Genomics (15 March 2010)

The endosymbiotic theory proposed that mitochondrial genomes are derived from an alpha-proteobacterium-like endosymbiont, which was concluded from sequence analysis. We rebuilt the metabolic networks of mitochondria and 22 relative species, and studied the evolution of mitochondrial metabolism at the level of enzyme content and network topology. Our phylogenetic results based on network alignment and motif identification supported the endosymbiotic theory from the point of view of systems biology for the first time. It was found that the mitochondrial metabolic network were much more compact than the relative species, probably related to the higher efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation of the specialized organelle, and the network is highly clustered around the TCA cycle. Moreover, the mitochondrial metabolic network exhibited high functional specificity to the modules. This work provided insight to the understanding of mitochondria evolution, and the organization principle of mitochondrial metabolic network at the network level.
Xiao Chang, Zhuo Wang, Pei Hao, Yuan-Yuan Li, Yi-Xue Li

Builders/owners of eco-friendly homes can't refinance in the new, tighter credit market simply because there is a lack of appraisals for comparable homes. I've long been a fan of unusual homes, especially artsy/organic-looking ones. A common theme is "off the grid" energy-efficiency and natural climate control. Sometimes, they are extremely creative, totally trippy, or even oddly pretty . And sometimes, they are absolutely stunning.

Today's data center professionals must add efficiency, manage virtualization, adopt new convergence technologies, and track every watt and bit of space--all while feeling the heat.

This week we've got a book hot off the presses for your weekly dose of entrepreneurial reading as 37signals founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson are back with their second book in four months. Released earlier this month, Rework, a no-nonsense rethinking of how to successfully start and run a business, comes hot on the heels of their first book Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application, which published in November of 2009.

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This time Fried and Hansson take a more general approach to business by examining the ways that new companies are disrupting traditional business practices and making a big splash. They cover their entrepreneurial bases by reminding us that "no time is no excuse" and that "a business without a path to profit isn't a business, it's a hobby," but then also elaborate on less traditional practices that have helped them succeed.

The main theme of the book is to trim the fat and do fewer things better; simplifying every aspect of your business and doing a smaller number of things at a higher quality is far better than trying to do too much and a mediocre level. There were times when customers of their products wanted more features and they refused to comply because it would slow them down and decrease efficiency. They decry time-stealing meetings, lengthy contracts, childish office politics and bloated inventories because they weigh down companies from reaching their full potential.

Rework is a great read for entrepreneurs because it is very focused and doesn't waste any time with lengthy use cases. The book itself is an example of the principals it teaches; the quality of a written work is not based on it's length, so why should company be judged by how many features it offers? Fried and Hansson admit that the book, which comes in at a dense but brief 288 pages, was originally drafted to be nearly twice as long, but why say in 600 pages what you can say under 300? Another reason the book is a great read is because of the authors' open and honest tone.

"Ever seen those weapons prisoners make out of soap, or a spoon? They make do with what they've got," one passage humorously points out. "Now we're not saying you should go out and shank somebody, but get creative, and you'll amazed with what you can make with just a little."

Other useful and easily digestible analogies for their unique business ideas include comparing your company to a hot dog stand. They advise that the best way to trim down an inflated company is to find the "epicenter" by asking yourself, "If I took this away, would what I'm selling still exist?" The best hot dog stand doesn't worry about the decorations on the stand, or the condiments - it worries about the hot dogs.

There are dozens of other valuable pieces of advice in Rework that are sure to inspire any entrepreneur or small business owner. But as LeVar Burton famously said at the end of each episode of Reading Rainbow, you don't have to take my word for it. Seth Godin, who has authored several books on business and entrepreneurship including The Dip which we profiled earlier this year, had nothing but high praise for Rework.

"Jason and David have broken all the rules and won. Again and again they've demonstrated that the regular way isn't necessarily the right way," says Godin. "They just don't say it, they do it. And they do it better than just about anyone has any right to expect."

This book is an obvious buy not only because the of the expert advice dispensed by the successful founders of 37signals, but also because the book is an easy, quick and inexpensive read. Personally, in a few short hours I was able to breeze through the audio version, which can be found online for less than $10. But if you prefer reading words on a page, the Kindle version is also $10, or a hardback copy is just $3 more at some online retailers.

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Researching topics such as health, diet, and (especially) the effectiveness of dietary supplements can be hard and time-consuming. Obscured by thousands of marketing tricks, finding the truth takes days, if not weeks of research.

So, when someone puts in the time to do the research and create an infographic that makes certain aspects of these topics easy to understand, it can be a huge time saver. Read on for some of the best health-related infographics we’ve found online.

As always, consider the figures in these infographics with a grain of salt. No one guarantees that the numbers are correct, and some of them are definitely open to interpretation.

1. Dietary Supplements

This is, without exaggeration, the most amazing and useful infographic I’ve ever encountered. It looks fairly simple, but it took many hours of research to create it, and it is, to my knowledge, the best resource about the actual efficiency of various dietary supplements out there. From the author:

“This image is a “balloon race”. The higher a bubble, the greater the evidence for its effectiveness. But the supplements are only effective for the conditions listed inside the bubble.”

