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10.1039/d0sc02431g | Asymmetry controlled dynamic behavior of autonomous chemiluminescent Janus microswimmers | Asymmetrically modified Janus microparticles are presented as autonomous light emitting swimmers with shape-controlled trajectories. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
EP 05090274 A | Sheet material pressing machines | A sheet material pressing machine for pressing a sheet material into a formed article may include a first die (21) unit that can be opened and closed and a second die (31) unit that can be opened and closed. The first and second die units are arranged and constructed such that closing operation of the first die unit and opening operation of the second die unit, or vice versa, can alternately occur.
| [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
175574 | Irskin provides dermatologists a new dermatoscope, equipped with a software for visual comparisons in the diagnostic phase, performing a content based image retrieval from an a-priori built database. | Skin tumors are the most frequent cancer in fair skinned population with a raising trend over in the world. The financial costs of skin cancer are high for both the person with cancer and for society as a whole (in Europe the cost of a biopsy is about 250-300€, including the costs of the doctor, the nurse, the material of the operating room, histology and checkups). The probability of survival is high, but the diagnosis accuracy is low.
IRSkin is a videodermatoscope (and a potential mobile application) with a pre-installed software, able to acquire high-definition images (up to 10 Mpx), insert them in a body map, process, analyze and compare them in real time with a collection of dermoscopic images, histologically diagnosed, collected in an incremental database, a priori stored in the memory of the machine, by means of a Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system. This system allows every dermatologist to access to a large amount of data at a relatively low cost and to improve his own experience and diagnosis skills much more quickly. For patients it will increase the diagnostic accurancy and the diagnostic timing.
The targeted market is a niche but with good revenue and growth perspectives. In Europe there are about 15.000 dermatologists working in public or private health facilities. IRSkin is first addressed to the EU with potential for global markets (thanks to its export to more than 95 countries). CA-MI would also export this product in USA, because of its high incidence rate of skin melanoma and its high annual cost of treating skin cancers. The Phase 1 will provide a more accurate and analytic assessment of the existing market and growth rates for videodermatoscopes by segment and geographic area, useful to partecipate to the phase 2. Funding required to develop a prototype is about 2000k€. | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
DE 102012108155 A | Film material useful for producing flexible packaging, comprises adhesive-containing product side, film material outer side with printing and optionally material exhibiting release property and central composite material | Film material (10) for producing a flexible packaging, preferably non-food-, secondary- and/or multi-pack packaging, e.g. alkali-containing products (15) comprises an adhesive-containing product side (20), a film material outer side (30) with a printing (40) and optionally a material exhibiting release property opposite to the adhesive-containing side product and a central composite material. The product adjoins at the adhesive-containing product side in the finished packaging. The central composite material is connected directly to a metal layer on one side. Film material (10) for producing a flexible packaging, preferably non-food-, secondary- and/or multi-pack packaging, e.g. alkali-containing products (15) comprises an adhesive-containing product side (20), a film material outer side (30) with a printing (40) and optionally a material exhibiting release property opposite to the adhesive-containing side product and a central composite material. The product adjoins at the adhesive-containing product side in the finished packaging. The central composite material is connected directly to a metal layer on one side and provided directly to the printing on the other side. An independent claim is also included for producing the film material comprising (a) providing the central composite material with the copolymer-containing product side and homogeneous polymer-containing film material outer side, (b) coating the product side with the metal layer, (c) coating the metal layer with the adhesive, (d) printing the film material outer side for generating a printing pattern, (e) coating the printing pattern with the release coating. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1038/nature12506 | Richness of human gut microbiome correlates with metabolic markers | We are facing a global metabolic health crisis provoked by an obesity epidemic. Here we report the human gut microbial composition in a population sample of 123 non-obese and 169 obese Danish individuals. We find two groups of individuals that differ by the number of gut microbial genes and thus gut bacterial richness. They contain known and previously unknown bacterial species at different proportions; individuals with a low bacterial richness (23% of the population) are characterized by more marked overall adiposity, insulin resistance and dyslipidaemia and a more pronounced inflammatory phenotype when compared with high bacterial richness individuals. The obese individuals among the lower bacterial richness group also gain more weight over time. Only a few bacterial species are sufficient to distinguish between individuals with high and low bacterial richness, and even between lean and obese participants. Our classifications based on variation in the gut microbiome identify subsets of individuals in the general white adult population who may be at increased risk of progressing to adiposity-associated co-morbidities. | [
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
