using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition have widely been investigated due to their potential applications in photovoltaic and nanoelectronic device technologies. However, the optimal experimental conditions and the underlying growth mechanisms leading to the high-speed epitaxial growth of thin silicon films from hydrogenated silicon nanoparticles remain far from being understood. In the present work, extensive molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the epitaxial growth of silicon thin films resulting from the deposition of plasma-born hydrogenated silicon clusters at low substrate temperatures under realistic reactor conditions. There is strong evidence that a temporary phase transition of the substrate area around the cluster impact site to the liquid state is necessary for the epitaxial growth to take place. We predict further that a non-normal incidence angle for the cluster impact significantly facilitates the epitaxial growth of thin crystalline silicon films.

  6. CLUSTOM-CLOUD: In-Memory Data Grid-Based Software for Clustering 16S rRNA Sequence Data in the Cloud Environment.

    PubMed

    Oh, Jeongsu; Choi, Chi-Hwan; Park, Min-Kyu; Kim, Byung Kwon; Hwang, Kyuin; Lee, Sang-Heon; Hong, Soon Gyu; Nasir, Arshan; Cho, Wan-Sup; Kim, Kyung Mo

    2016-01-01

    High-throughput sequencing can produce hundreds of thousands of 16S rRNA sequence reads corresponding to different organisms present in the environmental samples. Typically, analysis of microbial diversity in bioinformatics starts from pre-processing followed by clustering 16S rRNA reads into relatively fewer operational taxonomic units (OTUs). The OTUs are reliable indicators of microbial diversity and greatly accelerate the downstream analysis time. However, existing hierarchical clustering algorithms that are generally more accurate than greedy heuristic algorithms struggle with large sequence datasets. To keep pace with the rapid rise in sequencing data, we present CLUSTOM-CLOUD, which is the first distributed sequence clustering program based on In-Memory Data Grid (IMDG) technology-a distributed data structure to store all data in the main memory of multiple computing nodes. The IMDG technology helps CLUSTOM-CLOUD to enhance both its capability of handling larger datasets and its computational scalability better than its ancestor, CLUSTOM, while maintaining high accuracy. Clustering speed of CLUSTOM-CLOUD was evaluated on published 16S rRNA human microbiome sequence datasets using the small laboratory cluster (10 nodes) and under the Amazon EC2 cloud-computing environments. Under the laboratory environment, it required only ~3 hours to process dataset of size 200 K reads regardless of the complexity of the human microbiome data. In turn, one million reads were processed in approximately 20, 14, and 11 hours when utilizing 20, 30, and 40 nodes on the Amazon EC2 cloud-computing environment. The running time evaluation indicates that CLUSTOM-CLOUD can handle much larger sequence datasets than CLUSTOM and is also a scalable distributed processing system. The comparative accuracy test using 16S rRNA pyrosequences of a mock community shows that CLUSTOM-CLOUD achieves higher accuracy than DOTUR, mothur, ESPRIT-Tree, UCLUST and Swarm. CLUSTOM-CLOUD is written in JAVA and is freely available at http://clustomcloud.kopri.re.kr.

  7. Three-Dimensional Modeling of Fracture Clusters in Geothermal Reservoirs

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ghassemi, Ahmad

    The objective of this is to develop a 3-D numerical model for simulating mode I, II, and III (tensile, shear, and out-of-plane) propagation of multiple fractures and fracture clusters to accurately predict geothermal reservoir stimulation using the virtual multi-dimensional internal bond (VMIB). Effective development of enhanced geothermal systems can significantly benefit from improved modeling of hydraulic fracturing. In geothermal reservoirs, where the temperature can reach or exceed 350oC, thermal and poro-mechanical processes play an important role in fracture initiation and propagation. In this project hydraulic fracturing of hot subsurface rock mass will be numerically modeled by extending the virtual multiplemore » internal bond theory and implementing it in a finite element code, WARP3D, a three-dimensional finite element code for solid mechanics. The new constitutive model along with the poro-thermoelastic computational algorithms will allow modeling the initiation and propagation of clusters of fractures, and extension of pre-existing fractures. The work will enable the industry to realistically model stimulation of geothermal reservoirs. The project addresses the Geothermal Technologies Office objective of accurately predicting geothermal reservoir stimulation (GTO technology priority item). The project goal will be attained by: (i) development of the VMIB method for application to 3D analysis of fracture clusters; (ii) development of poro- and thermoelastic material sub-routines for use in 3D finite element code WARP3D; (iii) implementation of VMIB and the new material routines in WARP3D to enable simulation of clusters of fractures while accounting for the effects of the pore pressure, thermal stress and inelastic deformation; (iv) simulation of 3D fracture propagation and coalescence and formation of clusters, and comparison with laboratory compression tests; and (v) application of the model to interpretation of injection experiments (planned by our industrial partner) with reference to the impact of the variations in injection rate and temperature, rock properties, and in-situ stress.« less

  8. Development of a small-scale computer cluster

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wilhelm, Jay; Smith, Justin T.; Smith, James E.

    2008-04-01

    An increase in demand for computing power in academia has necessitated the need for high performance machines. Computing power of a single processor has been steadily increasing, but lags behind the demand for fast simulations. Since a single processor has hard limits to its performance, a cluster of computers can have the ability to multiply the performance of a single computer with the proper software. Cluster computing has therefore become a much sought after technology. Typical desktop computers could be used for cluster computing, but are not intended for constant full speed operation and take up more space than rack mount servers. Specialty computers that are designed to be used in clusters meet high availability and space requirements, but can be costly. A market segment exists where custom built desktop computers can be arranged in a rack mount situation, gaining the space saving of traditional rack mount computers while remaining cost effective. To explore these possibilities, an experiment was performed to develop a computing cluster using desktop components for the purpose of decreasing computation time of advanced simulations. This study indicates that small-scale cluster can be built from off-the-shelf components which multiplies the performance of a single desktop machine, while minimizing occupied space and still remaining cost effective.

  9. Rapid identification of Enterobacter hormaechei and Enterobacter cloacae genetic cluster III.

    PubMed

    Ohad, S; Block, C; Kravitz, V; Farber, A; Pilo, S; Breuer, R; Rorman, E

    2014-05-01

    Enterobacter cloacae complex bacteria are of both clinical and environmental importance. Phenotypic methods are unable to distinguish between some of the species in this complex, which often renders their identification incomplete. The goal of this study was to develop molecular assays to identify Enterobacter hormaechei and Ent. cloacae genetic cluster III which are relatively frequently encountered in clinical material. The molecular assays developed in this study are qPCR technology based and served to identify both Ent. hormaechei and Ent. cloacae genetic cluster III. qPCR results were compared to hsp60 sequence analysis. Most clinical isolates were assigned to Ent. hormaechei subsp. steigerwaltii and Ent. cloacae genetic cluster III. The latter was proportionately more frequently isolated from bloodstream infections than from other material (P < 0·05). The qPCR assays detecting Ent. hormaechei and Ent. cloacae genetic cluster III demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity. The presented qPCR assays allow accurate and rapid identification of clinical isolates of the Ent. cloacae complex. The improved identifications obtained can specifically assist analysis of Ent. hormaechei and Ent. cloacae genetic cluster III in nosocomial outbreaks and can promote rapid environmental monitoring. An association was observed between Ent. cloacae cluster III and systemic infection that deserves further attention. © 2014 The Society for Applied Microbiology.

  10. Accessing and visualizing scientific spatiotemporal data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Katz, Daniel S.; Bergou, Attila; Berriman, G. Bruce; Block, Gary L.; Collier, Jim; Curkendall, David W.; Good, John; Husman, Laura; Jacob, Joseph C.; Laity, Anastasia; hide

    2004-01-01

    This paper discusses work done by JPL's Parallel Applications Technologies Group in helping scientists access and visualize very large data sets through the use of multiple computing resources, such as parallel supercomputers, clusters, and grids.

  11. Travelers' Health: Water Disinfection for Travelers

    MedlinePlus

    ... hand-pump or gravity-drip filters with various designs and types of filter media are commercially available ... salts, thus achieving desalination. One new portable filter design incorporates hollow fiber technology, which is a cluster ...

  12. Technical Efficiency of Automotive Industry Cluster in Chennai

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bhaskaran, E.

    2012-07-01

    Chennai is also called as Detroit of India due to its automotive industry presence producing over 40 % of the India's vehicle and components. During 2001-2002, diagnostic study was conducted on the Automotive Component Industries (ACI) in Ambattur Industrial Estate, Chennai and in SWOT analysis it was found that it had faced problems on infrastructure, technology, procurement, production and marketing. In the year 2004-2005 under the cluster development approach (CDA), they formed Chennai auto cluster, under public private partnership concept, received grant from Government of India, Government of Tamil Nadu, Ambattur Municipality, bank loans and stake holders. This results development in infrastructure, technology, procurement, production and marketing interrelationships among ACI. The objective is to determine the correlation coefficient, regression equation, technical efficiency, peer weights, slack variables and return to scale of cluster before and after the CDA. The methodology adopted is collection of primary data from ACI and analyzing using data envelopment analysis (DEA) of input oriented Banker-Charnes-Cooper model. There is significant increase in correlation coefficient and the regression analysis reveals that for one percent increase in employment and net worth, the gross output increases significantly after the CDA. The DEA solver gives the technical efficiency of ACI by taking shift, employment, net worth as input data and quality, gross output and export ratio as output data. From the technical score and ranking of ACI, it is found that there is significant increase in technical efficiency of ACI when compared to CDA. The slack variables obtained clearly reveals the excess employment and net worth and no shortage of gross output. To conclude there is increase in technical efficiency of not only Chennai auto cluster in general but also Chennai auto components industries in particular.

  13. Symptom clusters in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma during radiotherapy.

    PubMed

    Xiao, Wenli; Chan, Carmen W H; Fan, Yuying; Leung, Doris Y P; Xia, Weixiong; He, Yan; Tang, Linquan

    2017-06-01

    Despite the improvement in radiotherapy (RT) technology, patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) still suffer from numerous distressing symptoms simultaneously during RT. The purpose of the study was to investigate the symptom clusters experienced by NPC patients during RT. First-treated Chinese NPC patients (n = 130) undergoing late-period RT (from week 4 till the end) were recruited for this cross-sectional study. They completed a sociodemographic and clinical data questionnaire, the Chinese version of the M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory - Head and Neck Module (MDASI-HN-C) and the Chinese version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Head and Neck Scale (FACT-H&N-C). Principal axis factor analysis with oblimin rotation, independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson product-moment correlation were used to analyze the data. Four symptom clusters were identified, and labelled general, gastrointestinal, nutrition impact and social interaction impact. Of these 4 types, the nutrition impact symptom cluster was the most severe. Statistically positive correlations were found between severity of all 4 symptom clusters and symptom interference, as well as weight loss. Statistically negative correlations were detected between the cluster severity and the QOL total score and 3 out of 5 subscale scores. The four clusters identified reveal the symptom patterns experienced by NPC patients during RT. Future intervention studies on managing these symptom clusters are warranted, especially for the nutrition impact symptom cluster. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Knowledge Management for Command and Control

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2004-06-01

    interfaces relies on rich visual and conceptual understanding of what is sketched, rather than the pattern-recognition technologies that most systems use...recognizers) required by other approaches. • The underlying conceptual representations that nuSketch uses enable it to serve as a front end to knowledge...constructing enemy-intent hypotheses via mixed visual and conceptual analogies. II.C. Multi-ViewPoint Clustering Analysis (MVP-CA) technology To

  15. Resilient and Fractionated Cyber Physical System

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-09-01

    framework of the Internet of Things ( IOT ), or Industry 2.0. In the Global Information Technology Report 2012, the World Economic Forum reports...According to the NDIA Business and Technology magazine, and a Satellite Industry Association study after the initial Iraq invasion, “80 percent of...characteristics only when the resources provided by the cluster are needed by the mission commanders. Second, flexibility is determined before the

  16. Space-time clusters for early detection of grizzly bear predation.

    PubMed

    Kermish-Wells, Joseph; Massolo, Alessandro; Stenhouse, Gordon B; Larsen, Terrence A; Musiani, Marco

    2018-01-01

    Accurate detection and classification of predation events is important to determine predation and consumption rates by predators. However, obtaining this information for large predators is constrained by the speed at which carcasses disappear and the cost of field data collection. To accurately detect predation events, researchers have used GPS collar technology combined with targeted site visits. However, kill sites are often investigated well after the predation event due to limited data retrieval options on GPS collars (VHF or UHF downloading) and to ensure crew safety when working with large predators. This can lead to missing information from small-prey (including young ungulates) kill sites due to scavenging and general site deterioration (e.g., vegetation growth). We used a space-time permutation scan statistic (STPSS) clustering method (SaTScan) to detect predation events of grizzly bears ( Ursus arctos ) fitted with satellite transmitting GPS collars. We used generalized linear mixed models to verify predation events and the size of carcasses using spatiotemporal characteristics as predictors. STPSS uses a probability model to compare expected cluster size (space and time) with the observed size. We applied this method retrospectively to data from 2006 to 2007 to compare our method to random GPS site selection. In 2013-2014, we applied our detection method to visit sites one week after their occupation. Both datasets were collected in the same study area. Our approach detected 23 of 27 predation sites verified by visiting 464 random grizzly bear locations in 2006-2007, 187 of which were within space-time clusters and 277 outside. Predation site detection increased by 2.75 times (54 predation events of 335 visited clusters) using 2013-2014 data. Our GLMMs showed that cluster size and duration predicted predation events and carcass size with high sensitivity (0.72 and 0.94, respectively). Coupling GPS satellite technology with clusters using a program based on space-time probability models allows for prompt visits to predation sites. This enables accurate identification of the carcass size and increases fieldwork efficiency in predation studies.

  17. Wiring photosystem I for direct solar hydrogen production.

    PubMed

    Lubner, Carolyn E; Grimme, Rebecca; Bryant, Donald A; Golbeck, John H

    2010-01-26

    The generation of H(2) by the use of solar energy is a promising way to supply humankind's energy needs while simultaneously mitigating environmental concerns that arise due to climate change. The challenge is to find a way to connect a photochemical module that harnesses the sun's energy to a catalytic module that generates H(2) with high quantum yields and rates. In this review, we describe a technology that employs a "molecular wire" to connect a terminal [4Fe-4S] cluster of Photosystem I directly to a catalyst, which can be either a Pt nanoparticle or the distal [4Fe-4S] cluster of an [FeFe]- or [NiFe]-hydrogenase enzyme. The keys to connecting these two moieties are surface-located cysteine residues, which serve as ligands to Fe-S clusters and which can be changed through site-specific mutagenesis to glycine residues, and the use of a molecular wire terminated in sulfhydryl groups to connect the two modules. The sulfhydryl groups at the end of the molecular wire form a direct chemical linkage to a suitable catalyst or can chemically rescue a [4Fe-4S] cluster, thereby generating a strong coordination bond. Specifically, the molecular wire can connect the F(B) iron-sulfur cluster of Photosystem I either to a Pt nanoparticle or, by using the same type of genetic modification, to the differentiated iron atom of the distal [4Fe-4S].(Cys)(3)(Gly) cluster of hydrogenase. When electrons are supplied by a sacrificial donor, this technology forms the cathode of a photochemical half-cell that evolves H(2) when illuminated. If such a device were connected to the anode of a photochemical half-cell that oxidizes water, an in vitro solar energy converter could be realized that generates only O(2) and H(2) in the light. A similar methodology can be used to connect Photosystem I to other redox proteins that have surface-located [4Fe-4S] clusters. The controlled light-driven production of strong reductants by such systems can be used to produce other biofuels or to provide mechanistic insights into enzymes catalyzing multielectron, proton-coupled reactions.

  18. Characteristics of Clusters of Salmonella and Escherichia coli O157 Detected by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis that Predict Identification of Outbreaks.

    PubMed

    Jones, Timothy F; Sashti, Nupur; Ingram, Amanda; Phan, Quyen; Booth, Hillary; Rounds, Joshua; Nicholson, Cyndy S; Cosgrove, Shaun; Crocker, Kia; Gould, L Hannah

    2016-12-01

    Molecular subtyping of pathogens is critical for foodborne disease outbreak detection and investigation. Many clusters initially identified by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) are not confirmed as point-source outbreaks. We evaluated characteristics of clusters that can help prioritize investigations to maximize effective use of limited resources. A multiagency collaboration (FoodNet) collected data on Salmonella and Escherichia coli O157 clusters for 3 years. Cluster size, timing, extent, and nature of epidemiologic investigations were analyzed to determine associations with whether the cluster was identified as a confirmed outbreak. During the 3-year study period, 948 PFGE clusters were identified; 849 (90%) were Salmonella and 99 (10%) were E. coli O157. Of those, 192 (20%) were ultimately identified as outbreaks (154 [18%] of Salmonella and 38 [38%] of E. coli O157 clusters). Successful investigation was significantly associated with larger cluster size, more rapid submission of isolates (e.g., for Salmonella, 6 days for outbreaks vs. 8 days for nonoutbreaks) and PFGE result reporting to investigators (16 days vs. 29 days, respectively), and performance of analytic studies (completed in 33% of Salmonella outbreaks vs. 1% of nonoutbreaks) and environmental investigations (40% and 1%, respectively). Intervals between first and second cases in a cluster did not differ significantly between outbreaks and nonoutbreaks. Molecular subtyping of pathogens is a rapidly advancing technology, and successfully identifying outbreaks will vary by pathogen and methods used. Understanding criteria for successfully investigating outbreaks is critical for efficiently using limited resources.

  19. Growth and properties of silicon heterostructures with buried nanosize Mg2Si clusters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galkin, N. G.; Galkin, K. N.

    2005-06-01

    The technology of solid-phase growth of nanosize islands of magnesium suicide on Si (111) 7x7 with narrow distributions of lateral size and height (60 - 80 and 5 - 7 nanometers, respectively) and density of up to 2x 109 sm-2 is proposed. A 20-50 nm thick Si layer has been grown upon these islands. Basing on the data of AES, EELS, AFM and JR spectroscopy, a conclusion is made that the Mg2Si islands remain in depth of the Si layer. The suggestion is made that sizes, density and crystal structure of the buried magnesium suicide clusters preserves. It is shown, that the system of three as-grown layers of buried clusters has smoother surface than the one layer system. The contribution of the Mg2Si clusters into the dielectric function is observed at the energy 0.8-1.2 eV, it is maximal if the clusters are localized on the silicon surface. It is shown, that with increase of the number of Mg2Si cluster layers their contribution increases into the effective number of electrons per a unit cell and effective dielectric function of the sample.

  20. Cots Correlator Platform

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schaaf, Kjeld; Overeem, Ruud

    2004-06-01

    Moore’s law is best exploited by using consumer market hardware. In particular, the gaming industry pushes the limit of processor performance thus reducing the cost per raw flop even faster than Moore’s law predicts. Next to the cost benefits of Common-Of-The-Shelf (COTS) processing resources, there is a rapidly growing experience pool in cluster based processing. The typical Beowulf cluster of PC’s supercomputers are well known. Multiple examples exists of specialised cluster computers based on more advanced server nodes or even gaming stations. All these cluster machines build upon the same knowledge about cluster software management, scheduling, middleware libraries and mathematical libraries. In this study, we have integrated COTS processing resources and cluster nodes into a very high performance processing platform suitable for streaming data applications, in particular to implement a correlator. The required processing power for the correlator in modern radio telescopes is in the range of the larger supercomputers, which motivates the usage of supercomputer technology. Raw processing power is provided by graphical processors and is combined with an Infiniband host bus adapter with integrated data stream handling logic. With this processing platform a scalable correlator can be built with continuously growing processing power at consumer market prices.

  1. Using natural products for drug discovery: the impact of the genomics era.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Mingzi M; Qiao, Yuan; Ang, Ee Lui; Zhao, Huimin

    2017-05-01

    Evolutionarily selected over billions of years for their interactions with biomolecules, natural products have been and continue to be a major source of pharmaceuticals. In the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies scaled down their natural product discovery programs in favor of synthetic chemical libraries due to major challenges such as high rediscovery rates, challenging isolation, and low production titers. Propelled by advances in DNA sequencing and synthetic biology technologies, insights into microbial secondary metabolism provided have inspired a number of strategies to address these challenges. Areas covered: This review highlights the importance of genomics and metagenomics in natural product discovery, and provides an overview of the technical and conceptual advances that offer unprecedented access to molecules encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters. Expert opinion: Genomics and metagenomics revealed nature's remarkable biosynthetic potential and her vast chemical inventory that we can now prioritize and systematically mine for novel chemical scaffolds with desirable bioactivities. Coupled with synthetic biology and genome engineering technologies, significant progress has been made in identifying and predicting the chemical output of biosynthetic gene clusters, as well as in optimizing cluster expression in native and heterologous host systems for the production of pharmaceutically relevant metabolites and their derivatives.

  2. Using natural products for drug discovery: the impact of the genomics era

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Mingzi M; Qiao, Yuan; Ang, Ee Lui; Zhao, Huimin

    2017-01-01

    Introduction Evolutionarily selected over billions of years for their interactions with biomolecules, natural products have been and continue to be a major source of pharmaceuticals. In the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies scaled down their natural product discovery programs in favor of synthetic chemical libraries due to major challenges such as high rediscovery rates, challenging isolation, and low production titers. Propelled by advances in DNA sequencing and synthetic biology technologies, insights into microbial secondary metabolism provided have inspired a number of strategies to address these challenges. Areas covered This review highlights the importance of genomics and metagenomics in natural product discovery, and provides an overview of the technical and conceptual advances that offer unprecedented access to molecules encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters. Expert opinion Genomics and metagenomics revealed nature’s remarkable biosynthetic potential and her vast chemical inventory that we can now prioritize and systematically mine for novel chemical scaffolds with desirable bioactivities. Coupled with synthetic biology and genome engineering technologies, significant progress has been made in identifying and predicting the chemical output of biosynthetic gene clusters, as well as in optimizing cluster expression in native and heterologous host systems for the production of pharmaceutically relevant metabolites and their derivatives. PMID:28277838

  3. Large-Scale Cooperative Dissemination of Governmental Information in Emergency — An Experiment and Future Strategies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Horiba, Katsuhiro; Okawa, Keiko; Murai, Jun

    On the 11th of March, 2011, a massive earthquake hit the northeast region of Japan. The government of Japan needed to publish information regarding the earthquake and its influences. However, their capacity of Web services overflowed. They called the industry and academia for help for providing stable information service to the people. Industry and academia formed a team to answer the call and named themselves the “EQ project”. This paper describes how the EQ Project was organized and operated, and gives analyses of the statistics. An academic organization took the lead in the EQ Project. Ten organizations which consisted of commercial IT industry and academics specialized in Internet technology, were participating in the EQ Project and they structured the three clusters based on their relationships and technological approach. In WIDE Cluster, one of three clusters in the structure of EQ, the peak number of file accesses per day was over 90 thousand, the mobile browsers was 3.4% and foreign languages (translated contents) were referred 35%. We have also discussed the future information distribution strategies in emergency situation based on the experiences of the EQ Project, and proposed nine suggestions to the MEXT as a future strategy.

  4. Post-decomposition optimizations using pattern matching and rule-based clustering for multi-patterning technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Lynn T.-N.; Madhavan, Sriram

    2018-03-01

    A pattern matching and rule-based polygon clustering methodology with DFM scoring is proposed to detect decomposition-induced manufacturability detractors and fix the layout designs prior to manufacturing. A pattern matcher scans the layout for pre-characterized patterns from a library. If a pattern were detected, rule-based clustering identifies the neighboring polygons that interact with those captured by the pattern. Then, DFM scores are computed for the possible layout fixes: the fix with the best score is applied. The proposed methodology was applied to two 20nm products with a chip area of 11 mm2 on the metal 2 layer. All the hotspots were resolved. The number of DFM spacing violations decreased by 7-15%.

  5. IR wireless cluster synapses of HYDRA very large neural networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jannson, Tomasz; Forrester, Thomas

    2008-04-01

    RF/IR wireless (virtual) synapses are critical components of HYDRA (Hyper-Distributed Robotic Autonomy) neural networks, already discussed in two earlier papers. The HYDRA network has the potential to be very large, up to 10 11-neurons and 10 18-synapses, based on already established technologies (cellular RF telephony and IR-wireless LANs). It is organized into almost fully connected IR-wireless clusters. The HYDRA neurons and synapses are very flexible, simple, and low-cost. They can be modified into a broad variety of biologically-inspired brain-like computing capabilities. In this third paper, we focus on neural hardware in general, and on IR-wireless synapses in particular. Such synapses, based on LED/LD-connections, dominate the HYDRA neural cluster.

  6. Manipulating Light with Transition Metal Clusters, Organic Dyes, and Metal Organic Frameworks

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ogut, Serdar

    The primary goals of our research program is to develop and apply state-of-the-art first-principles methods to predict electronic and optical properties of three systems of significant scientific and technological interest: transition metal clusters, organic dyes, and metal-organic frameworks. These systems offer great opportunities to manipulate light for a wide ranging list of energy-related scientific problems and applications. During this grant period, we focused our investigations on the development, implementation, and benchmarking of many-body Green’s function methods (GW approximation and the Bethe-Salpeter equation) to examine excited-state properties of transition metal/transition-metal-oxide clusters and organic molecules that comprise the building blocks of dyesmore » and metal-organic frameworks.« less

  7. INTERDISCIPLINARY PHYSICS AND RELATED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: Efficient One-Step Generation of Cluster State with Charge Qubits in Circuit QED

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Yi-Min; Li, Cheng-Zu

    2010-01-01

    We propose theoretical schemes to generate highly entangled cluster state with superconducting qubits in a circuit QED architecture. Charge qubits are located inside a superconducting transmission line, which serves as a quantum data bus. We show that large clusters state can be efficiently generated in just one step with the long-range Ising-like unitary operators. The quantum operations which are generally realized by two coupling mechanisms: either voltage coupling or current coupling, depend only on global geometric features and are insensitive not only to the thermal state of the transmission line but also to certain random operation errors. Thus high-fidelity one-way quantum computation can be achieved.

  8. A Conversation with the New Alchemists.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Greene, Wade

    1978-01-01

    Reports on a visit to the New Alchemy Institute, a cluster of windmills and fish and vegetable production systems on a 12-acre site on Cape Cod. They are active in the appropriate technology movement. (BB)

  9. [Overview of patents on targeted genome editing technologies and their implications for innovation and entrepreneurship education in universities].

    PubMed

    Fan, Xiang-yu; Lin, Yan-ping; Liao, Guo-jian; Xie, Jian-ping

    2015-12-01

    Zinc finger nuclease, transcription activator-like effector nuclease, and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/Cas9 nuclease are important targeted genome editing technologies. They have great significance in scientific research and applications on aspects of functional genomics research, species improvement, disease prevention and gene therapy. There are past or ongoing disputes over ownership of the intellectual property behind every technology. In this review, we summarize the patents on these three targeted genome editing technologies in order to provide some reference for developing genome editing technologies with self-owned intellectual property rights and some implications for current innovation and entrepreneurship education in universities.

  10. [Earth Science Technology Office's Computational Technologies Project

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fischer, James (Technical Monitor); Merkey, Phillip

    2005-01-01

    This grant supported the effort to characterize the problem domain of the Earth Science Technology Office's Computational Technologies Project, to engage the Beowulf Cluster Computing Community as well as the High Performance Computing Research Community so that we can predict the applicability of said technologies to the scientific community represented by the CT project and formulate long term strategies to provide the computational resources necessary to attain the anticipated scientific objectives of the CT project. Specifically, the goal of the evaluation effort is to use the information gathered over the course of the Round-3 investigations to quantify the trends in scientific expectations, the algorithmic requirements and capabilities of high-performance computers to satisfy this anticipated need.

