A product feature-based user-centric product search model

OpenAIRE

Ben Jabeur, Lamjed; Soulier, Laure; Tamine, Lynda; Mousset, Paul

2016-01-01

During the online shopping process, users would search for interesting products and quickly access those that fit with their needs among a long tail of similar or closely related products. Our contribution addresses head queries that are frequently submitted on e-commerce Web sites. Head queries usually target featured products with several variations, accessories, and complementary products. We present in this paper a product feature-based user-centric model for product search involving in a...

User Oriented Trajectory Search for Trip Recommendation

KAUST Repository

Ding, Ruogu

2012-01-01

Trajectory sharing and searching have received significant attention in recent years. In this thesis, we propose and investigate the methods to find and recommend the best trajectory to the traveler, and mainly focus on a novel technique named User

Let Your Users Do the Testing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bruun, Anders; Gull, Peter; Hofmeister, Lene

2009-01-01

Remote asynchronous usability testing is characterized by both a spatial and temporal separation of users and evaluators. This has the potential both to reduce practical problems with securing user attendance and to allow direct involvement of users in usability testing. In this paper, we report...... from an empirical study where we systematically compared three methods for remote asynchronous usability testing: user-reported critical incidents, forum-based online reporting and discussion, and diary-based longitudinal user reporting. In addition, conventional laboratory-based think-aloud testing...

Searching Databases without Query-Building Aids: Implications for Dyslexic Users

Science.gov (United States)

Berget, Gerd; Sandnes, Frode Eika

2015-01-01

Introduction: Few studies document the information searching behaviour of users with cognitive impairments. This paper therefore addresses the effect of dyslexia on information searching in a database with no tolerance for spelling errors and no query-building aids. The purpose was to identify effective search interface design guidelines that…

Academic Users' Information Searching on Research Topics: Characteristics of Research Tasks and Search Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Jia Tina; Evans, Nina

2011-01-01

This project investigated how academic users search for information on their real-life research tasks. This article presents the findings of the first of two studies. The study data were collected in the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia. Eleven PhD students' searching behaviors on personal research topics were…

User-generated Exploratory Search Routes: ENCONTRAR UN TÉRMINO in the Accounting Dictionaries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fuertes-Olivera, Pedro A.; Leroyer, Patrick

2014-01-01

This paper presents the theories and methods that have been used to develop a specific user-generated search route in the Spanish Accounting Dictionary, which consists in offering users the search button Encontrar un término. This allows users who are uncertain of the exact form of the term...

Exploring personalized searches using tag-based user profiles and resource profiles in folksonomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Yi; Li, Qing; Xie, Haoran; Min, Huaqin

2014-10-01

With the increase in resource-sharing websites such as YouTube and Flickr, many shared resources have arisen on the Web. Personalized searches have become more important and challenging since users demand higher retrieval quality. To achieve this goal, personalized searches need to take users' personalized profiles and information needs into consideration. Collaborative tagging (also known as folksonomy) systems allow users to annotate resources with their own tags, which provides a simple but powerful way for organizing, retrieving and sharing different types of social resources. In this article, we examine the limitations of previous tag-based personalized searches. To handle these limitations, we propose a new method to model user profiles and resource profiles in collaborative tagging systems. We use a normalized term frequency to indicate the preference degree of a user on a tag. A novel search method using such profiles of users and resources is proposed to facilitate the desired personalization in resource searches. In our framework, instead of the keyword matching or similarity measurement used in previous works, the relevance measurement between a resource and a user query (termed the query relevance) is treated as a fuzzy satisfaction problem of a user's query requirements. We implement a prototype system called the Folksonomy-based Multimedia Retrieval System (FMRS). Experiments using the FMRS data set and the MovieLens data set show that our proposed method outperforms baseline methods. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How Users Search the Mobile Web: A Model for Understanding the Impact of Motivation and Context on Search Behaviors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dan Wu

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose: This study explores how search motivation and context influence mobile Web search behaviors. Design/methodology/approach: We studied 30 experienced mobile Web users via questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and an online diary tool that participants used to record their daily search activities. SQLite Developer was used to extract data from the users' phone logs for correlation analysis in Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS. Findings: One quarter of mobile search sessions were driven by two or more search motivations. It was especially difficult to distinguish curiosity from time killing in particular user reporting. Multi-dimensional contexts and motivations influenced mobile search behaviors, and among the context dimensions, gender, place, activities they engaged in while searching, task importance, portal, and interpersonal relations (whether accompanied or alone when searching correlated with each other. Research limitations: The sample was comprised entirely of college students, so our findings may not generalize to other populations. More participants and longer experimental duration will improve the accuracy and objectivity of the research. Practical implications: Motivation analysis and search context recognition can help mobile service providers design applications and services for particular mobile contexts and usages. Originality/value: Most current research focuses on specific contexts, such as studies on place, or other contextual influences on mobile search, and lacks a systematic analysis of mobile search context. Based on analysis of the impact of mobile search motivations and search context on search behaviors, we built a multi-dimensional model of mobile search behaviors.

Manually Classifying User Search Queries on an Academic Library Web Site

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, Suzanne; Desai, Shevon; Hagedorn, Kat; Varnum, Ken; Mishra, Sonali; Piacentine, Julie

2013-01-01

The University of Michigan Library wanted to learn more about the kinds of searches its users were conducting through the "one search" search box on the Library Web site. Library staff conducted two investigations. A preliminary investigation in 2011 involved the manual review of the 100 most frequently occurring queries conducted…

Exploration of Web Users' Search Interests through Automatic Subject Categorization of Query Terms.

Science.gov (United States)

Pu, Hsiao-tieh; Yang, Chyan; Chuang, Shui-Lung

2001-01-01

Proposes a mechanism that carefully integrates human and machine efforts to explore Web users' search interests. The approach consists of a four-step process: extraction of core terms; construction of subject taxonomy; automatic subject categorization of query terms; and observation of users' search interests. Research findings are proved valuable…

Optimizing Earth Data Search Ranking using Deep Learning and Real-time User Behaviour

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Y.; Yang, C. P.; Armstrong, E. M.; Huang, T.; Moroni, D. F.; McGibbney, L. J.; Greguska, F. R., III

2017-12-01

Finding Earth science data has been a challenging problem given both the quantity of data available and the heterogeneity of the data across a wide variety of domains. Current search engines in most geospatial data portals tend to induce end users to focus on one single data characteristic dimension (e.g., term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) score, popularity, release date, etc.). This approach largely fails to take account of users' multidimensional preferences for geospatial data, and hence may likely result in a less than optimal user experience in discovering the most applicable dataset out of a vast range of available datasets. With users interacting with search engines, sufficient information is already hidden in the log files. Compared with explicit feedback data, information that can be derived/extracted from log files is virtually free and substantially more timely. In this dissertation, I propose an online deep learning framework that can quickly update the learning function based on real-time user clickstream data. The contributions of this framework include 1) a log processor that can ingest, process and create training data from web logs in a real-time manner; 2) a query understanding module to better interpret users' search intent using web log processing results and metadata; 3) a feature extractor that identifies ranking features representing users' multidimensional interests of geospatial data; and 4) a deep learning based ranking algorithm that can be trained incrementally using user behavior data. The search ranking results will be evaluated using precision at K and normalized discounted cumulative gain (NDCG).

ACCOUNTING FOR USERS' INFLATED ASSESSMENTS OF ONLINE CATALOG SEARCH PERFORMANCE AND USEFULNESS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles R. Hildreth

2001-01-01

Full Text Available User-oriented approaches to information retrieval (IR system performance evaluation assign a major role to user satisfaction with search results and overall system performance. Expressed satisfaction with search results is often used as a measure of utility. Many research studies indicate that users of on-line library catalogs (OPACs and other IR systems often express satisfaction with poor search results. This phenomenon of "false positives," inflated assessments of search results and system performance, has not been adequately explained. Non-performance factors such as interface style and ease of use may have an affect on a searcher's satisfaction with search results. The research described in this report investigates this phenomenon. This paper presents the findings of an experimental study which compared users' search performance and assessments of ease of use, system usefulness, and satisfaction with search results after use of a Web OPAC or its conventional counterpart. The primary questions addressed by this research center on the influence of two experimental factors, OPAC search interface style and search task level of difficulty, on the dependent variables: actual search performance, perceptions of ease of use and system usefulness, and assessments of satisfaction with search results. The study also investigated associations between perceived ease of use, system usefulness, and satisfaction with search results. Lastly, the study looked for associations between the dependent variables and personal characteristics. No association was found between satisfaction with search results and actual search performance. Web OPAC searchers outperformed Text OPAC searchers, but search task level of difficulty is a major determinant of search success. A strong positive correlation was found between perceptions of system ease of use and assessments of search results.

An end user evaluation of query formulation and results review tools in three medical meta-search engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Leroy, Gondy; Xu, Jennifer; Chung, Wingyan; Eggers, Shauna; Chen, Hsinchun

2007-01-01

Retrieving sufficient relevant information online is difficult for many people because they use too few keywords to search and search engines do not provide many support tools. To further complicate the search, users often ignore support tools when available. Our goal is to evaluate in a realistic setting when users use support tools and how they perceive these tools. We compared three medical search engines with support tools that require more or less effort from users to form a query and evaluate results. We carried out an end user study with 23 users who were asked to find information, i.e., subtopics and supporting abstracts, for a given theme. We used a balanced within-subjects design and report on the effectiveness, efficiency and usability of the support tools from the end user perspective. We found significant differences in efficiency but did not find significant differences in effectiveness between the three search engines. Dynamic user support tools requiring less effort led to higher efficiency. Fewer searches were needed and more documents were found per search when both query reformulation and result review tools dynamically adjust to the user query. The query reformulation tool that provided a long list of keywords, dynamically adjusted to the user query, was used most often and led to more subtopics. As hypothesized, the dynamic result review tools were used more often and led to more subtopics than static ones. These results were corroborated by the usability questionnaires, which showed that support tools that dynamically optimize output were preferred.

User Oriented Trajectory Search for Trip Recommendation

KAUST Repository

Ding, Ruogu

2012-07-08

Trajectory sharing and searching have received significant attention in recent years. In this thesis, we propose and investigate the methods to find and recommend the best trajectory to the traveler, and mainly focus on a novel technique named User Oriented Trajectory Search (UOTS) query processing. In contrast to conventional trajectory search by locations (spatial domain only), we consider both spatial and textual domains in the new UOTS query. Given a trajectory data set, the query input contains a set of intended places given by the traveler and a set of textual attributes describing the traveler’s preference. If a trajectory is connecting/close to the specified query locations, and the textual attributes of the trajectory are similar to the traveler’s preference, it will be recommended to the traveler. This type of queries can enable many popular applications such as trip planning and recommendation. There are two challenges in UOTS query processing, (i) how to constrain the searching range in two domains and (ii) how to schedule multiple query sources effectively. To overcome the challenges and answer the UOTS query efficiently, a novel collaborative searching approach is developed. Conceptually, the UOTS query processing is conducted in the spatial and textual domains alternately. A pair of upper and lower bounds are devised to constrain the searching range in two domains. In the meantime, a heuristic searching strategy based on priority ranking is adopted for scheduling the multiple query sources, which can further reduce the searching range and enhance the query efficiency notably. Furthermore, the devised collaborative searching approach can be extended to situations where the query locations are ordered. Extensive experiments are conducted on both real and synthetic trajectory data in road networks. Our approach is verified to be effective in reducing both CPU time and disk I/O time.

User oriented trajectory search for trip recommendation

KAUST Repository

Shang, Shuo

2012-01-01

Trajectory sharing and searching have received significant attentions in recent years. In this paper, we propose and investigate a novel problem called User Oriented Trajectory Search (UOTS) for trip recommendation. In contrast to conventional trajectory search by locations (spatial domain only), we consider both spatial and textual domains in the new UOTS query. Given a trajectory data set, the query input contains a set of intended places given by the traveler and a set of textual attributes describing the traveler\\'s preference. If a trajectory is connecting/close to the specified query locations, and the textual attributes of the trajectory are similar to the traveler\\'e preference, it will be recommended to the traveler for reference. This type of queries can bring significant benefits to travelers in many popular applications such as trip planning and recommendation. There are two challenges in the UOTS problem, (i) how to constrain the searching range in two domains and (ii) how to schedule multiple query sources effectively. To overcome the challenges and answer the UOTS query efficiently, a novel collaborative searching approach is developed. Conceptually, the UOTS query processing is conducted in the spatial and textual domains alternately. A pair of upper and lower bounds are devised to constrain the searching range in two domains. In the meantime, a heuristic searching strategy based on priority ranking is adopted for scheduling the multiple query sources, which can further reduce the searching range and enhance the query efficiency notably. Furthermore, the devised collaborative searching approach can be extended to situations where the query locations are ordered. The performance of the proposed UOTS query is verified by extensive experiments based on real and synthetic trajectory data in road networks. © 2012 ACM.

The Searching Behavior of Remote Users: A Study of One Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC).

Science.gov (United States)

Kalin, Sally W.

1991-01-01

Describes a study that was conducted to determine whether the searching behavior of remote users of LIAS (Library Information Access System), Pennsylvania State University's online public access catalog (OPAC), differed from those using the OPAC within the library. Differences in search strategies and in user satisfaction are discussed. (eight…

Factors affecting the diffusion of online end user literature searching.

Science.gov (United States)

Ash, J S

1999-01-01

The aim of this study was to identify factors that affect diffusion of usage of online end user literature searching. Fifteen factors clustered into three attribute sets (innovation attributes, organizational attributes, and marketing attributes) were measured to study their effect on the diffusion of online searching within institutions. A random sample of sixty-seven academic health sciences centers was selected and then 1,335 library and informatics staff members at those institutions were surveyed by mail with electronic mail follow-up. Multiple regression analysis was performed. The survey yielded a 41% response rate with electronic mail follow-up being particularly effective. Two dependent variables, internal diffusion (spread of diffusion) and infusion (depth of diffusion), were measured. There was little correlation between them, indicating they measured different things. Fifteen independent variables clustered into three attribute sets were measured. The innovation attributes set was significant for both internal diffusion and infusion. Significant individual variables were visibility for internal diffusion and image enhancement effects (negative relation) as well as visibility for infusion (depth of diffusion). Organizational attributes were also significant predictors for both dependent variables. No individual variables were significant for internal diffusion. Communication, management support (negative relation), rewards, and existence of champions were significant for infusion. Marketing attributes were not significant predictors. Successful diffusion of online end user literature searching is dependent on the visibility of the systems, communication among, rewards to, and peers of possible users who promote use (champions). Personal image enhancement effects have a negative relation to infusion, possibly because the use of intermediaries is still seen as the more luxurious way to have searches done. Management support also has a negative relation to

Analysis of Search Engines and Meta Search Engines\\\\\\' Position by University of Isfahan Users Based on Rogers\\\\\\' Diffusion of Innovation Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maryam Akbari

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The present study investigated the analysis of search engines and meta search engines adoption process by University of Isfahan users during 2009-2010 based on the Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory. The main aim of the research was to study the rate of adoption and recognizing the potentials and effective tools in search engines and meta search engines adoption among University of Isfahan users. The research method was descriptive survey study. The cases of the study were all of the post graduate students of the University of Isfahan. 351 students were selected as the sample and categorized by a stratified random sampling method. Questionnaire was used for collecting data. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 16 in both descriptive and analytic statistic. For descriptive statistic frequency, percentage and mean were used, while for analytic statistic t-test and Kruskal-Wallis non parametric test (H-test were used. The finding of t-test and Kruscal-Wallis indicated that the mean of search engines and meta search engines adoption did not show statistical differences gender, level of education and the faculty. Special search engines adoption process was different in terms of gender but not in terms of the level of education and the faculty. Other results of the research indicated that among general search engines, Google had the most adoption rate. In addition, among the special search engines, Google Scholar and among the meta search engines Mamma had the most adopting rate. Findings also showed that friends played an important role on how students adopted general search engines while professors had important role on how students adopted special search engines and meta search engines. Moreover, results showed that the place where students got the most acquaintance with search engines and meta search engines was in the university. The finding showed that the curve of adoption rate was not normal and it was not also in S-shape. Morover

Analysis of Users' Searches of CD-ROM Databases in the National and University Library in Zagreb.

Science.gov (United States)

Jokic, Maja

1997-01-01

Investigates the search behavior of CD-ROM database users in Zagreb (Croatia) libraries: one group needed a minimum of technical assistance, and the other was completely independent. Highlights include the use of questionnaires and transaction log analysis and the need for end-user education. The questionnaire and definitions of search process…

Automatic figure ranking and user interfacing for intelligent figure search.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Yu

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Figures are important experimental results that are typically reported in full-text bioscience articles. Bioscience researchers need to access figures to validate research facts and to formulate or to test novel research hypotheses. On the other hand, the sheer volume of bioscience literature has made it difficult to access figures. Therefore, we are developing an intelligent figure search engine (http://figuresearch.askhermes.org. Existing research in figure search treats each figure equally, but we introduce a novel concept of "figure ranking": figures appearing in a full-text biomedical article can be ranked by their contribution to the knowledge discovery.We empirically validated the hypothesis of figure ranking with over 100 bioscience researchers, and then developed unsupervised natural language processing (NLP approaches to automatically rank figures. Evaluating on a collection of 202 full-text articles in which authors have ranked the figures based on importance, our best system achieved a weighted error rate of 0.2, which is significantly better than several other baseline systems we explored. We further explored a user interfacing application in which we built novel user interfaces (UIs incorporating figure ranking, allowing bioscience researchers to efficiently access important figures. Our evaluation results show that 92% of the bioscience researchers prefer as the top two choices the user interfaces in which the most important figures are enlarged. With our automatic figure ranking NLP system, bioscience researchers preferred the UIs in which the most important figures were predicted by our NLP system than the UIs in which the most important figures were randomly assigned. In addition, our results show that there was no statistical difference in bioscience researchers' preference in the UIs generated by automatic figure ranking and UIs by human ranking annotation.The evaluation results conclude that automatic figure ranking and user

Online health information search: what struggles and empowers the users? Results of an online survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Pletneva, Natalia; Vargas, Alejandro; Kalogianni, Konstantina; Boyer, Célia

2012-01-01

The most popular mean of searching for online health content is a general search engine for all domains of interest. Being general implies on one hand that the search engine is not tailored to the needs which are particular to the medical and on another hand that health domain and health-specific queries may not always return adequate and adapted results. The aim of our study was to identify difficulties and preferences in online health information search encountered by members of the general public. The survey in four languages was online from the 9th of March until the 27th of April, 2011. 385 answers were collected, representing mostly the opinions of highly educated users, mostly from France and Spain. The most important characteristics of a search engine are relevance and trustworthiness of results. The results currently retrieved do not fulfil these requirements. The ideal representation of the information will be a categorization of the results into different groups. Medical dictionaries/thesauruses, suggested relevant topics, image searches and spelling corrections are regarded as helpful tools. There is a need to work towards better customized solutions which provide users with the trustworthy information of high quality specific to his/her case in a user-friendly environment which would eventually lead to making appropriate health decisions.

User Practices in Keyword and Boolean Searching on an Online Public Access Catalog.

Science.gov (United States)

Ensor, Pat

1992-01-01

Discussion of keyword and Boolean searching techniques in online public access catalogs (OPACs) focuses on a study conducted at Indiana State University that examined users' attitudes toward searching on NOTIS (Northwestern Online Total Integrated System). Relevant literature is reviewed, and implications for library instruction are suggested. (17…

Substring Position Search over Encrypted Cloud Data Supporting Efficient Multi-User Setup

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mikhail Strizhov

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Existing Searchable Encryption (SE solutions are able to handle simple Boolean search queries, such as single or multi-keyword queries, but cannot handle substring search queries over encrypted data that also involve identifying the position of the substring within the document. These types of queries are relevant in areas such as searching DNA data. In this paper, we propose a tree-based Substring Position Searchable Symmetric Encryption (SSP-SSE to overcome the existing gap. Our solution efficiently finds occurrences of a given substring over encrypted cloud data. Specifically, our construction uses the position heap tree data structure and achieves asymptotic efficiency comparable to that of an unencrypted position heap tree. Our encryption takes O ( k n time, and the resulting ciphertext is of size O ( k n , where k is a security parameter and n is the size of stored data. The search takes O ( m 2 + o c c time and three rounds of communication, where m is the length of the queried substring and o c c is the number of occurrences of the substring in the document collection. We prove that the proposed scheme is secure against chosen-query attacks that involve an adaptive adversary. Finally, we extend SSP-SSE to the multi-user setting where an arbitrary group of cloud users can submit substring queries to search the encrypted data.

The Search Performance Evaluation and Prediction in Exploratory Search

OpenAIRE

LIU, FEI

2016-01-01

The exploratory search for complex search tasks requires an effective search behavior model to evaluate and predict user search performance. Few studies have investigated the relationship between user search behavior and search performance in exploratory search. This research adopts a mixed approach combining search system development, user search experiment, search query log analysis, and multivariate regression analysis to resolve the knowledge gap. Through this study, it is shown that expl...

End-User Searching in a Large Library Network: A Case Study of Patent Attorneys.

Science.gov (United States)

Vollaro, Alice J.; Hawkins, Donald T.

1986-01-01

Reports results of study of a group of end users (patent attorneys) doing their own online searching at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Highlights include DIALOG databases used by the attorneys, locations and searching modes, characteristics of patent attorney searchers, and problem areas. Questionnaire is appended. (5 references) (EJS)

GANDALF: users' manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strout, R.E. II; Beach, J.L.

1977-01-01

The GANDALF computer code was written to calculate neutron dose equivalent given the pulse-height data obtained by using a Linear Energy Transfer (LET) proportional counter. The code also uses pre- and/or post-calibration spectra, from an alpha source, to determine a calibration factor in keV/μ/channel. Output from the code consists of the effective radius of the detection chamber in microns, a calibration factor in keV/μ/channel, and the total dose and dose equivalent in rad or rem between any two LET energies by using the equations by Attix and Roesch [Radiation Dosimetry, 1, 71 (1968)]. This report is a user's manual and is not intended as anything else, and assumes that the user has a basic knowledge of the LLL Octopus timesharing system. However, a very brief description of how the code operates is included

Development and empirical user-centered evaluation of semantically-based query recommendation for an electronic health record search engine.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanauer, David A; Wu, Danny T Y; Yang, Lei; Mei, Qiaozhu; Murkowski-Steffy, Katherine B; Vydiswaran, V G Vinod; Zheng, Kai

2017-03-01

The utility of biomedical information retrieval environments can be severely limited when users lack expertise in constructing effective search queries. To address this issue, we developed a computer-based query recommendation algorithm that suggests semantically interchangeable terms based on an initial user-entered query. In this study, we assessed the value of this approach, which has broad applicability in biomedical information retrieval, by demonstrating its application as part of a search engine that facilitates retrieval of information from electronic health records (EHRs). The query recommendation algorithm utilizes MetaMap to identify medical concepts from search queries and indexed EHR documents. Synonym variants from UMLS are used to expand the concepts along with a synonym set curated from historical EHR search logs. The empirical study involved 33 clinicians and staff who evaluated the system through a set of simulated EHR search tasks. User acceptance was assessed using the widely used technology acceptance model. The search engine's performance was rated consistently higher with the query recommendation feature turned on vs. off. The relevance of computer-recommended search terms was also rated high, and in most cases the participants had not thought of these terms on their own. The questions on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use received overwhelmingly positive responses. A vast majority of the participants wanted the query recommendation feature to be available to assist in their day-to-day EHR search tasks. Challenges persist for users to construct effective search queries when retrieving information from biomedical documents including those from EHRs. This study demonstrates that semantically-based query recommendation is a viable solution to addressing this challenge. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Gemcitabine radiosensitizes multiple myeloma cells to low let, but not high let, irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Supiot, Stephane; Thillays, Francois; Rio, Emmanuel; Gouard, Sebastien; Morgenstern, Alfred; Bruchertseifer, Frank; Mahe, Marc-Andre; Chatal, Jean-Francois; Davodeau, Francois; Cherel, Michel

2007-01-01

The radiosensitizing properties of gemcitabine in relation to low Linear Energy Transfer (LET) particles (Cobalt 60) and high-LET particles (alpha-RIT 213 Bi-radiolabeled CHX-DTPA-B-B4) were analyzed. Three multiple myeloma cell lines (LP1, RPMI 8226, U266) were irradiated with or without 10 nM gemcitabine 24 h prior to radiation. Gemcitabine led to radiosensitization of LP1 and U266 cells with low-LET (Radiation Enhancement Ratio: 1.55 and 1.49, respectively) but did not radiosensitize any cell line when combined with high-LET

Making Patron Data Work Harder: User Search Terms as Access Points?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jason A. Clark

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Montana State University (MSU Libraries are experimenting with re-using patron-generated data to create browseable access points for the Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD collection. A beta QueryCatcher module logs recent search terms and the number of associated hits. These terms are used to create browseable lists and tagclouds which enhance access to the ETD collection. Gathering and reusing information about user behavior is an emerging trend in web application development. This article outlines MSU Libraries' reasoning for moving towards a user-generated model and provides a complete walkthrough of the steps in building the application and example code.

Impact of Internet Search Engines on OPAC Users: A Study of Punjabi University, Patiala (India)

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Shiv

2012-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to study the impact of internet search engine usage with special reference to OPAC searches in the Punjabi University Library, Patiala, Punjab (India). Design/methodology/approach: The primary data were collected from 352 users comprising faculty, research scholars and postgraduate students of the university. A…

Categorical and Specificity Differences between User-Supplied Tags and Search Query Terms for Images. An Analysis of "Flickr" Tags and Web Image Search Queries

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, EunKyung; Yoon, JungWon

2009-01-01

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to compare characteristics and features of user supplied tags and search query terms for images on the "Flickr" Website in terms of categories of pictorial meanings and level of term specificity. Method: This study focuses on comparisons between tags and search queries using Shatford's categorization…

Family Health Strategy: assessment and reasons for searching of health service by users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Loeste de Arruda-Barbosa

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Objective: To assess the evaluation of the users regarding the family health services and identify the main reasons that led them to seek such services. Methods: A descriptive study with qualitative approach, carried out in 5 Family Health Units with 25 users of theFamily Health Strategy (FHS of the city of Crato-CE, Brazil. The study took place from March to April 2009. Semi-structured interview was applied and recorded. We used thetechnique of thematic content analysis. Results: We found that the users of the FHS have great dissatisfaction, especially on the organization and access to health services, evaluating the family health as inefficient, although bringing care closer to the population, primarily through home visits. It was clear also that there is a search to the service mainly supported by curative vision and the acquisition of medicines. Conclusions: The subjects evaluate the organization and access to healthcare services as unsatisfactory, but value the actions, when there is a bond with the health team. However, there is still demand for health services, based on the search for medicines and medical consultation. Thus, it is necessary to improve services of the Family Health Strategy in Crato, with a view to ensure quality, accessibilityand greater resolution of health services.

Making Patron Data Work Harder: User Search Terms as Access Points?

OpenAIRE

Jason A. Clark

2008-01-01

Montana State University (MSU) Libraries are experimenting with re-using patron-generated data to create browseable access points for the Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) collection. A beta QueryCatcher module logs recent search terms and the number of associated hits. These terms are used to create browseable lists and tagclouds which enhance access to the ETD collection. Gathering and reusing information about user behavior is an emerging trend in web application development. This ...

High-let radiation carcinogenesis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fry, R.J.M.; Powers-Risius, P.; Alpen, E.L.; Ainsworth, E.J.; Ullrich, R.L.

1982-01-01

Recent results for neutron radiation-induced tumors are presented to illustrate the complexities of the dose-response curves for high-LET radiation. It is suggested that in order to derive an appropriate model for dose-response curves for the induction of tumors by high-LET radiation it is necessary to take into account dose distribution, cell killing and the susceptibility of the tissue under study. Preliminary results for the induction of Harderian gland tumors in mice exposed to various heavy ion beams are presented. The results suggest that the effectiveness of the heavy ion beams increases with increasing LET. The slopes of the dose-response curves for the different high-LET radiations decrease between 20 and 40 rads and therefore comparisons of the relative effectiveness should be made from data obtained at doses below about 20 to 30 rads

Study of Search Engine Transaction Logs Shows Little Change in How Users use Search Engines. A review of: Jansen, Bernard J., and Amanda Spink. “How Are We Searching the World Wide Web? A Comparison of Nine Search Engine Transaction Logs.” Information Processing & Management 42.1 (2006: 248‐263.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Hook

2006-09-01

Full Text Available Objective – To examine the interactions between users and search engines, and how they have changed over time. Design – Comparative analysis of search engine transaction logs. Setting – Nine major analyses of search engine transaction logs. Subjects – Nine web search engine studies (4 European, 5 American over a seven‐year period, covering the search engines Excite, Fireball, AltaVista, BWIE and AllTheWeb. Methods – The results from individual studies are compared by year of study for percentages of single query sessions, one term queries, operator (and, or, not, etc. usage and single result page viewing. As well, the authors group the search queries into eleven different topical categories and compare how the breakdown has changed over time. Main Results – Based on the percentage of single query sessions, it does not appear that the complexity of interactions has changed significantly for either the U.S.‐based or the European‐based search engines. As well, there was little change observed in the percentage of one‐term queries over the years of study for either the U.S.‐based or the European‐based search engines. Few users (generally less than 20% use Boolean or other operators in their queries, and these percentages have remained relatively stable. One area of noticeable change is in the percentage of users viewing only one results page, which has increased over the years of study. Based on the studies of the U.S.‐based search engines, the topical categories of ‘People, Place or Things’ and ‘Commerce, Travel, Employment or Economy’ are becoming more popular, while the categories of ‘Sex and Pornography’ and ‘Entertainment or Recreation’ are declining. Conclusions – The percentage of users viewing only one results page increased during the years of the study, while the percentages of single query sessions, oneterm sessions and operator usage remained stable. The increase in single result page viewing

A study of the influence of task familiarity on user behaviors and performance with a MeSH term suggestion interface for PubMed bibliographic search.

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Muh-Chyun; Liu, Ying-Hsang; Wu, Wan-Ching

2013-09-01

Previous research has shown that information seekers in biomedical domain need more support in formulating their queries. A user study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a metadata based query suggestion interface for PubMed bibliographic search. The study also investigated the impact of search task familiarity on search behaviors and the effectiveness of the interface. A real user, user search request and real system approach was used for the study. Unlike tradition IR evaluation, where assigned tasks were used, the participants were asked to search requests of their own. Forty-four researchers in Health Sciences participated in the evaluation - each conducted two research requests of their own, alternately with the proposed interface and the PubMed baseline. Several performance criteria were measured to assess the potential benefits of the experimental interface, including users' assessment of their original and eventual queries, the perceived usefulness of the interfaces, satisfaction with the search results, and the average relevance score of the saved records. The results show that, when searching for an unfamiliar topic, users were more likely to change their queries, indicating the effect of familiarity on search behaviors. The results also show that the interface scored higher on several of the performance criteria, such as the "goodness" of the queries, perceived usefulness, and user satisfaction. Furthermore, in line with our hypothesis, the proposed interface was relatively more effective when less familiar search requests were attempted. Results indicate that there is a selective compatibility between search familiarity and search interface. One implication of the research for system evaluation is the importance of taking into consideration task familiarity when assessing the effectiveness of interactive IR systems. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

RBE-LET relationships of high-LET radiations in drosophila mutations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshikawa, Isao; Takatsuji, Toshihiro; Nagano, Masaaki; Takada, Jun; Endo, Satoru; Hoshi, Masaharu

1999-01-01

The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of 252 Cf neutrons and synchrotron-generated high-energy charged particles for mutation induction was evaluated as a function of linear energy transfer (LET), using the loss of heterozygosity for wing-hair mutations and the reversion of the mutant white-ivory eye-color in Drosophila melanogaster. Loss of heterozygosity for wing-hair mutations results predominantly from mitotic crossing over induced in wing anlage cells of larvae, while the reverse mutation of eye-color is due to an intragenic structural change (2.96 kb-DNA excision) in the white locus on the X-chromosome. The measurements were performed in a combined mutation assay system so that induced mutant wing-hair clones as well as revertant eye-color clone can be detected simultaneously in the same individual. Larvae were irradiated at the age of 3 days post oviposition with 252 Cf neutrons, carbon beam or neon beam. For the neutron irradiation, the RBE values for wing-hair mutations were larger than that for eye-color mutation by about 7 fold. The RBE of carbon ions for producing the wing-hair mutations increased with increase in LET. The estimated RBE values were found to be in the range 2 to 6.5 for the wing-hair. For neon beam irradiation, the RBE values for wing-hair mutations peak near 150 keV/μm and decrease with further increase in LET. On the other hand, the RBE values for the induction of the eye-color mutation are nearly unity in 252 Cf neutrons and both ions throughout the LET range irradiated. We discuss the relationships between the initial DNA damage and LET in considering the mechanism of somatic mutation induction. (author)

LET-effects in DNA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kraft, G.; Taucher-Scholz, G.; Heilmann, J.

1995-01-01

The use of heavy particles in radiobiological experiments provides a fundamental tool to study the influence of different ionization densities and to prove the physical basis of models and theories. The knowledge of the interaction of high LET radiation (LET: linear energy transfer [keV/microm]) with biological matter is of great importance for the application of neutrons, protons and heavier ions in radiotherapy. It is also essential in radioprotection to estimate the risk in case of exposure to high LET radiation. In this contribution, an introductory view on the physical properties of ions is given and the cellular response to high LET radiation is summarized. Then the measurements of strand break induction of DNA in solution and in intracellular DNA are reported and compared to cell survival. The possibility of changes in the quality of the lesions is discussed and finally the present status of model calculations in comparison to the experiments is given

Gene conversion in yeast as a function of linear energy transfer (LET) for low-LET radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Unrau, P.; Morrison, D.P.; Johnson, J.R.

1992-05-01

The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) for low-LET radiation is known to depend on such factors as LET and dose rate. Microdosimetric calculations indicate that the biological target size could also be an important parameter, and calculations predict that the RBE for effects produced by hits in target sizes below about 100 nm should be unity for all low LET radiation. We have measured that RBE for gene conversion in yeast (a small target) for five different low LET photon sources, and the results were consistent with an RBE of unity, which agrees with microdosimetric predictions. 4 refs

Utilization Possibilities of Area Definition in User Space for User-Centric Pervasive-Adaptive Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Krejcar, Ondrej

The ability to let a mobile device determine its location in an indoor environment supports the creation of a new range of mobile information system applications. The goal of my project is to complement the data networking capabilities of RF wireless LANs with accurate user location and tracking capabilities for user needed data prebuffering. I created a location based system enhancement for locating and tracking users of indoor information system. User position is used for data prebuffering and pushing information from a server to his mobile client. All server data is saved as artifacts (together) with its indoor position information. The area definition for artifacts selecting is described for current and predicted user position along with valuating options for artifacts ranging. Future trends are also discussed.

A search algorithm for identifying likely users and non-users of marijuana from the free text of the electronic medical record.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salomeh Keyhani

Full Text Available The harmful effects of marijuana on health and in particular cardiovascular health are understudied. To develop such knowledge, an efficient method of developing an informative cohort of marijuana users and non-users is needed.We identified patients with a diagnosis of coronary artery disease using ICD-9 codes who were seen in the San Francisco VA in 2015. We imported these patients' medical record notes into an informatics platform that facilitated text searches. We categorized patients into those with evidence of marijuana use in the past 12 months and patients with no such evidence, using the following text strings: "marijuana", "mjx", and "cannabis". We randomly selected 51 users and 51 non-users based on this preliminary classification, and sent a recruitment letter to 97 of these patients who had contact information available. Patients were interviewed on marijuana use and domains related to cardiovascular health. Data on marijuana use collected from the medical record was compared to data collected as part of the interview.The interview completion rate was 71%. Among the 35 patients identified by text strings as having used marijuana in the previous year, 15 had used marijuana in the past 30 days (positive predictive value = 42.9%. The probability of use in the past month increased from 8.8% to 42.9% in people who have these keywords in their medical record compared to those who did not have these terms in their medical record.Methods that combine text search strategies for participant recruitment with health interviews provide an efficient approach to developing prospective cohorts that can be used to study the health effects of marijuana.

A Novel Personalized Web Search Model

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHU Zhengyu; XU Jingqiu; TIAN Yunyan; REN Xiang

2007-01-01

A novel personalized Web search model is proposed.The new system, as a middleware between a user and a Web search engine, is set up on the client machine. It can learn a user's preference implicitly and then generate the user profile automatically. When the user inputs query keywords, the system can automatically generate a few personalized expansion words by computing the term-term associations according to the current user profile, and then these words together with the query keywords are submitted to a popular search engine such as Yahoo or Google.These expansion words help to express accurately the user's search intention. The new Web search model can make a common search engine personalized, that is, the search engine can return different search results to different users who input the same keywords. The experimental results show the feasibility and applicability of the presented work.

VR-Smart Home, prototyping of a user centered design system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heidari Jozam, M.; Allameh, E.; Vries, de B.; Timmermans, H.J.P.; Masoud, M.; Andreev, S.; Balandin, S.; Yevgeni, Koucheryavy

2012-01-01

In this paper, we propose a prototype of a user centered design system for Smart Homes which lets users: (1) configure different interactive tasks, and (2) express activity specifications and preferences during the design process. The main objective of this paper is how to create and to implement VR

Evidence-based Medicine Search: a customizable federated search engine.

Science.gov (United States)

Bracke, Paul J; Howse, David K; Keim, Samuel M

2008-04-01

This paper reports on the development of a tool by the Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL) for searching clinical evidence that can be customized for different user groups. The AHSL provides services to the University of Arizona's (UA's) health sciences programs and to the University Medical Center. Librarians at AHSL collaborated with UA College of Medicine faculty to create an innovative search engine, Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) Search, that provides users with a simple search interface to EBM resources and presents results organized according to an evidence pyramid. EBM Search was developed with a web-based configuration component that allows the tool to be customized for different specialties. Informal and anecdotal feedback from physicians indicates that EBM Search is a useful tool with potential in teaching evidence-based decision making. While formal evaluation is still being planned, a tool such as EBM Search, which can be configured for specific user populations, may help lower barriers to information resources in an academic health sciences center.

Development of user-centered interfaces to search the knowledge resources of the Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Josette; Harris, Marcelline; Bagley-Thompson, Cheryl; Root, Jane

2003-01-01

This poster describes the development of user-centered interfaces in order to extend the functionality of the Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library (VHINL) from library to web based portal to nursing knowledge resources. The existing knowledge structure and computational models are revised and made complementary. Nurses' search behavior is captured and analyzed, and the resulting search models are mapped to the revised knowledge structure and computational model.

High-LET particle exposure of Skylab astronauts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benton, E.V.; Peterson, D.D.; Bailey, J.V.; Parnell, T.

1977-01-01

High-LET particle radiation was registered in nuclear track recording plastic dosimeters worn on the wrists of Skylab astronauts and located in a heavily shielded film vault. The mission-average planar flux of high-LET particles with LET >= 100 keV/micron . tissue has been determined to be 2.7 +- 0.6 particles/cm 2 . day . 2π sr and 0.34 +- 0.4 particles/cm 2 . day . 2π sr, respectively, for the nine astronauts and for the film vault. Comparison of results representative of a wide range of shielding depths reveals that the magnitude and slope of the integral LET spectrum of high-LET particles inside spacecraft are proportional to the amount of shielding. (author)

Ataxia telangiectasia: LET dependence of cellular inactivation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blakely, E.A.; Tobias, C.A.

1984-01-01

Human Ataxia telangiectasia cells (AT 2SF line) have been irradiated in vitro under aerobic and hypoxic conditions with heavy-ion beams accelerated at the Berkeley Bevalac as a part of a study to characterize the radiation responses of genetically sensitive and resistant cell lines to high LET radiations. Results from track-segment exposures to neon, silicon, argon and iron ion beams accelerated to initial energies of from 225 to 670 MeV/amu provided an LET range between 30 to 1,000 KeV/μm. The data indicate: (1) The sensitivity of AT cells increases with increasing LET, similar to resistant human lines (e.g., T-1 cells). However, due to efficient repair, T-1 cells are more resistant than AT cells at LET values below 200 keV/μm; (2) Maximum cell kill occurs for both lines at 100-200 keV/μm; at higher LET the sensitivity of the two lines approach each other; (3) There is only small variation in the sensitivity of AT cells to particles of various atomic numbers at the same LET; differences are more pronounced in the LET domain between 50 and 200 keV/μm; and (4) AT cells have slightly lower OER values than T-1 cells in the range of LET studied below 200 keV/μm

Calculated LET-Spectrum of Antiprotons

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bassler, Niels

-LET components resulting from the annihilation. Though, the calculations of dose-averaged LET in the entry region may suggest that the RBE of antiprotons in the plateau region could significantly differ from unity. Materials and Methods Monte Carlo simulations using FLUKA were performed for calculating...

The concept of average LET values determination

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Makarewicz, M.

1981-01-01

The concept of average LET (linear energy transfer) values determination, i.e. ordinary moments of LET in absorbed dose distribution vs. LET of ionizing radiation of any kind and any spectrum (even the unknown ones) has been presented. The method is based on measurement of ionization current with several values of voltage supplying an ionization chamber operating in conditions of columnar recombination of ions or ion recombination in clusters while the chamber is placed in the radiation field at the point of interest. By fitting a suitable algebraic expression to the measured current values one can obtain coefficients of the expression which can be interpreted as values of LET moments. One of the advantages of the method is its experimental and computational simplicity. It has been shown that for numerical estimation of certain effects dependent on LET of radiation it is not necessary to know the dose distribution but only a number of parameters of the distribution, i.e. the LET moments. (author)

VE-821, an ATR inhibitor, causes radiosensitization in human tumor cells irradiated with high LET radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujisawa, Hiroshi; Nakajima, Nakako Izumi; Sunada, Shigeaki; Lee, Younghyun; Hirakawa, Hirokazu; Yajima, Hirohiko; Fujimori, Akira; Uesaka, Mitsuru; Okayasu, Ryuichi

2015-01-01

High linear energy transfer (LET) radiation such as carbon ion particles is successfully used for treatment of solid tumors. The reason why high LET radiation accomplishes greater tumor-killing than X-rays is still not completely understood. One factor would be the clustered or complex-type DNA damages. We previously reported that complex DNA double-strand breaks produced by high LET radiation enhanced DNA end resection, and this could lead to higher kinase activity of ATR protein recruited to RPA-coated single-stranded DNA. Although the effect of ATR inhibition on cells exposed to low LET gamma-rays has recently been reported, little is known regarding the effect of ATR inhibitor on cells treated with high LET radiation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the ATR inhibitor VE-821 in human tumor and normal cells irradiated with high LET carbon ions. HeLa, U2OS, and 1BR-hTERT (normal) cells were pre-treated with 1 μM VE-821 for 1 hour and irradiated with either high LET carbon ions or X-rays. Cell survival, cell cycle distribution, cell growth, and micronuclei formation were evaluated. VE-821 caused abrogation of G2/M checkpoint and forced irradiated cells to divide into daughter cells. We also found that carbon ions caused a higher number of multiple micronuclei than X-rays, leading to decreased cell survival in tumor cells when treated with VE-821, while the survival of irradiated normal cells were not significantly affected by this inhibitor. ATR inhibitor would be an effective tumor radiosensitizer with carbon ion irradiation. The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13014-015-0464-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Multitasking Web Searching and Implications for Design.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozmutlu, Seda; Ozmutlu, H. C.; Spink, Amanda

2003-01-01

Findings from a study of users' multitasking searches on Web search engines include: multitasking searches are a noticeable user behavior; multitasking search sessions are longer than regular search sessions in terms of queries per session and duration; both Excite and AlltheWeb.com users search for about three topics per multitasking session and…

Sketching user experiences the workbook

CERN Document Server

Greenberg, Saul; Marquardt, Nicolai; Buxton, Bill

2012-01-01

In Sketching User Experiences: The Workbook, you will learn, through step-by-step instructions and exercises, various sketching methods that will let you express your design ideas about user experiences across time. Collectively, these methods will be your sketching repertoire: a toolkit where you can choose the method most appropriate for developing your ideas, which will help you cultivate a culture of experience-based design and critique in your workplace. Features standalone modules detailing methods and exercises for practitioners who want to learn and develop their sketching skills E

Searching the ASRS Database Using QUORUM Keyword Search, Phrase Search, Phrase Generation, and Phrase Discovery

Science.gov (United States)

McGreevy, Michael W.; Connors, Mary M. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

To support Search Requests and Quick Responses at the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), four new QUORUM methods have been developed: keyword search, phrase search, phrase generation, and phrase discovery. These methods build upon the core QUORUM methods of text analysis, modeling, and relevance-ranking. QUORUM keyword search retrieves ASRS incident narratives that contain one or more user-specified keywords in typical or selected contexts, and ranks the narratives on their relevance to the keywords in context. QUORUM phrase search retrieves narratives that contain one or more user-specified phrases, and ranks the narratives on their relevance to the phrases. QUORUM phrase generation produces a list of phrases from the ASRS database that contain a user-specified word or phrase. QUORUM phrase discovery finds phrases that are related to topics of interest. Phrase generation and phrase discovery are particularly useful for finding query phrases for input to QUORUM phrase search. The presentation of the new QUORUM methods includes: a brief review of the underlying core QUORUM methods; an overview of the new methods; numerous, concrete examples of ASRS database searches using the new methods; discussion of related methods; and, in the appendices, detailed descriptions of the new methods.

