diff --git a/_posts/2006-01-09-moving-not-yet.markdown b/_posts/2006-01-09-moving-not-yet.markdown index 46cc39b..cfb5bfc 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-01-09-moving-not-yet.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-01-09-moving-not-yet.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 21 categories: - S.T.E.A.L. - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Today I thought I was going to move from my current location (LITA building, [University of Milano](http://www.unimi.it) ) to the new one, the CISI. However I didn't think up that some stuff (including the arrival of 3 new people at our laboratory, Sarah, Guya and Alessandra) would have held me back. I won't relocate till next Monday. In the mean time I spent the day testing out some procedures and creating a draft proposal for the new laboratory's network structure, and getting the equipment to put that in place. diff --git a/_posts/2006-01-11-always-needed.markdown b/_posts/2006-01-11-always-needed.markdown index b1f1b80..76a24bb 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-01-11-always-needed.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-01-11-always-needed.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 22 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I haven't been able to write because I always end up extremely tired from work. Since I'm moving to the CISI next week, it looks like everyone needs me. I managed to study a bit, then I had to help a couple people with a protocol, then work on the firewall/router migration (we're restructuring our Intranet once I move a few computers there) then help with a software, etc. diff --git a/_posts/2006-01-16-moved.markdown b/_posts/2006-01-16-moved.markdown index c2bb60e..ba6647c 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-01-16-moved.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-01-16-moved.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 24 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Finally today there was the (largely) anticipated move from the LITA to the CISI. I actually showed up at the CISI first, to do some research work, then after the lunch break I and a colleague went to the LITA to pack things up. We almost looked like robbers (and for sure got some funny looks from people as we moved to put things in the car): we had four computers, four monitors and keyboards, lots of cables, my notebooks, and more. It took an hour to pack things, and another 30 minutes to unpack them at the new location. That is, they're in place but they're not actually _working_ - I'll have to do that tomorrow (and I hope everything works). diff --git a/_posts/2006-01-20-office-take-2.markdown b/_posts/2006-01-20-office-take-2.markdown index eac1e70..25e498b 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-01-20-office-take-2.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-01-20-office-take-2.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 27 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Now that the office is more or less in working order (if we exclude the lack of chairs) I thought I'd post something about it. I finally finished setting everything up (including the 250 Gb network drive) today, so I can finally resume my _real_ work next week (that is, bioinformatic analysis). I plan on buying a cheap chair this weekend so I can get at least a place to sit: there are two chairs only for 6 stations. diff --git a/_posts/2006-01-26-badly-written-software-or-policy.markdown b/_posts/2006-01-26-badly-written-software-or-policy.markdown index 92be16a..71aa8c0 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-01-26-badly-written-software-or-policy.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-01-26-badly-written-software-or-policy.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 31 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Today while working I got stuck in what probably is an intentional flaw of the software we're using. When we scan [Affymetrix](http://www.affymetrix.com)'s GeneChips there are a number of files produced by the GeneChip Operating Software (GCOS in short) including raw acquisition images and various analyses. Now, a certain number of people need to use those data to work (including myself), but I don't want people to fiddle on the scanner workstation unless they know what they're doing. So I bought a network hard drive a week ago and I decided to sync the data from the workstation to the network drive. Affymetrix has a proprietary solution to access data in a centralized fashion, but it costs € 65,000, plus the MS SQL2000 Enterprise Edition license and not including the actual server machine! They also have a stand alone tool (Data Transfer Tool) but it doesn't support unattended operations (obviously). I thought by copying over files and using one mode of operation of this software to transfer data to the other machines (some data are stored in a database, that's why you can't just copy the flles over). diff --git a/_posts/2006-01-30-clarissas-birthday.markdown b/_posts/2006-01-30-clarissas-birthday.markdown index d9a3b3d..230c3c3 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-01-30-clarissas-birthday.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-01-30-clarissas-birthday.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 33 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- That was the only noteworthy event of today's work. I arrived late (took 1 hour and 30 just to get there) and then during lunch break we moved again to the LITA to celebrate. We got a sort of necklace for her which she liked quite a lot, and we got time to have a toast and eat some cake. It took way more than I expected - I was back at the CISI at around 15. I managed to get more stuff done, and so I'm more or less on time with my work schedule. diff --git a/_posts/2006-02-05-all-in-one-entry.markdown b/_posts/2006-02-05-all-in-one-entry.markdown index 7c157f2..138e985 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-02-05-all-in-one-entry.