  11. Clustering-Based Ensemble Learning for Activity Recognition in Smart Homes

    PubMed Central

    Jurek, Anna; Nugent, Chris; Bi, Yaxin; Wu, Shengli

    2014-01-01

    Application of sensor-based technology within activity monitoring systems is becoming a popular technique within the smart environment paradigm. Nevertheless, the use of such an approach generates complex constructs of data, which subsequently requires the use of intricate activity recognition techniques to automatically infer the underlying activity. This paper explores a cluster-based ensemble method as a new solution for the purposes of activity recognition within smart environments. With this approach activities are modelled as collections of clusters built on different subsets of features. A classification process is performed by assigning a new instance to its closest cluster from each collection. Two different sensor data representations have been investigated, namely numeric and binary. Following the evaluation of the proposed methodology it has been demonstrated that the cluster-based ensemble method can be successfully applied as a viable option for activity recognition. Results following exposure to data collected from a range of activities indicated that the ensemble method had the ability to perform with accuracies of 94.2% and 97.5% for numeric and binary data, respectively. These results outperformed a range of single classifiers considered as benchmarks. PMID:25014095

  12. Multiplexed immunofluorescence delineates proteomic cancer cell states associated with metabolism

    PubMed Central

    Sood, Anup; Miller, Alexandra M.; Brogi, Edi; Sui, Yunxia; Armenia, Joshua; McDonough, Elizabeth; Santamaria-Pang, Alberto; Stamper, Aleksandra; Campos, Carl; Pang, Zhengyu; Li, Qing; Port, Elisa; Graeber, Thomas G.; Schultz, Nikolaus; Ginty, Fiona; Larson, Steven M.

    2016-01-01

    The phenotypic diversity of cancer results from genetic and nongenetic factors. Most studies of cancer heterogeneity have focused on DNA alterations, as technologies for proteomic measurements in clinical specimen are currently less advanced. Here, we used a multiplexed immunofluorescence staining platform to measure the expression of 27 proteins at the single-cell level in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded samples from treatment-naive stage II/III human breast cancer. Unsupervised clustering of protein expression data from 638,577 tumor cells in 26 breast cancers identified 8 clusters of protein coexpression. In about one-third of breast cancers, over 95% of all neoplastic cells expressed a single protein coexpression cluster. The remaining tumors harbored tumor cells representing multiple protein coexpression clusters, either in a regional distribution or intermingled throughout the tumor. Tumor uptake of the radiotracer 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose was associated with protein expression clusters characterized by hormone receptor loss, PTEN alteration, and HER2 gene amplification. Our study demonstrates an approach to generate cellular heterogeneity metrics in routinely collected solid tumor specimens and integrate them with in vivo cancer phenotypes. PMID:27182557

  13. Clustering-based ensemble learning for activity recognition in smart homes.

    PubMed

    Jurek, Anna; Nugent, Chris; Bi, Yaxin; Wu, Shengli

    2014-07-10

    Application of sensor-based technology within activity monitoring systems is becoming a popular technique within the smart environment paradigm. Nevertheless, the use of such an approach generates complex constructs of data, which subsequently requires the use of intricate activity recognition techniques to automatically infer the underlying activity. This paper explores a cluster-based ensemble method as a new solution for the purposes of activity recognition within smart environments. With this approach activities are modelled as collections of clusters built on different subsets of features. A classification process is performed by assigning a new instance to its closest cluster from each collection. Two different sensor data representations have been investigated, namely numeric and binary. Following the evaluation of the proposed methodology it has been demonstrated that the cluster-based ensemble method can be successfully applied as a viable option for activity recognition. Results following exposure to data collected from a range of activities indicated that the ensemble method had the ability to perform with accuracies of 94.2% and 97.5% for numeric and binary data, respectively. These results outperformed a range of single classifiers considered as benchmarks.

  14. Using data mining to segment healthcare markets from patients' preference perspectives.

    PubMed

    Liu, Sandra S; Chen, Jie

    2009-01-01

    This paper aims to provide an example of how to use data mining techniques to identify patient segments regarding preferences for healthcare attributes and their demographic characteristics. Data were derived from a number of individuals who received in-patient care at a health network in 2006. Data mining and conventional hierarchical clustering with average linkage and Pearson correlation procedures are employed and compared to show how each procedure best determines segmentation variables. Data mining tools identified three differentiable segments by means of cluster analysis. These three clusters have significantly different demographic profiles. The study reveals, when compared with traditional statistical methods, that data mining provides an efficient and effective tool for market segmentation. When there are numerous cluster variables involved, researchers and practitioners need to incorporate factor analysis for reducing variables to clearly and meaningfully understand clusters. Interests and applications in data mining are increasing in many businesses. However, this technology is seldom applied to healthcare customer experience management. The paper shows that efficient and effective application of data mining methods can aid the understanding of patient healthcare preferences.

  15. Data-Driven Packet Loss Estimation for Node Healthy Sensing in Decentralized Cluster

    PubMed Central

    Fan, Hangyu; Wang, Huandong; Li, Yong

    2018-01-01

    Decentralized clustering of modern information technology is widely adopted in various fields these years. One of the main reason is the features of high availability and the failure-tolerance which can prevent the entire system form broking down by a failure of a single point. Recently, toolkits such as Akka are used by the public commonly to easily build such kind of cluster. However, clusters of such kind that use Gossip as their membership managing protocol and use link failure detecting mechanism to detect link failures cannot deal with the scenario that a node stochastically drops packets and corrupts the member status of the cluster. In this paper, we formulate the problem to be evaluating the link quality and finding a max clique (NP-Complete) in the connectivity graph. We then proposed an algorithm that consists of two models driven by data from application layer to respectively solving these two problems. Through simulations with statistical data and a real-world product, we demonstrate that our algorithm has a good performance. PMID:29360792

  16. Cluster analysis of bone microarchitecture from high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography demonstrates two separate phenotypes associated with high fracture risk in men and women.

    PubMed

    Edwards, M H; Robinson, D E; Ward, K A; Javaid, M K; Walker-Bone, K; Cooper, C; Dennison, E M

    2016-07-01

    Osteoporosis is a major healthcare problem which is conventionally assessed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). New technologies such as high resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HRpQCT) also predict fracture risk. HRpQCT measures a number of bone characteristics that may inform specific patterns of bone deficits. We used cluster analysis to define different bone phenotypes and their relationships to fracture prevalence and areal bone mineral density (BMD). 177 men and 159 women, in whom fracture history was determined by self-report and vertebral fracture assessment, underwent HRpQCT of the distal radius and femoral neck DXA. Five clusters were derived with two clusters associated with elevated fracture risk. "Cluster 1" contained 26 women (50.0% fractured) and 30 men (50.0% fractured) with a lower mean cortical thickness and cortical volumetric BMD, and in men only, a mean total and trabecular area more than the sex-specific cohort mean. "Cluster 2" contained 20 women (50.0% fractured) and 14 men (35.7% fractured) with a lower mean trabecular density and trabecular number than the sex-specific cohort mean. Logistic regression showed fracture rates in these clusters to be significantly higher than the lowest fracture risk cluster [5] (p<0.05). Mean femoral neck areal BMD was significantly lower than cluster 5 in women in cluster 1 and 2 (p<0.001 for both), and in men, in cluster 2 (p<0.001) but not 1 (p=0.220). In conclusion, this study demonstrates two distinct high risk clusters in both men and women which may differ in etiology and response to treatment. As cluster 1 in men does not have low areal BMD, these men may not be identified as high risk by conventional DXA alone. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  17. Massive open star clusters using the VVV survey. II. Discovery of six clusters with Wolf-Rayet stars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chené, A.-N.; Borissova, J.; Bonatto, C.; Majaess, D. J.; Baume, G.; Clarke, J. R. A.; Kurtev, R.; Schnurr, O.; Bouret, J.-C.; Catelan, M.; Emerson, J. P.; Feinstein, C.; Geisler, D.; de Grijs, R.; Hervé, A.; Ivanov, V. D.; Kumar, M. S. N.; Lucas, P.; Mahy, L.; Martins, F.; Mauro, F.; Minniti, D.; Moni Bidin, C.

    2013-01-01

    Context. The ESO Public Survey "VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea" (VVV) provides deep multi-epoch infrared observations for an unprecedented 562 sq. degrees of the Galactic bulge, and adjacent regions of the disk. Nearly 150 new open clusters and cluster candidates have been discovered in this survey. Aims: This is the second in a series of papers about young, massive open clusters observed using the VVV survey. We present the first study of six recently discovered clusters. These clusters contain at least one newly discovered Wolf-Rayet (WR) star. Methods: Following the methodology presented in the first paper of the series, wide-field, deep JHKs VVV observations, combined with new infrared spectroscopy, are employed to constrain fundamental parameters for a subset of clusters. Results: We find that the six studied stellar groups are real young (2-7 Myr) and massive (between 0.8 and 2.2 × 103 M⊙) clusters. They are highly obscured (AV ~ 5-24 mag) and compact (1-2 pc). In addition to WR stars, two of the six clusters also contain at least one red supergiant star, and one of these two clusters also contains a blue supergiant. We claim the discovery of 8 new WR stars, and 3 stars showing WR-like emission lines which could be classified WR or OIf. Preliminary analysis provides initial masses of ~30-50 M⊙ for the WR stars. Finally, we discuss the spiral structure of the Galaxy using the six new clusters as tracers, together with the previously studied VVV clusters. Based on observations with ISAAC, VLT, ESO (programme 087.D-0341A), New Technology Telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory (programme 087.D-0490A) and with the Clay telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory (programme CN2011A-086). Also based on data from the VVV survey (programme 172.B-2002).

  18. Attitudes toward Agriculture of Minority and Non-Minority Students Enrolled in an Introductory Agriscience Course in Texas. A Summary Report of Research. Department Information Bulletin 92-1.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Talbert, B. Allen; Larke, Alvin, Jr.

    A study compared the attitudes of minority and nonminority Texas high school agriscience students toward agriculture. A cluster sample of 1,399 agriscience students in Texas high school courses called "Introduction to World Agricultural Science and Technology" and "Applied Agricultural Science and Technology" participated in the ex post facto…

  19. NASA Helps Build Colorado Economy

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2010-12-13

    NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver delivers remarks at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on Monday, Dec. 13, 2010, prior to signing an agreement that creates a Technology Acceleration Program and Regional Innovation Cluster for Aerospace and Clean Energy. A manufacturing park focused on rapid new product development and production will be developed to assist growing Colorado businesses while promoting the commercialization of technology developed for the space program. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

  20. JPRS Report, Science & Technology, USSR: Science & Technology Policy

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1988-04-29

    spread: " clusters " of mod- ern science-intensive firms have begun to be grouped around a large university or research center. Such a symbiosis of...Cost Accounting in Scientific Research [G. Lakhtin; PRAVDA, 30 Jan 88] 1 Facilities, Manpower Candidate Members of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences...Ovezgeldyyev; TURKMENSKAYA ISKRA 17 Nov 87] 75 Conversion of Research Organizations to Cost Accounting [A. Guniya; ZARYA VOSTOKA 16 Jan 88] ... 78

  1. Future Soldiers: Analysis of Entry-Level Performance Requirements and Their Predictors

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-09-01

    these future missions; "* New technology such as weapons, tools, and vehicles (e.g., robotics ) and the effect of technological change on personnel...Clusters 1. Close Combat 2. Non Line-of-Sight Fire 3. Surveillance, Intelligence, and Communications 4. Unmanned Vehicle/ Robotics Operator 5. Security...minimized with (a) new materials for ballistic protection, (b) new lethalities, and (c) exoskeletons /artificial muscles. • Infantrymen will experience better

  2. Multilevel Classification of PISA 2015 Research Participant Countries' Literacy and These Classes' Relationship with Information and Communication Technologies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yalcin, Seher

    2018-01-01

    In this study, it is aimed to distinguish the reading skills of students participating in PISA 2015 application into multi-level latent classes at the student and country level. Furthermore, it is aimed to examine how the clusters emerged at country-level is predicted by variables as students have the information and communication technology (ICT)…

  3. A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effects of Technology-aided Testing and Feedback on Physical Activity and Biological Age Among Employees in a Medium-sized Enterprise.

    PubMed

    Liukkonen, Mika; Nygård, Clas-Håkan; Laukkanen, Raija

    2017-12-01

    It has been suggested that engaging technology can empower individuals to be more proactive about their health and reduce their health risks. The aim of the present intervention was to study the effects of technology-aided testing and feedback on physical activity and biological age of employees in a middle-sized enterprise. In all, 121 employees (mean age 42 ± 10 years) participated in the 12-month three-arm cluster randomized trial. The fitness measurement process (Body Age) determined the participants' biological age in years. Physical activity was measured with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form. Physical activity did not change during the intervention. Biological age (better fitness) improved in all groups statistically significantly ( p  < 0.001), but with no interaction effects. The mean changes (years) in the groups were -2.20 for the controls, -2.83 for the group receiving their biological age and feedback, and -2.31 for the group receiving their biological age, feedback, and a training computer. Technology-aided testing with feedback does not seem to change the amount of physical activity but may enhance physical fitness measured by biological age.

  4. New business creation and technology transfer in the Rochester Cluster

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    DeMartino, Richard

    2002-05-01

    The Rochester, NY regional photonics industry is in a period a technological and organizational change. Over the past seventy years the regional has enjoyed a reputation as one of the premium optics and imaging (photonics systems) centers of the world. In the past, the driving force behind this preeminence was a small number of larger diversified companies with strong technological competencies and internally oriented operations. Supporting these firms were dozens of small optics, components, and imaging suppliers who grew and declined with their primary customers. Today's competitive photonics industry is far different technologically and organizationally then what existed 20 to 40 years ago.

  5. The method of parallel-hierarchical transformation for rapid recognition of dynamic images using GPGPU technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Timchenko, Leonid; Yarovyi, Andrii; Kokriatskaya, Nataliya; Nakonechna, Svitlana; Abramenko, Ludmila; Ławicki, Tomasz; Popiel, Piotr; Yesmakhanova, Laura

    2016-09-01

    The paper presents a method of parallel-hierarchical transformations for rapid recognition of dynamic images using GPU technology. Direct parallel-hierarchical transformations based on cluster CPU-and GPU-oriented hardware platform. Mathematic models of training of the parallel hierarchical (PH) network for the transformation are developed, as well as a training method of the PH network for recognition of dynamic images. This research is most topical for problems on organizing high-performance computations of super large arrays of information designed to implement multi-stage sensing and processing as well as compaction and recognition of data in the informational structures and computer devices. This method has such advantages as high performance through the use of recent advances in parallelization, possibility to work with images of ultra dimension, ease of scaling in case of changing the number of nodes in the cluster, auto scan of local network to detect compute nodes.

  6. BGDMdocker: a Docker workflow for data mining and visualization of bacterial pan-genomes and biosynthetic gene clusters.

    PubMed

    Cheng, Gong; Lu, Quan; Ma, Ling; Zhang, Guocai; Xu, Liang; Zhou, Zongshan

    2017-01-01

    Recently, Docker technology has received increasing attention throughout the bioinformatics community. However, its implementation has not yet been mastered by most biologists; accordingly, its application in biological research has been limited. In order to popularize this technology in the field of bioinformatics and to promote the use of publicly available bioinformatics tools, such as Dockerfiles and Images from communities, government sources, and private owners in the Docker Hub Registry and other Docker-based resources, we introduce here a complete and accurate bioinformatics workflow based on Docker. The present workflow enables analysis and visualization of pan-genomes and biosynthetic gene clusters of bacteria. This provides a new solution for bioinformatics mining of big data from various publicly available biological databases. The present step-by-step guide creates an integrative workflow through a Dockerfile to allow researchers to build their own Image and run Container easily.

  7. BGDMdocker: a Docker workflow for data mining and visualization of bacterial pan-genomes and biosynthetic gene clusters

    PubMed Central

    Cheng, Gong; Zhang, Guocai; Xu, Liang

    2017-01-01

    Recently, Docker technology has received increasing attention throughout the bioinformatics community. However, its implementation has not yet been mastered by most biologists; accordingly, its application in biological research has been limited. In order to popularize this technology in the field of bioinformatics and to promote the use of publicly available bioinformatics tools, such as Dockerfiles and Images from communities, government sources, and private owners in the Docker Hub Registry and other Docker-based resources, we introduce here a complete and accurate bioinformatics workflow based on Docker. The present workflow enables analysis and visualization of pan-genomes and biosynthetic gene clusters of bacteria. This provides a new solution for bioinformatics mining of big data from various publicly available biological databases. The present step-by-step guide creates an integrative workflow through a Dockerfile to allow researchers to build their own Image and run Container easily. PMID:29204317

  8. Tisettanta case study: the interoperation of furniture production companies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Amarilli, Fabrizio; Spreafico, Alberto

    This chapter presents the Tisettanta case study, focusing on the definition of the possible innovations that ICT technologies can bring to the Italian wood-furniture industry. This sector is characterized by industrial clusters composed mainly of a few large companies with international brand reputations and a large base of SMEs that manufacture finished products or are specialized in the production of single components/processes (such as the Brianza cluster, where Tisettanta operates). In this particular business ecosystem, ICT technologies can bring relevant support and improvements to the supply chain process, where collaborations between enterprises are put into action through the exchange of business documents such as orders, order confirmation, bills of lading, invoices, etc. The analysis methodology adopted in the Tisettanta case study refers to the TEKNE Methodology of Change (see Chapter 2), which defines a framework for supporting firms in the adoption of the Internetworked Enterprise organizational paradigm.

  9. Coevolution of patients and hospitals: how changing epidemiology and technological advances create challenges and drive organizational innovation.

    PubMed

    Lega, Federico; Calciolari, Stefano

    2012-01-01

    Over the last 20 years, hospitals have revised their organizational structures in response to new environmental pressures. Today, demographic and epidemiologic trends and recent technological advances call for new strategies to cope with ultra-elderly frail patients characterized by chronic conditions, high-severity health problems, and complex social situations. The main areas of change surround new ways of managing emerging clusters of patients whose needs are not efficiently or effectively met within traditional hospital organizations. Following the practitioner and academic literature, we first identify the most relevant clusters of new kinds of patients who represent an increasingly larger share of the hospital population in developed countries. Second, we propose a framework that synthesizes the major organizational innovations adopted by successful organizations around the world. We conclude by substantiating the trends of and the reasoning behind the prospective pattern of hospital organizational development.

  10. Integrating heterogeneous databases in clustered medic care environments using object-oriented technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thakore, Arun K.; Sauer, Frank

    1994-05-01

    The organization of modern medical care environments into disease-related clusters, such as a cancer center, a diabetes clinic, etc., has the side-effect of introducing multiple heterogeneous databases, often containing similar information, within the same organization. This heterogeneity fosters incompatibility and prevents the effective sharing of data amongst applications at different sites. Although integration of heterogeneous databases is now feasible, in the medical arena this is often an ad hoc process, not founded on proven database technology or formal methods. In this paper we illustrate the use of a high-level object- oriented semantic association method to model information found in different databases into an integrated conceptual global model that integrates the databases. We provide examples from the medical domain to illustrate an integration approach resulting in a consistent global view, without attacking the autonomy of the underlying databases.

  11. Earliest evidence for the structure of Homo sapiens populations in Africa

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Scerri, Eleanor M. L.; Drake, Nick A.; Jennings, Richard; Groucutt, Huw S.

    2014-10-01

    Understanding the structure and variation of Homo sapiens populations in Africa is critical for interpreting multiproxy evidence of their subsequent dispersals into Eurasia. However, there is no consensus on early H. sapiens demographic structure, or its effects on intra-African dispersals. Here, we show how a patchwork of ecological corridors and bottlenecks triggered a successive budding of populations across the Sahara. Using a temporally and spatially explicit palaeoenvironmental model, we found that the Sahara was not uniformly ameliorated between ∼130 and 75 thousand years ago (ka), as has been stated. Model integration with multivariate analyses of corresponding stone tools then revealed several spatially defined technological clusters which correlated with distinct palaeobiomes. Similarities between technological clusters were such that they decreased with distance except where connected by palaeohydrological networks. These results indicate that populations at the Eurasian gateway were strongly structured, which has implications for refining the demographic parameters of dispersals out of Africa.

  12. Theoretical investigation about secondary deposition of thin-film formation by molecular dynamics simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Huawei; Hagiwara, Ichiro; Kiet Tieu, A.; Kishimoto, Kikuo; Liu, Qiang

    2007-05-01

    The thin-film growth has been confirmed to be assembled by an enormous number of clusters in experiments of CVD. Sequence of clusters' depositions proceeds to form the thin-film in short time as gas fluids through surface of substrate. Such growth mechanism has been mainly investigated on the basis of experiment. Due to immense cost of the experimental equipment and low level of current measurement technology, the comprehension about authentic effect of formation condition on properties of nanomaterial is limited in qualitative manner. Three quantitative items: flatness of primary deposition, adhesion between cluster and substrate, and degree of epitaxial growth were proposed to evaluate the property of thin-film. In this simulation, three different cluster sizes of 203, 653, and 1563 atoms with different velocities (0, 10, 100, 1000, and 3000 m/s) were deposited on a Cu(0 0 1) substrate whose temperatures were set between 300 and 1000 K. Four clusters and one cluster were used in primary deposition and secondary deposition, respectively. To increase initial velocity not only enhanced the speed of epitaxial growth, adhesion between clusters and substrate, but also increased the degree of epitaxy for primary deposition and secondary deposition. Exfoliation pattern of thin-film was profoundly dependent on initial velocity through comparison between adhesion of primary and secondary deposition. Moreover, the epitaxial growth became well as the temperature of substrate was raised, and the degree of epitaxy of small cluster was larger than that of larger cluster, no matter of primary and secondary deposition.

  13. Functional Principal Component Analysis and Randomized Sparse Clustering Algorithm for Medical Image Analysis

    PubMed Central

    Lin, Nan; Jiang, Junhai; Guo, Shicheng; Xiong, Momiao

    2015-01-01

    Due to the advancement in sensor technology, the growing large medical image data have the ability to visualize the anatomical changes in biological tissues. As a consequence, the medical images have the potential to enhance the diagnosis of disease, the prediction of clinical outcomes and the characterization of disease progression. But in the meantime, the growing data dimensions pose great methodological and computational challenges for the representation and selection of features in image cluster analysis. To address these challenges, we first extend the functional principal component analysis (FPCA) from one dimension to two dimensions to fully capture the space variation of image the signals. The image signals contain a large number of redundant features which provide no additional information for clustering analysis. The widely used methods for removing the irrelevant features are sparse clustering algorithms using a lasso-type penalty to select the features. However, the accuracy of clustering using a lasso-type penalty depends on the selection of the penalty parameters and the threshold value. In practice, they are difficult to determine. Recently, randomized algorithms have received a great deal of attentions in big data analysis. This paper presents a randomized algorithm for accurate feature selection in image clustering analysis. The proposed method is applied to both the liver and kidney cancer histology image data from the TCGA database. The results demonstrate that the randomized feature selection method coupled with functional principal component analysis substantially outperforms the current sparse clustering algorithms in image cluster analysis. PMID:26196383

  14. The evolution in the stellar mass of brightest cluster galaxies over the past 10 billion years

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bellstedt, Sabine; Lidman, Chris; Muzzin, Adam; Franx, Marijn; Guatelli, Susanna; Hill, Allison R.; Hoekstra, Henk; Kurinsky, Noah; Labbe, Ivo; Marchesini, Danilo; Marsan, Z. Cemile; Safavi-Naeini, Mitra; Sifón, Cristóbal; Stefanon, Mauro; van de Sande, Jesse; van Dokkum, Pieter; Weigel, Catherine

    2016-08-01

    Using a sample of 98 galaxy clusters recently imaged in the near-infrared with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) New Technology Telescope, WIYN telescope and William Herschel Telescope, supplemented with 33 clusters from the ESO archive, we measure how the stellar mass of the most massive galaxies in the universe, namely brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), increases with time. Most of the BCGs in this new sample lie in the redshift range 0.2 < z < 0.6, which has been noted in recent works to mark an epoch over which the growth in the stellar mass of BCGs stalls. From this sample of 132 clusters, we create a subsample of 102 systems that includes only those clusters that have estimates of the cluster mass. We combine the BCGs in this subsample with BCGs from the literature, and find that the growth in stellar mass of BCGs from 10 billion years ago to the present epoch is broadly consistent with recent semi-analytic and semi-empirical models. As in other recent studies, tentative evidence indicates that the stellar mass growth rate of BCGs may be slowing in the past 3.5 billion years. Further work in collecting larger samples, and in better comparing observations with theory using mock images, is required if a more detailed comparison between the models and the data is to be made.

  15. Cluster ensemble based on Random Forests for genetic data.

    PubMed

    Alhusain, Luluah; Hafez, Alaaeldin M

    2017-01-01

    Clustering plays a crucial role in several application domains, such as bioinformatics. In bioinformatics, clustering has been extensively used as an approach for detecting interesting patterns in genetic data. One application is population structure analysis, which aims to group individuals into subpopulations based on shared genetic variations, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms. Advances in DNA sequencing technology have facilitated the obtainment of genetic datasets with exceptional sizes. Genetic data usually contain hundreds of thousands of genetic markers genotyped for thousands of individuals, making an efficient means for handling such data desirable. Random Forests (RFs) has emerged as an efficient algorithm capable of handling high-dimensional data. RFs provides a proximity measure that can capture different levels of co-occurring relationships between variables. RFs has been widely considered a supervised learning method, although it can be converted into an unsupervised learning method. Therefore, RF-derived proximity measure combined with a clustering technique may be well suited for determining the underlying structure of unlabeled data. This paper proposes, RFcluE, a cluster ensemble approach for determining the underlying structure of genetic data based on RFs. The approach comprises a cluster ensemble framework to combine multiple runs of RF clustering. Experiments were conducted on high-dimensional, real genetic dataset to evaluate the proposed approach. The experiments included an examination of the impact of parameter changes, comparing RFcluE performance against other clustering methods, and an assessment of the relationship between the diversity and quality of the ensemble and its effect on RFcluE performance. This paper proposes, RFcluE, a cluster ensemble approach based on RF clustering to address the problem of population structure analysis and demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach. The paper also illustrates that applying a cluster ensemble approach, combining multiple RF clusterings, produces more robust and higher-quality results as a consequence of feeding the ensemble with diverse views of high-dimensional genetic data obtained through bagging and random subspace, the two key features of the RF algorithm.

  16. Automatic video shot boundary detection using k-means clustering and improved adaptive dual threshold comparison

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sa, Qila; Wang, Zhihui

    2018-03-01

    At present, content-based video retrieval (CBVR) is the most mainstream video retrieval method, using the video features of its own to perform automatic identification and retrieval. This method involves a key technology, i.e. shot segmentation. In this paper, the method of automatic video shot boundary detection with K-means clustering and improved adaptive dual threshold comparison is proposed. First, extract the visual features of every frame and divide them into two categories using K-means clustering algorithm, namely, one with significant change and one with no significant change. Then, as to the classification results, utilize the improved adaptive dual threshold comparison method to determine the abrupt as well as gradual shot boundaries.Finally, achieve automatic video shot boundary detection system.

  17. Large-scale seismic waveform quality metric calculation using Hadoop

    DOE PAGES

    Magana-Zook, Steven; Gaylord, Jessie M.; Knapp, Douglas R.; ...