Subject search study. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Todeschini, C.

1995-01-01

The study gathered information on how users search the database of the International Nuclear Information System (INIS), using indicators such as Subject categories, Controlled terms, Subject headings, Free-text words, combinations of the above. Users participated from the Australian, French, Russian and Spanish INIS Centres, that have different national languages. Participants, both intermediaries and end users, replied to a questionnaire and executed search queries. The INIS Secretariat at the IAEA also participated. A protocol of all search strategies used in actual searches in the database was kept. The thought process for Russian and Spanish users is predominantly non-English and also the actual initial search formulation is predominantly non-English among Russian and Spanish users while it tends to be more in English among French users. A total of 1002 searches were executed by the five INIS centres including the IAEA. The search protocols indicate the following search behaviour: 1) free text words represent about 40% of search points on an average query; 2) descriptors used as search keys have the widest range as percentage of search points, from a low of 25% to a high of 48%; 3) search keys consisting of free text that coincides with a descriptor account for about 15% of search points; 4) Subject Categories are not used in many searches; 5) free text words are present as search points in about 80% of all searches; 6) controlled terms (descriptors) are used very extensively and appear in about 90% of all searches; 7) Subject Headings were used in only a few percent of searches. From the results of the study one can conclude that there is a greater reluctance on the part of non-native English speakers in initiating their searches by using free text word searches. Also: Subject Categories are little used in searching the database; both free text terms and controlled terms are the predominant types of search keys used, whereby the controlled terms are used more

Profiting from innovative user communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jeppesen, Lars Bo

Modding - the modification of existing products by consumers - is increasingly exploited by manufacturers to enhance product development and sales. In the computer games industry modding has evolved into a development model in which users act as unpaid `complementors' to manufacturers' product pl......, a manufacturer can incorporate and commercialize the best complements found in the user communities. Keywords: innovation, modding, user communities, software platform, business model. JEL code(s): L21; L23; O31; O32...... platforms. This article explains how manufacturers can profit from their abilities to organize and facilitate a process of innovation by user communities and capture the value of the innovations produced in such communities. When managed strategically, two distinct, but not mutually exclusive business...... models appear from the production of user complements: firstly, a manufacturer can let the (free) user complements `drift' in the user communities, where they increase the value to consumers of owning the given platform and thus can be expected to generate increased platform sales, and secondly...

Adaptive User Profiles in Pervasive Advertising Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Alt, Florian; Balz, Moritz; Kristes, Stefanie; Shirazi, Alireza Sahami; Mennenöh, Julian; Schmidt, Albrecht; Schröder, Hendrik; Goedicke, Michael

Nowadays modern advertising environments try to provide more efficient ads by targeting costumers based on their interests. Various approaches exist today as to how information about the users' interests can be gathered. Users can deliberately and explicitly provide this information or user's shopping behaviors can be analyzed implicitly. We implemented an advertising platform to simulate an advertising environment and present adaptive profiles, which let users setup profiles based on a self-assessment, and enhance those profiles with information about their real shopping behavior as well as about their activity intensity. Additionally, we explain how pervasive technologies such as Bluetooth can be used to create a profile anonymously and unobtrusively.

77 FR 16566 - Submission for OMB Review, Comment Request, Proposed Collection: Let's Move Museums, Let's Move...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-21

..., Proposed Collection: Let's Move Museums, Let's Move Gardens AGENCY: Institute of Museum and Library..., comment request. SUMMARY: The Institute of Museum and Library Services announces that the following... functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility; Evaluate the...

Algorithmic and user study of an autocompletion algorithm on a large medical vocabulary.

Science.gov (United States)

Sevenster, Merlijn; van Ommering, Rob; Qian, Yuechen

2012-02-01

Autocompletion supports human-computer interaction in software applications that let users enter textual data. We will be inspired by the use case in which medical professionals enter ontology concepts, catering the ongoing demand for structured and standardized data in medicine. Goal is to give an algorithmic analysis of one particular autocompletion algorithm, called multi-prefix matching algorithm, which suggests terms whose words' prefixes contain all words in the string typed by the user, e.g., in this sense, opt ner me matches optic nerve meningioma. Second we aim to investigate how well it supports users entering concepts from a large and comprehensive medical vocabulary (snomed ct). We give a concise description of the multi-prefix algorithm, and sketch how it can be optimized to meet required response time. Performance will be compared to a baseline algorithm, which gives suggestions that extend the string typed by the user to the right, e.g. optic nerve m gives optic nerve meningioma, but opt ner me does not. We conduct a user experiment in which 12 participants are invited to complete 40 snomed ct terms with the baseline algorithm and another set of 40 snomed ct terms with the multi-prefix algorithm. Our results show that users need significantly fewer keystrokes when supported by the multi-prefix algorithm than when supported by the baseline algorithm. The proposed algorithm is a competitive candidate for searching and retrieving terms from a large medical ontology. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Building maps to search the web: the method Sewcom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Corrado Petrucco

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Seeking information on the Internet is becoming a necessity 'at school, at work and in every social sphere. Unfortunately the difficulties' inherent in the use of search engines and the use of unconscious cognitive approaches inefficient limit their effectiveness. It is in this respect presented a method, called SEWCOM that lets you create conceptual maps through interaction with search engines.

Content-based Music Search and Recommendation System

Science.gov (United States)

Takegawa, Kazuki; Hijikata, Yoshinori; Nishida, Shogo

Recently, the turn volume of music data on the Internet has increased rapidly. This has increased the user's cost to find music data suiting their preference from such a large data set. We propose a content-based music search and recommendation system. This system has an interface for searching and finding music data and an interface for editing a user profile which is necessary for music recommendation. By exploiting the visualization of the feature space of music and the visualization of the user profile, the user can search music data and edit the user profile. Furthermore, by exploiting the infomation which can be acquired from each visualized object in a mutually complementary manner, we make it easier for the user to search music data and edit the user profile. Concretely, the system gives to the user an information obtained from the user profile when searching music data and an information obtained from the feature space of music when editing the user profile.

User-centered design and the development of patient decision aids: protocol for a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Witteman, Holly O; Dansokho, Selma Chipenda; Colquhoun, Heather; Coulter, Angela; Dugas, Michèle; Fagerlin, Angela; Giguere, Anik Mc; Glouberman, Sholom; Haslett, Lynne; Hoffman, Aubri; Ivers, Noah; Légaré, France; Légaré, Jean; Levin, Carrie; Lopez, Karli; Montori, Victor M; Provencher, Thierry; Renaud, Jean-Sébastien; Sparling, Kerri; Stacey, Dawn; Vaisson, Gratianne; Volk, Robert J; Witteman, William

2015-01-26

Providing patient-centered care requires that patients partner in their personal health-care decisions to the full extent desired. Patient decision aids facilitate processes of shared decision-making between patients and their clinicians by presenting relevant scientific information in balanced, understandable ways, helping clarify patients' goals, and guiding decision-making processes. Although international standards stipulate that patients and clinicians should be involved in decision aid development, little is known about how such involvement currently occurs, let alone best practices. This systematic review consisting of three interlinked subreviews seeks to describe current practices of user involvement in the development of patient decision aids, compare these to practices of user-centered design, and identify promising strategies. A research team that includes patient and clinician representatives, decision aid developers, and systematic review method experts will guide this review according to the Cochrane Handbook and PRISMA reporting guidelines. A medical librarian will hand search key references and use a peer-reviewed search strategy to search MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, the ACM library, IEEE Xplore, and Google Scholar. We will identify articles across all languages and years describing the development or evaluation of a patient decision aid, or the application of user-centered design or human-centered design to tools intended for patient use. Two independent reviewers will assess article eligibility and extract data into a matrix using a structured pilot-tested form based on a conceptual framework of user-centered design. We will synthesize evidence to describe how research teams have included users in their development process and compare these practices to user-centered design methods. If data permit, we will develop a measure of the user-centeredness of development processes and identify practices that are likely

LET effects on normal and radiosensitive cell lines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geard, C.R.; Travisano, M.

1986-01-01

Charged particles in the track segment mode were produced by the RARAF Van de Graaff accelerator and used to irradiate two CHO cell lines, a radiosensitive hypermutable line EM9 and its normal parent AA8. Asynchronous cells were irradiated attached to 6 micrometer thick Mylar with protons, deuterons and helium-3 particles at LETs ranging from 10 to 150 keV per micrometer. A 50 kVp x-ray tube integrated into the track segment facility provided a low LET comparison. Following irradiation cells were monitored for clonogenicity, and in a separate series of experiments frequencies of sister chromatid exchanges. Up to 9 experiments were carried out at each LET, with a total of 8 radiations of different LETs being compared. The optimally effective LET for cell survival was between 80 and 120 keV per micrometer, with the 150 keV per micrometer particles indicating energy wastage. The differential between the normal and radiosensitive cell lines was maintained at all LETs

Search engines that learn from their users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schuth, A.G.

2016-01-01

More than half the world’s population uses web search engines, resulting in over half a billion search queries every single day. For many people web search engines are among the first resources they go to when a question arises. Moreover, search engines have for many become the most trusted route to

Effects of Pre-Purchase Search Motivation on User Attitudes toward Online Social Network Advertising: A Case of University Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Imran A Mir

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Since last few years, social media have profoundly changed the ways of social and business communication. Particularly, social network sites (SNSs have rapidly grown in popularity and number of users globally. They have become the main place for social interaction, discussion and communication. Today, businesses of various types use SNSs for commercial communication. Banner advertising is one of the common methods of commercial communication on SNSs. Advertising is a key source of revenue for many SNSs firms such as Facebook. In fact, the existence of many SNSs owners and advertisers is contingent upon the success of social network advertising (SNA. Users demand free SNS services which makes SNA crucial for SNSs firms. SNA can be effective only if it is aligned with user motivations. Marketing literature identifies pre-purchase search as a primary consumer motivation for using media. The current study aims to identify the effects of pre-purchase search motivation (PSM on user attitudes toward SNA. It also assesses the association between the attitudes toward SNA and users’ banner ad-clicking behavior on SNSs. Data was gathered from 200 university students in Islamabad using offline survey. Results show positive effects of PSM on user attitudes toward SNA. They also show positive association between user attitudes toward SNA and their SNS banner ad-clicking behavior. The firms which promote their products through SNSs to the young South Asian consumers may benefit from the findings of the current study.

Design criteria for a hemispherical detector for LET measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schell, M.C.; DeLuca, P.M. Jr.; Pearson, D.W.; Attix, F.H.

1980-01-01

A detector for the direct measurement of the Linear Energy Transfer (LET) in cylindrical geometry was developed by Brandan and DeLuca. The detector successfully measured the LET of protons and a fraction of the heavy charged particles generated in cylindrical A150 plastic and graphite walls by 14.8 MeV neutrons. In this report, we present design tests for the hemispherical LET detector which will measure the LET of charged particles in spherical geometry and allow comparison with calculated LET spectra. The hemispherical LET detector will also provide a data base for radiobiological predictions with the Track Structure Model by Katz. A comparison of predictions of radiobiological effects by the Theory of Dual Radiation Action and the Track Structure Model by Edwards and the authors indicate that the Track Structure Model predicts cell survival as a function of dose more accurately and hence an additional motivation for the present construction of the hemispherical LET detector

Library Catalogue Users Are Influenced by Trends in Web Searching Search Strategies. A review of: Novotny, Eric. “I Don’t Think I Click: A Protocol Analysis Study of Use of a Library Online Catalog in the Internet Age.” College & Research Libraries, 65.6 (Nov. 2004: 525-37.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan Haigh

2006-09-01

Full Text Available Objective – To explore how Web-savvy users think about and search an online catalogue. Design – Protocol analysis study. Setting – Academic library (Pennsylvania State University Libraries. Subjects – Eighteen users (17 students, 1 faculty member of an online public access catalog, divided into two groups of nine first-time and nine experienced users. Method – The study team developed five tasks that represented a range of activities commonly performed by library users, such as searching for a specific item, identifying a library location, and requesting a copy. Seventeen students and one faculty member, divided evenly between novice and experienced searchers, were recruited to “think aloud” through the performance of the tasks. Data were gathered through audio recordings, screen capture software, and investigator notes. The time taken for each task was recorded, and investigators rated task completion as “successful,” “partially successful,” “fail,” or “search aborted.” After the searching session, participants were interviewed to clarify their actions and provide further commentary on the catalogue search. Main results – Participants in both test groups were relatively unsophisticated subject searchers. They made minimal use of Boolean operators, and tended not to repair failed searches by rethinking the search vocabulary and using synonyms. Participants did not have a strong understanding of library catalogue contents or structure and showed little curiosity in developing an understanding of how to utilize the catalogue. Novice users were impatient both in choosing search options and in evaluating their search results. They assumed search results were sorted by relevance, and thus would not typically browse past the initial screen. They quickly followed links, fearlessly tried different searches and options, and rapidly abandoned false trails. Experienced users were more effective and efficient searchers than

Mastering ElasticSearch

CERN Document Server

Kuc, Rafal

2013-01-01

A practical tutorial that covers the difficult design, implementation, and management of search solutions.Mastering ElasticSearch is aimed at to intermediate users who want to extend their knowledge about ElasticSearch. The topics that are described in the book are detailed, but we assume that you already know the basics, like the query DSL or data indexing. Advanced users will also find this book useful, as the examples are getting deep into the internals where it is needed.

LET calibration for CR-39 detectors in different oxygen environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou, D.; Semones, E.; Weyland, M.; Benton, E.R.

2007-01-01

High LET (linear energy transfer) radiation is the main contributor to the radiation field in low Earth orbit (LEO) in terms of dose equivalent. CR-39 plastic nuclear track detectors (PNTDs) can measure the LET spectrum and charge spectrum for the complicated radiation field in space. Previous research indicated that the sensitivity of CR-39 is different for CR-39 PNTDs working in different oxygen environments. LET calibration for CR-39 detectors in different oxygen environments is needed. Almost all the previous LET calibration work was carried out for CR-39 detectors in good-oxygen condition, LET calibration work for CR-39 in poor-oxygen condition has not been conducted until our work. Systematic LET calibrations were carried out by JSC-SRAG (Space Radiation Analysis Group) for CR-39 detectors working in different oxygen environments and abundant results of LET calibrations were obtained. This paper introduces the method for CR-39 LET calibration, presents and discusses the calibration results and some applications

Many Libraries Have Gone to Federated Searching to Win Users Back from Google. Is It Working?

Science.gov (United States)

King, Douglas

2008-01-01

In the last issue, this journal asked a question on many librarians' minds, and it was pleased with the depth and variety of responses. As suggested by this journal editorial board member Oliver Pesch, readers were asked, "Many libraries have gone to federated searching to win users back from Google. Is it working?" Respondents approached the…

Gene-expression profiling of Saccharomyces cerevisiae irradiated by high-LET radiations

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Ionizing radiations are categorized by linear energy transfer (LET) into low-LET and high-LET. High-LET is considered to have a higher relative biological...

Natural Language Search Interfaces: Health Data Needs Single-Field Variable Search.

Science.gov (United States)

Jay, Caroline; Harper, Simon; Dunlop, Ian; Smith, Sam; Sufi, Shoaib; Goble, Carole; Buchan, Iain

2016-01-14

Data discovery, particularly the discovery of key variables and their inter-relationships, is key to secondary data analysis, and in-turn, the evolving field of data science. Interface designers have presumed that their users are domain experts, and so they have provided complex interfaces to support these "experts." Such interfaces hark back to a time when searches needed to be accurate first time as there was a high computational cost associated with each search. Our work is part of a governmental research initiative between the medical and social research funding bodies to improve the use of social data in medical research. The cross-disciplinary nature of data science can make no assumptions regarding the domain expertise of a particular scientist, whose interests may intersect multiple domains. Here we consider the common requirement for scientists to seek archived data for secondary analysis. This has more in common with search needs of the "Google generation" than with their single-domain, single-tool forebears. Our study compares a Google-like interface with traditional ways of searching for noncomplex health data in a data archive. Two user interfaces are evaluated for the same set of tasks in extracting data from surveys stored in the UK Data Archive (UKDA). One interface, Web search, is "Google-like," enabling users to browse, search for, and view metadata about study variables, whereas the other, traditional search, has standard multioption user interface. Using a comprehensive set of tasks with 20 volunteers, we found that the Web search interface met data discovery needs and expectations better than the traditional search. A task × interface repeated measures analysis showed a main effect indicating that answers found through the Web search interface were more likely to be correct (F1,19=37.3, Pnatural language search interfaces for variable search supporting in particular: query reformulation; data browsing; faceted search; surrogates; relevance

Precise let-7 expression levels balance organ regeneration against tumor suppression

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Linwei; Nguyen, Liem H; Zhou, Kejin; de Soysa, T Yvanka; Li, Lin; Miller, Jason B; Tian, Jianmin; Locker, Joseph; Zhang, Shuyuan; Shinoda, Gen; Seligson, Marc T; Zeitels, Lauren R; Acharya, Asha; Wang, Sam C; Mendell, Joshua T; He, Xiaoshun; Nishino, Jinsuke; Morrison, Sean J; Siegwart, Daniel J; Daley, George Q; Shyh-Chang, Ng; Zhu, Hao

2015-01-01

The in vivo roles for even the most intensely studied microRNAs remain poorly defined. Here, analysis of mouse models revealed that let-7, a large and ancient microRNA family, performs tumor suppressive roles at the expense of regeneration. Too little or too much let-7 resulted in compromised protection against cancer or tissue damage, respectively. Modest let-7 overexpression abrogated MYC-driven liver cancer by antagonizing multiple let-7 sensitive oncogenes. However, the same level of overexpression blocked liver regeneration, while let-7 deletion enhanced it, demonstrating that distinct let-7 levels can mediate desirable phenotypes. let-7 dependent regeneration phenotypes resulted from influences on the insulin-PI3K-mTOR pathway. We found that chronic high-dose let-7 overexpression caused liver damage and degeneration, paradoxically leading to tumorigenesis. These dose-dependent roles for let-7 in tissue repair and tumorigenesis rationalize the tight regulation of this microRNA in development, and have important implications for let-7 based therapeutics. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09431.001 PMID:26445246

Let's do comprehension 5-6

CERN Document Server

Brodie, Andrew

2015-01-01

Let's Do Comprehension is a brand new series of six titles in the popular 'Let's Do' range. Each book contains a rich variety of stimulating reading passages, accompanied by questions of varying difficulty. Designed to be used at home, each book includes tips and clues from Alice the Alligator as well as extra challenges in Brodie's Brain Boosters. There is a clear answer section for reference by parents and children, together with bright, colourful reward stickers.

Let's do comprehension 8-9

CERN Document Server

Brodie, Andrew

2015-01-01

Let's Do Comprehension is a brand new series of six titles in the popular 'Let's Do' range. Each book contains a rich variety of stimulating reading passages, accompanied by questions of varying difficulty. Designed to be used at home, each book includes tips and clues from Alice the Alligator as well as extra challenges in Brodie's Brain Boosters. There is a clear answer section for reference by parents and children, together with bright, colourful reward stickers.

[Analysis of Therapeutic Regularities and Characteristics of Blood-letting Therapy for Acne Patients Based on Data Mining].

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Yu-zhu; Jia, Chun-sheng; Wang, Jian-ling; Shi, Jing; Zhang, Xiao-xu; Liu, Xin; Gang, Wei-juan

2015-06-01

To analyze the therapeutic regularities and characteristics of blood-letting therapy for acne in the past clinical practice by using data mining. Original papers about acne treated by pricking blood therapy were searched and screened from common databases as Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI), WanFang Data, SinoMed, Ovid, ScienceDirect, Socolar, SciFinder, Foreign Medical Journal Full-Text Service (FMJS) and PubMed using keywords of acne+bleeding therapy, acne+blood-letting, acne+ pricking blood, followed by establishing a data plateform to conduct a data mining using Online Analytical Processing (OLAP). A total of 230 original journal articles about acne treated by pricking blood therapy were collected. The included acne cases with wind-heat pattern were predoment, being 56 in frequency-times and acounting for 24. 78 %. In the treatment of acne, the therapeutic tool, three-edged needle was often used, being 168 in frequency and acounting for 71.79%. The frequently employed acupoints were those of the Governor Vessel and Bladder Meridian, such as Dazhui (GV 14) and back-shu points. When auricular points used for blood-letting, Erjian (EX-HN 6) and the Vena of the auricular back were most frequently selected. In addition to blood-letting, other therapies such as Chinese herbal medicines, filiform needles, and otopoint-pellet pressure were also used in combination, being 166 in items and constituting 72. 17%. Generally, blood-letting treatment was conducted once every three days (twice a week) or once every two days (three times a week) for about 20 sessions for each acne patient. Blood-letting therapy is effective in the treatment of acne. But if used in combination with other therapies, the therapeutic effect would be better.

A Secured Cognitive Agent based Multi-strategic Intelligent Search System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neha Gulati

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Search Engine (SE is the most preferred information retrieval tool ubiquitously used. In spite of vast scale involvement of users in SE’s, their limited capabilities to understand the user/searcher context and emotions places high cognitive, perceptual and learning load on the user to maintain the search momentum. In this regard, the present work discusses a Cognitive Agent (CA based approach to support the user in Web-based search process. The work suggests a framework called Secured Cognitive Agent based Multi-strategic Intelligent Search System (CAbMsISS to assist the user in search process. It helps to reduce the contextual and emotional mismatch between the SE’s and user. After implementation of the proposed framework, performance analysis shows that CAbMsISS framework improves Query Retrieval Time (QRT and effectiveness for retrieving relevant results as compared to Present Search Engine (PSE. Supplementary to this, it also provides search suggestions when user accesses a resource previously tagged with negative emotions. Overall, the goal of the system is to enhance the search experience for keeping the user motivated. The framework provides suggestions through the search log that tracks the queries searched, resources accessed and emotions experienced during the search. The implemented framework also considers user security. Keywords: BDI model, Cognitive Agent, Emotion, Information retrieval, Intelligent search, Search Engine

Pri-let-7a-1 rs10739971 polymorphism is associated with gastric cancer prognosis and might affect mature let-7a expression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Y

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Ying Li, Qian Xu, Jingwei Liu, Caiyun He, Quan Yuan, Chengzhong Xing, Yuan Yuan Tumor Etiology and Screening Department of Cancer Institute and General Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, and Key Laboratory of Cancer Etiology and Prevention (China Medical University, Liaoning Provincial Education Department, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China Abstract: The relationship between the pri-let-7a-1 rs10739971 polymorphism and gastric cancer (GC risk has been reported. However, the role of this polymorphism in the prognosis of GC remains largely elusive. Sequenom MassARRAY platform method and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism were used to investigate pri-let-7a-1 rs10739971 G→A in 334 GC patients. Real-time PCR detected expression of mature let-7a in serum and tissue. Patients with AA or GA+AA genotypes of the pri-let-7a-1 rs10739971 polymorphism demonstrated significantly longer survival time than those with the wild GG genotype. Stratified analysis indicated that survival time was significantly longer in women with AA or GA+AA genotypes and in Borrmann type I/II patients with GA heterozygote or GA+AA genotypes. AA genotype was more frequent in the lymphatic-metastasis-negative subgroup. Serum mature let-7a expression in healthy people with the GA heterozygote and the GA+AA genotype was higher than in those with the GG genotype, and the difference remained significant in the female healthy subgroup. Pri-let-7a-1 rs10739971 polymorphism might be a biomarker for GC prognosis, especially for female and Borrmann type I/II patients. The pri-let-7a-1 rs10739971 polymorphism might affect serum mature let-7a expression, and partly explain the mechanism of the relationship between the pri-let-7a-1 rs10739971 polymorphism and GC survival. Keywords: miRNA, let-7a, polymorphism, gastric cancer, prognosis, expression

The Lin28/let-7 axis regulates glucose metabolism

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Hao; Shyh-Chang, Ng; Segrè, Ayellet V.; Shinoda, Gen; Shah, Samar P.; Einhorn, William S.; Takeuchi, Ayumu; Engreitz, Jesse M.; Hagan, John P.; Kharas, Michael G; Urbach, Achia; Thornton, James E.; Triboulet, Robinson; Gregory, Richard I.; Altshuler, David; Daley, George Q.

2012-01-01

SUMMARY The let-7 tumor suppressor microRNAs are known for their regulation of oncogenes, while the RNA-binding proteins Lin28a/b promote malignancy by blocking let-7 biogenesis. In studies of the Lin28/let-7 pathway, we discovered unexpected roles in regulating metabolism. When overexpressed in mice, both Lin28a and LIN28B promoted an insulin-sensitized state that resisted high fat diet-induced diabetes, whereas muscle-specific loss of Lin28a and overexpression of let-7 resulted in insulin resistance and impaired glucose tolerance. These phenomena occurred in part through let-7-mediated repression of multiple components of the insulin-PI3K-mTOR pathway, including IGF1R, INSR, and IRS2. The mTOR inhibitor rapamycin abrogated the enhanced glucose uptake and insulin-sensitivity conferred by Lin28a in vitro and in vivo. In addition, we found that let-7 targets were enriched for genes that contain SNPs associated with type 2 diabetes and fasting glucose in human genome-wide association studies. These data establish the Lin28/let-7 pathway as a central regulator of mammalian glucose metabolism. PMID:21962509

A rank-based Prediction Algorithm of Learning User's Intention

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Jie; Gao, Ying; Chen, Cang; Gong, HaiPing

Internet search has become an important part in people's daily life. People can find many types of information to meet different needs through search engines on the Internet. There are two issues for the current search engines: first, the users should predetermine the types of information they want and then change to the appropriate types of search engine interfaces. Second, most search engines can support multiple kinds of search functions, each function has its own separate search interface. While users need different types of information, they must switch between different interfaces. In practice, most queries are corresponding to various types of information results. These queries can search the relevant results in various search engines, such as query "Palace" contains the websites about the introduction of the National Palace Museum, blog, Wikipedia, some pictures and video information. This paper presents a new aggregative algorithm for all kinds of search results. It can filter and sort the search results by learning three aspects about the query words, search results and search history logs to achieve the purpose of detecting user's intention. Experiments demonstrate that this rank-based method for multi-types of search results is effective. It can meet the user's search needs well, enhance user's satisfaction, provide an effective and rational model for optimizing search engines and improve user's search experience.

Measuring Personalization of Web Search

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hannak, Aniko; Sapiezynski, Piotr; Kakhki, Arash Molavi

2013-01-01

are simply unable to access information that the search engines’ algorithm decidesis irrelevant. Despitetheseconcerns, there has been little quantification of the extent of personalization in Web search today, or the user attributes that cause it. In light of this situation, we make three contributions...... as a result of searching with a logged in account and the IP address of the searching user. Our results are a first step towards understanding the extent and effects of personalization on Web search engines today....

Blood-letting in anorexia nervosa: a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, J F; Lacey, J H

2000-05-01

Deliberate blood-letting has been characterized as an alternative to purging behavior in bulimia. We describe a female healthcare worker with an 8-year history of restrictive anorexia nervosa, who initially presented with anemia, using blood-letting, cold baths, and starvation to control her mental state. In contrast with the previous cases of bulimia, the aim of blood-letting in this case of anorexia nervosa was to achieve anemia. She compared the psychic correlates of anemia to emaciation, rather than to deliberate self-harm or purging. We note that mainstream 19th century psychiatry prescribed "baths, blood-letting and diet" as a treatment of "madness." Copyright 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Lin28/let-7 Axis Regulates Glucose Metabolism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhu, Hao; Shyh-Chang, Ng; Segre, Ayellet V.; Shinoda, Gen; Shah, Samar P.; Einhorn, William S.; Takeuchi, Ayumu; Engreitz, Jesse M.; Hagan, John P.; Kharas, Michael G.; Urbach, Achia; Thornton, James E.; Triboulet, Robinson; Gregory, Richard I.; Altshuler, David; Daley, George Q.

2011-01-01

The let-7 tumor suppressor microRNAs are known for their regulation of oncogenes, while the RNA-binding proteins Lin28a/b promote malignancy by inhibiting let-7 biogenesis. We have uncovered unexpected roles for the Lin28/let-7 pathway in regulating-metabolism. When overexpressed in mice, both

Letting die: A moral defence | Adenugba | Sophia: An African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper draws a distinction between letting die and active euthanasia. It argues that there is a moral difference between letting die and active euthanasia which strictly intends to cause death. The difference between letting die and active euthanasia lies in intention though intention in both cases can be said to be ...

Intelligent Search Optimization using Artificial Fuzzy Logics

OpenAIRE

Manral, Jai

2015-01-01

Information on the web is prodigious; searching relevant information is difficult making web users to rely on search engines for finding relevant information on the web. Search engines index and categorize web pages according to their contents using crawlers and rank them accordingly. For given user query they retrieve millions of webpages and display them to users according to web-page rank. Every search engine has their own algorithms based on certain parameters for ranking web-pages. Searc...

Search Analytics for Your Site

CERN Document Server

Rosenfeld, Louis

2011-01-01

Any organization that has a searchable web site or intranet is sitting on top of hugely valuable and usually under-exploited data: logs that capture what users are searching for, how often each query was searched, and how many results each query retrieved. Search queries are gold: they are real data that show us exactly what users are searching for in their own words. This book shows you how to use search analytics to carry on a conversation with your customers: listen to and understand their needs, and improve your content, navigation and search performance to meet those needs.

The dependence of relative biological effectiveness from LET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Savich, A.V.

1985-01-01

A dependence of radiation-chemical yields of DNA injuries on the LET value is found for two transformations - one and two-strand breaks of it. It is shown that the yield of one-strand breaks decreases with the increase of LET value, and the quantity of two-strand breaks at first increases reaching the maximum value within the LET range from 100 up to 150 eV/nm and then decreases. The considered semiempiric theories of the RBE dependences on LET permits using the experimentally determined parameters characterizing radiosensitivity, to estimate the efficiency of the effect of ionizing radiation on cells at different doses, types of radiation and levels of saturation with oxygen. The stage of the cell cycle is also taken into account

Let G be a group

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lützen, Jesper

2015-01-01

I moderne formalistisk matematik er ontologi blevet erstattet med spørgsmålet om konsistens af et aksiomatisk system. I artiklen gøres der rede for hvordan denne opfattelse er blevet til og denne historie opfattes i sig selv som en slags erstatning for ontologi......I moderne formalistisk matematik er ontologi blevet erstattet med spørgsmålet om konsistens af et aksiomatisk system. I artiklen gøres der rede for hvordan denne opfattelse er blevet til og denne historie opfattes i sig selv som en slags erstatning for ontologi...

Overview of the CLEF 2016 Social Book Search Lab

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koolen, Marijn; Bogers, Toine; Gäde, Maria

2016-01-01

systems. The aim of the Interactive Track is to develop user interfaces that support users through each stage during complex search tasks and to investigate how users exploit professional metadata and user-generated content. The Mining Track focuses on detecting and linking book titles in online book......The Social Book Search (SBS) Lab investigates book search in scenarios where users search with more than just a query, and look for more than objective metadata. Real-world information needs are generally complex, yet almost all research focuses instead on either relatively simple search based...... on queries, or on profile-based recommendation. The goal is to research and develop techniques to support users in complex book search tasks. The SBS Lab has three tracks. The aim of the Suggestion Track is to develop test collections for evaluating ranking effectiveness of book retrieval and recommender...

Identification of let-7-regulated oncofetal genes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boyerinas, Benjamin; Park, Sun-Mi; Shomron, Noam

2008-01-01

-regulated at the end of embryonic development. Let-7 is often down-regulated early during cancer development, suggesting that let-7-regulated oncofetal genes (LOG) may become reexpressed in cancer cells. Using comparative bioinformatics, we have identified 12 conserved LOGs that include HMGA2 and IMP-1/CRD-BP. IMP-1...

Fermilab Education Office - Volunteer

Science.gov (United States)

Search Opportunities for Education and Outreach for Employees and Users Fermilab employees, users, and contribute and let us know. If you have ideas for education and outreach that are not listed here, email presents the Director's Award for exceptional support to Fermilab's K–12 Education programs. Visit schools

BioCarian: search engine for exploratory searches in heterogeneous biological databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaki, Nazar; Tennakoon, Chandana

2017-10-02

There are a large number of biological databases publicly available for scientists in the web. Also, there are many private databases generated in the course of research projects. These databases are in a wide variety of formats. Web standards have evolved in the recent times and semantic web technologies are now available to interconnect diverse and heterogeneous sources of data. Therefore, integration and querying of biological databases can be facilitated by techniques used in semantic web. Heterogeneous databases can be converted into Resource Description Format (RDF) and queried using SPARQL language. Searching for exact queries in these databases is trivial. However, exploratory searches need customized solutions, especially when multiple databases are involved. This process is cumbersome and time consuming for those without a sufficient background in computer science. In this context, a search engine facilitating exploratory searches of databases would be of great help to the scientific community. We present BioCarian, an efficient and user-friendly search engine for performing exploratory searches on biological databases. The search engine is an interface for SPARQL queries over RDF databases. We note that many of the databases can be converted to tabular form. We first convert the tabular databases to RDF. The search engine provides a graphical interface based on facets to explore the converted databases. The facet interface is more advanced than conventional facets. It allows complex queries to be constructed, and have additional features like ranking of facet values based on several criteria, visually indicating the relevance of a facet value and presenting the most important facet values when a large number of choices are available. For the advanced users, SPARQL queries can be run directly on the databases. Using this feature, users will be able to incorporate federated searches of SPARQL endpoints. We used the search engine to do an exploratory search

Natural Language Search Interfaces: Health Data Needs Single-Field Variable Search

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Sam; Sufi, Shoaib; Goble, Carole; Buchan, Iain

2016-01-01

Background Data discovery, particularly the discovery of key variables and their inter-relationships, is key to secondary data analysis, and in-turn, the evolving field of data science. Interface designers have presumed that their users are domain experts, and so they have provided complex interfaces to support these “experts.” Such interfaces hark back to a time when searches needed to be accurate first time as there was a high computational cost associated with each search. Our work is part of a governmental research initiative between the medical and social research funding bodies to improve the use of social data in medical research. Objective The cross-disciplinary nature of data science can make no assumptions regarding the domain expertise of a particular scientist, whose interests may intersect multiple domains. Here we consider the common requirement for scientists to seek archived data for secondary analysis. This has more in common with search needs of the “Google generation” than with their single-domain, single-tool forebears. Our study compares a Google-like interface with traditional ways of searching for noncomplex health data in a data archive. Methods Two user interfaces are evaluated for the same set of tasks in extracting data from surveys stored in the UK Data Archive (UKDA). One interface, Web search, is “Google-like,” enabling users to browse, search for, and view metadata about study variables, whereas the other, traditional search, has standard multioption user interface. Results Using a comprehensive set of tasks with 20 volunteers, we found that the Web search interface met data discovery needs and expectations better than the traditional search. A task × interface repeated measures analysis showed a main effect indicating that answers found through the Web search interface were more likely to be correct (F 1,19=37.3, Peffect of task (F 3,57=6.3, Pinterface (F 1,19=18.0, Peffect of task (F 2,38=4.1, P=.025, Greenhouse

Search Engines: Gateway to a New ``Panopticon''?

Science.gov (United States)

Kosta, Eleni; Kalloniatis, Christos; Mitrou, Lilian; Kavakli, Evangelia

Nowadays, Internet users are depending on various search engines in order to be able to find requested information on the Web. Although most users feel that they are and remain anonymous when they place their search queries, reality proves otherwise. The increasing importance of search engines for the location of the desired information on the Internet usually leads to considerable inroads into the privacy of users. The scope of this paper is to study the main privacy issues with regard to search engines, such as the anonymisation of search logs and their retention period, and to examine the applicability of the European data protection legislation to non-EU search engine providers. Ixquick, a privacy-friendly meta search engine will be presented as an alternative to privacy intrusive existing practices of search engines.

End-Users, Front Ends and Librarians.

Science.gov (United States)

Bourne, Donna E.

1989-01-01

The increase in end-user searching, the advantages and limitations of front ends, and the role of the librarian in end-user searching are discussed. It is argued that librarians need to recognize that front ends can be of benefit to themselves and patrons, and to assume the role of advisors and educators for end-users. (37 references) (CLB)

In vitro RBE-LET dependence for multiple particle types

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Brita Singers; Overgaard, Jens; Bassler, Niels

2011-01-01

Background. In vitro RBE values for various high LET radiation types have been determined for many different cell types. Occasionally it is criticized that RBE for a given endpoint cannot be single-value dependent on LET alone, but also on particle species, due to the different dose deposition...... profiles on microscopic scale. Hence LET is not sufficient as a predictor of RBE, and this is one of the motivations for development of radiobiological models which explicitly depend on the detailed particle energy spectrum of the applied radiation field. The aim of the present study is to summarize...... the available data in the literature regarding the dependency of RBE on LET for different particles. Method. As RBE is highly dependent on cell type and endpoint, we discriminated the RBE-LET relationship for the three investigated cell lines and at the same endpoint (10% survival in colony formation). Data...

A Review: Some biological effects of high LET radiations

Science.gov (United States)

Wiley, A., Jr.

1972-01-01

There are qualitative and quantitative differences in the biological damage observed after exposure to high LET radiation as compared to that caused by low LET radiations. This review is concerned with these differences, which are ultimately reflected at the biochemical, cellular and even whole animal levels. In general, high LET radiations seem to produce biochemical damage which is more severe and possibly less repairable. Experimental data for those effects are presented in terms of biochemical RBE's with consideration of both early and late manifestations. An LET independent process by which significant biochemical damage may result from protons, neutrons and negative pion mesons is discussed.

Owning, letting and demanding second homes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bloze, Gintautas; Skak, Morten

register data and presents estimations of the probability of owning a second home, the decision to let the second home and the number of let weeks per year. Also income elasticities for primary and second housing demand are estimated. We find a conventional monotonic increase in demand elasticities...... for primary housing demand for non-owners of second homes; however, owners of second homes have the highest income elasticity in the middle income group....

Pro SharePoint 2010 Search

CERN Document Server

Noble, J; Bakman-Mikalski, Dan

2011-01-01

Pro SharePoint 2010 Search gives you expert advice on planning, deploying and customizing searches in SharePoint 2010. Drawing on the authors' extensive experience of working with real-world SharePoint deployments, this book teaches everything you'll need to know to create well-designed SharePoint solutions that always keep the end-user's experience in mind. Increase your search efficiency with SharePoint 2010's search functionality: extend the search user interface using third-party tools, and utilize analytics to improve relevancy. This practical hands-on book is a must-have resource for any

The inactivation of papain by high LET radiations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bisby, R.H.; Cundall, R.B.; Sims, H.E.; Burns, W.G.

1984-01-01

The effect of varying LET over a wide range (0.2-1570 eV/nm) on the radiation-induced inactivation of the enzyme papain in dilute aqueous solution has been investigated. Measurements of total, reparable and non-reparable inactivation G values in oxygen, nitrous oxide and argon saturated solutions have allowed the contributions to inactivation from radicals and hydrogen peroxide to be evaluated. At high LET the results demonstrate an increasing component due to reaction of the superoxide radical, formed from oxygen produced in the track as a primary radiolysis product. This effect was not observed in our previous study with ribonuclease due to the insensitivity of ribonuclease to inactivation by superoxide and hydrogen peroxide. The results obtained with papain clearly demonstrate a maximum in G(H 2 O 2 ) at an LET of equivalent to 140 eV/nm. Generation of O 2 within the track as a primary radiolysis product at high LET now appears to be confirmed as an important mechanism leading to reduction in the oxygen enhancement ratio for cellular systems exposed to high LET radiations (Baverstock and Burns 1981). (author)

Search Patterns

CERN Document Server

Morville, Peter

2010-01-01

What people are saying about Search Patterns "Search Patterns is a delight to read -- very thoughtful and thought provoking. It's the most comprehensive survey of designing effective search experiences I've seen." --Irene Au, Director of User Experience, Google "I love this book! Thanks to Peter and Jeffery, I now know that search (yes, boring old yucky who cares search) is one of the coolest ways around of looking at the world." --Dan Roam, author, The Back of the Napkin (Portfolio Hardcover) "Search Patterns is a playful guide to the practical concerns of search interface design. It cont

IMPROVING PERSONALIZED WEB SEARCH USING BOOKSHELF DATA STRUCTURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S.K. Jayanthi

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Search engines are playing a vital role in retrieving relevant information for the web user. In this research work a user profile based web search is proposed. So the web user from different domain may receive different set of results. The main challenging work is to provide relevant results at the right level of reading difficulty. Estimating user expertise and re-ranking the results are the main aspects of this paper. The retrieved results are arranged in Bookshelf Data Structure for easy access. Better presentation of search results hence increases the usability of web search engines significantly in visual mode.

Integrating User Reviews and Ratings for Enhanced Personalized Searching

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Shuyue; Cai, Yi; Leung, Ho-fung; Huang, Dongping; Yang, Yang

2017-01-01

With the development of e-commerce, websites such as Amazon and eBay have become very popular. Users post reviews of products and rate the helpfulness of reviews on these websites. Reviews written by a user and reviews rated by a user reflect the user's interests and disinterest. Thus, they are very useful for user profiling. In this study, the…

Using a Google Search Appliance (GSA) to search digital library collections: a case study of the INIS Collection Search

OpenAIRE

Savic, Dobrica

2014-01-01

Libraries are facing many challenges today. In addition to diminishing funding and increased user expectations, the use of classic library catalogues is becoming an additional challenge. Library users require fast and easy access to information resources regardless whether the format used is paper or electronic. Google search, with its speed and simplicity, set up a new standard for information retrieval which is hard to achieve with the previous generation of library search facilities. Put i...

High and Low LET Radiation Differentially Induce Normal Tissue Damage Signals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niemantsverdriet, Maarten; Goethem, Marc-Jan van; Bron, Reinier; Hogewerf, Wytse; Brandenburg, Sytze; Langendijk, Johannes A.; Luijk, Peter van; Coppes, Robert P.

2012-01-01

Purpose: Radiotherapy using high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation is aimed at efficiently killing tumor cells while minimizing dose (biological effective) to normal tissues to prevent toxicity. It is well established that high LET radiation results in lower cell survival per absorbed dose than low LET radiation. However, whether various mechanisms involved in the development of normal tissue damage may be regulated differentially is not known. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate whether two actions related to normal tissue toxicity, p53-induced apoptosis and expression of the profibrotic gene PAI-1 (plasminogen activator inhibitor 1), are differentially induced by high and low LET radiation. Methods and Materials: Cells were irradiated with high LET carbon ions or low LET photons. Cell survival assays were performed, profibrotic PAI-1 expression was monitored by quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and apoptosis was assayed by annexin V staining. Activation of p53 by phosphorylation at serine 315 and serine 37 was monitored by Western blotting. Transfections of plasmids expressing p53 mutated at serines 315 and 37 were used to test the requirement of these residues for apoptosis and expression of PAI-1. Results: As expected, cell survival was lower and induction of apoptosis was higher in high -LET irradiated cells. Interestingly, induction of the profibrotic PAI-1 gene was similar with high and low LET radiation. In agreement with this finding, phosphorylation of p53 at serine 315 involved in PAI-1 expression was similar with high and low LET radiation, whereas phosphorylation of p53 at serine 37, involved in apoptosis induction, was much higher after high LET irradiation. Conclusions: Our results indicate that diverse mechanisms involved in the development of normal tissue damage may be differentially affected by high and low LET radiation. This may have consequences for the development and manifestation of normal tissue damage.

Self-learning search engines

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schuth, A.

2015-01-01

How does a search engine such as Google know which search results to display? There are many competing algorithms that generate search results, but which one works best? We developed a new probabilistic method for quickly comparing large numbers of search algorithms by examining the results users

Tales from the Field: Search Strategies Applied in Web Searching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soohyung Joo

2010-08-01

Full Text Available In their web search processes users apply multiple types of search strategies, which consist of different search tactics. This paper identifies eight types of information search strategies with associated cases based on sequences of search tactics during the information search process. Thirty-one participants representing the general public were recruited for this study. Search logs and verbal protocols offered rich data for the identification of different types of search strategies. Based on the findings, the authors further discuss how to enhance web-based information retrieval (IR systems to support each type of search strategy.

Understanding and modeling users of modern search engines

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chuklin, A.

