a profile hidden markov model (phmm) is widely used in assigning protein sequences to protein families. in this model, the hidden states only depend on the previous hidden state and observations are independent given hidden states. in other words, in the phmm, only the information of the left side of a hidden state is considered. however, it makes sense that considering the information of the b...

This project aims to develop new prospective analytical tools to determine the ability of marine mammal populations to compensate for behavioural disturbances. We aim for these tools to be generic and applicable in data-poor situations. To do so, we will extend on recent advances in behavioral ecological modelling in which behavioral strategies are defined using hierarchical models where behavi...

In this article, the authors examine some of the benefits and challenges associated with conducting research on hard-to-reach/hidden populations: in this instance, sex workers. The population studied was female and male sex workers working in different sectors of the sex industry in a medium-size Canadian metropolitan area. The authors describe the need for close community-academic cooperation,...

Cooperative Coevolution (CC) has been shown to be effective in problems where certain architectural details of the solution are evolved. This is the case of cascade neural networks where the number of hidden units is not preestablished but rather emerges through learning. We take a step towards having coadapted subcomponents emerge rather than being hand designed by showing that competing popul...

Snowball sampling, as a network research, has number of advantages in registering “hidden populations”, such as: people with rare diseases and unrecognized by the community, illegal immigrants, drug users, deviant sexual behavior, undeclared workers, alcoholics, gambling or computer addicts, unemployed jobseekers, domestic school violence, etc. The procedure is well known widely applied, are it...