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-02-05-all-in-one-entry.markdown @@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ categories: - Anime - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- First of all, the strangest oddity ever. On Friday once at the laboratory I was contacted by an Affymetrix representative regarding [this entry ]({{ site.url }}/2006/01/26/badly-written-software-or-policy/). She wanted to know why I wrote it and that it seemed that I "didn't contact Affymetrix to see if the problem could be solved". She wasn't offended or anything (she will even get me in touch with someone from the software department), but nevertheless this is my blog and I'm entitled to my personal opinions. Hence, any IP from affymetrix com (and its European branch affymetrix.co.uk) is now banned from accessing this page. diff --git a/_posts/2006-02-06-woes-of-a-scientist.markdown b/_posts/2006-02-06-woes-of-a-scientist.markdown index c444129..5dce5c6 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-02-06-woes-of-a-scientist.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-02-06-woes-of-a-scientist.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Woes of a scientist wordpress_id: 36 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Not everything can be fun in the life of a scientist. For example, my work in the bioinformatics field of our laboratory makes me see a lot of annoying problems related to files, to be precise file formats. A lot of sofware in the biological sciences uses plain text files to export data to other programs (sometimes binary data, but that's another matter). The problem comes when you have to use the output into another program. As a matter of fact, all kinds of programs use differently formatted text files, making a conversion or integration a pain. That is, unless you use some shell scripting (on Linux, obviously) to handle them. Today my editing window looked like this: diff --git a/_posts/2006-02-28-bertinoro-di-romagna.markdown b/_posts/2006-02-28-bertinoro-di-romagna.markdown index 8fa3806..01f55a4 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-02-28-bertinoro-di-romagna.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-02-28-bertinoro-di-romagna.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 46 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- After sorting out the bureaucracy, finally I was able to enroll for the [6th Course in Bioinformatics for Molecular Biologists](http://www.eurogene.org/body.php?t=1&l=l&p=pages/train/courses/crsprogr.php&r=72) that will take place in Bertinoro di Romagna in three weeks. I'm glad I was able to, the course program looks really interesting and perhaps I'll be finally able to learn bioinformatics in the right way, since so far I'm entirely self-taught, and sadly, it shows. diff --git a/_posts/2006-03-11-trento-march-7th-8th.markdown b/_posts/2006-03-11-trento-march-7th-8th.markdown index 3f77055..c66304a 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-03-11-trento-march-7th-8th.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-03-11-trento-march-7th-8th.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Trento, March 7th-8th wordpress_id: 49 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Finally I have some time to give an insight of what happened Tuesday and Friday, when I left for Trento to attend to the ITC-irst's meeting called "Biobanks for functional genomics". The trip was mostly uneventful, though we had to wait a lot once we arrived at the ITC-irst because we were way earlier than expected. I spent time talking to some people there, they work in an interesting field: applying computational methods to microarray expression data. I was the only one with a biological background there, the rest had degrees in mathemathics or physics. diff --git a/_posts/2006-03-16-random-entry.markdown b/_posts/2006-03-16-random-entry.markdown index 66930cb..01af6d2 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-03-16-random-entry.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-03-16-random-entry.markdown @@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ categories: - Science header: image_fullwidth: "banner_other.jpg" +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I haven't blogged in a while, mostly because I'm either doing something else, or when I want to, I find out I'm really tired (this and the past week have been very tiring for me). In any case, I'll make a big, random entry. diff --git a/_posts/2006-03-19-bertinoro-arrival-day-1.markdown b/_posts/2006-03-19-bertinoro-arrival-day-1.markdown index 25048b6..38118af 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-03-19-bertinoro-arrival-day-1.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-03-19-bertinoro-arrival-day-1.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 51 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Finally I got hold of a stable Internet connection so I can post about my experience in Bertinoro di Romagna so far. diff --git a/_posts/2006-03-21-bertinoro-day-3.markdown b/_posts/2006-03-21-bertinoro-day-3.markdown index f9e1ee3..16fdf1e 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-03-21-bertinoro-day-3.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-03-21-bertinoro-day-3.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 53 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I just came home and I'm terribly tired, so I'll be rather brief. This morning we had four lectures, including two interesting ones on protein structure prediction, though one speaker was too fast and I almost couldn't take notes. diff --git a/_posts/2006-03-22-bertinoro-day-4.markdown b/_posts/2006-03-22-bertinoro-day-4.markdown index a5f3176..535b5c6 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-03-22-bertinoro-day-4.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-03-22-bertinoro-day-4.