sin⁡2θW\sin ^{2}\theta _{W} estimate and neutrino electromagnetic properties from low-energy solar data

We report new values of weak-mixing angle ($\sin ^{2}\theta _{W}$)$,$ neutrino effective magnetic moment and the charge radius using the lowest-energy (to-date) solar neutrino data of pp, $^{7}$Be and pep spectra from phase-I and phase-II runs of Borexino experiment. The best-fit values are $\sin ^{2}\theta _{W}=$0.235$\pm$0.019 with a precision comparable to that of the combined reactor and accelerator very short-baseline experiments and $\mu _{\nu }^{eff}\leq 8.7\times 10^{-12}\mu _{B}$ at 90% C.L. with a factor of 3 improvement than the previous bounds. This leads to the improvement of all the related magnetic moment matrix elements for the Majorana-type and Dirac-type in mass basis and also improvement on bounds on the flavor magnetic moment states. The bounds on the neutrino charged radii turn out to be $-0.82\times 10^{-32}$cm$^{2}\leq \left \langle r_{\nu _{e}}^{2}\right \rangle \ \leq 1.27\times 10^{-32}$ cm$^{2}\$and $-9\times 10^{-32}$cm$^{2}\leq \left \langle r_{\nu _{\mu },\nu _{\tau }}^{2}\right \rangle \ \leq 3.1\times 10^{-31}$ cm$^{2}\$ at 90% C.L..Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, Solar flux and oscillation parameter uncertainties in predictions were included. Statistical model modified. Slight changes occured in numerical results, Published in JPhy

A cooperative framework for molecular biology database integration using image object selection

The theme and the concept of 'Molecular Biology Database Integration' and the problems associated with this concept initiated the idea for this Ph.D research. The available technologies facilitate to analyse the data independently and discretely but it fails to integrate the data resources for more meaningful information. This along with the integration issues created the scope for this Ph.D research. The research has reviewed the 'database interoperability' problems and it has suggested a framework for integrating the molecular biology databases. The framework has proposed to develop a cooperative environment to share information on the basis of common purpose for the molecular biology databases. The research has also reviewed other implementation and interoperability issues for laboratory based, dedicated and target specific database. The research has addressed the following issues: diversity of molecular biology databases schemas, schema constructs and schema implementation multi-database query using image object keying, database integration technologies using context graph, automated navigation among these databases. This thesis has introduced a new approach for database implementation. It has introduced an interoperable component database concept to initiate multidatabase query on gene mutation data. A number of data models have been proposed for gene mutation data which is the basis for integrating the target specific component database to be integrated with the federated information system. The proposed data models are: data models for genetic trait analysis, classification of gene mutation data, pathological lesion data and laboratory data. The main feature of this component database is non-overlapping attributes and it will follow non-redundant integration approach as explained in the thesis. This will be achieved by storing attributes which will not have the union or intersection of any attributes that exist in public domain molecular biology databases. Unlike data warehousing technique, this feature is quite unique and novel. The component database will be integrated with other biological data sources for sharing information in a cooperative environment. This involves developing new tools. The thesis explains the role of these new tools which are: meta data extractor, mapping linker, query generator and result interpreter. These tools are used for a transparent integration without creating any global schema of the participating databases. The thesis has also established the concept of image object keying for multidatabase query and it has proposed a relevant algorithm for matching protein spot in gel electrophoresis image. An object spot in gel electrophoresis image will initiate the query when it is selected by the user. It matches the selected spot with other similar spots in other resource databases. This image object keying method is an alternative to conventional multidatabase query which requires writing complex SQL scripts. This method also resolve the semantic conflicts that exist among molecular biology databases. The research has proposed a new framework based on the context of the web data for interactions with different biological data resources. A formal description of the resource context is described in the thesis. The implementation of the context into Resource Document Framework (RDF) will be able to increase the interoperability by providing the description of the resources and the navigation plan for accessing the web based databases. A higher level construct is developed (has, provide and access) to implement the context into RDF for web interactions. The interactions within the resources are achieved by utilising an integration domain to extract the required information with a single instance and without writing any query scripts. The integration domain allows to navigate and to execute the query plan within the resource databases. An extractor module collects elements from different target webs and unify them as a whole object in a single page. The proposed framework is tested to find specific information e.g., information on Alzheimer's disease, from public domain biology resources, such as, Protein Data Bank, Genome Data Bank, Online Mendalian Inheritance in Man and local database. Finally, the thesis proposes further propositions and plans for future work