    2016-05-27

    Here in this work we investigated the suitability of Hadoop MapReduce and Apache Spark for large-scale computation of seismic waveform quality metrics by comparing their performance with that of a traditional distributed implementation. The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Management Center (DMC) provided 43 terabytes of broadband waveform data of which 5.1 TB of data were processed with the traditional architecture, and the full 43 TB were processed using MapReduce and Spark. Maximum performance of ~0.56 terabytes per hour was achieved using all 5 nodes of the traditional implementation. We noted that I/O dominated processing, and that I/Omore » performance was deteriorating with the addition of the 5th node. Data collected from this experiment provided the baseline against which the Hadoop results were compared. Next, we processed the full 43 TB dataset using both MapReduce and Apache Spark on our 18-node Hadoop cluster. We conducted these experiments multiple times with various subsets of the data so that we could build models to predict performance as a function of dataset size. We found that both MapReduce and Spark significantly outperformed the traditional reference implementation. At a dataset size of 5.1 terabytes, both Spark and MapReduce were about 15 times faster than the reference implementation. Furthermore, our performance models predict that for a dataset of 350 terabytes, Spark running on a 100-node cluster would be about 265 times faster than the reference implementation. We do not expect that the reference implementation deployed on a 100-node cluster would perform significantly better than on the 5-node cluster because the I/O performance cannot be made to scale. Finally, we note that although Big Data technologies clearly provide a way to process seismic waveform datasets in a high-performance and scalable manner, the technology is still rapidly changing, requires a high degree of investment in personnel, and will likely require significant changes in other parts of our infrastructure. Nevertheless, we anticipate that as the technology matures and third-party tool vendors make it easier to manage and operate clusters, Hadoop (or a successor) will play a large role in our seismic data processing.« less

  18. Large-scale seismic waveform quality metric calculation using Hadoop

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Magana-Zook, Steven; Gaylord, Jessie M.; Knapp, Douglas R.

    Here in this work we investigated the suitability of Hadoop MapReduce and Apache Spark for large-scale computation of seismic waveform quality metrics by comparing their performance with that of a traditional distributed implementation. The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Management Center (DMC) provided 43 terabytes of broadband waveform data of which 5.1 TB of data were processed with the traditional architecture, and the full 43 TB were processed using MapReduce and Spark. Maximum performance of ~0.56 terabytes per hour was achieved using all 5 nodes of the traditional implementation. We noted that I/O dominated processing, and that I/Omore » performance was deteriorating with the addition of the 5th node. Data collected from this experiment provided the baseline against which the Hadoop results were compared. Next, we processed the full 43 TB dataset using both MapReduce and Apache Spark on our 18-node Hadoop cluster. We conducted these experiments multiple times with various subsets of the data so that we could build models to predict performance as a function of dataset size. We found that both MapReduce and Spark significantly outperformed the traditional reference implementation. At a dataset size of 5.1 terabytes, both Spark and MapReduce were about 15 times faster than the reference implementation. Furthermore, our performance models predict that for a dataset of 350 terabytes, Spark running on a 100-node cluster would be about 265 times faster than the reference implementation. We do not expect that the reference implementation deployed on a 100-node cluster would perform significantly better than on the 5-node cluster because the I/O performance cannot be made to scale. Finally, we note that although Big Data technologies clearly provide a way to process seismic waveform datasets in a high-performance and scalable manner, the technology is still rapidly changing, requires a high degree of investment in personnel, and will likely require significant changes in other parts of our infrastructure. Nevertheless, we anticipate that as the technology matures and third-party tool vendors make it easier to manage and operate clusters, Hadoop (or a successor) will play a large role in our seismic data processing.« less

  19. 13 CFR 301.8 - Application evaluation criteria.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... private sector investment resulting from an Investment. (b) Has strong organizational leadership. An Investment will have strong leadership, relevant Project management experience and a significant commitment... Regional industry clusters and leverage and link technology innovators and local universities to the...

  20. Information Filtering via Clustering Coefficients of User-Object Bipartite Networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guo, Qiang; Leng, Rui; Shi, Kerui; Liu, Jian-Guo

    The clustering coefficient of user-object bipartite networks is presented to evaluate the overlap percentage of neighbors rating lists, which could be used to measure interest correlations among neighbor sets. The collaborative filtering (CF) information filtering algorithm evaluates a given user's interests in terms of his/her friends' opinions, which has become one of the most successful technologies for recommender systems. In this paper, different from the object clustering coefficient, users' clustering coefficients of user-object bipartite networks are introduced to improve the user similarity measurement. Numerical results for MovieLens and Netflix data sets show that users' clustering effects could enhance the algorithm performance. For MovieLens data set, the algorithmic accuracy, measured by the average ranking score, can be improved by 12.0% and the diversity could be improved by 18.2% and reach 0.649 when the recommendation list equals to 50. For Netflix data set, the accuracy could be improved by 14.5% at the optimal case and the popularity could be reduced by 13.4% comparing with the standard CF algorithm. Finally, we investigate the sparsity effect on the performance. This work indicates the user clustering coefficients is an effective factor to measure the user similarity, meanwhile statistical properties of user-object bipartite networks should be investigated to estimate users' tastes.

  1. Spatial-temporal clustering of companion animal enteric syndrome: detection and investigation through the use of electronic medical records from participating private practices.

    PubMed

    Anholt, R M; Berezowski, J; Robertson, C; Stephen, C

    2015-09-01

    There is interest in the potential of companion animal surveillance to provide data to improve pet health and to provide early warning of environmental hazards to people. We implemented a companion animal surveillance system in Calgary, Alberta and the surrounding communities. Informatics technologies automatically extracted electronic medical records from participating veterinary practices and identified cases of enteric syndrome in the warehoused records. The data were analysed using time-series analyses and a retrospective space-time permutation scan statistic. We identified a seasonal pattern of reports of occurrences of enteric syndromes in companion animals and four statistically significant clusters of enteric syndrome cases. The cases within each cluster were examined and information about the animals involved (species, age, sex), their vaccination history, possible exposure or risk behaviour history, information about disease severity, and the aetiological diagnosis was collected. We then assessed whether the cases within the cluster were unusual and if they represented an animal or public health threat. There was often insufficient information recorded in the medical record to characterize the clusters by aetiology or exposures. Space-time analysis of companion animal enteric syndrome cases found evidence of clustering. Collection of more epidemiologically relevant data would enhance the utility of practice-based companion animal surveillance.

  2. A novel harmony search-K means hybrid algorithm for clustering gene expression data

    PubMed Central

    Nazeer, KA Abdul; Sebastian, MP; Kumar, SD Madhu

    2013-01-01

    Recent progress in bioinformatics research has led to the accumulation of huge quantities of biological data at various data sources. The DNA microarray technology makes it possible to simultaneously analyze large number of genes across different samples. Clustering of microarray data can reveal the hidden gene expression patterns from large quantities of expression data that in turn offers tremendous possibilities in functional genomics, comparative genomics, disease diagnosis and drug development. The k- ¬means clustering algorithm is widely used for many practical applications. But the original k-¬means algorithm has several drawbacks. It is computationally expensive and generates locally optimal solutions based on the random choice of the initial centroids. Several methods have been proposed in the literature for improving the performance of the k-¬means algorithm. A meta-heuristic optimization algorithm named harmony search helps find out near-global optimal solutions by searching the entire solution space. Low clustering accuracy of the existing algorithms limits their use in many crucial applications of life sciences. In this paper we propose a novel Harmony Search-K means Hybrid (HSKH) algorithm for clustering the gene expression data. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm produces clusters with better accuracy in comparison with the existing algorithms. PMID:23390351

  3. A novel harmony search-K means hybrid algorithm for clustering gene expression data.

    PubMed

    Nazeer, Ka Abdul; Sebastian, Mp; Kumar, Sd Madhu

    2013-01-01

    Recent progress in bioinformatics research has led to the accumulation of huge quantities of biological data at various data sources. The DNA microarray technology makes it possible to simultaneously analyze large number of genes across different samples. Clustering of microarray data can reveal the hidden gene expression patterns from large quantities of expression data that in turn offers tremendous possibilities in functional genomics, comparative genomics, disease diagnosis and drug development. The k- ¬means clustering algorithm is widely used for many practical applications. But the original k-¬means algorithm has several drawbacks. It is computationally expensive and generates locally optimal solutions based on the random choice of the initial centroids. Several methods have been proposed in the literature for improving the performance of the k-¬means algorithm. A meta-heuristic optimization algorithm named harmony search helps find out near-global optimal solutions by searching the entire solution space. Low clustering accuracy of the existing algorithms limits their use in many crucial applications of life sciences. In this paper we propose a novel Harmony Search-K means Hybrid (HSKH) algorithm for clustering the gene expression data. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm produces clusters with better accuracy in comparison with the existing algorithms.

  4. Superframe Duration Allocation Schemes to Improve the Throughput of Cluster-Tree Wireless Sensor Networks

    PubMed Central

    Leão, Erico; Montez, Carlos; Moraes, Ricardo; Portugal, Paulo; Vasques, Francisco

    2017-01-01

    The use of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technologies is an attractive option to support wide-scale monitoring applications, such as the ones that can be found in precision agriculture, environmental monitoring and industrial automation. The IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee cluster-tree topology is a suitable topology to build wide-scale WSNs. Despite some of its known advantages, including timing synchronisation and duty-cycle operation, cluster-tree networks may suffer from severe network congestion problems due to the convergecast pattern of its communication traffic. Therefore, the careful adjustment of transmission opportunities (superframe durations) allocated to the cluster-heads is an important research issue. This paper proposes a set of proportional Superframe Duration Allocation (SDA) schemes, based on well-defined protocol and timing models, and on the message load imposed by child nodes (Load-SDA scheme), or by number of descendant nodes (Nodes-SDA scheme) of each cluster-head. The underlying reasoning is to adequately allocate transmission opportunities (superframe durations) and parametrize buffer sizes, in order to improve the network throughput and avoid typical problems, such as: network congestion, high end-to-end communication delays and discarded messages due to buffer overflows. Simulation assessments show how proposed allocation schemes may clearly improve the operation of wide-scale cluster-tree networks. PMID:28134822

  5. Strain-Level Diversity of Secondary Metabolism in Streptomyces albus

    PubMed Central

    Seipke, Ryan F.

    2015-01-01

    Streptomyces spp. are robust producers of medicinally-, industrially- and agriculturally-important small molecules. Increased resistance to antibacterial agents and the lack of new antibiotics in the pipeline have led to a renaissance in natural product discovery. This endeavor has benefited from inexpensive high quality DNA sequencing technology, which has generated more than 140 genome sequences for taxonomic type strains and environmental Streptomyces spp. isolates. Many of the sequenced streptomycetes belong to the same species. For instance, Streptomyces albus has been isolated from diverse environmental niches and seven strains have been sequenced, consequently this species has been sequenced more than any other streptomycete, allowing valuable analyses of strain-level diversity in secondary metabolism. Bioinformatics analyses identified a total of 48 unique biosynthetic gene clusters harboured by Streptomyces albus strains. Eighteen of these gene clusters specify the core secondary metabolome of the species. Fourteen of the gene clusters are contained by one or more strain and are considered auxiliary, while 16 of the gene clusters encode the production of putative strain-specific secondary metabolites. Analysis of Streptomyces albus strains suggests that each strain of a Streptomyces species likely harbours at least one strain-specific biosynthetic gene cluster. Importantly, this implies that deep sequencing of a species will not exhaust gene cluster diversity and will continue to yield novelty. PMID:25635820

  6. NASA Helps Build Colorado Economy

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2010-12-13

    Colorado State Governor Bill Ritter delivers remarks at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on Monday, Dec. 13, 2010, prior to the signing of an agreement with NASA that creates a Technology Acceleration Program and Regional Innovation Cluster for Aerospace and Clean Energy. A manufacturing park focused on rapid new product development and production will be developed to assist growing Colorado businesses while promoting the commercialization of technology developed for the space program. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

  7. Subnanometer and nanometer catalysts, method for preparing size-selected catalysts

    DOEpatents

    Vajda, Stefan , Pellin, Michael J.; Elam, Jeffrey W [Elmhurst, IL; Marshall, Christopher L [Naperville, IL; Winans, Randall A [Downers Grove, IL; Meiwes-Broer, Karl-Heinz [Roggentin, GR

    2012-04-03

    Highly uniform cluster based nanocatalysts supported on technologically relevant supports were synthesized for reactions of top industrial relevance. The Pt-cluster based catalysts outperformed the very best reported ODHP catalyst in both activity (by up to two orders of magnitude higher turn-over frequencies) and in selectivity. The results clearly demonstrate that highly dispersed ultra-small Pt clusters precisely localized on high-surface area supports can lead to affordable new catalysts for highly efficient and economic propene production, including considerably simplified separation of the final product. The combined GISAXS-mass spectrometry provides an excellent tool to monitor the evolution of size and shape of nanocatalyst at action under realistic conditions. Also provided are sub-nanometer gold and sub-nanometer to few nm size-selected silver catalysts which possess size dependent tunable catalytic properties in the epoxidation of alkenes. Invented size-selected cluster deposition provides a unique tool to tune material properties by atom-by-atom fashion, which can be stabilized by protective overcoats.

  8. Subnanometer and nanometer catalysts, method for preparing size-selected catalysts

    DOEpatents

    Vajda, Stefan [Lisle, IL; Pellin, Michael J [Naperville, IL; Elam, Jeffrey W [Elmhurst, IL; Marshall, Christopher L [Naperville, IL; Winans, Randall A [Downers Grove, IL; Meiwes-Broer, Karl-Heinz [Roggentin, GR

    2012-03-27

    Highly uniform cluster based nanocatalysts supported on technologically relevant supports were synthesized for reactions of top industrial relevance. The Pt-cluster based catalysts outperformed the very best reported ODHP catalyst in both activity (by up to two orders of magnitude higher turn-over frequencies) and in selectivity. The results clearly demonstrate that highly dispersed ultra-small Pt clusters precisely localized on high-surface area supports can lead to affordable new catalysts for highly efficient and economic propene production, including considerably simplified separation of the final product. The combined GISAXS-mass spectrometry provides an excellent tool to monitor the evolution of size and shape of nanocatalyst at action under realistic conditions. Also provided are sub-nanometer gold and sub-nanometer to few nm size-selected silver catalysts which possess size dependent tunable catalytic properties in the epoxidation of alkenes. Invented size-selected cluster deposition provides a unique tool to tune material properties by atom-by-atom fashion, which can be stabilized by protective overcoats.

  9. Automated flow cytometric analysis across large numbers of samples and cell types.

    PubMed

    Chen, Xiaoyi; Hasan, Milena; Libri, Valentina; Urrutia, Alejandra; Beitz, Benoît; Rouilly, Vincent; Duffy, Darragh; Patin, Étienne; Chalmond, Bernard; Rogge, Lars; Quintana-Murci, Lluis; Albert, Matthew L; Schwikowski, Benno

    2015-04-01

    Multi-parametric flow cytometry is a key technology for characterization of immune cell phenotypes. However, robust high-dimensional post-analytic strategies for automated data analysis in large numbers of donors are still lacking. Here, we report a computational pipeline, called FlowGM, which minimizes operator input, is insensitive to compensation settings, and can be adapted to different analytic panels. A Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM)-based approach was utilized for initial clustering, with the number of clusters determined using Bayesian Information Criterion. Meta-clustering in a reference donor permitted automated identification of 24 cell types across four panels. Cluster labels were integrated into FCS files, thus permitting comparisons to manual gating. Cell numbers and coefficient of variation (CV) were similar between FlowGM and conventional gating for lymphocyte populations, but notably FlowGM provided improved discrimination of "hard-to-gate" monocyte and dendritic cell (DC) subsets. FlowGM thus provides rapid high-dimensional analysis of cell phenotypes and is amenable to cohort studies. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  10. A hybrid sales forecasting scheme by combining independent component analysis with K-means clustering and support vector regression.

    PubMed

    Lu, Chi-Jie; Chang, Chi-Chang

    2014-01-01

    Sales forecasting plays an important role in operating a business since it can be used to determine the required inventory level to meet consumer demand and avoid the problem of under/overstocking. Improving the accuracy of sales forecasting has become an important issue of operating a business. This study proposes a hybrid sales forecasting scheme by combining independent component analysis (ICA) with K-means clustering and support vector regression (SVR). The proposed scheme first uses the ICA to extract hidden information from the observed sales data. The extracted features are then applied to K-means algorithm for clustering the sales data into several disjoined clusters. Finally, the SVR forecasting models are applied to each group to generate final forecasting results. Experimental results from information technology (IT) product agent sales data reveal that the proposed sales forecasting scheme outperforms the three comparison models and hence provides an efficient alternative for sales forecasting.

  11. Engineering Redox Potential of Lithium Clusters for Electrode Material in Lithium-Ion Batteries

    DOE PAGES

    Kushwaha, Anoop Kumar; Sahoo, Mihir Ranjan; Nanda, Jagjit; ...

    2017-07-01

    Low negative electrode potential and high reactivity makes lithium (Li) ideal candidate for obtaining highest possible energy density among other materials. Here, we show a novel route with which the overall electrode potential could significantly be enhanced through selection of cluster size. In using first principles density functional theory and continuum dielectric model, we studied free energy and redox potential as well as investigated relative stability of Li n (n ≤ 8) clusters in both gas phase and solution. We found that Li 3 has the lowest negative redox potential (thereby highest overall electrode potential) suggesting that cluster based approachmore » could provide a novel way of engineering the next generation battery technology. The microscopic origin of Li 3 cluster’s superior performance is related to two major factors: gas phase ionization and difference between solvation free energy for neutral and positive ion. Taken together, our study provides insight into the engineering of redox potential in battery and could stimulate further work in this direction.« less

  12. Engineering Redox Potential of Lithium Clusters for Electrode Material in Lithium-Ion Batteries

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kushwaha, Anoop Kumar; Sahoo, Mihir Ranjan; Nanda, Jagjit

    Low negative electrode potential and high reactivity makes lithium (Li) ideal candidate for obtaining highest possible energy density among other materials. Here, we show a novel route with which the overall electrode potential could significantly be enhanced through selection of cluster size. In using first principles density functional theory and continuum dielectric model, we studied free energy and redox potential as well as investigated relative stability of Li n (n ≤ 8) clusters in both gas phase and solution. We found that Li 3 has the lowest negative redox potential (thereby highest overall electrode potential) suggesting that cluster based approachmore » could provide a novel way of engineering the next generation battery technology. The microscopic origin of Li 3 cluster’s superior performance is related to two major factors: gas phase ionization and difference between solvation free energy for neutral and positive ion. Taken together, our study provides insight into the engineering of redox potential in battery and could stimulate further work in this direction.« less

  13. Preliminary analysis of one year long space climate simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Facsko, G.; Honkonen, I. J.; Juusola, L.; Viljanen, A.; Vanhamäki, H.; Janhunen, P.; Palmroth, M.; Milan, S. E.

    2013-12-01

    One full year (155 Cluster orbits, from January 29, 2002 to February 2, 2003) is simulated using the Grand Unified Magnetosphere Ionosphere Coupling simulation (GUMICS) in the European Cluster Assimilation Technology project (ECLAT). This enables us to study the performance of a global magnetospheric model in an unprecedented scale both in terms of the amount of available observations and the length of the timeseries that can be compared. The solar wind for the simulated period, obtained from OMNIWeb, is used as input to GUMICS. We present an overview of various comparisons of GUMICS results to observations for the simulated year. Results along the Cluster reference spacecraft orbit to are compared to Cluster measurements. The Cross Polar Cap Potential (CPCP) results are compared to SuperDARN measurements. The IMAGE electrojet indicators (IU, IL) calculated from the ionospheric currents of GUMICS are compared to observations. Finally, Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC) calculated from GUMICS results along the Finnish mineral gas pipeline at Mätsälä are also compared to measurements.

  14. Faster sequence homology searches by clustering subsequences.

    PubMed

    Suzuki, Shuji; Kakuta, Masanori; Ishida, Takashi; Akiyama, Yutaka

    2015-04-15

    Sequence homology searches are used in various fields. New sequencing technologies produce huge amounts of sequence data, which continuously increase the size of sequence databases. As a result, homology searches require large amounts of computational time, especially for metagenomic analysis. We developed a fast homology search method based on database subsequence clustering, and implemented it as GHOSTZ. This method clusters similar subsequences from a database to perform an efficient seed search and ungapped extension by reducing alignment candidates based on triangle inequality. The database subsequence clustering technique achieved an ∼2-fold increase in speed without a large decrease in search sensitivity. When we measured with metagenomic data, GHOSTZ is ∼2.2-2.8 times faster than RAPSearch and is ∼185-261 times faster than BLASTX. The source code is freely available for download at http://www.bi.cs.titech.ac.jp/ghostz/ akiyama@cs.titech.ac.jp Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

  15. Mapping the dynamics of force transduction at cell–cell junctions of epithelial clusters

    PubMed Central

    Ng, Mei Rosa; Besser, Achim; Brugge, Joan S; Danuser, Gaudenz

    2014-01-01

    Force transduction at cell-cell adhesions regulates tissue development, maintenance and adaptation. We developed computational and experimental approaches to quantify, with both sub-cellular and multi-cellular resolution, the dynamics of force transmission in cell clusters. Applying this technology to spontaneously-forming adherent epithelial cell clusters, we found that basal force fluctuations were coupled to E-cadherin localization at the level of individual cell-cell junctions. At the multi-cellular scale, cell-cell force exchange depended on the cell position within a cluster, and was adaptive to reconfigurations due to cell divisions or positional rearrangements. Importantly, force transmission through a cell required coordinated modulation of cell-matrix adhesion and actomyosin contractility in the cell and its neighbors. These data provide insights into mechanisms that could control mechanical stress homeostasis in dynamic epithelial tissues, and highlight our methods as a resource for the study of mechanotransduction in cell-cell adhesions. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03282.001 PMID:25479385

  16. Preparation of graphene on Cu foils by ion implantation with negative carbon clusters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Hui; Shang, Yan-Xia; Zhang, Zao-Di; Wang, Ze-Song; Zhang, Rui; Fu, De-Jun

    2015-01-01

    We report on few-layer graphene synthesized on Cu foils by ion implantation using negative carbon cluster ions, followed by annealing at 950 °C in vacuum. Raman spectroscopy reveals IG/I2D values varying from 1.55 to 2.38 depending on energy and dose of the cluster ions, indicating formation of multilayer graphene. The measurements show that the samples with more graphene layers have fewer defects. This is interpreted by graphene growth seeded by the first layers formed via outward diffusion of C from the Cu foil, though nonlinear damage and smoothing effects also play a role. Cluster ion implantation overcomes the solubility limit of carbon in Cu, providing a technique for multilayer graphene synthesis. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11105100, 11205116, and 11375135) and the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Welding and Joining, Harbin Institute of Technology, China (Grant No. AWJ-M13-03).

  17. Genetic Network Inference: From Co-Expression Clustering to Reverse Engineering

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dhaeseleer, Patrik; Liang, Shoudan; Somogyi, Roland

    2000-01-01

    Advances in molecular biological, analytical, and computational technologies are enabling us to systematically investigate the complex molecular processes underlying biological systems. In particular, using high-throughput gene expression assays, we are able to measure the output of the gene regulatory network. We aim here to review datamining and modeling approaches for conceptualizing and unraveling the functional relationships implicit in these datasets. Clustering of co-expression profiles allows us to infer shared regulatory inputs and functional pathways. We discuss various aspects of clustering, ranging from distance measures to clustering algorithms and multiple-duster memberships. More advanced analysis aims to infer causal connections between genes directly, i.e., who is regulating whom and how. We discuss several approaches to the problem of reverse engineering of genetic networks, from discrete Boolean networks, to continuous linear and non-linear models. We conclude that the combination of predictive modeling with systematic experimental verification will be required to gain a deeper insight into living organisms, therapeutic targeting, and bioengineering.

  18. A Hybrid Sales Forecasting Scheme by Combining Independent Component Analysis with K-Means Clustering and Support Vector Regression

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Sales forecasting plays an important role in operating a business since it can be used to determine the required inventory level to meet consumer demand and avoid the problem of under/overstocking. Improving the accuracy of sales forecasting has become an important issue of operating a business. This study proposes a hybrid sales forecasting scheme by combining independent component analysis (ICA) with K-means clustering and support vector regression (SVR). The proposed scheme first uses the ICA to extract hidden information from the observed sales data. The extracted features are then applied to K-means algorithm for clustering the sales data into several disjoined clusters. Finally, the SVR forecasting models are applied to each group to generate final forecasting results. Experimental results from information technology (IT) product agent sales data reveal that the proposed sales forecasting scheme outperforms the three comparison models and hence provides an efficient alternative for sales forecasting. PMID:25045738

  19. Topology and Control of the Cell-Cycle-Regulated Transcriptional Circuitry

    PubMed Central

    Haase, Steven B.; Wittenberg, Curt

    2014-01-01

    Nearly 20% of the budding yeast genome is transcribed periodically during the cell division cycle. The precise temporal execution of this large transcriptional program is controlled by a large interacting network of transcriptional regulators, kinases, and ubiquitin ligases. Historically, this network has been viewed as a collection of four coregulated gene clusters that are associated with each phase of the cell cycle. Although the broad outlines of these gene clusters were described nearly 20 years ago, new technologies have enabled major advances in our understanding of the genes comprising those clusters, their regulation, and the complex regulatory interplay between clusters. More recently, advances are being made in understanding the roles of chromatin in the control of the transcriptional program. We are also beginning to discover important regulatory interactions between the cell-cycle transcriptional program and other cell-cycle regulatory mechanisms such as checkpoints and metabolic networks. Here we review recent advances and contemporary models of the transcriptional network and consider these models in the context of eukaryotic cell-cycle controls. PMID:24395825

  20. How to engage occupational physicians in recruitment of research participants: a mixed-methods study of challenges and opportunities.

    PubMed

    Arends, Iris; Bültmann, Ute; Shaw, William S; van Rhenen, Willem; Roelen, Corné; Nielsen, Karina; van der Klink, Jac J L

    2014-03-01

    To investigate barriers and facilitators for research participant recruitment by occupational physicians (OPs). A mixed-methods approach was used. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with OPs to explore perceived barriers and facilitators for recruitment. Based on data of a cluster-randomised controlled trial (cluster-RCT), univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to investigate associations between OPs' personal and work characteristics and the number of recruited participants for the cluster-RCT per OP. Perceived barriers and facilitators for recruitment were categorised into: study characteristics (e.g. concise inclusion criteria); study population characteristics; OP's attention; OP's workload; context (e.g. working at different locations); and OP's characteristics (e.g. motivated to help). Important facilitators were encouragement by colleagues and reminders by information technology tools. Multivariate analyses showed that the number of OPs within the clinical unit who recruited participants was positively associated with the number of recruited participants per OP [rate ratio of 1.43, 95 % confidence interval 1.24-1.64]. When mobilising OPs for participant recruitment, researchers need to engage entire clinical units rather than approach OPs on an individual basis. OPs consider regular communication, especially face-to-face contact and information technology tools serving as reminders, as helpful.

  1. ALICE HLT Run 2 performance overview.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krzewicki, Mikolaj; Lindenstruth, Volker; ALICE Collaboration

    2017-10-01

    For the LHC Run 2 the ALICE HLT architecture was consolidated to comply with the upgraded ALICE detector readout technology. The software framework was optimized and extended to cope with the increased data load. Online calibration of the TPC using online tracking capabilities of the ALICE HLT was deployed. Offline calibration code was adapted to run both online and offline and the HLT framework was extended to support that. The performance of this schema is important for Run 3 related developments. An additional data transport approach was developed using the ZeroMQ library, forming at the same time a test bed for the new data flow model of the O2 system, where further development of this concept is ongoing. This messaging technology was used to implement the calibration feedback loop augmenting the existing, graph oriented HLT transport framework. Utilising the online reconstruction of many detectors, a new asynchronous monitoring scheme was developed to allow real-time monitoring of the physics performance of the ALICE detector, on top of the new messaging scheme for both internal and external communication. Spare computing resources comprising the production and development clusters are run as a tier-2 GRID site using an OpenStack-based setup. The development cluster is running continuously, the production cluster contributes resources opportunistically during periods of LHC inactivity.

  2. Status of the Development of Low Cost Radiator for Surface Fission Power - II

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tarau, Calin; Maxwell, Taylor; Anderson, William G.; Wagner, Corey; Wrosch, Matthew; Briggs, Maxwell H.

