OLAP for health statistics: how to turn a simple spreadsheet into a powerful analytical tool

Over the last ten years, Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) has become a very popular tool for interactive analysis of multidimensional information. Providing online operation and flexible summarising, tabulating and charting options, it has become an essential part of the decision support process in corporate setting. Our aim is to demonstrate how easily applicable and useful OLAP can be in the public sector. To achieve that, we used data compiled from different sources for the purpose of exploring the relations between causes of death (according to ICD-10) and socio-economic characteristics (educational level, marital status, profession, etc.) for selected years 1992, 1995 and 1998 in Slovenia. Using a standard personal computer and the Windows® platform, the application was implemented in Microsoft® Excel 2000, without any programming. After data cleansing (elimination of incorrect entries, duplicates and inconsistencies based on exploratory statistical methods), the case-based spreadsheet data was instantly converted into an OLAP application with the user-friendly pivot table technology. A bonus of this approach is that the results can be made directly accessible over the WWW by publishing the workbook to a web server. Provided that the user has Microsoft® Internet Explorer and Microsoft® Office 2000 installed, all the drill-in, drill-out and dimension-swapping capabilities are accessible within the browser, while the data source remains fully protected. Privacy constraints are respected since all the information is only provided at the aggregate level. Even though our dataset provides exhaustive coverage of mortality at the national level, storage and processing capabilities did not prove to be an issue. Hence, we argue that OLAP methodology should find a place in health statistics. With proper data collection and/or transformations, informative comparisons within the study population and with international databases become readily accessible. The key advantage of OLAP over relational database management systems and ordinary tables is interactive browsing of multidimensional and hierarchical data, while OLAP can also aid data integrity checking and reporting

Validating Forward Modeling and Inversions of Helioseismic Holography Measurements

Here we use synthetic data to explore the performance of forward models and inverse methods for helioseismic holography. Specifically, this work presents the first comprehensive test of inverse modeling for flows using lateral-vantage (deep-focus) holography. We derive sensitivity functions in the Born approximation. We then use these sensitivity functions in a series of forward models and inversions of flows from a publicly available magnetohydrodynamic quiet-Sun simulation. The forward travel times computed using the kernels generally compare favorably with measurements obtained by applying holography, in a lateral-vantage configuration, on a 15-hour time series of artificial Dopplergrams extracted from the simulation. Inversions for the horizontal flow components are able to reproduce the flows in the upper 3Mm of the domain, but are compromised by noise at greater depths.Comment: accepted for publication by the Astrophysical

Helioseismology of Pre-Emerging Active Regions II: Average Emergence Properties

We report on average subsurface properties of pre-emerging active regions as compared to areas where no active region emergence was detected. Helioseismic holography is applied to samples of the two populations (pre-emergence and without emergence), each sample having over 100 members, which were selected to minimize systematic bias, as described in Leka et al. We find that there are statistically significant signatures (i.e., difference in the means of more than a few standard errors) in the average subsurface flows and the apparent wave speed that precede the formation of an active region. The measurements here rule out spatially extended flows of more than about 15 m/s in the top 20 Mm below the photosphere over the course of the day preceding the start of visible emergence. These measurements place strong constraints on models of active region formation.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, ApJ (published

Characterisation of cv. Refosˇk (Vitis vinifera L.) by SSR markers

Fifty-five accessions of cv. Refošk from a clonal selection vineyard in the Karst district (Slovenia) were screened by 6 SSR markers in order to assess their uniformity. Two of the accessions showed different patterns (Clone 7 and Clone 50), while 53 accessions revealed identical SSR allelic profiles. Four of the uniform and the two different accessions were compared to 11 Refošk types from adjacent regions (Slovenia (Koper), Croatia and Italy) using 23 SSR markers. The SSR analysis revealed 7 identical genotypes (4 uniform Karst clones, one Italian and two Koper types), while three Koper (Slovenia) and three Italian types, as well as Teran from Croatia, showed genetic polymorphisms on an intra-varietal level. Clone 7, Clone 50 and Sladki Teran (Croatia) showed highly diverse genetic patterns from other types and should be considered different varieties. Comparative analysis allowed reliable construction of the predominant Refošk type grown in Slovenia.

