Clustering of high throughput gene expression data

High throughput biological data need to be processed, analyzed, and interpreted to address problems in life sciences. Bioinformatics, computational biology, and systems biology deal with biological problems using computational methods. Clustering is one of the methods used to gain insight into biological processes, particularly at the genomics level. Clearly, clustering can be used in many areas of biological data analysis. However, this paper presents a review of the current clustering algorithms designed especially for analyzing gene expression data. It is also intended to introduce one of the main problems in bioinformatics – clustering gene expression data – to the operations research community.     

Effective Tension Active Cross-Section of Reinforced Concrete Beams After Cracking

In the design of concrete structures, estimation of the deflection of the structural members under the service loads is often a critical factor. Strains and displacements are linked to the tension stiffening effect, which is not quantified in the standards. The CEB-FIP model code proposes an interesting simplified method for evaluating the concrete tension stiffening effect on reinforced concrete behavior. One of the parameters which enables the mechanical contribution of the concrete to be quantified is the effective tensile active section of the reinforced concrete beams. In this paper, a new method for calculating the effective tensile active section A _ct.ef is proposed. The calculation is based on an analytical model of stress distribution in the full depth of the concrete section. An experimental study on several reinforced concrete beams is reported. The results show that the new proposed model enhances the accuracy of the beam deflection predictions significantly.     

Particle-based simulation of the interaction between fluid and knitwear

We present a particle-based method to simulate and visualize the interaction of knitwear with fluids. The knitwear is modeled using spring-mass systems and the fluid is modeled using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method. Two-way coupling is achieved by considering surface tension, capillary, and interparticle forces between the fluid and knitwear. The simulation of fluid and knitwear particles is performed on the graphics processing unit. Photorealistic rendering of knitwear and fluid is achieved by using a hardware-accelerated rasterization-based rendering technique. Our method is able to simulate and visualize the macro- and microstructure of free-form knitwear and reflective and refractive characteristics of the fluid surface.     

Multisecret-sharing schemes and bounded distance decoding of linear codes

Error-correcting codes are used to correct errors when messages are transmitted through a noisy communication channel. Bounded distance decoding (i.e. decoding up to the error-correcting capacity) is a method of correcting errors that guarantees unique decoding. Secret sharing is a cryptographic protocol that allows a secret known from a person called the dealer to be distributed to n participants. No single participant knows the secret but some special subsets of participants called coalitions can. In this paper, we present a multisecret-sharing scheme based on an error-correcting code where secret reconstruction is made by using bounded distance decoding of the code. This scheme is ideal in the sense that the size of each secret equals the size of any share. Its security improves on that of multisecret-sharing schemes.     

Synthesis of Quaternary,Long-Chain N-Alkyl Amides and Their Corrosion Inhibition in Acidic Media

New cationic surfactants were synthesized by the quaternization of a number of straight-chain amide derivatives with triethylamine or pyridine. The corrosion inhibition tests of the surface-active compounds were performed at room temperature for 24 h on carbon steel coupons in acidic media using the gravimetric method. The acidic media used were 1.5 M HCl and 1.5 M H₂SO₄. Almost all of the synthesized cationic surfactants showed efficient inhibition of corrosion in the test. To establish the inhibition efficiencies of the inhibitors, surface characterization studies (contact angle measurements, SEM analysis and optical profilometer images) of the metal coupons used were performed.