W4224262197 | Survie des patients en oncologie traités par l’équipe de soins palliatifs d’un hôpital de São Paulo, au Brésil | Introduction : L’échelle de l’indice fonctionnel de Karnofsky (Karnofsky Performance Status Scale) est un instrument d’évaluation pertinent et fonctionnel qui sert à déterminer quelles personnes devraient être suivies par des équipes multidisciplinaires de soins palliatifs. Objectif : Analyser les résultats cliniques de patients, suivis par une équipe de soins palliatifs, dont l’indice fonctionnel de Karnofsky est inférieur à 70 %, et les comparer aux résultats de personnes n’ayant pas bénéficié de ce type de soins. Méthodologie : Dans la présente étude de cohorte rétrospective, le suivi pendant 10 jours des patients par l’équipe de soins palliatifs constituait le facteur d’exposition et la survie, la variable dépendante. Des données ont été extraites des dossiers médicaux afin de réaliser des statistiques descriptives et des analyses des courbes de survie. Résultats : Parmi les 581 participants de l’échantillon, 42,5 % avaient des métastases. Le cancer gastro-intestinal était le diagnostic plus prévalent (29,1 %). Du groupe, 51 participants (8,7 %) étaient suivis par l’équipe de soins palliatifs. Le taux de mortalité pendant les 10 jours de suivi s’élevait à 10,8 %; il était plus élevé encore (15,7 %) chez les patients suivis par l’équipe de soins palliatifs. Conclusion : Les patients ayant un indice fonctionnel inférieur à 70 % qui étaient suivis par l’équipe de soins palliatifs présentaient un piètre état clinique et une période de survie plus réduite comparativement aux autres patients. Mots-clés : soins palliatifs, personnes atteintes de cancer, indice fonctionnel de Karnofsky, analyse du taux de survie | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01119.x | The etiology of variation in language skills changes with development: A longitudinal twin study of language from 2 to 12years | The present study is the first long-term longitudinal examination of the etiology of individual differences in language from early childhood through to adolescence. We applied a multivariate latent factor genetic model to longitudinal data from the Twins Early Development Study in order to (a) compare the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on language skills in early childhood (2, 3 and 4years), middle childhood (7, 9 and 10years), and early adolescence (12years); and (b) determine to what extent the same genetic and environmental factors underlie variation in language skills at these three stages of language development. We found that while shared environmental influences appear to be dominant (latent factor c 2=74) in early language, with a smaller though significant role for genetic factors (latent factor a 2=24), the pattern is reversed by middle childhood such that genetic influences are substantially more important (latent factor a 2=57-63 at 7, 9 and 10years and . 47-57 at 12years) and shared environmental influences less so (latent factor c 2=31-37 at 7, 9 and 10years and . 31-32 at 12years). The increase in the heritability of language skills between early and middle childhood appears to be due to new genetic factors that come into play at that transition. In contrast, genetic factors remain stable from middle childhood through to early adolescence, and account for the phenotypic continuity in language skills across these two stages. | [
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1016/j.molbiopara.2012.06.005 | Two long non-coding RNAs generated from subtelomeric regions accumulate in a novel perinuclear compartment in Plasmodium falciparum | Chromosome ends have been implicated in the default silencing of clonally variant gene families in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. These chromosome regions are organized into heterochromatin, as defined by the presence of a repressive histone H3 lysine 9 trimethylated marker and heterochromatin protein 1. Here, we show that the non-coding subtelomeric region adjacent to virulence genes forms facultative heterochromatin in a cell cycle-dependent manner. We demonstrate that telomere-associated repeat elements (TAREs) and telomeres are transcribed as long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) during schizogony. Northern blot assays revealed two classes of lncRNAs: a ∼4-kb transcript composed of telomere sequences and a TARE-3 element, and a >6-kb transcript composed of 21-bp repeats from TARE-6. These lncRNAs are transcribed by RNA polymerase II as single-stranded molecules. RNA-FISH analysis showed that these lncRNAs form several nuclear foci during the schizont stage, whereas in the ring stage, they are located in a single perinuclear compartment that does not co-localize with any known nuclear subcompartment. Furthermore, the TARE-6 lncRNA is predicted to form a stable and repetitive hairpin structure that is able to bind histones. Consequently, the characterization of the molecular interactions of these lncRNAs with nuclear proteins may reveal novel modes of gene regulation and nuclear function in P. falciparum. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
10.1109/ICNP.2017.8117592 | Algorithm Data Driven Optimization Of Adaptive Communication Networks | This paper is motivated by the emerging vision of an automated and data-driven optimization of communication networks, making it possible to fully exploit the flexibilities offered by modern network technologies and heralding an era of fast and self-adjusting networks. We build upon our recent study of machine-learning approaches to (statically) optimize resource allocations based on the data produced by network algorithms in the past. We take our study a crucial step further by considering dynamic scenarios: scenarios where communication patterns can change over time. In particular, we investigate network algorithms which learn from the traffic distribution (the feature vector), in order to predict global network allocations (a multi-label problem). As a case study, we consider a well-studied fc-median problem arising in Software-Defined Networks, and aim to imitate and speedup existing heuristics as well as to predict good initial solutions for local search algorithms. We compare different machine learning algorithms by simulation and find that neural network can provide the best abstraction, saving up to two-thirds of the algorithm runtime. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1137/140960220 | Multi Solitons And Related Solutions For The Water Waves System | The main result of this work is the construction of multi-solitons solutions, that is, solutions that are time asymptotics to a sum of decoupling solitary waves for the full water-waves system with surface tension. Our approach uses the construction of a precise approximate solution that is controlled by using spectral information for each solitary wave and a bootstrap argument for the control of the remainder. For this stage, we need only few properties about the nonlinear Cauchy problem, namely, local well-posedness for very smooth data. We also use a similar construction to refine our previous result [Invent. Math. , 184 (2011), pp. 257--388] about the nonlinear instability of one-dimensional solitary waves in the two-dimensional model: we prove the existence of semiglobal solutions that depend nontrivially of the transverse variable and that tend to the line solitary wave as time goes to infinity. | [
