Linked open government data: lessons from Data.gov.uk

The movement to publish government data is an opportunity to populate the linked data Web with data of good provenance. The benefits range from transparency to public service improvement, citizen engagement to the creation of social and economic value. There are many challenges to be met before the vision is implemented, and this paper describes the efforts of the EnAKTing project to extract value from data.gov.uk, through the stages of locating data sources, integrating data into the linked data Web, and browsing and querying it

Investment-Linked Takaful Plan Patronage: Evidence From Malaysia

Investment-linked Takaful is a recent innovation introduced in Malaysia. This study focuses on Investment-linked takaful plan selection in Malaysia. We have used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from 143 respondents from the Klang Valley area. Data collected through the survey was analyzed through descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. Results indicate that fee payment and benefits play a significant role in Takaful operator selection while coverage and benefits affect the investment-linked product selection in Malaysia. This study is unique as it provides empirical evidence on the investment-linked takaful investment which is limited in supply. Results provided by this study can be useful for takaful operators in designing the most appropriate investment-linked product for attracting customers

Free education, pensions and the university as a business

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Topologically Linked Crystals

We discovered a new class of topological crystals, namely linked rings of crystals. Two rings of tantalum triselenide (TaSe3) single crystals were linked to each other while crystal growing. The topology of the crystal form is called a "Hopf link", which is the simplest link involving just two component unknots linked together exactly once. The feature of the crystals is not covered by the conventional crystallography.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in J. Crystal Growt

Linked Hom spaces

In this note, we describe a theory of linked Hom spaces which complements that of linked Grassmannians. Given two chains of vector bundles linked by maps in both directions, we give conditions for the space of homomorphisms from one chain to the other to be itself represented by a vector bundle. We apply this to present a more transparent version of an earlier construction of limit linear series spaces out of linked Grassmannians.Comment: 7 page

MHC-linked and un-linked class I genes in the wallaby

Background: MHC class I antigens are encoded by a rapidly evolving gene family comprising classical and non-classical genes that are found in all vertebrates and involved in diverse immune functions. However, there is a fundamental difference between the organization of class I genes in mammals and non-mammals. Non-mammals have a single classical gene responsible for antigen presentation, which is linked to the antigen processing genes, including TAP. This organization allows co-evolution of advantageous class Ia/ TAP haplotypes. In contrast, mammals have multiple classical genes within the MHC, which are separated from the antigen processing genes by class III genes. It has been hypothesized that separation of classical class I genes from antigen processing genes in mammals allowed them to duplicate. We investigated this hypothesis by characterizing the class I genes of the tammar wallaby, a model marsupial that has a novel MHC organization, with class I genes located within the MHC and 10 other chromosomal locations. Results: Sequence analysis of 14 BACs containing 15 class I genes revealed that nine class I genes, including one to three classical class I, are not linked to the MHC but are scattered throughout the genome. Kangaroo Endogenous Retroviruses (KERVs) were identified flanking the MHC un-linked class I. The wallaby MHC contains four non-classical class I, interspersed with antigen processing genes. Clear orthologs of non-classical class I are conserved in distant marsupial lineages. Conclusion: We demonstrate that classical class I genes are not linked to antigen processing genes in the wallaby and provide evidence that retroviral elements were involved in their movement. The presence of retroviral elements most likely facilitated the formation of recombination hotspots and subsequent diversification of class I genes. The classical class I have moved away from antigen processing genes in eutherian mammals and the wallaby independently, but both lineages appear to have benefited from this loss of linkage by increasing the number of classical genes, perhaps enabling response to a wider range of pathogens. The discovery of non-classical orthologs between distantly related marsupial species is unusual for the rapidly evolving class I genes and may indicate an important marsupial specific function

Collaboratively Patching Linked Data

Today's Web of Data is noisy. Linked Data often needs extensive preprocessing to enable efficient use of heterogeneous resources. While consistent and valid data provides the key to efficient data processing and aggregation we are facing two main challenges: (1st) Identification of erroneous facts and tracking their origins in dynamically connected datasets is a difficult task, and (2nd) efforts in the curation of deficient facts in Linked Data are exchanged rather rarely. Since erroneous data often is duplicated and (re-)distributed by mashup applications it is not only the responsibility of a few original publishers to keep their data tidy, but progresses to be a mission for all distributers and consumers of Linked Data too. We present a new approach to expose and to reuse patches on erroneous data to enhance and to add quality information to the Web of Data. The feasibility of our approach is demonstrated by example of a collaborative game that patches statements in DBpedia data and provides notifications for relevant changes.Comment: 2nd International Workshop on Usage Analysis and the Web of Data (USEWOD2012) in the 21st International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2012), Lyon, France, April 17th, 201

atrophy plus syndrome, or costeff optic atrophy syndrome): identification of the OPA3 gene and its

deficiencies in a male with cardiomyopathy and 3-methylglutaconic aciduria, ” J Inherit Metab Dis

Zero Modes on Linked Strings

We study linked loops of string in the presence of bosonic condensates and fermionic zero modes on the strings. We find that the strings necessarily carry a current if the bosons have an Aharanov-Bohm interaction with the string. The fermionic case is analyzed in the context of the standard model where there are lepton and quark zero modes on $Z-$strings. Here we find that the fermionic ground state in the linked string background is lower than the ground state when the loops are unlinked but otherwise identical. As in the bosonic case, the $Z-$strings carry a non-vanishing electric current in the ground state. The baryon number of the linked configuration is found to agree with previous indirect results. We also evaluate the angular momentum, electromagnetic charge and baryonic three current on the linked $Z-$string configuration. Finally we point out a possible gravitational analogue of the linked string system.Comment: LaTeX, 27 text pages + 2 figures, Fig. 1 file fixe