Level Of Rights Research Articles

SiPaGene: A new repository for instant online retrieval, sharing and meta-analyses of GeneChip® expression data

BackgroundMicroarray expression profiling is becoming a routine technology for medical research and generates enormous amounts of data. However, reanalysis of public data and comparison with own results is laborious. Although many different tools exist, there is a need for more convenience and online analysis with restriction of access and user specific sharing options. Furthermore, most of the currently existing tools do not use the whole range of statistical power provided by the MAS5.0/GCOS algorithms.DescriptionWith a current focus on immunology, infection, inflammation, tissue regeneration and cancer we developed a database platform that can load preprocessed Affymetrix GeneChip expression data for immediate access. Group or subgroup comparisons can be calculated online, retrieved for candidate genes, transcriptional activity in various biological conditions and compared with different experiments. The system is based on Oracle 9i with algorithms in java and graphical user interfaces implemented as java servlets. Signals, detection calls, signal log ratios, change calls and corresponding p-values were calculated with MAS5.0/GCOS algorithms. MIAME information and gene annotations are provided via links to GEO and EntrezGene. Users access via https protocol their own, shared or public data. Sharing is comparison- and user-specific with different levels of rights. Arrays for group comparisons can be selected individually. Twenty-two different group comparison parameters can be applied in user-defined combinations on single or multiple group comparisons. Identified genes can be reviewed online or downloaded. Optimized selection criteria were developed and reliability was demonstrated with the "Latin Square" data set. Currently more than 1,000 arrays, 10,000 pairwise comparisons and 500 group comparisons are presented with public or restricted access by different research networks or individual users.ConclusionSiPaGene is a repository and a high quality tool for primary analysis of GeneChips. It exploits the MAS5.0/GCOS pairwise comparison algorithm, enables restricted access and user specific sharing. It does not aim for a complete representation of all public arrays but for high quality analysis with stepwise integration of reference signatures for detailed meta-analyses. Development of additional tools like functional annotation networks based on expression information will be future steps towards a systematic biological analysis of expression profiles.

Open Source Drug Discovery

AbstractTuberculosis is a ravaging disease killing one person in every 1.5 minutes in India alone. Someone in the world is newly infected with TB bacilli every second. Overall, one-third of the world's population is currently infected with the TB bacillus. Left untreated, each person with active TB disease will infect on average between 10 and 15 people every year. 450 000 new MDR-TB cases are estimated to occur every year. Estimated 5% of TB patients are HIV infected. Although the complete genome sequence of the causative pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis was published about a decade ago and many years of painstaking efforts have been invested, we are still far from having a good, fast acting drug and vaccine which confers long lasting protection. Despite increasing investment, led by charities including the Gates Foundation, no novel drugs for TB have entered the market for many years.Novel mechanisms for attracting funding, particularly private sector funding, into this research area are desperately needed. We wish to bring in the power of genomics, computational technologies and participation of young and brilliant talent from Universities and Industrial partners with a strong inclination to apply a concerted effort to address this important scourge. All researchers contribute data on tuberculosis drug targets and active molecules through a copyleft agreement; anyone who is prepared to keep to this may participate. All the data is Clickwrap protected and credit sharing will be based on a novel and flexible micro-attribution system. This system is aimed at providing due credit through an active process. Various levels of investigators shall have appropriate levels of rights, recognition and responsibilities.Another valuable aspect is the partnerships of Industry with belief in Open Source systems and models. We name this concerted effort to tackle this dreaded disease as Open Source Drug Discovery for Tuberculosis.

An improved watermarking technique for multi-user, multi-right environments

In digital rights management, there are many instances where there is more than one user involved, with each user having different level of rights. In this paper, we develop a novel approach to the multi-user, multi-right problem, where users are tied to various rights in an arbitrary access structure. Our approach is applicable to all kinds of media and can be used with any watermarking algorithm, provided that keys are used to generate the watermarks. This flexibility also enables it to benefit from future progress in the development of watermarking algorithms, in particular that of multiple watermarking. The proposed technique uses the generalized secret sharing scheme of Benaloh and Leichter, and builds on the earlier work of Guo on the joint ownership problem. By noting that the number of rights is likely much smaller than the number of users in most practical situations, and by generating the watermarks independently, the proposed approach achieves greater fidelity and detection capability than Guo's schemes while remaining secure against colluding users.

Is There an End to Out-Able? Is There an End to the Rat Race for Abilities?

