DNA ANALYSIS USING GRAMMATICAL INFERENCE

An accurate language definition capable of distinguishing between coding and non-coding DNA has important applications and analytical significance to the field of computational biology. The method proposed here uses positive sample grammatical inference and statistical information to infer languages for coding DNA. An algorithm is proposed for the searching of an optimal subset of input sequences for the inference of regular grammars by optimizing a relevant accuracy metric. The algorithm does not guarantee the finding of the optimal subset; however, testing shows improvement in accuracy and performance over the basis algorithm. Testing shows that the accuracy of inferred languages for components of DNA are consistently accurate. By using the proposed algorithm languages are inferred for coding DNA with average conditional probability over 80%. This reveals that languages for components of DNA can be inferred and are useful independent of the process that created them. These languages can then be analyzed or used for other tasks in computational biology. To illustrate potential applications of regular grammars for DNA components, an inferred language for exon sequences is applied as post processing to Hidden Markov exon prediction to reduce the number of wrong exons detected and improve the specificity of the model significantly

Exotic to Domestic

Undergraduate Graphic Desig

A war for principle? Shifting memories of the Union cause in Iowa, 1865-1916

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Where Participatory Approaches Meet Pragmatism in Funded (Health) Research: The Challenge of Finding Meaningful Spaces

The term participatory research is now widely used as a way of categorising research that has moved beyond researching "on" to researching "with" participants. This paper draws attention to some confusions that lie behind such categorisation and the potential impact of those confusions on qualitative participatory research in practice. It illuminates some of the negative effects of "fitting in" to spaces devised by other types of research and highlights the importance of forging spaces for presenting participatory research designs that suit a discursive approach and that allow the quality and impact of such research to be recognised. The main contention is that the adoption of a variety of approaches and purposes is part of the strength of participatory research but that to date the paradigm has not been sufficiently articulated. Clarifying the unifying features of the participatory paradigm and shaping appropriate ways for critique could support the embedding of participatory research into research environments, funding schemes and administration in a way that better reflects the nature and purpose of authentic involvement

Seeking Excellence: Improving Objectivity in Player Analysis in Professional Basketball

This thesis details the creation and testing of an original statistical metric for analyzing individual basketball players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) by both their commonly measured statistics and their so-called “intangibles.” By using existing methods as both guides and a caution against potential shortcomings, an inclusive statistic with multiple layers of data can be built to best reflect an individual player’s overall value to his team. This metric will be adjusted to account for the differences across multiple eras of NBA play and the levels of talent with which a player played in order to avoid penalizing a player for the unique aspects of his career

Food provisioning and growth in the Atlantic puffin fratercular Arctica: an experimental approach

This study provided Puffin chicks with an additional 25g of food per day during the period of maximum growth rate to determine whether: 1) adult puffins can evaluate and respond to the nutritional requirements of their chicks, and 2) whether growth parameters (rate and elevation) of structural body components are flexible in response to variable levels of nutrition. Adult provisioning rates were significantly reduced in response to supplementary feeding, with experimental chicks receiving a mean of 2.1 feeds/d(^-1) compared to control chicks which received 4.7 feeds/d(^-1). There was no difference in the mean weight or energy content of the loads delivered to both groups, suggesting that the adult response to supplementary feeding took the form of a decrease in feeding frequency rather than a decrease m the size or nutritional quality of the load. No significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups in both the growth rate of overall body size and body weight. Neither was there a difference between groups in body mass elevation (mass corrected for age). However, chicks provided with supplementary food grew significantly larger for their age than control chicks. The fact that control birds were smaller but body masses were identical between the two groups suggests that control birds were not energy limited but nutrient limited; supplementary food may have provided the additional nutrients allowing structural tissues of experimental birds to grow larger. Differences in body tissue composition, and thus differences in metabolic energy requirements, may have been indirectly responsible for the similarities in body mass between the two groups. Identical growth rates between the two groups may have been a result of constraints acting at the physiological level, which prevented any further increase in rate once maximum size was reached for a given nutrient intake. In conclusion, variation in the quality or quantity of Puffin nestling diets does effect growth patterns of structural body components. Environmental sources of morphological variation should not be neglected in studies of phenotypic variation in birds

Higher Education and Labor Relations

I have been asked to comment in a field in which I am a novice, namely that of arbitration. I have only recently taken vows in that order and remain still very humble in the company of those already long accepted into the faith and practice. I am, in a word, quite incompetent and incapable of taking issue with Mother Superior. I have decided, therefore, not to question revealed truth, but to accept and ponder it, yea, with gratitude as today\u27s lesson to be learned. What I should like to do is to raise novice\u27s questions in a somewhat special corner of the field to which I have been granted admission and where I have had some limited experience. I refer to the problems raised in labor relations and specifically in arbitration in higher education, both public and private. The issues here derive from the nature of this distinct kind of institution. I refer now both to colleges and universities, though not to the community colleges which in their developing--not to say rigidifying--labor relations give every evidence of preferring the kinds of contracts, conditions, and remedies acceptable and accepted in the high schools