Quantum annealing (QA) is a hardware-based heuristic optimization and sampling method applicable to discrete undirected graphical models. While similar to simulated annealing, QA relies on quantum, rather than thermal, effects to explore complex search spaces. For many classes of problems, QA is known to offer computational advantages over simulated annealing. Here we report on the ability of r...

We survey information theoretic approaches to solve a variety of visual quality assessment (QA) problems. These approaches are generally built on natural scene statistical models and lead to practical automatic QA algorithms delivering excellent performance in terms of correlation with human judgments of quality. We study all three categories of image QA models: full reference (FR), reduced ref...

B6.T1a(a) (Qa-1(a)) mice that are primed in vivo and restimulated in vitro with Qa-1 congenic spleen cells from B6 (Qa-1(b)) animals are unable to generate anti-Qa-1(b) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). This nonresponsive pattern was observed regardless of the route of immunization or the time of testing in vitro. Although B6.T1a(a) mice are nonresponders to Qa-1(b) when presented on B6 cells, the...

How tough is a given question-answering problem? Answers to this question differ greatly among different researchers and groups. To begin rectifying this, we start by giving a quick, simple, propaedeutic formalization of a question-answering problem class. This formalization is just a starting point and should let us answer, at least roughly, this question: What is the relative toughness of two...

This paper discusses an information extraction (IE) system, Textract, in natural language (NL) question answering (QA) and examines the role of IE in QA application. It shows: (i) Named Entity tagging is an important component for QA, (ii) an NL shallow parser provides a structural basis for questions, and (iii) high-level domain independent IE can result in a QA breakthrough.

Ontologies are important components of health information management systems. As such, the quality of their content is of paramount importance. It has been proven to be practical to develop quality assurance (QA) methodologies based on automated identification of sets of concepts expected to have higher likelihood of errors. Four kinds of such sets (called QA-sets) organized around the themes o...

Software quafity assurance (QA) is a critical function in the successful development and maintenance of software systems. Because the QA activity adds significantly to the cost of developing software, the cost-effectiveness of QA has been a pressing concern to software quality managers. As of yet, though, this concern has not been adequately addressed in the fiterature. The objective of this ar...

DNase I hypersensitive regions were mapped within the 17.3-kilobase qa (quinic acid) gene cluster of Neurospora crassa. The 5'-flanking regions of the five qa structural genes and the two qa regulatory genes each contain DNase I hypersensitive sites under noninducing conditions and generally exhibit increases in DNase I cleavage upon induction of transcription with quinic acid. The two large in...

The MHC class Ib molecule Qa-1 binds specifically and predominantly to a single 9-aa peptide (AMAPRTLLL) derived from the leader sequence of many MHC class Ia proteins. This peptide is referred to as Qdm. In this study, we report the isolation and sequencing of a heat shock protein 60-derived peptide (GMKFDRGYI) from Qa-1. This peptide is the dominant peptide bound to Qa-1 in the absence of Qdm...

A quinate (QA) hydrolyase was isolated from pea (Pisum safivum 1.) roots. The enzyme converts QA into shikimate by elimination of water. The enzymatic reaction is independent of cofactors and divalent cations. The QA hydrolyase was purified about 1,600-fold to apparent electrophoretic homogeneity in three steps, including bovine serum albumin-affinity chromatography. The enzyme forms oligomers ...