Flexible Web Research Articles

Bionics design and dynamics analysis of space webs based on spider predation

A new bionic space debris removal device, inspired by the spider predation, is designed in this paper, which consists of flexible webs, central hub, traction mass and rotating mechanism. Firstly, the concept of bionic space debris removal and corresponding system design are described in detail. Secondly, the dynamic models of spin deployment and collision are derived and foumulated respectively. Thirdly, a finite element analysis is presented to simulate the dynamic characteristics of the spinning webs deployment process. In addition, a finite element model of the webs is developed for structural modal analysis. Finally, a number of collision simulation analysis are carried out using finite element method and propagation of small disturbances along the tether are demonstrated via numerical simulations. The simulation results effectively reflect that the motion characteristics of the large deformation and large displacement in the process of capturing the target. Furthermore, it show that the proposed novel bionic flexible web can meet design requirements for a space debris removal system.

The Atlas of the Languages of Iran (ALI): A Research Overview

There have been a number of important efforts to map out the languages of Iran, but until now no language atlas, or even a comprehensive and detailed country-level language map, has been produced. One of the recent initiatives which aims to fill this gap is the online Atlas of the Languages of Iran (ALI) (http://iranatlas.net). This article delineates objectives of the ALI research programme, atlas architecture, research methodology, and preliminary results that have been generated. Specific topics of interest are the structure and content of the linguistic data questionnaire; the handling of contrasting perspectives about the status of “languages” and “dialects” through a flexible multi-dimensional classification web; and the role of ongoing comparisons between language distribution assessments and hard linguistic data.

SqueezeMeta, A Highly Portable, Fully Automatic Metagenomic Analysis Pipeline.

The improvement of sequencing technologies has facilitated generalization of metagenomic sequencing, which has become a standard procedure for analyzing the structure and functionality of microbiomes. Bioinformatic analysis of sequencing results poses a challenge because it involves many different complex steps. SqueezeMeta is a fully automatic pipeline for metagenomics/metatranscriptomics, covering all steps of the analysis. SqueezeMeta includes multi-metagenome support that enables co-assembly of related metagenomes and retrieval of individual genomes via binning procedures. SqueezeMeta features several unique characteristics: co-assembly procedure or co-assembly of unlimited number of metagenomes via merging of individual assembled metagenomes, both with read mapping for estimation of the abundances of genes in each metagenome. It also includes binning and bin checking for retrieving individual genomes. Internal checks for the assembly and binning steps provide information about the consistency of contigs and bins. Moreover, results are stored in a MySQL database, where they can be easily exported and shared, and can be inspected anywhere using a flexible web interface that allows simple creation of complex queries. We illustrate the potential of SqueezeMeta by analyzing 32 gut metagenomes in a fully automatic way, enabling retrieval of several million genes and several hundreds of genomic bins. One of the motivations in the development of SqueezeMeta was producing a software capable of running in small desktop computers and thus amenable to all users and settings. We were also able to co-assemble two of these metagenomes and complete the full analysis in less than one day using a simple laptop computer. This reveals the capacity of SqueezeMeta to run without high-performance computing infrastructure and in absence of any network connectivity. It is therefore adequate for in situ, real time analysis of metagenomes produced by nanopore sequencing. SqueezeMeta can be downloaded from https://github.com/jtamames/SqueezeMeta.

Spider-Web-Inspired Stretchable Graphene Woven Fabric for Highly Sensitive, Transparent, Wearable Strain Sensors.

Advanced wearable strain sensors with high sensitivity and stretchability are an essential component of flexible and soft electronic devices. Conventional metal- and semiconductor-based strain sensors are rigid, fragile, and opaque, restricting their applications in wearable electronics. Graphene-based percolative structures possess high flexibility and transparency but lack high sensitivity and stretchability. Inspired by the highly flexible spider web architecture, we propose semitransparent, ultrasensitive, and wearable strain sensors made from an elastomer-filled graphene woven fabric (E-GWF) for monitoring human physiological signals. The highly flexible elastomer microskeleton and the hierarchical structure of a graphene tube offer the strain sensor with both excellent sensing and switching capabilities. Two different types of E-GWF sensors, including freestanding E-GWF and E-GWF/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites, are developed. When their structure is controlled and optimized, the E-GWF strain sensors simultaneously exhibit extraordinary characteristics, such as a high gauge factor (70 at 10% strain, which ascends to 282 at 20%) in respect to other semitransparent or transparent strain sensors, a broad sensing range up to 30%, and excellent linearity. The E-GWF/PDMS composite sensor shows a unique reversible switching behavior at a high strain level of 30-50%, making it a suitable material for fast and reversible strain switching required in many early warning systems. With a view to real-world applications of these sensors and switches, we demonstrate human motion detection and switch controls of light-emitting-diode lamps and liquid-crystal-display circuits. Their unique structure and capabilities can find a wide range of practical applications, such as health monitoring, medical diagnosis, early warning systems for structural failure, and wearable displays.