    2016-01-01

    NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is developing fission power system technology for future Lunar and Martian surface power applications. The systems are envisioned in the 10 to 100kWe range and have an anticipated design life of 8 to 15 years with no maintenance. NASA GRC is currently setting up a 55 kWe non-nuclear system ground test in thermal-vacuum to validate technologies required to transfer reactor heat, convert the heat into electricity, reject waste heat, process the electrical output, and demonstrate overall system performance. The paper reports on the development of the heat pipe radiator to reject the waste heat from the Stirling convertors. Reducing the radiator mass, size, and cost is essential to the success of the program. To meet these goals, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) and Vanguard Space Technologies, Inc. (VST) are developing a single facesheet radiator with heat pipes directly bonded to the facesheet. The facesheet material is a graphite fiber reinforced composite (GFRC) and the heat pipes are titanium/water Variable Conductance Heat Pipes (VCHPs). By directly bonding a single facesheet to the heat pipes, several heavy and expensive components can be eliminated from the traditional radiator design such as, POCO"TM" foam saddles, aluminum honeycomb, and a second facesheet. As mentioned in previous papers by the authors, the final design of the waste heat radiator is described as being modular with independent GFRC panels for each heat pipe. The present paper reports on test results for a single radiator module as well as a radiator cluster consisting of eight integral modules. These tests were carried out in both ambient and vacuum conditions. While the vacuum testing of the single radiator module was performed in the ACT's vacuum chamber, the vacuum testing of the eight heat pipe radiator cluster took place in NASA GRC's vacuum chamber to accommodate the larger size of the cluster. The results for both articles show good agreement with the predictions and are presented in the paper.

  3. Grid heterogeneity in in-silico experiments: an exploration of drug screening using DOCK on cloud environments.

    PubMed

    Yim, Wen-Wai; Chien, Shu; Kusumoto, Yasuyuki; Date, Susumu; Haga, Jason

    2010-01-01

    Large-scale in-silico screening is a necessary part of drug discovery and Grid computing is one answer to this demand. A disadvantage of using Grid computing is the heterogeneous computational environments characteristic of a Grid. In our study, we have found that for the molecular docking simulation program DOCK, different clusters within a Grid organization can yield inconsistent results. Because DOCK in-silico virtual screening (VS) is currently used to help select chemical compounds to test with in-vitro experiments, such differences have little effect on the validity of using virtual screening before subsequent steps in the drug discovery process. However, it is difficult to predict whether the accumulation of these discrepancies over sequentially repeated VS experiments will significantly alter the results if VS is used as the primary means for identifying potential drugs. Moreover, such discrepancies may be unacceptable for other applications requiring more stringent thresholds. This highlights the need for establishing a more complete solution to provide the best scientific accuracy when executing an application across Grids. One possible solution to platform heterogeneity in DOCK performance explored in our study involved the use of virtual machines as a layer of abstraction. This study investigated the feasibility and practicality of using virtual machine and recent cloud computing technologies in a biological research application. We examined the differences and variations of DOCK VS variables, across a Grid environment composed of different clusters, with and without virtualization. The uniform computer environment provided by virtual machines eliminated inconsistent DOCK VS results caused by heterogeneous clusters, however, the execution time for the DOCK VS increased. In our particular experiments, overhead costs were found to be an average of 41% and 2% in execution time for two different clusters, while the actual magnitudes of the execution time costs were minimal. Despite the increase in overhead, virtual clusters are an ideal solution for Grid heterogeneity. With greater development of virtual cluster technology in Grid environments, the problem of platform heterogeneity may be eliminated through virtualization, allowing greater usage of VS, and will benefit all Grid applications in general.

  4. Block Ignition Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) with Condensed Matter Cluster Type Targets for p-B11 Powered Space Propulsion

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Miley, George H.; Hora, H.; Badziak, J.

    The use of laser-driven Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) for space propulsion has been the subject of several earlier conceptual design studies, (see: Orth, 1998; and other references therein). However, these studies were based on older ICF technology using either 'direct' or 'in-direct x-ray driven' type target irradiation. Important new directions have opened for laser ICF in recent years following the development of 'chirped' lasers capable of ultra short pulses with powers of TW up to few PW which leads to the concept of 'fast ignition (FI)' to achieve higher energy gains from target implosions. In a recent publication the authorsmore » showed that use of a modified type of FI, termed 'block ignition' (Miley et al., 2008), could meet many of the requirements anticipated (but not then available) by the designs of the Vehicle for Interplanetary Space Transport Applications (VISTA) ICF fusion propulsion ship (Orth, 2008) for deep space missions. Subsequently the first author devised and presented concepts for imbedding high density condensed matter 'clusters' of deuterium into the target to obtain ultra high local fusion reaction rates (Miley, 2008). Such rates are possible due to the high density of the clusters (over an order of magnitude above cryogenic deuterium). Once compressed by the implosion, the yet higher density gives an ultra high reaction rate over the cluster volume since the fusion rate is proportional to the square of the fuel density. Most recently, a new discovery discussed here indicates that the target matrix could be composed of B{sup 11} with proton clusters imbedded. This then makes p-B{sup 11} fusion practical, assuming all of the physics issues such as stability of the clusters during compression are resolved. Indeed, p-B{sup 11} power is ideal for fusion propulsion since it has a minimum of unwanted side products while giving most of the reaction energy to energetic alpha particles which can be directed into an exhaust (propulsion) nozzle. Power plants using p-B{sup 11} have been discussed for such applications before, but prior designs face formidable physics/technology issues, largely overcome with the present approach.« less

  5. X-Ray Temperatures, Luminosities, and Masses from XMM-Newton Follow-upof the First Shear-selected Galaxy Cluster Sample

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Deshpande, Amruta J.; Hughes, John P.; Wittman, David

    2017-04-01

    We continue the study of the first sample of shear-selected clusters from the initial 8.6 square degrees of the Deep Lens Survey (DLS); a sample with well-defined selection criteria corresponding to the highest ranked shear peaks in the survey area. We aim to characterize the weak lensing selection by examining the sample’s X-ray properties. There are multiple X-ray clusters associated with nearly all the shear peaks: 14 X-ray clusters corresponding to seven DLS shear peaks. An additional three X-ray clusters cannot be definitively associated with shear peaks, mainly due to large positional offsets between the X-ray centroid and the shear peak. Here we report on the XMM-Newton properties of the 17 X-ray clusters. The X-ray clusters display a wide range of luminosities and temperatures; the L X -T X relation we determine for the shear-associated X-ray clusters is consistent with X-ray cluster samples selected without regard to dynamical state, while it is inconsistent with self-similarity. For a subset of the sample, we measure X-ray masses using temperature as a proxy, and compare to weak lensing masses determined by the DLS team. The resulting mass comparison is consistent with equality. The X-ray and weak lensing masses show considerable intrinsic scatter (˜48%), which is consistent with X-ray selected samples when their X-ray and weak lensing masses are independently determined. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

  6. Fifth Congress of Industrial Cell Technology 2014.

    PubMed

    Rasch, Anja

    2015-01-01

    The highly specialized and informative Fifth Congress of Industrial Cell Technology took place in Luebeck, close to Hamburg, on 11-12 September 2014. It was organized by the Fraunhofer Institution for Marine Biotechnology (EMB), Luebeck and supported by the cluster agency Life Science Nord Management GmbH as well as the Luebeck Chamber of Industry and Commerce. The central aim of the congress was to promote the name-giving platform applications of industrial cell technologies, in other words, the development of complex cell culture systems, analyzing technologies, innovative instruments and materials, etc. This year's sessions were: smart cell culture, bioreactor systems and cell goods including 3D bioprinting. This article highlights selected presentations of the congress.

  7. Creating a synergy effect: A cluster randomized controlled trial testing the effect of a tailored multimedia intervention on patient outcomes.

    PubMed

    Linn, Annemiek J; van Dijk, Liset; van Weert, Julia C M; Gebeyehu, Beniam G; van Bodegraven, Ad A; Smit, Edith G

    2018-03-17

    Improving adherence is a challenge and multiple barriers are likely to explain non-adherence. These barriers differ per patient and over course of the regimen. Hence, personalized interventions tailored to the specific barriers are needed. In a theoretical and evidence-based Tailored Multimedia Intervention, technology (online preparatory assessment, text messaging) was used as an add-on to a tailored counseling session (learned during a communication skills training), with the expectation of synergistic effects. A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted in six hospitals, eight nurses and 160 chronic patients. Patient satisfaction with communication, beliefs about medication, self-efficacy and medication adherence were assessed at initiation of the treatment and after six months. Intervention effects were found for patient satisfaction with nurses' affective communication and self-efficacy at the initiation of treatment. The effect on self-efficacy remained after six months. By combining tailored counseling with technology, this intervention resulted in positive changes in important prerequisites of medication adherence. Technology can contribute significantly to health care providers' ability to tailor information to the patients' needs. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  8. Direct Capture Technologies for Genomics-Guided Discovery of Natural Products.

    PubMed

    Chan, Andrew N; Santa Maria, Kevin C; Li, Bo

    2016-01-01

    Microbes are important producers of natural products, which have played key roles in understanding biology and treating disease. However, the full potential of microbes to produce natural products has yet to be realized; the overwhelming majority of natural product gene clusters encoded in microbial genomes remain "cryptic", and have not been expressed or characterized. In contrast to the fast-growing number of genomic sequences and bioinformatic tools, methods to connect these genes to natural product molecules are still limited, creating a bottleneck in genome-mining efforts to discover novel natural products. Here we review developing technologies that leverage the power of homologous recombination to directly capture natural product gene clusters and express them in model hosts for isolation and structural characterization. Although direct capture is still in its early stages of development, it has been successfully utilized in several different classes of natural products. These early successes will be reviewed, and the methods will be compared and contrasted with existing traditional technologies. Lastly, we will discuss the opportunities for the development of direct capture in other organisms, and possibilities to integrate direct capture with emerging genome-editing techniques to accelerate future study of natural products.

  9. Next Generation Sequencing of Actinobacteria for the Discovery of Novel Natural Products

    PubMed Central

    Gomez-Escribano, Juan Pablo; Alt, Silke; Bibb, Mervyn J.

    2016-01-01

    Like many fields of the biosciences, actinomycete natural products research has been revolutionised by next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS). Hundreds of new genome sequences from actinobacteria are made public every year, many of them as a result of projects aimed at identifying new natural products and their biosynthetic pathways through genome mining. Advances in these technologies in the last five years have meant not only a reduction in the cost of whole genome sequencing, but also a substantial increase in the quality of the data, having moved from obtaining a draft genome sequence comprised of several hundred short contigs, sometimes of doubtful reliability, to the possibility of obtaining an almost complete and accurate chromosome sequence in a single contig, allowing a detailed study of gene clusters and the design of strategies for refactoring and full gene cluster synthesis. The impact that these technologies are having in the discovery and study of natural products from actinobacteria, including those from the marine environment, is only starting to be realised. In this review we provide a historical perspective of the field, analyse the strengths and limitations of the most relevant technologies, and share the insights acquired during our genome mining projects. PMID:27089350

  10. The effects of cation–anion clustering on defect migration in MgAl 2O 4

    DOE PAGES

    Zamora, Richard J.; Voter, Arthur F.; Perez, Danny; ...

    2016-06-28

    Magnesium aluminate spinel (MgAl 2O 4), like many other ceramic materials, offers a range of technological applications, from nuclear reactor materials to military body armor. For many of these applications, it is critical to understand both the formation and evolution of lattice defects throughout the lifetime of the material. We use the Speculatively Parallel Temperature Accelerated Dynamics (SpecTAD) method to investigate the effects of di-vacancy and di-interstitial formation on the mobility of the component defects. From long-time trajectories of the state-to-state dynamics, we characterize the migration pathways of defect clusters, and calculate their self-diffusion constants across a range of temperatures.more » We find that the clustering of Al and O vacancies drastically reduces the mobility of both defects, while the clustering of Mg and O vacancies completely immobilizes them. For interstitials, we find that the clustering of Mg and O defects greatly reduces O interstitial mobility, but has only a weak effect on Mg. Lastly, these findings illuminate important new details regarding defect kinetics relevant to the application of MgAl 2O 4 in extreme environments.« less

  11. Analysis of genetic diversity and genome relationships of four eggplant species (Solanum melongena L) using RAPD markers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Susilo; Setyaningsih, M.

    2018-01-01

    Solanum melongena (eggplant) is one of the diversity of the Solanum family which is grown and widely spread in Indonesia and widely used by the community. This research explored the genetic diversity of four local Indonesian eggplant species namely leuca, tekokak, gelatik and kopek by using RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA). The samples were obtained from Agricultural Technology Assessment Institute (BPTP) Bogor, Indonesia. The result of data observation was in the form of Solanum melongena plant’s DNA profile analyzed descriptively and quantitatively. 30 DNA bands (28 polymorphic and 2 monomorphic) were successfully scored by using four primers (OPF-01, OPF-02, OPF-03, and OPF-04). The Primers were used able to amplify all of the four eggplant samples. The result of PCR-RAPD visualization produces bands of 300-1500 bp. The result of cluster analysis showed the existence of three clusters (A, B, and C). Cluster A (coefficient of equal to 49%) consisted of a gelatik, cluster B (coefficient of 65% equilibrium) consisted of TPU (Kopek) and TK (Tekokak), and cluster C (55% equilibrium coefficient) consisted of LC (Leunca). These results indicated that the closest proximity is found in samples of TK (Tekokak) and TPU (Kopek).

  12. The Productivity Analysis of Chennai Automotive Industry Cluster

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bhaskaran, E.

    2014-07-01

    Chennai, also called the Detroit of India, is India's second fastest growing auto market and exports auto components and vehicles to US, Germany, Japan and Brazil. For inclusive growth and sustainable development, 250 auto component industries in Ambattur, Thirumalisai and Thirumudivakkam Industrial Estates located in Chennai have adopted the Cluster Development Approach called Automotive Component Cluster. The objective is to study the Value Chain, Correlation and Data Envelopment Analysis by determining technical efficiency, peer weights, input and output slacks of 100 auto component industries in three estates. The methodology adopted is using Data Envelopment Analysis of Output Oriented Banker Charnes Cooper model by taking net worth, fixed assets, employment as inputs and gross output as outputs. The non-zero represents the weights for efficient clusters. The higher slack obtained reveals the excess net worth, fixed assets, employment and shortage in gross output. To conclude, the variables are highly correlated and the inefficient industries should increase their gross output or decrease the fixed assets or employment. Moreover for sustainable development, the cluster should strengthen infrastructure, technology, procurement, production and marketing interrelationships to decrease costs and to increase productivity and efficiency to compete in the indigenous and export market.

  13. Size Effects in Dye-Sensitized TiO2 Clusters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marom, Noa; Körzdörfer, Thomas; Ren, Xinguo; Tkatchenko, Alexandre; Chelikowsky, James

    2014-03-01

    The development of solar cells is driven by the need for clean and sustainable energy. Organic and dye sensitized cells are considered as promising technologies, particularly for large area, low cost applications. However, the efficiency of such cells is still far from the theoretical limit. Ab initio simulations may be used for computer-aided design of new materials and nano-structures for more efficient solar cells. It is essential to obtain an accurate description of the electronic structure, including the fundamental gaps and energy level alignment at the interfaces in the device active region. This requires going beyond ground-state DFT to the GW approximation. A recently developed GW method [PRB 86, 041110R (2012)] is applied to dye-sensitized TiO2 clusters [PRB 84, 245115 (2011)]. The effect of cluster size on the energy level alignment at the dye-TiO2 interface is discussed. With the increase in the TiO2 cluster size its gap narrows. The gap of the molecule attached to the cluster subsequently narrows due to screening. As a result, the energy level alignment at the interface changes in an unexpected way [Marom, Körzdörfer, Ren, Tkatchenko, Chelikowsky, to be published].

  14. Poly(A)-tag deep sequencing data processing to extract poly(A) sites.

    PubMed

    Wu, Xiaohui; Ji, Guoli; Li, Qingshun Quinn

    2015-01-01

    Polyadenylation [poly(A)] is an essential posttranscriptional processing step in the maturation of eukaryotic mRNA. The advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology has offered feasible means to generate large-scale data and new opportunities for intensive study of polyadenylation, particularly deep sequencing of the transcriptome targeting the junction of 3'-UTR and the poly(A) tail of the transcript. To take advantage of this unprecedented amount of data, we present an automated workflow to identify polyadenylation sites by integrating NGS data cleaning, processing, mapping, normalizing, and clustering. In this pipeline, a series of Perl scripts are seamlessly integrated to iteratively map the single- or paired-end sequences to the reference genome. After mapping, the poly(A) tags (PATs) at the same genome coordinate are grouped into one cleavage site, and the internal priming artifacts removed. Then the ambiguous region is introduced to parse the genome annotation for cleavage site clustering. Finally, cleavage sites within a close range of 24 nucleotides and from different samples can be clustered into poly(A) clusters. This procedure could be used to identify thousands of reliable poly(A) clusters from millions of NGS sequences in different tissues or treatments.

  15. Cost (non)-recovery by platform technology facilities in the Bio21 Cluster.

    PubMed

    Gibbs, Gerard; Clark, Stella; Quinn, Julieanne; Gleeson, Mary Joy

    2010-04-01

    Platform technologies (PT) are techniques or tools that enable a range of scientific investigations and are critical to today's advanced technology research environment. Once installed, they require specialized staff for their operations, who in turn, provide expertise to researchers in designing appropriate experiments. Through this pipeline, research outputs are raised to the benefit of the researcher and the host institution. Platform facilities provide access to instrumentation and expertise for a wide range of users beyond the host institution, including other academic and industry users. To maximize the return on these substantial public investments, this wider access needs to be supported. The question of support and the mechanisms through which this occurs need to be established based on a greater understanding of how PT facilities operate. This investigation was aimed at understanding if and how platform facilities across the Bio21 Cluster meet operating costs. Our investigation found: 74% of platforms surveyed do not recover 100% of direct operating costs and are heavily subsidized by their home institution, which has a vested interest in maintaining the technology platform; platform managers play a major role in establishing the costs and pricing of the facility, normally in a collaborative process with a management committee or institutional accountant; and most facilities have a three-tier pricing structure recognizing internal academic, external academic, and commercial clients.

  16. Cost (Non)-Recovery by Platform Technology Facilities in the Bio21 Cluster

    PubMed Central

    Gibbs, Gerard; Clark, Stella; Quinn, JulieAnne; Gleeson, Mary Joy

    2010-01-01

    Platform technologies (PT) are techniques or tools that enable a range of scientific investigations and are critical to today's advanced technology research environment. Once installed, they require specialized staff for their operations, who in turn, provide expertise to researchers in designing appropriate experiments. Through this pipeline, research outputs are raised to the benefit of the researcher and the host institution.1 Platform facilities provide access to instrumentation and expertise for a wide range of users beyond the host institution, including other academic and industry users. To maximize the return on these substantial public investments, this wider access needs to be supported. The question of support and the mechanisms through which this occurs need to be established based on a greater understanding of how PT facilities operate. This investigation was aimed at understanding if and how platform facilities across the Bio21 Cluster meet operating costs. Our investigation found: 74% of platforms surveyed do not recover 100% of direct operating costs and are heavily subsidized by their home institution, which has a vested interest in maintaining the technology platform; platform managers play a major role in establishing the costs and pricing of the facility, normally in a collaborative process with a management committee or institutional accountant; and most facilities have a three-tier pricing structure recognizing internal academic, external academic, and commercial clients. PMID:20357980

  17. Alternative Path Communication in Wide-Scale Cluster-Tree Wireless Sensor Networks Using Inactive Periods

    PubMed Central

    Leão, Erico; Montez, Carlos; Moraes, Ricardo; Portugal, Paulo; Vasques, Francisco

    2017-01-01

    The IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee cluster-tree topology is a suitable technology to deploy wide-scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). These networks are usually designed to support convergecast traffic, where all communication paths go through the PAN (Personal Area Network) coordinator. Nevertheless, peer-to-peer communication relationships may be also required for different types of WSN applications. That is the typical case of sensor and actuator networks, where local control loops must be closed using a reduced number of communication hops. The use of communication schemes optimised just for the support of convergecast traffic may result in higher network congestion and in a potentially higher number of communication hops. Within this context, this paper proposes an Alternative-Route Definition (ARounD) communication scheme for WSNs. The underlying idea of ARounD is to setup alternative communication paths between specific source and destination nodes, avoiding congested cluster-tree paths. These alternative paths consider shorter inter-cluster paths, using a set of intermediate nodes to relay messages during their inactive periods in the cluster-tree network. Simulation results show that the ARounD communication scheme can significantly decrease the end-to-end communication delay, when compared to the use of standard cluster-tree communication schemes. Moreover, the ARounD communication scheme is able to reduce the network congestion around the PAN coordinator, enabling the reduction of the number of message drops due to queue overflows in the cluster-tree network. PMID:28481245

  18. A highly efficient multi-core algorithm for clustering extremely large datasets

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background In recent years, the demand for computational power in computational biology has increased due to rapidly growing data sets from microarray and other high-throughput technologies. This demand is likely to increase. Standard algorithms for analyzing data, such as cluster algorithms, need to be parallelized for fast processing. Unfortunately, most approaches for parallelizing algorithms largely rely on network communication protocols connecting and requiring multiple computers. One answer to this problem is to utilize the intrinsic capabilities in current multi-core hardware to distribute the tasks among the different cores of one computer. Results We introduce a multi-core parallelization of the k-means and k-modes cluster algorithms based on the design principles of transactional memory for clustering gene expression microarray type data and categorial SNP data. Our new shared memory parallel algorithms show to be highly efficient. We demonstrate their computational power and show their utility in cluster stability and sensitivity analysis employing repeated runs with slightly changed parameters. Computation speed of our Java based algorithm was increased by a factor of 10 for large data sets while preserving computational accuracy compared to single-core implementations and a recently published network based parallelization. Conclusions Most desktop computers and even notebooks provide at least dual-core processors. Our multi-core algorithms show that using modern algorithmic concepts, parallelization makes it possible to perform even such laborious tasks as cluster sensitivity and cluster number estimation on the laboratory computer. PMID:20370922

  19. Alternative Path Communication in Wide-Scale Cluster-Tree Wireless Sensor Networks Using Inactive Periods.

    PubMed

    Leão, Erico; Montez, Carlos; Moraes, Ricardo; Portugal, Paulo; Vasques, Francisco

    2017-05-06

    The IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee cluster-tree topology is a suitable technology to deploy wide-scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). These networks are usually designed to support convergecast traffic, where all communication paths go through the PAN (Personal Area Network) coordinator. Nevertheless, peer-to-peer communication relationships may be also required for different types of WSN applications. That is the typical case of sensor and actuator networks, where local control loops must be closed using a reduced number of communication hops. The use of communication schemes optimised just for the support of convergecast traffic may result in higher network congestion and in a potentially higher number of communication hops. Within this context, this paper proposes an Alternative-Route Definition (ARounD) communication scheme for WSNs. The underlying idea of ARounD is to setup alternative communication paths between specific source and destination nodes, avoiding congested cluster-tree paths. These alternative paths consider shorter inter-cluster paths, using a set of intermediate nodes to relay messages during their inactive periods in the cluster-tree network. Simulation results show that the ARounD communication scheme can significantly decrease the end-to-end communication delay, when compared to the use of standard cluster-tree communication schemes. Moreover, the ARounD communication scheme is able to reduce the network congestion around the PAN coordinator, enabling the reduction of the number of message drops due to queue overflows in the cluster-tree network.

  20. Time-series Spectroscopy of Two Candidate Double Degenerates in the Open Cluster NGC 6633

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Williams, Kurtis A.; Serna-Grey, Donald; Chakraborty, Subho; Gianninas, A.; Canton, Paul A.

    2015-12-01

    SNe Ia are heavily used tools in precision cosmology, yet we still are not certain what the progenitor systems are. General plausibility arguments suggest there is potential for identifying double degenerate SN Ia progenitors in intermediate-age open star clusters. We present time-resolved high-resolution spectroscopy of two white dwarfs (WDs) in the field of the open cluster NGC 6633 that had previously been identified as candidate double degenerates in the cluster. However, three hours of continuous observations of each candidate failed to detect any significant radial velocity variations at the ≳10 km s-1 level, making it highly unlikely that either WD is a double degenerate that will merge within a Hubble Time. The WD LAWDS NGC 6633 4 has a radial velocity inconsistent with cluster membership at the 2.5σ level, while the radial velocity of LAWDS NGC 6633 7 is consistent with cluster membership. We conservatively conclude that LAWDS 7 is a viable massive double degenerate candidate, though unlikely to be a Type Ia progenitor. Astrometric data from GAIA will likely be needed to determine if either WD is truly a cluster member. The data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation.

  1. Use of a real-time viewer for endoscopic deployment of capsule endoscope in the pediatric population.

    PubMed

    Bass, Lee M; Misiewicz, Lawrence

    2012-11-01

    Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is an increasingly used procedure for visualization of the small intestine. One challenge in pediatric WCE is the placement of the capsule in a population unable to swallow it for a variety of reasons. Here we present a novel use of the real-time (RT) viewer in the endoscopic deployment of the capsule endoscope. We performed a retrospective chart review on all WCE completed at the Children's Memorial Hospital from February 2010 to May 2011. Following a diagnostic upper endoscopy, the RT viewer was attached to the capsule recorder and image was noted before insertion. The endoscope and AdvanCE capsule delivery device were slowly advanced into duodenum while maintaining visualization on the RT viewer. A total of 17 patients who underwent a WCE with endoscopic placement were identified. They ranged in ages from 2 to 19 years. Thirteen patients required endoscopic placement because of the inability to swallow the capsule, whereas 4 were placed during a scheduled procedure to take advantage of sedation and airway protection. All of the 17 patients had successful deployment of the capsule into the duodenal lumen. In each case, the endoscopist was able to confirm capsule location in duodenum during scope withdrawal. There was no evidence of iatrogenic trauma or bleeding in any patient. There were 5 incomplete studies, a completion rate consistent with that described in the literature. The use of the RT viewer for endoscopic deployment of WCE is an effective technique to improve visualization of capsule placement in the pediatric population.

  2. Special purpose computer system with highly parallel pipelines for flow visualization using holography technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Masuda, Nobuyuki; Sugie, Takashige; Ito, Tomoyoshi; Tanaka, Shinjiro; Hamada, Yu; Satake, Shin-ichi; Kunugi, Tomoaki; Sato, Kazuho

    2010-12-01

    We have designed a PC cluster system with special purpose computer boards for visualization of fluid flow using digital holographic particle tracking velocimetry (DHPTV). In this board, there is a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip in which is installed a pipeline for calculating the intensity of an object from a hologram by fast Fourier transform (FFT). This cluster system can create 1024 reconstructed images from a 1024×1024-grid hologram in 0.77 s. It is expected that this system will contribute to the analysis of fluid flow using DHPTV.

  3. Conversion of Methane into Methanol and Ethanol over Nickel Oxide on Ceria-Zirconia Catalysts in a Single Reactor

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Okolie, Chukwuemeka; Belhseine, Yasmeen F.; Lyu, Yimeng

    Direct conversion of methane into alcohols is a promising technology for converting stranded methane reserves into liquids that can be transported in pipelines and upgraded to value-added chemicals. We demonstrate that a catalyst consisting of small nickel oxide clusters supported on ceria-zirconia (NiO/CZ) can selectively oxidize methane to methanol and ethanol in a single, steady-state process at 723 K using O2 as an abundantly available oxidant. The presence of steam is required to obtain alcohols rather than CO2 as the product of catalytic combustion. The unusual activity of this catalyst is attributed to the synergy between the small Lewis acidicmore » NiO clusters and the redox-active CZ support, which also stabilizes the small NiO clusters.« less

  4. Conversion of Methane to Methanol and Ethanol over Nickel Oxide on Ceria-Zirconia Catalysts in a Single Reactor

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Okolie, Chukwuemeka; Belhseine, Yasmeen F.; Lyu, Yimeng

    Here, the conversion of methane into alcohols under moderate reaction conditions is a promising technology for converting stranded methane reserves into liquids that can be transported in pipelines and upgraded to value-added chemicals. We demonstrate that a catalyst consisting of small nickel oxide clusters supported on ceria-zirconia (NiO/CZ) can convert methane to methanol and ethanol in a single, steady-state process at 723 K using O 2 as an abundantly available oxidant. The presence of steam is required to obtain alcohols rather than CO 2 as the product of catalytic combustion. The unusual activity of this catalyst is attributed to themore » synergy between the small Lewis acidic NiO clusters and the redox-active CZ support, which also stabilizes the small NiO clusters.« less

  5. Conversion of Methane to Methanol and Ethanol over Nickel Oxide on Ceria-Zirconia Catalysts in a Single Reactor

    DOE PAGES

    Okolie, Chukwuemeka; Belhseine, Yasmeen F.; Lyu, Yimeng; ...