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 54 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Talks, talks, talks. That's all about this day. Some were also extremely difficult to understand, and I'm not sure I took good notes. Talks went on from 8.30 to 18.00 (excluding lunch break) and then a workshop until 19.30. I'm really beat. I retired to my room while the others wanted to play karaoke, but I was too tired. diff --git a/_posts/2006-03-30-mixed-entry-yet-again.markdown b/_posts/2006-03-30-mixed-entry-yet-again.markdown index f35a4ed..ca5bf7b 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-03-30-mixed-entry-yet-again.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-03-30-mixed-entry-yet-again.markdown @@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ categories: - Final Fantasy XI - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I haven't been writing on this blog as much as I wanted, partly because of tiredness, partly because of my always-present tiredness. diff --git a/_posts/2006-04-06-windows-and-missions.markdown b/_posts/2006-04-06-windows-and-missions.markdown index 79784c3..a49b605 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-04-06-windows-and-missions.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-04-06-windows-and-missions.markdown @@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ categories: - Final Fantasy XI - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Finally, we have windows in the office. Before that it was just a room with walls, and it looked a little claustrophobic. It took a good deal of time (4 months) to get these works done, but I think the result is worth it. At least the whole room looks a little more human, now. diff --git a/_posts/2006-04-10-outage.markdown b/_posts/2006-04-10-outage.markdown index 249d23e..c6b1150 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-04-10-outage.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-04-10-outage.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 60 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Today one of our desktops won't turn on at all. I didn't even see the POST lights turning on (this is a Dell computer), so I assume that the PSU is dead. I'd have already called for support but since the box has been bought in the USA (part of a bundle of our GeneChip systems) I had to request a warranty transfer (notice that I don't even **know** if there's still a warranty!). I'll probably call support tomorrow. diff --git a/_posts/2006-05-05-continuous-analysis.markdown b/_posts/2006-05-05-continuous-analysis.markdown index 0c196fd..966e7fd 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-05-05-continuous-analysis.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-05-05-continuous-analysis.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Continuous analysis wordpress_id: 65 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- This week has been quite busy at work. As I finally got the two lists of differentially expressed genes that I needed, I started my analysis work. Perhaps analysis is not quite appropriate, as what I to is mostly to annotate the genes (i.e. I try to find out everything about them, or certain features I need) and to see if the lists are "enriched" by a particular feature. From this I try to see if what I see has a biological relevance, or not. In practical terms this means I use a lot of web-based tools and some basic statstics to evaluate my work. A typical session on my computer is shown by this image. diff --git a/_posts/2006-05-08-security-breach.markdown b/_posts/2006-05-08-security-breach.markdown index e519872..5d07794 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-05-08-security-breach.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-05-08-security-breach.markdown @@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ categories: - General - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Today I found out that a computer running Windows had been "self-writing" words when an Internet Explorer window was open. This obviously led to the conclusion that there was some kind of malware running. I immediately unplugged the network cable but the typing continued - this is a good sign meaning that it was just some random program doing it. It only affected IE, no other programs. I wonder how it got there, I can only suspect the current user, as I never do any network-based activity there, only analysis (and I run a much safer Linux box - no Windows for me). diff --git a/_posts/2006-05-17-stress.markdown b/_posts/2006-05-17-stress.markdown index 44f5d6d..cc2a3b7 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-05-17-stress.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-05-17-stress.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 67 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- This has been a rather stressful period work-wise. Things are looking extremely confusing on the (upcoming) paper we need to write and even a small doubt can cause huge time losses (I spent the whole morning checking to see if my analysis was correct or not while in fact it was correct in the first place). I've been shown a new software for microarray analysis, well, at least some brochures. I'm going to inquire about pricing (the most important part) and platform availability (I'd love if it could run on Linux). I'll also ask for a demonstration if possible. diff --git a/_posts/2006-05-25-biological-software-and-hig.markdown b/_posts/2006-05-25-biological-software-and-hig.markdown index f30bba8..bad1d89 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-05-25-biological-software-and-hig.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-05-25-biological-software-and-hig.