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In most gene therapy studies, a "correct copy" or "wild type" gene is provided or inserted into the genome. Generally, it is not an exact replacement of the "abnormal," disease-causing gene, but rather extra, correct copies of genes are provided to complement the loss of function. A carrier called a vector must be used to deliver the therapeutic gene to the patient's target cells. Currently, the most common type of vectors are viruses that have been genetically altered to carry normal human DNA. Viruses have evolved a way of encapsulating and delivering their genes to human cells in a pathogenic [...]

Adeno-associated viruses, from the parvovirus family, are small viruses with a genome of single stranded DNA. The wild type AAV can insert genetic material at a specific site on chromosome 19 with near 100% certainty. But the recombinant AAV, which does not contain any viral genes and only the therapeutic gene, does not integrate into the genome. Instead the recombinant viral genome fuses at its ends via the ITR (inverted terminal repeats) recombination to form circular, episomal forms which are predicted to be the primary cause of the long term gene expression. There are a few disadvantages to using AAV, [...]

This article is about a multi-threading technique. For the lockstep protocol variant, see Active objects. The Active Object design pattern decouples method execution from method invocation that reside in their own thread of control.s The goal is to introduce concurrency, by using asynchronous method invocation and a scheduler for handling requests. The pattern consists of six elements: * a proxy, which provides an interface towards clients with publicly accessible methods * an interface which defines the method request on an active object * a list [...]

The Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) is an air navigation aid developed by the Federal Aviation Administration to augment the Global Positioning System (GPS), with the goal of improving its accuracy, integrity, and availability. Essentially, WAAS is intended to enable aircraft to rely on GPS for all phases of flight, including precision approaches to any airport within its coverage area. WAAS uses a network of ground-based reference stations (Benchmark DGPSRs transmitting differential corrections (DCs, located within spaces protected from the public inside airportsin North America and Hawaii, to measure small variations in the GPS satellites' signals [...]

This system is usually integrated on a silicon chip. It has two mass-balanced quartz tuning forks, arranged "handle-to-handle" so forces cancel. Aluminum electrodes evaporated onto the forks and the underlying chip both drive and sense the motion. The system is both manufacturable and inexpensive. Since quartz is dimensionally stable, the system can be accurate. As the forks are twisted about the axis of the handle, the vibration of the tines tends to continue in the same plane of motion. This motion has to be resisted by electrostatic forces from the electrodes under the tines. By measuring the difference [...]

The .NET Framework provides a run-time that is used to interpret intermediate code, code that is compiled from a development environment such as Microsoft's Visual Studio when the language is C# or Visual Basic.NET. The code requires the run-time in order to execute. The code is referred to as "intermediate" because the result of the compilation is not a result that could be run at the machine level, or in other words to run without the aid of the run-time. The run-time is a service process that provides the framework for the execution of the intermediate code. The run-time acts [...]

In the context of an evolving information society, the term information ecology was coined by various persons in the 1980s and 1990s. It marks a connection between ecological ideas with the dynamics and properties of the increasingly dense, complex and important digital informational environment and has been gaining progressively wider acceptance in a growing number of disciplines. "Information ecology" often is used as metaphor, viewing the informational space as an ecosystem.

Data profiling is the process of examining the data available in an existing data source (e.g. a database or a file) and collecting statistics and information about that data. The purpose of these statistics may be to: 1. find out whether existing data can easily be used for other purposes 2. give metrics on data quality including whether the data conforms to company standards 3. assess the risk involved in integrating data for new applications, including the challenges of joins 4. track data quality 5. assess whether metadata [...]

Multidimensional databases are variously (depending on the context) data aggregators which combine data from a multitude of data sources; databases which offer networks, hierarchies, arrays and other data formats difficult to model in SQL; or databases which give a high degree of flexibility in the definition of dimensions, units, and unit relationships, regardless of data format. Multi-dimensional databases are especially useful in sales and marketing applications that involve time series. Large volumes of sales and inventory data can be stored to ultimately be used for logistics and executive planning. For example, data can be more readily segregated by [...]

Spammers frequently seek out and make use of vulnerable third-party systems such as open mail relays and open proxy servers. SMTP forwards mail from one server to another—mail servers that ISPs run commonly require some form of authentication to ensure that the user is a customer of that ISP. Open relays, however, do not properly check who is using the mail server and pass all mail to the destination address, making it harder to track down spammers. Increasingly, spammers use networks of malware-infected PCs (zombies) to send their spam. Zombie networks are also known as Botnets (such zombifying [...]

