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10.1007/978-3-642-39206-1_24 | Finding Short Paths On Polytopes By The Shadow Vertex Algorithm | We show that the shadow vertex algorithm can be used to compute a short path between a given pair of vertices of a polytope $P = \left\{ x \in \mathbb{R}^n \,\colon\, Ax \leq b \right\}$ along the edges of P, where A∈ℝm ×n. Both, the length of the path and the running time of the algorithm, are polynomial in m, n, and a parameter 1/δ that is a measure for the flatness of the vertices of P. For integer matrices A∈ℤm ×n we show a connection between δ and the largest absolute value Δ of any sub-determinant of A, yielding a bound of O(Δ4mn4) for the length of the computed path. This bound is expressed in the same parameter Δ as the recent non-constructive bound of O(Δ2n4 log(n Δ)) by Bonifas et al. [1]. For the special case of totally unimodular matrices, the length of the computed path simplifies to O(mn4), which significantly improves the previously best known constructive bound of O(m16n3 log3 (mn)) by Dyer and Frieze [7]. | [
"Mathematics",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
260914 | Follow the PAIN: Novel Somatotopically-Based Integrative Approach to Study Mechanisms of Detection, Transmission and Perpetuation of Nociceptive, Inflammatory and Neuropathic Pain | The worst of evils - pain is one of the main reasons for seeking medical help. Chronic pain affects almost one fifth of the population of Europe and leads to exorbitant medical expenses as well as extreme suffering. Despite extensive efforts, effective pain treatment has remained elusive. Inadequate understanding of the mechanisms of pain prevents the development of effective therapies. In order to better understand pain mechanisms, a novel integrative approach is needed. This approach should: to investigate the fundamental site of signal detection; the nociceptive terminals and to establish an understanding of the progression from peripheral nociception to central pain perception. Our project aims to integrate analysis at different levels of pain perception in normal and pathological conditions in order to elucidate mechanisms underlying chronic pain. Our approach propose to study pain related mechanisms along somatotopically define neuroaxis of vibrissae-barrel system. Using this unique system where peripheral receptor directly corresponds to its central analyzer, we will first characterize noxious signal detection by single channels in individual nociceptive terminal. We will follow propagation of nociceptive signal and monitor activity-dependent changes in corresponding circuits at trigeminal nuclei, thalamus and cortex. We will study modulation in of synaptic connectivity in the spino-thalamo-cortical pathway in models of chronic pain. This multi-disciplinary project will incorporate ground-breaking imaging techniques and state-of-the-art electrophysiological, histological and behavioural experiments to study pain-related mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels as well as at the level of neuronal networks and behaviour. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1038/s41567-017-0019-2 | Strongly anisotropic spin relaxation in graphene-transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures at room temperature | A large enhancement in the spin-orbit coupling of graphene has been predicted when interfacing it with semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides. Signatures of such an enhancement have been reported, but the nature of the spin relaxation in these systems remains unknown. Here, we unambiguously demonstrate anisotropic spin dynamics in bilayer heterostructures comprising graphene and tungsten or molybdenum disulphide (WS 2 , MoS 2 ). We observe that the spin lifetime varies over one order of magnitude depending on the spin orientation, being largest when the spins point out of the graphene plane. This indicates that the strong spin-valley coupling in the transition metal dichalcogenide is imprinted in the bilayer and felt by the propagating spins. These findings provide a rich platform to explore coupled spin-valley phenomena and offer novel spin manipulation strategies based on spin relaxation anisotropy in two-dimensional materials. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1016/j.jrp.2012.04.007 | Are parental personality traits a basis for mate selection? | Both psychoanalytic views of attachment and evolutionary theories of imprinting suggest that mates may be preferentially chosen to resemble one's parents. Using data from a large Dutch study of twins and their families, we tested these hypotheses with regard to personality traits from the Five-Factor Model. Little evidence of parent/spouse similarity was found, although women did tend to select a husband who resembled their parents with regard to Openness to Experience. This effect may be due to the influence of Openness on their social worlds, rather than to their experiences in early childhood. | [
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
10.1111/j.1551-2916.2011.04874.x | Sintering behavior of nano- and micro-sized ZnO powder targets for rf magnetron sputtering applications | In this work, the nonisothermal sintering behavior of as-received commercial high purity ZnO micrometric (m-ZnO), submicrometric (sm-ZnO) and nanometric (n-ZnO) powders was studied. The sintering behavior for sputtering target production was evaluated by changing the green density of samples from 62% of theoretical density (TD) to 35%. We observed that for n-ZnO powder, the maximum shrinkage rate (MSR) temperature (T MSR) was not affected by the green density, and that it was reached at lower temperatures (∼710°C) compared with m-ZnO and sm-ZnO powders. For these powders, the temperature of MSR increased from 803°C to 934°C and from 719°C to 803°C as TD changed from 62% to 35% TD, respectively. Small grain size (∼0. 560 μm) and high density targets were obtained for n-ZnO when sintered at temperatures below the T MSR. Heating rate from 1°C to 15°C/min led to lower activation energy for n-ZnO (∼201 ± 3 kJ/mol) than for the submicrometric (sm-ZnO) (∼332 ± 20 kJ/mol) and micrometric (m-ZnO) (∼273 ± 9 kJ/mol) powders. Using the model proposed by Bannister and Woolfrey, an n value of 0. 75 was found, which was correlated with a combination of viscous flow and volume diffusion mechanisms that should control the initial stage of n-ZnO sintering. No significant differences were observed for n-ZnO powder in terms of density when the size of targets (scale-up effect) was increased, while in the case of m-ZnO and sm-ZnO, a delay in the densification was observed, which was related to the higher sinterability of n-ZnO powder. Two inches ZnO ceramic targets with different particle sizes and final densities were used in an rf magnetron sputtering system to produce ZnO films under the same deposition conditions. Films with thickness around 100 nm and good uniformity were produced using those targets, and no variation was observed in the optical and morphological properties. However, low electrical resistivity (1. 4 Omega;·cm) films were obtained with n-ZnO targets, which could be explained in terms of a nonstoichiometric Zn:O composition of the started powders. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
US 41727003 A | Fuel pump for high torque in compact structure | In a fuel pump, four permanent magnets are installed in a housing. An armature is installed inside the permanent magnets rotatably. Six magnetic pole coil portions of the armature are installed in a central core. Each magnetic pole coil portion has a coil core, a bobbin and a coil formed by winding a winding on the bobbin in a concentrated winding form. Each coil core has an outer region in opposition to the permanent magnet in a direction of revolution, and a board-shaped coil-winding portion extending from the outer region toward the central core. Each bobbin covers the coil core except for the outer surface of the outer region and a convex portion. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1016/j.ihe.2015.12.003 | Global History vs. eurocentrism: Historiographical review, analysis on consumption and a comparative case study between China and Europe (1730-1808) | This paper focuses on the impact of the discipline of Global History in recent decades, paying particular attention to studies on consumption and circulation of new goods in European and Asian markets. The main objective of this article is, therefore, to present a historiographical review on the impact of Global History, in which it can be observed that, in the case of studies on consumption, in particular, has had an obvious Eurocentric focus. The analysis of the British world, and its colonies, as engine of the first industrialisation, has been one of the main causes that have led towards such Eurocentric focus. This approach began to change with the growing interest in the study of China and its role in the world economy. Thus, this essay presents a historiographical review of both spaces, concluding with a comparative case study between Macau and Marseille as trans-national ports. This project is in its preliminary phases; therefore, it is only showing the principal lines. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
10.1177/0096144220910139 | City Of Dog | To be fully human in the Greco-Roman world was to be a member of a city. This is unsurprising as cities were the building blocks of Greek and Roman culture and society. The urban landscape of post-. . . | [
"Texts and Concepts",
"The Study of the Human Past"
]
|
10.1257/mac.20160250 | The price of growth: Consumption insurance in China 1989-2009 | We exploit a novel and unique opportunity to document the transmission of income risk to consumption in a growing economy. Our laboratory is China, an economy that has witnessed enormous and sustained growth. We build a long panel of household-level consumption and income data. We find that consumption insurance deteriorates along the growth process with a transmission of permanent income shocks to consumption that at least triples from 1989 to 2009. Although preliminary, our welfare analysis suggests that the loss of consumption insurance can have first-order implications for the welfare assessment of economic growth. | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.3389/fimmu.2015.00653 | Function and dynamics of tetraspanins during antigen recognition and immunological synapse formation | Tetraspanin-enriched microdomains (TEMs) are specialized membrane platforms driven by protein-protein interactions that integrate membrane receptors and adhesion molecules. Tetraspanins participate in antigen recognition and presentation by antigen-presenting cells (APCs) through the organization of pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) and their downstream-induced signaling, as well as the regulation of MHC-II-peptide trafficking. T lymphocyte activation is triggered upon specific recognition of antigens present on the APC surface during immunological synapse (IS) formation. This dynamic process is characterized by a defined spatial organization involving the compartmentalization of receptors and adhesion molecules in specialized membrane domains that are connected to the underlying cytoskeleton and signaling molecules. Tetraspanins contribute to the spatial organization and maturation of the IS by controlling receptor clustering and local accumulation of adhesion receptors and integrins, their downstream signaling, and linkage to the actin cytoskeleton. This review offers a perspective on the important role of TEMs in the regulation of antigen recognition and presentation and in the dynamics of IS architectural organization. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
988121 | Electronic neuropharmacology | As the population ages, neurodegenerative diseases (ND) will have a devastating impact on individuals and society. Despite enormous research efforts there is still no cure for these diseases, only care! The origin of ND is hugely complex, spanning from the molecular level to systemic processes, causing malfunctioning of signalling in the central nervous system (CNS). This signalling includes the coupled processing of biochemical and electrical signals, however current approaches for symptomatic- and disease modifying treatments are all based on biochemical approaches, alone.
Organic bioelectronics has arisen as a promising technology providing signal translation, as sensors and modulators, across the biology-technology interface; especially, it has proven unique in neuronal applications. There is great opportunity with organic bioelectronics since it can complement biochemical pharmacology to enable a twinned electric-biochemical therapy for ND and neurological disorders. However, this technology is traditionally manufactured on stand-alone substrates. Even though organic bioelectronics has been manufactured on flexible and soft carriers in the past, current technology consume space and volume, that when applied to CNS, rule out close proximity and amalgamation between the bioelectronics technology and CNS components – features that are needed in order to reach high therapeutic efficacy.
