Discovery and composition of web services using artificial intelligence planning and web service modeling ontology

In today’s Web environment, Web services are the preferred standards-based way to realize Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) computing. A problem that has become one of the recent critical issues is automated discovery and composition of Semantic Web services. A number of approaches have been presented to solve the problem. However, most of these approaches only consider discovery or composition of Web services but not both. In this study, an effective approach called AIMO, based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) planning, Web Service Modeling Ontology (WSMO), and Semantic Web has been proposed to tackle the problem. The main purpose of this study is to investigate and develop a novel approach for automated Web service discovery and composition. In this case, a comparative evaluation of state-of-the-art approaches for Web service composition approaches has been done and the strengths and weaknesses of those approaches have been discussed. Moreover a translator for interaction between WSMO and AI-planning based on Description Logics has been proposed. In addition, some parts of AIMO architecture have been tested on a practical case study, and the results based on the experimental validation demonstrate that AIMO provides an effective and applicable solution. AIMO continues to support loose coupling paradigm of SOA by separating the discovery from the composition of Web services

Mapping of QTL for intermedium spike on barley chromosome 4H using EST-based markers

The lateral spikelets of two-rowed barley are reduced in size and sterile, but in six-rowed barley all three spikelets are fully fertile. The trait is largely controlled by alleles at the vrs1 locus on chromosome arm 2HL, as modified by the allele present at the I locus on chromosome arm 4HS. Molecular markers were developed to saturate the 4HS region by exploiting expressed sequence-tags, either previously mapped in barley to this region, or present in the syntenic region of rice chromosome 3. Collinearity between rice and barley was strong in the 4.8 cM interval BJ468164-AV933435 and the 10 cM interval AV942364-BJ455560. A major QTL for lateral spikelet fertility (the I locus) explained 44% of phenotypic variance, and was located in the interval CB873567-BJ473916. The genotyping of near-isogenic lines for I placed the locus in a region between CB873567 and EBmac635, and therefore the most likely position of the I locus was proximal to CB873567 in a 5.3 cM interval between CB873567-BJ473916

Polymorphisms in metabolic genes, their combination and interaction with tobacco smoke and alcohol consumption and risk of gastric cancer: a case-control study in an Italian population.

BACKGROUND: The distribution and the potential gene-gene and gene-environment interaction of selected metabolic genetic polymorphisms was investigated in relation to gastric cancer risk in an Italian population. METHODS: One hundred and seven cases and 254 hospital controls, matched by age and gender, were genotyped for CYP1A1, CYP2E1, mEH, GSTM1, GSTT1, NAT2 and SULT1A1 polymorphisms. Haplotype analysis was performed for EPHX1 exons 3 and 4, as well as CYP2E1 RsaI (*5 alleles) and CYP2E1 DraI (*5A or *6 alleles). The effect modification by alcohol and cigarette smoking was tested with the heterogeneity test, while the attributable proportion (AP) was used to measure the biological interaction from the gene-gene interaction analysis. RESULTS: Gastric cancer risk was found to be associated with the inheritance of GSTT1 null genotype (OR = 2.10, 95%CI: 1.27-3.44) and the SULT1A1 His/His genotype (OR = 2.46, 95%CI: 1.03-5.90). No differences were observed for the haplotype distributions among cases and controls. For the first time an increased risk was detected among individuals carrying the *6 variant allele of CYP2E1 if ever-drinkers (OR = 3.70; 95%CI: 1.45-9.37) with respect to never-drinkers (OR = 0.18; 95% CI: 0.22-1.46) (p value of heterogeneity among the two estimates = 0.001). Similarly, the effect of SULT1A1 variant genotype resulted restricted to ever-smokers, with an OR of 2.58 (95%CI: 1.27-5.25) for the carriers of His allele among smokers, and an OR of 0.86 (95%CI: 0.45-1.64) among never-smokers (p value of heterogeneity among the two estimates = 0.03). The gene-gene interaction analyses demonstrated that individuals with combined GSTT1 null and NAT2 slow acetylators had an additional increased risk of gastric cancer, with an OR of 3.00 (95%CI: 1.52-5.93) and an AP of 52%. CONCLUSION: GSTT1, SULT1A1 and NAT2 polymorphisms appear to modulate individual's susceptibility to gastric cancer in this Italian population, particularly when more than one unfavourable genotype is present, or when combined with cigarette smoke. The increased risk for the carriers of CYP2E1*5A or *6 alleles among drinkers need to be confirmed by larger prospective studies

