Database technologies for l-system simulations in virtual plant applications on bioinformatics

One of the most important advantages of database systems is that the underlying mathematics is rich enough to specify very complex operations with a small number of statements in the database language. This research covers an aspect of biological informatics that is the marriage of information technology and biology, involving the study of real-world phenomena using virtual plants derived from L-systems simulation. L-systems were introduced by Aristid Lindenmayer as a mathematical model of multicellular organisms. Not much consideration has been given to the problem of persistent storage for these simulations. Current procedures for querying data generated by L-systems for scientific experiments, simulations and measurements are also inadequate. To address these problems the research in this paper presents a generic process for data-modeling tools (L-DBM) between L-systems and database systems. This paper shows how L-system productions can be generically and automatically represented in database schemas and how a database can be populated from the L-system strings. This paper further describes the idea of pre-computing recursive structures in the data into derived attributes using compiler generation. A method to allow a correspondence between biologists' terms and compiler-generated terms in a biologist computing environment is supplied. Once the L-DBM gets any specific L-systems productions and its declarations, it can generate the specific schema for both simple correspondence terminology and also complex recursive structure data attributes and relationships.

Blast design using measurement while drilling parameters

Measurement while drilling (MWD) techniques can provide a useful tool to aid drill and blast engineers in open cut mining. By avoiding time consuming tasks such as scan-lines and rock sample collection for laboratory tests, MWD techniques can not only save time but also improve the reliability of the blast design by providing the drill and blast engineer with the information specially tailored for use. While most mines use a standard blast pattern and charge per blasthole, based on a single rock factor for the entire bench or blast region, information derived from the MWD parameters can improve the blast design by providing more accurate rock properties for each individual blasthole. From this, decisions can be made on the most appropriate type and amount of explosive charge to place in a per blasthole or to optimise the inter-hole timing detonation time of different decks and blastholes. Where real-time calculations are feasible, the system could extend the present blast design even be used to determine the placement of subsequent holes towards a more appropriate blasthole pattern design like asymmetrical blasting.

eMelanoBase: An online locus-specific variant database for familial melanoma

A proportion of melanoma,prone individuals in both familial and non,familial contexts has been shown to carry inactivating mutations in either CDKN2A or, rarely, CDK4. CDKN2A is a complex locus that encodes two unrelated proteins from alternately spliced transcripts that are read in different frames. The alpha transcript (exons 1a, 2, and 3) produces the p16INK4A cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, while the beta transcript (exons 1beta and 2) is translated as p14ARF, a stabilizing factor of p53 levels through binding to MDM2. Mutations in exon 2 can impair both polypeptides and insertions and deletions in exons 1alpha, 1beta, and 2, which can theoretically generate p16INK4A,p14ARF fusion proteins. No online database currently takes into account all the consequences of these genotypes, a situation compounded by some problematic previous annotations of CDKN2A related sequences and descriptions of their mutations. As an initiative of the international Melanoma Genetics Consortium, we have therefore established a database of germline variants observed in all loci implicated in familial melanoma susceptibility. Such a comprehensive, publicly accessible database is an essential foundation for research on melanoma susceptibility and its clinical application. Our database serves two types of data as defined by HUGO. The core dataset includes the nucleotide variants on the genomic and transcript levels, amino acid variants, and citation. The ancillary dataset includes keyword description of events at the transcription and translation levels and epidemiological data. The application that handles users' queries was designed in the model,view. controller architecture and was implemented in Java. The object-relational database schema was deduced using functional dependency analysis. We hereby present our first functional prototype of eMelanoBase. The service is accessible via the URL www.wmi.usyd.e, du.au:8080/melanoma.html.

Climate of fear in organisational settings: Construct definition, measurement and a test of theory

This paper reports a study that explored a new construct: climate of fear. We hypothesised that climate of fear would vary across work sites within organisations, but not across organisations. This is in contrast a to measures of organisational culture, which were expected to vary both within and across organisations. To test our hypotheses, we developed a new 13-item measure of perceived fear in organisations and tested it in 20 sites across two organisations (N = 209). Culture variables measured were innovative leadership culture, and communication culture. Results were that climate of fear did vary across sites in both organisations, while differences across organisations were not significant, as we anticipated. Organisational culture, however, varied between the organisations, and within one of the organisations. The climate of fear scale exhibited acceptable psychometric properties.

