Inferring the Distribution of Selective Effects from a Time Inhomogeneous Model

We have developed a Poisson random field model for estimating the distribution of selective effects of newly arisen nonsynonymous mutations that could be observed as polymorphism or divergence in samples of two related species under the assumption that the two species populations are not at mutation-selection-drift equilibrium. The model is applied to 91Drosophila genes by comparing levels of polymorphism in an African population of D. melanogaster with divergence to a reference strain of D. simulans. Based on the difference of gene expression level between testes and ovaries, the 91 genes were classified as 33 male-biased, 28 female-biased, and 30 sex-unbiased genes. Under a Bayesian framework, Markov chain Monte Carlo simulations are implemented to the model in which the distribution of selective effects is assumed to be Gaussian with a mean that may differ from one gene to the other to sample key parameters. Based on our estimates, the majority of newly-arisen nonsynonymous mutations that could contribute to polymorphism or divergence in Drosophila species are mildly deleterious with a mean scaled selection coefficient of -2.81, while almost 86% of the fixed differences between species are driven by positive selection. There are only 16.6% of the nonsynonymous mutations observed in sex-unbiased genes that are under positive selection in comparison to 30% of male-biased and 46% of female-biased genes that are beneficial. We also estimated that D. melanogaster and D. simulans may have diverged 1.72 million years ago

Economic Growth and Human Development in China

human development, poverty, empowerment

Poverty Alleviation in China: Commitment, Policy and Expenditures

human development, poverty, empowerment

Environmental Effects On Drosophila Brain Development And Learning

Brain development and behavior are sensitive to a variety of environmental influences including social interactions and physicochemical stressors. Sensory input in situ is a mosaic of both enrichment and stress, yet little is known about how multiple environmental factors interact to affect brain anatomical structures, circuits and cognitive function. In this study, we addressed these issues by testing the individual and combined effects of sub-adult thermal stress, larval density and early-adult living spatial enrichment on brain anatomy and olfactory associative learning in adult Drosophila melanogaster. In response to heat stress, the mushroom bodies (MBs) were the most volumetrically impaired among all of the brain structures, an effect highly correlated with reduced odor learning performance. However, MBs were not sensitive to either larval culture density or early-adult living conditions. Extreme larval crowding reduced the volume of the antennal lobes, optic lobes and central complex. Neither larval crowding nor early-adult spatial enrichment affected olfactory learning. These results illustrate that various brain structures react differently to environmental inputs, and that MB development and learning are highly sensitive to certain stressors (pre-adult hyperthermia) and resistant to others (larval crowding). © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd

REAL-TIME SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR FLYING HEIGHT MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL IN HARD DRIVES SUBJECT TO SHOCK AND VIBRATION

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/829 on 10.04.2017 by CS (TIS)Three readback signal detection methods are investigated for real-time flying height or head disk spacing variation measurement under vibration conditions. This is carried out by theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and experimental study. The first method (amplitude detection) provides a simple way to study the head disk spacing change. The second method ( PW50 parameter estimation) can be used effectively for real-time spacing variation measurement in normally operated hard disk drives, primarily in low frequency spacing variation conditions. The third method (thermal signal detection), on the other hand, is more effective and suitable for high frequency spacing variation measurement. By combining the PW50 estimation and thermal signal detection methods, a noval spacing variation detection method for the whole frequency range is constructed. This combined signal detection method not only has been used to study the head disk spacing variation itself, but also has the potential of being used for real time flying height control. Analytical models are developed for head disk assembly and head position servo control mechanisms to analyse the operation failure of hard disk drives under vibration conditions. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation show their good agreement with experimental results. A novel active flying height control method is proposed to suppress the flying height or head-disk spacing variation in hard disk drives under vibration conditions. Simulation results show that this active flying height control can effectively suppress the head-disk spacing variation, therefore the performance and reliability of HDDs can be well improved when working in vibration conditions: The method has a good potential to be applied to future ruggedized hard disk drives

Biological and Practical Implications of Genome-Wide Association Study of Schizophrenia Using Bayesian Variable Selection