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 70 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Today I obtained a trial license of a data analysis program. I plan on using it for the next two weeks to see if it could improve the analysis workflow in our laboratory. I noticed this software uses the Tk widget set to achieve cross-platform capability (in fact, it can run on Linux, which is a big plus for me). However, in my opinion, Tk widgets look rather ugly. I wonder why the company didn't consider using Trolltech's [Qt](http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt) widgets. Mind, I don't have any ties with TT but I appreciate their toolkit (licensed either under the GNU GPL or a commercial license) in the [KDE](http://www.kde.org) desktop environment. diff --git a/_posts/2006-06-08-classes-and-meetings.markdown b/_posts/2006-06-08-classes-and-meetings.markdown index 1c6578f..b7bcce4 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-06-08-classes-and-meetings.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-06-08-classes-and-meetings.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 74 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- This week has been absolutely exhausting. I've been having PhD classes (statistics, effective writing, and more statistics) almost every day (save tomorrow) and also heaps of work piled up. I've got new data to work on, and also I've been assigned to do something else along with my current bioinformatics work. diff --git a/_posts/2006-06-17-busy-busy-busy.markdown b/_posts/2006-06-17-busy-busy-busy.markdown index 94c681d..6341dd3 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-06-17-busy-busy-busy.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-06-17-busy-busy-busy.markdown @@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ categories: - General - S.T.E.A.L. - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I haven't been writing a lot here mostly because of the rather hectic work schedule I'm having. We're nearing the completion phase of a paper that includes quite a bit of my work (and also a lot of other people's contributions), and I'm also swamped with PhD classes (two weeks to go). Also, one of my bosses has assigned me another project which I've yet to tackle, and I got to help my colleague with a poster as well. diff --git a/_posts/2006-06-20-upgrade.markdown b/_posts/2006-06-20-upgrade.markdown index b0af627..e58f030 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-06-20-upgrade.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-06-20-upgrade.markdown @@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ categories: - General - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I got upgrade hardin (my laptop)'s memory at least, bringing it to 1Gb, at last. However I had two 256 Mb modules installed, that means I had to buy two 512 Mb ones. Oh well, I'll just try to sell those ones. Everything seems snappier now, and even Firefox seems not to clog the CPU when loading pages (I need to experiment more, since I have no clue why that should have changed). diff --git a/_posts/2006-07-08-the-power-of-the-shell.markdown b/_posts/2006-07-08-the-power-of-the-shell.markdown index b5e835e..8e8fd3c 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-07-08-the-power-of-the-shell.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-07-08-the-power-of-the-shell.markdown @@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ categories: - General - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Yesterday I was trying to adjust some files in order to make a program use Affymetrix SNP arrays data (instead of arrayCGH data like the program was designed for). I had a big (116,000 rows) tab-delimited text file and I needed to use only part of the columns there. diff --git a/_posts/2006-07-28-perspectives.markdown b/_posts/2006-07-28-perspectives.markdown index cb1534f..8173d00 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-07-28-perspectives.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-07-28-perspectives.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Perspectives wordpress_id: 95 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Our paper's completion has probably been delayed till September or so pending some (in my opinion puzzling) organizational issues within a group that works with us. My research work is also pending due to the fact that I'm waiting for someone to prepare a "data matrix" for me, and the person doesn't seem to know that leaving other people hanging is somewhat impolite. diff --git a/_posts/2006-07-29-computational-biology-wheres-the-biology.markdown b/_posts/2006-07-29-computational-biology-wheres-the-biology.markdown index cdd29dc..45f74ee 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-07-29-computational-biology-wheres-the-biology.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-07-29-computational-biology-wheres-the-biology.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Computational Biology... biology? wordpress_id: 96 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- In the past few months I've been wondering about the state of bioinformatics and computational biology in general. When I attended the school in Bertinoro (as [I wrote about previously]({{ site.url }}/2006/03/19/bertinoro-arrival-day-1/)). The development in this field can be regarded as quite astounding, just a look at journals like [BMC Bioinformatics,](http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcbioinformatics/) [Bioinformatics](http://bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org) or others can give an insight of that. diff --git a/_posts/2006-08-29-im-back.markdown b/_posts/2006-08-29-im-back.markdown index 5429c4f..597f8da 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-08-29-im-back.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-08-29-im-back.markdown @@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ categories: - General - S.T.E.A.L. - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I'm finally back from holidays and since there's almost no one in the office here I thought I'd write a little mixed entry, while quant is busy compiling a patched 2.6.17 kernel (but quant as an odd overheating problem that I will describe in another entry, so I have to compile it by steps). diff --git a/_posts/2006-09-13-annotations-and-linux.markdown b/_posts/2006-09-13-annotations-and-linux.markdown index 11b3043..a2e95b5 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-09-13-annotations-and-linux.