Set Of Common Features Research Articles

Design and multicentric implementation of a generic software architecture for patient recruitment systems re-using existing HIS tools and routine patient data.

(1) To define features and data items of a Patient Recruitment System (PRS); (2) to design a generic software architecture of such a system covering the requirements; (3) to identify implementation options available within different Hospital Information System (HIS) environments; (4) to implement five PRS following the architecture and utilizing the implementation options as proof of concept. Existing PRS were reviewed and interviews with users and developers conducted. All reported PRS features were collected and prioritized according to their published success and user's request. Common feature sets were combined into software modules of a generic software architecture. Data items to process and transfer were identified for each of the modules. Each site collected implementation options available within their respective HIS environment for each module, provided a prototypical implementation based on available implementation possibilities and supported the patient recruitment of a clinical trial as a proof of concept. 24 commonly reported and requested features of a PRS were identified, 13 of them prioritized as being mandatory. A UML version 2 based software architecture containing 5 software modules covering these features was developed. 13 data item groups processed by the modules, thus required to be available electronically, have been identified. Several implementation options could be identified for each module, most of them being available at multiple sites. Utilizing available tools, a PRS could be implemented in each of the five participating German university hospitals. A set of required features and data items of a PRS has been described for the first time. The software architecture covers all features in a clear, well-defined way. The variety of implementation options and the prototypes show that it is possible to implement the given architecture in different HIS environments, thus enabling more sites to successfully support patient recruitment in clinical trials.

Analysis of «incident» definitions and its interpretation in cyberspace

Determining of the most concepts is focused on specific sectors or industries as a result of the international legal base modernization. Analysis of scientific sources showed the lack of the works devoted to the base terminology research. This makes not clear the concepts of information security incident and cyber incident. As a result, methods and systems for responding to information security incidents (cyber incidents) are complicated and low efficient. In view of this, multicriteria analysis of concept definitions «incident» in international and industry standards, scientific publications, dictionaries, reference books and online resources were carried out. After the analysis a common set of basic features of the incident concept was identified and the generalized definitions of information security incident & cyber incident were proposed.

Automatic detection of auditory salience with optimized linear filters derived from human annotation

Auditory salience describes how much a particular auditory event attracts human attention. Previous attempts at automatic detection of salient audio events have been hampered by the challenge of defining ground truth. In this paper ground truth for auditory salience is built up from annotations by human subjects of a large corpus of meeting room recordings. Following statistical purification of the data, an optimal auditory salience filter with linear discrimination is derived from the purified data. An automatic auditory salience detector based on optimal filtering of the Bark-frequency loudness performs with 32% equal error rate. Expanding the feature vector to include other common feature sets does not improve performance. Consistent with intuition, the optimal filter looks like an onset detector in the time domain.

Compound cis-regulatory elements with both boundary and enhancer sequences in the human genome

It has been suggested that presumably distinct classes of genomic regulatory elements may actually share common sets of features and mechanisms. However, there has been no genome-wide assessment of the prevalence of this phenomenon. To evaluate this possibility, we performed a bioinformatic screen for the existence of compound regulatory elements in the human genome. We identified numerous such colocated boundary and enhancer elements from human CD4(+) T cells. We report evidence that such compound regulatory elements possess unique chromatin features and facilitate cell type-specific functions related to inflammation and immune response in CD4(+) T cells.

A formal framework for software product lines

ContextA Software Product Line is a set of software systems that are built from a common set of features. These systems are developed in a prescribed way and they can be adapted to fit the needs of customers. Feature models specify the properties of the systems that are meaningful to customers. A semantics that models the feature level has the potential to support the automatic analysis of entire software product lines. ObjectiveThe objective of this paper is to define a formal framework for Software Product Lines. This framework needs to be general enough to provide a formal semantics for existing frameworks like FODA (Feature Oriented Domain Analysis), but also to be easily adaptable to new problems. MethodWe define an algebraic language, called SPLA, to describe Software Product Lines. We provide the semantics for the algebra in three different ways. The approach followed to give the semantics is inspired by the semantics of process algebras. First we define an operational semantics, next a denotational semantics, and finally an axiomatic semantics. We also have defined a representation of the algebra into propositional logic. ResultsWe prove that the three semantics are equivalent. We also show how FODA diagrams can be automatically translated into SPLA. Furthermore, we have developed our tool, called AT, that implements the formal framework presented in this paper. This tool uses a SAT-solver to check the satisfiability of an SPL. ConclusionThis paper defines a general formal framework for software product lines. We have defined three different semantics that are equivalent; this means that depending on the context we can choose the most convenient approach: operational, denotational or axiomatic. The framework is flexible enough because it is closely related to process algebras. Process algebras are a well-known paradigm for which many extensions have been defined.

