BACKGROUND Molecular detection methods for HER2/neu gene amplification include fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and competitive PCR. We designed a quantitative PCR system utilizing fluorescent hybridization probes and a competitor that differed from the HER2/neu sequence by a single base change. METHODS Increasing twofold concentrations of competitor were coamplified with DNA from ce...

Detection of RNA viruses by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR has proven to be a useful approach for the diagnosis of infections caused by many viral pathogens. However, adequate controls are required for each step of the RT-PCR protocol to ensure the accuracies of diagnostic test results. Heterologous competitor RNA can be used as a control for a number of different aspects of diagnostic RT-PCR. ...

Two experiments used the head-mounted eye-tracking methodology to examine the time course of lexical activation in the face of a non-phonemic cue, talker variation. We found that lexical competition was attenuated by consistent talker differences between words that would otherwise be lexical competitors. In Experiment 1, some English cohort word-pairs were consistently spoken by a single talker...

Abstract China is a leader in the global transportation industry, with an especially significant position ocean ports. A mapping of every port outside reveals that Chinese firms own or operate terminal assets ninety-six ports fifty-three countries. An original dataset firms' overseas holdings documents geographic distribution, ownership, and operational characteristics these What are internatio...

Predation and competition are critical processes influencing the ecology of organisms, and can play an integral role in shaping coral reef fish communities. This study compared the relative and interacting effects of competition and predation on two competing species of coral reef fish, Pomacentrus amboinensis and P. moluccensis (Pomacentridae), using a multifactorial experiment. Fish were subj...

Patch occupancy theory predicts that a trade-off between competition and dispersal should lead to regional coexistence of competing species. Empirical investigations, however, find local coexistence of superior and inferior competitors, an outcome that cannot be explained within the patch occupancy framework because of the decoupling of local and spatial dynamics. We develop two-patch metapopul...

Previous studies in to predictive modelling of sports have largely concentrated on those which belong to the group of sports and games which can be termed as one-on-one: those where teams or players face each other in pairs e.g. football, basketball and tennis. Here the case of multi-competitor games or sports such golf, horse racing and motor sport, which are defined as ones in which three or ...

The web with its rapid expansion has become an excellent resource for gathering information and people’s opinion. A company owner wants to know who is the competitor, and a customer also wants to know which company provides similar product or service to what he/she is in want of. This paper proposes an approach based on mutual information, which focuses on mining competitors of the entity(such ...

This paper defines strategic intelligence as a distinct organisational resource that differs from competitive intelligence (CI) and business intelligence (BI). A literature review unfolds a number of deficiencies in intelligence practice and systems. The findings, based on a case study, suggest that there is a lack of systematic scanning, analysing and support for strategic intelligence. An int...