2017-01-01

As search is being used by billions of people, modern search engines are becoming more and more complex. And complexity does not just come from the algorithms. Richer and richer content is being added to search engine result pages: news and sports results, definitions and translations, images and

Improvement Of Search Process In Electronic Catalogues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Titas Savickas

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The paper presents investigation on search in electronic catalogues. The chosen problem domain is the search system in the electronic catalogue of Lithuanian Academic Libraries. The catalogue uses ALEPH system with MARC21 bibliographic format. The article presents analysis of problems pertaining to the current search engine and user expectations related to the search system of the electronic catalogue of academic libraries. Subsequent to analysis, the research paper presents the architecture for a semantic search system in the electronic catalogue that uses search process designed to improve search results for users.

Biomarkers specific to densely-ionising (high LET) radiations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brenner, D.J.; Okladnikova, N.; Hande, P.; Burak, L.; Geard, C.R.; Azizova, T.

2001-01-01

There have been several suggestions of biomarkers that are specific to high LET radiation. Such a biomarker could significantly increase the power of epidemiological studies of individuals exposed to densely-ionising radiations such as alpha particles (e.g. radon, plutonium workers, individuals exposed to depleted uranium) or neutrons (e.g. radiation workers, airline personnel). We discuss here a potentially powerful high LET biomarker (the H value) which is the ratio of induced inter-chromosomal aberrations to intra-arm aberrations. Both theoretical and experimental studies have suggested that this ratio should differ by a factor of about three between high LET radiation and any other likely clastogen, and will yield more discrimination than the previously suggested F value (ratio of inter-chromosomal aberrations to intra-chromosomal inter-arm aberrations). Evidence of the long-term stability of such chromosomal biomarkers has also been generated. Because these stable intra-arm and inter-chromosomal aberrations are (1) frequent and (2) measurable at long times after exposure, this H value appears to be a practical biomarker of high LET exposure, and several in vitro studies have confirmed the approach for unstable aberrations. The approach is currently being tested in a population of Russian radiation workers exposed several decades ago to high- or low LET radiation. (author)

Algorithmic and User Study of an Autocompletion Algorithm on a Large Medical Vocabulary

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sevenster, M.; Van Ommering, R.C.; Qian, Y.

2012-01-01

Introduction: Autocompletion supports human-computer interaction in software applications that let users enter textual data. We will be inspired by the use case in which medical professionals enter ontology concepts, catering the ongoing demand for structured and standardized data in

The Impact of User Knowledge on Web Search Satisfaction

OpenAIRE

Fadhilah M. Yamin; T. Ramayah

2011-01-01

Problem statement: Searching on the web is a tedious process as it requires knowledge and skills on what and how to search. What to search is basically, the core of the searching activity as it represents the need of the searcher. How to search is related to the knowledge on how the facilities available on the web can be utilized in order to achieve the needs. Search satisfaction is the level of measurement that describes the achievement of the searcher towards his/her information needs. Appr...

Buy-to-let investments in Spain : Investing as a Private Person versus Establishing a Company

OpenAIRE

Könönen, Riitta

2011-01-01

The subject of the thesis was chosen when the Zariko properties needed a re-search to find out when is it more profitable to be private person and when is it time to establish a company when investing in apartments to let. The target of the thesis was to investigate three cases: private person, Finnish company and Spanish company investing in one, ten or hundred apartments. The research was made by finding information from the internet, with some professional books as well as some professiona...

Design and Development of a User Interface for the Dynamic Model of Software Project Management.

Science.gov (United States)

1988-03-01

rectory of the user’s choice for future...the last choice selected. Let us assume for the sake of this tour that the user has selected all eight choices . ESTIMATED ACTUAL PROJECT SIZE DEFINITION...manipulation of varaibles in the * •. TJin~ca model "h ... ser Inter ace for the Dynamica model was designed b in iterative process of prototyping

Search without Boundaries Using Simple APIs

Science.gov (United States)

Tong, Qi

2009-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Library, where the author serves as the digital services librarian, is increasingly challenged to make it easier for users to find information from many heterogeneous information sources. Information is scattered throughout different software applications (i.e., library catalog, federated search engine, link resolver, and vendor websites), and each specializes in one thing. How could the library integrate the functionalities of one application with another and provide a single point of entry for users to search across? To improve the user experience, the library launched an effort to integrate the federated search engine into the library's intranet website. The result is a simple search box that leverages the federated search engine's built-in application programming interfaces (APIs). In this article, the author describes how this project demonstrated the power of APIs and their potential to be used by other enterprise search portals inside or outside of the library.

In vitro cellular transformation induced by charged particles of defined LET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hei, T.K.; Hall, E.J.; Komatsu, K.; Goldhagen, P.

1985-01-01

Cytotoxicity and neoplastic transformation were scored in the C/sub 3/H 10T1/2 cell system following irradiation with protons, deuterons and helium-3 ions of defined LET in the track segment mode. The charged particles were accelerated at the Radiological Research Accelerator Facility at the Nevis Laboratories of Columbia University and provided a range of LET values from 10 to 175 keV/μm. Exponential phase cultures of C3H 10T1/2 cells, growing on a thin mylar surface were irradiated with charged particles of various LET values and subsequently replated onto commercial plastic petri dishes. The cultures were incubated for six weeks at which time they were fixed, stained and type II and III scored as transformants. Over the range of LET values studied thus far, it was found that as the LET of the charged particles increased, the shoulder of the survival curves decreased and approached an exponential function of dose at LET values of 100 keV/μm and above. The transformation incidence, likewise, showed a direct correlation with LET over the dose ranges examined

Federated Search in the Wild: the combined power of over a hundred search engines

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nguyen, Dong-Phuong; Demeester, Thomas; Trieschnigg, Rudolf Berend; Hiemstra, Djoerd

2012-01-01

Federated search has the potential of improving web search: the user becomes less dependent on a single search provider and parts of the deep web become available through a unified interface, leading to a wider variety in the retrieved search results. However, a publicly available dataset for

I-SG : Interactive Search Grouping - Search result grouping using Independent Component Analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lauritsen, Thomas; Kolenda, Thomas

2002-01-01

We present a computational simple and efficient approach to unsupervised grouping the search result from any search engine. Along with each group a set of keywords are found to annotate the contents. This approach leads to an interactive search trough a hierarchial structure that is build online....... It is the users task to improve the search, trough expanding the search query using the topic keywords representing the desired groups. In doing so the search engine limits the space of possible search results, virtually moving down in the search hierarchy, and so refines the search....

Multiple mechanisms disrupt the let-7 microRNA family in neuroblastoma

Science.gov (United States)

Powers, John T; Tsanov, Kaloyan M; Pearson, Daniel S; Roels, Frederik; Spina, Catherine S; Ebright, Richard; Seligson, Marc; de Soysa, Yvanka; Cahan, Patrick; Theiβen, Jessica; Tu, Ho-Chou; Han, Areum; Kurek, Kyle C; LaPier, Grace S; Osborne, Jihan K; Ross, Samantha J; Cesana, Marcella; Collins, James J; Berthold, Frank; Daley, George Q

2016-01-01

Poor prognosis in neuroblastoma is associated with genetic amplification of MYCN. MYCN is itself a target of let-7, a tumor suppressor family of microRNAs implicated in numerous cancers. LIN28B, an inhibitor of let-7 biogenesis, is overexpressed in neuroblastoma and has been reported to regulate MYCN. However, here we show that LIN28B is dispensable in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cell lines, despite de-repression of let-7. We further demonstrate that MYCN mRNA levels in amplified disease are exceptionally high and sufficient to sponge let-7, which reconciles the dispensability of LIN28B. We found that genetic loss of let-7 is common in neuroblastoma, inversely associated with MYCN-amplification, and independently associated with poor outcomes, providing a rationale for chromosomal loss patterns in neuroblastoma. We propose that let-7 disruption by LIN28B, MYCN sponging, or genetic loss is a unifying mechanism of neuroblastoma pathogenesis with broad implications for cancer pathogenesis. PMID:27383785

How happy is your web browsing? A model to quantify satisfaction of an Internet user searching for desired information

Science.gov (United States)

Banerji, Anirban; Magarkar, Aniket

2012-09-01

We feel happy when web browsing operations provide us with necessary information; otherwise, we feel bitter. How to measure this happiness (or bitterness)? How does the profile of happiness grow and decay during the course of web browsing? We propose a probabilistic framework that models the evolution of user satisfaction, on top of his/her continuous frustration at not finding the required information. It is found that the cumulative satisfaction profile of a web-searching individual can be modeled effectively as the sum of a random number of random terms, where each term is a mutually independent random variable, originating from ‘memoryless’ Poisson flow. Evolution of satisfaction over the entire time interval of a user’s browsing was modeled using auto-correlation analysis. A utilitarian marker, a magnitude of greater than unity of which describes happy web-searching operations, and an empirical limit that connects user’s satisfaction with his frustration level-are proposed too. The presence of pertinent information in the very first page of a website and magnitude of the decay parameter of user satisfaction (frustration, irritation etc.) are found to be two key aspects that dominate the web user’s psychology. The proposed model employed different combinations of decay parameter, searching time and number of helpful websites. The obtained results are found to match the results from three real-life case studies.

Capturing information need by learning user context

OpenAIRE

Goker, A.S.

1999-01-01

Learning techniques can be applied to help information retrieval systems adapt to users' specific needs. They can be used to learn from user searches to improve subsequent searches. This paper describes the approach taken to learn about particular users' contexts in order to improve document ranking produced by a probabilistic information retrieval system. The approach is based on the argument that there is a pattern in user queries in that they tend to remain within a particular context over...

Personalized Search

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(SzGeCERN)749939

2015-01-01

As the volume of electronically available information grows, relevant items become harder to find. This work presents an approach to personalizing search results in scientific publication databases. This work focuses on re-ranking search results from existing search engines like Solr or ElasticSearch. This work also includes the development of Obelix, a new recommendation system used to re-rank search results. The project was proposed and performed at CERN, using the scientific publications available on the CERN Document Server (CDS). This work experiments with re-ranking using offline and online evaluation of users and documents in CDS. The experiments conclude that the personalized search result outperform both latest first and word similarity in terms of click position in the search result for global search in CDS.

Applicability of LET to single events in microelectronic structures

Science.gov (United States)

Xapsos, Michael A.

1992-12-01

LET is often used as a single parameter to determine the energy deposited in a microelectronic structure by a single event. The accuracy of this assumption is examined for ranges of ion energies and volumes of silicon appropriate for modern microelectronics. It is shown to be accurate only under very restricted conditions. Significant differences arise because (1) LET is related to energy lost by the ion, not energy deposited in the volume; and (2) LET is an average value and does not account for statistical variations in energy deposition. Criteria are suggested for determining when factors other than LET should be considered, and new analytical approaches are presented to account for them. One implication of these results is that improvements can be made in space upset rate predictions by incorporating the new methods into currently used codes such as CREME and CRUP.

MicroRNA let-7, T cells, and patient survival in colorectal cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Dou, Ruoxu; Nishihara, Reiko; Cao, Yin; Hamada, Tsuyoshi; Mima, Kosuke; Masuda, Atsuhiro; Masugi, Yohei; Shi, Yan; Gu, Mancang; Li, Wanwan; da Silva, Annacarolina; Nosho, Katsuhiko; Zhang, Xuehong; Meyerhardt, Jeffrey A.; Giovannucci, Edward L.; Chan, Andrew T.; Fuchs, Charles S.; Qian, Zhi Rong; Ogino, Shuji

2016-01-01

Experimental evidence suggests that the let-7 family of noncoding RNAs suppresses adaptive immune responses, contributing to immune evasion by the tumor. We hypothesized that the amount of let-7a and let-7b expression in colorectal carcinoma might be associated with limited T-lymphocyte infiltrates in the tumor microenvironment and worse clinical outcome. Utilizing the molecular pathological epidemiology resources of 795 rectal and colon cancers in two U.S.-nationwide prospective cohort studies, we measured tumor-associated let-7a and let-7b expression levels by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR, and CD3+, CD8+, CD45RO (PTPRC)+, and FOXP3+ cell densities by tumor tissue microarray immunohistochemistry and computer-assisted image analysis. Logistic regression analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to assess associations of let-7a (and let-7b) expression (quartile predictor variables) with T-cell densities (binary outcome variables) and mortality, respectively, controlling for tumor molecular features, including microsatellite instability, CpG island methylator phenotype, LINE-1 methylation, and KRAS, BRAF, and PIK3CA mutations. Compared with cases in the lowest quartile of let-7a expression, those in the highest quartile were associated with lower densities of CD3+ [multivariate odds ratio (OR), 0.40; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.23 to 0.67; Ptrend = 0.003] and CD45RO+ cells (multivariate OR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.17 to 0.58; Ptrend = 0.0004), and higher colorectal cancer-specific mortality (multivariate hazard ratio, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.42 to 3.13; Ptrend = 0.001). In contrast, let-7b expression was not significantly associated with T-cell density or colorectal cancer prognosis. Our data support the role of let-7a in suppressing antitumor immunity in colorectal cancer, and suggest let-7a as a potential target of immunotherapy. PMID:27737877

Biological fingerprint of high LET radiation. Brenner hypothesis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kodama, Yoshiaki; Awa, Akio; Nakamura, Nori

1997-01-01

Hypothesis by Brenner et al. (1994) that in chromosome aberrations in human peripheral lymphocytes induced by radiation exposure, F value (dicentrics/rings) differs dependently on the LET and can be a biomarker of high LET radiation like neutron and α-ray was reviewed and evaluated as follows. Radiation and chromosome aberrations; in this section, unstable aberrations like dicentric and rings (r) and stable ones like translocation and pericentric inversions were described. F value. Brenner hypothesis. Bauchinger's refutation. F value determined by FISH method; here, FISH is fluorescence in situ hybridization. F value in studies by author's Radiation Effect Research Facility. Frequency of chromosome aberration in A-bomb survivors and ESR (ESR: electron spin resonance). The cause for fluctuation of F values. The Brenner hypothesis could not be supported by studies by author's facility, suggesting that the rate of inter-chromosomal and intra-chromosomal exchange abnormalities can not be distinguishable by the radiation LET. This might be derived from the difference in detection technology of r rather than in LET. (K.H.)

Special photographic emulsions for high LET dosimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Katz, R.

1978-12-01

The purpose of these investigations into photographic emulsion dosimetry is to attempt to use the photographic emulsion to mimic the response of human tissues to high LET radiations. The program therefore requires that a systematic understanding of the response of mammalian cells to ionizing radiations be achieved. We have been concerned with differences in RBE and in radiation response to both high and LET radiations, and in the interrelationship between observations with these different radiations

Re-ranking via User Feedback: Georgetown University at TREC 2015 DD Track

Science.gov (United States)

2015-11-20

Re-ranking via User Feedback: Georgetown University at TREC 2015 DD Track Jiyun Luo and Hui Yang Department of Computer Science, Georgetown...involved in a search process, the user and the search engine. In TREC DD , the user is modeled by a simulator, called “jig”. The jig and the search engine...simulating user is provided by TREC 2015 DD Track organizer, and is called “jig”. There are 118 search topics in total. For each search topic, a short

Faceted Search

CERN Document Server

Tunkelang, Daniel

2009-01-01

We live in an information age that requires us, more than ever, to represent, access, and use information. Over the last several decades, we have developed a modern science and technology for information retrieval, relentlessly pursuing the vision of a "memex" that Vannevar Bush proposed in his seminal article, "As We May Think." Faceted search plays a key role in this program. Faceted search addresses weaknesses of conventional search approaches and has emerged as a foundation for interactive information retrieval. User studies demonstrate that faceted search provides more

Sexual information seeking on web search engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Spink, Amanda; Koricich, Andrew; Jansen, B J; Cole, Charles

2004-02-01

Sexual information seeking is an important element within human information behavior. Seeking sexually related information on the Internet takes many forms and channels, including chat rooms discussions, accessing Websites or searching Web search engines for sexual materials. The study of sexual Web queries provides insight into sexually-related information-seeking behavior, of value to Web users and providers alike. We qualitatively analyzed queries from logs of 1,025,910 Alta Vista and AlltheWeb.com Web user queries from 2001. We compared the differences in sexually-related Web searching between Alta Vista and AlltheWeb.com users. Differences were found in session duration, query outcomes, and search term choices. Implications of the findings for sexual information seeking are discussed.

Overview of the INEX 2014 Interactive Social Book Search Track

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hall, Mark Michael; Huurdemann, Hugo; Koolen, Marijn

2014-01-01

Users looking for books online are confronted with both professional metadata and user-generated content. The goal of the Interactive Social Book Search Track was to investigate how users used these two sources of information, when looking for books in a leisure context. To this end participants...... recruited by four teams performed two different tasks using one of two book-search interfaces. Additionally one of the two interfaces also investigated whether user performance can be improved by providing a user-interface that supports multiple search stages....

Finding and Exploring Health Information with a Slider-Based User Interface.

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Patrick Cheong-Iao; Verspoor, Karin; Pearce, Jon; Chang, Shanton

2016-01-01

Despite the fact that search engines are the primary channel to access online health information, there are better ways to find and explore health information on the web. Search engines are prone to problems when they are used to find health information. For instance, users have difficulties in expressing health scenarios with appropriate search keywords, search results are not optimised for medical queries, and the search process does not account for users' literacy levels and reading preferences. In this paper, we describe our approach to addressing these problems by introducing a novel design using a slider-based user interface for discovering health information without the need for precise search keywords. The user evaluation suggests that the interface is easy to use and able to assist users in the process of discovering new information. This study demonstrates the potential value of adopting slider controls in the user interface of health websites for navigation and information discovery.

Are you a developer? Let's talk!

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2014-01-01

Many of us have to create software as part of our work, if you do probably you asked yourself some of the following: How other people at CERN develop? What technologies have they used? What worked and what didn't for them? Am I reinventing the wheel? What CERN services can make my life easier? What other services I miss that would be useful to have? How can I integrate my system with XXYY at CERN? Unfortunately there is little communication between us and we need to fix that, let's find initiatives to improve and share experiences between software engineers... let's talk!

Overview of the INEX 2014 Social Book Search Track

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koolen, Marijn; Bogers, Toine; Kazai, Gabriella

2014-01-01

The goal of the INEX 2014 Social Book Search Track is to evaluate approaches for supporting users in searching collections of books based on book metadata and associated user-generated content. The track investigates the complex nature of relevance in book search and the role of traditional...... and user-generated book metadata in retrieval. We extended last year’s investigation into the nature of book suggestions from the LibraryThing forums and how they compare to book relevance judgements. Participants were encouraged to incorporate rich user profiles of both topic creators and other Library......Thing users to explore the relative value of recommendation and retrieval paradigms for book search. We found further support that such suggestions are a valuable alternative to traditional test collections that are based on top-k pooling and editorial relevance judgements....

LET dependence of scintillation yields in liquid argon

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Doke, Tadayoshi; Hitachi, Akira; Kikuchi, Jun; Crawford, H J; Lindstrom, P J; Masuda, Kimiaki; Shibamura, Eido; Takahashi, Tan

1988-06-01

Scintillation yields (scintillation intensity per unit absorbed energy) in liquid argon for ionizing particles are reviewed as a function of LET for the particles. The maximum scintillation yield, which is obtained for relativistic heavy ions from Ne to La, is about 1.2 times larger than that for gamma rays in NaI(Tl) crystal. In the low LET region, the scintillation yields for relativistic electrons, protons and He ions are 10-20% lower than the maximum yield. This tendency can be explained by taking into account the existence of the electrons which have escaped from their parent ions. In the high LET region, a quenching effect due to high ionization density is observed for alpha particles, fission fragments and relativistic Au ions.

Searching the PASCAL database - A user's perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Jack, Robert F.

1989-01-01

The operation of PASCAL, a bibliographic data base covering broad subject areas in science and technology, is discussed. The data base includes information from about 1973 to the present, including topics in engineering, chemistry, physics, earth science, environmental science, biology, psychology, and medicine. Data from 1986 to the present may be searched using DIALOG. The procedures and classification codes for searching PASCAL are presented. Examples of citations retrieved from the data base are given and suggestions are made concerning when to use PASCAL.

Simplified automatic on-line document searching

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebinuma, Yukio

1983-01-01

The author proposed searching method for users who need not-comprehensive retrieval. That is to provide flexible number of related documents for the users automatically. A group of technical terms are used as search terms to express an inquiry. Logical sums of the terms in the ascending order of frequency of the usage are prepared sequentially and automatically, and then the search formulas, qsub(m) and qsub(m-1) which meet certain threshold values are selected automatically also. Users justify precision of the search output up to 20 items retrieved by the formula qsub(m). If a user wishes more than 30% of recall ratio, the serach result should be output by qsub(m), and if he wishes less than 30% of it, it should be output by qsub(m-1). The search by this method using one year volume of INIS Database (76,600 items) and five inquiries resulted in 32% of recall ratio and 36% of precision ratio on the average in the case of qsub(m). The connecting time of a terminal was within 15 minutes per an inquiry. It showed more efficiency than that of an inexperienced searcher. The method can be applied to on-line searching system for database in which natural language only or natural language and controlled vocabulary are used. (author)

Introducing Online Bibliographic Service to its Users: The Online Presentation

Science.gov (United States)

Crane, Nancy B.; Pilachowski, David M.

1978-01-01

A description of techniques for introducing online services to new user groups includes discussion of terms and their definitions, evolution of online searching, advantages and disadvantages of online searching, production of the data bases, search strategies, Boolean logic, costs and charges, "do's and don'ts," and a user search questionnaire. (J…

"Let's Move" campaign: applying the extended parallel process model.

Science.gov (United States)

Batchelder, Alicia; Matusitz, Jonathan

2014-01-01

This article examines Michelle Obama's health campaign, "Let's Move," through the lens of the extended parallel process model (EPPM). "Let's Move" aims to reduce the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States. Developed by Kim Witte, EPPM rests on the premise that people's attitudes can be changed when fear is exploited as a factor of persuasion. Fear appeals work best (a) when a person feels a concern about the issue or situation, and (b) when he or she believes to have the capability of dealing with that issue or situation. Overall, the analysis found that "Let's Move" is based on past health campaigns that have been successful. An important element of the campaign is the use of fear appeals (as it is postulated by EPPM). For example, part of the campaign's strategies is to explain the severity of the diseases associated with obesity. By looking at the steps of EPPM, readers can also understand the strengths and weaknesses of "Let's Move."

Content Based Searching for INIS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jain, V.; Jain, R.K.

2016-01-01

Full text: Whatever a user wants is available on the internet, but to retrieve the information efficiently, a multilingual and most-relevant document search engine is a must. Most current search engines are word based or pattern based. They do not consider the meaning of the query posed to them; purely based on the keywords of the query; no support of multilingual query and and dismissal of nonrelevant results. Current information-retrieval techniques either rely on an encoding process, using a certain perspective or classification scheme, to describe a given item, or perform a full-text analysis, searching for user-specified words. Neither case guarantees content matching because an encoded description might reflect only part of the content and the mere occurrence of a word does not necessarily reflect the document’s content. For general documents, there doesn’t yet seem to be a much better option than lazy full-text analysis, by manually going through those endless results pages. In contrast to this, new search engine should extract the meaning of the query and then perform the search based on this extracted meaning. New search engine should also employ Interlingua based machine translation technology to present information in the language of choice of the user. (author

Improving Web Search for Difficult Queries

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xuanhui

2009-01-01

Search engines have now become essential tools in all aspects of our life. Although a variety of information needs can be served very successfully, there are still a lot of queries that search engines can not answer very effectively and these queries always make users feel frustrated. Since it is quite often that users encounter such "difficult…

Standardization of Keyword Search Mode

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Di

2010-01-01

In spite of its popularity, keyword search mode has not been standardized. Though information professionals are quick to adapt to various presentations of keyword search mode, novice end-users may find keyword search confusing. This article compares keyword search mode in some major reference databases and calls for standardization. (Contains 3…

Custom Search Engines: Tools & Tips

Science.gov (United States)

Notess, Greg R.

2008-01-01

Few have the resources to build a Google or Yahoo! from scratch. Yet anyone can build a search engine based on a subset of the large search engines' databases. Use Google Custom Search Engine or Yahoo! Search Builder or any of the other similar programs to create a vertical search engine targeting sites of interest to users. The basic steps to…

Anonymous Search Histories Featuring Personalized Advertisement - Balancing Privacy with Economic Interests

OpenAIRE

Thorben Burghardt; Klemens Bohm; Achim Guttmann; Chris Clifton

2011-01-01

Search engines are key to finding information on the web. Search presently is free for users financed by targeted advertisement. Today, the current search terms determine the ad placement. In the near future, search-engine providers will make use of detailed user profiles for better ad placement. This puts user privacy at risk. Anonymizing search histories, which is a solution in principle, gives way to a trade-off between privacy and the usability of the data for ad placement. This paper stu...

Mutagenic action of radiation with different LET on Bacillus subtilis cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

edinennyj Inst. Yadernykh Issledovanij, Dubna (Russian Federation))" data-affiliation=" (Obedinennyj Inst. Yadernykh Issledovanij, Dubna (Russian Federation))" >Borejko, A.V.; edinennyj Inst. Yadernykh Issledovanij, Dubna (Russian Federation))" data-affiliation=" (Obedinennyj Inst. Yadernykh Issledovanij, Dubna (Russian Federation))" >Krasavin, E.A.

1997-01-01

The induction of the his - -> his + mutants in vegetative and spores of Bacillus subtilis wild type cells irradiated with γ-rays and helium ions (LET = 20-80 keV/μm) has been investigated. It was shown that the dose dependence of the mutation induction in vegetative cells is described by a linear-quadratic function of dose in case of both γ-rays and helium ions. RBE (LET) dependencies on the lethal and mutagenic effect of radiation have a local maximum. The maximum of RBE (LET) dependence on the mutagenic assay is shifted at the low region of LET in comparison with the lethal effect of irradiation. (author)

LoyalTracker: Visualizing Loyalty Dynamics in Search Engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Conglei; Wu, Yingcai; Liu, Shixia; Zhou, Hong; Qu, Huamin

2014-12-01

The huge amount of user log data collected by search engine providers creates new opportunities to understand user loyalty and defection behavior at an unprecedented scale. However, this also poses a great challenge to analyze the behavior and glean insights into the complex, large data. In this paper, we introduce LoyalTracker, a visual analytics system to track user loyalty and switching behavior towards multiple search engines from the vast amount of user log data. We propose a new interactive visualization technique (flow view) based on a flow metaphor, which conveys a proper visual summary of the dynamics of user loyalty of thousands of users over time. Two other visualization techniques, a density map and a word cloud, are integrated to enable analysts to gain further insights into the patterns identified by the flow view. Case studies and the interview with domain experts are conducted to demonstrate the usefulness of our technique in understanding user loyalty and switching behavior in search engines.

Consumer Products Advertised to Save Energy--Let the Buyer Beware.

Science.gov (United States)

1981-07-24

AD-AL06 653 GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE WASHINGTON DC HUMAN RESOUR--ETC F/G 5/3 CONSUMER PRODUCTS ADVERTISED TO SAVE ENERGY--LET THE BUYER BEWA-ETC...COMPTROLLER GENERAL’S CONSUMER PRODUCTS ADVERTISED REPORT TO THE CONGRESS TO SAVE ENERGY- - LET THE BUYER BEWARE D IG E ST In efforts to reduce energy costs...and comparable, GAO believes that the best ad- vice for consumers is "let the buyer beware." (See p. 42.) F’TC ’S COMMENTS FTC said that GAO

Knowing How Good Our Searches Are: An Approach Derived from Search Filter Development Methodology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Hayman

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Objective – Effective literature searching is of paramount importance in supporting evidence based practice, research, and policy. Missed references can have adverse effects on outcomes. This paper reports on the development and evaluation of an online learning resource, designed for librarians and other interested searchers, presenting an evidence based approach to enhancing and testing literature searches. Methods – We developed and evaluated the set of free online learning modules for librarians called Smart Searching, suggesting the use of techniques derived from search filter development undertaken by the CareSearch Palliative Care Knowledge Network and its associated project Flinders Filters. The searching module content has been informed by the processes and principles used in search filter development. The self-paced modules are intended to help librarians and other interested searchers test the effectiveness of their literature searches, provide evidence of search performance that can be used to improve searches, as well as to evaluate and promote searching expertise. Each module covers one of four techniques, or core principles, employed in search filter development: (1 collaboration with subject experts; (2 use of a reference sample set; (3 term identification through frequency analysis; and (4 iterative testing. Evaluation of the resource comprised ongoing monitoring of web analytics to determine factors such as numbers of users and geographic origin; a user survey conducted online elicited qualitative information about the usefulness of the resource. Results – The resource was launched in May 2014. Web analytics show over 6,000 unique users from 101 countries (at 9 August 2015. Responses to the survey (n=50 indicated that 80% would recommend the resource to a colleague. Conclusions – An evidence based approach to searching, derived from search filter development methodology, has been shown to have value as an online learning

Using collaborative filtering in social book search

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huurdeman, H.; Kamps, J.; Koolen, M.; van Wees, J.

2012-01-01

In this paper we describe our participation in INEX 2012 in the Social Book Search Track and the Linked Data Track. For the Social Book Search Track we compare the impact of query- and user-independent popularity measures and recommendations based on user profiles. Book suggestions are more than

Information search in health care decision-making: a study of word-of-mouth and internet information users.

Science.gov (United States)

Snipes, Robin L; Ingram, Rhea; Jiang, Pingjun

2005-01-01

This paper investigates how individual consumers may differ in their information search behavior in health care decision-making. Results indicate that most consumers still use word-of-mouth as a primary information source for health care decisions. However, usage of the Internet is increasing. The results of this study indicate that consumers who are most likely to use the Internet for health care information are single, younger, and less educated, whereas consumers who are most likely to use word-of-mouth are middle-aged, married, with higher income and higher education. Surprisingly, no significant gender difference was found in information search behavior for health care decision-making. The results also suggest that consumers with the highest tendency to use word-of-mouth are also the lowest users of the Internet in health care decision-making. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Induction and disappearance of G2 chromatid breaks in lymphocytes after low doses of low LET γ - rays and high LET fast neutrons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vral, Anne; Thierens, Hubert; Baeyens, Ans; De Ridder, Leo

2001-01-01

In view of the potential importance of the G2 assay for detecting chromosomal radiosensitivity and possible predisposition to cancer the need to elucidate the mechanism underlying the formation of chromatid breaks, observed with the G2 assay after low dose irradiation, has been recognised. In this study we irradiated blood samples of 4 healthy donors with low LET γ-rays and high LET neutrons, which initially produce the same number of dsb but of a different quality. By means of the G2 assay, we determined the number of chromatid breaks induced by γ-rays and neutrons and compared the kinetics of chromatid break rejoining for radiations of different quality. In a first set of experiments a dose-response curve for the formation of chromatid breaks was carried out for γ-rays and neutrons with doses ranging between 0.1 and 0.5 Gy. In a second set of experiments the kinetics of chromatid break formation and disappearance was investigated after a dose of 0.5 Gy using post-irradiation times ranging between 0.5 h and 3.5 h. For the highest dose of 0.5 Gy the number of isochromatid breaks were also scored. No significant differences in the number of chromatid breaks were observed between low LET γ-rays and high LET neutrons for the 4 donors at any of the doses given. The dose response curves for the formation of chromatid breaks are linear for both radiation qualities and RBE values equal to one were obtained. Scoring of isochromatid breaks at the highest dose of 0.5 Gy revealed that high LET neutrons are however more effective at inducing isochromatid breaks (RBE of 6.2). The rejoining experiments further showed that the kinetics of disappearance of chromatid breaks following irradiation with low LET γ-rays or high-LET neutrons are not significantly different. T 1/2 0.92 h for γ-rays and t 1/2 = 0.84 h for neutrons were obtained. In conclusion, our results show that at low doses of radiation the induction as well as the disappearance of G2 chromatid breaks is LET

Noesis: Ontology based Scoped Search Engine and Resource Aggregator for Atmospheric Science

Science.gov (United States)

Ramachandran, R.; Movva, S.; Li, X.; Cherukuri, P.; Graves, S.

2006-12-01

The goal for search engines is to return results that are both accurate and complete. The search engines should find only what you really want and find everything you really want. Search engines (even meta search engines) lack semantics. The basis for search is simply based on string matching between the user's query term and the resource database and the semantics associated with the search string is not captured. For example, if an atmospheric scientist is searching for "pressure" related web resources, most search engines return inaccurate results such as web resources related to blood pressure. In this presentation Noesis, which is a meta-search engine and a resource aggregator that uses domain ontologies to provide scoped search capabilities will be described. Noesis uses domain ontologies to help the user scope the search query to ensure that the search results are both accurate and complete. The domain ontologies guide the user to refine their search query and thereby reduce the user's burden of experimenting with different search strings. Semantics are captured by refining the query terms to cover synonyms, specializations, generalizations and related concepts. Noesis also serves as a resource aggregator. It categorizes the search results from different online resources such as education materials, publications, datasets, web search engines that might be of interest to the user.

A simple theory of LET spectra of heavy ion beams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wilson, J.W.; Townsend, L.W.; Schimmerling, W.; Norbury, J.W.; Wong, M.; Badavi, F.

1985-01-01

The transition of high energy ion beams through extended matter is of considerable interest to the space program as well as radiobiology and medical therapy. The transition is defined in terms of various atomic/molecular and nuclear cross sections in a Boltzmann-like equation. One dimensional solutions are derived herein from which LET spectra are derived for secondary fragments. Such LET spectra are fundamental to the evaluation of beam quality, biological effects, and radiation shield effectiveness. Sensitivity of LET spectral distributions to uncertainty in physical parameters such as the isotopic fragmentation parameters, fragment mass, and absorption cross section is established for a number of ion beams. The main limitation in LET studies is the paucity of both elemental and isotopic fragmentation data. The elemental fragmentation data is more readily available because of its simple experimental procedures. It has been suggested by some that natural abundance ratios should be used with the elemental cross sections but this leads to an order-of-magnitude error in LET spectra in many cases. Very few examples of isotopic fragmentation measurements are available. Although major advances in nuclear fragmentation theory have been made, we must await more extensive isotopic fragmentation experiments for final validation

New Architectures for Presenting Search Results Based on Web Search Engines Users Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Martinez, F. J.; Pastor, J. A.; Rodriguez, J. V.; Lopez, Rosana; Rodriguez, J. V., Jr.

2011-01-01

Introduction: The Internet is a dynamic environment which is continuously being updated. Search engines have been, currently are and in all probability will continue to be the most popular systems in this information cosmos. Method: In this work, special attention has been paid to the series of changes made to search engines up to this point,…

Let7a involves in neural stem cell differentiation relating with TLX level

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Song, Juhyun [Department of Anatomy, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Kyoung Joo; Oh, Yumi [Department of Anatomy, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); BK21 Plus Project for Medical Sciences, and Brain Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Jong Eun, E-mail: jelee@yuhs.ac [Department of Anatomy, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); BK21 Plus Project for Medical Sciences, and Brain Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2015-07-10

Neural stem cells (NSCs) have the potential for differentiation into neurons known as a groundbreaking therapeutic solution for central nervous system (CNS) diseases. To resolve the therapeutic efficiency of NSCs, recent researchers have focused on the study on microRNA's role in CNS. Some micro RNAs have been reported significant functions in NSC self-renewal and differentiation through the post-transcriptional regulation of neurogenesis genes. MicroRNA-Let7a (Let7a) has known as the regulator of diverse cellular mechanisms including cell differentiation and proliferation. In present study, we investigated whether Let7a regulates NSC differentiation by targeting the nuclear receptor TLX, which is an essential regulator of NSC self-renewal, proliferation and differentiation. We performed the following experiments: western blot analysis, TaqMan assay, RT-PCR, and immunocytochemistry to confirm the alteration of NSCs. Our data showed that let7a play important roles in controlling NSC fate determination. Thus, manipulating Let-7A and TLX could be a novel strategy to enhance the efficiency of NSC's neuronal differentiation for CNS disorders. - Highlights: • Let7a influences on NSC differentiation and proliferation. • Let7a involves in mainly NSC differentiation rather than proliferation. • Let7a positively regulates the TLX expression.

Let7a involves in neural stem cell differentiation relating with TLX level

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song, Juhyun; Cho, Kyoung Joo; Oh, Yumi; Lee, Jong Eun

2015-01-01

Neural stem cells (NSCs) have the potential for differentiation into neurons known as a groundbreaking therapeutic solution for central nervous system (CNS) diseases. To resolve the therapeutic efficiency of NSCs, recent researchers have focused on the study on microRNA's role in CNS. Some micro RNAs have been reported significant functions in NSC self-renewal and differentiation through the post-transcriptional regulation of neurogenesis genes. MicroRNA-Let7a (Let7a) has known as the regulator of diverse cellular mechanisms including cell differentiation and proliferation. In present study, we investigated whether Let7a regulates NSC differentiation by targeting the nuclear receptor TLX, which is an essential regulator of NSC self-renewal, proliferation and differentiation. We performed the following experiments: western blot analysis, TaqMan assay, RT-PCR, and immunocytochemistry to confirm the alteration of NSCs. Our data showed that let7a play important roles in controlling NSC fate determination. Thus, manipulating Let-7A and TLX could be a novel strategy to enhance the efficiency of NSC's neuronal differentiation for CNS disorders. - Highlights: • Let7a influences on NSC differentiation and proliferation. • Let7a involves in mainly NSC differentiation rather than proliferation. • Let7a positively regulates the TLX expression

Diffusion-kinetic theories for LET effects on the radiolysis of water

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pimblott, S.M.; LaVerne, J.A.

1994-01-01

Diffusion-kinetic methods are used to investigate the effects of incident particle linear energy transfer (LET) on the radiolysis of water and aqueous solutions. Chemically realistic deterministic diffusion-kinetic calculations examining the scavenging capacity dependences of the scavenged yield of e aq - and of OH demonstrate that the scavenged yields are related to the underlying time-dependent kinetics in the absence of the scavenger by a simple Laplace transform relationship. This relationship is also shown to link the effect of an e eq - scavenger on the formation of H 2 with the time dependence of H 2 production in the absence of the scavenger. The simple Laplace relationship does not work well when applied to H 2 O 2 formation in high-LET particle tracks even though such a relationship is valid with low-LET particles. It is found that while the secondary reaction of H 2 O 2 with e aq - can be neglected in low-LET particle radiolysis, it is of considerable significance in the tracks produced by high-LET particles. The increased importance of this reaction with increasing LET is the major reason for the failure of the Laplace relationship for H 2 O 2 . 55 refs., 9 figs., 2 tabs

CYCLOSA: Decentralizing Private Web Search Through SGX-Based Browser Extensions

OpenAIRE

Pires, Rafael; Goltzsche, David; Mokhtar, Sonia Ben; Bouchenak, Sara; Boutet, Antoine; Felber, Pascal; Kapitza, Rüdiger; Pasin, Marcelo; Schiavoni, Valerio

2018-01-01

By regularly querying Web search engines, users (unconsciously) disclose large amounts of their personal data as part of their search queries, among which some might reveal sensitive information (e.g. health issues, sexual, political or religious preferences). Several solutions exist to allow users querying search engines while improving privacy protection. However, these solutions suffer from a number of limitations: some are subject to user re-identification attacks, while others lack scala...

Irradiation of single cells with individual high-LET particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelson, J.M.; Braby, L.A.

1993-01-01

The dose-limiting normal tissue of concern when irradiating head and neck lesions is often the vascular endothelium within the treatment field. Consequently, the response of capillary endothelial cells exposed to moderate doses of high LET particles is essential for establishing exposure limits for neutron-capture therapy. In an effort to characterize the high-LET radiation biology of cultured endothelial cells, the authors are attempting to measure cellular response to single particles. The single-particle irradiation apparatus, described below, allows them to expose individual cells to known numbers of high-LET particles and follow these cells for extended periods, in order to assess the impact of individual particles on cell growth kinetics. Preliminary cell irradiation experiments have revealed complications related to the smooth and efficient operation of the equipment; these are being resolved. Therefore, the following paragraphs deal primarily with the manner by which high LET particles deposit energy, the requirements for single-cell irradiation, construction and assembly of such apparatus, and testing of experimental procedures, rather than with the radiation biology of endothelial cells

High LET radiation and mechanism of DNA damage repair

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Furusawa, Yoshiya

2004-01-01

Clarifying the mechanism of repair from radiation damage gives most important information on radiation effects on cells. Approximately 10% of biological experiments groups in Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC) cooperative research group has performed the subject. They gave a lot of new findings on the mechanism, and solved some open questions. The reason to show the peak of relative biological effectiveness RBE at around 100-200 keV/μm causes miss-repair of DNA damage. Sub-lethal damage generated by high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation can be repaired fully. Potentially lethal damages by high-LET radiation also repaired, but the efficiency decreased with the LET, and so on. (author)

Molecular analysis of two genes between let-653 and let-56 in the unc-22(IV) region of Caenorhabditis elegans.

Science.gov (United States)

Marra, M A; Prasad, S S; Baillie, D L

1993-01-01

A previous study of genomic organization described the identification of nine potential coding regions in 150 kb of genomic DNA from the unc-22(IV) region of Caenorhabditis elegans. In this study, we focus on the genomic organization of a small interval of 0.1 map unit bordered on the right by unc-22 and on the left by the left-hand breakpoints of the deficiencies sDf9, sDf19 and sDf65. This small interval at present contains a single mutagenically defined locus, the essential gene let-56. The cosmid C11F2 has previously been used to rescue let-56. Therefore, at least some of C11F2 must reside in the interval. In this paper, we report the characterization of two coding elements that reside on C11F2. Analysis of nucleotide sequence data obtained from cDNAs and cosmid subclones revealed that one of the coding elements closely resembles aromatic amino acid decarboxylases from several species. The other of these coding elements was found to closely resemble a human growth factor activatable Na+/H+ antiporter. Paris of oligonucleotide primers, predicted from both coding elements, have been used in PCR experiments to position these coding elements between the left breakpoint of sDf19 and the left breakpoint of sDf65, between the essential genes let-653 and let-56.

Experimental and calculated LET distributions in the Cosmos-2044 biosatellite orbit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dudkin, V.E.; Karpov, O.N.; Potapov, Yu.V.; Benton, E.V.; Frank, A.L.; Watts, J.W. Jr.

1992-01-01

During the flight of the Cosmos-2044 biosatellite, joint U.S.S.R.-U.S.A. investigations of different characteristics of cosmic radiation (CR) in the near-Earth environment were carried out. The U.S. dielectric track detectors CR-39 and Soviet BYa- and BR-type nuclear photo-emulsions were used as detectors. The present work shows some results of experimental measurements of linear energy transfer (LET) spectra of CR particles obtained with the use of these detectors, which were placed both inside and outside the satellite. The LET spectra measurement with plastic detectors is composed of two parts: the measurement of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) particles, and of short-range particles. The contributions of these components to the total LET distribution at various thicknesses of the shielding were analyzed and the results of these studies are presented. Calculated LET spectra in the Cosmos-2044 orbit were compared with experimental data. On the basis of experimental and calculated values of the LET spectra, absorbed and equivalent CR doses were calculated. In the shielding range of 1-1.5 g cm -2 , outside the spacecraft, the photo-emulsions yielded 10.3 mrad d -1 and 27.5 mrem d -1 (LET ≥ 2 MeV cm -1 ) while the CR-39 yielded averages of 1.43 mrad d -1 and 13.4 mrem d -1 (LET ≥ 40 MeV cm -1 ). Inside the spacecraft (≥10 g cm -2 ) the photo-emulsions yielded 8.9 mrad d -1 and 14.5 mrem d -1 . (author)

Quantifying the Search Behaviour of Different Demographics Using Google Correlate

Science.gov (United States)

Letchford, Adrian; Preis, Tobias; Moat, Helen Susannah

2016-01-01

Vast records of our everyday interests and concerns are being generated by our frequent interactions with the Internet. Here, we investigate how the searches of Google users vary across U.S. states with different birth rates and infant mortality rates. We find that users in states with higher birth rates search for more information about pregnancy, while those in states with lower birth rates search for more information about cats. Similarly, we find that users in states with higher infant mortality rates search for more information about credit, loans and diseases. Our results provide evidence that Internet search data could offer new insight into the concerns of different demographics. PMID:26910464

Quantify uncertain emergency search techniques (QUEST) -- Theory and user's guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, M.M.; Goldsby, M.E.; Plantenga, T.D.; Porter, T.L.; West, T.H.; Wilcox, W.B.; Hensley, W.K.

