World Wide Web Robot for Extreme Datamining with Swiss-Tx Supercomputers

This paper discusses the software and hardware issues of designing a highly parallel robot for extreme datamining on the Internet. As a sample application, a World Wide Web server count experiment for Switzerland and Thailand is presented. Our platform of choice is the SwissTx, a supercomputer built from commodity components that runs NT and COMPAQ tru64 UNIX. Hardware and software of this machine are discussed and benchmark results presented. They show that NT is a feasible choice even under the given extreme conditions. Using statistical modelling for optimizing the search process, the inevitable bandwidth problem is reduced to some extent to a computation problem. We suggest that our approach to Web robots is a robust bet for a multitude of future Internet applications which might lead to a large-scale and cost-efficient usage of Web robots

Anthrax vaccine design: strategies to achieve comprehensive protection against spore, bacillus, and toxin

The successful use of Bacillus anthracis as a lethal biological weapon has prompted renewed research interest in the development of more effective vaccines against anthrax. The disease consists of three critical components: spore, bacillus, and toxin, elimination of any of which confers at least partial protection against anthrax. Current remedies rely on postexposure antibiotics to eliminate bacilli and pre- and postexposure vaccination to target primarily toxins. Vaccines effective against toxin have been licensed for human use, but need improvement. Vaccines against bacilli have recently been developed by us and others. Whether effective vaccines will be developed against spores is still an open question. An ideal vaccine would confer simultaneous protection against spores, bacilli, and toxins. One step towards this goal is our dually active vaccine, designed to destroy both bacilli and toxin. Existing and potential strategies towards potent and effective anthrax vaccines are discussed in this review

An Economic Model of International Gas Pipeline Routings to the Turkish Market: Numerical Results for an Uncertain Future

This paper presents a dynamic investment model of the international gas pipeline routings to the Turkish market. The model was developed by IIASA's Dynamic Systems Project (DYN) and Environmentally Compatible Energy Strategies Project (ECS) in 2000. To allow for user-friendly modeling, a professional software package "Investments in Gas Pipelines Optimization of Returns" (IGOR) was developed which can also be used as a basis for models for related problems. Input data originated from various sources, in particular IIASA's MESSAGE model. The paper analyzes model results under a wide range of future outcomes and includes comprehensive sensitivity analyses. The returns for five potential gas pipeline projects were analyzed for a wide range of values for the price elasticity of gas demand, GDP elasticity of gas demand and discount rates. The numerical results allow conclusions about gas price developments and optimal gas supply policies relative to the market parameters

A Game-Dynamic Model of Gas Transportation Routes and Its Application to the Turkish Gas Market [Updated November 2003]

The purpose of this paper is to study an optimal structure of a system of international gas pipelines competing for a gas market. We develop a game-dynamic model of the operation of several interacting gas pipeline projects with project owners acting as players in the game. The model treats the projects' commercialization times major players' controls. Current quantities of gas supply are modeled as approximations of Nash equilibrium points in instantaneous "gas supply games", in which each player maximizes his/her current net profit due to the sales of gas. We use the model to analyze the Turkish gas market, on which gas routes originating from Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran are competing. The analysis is carried out in three steps. At step 1, we model the operation of the pipelines as planned and estimate the associated profits. At step 2, we optimize individual projects, with respect to their profits, assuming that the other pipelines operate as planned. At step 3, we find numerical Nash equilibrium commercialization policies for the entire group of the pipelines. The simulations show the degrees to which the planned regimes are not optimal compared to the Nash equilibrium ones. Another observation is that in equilibrium regimes the pipelines are not always being run at their full capacities, which implies that the proposed pipeline capacities might not be optimal. The simulation results turn out to be moderately sensitive to changes in the discount rate and highly sensitive to changes in the price elasticity of gas demand

The dawn of the liquid biopsy in the fight against cancer

ABSTRACT Cancer is a molecular disease associated with alterations in the genome, which, thanks to the highly improved sensitivity of mutation detection techniques, can be identified in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) circulating in blood, a method also called liquid biopsy. This is a non-invasive alternative to surgical biopsy and has the potential of revealing the molecular signature of tumors to aid in the individualization of treatments. In this review, we focus on cfDNA analysis, its advantages, and clinical applications employing genomic tools (NGS and dPCR) particularly in the field of oncology, and highlight its valuable contributions to early detection, prognosis, and prediction of treatment response