Several biplot methods applied to gene expression data

DNA microarray experiments result in enormous amount of data, which need careful interpretation. Biplot approaches show simultaneous display of genes and samples in low-dimensional graphs and thus can be used to represent the relationships between genes and samples. There are several different types of biplots, and these methods need to be evaluated because each plot provides different result.     

The Immediate Effects of Changes in Life Circumstances on Volunteering Decisions in the USA

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This study tests how changes in social background (homeownership status and employment status) and changes in household...     

Causes and consequences of childhood poverty in Korea: a panel data analysis

This study examines the causes and effects of childhood poverty in Korea using longitudinal data from the Seoul Child Panel Study. In the study, we find that not living with two parents or full-time employed parents are significant risk factors for child poverty in Korea. We also find that poverty is a risk factor lowering children's school achievement, and that family process factors such as family relation and parental monitoring are strongly related to children's internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. The article concludes by suggesting policy approaches to reduce child poverty and the negative impact of poverty on children's development.     

Daily use of sildenafil 50mg at night effectively ameliorates nocturia in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia: an exploratory multicenter,double-blind,randomized, placebo-controlled study

Purpose: To compare the efficacy and safety of sildenafil 25?mg qd, 25?mg bid or 50?mg qd – on treating lower urinary tract symptoms with benign prostatic hyperplasia (LUTS/BPH).

Materials and methods: Men aged?>?45 years with LUTS/BPH were randomly assigned to receive sildenafil 25?mg qd (n?=?42), bid (n?=?41), 50?mg qd (n?=?38) or placebo (n?=?41) for 8 weeks. Changes from baseline in International Prostate Symptom Score (I-PSS), maximum urinary flow rate (Qmax) and postvoid residual urine volume (PVR) were assessed at week 4 and week 8.

Results: Sildenafil 25?mg qd (-7.3?±?5.8) and 25?mg bid (-7.0?±?5.7) exhibited significant improvements of I-PSS compared to placebo (-5.2?±?6.4) (p?=?0.020, 0.025, respectively). In particular, voiding domain was more affected than storage domain. Only sildenafil 50?mg qd improved nocturia significantly (versus placebo, p?=?0.027). Quality of life score was improved in all treatment groups. Q_max and PVR did not change significantly in all groups. All regimens were well tolerated.

Conclusions: Sildenafil 25?mg qd, 25?mg bid and 50?mg qd are safe and effective to improve LUTS/BPH in long term, along with coexisting ED. In particular, nocturia is most well-controlled by 50?mg qd.     

宋初诗歌与禅宗

宋初社会还没有稳定的时期,在宗教和文学上,受到晚唐五代的影响.禅宗继承晚唐五代禅宗的馀绪,加上帝王对禅宗采取了复兴和支持的政策,带来禅宗的发展.禅宗思想与文学融合起来,对宋初文学的发展起了一定的推动作用.禅宗的引向内心的追求,改变了封建文人士大夫的人生观念和思维方式.禅宗思想使宋初文人们产生了恬淡宁静的心境追求和感伤低沉的情绪两个方面的倾向.     

Changing Conditions and Quality of Housing

Social Indicators Research - This article analyzes the major trends and features of the housing market. It also reviews governmental programs and policies in light of the critical issues facing...     

Links between personalities and leadership perceptions in problem-solving groups

Leadership emergence and related variables in leaderless group problem-solving situations were examined in improvised problem-solving groups. Participants were randomly organized into 56 four-person groups and asked to evaluate themselves and others in each group by the Round Robin method. Evaluations were based on the “Big Five” personality traits, physical appearance, and two types of leadership. Generally, self-effacing bias rather than self-enhancing bias was dominant, and self-enhancing bias was not shown in two types of leadership evaluations. Relative variances of the perceiver, the target, and the relationship effects were 26.7, 9.5, and 28.8%, respectively. That the target effect was the lowest in several aspects of evaluations including leadership suggests low consensus among members in leadership evaluations. Also, older participants received higher credits in task leadership while no gender effects of target were evidenced. Finally, members’ evaluations on target were substantially accurate in most evaluation dimensions, contrary to expectations. The evaluation was particularly more accurate on task-leadership than that on relation-leadership.     

An Optimal Reliability and Maintainability Design of a Searching System

In this article, we deal with an optimal reliability and maintainability design problem of a searching system with complex structures. The system availability and life cycle cost are used as optimization criteria and estimated by simulation. We want to determine MTBF (Mean Time between Failures) and MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) for all components and ALDT (Administrative and Logistics Delay Times) of the searching system in order to minimize the life cycle cost and to satisfy the target system availability. A hybrid genetic algorithm with a heuristic method is proposed to find near-optimal solutions and compared with a general genetic algorithm.