Fingerprint Clustering with Bounded Number of Missing Values

The problem of clustering fingerprint vectors with missing values is an interesting problem in Computational Biology that has been proposed in Figueroa et al. (J. Comput. Biol. 11(5):887–901, 2004). In this paper we show some improvements in closing the gaps between the known lower bounds and upper bounds on the approximability of variants of the biological problem. Moreover, we have studied two additional variants of the original problem proposed in Figueroa et al. (Proc. 11th Computing: The Australasian Theory Symposium (CATS), CRPIT, vol. 41, pp. 57–60, 2005). We prove that all such problems are APX-hard even when each fingerprint contains only two unknown positions and we present a greedy algorithm that has constant approximation factors for these variants. Despite the hardness of these restricted versions of the problem, we show that the general clustering problem on an unbounded number of missing values such that they occur for every fixed position of an input vector in at most one fingerprint is polynomial time solvable.     

Relationship Between Chemical Markers and Sensory Score of Traditional Balsamic Vinegars Using a Screening Approach Combined with Rapid Assessment Methods

In this study, 200 samples of traditional balsamic vinegar (TBV) of Reggio-Emilia, a typical Italian “aged dressing” with Protected Denomination of Origin, were analyzed to model the relationship between sensory scores with some pre-selected compounds/parameters, such as Brix value, water activity (a _w), titratable acidity, color, polymeric compounds, and electronic nose signal. Statistical techniques, such as nonlinear regression and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were used to model the relationship among vinegars composition. The sensory score of panelists was mainly correlated with Brix (r?=?0.85) followed by brown color at 445 nm (r?=?0.74) and water activity (a _w) (r?=??0.79), whereas the polymeric compounds content showed a negative correlation with water activity (r?=?–0.73). In particular, the water activity of TBVs at different Brix values followed a nonlinear trend with good fitting (r?=?0.857) with K?=?3.10 that was consistent with the value reported in the literature for fructose and glucose. Electronic nose (enose) data from TBVs and six marker compounds (acetic acid, butyric acid, vanillin, ethyl-phenylacetate, phenylethyl alcohol, and furfural) combined with PCA revealed a pattern related to the ageing of TBVs.     

Effects of loud noise exposure on mouse myocardium: a comparison with the rat

Loud noise is an environmental stressor of everyday life, which affects different organs and apparati, in particular the cardiovascular system. We have already reported that noise exposure produces significant alterations in the rat myocardium, consisting of mitochondrial damage, which is evident as lysis of the cristae and dilution of the matrix. Since there are high similarities between mouse and human species, the aim of our study was to investigate the effects of acute noise exposure on the mouse heart. We found that noise exposure affects mouse myocardium at similar subcellular sites to those already described in the rat; nonetheless, quantitative analysis of the percentage of altered mitochondria in both species disclosed a clear difference between mouse and rat myocardium, which strongly suggests a different sensitivity to noise stimulus. We hypothesize that the species differences on the extent of myocardial alterations here observed might be due to the zonal pattern of cardiac noradrenergic receptors, which should be the final effectors for noise-induced myocardial changes.     

Carotenoids from tomatoes inhibit heterocyclic amine formation

Tomatoes are a rich source of antioxidants and they are commonly used for meat cooking in Mediterranean countries. The effects of tomato antioxidants on the formation of carcinogenic/mutagenic heterocyclic amines were investigated. A liquid model system containing as precursors creatinine, glucose and glycine in molar concentrations comparable to those present in bovine meat (chemical model system) was employed. A freeze-dried bovine meat juice (meat juice model system) was also used for some experiments. In both model systems, an inhibiting effect of tomato carotenoid fraction on the formation of imidazoquinolines (IQx, MeIQx and DiMeIQx) was observed. Using carotenoid extract at a concentration of 1000 ppm, inhibitions of 36% and 11% of IQx and MeIQx formation respectively in the chemical system and of 13% of MeIQx and of 5% of 4,8-DiMeIQx in the meat juice system was observed. The effect of the main tomato flavonoid, quercetin, was investigated using the meat juice system. Quercetin gave an inhibition of MeIQx formation between 9% and 57% with a maximum effect of 67% at 10 ppm.     

