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W2062538592 | An Executional Framework for BPMN Using Orc | BPMN is widely used in Model Drive Architectures (MDA) for enterprise-scale solutions. In this paper, we shall realize an executional platform for MDA framework using BPMN. We transform BPMN into an executional framework using Orc [1]. Orc is a web orchestration language that provides uniform access to computational services, including distributed communication and data manipulation. The interesting features of Orc are its capability to specify patterns like multi-merge, discriminator, arbitrary cycles, several multiple instances etc. cleanly. It supports the realization of the map-reduce paradigm for distributed computing and thus, provides a powerful MDA approach for business analysts to express their solutions. It will enable creation/simulation of mock scenarios and the use of verification/validation/debugging in an integrated way. In this paper, we describe a transformation of BPMN core elements to Orc. We use a graph based approach where a Business Process Diagram(BPD) diagram is validated and then converted to a set of Orc computation structures. We describe the transformations along with an implementation and illustrate the process with an example. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1016/j.sedgeo.2016.01.009 | An R package for statistical provenance analysis | This paper introduces provenance, a software package within the statistical programming environment R, which aims to facilitate the visualisation and interpretation of large amounts of sedimentary provenance data, including mineralogical, petrographic, chemical and isotopic provenance proxies, or any combination of these. provenance comprises functions to: (a) calculate the sample size required to achieve a given detection limit; (b) plot distributional data such as detrital zircon U-Pb age spectra as Cumulative Age Distributions (CADs) or adaptive Kernel Density Estimates (KDEs); (c) plot compositional data as pie charts or ternary diagrams; (d) correct the effects of hydraulic sorting on sandstone petrography and heavy mineral composition; (e) assess the settling equivalence of detrital minerals and grain-size dependence of sediment composition; (f) quantify the dissimilarity between distributional data using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Sircombe-Hazelton distances, or between compositional data using the Aitchison and Bray-Curtis distances; (e) interpret multi-sample datasets by means of (classical and nonmetric) Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA); and (f) simplify the interpretation of multi-method datasets by means of Generalised Procrustes Analysis (GPA) and 3-way MDS. All these tools can be accessed through an intuitive query-based user interface, which does not require knowledge of the R programming language. provenance is free software released under the GPL-2 licence and will be further expanded based on user feedback. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1145/2442516.2442525 | Data Only Flattening For Nested Data Parallelism | Data parallelism has proven to be an effective technique for high-level programming of a certain class of parallel applications, but it is not well suited to irregular parallel computations. Blelloch and others proposed nested data parallelism (NDP) as a language mechanism for programming irregular parallel applications in a declarative data-parallel style. The key to this approach is a compiler transformation that flattens the NDP computation and data structures into a form that can be executed efficiently on a wide-vector SIMD architecture. Unfortunately, this technique is ill suited to execution on today's multicore machines. We present a new technique, called data-only flattening, for the compilation of NDP, which is suitable for multicore architectures. Data-only flattening transforms nested data structures in order to expose programs to various optimizations while leaving control structures intact. We present a formal semantics of data-only flattening in a core language with a rewriting system. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique in the Parallel ML implementation and we report encouraging experimental results across various benchmark applications. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W2272484048 | Morphological and molecular characterization of Dicrocoelium isolated from sheep in the north and center of Iran | Background: Dicroceliosis is a hepatic parasitic disease of clinical and financial significance for both human health and animal breeding. Considering the health and economic importance of the disease, this study aimed to determine the morphological and molecular characterization of 28S rDNA for Dicrocoelium isolated from sheep in the north and center of Iran during 2010-11.
Materials and Methods: A total number of 200 trematodes were collected during an abattoir inspection from livers of naturally infected sheep in East Azerbaijan, Razavi Khorasan, Mazandaran and Tehran provinces in Iran. Adult worms were morphologically identified based on morphometric characterization and 60 specimens were characterized molecularly by sequencing. For molecular study, DNA was extracted and 28S rDNA region was amplified by PCR. Then, Tru1I fastdigest restriction enzyme and also RFLP technique were used to identify the parasite species. Finally, the PCR product was sequenced.
Results: A remarked morphological characteristic was that the orientation of testes in all isolates, were in tandem. The homological comparison of sequences showed that 28S rDNA in all isolates of Dicrocoelium had 963 bp and were similar to standard strain registrated in Genbank. RFLP pattern from D.dendriticum, which had 4 cut sites, produced 116, 145, 293 and 409 bp fragments. Although the morphological characterization in various provinces was significanly different, molecular identification showed that all specimens were identical (D.dendriticum) and there was not a significant difference between sequences of the collected parasites.
Conclusion: Morphological and molecular assays show that Dicrocoelium dendriticum is the only species of Dicrocoelium among sheep in the north and center of Iran.
Keywords: Dicrocoelium, Morphology, Sequencing, Sheep, 28S gene, rDNA, RFLP, | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
10.1016/j.neuron.2018.07.007 | Architecture of the Mouse Brain Synaptome | Synapses are found in vast numbers in the brain and contain complex proteomes. We developed genetic labeling and imaging methods to examine synaptic proteins in individual excitatory synapses across all regions of the mouse brain. Synapse catalogs were generated from the molecular and morphological features of a billion synapses. Each synapse subtype showed a unique anatomical distribution, and each brain region showed a distinct signature of synapse subtypes. Whole-brain synaptome cartography revealed spatial architecture from dendritic to global systems levels and previously unknown anatomical features. Synaptome mapping of circuits showed correspondence between synapse diversity and structural and functional connectomes. Behaviorally relevant patterns of neuronal activity trigger spatiotemporal postsynaptic responses sensitive to the structure of synaptome maps. Areas controlling higher cognitive function contain the greatest synapse diversity, and mutations causing cognitive disorders reorganized synaptome maps. Synaptome technology and resources have wide-ranging application in studies of the normal and diseased brain. Synapse molecular composition and diversity was systematically mapped across the whole mouse brain. A molecular logic orchestrates the spatial architecture of synapse diversity from individual dendrites to the systems level. Synaptome architecture and function is important for cognition and disease. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
W4292808818 | DICTADURA, PODER ESTATAL Y GRANDES PROYECTOS EN REGIONES MARGINALES. LA AMAZONIA BRASILEÑA Y LA PATAGONIA ARGENTINA DURANTE LA DÉCADA DE 1960 Y 1970 | En América Latina, las décadas de 1960 y 1970 estuvieron atravesadas por regímenes dictatoriales que procuraban evitar el cuestionamiento de la dominación mediante el control social, en alianza con los intereses nacionales y transnacionales en pos de la expansión del capitalismo. Tanto en Brasil a partir de 1964 como en Argentina desde 1966, los gobiernos militares procuraron visibilizar el poder a través de grandes proyectos ubicados fundamentalmente en áreas consideradas marginales. En la Amazonia brasileña como en la Patagonia argentina, los megaproyectos formaron parte de un constructo ideológico destinado a resignificar esos espacios como parte de una política de crecimiento económico. El discurso oficial basado en la premisa del progreso, la grandeza y el desarrollo nacional se orientó a legitimar a la dictadura y acrecentar el consenso social. Este artículo se realiza sobre la base de fuentes primarias, fundamentalmente discursos presidenciales, artículos de revista y documentación oficial de organismos nacionales e internacionales. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems"
]
|
interreg_38 | Water and bees | The “A.A.A.” project aims to set up in the Venetian-Slovenian area a method to develop sustainable tourism through two significant elements: water - intended as wetlands, the arms of the river and the lagoon environment - and beekeeping. This initiative represents the beginning of a permanent programme of interventions translating into the two itineraries to be developed: the first with naturalistic relevance is located among the wetlands above the mouth of the Dese river and the Northern lagoon of Venice, and the second is devoted to beekeeping activities, in order to set up a bee-tourist centre of excellence. The project intends to trigger the transformation of these areas into potential tourist destinations, by connecting three SCI- Sites of Community Importance (Mestre wood, Praello quarry and Gaggio quarry) with the Northern Lagoon Park through the mouth of the Dese river. By means of a sustainable tourism programme, a series of itineraries are proposed: river trekking, cycling routes, bridle paths or river/lagoon routes. The objective of the programme is relieving tourism congestion by creating new opportunities for the fruition of naturalistic environments, also through the promotion of smaller production activities - like beekeeping - that are of great interest for their positive effects on the environment and the economy, both in Italy and Slovenia. Upon project completion and to ensure the dissemination of relevant information two volumes will be published, one presenting the Wood of Mestre and the area studied by the project, and the other on honey, with interesting recipes using this product. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space"
]
|
10.1257/mic.5.1.147 | Social Learning with Coarse Inference | We study social learning by boundedly rational agents. Agents take a decision in sequence, after observing their predecessors and a private signal. They are unable to make perfect inferences from their predecessors' decisions: they only understand the relation between the aggregate distribution of actions and the state of nature, and make their inferences accordingly. We show that, in a discrete action space, even if agents receive signals of unbounded precision, there are asymptotic inefficiencies. In a continuous action space, compared to the rational case, agents overweight early signals. Despite this behavioral bias, eventually agents learn the realized state of the world and choose the correct action. (JEL D82, D83) | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
647133 | Intermediate Chaos | The transition from order to chaos has been a central theme of investigation in dynamical systems in the last two decades. Structures that exhibit a mix of deterministic and chaotic properties, for example, quasi-crystals, naturally arise in problems of geometry and mathematical physics. Despite intense study, key questions about these structures remain wide open.
The proposed research is an investigation of intermediate chaos in ergodic theory of dynamical systems. Specific examples include systems of geometric origin such as interval exchange maps, translation and Hamiltonian flows on surfaces of higher genus, symbolic substitution systems important in the study of quasi-crystals as well as dynamical systems arising in asymptotic combinatorics and mathematical physics such as determinantal and Pfaffian point processes. Specific tasks include computation of the Hausdorff dimension for the spectral measure of interval exchange maps (problem posed by Ya. Sinai), limit theorems for Hamiltonian flows on surfaces of higher genus (question of A. Katok), development of entropy theory and functional limit theorems for determinantal point processes and a description of the ergodic decomposition for infinite orthogonally-invariant measures on the space of infinite real matrices (the real case of the problem, posed in 2000 by A. Borodin and G. Olshanski, of harmonic analysis on the infinite-dimensional analogue of the Grassmann manifold). The project consolidates the proposer's past work, in particular, his limit theorems for translation flows (Annals of Math. 2014), his proof of the 1985 Vershik-Kerov entropy conjecture (GAFA 2012) and his solution of the complex case of the Borodin-Olshanski problem (preprint 2013). The proposer is currently PI of project ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02 (1.11.2013--30.10.2015; budget 360000 euro) under the Programme ""Investissements d'avenir"" of the Government of the French Republic. | [
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1007/JHEP10(2013)188 | Multiparticle One Loop Amplitudes And S Duality In Closed Superstring Theory | Explicit expressions for one-loop five supergraviton scattering amplitudes in both type II superstring theories are determined by making use of the pure spinor formalism. The type IIB amplitude can be expressed in terms of a doubling of ten-dimensional super Yang--Mills tree amplitude, while the type IIA amplitude has additional pieces that cannot be expressed in that manner. We evaluate the coefficients of terms in the analytic part of the low energy expansion of the amplitude, which correspond to a series of terms in an effective action of the schematic form D^{2k}R^5 for 0\le k \le 5 (where R is the Riemann curvature). Comparison with earlier analyses of the tree amplitudes and of the four-particle one-loop amplitude leads to an interesting extension of the action of SL(2,Z) S-duality on the moduli-dependent coefficients in the type IIB theory. We also investigate closed-string five-particle amplitudes that violate conservation of the U(1) R-symmetry charge -- processes that are forbidden in supergravity. The coefficients of their low energy expansion are shown to agree with S-duality systematics. A less detailed analysis is also given of the six-point function, resulting in the vanishing of the analytic parts of the R^6 and D^4 R^6 interactions in the ten-dimensional effective action, but not in lower dimensions. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.7554/elife.42413 | Quantitative regulation of the dynamic steady state of actin networks | Principles of regulation of actin network dimensions are fundamentally important for cell functions, yet remain unclear. Using both in vitro and in silico approaches, we studied the effect of key parameters, such as actin density, ADF/Cofilin concentration and network width on the network length. In the presence of ADF/Cofilin, networks reached equilibrium and became treadmilling. At the trailing edge, the network disintegrated into large fragments. A mathematical model predicts the network length as a function of width, actin and ADF/Cofilin concentrations. Local depletion of ADF/Cofilin by binding to actin is significant, leading to wider networks growing longer. A single rate of breaking network nodes, proportional to ADF/Cofilin density and inversely proportional to the square of the actin density, can account for the disassembly dynamics. Selective disassembly of heterogeneous networks by ADF/Cofilin controls steering during motility. Our results establish general principles on how the dynamic steady state of actin network emerges from biochemical and structural feedbacks. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1145/3282488 | Parallelizing Sequential Graph Computations | This article presents GRAPE, a parallel GRAP h E ngine for graph computations. GRAPE differs from prior systems in its ability to parallelize existing se. . . | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1534/g3.116.037721 | Genetic and targeted eQTL mapping reveals strong candidate genes modulating the stress response during chicken domestication | The stress response has been largely modified in all domesticated animals, offering a strong tool for genetic mapping. In chickens, ancestral Red Junglefowl react stronger both in terms of physiology and behavior to a brief restraint stress than domesticated White Leghorn, demonstrating modified functions of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. We mapped quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying variations in stress-induced hormone levels using 232 birds from the 12th generation of an advanced intercross between White Leghorn and Red Junglefowl, genotyped for 739 genetic markers. Plasma levels of corticosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and pregnenolone (PREG) were measured using LC-MS/MS in all genotyped birds. Transcription levels of the candidate genes were measured in the adrenal glands or hypothalamus of 88 out of the 232 birds used for hormone assessment. Genes were targeted for expression analysis when they were located in a hormone QTL region and were differentially expressed in the pure breed birds. One genome-wide significant QTL on chromosome 5 and two suggestive QTL together explained 20% of the variance in corticosterone response. Two significant QTL for aldosterone on chromosome 2 and 5 (explaining 19% of the variance), and one QTL for DHEA on chromosome 4 (explaining 5% of the variance), were detected. Orthologous DNA regions to the significant corticosterone QTL have been previously associated with the physiological stress response in other species but, to our knowledge, the underlying gene(s) have not been identified. SERPINA10 had an expression QTL (eQTL) colocalized with the corticosterone QTL on chromosome 5 and PDE1C had an eQTL colocalized with the aldosterone QTL on chromosome 2. Furthermore, in both cases, the expression levels of the genes were correlated with the plasma levels of the hormones. Hence, both these genes are strong putative candidates for the domestication-induced modifications of the stress response in chickens. Improved understanding of the genes associated with HPA-axis reactivity can provide insights into the pathways and mechanisms causing stress-related pathologies. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1086/677397 | Nonautosomal Genetic Variation In Carotenoid Coloration | AbstractCarotenoid-based coloration plays an important role in signaling, is often sexually dimorphic, and is potentially subject to directional and/or sex-specific selection. To understand the evolutionary dynamics of such color traits, it is essential to quantify patterns of inheritance, yet nonautosomal sources of genetic variation are easily overlooked by classical heritability analyses. Carotenoid metabolism has recently been linked to mitochondria, highlighting the potential for color variation to be explained by cytoplasmically inherited factors. In this study, we used quantitative genetic animal models to estimate the importance of mitochondrial and sex chromosome–linked sources of genetic variation in coloration in two songbird populations in which dietary carotenoids are either unmodified (great tit plumage) or metabolized into alternative color forms (zebra finch beak). We found no significant Z-linked genetic variance in great tit plumage coloration, while zebra finch beak coloration exhibited. . . | [
