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Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are abundant and important genetic variations in homo species. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based technologies are usually applied to genotype SNPs. In the recent years, an economical and efficient approach that based on PCR was proposed to genotype SNPs. We called it "polymerase chain reaction with confronting two-pair primers (PCR-CTPP)". PCR-CTPP is a simple, time- and cost-saving SNP genotyping technology. However, computation of feasible confronting two-pair primers is elaborate, since many factors must be considered simultaneously. The important factor is considered as melting temperatures among primers. In this study, we propose a method that integrates local search to genetic algorithm (GA) for screening better confronting two-pair primers. SNP IDs of rs6352, rs6353, rs6354, rs6355, and rs25528 with 500 bps flanking sequence in the SLC6A4 gene are used as test template sequences to screen confronting two-pair primers. The results were compared with the original GA method, and we get the conclusion that the local search mechanism is helpful for screening confronting two-pair primers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteoporosis is a major public health problem that can be quantified by low bone mineral density (BMD) measurements. Many association studies have analyzed the genotype frequencies of case and control groups to predict the susceptibility to the disease. An increasing number of studies have shown that the disease risk is associated with the co-occurrence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Hence, which necessitates a further analysis of SNP-SNP interaction combinations. However, using exhaustive search (ES) algorithms to calculate SNP combinations requires a large amount of time. To shorten the calculation time, we propose a chaotic particle swarm optimization (CPSO) method that uses the odds ratio (OR) to determine the disease susceptibility. PSO is applied to generate SNP combinations, with a maximal difference of occurrence between the case and control groups. The incorporated chaotic map introduces certainty, ergodicity and a stochastic property into PSO in order to improve the global convergence. This study uses a real-life dataset of 10 SNPs with 113 individuals in control group and 184 individuals in case group. The estimated OR of the best SNP combination with genotypes is significantly higher than 1 (between 1.550 and 2.309) for specific combinations of two to nine SNPs in the high risk group for osteoporosis (low BMD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are founders' social identities affected by societal trigger events? To address this question, we build on social identity literature and theorize how the abrupt and significant increase in the number of refugees in Europe in 2015 is related to the strength of Darwinian, Communitarian, and Missionary social identities of founders residing in the affected countries. Furthermore, we introduce a country's percentage of foreigners before the 2015 refugee event as relevant contingency factor. Using a dataset of 6,841 nascent entrepreneurs from 24 European countries, we reveal a positive relationship between the 2015 refugee event and the strength of founders' Communitarian identity. This relationship is even stronger when the previous percentage of foreigners in a country is lower. Interestingly, we do not find significant relationships between the refugee event and Darwinian or Missionary identities. Our study provides important contributions to the (founder) social identity literature and valuable implications for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]