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Get local law enforcement initiatives started, and ask your police chiefs this question. What kind of training is being offered to your new recruits and officers on the streets to recognize and investigate all forms of human trafficking? |
Do you think a local police chief in the hills of Northern New Mexico, or in the farming community of southern Illinois, is even going to know what we are talking about? Does the local hotel have young female Hispanics working in the housekeeping department? They do not speak English, they have no documents, does he kn... |
FOSTER: Many of the women and girls who are trafficked are promised jobs that don't materialize. What do you think would be effective to get the word out to them so that fewer of them fall prey to these types of promises? |
The only effect we can have on this is to stop the demand. |
FOSTER: How did you sustain yourself? |
Continued faith in our justice system, lots of hard workouts and sweat, many tears and my husband would make me a strong gin tonic with lots of lemon and ice once in a while. |
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Rules of Engagement | The Nation |
Rules of Engagement |
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As this is written, we wait and wonder what the military response will be to the inchoate enemy the President summoned up in his speech to the nation on September 20. Despite the near-unanimous celebration of it by the mainstream media, we were left with troubling questions. The President told the nation it was at war,... |
Bush said that this war would bring to bear "every resource at our command"--diplomacy, intelligence, law enforcement, finance. But the military option overshadowed all. And there was no mention of applying international law or working with the United Nations, which could lend international legitimacy to the fight agai... |
The President pledged not to wage war on Islam but then proclaimed, "Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." He thus broadened the scope of his war to include, potentially, sanctions or even attacks on nation-states deemed not to be "with us," al... |
A wider war against Afghanistan will heap more misery on that war-ravaged theocracy without fostering the secularization and democratization it so desperately needs. The threat of war has already unleashed a flood of refugees that could destabilize other shaky states in the region, primarily Pakistan, a nuclear power. ... |
We support an all-out but carefully targeted effort to neutralize identified terrorist networks. This may involve a limited military response, like attacks on terrorist bases, but primarily it should rely on such nonmilitary means as exchanges of intelligence among nations, coordinated investigations by law-enforcement... |
Beyond this kind of international campaign, the United States should re-examine the role its foreign policy has played in creating the pools of anti-Americanism that breed terrorists. Not that reciting the dismal litany of US interventions and realpolitik "explains" this tragedy; or that America somehow deserved to be ... |
In a sudden--and expedient--conversion to internationalism the Administration pressed Congress to pay long-overdue UN assessments and called on the Senate to ratify two UN conventions dealing specifically with terrorism. That's a start, but more could be done to align US diplomacy with international bodies, including j... |
On the home front, the newly created Office of Homeland Security should coordinate the overlapping efforts of the two dozen federal departments and agencies that deal with domestic security. The nature of the attack on US soil has blown to bits any possible rationale for national missile defense. That money should go i... |
Enhanced homeland defense, constrained by strict protection of civil liberties, could justify a rollback of the US military presence overseas and undercut a rationale for inflated military spending and military interventions. It could also channel the spirit of civilian volunteerism that recently flowered in New York C... |
We do not accept the notion that patriotism precludes politics. If waged sensibly, the fight against terrorism will be long, low-level and sustained. Politics can't be suspended during that time. More than a million people have been laid off in this country since July 2000. US trade policies are wiping out industries h... |
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New Zealand-based singer/songwriter Alastair Galbraith first emerged during the mid-'80s, playing in Dunedin area bands including the Rip and Plagal Grind. Making his solo debut with 1992's Morse, he became known for his signature abbreviated songwriting style, with most of his compositions clocking... |
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Amir Khan suffers crushing defeat |
Asian Image: Amir Khan, pictured, has lost to Danny Garcia Amir Khan, pictured, has lost to Danny Garcia |
Amir Khan's career lies in tatters after he suffered a devastating second successive defeat in Las Vegas as Danny Garcia knocked him down three times en route to a fourth-round stoppage win. |
The 25-year-old Englishman admitted recently that he had endured the toughest spell of his career after a torrid six months which saw him suffer a controversial defeat by Lamont Peterson and a bitter fall-out which saw their rematch scrapped after the American tested positive for synthetic testosterone. |
Khan came into the fight with a record of 26-2 with 18 knockout wins while Garcia boasted 23 wins, 14 early, and no defeats. Despite Khan coming off a defeat in his last bout, the Briton was a heavy betting favourite and the majority of the 7,000-strong crowd were in his corner. |
Khan flew out of the blocks and barely a second had elapsed when he landed a beautiful left hook-right hand combination. He easily won the first round with sharp, attacking jabs and hooks, while Garcia had to settle for two right crosses and a naughty low blow, for which he was warned. |