A cooperative framework for molecular biology database integration using image object selection.

The theme and the concept of 'Molecular Biology Database Integration’ and the problems associated with this concept initiated the idea for this Ph.D research. The available technologies facilitate to analyse the data independently and discretely but it fails to integrate the data resources for more meaningful information. This along with the integration issues created the scope for this Ph.D research. The research has reviewed the 'database interoperability' problems and it has suggested a framework for integrating the molecular biology databases. The framework has proposed to develop a cooperative environment to share information on the basis of common purpose for the molecular biology databases. The research has also reviewed other implementation and interoperability issues for laboratory based, dedicated and target specific database. The research has addressed the following issues: - diversity of molecular biology databases schemas, schema constructs and schema implementation -multi-database query using image object keying -database integration technologies using context graph - automated navigation among these databases This thesis has introduced a new approach for database implementation. It has introduced an interoperable component database concept to initiate multidatabase query on gene mutation data. A number of data models have been proposed for gene mutation data which is the basis for integrating the target specific component database to be integrated with the federated information system. The proposed data models are: data models for genetic trait analysis, classification of gene mutation data, pathological lesion data and laboratory data. The main feature of this component database is non-overlapping attributes and it will follow non-redundant integration approach as explained in the thesis. This will be achieved by storing attributes which will not have the union or intersection of any attributes that exist in public domain molecular biology databases. Unlike data warehousing technique, this feature is quite unique and novel. The component database will be integrated with other biological data sources for sharing information in a cooperative environment. This/involves developing new tools. The thesis explains the role of these new tools which are: meta data extractor, mapping linker, query generator and result interpreter. These tools are used for a transparent integration without creating any global schema of the participating databases. The thesis has also established the concept of image object keying for multidatabase query and it has proposed a relevant algorithm for matching protein spot in gel electrophoresis image. An object spot in gel electrophoresis image will initiate the query when it is selected by the user. It matches the selected spot with other similar spots in other resource databases. This image object keying method is an alternative to conventional multidatabase query which requires writing complex SQL scripts. This method also resolve the semantic conflicts that exist among molecular biology databases. The research has proposed a new framework based on the context of the web data for interactions with different biological data resources. A formal description of the resource context is described in the thesis. The implementation of the context into Resource Document Framework (RDF) will be able to increase the interoperability by providing the description of the resources and the navigation plan for accessing the web based databases. A higher level construct is developed (has, provide and access) to implement the context into RDF for web interactions. The interactions within the resources are achieved by utilising an integration domain to extract the required information with a single instance and without writing any query scripts. The integration domain allows to navigate and to execute the query plan within the resource databases. An extractor module collects elements from different target webs and unify them as a whole object in a single page. The proposed framework is tested to find specific information e.g., information on Alzheimer's disease, from public domain biology resources, such as, Protein Data Bank, Genome Data Bank, Online Mendalian Inheritance in Man and local database. Finally, the thesis proposes further propositions and plans for future work

