DNA ANALYSIS USING GRAMMATICAL INFERENCE

An accurate language definition capable of distinguishing between coding and non-coding DNA has important applications and analytical significance to the field of computational biology. The method proposed here uses positive sample grammatical inference and statistical information to infer languages for coding DNA. An algorithm is proposed for the searching of an optimal subset of input sequences for the inference of regular grammars by optimizing a relevant accuracy metric. The algorithm does not guarantee the finding of the optimal subset; however, testing shows improvement in accuracy and performance over the basis algorithm. Testing shows that the accuracy of inferred languages for components of DNA are consistently accurate. By using the proposed algorithm languages are inferred for coding DNA with average conditional probability over 80%. This reveals that languages for components of DNA can be inferred and are useful independent of the process that created them. These languages can then be analyzed or used for other tasks in computational biology. To illustrate potential applications of regular grammars for DNA components, an inferred language for exon sequences is applied as post processing to Hidden Markov exon prediction to reduce the number of wrong exons detected and improve the specificity of the model significantly

Exotic to Domestic

Undergraduate Graphic Desig

A war for principle? Shifting memories of the Union cause in Iowa, 1865-1916

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Where Participatory Approaches Meet Pragmatism in Funded (Health) Research: The Challenge of Finding Meaningful Spaces

The term participatory research is now widely used as a way of categorising research that has moved beyond researching "on" to researching "with" participants. This paper draws attention to some confusions that lie behind such categorisation and the potential impact of those confusions on qualitative participatory research in practice. It illuminates some of the negative effects of "fitting in" to spaces devised by other types of research and highlights the importance of forging spaces for presenting participatory research designs that suit a discursive approach and that allow the quality and impact of such research to be recognised. The main contention is that the adoption of a variety of approaches and purposes is part of the strength of participatory research but that to date the paradigm has not been sufficiently articulated. Clarifying the unifying features of the participatory paradigm and shaping appropriate ways for critique could support the embedding of participatory research into research environments, funding schemes and administration in a way that better reflects the nature and purpose of authentic involvement

Seeking Excellence: Improving Objectivity in Player Analysis in Professional Basketball

This thesis details the creation and testing of an original statistical metric for analyzing individual basketball players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) by both their commonly measured statistics and their so-called “intangibles.” By using existing methods as both guides and a caution against potential shortcomings, an inclusive statistic with multiple layers of data can be built to best reflect an individual player’s overall value to his team. This metric will be adjusted to account for the differences across multiple eras of NBA play and the levels of talent with which a player played in order to avoid penalizing a player for the unique aspects of his career

Discrimination Revised: Reviewing the Relationship between Social Groups, Disparate Treatment, and Disparate Impact

It is usually accepted that whether or not indirect discrimination is a form of immoral discrimination, it appears to be structurally different from direct discrimination. First, it seems that either one involves the agent focusing on different things while making a decision. Second, it seems that the victim’s group membership is relevant to the outcomes of either sort of action in different ways. In virtue of these two facts, it is usually concluded that indirect discrimination is structurally different from direct discrimination. I argue against the notion that indirect discrimination and direct discrimination have significantly different structures. I first argue that both kinds of discrimination involve similar decision-making processes. Second, I analyze how being in a social group affects personal identity, and from there argue that indirect discrimination and direct discrimination are about group membership similarly. In virtue of these two arguments, I conclude that direct and indirect discrimination are structurally similar