    2017-08-08

    Here, the conversion of methane into alcohols under moderate reaction conditions is a promising technology for converting stranded methane reserves into liquids that can be transported in pipelines and upgraded to value-added chemicals. We demonstrate that a catalyst consisting of small nickel oxide clusters supported on ceria-zirconia (NiO/CZ) can convert methane to methanol and ethanol in a single, steady-state process at 723 K using O 2 as an abundantly available oxidant. The presence of steam is required to obtain alcohols rather than CO 2 as the product of catalytic combustion. The unusual activity of this catalyst is attributed to themore » synergy between the small Lewis acidic NiO clusters and the redox-active CZ support, which also stabilizes the small NiO clusters.« less

  6. Massively Clustered CubeSats NCPS Demo Mission

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Robertson, Glen A.; Young, David; Kim, Tony; Houts, Mike

    2013-01-01

    Technologies under development for the proposed Nuclear Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (NCPS) will require an un-crewed demonstration mission before they can be flight qualified over distances and time frames representative of a crewed Mars mission. In this paper, we describe a Massively Clustered CubeSats platform, possibly comprising hundreds of CubeSats, as the main payload of the NCPS demo mission. This platform would enable a mechanism for cost savings for the demo mission through shared support between NASA and other government agencies as well as leveraged commercial aerospace and academic community involvement. We believe a Massively Clustered CubeSats platform should be an obvious first choice for the NCPS demo mission when one considers that cost and risk of the payload can be spread across many CubeSat customers and that the NCPS demo mission can capitalize on using CubeSats developed by others for its own instrumentation needs. Moreover, a demo mission of the NCPS offers an unprecedented opportunity to invigorate the public on a global scale through direct individual participation coordinated through a web-based collaboration engine. The platform we describe would be capable of delivering CubeSats at various locations along a trajectory toward the primary mission destination, in this case Mars, permitting a variety of potential CubeSat-specific missions. Cameras on various CubeSats can also be used to provide multiple views of the space environment and the NCPS vehicle for video monitoring as well as allow the public to "ride along" as virtual passengers on the mission. This collaborative approach could even initiate a brand new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program for launching student developed CubeSat payloads beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on future deep space technology qualification missions. Keywords: Nuclear Propulsion, NCPS, SLS, Mars, CubeSat.

  7. Understanding ligand effects in gold clusters using mass spectrometry

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Johnson, Grant E.; Laskin, Julia

    This review summarizes recent research on the influence of phosphine ligands on the size, stability, and reactivity of gold clusters synthesized in solution. Sub-nanometer clusters exhibit size- and composition-dependent properties that are unique from those of larger nanoparticles. The highly tunable properties of clusters and their high surface-to-volume ratio make them promising candidates for a variety of technological applications. However, because “each-atom-counts” toward defining cluster properties it is critically important to develop robust synthesis methods to efficiently prepare clusters of predetermined size. For decades phosphines have been known to direct the size-selected synthesis of gold clusters. Despite the preparation ofmore » numerous species it is still not understood how different functional groups at phosphine centers affect the size and properties of gold clusters. Using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) it is possible to characterize the effect of ligand substitution on the distribution of clusters formed in solution at defined reaction conditions. In addition, ligand exchange reactions on preformed clusters may be monitored using ESI-MS. Collision induced dissociation (CID) may also be employed to obtain qualitative insight into the fragmentation of mixed ligand clusters and the relative binding energies of differently substituted phosphines. Quantitative ligand binding energies and cluster stability may be determined employing surface induced dissociation (SID) in a custom-built Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FT-ICR-MS). Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) based modeling of the SID data allows dissociation energies and entropy values to be extracted that may be compared with the results of high-level theoretical calculations. The charge reduction and reactivity of atomically precise gold clusters, including partially ligated species generated in the gas-phase by in source CID, on well-defined surfaces may be explored using ion soft landing (SL) in a custom-built instrument combined with in situ time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). Jointly, this multipronged experimental approach allows characterization of the full spectrum of relevant phenomena including cluster synthesis, ligand exchange, thermochemistry, surface immobilization, and reactivity. The fundamental insights obtained from this work will facilitate the directed synthesis of gold clusters with predetermined size and properties for specific applications.« less

  8. Recognizing patterns of visual field loss using unsupervised machine learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yousefi, Siamak; Goldbaum, Michael H.; Zangwill, Linda M.; Medeiros, Felipe A.; Bowd, Christopher

    2014-03-01

    Glaucoma is a potentially blinding optic neuropathy that results in a decrease in visual sensitivity. Visual field abnormalities (decreased visual sensitivity on psychophysical tests) are the primary means of glaucoma diagnosis. One form of visual field testing is Frequency Doubling Technology (FDT) that tests sensitivity at 52 points within the visual field. Like other psychophysical tests used in clinical practice, FDT results yield specific patterns of defect indicative of the disease. We used Gaussian Mixture Model with Expectation Maximization (GEM), (EM is used to estimate the model parameters) to automatically separate FDT data into clusters of normal and abnormal eyes. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to decompose each cluster into different axes (patterns). FDT measurements were obtained from 1,190 eyes with normal FDT results and 786 eyes with abnormal (i.e., glaucomatous) FDT results, recruited from a university-based, longitudinal, multi-center, clinical study on glaucoma. The GEM input was the 52-point FDT threshold sensitivities for all eyes. The optimal GEM model separated the FDT fields into 3 clusters. Cluster 1 contained 94% normal fields (94% specificity) and clusters 2 and 3 combined, contained 77% abnormal fields (77% sensitivity). For clusters 1, 2 and 3 the optimal number of PCA-identified axes were 2, 2 and 5, respectively. GEM with PCA successfully separated FDT fields from healthy and glaucoma eyes and identified familiar glaucomatous patterns of loss.

  9. Efficacy of GPS cluster analysis for predicting carnivory sites of a wide-ranging omnivore: the American black bear

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kindschuh, Sarah R.; Cain, James W.; Daniel, David; Peyton, Mark A.

    2016-01-01

    The capacity to describe and quantify predation by large carnivores expanded considerably with the advent of GPS technology. Analyzing clusters of GPS locations formed by carnivores facilitates the detection of predation events by identifying characteristics which distinguish predation sites. We present a performance assessment of GPS cluster analysis as applied to the predation and scavenging of an omnivore, the American black bear (Ursus americanus), on ungulate prey and carrion. Through field investigations of 6854 GPS locations from 24 individual bears, we identified 54 sites where black bears formed a cluster of locations while predating or scavenging elk (Cervus elaphus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), or cattle (Bos spp.). We developed models for three data sets to predict whether a GPS cluster was formed at a carnivory site vs. a non-carnivory site (e.g., bed sites or non-ungulate foraging sites). Two full-season data sets contained GPS locations logged at either 3-h or 30-min intervals from April to November, and a third data set contained 30-min interval data from April through July corresponding to the calving period for elk. Longer fix intervals resulted in the detection of fewer carnivory sites. Clusters were more likely to be carnivory sites if they occurred in open or edge habitats, if they occurred in the early season, if the mean distance between all pairs of GPS locations within the cluster was less, and if the cluster endured for a longer period of time. Clusters were less likely to be carnivory sites if they were initiated in the morning or night compared to the day. The top models for each data set performed well and successfully predicted 71–96% of field-verified carnivory events, 55–75% of non–carnivory events, and 58–76% of clusters overall. Refinement of this method will benefit from further application across species and ecological systems.

  10. Beyond Information Retrieval: Ways To Provide Content in Context.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wiley, Deborah Lynne

    1998-01-01

    Provides an overview of information retrieval from mainframe systems to Web search engines; discusses collaborative filtering, data extraction, data visualization, agent technology, pattern recognition, classification and clustering, and virtual communities. Argues that rather than huge data-storage centers and proprietary software, we need…

  11. Adult Learning Disorders: Contemporary Issues

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wolf, Lorraine E., Ed.; Schreiber, Hope E., Ed.; Wasserstein, Jeanette, Ed.

    2008-01-01

    Recent advances in neuroimaging and genetics technologies have enhanced our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders in adults. The authors in this volume not only discuss such advances as they apply to adults with learning disorders, but also address their translation into clinical practice. One cluster of chapters addresses developmental…

  12. A cluster randomized control field trial of the ABRACADABRA web-based reading technology: replication and extension of basic findings

    PubMed Central

    Piquette, Noella A.; Savage, Robert S.; Abrami, Philip C.

    2014-01-01

    The present paper reports a cluster randomized control trial evaluation of teaching using ABRACADABRA (ABRA), an evidence-based and web-based literacy intervention (http://abralite.concordia.ca) with 107 kindergarten and 96 grade 1 children in 24 classes (12 intervention 12 control classes) from all 12 elementary schools in one school district in Canada. Children in the intervention condition received 10–12 h of whole class instruction using ABRA between pre- and post-test. Hierarchical linear modeling of post-test results showed significant gains in letter-sound knowledge for intervention classrooms over control classrooms. In addition, medium effect sizes were evident for three of five outcome measures favoring the intervention: letter-sound knowledge (d= +0.66), phonological blending (d = +0.52), and word reading (d = +0.52), over effect sizes for regular teaching. It is concluded that regular teaching with ABRA technology adds significantly to literacy in the early elementary years. PMID:25538663

  13. Innovative Production of Polyvinychloride on the Basis of Vertical Integration of Business and Cluster Organisation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kudryashova, Irina; Zakharova, Natalia; Kharlampenkov, Evgeniy

    2017-11-01

    The paper presents the results of the research of the world and Russian market of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a comparative assessment is made and the similarities and differences of these segments at the present have been identified. The theoretical possibility of considerable prospects of the development of domestic production of PVC is justified, ensure that it can achieve import substitution and export substitutionof this product in Russia. Based on the theoryof value chains and cluster organization of the enterprises of coal and chemical industries, ferrous metallurgy and other enterprises of Kuzbass have been proposed new technological solutions for the production of PVC, taking into account regional features of naturalresource base and capacity of national and world markets. It is established that the organization of production of PVC, using coal chemistry technology can be a promising growth point for the business of the Kemerovo region, will help to diversify the coal industry, to expand its product structure and export potential of the region, increase its competitiveness.

  14. Identification of the First Diketomorpholine Biosynthetic Pathway Using FAC-MS Technology.

    PubMed

    Robey, Matthew T; Ye, Rosa; Bok, Jin Woo; Clevenger, Kenneth D; Islam, Md Nurul; Chen, Cynthia; Gupta, Raveena; Swyers, Michael; Wu, Edward; Gao, Peng; Thomas, Paul M; Wu, Chengcang C; Keller, Nancy P; Kelleher, Neil L

    2018-05-18

    Filamentous fungi are prolific producers of secondary metabolites with drug-like properties, and their genome sequences have revealed an untapped wealth of potential therapeutic leads. To better access these secondary metabolites and characterize their biosynthetic gene clusters, we applied a new platform for screening and heterologous expression of intact gene clusters that uses fungal artificial chromosomes and metabolomic scoring (FAC-MS). We leverage FAC-MS technology to identify the biosynthetic machinery responsible for production of acu-dioxomorpholine, a metabolite produced by the fungus, Aspergilllus aculeatus. The acu-dioxomorpholine nonribosomal peptide synthetase features a new type of condensation domain (designated C R ) proposed to use a noncanonical arginine active site for ester bond formation. Using stable isotope labeling and MS, we determine that a phenyllactate monomer deriving from phenylalanine is incorporated into the diketomorpholine scaffold. Acu-dioxomorpholine is highly related to orphan inhibitors of P-glycoprotein targets in multidrug-resistant cancers, and identification of the biosynthetic pathway for this compound class enables genome mining for additional derivatives.

  15. On-product overlay enhancement using advanced litho-cluster control based on integrated metrology, ultra-small DBO targets and novel corrections

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bhattacharyya, Kaustuve; Ke, Chih-Ming; Huang, Guo-Tsai; Chen, Kai-Hsiung; Smilde, Henk-Jan H.; Fuchs, Andreas; Jak, Martin; van Schijndel, Mark; Bozkurt, Murat; van der Schaar, Maurits; Meyer, Steffen; Un, Miranda; Morgan, Stephen; Wu, Jon; Tsai, Vincent; Liang, Frida; den Boef, Arie; ten Berge, Peter; Kubis, Michael; Wang, Cathy; Fouquet, Christophe; Terng, L. G.; Hwang, David; Cheng, Kevin; Gau, TS; Ku, Y. C.

    2013-04-01

    Aggressive on-product overlay requirements in advanced nodes are setting a superior challenge for the semiconductor industry. This forces the industry to look beyond the traditional way-of-working and invest in several new technologies. Integrated metrology2, in-chip overlay control, advanced sampling and process correction-mechanism (using the highest order of correction possible with scanner interface today), are a few of such technologies considered in this publication.

  16. NASA Helps Build Colorado Economy

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2010-12-13

    Representative from U.S. Senator Udall's office Jimmy Haugue reads remarks from U.S. Senator Udall at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on Monday, Dec. 13, 2010, prior to the signing of an agreement with NASA that creates a Technology Acceleration Program and Regional Innovation Cluster for Aerospace and Clean Energy. A manufacturing park focused on rapid new product development and production will be developed to assist growing Colorado businesses while promoting the commercialization of technology developed for the space program. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

  17. Clustering evolving proteins into homologous families.

    PubMed

    Chan, Cheong Xin; Mahbob, Maisarah; Ragan, Mark A

    2013-04-08

    Clustering sequences into groups of putative homologs (families) is a critical first step in many areas of comparative biology and bioinformatics. The performance of clustering approaches in delineating biologically meaningful families depends strongly on characteristics of the data, including content bias and degree of divergence. New, highly scalable methods have recently been introduced to cluster the very large datasets being generated by next-generation sequencing technologies. However, there has been little systematic investigation of how characteristics of the data impact the performance of these approaches. Using clusters from a manually curated dataset as reference, we examined the performance of a widely used graph-based Markov clustering algorithm (MCL) and a greedy heuristic approach (UCLUST) in delineating protein families coded by three sets of bacterial genomes of different G+C content. Both MCL and UCLUST generated clusters that are comparable to the reference sets at specific parameter settings, although UCLUST tends to under-cluster compositionally biased sequences (G+C content 33% and 66%). Using simulated data, we sought to assess the individual effects of sequence divergence, rate heterogeneity, and underlying G+C content. Performance decreased with increasing sequence divergence, decreasing among-site rate variation, and increasing G+C bias. Two MCL-based methods recovered the simulated families more accurately than did UCLUST. MCL using local alignment distances is more robust across the investigated range of sequence features than are greedy heuristics using distances based on global alignment. Our results demonstrate that sequence divergence, rate heterogeneity and content bias can individually and in combination affect the accuracy with which MCL and UCLUST can recover homologous protein families. For application to data that are more divergent, and exhibit higher among-site rate variation and/or content bias, MCL may often be the better choice, especially if computational resources are not limiting.

  18. The Productivity and Technical Efficiency of Textile Industry Clusters in India

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bhaskaran, E.

    2013-09-01

    The Indian textile industry is one the largest and oldest sectors in the country and among the most important in the economy in terms of output, investment and employment (E). The sector employs nearly 35 million people and after agriculture, is the second-highest employer in the country. Its importance is underlined by the fact that it accounts for around 4 % of Gross Domestic Product, 14 % of industrial production, 9 % of excise collections, 18 % of E in the industrial sector, and 16 % of the country's total exports (Ex) earnings. For inclusive growth and sustainable development most of the Textile Manufacturers has adopted the Cluster Development Approach. The objective is to study the physical and financial performance, correlation, regression and Data Envelopment Analysis by measuring technical efficiency (Ø), peer weights (λi), input slacks (S-), output slacks (S+) and return to scale of four textile clusters (TCs) namely IchalKaranji Textile Cluster, Maharashtra; Ludhiana Textile Cluster, Punjab; Tirupur Textile Cluster, Tamilnadu and Panipat Textile Cluster, Haryana in India. The methodology adopted is using Data Envelopment Analysis of Output Oriented Banker Charnes Cooper Model by taking number of units (U) and number of E as inputs and sales (S) and Ex in crores as an outputs. The non-zero λi's represents the weights for efficient clusters. The S > 0 obtained for one TC reveals the excess U (S-) and E (S-) and shortage in sales (S+) and Ex (S+). To conclude, for inclusive growth and sustainable development, the inefficient TC should increase their S/turnover and Ex, as decrease in number of enterprises and E is practically not possible. Moreover for sustainable development, the TC should strengthen infrastructure interrelationships, technology interrelationships, procurement interrelationships, production interrelationships and marketing interrelationships to decrease cost, increase productivity and efficiency to compete in the world market.

  19. Spectroscopy of Luminous Compact Blue Galaxies in Distant Clusters. I. Spectroscopic Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Crawford, Steven M.; Wirth, Gregory D.; Bershady, Matthew A.; Hon, Kimo

    2011-11-01

    We used the DEIMOS spectrograph on the Keck II Telescope to obtain spectra of galaxies in the fields of five distant, rich galaxy clusters over the redshift range 0.5 < z < 0.9 in a search for luminous compact blue galaxies (LCBGs). Unlike traditional studies of galaxy clusters, we preferentially targeted blue cluster members identified via multi-band photometric pre-selection based on imaging data from the WIYN telescope. Of the 1288 sources that we targeted, we determined secure spectroscopic redshifts for 848 sources, yielding a total success rate of 66%. Our redshift measurements are in good agreement with those previously reported in the literature, except for 11 targets which we believe were previously in error. Within our sample, we confirm the presence of 53 LCBGs in the five galaxy clusters. The clusters all stand out as distinct peaks in the redshift distribution of LCBGs with the average number density of LCBGs ranging from 1.65 ± 0.25 Mpc-3 at z = 0.55 to 3.13 ± 0.65 Mpc-3 at z = 0.8. The number density of LCBGs in clusters exceeds the field density by a factor of 749 ± 116 at z = 0.55; at z = 0.8, the corresponding ratio is E = 416 ± 95. At z = 0.55, this enhancement is well above that seen for blue galaxies or the overall cluster population, indicating that LCBGs are preferentially triggered in high-density environments at intermediate redshifts. Based in part on data obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, and was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

  20. Design of Janus nanoparticles with atomic precision: tungsten-doped gold nanostructures.

    PubMed

    Sun, Qiang; Wang, Qian; Jena, Puru; Kawazoe, Yoshiyuki

    2008-02-01

    Janus nanoparticles, characterized by their anisotropic structure and interactions, have added a new dimension to nanoscience because of their potential applications in biomedicine, sensors, catalysis, and assembled materials. The technological applications of these nanoparticles, however, have been limited as the current chemical, physical, and biosynthetic methods lack sufficient size and shape selectivity. We report a technique where gold clusters doped with tungsten can serve as a seed that facilitates the natural growth of anisotropic nanostructures whose size and shape can be controlled with atomic precision. Using ab initio simulated annealing and molecular dynamics calculations on AunW (n > 12) clusters, we discovered that the W@Au12 cage cluster forms a very stable core with the remaining Au atoms forming patchy structures on its surface. The anisotropic geometry gives rise to anisotropies in vibrational spectra, charge distributions, electronic structures, and reactivity, thus making it useful to have dual functionalities. In particular, the core-patch structure is shown to possess a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail. The W@Au12 clusters can also be used as building blocks of a nanoring with novel properties.

  1. Biochemistry in an undergraduate writing-intensive first-year program: Seminar courses in drugs and bioethics.

    PubMed

    Mills, Kenneth V

    2015-01-01

    The College of the Holy Cross offers a universal first-year program called Montserrat, in which first-year students participate in a living-learning experience anchored by a yearlong seminar course. The seminar courses are part of a thematic cluster of four to eight courses; students in the cluster live together in a common dormitory and participate in shared co-curricular events designed to engage the entire cluster in intellectual discourse related to the theme. A two-semester seminar within the "Natural World" cluster was offered using biochemical principles as the underlying content. In the first semester, students were introduced to drug design, activity and abuse via student presentations and guided readings on ethnobotany, drug laws, drug use in religion, and prescription drug costs. In the second semester, students discussed primary readings in ethics followed by case study analyses of assisted reproduction technologies, informed consent, genetic privacy, performance enhancing drugs and genetically modified organisms. Student learning outcomes were evaluated via rubrics and a College-facilitated survey. © 2015 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

  2. [Identification of different Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck trees varieties using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and hierarchical cluster analysis].

    PubMed

    Yi, Shi-Lai; Deng, Lie; He, Shao-Lan; Shi, You-Ming; Zheng, Yong-Qiang; Lu, Qiang; Xie, Rang-Jin; Wei, Xian-Guoi; Li, Song-Wei; Jian, Shui-Xian

    2012-11-01

    Researched on diversity of the spring leaf samples of seven different Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck varieties by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy technology, the results showed that the Fourier transform infrared spectra of seven varieties leaves was composited by the absorption band of cellulose and polysaccharide mainly, the wave number of characteristics absorption peaks were similar at their FTIR spectra. However, there were some differences in shape of peaks and relatively absorption intensity. The conspicuous difference was presented at the region between 1 500 and 700 cm(-1) by second derivative spectra. Through the hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) of second derivative spectra between 1 500 and 700 cm(-1), the results showed that the clustering of the different varieties of Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck varieties was classification according to genetic relationship. The results showed that FTIR spectroscopy combined with hierarchical cluster analysis could be used to identify and classify of citrus varieties rapidly, it was an extension method to study on early leaves of varieties orange seedlings.

  3. Comparing the OpenMP, MPI, and Hybrid Programming Paradigm on an SMP Cluster

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jost, Gabriele; Jin, Haoqiang; anMey, Dieter; Hatay, Ferhat F.

    2003-01-01

    With the advent of parallel hardware and software technologies users are faced with the challenge to choose a programming paradigm best suited for the underlying computer architecture. With the current trend in parallel computer architectures towards clusters of shared memory symmetric multi-processors (SMP), parallel programming techniques have evolved to support parallelism beyond a single level. Which programming paradigm is the best will depend on the nature of the given problem, the hardware architecture, and the available software. In this study we will compare different programming paradigms for the parallelization of a selected benchmark application on a cluster of SMP nodes. We compare the timings of different implementations of the same CFD benchmark application employing the same numerical algorithm on a cluster of Sun Fire SMP nodes. The rest of the paper is structured as follows: In section 2 we briefly discuss the programming models under consideration. We describe our compute platform in section 3. The different implementations of our benchmark code are described in section 4 and the performance results are presented in section 5. We conclude our study in section 6.

  4. Modified vegetation indices for Ganoderma disease detection in oil palm from field spectroradiometer data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shafri, Helmi Z. M.; Anuar, M. Izzuddin; Saripan, M. Iqbal

    2009-10-01

    High resolution field spectroradiometers are important for spectral analysis and mobile inspection of vegetation disease. The biggest challenges in using this technology for automated vegetation disease detection are in spectral signatures pre-processing, band selection and generating reflectance indices to improve the ability of hyperspectral data for early detection of disease. In this paper, new indices for oil palm Ganoderma disease detection were generated using band ratio and different band combination techniques. Unsupervised clustering method was used to cluster the values of each class resultant from each index. The wellness of band combinations was assessed by using Optimum Index Factor (OIF) while cluster validation was executed using Average Silhouette Width (ASW). 11 modified reflectance indices were generated in this study and the indices were ranked according to the values of their ASW. These modified indices were also compared to several existing and new indices. The results showed that the combination of spectral values at 610.5nm and 738nm was the best for clustering the three classes of infection levels in the determination of the best spectral index for early detection of Ganoderma disease.

  5. The Star Schema Benchmark and Augmented Fact Table Indexing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    O'Neil, Patrick; O'Neil, Elizabeth; Chen, Xuedong; Revilak, Stephen

    We provide a benchmark measuring star schema queries retrieving data from a fact table with Where clause column restrictions on dimension tables. Clustering is crucial to performance with modern disk technology, since retrievals with filter factors down to 0.0005 are now performed most efficiently by sequential table search rather than by indexed access. DB2’s Multi-Dimensional Clustering (MDC) provides methods to "dice" the fact table along a number of orthogonal "dimensions", but only when these dimensions are columns in the fact table. The diced cells cluster fact rows on several of these "dimensions" at once so queries restricting several such columns can access crucially localized data, with much faster query response. Unfortunately, columns of dimension tables of a star schema are not usually represented in the fact table. In this paper, we show a simple way to adjoin physical copies of dimension columns to the fact table, dicing data to effectively cluster query retrieval, and explain how such dicing can be achieved on database products other than DB2. We provide benchmark measurements to show successful use of this methodology on three commercial database products.

  6. Elimination of leukemic cells from human transplants by laser nano-thermolysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lapotko, Dmitri; Lukianova, Ekaterina; Potapnev, Michail; Aleinikova, Olga; Oraevsky, Alexander

    2006-02-01

    We describe novel ex vivo method for elimination of tumor cells from bone marrow and blood, Laser Activated Nano-Thermolysis for Cell Elimination Technology (LANTCET) and propose this method for purging of transplants during treatment of leukemia. Human leukemic cells derived from real patients with different diagnoses (acute lymphoblastic leukemias) were selectively damaged by LANTCET in the experiments by laser-induced micro-bubbles that emerge inside individual specifically-targeted cells around the clusters of light-absorbing gold nanoparticles. Pretreatment of the transplants with diagnosis-specific primary monoclonal antibodies and gold nano-particles allowed the formation of nanoparticle clusters inside leukemic cells only. Electron microscopy found the nanoparticulate clusters inside the cells. Total (99.9%) elimination of leukemic cells targeted with specific antibodies and nanoparticles was achieved with single 10-ns laser pulses with optical fluence of 0.2 - 1.0 J/cm2 at the wavelength of 532 nm without significant damage to normal bone marrow cells in the same transplant. All cells were studied for the damage/viability with several control methods after their irradiation by laser pulses. Presented results have proved potential applicability of developed LANTCET technology for efficient and safe purging (cleaning of residual tumor cells) of human bone marrow and blood transplants. Design of extra-corporeal system was proposed that can process the transplant for one patient for less than an hour with parallel detection and counting residual leukemic cells.

  7. (a,k)-Anonymous Scheme for Privacy-Preserving Data Collection in IoT-based Healthcare Services Systems.

    PubMed

    Li, Hongtao; Guo, Feng; Zhang, Wenyin; Wang, Jie; Xing, Jinsheng

    2018-02-14

    The widely use of IoT technologies in healthcare services has pushed forward medical intelligence level of services. However, it also brings potential privacy threat to the data collection. In healthcare services system, health and medical data that contains privacy information are often transmitted among networks, and such privacy information should be protected. Therefore, there is a need for privacy-preserving data collection (PPDC) scheme to protect clients (patients) data. We adopt (a,k)-anonymity model as privacy pretection scheme for data collection, and propose a novel anonymity-based PPDC method for healthcare services in this paper. The threat model is analyzed in the client-server-to-user (CS2U) model. On client-side, we utilize (a,k)-anonymity notion to generate anonymous tuples which can resist possible attack, and adopt a bottom-up clustering method to create clusters that satisfy a base privacy level of (a 1 ,k 1 )-anonymity. On server-side, we reduce the communication cost through generalization technology, and compress (a 1 ,k 1 )-anonymous data through an UPGMA-based cluster combination method to make the data meet the deeper level of privacy (a 2 ,k 2 )-anonymity (a 1  ≥ a 2 , k 2  ≥ k 1 ). Theoretical analysis and experimental results prove that our scheme is effective in privacy-preserving and data quality.

