Gender Determination using Fingerprint Features

Several previous studies have investigated the gender difference of the fingerprint features. However, regarding to the statistical significance of such differences, inconsistent results have been obtained. To resolve this problem and to develop a method for gender determination, this work proposes and tests three fingertip features for gender determination. Fingerprints were obtained from 115 normal healthy adults comprised of 57 male and 58 female volunteers. All persons were born in Taiwan and were of Han nationality. The age range was18-35 years. The features of this study are ridge count, ridge density, and finger size, all three of which can easily be determined by counting and calculation. Experimental results show that the tested ridge density features alone are not very effective for gender determination. However, the proposed ridge count and finger size features of left little fingers are useful, achieving a classification accuracy of 75% (P-valu

MEDock: a web server for efficient prediction of ligand binding sites based on a novel optimization algorithm

The prediction of ligand binding sites is an essential part of the drug discovery process. Knowing the location of binding sites greatly facilitates the search for hits, the lead optimization process, the design of site-directed mutagenesis experiments and the hunt for structural features that influence the selectivity of binding in order to minimize the drug's adverse effects. However, docking is still the rate-limiting step for such predictions; consequently, much more efficient algorithms are required. In this article, the design of the MEDock web server is described. The goal of this sever is to provide an efficient utility for predicting ligand binding sites. The MEDock web server incorporates a global search strategy that exploits the maximum entropy property of the Gaussian probability distribution in the context of information theory. As a result of the global search strategy, the optimization algorithm incorporated in MEDock is significantly superior when dealing with very rugged energy landscapes, which usually have insurmountable barriers. This article describes four different benchmark cases that span a diverse set of different types of ligand binding interactions. These benchmarks were compared with the use of the Lamarckian genetic algorithm (LGA), which is the major workhorse of the well-known AutoDock program. These results demonstrate that MEDock consistently converged to the correct binding modes with significantly smaller numbers of energy evaluations than the LGA required. When judged by a threshold of the number of energy evaluations consumed in the docking simulation, MEDock also greatly elevates the rate of accurate predictions for all benchmark cases. MEDock is available at and

An integrated approach with new strategies for QSAR models and lead optimization

Compound testing set for huAChE collected from Guo et al. (PDF 52 kb

UNDERSTANDING COLLABORATIVE STICKINESS INTENTION IN SOCIAL NETWORK SITES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Abstract This study aims to investigate users' knowledge sharing intention and collaborative stickiness intention towards social network sites (SN

A Postverification Method for Solving Forced Duffing Oscillator Problems without Prescribed Periods

This paper proposes a postverification method (PVM) for solving forced Duffing oscillator problems without prescribed periods. Comprising a postverification procedure and small random perturbation, the proposed PVM improves the sensitivity of the convergence of Newton’s iteration. Numerical simulations revealed that the PVM is more accurate and robust than Kubíček’s approach. We applied the PVM to previous research on bifurcation problems

Nitroprusside modulates pulmonary vein arrhythmogenic activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pulmonary veins (PVs) are the most important sources of ectopic beats with the initiation of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, or the foci of ectopic atrial tachycardia and focal atrial fibrillation. Elimination of nitric oxide (NO) enhances cardiac triggered activity, and NO can decrease PV arrhythmogensis through mechano-electrical feedback. However, it is not clear whether NO may have direct electrophysiological effects on PV cardiomyocytes. This study is aimed to study the effects of nitroprusside (NO donor), on the ionic currents and arrhythmogenic activity of single cardiomyocytes from the PVs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Single PV cardiomyocytes were isolated from the canine PVs. The action potential and ionic currents were investigated in isolated single canine PV cardiomyocytes before and after sodium nitroprusside (80 μM,) using the whole-cell patch clamp technique.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nitroprusside decreased PV cardiomyocytes spontaneous beating rates from 1.7 ± 0.3 Hz to 0.5 ± 0.4 Hz in 9 cells (P < 0.05); suppressed delayed afterdepolarization in 4 (80%) of 5 PV cardiomyocytes. Nitroprusside inhibited L-type calcium currents, transient outward currents and transient inward current, but increased delayed rectified potassium currents.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Nitroprusside regulates the electrical activity of PV cardiomyocytes, which suggests that NO may play a role in PV arrhythmogenesis.</p