Discrete Algorithms for Analysis of Genotype Data

Accessibility of high-throughput genotyping technology makes possible genome-wide association studies for common complex diseases. When dealing with common diseases, it is necessary to search and analyze multiple independent causes resulted from interactions of multiple genes scattered over the entire genome. The optimization formulations for searching disease-associated risk/resistant factors and predicting disease susceptibility for given case-control study have been introduced. Several discrete methods for disease association search exploiting greedy strategy and topological properties of case-control studies have been developed. New disease susceptibility prediction methods based on the developed search methods have been validated on datasets from case-control studies for several common diseases. Our experiments compare favorably the proposed algorithms with the existing association search and susceptibility prediction methods

A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS REGARDING GEM REPORTS DATA ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship can contribute to the well-being of the society by creating innovative products and services that can meet the needs of customers and improve their quality of life. Entrepreneurs can also support local communities by engaging in social development projects and creating jobs, which help raise the standards of living. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report annually tracks the evolution of international entrepreneurship. The paper aims to identify various components related to entrepreneurship in order to outline an overview of the publications that integrate global entrepreneurship monitor data. The bibliometric analysis was performed using VOSviewer software based on 1.063 articles extracted from the Web of Science database. The results of the paper highlight the exploration of the constituent aspects of entrepreneurial research, identifying the analyses that were based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reports from 2004 to 2023

Picture Viewing as a Test of Attention to Food and Body Image Cues in Restrained Versus Nonrestrained Eaters

Restrained eaters, those who chronically and severely restrict food intake in order to lose weight, are thought to exhibit thoughts and behaviors similar to those seen in semi-starved and eating disordered (bulimic and anorexic) individuals. A paradoxical tendency to overeat once food restraint is disinhibited has been noted in restrainers. Food and body weight preoccupation and hyperresponsiveness to external food cues have been hypothesized to occur in restrained individuals; however the literature reports conflicting results and these factors have not been thoroughly investigated. Cognitive factors which differentiate restrained eaters from nonrestrained eaters may affect information processing. The purpose of this study was to assess whether evidence exists for attentional differences between fasting and sated normals and restrainers when viewing food and body image stimuli. Normal weight, female college undergraduates identified as restrainers or nonrestrainers by the Revised Restraint Scale (Herman et al., 1978) fasted for approximately five hours. Half of the restrainer and nonrestrainer subjects were then given a milkshake to eliminate physiological hunger and the other subjects remained fasting. All subjects completed a short questionnaire detailing their current physical state and the A-State scale (Speilberger et al., 1970), a measure of current anxiety levels. The eye movements of these subjects were recorded as they viewed a series of slides, some of which contained scenes with food or women of various body shapes. Dependent variables which assessed attentional preference and stimulus saliency were the percent, number and duration of fixations, total fixation time, and duration and number of fixations prior to focusing on critical items. Informativeness ratings of items in the six food and body image slides were obtained from a separate group of female undergraduates and used in the analyses. The analyses did not support the predictions that fasting and restrainer subjects would show a preference in their attention toward food items nor that body image stimuli would be more salient to restrainers than nonrestrainers. Results indicated a significant preference for all experimental groups toward viewing body image stimuli versus food stimuli. Results further suggested a trend toward fasting nonrestrainer subjects\u27 attention being drawn to food items more than other subject groups. Surprisingly, the restrainer group acknowledged a significantly higher level of anxiety than the nonrestrainer group. Nonsignificant results regarding the relative saliency of food and body image stimuli to fasting subjects and restrainers were hypothesized to have occurred due to possible experimental and subject confounds. Additionally, perceptual defense and suppression processes were suggested as explanations for restrainers\u27 disavowal of hunger and possible avoidance of food cues

Spacecraft Environment and Systems Monitoring Instrumentation for Small Satellites