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1145/3173225.3173331 | Designing Etextiles For The Body Shape Volume Motion | In this studio, we will improve our tailoring skills in order to better integrate technology into clothing. Leveraging the volumetric nature of clothing, we will create eTextile interfaces that fit the shape of the body and are designed around how bodies move. This studio will consist of a short masterclass led by an expert fashion designer followed by materials experimentation and working on individual projects. We will introduce and demo a variety of ways to design and implement 3-dimensional eTextiles as well as how to integrate them with interactive systems. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
SE 9700656 W | A PROCESS AND PLANT FOR PRODUCING ATOMIZED METAL POWDER, METAL POWDER AND THE USE OF THE METAL POWDER | The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing atomized metal powder in an atomization plant comprising a casting box, a reactor vessel, a powder container and sedimentation equipment. The production process takes place with controlled thermal balance. The invention also relates to an atomization plant, atomized metal powder and the use of the metal powder as coolant in the manufacture of steel. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
FR 2008051144 W | PARALLEL-SHAFTS GEARBOX WHICH HOLDS THE VEHICLE ON A SLOPE | Motor vehicle gearbox (1) comprising a clutch (23) and a freewheel (11) interposed between an idler gear (12) and a first synchromesh (10) able to establish a freewheel forward gear ratio. The gearbox (1) has at least one other forward gear ratio higher than the freewheel ratio. When the freewheel forward gear ratio is actuated and the clutch is open, one of the other forward gear ratios higher than the freewheel ratio is also actuated. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1101/gad.328062.119 | Defining the influence of Rad51 and Dmc1 lineage-specific amino acids on genetic recombination | The vast majority of eukaryotes possess two DNA recombinases: Rad51, which is ubiquitously expressed, and Dmc1, which is meiosis-specific. The evolutionary origins of this two-recombinase system remain poorly understood. Interestingly, Dmc1 can stabilize mismatch-containing base triplets, whereas Rad51 cannot. Here, we demonstrate that this difference can be attributed to three amino acids conserved only within the Dmc1 lineage of the Rad51/RecA family. Chimeric Rad51 mutants harboring Dmc1-specific amino acids gain the ability to stabilize heteroduplex DNA joints with mismatch-containing base triplets, whereas Dmc1 mutants with Rad51-specific amino acids lose this ability. Remarkably, RAD-51 from Caenorhabditis elegans, an organism without Dmc1, has acquired “Dmc1-like” amino acids. Chimeric C. elegans RAD-51 harboring “canonical” Rad51 amino acids gives rise to toxic recombination intermediates, which must be actively dismantled to permit normal meiotic progression. We propose that Dmc1 lineage-specific amino acids involved in the stabilization of heteroduplex DNA joints with mismatch-containing base triplets may contribute to normal meiotic recombination. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1088/0264-9381/32/10/105001 | Hovering Black Holes From Charged Defects | We construct the holographic dual of an electrically charged, localized defect in a conformal field theory at strong coupling, by applying a spatially dependent chemical potential. We find that the infrared behaviour of the spacetime depends on the spatial falloff of the potential. Moreover, for sufficiently localized defects with large amplitude, we find that a new gravitational phenomenon occurs: a spherical extremal charged black hole nucleates in the bulk: a hovering black hole. This is a second order quantum phase transition. We construct this new phase with several profiles for the chemical potential and study its properties. We find an apparently universal behaviour for the entropy of the defect as a function of its amplitude. We comment on the possible field theory implications of our results. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Mathematics"
]
|
US 2008/0083330 W | ADAPTIVE FAIL-FIXED SYSTEM FOR FADEC CONTROLLED GAS TURBINE ENGINES | A gas turbine engine control system includes a module operable to fail-fix the gas turbine engine to one of a multiple of pre-determined modes in response to failure of an automatic control. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1007/s00397-020-01192-x | Stability of bubbles in wax-based oleofoams: decoupling the effects of bulk oleogel rheology and interfacial rheology | Oleofoams are dispersions of gas bubbles in a continuous oil phase and can be stabilized by crystals of fatty acids or waxes adsorbing at the oil-air interface. Because excess crystals in the continuous phase form an oleogel, an effect of the bulk rheology of the continuous phase is also expected. Here, we evaluate the contributions of bulk and interfacial rheology below and above the melting point of a wax forming an oleogel in sunflower oil. We study the dissolution behaviour of single bubbles using microscopy on a temperature-controlled stage. We compare the behaviour of a bubble embedded in an oleofoam, which owes its stability to both bulk and interfacial rheology, to that of a bubble extracted from the oleofoam and resuspended in oil, for which the interfacial dilatational rheology alone provides stability. We find that below the melting point of the wax, bubbles in the oleofoam are stable whereas bubbles that are only coated with wax crystals dissolve. Both systems dissolve when heated above the melting point of the wax. These findings are rationalized through independent bulk rheological measurements of the oleogel at different temperatures, as well as measurements of the dilatational rheological properties of a wax-coated oil-air interface. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
EP 2015060420 W | THREE COMPONENT COMPOSITION FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF POLYURETHANE CEMENTITIOUS HYBRID FLOORING OR COATING WITH IMPROVED SURFACE GLOSS | The present invention relates to a three component composition consisting of a polyol component (A) comprising at least two polyols, one with high and one with low molecular weight, and water, a polyisocyanate component (B) comprising a methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) product with an average NCO functionality of at least 2.5, or a methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) product with an average NCO functionality of at least 2 and at least one further polyol with an amount of between 1 % and 30% based on the weight of said polyisocyanate component (B), wherein said MDI product and said polyol have reacted at least partially, and a powder component (C) comprising at least one hydraulic binder, preferably cement and/or calcined paper sludge, preferably a calcium compound selected from calcium hydroxide and/or calcium oxide, and optionally one or more aggregates. Polyurethane cementitious hybrid flooring or coating systems having glossy/semiglossy surfaces, good workability and outstanding mechanical properties can be achieved. Blister formation can be avoided. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
Q2033208 | DOC: ENABLING DIGITAL BUSINESS PROCESSES AND CONTENT | TO FILL IN IN THE LIGHT, WE BELIEVE THAT THE BUSINESS IS A CONTINUOUS FLOW OF INFORMATION AND DECISIONS, AND OUR AIM IS TO MAKE THIS FLOW FASTER, CONTINUOUS AND SMART. WE WANT TO IMPROVE THE BDOC PLATFORM, WHICH IS BASED ON ALCOOL AND SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED BY ITB: OPEN AND MODERN TO DIGITISE CRITICAL BUSINESS PROCESSES AND PROVIDE PEOPLE WITH THE NECESSARY INFORMATION QUICKLY AND WITHOUT EFFORT. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W2164604798 | Ultrafast Reorientation of Dangling OH Groups at the Air-Water Interface Using Femtosecond Vibrational Spectroscopy | We report the real-time measurement of the ultrafast reorientational motion of water molecules at the water-air interface, using femtosecond time- and polarization-resolved vibrational sum-frequency spectroscopy. Vibrational excitation of dangling OH bonds along a specific polarization axis induces a transient anisotropy that decays due to the reorientation of vibrationally excited OH groups. The reorientation of interfacial water is shown to occur on subpicosecond time scales, several times faster than in the bulk, which can be attributed to the lower degree of hydrogen bond coordination at the interface. Molecular dynamics simulations of interfacial water dynamics are in quantitative agreement with experimental observations and show that, unlike in bulk, the interfacial reorientation occurs in a largely diffusive manner. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
10.1021/ar400303a | Minimizing density functional failures for non-covalent interactions beyond van der Waals complexes | Kohn-Sham density functional theory offers a powerful and robust formalism for investigating the electronic structure of many-body systems while providing a practical balance of accuracy and computational cost unmatched by other methods. Despite this success, the commonly used semilocal approximations have difficulties in properly describing attractive dispersion interactions that decay with R-6 at large intermolecular distances. Even in the short to medium range, most semilocal density functionals fail to give an accurate description of weak interactions. The omnipresence of dispersion interactions, which are neglected in the most popular electronic structure framework, has stimulated intense developments during the past decade. In this Account, we summarize our effort to develop and implement dispersion corrections that dramatically reduce the failures of both inter- and intramolecular interaction energies. The proposed schemes range from improved variants of empirical atom pairwise dispersion correction (e. g. , dD10) to robust formulations dependent upon the electron density. Emphasis has been placed on introducing more physics into a modified Tang and Toennies damping function and deriving accurate dispersion coefficients. Our most sophisticated and established density-dependent correction, dDsC, is based on a simple generalized gradient approximation (GGA)-like reformulation of the exchange hole dipole moment introduced by Becke and Johnson. Akin to its empirical precursor, dDsC dramatically improves the interaction energy of a variety of standard density functionals simultaneously for typical intermolecular complexes and shorter-range interactions occurring within molecules. The broad applicability and robustness of the dDsC scheme is demonstrated on various representative reaction energies, geometries, and molecular dynamic simulations. The suitability of the a posteriori correction is also established through comparisons with the more computationally demanding self-consistent implementation. The proposed correction is then exploited to identify the key factors at the origin of the errors in thermochemistry beyond van der Waals complexes. Particular focus is placed on charge-transfer and mixed-valence complexes, which are relevant to the field of organic electronics. These types of complexes represent insightful examples for which the delocalization error may partially counterbalance the missing dispersion. Our devised methodology reveals the true performance of standard density functional approximations and the subtle interplay between the two types of errors. The analysis presented provides guidance for future functional development that could further improve the modeling of the structures and properties of molecular materials. Overall, the proposed state-of-the-art approaches have contributed to stress the crucial role of dispersion and improve their description in both straightforward van der Waals complexes and more challenging chemical situations. For the treatment of the latter, we have also provided relevant insights into which type of density functionals to favor. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
10.1111/j.1468-0289.2011.00626.x | Spending, saving, or investing? Risk management in sixteenth-century Dutch households | In the past one of the main challenges to households was that of coping with adversity. War, plague, famine, and flood were a constant threat, and could reduce what little improvements families had made in productivity. Economic growth therefore required a means of absorbing external adversities. To see how well late medieval households coped with adversity, this investigation focuses on the households of a small town and its surroundings in early modern Holland. Our findings reveal that several severe external shocks around 1500 had little effect on the general level or distribution of wealth, which suggests that certain forms of insurance may have protected the population. The results show that households increasingly invested in capital markets rather than employing such techniques as scattered holdings and hoarding. This fact indicates that such investment played a vital role in a household's risk aversion strategy. The change from unproductive to more productive risk-aversion strategies also provides some clues about progress with respect to insurance during Holland's financial revolution. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
174921 | The reversible variable transmission – visionary transmission for unprecedented fuel, co2 and cost savings | It is clear that the automotive market is in need of solutions which are more sustainable, simpler and cheaper than those we have today. This is a Blue Ocean opportunity for the Reversible Variable Transmission (RVT) which transmits power in a totally new way to offer engine driven vehicles including hybrids unprecedented fuel, CO2 and cost savings. With its novel patented design, this improved Continuous Variable Transmission is the first of its kind not suffering internal drill-slip.
The RVT is the first transmission in the world that can keep the engine always on its lowest fuel consumption curve. It saves 21-26% fuel and CO2 compared to a 6-speed Automatic for cars and even 56% for buses if an extra RVT and flywheel is added, saving annually 60 tonnes CO2 and 22.000 L fuel or € 19.300 per bus. On top of that, it is light, compact, nearly 100% recyclable, with low maintenance and low cost.
The RVT is the result of extensive theoretical reasoning and years of engineering expertise from the inventor, also designer of Ferrari and McLaren’s DCT double clutch system, pump and hydraulics. As no one else masters this know-how, Mazaro is the most capable to bring the RVT to full commercial success. To do this, it will attract new investors, grow as an engineering company to a team of fifty by 2021 and strengthen its partnerships with industrial manufacturers. SME PHASE 1 will validate our intended strategy to demonstrate the system’s uniqueness and prepare it for market uptake; objectives which will be implemented in PHASE 2.