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-09-13-annotations-and-linux.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 106 categories: - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- A lot of my bioinformatics work involves performing _functional annotation_ on genes. This means that given lits of genes I need to resolve their known function, or if they're part or some metabolic pathways and so on. Even with the current trend in our laboratory, that is investigating DNA copy number changes using SNP microarrays (it's a rather new form of analysis, but [some relevant papers](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16897747&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum) are out already), in the end we have to go back to the genes affected by such changes (in order to find interesting/marker genes - we study solid tumors). diff --git a/_posts/2006-10-11-my-first-real-world-python-program.markdown b/_posts/2006-10-11-my-first-real-world-python-program.markdown index 21240ff..841e561 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-10-11-my-first-real-world-python-program.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-10-11-my-first-real-world-python-program.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 120 categories: - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Although I'm still studying the language, finally I managed to create a program that actually does _something I need_. The need arose from a gene list I was given, made up by [Entrez Gene](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=gene) IDs. I need to annotate it, but in a form that wasn't able to be produced by the usual functional annotation tools I have. Actually it could have been done, but what I needed was to make something that I could _automate_. diff --git a/_posts/2006-10-23-text-files-with-python.markdown b/_posts/2006-10-23-text-files-with-python.markdown index 03db9eb..80535f3 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-10-23-text-files-with-python.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-10-23-text-files-with-python.markdown @@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ categories: - General - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Finally I cleaned up my code enough to post it here. It's probably still ugly, but not as ugly as when I wrote it down the first time. It's all about manipulating text files, to be precise tab-delimited files. All the snippets are published under the [GNU GPL](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html) v2 (not that I think that anyone would use them, but just in case...). diff --git a/_posts/2006-11-02-software-and-biological-research.markdown b/_posts/2006-11-02-software-and-biological-research.markdown index 5e31e79..08c1a43 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-11-02-software-and-biological-research.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-11-02-software-and-biological-research.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Software and biology wordpress_id: 125 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I've noticed that the journal [_Science code for Biology and Medicine_](http://www.scfbm.org) has finally launched. While some said that would be a journal if someone is desperate for a publication, I think it fills in a gap that's very felt in bioinformatics: the availability of source code.Perhaps I'm being too naive, but I think that at least academic groups should always release their source code, if they develop a new program or an algorithm, or just give a proof of concept so that others can reproduce their work. This will also help in finding and squashing bugs. Bugs that are sadly much present in a large part of the biological software outlined in publications. diff --git a/_posts/2006-11-07-phd-students.markdown b/_posts/2006-11-07-phd-students.markdown index 05967e2..f9f7a57 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-11-07-phd-students.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-11-07-phd-students.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 127 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- After discussing my second PhD year today, and after noticing that not even a single professor from the commitee was there (save my boss and a person that joined later on), I realized that the situation for students like me isn't really the best. diff --git a/_posts/2006-11-10-the-joy-of-meta-analysis.markdown b/_posts/2006-11-10-the-joy-of-meta-analysis.markdown index 58ba858..8ce3cfa 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-11-10-the-joy-of-meta-analysis.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-11-10-the-joy-of-meta-analysis.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: The joy of meta-analysis wordpress_id: 128 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Recently, I've been in need to retrieve some records regarding renal cell carcinoma referenced in papers by [Zhao _et al._](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16318415&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum) and[ Higgins _et al._ ](http://ajp.amjpathol.org/cgi/content/full/162/3/925)The records of the former were hosted on [NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo), while the latter records were uploaded to EBI's [ArrayExpress](http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress) database. Getting data from others and using it for your own analysis is called _meta-analysis_, and it's often used to validate methods and algorithms with different data sets. diff --git a/_posts/2006-11-15-more-studying.markdown b/_posts/2006-11-15-more-studying.markdown index 99db8b7..05f69dc 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-11-15-more-studying.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-11-15-more-studying.