Physical Sciences Ins. (PSI) has developed compact, lightweight, low power instrumentation for in-situ monitoring of the orbital environment of spacecraft/payload systems and the effects of this environment on long-term degradation of specific materials and solar photovoltaic arrays. This instrumentation, which will be flown on STEP-3 mission in October 1994, is especially suited for applications on small satellites. It is being developed under a BMDO-sponsored program called space-Active Modular Materials ExperimentS (SAMMES). SAMMES consists of four sensor modules, called Test Modules (TMs), and a controller, called the System Control Module (SCM). The TMs are 15x16x14 cm high, weigh 2.6-3.2 kg, and their electronics consume 4-8 watts power in operational mods. The SCM is 15x20x20 cm high, weighs 5.2 kg, and consumes 9 watts in operational mods. The SCM and TMs are equipped with power-conserving quiescent modes; 1.3-5.3 watts for TMs and 2.7 watts for the SCM. The four Test Modules are called Low Earth Orbit (LEO TM), CALorimeter (CAL TM), Temperature-controlled Quartz Crystal Microbalance/Actinometer (TQCM/ACT TM) and Solar PhotoVoltaic (SPV TM). The LEO module contains sensors for measuring space environment parameters such as atomic oxygen flux, and contaminant accretion, cumulative dose of ionizing radiation, solar irradiance, and local solar angle. The calorimeter module contains sensors (calorimeters) coated with materials whose long duration degradation in the space environment is to be evaluated on the STEP-3 mission, e.g. thermal control paints and films, charge control coatings and optical coatings. The TQCM/ACT TM contains actinometers and TQCMs coated with test materials to accurately measure their erosion due to the atomic oxygen and charge particle environment. The SPV TM continuously monitors the current vs. voltage characteristics of solar cell samples to evaluate their degradation due to the radiation and contamination environment. The TMs are equipped with heaters for each test material sample to maintain its temperature at a fixed value or to vary it linearly. These heaters consume typically about 0.5 watt each. The SCM communicates with the TMs via a MIL-SID-1553 bus and with the spacecraft on 1553, RS232/422 interfaces. The SCM controls the experiments by selecting TMs, sensors, setting test material temperatures, etc. It periodically polls the TMs for sensor data, puts them in the quiescent mode, and then goes into the quiescent mode itself. SAMMES is fully autonomous and can be run with minimal ground intervention. The SCM has several megabytes of RAM and EEPROM for data storage. It has the capability of performing onboard data reduction using preprogrammed or uploaded algorithms

Low Earth Orbital Mission Aboard the Space Test Experiments Platform (STEP-3)

A discussion of the Space Active Modular Materials Experiments (SAMMES) is presented in vugraph form. The discussion is divided into three sections: (1) a description of SAMMES; (2) a SAMMES/STEP-3 mission overview; and (3) SAMMES follow on efforts. The SAMMES/STEP-3 mission objectives are as follows: assess LEO space environmental effects on SDIO materials; quantify orbital and local environments; and demonstrate the modular experiment concept

Proceedings of the NASA Workshop on Atomic Oxygen Effects

A workshop was held to address the scientific issues concerning the effects of atomic oxygen on materials in the low Earth orbital (LEO) environment. The program included 18 invited speakers plus contributed posters covering topics such as LEO spaceflight experiments, interaction mechanisms, and atomic oxygen source development. Discussion sessions were also held to organize a test program to evaluate atomic oxygen exposure facilities. The key issues raised in the workshop were: (1) the need to develop a reliable predictive model of the effects of long-term exposure of materials to the LEO environment; (2) the ability of ground-based exposure facilities to provide useful data for development of durable materials; and (3) accurate determination of the composition of the LEO environment. These proceedings include the invited papers, the abstracts for the contributed posters, and an account of the test program discussion sessions

Inelastic and reactive scattering of hyperthermal atomic oxygen from amorphous carbon

The reaction of hyperthermal oxygen atoms with an amorphous carbon-13 surface was studied using a modified universal crossed molecular beams apparatus. Time-of-flight distributions of inelastically scattered O-atoms and reactively scattered CO-13 and CO2-13 were measured with a rotatable mass spectrometer detector. Two inelastic scattering channels were observed, corresponding to a direct inelastic process in which the scattered O-atoms retain 20 to 30 percent of their initial kinetic energy and to a trapping desorption process whereby O-atoms emerge from the surface at thermal velocities. Reactive scattering data imply the formation of two kinds of CO products, slow products whose translational energies are determined by the surface temperature and hyperthermal (Approx. 3 eV) products with translational energies comprising roughly 30 percent of the total available energy (E sub avl), where E sub avl is the sum of the collision energy and the reaction exothermicity. Angular data show that the hyperthermal CO is scattered preferentially in the specular direction. CO2 product was also observed, but at much lower intensities than CO and with only thermal velocities

Grid2: A Program for Rapid Estimation of the Jovian Radiation Environment

Grid2 is a program that utilizes the Galileo Interim Radiation Electron model 2 (GIRE2) Jovian radiation model to compute fluences and doses for Jupiter missions. (Note: The iterations of these two softwares have been GIRE and GIRE2; likewise Grid and Grid2.) While GIRE2 is an important improvement over the original GIRE radiation model, the GIRE2 model can take as long as a day or more to compute these quantities for a complete mission. Grid2 fits the results of the detailed GIRE2 code with a set of grids in local time and position thereby greatly speeding up the execution of the model-minutes as opposed to days. The Grid2 model covers the time period from 1971 to 2050 and distances of 1.03 to 30 Jovian diameters (Rj). It is available as a direct-access database through a FORTRAN interface program. The new database is only slightly larger than the original grid version: 1.5 gigabytes (GB) versus 1.2 GB