Analyzing Delay in Wireless Multi-hop Heterogeneous Body Area Networks

With increase in ageing population, health care market keeps growing. There is a need for monitoring of health issues. Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) consists of wireless sensors attached on or inside human body for monitoring vital health related problems e.g, Electro Cardiogram (ECG), Electro Encephalogram (EEG), ElectronyStagmography (ENG) etc. Due to life threatening situations, timely sending of data is essential. For data to reach health care center, there must be a proper way of sending data through reliable connection and with minimum delay. In this paper transmission delay of different paths, through which data is sent from sensor to health care center over heterogeneous multi-hop wireless channel is analyzed. Data of medical related diseases is sent through three different paths. In all three paths, data from sensors first reaches ZigBee, which is the common link in all three paths. Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) are connected with ZigBee. Each network (WLAN, WiMAX, UMTS) is setup according to environmental conditions, suitability of device and availability of structure for that device. Data from these networks is sent to IP-Cloud, which is further connected to health care center. Delay of data reaching each device is calculated and represented graphically. Main aim of this paper is to calculate delay of each link in each path over multi-hop wireless channel.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1208.240

TSEP: Threshold-sensitive Stable Election Protocol for WSNs

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are expected to find wide applicability and increasing deployment in near future. In this paper, we propose a new protocol, Threshold Sensitive Stable Election Protocol (TSEP), which is reactive protocol using three levels of heterogeneity. Reactive networks, as opposed to proactive networks, respond immediately to changes in relevant parameters of interest. We evaluate performance of our protocol for a simple temperature sensing application and compare results of protocol with some other protocols LEACH, DEEC, SEP, ESEP and TEEN. And from simulation results it is observed that protocol outperforms concerning life time of sensing nodes used.Comment: 10th IEEE International Conference on Frontiers of Information Technology (FIT 12), 201

The Biological Role of Factor-Inhibiting Hypoxia- Inducible Factor

Factor Inhibiting Hypoxia-inducible Factor (FIH) is an asparaginyl hydroxylase which regulates the transcription factor Hypoxia-Inducible Factor (HIF), via hydroxylation of a conserved asparagine residue of the HIF-alpha subunits (two isoforms of which are well established, HIF-1 and HIF-2alpha – HIF-3alpha is less well characterized currently). Other targets of FIH have also been reported. Little is known about both FIH expression and function. This thesis will investigate the expression of FIH in rodents, in cell lines and in renal cancer tissue samples. In addition, RNAi technology was used to study FIH function. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC) is commonly associated with inactivation of tumour suppressor von-Hippel Lindau protein (VHL) and constitutive activation of HIF. The main question I have addressed in this thesis is whether FIH decreases HIF activation in this setting. To address this I inhibited FIH using several approaches. Specifically, using hypoxia, dimethyloxalylglycine (DMOG) and RNA interference (RNAi). Each of these increased the expression of HIF target genes in two different CCRCC cell lines, RCC10 and RCC4. Investigating three different CCRCC cell lines, FIH inhibition decreased numbers of RCC4 and RCC10 cells growing in culture, which is likely to be due to an increase in expression of pro-apoptotic, FIH-regulated HIF target genes. Interestingly, 786-O cells exclusively express the HIF-2alpha isoform. Attenuation of FIH in this setting did not affect expression of HIF target genes, nor affect growth in culture. To determine if this was due to lack of FIH or may be due to lack of HIF-1alpha, I introduced HIF-1alpha via a viral vector. Following this, sensitivity to FIH was clearly demonstrated. This implies either specific ‘protection’ of HIF-2alpha in 786-O or more general FIH selectivity for the HIF- 1alpha isoform. My findings contrast with two reports suggesting that FIH expression is suppressed in CCRCC. My findings give insight into how FIH asparagine hydroxylation regulates HIF, in particular in renal cancer and makes this enzyme a potential target for therapeutic inhibition, in the majority of renal cancers

Towards a UK local government reform Act of 2015: improving public sector performance for 2025

This paper proposes a three tiered governance structure to rebalance local government within the United Kingdom. The introduction of a North of England assembly is proposed to rebalance the North / South divide. An international comparison of U.K. Australian and Canadian public sectors suggests that the U.K lags behind in competitiveness and wellbeing. Calling for equality for all citizens, the paper concludes that a shift in central government policy formulation is needed to enable equitable localisation of political power and improved global competitiveness of the U.K