Development of proteome-wide binding reagents for research and diagnostics

Alongside MS, antibodies and other specific protein-binding molecules have a special place in proteomics as affinity reagents in a toolbox of applications for determining protein location, quantitative distribution and function (affinity proteomics). The realisation that the range of research antibodies available, while apparently vast is nevertheless still very incomplete and frequently of uncertain quality, has stimulated projects with an objective of raising comprehensive, proteome-wide sets of protein binders. With progress in automation and throughput, a remarkable number of recent publications refer to the practical possibility of selecting binders to every protein encoded in the genome. Here we review the requirements of a pipeline of production of protein binders for the human proteome, including target prioritisation, antigen design, ‘next generation’ methods, databases and the approaches taken by ongoing projects in Europe and the USA. While the task of generating affinity reagents for all human proteins is complex and demanding, the benefits of well-characterised and quality-controlled pan-proteome binder resources for biomedical research, industry and life sciences in general would be enormous and justify the effort. Given the technical, personnel and financial resources needed to fulfil this aim, expansion of current efforts may best be addressed through large-scale international collaboration.     

Task structure and postcompletion error in the execution of a routine procedure

OBJECTIVE: To replicate a successful laboratory slip-class error paradigm and, more importantly, to further understand the underlying causes of errors made in that paradigm. BACKGROUND: Routine procedural errors are facts of everyday life but have received limited controlled empirical study, despite the sometimes severe consequences associated with such errors. This research concerns one such error, postcompletion error (M. D. Byrne & S. Bovair, 1997), which is a lapse that occurs after the main goal of a task has been satisfied. METHOD: In the two experiments conducted, participants were trained to criterion on a routine procedural task and were then brought back to the lab for a later session or sessions in which performance on task execution was measured. In the second experiment, a variety of motivational manipulations, retraining, and task redesign were compared. RESULTS: Experiment 1 demonstrated a substantial reduction of error rate generated by a simple design change (alteration of when feedback about goal completion occurred). Furthermore, the reduction in error rate came with no penalty in terms of overall speed of performance. Experiment 2 showed that this more appropriate design is superior to motivationally oriented interventions, retraining, and even midtask redesign. As in Experiment 1, Experiment 2 revealed no speed-accuracy tradeoff. CONCLUSION: These experiments provide evidence that controlled laboratory studies of slip-class errors can be meaningful and highlight the centrality of cognitive factors (particularly goal structure) in such errors. APPLICATION: Potential applications include design of interfaces and their related procedures as well as error-mitigation techniques.     

Secure web services using two-way authentication and three-party key establishment for service delivery

With the advance of web technologies, a large quantity of transactions have been processed through web services. Service Provider needs encryption via public communication channel in order that web services can be delivered to Service Requester. Such encryptions can be realized using secure session keys. Traditional approaches which can enable such transactions are based on peer-to-peer architecture or hierarchical group architecture. The former method resides on two-party communications while the latter resides on hierarchical group communications. In this paper, we will use three-party key establishment to enable secure communications for Service Requester and Service Provider. The proposed protocol supports Service Requester, Service Broker, and Service Provider with a shared secret key established among them. Compared with peer-to-peer architecture and hierarchical group architecture, our method aims at reducing communication and computation overheads.     

Machine vision system for curved surface inspection

This application-oriented paper discusses a non-contact 3D range data measurement system to improve the performance of the existing 2D herring roe grading system. The existing system uses a single CCD camera with unstructured halogen lighting to acquire and analyze the shape of the 2D shape of the herring roe for size and deformity grading. Our system will act as an additional system module, which can be integrated into the existing 2D grading system, providing the additional third dimension to detect deformities in the herring roe, which were not detected in the 2D analysis. Furthermore, the additional surface depth data will increase the accuracy of the weight information used in the existing grading system. In the proposed system, multiple laser light stripes are projected into the herring roe and the single B/W CCD camera records the image of the scene. The distortion in the projected line pattern is due to the surface curvature and orientation. Utilizing the linear relation between the projected line distortion and surface depth, the range data was recovered from a single camera image. The measurement technique is described and the depth information is obtained through four steps: (1) image capture, (2) stripe extraction, (3) stripe coding, (4) triangulation, and system calibration. Then, this depth information can be converted into the curvature and orientation of the shape for deformity inspection, and also used for the weight estimation. Preliminary results are included to show the feasibility and performance of our measurement technique. The accuracy and reliability of the computerized herring roe grading system can be greatly improved by integrating this system into existing system in the future.     