The RVT is suitable for vehicles ranging from cars to heavy duty trucks. On that vast market, the RVT will be an unrivalled offering to society, end-users and all companies involved.
It is to be noted that Mazaro received Frost & Sullivan innovation award (visionary innovation leadership award 2015) for the reversible variable transmission. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
741306 | Multidimensional CRISPR/Cas mediated engineering of plant breeding | The implementation of CRISPR/Cas technology has already revolutionised biology and biotechnology. However, for plant breeding its full potential has hardly been applied. The gene pool of a plant species carries a tremendous amount of information regarding how to survive best under various biotic and abiotic stresses. Although countless wild varieties of crops have been safeguarded in gene banks worldwide, much of their genetic information cannot be used in agriculture. Often, adverse and/or favourite traits are linked due to the fact that respective genes are located within close proximity, on the same chromosome. Breeding aims not only to break linkages between such traits but also to tightly fix favourable linkages. In cereals, half of the genome cannot be accessed by classical breeding. The aim of this proposal is to develop techniques based on CRISPR/Cas technology, to engineer plant breeding on the molecular level. With the use of the Cas9 nuclease of S. pyogenes and multiple sgRNAs, it became possible to induce several genomic changes at the same time. The aim of this proposal is to perform genome engineering on a multidimensional level by not only inducing multiple DNA lesions (single and double stranded breaks) but also by applying different Cas9 orthologues to simultaneously target DNA recombination factors directly to the sites of action, or indirectly by influencing their expression. Thus, site-specific initiation of recombination should be coupled with pathway choice, resulting in novel approaches for breaking or fixing linkages. Techniques for genome restructuring, like inversions and translocations, should be established as well as efficient induction of somatic and meiotic crossovers. Therefore, the basis should be laid for combining the best available traits of a species, resulting in transgene free crop plants for a sustainable agriculture. Furthermore, the Cas9-controlled transfer of chromosomal segments between species will also be addressed. | [
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering"
]
|
W2415178657 | The impact of 177Lu-octreotide therapy on 99mTc-MAG3 clearance is not predictive for late nephropathy | Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors may lead to kidney deterioration. This study aimed to evaluate the suitability of 99mTc-mercaptoacetyltriglycine (99mTc--MAG3) clearance for the early detection of PRRT-induced changes on tubular extraction (TE). TE rate (TER) was measured prior to 128 PRRT cycles (7.6±0.4 GBq 177Lu-octreotate/octreotide each) in 32 patients. TER reduction during PRRT was corrected for age-related decrease and analyzed for the potential to predict loss of glomerular filtration (GF). The GF rate (GFR) as measure for renal function was derived from serum creatinine. The mean TER was 234 ± 53 ml/min/1.73 m² before PRRT (baseline) and 221 ± 45 ml/min/1.73 m² after a median follow-up of 370 days. The age-corrected decrease (mean: -3%, range: -27% to +19%) did not reach significance (p=0.09) but significantly correlated with the baseline TER (Spearman p=-0.62, p<0.001). Patients with low baseline TER showed an improved TER after PRRT, high decreases were only observed in individuals with high baseline TER. Pre-therapeutic TER data were inferior to plasma creatinine-derived GFR estimates in predicting late nephropathy. TER assessed by 99mTc-MAG3-clearance prior to and during PRRT is not suitable as early predictor of renal injury and an increased risk for late nephropathy. | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.1038/s41385-018-0063-y | Neuro-immune regulation of mucosal physiology | Mucosal barriers constitute major body surfaces that are in constant contact with the external environment. Mucosal sites are densely populated by a myriad of distinct neurons and immune cell types that sense, integrate and respond to multiple environmental cues. In the recent past, neuro-immune interactions have been reported to play central roles in mucosal health and disease, including chronic inflammatory conditions, allergy and infectious diseases. Discrete neuro-immune cell units act as building blocks of this bidirectional multi-tissue cross-talk, ensuring mucosal tissue health and integrity. Herein, we will focus on reciprocal neuro-immune interactions in the airways and intestine. Such neuro-immune cross-talk maximizes sensing and integration of environmental aggressions, which can be considered an important paradigm shift in our current views of mucosal physiology and immune regulation. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy"
]
|
726417 | Reprogramming of small RNA function in plant-pathogen interactions | RNA silencing relies on small RNAs that act in RNA induced silencing complexes (RISCs). RISCs use base pairing to select mRNAs or invading nucleic acids such as viruses for repression. RNA silencing may facilitate gene expression changes, for example in host-pathogen interactions. Such changes require reprogramming of RISC, since a different set of RNAs must be rapidly repressed upon pathogen perception. RISC reprogramming is non-trivial: new small RNAs must be produced and be rapidly incorporated into RISC, while unwanted repression by pre-existing RISCs must be eliminated. This project focuses on understanding three central aspects of RISC reprogramming in plant-pathogen interactions. First, we will define mechanisms that allow invading RNA, but not self-RNA, to engage in positive feedback loops for small RNA synthesis, and we will investigate the specific importance of these positive feedback loops in antiviral defense. Second, we will explore how rapid proteolysis of the central RISC component ARGONAUTE1 (AGO1) governs rapid incorporation of newly synthesized small RNA. We will also explore the hypothesis that non-RNA bound AGO1 is degraded to minimize vulnerability to pathogens that use small RNAs as virulence factors to repress host immune signaling. The relevance of these mechanisms of AGO1 proteolysis in plant immunity will be investigated. These studies take advantage of our recent discovery of proteins required specifically for turnover of AGO1. Finally, we explore the hypothesis that rapid chemical modification of mRNA by N6-adenosine methylation (m6A) may bring mRNAs with poor small RNA binding sites under RISC repression. This scenario is supported by interactions between m6A reader proteins and AGO1 discovered in current work in the group. This mechanism may enable reprogramming of RISC specificity rather than composition upon pathogen perception. Our project will fill gaps in knowledge on RNA silencing and elucidate their importance in plant immunity. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1109/TMAG.2014.2354055 | Identification Of Synchronous Machine Magnetization Characteristics From Calorimetric Core Loss And No Load Curve Measurements | The magnetic material characteristics of a wound-field synchronous machine are identified based on global calorimetric core-loss and no-load curve measurements. This is accomplished by solving a coupled experimental–numerical electromagnetic inverse problem, formulated to minimize the difference between a finite-element (FE) simulation-based Kriging surrogate model and the measurement results. The core-loss estimation in the FE model is based on combining a dynamic iron-loss model and a static vector Jiles–Atherton hysteresis model, whose parameters that are obtained by solving the inverse problem. The results show that reasonable hysteresis loops can be produced for a grid-supplied machine, while for an inverter-supplied machine the limitations in the FE and iron-loss models seemingly exaggerate the area of the loop. In addition, the effect of the measurement uncertainty on the inverse problem is quantitatively estimated. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1038/s41598-020-58590-7 | Taming age mortality in semi-captive Asian elephants | Understanding factors preventing populations of endangered species from being self-sustaining is vital for successful conservation, but we often lack sufficient data to understand dynamics. The global Asian elephant population has halved since the 1950s, however >25% currently live in captivity and effective management is essential to maintain viable populations. Here, we study the largest semi-captive Asian elephant population, those of the Myanma timber industry (~20% global captive population), whose population growth is heavily limited by juvenile mortality. We assess factors associated with increased mortality of calves aged 4. 0–5. 5 years, the taming age in Myanmar, a process affecting ~15,000 captive elephants to varying degrees worldwide. Using longitudinal survival data of 1,947 taming-aged calves spanning 43 years, we showed that calf mortality risk increased by >50% at the taming age of four, a peak not seen in previous studies on wild African elephants. Calves tamed at younger ages experienced higher mortality risk, as did calves with less experienced mothers. Taming-age survival greatly improved after 2000, tripling since the 1970’s. Management should focus on reducing risks faced by vulnerable individuals such as young and first-born calves to further improve survival. Changes associated with reduced mortality here are important targets for improving the sustainability of captive populations. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
W2258288526 | Abstract T MP96: Trends and Variation in Inpatient Discharge to Hospice Among High Stroke Volume Hospitals | Background: In recent years, individuals with acute ischemic stroke accounted for approximately 4% of all inpatients discharged to hospice, yet little is known about current practices and trends in discharge to hospice care for stroke admissions within US hospitals. Methods: We examined rates of hospice discharge for adult acute ischemic stroke patients admitted to acute care facilities in the top quartile of annual stroke volume between 2001 and 2010 in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. These high volume hospitals account for nearly 75% of stroke admissions in the dataset. Only those with available information on hospice discharge were considered. Compound annual growth rate was used to examine changes in utilization over time. Hospice trends were evaluated using the Cochran-Armitage test. Results: Among 1,935 high volume hospitals there were 455,372 hospitalizations for acute ischemic stroke from 2001 to 2010, 12,036 (2.6%) of which were discharged to hospice (30% to home; 70% to medical facility). The absolute number of discharges to hospice care grew at 29% per year over the ten-year period (P Trend<0.001). Discharge rates to hospice care per 100 stroke admissions increased from an average of 0.5 (SD=1.3) in 2001 to 4.3 (SD=3.0) in 2010 (P Trend<0.001). Inter-hospital variation in rates of hospice discharge remained large from year to year, and ranged from zero to 15.6 per 100 stroke admissions (Median=3.8; Interquartile Range=3.7) in 2010. Conclusions: The average rate of discharge to hospice care for acute ischemic stroke inpatients admitted to high volume hospitals has grown substantially in the past decade; variation in this practice across these hospitals remains large. | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.1038/ismej.2016.40 | Defining the microbial transcriptional response to colitis through integrated host and microbiome profiling | The gut microbiome is significantly altered in inflammatory bowel diseases, but the basis of these changes is not well understood. We have combined metagenomic and metatranscriptomic profiling of the gut microbiome to assess modifications to both bacterial community structure and transcriptional activity in a mouse model of colitis. By using transcriptomic analysis of colonic tissue and luminal RNA derived from the host, we have also characterised how host transcription relates to the microbial transcriptional response in inflammation. In colitis, increased abundance and transcription of diverse microbial gene families involved in responses to nutrient deprivation, antimicrobial peptide production and oxidative stress support an adaptation of multiple commensal genera to withstand a diverse set of environmental stressors in the inflammatory environment. These data are supported by a transcriptional signature of activated macrophages and granulocytes in the gut lumen during colitis, a signature that includes the transcription of the key antimicrobial genes S100a8 and S100a9 (calprotectin). Genes involved in microbial resistance to oxidative stress, including Dps/ferritin, Fe-dependent peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase were identified as changing to a greater extent at the level of transcription than would be predicted by DNA abundance changes, implicating a role for increased oxygen tension and/or host-derived reactive oxygen species in driving transcriptional changes in commensal microbes. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy"
]
|
10.1111/pce.13524 | Ecological significance of light quality in optimizing plant defence | Plants balance the allocation of resources between growth and defence to optimize fitness in a competitive environment. Perception of neighbour-detection cues, such as a low ratio of red to far-red (R:FR) radiation, activates a suite of shade-avoidance responses that include stem elongation and upward leaf movement, whilst simultaneously downregulating defence. This downregulation is hypothesized to benefit the plant either by mediating the growth-defence balance in favour of growth in high plant densities or, alternatively, by mediating defence of individual leaves such that those most photosynthetically productive are best protected. To test these hypotheses, we used a 3D functional–structural plant model of Brassica nigra that mechanistically simulates the interactions between plant architecture, herbivory, and the light environment. Our results show that plant-level defence expression is a strong determinant of plant fitness and that leaf-level defence mediation by R:FR can provide a fitness benefit in high densities. However, optimal plant-level defence expression does not decrease monotonically with plant density, indicating that R:FR mediation of defence alone is not enough to optimize defence between densities. Therefore, assessing the ecological significance of R:FR-mediated defence is paramount to better understand the evolution of this physiological linkage and its implications for crop breeding. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
W2018460298 | A mid-infrared tunable filter in a semiconductor–dielectric photonic crystal containing doped semiconductor defect | Abstract In this work, we theoretically analyze tunable filtering properties in a semiconductor–dielectric photonic crystal (SDPC) containing doped semiconductor defect in the mid-infrared frequency region. We consider two possible configurations of filter structures, the symmetric and asymmetric ones. With a defect of the doped n-type semiconductor, n-Si, the resonant transmission peak can be tuned by varying the doping concentration, that is, the peak wavelength will be shifted to the position of lower wavelength for both structures. Additionally, by increasing the defect thickness, it is also possible to have a filter with multiple resonant peaks, leading to a multichannel filter. The results provide another type of tunable filter in the defective SDPC that could be of technical use for semiconductor applications in optical electronics. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
770929 | Transforming the limits of resolution by utilizing quantum information | Quantum sensing(QS) and metrology exploit physical laws governing individual quantum systems, and correlations between systems, to measure a physical quantity. Recently, an appreciation of the vast potential for a variety of applications, including magnetic and electric fields, pressure and temperature sensors, and imaging at the nanoscale, has positioned QS at the centre of quantum science and technology. QS is a rapidly growing field, with the most common platforms being spin qubits, trapped ions and flux qubits. The main resource for quantum sensing is coherence, the definite phase relation between different states. This phase can only survive until the coherence time, which limits the sensitivity of quantum sensing. For quantum sensing the decay time T1 is believed to be the ultimate limit.
QS targets a broad spectrum of physical quantities, of both static and time-dependent types. While
the most important characteristic for static quantities is sensitivity, for time-dependent signals it is the resolution, i.e. the ability to resolve two different frequencies. This is the central subject of the proposed research.
Quantum computing has been shown to be feasible thanks to the realization that error correction can be applied to quantum operations in a fault-tolerant way. This opens up the possibility to realize quantum operations at very precise levels of accuracy and resolution.