Microsatellite genotyping of old Slovenian grapevine varieties (Vitis vinifera L.) of the Primorje (coastal) winegrowing region

Thirty-three grapevine varieties from Slovenia were genotyped at 21 microsatellite loci in order accurately to identify varieties and to evaluate their synonyms and homonyms, including varieties cultivated in neighbouring countries. Among Slovenian varieties some previously assumed synonyms were confirmed and some new ones were discovered: ‘Poljšakica Drnovk’ = ‘Istrska Malvazija’, ‘Pikolit Italy’ = ‘Pikolit Vienna’, ‘Vitovska grganja’ = ‘Racuk’ and ‘Prosecco’ = ‘Glera’ = ‘Števerjana’. Types of Zelen (‘Zelen Pokov’, ‘Zelen 66’ and ‘Zelen 2.4’) were distinct at several microsatellite loci so can only be considered to be homonyms. Two ‘Picolit’ types were considered to be ‘true-to-type’ on the basis of comparison with ‘Picolit’ clones from Italy. Synonymy between ‘Heunisch’ and ‘Belina’ was not confirmed in our study, since ‘Belina Pleterje’ differentiated from ‘Heunisch weiss’ at 13 out of 19 loci. Comparison of ‘Vitovska grganja’ from Slovenia with ‘Vitouska’ from Italy also showed dissimilarities at the majority of the analysed loci.

Israeli germplasm: phenotyping and genotyping of native grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.)

In this study 32 grapevine accessions from Israel were phenotyped according to O.I.V descriptors and phyllometry, furthermore genotyped with seven microsatellite loci for the first time for further clarification of their potential biodiversity and phylogenetic grapevine analysis. The results according to the SSR microsatellites suggest that the majority of the studied Israeli grapevine accessions, compared to the international reference varieties, show considerably different genotypes - nine accessions showed a unique (individual) genotype, further three accessions represented a first group, four accessions represent a second group and eight groups contained two different accessions. The significant differences among the studied grapevine accessions were observed also in most of the 17 phyllometric measurements of significant leaf characteristics, especially in the leaf area, vein length (L1, L2, L3 and L4), depth of lateral sinuses (OS, OI), petiol length (Lp) and vein angles (β, β’). The observed grapevine characteristics according to the O.I.V. descriptors suggested that more than three-quarters of the studied accessions showed characteristics of table grapes

Highly variable AFLP and S-SAP markers for the identification of ‘Malbec’ and ‘Syrah’ clones

The retrotransposon-based sequence-specific amplification polymorphism (S-SAP) and the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) marker systems were used to assess the clonal variation of 14 ‘Syrah’ and 22 ‘Malbec’ (Vitis vinifera L.) clones. The utility of S-SAP markers was compared to that of AFLP markers. On the basis of our results, S-SAP is more informative marker system and showed higher average number of polymorphic bands per cultivar group than AFLP. Relationships among clones were analyzed by cluster analysis using unweighted pair-groups using arithmetic averages and in both cases revealed well defined groups of clones, in which ‘Malbec’ clones were separated from ‘Syrah’ clones. High variability of some clones could also be seen within these clusters. The different levels of polymorphism for ‘Malbec’ and ‘Syrah’ obtained in this study suggest that ‘Malbec’ exhibits a higher mutation frequency than ‘Syrah’. Our results indicate that higher proportion of polymorphic bands in S-SAP makes it a less labour-intensive and more efficient approach for developing markers for clonal identification.