Garcia landed a nice right in the second but Khan retaliated immediately. Khan also won the second but had to take sporadic body shots and a strong overhand right from the Philadelphian. Garcia was cut over his right eye in the round, though it was unclear how the wound was inflicted. |
Khan landed an excellent lead left in the third which Garcia shrugged off well, while the American was also having occasional successes himself. Another warning for low hitting was perhaps harsh. The fight then exploded as a counter left from Garcia floored Khan hard. He got to his feet quickly but was clearly devoid o... |
Referee Kenny Bayless scandalously allowed it to go on and the Briton was saved by the bell as Garcia threw a massive right. After a minute to recover Khan looked in better shape for the fourth but what followed was one of the most brutal rounds in recent memory. |
Garcia threw huge power shots in search of the stoppage and Khan was soon down again, this time from a right, which saw him trip on the rope. Khan somehow survived and amazingly began firing shots back as the two men stood and traded crashing blows. Khan actually goaded Garcia in and landed a good shot himself, hitting... |
Khan was then down a third time when he was caught by a glancing left and right to the temple. Again he got up quickly, but when Bayless stared into his eyes, the referee finally decided enough was enough. |
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Open Access Research article |
MicroGen: a MIAME compliant web system for microarray experiment information and workflow management |
Sarah Burgarella, Dario Cattaneo, Francesco Pinciroli and Marco Masseroli* |
Author Affiliations |
BioMedical Informatics Laboratory, Bioengineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy |
For all author emails, please log on. |
BMC Bioinformatics 2005, 6(Suppl 4):S6 doi:10.1186/1471-2105-6-S4-S6 |
Published:1 December 2005 |
© 2005 Burgarella et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd |
Improvements of bio-nano-technologies and biomolecular techniques have led to increasing production of high-throughput experimental data. Spotted cDNA microarray is one of the most diffuse technologies, used in single research laboratories and in biotechnology service facilities. Although they are routinely performed, ... |
We developed MicroGen, a web system for managing information and workflow in the production pipeline of spotted microarray experiments. It is constituted of a core multi-database system able to store all data completely characterizing different spotted microarray experiments according to the Minimum Information About M... |
MicroGen represents a MIAME compliant information system that enables managing workflow and supporting collaborative work in spotted microarray experiment production. |
Microarray systems presently represent the most diffuse high-throughput technology in the biomolecular field. Among them, spotted cDNA microarrays are widely diffused both in single research groups and in biotechnology service centres because of their flexibility and lower running costs. However, they inherently requir... |
To standardize the considerable amount of heterogeneous information and data produced in a microarray experiment in order to allow their portability and comparability, the Microarray Gene Expression Data (MGED) society proposed a standard called Minimum Information Amount about Microarray Experiments (MIAME) [1,2]. It ... |
To facilitate management and local storage, according to the MIAME standard, of great quantity of microarray data produced in single laboratories or research centres, a few software products are available [6-11]. However, they mainly focus on maintaining data integrity [6] in a flexible and robust database environment ... |
MicroGen is a MIAME compliant multi-database information system for the workflow management of the production pipeline of spotted microarray experiments. |
Its core relational database is designed according to the MIAME standard and gathers information of each performed experiment. In it, according to the experimental workflow, different sets of database tables have been implemented to store descriptions of experiment design, used samples, preparation extraction and libel... |
Table 1. MicroGen core database tables containing information of microarray experiment production according to the MIAME standard. |
Other database tables have been implemented in order to collect data regarding all people, biologists or technicians, who take part in each experiment. |
All data regarding clones available for spotting (i.e. type, name, identification code, and characteristics) are orderly stored in additional databases customisable according to the types of used microarrays (e.g. medium or high density microarrays). |
Actors and experimental workflow |
In MicroGen we modelled six types of users, each with his/her own functionalities and privileges. The first four types correspond to the different actors possibly involved in the production of spotted microarray experiments, and the functionalities made them available were modelled according to the experimental workflo... |
- the researcher who wants to perform the microarray experiment (a biologist or a medical doctor who asks specialized biotechnology technicians for microarray production and hybridisation); |
- the spotting operator (a technician specialized in microarray production and spotting); |
- the hybridisation operator (a technician specialized in microarray hybridisation); |
- the image processing operator (a technician specialized in analysis of generated microarray images and in production of quantification results). |
The last two modelled MicroGen users are: |
- the generic public user, who can read system service presentation and a tutorial of its use, and can download an example pdf document (see 1), automatically compiled by the system according to the MIAME standard, which describes a performed sample microarray experiment); |
Additional File 1. MIAME compliant description of a microarray experiment. PDF example file of the web page that MicroGen automatically generates with the whole MIAME compliant information collected about a specific spotted microarray experiment. |
Format: PDF Size: 45KB Download file |