e-NeuroPharma includes development of innovative organic bioelectronics, that can be in-vivo-manufactured within the brain. The overall aim is to evaluate and develop electrodes, delivery devices and sensors that enable a twinned biochemical-electric therapy approach to combat ND and other neurological disorders. e-NeuroPharma will focus on the development of materials that can cross the blood-brain-barrier, that self-organize and -polymerize along CNS components, and that record and regulate relevant electrical, electrochemical and physical parameters relevant to ND and disorders | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
233185 | Evolution of Development In Plants | Different morphologies evolve in different organisms in response to changing environments. As land plants evolved, developmental mechanisms were either generated de novo, or were recruited from existing toolkits and adapted to facilitate changes in form. Some of these changes occurred once, others on multiple occasions, and others were gained and then subsequently lost in a subset of lineages. Why have certain forms survived and others not? Why does a fern look different from a flowering plant, and why should developmental biologists care? By determining how many different ways there are to generate a particular morphology, we gain an understanding of whether a particular transition is constrained. This basic information allows an assessment of the extent to which genetic variation can modify developmental mechanisms and an indication of the degree of developmental plasticity that is possible and/or tolerated both within and between species. This proposal aims to characterize the developmental mechanisms that underpin the diverse shoot forms seen in extant plant species. The main goal is to compare developmental mechanisms that operate in vegetative shoots of bryophytes, lycophytes, ferns and angiosperms, with a view to understanding the constraints that limit morphological variation. Specifically, we will investigate the developmental basis of three major innovations that altered the morphology of vegetative shoots during land plant evolution: 1) formation of a multi-cellular embryo; 2) organization of apical growth centres and 3) patterning of leaves in distinct spatial arrangements along the shoot. To facilitate progress we also aim to develop transgenic methods, create mutant populations and generate digital transcriptomes for model species at key phylogenetic nodes. The proposed work will generate scenarios to explain how land plant form evolved and perhaps more importantly, how it could change in the future. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1145/1985342.1985345 | A Theory Of Synchronous Relational Interfaces | Compositional theories are crucial when designing large and complex systems from smaller components. In this work we propose such a theory for synchronous concurrent systems. Our approach follows so-called interface theories, which use game-theoretic interpretations of composition and refinement. These are appropriate for systems with distinct inputs and outputs, and explicit conditions on inputs that must be enforced during composition. Our interfaces model systems that execute in an infinite sequence of synchronous rounds. At each round, a contract must be satisfied. The contract is simply a relation specifying the set of valid input/output pairs. Interfaces can be composed by parallel, serial or feedback composition. A refinement relation between interfaces is defined, and shown to have two main properties: (1) it is preserved by composition, and (2) it is equivalent to substitutability, namely, the ability to replace an interface by another one in any context. Shared refinement and abstraction operators, corresponding to greatest lower and least upper bounds with respect to refinement, are also defined. Input-complete interfaces, that impose no restrictions on inputs, and deterministic interfaces, that produce a unique output for any legal input, are discussed as special cases, and an interesting duality between the two classes is exposed. A number of illustrative examples are provided, as well as algorithms to compute compositions, check refinement, and so on, for finite-state interfaces. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
864519 | Ecological Origins of Cross-Societal Variation in Cooperation | Societies that contain widespread cooperation can solve problems of public good provision and resource conservation, yet many societies fail to display the cooperation necessary to solve these problems. A puzzle facing the social sciences is understanding the origin of cross-societal variation in cooperation. Strikingly, multiple disciplines propose the same, not yet established, explanation: ecological conditions, such as subsistence, environmental hazards, and relational mobility, determine how people are interdependent (i.e. how actions affect own and others’ outcomes), and interdependence can be the mechanism through which diverse ecologies shape a culture of cooperation. For example, rice versus wheat production plausibly has led to more versus less dependence on others, which then led to different cultures (e.g. values, beliefs, and norms) that affect strategies of when and how people cooperate. I use a multi-discipline, multi-method approach to answer three questions about whether ecologies indeed create different interdependence, and how this leads to variation in culture and cooperation. Do ecologies create different kinds of interdependence? I measure the interdependence and cooperation people experience across different ecologies in 10 contemporary small-scale societies, among rice and wheat farmers in China, and in over 200 societies documented in the ethnographic record. Can interdependence cause differences in culture and cooperation? I use agent-based models and experiments to study how variation in interdependence can cause different norms of cooperation. Does variation in interdependence relate to culture and cooperation? I apply experience sampling to measure interdependence and cooperation in daily life across 35 societies that vary in culture. The ground-breaking innovation of this project is establishing interdependence as a common mechanism through which diverse features of the ecology shape cross-societal differences in culture and cooperation | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
W1761294217 | Responsible Use of Human Gene-Editing Technologies | Responsible Use of Human Gene-Editing Technologies Victor J. Dzau 1 and Ralph J. Cicerone 2 President, National Academy of Medicine; 2 President, National Academy of Sciences. Over the last 40 years, a remarkable series of technological developments have greatly advanced scientists’ ability to manipulate genetic material. Current techniques for genome editing allow for more highly specific and efficient modification of DNA than previous editing tools. 1 Researchers can investigate gene function in various organisms, such as plants, insects, mice, zebrafish, and even human cell lines in vitro. In theory, the technol- ogy is capable of introducing or correcting single point mutations, 2 regulating transcription, 3 or even epigenetic modifications, 4 and therefore holds great promise for medicine. One powerful and efficient tool for genome engi- neering uses the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) nuclease Cas9 to cut sequences specified by guide RNA molecules. This technique is in widespread use in research and has already engineered the genomes of more than a dozen species. In April, a Chinese research team 5 reported editing the genomes of human embryos using the CRISPR/Cas9 system. However, there are significant scientific and technical questions about the efficacy and risks of these technologies. The Chinese research team reported that the embryos were ‘‘mosaic,’’ meaning that only some cells had the desired changes, and there were a large number of ‘‘off-target effects’’ or mutations in nontargeted genes that were likely to be harmful if the embryos had been viable. Their work also raised significant concerns on the social and ethical aspects of human gene editing, especially on human embryos. Gene-editing technologies hold great promise for advancing science and improving human health. For instance, the genomes of plants and animals could be modified to boost agriculture and food production, and the technology potentially could be used to edit somatic cells to cure genetic diseases such as sickle cell disease. 6 However, these tech- nologies also raise a number of ethical and social considerations. Of particular concern is the poten- tial to make permanent modifications to human DNA in the nuclei of cells in eggs, sperm, or human embryos that are then passed down to succeeding generations. This is known as human germline editing. As a result, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine are laun- ching a major initiative to guide decision making about research involving human gene editing. 7 We have appointed a multidisciplinary advisory group that will help steer our initiative. This fall, we will host an international summit to assemble researchers and other experts to explore the sci- entific, ethical, and policy issues associated with human gene-editing research. In addition, the academies will convene a multidisciplinary, inter- national committee to undertake an in-depth study to examine the scientific underpinnings; clinical implications; and ethical, legal, and social aspects of the use of current and developing human ge- nome editing technologies in biomedical research and medicine. The study will take a global per- spective, and committee members will represent a wide range of expertise from diverse disciplines such as bioethics. The academies have a history of providing lead- ership on emerging and controversial technologies. In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences convened the Asilomar conference, a landmark turning point for recombinant DNA research that resulted in guidelines for recombinant DNA research. 8 Our Correspondence: Victor J. Dzau, National Academy of Medicine, 500 5 th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001. E-mail: [email protected]; Ralph J. Cicerone, National Academy of Sciences, 500 5 th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001. E-mail: [email protected] HUMAN GENE THERAPY, VOLUME 26 NUMBER 7 a 2015 by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/hum.2015.29004.vjd j | [
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems"
]
|
W2025222195 | The efficacy of intravitreal bevacizumab for idiopathic central serous chorioretinopathy | To evaluate the efficacy of intravitreal bevacizumab injection in the treatment of central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC).In a prospective interventional case series, 40 eyes of 40 patients with idiopathic CSC at least 3 months in duration were included. Patients were treated with once or twice intravitreal bevacizumab injections initially and completed at least 12 months follow-up. Main outcomes measures were the resolution of neurosensory detachment, best-corrected visual acuity, and findings on fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography.Thirty-three of 40 eyes (82.5%) showed complete absence of subretinal fluid at the macula within 3 months following initial intravitreal bevacizumab injection. Eyes exhibiting resolution of subretinal fluid revealed improvement in fluorescein and indocyanine green angiographic findings. The rate of intense hyperfluorescence on indocyanine green angiography was higher in eyes exhibiting resolution of subretinal fluid than eyes exhibiting incomplete absorption of subretinal fluid after intravitreal bevacizumab (72.7 and 28.5%, respectively, p = 0.039).Intravitreal bevacizumab injections generally resulted in anatomic improvement for CSC and may constitute a therapeutic option in CSC. The effect after intravitreal bevacizumab injection for CSC might be related to the hyperfluorescence on indocyanine green angiography. | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
W2372015618 | Modeling and Simulation of Startup Process of Circulating Fluidized Bed Boiler | Via analyzing the startup process of intake hot gas ignition of the circulating fluidized bed boiler, the startup process is divided into two phases: the heating by the gas for inert bed material before adding coal and the reaction after coal is fed. The model for the former is obtained based on the energy balance of the whole bed, while for the latter the model consists of dynamic equations of oxygen concentration, total bed material, unburned carbon mass and total energy. Then a simple startup process model of intake hot gas ignition of circulating fluidized bed boiler was established, the results of simulations indicated the model is right. Finally, the validated model system was used to simulate the curves for temperature increase of CFBB in different operating conditions. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
10.1111/mec.12034 | Parsing parallel evolution: Ecological divergence and differential gene expression in the adaptive radiations of thick-lipped Midas cichlid fishes from Nicaragua | The study of parallel evolution facilitates the discovery of common rules of diversification. Here, we examine the repeated evolution of thick lips in Midas cichlid fishes (the Amphilophus citrinellus species complex) - from two Great Lakes and two crater lakes in Nicaragua - to assess whether similar changes in ecology, phenotypic trophic traits and gene expression accompany parallel trait evolution. Using next-generation sequencing technology, we characterize transcriptome-wide differential gene expression in the lips of wild-caught sympatric thick- and thin-lipped cichlids from all four instances of repeated thick-lip evolution. Six genes (apolipoprotein D, myelin-associated glycoprotein precursor, four-and-a-half LIM domain protein 2, calpain-9, GTPase IMAP family member 8-like and one hypothetical protein) are significantly underexpressed in the thick-lipped morph across all four lakes. However, other aspects of lips' gene expression in sympatric morphs differ in a lake-specific pattern, including the magnitude of differentially expressed genes (97-510). Generally, fewer genes are differentially expressed among morphs in the younger crater lakes than in those from the older Great Lakes. Body shape, lower pharyngeal jaw size and shape, and stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) differ between all sympatric morphs, with the greatest differentiation in the Great Lake Nicaragua. Some ecological traits evolve in parallel (those related to foraging ecology; e. g. lip size, body and head shape) but others, somewhat surprisingly, do not (those related to diet and food processing; e. g. jaw size and shape, stable isotopes). Taken together, this case of parallelism among thick- and thin-lipped cichlids shows a mosaic pattern of parallel and nonparallel evolution. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b03068 | Nanoscale and Single-Dot Patterning of Colloidal Quantum Dots | Using an optimized lift-off process we develop a technique for both nanoscale and single-dot patterning of colloidal quantum dot films, demonstrating feature sizes down to ∼30 nm for uniform films and a yield of 40% for single-dot positioning, which is in good agreement with a newly developed theoretical model. While first of all presenting a unique tool for studying physics of single quantum dots, the process also provides a pathway toward practical quantum dot-based optoelectronic devices. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1145/2488608.2488698 | Going After The K Sat Threshold | Random $k$-SAT is the single most intensely studied example of a random constraint satisfaction problem. But despite substantial progress over the past decade, the threshold for the existence of satisfying assignments is not known precisely for any $k\geq3$. The best current results, based on the second moment method, yield upper and lower bounds that differ by an additive $k\cdot \frac{\ln2}2$, a term that is unbounded in $k$ (Achlioptas, Peres: STOC 2003). The basic reason for this gap is the inherent asymmetry of the Boolean value `true' and `false' in contrast to the perfect symmetry, e. g. , among the various colors in a graph coloring problem. Here we develop a new asymmetric second moment method that allows us to tackle this issue head on for the first time in the theory of random CSPs. This technique enables us to compute the $k$-SAT threshold up to an additive $\ln2-\frac12+O(1/k)\approx 0. 19$. Independently of the rigorous work, physicists have developed a sophisticated but non-rigorous technique called the "cavity method" for the study of random CSPs (M\'ezard, Parisi, Zecchina: Science 2002). Our result matches the best bound that can be obtained from the so-called "replica symmetric" version of the cavity method, and indeed our proof directly harnesses parts of the physics calculations. | [
"Mathematics",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W1688465197 | Sand Filtration as an Alternative Technique for the Treatment of Distillery Effluent | Distilleries produce large volume of wastewater which poses a considerable environmental impact by polluting water and soil bodies. The present study was conducted to find a simple and economical way for wastewater treatment. Wastewater released from distilleries was filtered by using different ratio of sand and clay soil with some amount of wood ash and charcoal. The result revealed that there was a significant reduction in parameters as: pH, COD, BOD, TDS, EC and heavy metal concentrations. Maximum percentage reduction in all parameter was obtained for the filtration with 3:1 sand and clay soil with some amount of crushed wood charcoal. Minimum reduction in all parameter was recorded for the filtration with 3:1 sand and clay soil. Keywords: Wastewater, Physicochemical, Filtration-Bed | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-662-47989-6_29 | A Quasipolynomial Reduction For Generalized Selective Decryption On Trees | Generalized Selective Decryption (GSD), introduced by Panjwani [TCC’07], is a game for a symmetric encryption scheme \(\mathsf{Enc}\) that captures the difficulty of proving adaptive security of certain protocols, most notably the Logical Key Hierarchy (LKH) multicast encryption protocol. In the GSD game there are n keys \(k_1,\ldots ,k_n\), which the adversary may adaptively corrupt (learn); moreover, it can ask for encryptions \(\mathsf{Enc}_{k_i}(k_j)\) of keys under other keys. The adversary’s task is to distinguish keys (which it cannot trivially compute) from random. Proving the hardness of GSD assuming only IND-CPA security of \(\mathsf{Enc}\) is surprisingly hard. Using “complexity leveraging” loses a factor exponential in n, which makes the proof practically meaningless. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1503/jpn.180184 | Truncating variant burden in high-functioning autism and pleiotropic effects of LRP1 across psychiatric phenotypes | Background: Previous research has implicated de novo and inherited truncating mutations in autism-spectrum disorder. We aim to investigate whether the load of inherited truncating mutations contributes similarly to high-functioning autism, and to characterize genes that harbour de novo variants in high-functioning autism. Methods: We performed whole-exome sequencing in 20 high-functioning autism families (average IQ = 100). Results: We observed no difference in the number of transmitted versus nontransmitted truncating alleles for high-functioning autism (117 v. 130, p = 0. 78). Transmitted truncating and de novo variants in high-functioning autism were not enriched in gene ontology (GO) or Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) categories, or in autism-related gene sets. However, in a patient with high-functioning autism we identified a de novo variant in a canonical splice site of LRP1, a postsynaptic density gene that is a target for fragile X mental retardation protein (FRMP). This de novo variant leads to in-frame skipping of exon 29, removing 2 of 6 blades of the β-propeller domain 4 of LRP1, with putative functional consequences. Large data sets implicate LRP1 across a number of psychiatric disorders: de novo variants are associated with autism-spectrum disorder (p = 0. 039) and schizophrenia (p = 0. 008) from combined sequencing projects; common variants using genome-wide association study data sets from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium show gene-based association in schizophrenia (p = 6. 6 × E−07) and in a meta-analysis across 7 psychiatric disorders (p = 2. 3 × E−03); and the burden of ultra-rare pathogenic variants has been shown to be higher in autism-spectrum disorder (p = 1. 2 × E−05), using whole-exome sequencing from 6135 patients with schizophrenia, 1778 patients with autism-spectrum disorder and 7875 controls. Limitations: We had a limited sample of patients with high-functioning autism, related to difficulty in recruiting probands with high cognitive performance and no family history of psychiatric disorders. Conclusion: Previous studies and ours suggest an effect of truncating mutations restricted to severe autism-spectrum disorder phenotypes that are associated with intellectual disability. We provide evidence for pleiotropic effects of common and rare variants in the LRP1 gene across psychiatric phenotypes. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1126/science.aaz5312 | A scalable realization of local U(1) gauge invariance in cold atomic mixtures | In the fundamental laws of physics, gauge fields mediate the interaction between charged particles. An example is the quantum theory of electrons interacting with the electromagnetic field, based on U(1) gauge symmetry. Solving such gauge theories is in general a hard problem for classical computational techniques. Although quantum computers suggest a way forward, large-scale digital quantum devices for complex simulations are difficult to build. We propose a scalable analog quantum simulator of a U(1) gauge theory in one spatial dimension. Using interspecies spin-changing collisions in an atomic mixture, we achieve gauge-invariant interactions between matter and gauge fields with spin- and species-independent trapping potentials. We experimentally realize the elementary building block as a key step toward a platform for quantum simulations of continuous gauge theories. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
185281 | Production-Ready oriented development of radically innovative vehicle electric drive | Opportunities to make electric vehicles radically energy and cost-efficient are rare. PRODRIVE is a response to the commercial potential created by environmental and political challenges recognized by all major world economies. PRODRIVE will address these global challenges through a completely new, mass-production-ready in-wheel electric motor for electric passenger cars. The project is customer-focused and is solving key needs of automotive OEMs who are only looking for already industrialized in-wheel motor solutions for their new vehicle concepts. This innovative product will displace current technologies with a reduction in vehicle manufacturing cost and its sales price, disrupting the existing market.
1500 in-wheel motor is based on Elaphe’s patented unique electromagnetic and mechanical design, fits into 19’’ or larger rims, incorporates original OEM brakes, offers unprecedented peak torque and is essential to covering the torque needs of the upper-segment car market. PRODRIVE will result in an industrialized and mass-produced solution that will increase the energy efficiency of the e-powertrain by 10-15% when compared to current electric cars and offer 20 % more performance at 2% better efficiency than the closest in-wheel motor competitor. With the lowest production price, it is suitable for market entry even at lower production quantities. Being so disruptive, it will have faster penetration and higher degree of environmental and economic impact on established markets.