When Does Technology Use Enable Network Change in Organizations? A Comparative Study of Feature Use and Shared Affordances

The goal of this study is to augment explanations of how newly implemented technologies enable network change within organizations with an understanding of when such change is likely to happen. Drawing on the emerging literature on technology affordances, the paper suggests that informal network change within interdependent organizational groups is unlikely to occur until users converge on a shared appropriation of the new technology's features such that the affordances the technology enables are jointly realized. In making the argument for the importance of shared affordances, this paper suggests that group-level network change has its most profound implications at the organization level when individuals use the same subset of a new information technology's features. To explore this tentative theory, we turn to a comparative, multimethod, longitudinal study of computer-based simulation technology use in automotive engineering. The findings of this explanatory case study show that engineers used the new technology for more than three months, during which time neither group experienced changes to their advice networks. Initially, divergent uses of the technology's features by engineers in both groups precluded them from being able to coordinate their work in ways that allowed them to structure their advice networks differently. Eventually, engineers in only one of the two groups converged on the use of a common set of the technology's features to enact a shared affordance. This convergence was necessary to turn the technology into a resource that could collectively afford group members the ability to compare their simulation outputs with one another and, in so doing, alter the content and structure of the group's advice network. The implications of these findings for the literatures on technology feature use, affordances, social networks, and post-adoption behaviors in organizations are discussed.

‘Cinemas of the Maghreb’: Reflections on the transnational and polycentric dimensions of regional cinema

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is to problematize how a specific set of films is constructed, promoted and valorized as ‘cinemas of the Maghreb’, via a consideration of the people, the institutions and the interactions that are involved in different geographical and institutional contexts. The analysis contrasts three different geographical, cultural and institutional contexts in which ‘cinemas of the Maghreb’ become meaningful, as well as the set of common features that underlie the category. Focusing on international co-productions, the circulation of films through commercial exhibition, box-office receipts, film events organized and film scholarship, the article explores the extent to which such a denomination is deeply enmeshed with France, but also how it raises very different issues, involves different agents, and refers to different objects and temporalities in France, Anglo-American academia and the Maghreb itself.

Lifecycle models of data-centric systems and domains

The Semantic Web, especially in the light of the current focus on its nature as a Web of Data, is a data-centric system, and arguably the largest such system in existence. Data is being created, published, exported, imported, used, transformed and re-used, by different parties and for different purposes. Together, these actions form a lifecycle of data on the Semantic Web. Understanding this lifecycle will help to better understand the nature of data on the SW, to explain paradigm shifts, to compare the functionality of different platforms, to aid the integration of previously disparate implementation efforts or to position various actors on the SW and relate them to each other. However, while conceptualisations of many aspects of the SW exist, no exhaustive data lifecycle has been proposed.This article proposes a data lifecycle model for the Semantic Web by first looking outward, and performing a survey of lifecycle models in other data-centric domains, such as digital libraries, multimedia, eLearning, knowledge and Web content management or ontology development. For each domain, an extensive list of models is taken from the literature, and then described and analysed in terms of its different phases, actor roles and other characteristics. By contrasting and comparing the existing models, a meta vocabulary of lifecycle models for data-centric systems ---the Abstract Data Lifecycle Model, or ADLM ---is developed. In particular, a common set of lifecycle phases, lifecycle features and lifecycle roles is established, as well as additional actor features and generic features of data and metadata. This vocabulary now provides a tool to describe each individual model, relate them to each other, determine similarities and overlaps and eventually establish a new such model for the Semantic Web.

