Free Access To Data Research Articles

Automatic Classification of Traced Neurons Using Morphological Features

The great advances in the field of neuron tracing have made possible a high availability of free-access data in the Internet, which encourages the realization of automatic classifications. The increase of neuronal reconstruction databases makes the manual classification of neurons a time-consuming and tedious task for human experts. Classification by human experts is also prone to inter- and intra-analyst variability due to the process’ inherent subjectivity. In this context, the need arises to find new descriptors having discriminative properties which allow separating the various neuron classes, and this constitutes currently an open problem. Such descriptors would contribute to improve the results of automatic classification. In this study the attention is focused on the use of new morphological features in supervised classification of traced neurons. Furthermore, we present a comparative analysis of different supervised learning algorithms oriented to the classification of reconstructed neurons. The results were validated using a non-parametric statistical test and show the usefulness of the proposed solution.

An Efficient Parallel Algorithm for Latin Square Design: A Multi Core CPU Approach

Abstract— The theory of Latin squares is very important tool in design theory. Like much of design theory, Latin squares have various applications in statistics, finite geometries and experimental design, to name a few. In this paper, we proposed an efficient parallel algorithm for Latin square design which have desirable properties for parallel array access. These squares provide conflict free access to various subsets of an n x n array using n memory modules. A transversal of such a square is a set of n entries such that no two entries share the same row, column or symbol. We present a general construction method for building parallel Latin square of order n2 for all n.
 The proposed algorithm presents a quick parallel method to produce a Latin square design and a parallel conflict access of data in SIMD system. The simulation results of the proposed parallel algorithm for Latin square design were compared with the traditional sequential algorithm Latin square design in terms of speedup and efficiency. The results of parallel Latin Square design were very promising and showed a potential that this design could successfully be applied to the parallel routing problems for conflict free data access. At last, the results show that the parallel versions of former sequential algorithm with simple modifications achieve the super linear speedup up to 200 times for matrix size of 256.
 
 Index Terms: Latin square, multi core processor, parallel processing, simulation, parallel memory system, skewing scheme, multistage interconnection network.

The EU Debate on Net Neutrality: What About Zero-Rating?

The debate over network neutrality (‘net neutrality’) is moving into the realm of the concrete. New issues are already challenging regulators and antitrust authorities. Among them, one recently gained momentum: “zero-rating”, i.e., a type of positive price discrimination, resulting in operators not charging end-users for accessing data volume linked to specific applications or internet services. According to some National regulators zero-rating is unlawful as de facto it could discriminate independent content but, at least in Europe, we miss guidance at the EU level. In our view, it is at the very least debatable that punishing a company for offering free data access or lower prices is beneficial to consumers.

Diverse growth trends and climate responses across Eurasia’s boreal forest

The area covered by boreal forests accounts for ∼16% of the global and 22% of the Northern Hemisphere landmass. Changes in the productivity and functioning of this circumpolar biome not only have strong effects on species composition and diversity at regional to larger scales, but also on the Earth’s carbon cycle. Although temporal inconsistency in the response of tree growth to temperature has been reported from some locations at the higher northern latitudes, a systematic dendroecological network assessment is still missing for most of the boreal zone. Here, we analyze the geographical patterns of changes in summer temperature and precipitation across northern Eurasia >60 °N since 1951 AD, as well as the growth trends and climate responses of 445 Pinus, Larix and Picea ring width chronologies in the same area and period. In contrast to widespread summer warming, fluctuations in precipitation and tree growth are spatially more diverse and overall less distinct. Although the influence of summer temperature on ring formation is increasing with latitude and distinct moisture effects are restricted to a few southern locations, growth sensitivity to June–July temperature variability is only significant at 16.6% of all sites (p ≤ 0.01). By revealing complex climate constraints on the productivity of Eurasia’s northern forests, our results question the a priori suitability of boreal tree-ring width chronologies for reconstructing summer temperatures. This study further emphasizes regional climate differences and their role on the dynamics of boreal ecosystems, and also underlines the importance of free data access to facilitate the compilation and evaluation of massively replicated and updated dendroecological networks.