In my planned research I will address the issue of whether this extraordinary accuracy, when combined with robust time keeping methods, can be exploited to enhance quantum sensing in general - and resolution in particular. For this purpose, I will design protocols that far surpass the state-of-the-art, with the final goal being to overcome the T1 limit. Besides the insights gained for quantum theory, the research will result in detailed proposals for experiments to be realized by experimental groups investigating Nitrogen-Vacancy color centers in diamond and trapped-ion quantum logic. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-030-44914-8_23 | Armv8 A System Semantics Instruction Fetch In Relaxed Architectures | Computing relies on architecture specifications to decouple hardware and software development. Historically these have been prose documents, with all the problems that entails, but research over the last ten years has developed rigorous and executable-as-test-oracle specifications of mainstream architecture instruction sets and “user-mode” concurrency, clarifying architectures and bringing them into the scope of programming-language semantics and verification. However, the system semantics, of instruction-fetch and cache maintenance, exceptions and interrupts, and address translation, remains obscure, leaving us without a solid foundation for verification of security-critical systems software. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
W2341540059 | Prediction of Surface Flow by Forcing of Climate Forecast System Reanalysis Data | Meteorological data are key variables for hydrologists to simulate the rainfall-runoff process using hydrological models. The collection of meteorological variables is sophisticated, especially in arid and semi-arid climates where observed time series are often scarce. Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) Data have been used to validate and evaluate hydrological modeling throughout the world. This paper presents a comprehensive application of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrologic simulator, incorporating CFSR daily rainfall-runoff data at the Roodan study site in southern Iran. The developed SWAT model including CFSR data (CFSR model) was calibrated using the Sequential Uncertainty Fitting 2 algorithm (SUFI-2). To validate the model, the calibrated SWAT model (CFSR model) was compared with the observed daily rainfall-runoff data. To have a better assessment, terrestrial meteorological gauge stations were incorporated with the SWAT model (Terrestrial model). Visualization of the simulated flows showed that both CFSR and terrestrial models have satisfactory correlations with the observed data. However, the CFSR model generated better estimates regarding the simulation of low flows (near zero). The results of the uncertainty analysis showed that the CFSR model predicted the validation period more efficiently. This might be related with better prediction of low flows and closer distribution to observed flows. The Nash-Sutcliffe (NS) coefficient provided good- and fair-quality modeling for calibration and validation periods for both models. Overall, it can be concluded that CFSR data might be promising for use in the development of hydrological simulations in arid climates, such as southern Iran, where there are shortages of data and a lack of accessibility to the data. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1039/C4CP02008A | The Impact Of Ionic Liquid Fluorinated Moieties On Their Thermophysical Properties And Aqueous Phase Behaviour | In this work, we demonstrate that the presence of fluorinated alkyl chains in Ionic Liquids (ILs) is highly relevant in terms of their thermophysical properties and aqueous phase behaviour. We have measured and compared the density and viscosity of pure 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate, [C2C1im][FAP], with that of pure 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, [C2C1im][PF6], at atmospheric pressure and in the (288. 15 to 363. 15) K temperature range. The results show that the density of [C2C1im][PF6] is lower than that of [C2C1im][FAP], while the viscosity data reveal the opposite trend. The fluid phase behaviour of aqueous solutions of the two ILs was also evaluated under the same conditions and it was found that the mutual solubilities of [C2C1im][FAP] and water are substantially lower than those verified with [C2C1im][PF6]. The experimental data were lastly interpreted at a molecular level using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation results revealing that the interactions between the IL ions and the water molecules are mainly achieved via the six fluorine atoms of [PF6]− and the three analogues in [FAP]−. The loss of three interaction centres when replacing [PF6]− by [FAP]−, coupled with the bulkiness and relative inertness of the three perfluoroethyl groups, reduces its mutual solubility with water and also contributes to a lower viscosity displayed by the pure [FAP]-based IL as compared to that of the [PF6]-based compound. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
10.1038/NCHEM.1707 | Magnetic Relaxation Pathways In Lanthanide Single Molecule Magnets | Dysprosium alkoxides and dysprosium-doped yttrium alkoxides show very large energy barriers, greater than 800 K, to magnetic relaxation. These barriers arise from the presence of a strongly axial pseudo-octahedral crystal field, which switches off relaxation through the first excited state that typically occurs in single-molecule magnets, and favours a competitive pathway through higher-energy states. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
W2614465240 | The Long-Run Drivers of Stock Returns: Total Payouts and the Real Economy | We provide theoretical and empirical evidence over 1871–2014 that total payouts (dividends plus buybacks) are the key drivers of long-run stock market returns. We show that total payouts per share (adjusted for the share decrease from buybacks) grew in line with economic productivity, whereas aggregate total payouts grew in line with GDP. We also show that a dividend discount model (DDM) based on current yields and historical growth rates underestimates expected returns relative to the total payout model. Finally, we demonstrate that the cyclically adjusted total yield (CATY) predicts changes in expected returns at least as well as the cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio (CAPE). | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.1111/evo.13701 | Individual- versus group-optimality in the production of secreted bacterial compounds | How unicellular organisms optimize the production of compounds is a fundamental biological question. While it is typically thought that production is optimized at the individual-cell level, secreted compounds could also allow for optimization at the group level, leading to a division of labor where a subset of cells produces and shares the compound with everyone. Using mathematical modeling, we show that the evolution of such division of labor depends on the cost function of compound production. Specifically, for any trait with saturating benefits, linear costs promote the evolution of uniform production levels across cells. Conversely, production costs that diminish with higher output levels favor the evolution of specialization–especially when compound shareability is high. When experimentally testing these predictions with pyoverdine, a secreted iron-scavenging compound produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we found linear costs and, consistent with our model, detected uniform pyoverdine production levels across cells. We conclude that for shared compounds with saturating benefits, the evolution of division of labor is facilitated by a diminishing cost function. More generally, we note that shifts in the level of selection from individuals to groups do not solely require cooperation, but critically depend on mechanistic factors, including the distribution of compound synthesis costs. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Mathematics"
]
|
NO 2013050041 W | DLC-COATED GATE VALVE IN PETROLEUM PRODUCTION OR WATER INJECTION | The invention provides a gate valve (1 ) for control of petroleum production or water injection, distinctive in that at least one surface subject to sliding in operation of the valve comprises a top layer coating of diamond like carbon (DLC). The DLC contains hydrogen, preferably more than 16 atom-% and more preferred more than 17 atom-%. It is further directed to a method of commissioning or operating a gate valve according to the invention, and use of a diamond like carbon (DLC) top layer coating on at least one surface subject to sliding in operation of the gate valve. Valve parts have a tendency of sticking, adhering or cold welding together, which result in high friction. The aim of the invention is to reduce or eliminate friction problems occurring with time or operation cycles, when using a full scale gate valve. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
IB 2022050212 W | HIERARCHICAL ONLINE CONVEX OPTIMIZATION | A method for performing online convex optimization is provided. The method includes receiving, from two or more worker nodes, a local decision vector and local data corresponding to each of the two or more worker nodes. The method includes performing a multi-step gradient descent based on the local decision vector and the local data received from the two or more worker nodes. Performing the multi-step gradient descent includes determining a global decision vector and corresponding global information. The method includes sending, to each of the two or more worker nodes, the global decision vector and corresponding global information. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
W2003420214 | Uniform $l^1$ Behavior of a Time Discretization Method for a Volterra Integrodifferential Equation with Convex Kernel; Stability | We study stability of a numerical method in which the backward Euler method is combined with order one convolution quadrature for approximating the integral term of the linear Volterra integrodifferential equation $\mathbf{u}'(t)+\int_{0}^{t}\beta(t-s)\mathbf{Au}(s)\,ds=0$, $t\geq0$, $\mathbf{u}(0)=\mathbf{u}_{0}$, which arises in the theory of linear viscoelasticity. Here $\mathbf{A}$ is a positive self-adjoint densely defined linear operator in a real Hilbert space, and $\beta(t)$ is locally integrable, nonnegative, nonincreasing, convex, and $-\beta'(t)$ is convex. We establish stability of the method under these hypotheses on $\beta(t)$. Thus, the method is stable for a wider class of kernel functions $\beta(t)$ than was previously known. We also extend the class of operators $\mathbf{A}$ for which the method is stable. | [
"Mathematics"
]
|
US 9200829 W | OVEN ENCLOSURE AND VENTILATION SYSTEM | A conveyor oven (Fig. 2) system is disclosed which includes a hood means (20) which extends over the conveyor oven (Fig. 1) and supplies make-up air and exhausts heated air. The enclosure system includes front enclosure (40) and rear enclosure walls (41) which are parallel to and spaced apart from the front and rear oven walls of the oven respectively. Additionally, a first enclosure end wall (not shown) is also included which is parallel to and spaced apart from the first oven end wall. A second enclosure end wall (45) which is parallel to and spaced apart from the second oven end wall is also included. In the enclosure system of the present invention there is an entry opening (50) in at least one of the enclosure walls which is adapted to correspond to each entry opening in the oven's walls. An exit opening (52) in at least one of the enclosure walls is provided which is adapted to correspond to each exit opeing in the oven's walls. The hood means enclosure (24), front enclosure (40), rear enclosure (41), first enclosure end, and second enclosure end walls (45) of the present invention are configured such that make-up air passes over the front oven, rear oven, first oven end, and second oven end walls before being exhausted through the hood means. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1051/0004-6361/201731781 | Properties Of The Molecular Gas In The Fast Outflow In The Seyfert Galaxy Ic 5063 | We present a detailed study of the properties of the molecular gas in the fast outflow driven by the active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the nearby radio-loud Seyfert galaxy IC 5063. By using ALMA observations of a number of tracers of the molecular gas (12CO(1–0), 12CO(2–1), 12CO(3–2), 13CO(2–1) and HCO+(4–3)), we map the differences in excitation, density and temperature of the gas as function of position and kinematics. The results show that in the immediate vicinity of the radio jet, a fast outflow, with velocities up to 800 km s-1, is occurring of which the gas has high excitation with excitation temperatures in the range 30–55 K, demonstrating the direct impact of the jet on the ISM. The relative brightness of the 12CO lines, as well as that of 13CO(2–1) vs. 12CO(2–1), show that the outflow is optically thin. We estimate the mass of the molecular outflow to be at least 1. 2 × 106 M⊙ and likely to be a factor between two and three larger than this value. This is similar to that of the outflow of atomic gas, but much larger than that of the ionised outflow, showing that the outflow in IC 5063 is dominated by cold gas. The total mass outflow rate we estimated to be ~12 M⊙ yr-1. The mass of the outflow is much smaller than the total gas mass of the ISM of IC 5063. Therefore, although the influence of the AGN and its radio jet is very significant in the inner regions of IC 5063, globally speaking the impact will be very modest. We used RADEX non-LTE modelling to explore the physical conditions of the molecular gas in the outflow. Models with the outflowing gas being quite clumpy give the most consistent results and our preferred solutions have kinetic temperatures in the range 20–100 K and densities between 105 and 106 cm-3. The resulting pressures are 106–107. 5 K cm-3, about two orders of magnitude higher than in the outer quiescent disk. The highest densities and temperatures are found in the regions with the fastest outflow. The results strongly suggest that the outflow in IC 5063 is driven by the radio plasma jet expanding into a clumpy gaseous medium and creating a cocoon of (shocked) gas which is pushed away from the jet axis resulting in a lateral outflow, very similar to what is predicted by numerical simulations. | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter"
]
|
637885 | A Genetic View of Influenza Infection | Inherited variation in the quantity and functionality of immune cells plays a key role in determining phenotypic diversity between individuals. Surprisingly little is known, however, about the specific contribution of immune cell subsets to variation in phenotypes such as susceptibility to infectious diseases and the underlying genetic variation. In many complex diseases, we currently have a poor understanding of the driver cell types that are responsible for inherited variation in disease states. A comprehensive mapping of quantities and functions of immune cell types during the course of disease, in large cohorts, bears the potential to transform genetic research; provides understanding of the genetic and immune basis of phenotypes; and reveals the key driver cell subsets.
Here I aim to derive a mechanistic understanding of how variation in quantity and function of immune cell subsets mediates inherited variation in disease states. I propose to develop a computational model that integrates predicted quantities and functions of cell subsets with genotypic and phenotypic information, leading to specific hypotheses on physiological regulation and the particular cell subsets that drive phenotypic diversity. To circumvent the technical difficulty in quantifying a large number of immune cell types, I will profile gene expression and computationally quantify changes in a large number of cell types. I will develop and apply this strategy to dissect Influenza infection in mice.
