利用双标图分析基因型和环境交互作用

在作物的品种区域化试验中，品种的基因型和环境（Ｇ×Ｅ）交互作用越来越受到重视．一种新的非常有效的分析Ｇ×Ｅ交互作用模型是加性主效应和乘积交互作用模型（简称ＡＭＭＩ模型），而双标图（ｂｉｐｌｏｔ）是解释ＡＭＭＩ分析结果的一种直观有效的图形工具．本文对ＡＭＭＩ模型及双标图作一扼要介绍，并选用１９９５年南方水稻区试单季晚粳组数据作为实例，给出了两种新的双标图，以帮助我们更深入地了解Ｇ×Ｅ交互作用．     

Strategien zur webbasierten Multilingualen Fragebeantwortung

Zusammenfassung  Wir stellen eine Reihe von innovativen Methoden zur webbasierten multilingualen Fragebeantwortung in offenen Dom?nen vor. Insbesondere werden neuartige Strategien zur Bestimmung optimaler Antwortkontexte und zur Extraktion von exakten Antworten auf Basis von sprachunabh?ngigen, datengetriebenen maschinellen Lernverfahren beschrieben. Es werden zwei alternative Methoden für die crosslinguale Frageanalyse skizziert mit deren Hilfe für eine Anfrage in einer natürlichen Sprache Antworten in Dokumenten einer anderen natürlichen Sprache bestimmt werden k?nnen. Alle Methoden sind detailliert evaluiert und weisen eine vielversprechende Performanz auf. CR subject classification  I.2.6 ; I.2.7 ; J.1 ; K.3.2 ; D.3.3 ; D.2.2     

Comparing Web search engine performance in searching consumer health information: evaluation and recommendations.

Identifying and accessing reliable, relevant consumer health information rapidly on the Internet may challenge the health sciences librarian and layperson alike. In this study, seven search engines are compared using representative consumer health topics for their content relevancy, system features, and attributes. The paper discusses evaluation criteria; systematically compares relevant results; analyzes performance in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of the search engines; and illustrates effective search engine selection, search formulation, and strategies.     

The role of relevant active questions in learning based upon successive presentations

Both active questions i.e. questions asked by subjects, and provided (or passive) questions i.e. offered to subjects as problems for solution, had been found to facilitate learning and retention of prose material when subjects were faced with a task of sufficient difficulty to challenge their competence. With difficult prose, boys and low ability subjects had gained most from active questions. These effects were more pronounced in the long term. In this study, the effects of relevant active questions i.e. questions which subjects can put alongside answers, are investigated and compared with those of active and provided questions, over a series of six presentations for both the short and the long term (i.e. after ten months). In the short term, although active questions give greater help than provided questions on the first presentation, and relevant active questions give the greatest improvement between the first and second presentations, provided questions are the most helpful overall. In the long term, however, both the active questions treatments prove to be as effective as provided questions. For low ability boys, the difference between treatments is negligble even in the short term; under the relevant active questions treatment the number of questions asked is greater; and the decline in inspection time over presentations is negligible.This study formed part of a Schools' Council Research project (Director: Dr. W. P. Robinson) in the Department of Psychology, University of Southampton.     

Transport and shear in a microfluidic membrane bilayer device for cell culture

Microfluidic devices have been established as useful platforms for cell culture for a broad range of applications, but challenges associated with controlling gradients of oxygen and other soluble factors and hemodynamic shear forces in small, confined channels have emerged. For instance, simple microfluidic constructs comprising a single cell culture compartment in a dynamic flow condition must handle tradeoffs between sustaining oxygen delivery and limiting hemodynamic shear forces imparted to the cells. These tradeoffs present significant difficulties in the culture of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), where shear is known to regulate signaling, proliferation, and expression. Several approaches designed to shield cells in microfluidic devices from excessive shear while maintaining sufficient oxygen concentrations and transport have been reported. Here we present the relationship between oxygen transport and shear in a "membrane bilayer" microfluidic device, in which soluble factors are delivered to a cell population by means of flow through a proximate channel separated from the culture channel by a membrane. We present an analytical model that describes the characteristics of this device and its ability to independently modulate oxygen delivery and hemodynamic shear imparted to the cultured cells. This bilayer configuration provides a more uniform oxygen concentration profile that is possible in a single-channel system, and it enables independent tuning of oxygen transport and shear parameters to meet requirements for MSCs and other cells known to be sensitive to hemodynamic shear stresses.     

Library instruction for medical students during a curriculum elective

The University of Minnesota Medical School has an innovative curriculum, called Didactic/Selective, which provides third- and fourth-year medical students with multidisciplinary and multispecialty courses. Within this framework, the Bio-Medical Library planned a course to teach the knowledge and skills necessary for library research and information management. It included (1) searching case-related topics in print indexes, (2) formulating and processing MEDLINE searches on BRS Colleague, (3) building a personal file with PC-File or Notebook, and (4) exploring various methods for current awareness. Students' evaluations were positive, with the majority indicating that they found the course interesting and the knowledge gained substantial.     

Evaluation of ovulisa: An indigenous ELISA kit for detection of ovulation

Aprototype kit for the detection of occurrence of ovulation based on urinary pregnanediol glucuronide estimations by ELISA was developed in our laboratory. This kit was sent for evaluation at 4 centres in Bombay and Pune, India. The diagnosis of ovulation/anovulation based on the results of the kit is comparable with that based on reference parameters commonly used (ultrasonography of ovarian follicles and serum progesterone estimations). The accuracy of the test was 93.5%, specificity was 87.5% and sensitivity was 95.7%. This rapid indigenous test can be very useful in assessing ovulatory status of the woman by the clinicians in their offices.     

Interstimulus interval and viewing time effects in monkey list memory

Two rhesus monkeys were tested in 6- and 10-item list memory tasks for performance changes as a function of the exposure duration of the list stimuli and the interstimulus interval (ISI) between successive list stimuli. Accuracy increased with longer item exposure duration and tended to decrease with longer ISI duration. Humans, by contrast, typically show increases in accuracy with ISI, a result taken as evidence of rehearsal. The decrease in accuracy for monkeys suggests that they were not using rehearsal processes in these list memory experiments. Further tests in which choice accuracy with predictable ISIs was compared with choice accuracy with unpredictable ISIs also yielded no evidence of rehearsal by the monkeys. This apparent absence of rehearsal mechanisms in monkeys, in situations also shown to support human rehearsal, is discussed as a potential difference in the visual working memory processes of the two species.