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1109/TCST.2010.2063250 | Identification Of Lpv State Space Models For Autonomic Web Service Systems | The complexity of information technology (IT) systems is steadily increasing. System complexity has been recognized as the main obstacle to the further advancement of IT and has recently raised energy management issues. Control techniques have been proposed and successfully applied to design autonomic computing systems, i. e. , systems able to manage themselves trading-off system performance with energy reduction goals. As users' behavior is highly time varying and workload conditions can change substantially within the same business day, the linear parametrically varying (LPV) framework proves particularly suitable for modeling such systems. In this paper, the identification of single-input-single-output and multiple-input-multiple-output state space LPV models for the performance control of autonomic web service systems is addressed. Specifically, subspace LPV identification methods are shown to yield accurate dynamic models for the considered application. Their effectiveness is assessed on experimental data measured on a custom implementation of a workload generator and micro-benchmarking Web service applications. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.215501 | From Glass Formation to Icosahedral Ordering by Curving Three-Dimensional Space | Geometric frustration describes the inability of a local molecular arrangement, such as icosahedra found in metallic glasses and in model atomic glass formers, to tile space. Local icosahedral order, however, is strongly frustrated in Euclidean space, which obscures any causal relationship with the observed dynamical slowdown. Here we relieve frustration in a model glass-forming liquid by curving three-dimensional space onto the surface of a 4-dimensional hypersphere. For sufficient curvature, frustration vanishes and the liquid "freezes" in a fully icosahedral structure via a sharp "transition. " Frustration increases upon reducing the curvature, and the transition to the icosahedral state smoothens while glassy dynamics emerge. Decreasing the curvature leads to decoupling between dynamical and structural length scales and the decrease of kinetic fragility. This sheds light on the observed glass-forming behavior in Euclidean space. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1002/cplu.201200088 | Biofilm formation on chromatic sol-gel/polydiacetylene films | Bacterial biofilms are integrated, single-or multi-species communities of cells that play profound roles in human health and disease. The formation of biofilms requires interactions between bacteria and the surfaces they colonize, and the surface can specifically impact the structure, function, and composition of these communities. Investigating biofilm formation in situ, their assembly kinetics, and particularly identifying substances that could interfere with or inhibit biofilm growth is thus a major scientific and practical goal. It is shown that thin dipcoated films comprising a transparent sol-gel framework and polydiacetylene, a unique conjugated polymer that can undergo color and fluorescence transitions, both promote rapid growth of bacterial biofilms as well as allow colorimetric and fluorescence detection of biofilm formation. Microscopy data demonstrate that the bacterial cells and resultant biofilm specifically target the polydiacetylene domains embedded within the silica-gel matrix, consequently inducing dramatic colorimetric and fluorescence transitions. The mesoporous silica/polydiacetylene matrix can further host other chemical substances allowing evaluation of their biofilm inhibitory effects through simple chromatic screening. Overall, the polydiacetylene/solgel films constitute a novel generic platform for promoting bacterial biofilms and their in situ analysis. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
W2117748573 | Lean randomization and exception handling | In recent years, randomization of process order as well as randomization of the wafer map in the cassettes delivering the wafers was increasingly used to be able to correlate yield variations with specific segments of the process flow (see [1] and [2]), as well as to reduce yield influences on specific wafer positions such as top and bottom of the wafer cassette. Many randomization efforts relied on wafer sorter based randomization, which costs cycle time and wafer sorter capacity. In this paper, we describe how randomization of both process sequence as well as wafer map changes can be implemented on process equipment as part of normal processing. This kind of randomization does not add cycle time and does not require wafer sorters and will therefore be called lean randomization. We will also describe some of the most important exceptions that can occur when implementing lean randomization and we will discuss how a fab can deal with those exceptions. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.5194/acp-14-4679-2014 | Intercomparison and evaluation of global aerosol microphysical properties among AeroCom models of a range of complexity | Abstract. Many of the next generation of global climate models will include aerosol schemes which explicitly simulate the microphysical processes that determine the particle size distribution. These models enable aerosol optical properties and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations to be determined by fundamental aerosol processes, which should lead to a more physically based simulation of aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcings. This study examines the global variation in particle size distribution simulated by 12 global aerosol microphysics models to quantify model diversity and to identify any common biases against observations. Evaluation against size distribution measurements from a new European network of aerosol supersites shows that the mean model agrees quite well with the observations at many sites on the annual mean, but there are some seasonal biases common to many sites. In particular, at many of these European sites, the accumulation mode number concentration is biased low during winter and Aitken mode concentrations tend to be overestimated in winter and underestimated in summer. At high northern latitudes, the models strongly underpredict Aitken and accumulation particle concentrations compared to the measurements, consistent with previous studies that have highlighted the poor performance of global aerosol models in the Arctic. In the marine boundary layer, the models capture the observed meridional variation in the size distribution, which is dominated by the Aitken mode at high latitudes, with an increasing concentration of accumulation particles with decreasing latitude. Considering vertical profiles, the models reproduce the observed peak in total particle concentrations in the upper troposphere due to new particle formation, although modelled peak concentrations tend to be biased high over Europe. Overall, the multi-model-mean data set simulates the global variation of the particle size distribution with a good degree of skill, suggesting that most of the individual global aerosol microphysics models are performing well, although the large model diversity indicates that some models are in poor agreement with the observations. Further work is required to better constrain size-resolved primary and secondary particle number sources, and an improved understanding of nucleation and growth (e. g. the role of nitrate and secondary organics) will improve the fidelity of simulated particle size distributions. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
984135 | Hetero-Structures for efficient luminescent devices | We propose to engineer stable-highly luminescent heterostructures based on defect tolerant benign perovskites and their integration into efficient planar/thin film optoelectronic devices. Primary targeted devices are: blue and white planar electroluminescent devices, high efficiency solar cells and electrically pumped lasers.