Since changes in immune responses play a key role in complex diseases, our ability to predict variation in immune responses from genotypes would have important clinical implications. This project has far reaching implications as the paradigm developed here will transform quantitative genetics studies as well as systems immunology research of complex disease. This approach will be applicable to any mammalian disease, allowing researchers to dissect their own systems at unprecedented detail. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
291060 | The analysis of the Dirac operator: the hypoelliptic Laplacian and its applications | This proposal is devoted to the applications of a new hypoelliptic Dirac operator,
whose analytic properties have been studied by Lebeau and myself. Its construction connects classical Hodge theory with the geodesic flow, and more generally any geometrically defined Hodge Laplacian with a dynamical system on the cotangent bundle. The proper description of this object can be given in analytic, index theoretic and probabilistic terms, which explains both its potential many applications, and also its complexity. | [
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1091/mbc.e18-11-0715 | Dynamic actin-mediated nano-scale clustering of CD44 regulates its meso-scale organization at the plasma membrane | We show a hierarchical organization of the adhesion receptor CD44 at multiple-length scales on the plasma membrane by studying the diffusion and clustering behavior of the protein. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
804581 | Nanoscale dynamics in the extracellular space of the brain in vivo | Aggregates of proteins such as amyloid-beta and alpha-synuclein circulate the extracellular space of the brain (ECS) and are thought to be key players in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. The clearance of these aggregates (among other toxic metabolites) is a fundamental physiological feature of the brain which is poorly understood due to the lack of techniques to study the nanoscale organisation of the ECS. Exciting advances in this field have recently shown that clearance is enhanced during sleep due to a major volume change in the ECS, facilitating the flow of the interstitial fluid. However, this process has only been characterised at a low spatial resolution while the physiological changes occur at the nanoscale. The recently proposed “glymphatic” pathway still remains controversial, as there are no techniques capable of distinguishing between diffusion and bulk flow in the ECS of living animals. Understanding these processes at a higher spatial resolution requires the development of single-molecule imaging techniques that can study the brain in living animals. Taking advantage of the strategies I have recently developed to target single-molecules in the brain in vivo with nanoparticles, we will do “nanoscopy” in living animals. Our proposal will test the glymphatic pathway at the spatial scale in which events happen, and explore how sleep and wake cycles alter the ECS and the diffusion of receptors in neuronal plasma membrane. Overall, BrainNanoFlow aims to understand how nanoscale changes in the ECS facilitate clearance of protein aggregates. We will also provide new insights to the pathological consequences of impaired clearance, focusing on the interactions between these aggregates and their putative receptors. Being able to perform single-molecule studies in vivo in the brain will be a major breakthrough in neurobiology, making possible the study of physiological and pathological processes that cannot be studied in simpler brain preparations. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.1002/hbm.23139 | Effects of change in FreeSurfer version on classification accuracy of patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment | Studies have found non-negligible differences in cortical thickness estimates across versions of software that are used for processing and quantifying MRI-based cortical measurements, and issues have arisen regarding these differences, as obtained estimates could potentially affect the validity of the results. However, more critical for diagnostic classification than absolute thickness estimates across versions is the inter-subject stability. We aimed to investigate the effect of change in software version on classification of older persons in groups of healthy, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's Disease. Using MRI samples of 100 older normal controls, 100 with mild cognitive impairment and 100 Alzheimer's Disease patients obtained from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database, we performed a standard reconstruction processing using the FreeSurfer image analysis suite versions 4. 1. 0, 4. 5. 0 and 5. 1. 0. Pair-wise comparisons of cortical thickness between FreeSurfer versions revealed significant differences, ranging from 1. 6% (4. 1. 0 vs. 4. 5. 0) to 5. 8% (4. 1. 0 vs. 5. 1. 0) across the cortical mantle. However, change of version had very little effect on detectable differences in cortical thickness between diagnostic groups, and there were little differences in accuracy between versions when using entorhinal thickness for diagnostic classification. This lead us to conclude that differences in absolute thickness estimates across software versions in this case did not imply lacking validity, that classification results appeared reliable across software versions, and that classification results obtained in studies using different FreeSurfer versions can be reliably compared. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W1999248753 | Pattern of skin thickness progression and clinical correlation in Thai scleroderma patients | Skin thickness progression in scleroderma (SSc) varies in daily clinical practice observation.To define the pattern of skin thickness among Thai sufferers of SSc and to ascertain the clinical correlation with each skin pattern.A 3-year follow-up cohort was performed on patients over 15 years of age in Khon Kaen, Thailand, between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2006. The progression of skin thickness equals the modified Rodnan skin score at the end minus the score at onset divided by the duration of the disease.SSc cases (117) were included and the female-to-male ratio was 70:47. The mean age at onset was 49.8 years (range 24.4-75.5). The most common skin patterns were: (i) 'slow progression to peak then slow regression' (77 cases; 65.8%); followed by (ii) 'continuous slow progression' (37; 31.6%); (iii) 'continuous intermediate progression' (2; 1.7%); and (iv) 'slow progression to peak then intermediate regression' (1; 0.9%). The respective mean peak skin score and duration of disease at peak skin score was 19.8 points (range 4-45) and 20.3 months (range 1.0-42.2). Only telangiectasia at onset and contracture of joint(s) were related to 'continuous slow progression' of skin thickness with P=0.001 and P=0.042, respectively. Neither SSc subsets nor internal organ involvement were correlated with skin thickness pattern.The most common skin pattern in Thai SSc was 'slow progression to peak then slow regression'. Telangiectasia at onset and contracture of joint(s) were predictive of continuous progressive skin thickness in the first 3 years. | [
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
267499 | Interdisciplinary research: Connecting complex plasmas with colloidal dispersions | This proposal represents the first concerted effort to study classical strongly coupled systems at the most fundamental individual-particle level, by using complementary approaches from different physics domains - complex plasmas and colloidal dispersions. These are complementary in many ways, the most important being that complex plasmas are virtually undamped at the particle timescales, whereas colloidal dispersions are overdamped and thus can be brought into equilibrium in a controlled way. Otherwise, both fields have similar advantages: Fully resolved 3D particle trajectories can easily be visualized, the pair interactions are tunable, and particles can be manipulated individually or collectively.
The principal scientific aim is to study generic dynamical and self-organization processes at a detail not possible in the past. Scientific objectives include 1) particle dynamics of liquids, with the emphasis on mesoscopic processes in the supercooled state, e.g. dynamical heterogeneity, 2) phase transitions in solids, with particular attention on the evolutionary paths of crystal structure development and defect dynamics, 3) non-equilibrium phase transitions, with the focus on lane formation in driven binary systems and the dynamics at “atomistic” timescales, 4) phase separation in binary fluids, with the emphasis on the role of pair interactions in the demixing kinetics, as well as in the transition between spinodal decomposition and nucleation and growth regimes, 5) hydrodynamics at the discreteness limit, especially the onset and development of hydrodynamic instabilities at the particle scale, and 6) critical phenomena in particle systems with “designed” pair interactions, where the range and strength of attractive/repulsive parts can be tuned by external fields. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter"
]
|
10.1016/j.cois.2018.11.002 | Evolutionary insights from large scale resequencing datasets in Drosophila melanogaster | Drosophila melanogaster has long been used as an evolutionary model system. Its small genome size, well-annotated genome, and ease of sampling, also makes it a choice species for genome resequencing studies. Hundreds of genomic samples from populations worldwide are available and are currently being used to tackle a wide range of evolutionary questions. In this review, we focused on three insights that have increased our understanding of the evolutionary history of this species, and that have implications for the study of evolutionary processes in other species as well. Because of technical limitations, most of the studies so far have focused on SNP variants. However, long-read sequencing techniques should allow us in the near future to include other type of genomic variants that also influence genome evolution. | [
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.5194/adgeo-40-27-2015 | Detecting and locating seismic events with using USArray as a large antenna | Abstract. We design an earthquake detection and location algorithm that explores coherence and characteristic behavior of teleseismic waves recorded by a large-scale seismic network. The procedure consists of three steps. First, for every tested source location we construct a time-distance gather by computing great-circle distances to all stations of the network and aligning the signals respectively. Second, we use the constructed gather to compute a Tau-P transform. For waves emitted by teleseismic sources, the amplitude of this transform has a very characteristic behavior with maxima corresponding to different seismic phases. Relative location of these maxima on the time-slowness plane strongly depends on the distance to the earthquake. To explore this dependence, in a third step, we convolve the Tau-P amplitude with a time-slowness filter whose maxima are computed based on prediction of a global travel-time calculator. As a result of this three-step procedure, we obtain a function that characterizes a likelihood of occurrence of a seismic event at a given position in space and time. We test the developed algorithm by applying it to vertical-component records of USArray to locate a set of earthquakes distributed around the Globe with magnitudes between 6. 1 and 7. 2. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1021/ja9095158 | The interfacial tension of nanoscopic oil droplets in water is hardly affected by SDS surfactant | (Figure Presented) Surfactants such as sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) can reduce the interfacial tension between bulk water and bulk n-hexadecane by 42 mN/m. Although reduction of interfacial tension should also take place on the interface of nanoscopic oil droplets in water, vibrational sum frequency scattering experiments indicate otherwise. In these measurements we have directly measured the adsorption of SDS onto hexadecane oil droplets with an average radius of 83 nm. We find that the interfacial density of adsorbed SDS is at least 1 order of magnitude lower than that at a corresponding planar interface. The derived maximum decrease in interfacial tension is only 5 mN/m. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
10.1017/S0022377819000801 | An Introductory Guide To Fluid Models With Anisotropic Temperatures Part 1 Cgl Description And Collisionless Fluid Hierarchy | We present a detailed guide to advanced collisionless fluid models that incorporate kinetic effects into the fluid framework, and that are much closer to the collisionless kinetic description than traditional magnetohydrodynamics. Such fluid models are directly applicable to modelling the turbulent evolution of a vast array of astrophysical plasmas, such as the solar corona and the solar wind, the interstellar medium, as well as accretion disks and galaxy clusters. The text can be viewed as a detailed guide to Landau fluid models and it is divided into two parts. Part 1 is dedicated to fluid models that are obtained by closing the fluid hierarchy with simple (non-Landau fluid) closures. Part 2 is dedicated to Landau fluid closures. Here in Part 1, we discuss the fluid model of Chew-Goldberger-Low (CGL) in great detail, together with fluid models that contain dispersive effects introduced by the Hall term and by the finite Larmor radius corrections to the pressure tensor. We consider dispersive effects introduced by the non-gyrotropic heat flux vectors. We investigate the parallel and oblique firehose instability, and show that the non-gyrotropic heat flux strongly influences the maximum growth rate of these instabilities. Furthermore, we discuss fluid models that contain evolution equations for the gyrotropic heat flux fluctuations and that are closed at the fourth-moment level by prescribing a specific form for the distribution function. For the bi-Maxwellian distribution, such a closure is known as the 'normal' closure. We also discuss a fluid closure for the bi-kappa distribution. Finally, by considering one-dimensional Maxwellian fluid closures at higher-order moments, we show that such fluid models are always unstable. The last possible non Landau fluid closure is therefore the 'normal' closure, and beyond the fourth-order moment, Landau fluid closures are required. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
10.1007/s13194-017-0169-1 | Epistemology of causal inference in pharmacology: Towards a framework for the assessment of harms | Philosophical discussions on causal inference in medicine are stuck in dyadic camps, each defending one kind of evidence or method rather than another as best support for causal hypotheses. Whereas Evidence Based Medicine advocates the use of Randomised Controlled Trials and systematic reviews of RCTs as gold standard, philosophers of science emphasise the importance of mechanisms and their distinctive informational contribution to causal inference and assessment. Some have suggested the adoption of a pluralistic approach to causal inference, and an inductive rather than hypothetico-deductive inferential paradigm. However, these proposals deliver no clear guidelines about how such plurality of evidence sources should jointly justify hypotheses of causal associations. We here develop such guidelines by first giving a philosophical analysis of the underpinnings of Hill’s (1965) viewpoints on causality. We then put forward an evidence-amalgamation framework adopting a Bayesian net approach to model causal inference in pharmacology for the assessment of harms. Our framework accommodates a number of intuitions already expressed in the literature concerning the EBM vs. pluralist debate on causal inference, evidence hierarchies, causal holism, relevance (external validity), and reliability. | [
"Texts and Concepts",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.1038/s41467-018-06069-5 | Notch2 controls non-autonomous Wnt-signalling in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia | The Wnt signalling pathway, one of the core de-regulated pathways in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), is activated in only a subset of patients through somatic mutations. Here we describe alternative, microenvironment-dependent mechanisms of Wnt activation in malignant B cells. We show that tumour cells specifically induce Notch2 activity in mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) required for the transcription of the complement factor C1q. MSC-derived C1q in turn inhibits Gsk3-β mediated degradation of β-catenin in CLL cells. Additionally, stromal Notch2 activity regulates N-cadherin expression in CLL cells, which interacts with and further stabilises β-catenin. Together, these stroma Notch2-dependent mechanisms induce strong activation of canonical Wnt signalling in CLL cells. Pharmacological inhibition of the Wnt pathway impairs microenvironment-mediated survival of tumour cells. Similarly, inhibition of Notch signalling diminishes survival of stroma-protected CLL cells in vitro and disease engraftment in vivo. Notch2 activation in the microenvironment is a pre-requisite for the activation of canonical Wnt signalling in tumour cells. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy"
]
|
10.1038/ng.3692 | Clonal evolution of chemotherapy-resistant urothelial carcinoma | Chemotherapy-resistant urothelial carcinoma has no uniformly curative therapy. Understanding how selective pressure from chemotherapy directs the evolution of urothelial carcinoma and shapes its clonal architecture is a central biological question with clinical implications. To address this question, we performed whole-exome sequencing and clonality analysis of 72 urothelial carcinoma samples, including 16 matched sets of primary and advanced tumors prospectively collected before and after chemotherapy. Our analysis provided several insights: (i) chemotherapy-treated urothelial carcinoma is characterized by intra-patient mutational heterogeneity, and the majority of mutations are not shared; (ii) both branching evolution and metastatic spread are very early events in the natural history of urothelial carcinoma; (iii) chemotherapy-treated urothelial carcinoma is enriched with clonal mutations involving L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) and integrin signaling pathways; and (iv) APOBEC-induced mutagenesis is clonally enriched in chemotherapy-treated urothelial carcinoma and continues to shape the evolution of urothelial carcinoma throughout its lifetime. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.09.016 | The association of alcohol intake with gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) levels: Evidence for correlated genetic effects | Background: Blood levels of gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) are used as a marker for (heavy) alcohol use. The role of GGT in the anti-oxidant defense mechanism that is part of normal metabolism supposes a causal effect of alcohol intake on GGT. However, there is variability in the response of GGT to alcohol use, which may result from genetic differences between individuals. This study aimed to determine whether the epidemiological association between alcohol intake and GGT at the population level is necessarily a causal one or may also reflect effects of genetic pleiotropy (genes influencing multiple traits). Methods: Data on alcohol intake (grams alcohol/day) and GGT, originating from twins, their siblings and parents (N= 6465) were analyzed with structural equation models. Bivariate genetic models tested whether genetic and environmental factors influencing alcohol intake and GGT correlated significantly. Significant genetic and environmental correlations are consistent with a causal model. If only the genetic correlation is significant, this is evidence for genetic pleiotropy. Results: Phenotypic correlations between alcohol intake and GGT were significant in men (r= . 17) and women (r= . 09). The genetic factors underlying alcohol intake correlated significantly with those for GGT, whereas the environmental factors were weakly correlated (explaining 4-7% vs. 1-2% of the variance in GGT respectively). Conclusions: In this healthy population sample, the epidemiological association of alcohol intake with GGT is at least partly explained by genetic pleiotropy. Future longitudinal twin studies should determine whether a causal mechanism underlying this association might be confined to heavy drinking populations. | [
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1080/13506285.2017.1339755 | Cortical Evidence For Negative Search Templates | A “target template”, specifying target features, is thought to benefit visual search performance. Setting up a “negative template”, specifying distractor features, should improve distractor inhibit. . . | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