1998-01-01

As recent world events show, criminal and terrorist access to nuclear materials is a growing national concern. The national laboratories are taking the lead in developing technologies to counter these potential threats to the national security. Sandia National laboratories, with support from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Bechtel Nevada, Remote Sensing Laboratory, has developed QUEST (a model to Quantify Uncertain Emergency Search Techniques), to enhance the performance of organizations in the search for lost or stolen nuclear material. In addition, QUEST supports a wide range of other applications, such as environmental monitoring, nuclear facilities inspections, and searcher training. QUEST simulates the search for nuclear materials and calculates detector response for various source types and locations. The probability of detecting a radioactive source during a search is a function of many different variables, including source type, search location and structure geometry (including shielding), search dynamics (path and speed), and detector type and size. Through calculation of dynamic detector response, QUEST makes possible quantitative comparisons of various sensor technologies and search patterns. The QUEST model can be used as a tool to examine the impact of new detector technologies, explore alternative search concepts, and provide interactive search/inspector training

Social value and information quality in online health information search

OpenAIRE

Hameed, Tahir; Swar, Bobby

2016-01-01

This paper extends and validates a model of value-driven online healthcare information search in online shared contexts. Perceived value is an important factor behind users' decisions concerning search, consumption and reuse of products and services. The role of utilitarian, hedonic and epistemic value of information in user satisfaction and intention to repeat online search is well recognized, but little support has been found for social value affecting user satisfaction critical for such de...

Usability Testing of a Large, Multidisciplinary Library Database: Basic Search and Visual Search

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jody Condit Fagan

2006-09-01

Full Text Available Visual search interfaces have been shown by researchers to assist users with information search and retrieval. Recently, several major library vendors have added visual search interfaces or functions to their products. For public service librarians, perhaps the most critical area of interest is the extent to which visual search interfaces and text-based search interfaces support research. This study presents the results of eight full-scale usability tests of both the EBSCOhost Basic Search and Visual Search in the context of a large liberal arts university.

Privacy and User Experience in 21st Century Library Discovery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shayna Pekala

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Over the last decade, libraries have taken advantage of emerging technologies to provide new discovery tools to help users find information and resources more efficiently. In the wake of this technological shift in discovery, privacy has become an increasingly prominent and complex issue for libraries. The nature of the web, over which users interact with discovery tools, has substantially diminished the library’s ability to control patron privacy. The emergence of a data economy has led to a new wave of online tracking and surveillance, in which multiple third parties collect and share user data during the discovery process, making it much more difficult, if not impossible, for libraries to protect patron privacy. In addition, users are increasingly starting their searches with web search engines, diminishing the library’s control over privacy even further. While libraries have a legal and ethical responsibility to protect patron privacy, they are simultaneously challenged to meet evolving user needs for discovery. In a world where “search” is synonymous with Google, users increasingly expect their library discovery experience to mimic their experience using web search engines. However, web search engines rely on a drastically different set of privacy standards, as they strive to create tailored, personalized search results based on user data. Libraries are seemingly forced to make a choice between delivering the discovery experience users expect and protecting user privacy. This paper explores the competing interests of privacy and user experience, and proposes possible strategies to address them in the future design of library discovery tools.

基于用户意图理解的社交网络跨媒体搜索与挖掘%Social network cross-media searching and mining based on user intention

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

崔婉秋; 杜军平; 周南; 梁美玉

2017-01-01

With the popularity of online social networks, users not only have higher requirements for speed and real-time performance of information acquisition but also increased demand for personalized and accurate searching. To improve the quality of the search engine and accuracy of the result list, it is necessary to deeply mine the search intentions of the users. This paper summarizes the current situation in precise cross-media searching and mining based on user search in-tentions. We focus on multi-modal information perceptions based on an online social network knowledge graph, deep semantic learning and analysis of cross-media data for user search intention matching, and precise online social network searching and mining based on users' search intentions. Finally, future research problems and possible challenges are discussed.%随着在线社交网络的盛行,网络用户不仅对信息资讯的获取速度和实时性提出了更高的要求,对个性化和精确化的搜索需求日益增长.为了提升搜索引擎的质量以及其结果列表的准确性,需要深层次地挖掘用户搜索意图.本文分析了用户搜索意图理解在线社交网络跨媒体进行精准搜索与挖掘的研究现状,包括知识图谱在线社交网络多模态信息感知、面向用户搜索意图匹配的跨媒体大数据深度语义学习方面的应用,以及用户搜索意图理解的在线社交网络精准搜索与挖掘的应用等.最后,对未来研究存在的问题和可能面临的挑战进行了展望.

High-LET dose-response characteristics by track structure theory of heavy charged particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hansen, J.W.; Olsen, K.J.

1981-09-01

The track structure theory developed by Katz and co-workers ascribes the effect of high-LET radiation to the highly inhomogeneous dose distribution due to low energy Δ-rays ejected from the particle track. The theory predicts the effectiveness of high-LET radiation by using the ion parameters zsub(eff') effective charge of the ion, and β = v/c, the relative ion velocity, together with the characteristic dose D 37 derived from low-LET dose-response characteristic of the detector and the approximate size asub(0) of the sensitive element of the detector. 60 Co gamma-irradiation is used as a reference low-LET radiation, while high-LET radiation ranging from 16 MeV protons to 4 MeV/amu 16 0-ions covering an initial LET range of 30-5500 MeVcm 2 /g is obtained from a tandem Van de Graaff accelerator. A thin film (5mg/cm 2 ) radiochromic dye cyanide plastic dosemeter was used as detector with the characteristic dose of 16.8 Mrad and a sensitive element size of 10 -7 cm. Theoretical and experimental effectiveness, RBE, agreed within 10 to 25% depending on LET. (author)

High-LET charged particle radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castro, J.R.; California Univ., San Francisco, CA

1991-07-01

The Department of Radiation Oncology at UCSF Medical Center and the Radiation Oncology Department at UC Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory have been evaluating the use of high LET charged particle radiotherapy in a Phase 1--2 research trial ongoing since 1979. In this clinical trail, 239 patients have received at least 10 Gy (physical) minimum tumor dose with neon ions, meaning that at least one-half of their total treatment was given with high-LET charged particle therapy. Ninety-one patients received all of their therapy with neon ions. Of the 239 patients irradiated, target sites included lesions in the skin, subcutaneous tissues, head and neck such as paranasal sinuses, nasopharynx and salivary glands (major and minor), skull base and juxtaspinal area, GI tract including esophagus, pancreas and biliary tract, prostate, lung, soft tissue and bone. Analysis of these patients has been carried out with a minimum followup period of 2 years

Let the Writer Beware! - a Look at Aspects of the EU Legislation Concerning Instructional Texts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Kastberg

2012-08-01

Full Text Available We have probably all heard the story of the person who supposedly put a wet dog into the microwave oven to let it dry or the story of the person who drank coffee from a plastic cup and got severely burned, or the one in which a jogger stumbles and falls in the too long shoe laces of his / her sneakers. Whether or not stories like these are urban legends is hard to determine with any certainty. But judging from the ever increasing volume of the instruction manuals accompanying, for instance, our household appliances and other end user products there could be some truth to them.

Let the Writer Beware! - a Look at Aspects of the EU Legislation Concerning Instructional Texts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Kastberg

2007-03-01

Full Text Available We have probably all heard the story of the person who supposedly put a wet dog into the microwave oven to let it dry or the story of the person who drank coffee from a plastic cup and got severely burned, or the one in which a jogger stumbles and falls in the too long shoe laces of his / her sneakers. Whether or not stories like these are urban legends is hard to determine with any certainty. But judging from the ever increasing volume of the instruction manuals accompanying, for instance, our household appliances and other end user products there could be some truth to them.

World Wide Web Metaphors for Search Mission Data

Science.gov (United States)

Norris, Jeffrey S.; Wallick, Michael N.; Joswig, Joseph C.; Powell, Mark W.; Torres, Recaredo J.; Mittman, David S.; Abramyan, Lucy; Crockett, Thomas M.; Shams, Khawaja S.; Fox, Jason M.;

Using Internet Search Engines to Obtain Medical Information: A Comparative Study

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Liupu; Wang, Juexin; Wang, Michael; Li, Yong; Liang, Yanchun

2012-01-01

Background The Internet has become one of the most important means to obtain health and medical information. It is often the first step in checking for basic information about a disease and its treatment. The search results are often useful to general users. Various search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com can play an important role in obtaining medical information for both medical professionals and lay people. However, the usability and effectiveness of various search engines for medical information have not been comprehensively compared and evaluated. Objective To compare major Internet search engines in their usability of obtaining medical and health information. Methods We applied usability testing as a software engineering technique and a standard industry practice to compare the four major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com) in obtaining health and medical information. For this purpose, we searched the keyword breast cancer in Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com and saved the results of the top 200 links from each search engine. We combined nonredundant links from the four search engines and gave them to volunteer users in an alphabetical order. The volunteer users evaluated the websites and scored each website from 0 to 10 (lowest to highest) based on the usefulness of the content relevant to breast cancer. A medical expert identified six well-known websites related to breast cancer in advance as standards. We also used five keywords associated with breast cancer defined in the latest release of Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) and analyzed their occurrence in the websites. Results Each search engine provided rich information related to breast cancer in the search results. All six standard websites were among the top 30 in search results of all four search engines. Google had the best search validity (in terms of whether a website could be opened), followed by Bing, Ask.com, and Yahoo!. The search

Using Internet search engines to obtain medical information: a comparative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Liupu; Wang, Juexin; Wang, Michael; Li, Yong; Liang, Yanchun; Xu, Dong

2012-05-16

The Internet has become one of the most important means to obtain health and medical information. It is often the first step in checking for basic information about a disease and its treatment. The search results are often useful to general users. Various search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com can play an important role in obtaining medical information for both medical professionals and lay people. However, the usability and effectiveness of various search engines for medical information have not been comprehensively compared and evaluated. To compare major Internet search engines in their usability of obtaining medical and health information. We applied usability testing as a software engineering technique and a standard industry practice to compare the four major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com) in obtaining health and medical information. For this purpose, we searched the keyword breast cancer in Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com and saved the results of the top 200 links from each search engine. We combined nonredundant links from the four search engines and gave them to volunteer users in an alphabetical order. The volunteer users evaluated the websites and scored each website from 0 to 10 (lowest to highest) based on the usefulness of the content relevant to breast cancer. A medical expert identified six well-known websites related to breast cancer in advance as standards. We also used five keywords associated with breast cancer defined in the latest release of Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) and analyzed their occurrence in the websites. Each search engine provided rich information related to breast cancer in the search results. All six standard websites were among the top 30 in search results of all four search engines. Google had the best search validity (in terms of whether a website could be opened), followed by Bing, Ask.com, and Yahoo!. The search results highly overlapped between the

Keyword Search in Databases

CERN Document Server

Yu, Jeffrey Xu; Chang, Lijun

2009-01-01

It has become highly desirable to provide users with flexible ways to query/search information over databases as simple as keyword search like Google search. This book surveys the recent developments on keyword search over databases, and focuses on finding structural information among objects in a database using a set of keywords. Such structural information to be returned can be either trees or subgraphs representing how the objects, that contain the required keywords, are interconnected in a relational database or in an XML database. The structural keyword search is completely different from

Glycemic Allostasis during Mental Activities on Fasting in Non-alcohol Users and Alcohol Users with Different Durations of Abstinence.

Science.gov (United States)

Welcome, Mo; Pereverzev, Va

2014-09-01

Glycemic allostasis is the process by which blood glucose stabilization is achieved through the balancing of glucose consumption rate and release into the blood stream under a variety of stressors. This paper reviews findings on the dynamics of glycemic levels during mental activities on fasting in non-alcohol users and alcohol users with different periods of abstinence. Referred articles for this review were searched in the databases of PubMed, Scopus, DOAJ and AJOL. The search was conducted in 2013 between January 20 and July 31. The following keywords were used in the search: alcohol action on glycemia OR brain glucose OR cognitive functions; dynamics of glycemia, dynamics of glycemia during mental activities; dynamics of glycemia on fasting; dynamics of glycemia in non-alcohol users OR alcohol users; glycemic regulation during sobriety. Analysis of the selected articles showed that glycemic allostasis during mental activities on fasting is poorly regulated in alcohol users even after a long duration of sobriety (1-4 weeks after alcohol consumption), compared to non-alcohol users. The major contributor to the maintenance of euglycemia during mental activities after the night's rest (during continuing fast) is gluconeogenesis.

Dynamic User Interfaces for Service Oriented Architectures in Healthcare.

Science.gov (United States)

Schweitzer, Marco; Hoerbst, Alexander

2016-01-01

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) play a crucial role in healthcare today. Considering a data-centric view, EHRs are very advanced as they provide and share healthcare data in a cross-institutional and patient-centered way adhering to high syntactic and semantic interoperability. However, the EHR functionalities available for the end users are rare and hence often limited to basic document query functions. Future EHR use necessitates the ability to let the users define their needed data according to a certain situation and how this data should be processed. Workflow and semantic modelling approaches as well as Web services provide means to fulfil such a goal. This thesis develops concepts for dynamic interfaces between EHR end users and a service oriented eHealth infrastructure, which allow the users to design their flexible EHR needs, modeled in a dynamic and formal way. These are used to discover, compose and execute the right Semantic Web services.

The let-7/Lin28 axis regulates activation of hepatic stellate cells in alcoholic liver injury.

Science.gov (United States)

McDaniel, Kelly; Huang, Li; Sato, Keisaku; Wu, Nan; Annable, Tami; Zhou, Tianhao; Ramos-Lorenzo, Sugeily; Wan, Ying; Huang, Qiaobing; Francis, Heather; Glaser, Shannon; Tsukamoto, Hidekazu; Alpini, Gianfranco; Meng, Fanyin

2017-07-07

The let-7/Lin28 axis is associated with the regulation of key cellular regulatory genes known as microRNAs in various human disorders and cancer development. This study evaluated the role of the let-7/Lin28 axis in regulating a mesenchymal phenotype of hepatic stellate cells in alcoholic liver injury. We identified that ethanol feeding significantly down-regulated several members of the let-7 family in mouse liver, including let-7a and let-7b. Similarly, the treatment of human hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) significantly decreased the expressions of let-7a and let-7b. Conversely, overexpression of let-7a and let-7b suppressed the myofibroblastic activation of cultured human HSCs induced by LPS and TGF-β, as evidenced by repressed ACTA2 (α-actin 2), COL1A1 (collagen 1A1), TIMP1 (TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitor 1), and FN1 (fibronectin 1); this supports the notion that HSC activation is controlled by let-7. A combination of bioinformatics, dual-luciferase reporter assay, and Western blot analysis revealed that Lin28B and high-mobility group AT-hook (HMGA2) were the direct targets of let-7a and let-7b. Furthermore, Lin28B deficiency increased the expression of let-7a/let-7b as well as reduced HSC activation and liver fibrosis in mice with alcoholic liver injury. This feedback regulation of let-7 by Lin28B is verified in hepatic stellate cells isolated by laser capture microdissection from the model. The identification of the let-7/Lin28 axis as an important regulator of HSC activation as well as its upstream modulators and down-stream targets will provide insights into the involvement of altered microRNA expression in contributing to the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver fibrosis and novel therapeutic approaches for human alcoholic liver diseases. © 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Designing Search UX Strategies for eCommerce Success

CERN Document Server

Nudelman, Greg

2011-01-01

Best practices, practical advice, and design ideas for successful ecommerce search A glaring gap has existed in the market for a resource that offers a comprehensive, actionable design patterns and design strategies for ecommerce search-but no longer. With this invaluable book, user experience designer and user researcher Greg Nudelman shares his years of experience working on popular ecommerce sites as he tackles even the most difficult ecommerce search design problems. Nudelman helps you create highly effective and intuitive ecommerce search design solutions and he takes a unique forward-thi

Auditing Search Engines for Differential Satisfaction Across Demographics

OpenAIRE

Mehrotra, R.; Anderson, A.; Diaz, F.; Sharma, A.; Wallach, H. M.; Yilmaz, E.

2017-01-01

Many online services, such as search engines, social media platforms, and digital marketplaces, are advertised as being available to any user, regardless of their age, gender, or other demographic factors. However, there are growing concerns that these services may systematically underserve some groups of users. In this paper, we present a framework for internally auditing such services for differences in user satisfaction across demographic groups, using search engines as a case study. We fi...

The LET Procedure for Prosthetic Myocontrol: Towards Multi-DOF Control Using Single-DOF Activations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Markus Nowak

Full Text Available Simultaneous and proportional myocontrol of dexterous hand prostheses is to a large extent still an open problem. With the advent of commercially and clinically available multi-fingered hand prostheses there are now more independent degrees of freedom (DOFs in prostheses than can be effectively controlled using surface electromyography (sEMG, the current standard human-machine interface for hand amputees. In particular, it is uncertain, whether several DOFs can be controlled simultaneously and proportionally by exclusively calibrating the intended activation of single DOFs. The problem is currently solved by training on all required combinations. However, as the number of available DOFs grows, this approach becomes overly long and poses a high cognitive burden on the subject. In this paper we present a novel approach to overcome this problem. Multi-DOF activations are artificially modelled from single-DOF ones using a simple linear combination of sEMG signals, which are then added to the training set. This procedure, which we named LET (Linearly Enhanced Training, provides an augmented data set to any machine-learning-based intent detection system. In two experiments involving intact subjects, one offline and one online, we trained a standard machine learning approach using the full data set containing single- and multi-DOF activations as well as using the LET-augmented data set in order to evaluate the performance of the LET procedure. The results indicate that the machine trained on the latter data set obtains worse results in the offline experiment compared to the full data set. However, the online implementation enables the user to perform multi-DOF tasks with almost the same precision as single-DOF tasks without the need of explicitly training multi-DOF activations. Moreover, the parameters involved in the system are statistically uniform across subjects.

PubData: search engine for bioinformatics databases worldwide

OpenAIRE

Vand, Kasra; Wahlestedt, Thor; Khomtchouk, Kelly; Sayed, Mohammed; Wahlestedt, Claes; Khomtchouk, Bohdan

2016-01-01

We propose a search engine and file retrieval system for all bioinformatics databases worldwide. PubData searches biomedical data in a user-friendly fashion similar to how PubMed searches biomedical literature. PubData is built on novel network programming, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence algorithms that can patch into the file transfer protocol servers of any user-specified bioinformatics database, query its contents, retrieve files for download, and adapt to the use...

Mutagenic action of radiation with different LET on Bacillus subtilis cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borejko, A.V.; Krasavin, E.A.

1996-01-01

The induction of the his - →his + mutants in vegetative and spores of Bacillus subtilis wild type cells irradiated with γ-rays and helium ions (LET=20-80 keV/μm has been investigated. It was shown that the dose dependence of the mutation induction in vegetative cells is described by a linear-quadratic function of dose in case of both γ-rays and helium ions. RBE (LET) dependence on the mutagenic assay is shifted at the low region of LET. (author). 11 refs., 4 figs

Health literacy and usability of clinical trial search engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Utami, Dina; Bickmore, Timothy W; Barry, Barbara; Paasche-Orlow, Michael K

2014-01-01

Several web-based search engines have been developed to assist individuals to find clinical trials for which they may be interested in volunteering. However, these search engines may be difficult for individuals with low health and computer literacy to navigate. The authors present findings from a usability evaluation of clinical trial search tools with 41 participants across the health and computer literacy spectrum. The study consisted of 3 parts: (a) a usability study of an existing web-based clinical trial search tool; (b) a usability study of a keyword-based clinical trial search tool; and (c) an exploratory study investigating users' information needs when deciding among 2 or more candidate clinical trials. From the first 2 studies, the authors found that users with low health literacy have difficulty forming queries using keywords and have significantly more difficulty using a standard web-based clinical trial search tool compared with users with adequate health literacy. From the third study, the authors identified the search factors most important to individuals searching for clinical trials and how these varied by health literacy level.

Online Patent Searching: Guided by an Expert System.

Science.gov (United States)

Ardis, Susan B.

1990-01-01

Describes the development of an expert system for online patent searching that uses menu driven software to interpret the user's knowledge level and the general nature of the search problem. The discussion covers the rationale for developing such a system, current system functions, cost effectiveness, user reactions, and plans for future…

The North Carolina State University Libraries Search Experience: Usability Testing Tabbed Search Interfaces for Academic Libraries

Science.gov (United States)

Teague-Rector, Susan; Ballard, Angela; Pauley, Susan K.

2011-01-01

Creating a learnable, effective, and user-friendly library Web site hinges on providing easy access to search. Designing a search interface for academic libraries can be particularly challenging given the complexity and range of searchable library collections, such as bibliographic databases, electronic journals, and article search silos. Library…

Sequence Coding and Search System for licensee event reports: user's guide. Volume 1, Revision 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greene, N.M.; Mays, G.T.; Johnson, M.P.

1985-04-01

Operating experience data from nuclear power plants are essential for safety and reliability analyses, especially analyses of trends and patterns. The licensee event reports (LERs) that are submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by the nuclear power plant utilities contain much of this data. The NRC's Office for Analysis and Evaluation of Operational Data (AEOD) has developed, under contract with NSIC, a system for codifying the events reported in the LERs. The primary objective of the Sequence Coding and Search System (SCSS) is to reduce the descriptive text of the LERs to coded sequences that are both computer-readable and computer-searchable. This system provides a structured format for detailed coding of component, system, and unit effects as well as personnel errors. The database contains all current LERs submitted by nuclear power plant utilities for events occurring since 1981 and is updated on a continual basis. This four volume report documents and describes SCSS in detail. Volume 1 is a User's Guide for searching the SCSS database. This volume contains updated material through February 1985 of the working version of ORNL/NSIC-223, Vol. 1

Fast Neutrons - LET Distributions and the Response of Mammalian Cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bewley, D. K. [Medical Research Council Cyclotron Unit, Hammersmith Hospital, London (United Kingdom)

1968-03-15

Distributions of stopping power (LET) are given for four beams of fast neutrons, namely, neutrons of 14.6 MeV, neutrons produced by bombarding a thick beryllium target with 15 MeV deuterons, neutrons of 3 MeV, and fast neutrons produced by bombardment of a {sup 235}U converter plate with thermal neutrons. The track average LET is correlated with mean neutron energy, but the dose average is approximately constant. However, neither of these types of average is expected to have much relevance to radiobiology. Further, specification of a ''biologically effective LET'' depends on the biological test used, and is not solely a function of the radiation quality. An attempt has been made to calculate the response of T.I. kidney cells in tissue culture to these four beams of neutrons, based on their response to charged particles using the track-segment method. The calculated RBE's of the neutron beams are lower than the observed values and the calculated values of the oxygen enhancement ratio are higher. These differences seem too great to be explained by errors in dosimetry and in the calculated LET spectra. The suggestion is made that LET is not an adequate criterion of radiation quality, and that the discrepancies may be explained by more detailed consideration of the part played by delta rays and by heavy recoil tracks of short range. (author)

The EBI Search engine: providing search and retrieval functionality for biological data from EMBL-EBI.

Science.gov (United States)

Squizzato, Silvano; Park, Young Mi; Buso, Nicola; Gur, Tamer; Cowley, Andrew; Li, Weizhong; Uludag, Mahmut; Pundir, Sangya; Cham, Jennifer A; McWilliam, Hamish; Lopez, Rodrigo

2015-07-01

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI-https://www.ebi.ac.uk) provides free and unrestricted access to data across all major areas of biology and biomedicine. Searching and extracting knowledge across these domains requires a fast and scalable solution that addresses the requirements of domain experts as well as casual users. We present the EBI Search engine, referred to here as 'EBI Search', an easy-to-use fast text search and indexing system with powerful data navigation and retrieval capabilities. API integration provides access to analytical tools, allowing users to further investigate the results of their search. The interconnectivity that exists between data resources at EMBL-EBI provides easy, quick and precise navigation and a better understanding of the relationship between different data types including sequences, genes, gene products, proteins, protein domains, protein families, enzymes and macromolecular structures, together with relevant life science literature. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Water Pollution Search | ECHO | US EPA

Science.gov (United States)

The Water Pollution Search within the Water Pollutant Loading Tool gives users options to search for pollutant loading information from Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) and Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data.

Keep it local (and final): Remnant preferences in "let alone" ellipsis.

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Jesse A; Carlson, Katy

2016-01-01

The let alone construction (John can't run a mile, let alone a marathon) differs from standard coordination structures (with and or but) by requiring ellipsis of the second conjunct--for example, a marathon is the remnant of an elided clause [[see text] a marathon]. In support of an ellipsis account, a corpus study of British and American English finds that let alone exhibits a Locality bias, as the second conjunct preferentially contrasts with the nearest lexical item of the same syntactic type. Two self-paced reading studies show that the Locality bias is active during online processing, but must be reconciled with indicators of semantic contrast and discourse information. Further, a sentence-rating study shows that the Locality bias interacts with a Finality bias that favours placing the let alone phrase at the end of a clause, which sometimes necessitates a nonlocal contrast. Together, the results show how a general bias in ellipsis for local contrasts is affected by discourse demands, such as the need for scalar contrast imposed by let alone, thereby offering a window into how possibly divergent syntactic and discourse constraints impact sentence processing.

High-LET radiation carcinogenesis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fry, R.J.M.; Powers-Risius, P.; Alpen, E.L.; Ainsworth, E.J.

1985-01-01

The dose-response curves for the induction of tumors by high-LET radiation are complex and are insufficiently understood. There is no model or formulation to describe the dose-response relationship over a range 0 to 100 rad. Evidence suggests that at doses below 20 rad the response is linear, at least for life shortening and some tumor systems. Thus, limiting values of RBEs for the induction of cancer in various tissues can be determined, but it will require sufficient data obtained at low single doses or with small fractions. The results obtained from experiments with heavy ions indicate an initial linear response with a plateauing of the curve at a tumor incidence level that is dependent on the type of tissue. The RBE values for the heavy ions using 60 Co gamma rays as the reference radiation increase with the estimated LET from 4 for 4 H to about 27 for 56 Fe, 40 Ar. The dose-responses and RBEs for 56 Fe and 40 Ar are similar to those for fission neutrons. These findings suggest the possibility that the effectiveness for tumor induction reaches a maximum. 26 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs

Aesthetics, Usefulness and Performance in User--Search-Engine Interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Katz, Adi

2010-01-01

Issues of visual appeal have become an integral part of designing interactive systems. Interface aesthetics may form users' attitudes towards computer applications and information technology. Aesthetics can affect user satisfaction, and influence their willingness to buy or adopt a system. This study follows previous studies that found that users…

[Efficacy and efficiency of searches for a physician using physician search and evaluation portals in comparison with Google].

Science.gov (United States)

Sander, U; Emmert, M; Grobe, T G

2013-06-01

The Internet provides ways for patients to obtain information about doctors. The study poses the question whether it is possible and how long it takes to find a suitable doctor with an Internet search. It focuses on the effectiveness and efficiency of the search. Specialised physician rating and searching portals and Google are analysed when used to solve specific tasks. The behaviour of volunteers when searching a suitable ophthalmologist, dermatologist or dentist was observed in a usability lab. Additionally, interviews were carried out by means of structured questionnaires to measure the satisfaction of the users with the search and their results. Three physician rating and searching portals that are frequently used in Germany (Jameda.de, DocInsider.de and Arztauskunft.de) were analysed as well as Google. When using Arztauskunft and Google most users found an appropriate physician. When using Docinsider or Jameda they found fewer doctors. Additionally, the time needed to locate a suitable doctor when using Docinsider and Jameda was higher compared to the time needed when using the Arztauskunft and Google. The satisfaction of users who used Google was significantly higher in comparison to those who used the specialised physician rating and searching portals. It emerged from this study that there is no added value when using specialised physician rating and searching portals compared to using the search engine Google when trying to find a doctor having a particular specialty. The usage of several searching portals is recommended to identify as many suitable doctors as possible. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Apoptosis induced by high- and low-LET radiations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hendry, J.H.; Potten, C.S.; Merritt, A.

1995-01-01

Cell death after irradiation occurs by apoptosis in certain cell populations in tissues. The phenomenon also occurs after high linear energy transfer (LET) irradiation, and the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) is 3 to 4 (with respect to low-LET radiation and apoptosis in intestinal crypts) for neutrons with energies of 14 MeV and up to 600 MeV. It is thought that p53 plays a role in the phenomenon, as radiation-induced apoptosis is not observed in p53-null animals. (orig.)

Document Clustering Approach for Meta Search Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Naresh, Dr.

2017-08-01

The size of WWW is growing exponentially with ever change in technology. This results in huge amount of information with long list of URLs. Manually it is not possible to visit each page individually. So, if the page ranking algorithms are used properly then user search space can be restricted up to some pages of searched results. But available literatures show that no single search system can provide qualitative results from all the domains. This paper provides solution to this problem by introducing a new meta search engine that determine the relevancy of query corresponding to web page and cluster the results accordingly. The proposed approach reduces the user efforts, improves the quality of results and performance of the meta search engine.

Generalized concept of the LET-RBE relationship of radiation-induced chromosome aberration and cell death

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takatsuji, Toshihiro; Yoshikawa, Isao; Sasaki, Masao S.

1999-01-01

The frequency of chromosome aberrations per traversal of a nucleus by a charged particle at the low dose limit increases proportionally to the square of the linear energy transfer (LET), peaks at about 100 keV/μm and then decreases with further increase of LET. This has long been interpreted as an excessive energy deposition over the necessary energy required to produce a biologically effective event. Here, we present an alternative interpretation. Cell traversed by a charged particle has certain probability to receive lethal damage leading to direct death. Such events may increase with an increase of LET and the number of charged particles traversing the cell. Assuming that the lethal damage is distributed according to a Poisson distribution, the probability that a cell has no such damage is expressed by e -cLx , where c is a constant, L is LET, and x is the number of charged particles traversing the cell. From these assumptions, the frequency of chromosome aberration in surviving cells can be described by Y=αSD+βS 2 D 2 with the empirical relation Y=αD+βD 2 in the low LET region, where S=e -cL , α is a value proportional to LET, β is a constant, and D is the absorbed dose. This model readily explains the empirically established relationship between LET and relative biological effectiveness (RBE). The model can also be applied to clonogenic survival. If cells can survive and they have neither unstable chromosome aberrations nor other lethal damage, the LET-RBE relationship for clonogenic survival forms a humped curve. The relationship between LET and inactivation cross-section becomes proportional to the square of LET in the low LET region when the frequency of a directly lethal events is sufficiently smaller than unity, and the inactivation cross-section saturates to the cell nucleus cross-sectional area with an increase in LET in the high LET region. (author)

Cross-system evaluation of clinical trial search engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Silis Y; Weng, Chunhua

2014-01-01

Clinical trials are fundamental to the advancement of medicine but constantly face recruitment difficulties. Various clinical trial search engines have been designed to help health consumers identify trials for which they may be eligible. Unfortunately, knowledge of the usefulness and usability of their designs remains scarce. In this study, we used mixed methods, including time-motion analysis, think-aloud protocol, and survey, to evaluate five popular clinical trial search engines with 11 users. Differences in user preferences and time spent on each system were observed and correlated with user characteristics. In general, searching for applicable trials using these systems is a cognitively demanding task. Our results show that user perceptions of these systems are multifactorial. The survey indicated eTACTS being the generally preferred system, but this finding did not persist among all mixed methods. This study confirms the value of mixed-methods for a comprehensive system evaluation. Future system designers must be aware that different users groups expect different functionalities.

MuZeeker - Adapting a music search engine for mobile phones

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Jakob Eg; Halling, Søren Christian; Sigurdsson, Magnus Kristinn

2010-01-01

We describe MuZeeker, a search engine with domain knowledge based on Wikipedia. MuZeeker enables the user to refine a search in multiple steps by means of category selection. In the present version we focus on multimedia search related to music and we present two prototype search applications (web......-based and mobile) and discuss the issues involved in adapting the search engine for mobile phones. A category based filtering approach enables the user to refine a search through relevance feedback by category selection instead of typing additional text, which is hypothesized to be an advantage in the mobile Mu......Zeeker application. We report from two usability experiments using the think aloud protocol, in which N=20 participants performed tasks using MuZeeker and a customized Google search engine. In both experiments web-based and mobile user interfaces were used. The experiment shows that participants are capable...

Improvement of date palm plant lets during rooting stage by silver ion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharaf, M.M.; Khamis, M.A.; El Bana, A.; Abd El Galeil, L.M.; Zaid, Z.E.

2012-01-01

This study aim to promote growth plant lets of date palm cv. Zaghlool by decreasing ethylene production inside the containers during rooting stage. Data obtained declared that three silver thiosulphate (STS) levels added to one half strength MS rooting medium improved significantly three rooting measurements (rooting percentage; number and length of developed root lets). However, the lightest STS level (0.25 ml/L of 4 mM STS solution) was the superior, while highest one (1.0 ml/L) was the inferior from statistical point of view. Data obtained displayed that providing MS rooting medium with silver nitrate improved 3 rooting measurements (rooting %; number of root lets and their length) for Zaghloul date palm shoot lets proliferated from somatic embryos. However, the 0.50 mg/L AgNO 3 provided MS medium was the most preferable in this concern. Plant lets were transferred to capped tubes contained 1/4 liquid MS medium through 3 weeks in the growth chamber (under aseptic condition). Ventilation was allowed gradually by punching holes in aluminum foil caps during first five days of 2 nd week. After then, the plant lets were transplanted in acclimatization green house on mixture from (peat moss + perlite + vermiculite at 1:1:1) and survival percentage was 75% after three months.

PARP-1 is a key player in controlling apoptosis induced by high LET carbon ion beam and low LET gamma radiation in HeLa cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghorai, Atanu; Ghosh, Utpal; Bhattacharyya, Nitai P.; Sarma, Asitikantha

2014-01-01

PARP-1 inhibitors have long been used as chemo-sensitizer or radio-sensitizer and specific PARP-1 inhibitors are also in clinical trial for the treatment of various cancers. PARP-1 is not only involved in DNA repair but also plays very complex role in induction of apoptosis in postirradiation condition. Our objective is to investigate role of PARP-1 in apoptosis triggered by high LET carbon ion beam (CIB) and low LET gamma. We have treated HeLa and PARP-1 knock down HeLa (Hsil) cells with various doses of CIB and gamma. We measured DNA damage by comet assay and various apoptotic parameters such as nuclear fragmentation, activation of caspase-3,8,9, AIF translocation etc. We observed higher DNA breaks and also higher apoptosis in HsiI cells compared with HeLa cells. Both CIB and gamma treatment results G2/M arrest but unlike gamma CIB makes S-phase delay, implicating that gamma and CIB triggers different pathway after DNA damage. Cell death by CIB or by gamma increased up on knocking down of PARP-1 but increase is higher for high LET CIB compared with low LET gamma. Furthermore, expression level of PARP-1 controls the intensity of overall apoptosis in cells in post-irradiation condition. So, combination of PARP-1 inhibition with high LET CIB could be a promising tool to combat cancer. (author)

Searching the Web for Earth Science Data: Semiotics to Cybernetics and Back

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruce R. Barkstrom

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses a search paradigm for numerical data in Earth science that relies on the intrinsic structure of an archive's collection. Such non-textual data lies outside the normal textual basis for the Semantic Web. The paradigm tries to bypass some of the difficulties associated with keyword searches, such as semantic heterogeneity. The suggested collection structure uses a hierarchical taxonomy based on multidimensional axes of continuous variables. This structure fits the underlying 'geometry' of Earth science data better than sets of keywords in an ontology. The alternative paradigm views the search as a two-agent cooperative game that uses a dialog between the search engine and the data user. In this view, the search engine knows about the objects in the archive. It cannot read the user's mind to identify what the user needs. We assume the user has a clear idea of the search target. However he or she may not have a clear idea of the archive's contents. The paper suggests how the user interface may provide information to deal with the user's difficulties in understanding items in the dialog.

Applying Russian Search Engines to market Finnish Corporates

OpenAIRE

Pankratovs, Vladimirs

2013-01-01

The goal of this thesis work is to provide basic knowledge of Russia-based Search Engines marketing capabilities. After reading this material, the user is able to diverge different kinds of Search Engine Marketing tools and can perform advertising campaigns. This study includes information about the majority of tools available to the user and provides up to date screenshots of Russian Search engines front-end, which can be useful in further work. Study discusses the main principles and ba...

Radiation-Induced Epigenetic Alterations after Low and High LET Irradiations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aypar, Umut; Morgan, William F.; Baulch, Janet E.

2011-02-01

Epigenetics, including DNA methylation and microRNA (miRNA) expression, could be the missing link in understanding the delayed, non-targeted effects of radiation including radiationinduced genomic instability (RIGI). This study tests the hypothesis that irradiation induces epigenetic aberrations, which could eventually lead to RIGI, and that the epigenetic aberrations induced by low linear energy transfer (LET) irradiation are different than those induced by high LET irradiations. GM10115 cells were irradiated with low LET x-rays and high LET iron (Fe) ions and evaluated for DNA damage, cell survival and chromosomal instability. The cells were also evaluated for specific locus methylation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NFκB), tumor suppressor in lung cancer 1 (TSLC1) and cadherin 1 (CDH1) gene promoter regions, long interspersed nuclear element 1 (LINE-1) and Alu repeat element methylation, CpG and non-CpG global methylation and miRNA expression levels. Irradiated cells showed increased micronucleus induction and cell killing immediately following exposure, but were chromosomally stable at delayed times post-irradiation. At this same delayed time, alterations in repeat element and global DNA methylation and miRNA expression were observed. Analyses of DNA methylation predominantly showed hypomethylation, however hypermethylation was also observed. MiRNA shown to be altered in expression level after x-ray irradiation are involved in chromatin remodeling and DNA methylation. Different and higher incidence of epigenetic changes were observed after exposure to low LET x-rays than high LET Fe ions even though Fe ions elicited more chromosomal damage and cell killing. This study also shows that the irradiated cells acquire epigenetic changes even though they are chromosomally stable suggesting that epigenetic aberrations may arise in the cell without initiating RIGI.

ElasticSearch server

CERN Document Server

Rogozinski, Marek

2014-01-01

This book is a detailed, practical, hands-on guide packed with real-life scenarios and examples which will show you how to implement an ElasticSearch search engine on your own websites.If you are a web developer or a user who wants to learn more about ElasticSearch, then this is the book for you. You do not need to know anything about ElastiSeach, Java, or Apache Lucene in order to use this book, though basic knowledge about databases and queries is required.

Utilizing scale-free networks to support the search for scientific publications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hauff, C.; Nürnberger, Andreas; de Jong, Franciska M.G.; Kraaij, W.

2006-01-01

When searching for scienti﬿c publications, users today often rely on search engines such as Yahoo.com. Whereas searching for publications whose titles are known is considered to be an easy task, users who are looking for important publications in research ﬿elds they are unfamiliar with face greater

Potential proteins targeted by let-7f-5p in HeLa cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yu; Chen, Xiujuan; Zhang, Yi; Song, Jiandong

2017-07-24

MicroRNAs are a class of small, endogenous, non-coding RNAs mediating posttranscriptional gene silencing. The current authors hypothesized that let-7f-5p is likely involved in cell invasion and proliferation by regulating the expression of target genes. The current study combined let-7f-5p with iTRAQ to assess its effect on gene expression in HeLa cells. Results indicated that 164 proteins were expressed at different levels in HeLa cells overexpressing let-7f-5p and negative controls and that 172 proteins were expressed at different levels in let-7f-5p-silenced HeLa cells and negative controls. Results indicated that let-7f-5p may suppress insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein 1 (IGF2BP1) in HeLa cells.

Web-based information search and retrieval: effects of strategy use and age on search success.

Science.gov (United States)

Stronge, Aideen J; Rogers, Wendy A; Fisk, Arthur D

2006-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between strategy use and search success on the World Wide Web (i.e., the Web) for experienced Web users. An additional goal was to extend understanding of how the age of the searcher may influence strategy use. Current investigations of information search and retrieval on the Web have provided an incomplete picture of Web strategy use because participants have not been given the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of Web strategies while also searching for information on the Web. Using both behavioral and knowledge-engineering methods, we investigated searching behavior and system knowledge for 16 younger adults (M = 20.88 years of age) and 16 older adults (M = 67.88 years). Older adults were less successful than younger adults in finding correct answers to the search tasks. Knowledge engineering revealed that the age-related effect resulted from ineffective search strategies and amount of Web experience rather than age per se. Our analysis led to the development of a decision-action diagram representing search behavior for both age groups. Older adults had more difficulty than younger adults when searching for information on the Web. However, this difficulty was related to the selection of inefficient search strategies, which may have been attributable to a lack of knowledge about available Web search strategies. Actual or potential applications of this research include training Web users to search more effectively and suggestions to improve the design of search engines.

Footprints: A Visual Search Tool that Supports Discovery and Coverage Tracking.

Science.gov (United States)

Isaacs, Ellen; Domico, Kelly; Ahern, Shane; Bart, Eugene; Singhal, Mudita

2014-12-01

Searching a large document collection to learn about a broad subject involves the iterative process of figuring out what to ask, filtering the results, identifying useful documents, and deciding when one has covered enough material to stop searching. We are calling this activity "discoverage," discovery of relevant material and tracking coverage of that material. We built a visual analytic tool called Footprints that uses multiple coordinated visualizations to help users navigate through the discoverage process. To support discovery, Footprints displays topics extracted from documents that provide an overview of the search space and are used to construct searches visuospatially. Footprints allows users to triage their search results by assigning a status to each document (To Read, Read, Useful), and those status markings are shown on interactive histograms depicting the user's coverage through the documents across dates, sources, and topics. Coverage histograms help users notice biases in their search and fill any gaps in their analytic process. To create Footprints, we used a highly iterative, user-centered approach in which we conducted many evaluations during both the design and implementation stages and continually modified the design in response to feedback.

The IBM PC as an Online Search Machine. Part 5: Searching through Crosstalk.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolner, Stuart J.

1985-01-01

This last of a five-part series on using the IBM personal computer for online searching highlights a brief review, search process, making the connection, switching between screens and modes, online transaction, capture buffer controls, coping with options, function keys, script files, processing downloaded information, note to TELEX users, and…

Let us fish4tomorrow

OpenAIRE

J.D., Farrugia

2015-01-01

All over the world, governments and stakeholders are trying to cope with overfishing. Overfishing is when too much fish is caught which leads to an overall degradation of the marine ecosystem. It is the non-sustainable use of ocean resources. http://www.um.edu.mt/think/let-us-fish4tomorrow/

Supervised learning of tools for content-based search of image databases

Science.gov (United States)

Delanoy, Richard L.

1996-03-01

A computer environment, called the Toolkit for Image Mining (TIM), is being developed with the goal of enabling users with diverse interests and varied computer skills to create search tools for content-based image retrieval and other pattern matching tasks. Search tools are generated using a simple paradigm of supervised learning that is based on the user pointing at mistakes of classification made by the current search tool. As mistakes are identified, a learning algorithm uses the identified mistakes to build up a model of the user's intentions, construct a new search tool, apply the search tool to a test image, display the match results as feedback to the user, and accept new inputs from the user. Search tools are constructed in the form of functional templates, which are generalized matched filters capable of knowledge- based image processing. The ability of this system to learn the user's intentions from experience contrasts with other existing approaches to content-based image retrieval that base searches on the characteristics of a single input example or on a predefined and semantically- constrained textual query. Currently, TIM is capable of learning spectral and textural patterns, but should be adaptable to the learning of shapes, as well. Possible applications of TIM include not only content-based image retrieval, but also quantitative image analysis, the generation of metadata for annotating images, data prioritization or data reduction in bandwidth-limited situations, and the construction of components for larger, more complex computer vision algorithms.

Heuristics for Relevancy Ranking of Earth Dataset Search Results

Science.gov (United States)

Lynnes, Christopher; Quinn, Patrick; Norton, James

2016-01-01

As the Variety of Earth science datasets increases, science researchers find it more challenging to discover and select the datasets that best fit their needs. The most common way of search providers to address this problem is to rank the datasets returned for a query by their likely relevance to the user. Large web page search engines typically use text matching supplemented with reverse link counts, semantic annotations and user intent modeling. However, this produces uneven results when applied to dataset metadata records simply externalized as a web page. Fortunately, data and search provides have decades of experience in serving data user communities, allowing them to form heuristics that leverage the structure in the metadata together with knowledge about the user community. Some of these heuristics include specific ways of matching the user input to the essential measurements in the dataset and determining overlaps of time range and spatial areas. Heuristics based on the novelty of the datasets can prioritize later, better versions of data over similar predecessors. And knowledge of how different user types and communities use data can be brought to bear in cases where characteristics of the user (discipline, expertise) or their intent (applications, research) can be divined. The Earth Observing System Data and Information System has begun implementing some of these heuristics in the relevancy algorithm of its Common Metadata Repository search engine.

Modeling web-based information seeking by users who are blind.

Science.gov (United States)

Brunsman-Johnson, Carissa; Narayanan, Sundaram; Shebilske, Wayne; Alakke, Ganesh; Narakesari, Shruti

2011-01-01

This article describes website information seeking strategies used by users who are blind and compares those with sighted users. It outlines how assistive technologies and website design can aid users who are blind while information seeking. People who are blind and sighted are tested using an assessment tool and performing several tasks on websites. The times and keystrokes are recorded for all tasks as well as commands used and spatial questioning. Participants who are blind used keyword-based search strategies as their primary tool to seek information. Sighted users also used keyword search techniques if they were unable to find the information using a visual scan of the home page of a website. A proposed model based on the present study for information seeking is described. Keywords are important in the strategies used by both groups of participants and providing these common and consistent keywords in locations that are accessible to the users may be useful for efficient information searching. The observations suggest that there may be a difference in how users search a website that is familiar compared to one that is unfamiliar. © 2011 Informa UK, Ltd.