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/potassium sodium niobate (KNN)–based nanofibrous web: A unique nanogenerator for renewable energy harvesting and investigating the role of KNN nanostructures

In the recent era, finding renewable energy sources that are environmentally benign the main focus of scientific community around the globe. There is a plenty of renewable energy sources that are currently being researched such as solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, and kinetic energy. Polymer‐ceramic–based nanocomposite piezoelectric material is known for quite some time for energy harvesting, but the real challenge lies as it requires very high loading of the ceramic part to obtain the required property and thus almost makes the system nonflexible. Developed material needs to be poled later on to use it as an electric energy generator from ambient mechanical movement. This current study is the first time attempt to produce a simple yet unique lightweight energy harvester using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/potassium sodium niobate (KNN) nanostructures–based nanocomposite flexible fibrous web where the material is in situ poled during its production using an electrospinning setup. At the beginning, various parameters were identified to synthesize and modulate KNN as nanostructural materials having higher aspect ratio, which is intended to provide a unique connection between KNN once these are embedded within the fibrous matrix. The incorporated KNN nanostructure having higher aspect ratio was also found to act as a beta nucleating agent in PVDF matrix and enhances the β‐phase crystal into the resultant fibrous web, which in turn increases the piezoelectric energy‐harvesting capacity manifold as compared with bare PVDF fibrous web. The in situ alignment of the nanostructured KNN (with a minimum loading, 5% only) into the fibrous nanocomposite is another achievement to obtain higher output. X‐ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared analysis confirmed the mixture of α‐ and β‐crystalline phase of pure PVDF, which gets converted into β phase once KNN nanostructures are incorporated inside the nanofibrous web. An output voltage of 1.9 V was obtained from PVDF/KNN nanocomposite–based web, which is significantly higher (38 times) than generated voltage (50 mV) from the pure PVDF nanoweb without any subsequent poling operation.

GeneMANIA update 2018.

GeneMANIA (http://genemania.org) is a flexible user-friendly web site for generating hypotheses about gene function, analyzing gene lists and prioritizing genes for functional assays. Given a query gene list, GeneMANIA finds functionally similar genes using a wealth of genomics and proteomics data. In this mode, it weights each functional genomic dataset according to its predictive value for the query. Another use of GeneMANIA is gene function prediction. Given a single query gene, GeneMANIA finds genes likely to share function with it based on their interactions with it. Enriched Gene Ontology categories among this set can point to the function of the gene. Nine organisms are currently supported (Arabidopsis thaliana, Caenorhabditis elegans, Danio rerio, Drosophila melanogaster, Escherichia coli, Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Hundreds of data sets and hundreds of millions of interactions have been collected from GEO, BioGRID, IRefIndex and I2D, as well as organism-specific functional genomics data sets. Users can customize their search by selecting specific data sets to query and by uploading their own data sets to analyze. We have recently updated the user interface to GeneMANIA to make it more intuitive and make more efficient use of visual space. GeneMANIA can now be used effectively on a variety of devices.

A general mixed integer linear programming model for the design and operation of integrated urban energy systems

