Using Semantic Recommenders for Personalized Recommendations

With the ever increasing information overload on the internet, recommender systems have long become a necessity. The popularity of e-commerce sites is increasing by the day and an abundance of shopping sites are presenting users with an increasing number of choices. It has become a challenging task to meet expectations of customers to better understand their needs and provide them with information and suggestions of their interest. With the e-commerce field being fiercely competitive, businesses have started to feel the need of personalization which helps them in building customer loyalty [17]. Personalized recommendations can prove to be the most important aspect of the evolution of the recommender systems. Personalized recommendation services provide opportunities to promote new products, increase sales, click-through and conversion rates [18]. The use of semantic web technologies in recommender systems can effectively enhance the quality of recommendation. Semantic web has provided structured knowledge representation tools such as taxonomies, ontologies, powerful languages such as Resource Description Framework (RDF), Web Ontology Language (OWL), etc. which can be used to represent rich, complex knowledge about things and their relationships and query languages such as SPARQL, reasoning engines that can infer logical consequences from a set of assertions. Semantics enable machines to process natural languages in a manner close to human cognition and mimic human reasoning to a certain extent [12]. This can greatly help to generate personalized predictions in the recommender framework [6]

ANTICANCER ACTIVITIES OF THIOSEMICARBAZIDES/THIOSEMICARBAZONES: A REVIEW

There have been tremendous development in the chemotherapy of cancer and researches are still developing new and more effective drugs to combat this disease. Thiosemicarbazides and thiosemicarbazone possess a wide range of biological applications. This key biological role is often related with their capability to inhibit the enzyme ribonucleotide reductase, similar to what is observed with potent anticancer drugs such as triapine and methisazone. Recent studies have revealed that thiosemicarbazones can inhibit topoisomerase II enzyme. This review discusses current advances of an emerging ‘new wave' of thiosemicarbazide/thiosemicarbazone and their metal complexes as potent anticancer agents, mode of action and toxicity caused by them

RNAi phenotype profiling of kinases identifies potential therapeutic targets in Ewing's sarcoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ewing's sarcomas are aggressive musculoskeletal tumors occurring most frequently in the long and flat bones as a solitary lesion mostly during the teen-age years of life. With current treatments, significant number of patients relapse and survival is poor for those with metastatic disease. As part of novel target discovery in Ewing's sarcoma, we applied RNAi mediated phenotypic profiling to identify kinase targets involved in growth and survival of Ewing's sarcoma cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Four Ewing's sarcoma cell lines TC-32, TC-71, SK-ES-1 and RD-ES were tested in high throughput-RNAi screens using a siRNA library targeting 572 kinases. Knockdown of 25 siRNAs reduced the growth of all four Ewing's sarcoma cell lines in replicate screens. Of these, 16 siRNA were specific and reduced proliferation of Ewing's sarcoma cells as compared to normal fibroblasts. Secondary validation and preliminary mechanistic studies highlighted the kinases STK10 and TNK2 as having important roles in growth and survival of Ewing's sarcoma cells. Furthermore, knockdown of STK10 and TNK2 by siRNA showed increased apoptosis.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In summary, RNAi-based phenotypic profiling proved to be a powerful gene target discovery strategy, leading to successful identification and validation of STK10 and TNK2 as two novel potential therapeutic targets for Ewing's sarcoma.</p

Egr1 regulates the coordinated expression of numerous EGF receptor target genes as identified by ChIP-on-chip

UV stimulation of prostate cells causes an apoptotic response that is dependent on the zinc finger transcription factor Egr1; downstream targets of Egr1 in this response were identified

Paired Tumor and Normal Whole Genome Sequencing of Metastatic Olfactory Neuroblastoma

Olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) is a rare cancer of the sinonasal tract with little molecular characterization. We performed whole genome sequencing (WGS) on paired normal and tumor DNA from a patient with metastatic-ONB to identify the somatic alterations that might be drivers of tumorigenesis and/or metastatic progression.Genomic DNA was isolated from fresh frozen tissue from a metastatic lesion and whole blood, followed by WGS at >30X depth, alignment and mapping, and mutation analyses. Sanger sequencing was used to confirm selected mutations. Sixty-two somatic short nucleotide variants (SNVs) and five deletions were identified inside coding regions, each causing a non-synonymous DNA sequence change. We selected seven SNVs and validated them by Sanger sequencing. In the metastatic ONB samples collected several months prior to WGS, all seven mutations were present. However, in the original surgical resection specimen (prior to evidence of metastatic disease), mutations in KDR, MYC, SIN3B, and NLRC4 genes were not present, suggesting that these were acquired with disease progression and/or as a result of post-treatment effects.This work provides insight into the evolution of ONB cancer cells and provides a window into the more complex factors, including tumor clonality and multiple driver mutations

NCI60 Cancer Cell Line Panel Data and RNAi Analysis Help Identify EAF2 as a Modulator of Simvastatin and Lovastatin Response in HCT-116 Cells

Simvastatin and lovastatin are statins traditionally used for lowering serum cholesterol levels. However, there exists evidence indicating their potential chemotherapeutic characteristics in cancer. In this study, we used bioinformatic analysis of publicly available data in order to systematically identify the genes involved in resistance to cytotoxic effects of these two drugs in the NCI60 cell line panel. We used the pharmacological data available for all the NCI60 cell lines to classify simvastatin or lovastatin resistant and sensitive cell lines, respectively. Next, we performed whole-genome single marker case-control association tests for the lovastatin and simvastatin resistant and sensitive cells using their publicly available Affymetrix 125K SNP genomic data. The results were then evaluated using RNAi methodology. After correction of the p-values for multiple testing using False Discovery Rate, our results identified three genes (NRP1, COL13A1, MRPS31) and six genes (EAF2, ANK2, AKAP7, STEAP2, LPIN2, PARVB) associated with resistance to simvastatin and lovastatin, respectively. Functional validation using RNAi confirmed that silencing of EAF2 expression modulated the response of HCT-116 colon cancer cells to both statins. In summary, we have successfully utilized the publicly available data on the NCI60 cell lines to perform whole-genome association studies for simvastatin and lovastatin. Our results indicated genes involved in the cellular response to these statins and siRNA studies confirmed the role of the EAF2 in response to these drugs in HCT-116 colon cancer cells

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good