Is There an End to Out-Able? Is There an End to the Rat Race for Abilities?

Migrant Workers: Where Lies Their Haven under the United Nations' Migrant Workers' Convention?

The importance of migrant workers in a globalized world cannot be over-emphasized. Sadly however, migrant workers have over the years fallen victim of different levels of degrading and inhuman treatments in their countries of vocation. It was in order to correct this situation that the United Nations in December 1990 adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (MWC). Indeed, this Convention opened a new chapter in the history of efforts to establish the rights of migrant workers and to ensure that these rights are protected and respected.Despite the adoption of this treaty in 1990, global events continue to show that the inhuman treatments of the past have continued to make life unbearable for migrant workers in different countries of the world. Of great concern also is the fact that most developed countries of the world, especially Canada and the United States have refused to ratify this convention. In the light of this, it is doubtful whether this convention can achieve any form of effectiveness without their ratifications.This paper will take an in-depth look into the rights enshrined in this convention. It will engage in an analysis of some articles of the MWC with the aim of appraising the level of rights and protection offered to migrant workers under it. It examines the rights of migrant workers as aliens in general international human rights law as well as the specific efforts and measures of the International Labour Organization and the United Nations in affording them protection. The paper will draw out the weaknesses of the MWC while offering suggestions on how these weaknesses can be rectified. Most developed countries have cited these weaknesses as their reasons for refusing to ratify this convention. This paper will examine these claims while analyzing the appropriate steps to be taken if the United Nations intends to confer some effectiveness and acceptance on the MWC. Moreover, the paper will be lending its voice to the on-going global campaign for the ratification of this important treaty.

Assembly Backs Gay Marriage, Asks Board to Share Power

Assembly Backs Gay Marriage, Asks Board to Share Power

Criminal Procedure Under State Law: An Empirical Examination of Selective New Federalism

Since the mid-1970s, states have extended civil liberties to criminal defendants beyond what is mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite the rare use of state constitutional law to provide additional protections to individuals, legal scholars and social scientists have examined various aspects of new federalism. Largely ignored by this research have been the actions of the states in actually providing additional rights to criminal defendants. This study examines whether states differ in the number of doctrinal areas in which they provide additional protections and what might explain these differences. It explores the impact of institutional, ideological, and environmental factors on the level of rights that states provide to criminal defendants and discusses the theoretical underpinnings for the observed differences.

Due Process and the Right to Life in the Context of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations: Arguing the LaGrand Case

The LaGrand case, currently under deliberation at the International Court of Justice, encapsulates a number of problems cutting across key areas of international law. The dispute, which arose out of the United States' failure of consular notification in violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, originated within a context that compelled Germany and the Court itself to act in an unprecedented manner. The life of a man in imminent danger prompted Germany 'to sue its close ally, the United States' and the Court to act within hours after it had been seised on 2 March 1999, issuing for the first time an Order on provisional measures proprio motu and without having held a hearing. 1 Indeed, although the case has at its core the interpretation and application of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, it involves legal proceedings that led to the deprivation of life of two German nationals: Karl and Walter LaGrand. The first died executed by lethal injection and the second in the gas chamber of the state of Arizona. As a result, the parties met in relation to a dispute which, although it '(did) not concern the international legality vel non of the death penalty as such', was surrounded by facts that made it impossible to insulate the provision at stake from its possible bearing on individual rights: namely on the right to due process and, ultimately, on the right to life in the context of the death penalty. Two opposite views of international law appeared from the arguments of the parties. For the United States international law consists of a myriad of watertight compartments: at the level of sources, treaty law and customary international law have separate existences and thus one excludes the application of the other; at the level of rights and

Renegade Rockets & the Darwin Space Base Fiasco: The Relations Between Aborigines, Developers, and Anthropologists in Australia’s Northern Territory

The most significant employer of anthropologists in Australia's Northern Territory is not the university or museum. It is the Aboriginal land councils. As I detail in this article, the primary role of the land council anthropologist is to mediate between Aboriginal groups and developers. But there is a catch. While anthropologists are usually employed because they have already developed a relationship with particular clans as a result of Masters or Ph.D. studies, in performing the duties as required by a council, one often alienates the people who we owe our careers to. This is because any land council has a dual function. On the one hand it pursues land and sea rights for the Aboriginal people under its jurisdiction. On the other, it is trying to sell the idea of Aboriginal property rights to the rest of Australia, where Aborigines enjoy nowhere near the same level of rights.