Abstract With an increasing proportion of the world's population living in urban areas, probably the greatest potential for saving energy lies in designing more efficient cities. This has been known for many years and has led to the development of a large number of mathematical models designed to optimise urban energy systems. Despite the wide variety of models available, many are specific to particular energy pathways or contain specific equations for each type of technology, making them difficult to apply to a very broad spectrum of problems. Further, many models only consider a network of conversion technologies and there are very few that can include storage and transport technologies in a flexible and general manner. This paper presents a general mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model for the simultaneous design and operation of urban energy systems. It is based on a flexible value web framework for representing integrated networks of resources and technologies. The resources represent any energy or material involved in the provision of services such as heat and electricity; whereas the technologies represent any type of technology for conversion, transport or storage of resources. It can be applied to urban energy systems problems at different temporal and spatial scales. The model is illustrated using an eco-town in central England as a case study. Demands for heat and electricity must be met by importing grid electricity, natural gas and/or two types of biomass and using a variety technologies, including domestic gas-fired boilers, domestic wood-chip boilers and various biomass-fired combined heat and power plants. The model optimises the design and operation of the integrated heat and electricity networks. The cost optimal solution indicates that all of the heat can be met using a single biomass CHP plant along with a backup boiler; electricity needs to be imported from the grid during periods of low heat demand.

Immobilized Pd-Ag bimetallic nanoparticles on polymeric nanofibers as an effective catalyst: effective loading of Ag with bimetallic functionality through Pd nucleated nanofibers

Here, we present a precise process for synthesizing Pd-Ag bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) onto polymeric nanofibers by decorating Pd-NPs through atomic layer deposition followed by a chemical reduction process for tagging Ag nanostructures with bimetallic functionality. The results show that Pd-NPs act as a nucleation platform for tagging Ag and form Pd-Ag bimetallic NPs with a monodisperse nature with significant catalytic enhancement to the reaction rate over the bimetallic nature of the Pd-Ag ratio. A Pd-NP decorated polymeric nanofibrous web acts as an excellent platform for the encapsulation or interaction of Ag, which prevents agglomeration and promotes the interaction of Ag ions only on the surface of the Pd-NPs. We observed an effective reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) by sodium borohydride (NaBH4) to access the catalytic activity of Pd-Ag bimetallic NPs on a free-standing flexible polymeric nanofibrous web as a support. The captive formation of the polymeric nanofibrous web with Pd-Ag bimetallic functionality exhibited superior and stable catalytic performance with reduction rates of 0.0719, 0.1520, and 0.0871 min−1 for different loadings of Ag on Pd decorated nanofibrous webs such as Pd/Ag(0.01), Pd/Ag(0.03), and Pd/Ag(0.05), respectively. The highly faceted Pd-Ag NPs with an immobilized nature improves the catalytic functionality by enhancing the binding energy of the 4-NP adsorbate to the surface of the NPs. With the aid of bimetallic functionality, the nanofibrous web was demonstrated as a hybrid heterogeneous photocatalyst with a 3.16-fold enhancement in the reaction rate as compared with the monometallic decorative nature of NaBH4 as a reducing agent. The effective role of the monodisperse nature of Pd ions with an ultralow content as low as 3 wt% and the tunable ratio of Ag on the nanofibrous web induced effective catalytic activity over multiple cycles.

Webpic: A flexible web application for collecting distance and count measurements from images.

Despite increasing ability to store and analyze large amounts of data for organismal and ecological studies, the process of collecting distance and count measurements from images has largely remained time consuming and error-prone, particularly for tasks for which automation is difficult or impossible. Improving the efficiency of these tasks, which allows for more high quality data to be collected in a shorter amount of time, is therefore a high priority. The open-source web application, webpic, implements common web languages and widely available libraries and productivity apps to streamline the process of collecting distance and count measurements from images. In this paper, I introduce the framework of webpic and demonstrate one readily available feature of this application, linear measurements, using fossil leaf specimens. This application fills the gap between workflows accomplishable by individuals through existing software and those accomplishable by large, unmoderated crowds. It demonstrates that flexible web languages can be used to streamline time-intensive research tasks without the use of specialized equipment or proprietary software and highlights the potential for web resources to facilitate data collection in research tasks and outreach activities with improved efficiency.

Quantifying Conservation Biological Control for Management of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) in Cotton.