Compared to today’s EVs, the end-user will experience lower car prices and an annual ownership cost reduction without sacrificing performance or comfort. PRODRIVE will bring Elaphe to Tier 1 supplier position at prominent automotive OEMs and enable 296 new employments, 200 million € in revenue with 29 million € of combined EBITDA, and 18% global upper-segment passenger car market share in the 5 years after the projects’ end. ROI turning point will be during year 2 after the end of the project. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.3847/2041-8205/832/1/L3 | Chemical Diversity In The Ultra Faint Dwarf Galaxy Tucana Ii | We present the first detailed chemical abundance study of the ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Tucana II based on high-resolution Magellan/MIKE spectra of four red giant stars. The metallicity of these stars ranges from [Fe/H] = -3. 2 to -2. 6, and all stars are low in neutron-capture abundances ([Sr/Fe] and [Ba/Fe] < -1). However, a number of anomalous chemical signatures are present. Three stars are carbon-enhanced, including the most metal-rich star. This star ([Fe/H]=-2. 6) shows [Na,$\alpha$,Sc/Fe] < 0, suggesting an extended star formation history with contributions from AGB stars and Type Ia supernovae. The other carbon-enhanced stars have [Fe/H] < -3 and may be consistent with enrichment by faint supernovae, if such supernovae can produce neutron-capture elements. A fourth star with [Fe/H] = -3 is carbon-normal, and exhibits distinct light element abundance ratios from the carbon-enhanced stars. The carbon-normal star implies that at least two distinct nucleosynthesis sources, both possibly associated with Population III stars, contributed to the early chemical enrichment of this galaxy. Despite its very low luminosity, Tucana II shows a diversity of chemical signatures that preclude it from being a simple "one-shot" first galaxy, but still provide a window to star and galaxy formation in the early universe. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
222279 | The climates and habitability of small exoplanets around red stars | The detection of life beyond our Solar System is possible only via the remote sensing of the atmospheres of exoplanets. The recent discovery that small exoplanets are common around cool, red stars offers an exciting opportunity to study the atmospheres of Earth-like worlds. Motivated by this revelation, the EXOKLEIN project proposes to construct a holistic climate framework to understand astronomical observations in the context of the atmosphere, geochemistry and biosignatures of the exoplanet. The proposed research is divided into three major themes. Research Theme 1 aims to construct a virtual laboratory of an atmosphere that considers atmospheric dynamics, chemistry and radiation, as well as how they interact. This virtual laboratory enables us to understand the physical and chemical mechanisms involved, as well as predict the observed properties of an exoplanet. Research Theme 2 aims to generalize the carbonate-silicate cycle (also known as the long-term carbon cycle) by considering variations in rock composition, water acidity and atmospheric conditions. The carbonate-silicate cycle is important because it regulates the long-term presence of carbon dioxide (a vital greenhouse gas) in atmospheres. We also aim to investigate the role of the cycle in determining the fates of ocean-dominated exoplanets called “water worlds”. Research Theme 3 aims to investigate the long-term stability of biosignature gases in the context of the climate. Whether a gas uniquely indicates the presence of biology on an exoplanet depends on the atmospheric properties and ultraviolet radiation environment. We investigate three prime candidates for biosignature gases: methyl chloride, dimethylsulfide and ammonia. Overall, the EXOKLEIN project will significantly advance our understanding of whether the environments of rocky exoplanets around red stars are stable and conducive for life, and whether the tell-tale signatures of life may be detected by astronomers. | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Earth System Science",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
250209 | The evolution of mechanisms that control behaviour | The approach to animal behaviour adopted by behavioural ecology is based on the investigation of the adaptive function of behaviour. A common assumption is that the action of natural selection on behaviour can be predicted without reference to processes inside the organism. I believe that it is time to combine an analysis based on evolution with one based on mechanisms, where a mechanism might be psychological, physiological or a combination of both. Animals have mechanisms that need to perform well in changing and dangerous environments. In order to understand the evolution of mechanisms, we need a fundamental change in the sort of models that are analysed. Instead of building complex models of optimal behaviour in simple environments, we need to evolve simple mechanisms that perform well in complex environments. This approach can provide a novel and unified perspective on a range of issues involving decisions by animals, including humans. The main objective of the project is to provide a comprehensive view of behaviour that can account for both adaptive and non-adaptive actions. This involves developing a novel theoretical framework based on an understanding of the underlying information-processing rules, combined with an evolutionary perspective that explains how any such rule came into existence in the first place. The theme of coping with uncertain and dangerous environments is used to investigate various features of behaviour such as rationality and self-control. These topics lead to the broader issues of the organisation of thought and emotions. The project also explores the consequences of the evolved behaviour and the implications for conservation and animal welfare. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity",
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System"
]
|
10.1038/nphoton.2014.80 | Tunable hot-carrier photodetection beyond the bandgap spectral limit | The spectral response of common optoelectronic photodetectors is restricted by a cutoff wavelength limit c that is related to the activation energy (or bandgap) of the semiconductor structure (or material) (") through the relationship = hc/I". This spectral rule dominates device design and intrinsically limits the long-wavelength response of a semiconductor photodetector. Here, we report a new, long-wavelength photodetection principle based on a hot-cold hole energy transfer mechanism that overcomes this spectral limit. Hot carriers injected into a semiconductor structure interact with cold carriers and excite them to higher energy states. This enables a very long-wavelength infrared response. In our experiments, we observe a response up to 55 μm, which is tunable by varying the degree of hot-hole injection, for a GaAs/AlGaAs sample with " = 0. 32 eV (equivalent to 3. 9 μm in wavelength). | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
10.1038/tp.2016.70 | Intensified vmPFC surveillance over PTSS under perturbed microRNA-608/AChE interaction | Trauma causes variable risk of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) owing to yet-unknown genome-neuronal interactions. Here, we report co-intensified amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) emotional responses that may overcome PTSS in individuals with the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs17228616 in the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) gene. We have recently shown that in individuals with the minor rs17228616 allele, this SNP interrupts AChE suppression by microRNA (miRNA)-608, leading to cortical elevation of brain AChE and reduced cortisol and the miRNA-608 target GABAergic modulator CDC42, all stress-associated. To examine whether this SNP has effects on PTSS and threat-related brain circuits, we exposed 76 healthy Israel Defense Forces soldiers who experienced chronic military stress to a functional magnetic resonance imaging task of emotional and neutral visual stimuli. Minor allele individuals predictably reacted to emotional stimuli by hyperactivated amygdala, a hallmark of PTSS and a predisposing factor of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite this, minor allele individuals showed no difference in PTSS levels. Mediation analyses indicated that the potentiated amygdala reactivity in minor allele soldiers promoted enhanced vmPFC recruitment that was associated with their limited PTSS. Furthermore, we found interrelated expression levels of several miRNA-608 targets including CD44, CDC42 and interleukin 6 in human amygdala samples (N=7). Our findings suggest that miRNA-608/AChE interaction is involved in the threat circuitry and PTSS and support a model where greater vmPFC regulatory activity compensates for amygdala hyperactivation in minor allele individuals to neutralize their PTSS susceptibility. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.115701 | Shell-filling effect in the entanglement entropies of spinful fermions | We consider the von Neumann and Rényi entropies of the one-dimensional quarter-filled Hubbard model. We observe that for periodic boundary conditions the entropies exhibit an unexpected dependence on system size: for L=4 mod 8 the results are in agreement with expectations based on conformal field theory, while for L=0 mod 8 additional contributions arise. We explain this observation in terms of a shell-filling effect and develop a conformal field theory approach to calculate the extra term in the entropies. Similar shell-filling effects in entanglement entropies are expected to be present in higher dimensions and for other multicomponent systems. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1364/OE.20.025022 | Pulsed Sagnac Source Of Polarization Entangled Photon Pairs | Photonic quantum information experiments demand bright and highly entangled photon pair sources. The combination of periodic poling and collinear excitation geometry allows the use of considerably longer crystals for parametric down-conversion. We demonstrate a picosecond-pulsed laser pumped source of high quality polarization entangled photon pairs. The phase of the output biphoton state is affected by the relative phase of the two-color interferometer and the phase of the nonlinearly interacting Gaussian beams. We measure the influence of these onto the phase of the output state. The presented source is a promising candidate for a compact, semiconductor laser driven source of entangled photon pairs. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1109/TCNS.2017.2774010 | Distributed Partitioned Big Data Optimization Via Asynchronous Dual Decomposition | In this paper, we consider a novel partitioned framework for distributed optimization in peer-to-peer networks. In several important applications, the agents of a network have to solve an optimization problem with two key features: i) the dimension of the decision variable depends on the network size, and ii) cost function and constraints have a sparsity structure related to the communication graph. For this class of problems, a straightforward application of existing consensus methods would show two inefficiencies: poor scalability and redundancy of shared information. We propose an asynchronous distributed algorithm, based on dual decomposition and coordinate methods, to solve partitioned optimization problems. We show that by exploiting the problem structure, the solution can be partitioned among the nodes, so that each node just stores a local copy of a portion of the decision variable (rather than a copy of the entire decision vector) and solves a small-scale local problem. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-642-22233-7_10 | A Quality Model For Mashups | Despite several years of mashup practice and research, it is still hard to find high-quality, useful mashups on the Web. While this can be partly ascribed to the low quality of the components used in the mashups or simply to the lack of suitable components, in this paper we argue that this is partly also due to the lack of suitable quality models for mashups themselves, helping developers to focus on the key aspects that affect mashup quality. Although apparently easy, we show that - if taken seriously - mashup development can be non-trivial and that it deserves an investigation that specializes current web quality assessment techniques, which are not able to cater for the specifics of mashups. In fact, we believe a mashup-specific quality model is needed. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
204246 | Destabilisation of sociotechnical regimes as the key to transitions towards sustainability | Sociotechnical transitions are important to address environmental problems. The present literature focuses on green options that break through and replace existing sociotechnical regimes. The project turns the analytical focus upside down, seeing the destabilisation and decline of existing regimes as the key to transitions. Regimes refer to the rules (knowledge base, belief system, mission, strategic orientation) shared by incumbent actors in an industry. Destabilisation results from increasing external pressures (economic, normative, regulatory) and eroding commitment of actors to regime rules. Research questions are: 1 To what degree have regimes in transport, energy and agriculture destabilised in the last 30 years, as a result of environmental pressures? 2 What kind of process is regime destabilisation and how should it be conceptualised for environmental problems? Which mechanisms are important and how do they interact? The project develops a theoretical perspective, combining insights from neo-institutional theory, STS, evolutionary economics. A phase-based pattern and three propositions are advanced. To investigate destabilisation, the project uses case studies as research strategy, which is appropriate for tracing complex processes such as changing beliefs and identities, fuzzy network boundaries, and many interacting (external) factors. Two PhD projects do four longitudinal case studies about destabilisation. Cases are selected with regard to the phase-based pattern and propositions. One case (decline of domestic coal) went though all phases. Another case (destabilisation of pig farming) has progressed far into the last phase. Coal in electricity and the car regime are less far in the phase-pattern, and probably less destabilised. The PI integrates findings from PhD projects, providing general answers to research questions. He also elaborates the inter-disciplinary perspective, and addresses the possibilities for sustainability transitions. | [
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations",
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems"
]
|
3726628 | Center of innovative solutions for building safety – istos center of excellence | Europe is experiencing an increasing number of disasters due to natural hazards. The potential for a hazard to cause a disaster mainly depends on the vulnerability of the exposed community to a particular hazard. According to EM-DAT, for the period 1998–2009, earthquakes in Europe rank second in terms of fatalities and third in terms of overall losses. Further, flooding, along with storms, is the most important natural hazard in Europe in terms of economic losses. Actions and measures, can reduce the economic impact of a hazardous event. Within this context, scholars, government agencies, professional organizations as well as local communities seek to understand the three main stages of a disaster (i.e. Normal/Risk Reduction Stage, Emergency Response Stage, Recovery Stage) and take measures to lower the negative impact. The goal of ISTOS is, by the end of the project, to significantly strengthen the Scientific Excellence and Innovation Capacity of the collaborative Advanced Infrastructures and Materials (AIM) laboratory established at the Frederick Research Center (FRC) and the Large Structures laboratory (LSL) established at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT). The aim is to turn the collaborative laboratories at FRC and CUT into a Center of Excellence, “ISTOS”, which will be based in Cyprus. The proposed ISTOS project will achieve its goal by creating strong links between the AIM, LSL and two internationally leading research institutions namely the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) of Greece and the PLINIVS Study Centre, University of Naples Federico II (PLINIVS-LUPT) of Italy. Through ISTOS, the research profile and expertise of the staff, of FRC and CUT, will be raised while at the same time enhancing the S&T capacity of the linked institutions. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-642-15745-5_42 | Measures For Characterizing Directionality Specific Volume Changes In Tbm Of Brain Growth | Tensor based morphology (TBM) is a powerful approach to analyze local structural changes in brain anatomy. However, conventional scalar TBM methods are unable to present direction-specific analysis of volume changes required tomodel complex changes such as those during brain growth. In this paper, we describe novel TBM descriptors for studying direction-specific changes in a subject population which can be used in conjunction with scalar TBM to analyze local patterns in directionality of volume change during brain development. We illustrate the use of these methods by studying brain developmental patterns in fetuses. Results show that this approach detects early changes local growth that are related to the early stages of sulcal and gyral formation. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.243001 | Attosecond-recollision-controlled selective fragmentation of polyatomic molecules | Control over various fragmentation reactions of a series of polyatomic molecules (acetylene, ethylene, 1,3-butadiene) by the optical waveform of intense few-cycle laser pulses is demonstrated experimentally. We show both experimentally and theoretically that the responsible mechanism is inelastic ionization from inner-valence molecular orbitals by recolliding electron wave packets, whose recollision energy in few-cycle ionizing laser pulses strongly depends on the optical waveform. Our work demonstrates an efficient and selective way of predetermining fragmentation and isomerization reactions in polyatomic molecules on subfemtosecond time scales. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter"
]
|
10.1111/mmi.13132 | Protein kinase C is essential for viability of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae | Protein kinase C constitutes a family of serine-threonine kinases found in all eukaryotes and implicated in a wide range of cellular functions, including regulation of cell growth, cellular differentiation and immunity. Here, we present three independent lines of evidence which indicate that protein kinase C is essential for viability of Magnaporthe oryzae. First, all attempts to generate a target deletion of PKC1, the single copy protein kinase C-encoding gene, proved unsuccessful. Secondly, conditional gene silencing of PKC1 by RNA interference led to severely reduced growth of the fungus, which was reversed by targeted deletion of the Dicer2-encoding gene, MDL2. Finally, selective kinase inhibition of protein kinase C by targeted allelic replacement with an analogue-sensitive PKC1AS allele led to specific loss of fungal viability in the presence of the PP1 inhibitor. Global transcriptional profiling following selective PKC inhibition identified significant changes in gene expression associated with cell wall re-modelling, autophagy, signal transduction and secondary metabolism. When considered together, these results suggest protein kinase C is essential for growth and development of M. oryzae with extensive downstream targets in addition to the cell integrity pathway. Targeting protein kinase C signalling may therefore prove an effective means of controlling rice blast disease. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1175/JAS-D-17-0370.1 | On The Coupling Between Barotropic And Baroclinic Modes Of Extratropical Atmospheric Variability | AbstractThe baroclinic and barotropic components of atmospheric dynamics are usually viewed as interlinked through the baroclinic life cycle, with baroclinic growth of eddies connected to heat fluxes, barotropic decay connected to momentum fluxes, and the two eddy fluxes connected through the Eliassen-Palm wave activity. However, recent observational studies have suggested that these two components of the dynamics are largely decoupled in their variability, with variations in the zonal mean flow associated mainly with the momentum fluxes, variations in the baroclinic wave activity associated mainly with the heat fluxes, and essentially no correlation between the two. These relationships are examined in a dry dynamical core model under different configurations and in Southern Hemisphere observations, considering different frequency bands to account for the different timescales of atmospheric variability. It is shown that at intermediate periods longer than 10 days the decoupling of the baroclinic and barot. . . | [
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1074/jbc.M115.651208 | Crucial roles of single residues in binding affinity, specificity, and promiscuity in the cellulosomal cohesin-dockerin interface | Interactions between cohesin and dockerin modules play a crucial role in the assembly of multienzyme cellulosome complexes. Although intraspecies cohesin and dockerin modules bind in general with high affinity but indiscriminately, crossspecies binding is rare. Here, we combined ELISA-based experiments with Rosetta-based computational design to evaluate the contribution of distinct residues at the Clostridium thermocellum cohesin-dockerin interface to binding affinity, specificity, and promiscuity. We found that single mutations can show distinct and significant effects on binding affinity and specificity. In particular, mutations at cohesin position Asn<sup>37</sup> show dramatic variability in their effect on dockerin binding affinity and specificity: the N37A mutant binds promiscuously both to cognate (C. thermocellum) as well as to non-cognate Clostridium cellulolyticum dockerin. N37L in turn switches binding specificity: compared with the wild-type C. thermocellum cohesin, this mutant shows significantly increased preference for C. cellulolyticum dockerin combined with strongly reduced binding to its cognate C. thermocellum dockerin. The observation that a single mutation can overcome the naturally observed specificity barrier provides insights into the evolutionary dynamics of this system that allows rapid modulation of binding specificity within a high affinity background. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
223743 | Seismogenic compression in southern italy? – high-resolution topography (lidar) and morphotectonic analysis to test the active nature of the southern apennine outer thrust front | Over the past decade (1999-2009), earthquakes proved to be the deadliest of all European disasters. Italy is one of the most seismically active countries in Europe and, Southern Italy, is recognized as the most seismically active sector of the peninsula. The sector is traversed by the Apennine fold-and-thrust belt which is seismogenic, along the Outer Front, in northern-central Italy and in Sicily. On the contrary, it is considered often inactive in southern Italy. Nevertheless, historical seismicity reports several destructive earthquakes and geological-geomorphological indications of recent deformation have been recently pointed out. The geological setting contrasts the recognition of the seismogenic sources since the Apennine Outer Front is buried under Plio-Quaternary foredeep successions. It is urgent to develop new approaches to investigate the active deformation in this sector.