W2548181492 | Systematic Method to Identify an Area of Vulnerability to Voltage Sags | This paper describes a systematic method for determining an area of vulnerability (AOV) to fault induced voltage sags. The concept of an AOV is very useful for evaluating vulnerability and the relationship between sensitive loads and system voltage sag performance. In general, a system performance assessment pertaining to voltage sags requires a determination of AOVs for system buses. Because voltage sags can be caused by remote faults in a transmission system, to completely identify an AOV, a large part of the power system including adjacent circuits and remote supply systems should be considered. Therefore, accurately calculating critical points and identifying AOVs are challenging tasks. In this paper, we present an effective numerical method to determine an accurate AOV in a large scale power system and to overcome limitations of other well-known methods. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
648321 | Emergence of novel phenotypes in co-evolving biological systems: allelic diversification and dominance at the Self-incompatibility locus in Arabidopsis. | The emerging field of systems biology is revealing the intricate nature of biological organisms, whereby a large fraction of their individual components (genes, proteins, regulatory elements) interact with several others. The co-evolutionary processes that this entails raises the question of how phenotypic novelty may arise in the course of evolution, since all parts of the system have to evolve in a coordinated manner if the phenotype is to remain functional. For most biological systems, however, we are lacking even basic insight into the fine-scale mechanistic constraints and the underlying ecological context. In this project, we will focus on the sporophytic self-incompatibility system in outcrossing Arabidopsis species, a model biological system in which two distinct co-evolutionary processes are becoming well-understood: 1) between the male and female reproductive proteins allowing self-pollen recognition and rejection and 2) between small non-coding RNAs and their target sites that jointly control the dominance/recessivity interactions between self-incompatibility alleles. By studying these two model systems, we will aim to catch the emergence of functional and regulatory novelty in flagrante delicto. We will take a multidisciplinary approach combining theoretical and empirical population genetics, evolutionary genomics and ancestral protein resurrection using transgenic plants. Our goal is threefold: 1) decrypt the molecular alphabet of the interaction between co-evolving nucleotide sequences, 2) predict and evaluate the fitness landscapes upon which the two co-evolutionary processes are taking place and 3) exploit natural variation in closely related species to unveil the kind of co-evolutionary process in natural populations. Our combination of various powerful approaches in a tractable model system should provide insight on diversification, a poorly understood but fundamental evolutionary process that is taking place at all levels of organization. | [
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-319-22975-1_5 | Timed Automata Abstraction Of Switched Dynamical Systems Using Control Funnels | The development of formal methods for control design is an important challenge with potential applications in a wide range of safety-critical cyber-physical systems. Focusing on switched dynamical systems, we propose a new abstraction, based on time-varying regions of invariance (the control funnels), that models behaviors of systems as timed automata. The main advantage of this method is that it allows automated verification of formal specifications and reactive controller synthesis without discretizing the evolution of the state of the system. Efficient constructions are possible in the case of linear dynamics. We demonstrate the potential of our approach with two examples. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1103/PhysRevE.91.052148 | Regime shifts in bistable water-stressed ecosystems due to amplification of stochastic rainfall patterns | We develop a framework that casts the point water-vegetation dynamics under stochastic rainfall forcing as a continuous-time random walk (CTRW), which yields an evolution equation for the joint probability density function (PDF) of soil-moisture and biomass. We find regime shifts in the steady-state PDF as a consequence of changes in the rainfall structure, which flips the relative strengths of the system attractors, even for the same mean precipitation. Through an effective potential, we quantify the impact of rainfall variability on ecosystem resilience and conclude that amplified rainfall regimes reduce the resilience of water-stressed ecosystems, even if the mean annual precipitation remains constant. | [
"Mathematics",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1007/s00425-014-2043-0 | Molecular and functional characterization of CpACS27A gene reveals its involvement in monoecy instability and other associated traits in squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) | A number of Cucurbita pepo genotypes showing instable monoecy or partial andromonoecy, i. e. an incomplete conversion of female into bisexual flowers, have been detected. Given that in melon and cucumber andromonoecy is the result of reduction of ethylene production in female floral buds, caused by mutations in the ethylene biosynthesis genes CmACS7 and CsACS2; we have cloned and characterized two related C. pepo genes, CpACS27A and CpACS27B. The molecular structure of CpACS27A and its specific expression in the carpels of female flowers during earlier stages of flower development suggests that this gene is the Cucurbita ortholog of CmACS7 and CsACS2. CpACS27B is likely to be a paralogous pseudogene since it has not been found to be expressed in any of the analyzed tissues. CpACS27A was sequenced in Bolognese (Bog) and Vegetable Spaghetti (Veg), two monoecious inbred lines whose F2 was segregating for partial andromonoecy. The Bog allele of CpACS27A carried a missense mutation that resulted in a substitution of the conserved serine residue in position 176 by an alanine. Segregation analysis indicated that this mutant variant is necessary but not sufficient to confer the andromonoecious phenotype in squash. In concordance with its involvement in stamen arrest, a reduction in CpACS27A expression has been found in bisexual flower buds at earlier stages of development. This reduction in CpACS27A expression was concomitant with a downregulation of other ethylene biosynthesis and signaling genes during earlier and later stages of ovary development. The role of CpACS27A is discussed regarding the regulation of ethylene biosynthesis and signaling genes in the control of andromonoecy-associated traits, such as the delayed maturation of corolla and stigma as well as the parthenocarpic development of the fruit. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
646868 | Distinct Infection Dynamics and Ecological Success among Closely Related Marine Cyanophages: Why the Differences? | Viruses are extremely abundant in the oceans and majorly impact the marine ecosystem by influencing the abundance, diversity and evolution of their hosts. However, our understanding of marine viral physiology and ecology among different members of the virus community is conspicuously lacking. Preliminary data using a newly developed molecular method revealed drastic differences in field abundances of two subtypes of T7-like podoviruses that infect marine cyanobacteria. Moreover, these subtypes displayed large differences in infection properties in laboratory studies. The main objective of this proposal is to gain a deep understanding of the genetic basis for the physiological differences in infection dynamics among closely related T7-like cyanophages that infect the globally important marine cyanobacteria, Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, and to ascertain the ecological consequences of these physiological differences. We hypothesize that a small set of genes, beyond the core replication and morphogenesis genes, differentially impact the dynamics of the infection process which, in-turn, defines the niche occupied by discrete members of this virus family. Our specific objectives are to identify the genes responsible for the physiological differences and determine their impact on infection dynamics. This will be achieved through the development of a phage gene inactivation system and the comparison of infection properties of mutant and wild-type phages. Furthermore, using our new molecular field method, we will assess the distribution patterns of different subtypes of T7-like cyanophages from within the mix of all viruses in the oceans. The unique combination of innovative molecular methods with physiological experimentation and ecological sampling will provide significant insight into both the biological functionality behind the diversity within an ecologically relevant phage family and the selection pressures that have led to their diversification and evolution. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
US 2012/0031048 W | REKEYABLE LOCK CYLINDER HAVING ROTATABLE KEY FOLLOWERS | A rekeyable lock cylinder includes a lock cylinder body having an interior void and a plug assembly rotatably disposed in the lock cylinder body. The plug assembly includes a plug body having a keyway. A plurality of racks is movably disposed relative to the plug body. A plurality of key followers is positioned across the keyway and is moveably disposed relative to the plug body. Each key follower is configured to engage a respective rack of the plurality of racks. A key follower rotation member is drivably engaged with each key follower of the plurality of key followers. The key follower rotation member is selectively movable to rotate each key follower of the plurality of key followers to thereby disengage each key follower of the plurality of key followers from the respective rack of the plurality of racks to facilitate a keying of the rekeyable lock cylinder. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1126/science.aai8034 | Active sites in heterogeneous ice nucleation—the example of K-rich feldspars | Ice formation on aerosol particles is a process of crucial importance to Earth’s climate and the environmental sciences, but it is not understood at the molecular level. This is partly because the nature of active sites, local surface features where ice growth commences, is still unclear. Here we report direct electron-microscopic observations of deposition growth of aligned ice crystals on feldspar, an atmospherically important component of mineral dust. Our molecular-scale computer simulations indicate that this alignment arises from the preferential nucleation of prismatic crystal planes of ice on high-energy (100) surface planes of feldspar. The microscopic patches of (100) surface, exposed at surface defects such as steps, cracks, and cavities, are thought to be responsible for the high ice nucleation efficacy of potassium (K)–feldspar particles. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
W2155644212 | The Impact of Advertising on the Profitability of Public &Private Sector Commercial Banks | The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of advertising on the profitability of commercial banks over the period of 2008- 2012, in the presence of control variables: Credit risk, Operating Efficiency, total advances to total deposits, total loans to total assets and Size(total assets) ratio. Bank’s profitability is measured in terms of return on equity (ROE) .The data has been obtained from the publications of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and commercial banks. The regression results confirm the positive and significant effects of advertising expenditure on ROE for private sector banks than public sector banks. Keywords: ROE, ROA, Advertising, Credit Risk, Operating Efficiency, Bank Deposits & Advances JEL- Classification : G-21 | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.1146/annurev-cellbio-092910-154055 | Hormonal modulation of plant immunity | Plant hormones have pivotal roles in the regulation of plant growth, development, and reproduction. Additionally, they emerged as cellular signal molecules with key functions in the regulation of immune responses to microbial pathogens, insect herbivores, and beneficial microbes. Their signaling pathways are interconnected in a complex network, which provides plants with an enormous regulatory potential to rapidly adapt to their biotic environment and to utilize their limited resources for growth and survival in a cost-efficient manner. Plants activate their immune system to counteract attack by pathogens or herbivorous insects. Intriguingly, successful plant enemies evolved ingenious mechanisms to rewire the plant's hormone signaling circuitry to press or evade host immunity. Evidence is emerging that beneficial root-inhabiting microbes also hijack the hormone-regulated immune signaling network to establish a prolonged mutualistic association, highlighting the central role of plant hormones in the regulation of plant growth and survival. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1093/nar/gkz195 | Chromatin regulation by Histone H4 acetylation at Lysine 16 during cell death and differentiation in the myeloid compartment | Histone H4 acetylation at Lysine 16 (H4K16ac) is a key epigenetic mark involved in gene regulation, DNA repair and chromatin remodeling, and though it is known to be essential for embryonic development, its role during adult life is still poorly understood. Here we show that this lysine is massively hyperacetylated in peripheral neutrophils. Genome-wide mapping of H4K16ac in terminally differentiated blood cells, along with functional experiments, supported a role for this histone post-translational modification in the regulation of cell differentiation and apoptosis in the hematopoietic system. Furthermore, in neutrophils, H4K16ac was enriched at specific DNA repeats. These DNA regions presented an accessible chromatin conformation and were associated with the cleavage sites that generate the 50 kb DNA fragments during the first stages of programmed cell death. Our results thus suggest that H4K16ac plays a dual role in myeloid cells as it not only regulates differentiation and apoptosis, but it also exhibits a non-canonical structural role in poising chromatin for cleavage at an early stage of neutrophil cell death. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
10.1088/1742-5468/2014/06/P06001 | Dynamics Of The Entanglement Spectrum In Spin Chains | We study the dynamics of the entanglement spectrum, that is the time evolution of the eigenvalues of the reduced density matrices after a bipartition of a one-dimensional spin chain. Starting from the ground state of an initial Hamiltonian, the state of the system is evolved in time with a new Hamiltonian. We consider both instantaneous and quasi adiabatic quenches of the system Hamiltonian across a quantum phase transition. We analyse the Ising model that can be exactly solved and the XXZ for which we employ the time-dependent density matrix renormalisation group algorithm. Our results show once more a connection between the Schmidt gap, i. e. the difference of the two largest eigenvalues of the reduced density matrix and order parameters, in this case the spontaneous magnetisation. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1007/s10851-016-0665-5 | Nonlinear Spectral Analysis via One-Homogeneous Functionals: Overview and Future Prospects | We present in this paper the motivation and theory of nonlinear spectral representations, based on convex regularizing functionals. Some comparisons and analogies are drawn to the fields of signal processing, harmonic analysis, and sparse representations. The basic approach, main results, and initial applications are shown. A discussion of open problems and future directions concludes this work. | [
"Mathematics"
]
|
W901749432 | Lived experiences of Nepalese nurses working in Australia | Australia is a multicultural country with a long history of migration of Overseas Qualified Nurses (OQNs) from Non English Speaking Background (NESB) and their contribution in health care sector. However, little is known about the OQNs and their experiences. A phenomenological study guided by van Manen was used to explore the lived experiences of Nepalese nurses in Australia. The study aimed at exploring experiences of the Nepalese nurses and added significantly in understanding various factors associated with OQNs practising in Australia. Face to face in-depth interviews were conducted among five Nepalese nurses working as registered nurse (RN) in Australia for the purpose of this study. The findings of this study are categorized under four main headings: Lived Time, Lived Space, Lived World and Lived Corporality. Analysis and interpretation of the data was done according to van Manen's guidance. The experiences of the Nepalese nurses within Australian social and professional environment were very significant especially during the initial couple of years. Various levels of adjustment in relation to the language, culture, environment and professional practice were required. Experiences as a Personal Care Assistant (PCA) in aged care facilities and involvement in bridging course for the registration were discovered as two important activities that helped the nurses to adapt in the professional and cultural practices. Also the support from the spouse was found to be significant to overcome all the challenges. The finding of this study reveals that the nurses were happy to be able to work in Australia even though the initial few years were stressful. The research findings can be used to assist other Nepalese nurses in their adaptation process. It can also be utilised by Australian nurses, organizations and policy makers to understand the Nepalese nurses and facilitate the adaption process of the Nepalese nurses as well as other OQNs. Thus, proper utilisation of the research findings can facilitate the adaptation process of these nurses in Australia. | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-030-12612-4_12 | Lossy Trapdoor Permutations With Improved Lossiness | Lossy trapdoor functions (Peikert and Waters, STOC 2008 and SIAM J. Computing 2011) imply, via black-box transformations, a number of interesting cryptographic primitives, including chosen-ciphertext secure public-key encryption. Kiltz, O’Neill, and Smith (CRYPTO 2010) showed that the RSA trapdoor permutation is lossy under the Phi-hiding assumption, but syntactically it is not a lossy trapdoor function since it acts on \(\mathbb {Z}_N\) and not on strings. Using a domain extension technique by Freeman et al. (PKC 2010 and J. Cryptology 2013) it can be extended to a lossy trapdoor permutation, but with considerably reduced lossiness. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1080/15476286.2015.1109769 | Relationships Between Prompt And Gene Expression | Most mammalian protein-coding gene promoters are divergent, yielding promoter upstream transcripts (PROMPTs) in the reverse direction from their conventionally produced mRNAs. PROMPTs are rapidly degraded by the RNA exosome rendering a general function of these molecules elusive. Yet, levels of certain PROMPTs are altered in stress conditions, like the DNA damage response (DDR), suggesting a possible regulatory role for at least a subset of these molecules. Here we manipulate PROMPT levels by either exosome depletion or UV treatment and analyze possible effects on their neighboring genes. For the CTSZ and DAP genes we find that TFIIB and TBP promoter binding decrease when PROMPTs accumulate. Moreover, DNA methylation increases concomitant with the recruitment of the DNA methyltransferase DNMT3B. Thus, although a correlation between increased PROMPT levels and decreased gene activity is generally absent, some promoters may have co-opted their divergent transcript production for regulatory purposes. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
622840 | A patient-centered early risk prediction, prevention, and intervention platform to support the continuum of care in coronary artery disease (cad) using ehealth and artificial intelligence | Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains the leading cause of disease burden globally. CAD develops slowly, usually over decades, and depends on multiple (often modifiable) risk factors and their interactions. Self-management and patient activation are of rising importance as current restrictions in healthcare budgets impose great difficulties to enable the provision of qualitative secondary prevention to all cardiac patients in an era facing a huge cardiovascular disease epidemic.