This file can be viewed with: Adobe Acrobat ReaderOpen Data |
- the web master who manages users and registrations to the system, and has access to statistical data regarding performed experiments managed by the system. |
In order to access MicroGen system functionalities, the first four kinds of users must register to the system. A registered researcher has then three possibilities: 1) define a new experiment, 2) verify the progress of requested experiments, and 3) consult the fully compiled MIAME description and the quantitative data ... |
When the first option is selected, the researcher must define the general specifications about the experiment he/she wants to perform by entering the information required according to the MIAME standard (Table 1). Then, the clone libraries available for spotting the required microarrays can be selected. All the informa... |
Also a registered spotting operator has three, but different, possibilities to choose from: 1) receive the request of a new experiment and start the creation of new microarrays according to their descriptions in the microarray labelling file previously generated by the researcher; 2) after spotting the required microar... |
A registered hybridisation operator has three options as well: 1) receive new spotted microarrays and start their hybridisation, in case consulting the related experiment MIAME information compiled till that experimental step and the microarray labelling file; 2) after hybridising the spotted microarrays and scanning t... |
3) upload on MicroGen web server the produced microarray images. This last option also allows consulting the fully compiled MIAME description of the concluded experiments (for an example, see 1). |
Also a registered processing operator has three different options: 1) receive the acquired images of a new experiment that need to be processed and quantified; 2) after downloading, processing and quantifying the acquired microarray images, and producing their quantification files, upload these last in a central system... |
In order to manage the workflow of each specific experiment and make automatically available to the involved actors the information they need at the right time when they require it, MicroGen assigns a status code to each managed experiment. Value of the current status and date of each previous status change are saved i... |
Three are the main issues related to information management and workflow support in the production of microarray experiments: the large amount of information produced, their heterogeneity, and the geographic distance that may exist among different actors working on a same experiment. Thus, a system designed to perform ... |
Taking into account the above issues, the architecture of MicroGen core database has been carefully designed and experimental information has been structured in tables closely reflecting MIAME standard sections (Figure 1). |
thumbnailFigure 1. MIAME section tables of MicroGen core relational database. |
Besides problems related to a correct information management, our system also answers in many ways to the issue of supporting collaborative work. In fact, it eases information flow among different actors, and provides a mean to maintain constant knowledge about the current state of each performed experiment. An appropr... |
thumbnailFigure 2. Experimental workflow, shared information and actors of microarray experiment production formalized in MicroGen system. BIO.: Biologist; S.O.: Spotting Operator ; H.O.: Hybridisation Operator; P.O.: Processing Operator. |
Finally, use of server-side web technologies, which allow centralization of data archiving and processing operations and easy deployment of suitable graphic user interfaces (GUI), enables MicroGen to easily provide collaborative work support also among different actors located in a distance. This choice makes faster an... |
MicroGen system is freely available for academic and non-profit use at: webcite. |
MicroGen facilitates workflow management of spotted microarray experiment production, provides an efficient way to gather complete experimental information, and supports collaborative work. In fact, thanks to its well-defined core database architecture, MicroGen facilitates collection and storage of all experimental in... |
In addition to orderly store all information produced, by easing the process of information sharing, MicroGen represents a valid support for collaborative work even among research centres geographically distant from each other. |
MicroGen also facilitates experimental data comparison. In fact, it allows saving quantitative results also in a standard text format. This increases portability and compatibility of results. Identification of results from experiment with similar characteristic is also facilitated thanks to the complete experimental in... |
MicroGen graphic user interface is very simple and intuitive, providing an easy method for a biologist or a biotechnology technician to read or collect information about performed microarray experiments. The whole procedure of collecting experimental information is driven by the system, and all the steps to follow are ... |
Using a relational database developed in MS-Access, we implemented a core data repository specifically structured to collect the whole information about all the actors involved in the production of spotted microarray experiments. The tables of this central database are grouped in three sections: a section containing in... |
Authors' contributions |
SB and DC developed the whole MicroGen program and its core database engine, and wrote this paper. MM was responsible for project conception and coordination, developed clone's additional databases, and contributed to write this paper. FP provided supervision and funding of the project. |
1. Brazma A, Hingamp P, Quackenbush J, Sherlock G, Spellman P, Stoeckert C, Aach J, Ansorge W, Ball CA, Causton HC, Gaasterland T, Glenisson P, Holstege FC, Kim IF, Markowitz V, Matese JC, Parkinson H, Robinson A, Sarkans U, Schulze-Kremer S, Stewart J, Taylor R, Vilo J, Vingron M: Minimum Information About a Microar... |
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