This research aims to detect evidence of Late Quaternary active compressional faulting along the Southern Apennine Outer Front. The peculiar geological setting of the sector necessarily requires a multidisciplinary approach. The research plan envisages the integration of HRT (high resolution topography) data analysis, morphotectonic analysis in GIS/Matlab environments, geochronologic dating and classical methodologies of analysis belonging the seismotectonics. Airborne lidar topographic data are able to capture fault offsets and landscape properties recording the complexity and sensitivity of deformation. The drainage pattern analysis and morphometric indices computed using GIS (Geographic Information System) and Matlab programming language are suitable for evaluating the effects of active tectonics on the topography or morphological features. These novel approaches are exploding worldwide. Exploiting them in order to investigate the active deformation represents an excellent chance to improve the knowledge on the southern Apennines seismotectonic setting. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1007/s11097-020-09701-2 | Situated imagination | AbstractImagination is often considered the pinnacle of representational cognition. Looking at the concrete details of imagining in context, this paper aims to contribute to the emerging literature that is challenging this representational view by offering a relational and radically situated alternative. On the basis of observing architects in the process of making an architectural art installation, we show how to consider imagination not as de-contextualized achievement by an individual but as an opening up to larger-scale “affordances,” i. e. the unfolding possibilities for action. We show how the architects coordinate the enactment of multiple affordances across different timescales, from small-scale affordances of picking up a mobile phone to the large-scale affordance of making the installation that takes months to unfold. These affordances get co-determined as they are jointly enacted. It is within this determining process that imagination too finds its place. On our view it is the indeterminacy of multiple affordances unfolding in action simultaneously that can be experienced as imaginative. The indeterminate character of this coordinative process allows activities to widen and open up, letting new possibilities for action enter into them. | [
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
interreg_1086 | European Airport Regions Development | Airports have a central function for regional development. Regions with major airports have strong development potentials but they are also confronted with the effects of unguided investments, increasing traffic and environmental problems often leading to conflicts with local populations, particularly from neighbouring municipalities. The operation “EARD- European Airport Regions Development” focuses on these development problems and opportunities associated with major airports, exchanging experiences and good practices in promoting harmonious and more sustainable development of airport regions. The objective of EARD is to exchange experiences, identify good practices and test new approaches to strengthen the attractiveness of the airport regions involved as an economic area and living space. More concretely, this means that the project aims to promote the regional potentials for economic development but at the same time balances the interests between residents and airport and improve the environmental situation for residents. Based on an exchange of experience and good practices among the network partners, joint solutions to common problems are being developed. This results in increased capacities of the partners and other key regional actors to promote the development benefits of airports while counterbalancing negative impacts, which should also lead to an improvement of the quality of life for residents living close to major airports. Activities include workshops, reports and the elaboration of profiles for each of the participating airport regions, including the specific economic, cultural and social conditions affecting development in these areas. Partners also develop targeted tools for airport marketing and public participation and test these on the ground. | [
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
W1973530293 | Mapping Reads on a Genomic Sequence: An Algorithmic Overview and a Practical Comparative Analysis | Mapping short reads against a reference genome is classically the first step of many next-generation sequencing data analyses, and it should be as accurate as possible. Because of the large number of reads to handle, numerous sophisticated algorithms have been developped in the last 3 years to tackle this problem. In this article, we first review the underlying algorithms used in most of the existing mapping tools, and then we compare the performance of nine of these tools on a well controled benchmark built for this purpose. We built a set of reads that exist in single or multiple copies in a reference genome and for which there is no mismatch, and a set of reads with three mismatches. We considered as reference genome both the human genome and a concatenation of all complete bacterial genomes. On each dataset, we quantified the capacity of the different tools to retrieve all the occurrences of the reads in the reference genome. Special attention was paid to reads uniquely reported and to reads with multiple hits. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1109/PEAC.2014.7038014 | Harmonic stability assessment for multi-paralleled, grid-connected inverters | This paper investigates the dynamic interactions of current controllers for multi-paralleled, grid-connected inverters. The consequent harmonics instability phenomena, which features with oscillations above the fundamental frequency, are evaluated by the impedance-based stability criterion. The frequency range of effective impedance-based stability analysis is first identified. The effect of each inverter on the system harmonic instability is then identified by case studies on different groups of inverters. Lastly, the PSCAD/EMTDC simulations on a system with five passively-damped, LCL-filtered inverters are performed to verify theoretical analysis. It shows that the impedance-based stability analysis results agree with the time-domain simualtions provided that the frequency of concerns are around the half of the Nyquist sampling frequency. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1112/S0010437X15007411 | Identities For Field Extensions Generalizing The Ohno Nakagawa Relations | In previous work, Ohno [Ohn97] conjectured, and Nakagawa [Nak98] proved, relations between the counting functions of certain cubic fields. These relations may be viewed as complements to the Scholz reflection principle, and Ohno and Nakagawa deduced them as consequences of 'extra functional equations' involving the Shintani zeta functions associated to the prehomogeneous vector space of binary cubic forms. In the present paper we generalize their result by proving a similar identity relating certain degree fields with Galois groups D and F respectively, for any odd prime, and in particular we give another proof of the Ohno–Nakagawa relation without appealing to binary cubic forms. | [
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1126/scisignal.aaa7540 | Reserve stem cells: Differentiated cells reprogram to fuel repair, metaplasia, and neoplasia in the adult gastrointestinal tract | It has long been known that differentiated cells can switch fates, especially in vitro, but only recently has there been a critical mass of publications describing the mechanisms adult, postmitotic cells use in vivo to reverse their differentiation state. We propose that this sort of cellular reprogramming is a fundamental cellular process akin to apoptosis or mitosis. Because reprogramming can invoke regenerative cells from mature cells, it is critical to the long-term maintenance of tissues like the pancreas, which encounter large insults during adulthood but lack constitutively active adult stem cells to repair the damage. However, even in tissues with adult stem cells, like the stomach and intestine, reprogramming may allow mature cells to serve as reserve ("quiescent") stem cells when normal stem cells are compromised. We propose that the potential downside to reprogramming is that it increases risk for cancers that occur late in adulthood. Mature, long-lived cells may have years of exposure to mutagens. Mutations that affect the physiological function of differentiated, postmitotic cells may lead to apoptosis, but mutations in genes that govern proliferation might not be selected against. Hence, reprogramming with reentry into the cell cycle might unmask those mutations, causing an irreversible progenitor-like, proliferative state. We review recent evidence showing that reprogramming fuels irreversible metaplastic and precancerous proliferation in the stomach and pancreas. Finally, we illustrate how we think reprogrammed differentiated cells are likely candidates as cells of origin for cancers of the intestine. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1038/s41559-018-0733-x | Giant tortoise genomes provide insights into longevity and age-related disease | Giant tortoises are among the longest-lived vertebrate animals and, as such, provide an excellent model to study traits like longevity and age-related diseases. However, genomic and molecular evolutionary information on giant tortoises is scarce. Here, we describe a global analysis of the genomes of Lonesome George—the iconic last member of Chelonoidis abingdonii—and the Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea). Comparison of these genomes with those of related species, using both unsupervised and supervised analyses, led us to detect lineage-specific variants affecting DNA repair genes, inflammatory mediators and genes related to cancer development. Our study also hints at specific evolutionary strategies linked to increased lifespan, and expands our understanding of the genomic determinants of ageing. These new genome sequences also provide important resources to help the efforts for restoration of giant tortoise populations. | [
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1016/j.ultramic.2018.01.002 | Correction of scan line shift artifacts in scanning electron microscopy: An extended digital image correlation framework | High resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) is nowadays very popular for different applications in different fields. However, SEM images may exhibit a considerable amount of imaging artifacts, which induce significant errors if the images are used to measure geometrical or kinematical fields. This error is most pronounced in case of full field deformation measurements, for instance by digital image correlation (DIC). One family of SEM artifacts result from positioning errors of the scanning electron beam, creating artifactual shifts in the images perpendicular to the scan lines (scan line shifts). This leads to localized distortions in the displacement fields obtained from such images, by DIC. This type of artifacts is corrected here using global DIC (GDIC). A novel GDIC framework, considering the nonlinear influence of artifacts in the imaging system, is introduced for this purpose. Using an enriched regularization in the global DIC scheme, based on an error function, the scan line shift artifacts are captured and eliminated. The proposed methodology is demonstrated in virtually generated and deformed images as well as real SEM micrographs. The results confirm the proper detection and elimination of this type of SEM artifacts. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
Q4762950 | IRIS SRL | IL PROGRAMMA DI INVESTIMENTO E' VOLTO ALL'AMPLIAMENTO DELL'UNITA' PRODUTTIVA ESISTENTE E PREVEDE UN IMPORTO COMPLESSIVO PREVISTO DI SPESA PARI AD OLTRE 850 MILA EURO A FRONTE DEL QUALE L'IMPRESA HA RICHIESTO LA CONCESSIONE DI UN CONTRIBUTO A FONDO PERDUTO IN REGIME DE MINIMIS DELL'IMPORTO NELL'ORDINE DI 200 MILA EURO. IL QUADRO DEI RISULTATI ATTESI SI CONFIGURA SICURAMENTE VALIDO IN FUNZIONE SIA DEL RAGGIUNGIMENTO DI UN MIGLIORE LIVELLO QUALITATIVO DELLA STRUTTURA OPERATIVA DELL'IMPRESA, CON UNA SERIE DI CONSEGUENTI RICADUTE IN TERMINI DI INCREMENTO DELL'EFFICIENZA E DELLA FUNZIONALITA', CHE DELLA POSSIBILITA' DI OFFRIRE UNO STANDARD PIU' ELEVATO DELLA GAMMA DEI SERVIZI PROPONENDOSI SUL MERCATO IN MANIERA PIU' COMPETITIVA. PER QUANTO CONCERNE LE PRINCIPALI ACQUISIZIONI CHE SI PREVEDE DI EFFETTUARE SI SEGNALANO LE NUOVE CABINE IN LEGNO E STACCIONATA PER UN IMPORTO DI POCO SUPERIORE AI 120 MILA ', L'ACQUISTO DI ATTREZZATURA VARIA PER LA ZONA BAR PER UN IMPORTO DI POCO SUPERIORE AI 140 | [
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1007/s10549-014-3079-3 | Changes in serum levels of miR-21, miR-210, and miR-373 in HER2-positive breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant therapy: A translational research project within the Geparquinto trial | Trastuzumab and lapatinib are established treatments for patients with HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2)-positive breast cancer with different mechanisms of action. The focus of this study is to investigate, whether altered expression levels of potentially relevant microRNAs (miRs) in serum are associated with response to trastuzumab or lapatinib. Circulating miR-21, miR-210, and miR-373 were quantified with TaqMan MicroRNA assays in serum of 127 HER2-postive breast cancer patients before and after neoadjuvant therapy and in 19 healthy controls. Patients received chemotherapy combined with either trastuzumab or lapatinib within the prospectively randomized Geparquinto trial. The association between miR levels and pathological response (pCR) to therapy and type of therapy was examined. Serum levels of miR-21 (p = 5. 04e-08, p = 1. 43e-10), miR-210 (p = 0. 00151, p = 1. 6e-05), and miR-373 (p = 7. 87e-06, p = 1. 75e-07) were significantly higher in patients before and after chemotherapy than in healthy women. Concentrations of miR-21 (p = 5. 73e-08), miR-210 (p = 0. 000724), and miR-373 (p = 0. 00209) increased further after chemotherapy. A significant association of higher serum levels of miR-373 with advanced clinical tumor stage could be detected (p < 0. 002). An association of miR-21 levels before (p = 0. 0091) and after (p = 0. 037) chemotherapy with overall survival of the patients could be detected, independent of type of anti-HER2 therapy. No association of circulating miRs with pCR was found. Our findings demonstrate a specific influence of neoadjuvant therapy on the serum levels of miR-21, miR-210, and miR-373 in breast cancer patients together with a prognostic value of miR-21. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.1145/2989081.2989103 | Adaptive Row Addressing For Cost Efficient Parallel Memory Protocols In Large Capacity Memories | Modern commercial workloads drive a continuous demand for larger and still low-latency main memories. JEDEC member companies indicate that parallel memory protocols will remain key to such memories, though widening the bus (increasing the pin count) to address larger capacities would cause multiple issues ultimately reducing the speed (the peak data rate) and cost-efficiency of the protocols. Thus to stay high-speed and cost-efficient, parallel memory protocols should address larger capacities using the available number of pins. This is accomplished by multiplexing the pins to transfer each address in multiple bus cycles, implementing Multi-Cycle Addressing (MCA). However, additional address-transfer cycles can significantly worsen performance and energy efficiency. This paper contributes with the concept of adaptive row addressing that comprises row-address caching to reduce the number of address-transfer cycles, enhanced by row-address prefetching and an adaptive row-access priority policy to improve state-of-the-art memory schedulers. For a case-study MCA protocol, the paper shows that the proposed concept improves: i) the read latency by 7. 5% on average and up to 12. 5%, and ii) the system-level performance and energy efficiency by 5. 5% on average and up to 6. 5%. This way, adaptive row addressing makes the MCA protocol as efficient as an idealistic protocol of the same speed but with enough pins to transfer each row address in a single bus cycle. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.15252/emmm.201707732 | Pathogen-specific B-cell receptors drive chronic lymphocytic leukemia by light-chain-dependent cross-reaction with autoantigens | Several lines of evidence indirectly suggest that antigenic stimulation through the B-cell receptor (BCR) supports chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) development. In addition to self-antigens, a number of microbial antigens have been proposed to contribute to the selection of the immunoglobulins expressed in CLL. How pathogen-specific BCRs drive CLL development remains, however, largely unexplored. Here, we utilized mouse models of CLL pathogenesis to equip B cells with virus-specific BCRs and study the effect of antigen recognition on leukemia growth. Our results show that BCR engagement is absolutely required for CLL development. Unexpectedly, however, neither acute nor chronic exposure to virus-derived antigens influenced leukemia progression. Rather, CLL clones preferentially selected light chains that, when paired with virus-specific heavy chains, conferred B cells the ability to recognize a broad range of autoantigens. Taken together, our results suggest that pathogens may drive CLL pathogenesis by selecting and expanding pathogen-specific B cells that cross-react with one or more self-antigens. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
