Flower: extracting information from pyrosequencing data

Summary: The SFF file format produced by Roche's 454 sequencing technology is a compact, binary format that contains the flow values that are used for base and quality calling of the reads. Applications, e.g. in metagenomics, often depend on accurate sequence information, and access to flow values is important to estimate the probability of errors. Unfortunately, the programs supplied by Roche for accessing this information are not publicly available. Flower is a program that can extract the information contained in SFF files, and convert it to various textual output formats

Calcium from salmon and cod bone is well absorbed in young healthy men: a double-blinded randomised crossover design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Calcium (Ca) - fortified foods are likely to play an important role in helping the consumer achieve an adequate Ca intake, especially for persons with a low intake of dairy products. Fish bones have a high Ca content, and huge quantities of this raw material are available as a by-product from the fish industry. Previously, emphasis has been on producing high quality products from fish by-products by use of bacterial proteases. However, documentation of the nutritional value of the enzymatically rinsed Ca-rich bone fraction remains unexplored. The objective of the present study was to assess the bioavailability of calcium in bones of Atlantic salmon (oily fish) and Atlantic cod (lean fish) in a double-blinded randomised crossover design.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ca absorption was measured in 10 healthy young men using ⁴⁷Ca whole body counting after ingestion of a test meal extrinsically labelled with the ⁴⁷Ca isotope. The three test meals contained 800 mg of Ca from three different calcium sources: cod bones, salmon bones and control (CaCO₃).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mean Ca absorption (± SEE) from the three different Ca sources were 21.9 ± 1.7%, 22.5 ± 1.7% and 27.4 ± 1.8% for cod bones, salmon bones, and control (CaCO₃), respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that bones from Atlantic salmon and Atlantic cod are suitable as natural Ca sources in e.g. functional foods or as supplements.</p

Hand Gesture based Game using MATLAB & Computer Vision Library

Gone are the days when humans could interact with computers only via limited hardware devices like mouse & keyboards. With the recent developments in Virtual Reality, the interaction medium between humans & computers has changed drastically. This paper intends to put some light on the role played by hand gestures to provide inputs to the computer. Detection of gestures do not require any external device other than the webcam. The gameplay is about word formation using hand gestures specified by the user at the start of the game or by the predefined gestures. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15027

Characteristics of 454 pyrosequencing data—enabling realistic simulation with flowsim

Motivation: The commercial launch of 454 pyrosequencing in 2005 was a milestone in genome sequencing in terms of performance and cost. Throughout the three available releases, average read lengths have increased to ∼500 base pairs and are thus approaching read lengths obtained from traditional Sanger sequencing. Study design of sequencing projects would benefit from being able to simulate experiments

COMMUNITY KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES (KAP) ON FLUOROSIS AND ITS MITIGATION IN ENDEMIC AREAS OF ETHIOPIA

ABSTRACT Optimum fluoride intake plays an essential role in the prevention of dental caries while fluoride consumption above recommended level interferes with the normal formation of tooth enamel and bones and may increase risk of dental and skeletal fluorosis. The knowledge and practices of endemic communities on etiology of fluorosis will help in its mitigation and prevention. The objective of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practices of endemic community on fluoride contamination, fluorosis and prevention practices in order to devise coordinated and targeted prevention mechanisms. Focus group discussions (FGD) and key-informant interview were conducted in three dietary areas to collect knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of the endemic community in July 2013.The results indicated that health consequences of fluoride contaminated water are fairly understood. None of the discussants mentioned the word &quot;fluoride&quot;. The knowledge and perception of the community on fluoride ingestion is poor. Health extension workers (HEWs) did not teach about fluoride and related health consequences. Dental fluorosis was reported to start at early ages and not commonly perceived as a major problem. However, adolescents worried and felt that they might be singled out when going to other areas. Older people have a skeletal fluorosis, which interferes with their day to day activities. In severely affected people, the teeth were weak and fragile and thus create difficulty in chewing hard foods like unfermented dry flat bread, sugar cane and toasted grains. People prefer rain water rather than water from borehole because of the inconvenient taste of the latter. The endemic communities have no sufficient knowledge and skills on potential sources of fluoride intake, the debilitating effect of high fluoride ingestion, and preventive and mitigatory measures to reduce fluoride intake. The effect of fluoride contamination and mitigatory methods should get sufficient attention by the community, health workers and concerned governmental bodies. The trend of harvesting and using rain water should be encouraged as it reduces fluoride intake. Future studies should focus on information communication on possible fluoride risks, intervention and evaluation studies on defluoridation, rain water harvesting and mitigatory techniques

Maternal seafood consumption in highly educated women is reduced in pregnancy: A pilot study

Oily fish is a unique natural source to vitamin D and marine n-3 fatty acids. The aim of the present study was to investigate from where pregnant women get dietary advices and whether they eat seafood during pregnancy or not. A self-selected convenience sample (n = 43) of highly educated women responded to a self-administrated web based questionnaire. The women reduced their intake of both lean (p &lt; 0.013) and oily (p &lt; 0.003) fish during pregnancy, indicating that the women were not fully aware of the beneficial effects of seafood intake during pregnancy

Studies of the decays D^0 \rightarrow K_S^0K^-\pi^+ and D^0 \rightarrow K_S^0K^+\pi^-

The first measurements of the coherence factor R_{K_S^0K\pi} and the average strong--phase difference \delta^{K_S^0K\pi} in D^0 \to K_S^0 K^\mp\pi^\pm decays are reported. These parameters can be used to improve the determination of the unitary triangle angle \gamma\ in B^- \rightarrow $\widetilde{D}K^-$ decays, where $\widetilde{D}$ is either a D^0 or a D^0-bar meson decaying to the same final state, and also in studies of charm mixing. The measurements of the coherence factor and strong-phase difference are made using quantum-correlated, fully-reconstructed D^0D^0-bar pairs produced in e^+e^- collisions at the \psi(3770) resonance. The measured values are R_{K_S^0K\pi} = 0.70 \pm 0.08 and \delta^{K_S^0K\pi} = (0.1 \pm 15.7)$^\circ$ for an unrestricted kinematic region and R_{K*K} = 0.94 \pm 0.12 and \delta^{K*K} = (-16.6 \pm 18.4)$^\circ$ for a region where the combined K_S^0 \pi^\pm invariant mass is within 100 MeV/c^2 of the K^{*}(892)^\pm mass. These results indicate a significant level of coherence in the decay. In addition, isobar models are presented for the two decays, which show the dominance of the K^*(892)^\pm resonance. The branching ratio {B}(D^0 \rightarrow K_S^0K^+\pi^-)/{B}(D^0 \rightarrow K_S^0K^-\pi^+) is determined to be 0.592 \pm 0.044 (stat.) \pm 0.018 (syst.), which is more precise than previous measurements.Comment: 38 pages. Version 3 updated to include the erratum information. Errors corrected in Eqs (25), (26), 28). Fit results updated accordingly, and external inputs updated to latest best known values. Typo corrected in Eq(3)- no other consequence