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 129 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- EURASIP Journal on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology is having a [special issue](http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bsb/si/tmb.html) on text mining for biology. My boss wants to publish something there, and asked if I and a colleague could work on that. I'll probably focus on evaluation methods, since I'm not an expert in text mining or language processing. diff --git a/_posts/2006-11-17-random-photos.markdown b/_posts/2006-11-17-random-photos.markdown index 77b1474..a508865 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-11-17-random-photos.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-11-17-random-photos.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 131 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Since recently (thanks to my brother) I got a new cellular phone with better capabilities, photo-wise, I decided to take a few photos of my workplace. I changed office a while ago, now I'm located on the first floor of the building, sharing the office with 5 other people: Raoul, Michele, Giorgio, Roberta and Alessandro. This photo shows my current computer setup: diff --git a/_posts/2006-11-25-a-simple-annotator.markdown b/_posts/2006-11-25-a-simple-annotator.markdown index 900a2e0..61d7186 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-11-25-a-simple-annotator.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-11-25-a-simple-annotator.markdown @@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ categories: - General - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- In the past two days I've written a simple annotator program, that given an input list of RefSeq genes, automatically determines the relevant Entrez Gene IDs and annotates them using the flat files provided by the [NCBI](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). A direct conversion was not possible due to limitations in Biopython's parsers, but I managed to use the GenBank parser to identify and extract the references to the Gene IDs (and putting them in a list). diff --git a/_posts/2006-12-01-probably-useless-but.markdown b/_posts/2006-12-01-probably-useless-but.markdown index c966653..62c9c3c 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-12-01-probably-useless-but.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-12-01-probably-useless-but.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 135 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- [A post I wrote](http://www.nodalpoint.org/2006/12/01/software_fit_for_publication) ended up on the front page of [nodalpoint.org](http://www.nodalpoint.org). I liked that, even though it may not seem a lot to many: at least it shows that some of my concerns are shared with other people in the scientific community. diff --git a/_posts/2006-12-13-working-with-genome-browser-data.markdown b/_posts/2006-12-13-working-with-genome-browser-data.markdown index 8860536..dc2c644 100644 --- a/_posts/2006-12-13-working-with-genome-browser-data.markdown +++ b/_posts/2006-12-13-working-with-genome-browser-data.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 138 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- In the past two days I've been tackling an annotation problem. I'm trying to provide annotations for genes found in regions that are significantly altered, DNA copy-number wise (thanks to the [STAC](http://www.genome.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/9/1149) method). The idea would be to annotate those regions (that span one megabase) using [UCSC Table Browser](http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgTables). diff --git a/_posts/2007-02-03-a-day-with-an-apple-xserve.markdown b/_posts/2007-02-03-a-day-with-an-apple-xserve.markdown index 4990718..9feb8ff 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-02-03-a-day-with-an-apple-xserve.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-02-03-a-day-with-an-apple-xserve.markdown @@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ categories: - General - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Yesterday I and another person went to the server room to do the basic configuration of the Apple Xserve we have bought, along with its Xserve RAID unit. Despite the general "idea" that anything Apple does is user-friendly, our experience was plagued by problems. First of all, I don't understand why even with two fiber channel cables, the RAID must be configured via Ethernet. I can understand when you have multiple RAID units and you want to manage them remotely, but I still don't see why the fiber channel is not used for this purpose. After fiddling a bit with the network addresses (the two cards default to DHCP, and we don't have DHCP on this network) we were able to access the machine. diff --git a/_posts/2007-02-11-two-days-in-firenze.markdown b/_posts/2007-02-11-two-days-in-firenze.markdown index 98559e0..78f514b 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-02-11-two-days-in-firenze.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-02-11-two-days-in-firenze.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Two days in Firenze wordpress_id: 157 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I've just came back from a two days' trip in Firenze. On the first day we had a long (4.30 hours) meeting on some interesting research topics, such as cellular aging and about oxidative damage in yeast. diff --git a/_posts/2007-02-25-a-lot-of-work.markdown b/_posts/2007-02-25-a-lot-of-work.markdown index a59d3bf..3aa31fd 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-02-25-a-lot-of-work.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-02-25-a-lot-of-work.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 170 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Work is getting hectic as we're finally gathering a lot of data for a new publication. This means reading a lot of literature, choosing the figures and planning results and discussion properly. On top of that, I'm starting to study [pathway analysis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_network_modelling) for my thesis, and of course, seeing how I can use that to study our own data. diff --git a/_posts/2007-03-01-deadlines-and-domains.markdown b/_posts/2007-03-01-deadlines-and-domains.markdown index 8533adf..386c0b3 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-03-01-deadlines-and-domains.