interreg_198 | Achievements of the Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategy Objectives by INTERREG | Problems addressed
The problem addressed by the ALSO project lays on the following urgent needs:
• to boost the Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategy Objectives at regional level and more specifically, to exploit current INTERREG and future Territorial Cooperation Funding within the framework of INTERACT;
• A strong coordination between regional planners and INTERREG operators/project managers in order to better transpose into INTERREG the regional programming activity;
• An effective and increased participation in INTERREG both from candidate countries, neighbouring countries and new member states;
• Effective evaluation methods and set of indicators at Programme Management level in order to evaluate INTERREG projects impacts;
• Common tools of communication and better instruments in order to diffuse the INTERREG results at regional, national and European level;
• Specific training of regional planners and INTERREG operators/project managers in order to make them more prepared on specific issues for better develop regional cooperation themes and territorial promotion activities
Objectives
• General Objectives: To facilitate exchange of know-how between regional development planners, INTERREG programme managers and INTERREG project developers.; To foster INTERREG project development and to facilitate a wider and more qualified participation in future European Territorial Cooperation Objective; To make the findings available for the European Commission, the INTERACT Secretariat, the INTERACT Points and the INTERREG community in view of improving the effectiveness of INTERREG III and contributing to the new programming of European Territorial Cooperation Objective;
• Specific Objectives: ALSO aims at examining and evaluating a definite number of INTERREG projects and test on them an Evaluation Model in order to produce a Good Practices Manual and a Checklist supplying the key indication for evaluating INTERREG projects results and impact, training regional planners and operators/project managers and orienting the new generation of INTERREG projects (European Territorial Cooperation) towards the objectives of the Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategy;
Approach and methodology
• Open Approach, Cooperative, interactive process, Grouping of Regions, Key Transfer and dissemination: all the partners will work strictly together to bring a scientific and MANAGERIAL view into the INTERREG project system. Following three INTERREG geographical area community (“STRAND A” – North Europe, “STRAND B” – East Europe and “STRAND C” South and West Europe) they will cooperate to bring project experiences ensuring a project CROSS-STRAND analysis on themes impacting on the Lisbon and Gothenburg Strategy Objectives thanks to the ALSO strategic realised tools (Evaluation Model, Good Practices Manual, Check list). The involvement of important regional authorities and RDAs, scientific partners (U.L.B. Université Libre de Bruxelles and E.I.P.A. - European Institute for Public Administration) and two Intergovernmental networks, (Arco Latino and C.E.I. –Central European Initiative) , will allow the project to have a qualified base for dissemination and transfer.
| [
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
W1975225965 | Annual drought flow and groundwater storage trends in the eastern half of the United States during the past two-third century | Low flow drainage from a river system, in the absence of precipitation or snowmelt, derives directly from the water stored in the upstream aquifers in the basin; therefore, observations of the trends of the annual lowest flows can serve to deduce quantitative estimates of the evolution of the basin-scale groundwater storage over the period of the streamflow record. Application of this method has allowed for the first time to determine the magnitudes of the trends in groundwater storage over the past two-third century in some 41 large prototypical basins in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. It was found that during the period 1940–2007 groundwater storage has generally been increasing in most areas; these positive trends were especially pronounced in the Ohio and Upper Mississippi Water Resources Regions, but they were weaker in most other regions. Notable exceptions are the northern New England and especially the South Atlantic-Gulf regions, which saw prolonged declines in groundwater levels over this nearly 70-year long period. These observed long-term trends are generally in agreement with previous studies regarding trends of other components of the water cycle, such as precipitation, total runoff, and terrestrial evaporation. Over the most recent 20 years, from 1988 through 2007, except for the Ohio and the Souris-Red-Rainy regions, most regions have experienced declining average groundwater levels to varying degrees, with maximal values of the order of −0.2 mm a−1. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
225321 | Idea, ideal, idyll: garden cities in central europe 1890s-1930s | This project examines processes of cultural and intellectual exchange between Britain and Central Europe, with particular regard to ideas of urban and architectural design. It focuses on the utopia of the garden city, invented by Ebenezer Howard in the classic work To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, published in 1898. Howard sought not only to reform architectural design, but also to effect social change through facilitating new forms of communal living, including the role of women. Soon after, the first garden cities were built in Britain. It is generally accepted that the visions of British thinkers and designers such as Howard was influential in central Europe. However, beyond Germany, the impact of British ideas and practices in central Europe has only been studied in a schematic way. This project therefore interrogates the transfer of ideas from Britain to central Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, their implementation, development and application in particular, garden towns and garden suburbs. Its main focus is on the Czech and Slovak lands (part of Austria-Hungary before 1918, afterwards, Czechoslovakia), but it also makes comparative reference to Austria and Germany. Equally, the project examines how urbanist ideas from central Europe were then transferred back to Britain, in the form of the company town built in East Tilbury in England by the Czech shoe company Baťa in the 1930s.
It will be the first systematic and comparative study to take into account not only the local national context (as well as that of the German speaking countries), but also the wider networks of ideas and practices that were in circulation. As such, it asks a key question: How and why were the utopian ideals of English garden cities “translated” into the Czechoslovak and wider central European context? Conversely, how were such ideas “fed back” into British architecture and urban planning by Czechoslovak architects and planners? | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Studies of Cultures and Arts"
]
|
10.1021/jp302042w | Exciton band structure in bacterial peripheral light-harvesting complexes | The variability of the exciton spectra of bacteriochlorophyll molecules in light-harvesting (LH) complexes of photosynthetic bacteria ensures the excitation energy funneling trend toward the reaction center. The decisive shift of the energies is achieved due to exciton spectra formation caused by the resonance interaction between the pigments. The possibility to resolve the upper Davydov sub-band corresponding to the B850 ring and, thus, to estimate the exciton bandwidth by analyzing the temperature dependence of the steady-state absorption spectra of the LH2 complexes is demonstrated. For this purpose a self-modeling curve resolution approach was applied for analysis of the temperature dependence of the absorption spectra of LH2 complexes from the photosynthetic bacteria Rhodobacter (Rba. ) sphaeroides and Rhodoblastus (Rbl. ) acidophilus. Estimations of the intradimer resonance interaction values as follows directly from obtained estimations of the exciton bandwidths at room temperature give 385 and 397 cm-1 for the LH2 complexes from the photosynthetic bacteria Rba. sphaeroides and Rhl. acidophilus, respectively. At 4 K the corresponding couplings are slightly higher (391 and 435 cm -1, respectively). The retained exciton bandwidth at physiological conditions supports the decisive role of the exciton coherence determining light absorption in bacterial light-harvesting antenna complexes. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
DE 2013200149 W | TORSIONAL VIBRATION DAMPER | The invention relates to a torsional vibration damper (100, 200, 300), in particular a dual-mass flywheel, having an input part (102) with a cover section (112) and an output part (104) with a flange part (116). Said flywheel comprises a common axis of rotation (106), about which the input part and the output part can rotate together and can rotate relative to one another in a limited manner. The damper also has a spring absorber device that is active between the input part and the output part, said device comprising a friction system that has a friction ring (120) lying between the cover section and the flange part. A spring device (122) is associated with the friction ring and a force can be applied to said ring in the extension direction of the axis of rotation in opposition to a force of the spring device (122) during the relative rotation of the input part and the output part once a predetermined rotational angle (218, 222, 402, 406) has been reached. The aim of the invention is to improve the construction and/or functionality of the torsional vibration damper. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1364/OL.39.003278 | Coherent Beam Combination Of Yb Yag Single Crystal Rod Amplifiers | Coherent combination of ultrashort laser pulses emitted from spatially separated amplifiers is a promising power-scaling technique for ultrafast laser systems. It has been successfully applied to fiber amplifiers, since guidance of the signal provides the advantage of an excellent beam quality and straightforward superposition of beams as compared to bulk-type amplifier implementations. Herein we demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a two-channel combining scheme employing Yb:YAG single-crystal rod amplifiers as an energy booster in a fiber chirped-pulse amplification system. In this proof-of-principle experiment, combined and compressed pulses with a duration of 695 fs and an energy of 3 mJ (3. 7 GW of peak power) are obtained. The combining efficiency is as high as 94% and the beam quality of the combined output is characterized by a measured M2-value of 1. 2. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1063/1.5089417 | A Coarse Grained Polymer Model For Studying The Glass Transition | To study the cooling behavior and the glass transition of polymer melts in bulk and with free surfaces, a coarse-grained weakly semi-flexible polymer model is developed. Based on a standard bead spring model with purely repulsive interactions, an attractive potential between non-bonded monomers is added such that the pressure of polymer melts is tuned to zero. Additionally, the commonly used bond bending potential controlling the chain stiffness is replaced by a new bond bending potential. For this model, we show that the Kuhn length and the internal distances along the chains in the melt only very weakly depend on the temperature, just as for typical experimental systems. The glass transition is observed by the temperature dependency of the melt density and the characteristic non-Arrhenius slowing down of the chain mobility. The new model is set to allow for a fast switch between models, for which a wealth of data already exists. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1371/journal.pone.0147626 | Novel neuroprotective multicomponent therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis designed by networked systems | Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by loss of motor neuron function for which there is no effective treatment. One of the main difficulties in developing new therapies lies on the multiple events that contribute to motor neuron death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Several pathological mechanisms have been identified as underlying events of the disease process, including excitotoxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, altered axonal transport, proteasome dysfunction, synaptic deficits, glial cell contribution, and disrupted clearance of misfolded proteins. Our approach in this study was based on a holistic vision of these mechanisms and the use of computational tools to identify polypharmacology for targeting multiple etiopathogenic pathways. By using a repositioning analysis based on systems biology approach (TPMS technology), we identified and validated the neuroprotective potential of two new drug combinations: Aliretinoin and Pranlukast, and Aliretinoin and Mefloquine. In addition, we estimated their molecular mechanisms of action in silico and validated some of these results in a well-established in vitro model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis based on cultured spinal cord slices. The results verified that Aliretinoin and Pranlukast, and Aliretinoin and Mefloquine promote neuroprotection of motor neurons and reduce microgliosis. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
647314 | Becoming Men: Performing responsible masculinities in contemporary urban Africa | This anthropological study examines the reconfiguration of masculinities in urban Africa over the last 30 years. Focusing on how practices and discourses of empowerment and equality shape male subjectivities, this study builds upon a significant body of nuanced research on masculinities in Africa. Since the mid-1980s academic and public discourses have depicted African masculinity as both precarious and predatory. Economic insecurity, urbanization, shifting gender norms, and growing gender parity have accompanied claims that African masculinity is ‘in crisis’. More recently, new stories of urban men embracing responsible fatherhood, condemning intimate partner violence, and demanding homosexual rights have emerged as exemplars of progressive possibility. To disentangle these seemingly competing claims about African masculinities and shed light on the scientific, political, and economic projects that shape them, this research theorises that the discourses and practices that pathologise and politicise masculinity are simultaneously performing and producing gendered selves on multiple scales in the name of gender equality. Recently, ‘male involvement’ has become a rallying cry throughout the vast global development assemblage, around which governments, NGOs, research networks, activists, and local communities fight gender inequality to promote health, economic development, and human rights. In this research, a range of male-involvement initiatives provides a lens through which to study how masculinities are diversely imagined, (re)configured, and performed through men’s engagements with this assemblage, in both its local and global manifestations. Multi-sited ethnographic research will focus on six cities where the PI has active research ties: Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya; Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa; and Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, Tanzania. | [
"Studies of Cultures and Arts",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
10.1039/c6cc04805f | A versatile hard–soft N/S-ligand for metal coordination and cluster formation | The new ligand [S-P(μ-NtBu)]22− has adaptable hard–soft character with respect to the coordinated metal centre and can be used to construct large cage architectures. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