We will use processing methods that are compatible with large area industrial processes, in particular focusing on vapour deposition using thermal sublimation of the perovskite precursors. The boundaries of this simple, scalable and economic coating method will be determined using an advanced real time in-situ optical monitoring system based on hyperspectral imaging. This tool will unveil the limits and processing conditions for the preparation of uniform and very thin (< 10 nm) crystalline thin-film semiconductors.
We will also attempt to replace the toxic lead in today’s most studied perovskite materials, by less toxic materials such as tin and silver/bismuth mixtures. Here vacuum based processing is beneficial in view of the limited air-stability and solubility of their pre-cursor salts.
Accurate vapour deposition methods will allow the fabrication of perovskites in multiple layered heterostructures (MLH) that passivate the perovskite crystal boundaries. This will increase their thermal and structural stability and above all their photoluminescence efficiency. With the sophisticated processing control, multiple quantum wells (MQWs) will be engineered. MQWs are promising for light-emitting devices, in particular for lasers.
The impact of the project is large on various fields ranging from processes, materials and device engineering, physics, and energy. High efficiency, planar LEDs and solar cells, can shift the energy landscape and strongly help to meet the worlds CO2 reduction targets. The demonstration of electrically pumped lasing in easily processed thin film semiconductors will generate so far un-available fields of science. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1038/sdata.2018.157 | Data Descriptor: A tissue-based draft map of the murine MHC class I immunopeptidome | The large array of peptides presented to CD8+ T cells by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules is referred to as the MHC class I immunopeptidome. Although the MHC class I immunopeptidome is ubiquitous in mammals and represents a critical component of the immune system, very little is known, in any species, about its composition across most tissues and organs in vivo. We applied mass spectrometry (MS) technologies to draft the first tissue-based atlas of the murine MHC class I immunopeptidome in health. Peptides were extracted from 19 normal tissues from C57BL/6 mice and prepared for MS injections, resulting in a total number of 28,448 high-confidence H2Db/Kb-associated peptides identified and annotated in the atlas. This atlas provides initial qualitative data to explore the tissue-specificity of the immunopeptidome and serves as a guide to identify potential tumor-associated antigens from various cancer models. Our data were shared via PRIDE (PXD008733), SysteMHC Atlas (SYSMHC00018) and SWATH Atlas. We anticipate that this unique dataset will be expanded in the future and will find wide applications in basic and translational immunology. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
10.1039/C8CC00049B | Polar Organometallic Strategies For Regioselective C H Metallation Of N Heterocyclic Carbenes | N-Heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have become indispensable ligands across a broad swathe of the synthetic and catalytic landscape, not in small part due to their ease of electronic and steric tunability. One of the latest additions to this important family of ligands are anionic NHCs, which have become valuable precursors to access abnormal NHC complexes as well as shown great potential for further NHC functionalisation. Deprotonative metallation has emerged as one of the most versatile methodologies to access anionic NHCs, where judicious choice of reaction conditions and metallating agents can finely tune the regioselectivity of the reaction. This Feature Article focuses on the recent emergence of s-block metal-mediated NHC metallations and the new opportunities this methodology offers. | [
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
10.1063/1.4811496 | Room Temperature Electrically Tunable Terahertz Faraday Effect | We demonstrate electrical control of the room temperature Faraday effect in a 100-nm-thick film of strained HgTe, which is a topological insulator. The terahertz (THz) response of our device is dominated by the Drude response of carriers with high mobility. The electrical control is achieved by gating the carrier density in a static magnetic field, opening new perspectives for applications like high-speed amplitude and phase modulators in the THz frequency range. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1073/pnas.1919451117 | Electron–phonon-driven three-dimensional metallicity in an insulating cuprate | The role of the crystal lattice for the electronic properties of cuprates and other high-temperature superconductors remains controversial despite decades of theoretical and experimental efforts. While the paradigm of strong electronic correlations suggests a purely electronic mechanism behind the insulator-to-metal transition, recently the mutual enhancement of the electron–electron and the electron–phonon interaction and its relevance to the formation of the ordered phases have also been emphasized. Here, we combine polarization-resolved ultrafast optical spectroscopy and state-of-the-art dynamical mean-field theory to show the importance of the crystal lattice in the breakdown of the correlated insulating state in an archetypal undoped cuprate. We identify signatures of electron–phonon coupling to specific fully symmetric optical modes during the buildup of a three-dimensional (3D) metallic state that follows charge photodoping. Calculations for coherently displaced crystal structures along the relevant phonon coordinates indicate that the insulating state is remarkably unstable toward metallization despite the seemingly large charge-transfer energy scale. This hitherto unobserved insulator-to-metal transition mediated by fully symmetric lattice modes can find extensive application in a plethora of correlated solids. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
