We present a solution methodology to obtain near-optimal solutions for the problem of scheduling multiple products on a network of single-stage, unrelated parallel units using simulated annealing (SA) with a performance criterion based on tardiness minimization. The approach incorporates sequence dependent clean-up times, varying processing rates for different products on different units, and c...

MOTIVATION Transmembrane (TM) proteins that form alpha-helix bundles constitute approximately 50% of contemporary drug targets. Yet, it is difficult to determine their high-resolution (< 4 A) structures. Some TM proteins yield more easily to structure determination using cryo electron microscopy (cryo-EM), though this technique most often results in lower resolution structures, precluding an un...

We propose a semantic passage segmentation method for a Question Answering (QA) system. We define a semantic passage as sentences grouped by semantic coherence, determined by the topic assigned to individual sentences. Topic assignments are done by a sentence classifier based on a statistical classification technique, Maximum Entropy (ME), combined with multiple linguistic features. We ran expe...

We investigate geometrical properties of the random K-satisfiability problem using the notion of x-satisfiability: a formula is x-satisfiable is there exist two SAT assignments differing in Nx variables. We show the existence of a sharp threshold for this property as a function of the clause density. For large enough K, we prove that there exists a region of clause density, below the satisfiabi...

We investigate geometrical properties of the random K-satisfiability problem using the notion of x-satisfiability: a formula is x-satisfiable is there exist two SAT assignments differing in Nx variables. We show the existence of a sharp threshold for this property as a function of the clause density. For large enough K, we prove that there exists a region of clause density, below the satisfiabi...

The topology prediction of transmembrane protein is a hot research field in bioinformatics and molecular biology. It is a typical pattern recognition problem. Various prediction algorithms are developed to predict the transmembrane protein topology since the experimental techniques have been restricted by many stringent conditions. Usually, these individual prediction algorithms depend on vario...

In online learning, feedback to students is important in their progress. Assessments are often final or summative assessments that do not allow the student to adjust or improve their learning progress. Assessment, however, takes valuable time. This paper describes how using the tools available in a LMS can assist faculty in assessing student work and provide helpful feedback to students in an o...

Cellular pathways are composed of multiple reactions and interactions mediated by genes. Many of these reactions are common to multiple pathways, and each reaction might be potentially mediated by multiple genes in the same genome. Existing pathway reconstruction procedures assign a gene to all pathways in which it might catalyze a reaction, leading to a many-to-many mapping of genes to pathway...

Vector-Quantization (VQ) is a widely implemented method for low-bit-rate signal coding. A common assumption in the design of VQ systems is that the digital information is transmitted through a perfect channel. Under this assumption, the assignment of channel symbols to the VQ Reconstruction Vectors (RV) is of no importance. However, under physical channels, the effect of channel errors on the V...