The graphic shows the effectiveness of health supplements on the Y-axis (higher is better), and uses the size of the bubbles to illustrate the popularity of that particular supplement among US adults. Anything below the “worth it line,” doesn’t have enough evidence of medicinal benefit and is probably not worth your time, according to the graphic’s creators, who looked at data from over 1500 studies on both PubMed (US National Library Of Medicine) and Cochrane.org. The infographic effectively combines data on both popularity and medical benefits to create a resource that points out the best health supplements, as well as which ones American consumers believe in the most.

Check out the interactive version, which lets you filter the supplements by function, here.

2. Should You Drink Tap Water?

This is a look at five most and least polluted water systems in America (in larger cities), showing that not all tap water has been created equal.

If you’ve been struggling with the issue of drinking tap or bottled water, this info might help you make a decision. Of course, the data in this infographic, created by GOOD, covers only 10 cities, but it highlights an important point – not all chemicals that can appear in tap water are regulated. The graphic illustrates how many pollutants are found in each water system, how often they’re found, and what type of bacteria exists.

See a much larger version of the image here.

3. Obesity in the USA

Obesity is a known problem in the USA, but which states are affected the most? This is the most recent infographic on the subject we could find, listing obesity rates in all US states, as well as obese and overweight children rates in the USA.

Besides these numbers, this attractive infographic highlights several important points; such as overall high rates of obesity among high school students, as well as the direct and indirect costs of obesity to the US budget.

The full version can be found here.

4. The Cost of Health Care

Right now, one of the most debated topics in the USA is health care reform, and how much the proposed health bill will cost individuals and business. But how much are people paying for health care in other countries around the world?

This infographic, created in a collaboration between GOOD and Way Shape Form, shows the average life expectancy in various countries (indicated by the fullness of the IV bags), as well as several other health-related stats, such as infant mortality rates, and the cost of health care.

See the zoomable version here, or a very big image here.

5. Fatality Rates for Different Diseases

This visualization was created by David McCandless, the creator of the Snake Oil infographic mentioned above. It’s a slightly morbid chart, showing the average fatality rates for known diseases — the size of the bubble indicates how likely you are to die from a given disease (larger is more fatal).

It comes, however, with an optimistic second chart. The X-axis shows the fatality rate, but the Y-axis shows how long the cause of the illness can survive outside of the body in ideal conditions. Lesson: wash your hands!

Know of any other great health-related visualizations or infographics? Let us know in the comments!

Tags: health, infographic, visualization

CloudCrowd is a new crowdsourcing service that comes hot on the heels of CrowdFlower. Just like its competitor, CloudCrowd aims to let any company increase its efficiency by having these tasks which are necessary but that could be delegated taken care of by a virtual workforce. In this particular case, what CloudCrowd does is to assign and distribute any task commissioned by its customers into its virtual taskforce - a team that already has over 100,000 members.

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Learn more about CloudCrowd.com in Dataopedia.com

Find out how much CloudCrowd.com is worth with Stimator.com

Karsa Fulltext Search Manager is a desktop application thanks to which you can increase efficiency, reduce errors, and work faster when creating fulltext search. The desktop manager serves for setting the search and subsequent generating of saved procedures on the MS SQL Server. You therefore do not need to register any dlls or input the .net code on the SQL Server, because the standard T-SQL script is run and the wide possibilities of the SQL Server iFTS are used every time.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

TechCrunch50 startup CrowdFlower has been attracting a lot of attention, even raising $5 million in funding recently. CrowdFlower is a labor as a service startup that helps businesses outsource mundane or repetitive tasks to the cloud. Now the startup has attracted a competitor, recently launched CloudCrowd, which also promises increase efficiency and lower costs to companies by breaking large projects into smaller tasks, and distributing them to its virtual workforce.

Once a client assigns a task to CloudCrowd, the company will distribute tasks its work force of more than 100,000 workers. With each task completed, a worker earn a credibility rating that determines the types of tasks they are offered. Workers who don’t have a rating yet are assigned basic tasks until they develop a reputation. Workers are able to see how much each separate task pays, and earnings are distributed through PayPal.

Tasks range from content moderation, internet research, audio and video transcription to data entry. Since the company’s launch a few months ago, CloudCrowd has completed over 500,000 tasks for a variety of clients, including USC and RentCycle.

As I wrote above CloudCrowd will face competition from CrowdFlower, but it seems that the model is attracting the attention of businesses to perform mundane tasks, so there should be room fr several players in the space.

CrunchBase InformationCloudCrowdInformation provided by CrunchBase

JVC vient d’ajouter à sa gamme de projecteur 4K D-ILA, le DLA-SH7NLG. Comme les précédents modèles 4K (DLA-SH4K), ce nouveau projecteur sera capable d’offrir une résolution 4 fois supérieure à de la Full HD, soit environ du 4096 x 2400.
Pour les autres caractéristiques, JVC nous propose un rapport de contraste de 10 000 :1, une luminosité de 5000 ANSI Lumens, et la possibilité d’afficher deux ou quatre écrans en WUXGA (1920 x 1200) grâce à ses quatre entrées DVI (Dual Link). Il existe également trois autres types d’objectifs proposés comprenant un Short Focus, et un télescopique.