The main hypothesis in the patient-centered TIMELY pathway, is that a modular, collaborative eHealth platform, supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the continuous and in-time prediction of cardiac risks and complications and the induction of targeted behavioural change interventions, can be effective and cost-efficient for the secondary prevention of CAD by limiting the physiological and psychological effects of the disease and improving risk factor and symptom management. Improvements in patients’ self-care and empowerment and clinicians’ efficiency are also expected.
Along the continuum of the disease, prediction of the individual risk for disease progression, including physical impairment and severe events, is mandatory for timely intervention. TIMELY is a platform that provides AI-powered apps and dashboards and decision support tools assisting patients and clinicians to personalize healthcare based on risk evaluation, outcome prediction and tailored interventions. The platform will be developed based on a functional platform for Interoperability with electronic health records and security mechanisms, to ensure information completeness and continuity and to simplify data sharing. AI in TIMELY, built with big retrospective datasets of >23.000 CAD patients, will constantly monitor and evaluate risks and will indicate any deviation from defined therapy goals or unfavorable changes as well as propose proper interventions. | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
223314 | Geodetic data assimilation: forecasting deformation with insar | Recent space-based geodetic measurements of ground deformation suggest a paradigm shift is required in our understanding of the behaviour of active tectonic faults. The classic view of faults classified in two groups – the locked faults prone to generate earthquakes and the creeping faults releasing stress through continuous aseismic slip – is now obscured by more and more studies shedding light on a wide variety of seismic and aseismic slip events of variable duration and size. What physical mechanism controls whether a tectonic fault will generate a dynamic, catastrophic rupture or gently release energy aseismically? Answering such a fundamental question requires a tool for systematic and global detection of all modes of slip along active faults.
The launch of the Sentinel 1 constellation is a game changer as it provides, from now on, systematic Radar mapping of all actively deforming regions in the world with a 6-day return period. Such wealth of data represents an opportunity as well as a challenge we need to meet today. In order to expand the detection and characterization of all slip events to a global scale, I will develop a tool based on machine learning procedures merging the detection capabilities of all data types, including Sentinel 1 data, to build time series of ground motion.
The first step is the development of a geodetic data assimilation method with forecasting ability toward the first re-analysis of active fault motion and tectonic phenomena. The second step is a validation of the method on three faults, including the well-instrumented San Andreas (USA) and Longitudinal Valley faults (Taiwan) and the North Anatolian Fault (NAF, Turkey). I will deploy a specifically designed GPS network along the NAF to compare with outputs of our method. The third step is the intensive use of the algorithm on a global scale to detect slip events of all temporal and spatial scales for a better understanding of the slip behaviour along all active continental faults. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1038/ncomms14665 | Defined chromosome structure in the genome-reduced bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae | DNA-binding proteins are central regulators of chromosome organization; however, in genome-reduced bacteria their diversity is largely diminished. Whether the chromosomes of such bacteria adopt defined three-dimensional structures remains unexplored. Here we combine Hi-C and super-resolution microscopy to determine the structure of the Mycoplasma pneumoniae chromosome at a 10 kb resolution. We find a defined structure, with a global symmetry between two arms that connect opposite poles, one bearing the chromosomal Ori and the other the midpoint. Analysis of local structures at a 3 kb resolution indicates that the chromosome is organized into domains ranging from 15 to 33 kb. We provide evidence that genes within the same domain tend to be co-regulated, suggesting that chromosome organization influences transcriptional regulation, and that supercoiling regulates local organization. This study extends the current understanding of bacterial genome organization and demonstrates that a defined chromosomal structure is a universal feature of living systems. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1371/journal.pone.0155213 | Rumen and cecum microbiomes in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) are changed in response to a lichen diet and may affect enteric methane emissions | Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) are large Holarctic herbivores whose heterogeneous diet has led to the development of a unique gastrointestinal microbiota, essential for the digestion of arctic flora, which may include a large proportion of lichens during winter. Lichens are rich in plant secondary metabolites, which may affect members of the gut microbial consortium, such as the methane-producing methanogenic archaea. Little is known about the effect of lichen consumption on the rumen and cecum microbiotas and how this may affect methanogenesis in reindeer. Here, we examined the effects of dietary lichens on the reindeer gut microbiota, especially methanogens. Samples from the rumen and cecum were collected from two groups of reindeer, fed either lichens (Ld: n = 4), or a standard pelleted feed (Pd: n = 3). Microbial densities (methanogens, bacteria and protozoa) were quantified using quantitative real-time PCR and methanogen and bacterial diversities were determined by 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA genes. In general, the density of methanogens were not significantly affected (p>0. 05) by the intake of lichens. Methanobrevibacter constituted the main archaeal genus (>95% of reads), with Mbr. thaueri CW as the dominant species in both groups of reindeer. Bacteria belonging to the uncharacterized Ruminococcaceae and the genus Prevotella were the dominant phylotypes in the rumen and cecum, in both diets (ranging between 16-38% total sequences). Bacteria belonging to the genus Ruminococcus (3. 5% to 0. 6%; p = 0. 001) and uncharacterized phylotypes within the order Bacteroidales (8. 4% to 1. 3%; p = 0. 027), were significantly decreased in the rumen of lichen-fed reindeer, but not in the cecum (p = 0. 2 and p = 0. 087, respectively). UniFrac-based analyses showed archaeal and bacterial libraries were significantly different between diets, in both the cecum and the rumen (vegan::Adonis: pseudo-F<0. 05). Based upon previous literature, we suggest that the altered methanogen and bacterial profiles may account for expected lower methane emissions from lichen-fed reindeer. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering"
]
|
10.1038/s41598-019-46556-3 | Quantifying hexagonal stacking in diamond | Diamond is a material of immense technological importance and an ancient signifier for wealth and societal status. In geology, diamond forms as part of the deep carbon cycle and typically displays a highly ordered cubic crystal structure. Impact diamonds, however, often exhibit structural disorder in the form of complex combinations of cubic and hexagonal stacking motifs. The structural characterization of such diamonds remains a challenge. Here, impact diamonds from the Popigai crater were characterized with a range of techniques. Using the MCDIFFaX approach for analysing X-ray diffraction data, hexagonality indices up to 40% were found. The effects of increasing amounts of hexagonal stacking on the Raman spectra of diamond were investigated computationally and found to be in excellent agreement with trends in the experimental spectra. Electron microscopy revealed nanoscale twinning within the cubic diamond structure. Our analyses lead us to propose a systematic protocol for assigning specific hexagonality attributes to the mineral designated as lonsdaleite among natural and synthetic samples. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1111/desc.12247 | Children do not recalibrate motor-sensory temporal order after exposure to delayed sensory feedback | Prolonged adaptation to delayed sensory feedback to a simple motor act (such as pressing a key) causes recalibration of sensory-motor synchronization, so instantaneous feedback appears to precede the motor act that caused it (Stetson, Cui, Montague & Eagleman, 2006). We investigated whether similar recalibration occurs in school-age children. Although plasticity may be expected to be even greater in children than in adults, we found no evidence of recalibration in children aged 8-11 years. Subjects adapted to delayed feedback for 100 trials, intermittently pressing a key that caused a tone to sound after a 200 ms delay. During the test phase, subjects responded to a visual cue by pressing a key, which triggered a tone to be played at variable intervals before or after the keypress. Subjects judged whether the tone preceded or followed the keypress, yielding psychometric functions estimating the delay when they perceived the tone to be synchronous with the action. The psychometric functions also gave an estimate of the precision of the temporal order judgment. In agreement with previous studies, adaptation caused a shift in perceived synchrony in adults, so the keypress appeared to trail behind the auditory feedback, implying sensory-motor recalibration. However, school children of 8 to 11 years showed no measureable adaptation of perceived simultaneity, even after adaptation with 500 ms lags. Importantly, precision in the simultaneity task also improved with age, and this developmental trend correlated strongly with the magnitude of recalibration. This suggests that lack of recalibration of sensory-motor simultaneity after adaptation in school-age children is related to their poor precision in temporal order judgments. To test this idea we measured recalibration in adult subjects with auditory noise added to the stimuli (which hampered temporal precision). Under these conditions, recalibration was greatly reduced, with the magnitude of recalibration strongly correlating with temporal precision. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
10.1371/journal.pone.0102464 | PHD and TFIIS-like domains of the bye1 transcription factor determine its multivalent genomic distribution | The BYpass of Ess1 (Bye1) protein is a putative S. cerevisiae transcription factor homologous to the human cancer-associated PHF3/DIDO family of proteins. Bye1 contains a Plant Homeodomain (PHD) and a TFIIS-like domain. The Bye1 PHD finger interacts with tri-methylated lysine 4 of histone H3 (H3K4me3) while the TFIIS-like domain binds to RNA polymerase (Pol) II. Here, we investigated the contribution of these structural features to Bye1 recruitment to chromatin as well as its function in transcriptional regulation. Genome-wide analysis of Bye1 distribution revealed at least two distinct modes of association with actively transcribed genes: within the core of Pol II- and Pol III-transcribed genes concomitant with the presence of the TFIIS transcription factor and, additionally, with promoters of a subset of Pol II-transcribed genes. Specific loss of H3K4me3 abolishes Bye1 association to gene promoters, but doesn't affect its binding within gene bodies. Genetic interactions suggested an essential role of Bye1 in cell fitness under stress conditions compensating the absence of TFIIS. Furthermore, BYE1 deletion resulted in the attenuation of GAL genes expression upon galactose-mediated induction indicating its positive role in transcription regulation. Together, these findings point to a bimodal role of Bye1 in regulation of Pol II transcription. It is recruited via its PHD domain to H3K4 tri-methylated promoters at early steps of transcription. Once Pol II is engaged into elongation, Bye1 binds directly to the transcriptional machinery, modulating its progression along the gene. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
170502 | Garibaldinism and radicalism: traditions of transnational war volunteering in southern europe, 1861-1936 | This project’s overall objective is to carry out a transnational study of the legacies and the survival of the myth of the so-called Garibaldinism between the experience of the the Italian unification (1861) and the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Following both a social and cultural history perspective, it will analyse how the legacy of Giuseppe Garibaldi in Southern Europe was very strong and was linked with social and political claims. In our approach Garibaldinism will refer to a political and cultural phenomenon aimed at encouraging a board and consciously “popular” type of aggregation strictly linked to the tradition of armed voluntarism and the attempt to form an ideal homogeneous block that goes beyond the single ideological matrices and political formations of which it is composed. Between 19th and 20th Century several European generations, the last was the antifascist one, claimed for themselves the cultural, political, and ideal heritage of Garibaldinism. There were radical volunteers wearing the traditional red shirt in Poland (1863), at Crete (1866-67), in France (1870-71), in the Balkans (1876), in Greece (1897), in Serbia (1912 and 1914), in France again (1914) and in Spain (1936-39). A significant part of those volunteers were republicans, anarchists or socialists. There are three main questions addressed by this research project:
• Is it possible to identify a long-term tradition of international armed volunteering linked with political radicalism between the 19th and the 20th Century?