  8. Pharmacy Technologist.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of pharmacy technologist, lists technical competencies and competency builders for 16 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general as well as those specific to the occupation of pharmacy technologist. The following skill areas…

  9. Respiratory Care Therapist.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of respiratory care therapist, lists technical competencies and competency builders for 18 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general as well as those specific to the occupation of respiratory care therapist. The following…

  10. Radiographer.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of radiographer, lists technical competencies and competency builders for 18 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general as well as those specific to the occupation of radiographer. The following skill areas are covered in the…

  11. Histotechnologist.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of histotechnologist, lists technical competencies and competency builders for 13 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general as well as those specific to the areas of histology and phlebotomy. The following skill areas are…

  12. Emergency Medical Technician.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of emergency medical technician, lists technical competencies and competency builders for 18 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general and 4 units specific to the occupation of emergency medical technician. The following…

  13. Dental Laboratory Technician.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of dental laboratory technician, lists technical competencies and competency builders for 13 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general and 8 units to the occupation of dental laboratory technician. The following skill areas…

  14. Telecommunications Specialist.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This publication contains 17 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the occupation of telecommunications specialist, 1 of 12 occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Each unit consists of a number of competencies; a list of competency builders is provided for each competency. Titles of the 17 units are as…

  15. Physical Therapist Assistant.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of physical therapist assistant, lists technical competencies and competency builders for 16 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general as well as those specific to the occupation of physical therapist assistant. The…

  16. Occupational Therapy Assistant.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of occupational therapy assistant, lists technical competencies and competency builders for 16 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general as well as those specific to the occupation of occupational therapy assistant. The…

  17. Medical Laboratory Technician.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of medical laboratory technician, lists technical competencies and competency builders for 18 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general and 8 units specific to the occupation of medical laboratory technician. The following…

  18. Hybrid coexpression link similarity graph clustering for mining biological modules from multiple gene expression datasets.

    PubMed

    Salem, Saeed; Ozcaglar, Cagri

    2014-01-01

    Advances in genomic technologies have enabled the accumulation of vast amount of genomic data, including gene expression data for multiple species under various biological and environmental conditions. Integration of these gene expression datasets is a promising strategy to alleviate the challenges of protein functional annotation and biological module discovery based on a single gene expression data, which suffers from spurious coexpression. We propose a joint mining algorithm that constructs a weighted hybrid similarity graph whose nodes are the coexpression links. The weight of an edge between two coexpression links in this hybrid graph is a linear combination of the topological similarities and co-appearance similarities of the corresponding two coexpression links. Clustering the weighted hybrid similarity graph yields recurrent coexpression link clusters (modules). Experimental results on Human gene expression datasets show that the reported modules are functionally homogeneous as evident by their enrichment with biological process GO terms and KEGG pathways.

  19. A survey of scientific literacy to provide a foundation for designing science communication in Japan.

    PubMed

    Kawamoto, Shishin; Nakayama, Minoru; Saijo, Miki

    2013-08-01

    There are various definitions and survey methods for scientific literacy. Taking into consideration the contemporary significance of scientific literacy, we have defined it with an emphasis on its social aspects. To acquire the insights needed to design a form of science communication that will enhance the scientific literacy of each individual, we conducted a large-scale random survey within Japan of individuals older than 18 years, using a printed questionnaire. The data thus acquired were analyzed using factor analysis and cluster analysis to create a 3-factor/4-cluster model of people's interest and attitude toward science, technology and society and their resulting tendencies. Differences were found among the four clusters in terms of the three factors: scientific factor, social factor, and science-appreciating factor. We propose a plan for designing a form of science communication that is appropriate to this current status of scientific literacy in Japan.

  20. Cultivation and energy efficient harvesting of microalgae using thermoreversible sol-gel transition

    PubMed Central

    Estime, Bendy; Ren, Dacheng; Sureshkumar, Radhakrishna

    2017-01-01

    Microalgae represent a promising source of renewable biomass for the production of biofuels and valuable chemicals. However, energy efficient cultivation and harvesting technologies are necessary to improve economic viability. A Tris-Acetate-Phosphate-Pluronic (TAPP) medium that undergoes a thermoreversible sol-gel transition is developed to efficiently culture and harvest microalgae without affecting the productivity as compared to that in traditional culture in a well-mixed suspension. After seeding microalgae in the TAPP medium in a solution phase at 15 °C, the temperature is increased by 7 °C to induce gelation. Within the gel, microalgae are observed to grow in large clusters rather than as isolated cells. The settling velocity of the microalgal clusters is approximately ten times larger than that of individual cells cultured in typical solution media. Such clusters are easily harvested gravimetrically by decreasing the temperature to bring the medium to a solution phase. PMID:28102313

  1. Detection of maize kernels breakage rate based on K-means clustering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Liang; Wang, Zhuo; Gao, Lei; Bai, Xiaoping

    2017-04-01

    In order to optimize the recognition accuracy of maize kernels breakage detection and improve the detection efficiency of maize kernels breakage, this paper using computer vision technology and detecting of the maize kernels breakage based on K-means clustering algorithm. First, the collected RGB images are converted into Lab images, then the original images clarity evaluation are evaluated by the energy function of Sobel 8 gradient. Finally, the detection of maize kernels breakage using different pixel acquisition equipments and different shooting angles. In this paper, the broken maize kernels are identified by the color difference between integrity kernels and broken kernels. The original images clarity evaluation and different shooting angles are taken to verify that the clarity and shooting angles of the images have a direct influence on the feature extraction. The results show that K-means clustering algorithm can distinguish the broken maize kernels effectively.

  2. Multifocal visual evoked potentials for early glaucoma detection.

    PubMed

    Weizer, Jennifer S; Musch, David C; Niziol, Leslie M; Khan, Naheed W

    2012-07-01

    To compare multifocal visual evoked potentials (mfVEP) with other detection methods in early open-angle glaucoma. Ten patients with suspected glaucoma and 5 with early open-angle glaucoma underwent mfVEP, standard automated perimetry (SAP), short-wave automated perimetry, frequency-doubling technology perimetry, and nerve fiber layer optical coherence tomography. Nineteen healthy control subjects underwent mfVEP and SAP for comparison. Comparisons between groups involving continuous variables were made using independent t tests; for categorical variables, Fisher's exact test was used. Monocular mfVEP cluster defects were associated with an increased SAP pattern standard deviation (P = .0195). Visual fields that showed interocular mfVEP cluster defects were more likely to also show superior quadrant nerve fiber layer thinning by OCT (P = .0152). Multifocal visual evoked potential cluster defects are associated with a functional and an anatomic measure that both relate to glaucomatous optic neuropathy. Copyright 2012, SLACK Incorporated.

  3. Deterministic Joint Remote Preparation of an Arbitrary Sevenqubit Cluster-type State

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ding, MengXiao; Jiang, Min

    2017-06-01

    In this paper, we propose a scheme for joint remotely preparing an arbitrary seven-qubit cluster-type state by using several GHZ entangled states as the quantum channel. The coefficients of the prepared states can be not only real, but also complex. Firstly, Alice performs a three-qubit projective measurement according to the amplitude coefficients of the target state, and then Bob carries out another three-qubit projective measurement based on its phase coefficients. Next, one three-qubit state containing all information of the target state is prepared with suitable operation. Finally, the target seven-qubit cluster-type state can be prepared by introducing four auxiliary qubits and performing appropriate local unitary operations based on the prepared three-qubit state in a deterministic way. The receiver's all recovery operations are summarized into a concise formula. Furthermore, it's worth noting that our scheme is more novel and feasible with the present technologies than most other previous schemes.

  4. Longitudinal changes in physical activity, sedentary behavior and body mass index in adolescence: Migrations towards different weight cluster.

    PubMed

    Devís-Devís, José; Lizandra, Jorge; Valencia-Peris, Alexandra; Pérez-Gimeno, Esther; García-Massò, Xavier; Peiró-Velert, Carmen

    2017-01-01

    This study examined longitudinal changes in physical activity, sedentary behavior and body mass index in adolescents, specifically their migrations towards a different weight cluster. A cohort of 755 adolescents participated in a three-year study. A clustering Self-Organized Maps Analysis was performed to visualize changes in subjects' characteristics between the first and second assessment, and how adolescents were grouped. Also a classification tree was used to identify the behavioral characteristics of the groups that changed their weight cluster. Results indicated that boys were more active and less sedentary than girls. Boys were especially keen to technological-based activities while girls preferred social-based activities. A moderate competing effect between sedentary behaviors and physical activities was observed, especially in girls. Overweight and obesity were negatively associated with physical activity, although a small group of overweight/obese adolescents showed a positive relationship with vigorous physical activity. Cluster migrations indicated that 22.66% of adolescents changed their weight cluster to a lower category and none of them moved in the opposite direction. The behavioral characteristics of these adolescents did not support the hypothesis that the change to a lower weight cluster was a consequence of an increase in time devoted to physical activity or a decrease in time spent on sedentary behavior. Physical activity and sedentary behavior does not exert a substantial effect on overweight and obesity. Therefore, there are other ways of changing to a lower-weight status in adolescents apart from those in which physical activity and sedentary behavior are involved.

  5. Longitudinal changes in physical activity, sedentary behavior and body mass index in adolescence: Migrations towards different weight cluster

    PubMed Central

    Lizandra, Jorge; Valencia-Peris, Alexandra; Pérez-Gimeno, Esther; García-Massò, Xavier; Peiró-Velert, Carmen

    2017-01-01

    This study examined longitudinal changes in physical activity, sedentary behavior and body mass index in adolescents, specifically their migrations towards a different weight cluster. A cohort of 755 adolescents participated in a three-year study. A clustering Self-Organized Maps Analysis was performed to visualize changes in subjects’ characteristics between the first and second assessment, and how adolescents were grouped. Also a classification tree was used to identify the behavioral characteristics of the groups that changed their weight cluster. Results indicated that boys were more active and less sedentary than girls. Boys were especially keen to technological-based activities while girls preferred social-based activities. A moderate competing effect between sedentary behaviors and physical activities was observed, especially in girls. Overweight and obesity were negatively associated with physical activity, although a small group of overweight/obese adolescents showed a positive relationship with vigorous physical activity. Cluster migrations indicated that 22.66% of adolescents changed their weight cluster to a lower category and none of them moved in the opposite direction. The behavioral characteristics of these adolescents did not support the hypothesis that the change to a lower weight cluster was a consequence of an increase in time devoted to physical activity or a decrease in time spent on sedentary behavior. Physical activity and sedentary behavior does not exert a substantial effect on overweight and obesity. Therefore, there are other ways of changing to a lower-weight status in adolescents apart from those in which physical activity and sedentary behavior are involved. PMID:28636644

  6. A Public Health Model for the Molecular Surveillance of HIV Transmission in San Diego, California

    PubMed Central

    May, Susanne; Tweeten, Samantha; Drumright, Lydia; Pacold, Mary E.; Kosakovsky Pond, Sergei L.; Pesano, Rick L.; Lie, Yolanda S.; Richman, Douglas D.; Frost, Simon D.W.; Woelk, Christopher H.; Little, Susan J.

    2009-01-01

    Background Current public health efforts often use molecular technologies to identify and contain communicable disease networks, but not for HIV. Here, we investigate how molecular epidemiology can be used to identify highly-related HIV networks within a population and how voluntary contact tracing of sexual partners can be used to selectively target these networks. Methods We evaluated the use of HIV-1 pol sequences obtained from participants of a community-recruited cohort (n=268) and a primary infection research cohort (n=369) to define highly related transmission clusters and the use of contact tracing to link other individuals (n=36) within these clusters. The presence of transmitted drug resistance was interpreted from the pol sequences (Calibrated Population Resistance v3.0). Results Phylogenetic clustering was conservatively defined when the genetic distance between any two pol sequences was <1%, which identified 34 distinct transmission clusters within the combined community-recruited and primary infection research cohorts containing 160 individuals. Although sequences from the epidemiologically-linked partners represented approximately 5% of the total sequences, they clustered with 60% of the sequences that clustered from the combined cohorts (O.R. 21.7; p=<0.01). Major resistance to at least one class of antiretroviral medication was found in 19% of clustering sequences. Conclusions Phylogenetic methods can be used to identify individuals who are within highly related transmission groups, and contact tracing of epidemiologically-linked partners of recently infected individuals can be used to link into previously-defined transmission groups. These methods could be used to implement selectively targeted prevention interventions. PMID:19098493

  7. Know thy eHealth user: Development of biopsychosocial personas from a study of older adults with heart failure.

    PubMed

    Holden, Richard J; Kulanthaivel, Anand; Purkayastha, Saptarshi; Goggins, Kathryn M; Kripalani, Sunil

    2017-12-01

    Personas are a canonical user-centered design method increasingly used in health informatics research. Personas-empirically-derived user archetypes-can be used by eHealth designers to gain a robust understanding of their target end users such as patients. To develop biopsychosocial personas of older patients with heart failure using quantitative analysis of survey data. Data were collected using standardized surveys and medical record abstraction from 32 older adults with heart failure recently hospitalized for acute heart failure exacerbation. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed on a final dataset of n=30. Nonparametric analyses were used to identify differences between clusters on 30 clustering variables and seven outcome variables. Six clusters were produced, ranging in size from two to eight patients per cluster. Clusters differed significantly on these biopsychosocial domains and subdomains: demographics (age, sex); medical status (comorbid diabetes); functional status (exhaustion, household work ability, hygiene care ability, physical ability); psychological status (depression, health literacy, numeracy); technology (Internet availability); healthcare system (visit by home healthcare, trust in providers); social context (informal caregiver support, cohabitation, marital status); and economic context (employment status). Tabular and narrative persona descriptions provide an easy reference guide for informatics designers. Personas development using approaches such as clustering of structured survey data is an important tool for health informatics professionals. We describe insights from our study of patients with heart failure, then recommend a generic ten-step personas development process. Methods strengths and limitations of the study and of personas development generally are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Translational bioinformatics in the cloud: an affordable alternative

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    With the continued exponential expansion of publicly available genomic data and access to low-cost, high-throughput molecular technologies for profiling patient populations, computational technologies and informatics are becoming vital considerations in genomic medicine. Although cloud computing technology is being heralded as a key enabling technology for the future of genomic research, available case studies are limited to applications in the domain of high-throughput sequence data analysis. The goal of this study was to evaluate the computational and economic characteristics of cloud computing in performing a large-scale data integration and analysis representative of research problems in genomic medicine. We find that the cloud-based analysis compares favorably in both performance and cost in comparison to a local computational cluster, suggesting that cloud computing technologies might be a viable resource for facilitating large-scale translational research in genomic medicine. PMID:20691073

  9. Mixture-Tuned, Clutter Matched Filter for Remote Detection of Subpixel Spectral Signals

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thompson, David R.; Mandrake, Lukas; Green, Robert O.

    2013-01-01

    Mapping localized spectral features in large images demands sensitive and robust detection algorithms. Two aspects of large images that can harm matched-filter detection performance are addressed simultaneously. First, multimodal backgrounds may thwart the typical Gaussian model. Second, outlier features can trigger false detections from large projections onto the target vector. Two state-of-the-art approaches are combined that independently address outlier false positives and multimodal backgrounds. The background clustering models multimodal backgrounds, and the mixture tuned matched filter (MT-MF) addresses outliers. Combining the two methods captures significant additional performance benefits. The resulting mixture tuned clutter matched filter (MT-CMF) shows effective performance on simulated and airborne datasets. The classical MNF transform was applied, followed by k-means clustering. Then, each cluster s mean, covariance, and the corresponding eigenvalues were estimated. This yields a cluster-specific matched filter estimate as well as a cluster- specific feasibility score to flag outlier false positives. The technology described is a proof of concept that may be employed in future target detection and mapping applications for remote imaging spectrometers. It is of most direct relevance to JPL proposals for airborne and orbital hyperspectral instruments. Applications include subpixel target detection in hyperspectral scenes for military surveillance. Earth science applications include mineralogical mapping, species discrimination for ecosystem health monitoring, and land use classification.

  10. Mimicking the magnetic properties of rare earth elements using superatoms.

    PubMed

    Cheng, Shi-Bo; Berkdemir, Cuneyt; Castleman, A W

    2015-04-21

    Rare earth elements (REs) consist of a very important group in the periodic table that is vital to many modern technologies. The mining process, however, is extremely damaging to the environment, making them low yield and very expensive. Therefore, mimicking the properties of REs in a superatom framework is especially valuable but at the same time, technically challenging and requiring advanced concepts about manipulating properties of atom/molecular complexes. Herein, by using photoelectron imaging spectroscopy, we provide original idea and direct experimental evidence that chosen boron-doped clusters could mimic the magnetic characteristics of REs. Specifically, the neutral LaB and NdB clusters are found to have similar unpaired electrons and magnetic moments as their isovalent REs (namely Nd and Eu, respectively), opening up the great possibility in accomplishing rare earth mimicry. Extension of the superatom concept into the rare earth group not only further shows the power and advance of this concept but also, will stimulate more efforts to explore new superatomic clusters to mimic the chemistry of these heavy atoms, which will be of great importance in designing novel building blocks in the application of cluster-assembled nanomaterials. Additionally, based on these experimental findings, a novel "magic boron" counting rule is proposed to estimate the numbers of unpaired electrons in diatomic LnB clusters.

  11. Scientometric and patentometric analyses to determine the knowledge landscape in innovative technologies: The case of 3D bioprinting

    PubMed Central

    2017-01-01

    This research proposes an innovative data model to determine the landscape of emerging technologies. It is based on a competitive technology intelligence methodology that incorporates the assessment of scientific publications and patent analysis production, and is further supported by experts’ feedback. It enables the definition of the growth rate of scientific and technological output in terms of the top countries, institutions and journals producing knowledge within the field as well as the identification of main areas of research and development by analyzing the International Patent Classification codes including keyword clusterization and co-occurrence of patent assignees and patent codes. This model was applied to the evolving domain of 3D bioprinting. Scientific documents from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, along with patents from 27 authorities and 140 countries, were retrieved. In total, 4782 scientific publications and 706 patents were identified from 2000 to mid-2016. The number of scientific documents published and patents in the last five years showed an annual average growth of 20% and 40%, respectively. Results indicate that the most prolific nations and institutions publishing on 3D bioprinting are the USA and China, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and Tsinghua University (China), respectively. Biomaterials and Biofabrication are the predominant journals. The most prolific patenting countries are China and the USA; while Organovo Holdings Inc. (USA) and Tsinghua University (China) are the institutions leading. International Patent Classification codes reveal that most 3D bioprinting inventions intended for medical purposes apply porous or cellular materials or biologically active materials. Knowledge clusters and expert drivers indicate that there is a research focus on tissue engineering including the fabrication of organs, bioinks and new 3D bioprinting systems. Our model offers a guide to researchers to understand the knowledge production of pioneering technologies, in this case 3D bioprinting. PMID:28662187

  12. Scientometric and patentometric analyses to determine the knowledge landscape in innovative technologies: The case of 3D bioprinting.

    PubMed

    Rodríguez-Salvador, Marisela; Rio-Belver, Rosa María; Garechana-Anacabe, Gaizka

    2017-01-01

    This research proposes an innovative data model to determine the landscape of emerging technologies. It is based on a competitive technology intelligence methodology that incorporates the assessment of scientific publications and patent analysis production, and is further supported by experts' feedback. It enables the definition of the growth rate of scientific and technological output in terms of the top countries, institutions and journals producing knowledge within the field as well as the identification of main areas of research and development by analyzing the International Patent Classification codes including keyword clusterization and co-occurrence of patent assignees and patent codes. This model was applied to the evolving domain of 3D bioprinting. Scientific documents from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, along with patents from 27 authorities and 140 countries, were retrieved. In total, 4782 scientific publications and 706 patents were identified from 2000 to mid-2016. The number of scientific documents published and patents in the last five years showed an annual average growth of 20% and 40%, respectively. Results indicate that the most prolific nations and institutions publishing on 3D bioprinting are the USA and China, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and Tsinghua University (China), respectively. Biomaterials and Biofabrication are the predominant journals. The most prolific patenting countries are China and the USA; while Organovo Holdings Inc. (USA) and Tsinghua University (China) are the institutions leading. International Patent Classification codes reveal that most 3D bioprinting inventions intended for medical purposes apply porous or cellular materials or biologically active materials. Knowledge clusters and expert drivers indicate that there is a research focus on tissue engineering including the fabrication of organs, bioinks and new 3D bioprinting systems. Our model offers a guide to researchers to understand the knowledge production of pioneering technologies, in this case 3D bioprinting.

  13. Impact of Risk-Benefit Perception and Trust on Medical Technology Acceptance in Relation to Drug and Device Lag: A Tripartite Cross-Sectional Survey.

    PubMed

    Todaka, Koji; Kishimoto, Junji; Ikeda, Masayuki; Ikeda, Koji; Yamamoto, Haruko

    2017-01-01

    New drug and medical device introduction in Japan usually lags behind that in the West. Many reports indicate that in Japan, the associated risks are considered greater than the benefits recognized in other countries. This study aimed to compare the relationship between risk-benefit perception and acceptance of medical technologies in 3 leading markets. A tripartite cross-sectional survey of the general public was used. In total, 3345 adults in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan participated, and sexes and age groups were equally represented. Questions about the perception of risk, benefit, and acceptance of medical and other scientific technologies, and trust of medical product providers or regulatory authorities were included. Five-step Likert coding for risk/benefit/acceptance of 4 medical items (x-rays, antibiotics, vaccines, and cardiac pacemakers) and 6 general items (such as automobiles and airplanes) were collected. Relationships between benefit perception and acceptance were linear for 4 medical technologies. The relationship had a similar slope but was shifted downward in Japan compared with the UK and US ( P < .01), suggesting a lower acceptance in Japan for all benefit perceptions. The trend was the same between risk perception and acceptance, except for slopes that were negative. Correspondence analysis showed a strong correlation among acceptance of medical technologies, benefits of medical technologies, trust in doctors, and trust in the Department of Health. The UK and US attributes were clustered with positive responses such as "useful," "acceptable," and "trustworthy," whereas Japan was clustered with intermediate to negative responses such as "neither" and "untrustworthy." Acceptance of medical technologies was low in Japan because of significant differences in trust for doctors and authorities compared with that in the UK and US. This is a possible basis for delays of 24 to 60 months for medical product approval in Japan.

  14. Reliability associated with the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) adapted for the telemedicine context.

    PubMed

    Nelson, Eve-Lynn; Miller, Edward Alan; Larson, Kiley A

    2010-01-01

    This study's purpose was to adapt the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) for telemedicine clinics and to investigate the adapted measure's reliability. The study also sought to better understand the volume of technology-related utterance in established telemedicine clinics and the feasibility of using the measure within the telemedicine setting. This initial evaluation is a first step before broadly using the adapted measure across technologies and raters. An expert panel adapted the RIAS for the telemedicine context. This involved accounting for all consultation participants (patient, provider, presenter, family) and adding technology-specific subcategories. Ten new and 36 follow-up telemedicine encounters were videotaped and double coded using the adapted RIAS. These consisted primarily of follow-up visits (78.0%) involving patients, providers, presenters, and other parties. Reliability was calculated for those categories with 15 or more utterances. Traditional RIAS categories related to socioemotional and task-focused clusters had fair to excellent levels of reliability in the telemedicine setting. Although there were too few utterances to calculate the reliability of the specific technology-related subcategories, the summary technology-related category proved reliable for patients, providers, and presenters. Overall patterns seen in traditional patient-provider interactions were observed, with the number of provider utterances far exceeding patient, presenter, and family utterances, and few technology-specific utterances. The traditional RIAS is reliable when applied across multiple participants in the telemedicine context. Reliability of technology-related subcategories could not be evaluated; however, the aggregate technology-related cluster was found to be reliable and may be especially relevant in understanding communication patterns with patients new to the telemedicine setting. Use of the RIAS instrument is encouraged to facilitate comparison between traditional, face-to-face clinics and telemedicine; among diverse consultation mediums and technologies; and across different specialties. Future research is necessary to further investigate the reliability and validity of adding technology-related subcategories to the RIAS. The limited number of technology-related utterances, however, implies a certain degree of comfort with two-way interactive video consultation among study participants. Telemedicine continues to increase access to healthcare. The technology-related categories of the adapted RIAS were reliable when aggregated, thereby providing a tool to better understand how telemedicine affects provider-patient communication and outcomes.

  15. Geographical markers for Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains with similar technological origins domesticated for rice-based ethnic fermented beverages production in North East India.

    PubMed

    Jeyaram, Kumaraswamy; Tamang, Jyoti Prakash; Capece, Angela; Romano, Patrizia

    2011-11-01

    Autochthonous strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae from traditional starters used for the production of rice-based ethnic fermented beverage in North East India were examined for their genetic polymorphism using mitochondrial DNA-RFLP and electrophoretic karyotyping. Mitochondrial DNA-RFLP analysis of S. cerevisiae strains with similar technological origins from hamei starter of Manipur and marcha starter of Sikkim revealed widely separated clusters based on their geographical origin. Electrophoretic karyotyping showed high polymorphism amongst the hamei strains within similar mitochondrial DNA-RFLP cluster and one unique karyotype of marcha strain was widely distributed in the Sikkim-Himalayan region. We conceptualized the possibility of separate domestication events for hamei strains in Manipur (located in the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot) and marcha strains in Sikkim (located in Himalayan biodiversity hotspot), as a consequence of less homogeneity in the genomic structure between these two groups, their clear separation being based on geographical origin, but not on technological origin and low strain level diversity within each group. The molecular markers developed based on HinfI-mtDNA-RFLP profile and the chromosomal doublets in chromosome VIII position of Sikkim-Himalayan strains could be effectively used as geographical markers for authenticating the above starter strains and differentiating them from other commercial strains.

  16. Measuring reproductive tourism through an analysis of Indian ART clinic Websites.

    PubMed

    Deonandan, Raywat; Loncar, Mirhad; Rahman, Prinon; Omar, Sabrina

    2012-01-01

    India is fast becoming the most prominent player in the global industry of reproductive tourism, in which infertile people cross international borders to seek assisted reproduction technologies. This study was conducted to better understand the extent and manner in which Indian clinics seek foreign clients. A systematic search of official Indian assisted reproduction technologies clinic Websites was undertaken, and instances noted where foreign clients were overtly targeted, and where maternal surrogacy was overtly offered. A total of 159 clinics with Web addresses were identified, though only 78 had functioning Websites. All were published in English, with the majority clustered in the states of Maharashtra (14) and Gujarat (9). Of the 78 functioning Websites, 53 (68%) featured some mention of maternal surrogacy services, and 42 (54%) made overt overtures to foreign clients. Qualitative appeals to foreigners included instructions for international adoption, visa application, and the legal parental disposition of the surrogate. All Maharashtran clinic Websites that mentioned surrogacy also overtly featured reproductive tourism. Preimplantation diagnosis services were not offered disproportionately by clinics mentioning reproductive tourism. Based upon clinic online profiles, reproductive tourism comprises a substantial fraction of India's assisted reproduction technologies clinics' business focus, clustering around its most tourist-friendly locales, and surrogacy may be a strong motivator for international clientele.

  17. Voltage clustering in redox-active ligand complexes: mitigating electronic communication through choice of metal ion

    DOE PAGES

    Zarkesh, Ryan A.; Ichimura, Andrew S.; Monson, Todd C.; ...

    2016-02-01

    We used the redox-active bis(imino)acenapthene (BIAN) ligand to synthesize homoleptic aluminum, chromium, and gallium complexes of the general formula (BIAN) 3M. The resulting compounds were characterized using X-ray crystallography, NMR, EPR, magnetic susceptibility and cyclic voltammetry measurements and modeled using both DFT and ab initio wavefunction calculations to compare the orbital contributions of main group elements and transition metals in ligand-based redox events. Ultimately, complexes of this type have the potential to improve the energy density and electrolyte stability of grid-scale energy storage technologies, such as redox flow batteries, through thermodynamically-clustered redox events.