224220 | Four-Dimensional monitoring of tumour growth by surface enhanced raman scattering | Optical bioimaging is limited by visible light penetration depth and stability of fluorescent dyes over extended periods of time. Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) offers the possibility to overcome these drawbacks, through SERS-encoded nanoparticle tags, which can be excited with near-IR light (within the biological transparency window), providing high intensity, stable, multiplexed signals. SERS can also be used to monitor relevant bioanalytes within cells and tissues, during the development of diseases, such as tumours. In 4DBIOSERS we shall combine both capabilities of SERS, to go well beyond the current state of the art, by building three-dimensional scaffolds that support tissue (tumour) growth within a controlled environment, so that not only the fate of each (SERS-labelled) cell within the tumour can be monitored in real time (thus adding a fourth dimension to SERS bioimaging), but also recording the release of tumour metabolites and other indicators of cellular activity. Although 4DBIOSERS can be applied to a variety of diseases, we shall focus on cancer, melanoma and breast cancer in particular, as these are readily accessible by optical methods. We aim at acquiring a better understanding of tumour growth and dynamics, while avoiding animal experimentation. 3D printing will be used to generate hybrid scaffolds where tumour and healthy cells will be co-incubated to simulate a more realistic environment, thus going well beyond the potential of 2D cell cultures. Each cell type will be encoded with ultra-bright SERS tags, so that real-time monitoring can be achieved by confocal SERS microscopy. Tumour development will be correlated with simultaneous detection of various cancer biomarkers, during standard conditions and upon addition of selected drugs. The scope of 4DBIOSERS is multidisciplinary, as it involves the design of high-end nanocomposites, development of 3D cell culture models and optimization of emerging SERS tomography methods. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
171003 | Financial and institutional reforms for the entrepreneurial society | In this project we will analyse the broader contexts of smart, inclusive and sustainable growth in Europe to support implementation of the Commission’s 'Europe 2020' growth strategy and to restore Europe’s ability to innovate, grow and create jobs over the coming decades. In this proposal we argue that entrepreneurship must play a central role in that effort. 'Entrepreneurship' tends to make people think of the US and its model of high growth and high-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley. We are keenly aware, however, that a European growth agenda requires a focus on European entrepreneurship. US recipes and models will not fit the European context and do not deliver the results Europe wants. Our project's objective is therefore to thoroughly analyse European institutional arrangements and their current (in)ability to mobilise Europe’s human, financial and knowledge resources for entrepreneurial activity. This will help us formulate an effective reform strategy to reinvigorate European economies. The current diversity of institutional arrangements in Europe has long and common historical roots that must first be recognised and understood. Based on common global trends in technology and competition, we then establish the urgency and desirability for making the transition to a more entrepreneurial economy throughout Europe. Once this has been established, our project will develop and provide the tools for policy makers to assess the quality of national and regional entrepreneurial ecosystems and to identify the main strengths and weaknesses with regard to making the transition. Based on this assessment we will formulate specific proposals to enhance the allocation of talent, finance and knowledge to new value creation and we will conclude our project with a legal analysis to see where competencies currently lie and what action could be taken. | [
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.1200/JCO.2012.43.5958 | High Familial Risk In Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma | Purpose Nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) is one of the two established Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) subtypes. The risk factors of NLPHL are largely unknown. In general, genetic factors are known to have a modest effect on the risk of HL; however, familial risk in NLPHL has not been previously examined. We conducted a population-based study by using the Finnish registries and evaluated the familial risk in NLPHL. Patients and Methods We launched a population-based search to identify patients with NLPHL and their relatives by examining the records of the Finnish Cancer Registry, established in 1953, and the official Finnish population registries. We collected a data set of 692 patients with NLPHL, identified their 4,280 first-degree relatives, and calculated the registry-based standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) for different cancers in the first-degree relatives. In addition, the primary tumor biopsies of HL-affected relatives were collected when possible, the HL diagnoses were re-reviewed. . . | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
ES 09152582 T | CONECTOR PARA BARRAS PERFILADAS EN FORMA DE ACANALADURAS Y DISPOSICION DE CONEXION. | Conector (3, 3') para barras perfiladas en forma de acanaladuras (1, 2), en particular para la formación de instalaciones sanitarias, con dos placas (6, 7) opuestas una a otra, que están conectadas una con otra mediante al menos un medio de fijación (9) y una pieza intermedia (8, 8') y que pueden fijarse por apriete en una barra perfilada en forma de acanaladura (1, 2), estando formados salientes (61, 71) en los bordes exteriores de las placas, que pueden hacerse encajar en ranuras (4) realizadas en las barras perfiladas (1, 2), estando dispuesto al menos un distanciador (15) en la pieza intermedia (8, 8') entre los bordes exteriores de las placas (6, 7), que puede insertarse entre dos tramos de pared (5) opuestos de la barra perfilada (1, 2) para apoyar una barra perfilada en forma de acanaladura (1, 2), caracterizado porque el distanciador (15, 15') está fijado mediante una conexión por pinza de cocodrilo o una conexión por inserción de forma separable en la pieza intermedia (8, 8'). | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1093/ijpor/edx013 | When readers believe journalists: Effects of adjudication in varied dispute contexts | Journalists are often criticized for passive reporting of factual disputes in politics, but researchers have only recently begun exploring conditions in which they may successfully influence readers’ beliefs—scenarios less likely to produce partisan bias. Intraparty disputes and those which are polarized, but not contentious, may be two alignments of elite cues that vitiate motivated reasoning and allow for influential adjudication. This experiment (N = 523) used a 2 (one-sided adjudication/none) × 2 (intraparty/polarized dispute) design to test this hypothesis. In both cases, adjudication’s effects on factual beliefs were not conditional on ideological or partisan cues. Adjudication did not increase perceived bias, and increased satisfaction of readers’ informational needs. | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
W1985818396 | Faster degradation of herbicidally-active enantiomer of imidazolinones in soils | Imidazolinones are chiral herbicides, comprised of two enantiomers with differential herbicidal activity. In this study, the selective degradation of enantiomers of the three imidazolinone herbicides, imazapyr, imazethapyr and imazaquin, was determined in a variety of soils selected to cover a broad range of physico-chemical characteristics. The R(+) enantiomer of all three herbicides, which has greater herbicidal activity (up to eight times), was found to degrade faster than the less active S(-) enantiomer. The enantiomer fraction (EF) was used as a descriptor of enantio-selectivity of the imidazolinone herbicides. The EF values increased with increasing incubation time for imidazolinones with a fast initial phase followed by a slower phase. While the enantio-selectivity was not significant in acidic soils (pH(w) 5.02 and 5.20), it was highly significant (P<0.001) in alkaline soils (pH(w) 7.6, 8.2 and 8.7). Significant positive correlations of EF values of imazapyr (P<0.001, R(2)=0.41), imazethapyr (P<0.002, R(2)=0.47) and imazaquin (P<0.001, R(2)=0.54) were found with the soil pH(w) ranging from 5.02 to 8.7. However, no correlation of EF was found with other soil properties. In addition to showing enantioselective degradation of the three herbicides in the soils studied, the study highlighted that for imidazolinones the herbicidally more active enantiomer can be preferably degraded by microorganisms. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
864075 | Integrating Safety and Cybersecurity through Stochastic Model Checking | Emerging technologies, like self-driving cars, drones, and the Internet-of-Things must not impose threats to people, neither due to accidental failures (safety), nor due to malicious attacks (security). As historically separated fields, safety and security are often analyzed in isolation. They are, however, heavily intertwined: measures that increase safety often decrease security and vice versa. Also, security vulnerabilities often cause safety hazards, e.g. in autonomous cars. Therefore, for effective decision-making, safety and security must be considered in combination.
The CAESAR project will develop an effective framework for the joint analysis of safety and security risks.
The successful integration of safety and security faces three challenges:
1. The complex interaction between safety and security, mapping how vulnerabilities and failures propagate through a system and lead to disruptions.
2. The lack of efficient algorithms to compute system-level risk metrics, such as the likelihood and expected damage of disruptions. Such metrics are pivotal to prioritize risks and mitigate them via appropriate countermeasures.
3. The lack of proper risk quantification methods. Numbers are crucial to devise cost-effective countermeasures. Yet, objective numbers on safety and (especially) security risks are notoriously hard to obtain.
The CAESAR project will address these challenges by novel combinations of mathematical game theory, stochastic model checking and the Bayesian, fuzzy, and Dempster-Schafer frameworks for uncertainty reasoning.
Key outcomes:
• An effective framework for joint safety-security analysis
• Scalable algorithms and diagnosis methods to compute safety-security risk metrics
• Stochastic model checking in the presence of uncertainty
CAESAR will not only yield breakthroughs in safety-security analysis, but also for quantitative analyses in other domains. It will make decision making on safety-security easier, more systematic, and transparent. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1016/j.celrep.2016.02.073 | Mitotic History Reveals Distinct Stem Cell Populations and Their Contributions to Hematopoiesis | Homeostasis of short-lived blood cells is dependent on rapid proliferation of immature precursors. Using a conditional histone 2B-mCherry-labeling mouse model, we characterize hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) and progenitor proliferation dynamics in steady state and following several types of induced stress. HSC proliferation following HSC transplantation into lethally irradiated mice is fundamentally different not only from native hematopoiesis but also from other stress contexts. Whereas transplantation promoted sustained, long-term proliferation of HSCs, both cytokine-induced mobilization and acute depletion of selected blood cell lineages elicited very limited recruitment of HSCs to the proliferative pool. By coupling mCherry-based analysis of proliferation history with multiplex gene expression analyses on single cells, we have found that HSCs can be stratified into four distinct subtypes. These subtypes have distinct molecular signatures and differ significantly in their reconstitution potentials, showcasing the power of tracking proliferation history when resolving functional heterogeneity of HSCs. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
W2050578572 | Effects of shell morphological traits on the weight traits of Manila clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) | Abstract The shell length, height, and width, live body weight, and edible tissue weight of Manila clam of 1, 2, and 3 years of age were measured, and their correlation coefficients were calculated. The shell morphological traits were used as independent variables, and live body weight or edible tissue weigh used as a dependent variable for calculating the path coefficients, correlation index and determination coefficients. The results showed that the correlation coefficients between each shell morphological trait and the live body weight or edible tissue weight were all highly significant ( P R 2 ) of morphological traits against the live body weight of clams of all ages and edible tissue weight of 1-year-old clams were larger than 0.85, but R 2 of morphological traits against the edible tissue weight of 2- and 3-year-old clams was smaller than 0.85, indicating that some other factors might be associated with the edible tissue weight of 2- and 3-year-old clams. Multiple regression equations were obtained to estimate shell length X 1 (cm), shell height X 2 (cm), shell width X 3 (cm) against live body weight Y (g), edible tissue weight Z (g): for 1-year-old clams: Y = −4.317 + 0.18 X 1 + 0.147 X 2 , ( X 1 X 2 Z = −1.011 + 0.095 X 2 , ( X 2 Y = −15.119 + 0.249 X 1 + 0.176 X 2 + 0.688 X 3 , ( X 1 X 3 Z = −4.248 + 0.198 X 1 , ( X 1 X 3 Y = −25.013 + 0.415 X 1 + 1.184 X 3 , ( X 1 X 3 Z = −7.082 + 0.119 X 1 + 0.332 X 3 , ( X 1 X 3 | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1098/rsos.150292 | Do online social media cut through the constraints that limit the size of offline social networks? | The social brain hypothesis has suggested that natural social network sizes may have a characteristic size in humans. This is determined in part by cognitive constraints and in part by the time costs of servicing relationships. Online social networking offers the potential to break through the glass ceiling imposed by at least the second of these, potentially enabling us to maintain much larger social networks. This is tested using two separate UK surveys, each randomly stratified by age, gender and regional population size. The data show that the size and range of online egocentric social networks, indexed as the number of Facebook friends, is similar to that of offline face-to-face networks. For one sample, respondents also specified the number of individuals in the inner layers of their network (formally identified as support clique and sympathy group), and these were also similar in size to those observed in offline networks. This suggests that, as originally proposed by the social brain hypothesis, there is a cognitive constraint on the size of social networks that even the communication advantages of online media are unable to overcome. In practical terms, it may reflect the fact that real (as opposed to casual) relationships require at least occasional face-to-face interaction to maintain them. | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
10.1086/697318 | Material signals: A historical sociology of high-frequency trading | Drawing on interviews with 194 market participants (including 54 practitioners of high-frequency trading or HFT), this article first identifies the main classes of “signals” (patterns of data) that influence how HFT algorithms buy and sell shares and interact with each other. Second, it investigates historically the processes that have led to three of the most important categories of these signals, finding that they arise from three features of U. S. share trading that are the result of episodes of meso-level conflict. Third, the article demonstrates the contingency of these features by briefly comparing HFT in share trading to HFT in futures, Treasurys, and foreign exchange. The article thus argues that how HFT algorithms act and interact is a specific, contingent product not just of the current but also of the past interaction of people, organizations, algorithms, and machines. | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