Constructing Effective Search Strategies for Electronic Searching.

Science.gov (United States)

Flanagan, Lynn; Parente, Sharon Campbell

Electronic databases have grown tremendously in both number and popularity since their development during the 1960s. Access to electronic databases in academic libraries was originally offered primarily through mediated search services by trained librarians; however, the advent of CD-ROM and end-user interfaces for online databases has shifted the…

Proceedings of the ECIR 2012 Workshop on Task-Based and Aggregated Search (TBAS2012)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2012-01-01

Task-based search aims to understand the user's current task and desired outcomes, and how this may provide useful context for the Information Retrieval (IR) process. An example of task-based search is situations where additional user information on e.g. the purpose of the search or what the user...

Making Temporal Search More Central in Spatial Data Infrastructures

Science.gov (United States)

Corti, P.; Lewis, B.

2017-10-01

A temporally enabled Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a framework of geospatial data, metadata, users, and tools intended to provide an efficient and flexible way to use spatial information which includes the historical dimension. One of the key software components of an SDI is the catalogue service which is needed to discover, query, and manage the metadata. A search engine is a software system capable of supporting fast and reliable search, which may use any means necessary to get users to the resources they need quickly and efficiently. These techniques may include features such as full text search, natural language processing, weighted results, temporal search based on enrichment, visualization of patterns in distributions of results in time and space using temporal and spatial faceting, and many others. In this paper we will focus on the temporal aspects of search which include temporal enrichment using a time miner - a software engine able to search for date components within a larger block of text, the storage of time ranges in the search engine, handling historical dates, and the use of temporal histograms in the user interface to display the temporal distribution of search results.

Functional improvement of dystrophic muscle by repression of utrophin: let-7c interaction.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manoj K Mishra

Full Text Available Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD is a fatal genetic disease caused by an absence of the 427kD muscle-specific dystrophin isoform. Utrophin is the autosomal homolog of dystrophin and when overexpressed, can compensate for the absence of dystrophin and rescue the dystrophic phenotype of the mdx mouse model of DMD. Utrophin is subject to miRNA mediated repression by several miRNAs including let-7c. Inhibition of utrophin: let-7c interaction is predicted to 'repress the repression' and increase utrophin expression. We developed and tested the ability of an oligonucleotide, composed of 2'-O-methyl modified bases on a phosphorothioate backbone, to anneal to the utrophin 3'UTR and prevent let-7c miRNA binding, thereby upregulating utrophin expression and improving the dystrophic phenotype in vivo. Suppression of utrophin: let-7c interaction using bi-weekly intraperitoneal injections of let7 site blocking oligonucleotides (SBOs for 1 month in the mdx mouse model for DMD, led to increased utrophin expression along with improved muscle histology, decreased fibrosis and increased specific force. The functional improvement of dystrophic muscle achieved using let7-SBOs suggests a novel utrophin upregulation-based therapeutic strategy for DMD.

Research Trends on Information Needs and Use of Internet Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shan-Ju L. Chang

2002-12-01

Full Text Available This paper reviews the literature on Internet user studies and analyzed the empirical findings from Internet surveys, user studies of digital libraries, search behavior on search engines, usability studies of websites, etc. Based on the analysis, the author points out the trends of user studies in Library and Information Science and suggests the directions for future research.[Article content in Chinese

The Effect of Internet Searches on Afforestation: The Case of a Green Search Engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro Palos-Sanchez

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Ecosia is an Internet search engine that plants trees with the income obtained from advertising. This study explored the factors that affect the adoption of Ecosia.org from the perspective of technology adoption and trust. This was done by using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2 and then analyzing the results with PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling. Subsequently, a survey was conducted with a structured questionnaire on search engines, which yielded the following results: (1 the idea of a company helping to mitigate the effects of climate change by planting trees is well received by Internet users. However, few people accept the idea of changing their habits from using traditional search engines; (2 Ecosia is a search engine believed to have higher compatibility rates, and needing less hardware resources, and (3 ecological marketing is an appropriate and future strategy that can increase the intention to use a technological product. Based on the results obtained, this study shows that a search engine or other service provided by the Internet, which can be audited (visits, searches, files, etc., can also contribute to curb the effects of deforestation and climate change. In addition, companies, and especially technological start-ups, are advised to take into account that users feel better using these tools. Finally, this study urges foundations and non-governmental organizations to fight against the effects of deforestation by supporting these initiatives. The study also urges companies to support technological services, and follow the behavior of Ecosia.org in order to positively influence user satisfaction by using ecological marketing strategies.

When is a search not a search? A comparison of searching the AMED complementary health database via EBSCOhost, OVID and DIALOG.

Science.gov (United States)

Younger, Paula; Boddy, Kate

2009-06-01

The researchers involved in this study work at Exeter Health library and at the Complementary Medicine Unit, Peninsula School of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD). Within this collaborative environment it is possible to access the electronic resources of three institutions. This includes access to AMED and other databases using different interfaces. The aim of this study was to investigate whether searching different interfaces to the AMED allied health and complementary medicine database produced the same results when using identical search terms. The following Internet-based AMED interfaces were searched: DIALOG DataStar; EBSCOhost and OVID SP_UI01.00.02. Search results from all three databases were saved in an endnote database to facilitate analysis. A checklist was also compiled comparing interface features. In our initial search, DIALOG returned 29 hits, OVID 14 and Ebsco 8. If we assume that DIALOG returned 100% of potential hits, OVID initially returned only 48% of hits and EBSCOhost only 28%. In our search, a researcher using the Ebsco interface to carry out a simple search on AMED would miss over 70% of possible search hits. Subsequent EBSCOhost searches on different subjects failed to find between 21 and 86% of the hits retrieved using the same keywords via DIALOG DataStar. In two cases, the simple EBSCOhost search failed to find any of the results found via DIALOG DataStar. Depending on the interface, the number of hits retrieved from the same database with the same simple search can vary dramatically. Some simple searches fail to retrieve a substantial percentage of citations. This may result in an uninformed literature review, research funding application or treatment intervention. In addition to ensuring that keywords, spelling and medical subject headings (MeSH) accurately reflect the nature of the search, database users should include wildcards and truncation and adapt their search strategy substantially to retrieve the maximum number of appropriate

PubMed Interact: an Interactive Search Application for MEDLINE/PubMed

Science.gov (United States)

Muin, Michael; Fontelo, Paul; Ackerman, Michael

2006-01-01

Online search and retrieval systems are important resources for medical literature research. Progressive Web 2.0 technologies provide opportunities to improve search strategies and user experience. Using PHP, Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation and Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax), PubMed Interact allows greater functionality so users can refine search parameters with ease and interact with the search results to retrieve and display relevant information and related articles. PMID:17238658

LIN28 expression in malignant germ cell tumors down-regulates let-7 and increases oncogene levels

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Matthew J.; Saini, Harpreet K.; Siegler, Charlotte A.; Hanning, Jennifer E.; Barker, Emily M.; van Dongen, Stijn; Ward, Dawn M.; Raby, Katie L.; Groves, Ian J.; Scarpini, Cinzia G.; Pett, Mark R.; Thornton, Claire M.; Enright, Anton J.; Nicholson, James C.; Coleman, Nicholas

2013-01-01

Despite their clinico-pathologic heterogeneity, malignant germ-cell-tumors (GCTs) share molecular abnormalities that are likely to be functionally important. In this study, we investigated the potential significance of down-regulation of the let-7 family of tumor-suppressor microRNAs in malignant-GCTs. Microarray results from pediatric and adult samples (n=45) showed that LIN28, the negative-regulator of let-7 biogenesis, was abundant in malignant-GCTs, regardless of patient age, tumor site or histologic subtype. Indeed, a strong negative-correlation existed between LIN28 and let-7 levels in specimens with matched datasets. Low let-7 levels were biologically significant, since the sequence complementary to the 2-7nt common let-7 seed ‘GAGGUA’ was enriched in the 3′untranslated regions of mRNAs up-regulated in pediatric and adult malignant-GCTs, compared with normal gonads (a mixture of germ cells and somatic cells). We identified 27 mRNA targets of let-7 that were up-regulated in malignant-GCT cells, confirming significant negative-correlations with let-7 levels. Among 16 mRNAs examined in a largely independent set of specimens by qRT-PCR, we defined negative-associations with let-7e levels for six oncogenes, including MYCN, AURKB, CCNF, RRM2, MKI67 and C12orf5 (when including normal control tissues). Importantly, LIN28 depletion in malignant-GCT cells restored let-7 levels and repressed all of these oncogenic let-7 mRNA targets, with LIN28 levels correlating with cell proliferation and MYCN levels. Conversely, ectopic expression of let-7e was sufficient to reduce proliferation and down-regulate MYCN, AURKB and LIN28, the latter via a double-negative feedback loop. We concluded that the LIN28/let-7 pathway has a critical pathobiological role in malignant-GCTs and therefore offers a promising target for therapeutic intervention. PMID:23774216

User oriented trajectory search for trip recommendation

KAUST Repository

Shang, Shuo; Ding, Ruogu; Yuan, Bo; Xie, Kexin; Zheng, Kai; Kalnis, Panos

2012-01-01

trajectory search by locations (spatial domain only), we consider both spatial and textual domains in the new UOTS query. Given a trajectory data set, the query input contains a set of intended places given by the traveler and a set of textual attributes

Killing, letting die and euthanasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Husak, D N

1979-12-01

Medical ethicists debate whether or not the moral assessment of cases of euthanasia should depend on whether the patient is 'killed' or 'allowed to die'. The usual presupposition is that a clear distinction between killing and letting die can be drawn so that this substantive question is not begged. I contend that the categorisation of cases of instances of killing rather than as instances of letting die depends in part on a prior moral assessment of the case. Hence is it trivially rather than substantively true that the distinction has moral significance. But even if a morally neutral (ie non-question begging) distinction could be drawn, its application to the euthanasia controversy is problematic. I illustrate the difficulties of employing this distinction to reach moral conclusions by critically discussing Philippa Foot's recent treatment of euthanasia. I conclude that even if an act of euthanasia is an instance of killing, and there exists a prima facie moral duty not to kill, and no more stringent duty overrides this duty, one still cannot determine such an act to be morally impermissible.

Killing, letting die and euthanasia.

Science.gov (United States)

Husak, D N

1979-01-01

Medical ethicists debate whether or not the moral assessment of cases of euthanasia should depend on whether the patient is 'killed' or 'allowed to die'. The usual presupposition is that a clear distinction between killing and letting die can be drawn so that this substantive question is not begged. I contend that the categorisation of cases of instances of killing rather than as instances of letting die depends in part on a prior moral assessment of the case. Hence is it trivially rather than substantively true that the distinction has moral significance. But even if a morally neutral (ie non-question begging) distinction could be drawn, its application to the euthanasia controversy is problematic. I illustrate the difficulties of employing this distinction to reach moral conclusions by critically discussing Philippa Foot's recent treatment of euthanasia. I conclude that even if an act of euthanasia is an instance of killing, and there exists a prima facie moral duty not to kill, and no more stringent duty overrides this duty, one still cannot determine such an act to be morally impermissible. PMID:541821

Developing a distributed HTML5-based search engine for geospatial resource discovery

Science.gov (United States)

ZHOU, N.; XIA, J.; Nebert, D.; Yang, C.; Gui, Z.; Liu, K.

2013-12-01

With explosive growth of data, Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure(GCI) components are developed to manage geospatial resources, such as data discovery and data publishing. However, the efficiency of geospatial resources discovery is still challenging in that: (1) existing GCIs are usually developed for users of specific domains. Users may have to visit a number of GCIs to find appropriate resources; (2) The complexity of decentralized network environment usually results in slow response and pool user experience; (3) Users who use different browsers and devices may have very different user experiences because of the diversity of front-end platforms (e.g. Silverlight, Flash or HTML). To address these issues, we developed a distributed and HTML5-based search engine. Specifically, (1)the search engine adopts a brokering approach to retrieve geospatial metadata from various and distributed GCIs; (2) the asynchronous record retrieval mode enhances the search performance and user interactivity; (3) the search engine based on HTML5 is able to provide unified access capabilities for users with different devices (e.g. tablet and smartphone).

MicroRNAs let-7b/i suppress human glioma cell invasion and migration by targeting IKBKE directly

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tian, Yuan; Hao, Shaobo [Department of Neurosurgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052 (China); Laboratory of Neuro-Oncology, Tianjin Neurological Institute, Tianjin 300052 (China); Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma, Variation and Regeneration, Ministry of Education and Tianjin Municipal Government (China); Ye, Minhua [Department of Neurosurgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province 330006 (China); Zhang, Anling [Laboratory of Neuro-Oncology, Tianjin Neurological Institute, Tianjin 300052 (China); Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma, Variation and Regeneration, Ministry of Education and Tianjin Municipal Government (China); Nan, Yang [Department of Neurosurgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052 (China); Wang, Guangxiu; Jia, Zhifan [Laboratory of Neuro-Oncology, Tianjin Neurological Institute, Tianjin 300052 (China); Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma, Variation and Regeneration, Ministry of Education and Tianjin Municipal Government (China); Yu, Kai; Guo, Lianmei [Department of Neurosurgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052 (China); Pu, Peiyu [Laboratory of Neuro-Oncology, Tianjin Neurological Institute, Tianjin 300052 (China); Key Laboratory of Neurotrauma, Variation and Regeneration, Ministry of Education and Tianjin Municipal Government (China); Huang, Qiang, E-mail: huangqiang209@163.com [Department of Neurosurgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052 (China); Zhong, Yue, E-mail: zhongyue2457@sina.com [Department of Neurosurgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052 (China)

2015-03-06

We demonstrated that IKBKE is overexpressed in human gliomas and that the downregulation of IKBKE markedly inhibits the proliferative and invasive abilities of glioma cells, which is consistent with the results reported by several different research groups. Therefore, IKBKE represents a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of glioma. In the present study, we verified that the microRNAs let-7b and let-7i target IKBKE through luciferase assays and found that let-7b/i mimics can knock down IKBKE and upregulate E-cadherin through western blot analysis. Moreover, the expression levels of let-7b/i were significantly lower in glioma cell lines than that in normal brain tissues, as determined by quantitative real-time PCR. Furthermore, let-7b/i inhibit the invasion and migration of glioma cells, as determined through wound healing and Transwell assays. The above-mentioned data suggest that let-7b/i inhibit the invasive ability of glioma cells by directly downregulating IKBKE and indirectly upregulating E-cadherin. - Highlights: • Let-7b and let-7i are downregulated in glioma cell lines. • IKBKE is a target gene of let-7b/i. • Let-7b/i inhibit the invasion and migration of glioma cells. • Let-7b/i upregulate E-cadherin by downregulating IKBKE.

MicroRNAs let-7b/i suppress human glioma cell invasion and migration by targeting IKBKE directly

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tian, Yuan; Hao, Shaobo; Ye, Minhua; Zhang, Anling; Nan, Yang; Wang, Guangxiu; Jia, Zhifan; Yu, Kai; Guo, Lianmei; Pu, Peiyu; Huang, Qiang; Zhong, Yue

2015-01-01

We demonstrated that IKBKE is overexpressed in human gliomas and that the downregulation of IKBKE markedly inhibits the proliferative and invasive abilities of glioma cells, which is consistent with the results reported by several different research groups. Therefore, IKBKE represents a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of glioma. In the present study, we verified that the microRNAs let-7b and let-7i target IKBKE through luciferase assays and found that let-7b/i mimics can knock down IKBKE and upregulate E-cadherin through western blot analysis. Moreover, the expression levels of let-7b/i were significantly lower in glioma cell lines than that in normal brain tissues, as determined by quantitative real-time PCR. Furthermore, let-7b/i inhibit the invasion and migration of glioma cells, as determined through wound healing and Transwell assays. The above-mentioned data suggest that let-7b/i inhibit the invasive ability of glioma cells by directly downregulating IKBKE and indirectly upregulating E-cadherin. - Highlights: • Let-7b and let-7i are downregulated in glioma cell lines. • IKBKE is a target gene of let-7b/i. • Let-7b/i inhibit the invasion and migration of glioma cells. • Let-7b/i upregulate E-cadherin by downregulating IKBKE

LET-effects in DNA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kraft, G.; Taucher-Scholz, G.; Heilmann, J.

1994-11-01

In this contribution, an introductory view on the physical properties of ions is given and the cellular response to high LET radiation is summarized. Then the measurements of strand break induction of DNA in solution and in intracellular DNA are reported and compared to cell survival. The possibility of changes in the quality of the lesions is discussed and finally the present status of model calculations in comparison to the experiments is given. (orig./HSI)

14 CFR 151.47 - Performance of construction work: Letting of contracts.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... Development Projects § 151.47 Performance of construction work: Letting of contracts. (a) Advertising required... 14 Aeronautics and Space 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Performance of construction work: Letting... project, each contract for construction work on a project in the amount of more than $2,000 must be...

Don't Let Osteoporosis Slow You Down | NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine

Science.gov (United States)

... has never let anything stop her from doing what she loves, and she wasn't about to let osteoporosis keep her off the dance floor. It's that kind of spirit that led the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) to ...

Keep it local (and final): Remnant preferences in ‘let alone’ ellipsis

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Jesse A.; Carlson, Katy

2015-01-01

The let alone construction (John can't run a mile, let alone a marathon) differs from standard coordination structures (with and or but) by requiring ellipsis of the second conjunct, e.g., a marathon is the remnant of an elided clause [John run a marathon]. In support of an ellipsis account, a corpus study of British and American English finds that let alone exhibits a Locality bias, as the second conjunct preferentially contrasts with the nearest lexical item of the same syntactic type. Two self-paced reading studies show that the Locality bias is active during online processing, but must be reconciled with indicators of semantic contrast and discourse information. Further, a sentence-rating study shows that the Locality bias interacts with a Finality bias that favors placing the let alone phrase at the end of a clause, which sometimes necessitates a non-local contrast. Together, the results show how a general bias in ellipsis for local contrasts is affected by discourse demands, such as the need for scalar contrast imposed by let alone, thereby offering a window into how possibly divergent syntactic and discourse constraints impact sentence processing. PMID:26085004

Radiation-induced epigenetic alterations after low and high LET irradiations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aypar, Umut; Morgan, William F.; Baulch, Janet E.

2011-01-01

Epigenetics, including DNA methylation and microRNA (miRNA) expression, could be the missing link in understanding radiation-induced genomic instability (RIGI). This study tests the hypothesis that irradiation induces epigenetic aberrations, which could eventually lead to RIGI, and that the epigenetic aberrations induced by low linear energy transfer (LET) irradiation are different than those induced by high LET irradiations. GM10115 cells were irradiated with low LET X-rays and high LET iron (Fe) ions and evaluated for DNA damage, cell survival and chromosomal instability. The cells were also evaluated for specific locus methylation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NFκB), tumor suppressor in lung cancer 1 (TSLC1) and cadherin 1 (CDH1) gene promoter regions, long interspersed nuclear element 1 (LINE-1) and Alu repeat element methylation, CpG and non-CpG global methylation and miRNA expression levels. Irradiated cells showed increased micronucleus induction and cell killing immediately following exposure, but were chromosomally stable at delayed times post-irradiation. At this same delayed time, alterations in repeat element and global DNA methylation and miRNA expression were observed. Analyses of DNA methylation predominantly showed hypomethylation, however hypermethylation was also observed. We demonstrate that miRNA expression levels can be altered after X-ray irradiation and that these miRNA are involved in chromatin remodeling and DNA methylation. A higher incidence of epigenetic changes was observed after exposure to X-rays than Fe ions even though Fe ions elicited more chromosomal damage and cell killing. This distinction is apparent at miRNA analyses at which only three miRNA involved in two major pathways were altered after high LET irradiations while six miRNA involved in five major pathways were altered after low LET irradiations. This study also shows that the irradiated cells acquire epigenetic changes suggesting that epigenetic aberrations may arise in the

Radiation-induced epigenetic alterations after low and high LET irradiations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aypar, Umut, E-mail: uaypa001@umaryland.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Radiation Oncology Research Laboratory, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201 (United States); Morgan, William F. [Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352 (United States); Baulch, Janet E. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Radiation Oncology Research Laboratory, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201 (United States)

2011-02-10

Epigenetics, including DNA methylation and microRNA (miRNA) expression, could be the missing link in understanding radiation-induced genomic instability (RIGI). This study tests the hypothesis that irradiation induces epigenetic aberrations, which could eventually lead to RIGI, and that the epigenetic aberrations induced by low linear energy transfer (LET) irradiation are different than those induced by high LET irradiations. GM10115 cells were irradiated with low LET X-rays and high LET iron (Fe) ions and evaluated for DNA damage, cell survival and chromosomal instability. The cells were also evaluated for specific locus methylation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF{kappa}B), tumor suppressor in lung cancer 1 (TSLC1) and cadherin 1 (CDH1) gene promoter regions, long interspersed nuclear element 1 (LINE-1) and Alu repeat element methylation, CpG and non-CpG global methylation and miRNA expression levels. Irradiated cells showed increased micronucleus induction and cell killing immediately following exposure, but were chromosomally stable at delayed times post-irradiation. At this same delayed time, alterations in repeat element and global DNA methylation and miRNA expression were observed. Analyses of DNA methylation predominantly showed hypomethylation, however hypermethylation was also observed. We demonstrate that miRNA expression levels can be altered after X-ray irradiation and that these miRNA are involved in chromatin remodeling and DNA methylation. A higher incidence of epigenetic changes was observed after exposure to X-rays than Fe ions even though Fe ions elicited more chromosomal damage and cell killing. This distinction is apparent at miRNA analyses at which only three miRNA involved in two major pathways were altered after high LET irradiations while six miRNA involved in five major pathways were altered after low LET irradiations. This study also shows that the irradiated cells acquire epigenetic changes suggesting that epigenetic aberrations may arise

A User-Centered Approach to Adaptive Hypertext Based on an Information Relevance Model

Science.gov (United States)

Mathe, Nathalie; Chen, James

1994-01-01

Rapid and effective to information in large electronic documentation systems can be facilitated if information relevant in an individual user's content can be automatically supplied to this user. However most of this knowledge on contextual relevance is not found within the contents of documents, it is rather established incrementally by users during information access. We propose a new model for interactively learning contextual relevance during information retrieval, and incrementally adapting retrieved information to individual user profiles. The model, called a relevance network, records the relevance of references based on user feedback for specific queries and user profiles. It also generalizes such knowledge to later derive relevant references for similar queries and profiles. The relevance network lets users filter information by context of relevance. Compared to other approaches, it does not require any prior knowledge nor training. More importantly, our approach to adaptivity is user-centered. It facilitates acceptance and understanding by users by giving them shared control over the adaptation without disturbing their primary task. Users easily control when to adapt and when to use the adapted system. Lastly, the model is independent of the particular application used to access information, and supports sharing of adaptations among users.

let-7 miRNAs Can Act through Notch to Regulate Human Gliogenesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Patterson

2014-11-01

Full Text Available It is clear that neural differentiation from human pluripotent stem cells generates cells that are developmentally immature. Here, we show that the let-7 plays a functional role in the developmental decision making of human neural progenitors, controlling whether these cells make neurons or glia. Through gain- and loss-of-function studies on both tissue and pluripotent derived cells, our data show that let-7 specifically regulates decision making in this context by regulation of a key chromatin-associated protein, HMGA2. Furthermore, we provide evidence that the let-7/HMGA2 circuit acts on HES5, a NOTCH effector and well-established node that regulates fate decisions in the nervous system. These data link the let-7 circuit to NOTCH signaling and suggest that this interaction serves to regulate human developmental progression.

Testing Two Tools for Multimodal Navigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mats Liljedahl

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The latest smartphones with GPS, electronic compasses, directional audio, touch screens, and so forth, hold a potential for location-based services that are easier to use and that let users focus on their activities and the environment around them. Rather than interpreting maps, users can search for information by pointing in a direction and database queries can be created from GPS location and compass data. Users can also get guidance to locations through point and sweep gestures, spatial sound, and simple graphics. This paper describes two studies testing two applications with multimodal user interfaces for navigation and information retrieval. The applications allow users to search for information and get navigation support using combinations of point and sweep gestures, nonspeech audio, graphics, and text. Tests show that users appreciated both applications for their ease of use and for allowing users to interact directly with the surrounding environment.

Factors determinating the shape of survival curves of Escherichia coli cells irradiated by ionizing radiation with different LET. The dependence of the shape of survival curve on LET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kozubek, S.; Krasavin, E.A.; Fajsi, Ch.

1984-01-01

The dependence of the shape of bacterial sUrvival curve in the case of Escherichia coli Wild type, rec - and pol - mutants on linear energy transfer is considered. When increasing LET of the radiation the shouldered survival curves are transformed to exponential ones. In the case of sensitive mutants the transformation is observed for smaller values of LET. The dependence of cell sensitivity on LET calculated on the basis of Landau-Vavilov distribution is compared with earlier calculations. The comparison showed a good agreement between two methods of calculation for ions with 4 MeV per nucleon energy

Encounters with the OPAC: On-Line Searching in Public Libraries.

Science.gov (United States)

Slone, Deborah J.

2000-01-01

Reports on a qualitative study that explored strategies and behaviors of public library users during interaction with an online public access catalog, and users' confidence in finding needed information online. Discusses results of questionnaires, interviews, and observations that examined unknown-item searches, area searches, and known-item…

Radiosensitivity of yeast cells as a function of radiation LET

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lobachevskij, P.N.; Krasavin, E.A.

1988-01-01

A model is proposed for interpreting the radiosensitivity of yeast cells as a function of linear energy transfer (LET) of ionizing radiation. The model takes into account the role of repair processes in sensitivity of yeast cells to ionizing radiation of different LET. Two types of repair are discussed: (1) a nonspecific repair (characteristic of both haploid and diploid cells), and (2) a diploid - soecific repair (characteristic of diploid cells only)

Evaluating search effectiveness of some selected search engines ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

With advancement in technology, many individuals are getting familiar with the internet a lot of users seek for information on the World Wide Web (WWW) using variety of search engines. This research work evaluates the retrieval effectiveness of Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL and Baidu. Precision, relative recall and response ...

MicroRNA let-7b regulates neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation by targeting nuclear receptor TLX signaling.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Chunnian; Sun, GuoQiang; Li, Shengxiu; Lang, Ming-Fei; Yang, Su; Li, Wendong; Shi, Yanhong

2010-02-02

Neural stem cell self-renewal and differentiation is orchestrated by precise control of gene expression involving nuclear receptor TLX. Let-7b, a member of the let-7 microRNA family, is expressed in mammalian brains and exhibits increased expression during neural differentiation. However, the role of let-7b in neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation remains unknown. Here we show that let-7b regulates neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation by targeting the stem cell regulator TLX and the cell cycle regulator cyclin D1. Overexpression of let-7b led to reduced neural stem cell proliferation and increased neural differentiation, whereas antisense knockdown of let-7b resulted in enhanced proliferation of neural stem cells. Moreover, in utero electroporation of let-7b to embryonic mouse brains led to reduced cell cycle progression in neural stem cells. Introducing an expression vector of Tlx or cyclin D1 that lacks the let-7b recognition site rescued let-7b-induced proliferation deficiency, suggesting that both TLX and cyclin D1 are important targets for let-7b-mediated regulation of neural stem cell proliferation. Let-7b, by targeting TLX and cyclin D1, establishes an efficient strategy to control neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation.

High-speed data search

Science.gov (United States)

Driscoll, James N.

1994-01-01

The high-speed data search system developed for KSC incorporates existing and emerging information retrieval technology to help a user intelligently and rapidly locate information found in large textual databases. This technology includes: natural language input; statistical ranking of retrieved information; an artificial intelligence concept called semantics, where 'surface level' knowledge found in text is used to improve the ranking of retrieved information; and relevance feedback, where user judgements about viewed information are used to automatically modify the search for further information. Semantics and relevance feedback are features of the system which are not available commercially. The system further demonstrates focus on paragraphs of information to decide relevance; and it can be used (without modification) to intelligently search all kinds of document collections, such as collections of legal documents medical documents, news stories, patents, and so forth. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of statistical ranking, our semantic improvement, and relevance feedback.

A Heuristic Hierarchical Scheme for Academic Search and Retrieval

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Amolochitis, Emmanouil; Christou, Ioannis T.; Tan, Zheng-Hua

2013-01-01

and a graph-theoretic computed score that relates the paper’s index terms with each other. We designed and developed a meta-search engine that submits user queries to standard digital repositories of academic publications and re-ranks the repository results using the hierarchical heuristic scheme. We evaluate......, and by more than 907.5% in terms of LEX. We also re-rank the top-10 results of a subset of the original 58 user queries produced by Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic Search, and ArnetMiner; the results show that PubSearch compares very well against these search engines as well. The proposed scheme can...... be easily plugged in any existing search engine for retrieval of academic publications....

LET spectrometry with track etch detectors-Use in high-energy radiation fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jadrnickova, I.; Spurny, F.

2008-01-01

For assessing the risk from ionizing radiation it is necessary to know not only the absorbed dose but also the quality of the radiation; radiation quality is connected with the physical quantity linear energy transfer (LET). One of the methods of determination of LET is based on chemically etched track detectors. This contribution concerns with a spectrometer of LET based on the track detectors and discusses some results obtained at: ·high-energy radiation reference field created at the SPS accelerator at CERN; and ·onboard of International Space Station where track-etch based LET spectrometer has been exposed 273 days during 'Matrjoshka - R' experiment. Results obtained are compared with the results of studies at some lower-energy neutron sources; some conclusions on the registrability of neutrons and the ability of this spectrometer to determine dose equivalent in high-energy radiation fields are formulated

Mutational influences of low-dose and high let ionizing radiation in drosophila melanogaster

Science.gov (United States)

Lei, Huang; Fanjun, Kong; Sun, Yeqing

For cosmic environment consists of a varying kinds of radiation particles including high Z and energy ions which was charactered with low-dose and high RBE, it is important to determine the possible biofuctions of high LET radiation on human beings. To analyse the possible effectes of mutational influences of low-dose and high-LET ionizing radiation, wild fruit flies drosophila melanogaster were irradiated by 12C6+ ions in two LET levels (63.3 and 30 keV/µum) with different low doses from 2mGy to 2000mGy (2, 20, 200, 2000mGy) in HIRFL (Heavy ion radiation facility laboratory, lanzhou, China).In the same LET value group, the average polymorphic frequency was elevated along with adding doses of irradation, the frequency in 2000 mGy dose samples was significantly higher than other samples (p<0.01).These results suggest that genomic DNA sequence could be effected by low-dose and high-LET ionizing radiation, the irradiation dose is an important element in genomic mutation frequency origination.

mBAND analysis for high- and low-LET radiation-induced chromosome aberrations: A review

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hada, Megumi, E-mail: megumi.hada-1@nasa.gov [NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058 (United States); Universities Space Research Association, Houston, TX 77058 (United States); Wu Honglu; Cucinotta, Francis A. [NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058 (United States)

2011-06-03

During long-term space travel or cancer therapy, humans are exposed to high linear energy transfer (LET) energetic heavy ions. High-LET radiation is much more effective than low-LET radiation in causing various biological effects, including cell inactivation, genetic mutations, cataracts and cancer induction. Most of these biological endpoints are closely related to chromosomal damage, and cytogenetic damage can be utilized as a biomarker for radiation insults. Epidemiological data, mainly from survivors of the atomic bomb detonations in Japan, have enabled risk estimation from low-LET radiation exposures. The identification of a cytogenetic signature that distinguishes high- from low-LET exposure remains a long-term goal in radiobiology. Recently developed fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)-painting methodologies have revealed unique endpoints related to radiation quality. Heavy-ions induce a high fraction of complex-type exchanges, and possibly unique chromosome rearrangements. This review will concentrate on recent data obtained with multicolor banding in situ hybridization (mBAND) methods in mammalian cells exposed to low- and high-LET radiations. Chromosome analysis with mBAND technique allows detection of both inter- and intrachromosomal exchanges, and also distribution of the breakpoints of aberrations.

Automated search method for AFM and profilers

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, Michael; Martin, Yves C.

2001-08-01

A new automation software creates a search model as an initial setup and searches for a user-defined target in atomic force microscopes or stylus profilometers used in semiconductor manufacturing. The need for such automation has become critical in manufacturing lines. The new method starts with a survey map of a small area of a chip obtained from a chip-design database or an image of the area. The user interface requires a user to point to and define a precise location to be measured, and to select a macro function for an application such as line width or contact hole. The search algorithm automatically constructs a range of possible scan sequences within the survey, and provides increased speed and functionality compared to the methods used in instruments to date. Each sequence consists in a starting point relative to the target, a scan direction, and a scan length. The search algorithm stops when the location of a target is found and criteria for certainty in positioning is met. With today's capability in high speed processing and signal control, the tool can simultaneously scan and search for a target in a robotic and continuous manner. Examples are given that illustrate the key concepts.

Evaluating aggregated search using interleaving

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chuklin, A.; Schuth, A.; Hofmann, K.; Serdyukov, P.; de Rijke, M.

2013-01-01

A result page of a modern web search engine is often much more complicated than a simple list of "ten blue links." In particular, a search engine may combine results from different sources (e.g., Web, News, and Images), and display these as grouped results to provide a better user experience. Such a

Prophage λ induction by ionizing radiation of different LETs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bonev, M.N.; Kozubek, S.; Krasavin, E.A.; Amirtaev, K.G.

1988-01-01

The λ prophage induction caused by γ-irradiation and accelerated heavy ions with different LET was studied in variety Escherichia coli strains. The induction frequency on the dose I(D) shaped a curve with a maximum in the strains which possess recA + /lexA + genotype. The inductivity of these strains increases as well as LET and an alteration poor → rich media does it. Unlike I(D) for recA + /lexA + , the dependence I(D) for recA, lexA and recBC strains was a constant. 15 refs.; 6 figs.; 3 tabs

TH-CD-209-06: LET-Based Adjustment of IMPT Plans Using Prioritized Optimization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Unkelbach, J; Giantsoudi, D; Paganetti, H [Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA (United States); Botas, P [Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA (United States); Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, DE (Germany); Qin, N; Jia, X [The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Ctr, Dallas, TX (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: In-vitro experiments suggest an increase in proton relative biological effectiveness (RBE) towards the end of range. However, proton treatment planning and dose reporting for clinical outcome assessment has been based on physical dose and constant RBE. Therefore, treatment planning for intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) is unlikely to transition radically to pure RBE-based planning. We suggest a hybrid approach where treatment plans are initially created based on physical dose constraints and prescriptions, and are subsequently altered to avoid high linear energy transfer (LET) in critical structures while limiting the degradation of the physical dose distribution. Methods: To allow fast optimization based on dose and LET we extended a GPU-based Monte-Carlo code towards providing dose-averaged LET in addition to dose for all pencil beams. After optimizing an initial IMPT plan based on physical dose, a prioritized optimization scheme is used to modify the LET distribution while constraining the physical dose objectives to values close to the initial plan. The LET optimization step is performed based on objective functions evaluated for the product of physical dose and LET (LETxD). To first approximation, LETxD represents a measure of the additional biological dose that is caused by high LET. Regarding optimization techniques, LETxD has the advantage of being a linear function of the pencil beam intensities. Results: The method is applicable to treatments where serial critical structures with maximum dose constraint are located in or near the target. We studied intra-cranial tumors (high-grade meningiomas, base-of-skull chordomas) where the target (CTV) overlaps with the brainstem and optic structures. Often, high LETxD in critical structures can be avoided while minimally compromising physical dose planning objectives. Conclusion: LET-based re-optimization of IMPT plans represents a pragmatic approach to bridge the gap between purely physical dose

Interactive extraction of neural structures with user-guided morphological diffusion

KAUST Repository

Yong Wan,; Otsuna, H.; Chi-Bin Chien,; Hansen, C.

2012-01-01

Extracting neural structures with their fine details from confocal volumes is essential to quantitative analysis in neurobiology research. Despite the abundance of various segmentation methods and tools, for complex neural structures, both manual and semi-automatic methods are ine ective either in full 3D or when user interactions are restricted to 2D slices. Novel interaction techniques and fast algorithms are demanded by neurobiologists to interactively and intuitively extract neural structures from confocal data. In this paper, we present such an algorithm-technique combination, which lets users interactively select desired structures from visualization results instead of 2D slices. By integrating the segmentation functions with a confocal visualization tool neurobiologists can easily extract complex neural structures within their typical visualization workflow.

Interactive extraction of neural structures with user-guided morphological diffusion

KAUST Repository

Yong Wan,

2012-10-01

Extracting neural structures with their fine details from confocal volumes is essential to quantitative analysis in neurobiology research. Despite the abundance of various segmentation methods and tools, for complex neural structures, both manual and semi-automatic methods are ine ective either in full 3D or when user interactions are restricted to 2D slices. Novel interaction techniques and fast algorithms are demanded by neurobiologists to interactively and intuitively extract neural structures from confocal data. In this paper, we present such an algorithm-technique combination, which lets users interactively select desired structures from visualization results instead of 2D slices. By integrating the segmentation functions with a confocal visualization tool neurobiologists can easily extract complex neural structures within their typical visualization workflow.

Information Diversity in Web Search

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Jiahui

2009-01-01

The web is a rich and diverse information source with incredible amounts of information about all kinds of subjects in various forms. This information source affords great opportunity to build systems that support users in their work and everyday lives. To help users explore information on the web, web search systems should find information that…

Development of a user-friendly interface for the searching of a data base in natural language while using concepts and means of artificial intelligence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pujo, Pascal

1989-01-01

This research thesis aimed at the development of a natural-language-based user-friendly interface for the searching of relational data bases. The author first addresses how to store data which will be accessible through an interface in natural language: this organisation must result in as few constraints as possible in query formulation. He briefly presents techniques related to the automatic processing of natural language, and highlights the need for a more user-friendly interface. Then, he presents the developed interface and outlines the user-friendliness and ergonomics of implemented procedures. He shows how the interface has been designed to deliver information and explanations on its processing. This allows the user to control the relevance of the answer. He also indicates the classification of mistakes and errors which may be present in queries in natural language. He finally gives an overview of possible evolutions of the interface, briefly presents deductive functionalities which could expand data management. The handling of complex objects is also addressed [fr

Users’ Perceived Difficulties and Corresponding Reformulation Strategies in Google Voice Search

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Jeng

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In this article, we report users’ perceptions of query input errors and query reformulation strategies in voice search using data collected through a laboratory user study. Our results reveal that: 1 users’ perceived obstacles during a voice search can be related to speech recognition errors and topic complexity; 2 users naturally develop different strategies to deal with various types of words (e.g., acronyms, single-worded queries, non-English words with high error rates in speech recognition; and 3 users can have various emotional reactions when encounter voice input errors and they develop preferred usage occasions for voice search.

Overview of the CLEF 2015 Social Book Search Lab

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koolen, Marijn; Bogers, Toine; Gäde, Maria

2015-01-01

The Social Book Search (SBS) Lab investigates book search in scenarios where users search with more than just a query, and look for more than objective metadata. Real-world information needs are generally complex, yet almost all research focuses instead on either relatively simple search based on...

電子資源整合查詢系統使用者接受度與使用行為之研究 A Study on User Perceptions and User Behavior of an Online Federated Search System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ching-Yi Lee

2012-03-01

Full Text Available 本研究探討使用者對電子資源整合查詢系統的認知情形、系統接受度與使用行為。本研究以科技接受模式為框架,發展適用於評量使用者對整合查詢系統之接受度與使用行為的問卷,繼而以交大圖書館之MetaLib系統為個案,探討該館讀者使用整合查詢系統的接受程度與使用行為,探討影響整合查詢系統使用行為的相關因素,分析本研究所提出之科技接受模式外部變項「教育訓練認知」和該模式之「易用性認知」、「有用性認知」、「態度」、「使用意願」及「使用行為」等變項間的關係。研究結果發現,整合查詢系統有助於使用者找尋所需的資源,使用者對於整合查詢系統功能的認同程度頗高,絕大多數會推薦他人使用該系統,但在系統功能、介面設計與使用者教育訓練方面仍有改善空間。結果證實教育訓練認知、有用性認知、易用性認知、態度、使用意願確實會影響使用者對整合查詢系統之認知情形、系統接受度與使用行為。This study aims at investigating the perceptions, acceptance and usage behavior of users on federated search systems. The research method involved the development of a questionnaire on users’ satisfaction and acceptance of federated search systems based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM. The federated search system implemented in National Chiao Tung University (NCTU was used as a case system. In addition to the six constructs of TAM, i.e. perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude, behavioral intention, and actual use, the construct user training is proposed as the external variable. After the development of the questionnaire was finished, an online survey was conducted. 403 effective responses were collected. Through Pearson-product moment correlation and structural equation modeling, the correlation and causal relationships between factors which influence the

The Othering in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matava Vichiensing

2017-08-01

Full Text Available In this article, I will investigate the concept of ‘othering’ originally as part of a post-colonial theory. This concept is interested in many academic areas, including a literary study. In Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go is about human clones raised for organs. The clones are excluded and discriminated to be ‘the other’ from the normal people. The manifestations of othering in Never Let Me Go can be presented in the forms of linguistic features, indoctrination, objectification, and assimilation. Although the othering phenomenon can be found in the reality, it can be appeared in literary texts as well. The findings show that the study of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go helps us to understand and aware of how the negative consequences of the othering process affect undesirable treatments in the society as a whole.

Fingerprinting Keywords in Search Queries over Tor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oh Se Eun

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Search engine queries contain a great deal of private and potentially compromising information about users. One technique to prevent search engines from identifying the source of a query, and Internet service providers (ISPs from identifying the contents of queries is to query the search engine over an anonymous network such as Tor.

GGRNA: an ultrafast, transcript-oriented search engine for genes and transcripts.

Science.gov (United States)

Naito, Yuki; Bono, Hidemasa

2012-07-01

GGRNA (http://GGRNA.dbcls.jp/) is a Google-like, ultrafast search engine for genes and transcripts. The web server accepts arbitrary words and phrases, such as gene names, IDs, gene descriptions, annotations of gene and even nucleotide/amino acid sequences through one simple search box, and quickly returns relevant RefSeq transcripts. A typical search takes just a few seconds, which dramatically enhances the usability of routine searching. In particular, GGRNA can search sequences as short as 10 nt or 4 amino acids, which cannot be handled easily by popular sequence analysis tools. Nucleotide sequences can be searched allowing up to three mismatches, or the query sequences may contain degenerate nucleotide codes (e.g. N, R, Y, S). Furthermore, Gene Ontology annotations, Enzyme Commission numbers and probe sequences of catalog microarrays are also incorporated into GGRNA, which may help users to conduct searches by various types of keywords. GGRNA web server will provide a simple and powerful interface for finding genes and transcripts for a wide range of users. All services at GGRNA are provided free of charge to all users.

Let-7b Regulates Myoblast Proliferation by Inhibiting IGF2BP3 Expression in Dwarf and Normal Chicken

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Shumao; Luo, Wen; Ye, Yaqiong; Bekele, Endashaw J.; Nie, Qinghua; Li, Yugu; Zhang, Xiquan

2017-01-01

The sex-linked dwarf chicken is caused by the mutation of growth hormone receptor (GHR) gene and characterized by shorter shanks, lower body weight, smaller muscle fiber diameter and fewer muscle fiber number. However, the precise regulatory pathways that lead to the inhibition of skeletal muscle growth in dwarf chickens still remain unclear. Here we found a let-7b mediated pathway might play important role in the regulation of dwarf chicken skeletal muscle growth. Let-7b has higher expression in the skeletal muscle of dwarf chicken than in normal chicken, and the expression of insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3), which is a translational activator of IGF2, showed opposite expression trend to let-7b. In vitro cellular assays validated that let-7b directly inhibits IGF2BP3 expression through binding to its 3′UTR region, and the protein level but not mRNA level of IGF2 would be reduced in let-7b overexpressed chicken myoblast. Let-7b can inhibit cell proliferation and induce cell cycle arrest in chicken myoblast through let-7b-IGF2BP3-IGF2 signaling pathway. Additionally, let-7b can also regulate skeletal muscle growth through let-7b-GHR-GHR downstream genes pathway, but this pathway is non-existent in dwarf chicken because of the deletion mutation of GHR 3′UTR. Notably, as the loss binding site of GHR for let-7b, let-7b has enhanced its binding and inhibition on IGF2BP3 in dwarf myoblast, suggesting that the miRNA can balance its inhibiting effect through dynamic regulate its binding to target genes. Collectively, these results not only indicate that let-7b can inhibit skeletal muscle growth through let-7b-IGF2BP3-IGF2 signaling pathway, but also show that let-7b regulates myoblast proliferation by inhibiting IGF2BP3 expression in dwarf and normal chickens. PMID:28736533

let-7 Modulates Chromatin Configuration and Target Gene Repression through Regulation of the ARID3B Complex

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsai-Tsen Liao

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Let-7 is crucial for both stem cell differentiation and tumor suppression. Here, we demonstrate a chromatin-dependent mechanism of let-7 in regulating target gene expression in cancer cells. Let-7 directly represses the expression of AT-rich interacting domain 3B (ARID3B, ARID3A, and importin-9. In the absence of let-7, importin-9 facilitates the nuclear import of ARID3A, which then forms a complex with ARID3B. The nuclear ARID3B complex recruits histone demethylase 4C to reduce histone 3 lysine 9 trimethylation and promotes the transcription of stemness factors. Functionally, expression of ARID3B is critical for the tumor initiation in let-7-depleted cancer cells. An inverse association between let-7 and ARID3A/ARID3B and prognostic significance is demonstrated in head and neck cancer patients. These results highlight a chromatin-dependent mechanism where let-7 regulates cancer stemness through ARID3B.

