Werner Dubitzky - Böcker

As natural phenomena are being probed and mapped in ever-greater detail, scientists in genomics and proteomics are facing an exponentially growing vol­ ume of increasingly complex-structured data, information, and knowledge. Ex­ amples include data from microarray gene expression experiments, bead-based and microfluidic technologies, and advanced high-throughput mass spectrom­ etry. A fundamental challenge for life scientists is to explore, analyze, and interpret this information effectively and efficiently. To address this challenge, traditional statistical methods are being complemented by methods from data mining, machine learning and artificial intelligence, visualization techniques, and emerging technologies such as Web services and grid computing. There exists a broad consensus that sophisticated methods and tools from statistics and data mining are required to address the growing data analysis and interpretation needs in the life sciences. However, there is also a great deal of confusion about the arsenal of available techniques and how these should be used to solve concrete analysis problems. Partly this confusion is due to a lack of mutual understanding caused by the different concepts, languages, methodologies, and practices prevailing within the different disciplines.

Based around eleven international real life case studies and including contributions from leading experts in the field this groundbreaking book explores the need for the grid-enabling of data mining applications and provides a comprehensive study of the technology, techniques and management skills necessary to create them. This book provides a simultaneous design blueprint, user guide, and research agenda for current and future developments and will appeal to a broad audience; from developers and users of data mining and grid technology, to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in this field.

Complex systems modeling and simulation approaches are being adopted in a growing number of sectors, including finance, economics, biology, astronomy, and many more. Technologies ranging from distributed computing to specialized hardware are explored and developed to address the computational requirements arising in complex systems simulations. The aim of this book is to present a representative overview of contemporary large-scale computing technologies in the context of complex systems simulations applications. The intention is to identify new research directions in this field and to provide a communications platform facilitating an exchange of concepts, ideas and needs between the scientists and technologist and complex system modelers. On the application side, the book focuses on modeling and simulation of natural and man-made complex systems. On the computing technology side, emphasis is placed on the distributed computing approaches, but supercomputing and other novel technologies are also considered.

A guide for all life scientists, statisticians, computer experts, technology developers, managers and other professionals tasked with developing, deploying and using microarray technology including the necessary computational infrastructure and analytical tools, this book addresses the requirement of scientists and researchers to gain a basic understanding of microarray analysis methodologies and tools. It is intended for students, teachers, researchers and research managers who want to understand the state of the art and of the presented methodologies and the areas in which gaps in our knowledge demand further research and development. The book is designed to be used by the practicing professional tasked with the design and analysis of microarray experiments or as a text for a senior undergraduate- or graduate level course in analytical genetics, biology, bioinformatics, computational biology, statistics and data mining or applied computer science.Key topics covered include: format of result from data analysis, analytical modelling/experimentation; validation of analytical results; data analysis/modelling task; analysis/modelling tools; scientific questions, goals, and tasks; application; data analysis methods; and criteria for assessing analysis methodologies, models and tools.

The book addresses the requirement of scientists and researchers to gain a basic understanding of microarray analysis methodologies and tools.

As natural phenomena are being probed and mapped in ever-greater detail, scientists in genomics and proteomics are facing an exponentially growing vol­ ume of increasingly complex-structured data, information, and knowledge. Ex­ amples include data from microarray gene expression experiments, bead-based and microfluidic technologies, and advanced high-throughput mass spectrom­ etry. A fundamental challenge for life scientists is to explore, analyze, and interpret this information effectively and efficiently. To address this challenge, traditional statistical methods are being complemented by methods from data mining, machine learning and artificial intelligence, visualization techniques, and emerging technologies such as Web services and grid computing. There exists a broad consensus that sophisticated methods and tools from statistics and data mining are required to address the growing data analysis and interpretation needs in the life sciences. However, there is also a great deal of confusion about the arsenal of available techniques and how these should be used to solve concrete analysis problems. Partly this confusion is due to a lack of mutual understanding caused by the different concepts, languages, methodologies, and practices prevailing within the different disciplines.

