The haloacid operon of Burkholderia sp. MBA4 is catabolically repressed

Session: Biofilms - Keynotepublished_or_final_versio

Draft Genome Sequence of the Haloacid-Degrading Burkholderia caribensis Strain MBA4

Burkholderia caribensis MBA4 was isolated from soil for its ability to utilize 2-haloacid. An inducible haloacid operon, encoding for a dehalogenase and a permease, is mainly responsible for the biotransformation. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of this strain.postprin

An actuarial approach to assessing personal injury compensations in Singapore: Theory and practice

In Singapore personal injury litigations, successful claimants usually receive their compensations as a lump sum. The main advantage of a lump sum payment is that the proceedings can be concluded with a 'clean break' between the parties. The lump sum is a result of discounting the future pecuniary values into a single present-day amount, considering the time value of money and the claimant's mortality. Conventionally, lump sum awards are determined by making reference to a spread of amounts in comparable cases. However, a fairer method would be one that involves input from not only lawyers but also other experts including economists and actuaries. This study, which is carried out by an inter-professional working group, provides a set of actuarially computed tables for use in personal injury settlements in Singapore. The calculations involve a consideration of recent advancements in stochastic mortality modeling and an empirical study on the econometrics of real returns on risk-free assets in Singapore. We then present two recent personal injury cases in Singapore, aiming at helping the Singapore legal profession understand and use the economic principles with actuarial tables, and educating economists and actuaries the legal concerns and concepts in personal injury cases. © 2010 World Scientific Publishing Company.postprin

Using Actuarial Evidence in Singapore and Hong Kong: A Sequel to “Lai Wee Lian Revisited”

Following the English common law, successful claimants in personal injury and clinical negligence cases in Singapore and Hong Kong usually receive their compensations as a lump sum. The amount in respect of future expenses and loss of future earning is a result of discounting the future pecuniary values into a single present-day amount, considering inflation, the time value of money and the claimant’s mortality. Using actuarial tables based on projections of the mortality rate of the general population may be considered as an alternative method in converting the future loss of earnings and future expenses into a lump sum reflecting its present value. For this purpose, a set of actuarial tables are constructed in this article. Various options for determining the appropriate discount rate(s) are explored in the context of the statistical and economic data of Singapore and Hong Kong.published_or_final_versio

A simple bias correction in linear regression for quantitative trait association under two-tail extreme selection

Selective genotyping can increase power in quantitative trait association. One example of selective genotyping is two-tail extreme selection, but simple linear regression analysis gives a biased genetic effect estimate. Here, we present a simple correction for the bias. © The Author(s) 2011.published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Complete Genome Sequence of the Exopolysaccharide-Producing Burkholderia caribensis Type Strain MWAP64

We report the complete genome sequence of Burkholderia caribensis MWAP64 (LMG 18531), which was isolated from soil for its proficiency in producing large amounts of exopolysaccharide that help form microaggregates in a vertisol. There are four replicons with a total size of 9,032,119 bp.published_or_final_versio

Mapping visual symbols onto spoken language along the ventral visual stream.

Reading involves transforming arbitrary visual symbols into sounds and meanings. This study interrogated the neural representations in ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT) that support this transformation process. Twenty-four adults learned to read 2 sets of 24 novel words that shared phonemes and semantic categories but were written in different artificial orthographies. Following 2 wk of training, participants read the trained words while neural activity was measured with functional MRI. Representational similarity analysis on item pairs from the same orthography revealed that right vOT and posterior regions of left vOT were sensitive to basic visual similarity. Left vOT encoded letter identity and representations became more invariant to position along a posterior-to-anterior hierarchy. Item pairs that shared sounds or meanings, but were written in different orthographies with no letters in common, evoked similar neural patterns in anterior left vOT. These results reveal a hierarchical, posterior-to-anterior gradient in vOT, in which representations of letters become increasingly invariant to position and are transformed to convey spoken language information