  18. Real-time in situ nanoclustering during initial stages of artificial aging of Al-Cu alloys

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zatsepin, Nadia A.; Dilanian, Ruben A.; Nikulin, Andrei Y.; Gao, Xiang; Muddle, Barry C.; Matveev, Victor N.; Sakata, Osami

    2010-01-01

    We report an experimental demonstration of real-time in situ x-ray diffraction investigations of clustering and dynamic strain in early stages of nanoparticle growth in Al-Cu alloys. Simulations involving a simplified model of local strain are well correlated with the x-ray diffraction data, suggesting a redistribution of point defects and the formation of nanoscale clusters in the bulk material. A modal, representative nanoparticle size is determined subsequent to the final stage of artificial aging. Such investigations are imperative for the understanding, and ultimately the control, of nanoparticle nucleation and growth in this technologically important alloy.

  19. A Holistic approach to assess older adults' wellness using e-health technologies.

    PubMed

    Thompson, Hilaire J; Demiris, George; Rue, Tessa; Shatil, Evelyn; Wilamowska, Katarzyna; Zaslavsky, Oleg; Reeder, Blaine

    2011-12-01

    To date, methodologies are lacking that address a holistic assessment of wellness in older adults. Technology applications may provide a platform for such an assessment, but have not been validated. We set out to demonstrate whether e-health applications could support the assessment of older adults' wellness in community-dwelling older adults. Twenty-seven residents of independent retirement community were followed over 8 weeks. Subjects engaged in the use of diverse technologies to assess cognitive performance, physiological and functional variables, as well as psychometric components of wellness. Data were integrated from various e-health sources into one study database. Correlations were assessed between different parameters, and hierarchical cluster analysis was used to explore the validity of the wellness model. We found strong associations across multiple parameters of wellness within the conceptual model, including cognitive, functional, and physical. However, spirituality did not correlate with any other parameter studied in contrast to prior studies of older adults. Participants expressed overall positive attitudes toward the e-health tools and the holistic approach to the assessment of wellness, without expressing any privacy concerns. Parameters were highly correlated across multiple domains of wellness. Important clusters were noted to be formed across cognitive and physiological domains, giving further evidence of need for an integrated approach to the assessment of wellness. This finding warrants further replication in larger and more diverse samples of older adults to standardize and deploy these technologies across population groups.

  20. Financial Management Assistant.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This publication contains 19 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the occupation of financial management assistant, 1 of 12 occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Each unit consists of a number of competencies; a list of competency builders is provided for each competency. Titles of the 19 units are as…

  1. A Typology of Students Based on Academic Entitlement

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Luckett, Michael; Trocchia, Philip J.; Noel, Noel Mark; Marlin, Dan

    2017-01-01

    Two hundred ninety-three university business students were surveyed using an academic entitlement (AE) scale updated to include new technologies. Using factor analysis, three components of AE were identified: grade entitlement, behavioral entitlement, and service entitlement. A k-means clustering procedure was then applied to identify four groups…

  2. Computer Programmer/Analyst.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This publication contains 25 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the occupation of computer programmer/analyst, 1 of 12 occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Each unit consists of a number of competencies; a list of competency builders is provided for each competency. Titles of the 25 units are as…

  3. Evolution of the Bangalore ICT Cluster: The "Crystal Growth" Model

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Manimala, Mathew J.

    2006-01-01

    In about twenty years, starting in 1984, Bangalore has become the fourth best "Global Hub of Technological Innovation", according to Business Week. This article reviews the major milestones in Bangalore's development and the interactive roles of government, universities and private entrepreneurs. The author offers a new model: innovation…

  4. Visualizing the Structure of Medical Informatics Using Term Co-Occurrence Analysis.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Morris, Theodore Allan

    2000-01-01

    Examines the structure of medical informatics and the relationship between biomedicine and information science and information technology. Uses co-occurrence analysis of subject headings assigned to items indexed for MEDLINE as well as multidimensional scaling to show seven to eight broad multidisciplinary subject clusters. (Contains 28…

  5. Information Support Specialist.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This publication contains 22 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the occupation of information support specialist, 1 of occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Each unit consists of a number of competencies; a list of competency builders is provided for each competency. Titles of the 22 units are as…

  6. Network Systems Technician.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This publication contains 17 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the occupation of network systems technician, 1 of 12 occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Each unit consists of a number of competencies; a list of competency builders is provided for each competency. Titles of the 17 units are as follows:…

  7. Computer (PC/Network) Coordinator.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This publication contains 22 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the occupation of computer (PC/network) coordinator, 1 of 12 occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Each unit consists of a number of competencies; a list of competency builders is provided for each competency. Titles of the 22 units are as…

  8. Clustering Students Based on Motivation to Learn: A Blended Learning Approach

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rentroia-Bonito, Maria Alexandra; Gonçalves, Daniel; Jorge, Joaquim A.

    2015-01-01

    Technological advances during the last decade have provided huge possibilities to support e-learning. However, there are still concerns regarding Return-on-Investment (ROI) of e-learning, its sustainability within organizational boundaries and effectiveness across potential learner groups. Much previous research has concentrated on learners'…

  9. Registered Nurse (Associate Degree).

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of registered nurse (with an associate degree), lists technical competencies and competency builders for 19 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general and 5 units specific to the occupation of registered nurse. The following…

  10. Management Information Specialist.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This publication contains 19 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the occupation of management information specialist, 1 of 12 occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Each unit consists of a number of competencies; a list of competency builders is provided for each competency. Titles of the 19 units are as…

  11. Knowledge in Cities. Staff Report No. 470

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gabe, Todd; Abel, Jaison R.; Ross, Adrienne; Stolarick, Kevin

    2010-01-01

    This study identifies clusters of U.S. and Canadian metropolitan areas with similar knowledge traits. These groups--ranging from Making Regions, characterized by knowledge about manufacturing, to Thinking Regions, noted for knowledge about the arts, humanities, information technology, and commerce--can be used by analysts and policymakers for the…

  12. Computer Support Technician.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This publication contains 18 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the occupation of computer support technician, 1 of 12 12 occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Each unit consists of a number of competencies; a list of competency builders is provided for each competency. Titles of the 18 units are as…

  13. Microcomputer Applications Specialist.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This publication contains 16 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the occupation of microcomputer applications specialist, 1 of 12 occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Each unit consists of a number of competencies; a list of competency builders is provided for each competency. Titles of the 16 units are…

  14. Application of an Adaptive Clustering Network to Flight Control of a Fighter Aircraft. Phase 1

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1991-12-19

    whether the underlying neurodynamics are appropriate to the dynamics of the controlled element as well as the broad objectives of the control process...Dept. of Brain & Cognitive Sciences ........................ 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 02139 Attn: Dr. M. Jordan Dept. of

  15. Dental Hygienist.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of dental hygienist, lists technical competencies and competency builders for 13 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general and 9 units specific to the occupation of dental hygienist. The following skill areas are covered in…

  16. Accounting Specialist.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

    This publication identifies 20 subjects appropriate for use in a competency list for the occupation of accounting specialist, 1 of 12 occupations within the business/computer technologies cluster. Each unit consists of a number of competencies; a list of competency builders is provided for each competency. Titles of the 20 units are as follows:…

  17. [Chromosomal large fragment deletion induced by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system].

    PubMed

    Cheng, L H; Liu, Y; Niu, T

    2017-05-14

    Objective: Using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology to achieve a number of genes co-deletion on the same chromosome. Methods: CRISPR-Cas9 lentiviral plasmid that could induce deletion of Aloxe3-Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes located on mouse 11B3 chromosome was constructed via molecular clone. HEK293T cells were transfected to package lentivirus of CRISPR or Cas9 cDNA, then mouse NIH3T3 cells were infected by lentivirus and genomic DNA of these cells was extracted. The deleted fragment was amplified by PCR, TA clone, Sanger sequencing and other techniques were used to confirm the deletion of Aloxe3-Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes. Results: The CRISPR-Cas9 lentiviral plasmid, which could induce deletion of Aloxe3-Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes, was successfully constructed. Deletion of target chromosome fragment (Aloxe3-Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes) was verified by PCR. The deletion of Aloxe3-Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes was affirmed by TA clone, Sanger sequencing, and the breakpoint junctions of the CRISPR-Cas9 system mediate cutting events were accurately recombined, insertion mutation did not occur between two cleavage sites at all. Conclusion: Large fragment deletion of Aloxe3-Alox12b-Alox8 cluster genes located on mouse chromosome 11B3 was successfully induced by CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system.

  18. A Socio-spatial Dimension of Local Creative Industry Development in Semarang and Kudus Batik Clusters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nugroho, P.

    2018-02-01

    Creative industries existence is inseparable from the underlying social construct which provides sources for creativity and innovation. The working of social capital in a society facilitates information exchange, knowledge transfer and technology acquisition within the industry through social networks. As a result, a socio-spatial divide exists in directing the growth of the creative industries. This paper aims to examine how such a socio-spatial divide contributes to the local creative industry development in Semarang and Kudus batik clusters. Explanatory sequential mixed methods approach covering a quantitative approach followed by a qualitative approach is chosen to understand better the interplay between tangible and intangible variables in the local batik clusters. Surveys on secondary data taken from the government statistics and reports, previous studies, and media exposures are completed in the former approach to identify clustering pattern of the local batik industry and the local embeddedness factors which have shaped the existing business environment. In-depth interviews, content analysis, and field observations are engaged in the latter approach to explore reciprocal relationships between the elements of social capital and the local batik cluster development. The result demonstrates that particular social ties have determined the forms of spatial proximity manifested in forward and backward business linkages. Trust, shared norms, and inherited traditions are the key social capital attributes that lead to such a socio-spatial divide. Therefore, the intermediating roles of the bridging actors are necessary to encouraging cooperation among the participating stakeholders for a better cluster development.

  19. The impact of collaborations between universities and private organizations on cluster development and competitiveness in Romania

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stoicovici, D.; Bănică, M.; Ungureanu, M.; Stoicovici, M.

    2017-05-01

    While the European Union has put a lot of emphasis on cluster development due to their inherent advantages such as lower transaction costs, technological transfer and regional development, little is known about how clusters emerge and what can facilitate their competitiveness. This paper aims to study the impact of public-private cooperation between universities and organizations on cluster development and competitiveness. A literature review is employed to develop the model while 4 qualitative case studies provide the initial test of its validity. The analysis suggests that cooperating with research institutions impacts cluster development first through education of industrial staff, but also by developing innovation processes through the facilitation of the appearance of innovative ideas and also of knowledge sharing among organizations. The research has several implications both for organizations and for government officials. First of all, R&D and top management should actively seek to cooperate with research institutions both for training of their staff but also in seeking new ideas and as a way of collaborating with other organizations within the field without fear of losing competitive advantage. Second, government officials should try to create more incentives both for organizations (through for example tax returns) and for universities (extra funding or salary incentives) that can increase collaboration between these actors. This paper is the first one to asses empirically how cooperation with research institutions affect cluster competitiveness and development, especially within the developing region of Eastern Europe, Romania.

  20. Determining Criteria and Weights for Prioritizing Health Technologies Based on the Preferences of the General Population: A New Zealand Pilot Study.

    PubMed

    Sullivan, Trudy; Hansen, Paul

    2017-04-01

    The use of multicriteria decision analysis for health technology prioritization depends on decision-making criteria and weights according to their relative importance. We report on a methodology for determining criteria and weights that was developed and piloted in New Zealand and enables extensive participation by members of the general population. Stimulated by a preliminary ranking exercise that involved prioritizing 14 diverse technologies, six focus groups discussed what matters to people when thinking about technologies that should be funded. These discussions informed the specification of criteria related to technologies' benefits for use in a discrete choice survey designed to generate weights for each individual participant as well as mean weights. A random sample of 3218 adults was invited to participate. To check test-retest reliability, a subsample completed the survey twice. Cluster analysis was performed to identify participants with similar patterns of weights. Six benefits-related criteria were distilled from the focus group discussions and included in the discrete choice survey, which was completed by 322 adults (10% response rate). Most participants (85%) found the survey easy to understand, and the survey exhibited test-retest reliability. The cluster analysis revealed that participant weights are related more to idiosyncratic personal preferences than to demographic and background characteristics. The methodology enables extensive participation by members of the general population, for whom it is both acceptable and reliable. Generating weights for each participant allows the heterogeneity of individual preferences, and the extent to which they are related to demographic and background characteristics, to be tested. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. The role of CSP in the electricity system of South Africa - technical operation, grid constraints, market structure and economics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kost, Christoph; Friebertshäuser, Chris; Hartmann, Niklas; Fluri, Thomas; Nitz, Peter

    2017-06-01

    This paper analyses the role of solar technologies (CSP and PV) and their interaction in the South African electricity system by using a fundamental electricity system modelling (ENTIGRIS-SouthAfrica). The model is used to analyse the South African long-term electricity generation portfolio mix, optimized site selection and required transmission capacities until the year 2050. Hereby especially the location and grid integration of solar technology (PV and CSP) and wind power plants is analysed. This analysis is carried out by using detailed resource assessment of both technologies. A cluster approach is presented to reduce complexity by integrating the data in an optimization model.

  2. Innovative potential of plasma technology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Budaev, V. P.

    2017-11-01

    The review summarizes recent experimental observations of materials exposed to extreme hot plasma loads in fusion devices and plasma facilities with high-temperature plasma. Plasma load on the material in such devices lead to the stochastic clustering and fractal growth of the surface on scales from tens of nanometers to hundreds of micrometers forming statistical self-similarity of the surface roughness with extremely high specific area. Statistical characteristics of hierarchical granularity and scale invariance of such materials surface qualitatively differ from the properties of the roughness of the ordinary Brownian surface which provides a potential of innovative plasma technologies for synthesis of new nanostructured materials with programmed roughness properties, for hypersonic technologies, for biotechnology and biomedical applications.

  3. [Earth and Space Sciences Project Services for NASA HPCC

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Merkey, Phillip

    2002-01-01

    This grant supported the effort to characterize the problem domain of the Earth Science Technology Office's Computational Technologies Project, to engage the Beowulf Cluster Computing Community as well as the High Performance Computing Research Community so that we can predict the applicability of said technologies to the scientific community represented by the CT project and formulate long term strategies to provide the computational resources necessary to attain the anticipated scientific objectives of the CT project. Specifically, the goal of the evaluation effort is to use the information gathered over the course of the Round-3 investigations to quantify the trends in scientific expectations, the algorithmic requirements and capabilities of high-performance computers to satisfy this anticipated need.

  4. CRISPR/Cas9: at the cutting edge of hepatology

    PubMed Central

    Pankowicz, Francis P; Jarrett, Kelsey E; Lagor, William R; Bissig, Karl-Dimiter

    2018-01-01

    Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 genome engineering has revolutionised biomedical science and we are standing on the cusp of medical transformation. The therapeutic potential of this technology is tremendous, however, its translation to the clinic will be challenging. In this article, we review recent progress using this genome editing technology and explore its potential uses in studying and treating diseases of the liver. We discuss the development of new research tools and animal models as well as potential clinical applications, strategies and challenges. PMID:28487442

  5. Utilization of TALEN and CRISPR/Cas9 technologies for gene targeting and modification

    PubMed Central

    Pu, Jiali; Zhang, Baorong; Feng, Jian

    2015-01-01

    The capability to modify the genome precisely and efficiently offers an extremely useful tool for biomedical research. Recent developments in genome editing technologies such as transcription activator-like effector nuclease and the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats system have made genome modification available for a number of organisms with relative ease. Here, we introduce these genome editing techniques, compare and contrast each technical approach and discuss their potential to study the underlying mechanisms of human disease using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. PMID:25956682

  6. Modeling the Oldest Old: Personas to Design Technology-Based Solutions for Older Adults

    PubMed Central

    Reeder, Blaine; Zaslavksy, Oleg; Wilamowska, Katarzyna M.; Demiris, George; Thompson, Hilaire J

    2011-01-01

    There is a recognized need to develop information technology for the delivery of care services to older adults. However, little attention has been paid to the design of information technology for the oldest old demographic. We made novel use of data from observations, focus groups and cluster analysis of oldest old participant characteristics from a pilot study in a community setting to iteratively construct personas for the design of information technology for the oldest old. The resulting two personas, “Hazel” and “Rose”, capture different abilities of members of the oldest old demographic group. In addition, we provide a list of eleven design recommendations to guide the design of technology that supports the abilities of people like Hazel and Rose. The resulting personas, design recommendations and persona construction method can be useful tools for informaticians and designers of new systems for the oldest old. PMID:22195177

  7. New technologies accelerate the exploration of non-coding RNAs in horticultural plants

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Liu, Degao; Mewalal, Ritesh; Hu, Rongbin

    Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), that is, RNAs not translated into proteins, are crucial regulators of a variety of biological processes in plants. While protein-encoding genes have been relatively well-annotated in sequenced genomes, accounting for a small portion of the genome space in plants, the universe of plant ncRNAs is rapidly expanding. Recent advances in experimental and computational technologies have generated a great momentum for discovery and functional characterization of ncRNAs. Here we summarize the classification and known biological functions of plant ncRNAs, review the application of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology and ribosome profiling technology to ncRNA discovery in horticultural plants andmore » discuss the application of new technologies, especially the new genome-editing tool clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) systems, to functional characterization of plant ncRNAs.« less

  8. New technologies accelerate the exploration of non-coding RNAs in horticultural plants

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Degao; Mewalal, Ritesh; Hu, Rongbin; Tuskan, Gerald A; Yang, Xiaohan

    2017-01-01

    Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), that is, RNAs not translated into proteins, are crucial regulators of a variety of biological processes in plants. While protein-encoding genes have been relatively well-annotated in sequenced genomes, accounting for a small portion of the genome space in plants, the universe of plant ncRNAs is rapidly expanding. Recent advances in experimental and computational technologies have generated a great momentum for discovery and functional characterization of ncRNAs. Here we summarize the classification and known biological functions of plant ncRNAs, review the application of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology and ribosome profiling technology to ncRNA discovery in horticultural plants and discuss the application of new technologies, especially the new genome-editing tool clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) systems, to functional characterization of plant ncRNAs. PMID:28698797

  9. Evaluation of Three State-of-the-Art Classifiers for Recognition of Activities of Daily Living from Smart Home Ambient Data

    PubMed Central

    Nef, Tobias; Urwyler, Prabitha; Büchler, Marcel; Tarnanas, Ioannis; Stucki, Reto; Cazzoli, Dario; Müri, René; Mosimann, Urs

    2012-01-01

    Smart homes for the aging population have recently started attracting the attention of the research community. The “health state” of smart homes is comprised of many different levels; starting with the physical health of citizens, it also includes longer-term health norms and outcomes, as well as the arena of positive behavior changes. One of the problems of interest is to monitor the activities of daily living (ADL) of the elderly, aiming at their protection and well-being. For this purpose, we installed passive infrared (PIR) sensors to detect motion in a specific area inside a smart apartment and used them to collect a set of ADL. In a novel approach, we describe a technology that allows the ground truth collected in one smart home to train activity recognition systems for other smart homes. We asked the users to label all instances of all ADL only once and subsequently applied data mining techniques to cluster in-home sensor firings. Each cluster would therefore represent the instances of the same activity. Once the clusters were associated to their corresponding activities, our system was able to recognize future activities. To improve the activity recognition accuracy, our system preprocessed raw sensor data by identifying overlapping activities. To evaluate the recognition performance from a 200-day dataset, we implemented three different active learning classification algorithms and compared their performance: naive Bayesian (NB), support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF). Based on our results, the RF classifier recognized activities with an average specificity of 96.53%, a sensitivity of 68.49%, a precision of 74.41% and an F-measure of 71.33%, outperforming both the NB and SVM classifiers. Further clustering markedly improved the results of the RF classifier. An activity recognition system based on PIR sensors in conjunction with a clustering classification approach was able to detect ADL from datasets collected from different homes. Thus, our PIR-based smart home technology could improve care and provide valuable information to better understand the functioning of our societies, as well as to inform both individual and collective action in a smart city scenario. PMID:26007727

  10. Evaluation of Three State-of-the-Art Classifiers for Recognition of Activities of Daily Living from Smart Home Ambient Data.

    PubMed

    Nef, Tobias; Urwyler, Prabitha; Büchler, Marcel; Tarnanas, Ioannis; Stucki, Reto; Cazzoli, Dario; Müri, René; Mosimann, Urs

    2015-05-21

    Smart homes for the aging population have recently started attracting the attention of the research community. The "health state" of smart homes is comprised of many different levels; starting with the physical health of citizens, it also includes longer-term health norms and outcomes, as well as the arena of positive behavior changes. One of the problems of interest is to monitor the activities of daily living (ADL) of the elderly, aiming at their protection and well-being. For this purpose, we installed passive infrared (PIR) sensors to detect motion in a specific area inside a smart apartment and used them to collect a set of ADL. In a novel approach, we describe a technology that allows the ground truth collected in one smart home to train activity recognition systems for other smart homes. We asked the users to label all instances of all ADL only once and subsequently applied data mining techniques to cluster in-home sensor firings. Each cluster would therefore represent the instances of the same activity. Once the clusters were associated to their corresponding activities, our system was able to recognize future activities. To improve the activity recognition accuracy, our system preprocessed raw sensor data by identifying overlapping activities. To evaluate the recognition performance from a 200-day dataset, we implemented three different active learning classification algorithms and compared their performance: naive Bayesian (NB), support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF). Based on our results, the RF classifier recognized activities with an average specificity of 96.53%, a sensitivity of 68.49%, a precision of 74.41% and an F-measure of 71.33%, outperforming both the NB and SVM classifiers. Further clustering markedly improved the results of the RF classifier. An activity recognition system based on PIR sensors in conjunction with a clustering classification approach was able to detect ADL from datasets collected from different homes. Thus, our PIR-based smart home technology could improve care and provide valuable information to better understand the functioning of our societies, as well as to inform both individual and collective action in a smart city scenario.

  11. Evaluation of automated repetitive-sequence-based PCR (DiversiLab) compared to PCR ribotyping for rapid molecular typing of community- and nosocomial-acquired Clostridium difficile.

    PubMed

    Church, Deirdre L; Chow, Barbara L; Lloyd, Tracie; Gregson, Daniel B

    2011-06-01

    Automated repetitive PCR (rep-PCR; DiversiLab) was compared to PCR ribotyping of the 16S-23S RNA intergenic spacer of Clostridium difficile (CD) as the "gold standard" method for CD typing. PCR products were separated on DiversiLab LabChips (bioMérieux, St. Laurent, Quebec, Canada) utilizing a 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA) operating the DiversiLab v1.4 assay. Bioanalyzer data were exported to a secure DiversiLab website and analyzed with DiversiLab v3.4 software. Replicability of each method was verified by confirming that the 5 CD reference strains (RS) formed distinct clusters (CD4, CD6, VL0047, VL0013 [ribotype 027], VL0018 [ribotype 001]) by both typing methods. Ninety randomly selected clinical isolates (CS) were analyzed by both methods: 49 from community-acquired and 41 from hospital-acquired cases. A similarity index (SI) of ≥90% was used to define clusters when comparing the known RS cluster to the PCR ribotyping and rep-PCR patterns of CS. Fourteen different PCR-ribotype clusters were identified, but most CS formed 4 major clusters (i.e., CD4 [15/90; 17%], CD6 [17%], 027 [12%], and 001 [9%]). A total of 7 rep-PCR types were identified, but most CS formed 2 major rep-PCR clusters (i.e., CD4 [29/90; 32%] and CD6 [23%]); several PCR ribotypes occurred within a single rep-PCR cluster. Rep-PCR did not distinguish 027 or 001 isolates; i) 027 RS strain did not cluster, ii) eleven 027 CS strains clustered as CD4, iii) no 027 CS strains clustered with the 027 RS, and iv) only 2 001 CS clustered with the RS. Agreement between the PCR-ribotype and rep-PCR clusters only occurred for 35/90 (39%) of the CS using a rep-PCR SI of ≥90%. Rep-PCR time to results was similar, but the annual costs of routinely using this method are 32% higher than PCR ribotyping. Routine use of rep-PCR for CD typing is limited by its lack of definitive separation of the hypertoxigenic 027 or 001 outbreak CD strains. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sadeghi, Omid; Falaise, Clément; Molina, Pedro I.

    The iron Keggin ion is identified as a structural building block in both magnetite and ferrihydrite, two important iron oxide phases in nature and in technology. Discrete molecular forms of the iron Keggin ion that can be both manipulated in water and chemically converted to the related metal oxides are important for understanding growth mechanisms, in particular non-classical nucleation in which cluster building units are preserved in the aggregation and condensation processes. Here we describe two iron Keggin ion structures, formulated [Bi6FeO4Fe12O12(OH)12(CF3COO)10(H2O)2]3+ and [Bi6FeO4Fe12O12(OH)12(CF3COO)12]1+. Experimental and simulated X-ray scattering studies show indefinite stability of these clusters in water from pHmore » 1-3. The tridecameric iron Keggin-ion core is protected from hydrolysis by a synergistic effect of the capping Bi3+-cations and the trifluoroacetate ligands that respectively bond to the iron and bridge to the bismuth. By introducing electrons to the aqueous solution of clusters, we achieve complete separation of bismuth from the cluster, and the iron Keggin ion rapidly converts to magnetite and/or ferrihydrite, depending on the mechanism of reduction. In this strategy, we take advantage of the easily accessible reduction potential and crystallization energy of bismuth. Reduction was executed in bulk by chemical means, by voltammetry, and by secondary effects of transmission electron microscopy imaging of solutions. Prior, we showed a less stable analogue of the iron Keggin cluster converted to ferrihydrite simply upon dissolution. The prior and currently studied clusters with a range of reactivity provide a chemical system to study molecular cluster metal oxide conversion processes in detail.« less

  13. NanoClusters Enhance Drug Delivery in Mechanical Ventilation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pornputtapitak, Warangkana

    The overall goal of this thesis was to develop a dry powder delivery system for patients on mechanical ventilation. The studies were divided into two parts: the formulation development and the device design. The pulmonary system is an attractive route for drug delivery since the lungs have a large accessible surface area for treatment or drug absorption. For ventilated patients, inhaled drugs have to successfully navigate ventilator tubing and an endotracheal tube. Agglomerates of drug nanoparticles (also known as 'NanoClusters') are fine dry powder aerosols that were hypothesized to enable drug delivery through ventilator circuits. This Thesis systematically investigated formulations of NanoClusters and their aerosol performance in a conventional inhaler and a device designed for use during mechanical ventilation. These engineered powders of budesonide (NC-Bud) were delivered via a MonodoseRTM inhaler or a novel device through commercial endotracheal tubes, and analyzed by cascade impaction. NC-Bud had a higher efficiency of aerosol delivery compared to micronized stock budesonide. The delivery efficiency was independent of ventilator parameters such as inspiration patterns, inspiration volumes, and inspiration flow rates. A novel device designed to fit directly to the ventilator and endotracheal tubing connections and the MonodoseRTM inhaler showed the same efficiency of drug delivery. The new device combined with NanoCluster formulation technology, therefore, allowed convenient and efficient drug delivery through endotracheal tubes. Furthermore, itraconazole (ITZ), a triazole antifungal agent, was formulated as a NanoCluster powder via milling (top-down process) or precipitation (bottom-up process) without using any excipients. ITZ NanoClusters prepared by wet milling showed better aerosol performance compared to micronized stock ITZ and ITZ NanoClusters prepared by precipitation. ITZ NanoClusters prepared by precipitation methods also showed an amorphous state while milled ITZ NanoClusters maintained the crystalline character. Overall, NanoClusters prepared by various processes represent a potential engineered drug particle approach for inhalation therapy since they provide effective aerosol properties and stability due to the crystalline state of the drug powders. Future work will continue to explore formulation and delivery performance in vitro and in vivo..