10.1007/s00220-017-2980-0 | Stability of a Fermionic N + 1 Particle System with Point Interactions | We prove that a system of N fermions interacting with an additional particle via point interactions is stable if the ratio of the mass of the additional particle to the one of the fermions is larger than some critical m*. The value of m* is independent of N and turns out to be less than 1. This fact has important implications for the stability of the unitary Fermi gas. We also characterize the domain of the Hamiltonian of this model, and establish the validity of the Tan relations for all wave functions in the domain. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1109/TVLSI.2015.2436979 | Toward Solving Multichannel Rf Soc Integration Issues Through Digital Fractional Division | In modern RF system on chips (SoCs), the digital content consumes up to 85% of the IC chip area. The recent push to integrate multiple RF-SoC cores is met with heavy resistance by the remaining RF/analog circuitry, which creates numerous strong aggressors and weak victims leading to RF performance degradation. A key such mechanism is injection pulling through parasitic coupling between various $LC$ -tank oscillators as well as between them and strong transmitter (TX) outputs. Any static or dynamic frequency proximity between aggressors (i. e. , oscillators and TX outputs) and victims (i. e. , oscillators) that share the same die causes injection pulling, which produces unwanted spurs and/or modulation distortion. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a new frequency planning technique of a multicore TX where each $LC$ -tank oscillator is separated from other aggressors beyond its pulling range. This is done by breaking the integer harmonic frequency relationship of victims/aggressors within and between the RF transmission channels using digital fractional divider based on a phase rotation. Each oscillator’s center frequency can be fractionally separated by $\sim 28$ % but, at the same time, both producing closely spaced frequencies at the phase rotator outputs. The injection-pulling spurs are so far away that they are insignificantly small (−80 dBc) and coincide with the second harmonic of the carrier. This method is experimentally verified in a two-channel system in 65-nm digital CMOS, each channel comprising a high-swing class-C oscillator, frequency divider, and phase rotator | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
10.1038/nmeth.1427 | Visualization of macromolecular structures | Structural biology is rapidly accumulating a wealth of detailed information about protein function, binding sites, RNA, large assemblies and molecular motions. These data are increasingly of interest to a broader community of life scientists, not just structural experts. Visualization is a primary means for accessing and using these data, yet visualization is also a stumbling block that prevents many life scientists from benefiting from three-dimensional structural data. In this review, we focus on key biological questions where visualizing three-dimensional structures can provide insight and describe available methods and tools. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1111/2041-210X.13163 | Point Combination Transect Pct Incorporation Of Small Underwater Cameras To Study Fish Communities | Available underwater visual census (UVC) methods such as line transects or point count observations are widely used to obtain community data of underwater species assemblages, despite their known pit-falls. As interest in the community structure of aquatic life is growing, there is need for more standardized and replicable methods for acquiring underwater census data. Here, we propose a novel approach, Point-Combination Transect (PCT), which makes use of automated image recording by small digital cameras to eliminate observer and identification biases associated with available UVC methods. We conducted a pilot study at Lake Tanganyika, demonstrating the applicability of PCT on a taxonomically and phenotypically highly diverse assemblage of fishes, the Tanganyikan cichlid species-flock. We conducted 17 PCTs consisting of five GoPro cameras each and identified 22,867 individual cichlids belonging to 61 species on the recorded images. These data were then used to evaluate our method and to compare it to traditional line transect studies conducted in close proximity to our study site at Lake Tanganyika. We show that the analysis of the second hour of PCT image recordings (equivalent to 360 images per camera) leads to reliable estimates of the benthic cichlid community composition in Lake Tanganyika according to species accumulation curves, while minimizing the effect of disturbance of the fish through SCUBA divers. We further show that PCT is robust against observer biases and outperforms traditional line transect methods. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Earth System Science",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1038/s41563-017-0010-4 | Atomic scale imaging of magnetic circular dichroism by achromatic electron microscopy | In order to obtain a fundamental understanding of the interplay between charge, spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in magnetic materials and to predict and control their physical properties 1-3, experimental techniques are required that are capable of accessing local magnetic information with atomic-scale spatial resolution. Here, we show that a combination of electron energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism 4 and chromatic-aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy, which reduces the focal spread of inelastically scattered electrons by orders of magnitude when compared with the use of spherical aberration correction alone, can achieve atomic-scale imaging of magnetic circular dichroism and provide element-selective orbital and spin magnetic moments atomic plane by atomic plane. This unique capability, which we demonstrate for Sr2FeMoO6, opens the door to local atomic-level studies of spin configurations in a multitude of materials that exhibit different types of magnetic coupling, thereby contributing to a detailed understanding of the physical origins of magnetic properties of materials at the highest spatial resolution. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
2717733 | Paleomagnetism and rock-magnetism by micro-magnetic tomography | Our knowledge on the past behavior of the Earth’s magnetic field critically depends on our ability to obtain and interpret magnetic signals from geological materials such as lavas. These materials contain mixtures of different magnetic minerals, some of which are good recorders of the Earth’s magnetic field, others are not. Even the presence of a small amount of minerals with adverse magnetic properties obscures the signal of good recorders, resulting in >80% of measurements of the past Earth’s magnetic field strength being flawed. Understanding the Earth’s magnetic field is pivotal for predicting the future of its shielding capacity against the Sun’s electromagnetically charged particles, which globally weakened by >20% over the last millennium.