Disponible aux US aux alentours de 150 000$.

Communiqué de Presse

JVC Professional Products, division of JVC U.S.A., today announced the new, 10 MegaPixel DLA-SH7NLG, a 4K D-ILA projector incorporating three 1.27-inch 4K2K D-ILA display devices for high-quality imaging and dual ultra-high-pressure mercury lamps for 5,000 ANSI lumens of brightness. Combining superb definition and resolution with low-cost maintenance, the 4K2K D-ILA projector is available now and is ideal for planetariums, museums, simulators, and medical institutions, as well as high-spec design and monitoring facilities.

The new model joins the DLA-SH4K, which debuted in January 2008 as a 4K D-ILA projector and quickly drew high praise. Like its predecessor, the DLA-SH7NLG achieves ultra-high resolution of approximately 10 megapixels (4,096 x 2,400), which is five times the resolution of full HD, plus the projector has a stunning 10,000:1 native contrast ratio.

Notable features of the new DLA-SH7NLG include:
1. With approximately 10 megapixels of resolution, JVC’s 4K2K D-ILA devices can simultaneously display two or four screens in WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) resolution. Multi-screen projection is facilitated by four DVI (Dual-Link) input terminals supporting an array of PC input formats. The DLA-SH7NLG also offers a low latency mode for simulation environments.

2. True black quality with stunning 10,000:1 native contrast thanks to a wire-grid optical engine.

3. Dual 330W ultra-high-pressure mercury lamps, producing 5,000 lumens of brightness. In single lamp mode, the DLA-SH7NLG can automatically choose the lamp with less cumulative operating time for maintenance efficiency. This, plus the addition of a low-power mode, enable lamp life of approximately 3,000 hours, which is about double that of conventional projectors. Such features allow the DLA-SH7NLG to offer low running costs even under heavy professional use.

4. Elaborate design offers operational flexibility, including stacking two projectors to display 3D images or installation on a +/- 90-degree tilt. The DLA-SH7NLG only weighs about 110 pounds, excluding lens.

5. Three different lenses, including short-focus and telescopic models, are available for various projection environments.

The DLA-SH7NLG operates on normal AC 100-220V power and consumes less than 1.1 kW. Convergence can be adjusted to 1/10 pixel accuracy via GUI control, and three gamma tables are included. Six test patterns, including a crosshatch and color bars, enable image adjustment without external signal sources.

Projection configuration data is easily stored and uploaded from a USB memory device. The Ethernet-compatible DLA-SH7NLG can be configured via a PC Web browser, and multiple projectors are networkable for operation via a single PC. Plus, for improved maintenance, e-mails can be generated automatically to send lamp replacement reminders and error status notifications.

The DLA-SH7NLG has an MSRP of under $150,000 plus lens and is available immediately.

Publication Date: 2010 Mar 17 PMID: 20233458Authors: Quintales, L. - Sanchez, M. - Antequera, F.Journal: BMC BioinformaticsABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: DNA microarray technology allows the analysis of genome structure and dynamics at genome-wide scale. Expression microarrays (EMA) contain probes for annotated open reading frames (ORF) and are widely used for the analysis of differential gene expression. By contrast, tiling microarrays (TMA) have a much higher probe density and provide unbiased genome-wide coverage. The purpose of this study was to develop a protocol to exploit the high resolution of TMAs for quantitative measurement of DNA strand-specific differential expression of annotated and non-annotated transcripts. RESULTS: We extensively filtered probes present in Affymetrix Genechip Yeast Genome 2.0 expression and GeneChip S. pombe 1.0FR tiling microarrays to generate custom Chip Description Files (CDF) in order to compare their efficiency. We experimentally tested the potential of our approach by measuring the differential expression of 4904 genes in the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe growing under conditions of oxidative stress. The results showed a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.943 between both platforms, indicating that TMAs are as reliable as EMAs for quantitative expression analysis. A significant advantage of TMAs over EMAs is the possibility of detecting non-annotated transcripts generated only under specific physiological conditions. To take full advantage of this property, we have used a target-labelling protocol that preserves the original polarity of the transcripts and, therefore, allows the strand-specific differential expression of non-annotated transcripts to be determined. By using a segmentation algorithm prior to generating the corresponding custom CDFs, we identified and quantitatively measured the expression of 510 transcripts longer than 180 nucleotides and not overlapping previously annotated ORFs that were differentially expressed at least 2-fold under oxidative stress. CONCLUSIONS: We show that the information derived from TMA hybridization can be processed simultaneously for high-resolution qualitative and quantitative analysis of the differential expression of well-characterized genes and of previously non-annotated and antisense transcripts. The consistency of the performance of TMA, their genome-wide coverage and adaptability to updated genome annotations, and the possibility of measuring strand-specific differential expression makes them a tool of choice for the analysis of gene expression in any organism for which TMA platforms are available.post to: CiteULike