ACE and Atherosclerosis: pieces of the puzzle

There is increasing evidence that atherosclerosis is not only involved in cardiovascular diseases (CVD) but also other diseases of the elderly such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Since CVD are highly fatal and usually occur earlier than Alzheimer’s disease, the co-morbidity by CVD might hamper studies on the association between atherosclerosis risk factors and AD. Here we used the inverse probability of censoring weighted analyses method to test this hypothesis, in a study on the relationship between the insertion/deletion polymorphism of the angiotensin converting enzyme gene (ACE I/D) and risk of AD. We used data from the Rotterdam Study, a prospective population based study. We .rst performed a Cox proportional hazards model including all available cardiovascular risk factors to calculate the probability of death from CVD and thereby the probability of being free from fatal CVD events. These probabilities were then used to weight the subjects who were uncensored by fatal disease by the inverse of their survival probability. In a weighted analysis we estimated the association between the ACE I/D polymorphism and AD. Among 2431 men that were free from Alzheimer’s disease at baseline, 51 persons were diagnosed for AD and 196 individual had fatal cardiovascular events without occurrence of AD during the follow up. Among 3281 women, these numbers were 89 and 159, respectively. Survival analyses showed that the association between the I allele and AD was mainly present in women (p values for trend was 0.09). In the weighted analyses the hazard ratios did not materially change in any of the gender groups. Our results indicate that the association between the I allele of the ACE gene and Alzheimer’s disease is not due to the co-morbidity effect of CVD

The genetics of cardiovascular disease

Recent advances in genotyping technology and insights into disease mechanisms have increased interest in the genetics of cardiovascular disease. Several candidate genes involved in cardiovascular diseases were identified from studies using animal models, and the translation of these findings to human disease is an exciting challenge. There is a trend towards large-scale genome-wide association studies that are subject to strict quality criteria with regard to both genotyping and phenotyping. Here, we review some of the strategies that have been developed to translate findings from experimental models to human disease and outline the need for optimizing global approaches to analyze such results. Findings from ongoing studies are interpreted in the context of disease pathways instead of the more traditional focus on single genetic variants

Sex-specific genetic effects influence variation in body composition

Aims/hypothesis: Despite well-known sex differences in body composition it is not known whether sex-specific genetic or environmental effects contribute to these differences. Methods: We assessed body composition in 2,506 individuals, from a young Dutch genetic isolate participating in the Erasmus Rucphen Family study, by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and anthropometry. We used variance decomposition procedures to partition variation of body composition into genetic and environmental components common to both sexes and to men and women separately and calculated the correlation between genetic components in men and women. Results: After accounting for age

Angiotensin-converting enzyme I/D polymorphism and preeclampsia risk: evidence of small-study bias

BACKGROUND: Inappropriate activation of the renin-angiotensin system may play a part in the development of preeclampsia. An insertion/deletion polymorphism within the angiotensin-I converting enzyme gene (ACE-I/D) has shown to be reliably associated with differences in angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) activity. However, previous studies of the ACE-I/D variant and preeclampsia have been individually underpowered to detect plausible genotypic risks. METHODS AND FINDINGS: A prospective case-control study was conducted in 1,711 unrelated young pregnant women (665 preeclamptic and 1,046 healthy pregnant controls) recruited from five Colombian cities. Maternal blood was obtained to genotype for the ACE-I/D polymorphism. Crude and adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using logistic regression models were obtained to evaluate the strength of the association between ACE-I/D variant and preeclampsia risk. A meta-analysis was then undertaken of all published studies to February 2006 evaluating the ACE-I/D variant in preeclampsia. An additive model (per-D-allele) revealed a null association between the ACE-I/D variant and preeclampsia risk (crude OR = 0.95 [95% CI, 0.81-1.10]) in the new case-control study. Similar results were obtained after adjusting for confounders (adjusted per-allele OR = 0.90 [95% CI, 0.77-1.06]) and using other genetic models of inheritance. A meta-analysis (2,596 cases and 3,828 controls from 22 studies) showed a per-allele OR of 1.26 (95% CI, 1.07-1.49). An analysis stratified by study size showed an attenuated OR toward the null as study size increased. CONCLUSIONS: It is highly likely that the observed small nominal increase in risk of preeclampsia associated with the ACE D-allele is due to small-study bias, similar to that observed in cardiovascular disease. Reliable assessment of the origins of preeclampsia using a genetic approach may require the establishment of a collaborating consortium to generate a dataset of adequate size

Multi-Objective Parameter Optimization to Improve Machining Performance on Deep Drilling Process

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Cutting parameters and factors should be selected wisely to increase the quality of a product. Therefore, the optimisation of the deep drilling process was investigated by utilising the Taguchi method on three materials by three different tools. The influences of cutting speed and workpiece temperature are investigated on machining power, surface roughness and tool wear. The results revealed that the application of preheating could provide lower power consumption and a relatively good finished surface. In continuation, analysis of variance demonstrated that all factors are effective, but the workpiece material and speed are the most influential parameters on surface roughness and power consumption, respectively. Workpiece material influenced about 72.24% on machining performance, and its effect was more than tool material (3.64%). For machining power, the effect of speed (55.41%) was higher than others. The preheating and lower speeds reduced tool wear of titanium coated and cobalt coated drills