Conservation biological control can be an effective tactic for minimizing insect-induced damage to agricultural production. In the Arizona cotton system, a suite of generalist arthropod predators provides critical regulation of Bemisia tabaci Gennadius (MEAM1) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) and other pests. Arthropod predator and B. tabaci populations were manipulated with a range of broad-spectrum and selective insecticide exclusions to vary predator to prey interactions in a 2-yr field study. Predator to prey ratios associated with B. tabaci densities near the existing action threshold were estimated for six predator species found to be negatively associated with either adult and/or large nymphs of B. tabaci [Misumenops celer (Hentz) (Araneae: Thomisidae), Drapetis nr divergens (Diptera: Empididae), Geocoris pallens Stäl (Hemiptera: Geocoridae), Orius tristicolor (White) (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae), Chrysoperla carnea s.l. (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), and Collops spp. (Coleoptera: Melyridae)] with the first three most consistently associated with declining B. tabaci densities. Ratios ranged from 1 M. celer per 100 sweeps to 1 B. tabaci adult per leaf to 44 D. nr. divergens per 100 sweeps to 1 large nymph per leaf disk. These ratios represent biological control informed thresholds that might serve as simple-to-use decision tool for reducing risk in the current B. tabaci integrated pest management strategy. The identification of key predators within the large, flexible food web of the cotton agro-ecosystem and estimation of predator to B. tabaci ratios clarifies the role of key predators in B. tabaci suppression, yielding potential decision-making advantages that could contribute to further improving economic and environmental sustainability of insect management in the cotton system.

Two‐stage cloud service optimisation model for cloud service middleware platform

In this study, a cloud service optimisation model is presented for resource adaptation control, in which the cost to the user, various levels of virtual machine efficacy, and rental price are considered. A cloud service middleware that supports flexible web services by using heterogeneous platforms is proposed. Developers can conveniently register web services and deploy them to the middleware. The middleware provides an energy-minimisation load balance (EM-LB) mechanism, which considers the temperature of the machine, its power consumption, and the computing resources of virtual machines. The EM-LB mechanism maintains a safe temperature threshold and minimises power usage, thereby reducing hotspots and conserving energy. Furthermore, a two-stage cloud service optimisation model is proposed to analyse users’ requirements and existed computing resources for finding the Pareto optimality, and the aspirational level is found in accordance with the Pareto optimality for the lower cost and lower execution time. The simulation results show the efficiency of the proposed cloud service optimisation model and EM-LB mechanism. Finally, the proposed EM-LB mechanism is implemented to prove the feasibility of the model.

Flexible Web services integration: a novel personalised social approach

Dynamic composition or integration remains one of the key objectives of Web services technology. This paper aims to propose an innovative approach of dynamic Web services composition based on functional and non-functional attributes and individual preferences. In this approach, social networks of Web services are used to maintain interactions between Web services in order to select and compose Web services that are more tightly related to user’s preferences. We use the concept of Web services community in a social network of Web services to reduce considerably their search space. These communities are created by the direct involvement of Web services providers.

Development of a superhydrophobic electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride) web via plasma etching and water immersion for energy harvesting applications.

Smart textiles have been enormously developed recently, but attachment of batteries and low washing resistance are the major challenges in the development of wearable smart textiles. However, piezoelectric materials harvesting energy from mechanical action can be readily integrated with smart textiles and can replace conventional batteries. Therefore, energy harvesters with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) were fabricated by the electrospinning process. In addition, simple CF4 plasma etching followed by water immersion of the electrospun PVDF webs resulted in superhydrophobicity, with a water contact angle of 169.8 ± 1.5°, a water shedding angle of 4.7 ± 1.8°, and self-cleaning properties. This would decrease the number of washing cycles during use and increase the durability of the smart textile. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated that metals were co-deposited as etch-resisting masks to fabricate a nanostructure during plasma etching and were removed by water immersion. The piezoelectric performance of the superhydrophobic electrospun PVDF web showed a higher peak-to-peak output voltage of 3.50 V than the untreated electrospun PVDF web (2.86 V). Furthermore, the breathability of the superhydrophobic PVDF web was remarkably higher than those of the PVDF film. Therefore, the new flexible electrospun PVDF web with superhydrophobicity and piezoelectricity has significant potential as energy harvesters in wearable smart textiles.

Contact angle control of sessile drops on a tensioned web

In this study, the influence of the change of tension applied to flexible and thin web substrate on the contact angle of sessile drop in roll-to-roll system was investigated. Graphene oxide and deionized water solutions were used in the experiments. Tension was changed to 29, 49, and 69 N, and the casting distance of the micropipette and the material was set to 10, 20, and 40 mm, and the droplet volume was set to 10, 20, and 30 μL, respectively. Statistical analysis of three variables and analysis of the variance methodology showed that the casting distance was most significant for the contact angle change, and the most interesting tension variable was also affected. The change in tension caused the maximum contact angle to change by 5.5°. The tension was not uniform in the width direction. When the droplet was applied in the same direction in the width direction, it was confirmed that the tension unevenness had great influence on the contact angle up to 11°. Finally, the casting distance, which has a large effect on the contact angle, was calibrated in the width direction to reduce the width direction contact angle deviation to 1%. This study can be applied to fine patterning research using continuous inkjet printing and aerosol jet printing, which are roll-to-roll processes based on droplet handling.