Cytotoxic and mutagenic effects of high let charged particles on human skin fibroblasts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsuboi, Koji.; Park, M.S.; Chen, D.J.; Yang, T.C.

1992-01-01

Cytotoxic and mutagenic effects of high LET charged particles were quantitatively measured using primary cultures of human skin fibroblasts. The span of LETs selected were from 25 keV/μm(330 MeV/u) to 920 keV/μm (600 MeV/u). Mutations were scored at the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (HPRT) locus using 6-thioguanine (6-TG) for selection. Exposure to these high LET charged particles resulted in exponential survival curves whereas mutant induction was fitted by a linear model. The Relative Biological Effect (RBE) for cell-killing ranged from 3.73 to 1.25, while that for mutant induction ranged from 5.74 to 0.48. Maximum RBE values were obtained at the LET of 150 keV/μm. The inactivation cross-section (σ i ) and the action cross-section for mutant induction (σ m ) ranged from 2.2 to 92.0 μm 2 and 0.09 to 5.56 x 10 -3 μm 2 respectively, the maximum values were obtained by 56 Fe with an LET of 200 keV/μm. The mutagenicity (σ m /σ i ) ranged from 2.05 to 7.99 x 10 -5 with the maximum value at 150 keV/μm. Furthermore, the results of multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of some of the mutants induced by charged particles indicate that higher LET beams are more likely to cause larger deletions in the hprt locus. (author)

Let7a involves in neural stem cell differentiation relating with TLX level.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Juhyun; Cho, Kyoung Joo; Oh, Yumi; Lee, Jong Eun

2015-07-10

Neural stem cells (NSCs) have the potential for differentiation into neurons known as a groundbreaking therapeutic solution for central nervous system (CNS) diseases. To resolve the therapeutic efficiency of NSCs, recent researchers have focused on the study on microRNA's role in CNS. Some micro RNAs have been reported significant functions in NSC self-renewal and differentiation through the post-transcriptional regulation of neurogenesis genes. MicroRNA-Let7a (Let7a) has known as the regulator of diverse cellular mechanisms including cell differentiation and proliferation. In present study, we investigated whether Let7a regulates NSC differentiation by targeting the nuclear receptor TLX, which is an essential regulator of NSC self-renewal, proliferation and differentiation. We performed the following experiments: western blot analysis, TaqMan assay, RT-PCR, and immunocytochemistry to confirm the alteration of NSCs. Our data showed that let7a play important roles in controlling NSC fate determination. Thus, manipulating Let-7A and TLX could be a novel strategy to enhance the efficiency of NSC's neuronal differentiation for CNS disorders. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

High energy ion irradiation effects on polymer materials. LET dependence of G value of scission of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kudoh, H; Sasuga, T; Seguchi, T [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Takasaki, Gunma (Japan). Takasaki Radiation Chemistry Research Establishment

1997-03-01

Linear energy transfer (LET) dependence on the probability of main chain scission of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) was investigated. The probability was obtained from decreases in molecular weight measured by the gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and LET was evaluated by TRIM code. The scission probability as a function of LET was almost constant in the low LET, and decreased in the high LET ion irradiation. The mechanism was interpreted from the model of spur-overlapping along an ion`s path. (author)

Start Your Engines: Surfing with Search Engines for Kids.

Science.gov (United States)

Byerly, Greg; Brodie, Carolyn S.

1999-01-01

Suggests that to be an effective educator and user of the Web it is essential to know the basics about search engines. Presents tips for using search engines. Describes several search engines for children and young adults, as well as some general filtered search engines for children. (AEF)

ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

OpenAIRE

Gurneet Kaur

2017-01-01

Search Engines are an indispensible platform for users all over the globe to search for relevant information online. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the exercise of improving the position of a website in search engine rankings, for a chosen set of keywords. SEO is divided into two parts: On-Page and Off-Page SEO. In order to be successful, both the areas require equal attention. This paper aims to explain the functioning of the search engines along with the role and importance of search e...

Let-7b-mediated suppression of basigin expression and metastasis in mouse melanoma cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fu, Tzu-Yen; Chang, Chia-Che; Lin, Chun-Ting; Lai, Cong-Hao; Peng, Shao-Yu; Ko, Yi-Ju; Tang, Pin-Chi

2011-01-01

Basigin (Bsg), also called extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN), is highly expressed on the surface of tumor cells and stimulates adjacent fibroblasts or tumor cells to produce matrix metalloproteinases (mmps). It has been shown that Bsg plays an important role in growth, development, cell differentiation, and tumor progression. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of short endogenous non-protein coding RNAs of 20-25 nucleotides (nt) that function as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression by base-pairing to their target mRNAs and thereby mediate cleavage of target mRNAs or translational repression. In this study, let-7b, one of the let-7 family members, was investigated for its effect on the growth and invasiveness of the mouse melanoma cell line B16-F10. We have shown that let-7b can suppress the expression of Bsg in B16-F10 cells and also provided evidence that this suppression could result in the indirect suppression of mmp-9. The ability of B16-F10 cells transfected with let-7b to invade or migrate was significantly reduced. In addition, let-7b transfected B16-F10 cells displayed an inhibition of both cellular proliferation and colony formation. Furthermore, it was shown that the overexpression of let-7b in B16-F10 cells could reduce lung metastasis. Taken together, the present study identifies let-7b as a tumor suppressor that represses cancer cell proliferation and migration as well as tumor metastasis in mouse melanoma cells.

Let-7b-mediated suppression of basigin expression and metastasis in mouse melanoma cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fu, Tzu-Yen [Department of Animal Science, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, Taichung 40227, Taiwan (China); Chang, Chia-Che [Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, Taichung 40227, Taiwan (China); Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Science, China Medical University, 91 Hsueh Shih Road, Taichung 40402, Taiwan (China); Lin, Chun-Ting [Department of Animal Science, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, Taichung 40227, Taiwan (China); Lai, Cong-Hao [Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, Taichung 40227, Taiwan (China); Department of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, Taichung 40227, Taiwan (China); Peng, Shao-Yu; Ko, Yi-Ju [Department of Animal Science, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, Taichung 40227, Taiwan (China); Tang, Pin-Chi, E-mail: pctang@dragon.nchu.edu.tw [Department of Animal Science, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo Kuang Road, Taichung 40227, Taiwan (China)

2011-02-15

Basigin (Bsg), also called extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN), is highly expressed on the surface of tumor cells and stimulates adjacent fibroblasts or tumor cells to produce matrix metalloproteinases (mmps). It has been shown that Bsg plays an important role in growth, development, cell differentiation, and tumor progression. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of short endogenous non-protein coding RNAs of 20-25 nucleotides (nt) that function as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression by base-pairing to their target mRNAs and thereby mediate cleavage of target mRNAs or translational repression. In this study, let-7b, one of the let-7 family members, was investigated for its effect on the growth and invasiveness of the mouse melanoma cell line B16-F10. We have shown that let-7b can suppress the expression of Bsg in B16-F10 cells and also provided evidence that this suppression could result in the indirect suppression of mmp-9. The ability of B16-F10 cells transfected with let-7b to invade or migrate was significantly reduced. In addition, let-7b transfected B16-F10 cells displayed an inhibition of both cellular proliferation and colony formation. Furthermore, it was shown that the overexpression of let-7b in B16-F10 cells could reduce lung metastasis. Taken together, the present study identifies let-7b as a tumor suppressor that represses cancer cell proliferation and migration as well as tumor metastasis in mouse melanoma cells.

Harderian Gland Tumorigenesis: Low-Dose and LET Response

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chang, Polly Y. [SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (United States). Biosciences Div.; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Life Sciences Div.; Cucinotta, Francis A. [Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV (United States). Dept. of Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences; Bjornstad, Kathleen A. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Life Sciences Div.; Bakke, James [SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (United States). Biosciences Div.; Rosen, Chris J. [SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (United States). Biosciences Div.; Du, Nicholas [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Life Sciences Div.; Fairchild, David G. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Life Sciences Div.; Cacao, Eliedonna [Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV (United States). Dept. of Health Physics and Diagnostic Sciences; Blakely, Eleanor A. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Life Sciences Div.

2016-04-19

Increased cancer risk remains a primary concern for travel into deep space and may preclude manned missions to Mars due to large uncertainties that currently exist in estimating cancer risk from the spectrum of radiations found in space with the very limited available human epidemiological radiation-induced cancer data. Existing data on human risk of cancer from X-ray and gamma-ray exposure must be scaled to the many types and fluences of radiations found in space using radiation quality factors and dose-rate modification factors, and assuming linearity of response since the shapes of the dose responses at low doses below 100 mSv are unknown. The goal of this work was to reduce uncertainties in the relative biological effect (RBE) and linear energy transfer (LET) relationship for space-relevant doses of charged-particle radiation-induced carcinogenesis. The historical data from the studies of Fry et al. and Alpen et al. for Harderian gland (HG) tumors in the female CB6F1 strain of mouse represent the most complete set of experimental observations, including dose dependence, available on a specific radiation-induced tumor in an experimental animal using heavy ion beams that are found in the cosmic radiation spectrum. However, these data lack complete information on low-dose responses below 0.1 Gy, and for chronic low-dose-rate exposures, and there are gaps in the LET region between 25 and 190 keV/μm. In this study, we used the historical HG tumorigenesis data as reference, and obtained HG tumor data for 260 MeV/u silicon (LET ~70 keV/μm) and 1,000 MeV/u titanium (LET ~100 keV/μm) to fill existing gaps of data in this LET range to improve our understanding of the dose-response curve at low doses, to test for deviations from linearity and to provide RBE estimates. Animals were also exposed to five daily fractions of 0.026 or 0.052 Gy of 1,000 MeV/u titanium ions to simulate chronic exposure, and HG tumorigenesis from this fractionated study were compared to the

Analysis of PubMed User Sessions Using a Full-Day PubMed Query Log: A Comparison of Experienced and Nonexperienced PubMed Users

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

Background PubMed is the largest biomedical bibliographic information source on the Internet. PubMed has been considered one of the most important and reliable sources of up-to-date health care evidence. Previous studies examined the effects of domain expertise/knowledge on search performance using PubMed. However, very little is known about PubMed users’ knowledge of information retrieval (IR) functions and their usage in query formulation. Objective The purpose of this study was to shed light on how experienced/nonexperienced PubMed users perform their search queries by analyzing a full-day query log. Our hypotheses were that (1) experienced PubMed users who use system functions quickly retrieve relevant documents and (2) nonexperienced PubMed users who do not use them have longer search sessions than experienced users. Methods To test these hypotheses, we analyzed PubMed query log data containing nearly 3 million queries. User sessions were divided into two categories: experienced and nonexperienced. We compared experienced and nonexperienced users per number of sessions, and experienced and nonexperienced user sessions per session length, with a focus on how fast they completed their sessions. Results To test our hypotheses, we measured how successful information retrieval was (at retrieving relevant documents), represented as the decrease rates of experienced and nonexperienced users from a session length of 1 to 2, 3, 4, and 5. The decrease rate (from a session length of 1 to 2) of the experienced users was significantly larger than that of the nonexperienced groups. Conclusions Experienced PubMed users retrieve relevant documents more quickly than nonexperienced PubMed users in terms of session length. PMID:26139516

MUTAGEN: Multi-user tool for annotating GENomes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brugger, K.; Redder, P.; Skovgaard, Marie

2003-01-01

MUTAGEN is a free prokaryotic annotation system. It offers the advantages of genome comparison, graphical sequence browsers, search facilities and open-source for user-specific adjustments. The web-interface allows several users to access the system from standard desktop computers. The Sulfolobus...

The AXES-lite video search engine

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chen, Shu; McGuinness, Kevin; Aly, Robin; de Jong, Franciska M.G.; O' Connor, Noel E.

The aim of AXES is to develop tools that provide various types of users with new engaging ways to interact with audiovisual libraries, helping them discover, browse, navigate, search, and enrich archives. This paper describes the initial (lite) version of the AXES search engine, which is targeted at

Combined chemo/radiotherapy of cancer: present state and prospects for use with high-LET radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Phillips, T.L.

1979-01-01

Cytotoxic chemotherapy added to low-LET radiotherapy has improved survival and in some cases local control. In some instances the combination has yielded increased normal tissue damage. Similar results can be expected, as confirmed by intestinal crypt cell experiments, with high-LET. Less interaction than with low-LET appears to occur with agents blocking sublethal damage repair or causing synchronization. (author)

Let´s go to the cinema! A movie recommender system for ephemeral groups of users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guillermo Fernández

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Going to the cinema or watching television are social activities that generally take place in groups. In these cases, a recommender system for ephemeral groups of users is more suitable than (well-studied recommender systems for individuals. In this paper we present a recommendation system for groups of users that go to the cinema. The system uses the Slope One algorithm for computing individual predictions and the Multiplicative Utilitarian Strategy as a model to make a recommendation to an entire group. We show how we solved all practical aspects of the system; including its architecture and a mobile application for the service, the lack of user data (ramp-up and cold-start problems, the scaling fit of the group model strategy, and other improvements in order to reduce the response time. Finally, we validate the performance of the system with a set of experiments with 57 ephemeral groups.

General multiplex centralized fire-alarm display system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu Liqun; Chen Jinming

2002-01-01

The fire-alarm display system is developed, which can connect with each type of fire controllers produced in the factory and SIGMASYS controllers. It can display whole alarm information. The display system software gathers communication, database and multimedia, has functions of inspecting fire, showing alarm, storing data, searching information and so on. The drawing software lets the user expediently add, delete, move and modify fire detection or fire fighting facilities on the building floor maps. The graphic transform software lets the display use the vectorgraph produced by popular plotting software such as Auto CAD. The system software provides the administration function, such as log book of changing shift and managing workers etc.. The software executed on Windows 98 platform. The user interface is friendly and reliable in operation

Practical web analytics for user experience how analytics can help you understand your users

CERN Document Server

Beasley, Michael

2013-01-01

Practical Web Analytics for User Experience teaches you how to use web analytics to help answer the complicated questions facing UX professionals. Within this book, you'll find a quantitative approach for measuring a website's effectiveness and the methods for posing and answering specific questions about how users navigate a website. The book is organized according to the concerns UX practitioners face. Chapters are devoted to traffic, clickpath, and content use analysis, measuring the effectiveness of design changes, including A/B testing, building user profiles based on search hab

Characterization and expression patterns of let-7 microRNA in the silkworm (Bombyx mori

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Kaili

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background lin-4 and let-7, the two founding members of heterochronic microRNA genes, are firstly confirmed in Caenorhabditis elegans to control the proper timing of developmental programs in a heterochronic pathway. let-7 has been thought to trigger the onset of adulthood across animal phyla. Ecdysone and Broad-Complex are required for the temporal expression of let-7 in Drosophila melanogaster. For a better understanding of the conservation and functions of let-7, we seek to explore how it is expressed in the silkworm (Bombyx mori. Results One member of let-7 family has been identified in silkworm computationally and experimentally. All known members of this family share the same nucleotides at ten positions within the mature sequences. Sequence logo and phylogenetic tree show that they are not only conserved but diversify to some extent among some species. The bmo-let-7 was very lowly expressed in ova harvested from newborn unmated female adult and in individuals from the first molt to the early third instar, highly expressed after the third molt, and the most abundant expression was observed after mounting, particularly after pupation. The expression levels were higher at the end of each instar and at the beginning of each molt than at other periods, coinciding with the pulse of ecdysone and BR-C as a whole. Using cultured ovary cell line, BmN-SWU1, we examined the effect of altered ecdysone levels on bmo-let-7 expression. The expression was also detected in various tissues of day 3 of the fifth instar and of from day 7 of the fifth to pupa, suggesting a wide distributing pattern with various signal intensities. Conclusion bmo-let-7 is stage- and tissue-specifically expressed in the silkworm. Although no signals were detected during embryonic development and first larval instar stages, the expression of bmo-let-7 was observed from the first molt, suggesting that it might also function at early larval stage of the silkworm. The

Characterization and expression patterns of let-7 microRNA in the silkworm (Bombyx mori).

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Shiping; Xia, Qingyou; Zhao, Ping; Cheng, Tingcai; Hong, Kaili; Xiang, Zhonghuai

2007-07-25

lin-4 and let-7, the two founding members of heterochronic microRNA genes, are firstly confirmed in Caenorhabditis elegans to control the proper timing of developmental programs in a heterochronic pathway. let-7 has been thought to trigger the onset of adulthood across animal phyla. Ecdysone and Broad-Complex are required for the temporal expression of let-7 in Drosophila melanogaster. For a better understanding of the conservation and functions of let-7, we seek to explore how it is expressed in the silkworm (Bombyx mori). One member of let-7 family has been identified in silkworm computationally and experimentally. All known members of this family share the same nucleotides at ten positions within the mature sequences. Sequence logo and phylogenetic tree show that they are not only conserved but diversify to some extent among some species. The bmo-let-7 was very lowly expressed in ova harvested from newborn unmated female adult and in individuals from the first molt to the early third instar, highly expressed after the third molt, and the most abundant expression was observed after mounting, particularly after pupation. The expression levels were higher at the end of each instar and at the beginning of each molt than at other periods, coinciding with the pulse of ecdysone and BR-C as a whole. Using cultured ovary cell line, BmN-SWU1, we examined the effect of altered ecdysone levels on bmo-let-7 expression. The expression was also detected in various tissues of day 3 of the fifth instar and of from day 7 of the fifth to pupa, suggesting a wide distributing pattern with various signal intensities. bmo-let-7 is stage- and tissue-specifically expressed in the silkworm. Although no signals were detected during embryonic development and first larval instar stages, the expression of bmo-let-7 was observed from the first molt, suggesting that it might also function at early larval stage of the silkworm. The detailed expression profiles in the whole life cycle and

XSemantic: An Extension of LCA Based XML Semantic Search

Science.gov (United States)

Supasitthimethee, Umaporn; Shimizu, Toshiyuki; Yoshikawa, Masatoshi; Porkaew, Kriengkrai

One of the most convenient ways to query XML data is a keyword search because it does not require any knowledge of XML structure or learning a new user interface. However, the keyword search is ambiguous. The users may use different terms to search for the same information. Furthermore, it is difficult for a system to decide which node is likely to be chosen as a return node and how much information should be included in the result. To address these challenges, we propose an XML semantic search based on keywords called XSemantic. On the one hand, we give three definitions to complete in terms of semantics. Firstly, the semantic term expansion, our system is robust from the ambiguous keywords by using the domain ontology. Secondly, to return semantic meaningful answers, we automatically infer the return information from the user queries and take advantage of the shortest path to return meaningful connections between keywords. Thirdly, we present the semantic ranking that reflects the degree of similarity as well as the semantic relationship so that the search results with the higher relevance are presented to the users first. On the other hand, in the LCA and the proximity search approaches, we investigated the problem of information included in the search results. Therefore, we introduce the notion of the Lowest Common Element Ancestor (LCEA) and define our simple rule without any requirement on the schema information such as the DTD or XML Schema. The first experiment indicated that XSemantic not only properly infers the return information but also generates compact meaningful results. Additionally, the benefits of our proposed semantics are demonstrated by the second experiment.

PubMed searches: overview and strategies for clinicians.

Science.gov (United States)

Lindsey, Wesley T; Olin, Bernie R

2013-04-01

PubMed is a biomedical and life sciences database maintained by a division of the National Library of Medicine known as the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). It is a large resource with more than 5600 journals indexed and greater than 22 million total citations. Searches conducted in PubMed provide references that are more specific for the intended topic compared with other popular search engines. Effective PubMed searches allow the clinician to remain current on the latest clinical trials, systematic reviews, and practice guidelines. PubMed continues to evolve by allowing users to create a customized experience through the My NCBI portal, new arrangements and options in search filters, and supporting scholarly projects through exportation of citations to reference managing software. Prepackaged search options available in the Clinical Queries feature also allow users to efficiently search for clinical literature. PubMed also provides information regarding the source journals themselves through the Journals in NCBI Databases link. This article provides an overview of the PubMed database's structure and features as well as strategies for conducting an effective search.

Superpose3D: a local structural comparison program that allows for user-defined structure representations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pier Federico Gherardini

Full Text Available Local structural comparison methods can be used to find structural similarities involving functional protein patches such as enzyme active sites and ligand binding sites. The outcome of such analyses is critically dependent on the representation used to describe the structure. Indeed different categories of functional sites may require the comparison program to focus on different characteristics of the protein residues. We have therefore developed superpose3D, a novel structural comparison software that lets users specify, with a powerful and flexible syntax, the structure description most suited to the requirements of their analysis. Input proteins are processed according to the user's directives and the program identifies sets of residues (or groups of atoms that have a similar 3D position in the two structures. The advantages of using such a general purpose program are demonstrated with several examples. These test cases show that no single representation is appropriate for every analysis, hence the usefulness of having a flexible program that can be tailored to different needs. Moreover we also discuss how to interpret the results of a database screening where a known structural motif is searched against a large ensemble of structures. The software is written in C++ and is released under the open source GPL license. Superpose3D does not require any external library, runs on Linux, Mac OSX, Windows and is available at http://cbm.bio.uniroma2.it/superpose3D.

Mutagenic effect of radiations of various LET on Salmonella cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kozubek, S.; Krasavin, E.A.; Amirtaev, K.G.; Tokarova, B.; Basha, S.G.

1989-01-01

Regularities of mutagenic effect of heavy charged particles of helium, deuterium ions and protons on various strains of Salmonella typhimurium were studied. Linear dose dependences of mutation frequency in the range of low doses were revealed. A conclusion was made that mutation process at low dose irradiation is determined in various teststrains of Salmonella typhimurium by certain premutation injuries. Quite a different picture is observed in mutation process in case of high dose irradiation where effect of inducible SOS-repair is distinctly manifested. Not only spectra of primary DNA injuries but probability of their fixation into mutation can change with the increase of LET. If fixation probability doesn't change with LET increase for replicative mutagenesis which make basis contribution to linear component of dose dependence of mutation frequency the probability of fixation is increased for reparative mutagenesis. It accounts for increase of values of relative genetic efficiency with LET increase. 7 refs.; 6 figs.; 1 tab

Search engines and the production of academic knowledge

OpenAIRE

van Dijck, J.

2010-01-01

This article argues that search engines in general, and Google Scholar in particular, have become significant co-producers of academic knowledge. Knowledge is not simply conveyed to users, but is co-produced by search engines’ ranking systems and profiling systems, none of which are open to the rules of transparency, relevance and privacy in a manner known from library scholarship in the public domain. Inexperienced users tend to trust proprietary engines as neutral mediators of knowledge and...

Mechanism and significance of let-7 in diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

HUO Tingting

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract:MicroRNA (miRNA play important roles in post-transcriptional gene regulation. In recent years, miRNA has become a hot topic in the research on the development and progression of tumors, and gene targeting therapy for malignant tumors has achieved preliminary progress. As one of the first discovered miRNA, let-7 can regulate the cell cycle and angiogenesis and is involved in the proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis of various tumor cells. Most members of the let-7 family can act as tumor suppressor gene and have low expression in various tumor tissues and high expression in the serum of patients with malignant tumors. Let-7 is closely associated with the invasion and drug resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC. The studies above show that let-7 might become a new marker for the early diagnosis of HCC and provide new targets for the treatment of HCC.

Experience of Developing a Meta-Semantic Search Engine

OpenAIRE

Mukhopadhyay, Debajyoti; Sharma, Manoj; Joshi, Gajanan; Pagare, Trupti; Palwe, Adarsha

2013-01-01

Thinking of todays web search scenario which is mainly keyword based, leads to the need of effective and meaningful search provided by Semantic Web. Existing search engines are vulnerable to provide relevant answers to users query due to their dependency on simple data available in web pages. On other hand, semantic search engines provide efficient and relevant results as the semantic web manages information with well defined meaning using ontology. A Meta-Search engine is a search tool that ...

INTERACTION OF SEARCH CAPABILITIES OF ELECTRONIC AND TRADITIONAL (CARD CATALOGS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Л. В. Головко

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Purpose. Interaction of search capabilities of electronic and traditional (card catalogs. Subject: search capabilities of electronic and traditional (card catalogs and their interaction. Goal: Creating efficient search system for library information services, updating and improving the information retrieval system. To reach this goal, following tasks are set: – to determine the possibility of parallel functioning of electronic and traditional card catalogs, and to reveal the interaction of their search capabilities by conducting a survey via questionnaire titled «Interaction of search capabilities of electronic and traditional (card catalogs»; – to find out which search systems are preferred by users; – to estimate the actual condition of search capabilities of electronic and traditional (card catalogs in the library. Methodology. On various stages of the survey the following methods were used: analysis and synthesis, comparison, generalization, primary sources search; sociological method (survey. These methods allowed determining, processing and ana lyzing the whole complex of available sources, which became an important factor of research objectivity. Finding. Survey results allowed us to analyze the dynamics of changes, new needs of the readers, and to make a decision regarding the quality improvement of information search services. Practical value. Creating a theoretical foundation for implementation of set tasks is the practical value of the acquired findings. Conclusions and results of the research can be used in university students’, postgraduates’ and professors’ information search activities. Certain results of the research are used and implemented in practice of the library of Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, namely at workshops on the basics of information culture (using bibliographic reference unit, information search by key words, authors and titles via electronic catalogue. Guides for users were created. Duty

Owning, letting and demanding second homes in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bloze, Gintautas; Skak, Morten

with administrative register data and presents estimations of the probability of owning a second home, the decision to let the second home and the number of let weeks per year. Also income elasticities for primary and second housing demand are estimated. We find a conventional monotonic increase in demand...... elasticities for primary housing demand for non-owners of second homes; however, owners of second homes have the highest income elasticity in the middle income group.......An increasing number of households consume housing beyond the primary home as owners of a second home. Economic studies of non-speculative demand for second homeownership are still scarce, and the present empirical study fills this gap to some extent. It is based on Danish survey data combined...

Target Users' Diagrammatic Reasoning of Domain-specific Terminology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pram Nielsen, Louise

2016-01-01

In this paper, we investigate target users' diagrammatic reasoning in a controlled experiment, where participants were asked to search for information in a dual visualization comprising of a concept-oriented graphical (diagram) entry and a corresponding textual (article) entry. During the experim......In this paper, we investigate target users' diagrammatic reasoning in a controlled experiment, where participants were asked to search for information in a dual visualization comprising of a concept-oriented graphical (diagram) entry and a corresponding textual (article) entry. During...

Attribute-based proxy re-encryption with keyword search.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Yanfeng; Liu, Jiqiang; Han, Zhen; Zheng, Qingji; Zhang, Rui; Qiu, Shuo

2014-01-01

Keyword search on encrypted data allows one to issue the search token and conduct search operations on encrypted data while still preserving keyword privacy. In the present paper, we consider the keyword search problem further and introduce a novel notion called attribute-based proxy re-encryption with keyword search (ABRKS), which introduces a promising feature: In addition to supporting keyword search on encrypted data, it enables data owners to delegate the keyword search capability to some other data users complying with the specific access control policy. To be specific, ABRKS allows (i) the data owner to outsource his encrypted data to the cloud and then ask the cloud to conduct keyword search on outsourced encrypted data with the given search token, and (ii) the data owner to delegate other data users keyword search capability in the fine-grained access control manner through allowing the cloud to re-encrypted stored encrypted data with a re-encrypted data (embedding with some form of access control policy). We formalize the syntax and security definitions for ABRKS, and propose two concrete constructions for ABRKS: key-policy ABRKS and ciphertext-policy ABRKS. In the nutshell, our constructions can be treated as the integration of technologies in the fields of attribute-based cryptography and proxy re-encryption cryptography.

Attribute-Based Proxy Re-Encryption with Keyword Search

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Yanfeng; Liu, Jiqiang; Han, Zhen; Zheng, Qingji; Zhang, Rui; Qiu, Shuo

2014-01-01

Keyword search on encrypted data allows one to issue the search token and conduct search operations on encrypted data while still preserving keyword privacy. In the present paper, we consider the keyword search problem further and introduce a novel notion called attribute-based proxy re-encryption with keyword search (), which introduces a promising feature: In addition to supporting keyword search on encrypted data, it enables data owners to delegate the keyword search capability to some other data users complying with the specific access control policy. To be specific, allows (i) the data owner to outsource his encrypted data to the cloud and then ask the cloud to conduct keyword search on outsourced encrypted data with the given search token, and (ii) the data owner to delegate other data users keyword search capability in the fine-grained access control manner through allowing the cloud to re-encrypted stored encrypted data with a re-encrypted data (embedding with some form of access control policy). We formalize the syntax and security definitions for , and propose two concrete constructions for : key-policy and ciphertext-policy . In the nutshell, our constructions can be treated as the integration of technologies in the fields of attribute-based cryptography and proxy re-encryption cryptography. PMID:25549257

BOSS: context-enhanced search for biomedical objects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Choi Jaehoon

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There exist many academic search solutions and most of them can be put on either ends of spectrum: general-purpose search and domain-specific "deep" search systems. The general-purpose search systems, such as PubMed, offer flexible query interface, but churn out a list of matching documents that users have to go through the results in order to find the answers to their queries. On the other hand, the "deep" search systems, such as PPI Finder and iHOP, return the precompiled results in a structured way. Their results, however, are often found only within some predefined contexts. In order to alleviate these problems, we introduce a new search engine, BOSS, Biomedical Object Search System. Methods Unlike the conventional search systems, BOSS indexes segments, rather than documents. A segment refers to a Maximal Coherent Semantic Unit (MCSU such as phrase, clause or sentence that is semantically coherent in the given context (e.g., biomedical objects or their relations. For a user query, BOSS finds all matching segments, identifies the objects appearing in those segments, and aggregates the segments for each object. Finally, it returns the ranked list of the objects along with their matching segments. Results The working prototype of BOSS is available at http://boss.korea.ac.kr. The current version of BOSS has indexed abstracts of more than 20 million articles published during last 16 years from 1996 to 2011 across all science disciplines. Conclusion BOSS fills the gap between either ends of the spectrum by allowing users to pose context-free queries and by returning a structured set of results. Furthermore, BOSS exhibits the characteristic of good scalability, just as with conventional document search engines, because it is designed to use a standard document-indexing model with minimal modifications. Considering the features, BOSS notches up the technological level of traditional solutions for search on biomedical information.

A Lifelog Browser for Visualization and Search of Mobile Everyday-Life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keum-Sung Hwang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Mobile devices can now handle a great deal of information thanks to the convergence of diverse functionalities. Mobile environments have already shown great potential in terms of providing customized service to users because they can record meaningful and private information continually for long periods of time. The research for understanding, searching and summarizing the everyday-life of human has received increasing attention in recent years due to the digital convergence. In this paper, we propose a mobile life browser, which visualizes and searches human's mobile life based on the contents and context of lifelog data. The mobile life browser is for searching the personal information effectively collected on his/her mobile device and for supporting the concept-based searching method by using concept networks and Bayesian networks. In the experiments, we collected the real mobile log data from three users for a month and visualized the mobile lives of the users with the mobile life browser developed. Some tests on searching tasks confirmed that the result using the proposed concept-based searching method is promising.

The PANTHER User Experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coram, Jamie L. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Morrow, James D. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Perkins, David Nikolaus [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-09-01

This document describes the PANTHER R&D Application, a proof-of-concept user interface application developed under the PANTHER Grand Challenge LDRD. The purpose of the application is to explore interaction models for graph analytics, drive algorithmic improvements from an end-user point of view, and support demonstration of PANTHER technologies to potential customers. The R&D Application implements a graph-centric interaction model that exposes analysts to the algorithms contained within the GeoGraphy graph analytics library. Users define geospatial-temporal semantic graph queries by constructing search templates based on nodes, edges, and the constraints among them. Users then analyze the results of the queries using both geo-spatial and temporal visualizations. Development of this application has made user experience an explicit driver for project and algorithmic level decisions that will affect how analysts one day make use of PANTHER technologies.

First Toronto Conference on Database Users. Systems that Enhance User Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Doszkocs, Tamas E.; Toliver, David

1987-01-01

The first of two papers discusses natural language searching as a user performance enhancement tool, focusing on artificial intelligence applications for information retrieval and problems with natural language processing. The second presents a conceptual framework for further development and future design of front ends to online bibliographic…

Suppression of MicroRNA let-7a Expression by Agmatine Regulates Neural Stem Cell Differentiation.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Juhyun; Oh, Yumi; Kim, Jong Youl; Cho, Kyoung Joo; Lee, Jong Eun

2016-11-01

Neural stem cells (NSCs) effectively reverse some severe central nervous system (CNS) disorders, due to their ability to differentiate into neurons. Agmatine, a biogenic amine, has cellular protective effects and contributes to cellular proliferation and differentiation in the CNS. Recent studies have elucidated the function of microRNA let-7a (let-7a) as a regulator of cell differentiation with roles in regulating genes associated with CNS neurogenesis. This study aimed to investigate whether agmatine modulates the expression of crucial regulators of NSC differentiation including DCX, TLX, c-Myc, and ERK by controlling let-7a expression. Our data suggest that high levels of let-7a promoted the expression of TLX and c-Myc, as well as repressed DCX and ERK expression. In addition, agmatine attenuated expression of TLX and increased expression of ERK by negatively regulating let-7a. Our study therefore enhances the present understanding of the therapeutic potential of NSCs in CNS disorders.

Improving the User Experience of Finding and Visualizing Oceanographic Data

Science.gov (United States)

Rauch, S.; Allison, M. D.; Groman, R. C.; Chandler, C. L.; Galvarino, C.; Gegg, S. R.; Kinkade, D.; Shepherd, A.; Wiebe, P. H.; Glover, D. M.

2013-12-01

Searching for and locating data of interest can be a challenge to researchers as increasing volumes of data are made available online through various data centers, repositories, and archives. The Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO) is keenly aware of this challenge and, as a result, has implemented features and technologies aimed at improving data discovery and enhancing the user experience. BCO-DMO was created in 2006 to manage and publish data from research projects funded by the Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE) Biological and Chemical Oceanography Sections and the Division of Polar Programs (PLR) Antarctic Sciences Organisms and Ecosystems Program (ANT) of the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The BCO-DMO text-based and geospatial-based data access systems provide users with tools to search, filter, and visualize data in order to efficiently find data of interest. The geospatial interface, developed using a suite of open-source software (including MapServer [1], OpenLayers [2], ExtJS [3], and MySQL [4]), allows users to search and filter/subset metadata based on program, project, or deployment, or by using a simple word search. The map responds based on user selections, presents options that allow the user to choose specific data parameters (e.g., a species or an individual drifter), and presents further options for visualizing those data on the map or in "quick-view" plots. The data managed and made available by BCO-DMO are very heterogeneous in nature, from in-situ biogeochemical, ecological, and physical data, to controlled laboratory experiments. Due to the heterogeneity of the data types, a 'one size fits all' approach to visualization cannot be applied. Datasets are visualized in a way that will best allow users to assess fitness for purpose. An advanced geospatial interface, which contains a semantically-enabled faceted search [5], is also available. These search facets are highly interactive and responsive, allowing

User's perspective: Information retrieval and usability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salvador Zambrano Silva

2008-02-01

Full Text Available The point is to share some ideas to improve the on line database of "Defensor del Pueblo Andaluz", starting from an user's study and a bibliographic analysis. Our intention is to create an interface to make interactivity much easier and make it work as a connector bridge between the documentent´s information structure and the user's knowledge structure. With the only purpose to improve the user satis-faction level in the results of information search.

CITE NLM: Natural-Language Searching in an Online Catalog.

Science.gov (United States)

Doszkocs, Tamas E.

1983-01-01

The National Library of Medicine's Current Information Transfer in English public access online catalog offers unique subject search capabilities--natural-language query input, automatic medical subject headings display, closest match search strategy, ranked document output, dynamic end user feedback for search refinement. References, description…

Generating Code with Polymorphic let: A Ballad of Value Restriction, Copying and Sharing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oleg Kiselyov

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Getting polymorphism and effects such as mutation to live together in the same language is a tale worth telling, under the recurring refrain of copying vs. sharing. We add new stanzas to the tale, about the ordeal to generate code with polymorphism and effects, and be sure it type-checks. Generating well-typed-by-construction polymorphic let-expressions is impossible in the Hindley-Milner type system: even the author believed that. The polymorphic-let generator turns out to exist. We present its derivation and the application for the lightweight implementation of quotation via a novel and unexpectedly simple source-to-source transformation to code-generating combinators. However, generating let-expressions with polymorphic functions demands more than even the relaxed value restriction can deliver. We need a new deal for let-polymorphism in ML. We conjecture the weaker restriction and implement it in a practically-useful code-generation library. Its formal justification is formulated as the research program.

Let-7i-Induced Atg4B Suppression Is Essential for Autophagy of Placental Trophoblast in Preeclampsia.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Yinyan; Huang, Xinyan; Xie, Juan; Chen, Yanni; Fu, Jing; Wang, Li

2017-09-01

Autophagy, identified as type II programmed cell death, has already been known to be involved in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia (PE), which is a gestational disease with high morbidity. The present study aims to investigate the functional role of let-7i, a miRNA, in trophoblastic autophagy. Placental tissue used in this study was collected from patients with severe preeclampsia (SPE) or normal pregnant women. A decreased level of let-7i was found in placenta of SPE. In addition, autophagic vacuoles were observed in SPE and the expression of microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) II/I was elevated. In vitro, let-7i mimics suppressed the autophagic activities in human HTR-8/SVneo trophoblast cell line (HTR-8) and human placental choriocarcinoma cell line JEG-3, whereas let-7i inhibitor enhanced the activities. As a potential target of let-7i, autophagy-related 4B cysteine peptidase (Atg4B) had an increased expression level in SPE. As expected, the increased expression of Atg4B was negatively regulated by let-7i using dual luciferase reporter assay. Furthermore, these trophoblast-like cells transfected with the let-7i mimic or inhibitors resulted in a significant change of Atg4B in both mRNA and protein level. More importantly, Atg4B overexpression could partly reverse let-7i mimic-reduced LC3II/I levels; whereas Atg4B silencing partly attenuated let-7i inhibitor-induced the level of LC3II/I expression. Taken together, these findings suggest that let-7i is able to regulate autophagic activity via regulating Atg4B expression, which might contribute to the pathogenesis of PE. J. Cell. Physiol. 232: 2581-2589, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Lead User Innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brem, Alexander; Larsen, Henry

2015-01-01

covers the opposite view, where a company actively searches and involves lead users, however, with limited success also. Based on both cases, we analyze how, in these emerging processes of relating, meaning is co-created in a way that narrows the shared conceptual space for imagination and collaboration...

Harvesting social images for bi-concept search

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, X.; Snoek, C.G.M.; Worring, M.; Smeulders, A.W.M.

2012-01-01

Searching for the co-occurrence of two visual concepts in unlabeled images is an important step towards answering complex user queries. Traditional visual search methods use combinations of the confidence scores of individual concept detectors to tackle such queries. In this paper we introduce the

High LET Radiation Amplifies Centrosome Overduplication Through a Pathway of γ-Tubulin Monoubiquitination

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shimada, Mikio [Department of Genome Repair Dynamics, Radiation Biology Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto (Japan); Hirayama, Ryoichi [Research Center for Charged Particle Therapy, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba (Japan); Komatsu, Kenshi, E-mail: komatsu@house.rbc.kyoto-u.ac.jp [Department of Genome Repair Dynamics, Radiation Biology Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto (Japan)

2013-06-01

Purpose: Radiation induces centrosome overduplication, leading to mitotic catastrophe and tumorigenesis. Because mitotic catastrophe is one of the major tumor cell killing factors in high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation therapy and long-term survivors from such treatment have a potential risk of secondary tumors, we investigated LET dependence of radiation-induced centrosome overduplication and the underlying mechanism. Methods and Materials: Carbon and iron ion beams (13-200 keV/μm) and γ-rays (0.5 keV/μm) were used as radiation sources. To count centrosomes after IR exposure, human U2OS and mouse NIH3T3 cells were immunostained with antibodies of γ-tubulin and centrin 2. Similarly, Nbs1-, Brca1-, Ku70-, and DNA-PKcs-deficient mouse cells and their counterpart wild-type cells were used for measurement of centrosome overduplication. Results: The number of excess centrosome-containing cells at interphase and the resulting multipolar spindle at mitosis were amplified with increased LET, reaching a maximum level of 100 keV/μm, followed by sharp decrease in frequency. Interestingly, Ku70 and DNA-PKcs deficiencies marginally affected the induction of centrosome overduplication, whereas the cell killings were significantly enhanced. This was in contrast to observation that high LET radiation significantly enhanced frequencies of centrosome overduplication in Nbs1- and Brca1-deficient cells. Because NBS1/BRCA1 is implicated in monoubiquitination of γ-tubulin, we subsequently tested whether it is affected by high LET radiation. As a result, monoubiquitination of γ-tubulin was abolished in 48 to 72 hours after exposure to high LET radiation, although γ-ray exposure slightly decreased it 48 hours postirradiation and was restored to a normal level at 72 hours. Conclusions: High LET radiation significantly reduces NBS1/BRCA1-mediated monoubiquitination of γ-tubulin and amplifies centrosome overduplication with a peak at 100 keV/μm. In contrast, Ku70 and DNA

Effects of let-7b and TLX on the proliferation and differentiation of retinal progenitor cells in vitro.

Science.gov (United States)

Ni, Ni; Zhang, Dandan; Xie, Qing; Chen, Junzhao; Wang, Zi; Deng, Yuan; Wen, Xuyang; Zhu, Mengyu; Ji, Jing; Fan, Xianqun; Luo, Min; Gu, Ping

2014-10-20

MicroRNAs manifest significant functions in brain neural stem cell (NSC) self-renewal and differentiation through the post-transcriptional regulation of neurogenesis genes. Let-7b is expressed in the mammalian brain and regulates NSC proliferation and differentiation by targeting the nuclear receptor TLX, which is an essential regulator of NSC self-renewal. Whether let-7b and TLX act as important regulators in retinal progenitor cell (RPC) proliferation and differentiation remains unknown. Here, our data show that let-7b and TLX play important roles in controlling RPC fate determination in vitro. Let-7b suppresses TLX expression to negatively regulate RPC proliferation and accelerate the neuronal and glial differentiation of RPCs. The overexpression of let-7b downregulates TLX levels in RPCs, leading to reduced RPC proliferation and increased neuronal and glial differentiation, whereas antisense knockdown of let-7b produces robust TLX expression,enhanced RPC proliferation and decreased differentiation. Moreover, the inhibition of endogenous TLX by small interfering RNA suppresses RPC proliferation and promotes RPC differentiation. Furthermore, overexpression of TLX rescues let-7b-induced proliferation deficiency and weakens the RPC differentiation enhancement caused by let-7b alone. These results suggest that let-7b, by forming a negative feedback loop with TLX, provides a novel model to regulate the proliferation and differentiation of retinal progenitors in vitro.

`Googling' Terrorists: Are Northern Irish Terrorists Visible on Internet Search Engines?

Science.gov (United States)

Reilly, P.

In this chapter, the analysis suggests that Northern Irish terrorists are not visible on Web search engines when net users employ conventional Internet search techniques. Editors of mass media organisations traditionally have had the ability to decide whether a terrorist atrocity is `newsworthy,' controlling the `oxygen' supply that sustains all forms of terrorism. This process, also known as `gatekeeping,' is often influenced by the norms of social responsibility, or alternatively, with regard to the interests of the advertisers and corporate sponsors that sustain mass media organisations. The analysis presented in this chapter suggests that Internet search engines can also be characterised as `gatekeepers,' albeit without the ability to shape the content of Websites before it reaches net users. Instead, Internet search engines give priority retrieval to certain Websites within their directory, pointing net users towards these Websites rather than others on the Internet. Net users are more likely to click on links to the more `visible' Websites on Internet search engine directories, these sites invariably being the highest `ranked' in response to a particular search query. A number of factors including the design of the Website and the number of links to external sites determine the `visibility' of a Website on Internet search engines. The study suggests that Northern Irish terrorists and their sympathisers are unlikely to achieve a greater degree of `visibility' online than they enjoy in the conventional mass media through the perpetration of atrocities. Although these groups may have a greater degree of freedom on the Internet to publicise their ideologies, they are still likely to be speaking to the converted or members of the press. Although it is easier to locate Northern Irish terrorist organisations on Internet search engines by linking in via ideology, ideological description searches, such as `Irish Republican' and `Ulster Loyalist,' are more likely to

Developing A Web-based User Interface for Semantic Information Retrieval

Science.gov (United States)

Berrios, Daniel C.; Keller, Richard M.