Measurement of muscle contraction with ultrasound imaging

To investigate the ability of ultrasonography to estimate musactivity, we measured architectural parameters (pennation angles, fascicle lengths, and muscle thickness) of several human muscles (tibialis anterior, biceps brachii, brachialis, transversus abdominis, obliquus internus abdominis, and obliquus externus abdominis) during isometric contractions of from 0 to 100% maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). Concurrently, electromyographic (EMG) activity was measured with surface (tibialis anterior only) or fine-wire electrodes. Most architectural parameters changed markedly with contractions up to 30% MVC but changed little at higher levels of contraction. Thus, ultrasound imaging can be used to detect low levels of muscle activity but cannot discriminate between moderate and strong contractions. Ultrasound measures could reliably detect changes in EMG of as little as 4% MVC (biceps muscle thickness), 5% MVC (brachialis muscle thickness), or 9% MVC (tibialis anterior pennation angle). They were generally less sensitive to changes in abdominal muscle activity, but it was possible to reliably detect contractions of 12% MVC in transversus abdominis (muscle length) and 22% MVC in obliquus internus (muscle thickness). Obliquus externus abdominis thickness did not change consistently with muscle contraction, so ultrasound measures of thickness cannot be used to detect activity of this muscle. Ultrasound imaging can thus provide a non-invasive method of detecting isometric muscle contractions of certain individual muscles.

Pseudo-randomness of round-off errors in discretized linear maps on the plane

We analyze the sequences of round-off errors of the orbits of a discretized planar rotation, from a probabilistic angle. It was shown [Bosio & Vivaldi, 2000] that for a dense set of parameters, the discretized map can be embedded into an expanding p-adic dynamical system, which serves as a source of deterministic randomness. For each parameter value, these systems can generate infinitely many distinct pseudo-random sequences over a finite alphabet, whose average period is conjectured to grow exponentially with the bit-length of the initial condition (the seed). We study some properties of these symbolic sequences, deriving a central limit theorem for the deviations between round-off and exact orbits, and obtain bounds concerning repetitions of words. We also explore some asymptotic problems computationally, verifying, among other things, that the occurrence of words of a given length is consistent with that of an abstract Bernoulli sequence.

Researchers' information needs in the bibliographic database : a literature review

This article is published online with Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License.

China's proposing behavior in Global Governance: the cases of the WTO Doha Round negotiation and G-20 process

This article examines China's proposals on the reform of global governance, and discusses the main features of China's proposing behavior in the cases of the WTO Doha Round negotiation and G-20 Process. The main findings are: (1) in the critical junctures of global governance reform, China engaged the reform of the global governance institutions proactively, and put forward a series of reform proposals; (2) in proposing behavior, China argued the global governance institutions should be properly adjusted without intention to change the basic principles, refrained from playing a leadership role while proposing jointly with other countries, and upheld the principled idea of pro-development.

Intraocular pressure measurement in sheep using an applanation tonometer

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and establish the mean values of IOP in healthy adult sheep using an applanation tonometer. Information on age, sex, and breed was obtained for all animals included in this study. Twenty five healthy sheep (Ovis aries), of the same breed (Texel), male or female, with three years of age, received an ophthalmic examination in both eyes, including pupillary reflexes, Schirmer tear test, slit lamp biomicroscopy, and fluorescein staining. For all ophthalmic testing, animals were gently physically restrained, with no pressure in the jugular area and the eyelids were carefully open. IOP was measured by applanation tonometry (Tonopen XL). The same examiner performed the tonometry; measurements were taken three times for each eye, and their average was recorded as the IOP of the animal. Statistical analysis was performed using paired t-test and values of P < 0.05 were considered significant. The mean intraocular pressure in the whole group of 50 eyes was of 16.36 +/- 2.19 mm Hg. The mean (SD) IOP in the right eye was of 15.96 +/- 2.02 mm Hg, while the mean (SD) IOP in the left eye was of 16.76 +/- 2.32 mm Hg. Significant differences in IOP were not found between right and left eyes. The applanation tonometer was adequate for measuring the intraocular pressure in sheep. Reference data will assist in diagnosing testing for ophthalmic disease in sheep, as¹ well as promote further studies in this area.