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-03-01-deadlines-and-domains.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Deadlines and domains wordpress_id: 173 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I just learnt today that the paper I'm writing with my colleague has to be in an acceptable state (almost submission ready) by the 20th. Considering I'm still behind with the analysis, it will be certainly challenging to complete the task, considering I also have other duties to attend to. _In primis_ I need to study more and more papers (I add more and more to my TODO list). diff --git a/_posts/2007-03-12-old-code.markdown b/_posts/2007-03-12-old-code.markdown index 3d1a099..cef6513 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-03-12-old-code.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-03-12-old-code.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 185 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- Today I went over my old Python code, back when I first started programming. I'd say that I found what I had written to be largely amusing to say the least. Loads of ugly hacks all over the place, duplicated functions, etc... in short, a real mess. diff --git a/_posts/2007-03-13-a-bed-file-builder.markdown b/_posts/2007-03-13-a-bed-file-builder.markdown index 43ad766..739a392 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-03-13-a-bed-file-builder.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-03-13-a-bed-file-builder.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 196 categories: - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- As I anticipated, I can finally release this small script. Its purpose is to build [BED files](http://http//genome.ucsc.edu/goldenPath/help/customTrack.html#BED) out of tab-delimited text files. I made this because I had several files to make and moving columns left and right (not to mention writing a heading line for the [Genome Browser](http://genome.ucsc.edu)) was becoming annoying. Its use is fairly straightforward, as the help itself says: diff --git a/_posts/2007-03-29-genbugg.markdown b/_posts/2007-03-29-genbugg.markdown index 08de5b7..a2f6354 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-03-29-genbugg.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-03-29-genbugg.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: GenBUGG wordpress_id: 205 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- This entry already shows what I think of a popular open source pathway analysis and visualization program, [GenMAPP](http://genmapp.org). It's quite used to map gene expression data coming from microarrays to metabolic pathways, and in addition to that you can also evaluate enrichment for both pathways and [Gene Ontology](http://www.geneontology.org) terms. Last but not least you can create and contribute new metabolic maps. diff --git a/_posts/2007-04-14-bioinformatics-sequence-analysis.markdown b/_posts/2007-04-14-bioinformatics-sequence-analysis.markdown index f71037c..c71cdec 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-04-14-bioinformatics-sequence-analysis.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-04-14-bioinformatics-sequence-analysis.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Bioinformatics != sequence analysis wordpress_id: 226 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- This post sums up my frustration in trying to use Python for my daily work. Like Perl and Ruby, it has [its own Bio version](http://biopython.org) to deal with biological data. However, the current implementation leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of stuff that doesn't deal with sequence analysis, even for simple tasks such as fetching annotations from [Entrez Gene](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=gene), is missing (but present in Bioperl, for example). Also, documentation for some modules is lacking or non-existant (why keeping a parser for Affymetrix CEL files when there are no information on how to use it, let alone know which formats does it support?). Basically, maintenance is good for everything related to sequence analysis... the rest is somewhat in slumber. diff --git a/_posts/2007-04-21-python-usefulness.markdown b/_posts/2007-04-21-python-usefulness.markdown index 7d85f51..d34740f 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-04-21-python-usefulness.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-04-21-python-usefulness.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 229 categories: - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I've again seen how useful and powerful Python can be. The other day I had to prepare an Excel spreadsheet (sadly) which among other things needed to contain links to the [GeneCards ](http://www.genecards.org)database for each gene listed. There were more than 2900 genes listed, so adding links by hand would have been suicidal. diff --git a/_posts/2007-04-25-databases.markdown b/_posts/2007-04-25-databases.markdown index ef6df27..aa49495 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-04-25-databases.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-04-25-databases.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 237 categories: - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- As I've been working to get some results done for my Ph.D. thesis, I've stumbled across the problem of having different data obtained through different software. Even if it's just a matter of text files, the fields are all different and even if dealing with the same data, trying to infer relationships is a pain. diff --git a/_posts/2007-05-18-thesis-work-and-wikis.markdown b/_posts/2007-05-18-thesis-work-and-wikis.markdown index c7c25e3..119675f 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-05-18-thesis-work-and-wikis.