Microarray technology has enriched the study of gene expression in such a way that scientists are now able to measure the expression levels of thousands of genes in a single experiment. Microarray gene expression data gained great importance in recent years due to its role in disease diagnoses and prognoses which help to choose the appropriate treatment plan for patients. This technology has shifted a new era in molecular classification, interpreting gene expression data remains a difficult problem and an active research area due to their native nature of “high dimensional low sample size”. Such problems pose great challenges to existing classification methods. Thus, effective feature selection techniques are often needed in this case to aid to correctly classify different tumor types and consequently lead to a better understanding of genetic signatures as well as improve treatment strategies. This thesis aims on a comparative study of state-of-the-art feature selection methods, classification methods, and the combination of them, based on gene expression data. We compared the efficiency of three different classification methods including: support vector machines, k- nearest neighbor and random forest, and eight different feature selection methods, including: information gain, twoing rule, sum minority, max minority, gini index, sum of variances, t- statistics, and one-dimension support vector machine. Five-fold cross validation was used to evaluate the classification performance. Two publicly available gene expression data sets of glioma were used for this study. Different experiments have been applied to compare the performance of the classification methods with and without performing feature selection. Results revealed the important role of feature selection in classifying gene expression data. By performing feature selection, the classification accuracy can be significantly boosted by using a small number of genes. The relationship of features selected in different feature selection methods is investigated and the most frequent features selected in each fold among all methods for both datasets are evaluated.

This study applied proactive coping theory (E. R. Greenglass, 2002; R. Schwarzer, 2000) to the domain of career development in domestic and international student transition-to-university. Participants were recruited from a large southeastern state university. No significant between-group differences were identified in the present study. Within both groups, proactive coping, work hope, and career planfulness were positively correlated. The role of work hope as a mediator between proactive coping and career planfulness was tested in domestic and international students respectively. For domestic students, a partial mediation model was established with a direct effect of proactive coping on career planfulness and an indirect effect through work hope. However, work hope fully mediates the effects of proactive coping on career planfulness for international students. Potential implication of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

Titel: The comparative study of predication equations for value calculation 1-RM at the squat and the dead lift. Aim: To evaluate the most exact equation for the calculation 1-RM on the basis of comparation of extracted data with predication equations at the squat and the dead lift. Research complex: The research complex is created by the soldiers of Army of Czech Republic. They are the men at the age from 20 to 40 with health classification A. Used methods: The comparative method with the using of experimental testing. Results: By the mutual comparation of data we have found out, that the most exact predication equation for the calculation 1-RM in a squat or in a dead lift is from the authors O'Conner et al. Squat was predicted with correlation coefficient r = 0.975 and deadlift with a value of r = 0.951. Keywords: sqaut, dead lift, 1-RM, prediction equation, correlation coefficient.

This study aimed to investigate the differences in parenting stress, coping ways, and family functioning variables of families with a preschool-aged child with autism from Turkey and from the United States (U.S.) and to find out how the factors of parenting stress, coping ways, and social support predict the adaptability of the families in terms of cohesion and flexibility in families of children with autism from Turkey and from the U.S. For this study, only the mothers of a child with autism aged between two and seven years old are included from both cultures. Multivariate Analyses of Covariance (MANCOVA) were conducted for comparing the mothers from both cultures in terms of parentig stress, coping ways, and family functioning variables. According to these analyses, while mothers did not diffenentiate for parenting stress variable, both groups of mothers were found to use different coping ways and to show different family functioning characteristics. Turkish mothers were found to use more problem-focused coping ways than their American counterparts. Moreover, mothers from Turkey were found to report higher flexibility and enmeshment than mothers from the U.S. In order to find out the predictors of family cohesion and flexibility, series of Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analyses were conducted for both groups of mothers separately. These analyses revealed different predictors of family cohesion and flexibility for mothers of children with autism from Turkey and from the U.S. The differences in group comparison and regression analyses were discussed in accordance with the relevant literature.

No description available.

When systems designers are making decisions about which components or technologies to select for a design, they often use experience or intuition to select one technology over another. Additionally, developers of new technologies rarely provide more information about their inventions than discrete data points attained in testing, usually in a laboratory. This makes it difficult for system designers to select newer technologies in favor of proven ones. They lack the knowledge about these new technologies to consider them equally with existing technologies. Prior research suggests that set-based design representations can be useful for facilitating collaboration among engineers in a design project, both within and across organizational boundaries. However, existing set-based methods are limited in terms of how the sets are constructed and in terms of the representational capability of the sets. The goal of this research is to introduce and demonstrate new, more general set-based design methods that are effective for characterizing and comparing competing technologies in a utility-based decision framework. To demonstrate the new methods and compare their relative strengths and weaknesses, different technologies for a power plant condenser are compared. The capabilities of different condenser technologies are characterized in terms of sets defined over the space of common condenser attributes (cross sectional area, heat exchange effectiveness, pressure drop, etc.). It is shown that systems designers can use the resulting sets to explore the space of possible condenser designs quickly and effectively. It is expected that this technique will be a useful tool for system designers to evaluate new technologies and compare them to existing ones, while also encouraging the use of new technologies by providing a more accurate representation of their capabilities. I compare four representational methods by measuring the solution accuracy (compared to a more comprehensive optimization procedure's solution), computation time, and scalability (how a model changes with different data sizes). My results demonstrate that a support vector domain description-based method provides the best combination of these traits for this example. When combined with recent research on reducing its computation time, this method becomes even more favorable.