1. The sender writes an eMail online and sends it over a secure SSL-connection to the secure messaging server. 2. The recipient is notified through a normal eMail that a secure message is waiting for delivery on the secure server. The recipient is invited to download the message through a link. 3. The sender provides the recipient with a message unlock code. The code is required in order to access the pending message. If the recipient has already been in contact with the sender through secure messaging server and has registered, this step is not required. [...]

In the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, or simply trojan, is a piece of software which appears to perform a certain action but in fact performs another such as transmitting a computer virus. Contrary to popular belief, this action, usually encoded in a hidden payload, may or may not be actually malicious, but Trojan horses are notorious today for their use in the installation of backdoor programs. Simply put, a Trojan horse is not a computer virus. Unlike such malware, it does not propagate by self-replication but relies heavily on the exploitation of an end-user. It is [...]

"HOMEODYNAMICS - One of the dominating motifs in biological thinking was provided by the physiologist Claude Bernard in Paris in the 1850s. Bernard, who among many other discoveries carried out some of the earliest systematic studies on what were later to become known as enzymes and hormones, saw living systems as explicable neither by vitalism (the belief that there existed some special 'life forces' beyond the reach of chemistry or physics) nor by mechanism. "He regarded stability as a major organising physiological principle, and emphasised the constancy of what he described as the milieu interieur - the 'internal environment' - [...]

Industrial and organizational psychology also known as "work psychology", "occupational psychology" or "personnel psychology" concerns the application of psychological theories, research methods, and intervention strategies to workplace issues. Industrial and organizational psychologists are interested in making organizations more productive while ensuring workers are able to lead physically and psychologically healthy lives. Relevant topics include personnel psychology, motivation and leadership, employee selection, training and development, organization development and guided change, organizational behavior, and work and family issues.

"FLOSS" was used in 2001 as a project acronym by Rishab Aiyer Ghosh as an acronym for Free/Libre/Open-Source Software. Later that year, the European Commission (EC) used the phrase when they funded a study on the topic. Unlike "libre software", which aimed to solve the ambiguity problem, "FLOSS" aimed to avoid taking sides in the debate over whether it was better to say "free software" or to say "open-source software". Proponents of the term point out that parts of the FLOSS acronym can be translated into other European languages, with for example the "F" representing free [...]

Human ecosystems are complex cybernetic systems that are increasingly being used by ecological anthropologists and other scholars to examine the ecological aspects of human communities in a way that integrates multiple factors as economics, socio-political organization, psychological factors, and physical factors related to the environment.

Some living things use naturally occurring cellular automata in their functioning. Patterns of some seashells, like the ones in Conus and Cymbiola genus, are generated by natural CA. The pigment cells reside in a narrow band along the shell's lip. Each cell secretes pigments according to the activating and inhibiting activity of its neighbour pigment cells, obeying a natural version of a mathematical rule.[citation needed] The cell band leaves the colored pattern on the shell as it grows slowly. For example, the widespread species Conus textile bears a pattern resembling the Rule 30 CA described above. [...]

Green travel is a method for people to travel while reducing their impact on the environment. Some forms of green travel include: * Use of walking, cycling, and public transport instead of car use, when possible. * Use of [...]

Pomponius Mela writes, and is copied by Pliny the Elder, that Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer (died 59 BCE), proconsul in Gaul received "several Indians" (Indi) as a present from a Germanic king. The Indians were driven by a storm to the coasts of Germania (in tempestatem ex Indicis aequoribus). Metellus Celer recalls the following: when he was proconsul in Gaul, he was given people from "India" by the king of the Sueves; upon requesting why they were in this land, he learnt that they were caught in a storm away from India, that they became castaways, and finally [...]

Sustainable transport, also commonly referred to as Sustainable Transportation or Sustainable Mobility, has no widely accepted definition. Since it is a sector-specific sub-set to the post-1988 sustainable development movement, it is often defined in words such as this: "Sustainable transportation is about meeting or helping meet the mobility needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." But this is only a starting point. The concept of sustainable mobility is a reaction to things that have gone radically and visibly wrong with current transportation policy, practice and performance over the last half [...]