PL-Science: A Scientific Software Product Line

A way to improve reusability and maintainability of a family of software products is through the use of Software Product Line (SPL) approach. Software families, also named SPLs, are a set of software intensive systems sharing a common set of features which are managed to satisfy specific needs of a particular market segment or mission and that are developed from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way. This paper presents the PL-Science approach that considers the context of SPL and aims to assist scientists to define a scientific experiment, specifying a workflow that encompasses scientific applications of a given experiment. Using SPL concepts, scientists can reuse models that specify the scientific product line, and carefully can make decisions according to their needs. In the context of this paper, Scientific Software Product Lines (SSPL) differs from the Software Product Lines (SPL) due to the fact that SSPL uses an abstract scientific workflow model. This workflow is defined according to a scientific domain and, using this abstract workflow model, the products (scientific applications/algorithms) will be instantiated. This paper also focuses on the use of ontologies to facilitate the process of applying Software Product Line (SPL) to scientific domains. Through the use of ontology as a domain model, we can provide additional information as well as add more semantics in the context of Scientific Software Product Lines (SSPL).

Some Phonetic Features of Elbasanisht

A number of linguistic features characterize each language, or a group of dialects. Elbasanisht, which belongs to the group of dialects of Middle Albania and is included in the southern Gheg, represents itself in a set of common features of its group, but with some other specific features. How are represented these linguistic features of Elbasanisht nowadays? Has the educational and cultural development of the city influenced the linguistic development and change? This paper aims to address some of the general occurrences of Elbasanisht , focused only on the phonetic aspect. Based on the study of a variety of different documents written in this language and also on a wide range of interviews conducted with individuals of different generations, this paper will address how is represented this language from a phonetic aspect nowadays, compared to previous decades. It will also treat the occurrence that includes vowel and consonant system. This paper will help all researchers, who are interested in phonetic changes that a language undergoes in the course of time, under the influence of overall social development. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2012.v2n4p189

Immunosurveillance against cancer-associated hyperploidy

Immunosurveillance against cancer-associated hyperploidy

Introduction: The heterogeneity of innovation--evidence from the Community Innovation Surveys

The importance of innovation and the diverse roles that firms play in innovative activity was emphasized by Joseph Schumpeter nearly 100 years ago. As policy makers and academics have increasingly appreciated the importance of innovation, they have sought to improve how they understand and measure it. This has proven to be a deceptively difficult task, as innovations are by definition, novel. As a result, innovations do not all necessarily share a common set of features (Smith, 2006). This fundamental feature of innovation complicates analysis and measurement. A key theoretical advance in addressing innovation was developed by Nelson and Winter (1982), who saw innovation as something that largely occurs within heterogeneous firms. These firms perceive the world differently, have different routines, make different strategic choices, and act accordingly. A large body of research, often in business and management studies, has developed these ideas further, to explore the heterogeneity of firms as knowledge-based organizations, with diverse capabilities, that perceive and act in the world in diverse ways that generate a range of path-dependent outcomes. Increased interest in firms as the knowledge-based organizations that drive innovation has led to more extensive efforts to collect data on firm-based innovative activities, as governments have sought to improve their innovation policies.

Computational modeling of the relationship between amyloid and disease

Amyloid is a title conferred upon a special type of linear protein aggregate that exhibits a common set of structural features and dye binding capabilities. The formation of amyloid is associated with over twenty-seven distinct human diseases which are collectively referred to as the amyloidoses. Although there is great diversity amongst the amyloidoses with regard to the polypeptide monomeric precursor, targeted tissues and the nature and time course of disease development, the common underlying link of a structurally similar amyloid aggregate has prompted the search for a unified theory of disease progression in which amyloid production is the central element. Computational modeling has allowed the formulation and testing of scientific hypotheses for exploring this relationship. However, the majority of computational studies on amyloid aggregation are pitched at the atomistic level of description, in simple ideal solution environments, with simulation time scales of the order of microseconds and system sizes limited to a hundred monomers (or less). The experimental reality is that disease related amyloid aggregation processes occur in extremely complex reaction environments (i.e. the human body), over time-scales of months to years with monitoring of the reaction achieved using extremely coarse or indirect experimental markers that yield little or no atomistic insight. Clearly a substantial gap exists between computational and experimental communities with a deficit of 'useful' computational methodology that can be directly related to available markers of disease progression. This Review will place its focus on the development of these latter types of computational models and discuss them in relation to disease onset and progression.