With MIMATOM, I aim to establish an entirely new way to obtain paleomagnetic and rock-magnetic information from geological materials. I will go beyond measuring magnetizations of bulk samples by determining the magnetic moments of individual minerals embedded in these samples in a non-destructive way. Starting from my recent proof-of-concept of Micro-Magnetic Tomography (MMT), I will develop a radically new technique to assess magnetizations of individual minerals inside geological materials. This will enable understanding which minerals are reliable recorders of the Earth’s magnetic field by characterizing their magnetic behavior as function of their grain size, shape, and chemistry. Then I will use MMT to obtain paleomagnetic information from selections of minerals that I identified as good recorders and unlock information on the past state of the Earth’s magnetic field from even the most challenging and magnetically complex geological materials, such as lavas.
My revolutionary new technique will open archives of the past behavior of the Earth’s magnetic field that currently are inaccessible. Moreover, it will pave the way for radically new venues in paleomagnetic and rock-magnetic research, at mineral level. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
174021 | Between saints and celebrities. the devotion and promotion of stigmatics in europe, c.1800-1950 | By far most of the historical studies on the 'golden age' of the stigmatics have focused on medical debates and religious treatises. This project wants to move beyond the traditional historiographical emphasis in at least three ways. First of all, it will focus on the popular perception of stigmatics in the nineteenth and early twentieth century and examine how they became symbolic figures of political and religious causes. Secondly, we will study the interaction of the 'victim souls' with their communities and examine how they were turned into 'living saints' through religious practices and discourse, and how some of them were eventually even beatified and canonized. Thirdly, we will address them as carefully constructed religious commodities (celebrities) and rebalance the research on the selling of religion that has adopted a top-down perspective and focused primarily on the popularization of authorized cults rather than on the impact of the commercialization from the bottom-up. Combining these three aspects in studying the stigmatics, the project will enhance our understanding of the role of (new) media and consumption practices in religious change and the construction of religious identities. As each of these emphases calls for a study that takes into account chronological and geographical differences, we will adopt a comparative approach and examine five of the countries where most of the (hundreds of) stigmatics have been attested (Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Belgium). This will allow us to trace larger trends as changes in the type of stigmatic (e.g. bedridden silent 'sign' or a socially engaged charismatic leader) and moments and locations of increased attention (e.g. political crises). However, since this was the era of an internationalized Catholicism the countries will not be studied in isolation and special attention will be given to transnational attraction (e.g. pilgrims) and the related differences in promotion and perception. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Studies of Cultures and Arts"
]
|
Q4766609 | STUDIO DR ROBERTO CANNAVO' | IL DOTT. ROBERTO CANNAVO' ESERCITA L'ATTIVITA' DI COMMERCIALISTA DAL 2004 FORNENDO SERVIZI DI CONSULENZA TRIBUTARIA, FISCALE, SOCIETARIA E CONTABILE AD AZIENDE DI VARIE DIMENSIONI. LAUREATO PRESSO LA FACOLTA' DI ECONOMIA E COMMERCIO DI GENOVA, NEL 2004 HA CONSEGUITO L'ABILITAZIONE PROFESSIONALE E SI E' ISCRITTO ALL'ALBO DEI DOTTORI COMMERCIALISTI DI GENOVA. SI OCCUPA PREVALENTEMENTE DI ASPETTI CONTABILI, FISCALI E SOCIETARI. PER CONTO DEL TRIBUNALE DI GENOVA SVOLGE SALTUARIAMENTE L'ATTIVITA' DI DELEGATO ALLE VENDITE E DI CUSTODE IN MATERIA DI ESECUZIONI IMMOBILIARI. REVISORE LEGALE, MEMBRO DI COLLEGI SINDACALI DI ALCUNE SOCIETA'. DAL 2001 AL 2004 HA SVOLTO L'INCARICO DI RAPPRESENTANTE DEI PRATICATI DOTTORI COMMERCIALISTI DI GENOVA; DAL 2004 AL 2014 HA PARTECIPATO ALL'ATTIVITA' DELL'UNIONE GIOVANI DOTTORI COMMERCIALISTI, TALVOLTA CON L'INCARICO DI CONSIGLIERE, TALVOLTA DI SEGRETARIO E DI PROBO-VIRO. NEL 2015 E' STATO NOMINATO PRESIDENTE DELL'UGDC DI GENOVA, INCARICO SVOLTO FINO A FINE | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.1039/c6ee03474h | Indirect to direct bandgap transition in methylammonium lead halide perovskite | Unusually long charge carrier lifetime in methylammonium lead halide perovskites is a result of the Rashba-split indirect bandgap. At high pressure the bandgap becomes purely direct, with shorter carrier lifetime and higher radiative efficiency. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
10.1103/PhysRevC.100.034304 | Precision measurements of the charge radii of potassium isotopes | Precision nuclear charge radii measurements in the light-mass region are essential for understanding the evolution of nuclear structure, but their measurement represents a great challenge for experimental techniques. At the Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (CRIS) setup at ISOLDE-CERN, a laser frequency calibration and monitoring system was installed and commissioned through the hyperfine spectra measurement of K38-47. It allowed for the extraction of the hyperfine parameters and isotope shifts with better than 1 MHz precision. These results are in excellent agreement with available literature values and they demonstrate the suitability of the CRIS technique for the study of nuclear observables in light atomic systems. In addition, the spectral line shapes obtained under different conditions were systematically investigated, highlighting the importance of finding optimal conditions, under which the extracted nuclear properties remain unaffected by laser-atom interactions. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