  14. Science-Technology-Society literacy in college non-majors biology: Comparing problem/case studies based learning and traditional expository methods of instruction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peters, John S.

    This study used a multiple response model (MRM) on selected items from the Views on Science-Technology-Society (VOSTS) survey to examine science-technology-society (STS) literacy among college non-science majors' taught using Problem/Case Studies Based Learning (PBL/CSBL) and traditional expository methods of instruction. An initial pilot investigation of 15 VOSTS items produced a valid and reliable scoring model which can be used to quantitatively assess student literacy on a variety of STS topics deemed important for informed civic engagement in science related social and environmental issues. The new scoring model allows for the use of parametric inferential statistics to test hypotheses about factors influencing STS literacy. The follow-up cross-institutional study comparing teaching methods employed Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) to model the efficiency and equitability of instructional methods on STS literacy. A cluster analysis was also used to compare pre and post course patterns of student views on the set of positions expressed within VOSTS items. HLM analysis revealed significantly higher instructional efficiency in the PBL/CSBL study group for 4 of the 35 STS attitude indices (characterization of media vs. school science; tentativeness of scientific models; cultural influences on scientific research), and more equitable effects of traditional instruction on one attitude index (interdependence of science and technology). Cluster analysis revealed generally stable patterns of pre to post course views across study groups, but also revealed possible teaching method effects on the relationship between the views expressed within VOSTS items with respect to (1) interdependency of science and technology; (2) anti-technology; (3) socioscientific decision-making; (4) scientific/technological solutions to environmental problems; (5) usefulness of school vs. media characterizations of science; (6) social constructivist vs. objectivist views of theories; (7) impact of cultural religious/ethical views on science; (8) tentativeness of scientific models, evidence and predictions; (9) civic control of technological developments. This analysis also revealed common relationships between student views which would not have been revealed under the original unique response model (URM) of VOSTS and also common viewpoint patterns that warrant further qualitative exploration.

  15. The SUCCESS model for laboratory performance and execution of rapid molecular diagnostics in patients with sepsis.

    PubMed

    Dekmezian, Mhair; Beal, Stacy G; Damashek, Mary Jane; Benavides, Raul; Dhiman, Neelam

    2015-04-01

    Successful performance and execution of rapid diagnostics in a clinical laboratory hinges heavily on careful validation, accurate and timely communication of results, and real-time quality monitoring. Laboratories must develop strategies to integrate diagnostics with stewardship and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. We present a collaborative SUCCESS model for execution and monitoring of rapid sepsis diagnostics to facilitate timely treatment. Six months after execution of the Verigene Gram-Positive Blood Culture (BC-GP) and the AdvanDx PNA-FISH assays, data were collected on 579 and 28 episodes of bacteremia and fungemia, respectively. Clinical testing was executed using a SUCCESS model comprising the following components: stewardship, utilization of resources, core strategies, concierge services, education, support, and surveillance. Stewardship needs were identified by evaluating the specialty services benefiting from new testing. Utilization of resources was optimized by reviewing current treatment strategies and antibiogram and formulary options. Core strategies consisted of input from infectious disease leadership, pharmacy, and laboratory staff. Concierge services included automated Micro-eUpdate and physician-friendly actionable reports. Education modules were user-specific, and support was provided through a dedicated 24/7 microbiology hotline. Surveillance was performed by daily audit by the director. Using the SUCCESS model, the turnaround time for the detailed report with actionable guidelines to the physician was ∼3 hours from the time of culture positivity. The overall correlation between rapid methods and culture was 94% (546/579). Discrepant results were predominantly contaminants such as a coagulase-negative staphylococci or viridans streptococci in mixed cultures. SUCCESS is a cost-effective and easily adaptable model for clinical laboratories with limited stewardship resources.

  16. Medium-Index Mixed-Oxide Layers for Use in AR-Coatings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ganner, Peter

    1986-10-01

    Ttedesign philosophy of MC-AR-Coatings can be divided into two categories: a) Restriction to two film materials, namely one high-index and one low-index material and b) Use of medium-index layers in addition to high- and low-index layers. Both philosophies have advan-tages and drawbacks. In case a) the total number of layers necessary to obtain a required reflectance curve has to be higher. Thus in case of production errors it can be a problem to find out which layer was responsible for a deviation of the measured reflectance from the nominal one. In case b) using more than two materials reduces the total number of layers and consequently, pinpointing the cause of even small production errors is made simpler. Unfortunately there are not many materials commercially available which can be used to make hard, durable and robust films in the medium-index range namely between n=1.65 and n=2.00. In this paper the results of homogeneous mixtures of Alumina (Al203) and Tantala (Ta205) used for EB-gun evaporated medium-index films in AR-coatings is presented. It is shown that by proper adjustment of the weight percentages of the oxide mixture one can get homogeneous films in this index range. A number of design examples show the favourable application of such layers in AR-coatings. Among the most important ones is the well known QHQ-design for BBAR-coatings as well as AR-designs of the multiple half wave type with extended bandwidth. Further applications of the mixed-oxide layers are AR-coatings for cemented optical elements and beam splitters.

  17. The topside ionospheric effective scale heights (HT) derived with ROCSAT-1 and ground-based Ionosonde observations at equatorial and mid-latitude stations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ram Sudarsanam, Tulasi; Su, Shin-Yi; Liu, C. H.; Reinisch, Bodo

    In this study, we propose the assimilation of topside in situ electron density data from ROCSAT-1 satellite along with the ionosonde measurements for accurate determination of topside iono-spheric effective scale heights (HT) using -Chapman function. The reconstructed topside elec-tron density profiles using these scale heights exhibit an excellent similitude with Jicamarca Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) profiles, and are much better representations than the existing methods of Reinisch-Huang method and/or the empirical IRI-2007 model. The main advan-tage with this method is that it allows the precise determination of the effective scale height (HT) and the topside electron density profiles at a dense network of ionosonde/digisonde sta-tions where no ISR facilities are available. The demonstration of the method is applied by investigating the diurnal, seasonal and solar activity variations of HT over the dip-equatorial station Jicamarca and the mid-latitude station Grahamstown. The diurnal variation of scale heights over Jicamarca consistently exhibits a morning time descent followed by a minimum around 0700-0800 LT and a pronounced maximum at noon during all the seasons of both high and moderate solar activity periods. Further, the scale heights exhibit a secondary maximum during the post-sunset hours of equinoctial and summer months, whereas the post-sunset peak is absent during the winter months. These typical features are further investigated using the topside ion properties obtained by ROCSAT-1 as well as SAMI2 model simulations. The re-sults consistently indicate that the diurnal variation of the effective scale height (HT) does not closely follow the plasma temperature variation and at equatorial latitudes is largely controlled by the vertical ExB drift.

  18. Identification of Medicinal Mugua Origin by Near Infrared Spectroscopy Combined with Partial Least-squares Discriminant Analysis.

    PubMed

    Han, Bangxing; Peng, Huasheng; Yan, Hui

    2016-01-01

    Mugua is a common Chinese herbal medicine. There are three main medicinal origin places in China, Xuancheng City Anhui Province, Qijiang District Chongqing City, Yichang City, Hubei Province, and suitable for food origin places Linyi City Shandong Province. To construct a qualitative analytical method to identify the origin of medicinal Mugua by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) model was established after the Mugua derived from five different origins were preprocessed by the original spectrum. Moreover, the hierarchical cluster analysis was performed. The result showed that PLSDA model was established. According to the relationship of the origins-related important score and wavenumber, and K-mean cluster analysis, the Muguas derived from different origins were effectively identified. NIRS technology can quickly and accurately identify the origin of Mugua, provide a new method and technology for the identification of Chinese medicinal materials. After preprocessed by D1+autoscale, more peaks were increased in the preprocessed Mugua in the near infrared spectrumFive latent variable scores could reflect the information related to the origin place of MuguaOrigins of Mugua were well-distinguished according to K. mean value clustering analysis. Abbreviations used: TCM: Traditional Chinese Medicine, NIRS: Near infrared spectroscopy, SG: Savitzky-Golay smoothness, D1: First derivative, D2: Second derivative, SNV: Standard normal variable transformation, MSC: Multiplicative scatter correction, PLSDA: Partial least squares discriminant analysis, LV: Latent variable, VIP scores: Important score.

  19. Migration Related Socio-Cultural Changes and e-Learning in a European Globalising Society

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leman, Johan; Trappers, Ann; Brandon, Emily; Ruppol, Xavier

    2008-01-01

    OECD figures (1998-2002) reveal a sharply increasing flow of foreign workers into European countries. Ethnic diversification has become a generalized matter of fact. At the same time, rapidly developing technology and "intellectual globalization" processes--the world wide web--have also become a reality. This complex cluster of changes…

  20. Final report for the National Center for Intermodal Transportation for Economic Competitiveness : project title: student technology exchange program (STEP) for engineering/robotics in middle school students.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2015-05-05

    Key outcomes or other achievements - This project highlighted the importance of math and science concepts within three of the six STEM-related career clusters as defined by the Mississippi Department of Education: Agriculture, Food and Natural Resour...

  1. Small RNAs: artificial piRNAs for transcriptional silencing.

    PubMed

    Hirano, Takamasa; Siomi, Haruhiko

    2015-03-30

    Technologies have been developed in animal germ cells that produce artificial piRNAs from transgenes in piRNA clusters to silence target genes by cleaving their transcripts. A new study provides a simple way to generate artificial piRNAs to direct de novo DNA methylation in mice. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Optimising the Parallelisation of OpenFOAM Simulations

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-06-01

    UNCLASSIFIED UNCLASSIFIED Optimising the Parallelisation of OpenFOAM Simulations Shannon Keough Maritime Division Defence...Science and Technology Organisation DSTO-TR-2987 ABSTRACT The OpenFOAM computational fluid dynamics toolbox allows parallel computation of...performance of a given high performance computing cluster with several OpenFOAM cases, running using a combination of MPI libraries and corresponding MPI

  3. Clustering of Internet Risk Behaviors in a Middle School Student Population

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Dowell, Elizabeth B.; Burgess, Ann W.; Cavanaugh, Deborah J.

    2009-01-01

    Background: Internet safety is a growing public concern especially among adults and youth who live in an "instant messaging" world of technological communication. To better understand how early adolescents are using the Internet, a study was undertaken to more clearly identify the online general use, safety knowledge, and risk behaviors…

  4. Factors of Intensification in the Hops Cluster of Chuvashia

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zakharov, Anatoly I.; Evgrafov, Oleg V.; Zakharov, Dmitry A.; Ivanova, Elena V.; Tolstova, Marija L.; Tsaregorodtsev, Evgeny I.

    2016-01-01

    The complex analysis of development of hop-growing for 1971-2015 is carried out. In the conditions of the field experiment made in the Chuvash Republic hop-growing intensification elements--technology of its cultivation, mechanization are fulfilled. Based on researches it is established that the main internal allowance of increase in efficiency of…

  5. Evaluating Types of Students' Interactions in a Wiki-Based Collaborative Learning Project

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Prokofieva, Maria

    2013-01-01

    Wiki technology has been promoted as a collaborative software platform. This study investigates interactions that occur in a wiki-based collaborative learning project. The study draws on interaction literature and investigates the types of interactions with which students are engaged in wiki-based group projects, clusters that reflect online…

  6. Simultaneous alignment and clustering of peptide data using a Gibbs sampling approach.

    PubMed

    Andreatta, Massimo; Lund, Ole; Nielsen, Morten

    2013-01-01

    Proteins recognizing short peptide fragments play a central role in cellular signaling. As a result of high-throughput technologies, peptide-binding protein specificities can be studied using large peptide libraries at dramatically lower cost and time. Interpretation of such large peptide datasets, however, is a complex task, especially when the data contain multiple receptor binding motifs, and/or the motifs are found at different locations within distinct peptides. The algorithm presented in this article, based on Gibbs sampling, identifies multiple specificities in peptide data by performing two essential tasks simultaneously: alignment and clustering of peptide data. We apply the method to de-convolute binding motifs in a panel of peptide datasets with different degrees of complexity spanning from the simplest case of pre-aligned fixed-length peptides to cases of unaligned peptide datasets of variable length. Example applications described in this article include mixtures of binders to different MHC class I and class II alleles, distinct classes of ligands for SH3 domains and sub-specificities of the HLA-A*02:01 molecule. The Gibbs clustering method is available online as a web server at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/GibbsCluster.

  7. Jade: using on-demand cloud analysis to give scientists back their flow

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Robinson, N.; Tomlinson, J.; Hilson, A. J.; Arribas, A.; Powell, T.

    2017-12-01

    The UK's Met Office generates 400 TB weather and climate data every day by running physical models on its Top 20 supercomputer. As data volumes explode, there is a danger that analysis workflows become dominated by watching progress bars, and not thinking about science. We have been researching how we can use distributed computing to allow analysts to process these large volumes of high velocity data in a way that's easy, effective and cheap.Our prototype analysis stack, Jade, tries to encapsulate this. Functionality includes: An under-the-hood Dask engine which parallelises and distributes computations, without the need to retrain analysts Hybrid compute clusters (AWS, Alibaba, and local compute) comprising many thousands of cores Clusters which autoscale up/down in response to calculation load using Kubernetes, and balances the cluster across providers based on the current price of compute Lazy data access from cloud storage via containerised OpenDAP This technology stack allows us to perform calculations many orders of magnitude faster than is possible on local workstations. It is also possible to outperform dedicated local compute clusters, as cloud compute can, in principle, scale to much larger scales. The use of ephemeral compute resources also makes this implementation cost efficient.

  8. [A spatial adaptive algorithm for endmember extraction on multispectral remote sensing image].

    PubMed

    Zhu, Chang-Ming; Luo, Jian-Cheng; Shen, Zhan-Feng; Li, Jun-Li; Hu, Xiao-Dong

    2011-10-01

    Due to the problem that the convex cone analysis (CCA) method can only extract limited endmember in multispectral imagery, this paper proposed a new endmember extraction method by spatial adaptive spectral feature analysis in multispectral remote sensing image based on spatial clustering and imagery slice. Firstly, in order to remove spatial and spectral redundancies, the principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm was used for lowering the dimensions of the multispectral data. Secondly, iterative self-organizing data analysis technology algorithm (ISODATA) was used for image cluster through the similarity of the pixel spectral. And then, through clustering post process and litter clusters combination, we divided the whole image data into several blocks (tiles). Lastly, according to the complexity of image blocks' landscape and the feature of the scatter diagrams analysis, the authors can determine the number of endmembers. Then using hourglass algorithm extracts endmembers. Through the endmember extraction experiment on TM multispectral imagery, the experiment result showed that the method can extract endmember spectra form multispectral imagery effectively. What's more, the method resolved the problem of the amount of endmember limitation and improved accuracy of the endmember extraction. The method has provided a new way for multispectral image endmember extraction.

  9. High prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors in young employees of Information Technology industry.

    PubMed

    Limaye, Tejas Y; Kulkarni, Ravindra L; Deokar, Manisha R; Kumaran, Kalyanaraman

    2016-01-01

    We assessed the burden of cardiometabolic risk factors in Information Technology (IT) employees as they are exposed to adverse lifestyle. In this cross-sectional study, health records were obtained from two IT industries in Pune. Prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors [hyperglycemia, high blood pressure (BP), hypertriglyceridemia, high low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, and overweight/obesity] was determined using standard cutoffs. We also examined clustering of risk factors (≥two risk factors). Data were available on 1,350 of 5,800 employees (mean age: 33 ± 6 years, 78% men). Prevalence of diabetes and hypertension was 2.5% and 13.5%, respectively. Prevalence of prediabetes, borderline high BP, hypertriglyceridemia, high LDL-cholesterol, low HDL-cholesterol, and overweight/obesity was 6.5%, 20.3%, 21%, 22.1%, 70.1%, and 51.4%, respectively. Risk factor clustering was observed in 63.5% that increased with age (P < 0.001). Given the high burden of risk factors at relatively young age, spreading awareness and promoting healthy lifestyle through workplace interventions are warranted.

  10. Pulmonary parenchyma segmentation in thin CT image sequences with spectral clustering and geodesic active contour model based on similarity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    He, Nana; Zhang, Xiaolong; Zhao, Juanjuan; Zhao, Huilan; Qiang, Yan

    2017-07-01

    While the popular thin layer scanning technology of spiral CT has helped to improve diagnoses of lung diseases, the large volumes of scanning images produced by the technology also dramatically increase the load of physicians in lesion detection. Computer-aided diagnosis techniques like lesions segmentation in thin CT sequences have been developed to address this issue, but it remains a challenge to achieve high segmentation efficiency and accuracy without much involvement of human manual intervention. In this paper, we present our research on automated segmentation of lung parenchyma with an improved geodesic active contour model that is geodesic active contour model based on similarity (GACBS). Combining spectral clustering algorithm based on Nystrom (SCN) with GACBS, this algorithm first extracts key image slices, then uses these slices to generate an initial contour of pulmonary parenchyma of un-segmented slices with an interpolation algorithm, and finally segments lung parenchyma of un-segmented slices. Experimental results show that the segmentation results generated by our method are close to what manual segmentation can produce, with an average volume overlap ratio of 91.48%.

  11. Control of the interparticle spacing in superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle clusters by surface ligand engineering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dan, Wang; Bingbing, Lin; Taipeng, Shen; Jun, Wu; Fuhua, Hao; Chunchao, Xia; Qiyong, Gong; Huiru, Tang; Bin, Song; Hua, Ai

    2016-07-01

    Polymer-mediated self-assembly of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles allows modulation of the structure of SPIO nanocrystal cluster and their magnetic properties. In this study, dopamine-functionalized polyesters (DA-polyester) were used to directly control the magnetic nanoparticle spacing and its effect on magnetic resonance relaxation properties of these clusters was investigated. Monodisperse SPIO nanocrystals with different surface coating materials (poly(ɛ-caprolactone), poly(lactic acid)) of different molecular weights containing dopamine (DA) structure (DA-PCL2k, DA-PCL1k, DA-PLA1k)) were prepared via ligand exchange reaction, and these nanocrystals were encapsulated inside amphiphilic polymer micelles to modulate the SPIO nanocrystal interparticle spacing. Small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) was applied to quantify the interparticle spacing of SPIO clusters. The results demonstrated that the tailored magnetic nanoparticle clusters featured controllable interparticle spacing providing directly by the different surface coating of SPIO nanocrystals. Systematic modulation of SPIO nanocrystal interparticle spacing can regulate the saturation magnetization (M s) and T 2 relaxation of the aggregation, and lead to increased magnetic resonance (MR) relaxation properties with decreased interparticle spacing. Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2013CB933903), the National Key Technology R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2012BAI23B08), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 20974065, 51173117, and 50830107).

  12. Super Star Cluster Velocity Dispersions and Virial Masses in the M82 Nuclear Starburst

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McCrady, Nate; Graham, James R.

    2007-07-01

    We use high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy from Keck Observatory to measure the stellar velocity dispersions of 19 super star clusters (SSCs) in the nuclear starburst of M82. The clusters have ages on the order of 10 Myr, which is many times longer than the crossing times implied by their velocity dispersions and radii. We therefore apply the virial theorem to derive the kinematic mass for 15 of the SSCs. The SSCs have masses of 2×105 to 4×106 Msolar, with a total population mass of 1.4×107 Msolar. Comparison of the loci of the young M82 SSCs and old Milky Way globular clusters in a plot of radius versus velocity dispersion suggests that the SSCs are a population of potential globular clusters. We present the mass function for the SSCs and find a power-law fit with an index of γ=-1.91+/-0.06. This result is nearly identical to the mass function of young SSCs in the Antennae galaxies. Based on observations made at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

  13. a Probabilistic Embedding Clustering Method for Urban Structure Detection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lin, X.; Li, H.; Zhang, Y.; Gao, L.; Zhao, L.; Deng, M.

    2017-09-01

    Urban structure detection is a basic task in urban geography. Clustering is a core technology to detect the patterns of urban spatial structure, urban functional region, and so on. In big data era, diverse urban sensing datasets recording information like human behaviour and human social activity, suffer from complexity in high dimension and high noise. And unfortunately, the state-of-the-art clustering methods does not handle the problem with high dimension and high noise issues concurrently. In this paper, a probabilistic embedding clustering method is proposed. Firstly, we come up with a Probabilistic Embedding Model (PEM) to find latent features from high dimensional urban sensing data by "learning" via probabilistic model. By latent features, we could catch essential features hidden in high dimensional data known as patterns; with the probabilistic model, we can also reduce uncertainty caused by high noise. Secondly, through tuning the parameters, our model could discover two kinds of urban structure, the homophily and structural equivalence, which means communities with intensive interaction or in the same roles in urban structure. We evaluated the performance of our model by conducting experiments on real-world data and experiments with real data in Shanghai (China) proved that our method could discover two kinds of urban structure, the homophily and structural equivalence, which means clustering community with intensive interaction or under the same roles in urban space.

  14. Multi-cellular natural killer (NK) cell clusters enhance NK cell activation through localizing IL-2 within the cluster

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Miju; Kim, Tae-Jin; Kim, Hye Mi; Doh, Junsang; Lee, Kyung-Mi

    2017-01-01

    Multi-cellular cluster formation of natural killer (NK) cells occurs during in vivo priming and potentiates their activation to IL-2. However, the precise mechanism underlying this synergy within NK cell clusters remains unclear. We employed lymphocyte-laden microwell technologies to modulate contact-mediated multi-cellular interactions among activating NK cells and to quantitatively assess the molecular events occurring in multi-cellular clusters of NK cells. NK cells in social microwells, which allow cell-to-cell contact, exhibited significantly higher levels of IL-2 receptor (IL-2R) signaling compared with those in lonesome microwells, which prevent intercellular contact. Further, CD25, an IL-2R α chain, and lytic granules of NK cells in social microwells were polarized toward MTOC. Live cell imaging of lytic granules revealed their dynamic and prolonged polarization toward neighboring NK cells without degranulation. These results suggest that IL-2 bound on CD25 of one NK cells triggered IL-2 signaling of neighboring NK cells. These results were further corroborated by findings that CD25-KO NK cells exhibited lower proliferation than WT NK cells, and when mixed with WT NK cells, underwent significantly higher level of proliferation. These data highlights the existence of IL-2 trans-presentation between NK cells in the local microenvironment where the availability of IL-2 is limited.

  15. Identification of high-confidence RNA regulatory elements by combinatorial classification of RNA-protein binding sites.

    PubMed

    Li, Yang Eric; Xiao, Mu; Shi, Binbin; Yang, Yu-Cheng T; Wang, Dong; Wang, Fei; Marcia, Marco; Lu, Zhi John

    2017-09-08

    Crosslinking immunoprecipitation sequencing (CLIP-seq) technologies have enabled researchers to characterize transcriptome-wide binding sites of RNA-binding protein (RBP) with high resolution. We apply a soft-clustering method, RBPgroup, to various CLIP-seq datasets to group together RBPs that specifically bind the same RNA sites. Such combinatorial clustering of RBPs helps interpret CLIP-seq data and suggests functional RNA regulatory elements. Furthermore, we validate two RBP-RBP interactions in cell lines. Our approach links proteins and RNA motifs known to possess similar biochemical and cellular properties and can, when used in conjunction with additional experimental data, identify high-confidence RBP groups and their associated RNA regulatory elements.

  16. The economics of patient-centered care.

    PubMed

    David, Guy; Saynisch, Philip A; Smith-McLallen, Aaron

    2018-05-01

    The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a widely-implemented model for improving primary care, emphasizing care coordination, information technology, and process improvements. However, its treatment as an undifferentiated intervention in policy evaluation obscures meaningful variation in implementation. This heterogeneity leads to contracting inefficiencies between insurers and practices and may account for mixed evidence on its success. Using a novel dataset we group practices into meaningful implementation clusters and then link these clusters with detailed patient claims data. We find implementation choice affects performance, suggesting that generally-unobserved features of primary care reorganization influence patient outcomes. Reporting these features may be valuable to insurers and their members. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. [Progress of genome engineering technology via clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats--a review].

    PubMed

    Li, Hao; Qiu, Shaofu; Song, Hongbin

    2013-10-04

    In survival competition with phage, bacteria and archaea gradually evolved the acquired immune system--Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), presenting the trait of transcribing the crRNA and the CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) to silence or cleaving the foreign double-stranded DNA specifically. In recent years, strong interest arises in prokaryotes primitive immune system and many in-depth researches are going on. Recently, researchers successfully repurposed CRISPR as an RNA-guided platform for sequence-specific gene expression, which provides a simple approach for selectively perturbing gene expression on a genome-wide scale. It will undoubtedly bring genome engineering into a more convenient and accurate new era.

  18. Locating the two black holes in NGC 6240.

    PubMed

    Max, Claire E; Canalizo, Gabriela; de Vries, Willem H

    2007-06-29

    Mergers play an important role in galaxy evolution and are key to understanding the correlation between central-black hole mass and host-galaxy properties. We used the new technology of adaptive optics at the Keck II telescope to observe NGC 6240, a merger between two disk galaxies. Our high-resolution near-infrared images, combined with radio and x-ray positions, revealed the location and environment of two central supermassive black holes. Each is at the center of a rotating stellar disk, surrounded by a cloud of young star clusters. The brightest of these young clusters lie in the plane of each disk, but surprisingly are seen only on the disks' receding side.

  19. Broadband Rotational Spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pate, Brooks

    2014-06-01

    The past decade has seen several major technology advances in electronics operating at microwave frequencies making it possible to develop a new generation of spectrometers for molecular rotational spectroscopy. High-speed digital electronics, both arbitrary waveform generators and digitizers, continue on a Moore's Law-like development cycle that started around 1993 with device bandwidth doubling about every 36 months. These enabling technologies were the key to designing chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave (CP-FTMW) spectrometers which offer significant sensitivity enhancements for broadband spectrum acquisition in molecular rotational spectroscopy. A special feature of the chirped-pulse spectrometer design is that it is easily implemented at low frequency (below 8 GHz) where Balle-Flygare type spectrometers with Fabry-Perot cavity designs become technologically challenging due to the mirror size requirements. The capabilities of CP-FTMW spectrometers for studies of molecular structure will be illustrated by the collaborative research effort we have been a part of to determine the structures of water clusters - a project which has identified clusters up to the pentadecamer. A second technology trend that impacts molecular rotational spectroscopy is the development of high power, solid state sources in the mm-wave/THz regions. Results from the field of mm-wave chirped-pulse Fourier transform spectroscopy will be described with an emphasis on new problems in chemical dynamics and analytical chemistry that these methods can tackle. The third (and potentially most important) technological trend is the reduction of microwave components to chip level using monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) - a technology driven by an enormous mass market in communications. Some recent advances in rotational spectrometer designs that incorporate low-cost components will be highlighted. The challenge to the high-resolution spectroscopy community - as posed by Frank De Lucia last year at the final meeting in Columbus - is what problems can we solve when real, fully capable spectrometers become essentially free to build?

  20. NASA Technology Investments in Electric Propulsion: New Directions in the New Millennium

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sankovic, John M.

    2002-01-01

    The last decade was a period of unprecedented acceptance of NASA developed electric propulsion by the user community. The benefits of high performance electric propulsion systems are now widely recognized, and new technologies have been accepted across the commonly. NASA clearly recognizes the need for new, high performance, electric propulsion technologies for future solar system missions and is sponsoring aggressive efforts in this area. These efforts are mainly conducted under the Office of Aerospace Technology. Plans over the next six years include the development of next generation ion thrusters for end of decade missions. Additional efforts are planned for the development of very high power thrusters, including magnetoplasmadynamic, pulsed inductive, and VASIMR, and clusters of Hall thrusters. In addition to the in-house technology efforts, NASA continues to work closely with both supplier and user communities to maximize the acceptance of new technology in a timely and cost-effective manner. This paper provides an overview of NASA's activities in the area of electric propulsion with an emphasis on future program directions.

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