Highly variable AFLP and S-SAP markers for the identification of "Malbec" and "Syrah" clones

The retrotransposon-based sequence-specific amplification polymorphism (S-SAP) and the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) marker systems were used to assess the clonal variation of 14 ‘Syrah’ and 22 ‘Malbec’ (Vitis vinifera L.) clones. The utility of S-SAP markers was compared to that of AFLP markers. On the basis of our results, S-SAP is more informative marker system and showed higher average number of polymorphic bands per cultivar group than AFLP. Relationships among clones were analyzed by cluster analysis using unweighted pair-groups using arithmetic averages and in both cases revealed well defined groups of clones, in which ‘Malbec’ clones were separated from ‘Syrah’ clones. High variability of some clones could also be seen within these clusters. The different levels of polymorphism for ‘Malbec’ and ‘Syrah’ obtained in this study suggest that ‘Malbec’ exhibits a higher mutation frequency than ‘Syrah’. Our results indicate that higher proportion of polymorphic bands in S-SAP makes it a less labour-intensive and more efficient approach for developing markers for clonal identification.Fil: Stajner, N.. University of Ljubljana; EsloveniaFil: Jakse, J.. University of Ljubljana; EsloveniaFil: Javornik, B.. University of Ljubljana; EsloveniaFil: Masuelli, Ricardo Williams. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro Regional Mendoza-san Juan. Estación Experimental Agropecuaria la Consulta. Agencia de Extensión Rural la Consulta; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Martínez, Liliana Estela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Biología Agrícola de Mendoza; Argentin

Genetic clustering and parentage analysis of Western Balkan grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.)

A total of 90 grapevine samples collected in five countries of the Western Balkan region were evaluated for trueness-to-type and kinship relations based on comparative analysis with 1,130 grapevine genotypes held at the INRA "Domaine de Vassal" French Grape Germplasm Repository, using 14 microsatellite markers. In the context of the comparative analysis, twenty-four synonyms/counterparts and the putative parents for twelve Balkan accessions were identified. We discovered five pairs of homonyms, subsequently confirming the identity or parentage of three of them. Some of the examined accessions were identified either on the basis of the genotypes found in the literature, or through parentage relationships revealed in this study. For the remaining fifty accessions we were unable to establish either their pedigree or to identify them on the basis of SSR profiles available elsewhere. Finally, the Balkan genotypes that were not well classified by synonymy or parentage analysis were further studied with a Principal Coordinate Analysis to reveal genetic clustering within larger datasets of genotypes. The graphical display of the individual and group distances showed that about forty accessions (85 %) are structured within a group of Balkan and Eastern Europe genotypes and only a minor proportion resulted in admixed population assignment

HELIOSEISMOLOGY OF PRE-EMERGING ACTIVE REGIONS. I. OVERVIEW, DATA, AND TARGET SELECTION CRITERIA

ABSTRACT This first paper in a series describes the design of a study testing whether pre-appearance signatures of solar magnetic active regions were detectable using various tools of local helioseismology. The ultimate goal is to understand fluxemergence mechanisms by setting observational constraints on pre-appearance subsurface changes, for comparison with results from simulation efforts. This first paper provides details of the data selection and preparation of the samples, each containing over 100 members, of two populations: regions on the Sun that produced a numbered NOAA active region, and a "control" sample of areas that did not. The seismology is performed on data from the GONG network; accompanying magnetic data from SOHO/MDI are used for co-temporal analysis of the surface magnetic field. Samples are drawn from [2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006][2007], and each target is analyzed for 27.7 hr prior to an objectively determined time of emergence. The results of two analysis approaches are published separately: one based on averages of the seismology-and magnetic-derived signals over the samples, another based on Discriminant Analysis of these signals, for a statistical test of detectable differences between the two populations. We include here descriptions of a new potential-field calculation approach and the algorithm for matching sample distributions over multiple variables. We describe known sources of bias and the approaches used to mitigate them. We also describe unexpected bias sources uncovered during the course of the study and include a discussion of refinements that should be included in future work on this topic