866070 | Self-Calibrated Interferometry for Exoplanet Spectroscopy | The spectral characterisation and understanding of terrestrial exoplanets is currently one of the most ambitious and challenging long-term goals of astrophysics. All observing techniques with the potential to tackle this challenge face the same limitations: the overwhelmingly dominant flux of the host star and/or the lack of angular resolution. A very promising technical solution around these issues is nulling interferometry, which combines the advantages of stellar interferometry (high angular resolution) and coronagraphy (starlight rejection). For several years, we have been developing both data acquisition and data processing techniques based on self-calibration of the interferometric observable and demonstrated record-breaking starlight rejection on two American ground-based facilities. With the SCIFY project, I propose to prototype the first nulling interferometric instrument for the European Very Large Telescope Interferometer. By leveraging its state-of-the-art infrastructure, long baselines, and strategic position in the Southern hemisphere, the new VLTI instrument will be able to carry out several high-impact exoplanet programmes to characterise the chemical composition of Jupiter-like exoplanets at the most relevant angular separations (i.e., close to the snow line) and better understand how planets form and evolve. To achieve these goals, we will demonstrate a new observing technique called spectral self-calibration, combining nulling interferometry with high-dispersion spectroscopy, and adapt our advanced post-processing techniques to the VLTI. This will provide a new and more robust open-source general-purpose interferometric data reduction tool to the VLTI community. In the long term, the SCIFY project will be a cornerstone in the roadmap leading to the characterisation of terrestrial exoplanets and the search for life beyond Earth. | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
W2151750289 | Divided POMDP method for complex menu problems in spoken dialogue systems | In this paper, a problem in spoken dialogue systems namely the menu problem, is introduced and solved by a POMDP model. To overcome the large size of the menu problem, a new method for achieving an optimal policy called divided POMDP method is introduced. Conditions for the problem to be solved by the proposed method are specified and the problem properties resulting in the given conditions are presented. The proposed method is evaluated using a typical menu problem with different menu sizes and it is shown that this method is superior to the conventional methods such as FRTDP for the problems it is capable to solve. Moreover, it converges faster in getting to an optimal policy. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
EP 2021062876 W | A METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE EFFICACY OF A SARS-COV-2 VACCINE | The invention relates to a method for determining the immune status of a subject, more specifically whether the subject has been vaccinated with a composition comprising SEQ ID NO1 or a variant thereof which composition triggers the production of antibodies in the subject or had no previous exposure to SARS-CoV-2 or any component of it, comprising the step determining in a sample the presence or absence of an IgA class antibody to SEQ ID NO1, wherein the sample comprises a set of representative antibodies from the subject. The present invention also relates to method for determining whether a subject produces antibodies as a result of administration of a vaccine for distinguishing whether a subject produces antibodies as a result of administration of a vaccine or as a result of a previous corona virus infection, comprising the step detecting in a sample comprising antibodies from said subject the absence or presence of an antibody to SEQ ID NO1 and the absence or presence of an antibody to SEQ ID NO2. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1051/0004-6361/201525885 | Chemistry In Protoplanetary Disks The Gas Phase Co H2 Ratio And The Carbon Reservoir | Context. The gas mass of protoplanetary disks, and the gas-to-dust ratio, are two key elements driving the evolution of these disks and the formation of planetary system. Aims. We explore here to what extent CO (or its isotopologues) can be used as a tracer of gas mass. Methods. We use a detailed gas-grain chemical model and study the evolution of the disk composition, starting from a dense prestellar core composition. We explore a range of disk temperature profiles, cosmic rays ionization rates, and disk ages for a disk model representative of T Tauri stars. Results. At the high densities that prevail in disks, we find that, due to fast reactions on grain surfaces, CO can be converted to less volatile forms (principally s-CO2, and to a lesser extent s-CH4) instead of being evaporated over a wide range of temperature. The canonical gas-phase abundance of 10 4 is only reached above about 30 ‐ 35 K. The dominant Carbon bearing entity depends on the temperature structure and age of the disk. The chemical evolution of CO is also sensitive to the cosmic rays ionization rate. Larger gas phase CO abundances are found in younger disks. Initial conditions, such as parent cloud age and density, have a limited impact. Conclusions. This study reveals that CO gas-phase abundance is heavily dependent on grain surface processes, which remain very incompletely understood so far. The strong dependence on dust temperature profile makes CO a poor tracer of the gas-phase content of disks. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
W874299325 | An architecture to integrate IEC 61131-3 systems in an IEC 61499 distributed solution | The paper presents a software architecture to integrate IEC-61131 and IEC-61499 modules in a DCS solutions.The architecture permits to reuse IEC-61131 software.The architecture permits to maintain IEC-61499 advanced sw engineering concepts.A methodology on how to perform integration utilizing the architecture is presented via a case study.The architecture does not introduce significant performance overhead. The IEC 61499 standard has been developed to allow the modeling and design of distributed control systems, providing advanced concepts of software engineering (such as abstraction and encapsulation) to the world of control engineering. The introduction of this standard in already existing control environments poses challenges, since programs written using the widespread IEC 61131-3 programming standard cannot be directly executed in a fully IEC 61499 environment without reengineering effort. In order to solve this problem, this paper presents an architecture to integrate modules of the two standards, allowing the exploitation of the benefits of both. The proposed architecture is based on the coexistence of control software of the two standards. Modules written in one standard interact with some particular interfaces that encapsulate functionalities and information to be exchanged with the other standard. In particular, the architecture permits to utilize available run-times without modification, it allows the reuse of software modules, and it utilizes existing features of the standards. A methodology to integrate IEC 61131-3 modules in an IEC 61499 distributed solution based on such architecture is also developed, and it is described via a case study to prove feasibility and benefits. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed solution does not add substantial load or delays to the system when compared to an IEC 61131-3 based solution. By acting on task period, it can achieve performances similar to an IEC 61499 solution. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
FR 8308847 A | PROCEDE POUR AUGMENTER LA TEMPERATURE DE L'AIR DANS UN CYLINDRE AU COURS DU DEMARRAGE DU MOTEUR DIESEL SURCHARGE, AVEC UN FAIBLE RAPPORT DE COMPRESSION ET DISPOSITIF POUR L'EXECUTION DE CE PROCEDE | The subject of the invention is a method and a device for increasing the air temperature in the cylinder when starting a supercharged diesel engine with a low compression ratio. In order to increase the air temperature in the cylinder at the end of the compression stroke above the ignition temperature of the injected fuel, starting air is introduced into the cylinder at the start of the compression stroke in the range of 160 DEG of the crank shaft before bottom dead centre to 160 DEG after bottom dead centre of the piston by means of an auxiliary distributor controlled by the cam shaft. <IMAGE> | [
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1038/ncomms11362 | Survival trade-offs in plant roots during colonization by closely related beneficial and pathogenic fungi | The sessile nature of plants forced them to evolve mechanisms to prioritize their responses to simultaneous stresses, including colonization by microbes or nutrient starvation. Here, we compare the genomes of a beneficial root endophyte, Colletotrichum tofieldiae and its pathogenic relative C. incanum, and examine the transcriptomes of both fungi and their plant host Arabidopsis during phosphate starvation. Although the two species diverged only 8. 8 million years ago and have similar gene arsenals, we identify genomic signatures indicative of an evolutionary transition from pathogenic to beneficial lifestyles, including a narrowed repertoire of secreted effector proteins, expanded families of chitin-binding and secondary metabolism-related proteins, and limited activation of pathogenicity-related genes in planta. We show that beneficial responses are prioritized in C. tofieldiae-colonized roots under phosphate-deficient conditions, whereas defense responses are activated under phosphate-sufficient conditions. These immune responses are retained in phosphate-starved roots colonized by pathogenic C. incanum, illustrating the ability of plants to maximize survival in response to conflicting stresses. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1109/TIT.2014.2361782 | Integer Forcing Linear Receivers | Linear receivers are often used to reduce the implementation complexity of multiple-antenna systems. In a traditional linear receiver architecture, the receive antennas are used to separate out the codewords sent by each transmit antenna, which can then be decoded individually. Although easy to implement, this approach can be highly suboptimal when the channel matrix is near singular. This paper develops a new linear receiver architecture that uses the receive antennas to create an effective channel matrix with integer-valued entries. Rather than attempting to recover transmitted codewords directly, the decoder recovers integer combinations of the codewords according to the entries of the effective channel matrix. The codewords are all generated using the same linear code, which guarantees that these integer combinations are themselves codewords. Provided that the effective channel is full rank, these integer combinations can then be digitally solved for the original codewords. This paper focuses on the special case where there is no coding across transmit antennas and no channel state information at the transmitter(s), which corresponds either to a multiuser uplink scenario or to single-user V-BLAST encoding. In this setting, the proposed integer-forcing linear receiver significantly outperforms conventional linear architectures such as the zero forcing and linear minimum mean-squared error receiver. In the high signal-to-noise ratio regime, the proposed receiver attains the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff for the standard multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel with no coding across transmit antennas. It is further shown that in an extended MIMO model with interference, the integer-forcing linear receiver achieves the optimal generalized degrees of freedom. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1088/1367-2630/aad1ea | The quantum technologies roadmap: A European community view | Within the last two decades, quantum technologies (QT) have made tremendous progress, moving from Nobel Prize award-winning experiments on quantum physics (1997: Chu, Cohen-Tanoudji, Phillips; 2001: Cornell, Ketterle, Wieman; 2005: Hall, Hänsch-, Glauber; 2012: Haroche, Wineland) into a cross-disciplinary field of applied research. Technologies are being developed now that explicitly address individual quantum states and make use of the 'strange' quantum properties, such as superposition and entanglement. The field comprises four domains: quantum communication, where individual or entangled photons are used to transmit data in a provably secure way; quantum simulation, where well-controlled quantum systems are used to reproduce the behaviour of other, less accessible quantum systems; quantum computation, which employs quantum effects to dramatically speed up certain calculations, such as number factoring; and quantum sensing and metrology, where the high sensitivity of coherent quantum systems to external perturbations is exploited to enhance the performance of measurements of physical quantities. In Europe, the QT community has profited from several EC funded coordination projects, which, among other things, have coordinated the creation of a 150-page QT Roadmap (http://qurope. eu/h2020/qtflagship/roadmap2016). This article presents an updated summary of this roadmap. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter"
]
|
10.1021/acsnano.6b05536 | Facilitating the Clinical Integration of Nanomedicines: The Roles of Theoretical and Computational Scientists | Since the launch of multiple research initiatives on nanotechnology applied to medicine in the early 2000s, a plethora of nanomedicines have been developed that exhibit great therapeutic efficacy in preclinical models but yet minimal impact in daily clinical practice. The successful and complete clinical fruition of nanomedicines requires addressing three major technical challenges: improving loading efficacy and on-command release, modulating recognition and sequestration by immune cells, and maximizing accumulation at biological targets. In this Perspective, I describe how theoretical and computational models can help address each of these challenges. This armamentarium represents an ideal tool for maximizing the therapeutic efficacy of nanomedicines, thus facilitating their integration into daily clinical operations. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W137564133 | Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Control in Flexible Microgrids | This paper discusses the control of flexible microgrids consisting of a Redox Flow Batteries (RFB) and a new power conditioning system (PCS) for the RFB. Considering the importance of energy storage, this study is essential in power systems that are developing cautiously. RFB is connected to power system by a DC/DC or DC/AC converter producing a DC voltage. It is very important that this converter to be effectively be modeled and controlled for the applications in microgrids. This paper focuses on control the active power and the reactive power simultaneously in RFB systems. In this regard, this study proposes a new Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) compensator for microgrids which is able to control the active and reactive power. This type of compensator presents a good transient response. The simulation results show the validity of the proposed system. Simulations are performed by using Matlab-Simulink block set. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
Q4938273 | (14508.17092020.172002815) HOTEL DE INVESTIMENTO CAVALLINA | O INVESTIMENTO? COM O OBJETIVO DE MELHORAR OS QUARTOS DO HOTEL INNHOTEL COM A INSTALAÇÃO DE PARQUET E OBRAS DE REMODELAÇÃO. VAI CHEGAR? TAMBÉM ADQUIRIU UMA MÁQUINA PARA O AR CONDICIONADO E AQUECIMENTO DOS QUARTOS DO HOTEL. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
646597 | Matter and strong-field gravity: New frontiers in Einstein’s theory | Gravity is the weakest but the most intriguing fundamental interaction in the Universe. In the last decades a formidable intellectual effort has shown that the full-fledged geometric nature of gravity offers much more than a beautiful description and understanding of all stellar and galactic. In the quest for the ultimate theory of gravity, new and spectacular connections between high-energy physics, astrophysics, cosmology and theoretical physics have emerged. Triggered by breakthroughs at the observational, experimental and conceptual levels, strong gravity physics is experiencing a Golden Age, making it one of the most active fields of research of the 21st century.
My group in Lisbon has been involved in groundbreaking research into the nature of strong-field effects in curved spacetime with applications in various fields, thus establishing international leadership in the field. This proposal aims at understanding,
via perturbative techniques and full-blown nonlinear evolutions, the strong-field regime of gravity, and includes challenging nonlinear evolutions describing gravitational collapse, compact binary inspirals and collisions in the presence of fundamental fields. The proposed programme will significantly advance our knowledge of Einstein's field equations and their role in fundamental questions (e.g. cosmic censorship, hoop conjecture, spacetime stability, no hair theorems), but also its interplay with high energy, astro and particle physics (testing the precise nature of the interaction between compact objects and matter --such as dark matter candidates or accretion disks-- and its imprint on gravitational wave emission, understanding gravitational-led turbulence,etc).
