Establishing bioinformatics research in the Asia Pacific

In 1998, the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), Asia's oldest bioinformatics organisation was set up to champion the advancement of bioinformatics in the Asia Pacific. By 2002, APBioNet was able to gain sufficient critical mass to initiate the first International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) bringing together scientists working in the field of bioinformatics in the region. This year, the InCoB2006 Conference was organized as the 5(th )annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network, on Dec. 18–20, 2006 in New Delhi, India, following a series of successful events in Bangkok (Thailand), Penang (Malaysia), Auckland (New Zealand) and Busan (South Korea). This Introduction provides a brief overview of the peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication in this Supplement. It exemplifies a typical snapshot of the growing research excellence in bioinformatics of the region as we embark on a trajectory of establishing a solid bioinformatics research culture in the Asia Pacific that is able to contribute fully to the global bioinformatics community

Bioinformatics research in the Asia Pacific: a 2007 update

We provide a 2007 update on the bioinformatics research in the Asia-Pacific from the Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet), Asia's oldest bioinformatics organisation set up in 1998. From 2002, APBioNet has organized the first International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) bringing together scientists working in the field of bioinformatics in the region. This year, the InCoB2007 Conference was organized as the 6th annual conference of the Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network, on Aug. 27–30, 2007 at Hong Kong, following a series of successful events in Bangkok (Thailand), Penang (Malaysia), Auckland (New Zealand), Busan (South Korea) and New Delhi (India). Besides a scientific meeting at Hong Kong, satellite events organized are a pre-conference training workshop at Hanoi, Vietnam and a post-conference workshop at Nansha, China. This Introduction provides a brief overview of the peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication in this Supplement. We have organized the papers into thematic areas, highlighting the growing contribution of research excellence from this region, to global bioinformatics endeavours

Middle East - North Africa and the millennium development goals : implications for German development cooperation

          Closed-loop controlled combustion is a promising technique to improve the overall performance of internal combustion engines and Diesel engines in particular. In order for this technique to be implemented some form of feedback from the combustion process is required. The feedback signal is processed and from it combustionrelated parameters are computed. These parameters are then fed to a control process which drives a series of outputs (e.g. injection timing in Diesel engines) to control their values. This paper’s focus lies on the processing and computation that is needed on the feedback signal before this is ready to be fed to the control process as well as on the electronics necessary to support it. A number of feedback alternatives are briefly discussed and for one of them, the in-cylinder pressure sensor, the CA50 (crank angle in which the integrated heat release curve reaches its 50% value) and the IMEP (Indicated Mean Effective Pressure) are identified as two potential control variables. The hardware architecture of a system capable of calculating both of them on-line is proposed and necessary feasibility size and speed considerations are made by implementing critical blocks in VHDL targeting a flash-based Actel ProASIC3 automotive-grade FPGA

Antagonistic action of Bicoid and the repressor Capicua determines the spatial limits of Drosophila head gene expression domains

Bicoid (Bcd) is the anterior determinant in Drosophila. Accordingly, loss of Bcd causes loss of head and thorax and their replacement with posterior structures. bcd mRNA is maternally deposited at the anterior pole and Bcd forms an anterior-to-posterior (AP) concentration gradient. The expression of a series of zygotic head genes is thought to be differentially regulated by distinct threshold concentrations of the Bcd gradient. Thereby Bcd functions as a morphogen, instructing fields of cells to take on specific fates. Here, we show that spatial limits of anterior genes are also set in the absence of a Bcd gradient and depend on factors of the maternal terminal system. The receptor tyrosine kinase Torso (Tor), a key component of this system, is active in the pole regions of the embryo. Its activity downregulates the maternally deposited repressor Capicua (Cic), leaving high Cic activity in the central regions and decreasingly lower Cic activities toward the poles. We show that the positions of posterior boundaries of Bcd target genes are dependent not only on Bcd, but also on Tor-mediated Cic activity. The results indicate that Cic can mediate repression through distinct binding sites within a Bcd responsive enhancer and that gene activation by Bcd is antagonized by Cic. The activating and repressive effects of Bcd and Cic, respectively, are integrated by the Bcd target gene enhancer. We conclude that the spatial domains of head gene expression are determined by Bcd in concert with Tor-dependent repressors