W3155118141 | Tarifs discriminants et monopoles de l’eau potable : une analyse de la réaction des consommateurs face aux distorsions du signal-prix | L’approche des tarifs de l’eau potable en France a changé depuis 2010, puisque les collectivités peuvent recourir à des tarifs progressifs croissants par blocs. Ces tarifs, bien qu’initialement conçus comme des solutions de second rang aux pertes sèches du monopole, se révèlent complexes à mettre en œuvre pour satisfaire d’autres objectifs. La réaction sous-optimale des consommateurs au signal-prix et les problématiques de redistribution questionnent l’efficacité du mécanisme. Cette contribution analyse théoriquement les propriétés d’un tarif progressif, puis évalue empiriquement la réaction des consommateurs au signal-prix à partir d’une expérience naturelle menée à Dunkerque. Les résultats indiquent une bonne réaction au prix marginal des consommateurs situés dans les tranches extrêmes, tout en questionnant l’équité d’un mécanisme fortement distorsif. Classification JEL : D04, D42, D63, D22. | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.1073/pnas.1712784115 | Molecular rotary motors: Unidirectional motion around double bonds | The field of synthetic molecular machines has quickly evolved in recent years, growing from a fundamental curiosity to a highly active field of chemistry. Many different applications are being explored in areas such as catalysis, self-assembled and nanostructured materials, and molecular electronics. Rotary molecular motors hold great promise for achieving dynamic control of molecular functions as well as for powering nanoscale devices. However, for these motors to reach their full potential, many challenges still need to be addressed. In this paper we focus on the design principles of rotary motors featuring a double-bond axle and discuss the major challenges that are ahead of us. Although great progress has been made, further design improvements, for example in terms of efficiency, energy input, and environmental adaptability, will be crucial to fully exploit the opportunities that these rotary motors offer. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
W4226371532 | ANÁLISE DE ÁREA PROPÍCIA PARA CRIAÇÃO DE CORREDOR ECOLÓGICO, NO MUNICÍPIO DE MAMANGUAPE-PB | O presente artigo possui como objeto de estudo uma área que liga os fragmentos florestais da Estação Ecológica Pau Brasil e da Mata da Asplan, tem como objetivo analisar a situação deste corredor natural. Uma vez que, as paisagens brasileiras, em sua maioria, possuem remanescentes de vegetação nativa que se encontram isolados e inseridos de uma paisagem diferente da original. Os fatores como a diminuição das áreas de vegetação natural e o grau de isolamento afetam as relações ecológicas entre as espécies, ocasionando um impacto negativo e, para remediar este problema, se torna necessário a criação de corredores ecológicos. Para se chegar aos resultados, foram realizadas visitas de campo, analisados produtos cartográficos e fotográficos. Para manipulação e tratamento dos dados coletados, foram utilizados softwares de SIG, ferramenta que contribuiu na obtenção dos resultados desta pesquisa. Desta forma, foram mapeadas, nascentes, corpos hídricos, fragmentos florestais, barragens e demais elementos presentes neste trabalho. Foi obtido também resultados do mapeamento do uso e ocupação do solo da área de estudo. Assim, tornou-se possível realizar as análises propostas neste trabalho, e apresentá-las nos resultados e conclusões. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
10.1021/jp100923f | Mercury-mediated attachment of metal-sandwich-based altitudinal molecular rotors to gold surfaces | Gold surface attachment of altitudinal molecular rotors provided with ten -HgSCH2CH2SCH3 "tentacles" has been monitored with ellipsometry, scanning tunneling microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The rotors appear to adsorb on the gold surface in the intended orientation, with rotor axle parallel to the surface, without any inclination for multilayer growth. According to XPS data, the sulfur-containing tentacles start to be detectably oxidized within hours of exposure to air and can be ultimately removed by washing. The rotor molecules nevertheless remain firmly attached in the desired orientation, apparently due to a direct interaction of their Hg atoms with the gold surface. When the tentacles are simplified to -HgOCOCF3 substituents, the molecules adhere to the surface as well, but not always in the desired orientation. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