Sexo/género, violencias y derechos humanos: perspectivas conceptuales para el abordaje de la violencia basada en género contra las mujeres desde el sector salud

Based upon the public health sector perspective, this article explores conceptual approaches to address the issue of gender violence against women. ObjectTo consider the election of an analysis framework regarding the phenomenon of violence against women in the health sector, in the light of the political implications of becoming a woman in the midst of a specific social order. MethodologyExpert review of scientific literature published on free-access data bases so as to identify the most commonly used interpretation frameworks with regard to the phenomenon of violence against women in order to explain its political implications according to a specific social order. Conclusions and resultsBecoming woman implies participation in social aspects from an inequity stemming from structural power. This is the reason why violence against women can never be considered away from its roots. i.e., a society that assigns to women social roles that imply diminished possibilities of access to the use of power through a sex/gender system which is binary, hierarchic and exclusive. In public health areas, the selection of interpretation frameworks that do not take into account the structural origin of violence against women contribute to their invisibilization and even to perpetuate it, independently from the conscience of the researcher on the basis of the political burden arising from the use of such frameworks to the detriment of others, or the intention of objectivity regarding frameworks with a heavy political burden that contribute to the maintenance of a sex/gender binary, hierarchic and excluding structure.

Chapter 6 The role of Archaeocyatha in Cambrian biostratigraphy and biogeography

Abstract The Archaeocyatha is a group of Cambrian fossils successively considered as cnidarians or sponges or as an independent phylum convergent with many groups lacking clear affinities. Comparisons with Recent calcified sponges discovered in submarine caves have demonstrated that the sponge model is consistent with their structural organization. Thus their systematic position is now agreed as a class within the phylum Porifera, permitting realistic investigations of their comparative physiology and life strategies. Archaeocyatha is an important part of research programmes on the Cambrian System, initiated by different commissions of the IUGS since 1970. Archaeocyathan biozones are available in some key regions. Faunal and palaeocommunities distribution, especially of the reefs they helped build in epeiric seas, and migration pathways constrain Cambrian palaeogeographical reconstructions. A database, using recent compilations of the group, is now online. This free access data source offers specialists a tool, easy to use not only as an identification key but also to establish faunal, geographical and stratigraphical distributions of archaeocyathan genera, and a rapid first step towards Cambrian palaeogeographical reconstructions.

Health-related quality of life of doctors and nurses in China: findings based on the latest open-access data

To assess the health-related quality of life (QOL) of doctors and nurses using the recent free-access data. The health-related QOL data of doctors and nurses came from a sub-survey of the Fourth National Health Services Survey (NHSS) of China in 2008, which used the European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions 3 level version (EQ-5D-3L) to measure the QOL. We used logistic regression to compare the percentage of respondents reporting any problems for each dimension of the EQ-5D-3L descriptive system between inhabitants aged 15-64 years and doctors and nurses. Fewer doctors and nurses reported problems in mobility (1.9%) than inhabitants aged 15-64 years (2.9%) (odds ratio = 0.65). No difference was detected in self-care problem. Compared with inhabitants aged 15-64 years, a relatively large proportion of doctors and nurses reported problems in usual activities (3.4% vs. 2.7%; odds ratio = 1.27), pain/discomfort (18.1% vs. 6.7%; odds ratio = 3.08), and anxiety/depression (24.6% vs. 5.1%; odds ratio = 6.07). The EQ-VAS score mean of doctors and nurses approached that of inhabitants aged 15-64 years (82 vs. 79). Compared with inhabitants aged 15-64 years, doctors and nurses have relatively poor health in usual activities, self-reporting pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression.

General News

Continued Funding for Australian Research. World’s First BSE-Immune Cow by Kirin Brewery. Pasteur Opens Research Institute in Korea. Free Data Access for Developing Countries. The Singapore Biologics Manufacturing Conference.

Run-time parallelization of large FEM analyses with PERMAS

The general purpose finite element (FE) system PERMAS [1]has been extended to support shared and distributed parallel computer architectures as well as workstation clusters. The methods used to parallelize this large application software package are of high generality and have the capability to parallelize all mathematical operations in a FE analysis—not only the solver. Utilizing the existing hyper-matrix data structure for large, sparsely populated matrices, a programming tool called PTM was introduced that automatically parallelizes block matrix operations on-the-fly. PTM totally hides parallelization from higher order algorithms, thus giving the physically oriented expert a virtually sequential programming environment. An operation graph of sub-matrix operations is asynchronously built and executed. A clustering algorithm distributes the work, performing a dynamic load balancing and exploiting data locality. Furthermore, a distributed data management system allows free data access from each node. The generality of the approach is demonstrated by some benchmark examples dealing with different types of FE analyses.