For the grid to be stable, the supply of power must equal the demands of the consumer at every moment during the day. The unpredictable intermittent nature of wind results in inconsistent power generation. Energy storage technologies coupled with a wind farm can not only provide power during fluctuations but also maintain a stable and reliable grid. The objective of the thesis is to perform a comprehensive analysis of different types of energy storage technologies that can be coupled with a wind farm. The analysis is performed on the basis of multiple characteristics which affect their viability. We identified key characteristics for a range of storage technologies, including lead-acid, sodium-sulphur, nickel cadmium, lithium-ion, superconducting magnetic energy storage, electrochemical capacitors, flywheels, flow batteries, pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage systems. We performed a comparison study to analyze trade-offs and assessed potential improvement areas that will make them more competitive in the electric power industry. We suggested viable energy storage systems that could be better and suitable for different applications for an electric grid integrated with a wind farm.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T16:17:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Vandiana Borba.pdf: 2179466 bytes, checksum: 9091367fbc94c4b6cf33f2014fe047a8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-02 / This paper has as study object, the politics comparison of the special education in Brazil and in Venezuela, by the analysis of the historical trajectory of the concepts and legal basis. Using the study comparison technique, the objective is to identify and explain the contrasts and similarities in the historical evolution of the search object. In consonance to the theoretical perspective which education is based, the education has not an autonomous or hegemonic character, wherefore it can not be analyzed out of the social viewpoint where it is inserted. On this direction, the paper begins with the analysis of the changes in the material basis, occasioned by the neoliberal reforms, because in this period, Latin America suffered from intense political, economic and social changes, occasioned by the conditionality to the renegotiation of the external debt and adhesion to the guidelines of Washington consensus. In this context, Brazil and Venezuela are inserted, each one with particularities about the Neoliberalism diffusion and its actual context. In sequence of this paper, it seeks to make articulations with educational reforms, once the material base changes focused in the education of the countries above cited, in a mediated way. In Brazil, related to the objectives to get through the educational reform, the study has center in the universalization of basic education, action which was necessary the incorporation of marginalized groups to school, focusing the people with special needs in this context. In Venezuela, an opposite situation occurs, because the emphasis has been in the decentralization process and Public Education privatization, getting thousand of people out of school, even though within or without special needs. After describing these elements and highlighting the application of this process in special education, the central search object appears: the comparison of enounced elements. First of all in Brazil, the route starts in the historical trajectory, addressing the practices that mark the special education construction as a State politics: the institutionalization, integration and inclusion, allowing to make a concept analysis, and within the theoretical elaboration, the same exercise in relation to the legal base. With the data collected, in the third chapter, within the discussion about special education in Venezuela, the comparison was made. Among the differential elements of this comparison study, some topics may be highlighted: the non-existence of the deinstitutionalization, that Brazil passed in the final of the 50's, as wells as the concept of inclusion that in Venezuela was not linked to the education of people with special needs, but it was used from 2003 on in the named "Social Missions", which are directed to attend the elementary needs of the whole poor population, being related to special education, in 2007 the inclusion concept was then used simultaneously to the integration concept, that differently from Brazil, conceptually, they do not conflict. Many similarities were found, being able to highlight the creation of instances that were responsible for planning and coordinating the special education politics in national context in 70's decade. / Esta dissertação tem como objeto de estudo a comparação da política de educação especial no Brasil e na Venezuela, mediante análise da trajetória histórica, da base conceitual e legal. Utilizando-se da técnica do estudo comparado, o objetivo é identificar e explicar os contrastes e as semelhanças presentes na evolução histórica do objeto de pesquisa. Em consonância à perspectiva teórica na qual se fundamenta, a educação não possui um caráter autônomo ou hegemônico, portanto não podendo ser analisada descolada do contexto social em que está inserida. Nessa direção, o trabalho principia pela análise das alterações da base material acarretada pelas reformas neoliberais, pois este é o período em que a América Latina passa por intensas modificações políticas, econômicas e sociais, resultantes das condicionalidades para a renegociação da dívida externa e da adesão às diretrizes do Consenso de Washington. Nesse panorama se inserem o Brasil e a Venezuela, cada qual com suas particularidades no que tange à difusão do neoliberalismo e seu contexto atual. Na sequência do trabalho, busca-se fazer articulações com as reformas educacionais, uma vez que as alterações na base material, de forma mediatizada, incidiram na educação dos países em questão. No Brasil, das metas postas para serem atingidas, por intermédio das reformas educacionais, o estudo centrou-se na meta da universalização do ensino fundamental, feito para o qual se fazia necessária a incorporação dos grupos marginalizados do acesso à escola, localizando, nesse panorama, o segmento de pessoas com deficiência. Na Venezuela ocorre um movimento oposto, pois a ênfase esteve no processo de descentralização e de privatização do ensino público, excluindo das escolas milhares de pessoas, fossem elas com ou sem deficiência. Após discorrer sobre esses elementos e realçar as implicações desse processo na educação especial, passa-se para o objeto central da pesquisa, que é a comparação dos elementos enunciados. Iniciando pelo Brasil, o percurso parte da trajetória histórica, abordando as práticas que marcam a construção da educação especial enquanto uma política de Estado, sendo elas a institucionalização, a integração e a inclusão, permitindo efetuar a análise conceitual e, ao longo da elaboração teórica, o mesmo exercício em relação à base legal. Em mãos desses dados, no terceiro capítulo, ao discorrer sobre a educação especial venezuelana, realizou-se a comparação. Dos elementos diferenciais desse estudo comparado destaca-se a não existência do movimento pela desinstitucionalização movimento que o Brasil vivenciou já no final dos anos de 1950, bem como o conceito inclusão --, que, na Venezuela, não foi vinculado à educação de pessoas com deficiência, mas, sim, utilizado a partir do ano de 2003 nas denominadas Missões Sociais, as quais são voltadas para atender às necessidades elementares de toda a população pobre, sendo que, em relação à educação especial, no ano de 2007 o conceito inclusão passou a ser empregado simultaneamente ao conceito de integração, que, diferentemente do Brasil, conceitualmente não se conflita com o de inclusão. Já em relação às semelhanças, localizaram-se diversas, podendo-se destacar a criação, na década de 1970, de instâncias responsáveis por planejar e coordenar, em âmbito nacional, a política da educação especial.