Supporting program comprehension using dominance trees

This paper will address how program comprehension can be aided within software maintenance through the use of high level representations of code, specifically the use of dominance trees. The paper proposes that dominance trees should be used as a standard approach within the program comprehension process. A number of ways in which the dominance trees are supportive of the comprehension process are highlighted. The evaluation considers if dominance trees are supportive of standard program comprehension strategies such as an as‐needed strategy, whether they provide an early identification of the consequences of changes and highlight areas where preventative maintenance is necessary. Their actual usefulness in achieving these goals is evaluated through the use of a number of case studies. The results have shown that there are a number of specific tasks performed during program comprehension that can be aided through the use of dominance trees. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Does Class Size in First Grade Relate to Children's Academic and Social Performance or Observed Classroom Processes?

This study evaluated the extent to which first-grade class size predicted child outcomes and observed classroom processes for 651 children (in separate classrooms). Analyses examined observed child-adult ratios and teacher-reported class sizes. Smaller classrooms showed higher quality instructional and emotional support, although children were somewhat less likely to be engaged. Teachers in smaller classes rated typical children in those classes as more socially skilled and as showing less externalizing behavior and reported more closeness toward them. Children in smaller classes performed better on literacy skills. Larger classrooms showed more group activities directed by the teacher, teachers and children interacted more often, and children were more often engaged. Lower class sizes were not of more benefit (or harm) as a function of the child's family income. First-grade class size in the range typical of present-day classrooms in the United States predicts classroom social and instructional processes as well as relative changes in social and literacy outcomes from kindergarten to first grade. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

FACT: The Utility of an Integration of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Alleviate Human Suffering.

Functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) are 2 contemporary behavioral therapies designed to address complex clinical problems. The 2 therapies are described, and areas of convergence and divergence are discussed. A new psychotherapy integrating the 2-functional-analytic acceptance and commitment therapy (FACT)-is defined. It is argued that FACT enhances the utility of FAP or ACT alone by expanding the target of therapy to include both interpersonal and intrapersonal client behaviors. In addition, the authors posit that the intervention technologies used in FAP and ACT enhance one another. The authors also address the following topics: populations for whom FACT would be most beneficial, supervision and training issues, current empirical research on FACT, and FACT's applicability and generalization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Medical device development: the challenge for ergonomics

High quality, well-designed medical devices are necessary to provide safe and effective clinical care for patients as well as to ensure the health and safety of professional and lay device users. Capturing the user requirements of users and incorporating these into design is an essential component of this. The field of ergonomics has an opportunity to assist, not only with this area, but also to encourage a more general consideration of the user during medical device development. A review of the literature on methods for assessing user requirements in engineering and ergonomics found that little published work exists on the ergonomic aspects of medical device development. In particular there is little advice available to developers on which issues to consider during design and development or recommendations for good practice in terms of the methods and approaches needed to capture the full range of user requirements. The Multidisciplinary Assessment of Technology Centre for Health care (MATCH) is a research collaboration that is working in conjunction with industrial collaborators to apply ergonomics methods to real case study projects with the ultimate aim of producing an industry-focused guide to applying ergonomics principles in medical device development.     

Empowering followers in virtual teams: Guiding principles from theory and practice

Effective leadership requires relationship skills such as – problem solving conflict management, motivation, communication, and listening [Yukl, G. A. (1998). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall]. Arguably, nothing is more important to a leader than the skills involved in communicating one’s intent to followers, for it is only through effectively transmitting intent that followers may understand and then execute the goals of the team and leader. The modern work-world is dominated by computer-mediated communication, and this communication is the bread and butter of virtual teams; however, simple transmission of information from point A to point B is not enough – the virtual environment presents significant challenges to effective communication. In this paper we review issues related to virtual teams and developments in multimodal displays that allow teams to communicate effectively via single or multiple modalities (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile). This discussion is grounded in guiding principles for design and use of information displays that were identified and culled based on multiple review criteria from an extensive review of the literature. We present an applied example of the utility of these guiding principles for multimodal display design, in the context of communicating a leader’s presence to virtual followers via commander’s intent.     

Single-period inventory model with a delayed incentive option for selling excess inventory

The single‐period problem (SPP) is to find the order quantity which maximizes the expected profit in a single period probabilistic demand framework. We extend the SPP to a case where a retailer uses delayed incentives in the form of cash mail‐in rebates to sell remaining inventory that did not sell at the regular price. The advantage of cash mail‐in rebates is that not all consumers will redeem them. We address three cases: (1) rebate value is predetermined and the order quantity is a decision variable; (2) order quantity is a decision variable and rebate value is set to the value needed to sell all excess inventory, and (3) order quantity is a decision variable and the rebate may be used to sell part of or all excess inventory. In the third case, any inventory remaining after the rebate offer is salvaged at reduced price. We provide analytical solutions for uniform and exponential demand distributions. In all cases, rebates can lead to significant increases in expected profit. We first maximize the expected profit. We then maximize the probability of achieving a target profit and show that the use of rebates can lead to a substantial increase in that probability.