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-05-18-thesis-work-and-wikis.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Thesis work and wikis wordpress_id: 247 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- I've been able to complete most of the analysis for my Ph.D. thesis work, at last. I need a few runs more but I am arranging to work at a location of one of our research partners, as I don't have a powerful enough computer to handle the calculations (apparently, 1Gb of RAM isn't enough). At least the results I have look promising. Now all it's left (and that's not an easy task, heh). is to write them down in the "thesis summary" (deadline: June 30th) and then in the thesis itself. I'm already studying a bit on the topic and papers are quickly piling up on my desk. diff --git a/_posts/2007-05-28-more-meta-analysis-difficulty.markdown b/_posts/2007-05-28-more-meta-analysis-difficulty.markdown index 38cea32..f715291 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-05-28-more-meta-analysis-difficulty.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-05-28-more-meta-analysis-difficulty.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: More meta-analysis difficulty wordpress_id: 253 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- **UPDATE:**  Today I found out that J Brooks (the corresponding author of Zhao's paper) has agreed to send the  data I needed. Thanks a lot! diff --git a/_posts/2007-06-20-data-handling.markdown b/_posts/2007-06-20-data-handling.markdown index 6320e21..7c8151c 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-06-20-data-handling.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-06-20-data-handling.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Data handling wordpress_id: 264 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- As the people who read my science related posts already know,[ I'm in the middle of doing meta-analysis]({{ site.url }}/2007/05/28/more-meta-analysis-difficulty/). That brought up a problem, so to speak, and it's related to annotations. diff --git a/_posts/2007-06-25-publish-or-perish.markdown b/_posts/2007-06-25-publish-or-perish.markdown index 737e3fd..a2287ad 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-06-25-publish-or-perish.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-06-25-publish-or-perish.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Publish or perish wordpress_id: 266 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- The idea to blog about [this common phenomenon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publish_or_perish) came after I read a post over at Bioinformatics Zen [on the matter of open science](http://www.bioinformaticszen.com/2007/06/the-case-for-open-science/). There, Mike describes the situation quite clearly: mostly, you need a middle ground between complete secrecy and absolute openness. diff --git a/_posts/2007-07-12-full-speed-ahead.markdown b/_posts/2007-07-12-full-speed-ahead.markdown index 93350a4..8269287 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-07-12-full-speed-ahead.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-07-12-full-speed-ahead.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: Full speed ahead wordpress_id: 271 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- After giving in the summary of my thesis today, I also started writing the actual thing. Of course this is not something I will finish in a few days. It's a long journey that will go on until I deliver it. diff --git a/_posts/2007-09-01-science-and-microsoft-word.markdown b/_posts/2007-09-01-science-and-microsoft-word.markdown index a26723a..eba827d 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-09-01-science-and-microsoft-word.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-09-01-science-and-microsoft-word.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 283 categories: - Linux - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- At the time of writing, a lot of people (even in bioinformatics) uses Microsoft Word to write their papers. I personally think it's not a good idea, and not just for the file formats (like Microsoft lobbying semi-legally to get OOXML approved by ISO), but because for scientific papers the WYSIWYG paradigm is not appropriate. diff --git a/_posts/2007-09-11-new-office.markdown b/_posts/2007-09-11-new-office.markdown index 953d815..72243fb 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-09-11-new-office.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-09-11-new-office.markdown @@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ wordpress_id: 285 categories: - General - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- After little more than a year, I've been moved to a new office, because new people needed to be put in the room I was in. The new place is slightly bigger (four desks instead of six) and for now quieter. I spent most of the morning fixing things and setting up network connections. This is how it looks now: diff --git a/_posts/2007-09-19-the-tower-of-babel-of-bioinformatics.markdown b/_posts/2007-09-19-the-tower-of-babel-of-bioinformatics.markdown index 4a22f0d..edbd8d0 100644 --- a/_posts/2007-09-19-the-tower-of-babel-of-bioinformatics.markdown +++ b/_posts/2007-09-19-the-tower-of-babel-of-bioinformatics.markdown @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ title: The tower of Babel of bioinformatics wordpress_id: 290 categories: - Science +header: + image_fullwidth: banner_other.jpg --- The title of this post tries to give some insight on a problem that I've stumbled upon a lot of problems when doing microarray data analysis: the plethora of different file formats. In "conventional" (as I call it) bioinformatics this is less problematic, as [FASTA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasta_format) or [PDB](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_Data_Bank_(file_format)) are quite standardized by now.