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a clustering of traditional cardiovascular risk factors including central obesity, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and hypertension. The prevalence of MetS increases risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and increases with age. Purpose: To compare prevalence and correlates of MetS (and components) in Canadian and Korean older adults. Methods: This study consisted of secondary data analysis, using data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) (cycle 1) and the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (cycle 4). The study sample included adults aged 60 to 79 years and who provided fasting blood samples. To compare prevalence of MetS between countries, the same diagnostic criteria (Harmonizing definition) were used. Similar measures of potential explanatory variables for MetS, such as physical activity, dietary patterns, comorbidity, gender, household income adequacy, education, marital status, alcohol consumption, smoking, psychological distress, and duration of sleep were also used where possible. Univariate and multiple logistic regression models were used to examine the cross-sectional relationship between these study variables and MetS. Principal component and cluster analyses were conducted to derive dietary patterns. Results: Included were 550 (weighted N=4,886,039) and 3,040 (weighted N=4,267,182) Canadians and Koreans aged 60 to 79 years, respectively. The prevalence of MetS was 42.0% and 52.2% in the Canadian and Korean sample, respectively (p<.0001). The prevalence of MetS in Korean women was 60.5% and explained the overall increased prevalence in the Korean sample. Results of the descriptive analysis, as well as the univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses indicated that the prevalence and pattern or joint distribution of explanatory variables differed across the two populations. In the Canadian sample, the final multivariate model comprised household income, marital status, alcohol consumption and psychological distress, with evidence of an interaction between adequacy of household income and marital status. In the Korean sample, the final multivariate model comprised comorbidity, gender, education, marital status, physical activity, and dietary pattern, with evidence of an interaction between comorbidity and marital status and between gender and education. Conclusions: Findings of this study provided insight into possible underlying mechanisms that might lead to between-country differences in prevalence of MetS and to inconsistent measures of association between MetS and an individual factor like physical activity or dietary intake across studies.

Depressive disorder is the most widespread psychological illness and is responsible for the disability of many. However, this disease is not only a pathological change of mood, current research shows that depression can also be connected with a cognitive impairment, a pathological changes in optimal functioning. This impairment can not only deepen the illness but as well worsen work and personal life of a patient. This paper aims on presenting the basics of the disease, its causes, and the ways in which depression and cognitive deficits are currently treated. Since the research is carried out in an intercultural context, the studied cultures of the Czech Republic and Mexico are presented in the context of current theories. The intecultural research examines the cognitive deficit of depressed patients. The results of depth of depression, neuropsychological tests, and tests evaluating rumination are compared interculturally. There were no important statistically significant differences found between the two cultures. On the other hand, the results show some impairment in cognitive functioning in depressive patients. Keywords: depression cognitive functions cognitive impairment ruminations intercultural comparison study Mexico Czech republic