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified over 100 loci associated with schizophrenia. Most of these studies test genetic variants for association one at a time. In this study, we performed GWAS of the molecular genetics of schizophrenia (MGS) dataset with 5334 subjects using multivariate Bayesian variable selection (BVS) method Posterior Inference via Model Averaging and Subset Selection (piMASS) and compared our results with the previous univariate analysis of the MGS dataset. We showed that piMASS can improve the power of detecting schizophrenia-associated SNPs, potentially leading to new discoveries from existing data without increasing the sample size. We tested SNPs in groups to allow for local additive effects and used permutation test to determine statistical significance in order to compare our results with univariate method. The previous univariate analysis of the MGS dataset revealed no genome-wide significant loci. Using the same dataset, we identified a single region that exceeded the genome-wide significance. The result was replicated using an independent Swedish Schizophrenia Case–Control Study (SSCCS) dataset. Based on the SZGR 2.0 database we found 63 SNPs from the best performing regions that are mapped to 27 genes known to be associated with schizophrenia. Overall, we demonstrated that piMASS could discover association signals that otherwise would need a much larger sample size. Our study has important implication that reanalyzing published datasets with BVS methods like piMASS might have more power to discover new risk variants for many diseases without new sample collection, ascertainment, and genotyping

Globalization, Consumption and Human Development in China

human development, consumption, globalization

Effects of Biochar on Plant Growth and Cadmium Uptake: Case Studies on Asian Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) and Chinese Sage (Salvia miltiorrhiza)

Application of biochar has many benefits in agriculture, to understand benefits of biochar in crop production and remediation of heavy metal pollution, Asian lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) as an aquatic crop and Chinese sage (Salvia miltiorrhiza) as a traditional medicinal herb were used to evaluate biochar’s effects on plant growth and cadmium (Cd) accumulation in plants in the artificially Cd-polluted condition in containers. In both cases, adding biochar (4% to 32% in soil mix) significantly increased plant biomass. However, its impact on plant physiological traits were unclear. In Asian lotus, the Cd content in rhizomes, petioles, and leaves significantly increased by 69%, 81% and 55%, respectively as 32% biochar added. Meanwhile, a maximum reduction (71%) showed on bioaccumulation coefficient of Cd, and an up to 1.3 folds increase occurred on Cd transfer coefficient of underground to aboveground tissues, which indicated that biochar effectively prevented Cd uptake in major edible parts. In Chinese sage, adding 32% biochar significantly decreased Cd content in leaves and roots by 52.81% and 43.63%, respectively. Therefore, as a valuable soil amendment of improving plant growth and reducing heavy metal uptake, biochar has a huge potential in green agriculture production and remediation of heavy-metal polluted environment

PENGUJIAN WEBSITE ACC.CO.ID REVAMP MENGGUNAKAN METODE BLACK BOX TESTING

Website adalah salah satu media online yang menjadi wadah bagi perusahaan untuk menciptakan cara-cara inovatif dalam melakukan bisnis, tak terkecuali PT. Astra Credit Companies yang mengembangkan ulang Acc.co.id untuk meningkatkan pelayanannya kepada customer. Oleh karena itu, pengujian terhadap website ini perlu dilakukan untuk meningkatkan kualitas website sesuai dengan requirement pengembangan. Pengujian yang dilakukan dalam penelitian ini menggunakan metode black box testing berbasis equivalence partitioning. Pengujian fungsionalitas website dilakukan pada 15 fungsi pada website. Pengujian dilakukan dengan membandingkan teknik pengujian manual dan otomatis menggunakan tool Katalon Studio. Berdasarkan hasil pengujian yang dijalankan, terdapat perbedaan antara pengujian manual dan otomatis dalam implementasinya. Dari segi waktu, pengujian manual berjalan lebih cepat dibandingkan dengan pengujian otomatis dengan persentase rata-rata waktu pengujian sebesar 55%. Selain itu, ditemukan dua bug dari 15 fungsi yang dijalankan yaitu pada fungsi pengajuan simulasi kredit dan pengajuan produk syariah mobil baru yang disebabkan terdapat ketidaksesuaian dengan user requirement yang dibuat