A3Mark: Seismic attribute benchmarking

Seismic attribute computation is one of the most active research and engineering topics in the computational geophysics world. Although numerous algorithms for seismic attribute computation have been developed, relatively little work has been done on scientifically characterizing their quality and accuracy. Seismic attribute characterization effort is largely qualitative and subjective. We have developed a robust and reliable scientific process for functionally comparing similar attributes. Structural seismic attributes are addressed, including discontinuity, dip angle, dip azimuth, and curvature. To establish a common software platform, and collection of data sets for efficient fully automatic evaluation, a stand-alone flexible online web service is designed. It is based on a C#-MATLAB implementation, and it is called A3Mark. The publicly available web service enables the automatic evaluation of individual categories of seismic attributes using customized quality metrics. It can be easily extended to include new algorithms. Several new synthetic data sets covering various structural measurements are also created, including noise, with ground truth, and they are made publicly available through the web service. Finally, a comparative evaluation of some current seismic attribute algorithms is given with quantitative and qualitative results.

Design of Smart LED Streetlight System for Smart City With Web-Based Management System

Smart LED streetlight system is one of the enabling technologies for a smart city, giving low-cost, low power outdoor lighting also with benefits for vehicle users as well as pedestrians. Integration of sensors and ZigBee-based wireless sensor modules can furnish an optimal platform for an innovative LED streetlight application. Psychological studies suggest that a different level of color temperature can significantly affect human circadian rhythm. For this reason, correlated color temperature (CCT)-based illumination gives a significant lighting performance both in terms of energy efficiency and in overcoming traffic accidents in low visibility areas. Previous works usually assume only specific platform and did not consider CCT-based illumination toward smart LED streetlight system. In this paper, we consider the importance of CCT-based illumination and propose a novel integration of public weather data awareness, ZigBee-based wireless communication, and dynamic web-based management system for the state-of-art of smart LED streetlight system applicable to smart city. In particular, we design a central web server that can receive weather information and real-time sensor data from each LED streetlights and provides a dynamic and flexible web interface for authorized users. Furthermore, real-time implementation of the proposed system shows perfect transmission-reception parameters, such as throughput and signal strength among the different LED streetlights, which fulfills the wireless communication range and signal quality between each LED streetlights.

Effects of Carboxylated Polythiophenes in Fe3O4 Li-Ion Battery Anodes

The high energy/power density of Li-ion batteries elicits intensive research efforts related to high capacity anode materials. The main obstacles which retard the practical employment of high-capacity electrochemically active particles including Si, Sn, metal oxide and their derivatives, stem from large volume changes associated with Li insertion/extraction and the resultant electrical contact loss, thereby leading to poor cycling performance. Efforts have been made to circumvent the breakdown of electron pathways through the introduction of electrical conducting functionalities to the surface of active materials, such as carbon coatings and conductive polymeric binders, or the fabrication of a stable battery anode with electrically inactive polymeric binders that enable the system to maintain its integrity. These approaches are reasonably effective, however, incorporation of a porous entity which helps ion transport, into a composite electrode is also essential for improved performance. In principle, electrochemical reactions that occur within the electrode, reveal the intrinsic energy capacity when a Li ion encounters an electron inside an active site. Electron and ion transport are both critical factors to determine the internal resistance of the electrodes, which in turn influences their electrochemical performance. Here we present how to improve both electronic and ionic transport in Li-ion battery electrodes using conjugated polymers. The approach includes poly[3-(potassium-4-butanoate)thiophene] (PPBT) — a water-soluble, carboxylate substituted polythiophene — as a binder component, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a surface coating on active material, namely, Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Additionally, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are considered for use as the conducting networks to facilitate design of a light-weight, flexible web electrode. To enhance the electronic conduction in the electrodes, connection between active materials (PEG- Fe3O4) and conducting agents (or CNTs) through binding components is of importance. PEG coating and carboxylated polythiophenes play an important role in dispersing the Fe3O4 nanoparticles and conducting agents (or CNTs), respectively, in a water medium, which allow for well-developed and interconnected electrode structures. Furthermore, carboxylated polythiophenes (e.g. PPBT) can boost electronic conduction, based on their high conducting properties and through electrochemical doping during electrochemical testing. The presence of carboxylic moieties on the side chain of polythiophenes such as PPBT could facilitate the formation of stable electrodes via chemical interactions between PPBT moieties (COO-) and the Fe3O4 surface (–OH). The results will show that this methodical consideration of both ion and electron transport through introduction of a carboxylated PPBT component, can remarkably enhance the performance of Fe3O4 based high-capacity anodes.

