The two-component system VicRK and the orphan regulator CovR of Streptococcus mutans co-regulate a group of virulence genes associated with the synthesis of and interaction with extracellular polysaccharides of the biofilm matrix. Knockout mutants of vicK and covR display abnormal cell division and morphology phenotypes, although the gene function defects involved are as yet unknown. Using tran...

We present a new image-based, post-processing antialiasing technique, which offers practical solutions to the common, open problems of existing filter-based real-time antialiasing algorithms. Some of the new features include local contrast analysis for more reliable edge detection, and a simple and effective way to handle sharp geometric features and diagonal lines. This, along with our acceler...

With the increasingly intense competition in mobile applications, more and more attention has been paid to online comments. For the masses, comments have been viewed as reliable references to guide the choice of applications; for providers, they have been regarded as an important channel to learn expectations, demands and complaints of users. Therefore, comments analysis has become a hot topic ...

PROMETHEEmethods are widely used in Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) to deal with real world decision making problems. In this paper, we propose to apply the Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis (SMAA) to the family of PROMETHEEmethods in order to explore the whole set of parameters compatible with some preference information provided by the Decision Maker (DM). The applicati...

The Choquet integral preference model is adopted in Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) to deal with interactions between criteria, while the Stochastic Multiobjective Acceptability Analysis (SMAA) is an MCDA methodology considered to take into account uncertainty or imprecision on the considered data and preference parameters. In this paper, we propose to combine the Choquet integral pref...

• First spatially explicit Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis (SMAA). Potential management alternatives quantified by ALS-based pixel proxies. A nearest neighbor approach enabled pixel-level SMAA. SMAA estimated the most acceptable and strength of this decision. Decisions differing from preferences can identify hotspots for forest structure. The mapping ecosystem service (ES) provi...

This study addresses the application of Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis (SMAA) technique, in combination with Exponential TODIM method (ExpTODIM), by taking into consideration proposition made Petrobras to Brazilian National Agency for Petroleum, regarding decommissioning both Marlim and Voador production fields. The new approach called SMAA-ExpTODIM takes different perspectives...

Project selection problem has been largely discovered in extant literature, and attracted considerable attentions of academics and purchasing managers. Practical project selection problem is typically evolved of multi-criteria and a committee of experts. Given the exact values of the input data, certain expert may generate uncertain evaluation results on a project, because the exact weights ass...

The material properties of heart valves depend on the subject's age, the state of the disease and the complex valvular microarchitecture. Furthermore, valvular interstitial cells (VICs) are mechanosensitive, and their synthesis of extracellular matrix not only determines the valve's material properties but also provides an adhesive substrate for VICs. However, the interrelationship between subs...