This is a cross-cutting and multidisciplinary program with an impact on our understanding of gravity at all scales, on our perception of black hole-powered phenomena and on gravitational-wave and particle physics. | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter"
]
|
10.1016/j.physc.2009.11.013 | Huge upper critical field in the superconductor with non-centrosymmetric crystal structure CeCoGe<inf>3</inf> | We report the upper critical field, Hc2, of the non-centrosymmetric compound CeCoGe3 by resistivity measurements under high pressure of 7. 1 GPa, for H along c and a axis, and for a magnetic field up to 17 T. Hc2 is very anisotropic, saturating at low temperature for H along the a axis and linear for H along the c axis. Very high Hc2(T) is observed for H along the c axis, with a huge value of the slope dHc2/dT = -47 ± 1. 3 T/K, the highest ever reported if normalized to the superconducting temperature of 0. 65 K. This is most probably related to a conjunction of a heavy fermionic state and the absence of the Pauli limitation. A fit of Hc2(T) shows that the curves for a and c axis can be reproduced with a moderate coupling Eliashberg theory. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
741112 | An Information Theoretic Approach to Improving the Reliability of Weather and Climate Simulations | The aim of this project is to develop a new synergy between climate and computer science to increase the accuracy and hence reliability of comprehensive weather and climate models. The scientific basis for this project lies in the PI’s pioneering research on stochastic sub-grid parametrisations for climate models. These parametrisations provide estimates of irreducible uncertainty in weather and climate models, and will be used to determine where numerical precision for model variables can be reduced without degradation. By identifying those bits that carry negligible information – typically in high-wavenumber components of the dynamical core and within parametrisation and Earth-System modules – computational resources can be reinvested into areas (resolution, process representation, ensemble size) where they are sorely needed. This project will determine scale-dependent estimates of information content as rigorously as possible based on a variety of new tools, which include information-theoretic diagnostics and emulators of imprecision, and in a variety of models, from idealised to comprehensive. The project will contribute significantly to the development of next-generation weather and climate models and is well timed for the advent of exascale supercomputing where energy efficiency is paramount and where movement of bits, being the single biggest determinant of power consumption, must be minimised. The ideas will be tested on emerging hardware capable of exploiting the benefits of mixed-precision arithmetic. A testable scientific hypothesis is presented: a proposed increase in forecast reliability arising from an increase in the forecast model’s vertical resolution, the cost being paid for by a reduction in precision of small-scale variables. This project can be expected to provide new scientific understanding of how different scales interact in the nonlinear climate system, for example in maintaining persistent atmospheric flow regimes. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1145/2207222.2207223 | Probabilistic Modeling For Job Symbiosis Scheduling On Smt Processors | Symbiotic job scheduling improves simultaneous multithreading (SMT) processor performance by coscheduling jobs that have “compatible” demands on the processor's shared resources. Existing approaches however require a sampling phase, evaluate a limited number of possible coschedules, use heuristics to gauge symbiosis, are rigid in their optimization target, and do not preserve system-level priorities/shares. This article proposes probabilistic job symbiosis modeling, which predicts whether jobs will create positive or negative symbiosis when coscheduled without requiring the coschedule to be evaluated. The model, which uses per-thread cycle stacks computed through a previously proposed cycle accounting architecture, is simple enough to be used in system software. Probabilistic job symbiosis modeling provides six key innovations over prior work in symbiotic job scheduling: (i) it does not require a sampling phase, (ii) it readjusts the job coschedule continuously, (iii) it evaluates a large number of possible coschedules at very low overhead, (iv) it is not driven by heuristics, (v) it can optimize a performance target of interest (e. g. , system throughput or job turnaround time), and (vi) it preserves system-level priorities/shares. These innovations make symbiotic job scheduling both practical and effective. Our experimental evaluation, which assumes a realistic scenario in which jobs come and go, reports an average 16p (and up to 35p) reduction in job turnaround time compared to the previously proposed SOS (sample, optimize, symbios) approach for a two-thread SMT processor, and an average 19p (and up to 45p) reduction in job turnaround time for a four-thread SMT processor. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
interreg_186 | Monitoring and Minimisation of Traffic-Induced Noise and Air Pollution Along Major Alpine Transport Routes | A network of regional experts aims at the integrated use of advanced science-based methods to monitor, assess, and predict air pollution and noise and their impact on the environment, quality of life and health along major transport routes. These methods are adapted to the Alpine topography and its specific meteorological phenomena which often amplify the levels of concentration and noise. The purpose of the project is to promote these methods to regional and local authorities, to supplement standard methods towards more reliable predictions and scenario assessments, to quantify the tolerable limits of emissions if given air quality and noise standards are met, and to assess the environmental impact of traffic flow changes due to regulations, new infrastructure, or modal shifts. The project will enhance the understanding of local people and their political/societal representatives to the interdependency between natural processes and air quality and noise in the sensitive Alpine area. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1021/acs.jctc.8b01203 | Small Basis Set Allowing the Recovery of Dispersion Interactions with Double-Hybrid Functionals | Taking advantage of the compensation between Basis Set Superposition Error and Basis Set Incompleteness Error, a new basis is developed to improve the performances of Double Hybrid (DH) functionals in reproducing interaction energies in weak noncovalent systems. Using a self-consistent formula, containing only energy terms computed for dimers and the corresponding monomers at the same level of theory, the exponents of the more external functions of the Def2-SVPD basis were optimized on three systems extracted from the S22 set. The transferability of the obtained basis set, called DH-SVPD, was then tested on five benchmark sets, and it is assessed by considering six DH functionals, eventually corrected with empirical dispersion corrections (for a total of 16 methods). Our results show that this simple approach is able to provide accurate results for noncovalent interaction energies of all the considered systems, and, in particular, to recover the performances obtained by coupling the DH functionals with empirical dispersion corrections. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
10.1111/joim.12169 | Cystatin C identifies cardiovascular risk better than creatinine-based estimates of glomerular filtration in middle-aged individuals without a history of cardiovascular disease | Objectives: Creatinine- and cystatin C-based estimates of renal function are considered to be cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, but the clinical utility in middle-aged subjects without a history of CVD is controversial. Design: We related plasma cystatin C and creatinine-based glomerular filtration rate (GFR) [MDRD, CKD-EPI-2009, and CKD-EPI-comb (a combination of creatinine and cystatin C)] to incident CVD, CVD mortality, all-cause mortality, and heart failure in 4650 middle-aged subjects without CVD. Results: The hazard ratio (HR) per standard deviation increment (95% CI) of cystatin C predicted incident CVD (1. 22, 1. 11-1. 33; P < 0. 0001), CVD mortality (1. 44, 1. 24-1. 66; P < 0. 0001), all-cause mortality (1. 15, 1. 05-1. 26; P = 0. 002), and heart failure (1. 27, 1. 05-1. 55; P = 0. 02), whereas MDRD and CKD-EPI-2009 only predicted CVD mortality (0. 79, 0. 66-0. 93; P = 0. 006 and 0. 78, 0. 66-0. 92; P = 0. 003, respectively). Cystatin C led to a significant increase in the net reclassification improvement for all endpoints, except heart failure. Only within the quartile with the worst renal function were all measures related to all-cause and CVD mortality. The top 25% of cystatin C in the population significantly predicted risk of incident CVD and CVD mortality, whereas MDRD and CKD-EPI-2009 were predictors of CVD mortality only at a GFR < 60 mL/min/1. 73 m2 (11-13% of the population) and of incident CVD only at a GFR < 45 mL/min/1. 73 m2 (<1% of the population). Conclusion: Cystatin C is a better risk marker for CVD morbidity and mortality than creatinine-based GFR. Whether this is explained by cystatin C being a better marker for true GFR or through other effects of cystatin C remains to be shown. | [
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.1039/C6SC00987E | Towards Metal Organic Framework Based Field Effect Chemical Sensors Uio 66 Nh2 For Nerve Agent Detection | We present a highly sensitive gas detection approach for the infamous 'nerve agent' group of alkyl phosphonate compounds. Signal transduction is achieved by monitoring the work function shift of metal-organic framework UiO-66-NH2 coated electrodes upon exposure to ppb-level concentrations of a target simulant. Using the Kelvin probe technique, we demonstrate the potential of electrically insulating MOFs for integration in field effect devices such as ChemFETs: a three orders of magnitude improvement over previous work function-based detection of nerve agent simulants. Moreover, the signal is fully reversible both in dry and humid conditions, down to low ppb concentrations. Comprehensive investigation of the interactions that lead towards this high sensitivity points towards a series of confined interactions between the analyte and the pore interior of UiO-66-NH2. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
W2322654249 | Synthesis and Reactivity of an Isolable Cobalt(I) Complex Containing a β-Diketiminate-Based Acyclic Tetradentate Ligand | A model for cobalamin was synthesized using a new monoanionic tetradentate nitrogen donor ligand; 2-(4-tolyl)-1,3-bis(2-isopropylpyridyl)propenediimine (Tol-BDI((2-pp)2)H) (1), which utilizes isopropylpyridines as pendant arms on a β-diketiminate (BDI) backbone. During the synthesis of 1, the rearrangement product, Tol-BDI((2-pp)(4-pp))H (2) was observed. Metalation of 1 with zinc iodide and cobalt chloride yielded the corresponding Tol-BDI((2-pp)2)ZnI (3) and Tol-BDI((2-pp)2)CoCl (4) complexes. The redox properties of 4 in comparison to cobalamin were examined through electrochemical studies. Electrochemical and bulk reduction of complex 4 gave a diamagnetic cobalt(I) complex, Tol-BDI((2-pp)2)Co (5). Reactivity of 5 toward C-X bonds was investigated using methyl iodide and 1-iodo-2-(trimethylsilyl)acetylene, yielding Tol-BDI((2-pp)2)Co(CH(3))I and Tol-BDI((2-pp)2)Co(C(2)Si(CH(3))(3))I respectively. Synthesis and characterization details for these complexes, including the crystal structure of 3, are reported. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
GB 9902580 W | AUTOMATIC ANSWER MODE PROVISION FOR SOME TELEPHONE NETWORK CALLS | A telephone-network signals calls to destination terminal equipment by either of two categories of ON/OFF ringing signal: one category, called a short-ring and having ON periods less than a time-interval T, is used to signal calls intended for automatic answering; the other, having ON periods longer than T, is used to signal "telephony" calls which need the attention of a person from the start of the end-to-end connection. Upon receipt of a ringing signal, equipment at the terminal will seek assured detection of any prescribed short-ring cadence and then provide prompt automatic answering, but will stop seeking short-ring detection if an ON period exceeds T and then rely on an audible or other telephony alerting signal to elicit manual answering. The network may be instructed in 3 ways to signal a call with a short-ring: if the call originates from some designated terminal or network facility, or when number dialling has been preceded by a special pre-code (e.g. involving characters * and #), or when the number dialled has been selected from a plurality of numbers allocated to the receiving end-connection. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1145/3173574.3173719 | What To Put On The User Sensing Technologies For Studies And Physiology Aware Systems | Fitness trackers not just provide easy means to acquire physiological data in real-world environments due to affordable sensing technologies, they further offer opportunities for physiology-aware applications and studies in HCI; however, their performance is not well understood. In this paper, we report findings on the quality of 3 sensing technologies: PPG-based wrist trackers (Apple Watch, Microsoft Band 2), an ECG-belt (Polar H7) and reference device with stick-on ECG electrodes (Nexus 10). We collected physiological (heart rate, electrodermal activity, skin temperature) and subjective data from 21 participants performing combinations of physical activity and stressful tasks. Our empirical research indicates that wrist devices provide a good sensing performance in stationary settings. However, they lack accuracy when participants are mobile or if tasks require physical activity. Based on our findings, we suggest a textitDesign Space for Wearables in Research Settings and reflected on the appropriateness of the investigated technologies in research contexts. | [
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.01.035 | Eddy covariance measurements of the dual-isotope composition of evapotranspiration | Measurements of the isotopic composition of water vapor (H 2 O v ) provide valuable insights into the hydrological cycle, whereas eddy covariance (EC) measurements are widely used to quantify biosphere-atmosphere exchange processes. Yet, the direct combination of water isotope approaches and the EC method remains technically challenging. Here, we present the first EC measurements of δ 18 O and δD of evapotranspiration (ET) over the full growing season of a beech forest in central Germany. This EC implementation is based on 2 Hz measurements of the mole fraction and isotopic composition of water vapor (C H2O,v , δD and δ 18 O) with a customized version of a commercially available water vapor isotope analyzer. The isotopic composition of ET showed a seasonal variability from −19 to 0‰ for δ 18 O ET and from −140 to −25‰ for δD ET . The setup-specific limitations of our measurements yield a mean bias of 0. 03 mmol m −2 s −1 of the measured net water flux. Spectral and cospectral analysis showed that high-frequency dampening was less pronounced for our EC setup (which was equipped with heated tubing) than for the standard EC setup at this site. Thus, we conclude that direct EC measurements of the isotopic composition of ET are feasible for both, δ 18 O ET and δD ET . We propose that EC-based measurements of the isotopic composition of ET are feasible to improve our understanding of the hydrological cycle, especially where flux gradient methods show limited applicability. Our simultaneous measurements of δD ET and δ 18 O ET reveal the difference between transpiration-dominated and evaporation-dominated periods. This study highlights the potential of simultaneous measurements of δ 18 O ET and δD ET . | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1016/j.actbio.2017.04.012 | Copper-containing mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles as multifunctional agent for bone regeneration | The application of mesoporous bioactive glasses (MBGs) containing controllable amount of different ions, with the aim to impart antibacterial activity, as well as stimulation of osteogenesis and angiogenesis, is attracting an increasing interest. In this contribution, in order to endow nano-sized MBG with additional biological functions, the framework of a binary SiO2-CaO mesoporous glass was modified with different concentrations of copper ions (2 and 5% mol. ), through a one-pot ultrasound-assisted sol-gel procedure. The Cu-containing MBG (2% mol. ) showed high exposed surface area (550 m2 g−1), uniform mesoporous channels (2. 6 nm), remarkable in vitro bioactive behaviour and sustained release of Cu2+ ions. Cu-MBG nanoparticles and their ionic dissolution extracts exhibited antibacterial effect against three different bacteria strains, E. coli, S. aureus, S. epidermidis, and the ability to inhibit and disperse the biofilm produced by S. epidermidis. The obtained results suggest that the developed material, which combines in single multifunctional agent excellent bioactivity and antimicrobial ability, offers promising opportunities for the prevention of infectious diseases and the effective treatment of bone defects. Statement of Significance In order to endow mesoporous bioactive glass, characterized by excellent bioactive properties, with additional biological functions, Cu-doped mesoporous SiO2-CaO glass (Cu-MBG) in the form of nanoparticles was prepared by an ultra-sound assisted one pot synthesis. The analysis of the bacterial viability, using different bacterial strains, and the morphological observation of the biofilm produced by the Staphylococcus epidermidis, revealed the antimicrobial effectiveness of the Cu-MBG and the relative ionic extracts against both the bacterial growth and the biofilm formation/dispersion, providing a true alternative to traditional antibiotic systemic therapies. The proposed multifunctional agent represents a promising and versatile platform for bone and soft tissues regeneration. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
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