Exploiting the Functional and Taxonomic Structure of Genomic Data by Probabilistic Topic Modeling

In this paper, we present a method that enable both homology-based approach and composition-based approach to further study the functional core (i.e., microbial core and gene core, correspondingly). In the proposed method, the identification of major functionality groups is achieved by generative topic modeling, which is able to extract useful information from unlabeled data. We first show that generative topic model can be used to model the taxon abundance information obtained by homology-based approach and study the microbial core. The model considers each sample as a “document,” which has a mixture of functional groups, while each functional group (also known as a “latent topic”) is a weight mixture of species. Therefore, estimating the generative topic model for taxon abundance data will uncover the distribution over latent functions (latent topic) in each sample. Second, we show that, generative topic model can also be used to study the genome-level composition of “N-mer” features (DNA subreads obtained by composition-based approaches). The model consider each genome as a mixture of latten genetic patterns (latent topics), while each functional pattern is a weighted mixture of the “N-mer” features, thus the existence of core genomes can be indicated by a set of common N-mer features. After studying the mutual information between latent topics and gene regions, we provide an explanation of the functional roles of uncovered latten genetic patterns. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed method.

Drosophila models of epithelial stem cells and their niches

Epithelial stem cells are regulated through a complex interplay of signals from diffusible ligands, cellular interactions, and attachment to the extracellular matrix. The development of Drosophila models of epithelial stem cells and their associated niche has made it possible to dissect the contribution of each of these factors in vivo, during both basal homeostasis and in response to acute damage such as infection. Studies of Drosophila epithelial stem cells have also provided insight into the mechanisms by which a healthy population of stem cells are maintained throughout adulthood by demonstrating, for example, that stem cells have a finite lifespan and may be displaced by replacement cells competing for niche occupancy. Here, we summarize the literature on each of the known Drosophila epithelial stem cells, with a focus on the two most well-characterized types, the follicle stem cells (FSCs) in the ovary and the intestinal stem cells (ISCs) in the posterior midgut. Several themes have emerged from these studies, which suggest that there may be a common set of features among niches in a variety of epithelia. For example, unlike the simpler Drosophila germline stem cell niches, both the FSC and ISC niches produce multiple, partially redundant, niche signals, some of which activate pathways such as Wnt/Wingless, Hedgehog, and epidermal growth factor (EGF) that also regulate mammalian epithelial tissue renewal. Further study into these relatively new stem cell models will be of use in understanding both the specifics of epithelial regeneration and the diversity of mechanisms that regulate adult stem cells in general.

Is There a Relationship Between the Substrate Preferences and Structural Flexibility of Cytochromes P450?

In the last decades, the structural flexibility of cytochromes P450 has been extensively studied by spectroscopic and in silico methods. Here, both approaches are reviewed and compared. Comparison of both methods indicates that the individual cytochromes P450 differ significantly in the flexibilities of their substrate-binding active sites. This finding probably accounts for the large number of isoforms of these enzymes (there are fifty-seven known cytochrome P450 genes in the human genome) and their functional versatility. On the other hand, most of the known cytochrome P450s have a set of common structural features, with an overall structure consisting of a relatively flexible domain (the distal side), a more rigid domain (the heme-binding core) and a domain on the proximal side of the hemoprotein with intermediate flexibility. Substrate access and product egress channels of CYP enzymes are also important structural elements as the majority of these channels are located in the flexible distal side; the location, flexibility, and function of these channels are discussed.