2003-01-01

While there are now a number of languages and frameworks that enable computer-based systems to search stored data semantically, the optimal design for effective user interfaces for such systems is still uncle ar. Such interfaces should mask unnecessary query detail from users, yet still allow them to build queries of arbitrary complexity without significant restrictions. We developed a user interface supporting s emantic query generation for Semanticorganizer, a tool used by scient ists and engineers at NASA to construct networks of knowledge and dat a. Through this interface users can select node types, node attribute s and node links to build ad-hoc semantic queries for searching the S emanticOrganizer network.

The LAILAPS Search Engine: Relevance Ranking in Life Science Databases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lange Matthias

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Search engines and retrieval systems are popular tools at a life science desktop. The manual inspection of hundreds of database entries, that reflect a life science concept or fact, is a time intensive daily work. Hereby, not the number of query results matters, but the relevance does. In this paper, we present the LAILAPS search engine for life science databases. The concept is to combine a novel feature model for relevance ranking, a machine learning approach to model user relevance profiles, ranking improvement by user feedback tracking and an intuitive and slim web user interface, that estimates relevance rank by tracking user interactions. Queries are formulated as simple keyword lists and will be expanded by synonyms. Supporting a flexible text index and a simple data import format, LAILAPS can easily be used both as search engine for comprehensive integrated life science databases and for small in-house project databases.

Review of relative biological effectiveness dependence on linear energy transfer for low-LET radiations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hunter, Nezahat; Muirhead, Colin R

2009-01-01

Information on Japanese A-bomb survivors exposed to gamma radiation has been used to estimate cancer risks for the whole range of photon (x-rays) and electron energies which are commonly encountered by radiation workers in the work place or by patients and workers in diagnostic radiology. However, there is some uncertainty regarding the radiation effectiveness of various low-linear energy transfer (low-LET) radiations (x-rays, gamma radiation and electrons). In this paper we review information on the effectiveness of low-LET radiations on the basis of epidemiological and in vitro radiobiological studies. Data from various experimental studies for chromosome aberrations and cell transformation in human lymphocytes and from epidemiological studies of the Japanese A-bomb survivors, patients medically exposed to radiation for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and occupational exposures of nuclear workers are considered. On the basis of in vitro cellular radiobiology, there is considerable evidence that the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of high-energy low-LET radiation (gamma radiation, electrons) is less than that of low-energy low-LET radiation (x-rays, betas). This is a factor of about 3 to 4 for 29 kVp x-rays (e.g. as in diagnostic radiation exposures of the female breast) and for tritium beta-rays (encountered in parts of the nuclear industry) relative to Co-60 gamma radiation and 2-5 MeV gamma-rays (as received by the Japanese A-bomb survivors). In epidemiological studies, although for thyroid and breast cancer there appears to be a small tendency for the excess relative risks to decrease as the radiation energy increases for low-LET radiations, it is not statistically feasible to draw any conclusion regarding an underlying dependence of cancer risk on LET for the nominally low-LET radiations. (review)

The Use of Web Search Engines in Information Science Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Bar-Ilan, Judit

2004-01-01

Reviews the literature on the use of Web search engines in information science research, including: ways users interact with Web search engines; social aspects of searching; structure and dynamic nature of the Web; link analysis; other bibliometric applications; characterizing information on the Web; search engine evaluation and improvement; and…

Building a better search engine for earth science data

Science.gov (United States)

Armstrong, E. M.; Yang, C. P.; Moroni, D. F.; McGibbney, L. J.; Jiang, Y.; Huang, T.; Greguska, F. R., III; Li, Y.; Finch, C. J.

2017-12-01

Free text data searching of earth science datasets has been implemented with varying degrees of success and completeness across the spectrum of the 12 NASA earth sciences data centers. At the JPL Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) the search engine has been developed around the Solr/Lucene platform. Others have chosen other popular enterprise search platforms like Elasticsearch. Regardless, the default implementations of these search engines leveraging factors such as dataset popularity, term frequency and inverse document term frequency do not fully meet the needs of precise relevancy and ranking of earth science search results. For the PO.DAAC, this shortcoming has been identified for several years by its external User Working Group that has assigned several recommendations to improve the relevancy and discoverability of datasets related to remotely sensed sea surface temperature, ocean wind, waves, salinity, height and gravity that comprise a total count of over 500 public availability datasets. Recently, the PO.DAAC has teamed with an effort led by George Mason University to improve the improve the search and relevancy ranking of oceanographic data via a simple search interface and powerful backend services called MUDROD (Mining and Utilizing Dataset Relevancy from Oceanographic Datasets to Improve Data Discovery) funded by the NASA AIST program. MUDROD has mined and utilized the combination of PO.DAAC earth science dataset metadata, usage metrics, and user feedback and search history to objectively extract relevance for improved data discovery and access. In addition to improved dataset relevance and ranking, the MUDROD search engine also returns recommendations to related datasets and related user queries. This presentation will report on use cases that drove the architecture and development, and the success metrics and improvements on search precision and recall that MUDROD has demonstrated over the existing PO.DAAC search

High LET radiation enhances apoptosis in mutated p53 cancer cells through Caspase-9 activation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamakawa, Nobuhiro; Takahashi, Akihisa; Mori, Eiichiro; Imai, Yuichiro; Ohnishi, Ken; Kirita, Tadaaki; Ohnishi, Takeo; Furusawa, Yoshiya

2008-01-01

Although mutations in the p53 gene can lead to resistance to radiotherapy, chemotherapy and thermotherapy, high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation induces apoptosis regardless of p53 gene status in cancer cells. The aim of this study was to clarify the mechanisms involved in high LET radiation-induced apoptosis. Human gingival cancer cells (Ca9-22 cells) containing a mutated p53 (mp53) gene were irradiated with X-rays, C-ion (13-100 KeV/μm), or Fe-ion beams (200 KeV/μm). Cellular sensitivities were determined using colony forming assays. Apoptosis was detected and quantified with Hoechst 33342 staining. The activity of Caspase-3 was analyzed with Western blotting and flow cytometry. Cells irradiated with high LET radiation showed a high sensitivity with a high frequency of apoptosis induction. The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) values for the surviving fraction and apoptosis induction increased in a LET-dependent manner. Both RBE curves reached a peak at 100 KeV/μm, and then decreased at values over 100 KeV/μm. When cells were irradiated with high LET radiation, Caspase-3 was cleaved and activated, leading to poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage. In addition, Caspase-9 inhibitor suppressed Caspase-3 activation and apoptosis induction resulting from high LET radiation to a greater extent than Caspase-8 inhibitor. These results suggest that high LET radiation enhances apoptosis by activation of Caspase-3 through Caspase-9, even in the presence of mp53. (author)

Study on user interface of pathology picture archiving and communication system.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Dasueran; Kang, Peter; Yun, Jungmin; Park, Sung-Hye; Seo, Jeong-Wook; Park, Peom

2014-01-01

It is necessary to improve the pathology workflow. A workflow task analysis was performed using a pathology picture archiving and communication system (pathology PACS) in order to propose a user interface for the Pathology PACS considering user experience. An interface analysis of the Pathology PACS in Seoul National University Hospital and a task analysis of the pathology workflow were performed by observing recorded video. Based on obtained results, a user interface for the Pathology PACS was proposed. Hierarchical task analysis of Pathology PACS was classified into 17 tasks including 1) pre-operation, 2) text, 3) images, 4) medical record viewer, 5) screen transition, 6) pathology identification number input, 7) admission date input, 8) diagnosis doctor, 9) diagnosis code, 10) diagnosis, 11) pathology identification number check box, 12) presence or absence of images, 13) search, 14) clear, 15) Excel save, 16) search results, and 17) re-search. And frequently used menu items were identified and schematized. A user interface for the Pathology PACS considering user experience could be proposed as a preliminary step, and this study may contribute to the development of medical information systems based on user experience and usability.

LET spectrum measurements in Cr-39 PNTD with AFM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnson, Carl Edward [Los Alamos National Laboratory; De Witt, Joel M [OSU, PHYSICS; Benton, Eric R [OSU, PHYSICS; Yasuda, Nakahiro [NIRS, HIMAC; Benton, Eugene V [UNIV OF SAN FRANCISCO

2010-01-01

Energetic protons, neutrons, and heavy ions undergoing collisions with target nuclei of varying Z can produce residual heavy recoil fragments via intra-nuclear cascade/evaporation reactions. The particles produced in these non-elastic collisions generally have such extremely short range ({approx}< 10 {mu}m) that they cannot be directly observed by conventional detection methods including CR-39 plastic nuclear track detector (PNTD) that has been chemically etched for analysis by standard visible light microscopy. However, high-LET recoil fragments having range on the order of several cell diameters can be produced in tissue during radiotherapy using proton and carbon beams. We have developed a method to analyze short-range, high-LET tracks in CR-39 plastic nuclear track detector (PNTD) using short duration chemical etching ({approx}< 1 {mu}m) followed by automated atomic force microscope (AFM) scanning. The post-scan data processing used in this work was based on semi-automated matrix analysis opposed to traditional grey-scale image analysis. This method takes advantage of the 3-D data obtained via AFM to achieve robust discrimination of nuclear tracks from other features. Through automation of AFM scanning, sufficient AFM scan frames were obtained to attain an LET spectrum spanning the LET range from 200-1500 keV/{mu}m. In addition to our experiments, simulations were carried out with the Monte Carlo transport code, FLUKA. To demonstrate this method, CR-39 PNTD was exposed to the proton therapy beam at Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) at 60 and 230 MeV. Additionally, detectors were exposed to I GeV protons at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). For these exposures CR-39 PNTD, Al and Cu target foils were used between detector layers.

LET spectrum measurements in Cr-39 PNTD with AFM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, Carl Edward; DeWitt, Joel M.; Benton, Eric R.; Yasuda, Nakahiro; Benton, Eugene V.

2010-01-01

Energetic protons, neutrons, and heavy ions undergoing collisions with target nuclei of varying Z can produce residual heavy recoil fragments via intra-nuclear cascade/evaporation reactions. The particles produced in these non-elastic collisions generally have such extremely short range (∼< 10 μm) that they cannot be directly observed by conventional detection methods including CR-39 plastic nuclear track detector (PNTD) that has been chemically etched for analysis by standard visible light microscopy. However, high-LET recoil fragments having range on the order of several cell diameters can be produced in tissue during radiotherapy using proton and carbon beams. We have developed a method to analyze short-range, high-LET tracks in CR-39 plastic nuclear track detector (PNTD) using short duration chemical etching (∼< 1 μm) followed by automated atomic force microscope (AFM) scanning. The post-scan data processing used in this work was based on semi-automated matrix analysis opposed to traditional grey-scale image analysis. This method takes advantage of the 3-D data obtained via AFM to achieve robust discrimination of nuclear tracks from other features. Through automation of AFM scanning, sufficient AFM scan frames were obtained to attain an LET spectrum spanning the LET range from 200-1500 keV/μm. In addition to our experiments, simulations were carried out with the Monte Carlo transport code, FLUKA. To demonstrate this method, CR-39 PNTD was exposed to the proton therapy beam at Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) at 60 and 230 MeV. Additionally, detectors were exposed to I GeV protons at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). For these exposures CR-39 PNTD, Al and Cu target foils were used between detector layers.

WE-H-BRA-05: Investigation of LET Spectral Dependence of the Biological Effects of Therapeutic Protons

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guan, F; Bronk, L; Kerr, M; Wang, X; Li, Y; Peeler, C; Sahoo, N; Patel, D; Mirkovic, D; Titt, U; Grosshans, D; Mohan, R [UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: To investigate the dependence of biologic effect (BE) of therapeutic protons on LET spectra by comparing BEs with equal dose-averaged LET (LETd) derived from different LET spectra using high-throughput in vitro clonogenic survival assays. Methods: We used Geant4 to design the relevant experimental setups and perform the dose, LETd, and LET spectra calculations for spot-scanning protons. The clonogenic assay was performed using the H460 lung cancer cell line cultured in 96-well plates. In the first experimental setup (S1), cells were irradiated using 127.4 MeV protons with a 93.22 mm Lucite buildup resulting in a LETd value of 3.4 keV/µm in the cell layer. In the second experimental setup (S2), cells were irradiated by a combination of 127.4 MeV and 136.4 MeV protons with a 96.61 mm Lucite buildup. The LETd values in the cell layer were 11.4 keV/µm and 1.5 keV/µm respectively, but an average LETd of 3.4 keV/µm was obtained by adjusting the relative fluence of each beam. Ten discrete dose levels with 0.5 Gy increments were delivered. Results: In the two setups, the energies or LET spectra were different but resulted in identical LETd values. We quantified the dose contributions from high-LET (≥10 keV/µm, threshold determined by previous experiments) events in the LET spectra separately for these two setups as 3.2% and 10.5%. The biologic effects at each identical dose level yielded statistically significant different survival curves (extra sum-of-squares F-test, P<0.0001). The second setup with a higher contribution from high-LET events exhibited the higher biologic effect with a dose enhancement factor of 1.17±0.03 at 0.10 surviving fraction. Conclusion: The dose-averaged LET may not be an accurate indicator of the biological effects of protons. Detailed LET spectra may need to be considered explicitly to accurately quantify the biologic effects of protons. Funding Support: U19 CA021239-35, R21 CA187484-01 and MDACC-IRG.

Let the Right One In : Motion picture (2008)

OpenAIRE

Buhagiar, Celaine; Lauri Lucente, Gloria

2009-01-01

Twilight: A teenage girl risks everything when she falls in love with a vampire. Let the Right One In: Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.

Cosmic ray LET spectra and doses on board Cosmos-2044 biosatellite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dudkin, V.E.; Kovalev, E.E.; Potapov, Yu.V.

1992-01-01

Results of the experiments on board Cosmos-2044 (Biosatellite 9) are presented. Various nuclear track detectors (NTD) (dielectric, AgCl-based, nuclear emulsions) were used to obtain the LET spectra inside and outside the satellite. The spectra from the different NTDs have proved to be in general agreement. The results of LET spectra calculations using two different models are also presented. The resultant LET distributions are used to calculate the absorbed and equivalent doses and the orbit-averaged quality factors (QF) of the cosmic rays (CR). Absorbed dose rates inside (∼ 20 g cm -2 shielding) and outside (1 g cm -2 ) the spacecraft, omitting electrons, were found to be 4.8 and 8.6 mrad d -1 , respectively, while the corresponding equivalent doses were 8.8 and 19.7 mrem d -1 . The effects of the flight parameters on the total fluence of, and on the dose from, the CR particles are analyzed. Integral dose distributions of the detected particles are also determined. The LET values which separate absorbed and equivalent doses into 50% intervals are estimated. The CR-39 dielectric NTD is shown to detect 20-30% of the absorbed dose and 60-70% of the equivalent dose in the Cosmos-2044 orbit. The influence of solar activity phase on the magnitude of the CR flux is discussed. (author)

Let Me Relax: Toward Automated Sedentary State Recognition and Ubiquitous Mental Wellness Solutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vijay Rajanna

2018-12-01

Full Text Available Advances in ubiquitous computing technology improve workplace productivity, reduce physical exertion, but ultimately result in a sedentary work style. Sedentary behavior is associated with an increased risk of stress, obesity, and other health complications. Let Me Relax is a fully automated sedentary-state recognition framework using a smartwatch and smartphone, which encourages mental wellness through interventions in the form of simple relaxation techniques. The system was evaluated through a comparative user study of 22 participants split into a test and a control group. An analysis of NASA Task Load Index pre- and post- study survey revealed that test subjects who followed relaxation methods, showed a trend of both increased activity as well as reduced mental stress. Reduced mental stress was found even in those test subjects that had increased inactivity. These results suggest that repeated interventions, driven by an intelligent activity recognition system, is an effective strategy for promoting healthy habits, which reduce stress, anxiety, and other health risks associated with sedentary workplaces.

Bevatron/Bevalac user's handbook: biology and medicine. Revision

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1985-04-01

The Bevalac Biomedical Facility develops a source of near-relativistic heavy ions for applications to radiation biology, radiation therapy and diagnostic radiology. Pulsed beams of high LET heavy ions with variable pulse width, frequency, intensity and energy are produced and delivered to the Biomedical Facility by the Bevatron/Bevalac accelerator complex. Dosimetry equipment under computer control provides accurate determinations of absorbed doses in all regions of the Bragg curve. Depth-dose modifying devices and precise specimen positioning equipment are available. Animal housing and tissue culture facilities are convenient to the experimenter. This handbook is designed to provide the user with the relevant information for planning, proposing and executing an experiment

Dosimetry and microdosimetry using LET spectrometer based on the track-etch detector: radiotherapy Bremsstrahlung beam, onboard aircraft radiation field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jadrnickova, I.; Spurny, F.

2006-01-01

The spectrometer of linear energy transfer (Let) based on the chemically etched poly-allyl-diglycol-carbonate (P.A.D.C.) track-etch detector was developed several years ago in our institute. This Let spectrometer enables determining Let of particles approximately from 10 to 700 keV/μm. From the Let spectra, dose characteristics can be calculated. The contribution presents the Let spectra and other dosimetric characteristics obtained onboard a commercial aircraft during more than 6 months long exposure and in the 18 MV radiotherapy Bremsstrahlung beam. (authors)

High-LET particle dosimetry in the ASTP-Biostack III: Zea mays experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peterson, D.D.; Benton, E.V.; Tran, M.; Yang, T.; Freeling, M.; Craise, L.; Tobias, C.A.

1977-01-01

High-LET particle hits in embryos of Zea mays (corn) seeds, flown as part of the ASTP-Biostack III, were determined via plastic nuclear track detectors. Based on etched particle-tracks measurements, 41 embryos were hit in seed layer 1 which contained 80 seeds, and 49 hits occurred in layer 2 which contained 79 seeds. The mean LET value and range of atomic numbers of recorded hits is, respectively, 210 +- 57 keV/μm and 9 approximately less than Z approximately less than 26. Detailed analysis of one particular seed showing marked growth anomalies revealed two hits in the central region of the embryo. These two hits had LET values in the region of 100 to 150 keV/μm, and Z less than approximately 20. (author)

Chemical protection from high LET radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ando, Koichi; Koike, Sachiko; Matsushita, Satoru; Kanai, Tatsuaki; Ohara, Hiroshi

1992-01-01

Radioprotection by WR151327 from high LET fast neutrons was investigated and compared with that from low LET radiation. Radiation damage in bone marrow, intestine, skin and leg length were all protected by a pretreatment with 400 mg/kg WR151327. Most prominent protection was observed for bone marrow, which gave a Dose Modifying Factor (DMF) of 2.2 against γ rays. Identical protection was observed between early and late radiation damage. WR151327 protected fast neutrons less efficiently than γ rays; 40% for bone marrow and 80% for skin leg. Pathological findings indicated that hyperplastic change in both dermis and epidermis associated with late skin shrinkage. Laser doppler flow-metry showed a good relationship between reduction of blood flow and late skin shrinkage. Irradiation of skin by heavy particle Carbon-12 indicated that skin shrinkage was modified by unirradiated surrounding normal tissues, which proposed a significant role of 'Volume Effect' in radiation damage. Tumor tissues were less protected by WR151327 than normal tissues. Dependence of radioprotection by WR151327 on tissue oxygen concentration is a probable reason to explain the difference between normal and tumor tissues. (author)

Assessing the User Experience of E-Books in Academic Libraries

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Tao; Niu, Xi; Promann, Marlen

2017-01-01

We report findings from an assessment of e-book user experience (search and information seeking) from usage data and user tests. The usage data showed that most reading sessions were brief and focused on certain pages, suggesting that users mainly use e-books to find specific information. The user tests found that participants tended to use…

Search pattern of databases by the undergraduate students of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The main objective of this study is to assess the awareness and search pattern of databases in order to determine the extent to which user are aware and search for databases by examining the relationship between their Awareness and search patterns of Databases, and their information literacy skills. The methodology ...

Nonspeech audio in user interfaces for TV

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sluis, van de Richard; Eggen, J.H.; Rypkema, J.A.

1997-01-01

This study explores the end-user benefits of using nonspeech audio in television user interfaces. A prototype of an Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) served as a carrier for the research. One of the features of this EPG is the possibility to search for TV programmes in a category-based way. The EPG

Let-7a is a direct EWS-FLI-1 target implicated in Ewing's sarcoma development.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudio De Vito

Full Text Available Ewing's sarcoma family tumors (ESFT are the second most common bone malignancy in children and young adults, characterized by unique chromosomal translocations that in 85% of cases lead to expression of the EWS-FLI-1 fusion protein. EWS-FLI-1 functions as an aberrant transcription factor that can both induce and suppress members of its target gene repertoire. We have recently demonstrated that EWS-FLI-1 can alter microRNA (miRNA expression and that miRNA145 is a direct EWS-FLI-1 target whose suppression is implicated in ESFT development. Here, we use miRNA arrays to compare the global miRNA expression profile of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC and ESFT cell lines, and show that ESFT display a distinct miRNA signature that includes induction of the oncogenic miRNA 17-92 cluster and repression of the tumor suppressor let-7 family. We demonstrate that direct repression of let-7a by EWS-FLI-1 participates in the tumorigenic potential of ESFT cells in vivo. The mechanism whereby let-7a expression regulates ESFT growth is shown to be mediated by its target gene HMGA2, as let-7a overexpression and HMGA2 repression both block ESFT cell tumorigenicity. Consistent with these observations, systemic delivery of synthetic let-7a into ESFT-bearing mice restored its expression in tumor cells, decreased HMGA2 expression levels and resulted in ESFT growth inhibition in vivo. Our observations provide evidence that deregulation of let-7a target gene expression participates in ESFT development and identify let-7a as promising new therapeutic target for one of the most aggressive pediatric malignancies.

Revitalizing the Library OPAC: Interface, Searching, and Display Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jia Mi

2008-03-01

Full Text Available The behavior of academic library users has drastically changed in recent years. Internet search engines have become the preferred tool over the library online public access catalog (OPAC for finding information. Libraries are losing ground to online search engines. In this paper, two aspects of OPAC use are studied: (1 the current OPAC interface and searching capabilities, and (2 the OPAC bibliographic display. The purpose of the study is to find answers to the following questions: Why is the current OPAC ineffective? What can libraries and librarians do to deliver an OPAC that is as good as search engines to better serve our users? Revitalizing the library OPAC is one of the pressing issues that has to be accomplished.

Support Services for Remote Users of Online Public Access Catalogs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalin, Sally W.

1991-01-01

Discusses the needs of remote users of online public access catalogs (OPACs). User expectations are discussed; problems encountered by remote-access users are examined, including technical problems and searching problems; support services are described, including instruction, print guides, and online help; and differences from the needs of…

Mouse fecal microbiome after exposure to high LET radiation

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Space travel is associated with continuous low-dose-rate exposure to high Linear Energy Transfer (LET) radiation. Pathophysiological manifestations after low-dose...

Enhancing discovery in spatial data infrastructures using a search engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paolo Corti

2018-05-01

Full Text Available A spatial data infrastructure (SDI is a framework of geospatial data, metadata, users and tools intended to provide an efficient and flexible way to use spatial information. One of the key software components of an SDI is the catalogue service which is needed to discover, query and manage the metadata. Catalogue services in an SDI are typically based on the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW standard which defines common interfaces for accessing the metadata information. A search engine is a software system capable of supporting fast and reliable search, which may use ‘any means necessary’ to get users to the resources they need quickly and efficiently. These techniques may include full text search, natural language processing, weighted results, fuzzy tolerance results, faceting, hit highlighting, recommendations and many others. In this paper we present an example of a search engine being added to an SDI to improve search against large collections of geospatial datasets. The Centre for Geographic Analysis (CGA at Harvard University re-engineered the search component of its public domain SDI (Harvard WorldMap which is based on the GeoNode platform. A search engine was added to the SDI stack to enhance the CSW catalogue discovery abilities. It is now possible to discover spatial datasets from metadata by using the standard search operations of the catalogue and to take advantage of the new abilities of the search engine, to return relevant and reliable content to SDI users.

Oxygen as a product of water radiolysis in high-LET tracks. II. Radiobiological implications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baverstock, K.F.; Burns, W.G.

1981-01-01

Consideration is given to the possibility that molecular oxygen generated in the tracks of energetic heavy ions is responsible for the reduction in oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) with increasing linear energy transfer (LET) observed for the loss of reproductive capacity caused by radiation in many cellular organisms. Yields of oxygen relationship of OER to LET for two organisms, Chlamydomonas reinhardii and Shigella flexneri, using a simple diffusion kinetic model for radiobiological action which takes account of the diffusion of oxygen after its formation. The results of these calculations show that the model accounts well for the shape of the OER vs. LET relationship

Analysis of mutagenic effects induced by carbon beams at different LET in a red yeast strain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun Haining; Wang Jufang; Ma Shuang; Lu Dong; Wu Xin; Li Wenjian

2011-01-01

To evaluate inactive and mutagenic effects of carbon beam at different LET, the inactivation cross section and mutation cross section induced by carbon beams of different LET values were investigated in a red yeast strain Rhodotorula glutinis AY 91015. It was found that the maximum inactivation cross section of 4.37μm 2 , which was very close to the average nucleus cross section, was at LET of 120.0 keV/μm. The maximum mutation cross section was at LET of 96.0 keV/μm. Meanwhile, the highest mutagenicity of carbon ion was found around 58.2 keV/μm. It implied that the most efficient LET to induce mutation in survival yeasts was 58.2 keV/μm, which corresponded to energy of 35 MeV/u carbon beam. The most effective carbon beam to induce inactivation and mutation located at different energy region. (authors)

LET’s start new a LETS: Learning from a case-study investigation in Brno, Czech Republic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lukáš Kala

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper brings information about the operation of RozLEŤSe, a LETS (Local Exchange Trading System network, based inBrno. LETS are parallel sustainable monetary systems, in which local community networks attempt to extricate themselves from the international economy by using their own currency. LETS is supposed to promote sustainable development by localising economic development. Although, there used to be several LETS group in the Czech Republic, all of them vanished during the first few years of the new millennium.  RozLEŤSe was built from the remains of former LETS groups. Hence, the aim of this study is to determine possible threats to the future existence of the group and evaluate its current operations. This research is a sociological case study investigation examining the socio-demographic characteristics, motivations and organisational functioning of the group. We point out some serious threats to the group (lack of supply, growth in negative credit, decrease in trust and offer possible solutions. 

Multiple-Objective Stepwise Calibration Using Luca

Science.gov (United States)

Hay, Lauren E.; Umemoto, Makiko

2007-01-01

This report documents Luca (Let us calibrate), a multiple-objective, stepwise, automated procedure for hydrologic model calibration and the associated graphical user interface (GUI). Luca is a wizard-style user-friendly GUI that provides an easy systematic way of building and executing a calibration procedure. The calibration procedure uses the Shuffled Complex Evolution global search algorithm to calibrate any model compiled with the U.S. Geological Survey's Modular Modeling System. This process assures that intermediate and final states of the model are simulated consistently with measured values.

Cooperative interplay of let-7 mimic and HuR with MYC RNA.

Science.gov (United States)

Gunzburg, Menachem J; Sivakumaran, Andrew; Pendini, Nicole R; Yoon, Je-Hyun; Gorospe, Myriam; Wilce, Matthew C J; Wilce, Jacqueline A

2015-01-01

Both RNA-binding proteins (RBP) and miRNA play important roles in the regulation of mRNA expression, often acting together to regulate a target mRNA. In some cases the RBP and miRNA have been reported to act competitively, but in other instances they function cooperatively. Here, we investigated HuR function as an enhancer of let-7-mediated translational repression of c-Myc despite the separation of their binding sites. Using an in vitro system, we determined that a let-7 mimic, consisting of single-stranded (ss)DNA complementary to the let-7 binding site, enhanced the affinity of HuR for a 122-nt MYC RNA encompassing both binding sites. This finding supports the biophysical principle of cooperative binding by an RBP and miRNA purely through interactions at distal mRNA binding sites.

Depth-Dose and LET Distributions of Antiproton Beams in Various Target Materials

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Herrmann, Rochus; Olsen, Sune; Petersen, Jørgen B.B.

the annihilation process. Materials We have investigated the impact of substituting the target material on  the depth-dose distribution of pristine and  spread out antiproton beams using the FLUKA Monte Carlo transport program. Classical ICRP targets are compared to water phantoms. In addition, track average...... unrestricted LET is calculated for all configurations. Finally, we investigate which concentrations of gadolinium and boron are needed in a water target in order to observe a significant change in the antiproton depth-dose distribution.  Results Results indicate, that there is no significant change...... in the depth-dose distribution and average LET when substituting the materials. Adding boron and gadolinium up to concentrations of 1 per 1000 atoms to a water phantom, did not change the depth-dose profile nor the average LET. Conclusions  According to our FLUKA calculations, antiproton neutron capture...

Analyzing the Influence of Language Proficiency on Interactive Book Search Behavior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bogers, Toine; Gäde, Maria; Hall, Mark M.

2016-01-01

English content still dominates in many online domains and information systems, despite native English speakers being a minority of its users. However, we know little about how language proficiency influences search behavior in these systems. In this paper, we describe preliminary results from an...... language constraints, a preliminary analysis of native and non-native English speakers indicate little to no meaningful differences in their search behavior.......English content still dominates in many online domains and information systems, despite native English speakers being a minority of its users. However, we know little about how language proficiency influences search behavior in these systems. In this paper, we describe preliminary results from...... an interactive IR experiment with book search behavior and examine how language skills affect this behavior. A total of 97 users from 21 different countries participated in this experiment, resulting in a rich data set including usage data as well as questionnaire feedback. Although participants reported feeling...

PubChem Power User Gateway (PUG)

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — PUG provides access to PubChem services via a programmatic interface. Users may download data, initiate chemical structure searches, standardize chemical structures...

The effective use of search engines on the Internet.

Science.gov (United States)

Younger, P

This article explains how nurses can get the most out of researching information on the internet using the search engine Google. It also explores some of the other types of search engines that are available. Internet users are shown how to find text, images and reports and search within sites. Copyright issues are also discussed.

Internal high linear energy transfer (LET) targeted radiotherapy for cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allen, Barry J

2006-01-01

High linear energy transfer (LET) radiation for internal targeted therapy has been a long time coming on to the medical therapy scene. While fundamental principles were established many decades ago, the clinical implementation has been slow. Localized neutron capture therapy, and more recently systemic targeted alpha therapy, are at the clinical trial stage. What are the attributes of these therapies that have led a band of scientists and clinicians to dedicate so much of their careers? High LET means high energy density, causing double strand breaks in DNA, and short-range radiation, sparing adjacent normal tissues. This targeted approach complements conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Such therapies fail on several fronts. Foremost is the complete lack of progress for the control of primary GBM, the holy grail for cancer therapies. Next is the inability to regress metastatic cancer on a systemic basis. This has been the task of chemotherapy, but palliation is the major application. Finally, there is the inability to inhibit the development of lethal metastatic cancer after successful treatment of the primary cancer. This review charts, from an Australian perspective, the developing role of local and systemic high LET, internal radiation therapy. (review)

Expression of hsa Let-7a MicroRNA of Macrophages Infected by Leishmania Major

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nooshin Hashemi

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Leishmaniasis is a vector-born disease caused by species of the genus Leishmania and is transmitted from host to host through the bite of an infected sandfly. MicroRNAs (miRNAs are non-coding small RNAs with 22-nucleotide length. They are involved in some biological and cellular processes. We aimed to evaluate the expression of let-7a in human macrophages miRNA when are infected by Leishmania major. We also evaluated the impact of Leishmania major infection on the expression of let-7a at two different times, 24 and 48 hours, after infection. Blood samples were collected from ten healthy volunteers with no history of leishmaniasis. Development of macrophages from peripheral monocytes and infection with stationary phase of Leishmania major promastigotes were done through serial cultures under 5% CO2 environment and 37C. To measure the expression levels of let-7a real-time PCR was performed with specific related primers using the SYBR® Green master mix Kit™. The real-time PCR showed let-7a was expressed in cells infected with parasites after 24 and 48h post-infection. Comparison of let-7a miRNA expression after 24 and 48 h revealed that let-7a miRNAs were down-regulated at 48 h post-infection more than 24h after infection. The results of this study suggest that according to the main function of miRNA in repression of mRNA translation it could be possible to manipulate host cells in order to alter miRNA levels and regulate macrophage functions after establishment of intracellular parasites such as Leishmania.

End-Users: Dreams or Dollars.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Stephen E.

1987-01-01

Examines strategies for marketing online searching to new users, discusses reasons why people become online searchers, and presents data on the business information market. The pricing issue and special librarians as a market segment are also considered. (EM)

Managing Online Search Statistics with dBASE III Plus.

Science.gov (United States)

Speer, Susan C.

1987-01-01

Describes a computer program designed to manage statistics about online searches which reports the number of searches by vendor, purpose, and librarian; calculates charges to departments and individuals; and prints monthly invoices to users with standing accounts. (CLB)

Vind(x): Using the user through cooperative annotation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Williams, A.D.; Vuurpijl, Louis; Schomaker, Lambert; van den Broek, Egon

2002-01-01

In this paper, the image retrieval system Vind(x) is described. The architecture of the system and first user experiences are reported. Using Vind(x), users on the Internet may cooperatively annotate objects in paintings by use of the pen or mouse. The collected data can be searched through

PIE the search: searching PubMed literature for protein interaction information.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sun; Kwon, Dongseop; Shin, Soo-Yong; Wilbur, W John

2012-02-15

Finding protein-protein interaction (PPI) information from literature is challenging but an important issue. However, keyword search in PubMed(®) is often time consuming because it requires a series of actions that refine keywords and browse search results until it reaches a goal. Due to the rapid growth of biomedical literature, it has become more difficult for biologists and curators to locate PPI information quickly. Therefore, a tool for prioritizing PPI informative articles can be a useful assistant for finding this PPI-relevant information. PIE (Protein Interaction information Extraction) the search is a web service implementing a competition-winning approach utilizing word and syntactic analyses by machine learning techniques. For easy user access, PIE the search provides a PubMed-like search environment, but the output is the list of articles prioritized by PPI confidence scores. By obtaining PPI-related articles at high rank, researchers can more easily find the up-to-date PPI information, which cannot be found in manually curated PPI databases. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/IRET/PIE/.

PIA: An Intuitive Protein Inference Engine with a Web-Based User Interface.

Science.gov (United States)

Uszkoreit, Julian; Maerkens, Alexandra; Perez-Riverol, Yasset; Meyer, Helmut E; Marcus, Katrin; Stephan, Christian; Kohlbacher, Oliver; Eisenacher, Martin

2015-07-02

Protein inference connects the peptide spectrum matches (PSMs) obtained from database search engines back to proteins, which are typically at the heart of most proteomics studies. Different search engines yield different PSMs and thus different protein lists. Analysis of results from one or multiple search engines is often hampered by different data exchange formats and lack of convenient and intuitive user interfaces. We present PIA, a flexible software suite for combining PSMs from different search engine runs and turning these into consistent results. PIA can be integrated into proteomics data analysis workflows in several ways. A user-friendly graphical user interface can be run either locally or (e.g., for larger core facilities) from a central server. For automated data processing, stand-alone tools are available. PIA implements several established protein inference algorithms and can combine results from different search engines seamlessly. On several benchmark data sets, we show that PIA can identify a larger number of proteins at the same protein FDR when compared to that using inference based on a single search engine. PIA supports the majority of established search engines and data in the mzIdentML standard format. It is implemented in Java and freely available at https://github.com/mpc-bioinformatics/pia.

Searching Process with Raita Algorithm and its Application

Science.gov (United States)

Rahim, Robbi; Saleh Ahmar, Ansari; Abdullah, Dahlan; Hartama, Dedy; Napitupulu, Darmawan; Putera Utama Siahaan, Andysah; Hasan Siregar, Muhammad Noor; Nasution, Nurliana; Sundari, Siti; Sriadhi, S.

2018-04-01

Searching is a common process performed by many computer users, Raita algorithm is one algorithm that can be used to match and find information in accordance with the patterns entered. Raita algorithm applied to the file search application using java programming language and the results obtained from the testing process of the file search quickly and with accurate results and support many data types.

Embracing service user involvement in radiotherapy education: A discussion paper

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hill, Gareth; Thompson, Gillian; Willis, Susan; Hodgson, Denyse

2014-01-01

Aim: There is currently a drive within cancer services to incorporate user involvement in delivery and education, as such the aim of this article is to investigate the potential role of service users in pre-registration education and how this could impact on radiotherapy programmes. Method: Key databases were searched for terms: patient participation, service user involvement, health care education, student assessment, patient involvement, pre-registration education and training. Suitable literature was reviewed and references within all articles and documents were investigated to ensure as broad and an inclusive search possible. Results: There is little published literature indicating user involvement in radiotherapy education but many studies in nursing, medicine and other allied health professions indicate a rationale for user involvement. Discussion: There are benefits of involving service users, i.e. gaining insight from patients and carers perspectives, challenges stereotypes and assumptions. Disadvantages include the quality of the feedback from users in assessment, resources required, and the ethical considerations. Conclusion: Inclusion of service users in radiotherapy education is recommended in line with cancer care policy, they provide a unique perspective to learning and involvement should be encouraged

Academic search in response to major scientific events

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, X.; de Rijke, M.

2017-01-01

In this paper, we look at the search behavior of users of an academic search engine and in particular, their query patterns following the occurrence of major scientific events. We select Nobel Prize announcements as major scientific events and observe how academic searchers behave in response to

Search engines and the production of academic knowledge

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Dijck, J.

2010-01-01

This article argues that search engines in general, and Google Scholar in particular, have become significant co-producers of academic knowledge. Knowledge is not simply conveyed to users, but is co-produced by search engines’ ranking systems and profiling systems, none of which are open to the

Microglial-derived miRNA let-7 and HMGB1 contribute to ethanol-induced neurotoxicity via TLR7.

Science.gov (United States)

Coleman, Leon G; Zou, Jian; Crews, Fulton T

2017-01-25

Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling is emerging as an important component of neurodegeneration. TLR7 senses viral RNA and certain endogenous miRNAs to initiate innate immune responses leading to neurodegeneration. Alcoholism is associated with hippocampal degeneration, with preclinical studies linking ethanol-induced neurodegeneration with central innate immune induction and TLR activation. The endogenous miRNA let-7b binds TLR7 to cause neurodegeneration. TLR7 and other immune markers were assessed in postmortem human hippocampal tissue that was obtained from the New South Wales Tissue Bank. Rat hippocampal-entorhinal cortex (HEC) slice culture was used to assess specific effects of ethanol on TLR7, let-7b, and microvesicles. We report here that hippocampal tissue from postmortem human alcoholic brains shows increased expression of TLR7 and increased microglial activation. Using HEC slice culture, we found that ethanol induces TLR7 and let-7b expression. Ethanol caused TLR7-associated neuroimmune gene induction and initiated the release let-7b in microvesicles (MVs), enhancing TLR7-mediated neurotoxicity. Further, ethanol increased let-7b binding to the danger signaling molecule high mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) in MVs, while reducing let-7 binding to classical chaperone protein argonaute (Ago2). Flow cytometric analysis of MVs from HEC media and analysis of MVs from brain cell culture lines found that microglia were the primary source of let-7b and HMGB1-containing MVs. Our results identify that ethanol induces neuroimmune pathology involving the release of let-7b/HMGB1 complexes in microglia-derived microvesicles. This contributes to hippocampal neurodegeneration and may play a role in the pathology of alcoholism.

Metadata: A user`s view

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bretherton, F.P. [Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Singley, P.T. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)

1994-12-31

An analysis is presented of the uses of metadata from four aspects of database operations: (1) search, query, retrieval, (2) ingest, quality control, processing, (3) application to application transfer; (4) storage, archive. Typical degrees of database functionality ranging from simple file retrieval to interdisciplinary global query with metadatabase-user dialog and involving many distributed autonomous databases, are ranked in approximate order of increasing sophistication of the required knowledge representation. An architecture is outlined for implementing such functionality in many different disciplinary domains utilizing a variety of off the shelf database management subsystems and processor software, each specialized to a different abstract data model.

Systems Analysis, Machineable Circulation Data and Library Users and Non-Users.

Science.gov (United States)

Lubans, John, Jr.

A study to be made with computer-based circulation data of the non-use and use of a large academic library is discussed. A search of the literature reveals that computer-based circulation systems can be, but have not been, utilized to provide data bases for systematic analyses of library users and resources. The data gathered in the circulation…

Information Retrieval for Education: Making Search Engines Language Aware

Science.gov (United States)

Ott, Niels; Meurers, Detmar

2010-01-01

Search engines have been a major factor in making the web the successful and widely used information source it is today. Generally speaking, they make it possible to retrieve web pages on a topic specified by the keywords entered by the user. Yet web searching currently does not take into account which of the search results are comprehensible for…

Subject Access Problems of Different Types of OPAC Users Or, the Double Challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

Cochrane, Pauline A.

1989-01-01

Reviews the problems of users of online public access catalogs and argues that it is necessary to think of all searching problems as systems problems rather than user failures, and to concentrate research in the area of systems enhancements. A list of improved tools needed for subject searching in online catalogs is identified. (CLB)

Personalized Profile Based Search Interface With Ranked and Clustered Display

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Kumar, Sachin; Oztekin, B. U; Ertoz, Levent; Singhal, Saurabh; Han, Euihong; Kumar, Vipin

2001-01-01

We have developed an experimental meta-search engine, which takes the snippets from traditional search engines and presents them to the user either in the form of clusters, indices or re-ranked list...

Is searching full text more effective than searching abstracts?

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jimmy

2009-02-03

With the growing availability of full-text articles online, scientists and other consumers of the life sciences literature now have the ability to go beyond searching bibliographic records (title, abstract, metadata) to directly access full-text content. Motivated by this emerging trend, I posed the following question: is searching full text more effective than searching abstracts? This question is answered by comparing text retrieval algorithms on MEDLINE abstracts, full-text articles, and spans (paragraphs) within full-text articles using data from the TREC 2007 genomics track evaluation. Two retrieval models are examined: bm25 and the ranking algorithm implemented in the open-source Lucene search engine. Experiments show that treating an entire article as an indexing unit does not consistently yield higher effectiveness compared to abstract-only search. However, retrieval based on spans, or paragraphs-sized segments of full-text articles, consistently outperforms abstract-only search. Results suggest that highest overall effectiveness may be achieved by combining evidence from spans and full articles. Users searching full text are more likely to find relevant articles than searching only abstracts. This finding affirms the value of full text collections for text retrieval and provides a starting point for future work in exploring algorithms that take advantage of rapidly-growing digital archives. Experimental results also highlight the need to develop distributed text retrieval algorithms, since full-text articles are significantly longer than abstracts and may require the computational resources of multiple machines in a cluster. The MapReduce programming model provides a convenient framework for organizing such computations.

Is searching full text more effective than searching abstracts?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lin Jimmy

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background With the growing availability of full-text articles online, scientists and other consumers of the life sciences literature now have the ability to go beyond searching bibliographic records (title, abstract, metadata to directly access full-text content. Motivated by this emerging trend, I posed the following question: is searching full text more effective than searching abstracts? This question is answered by comparing text retrieval algorithms on MEDLINE® abstracts, full-text articles, and spans (paragraphs within full-text articles using data from the TREC 2007 genomics track evaluation. Two retrieval models are examined: bm25 and the ranking algorithm implemented in the open-source Lucene search engine. Results Experiments show that treating an entire article as an indexing unit does not consistently yield higher effectiveness compared to abstract-only search. However, retrieval based on spans, or paragraphs-sized segments of full-text articles, consistently outperforms abstract-only search. Results suggest that highest overall effectiveness may be achieved by combining evidence from spans and full articles. Conclusion Users searching full text are more likely to find relevant articles than searching only abstracts. This finding affirms the value of full text collections for text retrieval and provides a starting point for future work in exploring algorithms that take advantage of rapidly-growing digital archives. Experimental results also highlight the need to develop distributed text retrieval algorithms, since full-text articles are significantly longer than abstracts and may require the computational resources of multiple machines in a cluster. The MapReduce programming model provides a convenient framework for organizing such computations.

A fuzzy-match search engine for physician directories.