This book is intended as a communication platform to bridge the cultural, conceptual, and technological gap among the key systems biology disciplines of biology, mathematics, and information technology. To support this goal, contributors were asked to adopts an approach that appeals to audiences from different backgrounds.

Systems biology refers to the quantitative analysis of the dynamic interactions among several components of a biological system and aims to understand the behavior of the system as a whole. Systems biology involves the development and application of systems theory concepts for the study of complex biological systems through iteration over mathematical modeling, computational simulation and biological experimentation. Systems biology could be viewed as a tool to increase our understanding of biological systems, to develop more directed experiments, and to allow accurate predictions.The Encyclopedia of Systems Biology is conceived as a comprehensive reference work covering all aspects of systems biology, in particular the investigation of living matter involving a tight coupling of biological experimentation, mathematical modeling and computational analysis and simulation. The main goal of the Encyclopedia is to provide a complete reference of established knowledge in systems biology – a ‘one-stop shop’ for someone seeking information on key concepts of systems biology. As a result, the Encyclopedia comprises a broad range of topics relevant in the context of systems biology. The audience targeted by the Encyclopedia includes researchers, developers, teachers, students and practitioners who are interested or working in the field of systems biology. Keeping in mind the varying needs of the potential readership, we have structured and presented the content in a way that is accessible to readers from wide range of backgrounds. In contrast to encyclopedic online resources, which often rely on the general public to author their content, a key consideration in the development of the Encyclopedia of Systems Biology was to have subject matter experts define the concepts and subjects of systems biology.

In the past several years, DNA microarray technology has attracted tremendous interest in both the scientific community and in industry. With its ability to simultaneously measure the activity and interactions of thousands of genes, this modern technology promises unprecedented new insights into mechanisms of living systems. Currently, the primary applications of microarrays include gene discovery, disease diagnosis and prognosis, drug discovery (pharmacogenomics), and toxicological research (toxicogenomics). Typical scientific tasks addressed by microarray experiments include the identification of coexpressed genes, discovery of sample or gene groups with similar expression patterns, identification of genes whose expression patterns are highly differentiating with respect to a set of discerned biological entities (e.g., tumor types), and the study of gene activity patterns under various stress conditions (e.g., chemical treatment). More recently, the discovery, modeling, and simulation of regulatory gene networks, and the mapping of expression data to metabolic pathways and chromosome locations have been added to the list of scientific tasks that are being tackled by microarray technology. Each scientific task corresponds to one or more so-called data analysis tasks. Different types of scientific questions require different sets of data analytical techniques. Broadly speaking, there are two classes of elementary data analysis tasks, predictive modeling and pattern-detection. Predictive modeling tasks are concerned with learning a classification or estimation function, whereas pattern-detection methods screen the available data for interesting, previously unknown regularities or relationships.

This book is intended as a communication platform to bridge the cultural, conceptual, and technological gap among the key systems biology disciplines of biology, mathematics, and information technology. To support this goal, contributors were asked to adopts an approach that appeals to audiences from different backgrounds.

This volume of the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science series contains the contributions presented at the International Symposium on Knowledge Exploration in Life Science Informatics (KELSI 2004) held in Milan, Italy, 25-26 November 2004. The two main objectives of the symposium were: * To explore the symbiosis between information and knowledge technologies and v- ious life science disciplines, such as biochemistry, biology, neuroscience, medical research, social sciences, and so on. * To investigate the synergy among different life science informatics areas, including cheminformatics,bioinformatics,neuroinformatics,medical informatics,systems - ology, socionics, and others. Modern life sciences investigate phenomena and systems at the level of molecules, cells, tissues, organisms, and populations. Typical areas of interest include natural e- lution, development,disease, behavior,cognition,and consciousness.This quest is g- eratinganoverwhelmingandfast-growingamountofdata,information,andknowledge, re?ecting living systems at different levels of organization. Future progress of the life sciences will depend on effective and ef?cient management, sharing, and exploitation of these resources by computational means.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Workshop on Knowledge Discovery in Life Science Literature, KDLL 2006, held in conjunction with the 10th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD 2006). The 12 revised full papers presented together with two invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The papers cover all topics of knowledge discovery in life science data.