In the medical field, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) genotyping is an important genetics technique. In order to know how SNP affect the function of gene, to amplify SNP regions of the DNA sequences is required. Many researchers prefer to design degenerate primers for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiment to amplify these sequences. Finding a primer satisfied all PCR design constraints and low degeneracy is important to save time and money. However, the existing applications can¡¦t design the degenerate primer satisfied the degenerate primer design constraints at the same time. We propose an efficient degenerate primer design algorithm based on multiobjective genetic algorithm. Also, the proposed algorithm uses the voting scheme to decrease the degeneracy of the design primers. Several gene family cDNA sequences and sequence variants are used to verify the proposed algorithm. The dry dock experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can find degenerate primer satisfied as many constraints as possible and low degeneracy.

No description available.

The problem of this thesis is to make a critical analysis of pre-primers, primers, and first readers of ten series of books published since 1938. Examination of books will be made from the standpoint of unusual interest to children, teachability, psychological, and educational soundness of their construction in promoting growth of the individual pupil and his ultimate good as a person and as a member of a social group.

Multiple polymerase chain reaction (multiple PCR) is one of the most important techniques in molecular biology. The selection of a suitable set of primers is very important for multiple PCR experiments. The primer selection problem is to minimize the number of primers required to amplify a set of DNA sequences. If the minimum set can be used to amplify the entire target DNA sequences, the experimental costs and time will be reduced. But the primer selection problem was proved to be an NP-complete problem. In this thesis, we develop an efficient heuristic algorithm for selecting a set of primer candidates, each may be able to amplify more than one target sequence. Those primers are called universal primers. The universal primer finding can be viewed as the local motif finding in our method. We modify the score function of the original Gibbs sampler method to find local motifs. The new score function is added a new parameter, weight parameter. The weight parameter can guide the Gibbs sampler method to find local motifs with the local view. Then, the complementary sequences of those local motifs are input into the binary integer programming. Thus we can reduce the size of the solution space. We also test our method on some artificial domains and two gene families. All the results show that we get some improvements on the problem.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the fluoride recharging capability of Opal Seal, a fluoride releasing orthodontic primer, as compared to Transbond XT, the control. Material and Methods: 1mm x 5mm disks of Opal Seal and Transbond were prepared according to the respective manufacturer’s instructions. Initially, the samples were stored in deionized water (DI) for 8 weeks. The samples were then randomly divided into one of two groups: Over-the-counter (OTC) fluoride mouthwash and prescription strength (PS) fluoride mouthwash. The OTC group samples were immersed in 5mL of 0.0219% sodium fluoride containing mouthwash for one minute every day for seven days. The PS group samples were immersed in 5mL of 0.2% sodium fluoride containing mouthwash for one minute. All of the samples were suspended in 5mL fresh DI water and fluoride release measurements were taken at baseline (the end of initial 8 weeks of storage), 24 hours, 3 days, 5 days, 7 days, and 14 days. Results: Opal Seal samples treated with the OTC fluoride mouthwash exhibited significant fluctuation in fluoride ion release across time (p=0.0058). However, there were no statistically significant differences in fluoride ion release between the individual timepoints and baseline. Similarly, Opal Seal samples treated with the PS fluoride mouthwash exhibited significant variation in the fluoride ion concentration across time (p< 0.001), and a statistically significant increase over baseline was seen at 24 hours only (p= 0.0006). The control group samples treated either with the OTC or PS mouthwash did not exhibit any significant difference in fluoride ion release between any individual timepoint and baseline. Conclusion: For Opal Seal and Transbond XT, there were no statistically significant differences of fluoride concentration at any timepoint compared to baseline measurements when using OTC mouthwash. When using PS mouthwash, there was a small, statistically significant increase of fluoride concentration of the Opal Seal samples after 24 hours but no differences were seen at any other timepoints. Opal Seal did not demonstrate a substantial amount of fluoride recharge when fluoride mouthwash is used as a fluoride delivery vehicle. Future well-designed randomized controlled trials are needed to evaluate the efficacy of Opal Seal primer when coupled with the use of fluoride mouthwashes.

Student Number : 0210528 - PhD thesis - School of Mining Engineering - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environmnet / This thesis describes the development of a directional primer charge for use in blasting in mining operations. The directional primer charge is an explosive gun which takes the place of a standard primer charge in a blasthole. It is a shaped charge which directs the explosive energy forwards into the blasthole. Its effectiveness is enhanced by a metal liner which is located at a specified stand-off distance from the toe of the hole. The explosive energy of the column charge is converted into the kinetic energy of the metal liner which transforms into an ultrasonic slug. This in turn converts into the impact energy of the slug impacting on the rock. This rock is axially compressed to such a degree that a radial fracture is developed. This radial fracture is termed an umbrella crack. Prior to the development of the directional primer charge, the phenomenon of the umbrella crack had only been observed in experimental Perspex blasting models and its formation mechanism had never been satisfactorily explained. If the directional primer charge could cause an umbrella crack in hard rock mining at the end of blastholes, then more rock would be broken out per blast than is currently achieved in practice. This thesis records the historical development of the explosive shaped charge with particular reference to the development of the explosively-forged projectile. It describes the classical theories and models which apply in determining the theoretical prediction of the physical properties of the designed directional primer charge. It describes the experimental procedures and measurements using flash X-ray radiography and electronic shorting screens to freeze the flight of a metal slug traveling at speeds of over 2000 metres per second. Underground tests were undertaken under full mining production conditions to compare the rock breaking effects of various designs. The theoretical calculation of the extent of the movement of the rock at the toe of the blasthole indicates that umbrella cracks should be formed. The underground tests confirm their formation. It is concluded that the use of the directional primer charge in stoping operations can improve the blasting efficiency in South African hard rock mines by up to 15 %.

The multiplex PCR experiment is to amplify multiple regions of a DNA sequence at the same time by using different primer pairs. Although, in recent years, there are lots of methods for PCR primer design, only a few of them focus on the multiplex PCR primer design. The multiplex PCR primer design is a tedious task since there are too many constraints to be satisfied. A new method for multiplex PCR primer design strategy using genetic algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm is able to find a set of suitable primer pairs more efficient and uses a MAP model to speed up the examination of the specificity constraint. The dry-dock experiment shows that the proposed algorithm finds several sets of primer pairs for multiplex PCR that not only obey the design properties, but also have specificity.

Zugl.: Seattle (Wash.), Univ. of Washington, Diss., 2007 / Hergestellt on demand

Zugl.: Giessen, Univ., Diss., 2009

Zugl.: Giessen, Univ., Diss., 2009