Handling Big Data of Alien Species in Europe: The European Alien Species Information Network Geodatabase

Building and managing large datasets of alien species is crucial to research, management and control of biological invasions. To this end, the European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN) platform aggregates, integrates and harmonizes spatio-temporal data regarding alien species in Europe, including both invasive and non-invasive alien species. These data are stored in the EASIN Geodatabase after their harvesting from relevant sources in the frame of a global and European databases partnership and scientific literature. The ownership of the data remains with its source, which is properly cited and linked. The process of data harvesting is performed through the EASIN Data Broker system, which retrieves the information related to alien species data in Europe and stores them in a normalized database structure. Data are subsequently refined through validation, cleansing and standardization processes and finally stored in the EASIN Geodatabase. All data are finally visualized and shown in occurrence maps at different levels of spatial visualization. Analysis of the data contained in the EASIN Geodatabase through flexible web services offered by the system has already provided useful input in scientific works and policies on biological invasions. Data from European Union (EU) member state official surveillance systems, within the framework of the EU Regulation 1143/2014 on Invasive Alien Species, are expected to contribute to the update of the EASIN Geodatabase. In addition, data from citizen science initiatives will further enrich the Geodatabase after appropriate validation. In this article we describe and discuss the technical aspects, data flow and capabilities of the EASIN Geodatabase.

Prototyping a Software Defined Utility

The smart grid can be seen as a hybrid system composed by many systems. From a large scale point of view, it combines the electric power system itself and a heterogeneous information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure. Additionally, these systems are composed by many building blocks that are designed and managed as separated systems which are hard to fully integrate between each other. Relying on the experiences arisen and the knowledge gathered from the partners during the development of the FP7 European projects INTEGRIS (intelligent electrical grid sensor communications) and FINESCE (future internet smart utility services), this paper presents the software defined utility (SDU) concept for the management of the smart grid and its security, which advocates for the migration of the utility infrastructure to software systems instead of relying on complex and rigid hardware based systems. Following this approach, SDU proposes the evolution of power systems’ ICT and the usage of programmable commodity hardware, low-cost sensors, and reliable high-speed IP-based communications underneath. More concretely, this paper proposes some building blocks for the deployment of the SDU (flexible data management infrastructure, context-aware security and web of things interface) and evaluates their functionalities and benefits for the smart grids of the future.

QueryOR: a comprehensive web platform for genetic variant analysis and prioritization

BackgroundWhole genome and exome sequencing are contributing to the extraordinary progress in the study of human genetic variants. In this fast developing field, appropriate and easily accessible tools are required to facilitate data analysis.ResultsHere we describe QueryOR, a web platform suitable for searching among known candidate genes as well as for finding novel gene-disease associations. QueryOR combines several innovative features that make it comprehensive, flexible and easy to use. Instead of being designed on specific datasets, it works on a general XML schema specifying formats and criteria of each data source. Thanks to this flexibility, new criteria can be easily added for future expansion. Currently, up to 70 user-selectable criteria are available, including a wide range of gene and variant features. Moreover, rather than progressively discarding variants taking one criterion at a time, the prioritization is achieved by a global positive selection process that considers all transcript isoforms, thus producing reliable results. QueryOR is easy to use and its intuitive interface allows to handle different kinds of inheritance as well as features related to sharing variants in different patients. QueryOR is suitable for investigating single patients, families or cohorts.ConclusionsQueryOR is a comprehensive and flexible web platform eligible for an easy user-driven variant prioritization. It is freely available for academic institutions at http://queryor.cribi.unipd.it/.