• Is it right to speak about a transnational Garibaldinism?
• Is it possible to identify Garibaldinism as a bridge between different radical political creeds (e.g. Anarchism, Socialism and, later on, Communism)?
The deliverables will be two papers published in leading journals and a book published in English. The fellowship will be highly beneficial to establish the PI as one of the leading European experts on International armed volunteers in European history. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
10.1093/cercor/bhy281 | Opioidergic Regulation of Emotional Arousal: A Combined PET–fMRI Study | Abstract
Emotions can be characterized by dimensions of arousal and valence (pleasantness). While the functional brain bases of emotional arousal and valence have been actively investigated, the neuromolecular underpinnings remain poorly understood. We tested whether the opioid and dopamine systems involved in reward and motivational processes would be associated with emotional arousal and valence. We used in vivo positron emission tomography to quantify μ-opioid receptor and type 2 dopamine receptor (MOR and D2R, respectively) availability in brains of 35 healthy adult females. During subsequent functional magnetic resonance imaging carried out to monitor hemodynamic activity, the subjects viewed movie scenes of varying emotional content. Arousal and valence were associated with hemodynamic activity in brain regions involved in emotional processing, including amygdala, thalamus, and superior temporal sulcus. Cerebral MOR availability correlated negatively with the hemodynamic responses to arousing scenes in amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, and hypothalamus, whereas no positive correlations were observed in any brain region. D2R availability—here reliably quantified only in striatum—was not associated with either arousal or valence. These results suggest that emotional arousal is regulated by the MOR system, and that cerebral MOR availability influences brain activity elicited by arousing stimuli. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.11.060 | Developing 3D microscopy with CLARITY on human brain tissue: Towards a tool for informing and validating MRI-based histology | Recent breakthroughs in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enabled quantitative relaxometry and diffusion-weighted imaging with sub-millimeter resolution. Combined with biophysical models of MR contrast the emerging methods promise in vivo mapping of cyto- and myelo-architectonics, i. e. , in vivo histology using MRI (hMRI) in humans. The hMRI methods require histological reference data for model building and validation. This is currently provided by MRI on post mortem human brain tissue in combination with classical histology on sections. However, this well established approach is limited to qualitative 2D information, while a systematic validation of hMRI requires quantitative 3D information on macroscopic voxels. We present a promising histological method based on optical 3D imaging combined with a tissue clearing method, Clear Lipid-exchanged Acrylamide-hybridized Rigid Imaging compatible Tissue hYdrogel (CLARITY), adapted for hMRI validation. Adapting CLARITY to the needs of hMRI is challenging due to poor antibody penetration into large sample volumes and high opacity of aged post mortem human brain tissue. In a pilot experiment we achieved transparency of up to 8 mm-thick and immunohistochemical staining of up to 5 mm-thick post mortem brain tissue by a combination of active and passive clearing, prolonged clearing and staining times. We combined 3D optical imaging of the cleared samples with tailored image processing methods. We demonstrated the feasibility for quantification of neuron density, fiber orientation distribution and cell type classification within a volume with size similar to a typical MRI voxel. The presented combination of MRI, 3D optical microscopy and image processing is a promising tool for validation of MRI-based microstructure estimates. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
10.1002/anie.201402293 | Selector-induced dynamic deracemization of a selectand-modified tropos BIPHEPO-ligand: Application in the organocatalyzed asymmetric double-aldol-reaction | Stereolabile interconverting catalysts open up the possibility of directing enantioselectivity in asymmetric synthesis by formation of diastereomeric complexes with chiral auxiliaries and deracemization. However, the stoichiometrically used auxilliaries can significantly limit the potential applications of such systems. We synthesized a new BIPHEPO tropos ligand containing achiral selectands in the backbone, which forms transient diastereomeric associates with amylose-tris-3,5-dimethylphenyl carbamate as a selector and thus deracemizes. The enantiomerically enriched BIPHEPO obtained was successfully used in the organocatalytic asymmetric double aldol addition of substituted methyl ketones to form benzaldehyde. This strategy combines an on-column deracemization with the high stereoinduction of chiral biarylphosphineoxides and opens up new possibilities in the field of self-amplified asymmetric syntheses. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
10.1093/schbul/sbx142 | Auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia from a levels of explanation perspective | In the present article, we present a “Levels of Explanation” (LoE) approach to auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) in schizophrenia. Mental phenomena can be understood at different levels of explanation, including cultural, clinical, cognitive, brain imaging, cellular, and molecular levels. Current research on AVHs is characterized by accumulation of data at all levels, but with little or no interaction of findings between levels. A second advantage with a Levels of Explanation approach is that it fosters interdisciplinarity and collaboration across traditional borders, facilitating a real breakthrough in future research. We exemplify a Levels of Explanation approach with data from 3 levels where findings at 1 level provide predictions for another level. More specifically, we show how functional neuroimaging data at the brain level correspond with behavioral data at the cognitive level, and how data at these 2 levels correspond with recent findings of changes in neurotransmitter function at the cellular level. We further discuss implications for new therapeutic interventions, and the article is ended by suggestion how future research could incorporate genetic influences on AVHs at the molecular level of explanation by providing examples for animal work. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-030-02149-8_11 | Counting Finite Linearly Ordered Involutive Bisemilattices | The class of involutive bisemilattices plays the role of the algebraic counterpart of paraconsistent weak Kleene logic. Involutive bisemilattices can be represented as Plonka sums of Boolean algebras, that is semilattice direct systems of Boolean algebras. In this paper we exploit the Plonka sum representation with the aim of counting, up to isomorphism, finite involutive bisemilattices whose direct system is given by totally ordered semilattices. | [
"Mathematics",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
848339 | Materials synthesis in vivo – intracellular formation of nanostructured silica by microalgae | Organisms evolved the ability to form a magnificent array of functional materials, which surpass any man-made product. A prominent example is diatoms, marine microalgae that form an intricate cell-wall made of meso-porous silica. Diatom silica is a tough, hierarchically built, and biocompatible material that is environmentally friendly and cheap, making it an exciting target for nanotechnology. Nevertheless, the principles of this regulated formation mechanism remain elusive.
A persistent obstacle for elucidating biomineralization processes is the inaccessibility of the cellular environment for structural and chemical investigations. Recently, far-reaching developments in electron microscopy have revolutionized our abilities to investigate chemical processes inside living organisms. It is now becoming feasible to image and analyze, with nanometer-scale resolution, an intracellular mineralization process.
This proposal aims to elucidate the intracellular mechanism of silica formation by diatoms. We will study cells undergoing the silicification process in situ, using a suite of state-of-the-art electron and X-ray imaging and spectroscopy tools. The combination of structural and chemical data will enable us to elucidate:
1) The concentration and stabilization mechanism of transient Si phases in the cell.
2) The nanoscale environment in which silica condensation takes place.
3) Genetic and environmental strategies to engineer the silicification process for designed outcomes.
Diatom silica is a promising material for applications such as photonics, pharmaceuticals, and catalysis, which require hierarchical, high-surface area, nano-materials. The achievements of this project will inspire synthetic methodologies to produce and design nano-patterned silica, and genetically-engineer the biological silicification process to produce custom-made materials. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering"
]
|
10.1111/gcbb.12426 | Wood pellets, what else? Greenhouse gas parity times of European electricity from wood pellets produced in the south-eastern United States using different softwood feedstocks | Several EU countries import wood pellets from the south-eastern United States. The imported wood pellets are (co-)fired in power plants with the aim of reducing overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electricity and meeting EU renewable energy targets. To assess whether GHG emissions are reduced and on what timescale, we construct the GHG balance of wood-pellet electricity. This GHG balance consists of supply chain and combustion GHG emissions, carbon sequestration during biomass growth and avoided GHG emissions through replacing fossil electricity. We investigate wood pellets from four softwood feedstock types: small roundwood, commercial thinnings, harvest residues and mill residues. Per feedstock, the GHG balance of wood-pellet electricity is compared against those of alternative scenarios. Alternative scenarios are combinations of alternative fates of the feedstock materials, such as in-forest decomposition, or the production of paper or wood panels like oriented strand board (OSB). Alternative scenario composition depends on feedstock type and local demand for this feedstock. Results indicate that the GHG balance of wood-pellet electricity equals that of alternative scenarios within 0–21 years (the GHG parity time), after which wood-pellet electricity has sustained climate benefits. Parity times increase by a maximum of 12 years when varying key variables (emissions associated with paper and panels, soil carbon increase via feedstock decomposition, wood-pellet electricity supply chain emissions) within maximum plausible ranges. Using commercial thinnings, harvest residues or mill residues as feedstock leads to the shortest GHG parity times (0–6 years) and fastest GHG benefits from wood-pellet electricity. We find shorter GHG parity times than previous studies, for we use a novel approach that differentiates feedstocks and considers alternative scenarios based on (combinations of) alternative feedstock fates, rather than on alternative land uses. This novel approach is relevant for bioenergy derived from low-value feedstocks. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-5411-7 | Chiral perturbation theory for neutron–antineutron oscillations | We construct the Chiral Perturbation Theory operators for neutron–antineutron oscillations and use these to estimate chiral and finite volume corrections at one-loop order. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Mathematics"
]
|
GB 1753349 A | Improvements in or relating to motor road vehicles | 673,758. Steering motor vehicles. DOT CYCLE & MOTOR MANUFACTURING CO., Ltd., and WADE, B. S. Oct. 2, 1950 [July 2, 1949], No. 17533/49. Class 79(v) In a motor vehicle of the type having a steerable front wheel driven by a power unit which swivels with the wheel, the steering axis is vertical and passes through the point of tyre contact, the power unit being arranged so that its centre of gravity is substantially ahead of the steering axis. As shown, the power unit 22 is carried on cross members 21 extending between a pair of vertical side members 20 which are secured to the top and bottom of the rotatable steering column 19 by means of transverse members 27, 28. The steering column 19 is vertical and is mounted in a steering head 17 fixed to the tubular backbone 6. Steering is effected by a steering wheel 30 and steering box 31, or by means of handlebars secured across the vertical side members 20. The forwardly mounted engine 22 and gearbox 23, together with the fuel tank 34 and other auxiliaries may be enclosed by a casing 33 which is secured to the front end of tubular member 6 and to forward extensions 32 of the body side members. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
interreg_3267 | Sustainable approach to cultural Heritage for the urban Areas Requalification in Europe | The diversity of the cultural heritage assets, ranging from museums, to buildings to archives, to cultural itineraries and events, is a cornerstone in European identity and a catalyst for social inclusion. It also plays a specific role in achieving the Europe 2020 strategy goals for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, given its relevance not only in culture, but also in social and economic development, cohesion, education, tourism and innovation. However, pressure applied by visitors and residents means that heritage professionals, institutions and stakeholders face growing challenges to keep cultural assets and the territory around it protected, enhanced and, at the same time, accessible to all. SHARE aims at exchanging experiences in cultural heritage policies in urban settings, in order to identify best practices and innovative methods to develop a sustainable and smart approach to its management and use. The project will target ways in which smart cities projects can be effectively improved by including a smart and sustainable agenda for cultural assets in urban centers. The exchange of experience method will be based on a review of existing policy tools, European policy outlines and best practices and will include specific researches to be carried out in each partner’s area. The result of the interregional exchange process, lasting 24 months during Phase 1 of the project, will be conveyed in 6 Action Plans, that will indicate ways to successfully transfer of SHARE’s outputs into mainstream policies, with particular reference to 4 ERDF funds. The partners represent a variety of public bodies, agencies and academic centers coming from 7 Countries across Europe dealing with cultural heritage and smart cities policies and will commit to effectively share results of the project with local stakeholders groups and the MAs and institutions implementing local policies, and to ensure monitoring of the Action Plans over the 2-years period Phase 2 of the project. | [
"Studies of Cultures and Arts",
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space",
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems"
]
|
949506 | Post-transcriptional regulation of influenza A virus RNA | This research proposal aims to significantly alter our understanding of the critical role post-transcriptional processes play in the influenza A virus (IAV) life cycle. Post-transcriptional regulation of cellular mRNAs has seen a lot of research interest in recent years, including projects looking at the effects of RNA modifications and ribosome specialisation. However, much less attention has been paid to the effects these processes have on the viral life cycle. This project focuses on the post-transcriptional regulation of both IAV mRNAs and negative strand vRNAs. However, outcomes of this work will have a profound effect on our perceptions of the regulatory processes affecting a wide range of viral RNAs. In fact, by better understanding the roles of these processes on viral RNAs, such as IAV, we can also uncover novel functions on cellular mRNAs.
This project comprises 5 work packages with 11 intermediate goals. We will first identify the locations of various modifications present on IAV RNAs across multiple strains in both human and avian infected cells, significantly expanding on our current understanding, while exploring the potential for species-specific adaptions. Through mutagenesis and RNA capture techniques, we will evaluate how these modifications affect RNA characteristics and what effector proteins are involved in these processes. We will also use this information to determine the composition of ribosomes actively translating IAV mRNAs and evaluate whether specialised ribosomes are involved in the normal IAV life cycle. Finally, we will focus on the roles of RNA modifications on vRNAs, which should be quite distinct from mRNAs, and the host proteins that specifically bind, or are blocked from binding, sites of modification. This is an ambitious, multifaceted project that will have a direct impact on our understanding of IAV biology, and also provide novel insights of value to multiple disciplines including virology, RNA biology and protein translation. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy"
]
|
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