Type Checking for JavaScript

JavaScript is a powerful imperative object based language made popular by its use in web pages. It supports flexible program development by allowing dynamic addition of members to objects. Code is dynamically typed: a runtime access to a non-existing member causes an error.We suggest a static type system for JavaScript that will detect such type errors. Therefore, programmers can benefit from the flexible programming style offered by JavaScript and from the safety offered by a static type system.We demonstrate our type system with a formalism of JavaScript, JS₀. Our types are structural. Members of an object type are classified into definite and potential. A potential member becomes definite upon assignment. We outline a proof that our type system is sound.     

On structuring proof search for first order linear logic

Full first-order linear logic can be presented as an abstract logic programming language in Miller's system Forum, which yields a sensible operational interpretation in the ‘proof search as computation’ paradigm. However, Forum still has to deal with syntactic details that would normally be ignored by a reasonable operational semantics. In this respect, Forum improves on Gentzen systems for linear logic by restricting the language and the form of inference rules. We further improve on Forum by restricting the class of formulae allowed, in a system we call G-Forum, which is still equivalent to full first-order linear logic. The only formulae allowed in G-Forum have the same shape as Forum sequents: the restriction does not diminish expressiveness and makes G-Forum amenable to proof theoretic analysis. G-Forum consists of two (big) inference rules, for which we show a cut elimination procedure. This does not need to appeal to finer detail in formulae and sequents than is provided by G-Forum, thus successfully testing the internal symmetries of our system.     

Toward overcoming culture, skill and situation hurdles in Human-Computer Interaction

This paper proposes a new effective strategy for designing and implementing interactive systems overcoming culture, skill and situation hurdles in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The strategy to identify and reduce these hurdles is developed in the framework of a methodology based on a recently introduced model of HCI, and exploits the technological innovations of XML (Extensible Markup Language). HCI is modelled as a cyclic process in which the user and the interactive system communicate by materializing and interpreting a sequence of messages. The interaction process is formalized by specifying both the physical message appearance and the computational aspect of the interaction. This formalization allows the adoption of notation traditionally adopted by users in their workplaces as the starting point of the interactive system design. In this way, the human–system interaction language takes into account the users’ culture. Moreover, the methodology permits user representatives to build a hierarchy of systems progressively adapted to users’ situations, skills and habits, according to the work organization in the domain considered. The strategy is proved to be effective by describing how to implement it using BANCO (Browsing Adaptive Network for Changing user Operativity), a feasibility prototype based on XML, which allows the hierarchy implementation and system adaptations. Several examples from an environmental case under study are used throughout the paper to illustrate the methodology and the effectiveness of the technology adopted. Published online: 4 June 2002     

On the design of efficient ATM routing schemes

In this paper we deal with the problem of designing virtual path layouts in ATM networks when the hop-count is given and the load has to be minimized. We first prove a lower bound for networks with arbitrary topology and arbitrary set of connection requests. This result is then applied to derive lower bounds for the following settings: (i) one-to-all (one node has to be connected to all other nodes of the network) in arbitrary networks; (ii) all-to-all (each node has to be connected to all other nodes in the network) in several classes of networks, including planar and k-separable networks and networks of bounded genus. We finally study the all-to-all setting on two-dimensional meshes and we design a virtual path layout for this problem. When the hop-count and the network degree are bounded by constants, our results show that the upper bounds proposed in this paper for the one-to-all problem in arbitrary networks and for the all-to-all problem in two-dimensional mesh networks are asymptotically optimal. Moreover, the general lower bound shows that the algorithm proposed in Gerstel (Ph.D. Thesis, Technion-Haifa, Israel, 1995) for the all-to-all problem in k-separable networks is also asymptotically optimal. The upper bound for mesh networks also shows that the lower bound presented in this paper for the all-to-all problem in planar networks is asymptotically tight.     

Semi-insulating layers in InP obtained by Co or Fe ion implantation

Ion implanted Co or Fe into n-type InP produced semi-insulating (SI) layers over a wide range of ion doses. The I/V characteristics of vertical metal-SI InP-n-type InP structures demonstrated resistivities up to 6*10/sup 2/ Omega cm at low bias levels and current densities as low as 12 mA/cm/sup 2/ at 2.5 V for 400 keV ion energy implanted layers.<>