Semantic metrics

In the context of the Semantic Web, many ontology-related operations, e.g. ontology ranking, segmentation, alignment, articulation, reuse, evaluation, can be boiled down to one fundamental operation: computing the similarity and?or dissimilarity among ontological entities, and in some cases among ontologies themselves. In this paper, we review standard metrics for computing distance measures and we propose a series of semantic metrics. We give a formal account of semantic metrics drawn from a variety of research disciplines, and enrich them with semantics based on standard Description Logic constructs. We argue that concept-based metrics can be aggregated to produce numeric distances at ontology-level and we speculate on the usability of our ideas through potential areas

Long-Term Care Insurance and Carers' Labor Supply: A Structural Model

In Germany, individuals in need of long-term care receive support through benefits of the long-term care insurance. A central goal of the insurance is to support informal care provided by family members. Care recipients can choose between benefits in kind (formal home care services) and benefits in cash. From a budgetary perspective family care is a cost-saving alternative to formal home care and to stationary nursing care. However, the opportunity costs resulting from reduced labor supply of the carer are often overlooked. We focus on the labor supply decision of family carers and the incentives set by the long-term care insurance. We estimate a structural model of labor supply and the choice of benefits of family carers. We find that benefits in kind have small positive effects on labor supply. Labor supply elasticities of cash benefits are larger and negative. If both types of benefits increase, negative labor supply effects are offset to a large extent

Towards Establishment of a Rice Stress Response Interactome

Rice (Oryza sativa) is a staple food for more than half the world and a model for studies of monocotyledonous species, which include cereal crops and candidate bioenergy grasses. A major limitation of crop production is imposed by a suite of abiotic and biotic stresses resulting in 30%–60% yield losses globally each year. To elucidate stress response signaling networks, we constructed an interactome of 100 proteins by yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assays around key regulators of the rice biotic and abiotic stress responses. We validated the interactome using protein–protein interaction (PPI) assays, co-expression of transcripts, and phenotypic analyses. Using this interactome-guided prediction and phenotype validation, we identified ten novel regulators of stress tolerance, including two from protein classes not previously known to function in stress responses. Several lines of evidence support cross-talk between biotic and abiotic stress responses. The combination of focused interactome and systems analyses described here represents significant progress toward elucidating the molecular basis of traits of agronomic importance

Assessment of the Food Habits of the Moroccan Dorcas Gazelle in M’Sabih Talaa, West Central Morocco, Using the trnL Approach

Food habits of the Moroccan dorcas gazelle, Gazella dorcas massaesyla, previously investigated in the 1980s using microhistological fecal analysis, in the M’Sabih Talaa Reserve, west central Morocco, were re-evaluated over three seasons (spring, summer and autumn 2009) using the trnL approach to determine the diet composition and its seasonal variation from fecal samples. Taxonomic identification was carried out using the identification originating from the database built from EMBL and the list of plant species within the reserve. The total taxonomic richness in the reserve was 130 instead of 171 species in the 1980s. The diet composition revealed to be much more diversified (71 plant taxa belonging to 57 genus and 29 families) than it was 22 years ago (29 identified taxa). Thirty-four taxa were newly identified in the diet while 13 reported in 1986–87 were not found. Moroccan dorcas gazelle showed a high preference to Acacia gummifera, Anagallis arvensis, Glebionis coronaria, Cladanthus arabicus, Diplotaxis tenuisiliqua, Erodium salzmannii, Limonium thouini, Lotus arenarius and Zizyphus lotus. Seasonal variations occurred in both number (40–41 taxa in spring-summer and 49 taxa in autumn vs. respectively 23–22 and 26 in 1986–1987) and taxonomic type of eaten plant taxa. This dietary diversification could be attributed either to the difference in methods of analysis, trnL approach having a higher taxonomic resolution, or a potential change in nutritional quality of plants over time

Long-Term Care Reform and the Labor Supply of Household Members Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

Germany introduced a new mandatory insurance for long-term care in 1995. It replaced a system based on means-tested transfers. The new scheme made it easier for households to draw benefits and to organize informal care. We exploit this reform as a natural experiment and examine its effect on the labor supply of caregivers who live in the same household as the care recipient. We find strong negative results for male labor supply but not for women. We conduct a set of robustness tests and our results prove to be stable

Expression of the glossy2 gene of maize during plant development

The glossy2 (gl2) gene of maize participates to the synthesis- deposition of the juvenile epidermal wax layer of maize leaves. In this paper, the expression of the gene was analysed at the RNA mid protein levels. The results showed that in wild type plants the gl2 gene is transcribed in young leaves, in coleoptiles, in husks, in immature ears mid in silks. Neither transcripts were found in roots of wild type plants nor in any tissues of plants homozygous for tile recessive gl2-ref allele. Antibodies against the gl2 protein revealed its predominant, presence in leaves with a juvenile wax phenotype mid protein detection was consistent with e transcription in wild type coleoptiles, husks, immature cars and silks, but not in roots, anthers and seeds. Sequence data hank analysis revealed homologies of the gl2 protein of maize with eighteen sequences from several plants Species. Four of these proteins are induced in species different from maize during the hypersensitive response to plant pathogens. One protein is present in maize silks. A further set of four proteins represent polypeptides responsible for CoA-dependent acyl transfer in plants. The results provided contribute to assign a putative function to the gl2 gene

Expression of the glossy2 gene of maize during plant development

The glossy2 (gl2) gene of maize participates to the synthesis- deposition of the juvenile epidermal wax layer of maize leaves. In this paper, the expression of the gene was analysed at the RNA mid protein levels. The results showed that in wild type plants the gl2 gene is transcribed in young leaves, in coleoptiles, in husks, in immature ears mid in silks. Neither transcripts were found in roots of wild type plants nor in any tissues of plants homozygous for tile recessive gl2-ref allele. Antibodies against the gl2 protein revealed its predominant, presence in leaves with a juvenile wax phenotype mid protein detection was consistent with e transcription in wild type coleoptiles, husks, immature cars and silks, but not in roots, anthers and seeds. Sequence data hank analysis revealed homologies of the gl2 protein of maize with eighteen sequences from several plants Species. Four of these proteins are induced in species different from maize during the hypersensitive response to plant pathogens. One protein is present in maize silks. A further set of four proteins represent polypeptides responsible for CoA-dependent acyl transfer in plants. The results provided contribute to assign a putative function to the gl2 gene

Web Searching: A Quality Measurement Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to describe various quality measures for search engines and to ask whether these are suitable. We especially focus on user needs and their use of web search engines. The paper presents an extensive literature review and a first quality measurement model, as well. Findings include that search engine quality can not be measured by just retrieval effectiveness (the quality of the results), but should also consider index quality, the quality of the search features and search engine usability. For each of these sections, empirical results from studies conducted in the past, as well as from our own research are presented. These results have implications for the evaluation of search engines and for the development of better search systems that give the user the best possible search experience