Short Isoforms of the Cold Receptor TRPM8 Inhibit Channel Gating by Mimicking Heat Action Rather than Chemical Inhibitors

Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels couple various environmental factors to changes in membrane potential, calcium influx, and cell signaling. They also integrate multiple stimuli through their typically polymodal activation. Thus, although the TRPM8 channel has been extensively investigated as the major neuronal cold sensor, it is also regulated by various chemicals, as well as by several short channel isoforms. Mechanistic understanding of such complex regulation is facilitated by quantitative single-channel analysis. We have recently proposed a single-channel mechanism of TRPM8 regulation by voltage and temperature. Using this gating mechanism, we now investigate TRPM8 inhibition in cell-attached patches using HEK293 cells expressing TRPM8 alone or coexpressed with its short sM8-6 isoform. This is compared with inhibition by the chemicals N-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-4-(3-chloropyridin-2-yl)piperazine-1-carboxamide (BCTC) and clotrimazole or by elevated temperature. We found that within the seven-state single-channel gating mechanism, inhibition of TRPM8 by short sM8-6 isoforms closely resembles inhibition by increased temperature. In contrast, inhibition by BCTC and that by clotrimazole share a different set of common features.

Self‐injury in incarcerated juvenile females: Contributions of mental health and traumatic experiences

Despite evidence supporting a connection between child maltreatment and self-injury, there is disagreement regarding a particular connection to sexual abuse because types of trauma exposure often co-occur. To examine these associations efficiently, we considered a sample of incarcerated juvenile females, where rates of both trauma exposure and self-injury would be expected to be elevated. Adolescent females (N = 220) reported on history of self-injurious behavior on the Voiced Index of Self-injurious Actions, as well as psychiatric disorder. A common set of features was associated with cutting and with self-injury in general. Both were more likely in those initiating delinquent activities when younger and in those currently meeting criteria for major depressive disorder, or with a previous suicide attempt. Adjusting for those features, report of self-injury was approximately doubled among those disclosing prior traumatic exposure that was sexual, OR = 2.66, 95% CI [1.38, 5.15], or nonsexual, OR = 2.18, 95% CI [1.17, 4.04]. Exposure to early traumatic events, such as child maltreatment, likely contributes to a set of adverse experiences, including delinquent activity, mood disorder, and self-injury. Findings contribute to work demonstrating the importance of dissociation both as a consequence of victimization and as a key feature underlying self-injurious behavior.

Histological Image Feature Mining Reveals Emergent Diagnostic Properties for Renal Cancer.

Computer-aided histological image classification systems are important for making objective and timely cancer diagnostic decisions. These systems use combinations of image features that quantify a variety of image properties. Because researchers tend to validate their diagnostic systems on specific cancer endpoints, it is difficult to predict which image features will perform well given a new cancer endpoint. In this paper, we define a comprehensive set of common image features (consisting of 12 distinct feature subsets) that quantify a variety of image properties. We use a data-mining approach to determine which feature subsets and image properties emerge as part of an "optimal" diagnostic model when applied to specific cancer endpoints. Our goal is to assess the performance of such comprehensive image feature sets for application to a wide variety of diagnostic problems. We perform this study on 12 endpoints including 6 renal tumor subtype endpoints and 6 renal cancer grade endpoints. Keywords-histology, image mining, computer-aided diagnosis.

The AGILE observations of the hard and bright GRB 100724B

The observation of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in the gamma-ray band has been advanced by the AGILE and Fermi satellites after the era of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. AGILE and Fermi are showing that the GeV-bright GRBs share a set of common features, particularly the high fluence from the keV up to the GeV energy bands, the high value of the minimum Lorentz factor, the presence of an extended emission of gamma-rays, often delayed with respect to lower energies, and finally the possible presence of multiple spectral components. GRB 100724B, localised in a joint effort by Fermi and the InterPlanetary Newtork, is the brightest burst detected in gamma-rays so far by AGILE. Characteristic features of GRB 100724B are the simultaneous emissions at MeV and GeV, without delayed onset nor time lag as shown by the analysis of the cross correlation function, and the significant spectral evolution in hard X-rays over the event duration. In this paper we show the analysis of the AGILE data of GRB 100724B and we discuss its features in the context of the bursts observed so far in gamma-rays and the recently proposed models.