Science.gov (United States)

Rastegar-Mojarad, Majid; Kadolph, Christopher; Ye, Zhan; Wall, Daniel; Murali, Narayana; Lin, Simon

2014-11-04

A search engine to find physicians' information is a basic but crucial function of a health care provider's website. Inefficient search engines, which return no results or incorrect results, can lead to patient frustration and potential customer loss. A search engine that can handle misspellings and spelling variations of names is needed, as the United States (US) has culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse names. The Marshfield Clinic website provides a search engine for users to search for physicians' names. The current search engine provides an auto-completion function, but it requires an exact match. We observed that 26% of all searches yielded no results. The goal was to design a fuzzy-match algorithm to aid users in finding physicians easier and faster. Instead of an exact match search, we used a fuzzy algorithm to find similar matches for searched terms. In the algorithm, we solved three types of search engine failures: "Typographic", "Phonetic spelling variation", and "Nickname". To solve these mismatches, we used a customized Levenshtein distance calculation that incorporated Soundex coding and a lookup table of nicknames derived from US census data. Using the "Challenge Data Set of Marshfield Physician Names," we evaluated the accuracy of fuzzy-match engine-top ten (90%) and compared it with exact match (0%), Soundex (24%), Levenshtein distance (59%), and fuzzy-match engine-top one (71%). We designed, created a reference implementation, and evaluated a fuzzy-match search engine for physician directories. The open-source code is available at the codeplex website and a reference implementation is available for demonstration at the datamarsh website.

Let-7i attenuates human brain microvascular endothelial cell damage in oxygen glucose deprivation model by decreasing toll-like receptor 4 expression.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiang, Wei; Tian, Canhui; Peng, Shunli; Zhou, Liang; Pan, Suyue; Deng, Zhen

2017-11-04

The let-7 family of microRNAs (miRNAs) plays an important role on endothelial cell function. However, there have been few studies on their role under ischemic conditions. In this study, we demonstrate that let-7i, belonging to the let-7 family, rescues human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMECs) in an oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) model. Our data show that the expression of let-7 family miRNAs was downregulated after OGD. Overexpression of let-7i significantly alleviated cell death and improved survival of OGD-treated HBMECs. Let-7i also protected permeability in an in vitro blood brain barrier (BBB) model. Further, let-7i downregulated the expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), an inflammation trigger. Moreover, overexpression of let-7i decreased matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP9) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression under OGD. Upon silencing TLR4 expression in HBMECs, the anti-inflammatory effect of let-7i was abolished. Our research suggests that let-7i promotes OGD-induced inflammation via downregulating TLR4 expression. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ionization chambers for LET determination

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kaiser, Franz-Joachim; Bassler, Niels; Tölli, Heikki

2010-01-01

resolution and high sensitivity are necessary. For exact dosimetry which is done using ionization chambers (ICs), the recombination taking place in the IC has to be known. Up to now, recombination is corrected phenomenologically and more practical approaches are currently used. Nevertheless, Jaff´e's theory...... of columnar recombination was designed to model the detector efficiency of an ionization chamber. Here, we have shown that despite the approximations and simplification made, the theory is correct for the LETs typically found in clinical radiotherapy employing particles from protons to carbon ions...

Google Search Queries About Neurosurgical Topics: Are They a Suitable Guide for Neurosurgeons?

Science.gov (United States)

Lawson McLean, Anna C; Lawson McLean, Aaron; Kalff, Rolf; Walter, Jan

2016-06-01

Google is the most popular search engine, with about 100 billion searches per month. Google Trends is an integrated tool that allows users to obtain Google's search popularity statistics from the last decade. Our aim was to evaluate whether Google Trends is a useful tool to assess the public's interest in specific neurosurgical topics. We evaluated Google Trends statistics for the neurosurgical search topic areas "hydrocephalus," "spinal stenosis," "concussion," "vestibular schwannoma," and "cerebral arteriovenous malformation." We compared these with bibliometric data from PubMed and epidemiologic data from the German Federal Monitoring Agency. In addition, we assessed Google users' search behavior for the search terms "glioblastoma" and "meningioma." Over the last 10 years, there has been an increasing interest in the topic "concussion" from Internet users in general and scientists. "Spinal stenosis," "concussion," and "vestibular schwannoma" are topics that are of special interest in high-income countries (eg, Germany), whereas "hydrocephalus" is a popular topic in low- and middle-income countries. The Google-defined top searches within these topic areas revealed more detail about people's interests (eg, "normal pressure hydrocephalus" or "football concussion" ranked among the most popular search queries within the corresponding topics). There was a similar volume of queries for "glioblastoma" and "meningioma." Google Trends is a useful source to elicit information about general trends in peoples' health interests and the role of different diseases across the world. The Internet presence of neurosurgical units and surgeons can be guided by online users' interests to achieve high-quality, professional-endorsed patient education. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A grammar checker based on web searching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joaquim Moré

2006-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an English grammar and style checker for non-native English speakers. The main characteristic of this checker is the use of an Internet search engine. As the number of web pages written in English is immense, the system hypothesises that a piece of text not found on the Web is probably badly written. The system also hypothesises that the Web will provide examples of how the content of the text segment can be expressed in a grammatically correct and idiomatic way. Thus, when the checker warns the user about the odd nature of a text segment, the Internet engine searches for contexts that can help the user decide whether he/she should correct the segment or not. By means of a search engine, the checker also suggests use of other expressions that appear on the Web more often than the expression he/she actually wrote.

Hsa-let-7a functions as a tumor suppressor in renal cell carcinoma cell lines by targeting c-myc

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Yongchao; Yin, Bingde; Zhang, Changcun; Zhou, Libin [Department of Urology, Shanghai First People' s Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200080 (China); Fan, Jie, E-mail: jief67@sina.com [Department of Urology, Shanghai First People' s Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200080 (China)

2012-01-06

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer This study is the first to test the let-7a/c-myc loop in renal cell carcinoma cell lines. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Let-7a down-regulated c-myc in three renal cell carcinoma cell lines. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer c-myc target genes were down-regulated because of the let-7a-mediated down-regulation of c-myc. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The let-7a/c-myc loop has a significant function in renal cell carcinoma cell lines. -- Abstract: Widespread functions of the c-myc pathway play a crucial role in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) carcinogenesis. Thus, we evaluated the connection between proto-oncogenic c-myc and anti-neoplastic hsa-let-7a (let-7a) in RCC cell lines. The levels of c-myc and let-7a in 3 RCC cell lines (769P, Caki-1 and 786O) were measured after transfecting the cells with let-7a mimics or a negative control. The change in c-myc protein level was confirmed by Western blot. The anti-neoplastic function of let-7a was evaluated using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) for proliferation analysis and cell flow cytometry for cell cycle analysis. The changes of downstream targets of c-myc were measured using reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Our results suggest for the first time that let-7a acts as a tumor suppressor in RCC cell lines by down-regulating c-myc and c-myc target genes such as proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), cyclin D1 (CCND1) and the miR17-92 cluster, which is accompanied by proliferation inhibition and cell cycle arrest.

List search hardware for interpretive software

CERN Document Server

Altaber, Jacques; Mears, B; Rausch, R

1979-01-01

Interpreted languages, e.g. BASIC, are simple to learn, easy to use, quick to modify and in general 'user-friendly'. However, a critically time consuming process during interpretation is that of list searching. A special microprogrammed device for fast list searching has therefore been developed at the SPS Division of CERN. It uses bit- sliced hardware. Fast algorithms perform search, insert and delete of a six-character name and its value in a list of up to 1000 pairs. The prototype shows retrieval times of the order of 10-30 microseconds. (11 refs).

A method for radiobiological investigations in radiation fields with different LET and high dose rates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grundler, W.

1976-01-01

For investigations: 1. Performed in the field of radiobiology with different LET-radiation and a relatively high background dose rate of one component (e.g. investigations with fast and intermediate reactor neutrons) 2. Concerning radiation risk studies within a wide range 3. Of irradiations, covering a long time period (up to 100 days) a test system is necessary which on the one hand makes it possible to analyze the influence of different LET radiation and secondly shows a relative radiation resistant behaviour and allows a simple cell cycle regulation. A survey is given upon the installed device of a simple cell observation method, the biological test system used and the analysis of effects caused by dose, repair and LET. It is possible to analyze the behaviour of the nonsurvival cells and to demonstrate different reactions of the test parameters to the radiation of different LET. (author)

Comparing image search behaviour in the ARRS GoldMiner search engine and a clinical PACS/RIS.

Science.gov (United States)

De-Arteaga, Maria; Eggel, Ivan; Do, Bao; Rubin, Daniel; Kahn, Charles E; Müller, Henning

2015-08-01

Information search has changed the way we manage knowledge and the ubiquity of information access has made search a frequent activity, whether via Internet search engines or increasingly via mobile devices. Medical information search is in this respect no different and much research has been devoted to analyzing the way in which physicians aim to access information. Medical image search is a much smaller domain but has gained much attention as it has different characteristics than search for text documents. While web search log files have been analysed many times to better understand user behaviour, the log files of hospital internal systems for search in a PACS/RIS (Picture Archival and Communication System, Radiology Information System) have rarely been analysed. Such a comparison between a hospital PACS/RIS search and a web system for searching images of the biomedical literature is the goal of this paper. Objectives are to identify similarities and differences in search behaviour of the two systems, which could then be used to optimize existing systems and build new search engines. Log files of the ARRS GoldMiner medical image search engine (freely accessible on the Internet) containing 222,005 queries, and log files of Stanford's internal PACS/RIS search called radTF containing 18,068 queries were analysed. Each query was preprocessed and all query terms were mapped to the RadLex (Radiology Lexicon) terminology, a comprehensive lexicon of radiology terms created and maintained by the Radiological Society of North America, so the semantic content in the queries and the links between terms could be analysed, and synonyms for the same concept could be detected. RadLex was mainly created for the use in radiology reports, to aid structured reporting and the preparation of educational material (Lanlotz, 2006) [1]. In standard medical vocabularies such as MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) and UMLS (Unified Medical Language System) specific terms of radiology are often

Searching with Experience - A Search Engine for Product Information that Learns from its Users

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leeuwen, van J.P.; Jessurun, A.J.; Jansen, G.; Martens, B.; Brown, A.

2005-01-01

This paper describes the motivation and development of a new algorithm for ranking web pages. This development aims to enable the implementation of a search engine that can provide highly personalised results to queries. It was initiated by a request from the Dutch CAD industry, but has generic

HTTP-based Search and Ordering Using ECHO's REST-based and OpenSearch APIs

Science.gov (United States)

Baynes, K.; Newman, D. J.; Pilone, D.

2012-12-01

Metadata is an important entity in the process of cataloging, discovering, and describing Earth science data. NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) ClearingHOuse (ECHO) acts as the core metadata repository for EOSDIS data centers, providing a centralized mechanism for metadata and data discovery and retrieval. By supporting both the ESIP's Federated Search API and its own search and ordering interfaces, ECHO provides multiple capabilities that facilitate ease of discovery and access to its ever-increasing holdings. Users are able to search and export metadata in a variety of formats including ISO 19115, json, and ECHO10. This presentation aims to inform technically savvy clients interested in automating search and ordering of ECHO's metadata catalog. The audience will be introduced to practical and applicable examples of end-to-end workflows that demonstrate finding, sub-setting and ordering data that is bound by keyword, temporal and spatial constraints. Interaction with the ESIP OpenSearch Interface will be highlighted, as will ECHO's own REST-based API.

Effects of estrogen and gender on cataractogenesis induced by high-LET radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Henderson, M.A.; Rusek, A.; Valluri, S.; Garrett, J.; Lopez, J.; Caperell-Grant, A.; Mendonca, M.; Bigsby, R.; Dynlacht, J.

2010-01-01

Planning for long-duration manned lunar and interplanetary missions requires an understanding of radiation-induced cataractogenesis. Previously, it was demonstrated that low-linear energy transfer (LET) irradiation with 10 Gy of 60 Co γ rays resulted in an increased incidence of cataracts in male rats compared to female rats. This gender difference was not due to differences in estrogen, since male rats treated with the major secreted estrogen 17-β-estradiol (E2) showed an identical increase compared to untreated males. We now compare the incidence and rate of progression of cataracts induced by high-LET radiation in male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. Rats received a single dose of 1 Gy of 600 MeV 56 Fe ions. Lens opacification was measured at 2-4 week intervals with a slit lamp. The incidence and rate of progression of radiation-induced cataracts was significantly increased in the animals in which estrogen was available from endogenous or exogenous sources. Male rats with E2 capsules implanted had significantly higher rates of progression compared to male rats with empty capsules implanted (P = 0.025) but not compared to the intact female rats. These results contrast with data obtained after low-LET irradiation and suggest the possibility that the different types of damage caused by high- and low-LET radiation may be influenced differentially by steroid sex hormones.

Search Analytics: Automated Learning, Analysis, and Search with Open Source

Science.gov (United States)

Hundman, K.; Mattmann, C. A.; Hyon, J.; Ramirez, P.

2016-12-01

The sheer volume of unstructured scientific data makes comprehensive human analysis impossible, resulting in missed opportunities to identify relationships, trends, gaps, and outliers. As the open source community continues to grow, tools like Apache Tika, Apache Solr, Stanford's DeepDive, and Data-Driven Documents (D3) can help address this challenge. With a focus on journal publications and conference abstracts often in the form of PDF and Microsoft Office documents, we've initiated an exploratory NASA Advanced Concepts project aiming to use the aforementioned open source text analytics tools to build a data-driven justification for the HyspIRI Decadal Survey mission. We call this capability Search Analytics, and it fuses and augments these open source tools to enable the automatic discovery and extraction of salient information. In the case of HyspIRI, a hyperspectral infrared imager mission, key findings resulted from the extractions and visualizations of relationships from thousands of unstructured scientific documents. The relationships include links between satellites (e.g. Landsat 8), domain-specific measurements (e.g. spectral coverage) and subjects (e.g. invasive species). Using the above open source tools, Search Analytics mined and characterized a corpus of information that would be infeasible for a human to process. More broadly, Search Analytics offers insights into various scientific and commercial applications enabled through missions and instrumentation with specific technical capabilities. For example, the following phrases were extracted in close proximity within a publication: "In this study, hyperspectral images…with high spatial resolution (1 m) were analyzed to detect cutleaf teasel in two areas. …Classification of cutleaf teasel reached a users accuracy of 82 to 84%." Without reading a single paper we can use Search Analytics to automatically identify that a 1 m spatial resolution provides a cutleaf teasel detection users accuracy of 82

An Innovative Approach for online Meta Search Engine Optimization

OpenAIRE

Manral, Jai; Hossain, Mohammed Alamgir

2015-01-01

This paper presents an approach to identify efficient techniques used in Web Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Understanding SEO factors which can influence page ranking in search engine is significant for webmasters who wish to attract large number of users to their website. Different from previous relevant research, in this study we developed an intelligent Meta search engine which aggregates results from various search engines and ranks them based on several important SEO parameters. The r...

LET effect on irradiation of hydroxyphthal imide in alcohol solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakagawa, S.; Murakami, T.

2005-01-01

Hydroxyphthalimide(C 6 H 4 (CO) 2 -NOH) was irradiated with C ion (290MeV/u) in isopropyl alcohol, methanol, ethanol, and acetonitrile. LET was 13.2 and 26.5 keV/m. Dose was 5 and 10 kGy. A little amount of phthalimide was produced. The G value of the production of phthalimide by ion irradiation was less than that by -irradiation except for in methanol. In methanol solution, the production rate of phthalimide increased with increasing the value of LET. The amount of the substitution for C 6 H 4 (CO) 2 -NOD in methanol-d decreased by ion irradiation. These results suggest that the reaction mechanism in ion irradiation is different from -irradiation. (author)

Accessing suicide-related information on the internet: a retrospective observational study of search behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Paul Wai-Ching; Fu, King-Wa; Yau, Rickey Sai-Pong; Ma, Helen Hei-Man; Law, Yik-Wa; Chang, Shu-Sen; Yip, Paul Siu-Fai

2013-01-11

The Internet's potential impact on suicide is of major public health interest as easy online access to pro-suicide information or specific suicide methods may increase suicide risk among vulnerable Internet users. Little is known, however, about users' actual searching and browsing behaviors of online suicide-related information. To investigate what webpages people actually clicked on after searching with suicide-related queries on a search engine and to examine what queries people used to get access to pro-suicide websites. A retrospective observational study was done. We used a web search dataset released by America Online (AOL). The dataset was randomly sampled from all AOL subscribers' web queries between March and May 2006 and generated by 657,000 service subscribers. We found 5526 search queries (0.026%, 5526/21,000,000) that included the keyword "suicide". The 5526 search queries included 1586 different search terms and were generated by 1625 unique subscribers (0.25%, 1625/657,000). Of these queries, 61.38% (3392/5526) were followed by users clicking on a search result. Of these 3392 queries, 1344 (39.62%) webpages were clicked on by 930 unique users but only 1314 of those webpages were accessible during the study period. Each clicked-through webpage was classified into 11 categories. The categories of the most visited webpages were: entertainment (30.13%; 396/1314), scientific information (18.31%; 240/1314), and community resources (14.53%; 191/1314). Among the 1314 accessed webpages, we could identify only two pro-suicide websites. We found that the search terms used to access these sites included "commiting suicide with a gas oven", "hairless goat", "pictures of murder by strangulation", and "photo of a severe burn". A limitation of our study is that the database may be dated and confined to mainly English webpages. Searching or browsing suicide-related or pro-suicide webpages was uncommon, although a small group of users did access websites that contain

MicroRNA hsa-let-7b suppresses the odonto/osteogenic differentiation capacity of stem cells from apical papilla by targeting MMP1.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yanqiu; Pang, Xiyao; Wu, Jintao; Jin, Lin; Yu, Yan; Gobin, Romila; Yu, Jinhua

2018-01-31

MicroRNA let-7 family acts as the key regulator of the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). However, the influence of let-7b on biological characteristics of stem cells from apical papilla (SCAPs) is still controversial. In this study, the expression of hsa-let-7b was obviously downregulated during the osteogenic differentiation of SCAPs. SCAPs were then infected with hsa-let-7b or hsa-let-7b inhibitor lentiviruses. The proliferation ability was determined by CCK-8 and flow cytometry. The odonto/osteogenic differentiation capacity was analyzed by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, alizarin red staining, Western blot assay, and real-time RT-PCR. Bioinformatics analysis was used to screen out the target of hsa-let-7b and the target relationship was confirmed by dual luciferase reporter assay. Hsa-let-7b was of no influence on the proliferation of SCAPs. Interferential expression of hsa-let-7b increased the ALP activity as well as the formation of calcified nodules of SCAPs. Moreover, the mRNA levels of osteoblastic markers (ALP, RUNX2, OSX, OPN, and OCN) were upregulated while the protein levels of DSPP, ALP, RUNX2, OSX, OPN, and OCN also increased considerably. Conversely, overexpression of hsa-let-7b inhibited the odonto/osteogenic differentiation capacity of SCAPs. Bioinformatics analysis revealed a putative binding site of hsa-let-7b in the matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP1) 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR). Dual luciferase reporter assay confirmed that hsa-let-7b targets MMP1. The odonto/osteogenic differentiation ability of SCAPs ascended after repression of hsa-let-7b, which was then reversed after co-transfection with siMMP1. Together, hsa-let-7b can suppress the odonto/osteogenic differentiation capacity of SCAPs by targeting MMP1. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Web search queries can predict stock market volumes.

Science.gov (United States)

Bordino, Ilaria; Battiston, Stefano; Caldarelli, Guido; Cristelli, Matthieu; Ukkonen, Antti; Weber, Ingmar

2012-01-01

We live in a computerized and networked society where many of our actions leave a digital trace and affect other people's actions. This has lead to the emergence of a new data-driven research field: mathematical methods of computer science, statistical physics and sociometry provide insights on a wide range of disciplines ranging from social science to human mobility. A recent important discovery is that search engine traffic (i.e., the number of requests submitted by users to search engines on the www) can be used to track and, in some cases, to anticipate the dynamics of social phenomena. Successful examples include unemployment levels, car and home sales, and epidemics spreading. Few recent works applied this approach to stock prices and market sentiment. However, it remains unclear if trends in financial markets can be anticipated by the collective wisdom of on-line users on the web. Here we show that daily trading volumes of stocks traded in NASDAQ-100 are correlated with daily volumes of queries related to the same stocks. In particular, query volumes anticipate in many cases peaks of trading by one day or more. Our analysis is carried out on a unique dataset of queries, submitted to an important web search engine, which enable us to investigate also the user behavior. We show that the query volume dynamics emerges from the collective but seemingly uncoordinated activity of many users. These findings contribute to the debate on the identification of early warnings of financial systemic risk, based on the activity of users of the www.

Web search queries can predict stock market volumes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilaria Bordino

Full Text Available We live in a computerized and networked society where many of our actions leave a digital trace and affect other people's actions. This has lead to the emergence of a new data-driven research field: mathematical methods of computer science, statistical physics and sociometry provide insights on a wide range of disciplines ranging from social science to human mobility. A recent important discovery is that search engine traffic (i.e., the number of requests submitted by users to search engines on the www can be used to track and, in some cases, to anticipate the dynamics of social phenomena. Successful examples include unemployment levels, car and home sales, and epidemics spreading. Few recent works applied this approach to stock prices and market sentiment. However, it remains unclear if trends in financial markets can be anticipated by the collective wisdom of on-line users on the web. Here we show that daily trading volumes of stocks traded in NASDAQ-100 are correlated with daily volumes of queries related to the same stocks. In particular, query volumes anticipate in many cases peaks of trading by one day or more. Our analysis is carried out on a unique dataset of queries, submitted to an important web search engine, which enable us to investigate also the user behavior. We show that the query volume dynamics emerges from the collective but seemingly uncoordinated activity of many users. These findings contribute to the debate on the identification of early warnings of financial systemic risk, based on the activity of users of the www.

The induction of somatic mutations by high-LET radiations using the drosophila assay system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshikawa, Isao; Takatsuji, Toshihiro

2004-01-01

Two types of somatic mutation in Drosophila melanogaster were examined to evaluate the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of 252 Cf neutrons and heavy ions (carbon ions and neon ions) accelerated with a synchrotron for inducing mutations as a function of linear energy transfer (LET). One is the loss of heterozygosity for wing-hair mutations and the other the reversion of the mutant white-ivory. The measurements were made using a combined mutation assay system; so that induced mutant wing-hair clones as well as revertant eye-color clones could be detected simultaneously in the same fly. Larvae were irradiated at the age of 3 days post-oviposition. The efficiency of 252 Cf neutrons for inducing wing-hair mosaic spots is very high, RBE=8.5, but that for eye-color mosaic spot is almost equal (RBE=1.2) to that of 137 Cs γ-rays. RBE-LET relationships were obtained for the induction of wing-hair and eye-color mosaic spots. The RBE of carbon and neon ions for producing wing-hair mosaic spots increased with increasing LET values. The RBE for the induction of eye-color mutants did not change with LET. These relationships suggest that more complex types of DNA damage such as non-rejoinable strand breaks or clustered double strand breaks that increase with LET may be responsible for inducing the wing-hair mutation, while simpler forms of molecular damage may induce reversion in the white-ivory allele. (author)

Clinician search behaviors may be influenced by search engine design.

Science.gov (United States)

Lau, Annie Y S; Coiera, Enrico; Zrimec, Tatjana; Compton, Paul

2010-06-30

different search engine designs are associated with different user search behaviors.

A composite microdose Adaptive Response (AR) and Bystander Effect (BE) model-application to low LET and high LET AR and BE data.

Science.gov (United States)

Leonard, Bobby E

2008-08-01

It has been suggested that Adaptive Response (AR) may reduce risk of adverse health effects due to ionizing radiation. But very low dose Bystander Effects (BE) may impose dominant deleterious human risks. These conflicting behaviors have stimulated controversy regarding the Linear No-Threshold human risk model. A dose and dose rate-dependent microdose model, to examine AR behavior, was developed in prior work. In the prior work a number of in vitro and in vivo dose response data were examined with the model. Recent new data show AR behavior with some evidence of very low dose BE. The purpose of this work is to supplement the microdose model to encompass the Brenner and colleagues BaD (Bystander and Direct Damage) model and apply this composite model to obtain new knowledge regarding AR and BE and illustrate the use of the model to plan radio-biology experiments. The biophysical composite AR and BE Microdose Model quantifies the accumulation of hits (Poisson distributed, microdose specific energy depositions) to cell nucleus volumes. This new composite AR and BE model provides predictions of dose response at very low dose BE levels, higher dose AR levels and even higher dose Direct (linear-quadratic) Damage radiation levels. We find good fits of the model to both BE data from the Columbia University microbeam facility and combined AR and BE data for low Linear Energy Transfer (LET) and high LET data. A Bystander Factor of about 27,000 and an AR protection factor of 0.61 are obtained for the low LET in vivo mouse spleen exposures. A Bystander Factor of 317 and an AR protection factor of 0.53 are obtained for high LET radon alpha particles in human lymphocytes. In both cases the AR is activated at most by one or two radiation induced charged particle traversals through the cell nucleus. The results of the model analysis is consistent with a premise that both Bystander damage and Adaptive Response radioprotection can occur in the same cell type, derived from the same

A study on PubMed search tag usage pattern: association rule mining of a full-day PubMed query log.

Science.gov (United States)

Mosa, Abu Saleh Mohammad; Yoo, Illhoi

2013-01-09

The practice of evidence-based medicine requires efficient biomedical literature search such as PubMed/MEDLINE. Retrieval performance relies highly on the efficient use of search field tags. The purpose of this study was to analyze PubMed log data in order to understand the usage pattern of search tags by the end user in PubMed/MEDLINE search. A PubMed query log file was obtained from the National Library of Medicine containing anonymous user identification, timestamp, and query text. Inconsistent records were removed from the dataset and the search tags were extracted from the query texts. A total of 2,917,159 queries were selected for this study issued by a total of 613,061 users. The analysis of frequent co-occurrences and usage patterns of the search tags was conducted using an association mining algorithm. The percentage of search tag usage was low (11.38% of the total queries) and only 2.95% of queries contained two or more tags. Three out of four users used no search tag and about two-third of them issued less than four queries. Among the queries containing at least one tagged search term, the average number of search tags was almost half of the number of total search terms. Navigational search tags are more frequently used than informational search tags. While no strong association was observed between informational and navigational tags, six (out of 19) informational tags and six (out of 29) navigational tags showed strong associations in PubMed searches. The low percentage of search tag usage implies that PubMed/MEDLINE users do not utilize the features of PubMed/MEDLINE widely or they are not aware of such features or solely depend on the high recall focused query translation by the PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping. The users need further education and interactive search application for effective use of the search tags in order to fulfill their biomedical information needs from PubMed/MEDLINE.

Cooperative interplay of let-7 mimic and HuR with MYC RNA

OpenAIRE

Gunzburg, Menachem J; Sivakumaran, Andrew; Pendini, Nicole R; Yoon, Je-Hyun; Gorospe, Myriam; Wilce, Matthew Cj; Wilce, Jacqueline A

2015-01-01

Both RNA-binding proteins (RBP) and miRNA play important roles in the regulation of mRNA expression, often acting together to regulate a target mRNA. In some cases the RBP and miRNA have been reported to act competitively, but in other instances they function cooperatively. Here, we investigated HuR function as an enhancer of let-7-mediated translational repression of c-Myc despite the separation of their binding sites. Using an in vitro system, we determined that a let-7 mimic, consisting of...

Influence of chemical inhibitors on cell recovery after exposure to different LET radiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Evstratova, Ekaterina S.; Petin, Vladislav G. [Medical Radiological Research Center, Obninsk (Russian Federation); Kim, Jin Kyu; KIm, Jin Hong [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Jeongeup (Korea, Republic of)

2016-12-15

Chemical radiosensitizers are often used to increase cell radiosensitivity. It is known that the ability of chemical drugs to increase cell radiosensitivity is related with inhibition of cell recovery from damage induced by ionizing radiation. However, there are little comparative investigations of cell sensitivity modification after exposure to radiation with high linear energy transfer (LET). Therefore, we studied the anticancer drugs cisplatin and endoxan and their impact on the ability of yeast cells to recover after cell exposure to radiations with different LET. The ability of cell recovery from radiation damage was less effective after exposure to high-LET radiation, when cells were irradiated without drug, with the increase in cisplatin concentration resulting in the disappearance of this difference. The increase of cisplatin concentration results in progressive increase in the fraction of irreversible damage independently of radiation quality.

Influence of chemical inhibitors on cell recovery after exposure to different LET radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evstratova, Ekaterina S.; Petin, Vladislav G.; Kim, Jin Kyu; KIm, Jin Hong

2016-01-01

Chemical radiosensitizers are often used to increase cell radiosensitivity. It is known that the ability of chemical drugs to increase cell radiosensitivity is related with inhibition of cell recovery from damage induced by ionizing radiation. However, there are little comparative investigations of cell sensitivity modification after exposure to radiation with high linear energy transfer (LET). Therefore, we studied the anticancer drugs cisplatin and endoxan and their impact on the ability of yeast cells to recover after cell exposure to radiations with different LET. The ability of cell recovery from radiation damage was less effective after exposure to high-LET radiation, when cells were irradiated without drug, with the increase in cisplatin concentration resulting in the disappearance of this difference. The increase of cisplatin concentration results in progressive increase in the fraction of irreversible damage independently of radiation quality.

Measurment and Reporting of Comprehensive Income: Search ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Measurment and Reporting of Comprehensive Income: Search, Challenges, ... of periods of stable and unstable economic situation and satisfies varied users' ... Keywords: Historical accounting; comprehensive income; asset valuation model.

User-Aware Location Management of Prosumed Micro-services

OpenAIRE

Klein, Bernhard; López-de-Ipiña, Diego; Guggenmos, Christian; Pérez-Velasco, Jorge

2014-01-01

The MUGGES mobile service prosuming platform aims at enabling user-aware service provision and consumption from the very mobile devices in a true peer-to-peer manner, still providing centralized support to user- and location-aware micro-service searching. Thus, users will not only provide contents but also launch and host services from their own mobile devices. Explorative field trials in Spain and Finland assessing the potential of the ‘prosuming concept' were carried out for several weeks w...

Technical development of PubMed Interact: an improved interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches

OpenAIRE

Muin, Michael; Fontelo, Paul

2006-01-01

Abstract Background The project aims to create an alternative search interface for MEDLINE/PubMed that may provide assistance to the novice user and added convenience to the advanced user. An earlier version of the project was the 'Slider Interface for MEDLINE/PubMed searches' (SLIM) which provided JavaScript slider bars to control search parameters. In this new version, recent developments in Web-based technologies were implemented. These changes may prove to be even more valuable in enhanci...

Neoplastic cell transformation by high-LET radiation - Molecular mechanisms

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Tracy Chui-Hsu; Craise, Laurie M.; Tobias, Cornelius A.; Mei, Man-Tong

1989-01-01

Quantitative data were collected on dose-response curves of cultured mouse-embryo cells (C3H10T1/2) irradiated with heavy ions of various charges and energies. Results suggests that two breaks formed on DNA within 80 A may cause cell transformation and that two DNA breaks formed within 20 A may be lethal. From results of experiments with restriction enzymes which produce DNA damages at specific sites, it was found that DNA double strand breaks are important primary lesions for radiogenic cell transformation and that blunt-ended double-strand breaks can form lethal as well as transformational damages due to misrepair or incomplete repair in the cell. The RBE-LET relationship for high-LET radiation is similar to that for HGPRT locus mutation, chromosomal deletion, and cell transformation, indicating that common lesions may be involved in these radiation effects.

GeoSearch: A lightweight broking middleware for geospatial resources discovery

Science.gov (United States)

Gui, Z.; Yang, C.; Liu, K.; Xia, J.

2012-12-01

With petabytes of geodata, thousands of geospatial web services available over the Internet, it is critical to support geoscience research and applications by finding the best-fit geospatial resources from the massive and heterogeneous resources. Past decades' developments witnessed the operation of many service components to facilitate geospatial resource management and discovery. However, efficient and accurate geospatial resource discovery is still a big challenge due to the following reasons: 1)The entry barriers (also called "learning curves") hinder the usability of discovery services to end users. Different portals and catalogues always adopt various access protocols, metadata formats and GUI styles to organize, present and publish metadata. It is hard for end users to learn all these technical details and differences. 2)The cost for federating heterogeneous services is high. To provide sufficient resources and facilitate data discovery, many registries adopt periodic harvesting mechanism to retrieve metadata from other federated catalogues. These time-consuming processes lead to network and storage burdens, data redundancy, and also the overhead of maintaining data consistency. 3)The heterogeneous semantics issues in data discovery. Since the keyword matching is still the primary search method in many operational discovery services, the search accuracy (precision and recall) is hard to guarantee. Semantic technologies (such as semantic reasoning and similarity evaluation) offer a solution to solve these issues. However, integrating semantic technologies with existing service is challenging due to the expandability limitations on the service frameworks and metadata templates. 4)The capabilities to help users make final selection are inadequate. Most of the existing search portals lack intuitive and diverse information visualization methods and functions (sort, filter) to present, explore and analyze search results. Furthermore, the presentation of the value

HOPSPACK 2.0 user manual.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Plantenga, Todd D.

2009-09-01

HOPSPACK (Hybrid Optimization Parallel Search PACKage) solves derivative-free optimization problems using an open source, C++ software framework. The framework enables parallel operation using MPI or multithreading, and allows multiple solvers to run simultaneously and interact to find solution points. HOPSPACK comes with an asynchronous pattern search solver that handles general optimization problems with linear and nonlinear constraints, and continuous and integer-valued variables. This user manual explains how to install and use HOPSPACK to solve problems, and how to create custom solvers within the framework.

Computer-Assisted Search Of Large Textual Data Bases

Science.gov (United States)

Driscoll, James R.

1995-01-01

"QA" denotes high-speed computer system for searching diverse collections of documents including (but not limited to) technical reference manuals, legal documents, medical documents, news releases, and patents. Incorporates previously available and emerging information-retrieval technology to help user intelligently and rapidly locate information found in large textual data bases. Technology includes provision for inquiries in natural language; statistical ranking of retrieved information; artificial-intelligence implementation of semantics, in which "surface level" knowledge found in text used to improve ranking of retrieved information; and relevance feedback, in which user's judgements of relevance of some retrieved documents used automatically to modify search for further information.

An information search model for online social Networks - MOBIRSE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Angel Niño Zambrano

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Online Social Networks (OSNs have been gaining great importance among Internet users in recent years.  These are sites where it is possible to meet people, publish, and share content in a way that is both easy and free of charge. As a result, the volume of information contained in these websites has grown exponentially, and web search has consequently become an important tool for users to easily find information relevant to their social networking objectives. Making use of ontologies and user profiles can make these searches more effective. This article presents a model for Information Retrieval in OSNs (MOBIRSE based on user profile and ontologies which aims to improve the relevance of retrieved information on these websites. The social network Facebook was chosen for a case study and as the instance for the proposed model. The model was validated using measures such as At-k Precision and Kappa statistics, to assess its efficiency.

The Users Office turns 20

CERN Multimedia

2009-01-01

20 years ago, in the summer of 1989, an office was created to assist the thousands of users who come to CERN each year, working over the broad range of projects and collaborations. Chris Onions (right), head of the Users’ Office, with Bryan Pattison (left), the Office’s founder.Before the inception of the Users Office, it was common for users to spend at least an entire day moving from office to office in search of necessary documentation and information in order to make their stay official. "Though the Office has undergone various changes throughout its lifetime, it has persisted in being a welcoming bridge to facilitate the installation of visitors coming from all over the world", says Chris Onions, head of the Users Office. This September, the Office will celebrate its 20-year anniversary with a drink offered to representatives of the User community, the CERN management and staff members from the services with whom the Office is involved. &...

Intracellular trafficking of LET-756, a fibroblast growth factor of C. elegans, is controlled by a balance of export and nuclear signals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Popovici, Cornel; Fallet, Mathieu; Marguet, Didier; Birnbaum, Daniel; Roubin, Regine

2006-01-01

The superfamily of fibroblast growth factors (FGF), which counts 22 members in humans, exerts many functions during animal development and adult life. LET-756 is one of the two FGFs of the nematode C. elegans. Re-introduction of LET-756 in a null mutant strain restores viability, allowing the study of structural requirements for LET-756 trafficking and function. LET-756 protein has several regions and motifs, including a non-classical internal motif required for secretion. We show here that a main difference in the wild-type LET-756 molecule and a truncated molecule that mimics a partial loss-of-function mutant lies on subnuclear expression. Using Cos-1 cells and rescue activity we show that: (i) nuclear localization is due to various redundant NLS, one of them acting as a nucleolar localization signal; (ii) nuclear LET-756 is addressed to the speckles by a stretch of glutamine residues; (iii) nuclear LET-756 is trafficking between speckles and nucleoli; (iv) in the nucleolus, LET-756 is associated with proteins of the rRNA splicing compartment; (v) changing LET-756 secretion signal prevents its nuclear localization. We propose that LET-756 exerts its functions through a balance between secreted and nuclear forms due to two opposite addressing signals (i) synergy of several NLS and (ii) attenuated secretion signal

IGF-1/IGF-1R/hsa-let-7c axis regulates the committed differentiation of stem cells from apical papilla

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Shu; Liu, Genxia; Jin, Lin; Pang, Xiyao; Wang, Yanqiu; Wang, Zilu; Yu, Yan; Yu, Jinhua

2016-01-01

Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and its receptor IGF-1R play a paramount role in tooth/bone formation while hsa-let-7c actively participates in the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. However, the interaction between IGF-1/IGF-1R and hsa-let-7c on the committed differentiation of stem cells from apical papilla (SCAPs) remains unclear. In this study, human SCAPs were isolated and treated with IGF-1 and hsa-let-7c over/low-expression viruses. The odonto/osteogenic differentiation of these stem cells and the involvement of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway were subsequently investigated. Alizarin red staining showed that hsa-let-7c low-expression can significantly promote the mineralization of IGF-1 treated SCAPs, while hsa-let-7c over-expression can decrease the calcium deposition of IGF-1 treated SCAPs. Western blot assay and real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction further demonstrated that the expression of odonto/osteogenic markers (ALP, RUNX2/RUNX2, OSX/OSX, OCN/OCN, COL-I/COL-I, DSPP/DSP, and DMP-1/DMP-1) in IGF-1 treated SCAPs were significantly upregulated in Let-7c-low group. On the contrary, hsa-let-7c over-expression could downregulate the expression of these odonto/osteogenic markers. Moreover, western blot assay showed that the JNK and p38 MAPK signaling pathways were activated in Let-7c-low SCAPs but inhibited in Let-7c-over SCAPs. Together, the IGF-1/IGF-1R/hsa-let-7c axis can control the odonto/osteogenic differentiation of IGF-1-treated SCAPs via the regulation of JNK and p38 MAPK signaling pathways. PMID:27833148

Protective Effects of Let-7b on the Expression of Occludin by Targeting P38 MAPK in Preventing Intestinal Barrier Dysfunction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhihua Liu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background/Aims: Let-7b was dramatically reduced after a dicer knockout of mice with intestinal barrier function injuries. This paper aims to investigate the molecular mechanism of let-7b by targeting p38 MAPK in preventing intestinal barrier dysfunction. Methods: A total of 186 patients were enrolled, with 93 in the control group and 93 in the PRO group. Only 158 patients completed the entire study, whereas the others either did not meet the inclusion criteria or refused to participate. To further verify the role of let-7b, intestinal epithelial conditional knockout (IKO mice of mmu-let-7b model were established. Serum let-7b, zonulin, IL-6, and TNF-α concentrations were measured by ELISA or quantitative RT-PCR. Permeability assay was done by ussing chamber. The apoptotic cells were identified using an In Situ Cell Death Detection Kit. Protein was detected by western blot. Results: Probiotics can lower infection-related complications, as well as increase the serum and tissue let-7b levels. P38 MAPK was identified as the target of let-7b, as verified by NCM460 cells. P38 MAPK expression was increased, whereas tight-junction (TJ proteins were significantly decreased in let-7b IKO mice (both P<0.05. Negative regulation of p38 MAPK molecular signaling pathways was involved in the protective effects of let-7b on intestinal barrier function. Conclusion: Let-7b was identified as a novel diagnosis biomarker or a potential treatment target for preventing intestinal barrier dysfunction.

Protective Effects of Let-7b on the Expression of Occludin by Targeting P38 MAPK in Preventing Intestinal Barrier Dysfunction.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zhihua; Tian, Yinghai; Jiang, Yanqiong; Chen, Shihua; Liu, Ting; Moyer, Mary Pat; Qin, Huanlong; Zhou, Xinke

2018-01-01

Let-7b was dramatically reduced after a dicer knockout of mice with intestinal barrier function injuries. This paper aims to investigate the molecular mechanism of let-7b by targeting p38 MAPK in preventing intestinal barrier dysfunction. A total of 186 patients were enrolled, with 93 in the control group and 93 in the PRO group. Only 158 patients completed the entire study, whereas the others either did not meet the inclusion criteria or refused to participate. To further verify the role of let-7b, intestinal epithelial conditional knockout (IKO) mice of mmu-let-7b model were established. Serum let-7b, zonulin, IL-6, and TNF-α concentrations were measured by ELISA or quantitative RT-PCR. Permeability assay was done by ussing chamber. The apoptotic cells were identified using an In Situ Cell Death Detection Kit. Protein was detected by western blot. Probiotics can lower infection-related complications, as well as increase the serum and tissue let-7b levels. P38 MAPK was identified as the target of let-7b, as verified by NCM460 cells. P38 MAPK expression was increased, whereas tight-junction (TJ) proteins were significantly decreased in let-7b IKO mice (both P<0.05). Negative regulation of p38 MAPK molecular signaling pathways was involved in the protective effects of let-7b on intestinal barrier function. Let-7b was identified as a novel diagnosis biomarker or a potential treatment target for preventing intestinal barrier dysfunction. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.

Inactive and mutagenic effects induced by carbon beams of different LET values in a red yeast strain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Jufang; Lu Dong; Wu Xin; Sun Haining; Ma Shuang; Li Renmin; Li Wenjian

2010-01-01

To evaluate biological action of microorganism exposed to charged particles during the long distance space exploration, induction of inactivation and mutation in a red yeast strain Rhodotorula glutinis AY 91015 by carbon beams of different LET values (14.9-120.0 keV μm -1 ) was investigated. It was found that survival curves were exponential, and mutation curves were linear for all LET values. The dependence of inactivation cross section on LET approached saturation near 120.0 keV μm -1 . The mutation cross section saturated when LET was higher than 58.2 keV μm -1 . Meanwhile, the highest RBE i for inactivation located at 120.0 keV μm -1 and the highest RBE m for mutation was at 58.2 keV μm -1 . The experiments imply that the most efficient mutagenic part of the depth dose profile of carbon ion is at the plateau region with intermediate LET value in which energy deposited is high enough to induce mutagenic lesions but too low to induce over kill effect in the yeast cells.

Inactive and mutagenic effects induced by carbon beams of different LET values in a red yeast strain

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jufang; Lu, Dong; Wu, Xin; Sun, Haining; Ma, Shuang; Li, Renmin; Li, Wenjian

2010-09-01

To evaluate biological action of microorganism exposed to charged particles during the long distance space exploration, induction of inactivation and mutation in a red yeast strain Rhodotorula glutinis AY 91015 by carbon beams of different LET values (14.9-120.0 keV μm -1) was investigated. It was found that survival curves were exponential, and mutation curves were linear for all LET values. The dependence of inactivation cross section on LET approached saturation near 120.0 keV μm -1. The mutation cross section saturated when LET was higher than 58.2 keV μm -1. Meanwhile, the highest RBE i for inactivation located at 120.0 keV μm -1 and the highest RBE m for mutation was at 58.2 keV μm -1. The experiments imply that the most efficient mutagenic part of the depth dose profile of carbon ion is at the plateau region with intermediate LET value in which energy deposited is high enough to induce mutagenic lesions but too low to induce over kill effect in the yeast cells.

Location-based Services using Image Search

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vertongen, Pieter-Paulus; Hansen, Dan Witzner

2008-01-01

Recent developments in image search has made them sufficiently efficient to be used in real-time applications. GPS has become a popular navigation tool. While GPS information provide reasonably good accuracy, they are not always present in all hand held devices nor are they accurate in all situat...... of the image search engine and database image location knowledge, the location is determined of the query image and associated data can be presented to the user....

Personal information search on mobile devices

OpenAIRE

Akbas, Mehmet.

2007-01-01

Today's mobile devices, especially mobile phones, are comparable in computing capability and storage to the desktop computers of a few years ago. The volume and diversity of the information kept on mobile devices has continually increased and users have taken advantage of this. Since information is being stored on multiple devices, searching for and retrieving the desired information has become an important function. This thesis focuses on search with regard to Personal Information Manag...

A longitudinal analysis of search engine index size

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bosch, A.P.J. van den; Bogers, T.; Kunder, M. de; Salah, A. A.; Tonta, Y.; Salah, A. A. A.; Sugimoto, C.; Al, U.

2015-01-01

One of the determining factors of the quality of Web search engines is the size and quality of their index. In addition to its influence on search result quality, the size of the indexed Web can also tell us something about which parts of the WWW are directly accessible to the everyday user. We

Penerapan Teknik Seo (Search Engine Optimization pada Website dalam Strategi Pemasaran melalui Internet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)