309377 | The Molecular Communication Mechanism of Motor Neuron Survival and Synapse Maintenance | In order to survive and maintain normal function, the cell depends on a dynamic system of spatial specificity and fidelity of signaling pathways that can respond to both internal and external changes over space and time. This cell-cell communication is mediated by ligand-receptor mechanisms. In the case of highly polarized cells such as neurons trafficking mechanisms mediated by motor proteins are used to achieve precise signal targeting. Alterations in the trafficking machinery may results in incorrect signaling, that in some cases leads to neurodegeneration. An example for such phenomenon may be found in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a motor neuron disease characterized by a non-cell autonomous neurodegeneration process, which involves neighboring cells via an unknown mechanism. This proposal focuses on the elucidation of basic cell-cell communication mechanisms by using the motor neuron degeneration process as a model. I aim to reveal critical communication mechanisms between the neuron and its environment for cell survival and synapse maintenance. My working hypothesis is that alterations in extrinsic and intrinsic signals may lead to the neurodegeneration seen in ALS. I will develop unique compartmental platforms mimicking the natural environment of the motor neuron. Then using differential “omics” approaches followed by functional assays I will reveal and characterized vital factors essential to neuron synapse integrity and neuron survival. Using state of the art live-cell imaging techniques I will reveal also the molecular mechanism for signals localization and targeting driven by the motor protein dynein. I will elucidate the molecular mechanism of neuronal communication with its diverse environment essential to its survival and proper function. The project will bring revolutionary new mechanistic insight to a truly fundamental problem in cell biology, how the cell communicates and how signals arrive at the right place at the right time? | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
Q4935920 | (14075.09092020.173000140) TOSCANAMADE DIGITAL | DIE FIRMA TOSCANAMADE HAT DAS DESIGN UND DEN HANDEL MIT MÖBELN UND ACCESSOIRES ZUM GEGENSTAND. DER RAT, DER VON DER SAR ABGEDECKT WIRD? SICH IN ERSTER LINIE AUF DEN DIENST B.6.9 UND SPEZIELL AUF AVR BEZIEHEN? FÜR DIE ENTWICKLUNG VON MARKETING-AUTOMATISIERUNGSLÖSUNGEN, DIE ES ERMÖGLICHEN? IM UNTERNEHMEN, ZEIT UND RESSOURCEN ZU SPAREN UND DIE ERZIELTEN ERGEBNISSE ZU MAXIMIEREN. DAS SAR-PROJEKT? INTEGRIERT IN DEN DIENST B.3.2, WELCHER PREVEDR? DIE REALISIERUNG EINER SORGFÄLTIGEN TÄTIGKEIT? DES DIGITALEN MARKETINGS. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.1016/j.ascom.2017.03.004 | SlicerAstro: A 3-D interactive visual analytics tool for HI data | SKA precursors are capable of detecting hundreds of galaxies in HI in a single 12 h pointing. In deeper surveys one will probe more easily faint HI structures, typically located in the vicinity of galaxies, such as tails, filaments, and extraplanar gas. The importance of interactive visualization in data exploration has been demonstrated by the wide use of tools (e. g. Karma, Casaviewer, VISIONS) that help users to receive immediate feedback when manipulating the data. We have developed SlicerAstro, a 3-D interactive viewer with new analysis capabilities, based on traditional 2-D input/output hardware. These capabilities enhance the data inspection, allowing faster analysis of complex sources than with traditional tools. SlicerAstro is an open-source extension of 3DSlicer, a multi-platform open source software package for visualization and medical image processing. We demonstrate the capabilities of the current stable binary release of SlicerAstro, which offers the following features: (i) handling of FITS files and astronomical coordinate systems; (ii) coupled 2-D/3-D visualization; (iii) interactive filtering; (iv) interactive 3-D masking; (v) and interactive 3-D modeling. In addition, SlicerAstro has been designed with a strong, stable and modular C++ core, and its classes are also accessible via Python scripting, allowing great flexibility for user-customized visualization and analysis tasks. | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W328662275 | Quantum random walks in waveguide lattices | Random processes are ubiquitous in the natural world as well as in man-made environments. While classical random walks may behave highly complex or even chaotic, there outcome can, in principle, always be predicted from the parameters of the system and the initial conditions. In the realm of quantum mechanics, however, this is not possible as the underlying wave mechanics leads to intrinsically indeterministic outcomes. Moreover, if multiple indistinguishable particles are subjected to such a quantum random walk, their exchange symmetry causes quantum interference, thereby enriching the dynamics of the system even further.
In this work, quantum random walks of pairs of indistinguishable photons, the quanta of light, are investigated. Networks of coupled optical waveguides are chosen as the experimental platform of choice, offering a high degree of coherence and versatility. In these photonic lattices, light propagates along one spatial dimension, whereas the individual waveguides are connected by evanescent coupling in the transverse dimensions. In particular, it is investigated how the various degrees of freedom, which are available in such photonic lattices, affect the trajectories in the quantum walks and their complexity. It is shown how the facilitation of both transverse dimensions allows for much richer quantum walks with properties unencountered in planar arrangements. But even if just a single transverse dimension is available, the coupling properties of the lattice along this dimension are a potent degree of freedom, which can be used to manipulate the quantum walk. Finally, an experimental technique is developed which enables a convenient characterisation of the expected quantum walk in an arbitrary waveguide lattice by classical light. The thesis concludes with a summary of the results and an outlook onto further developments in the field. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1051/0004-6361/201629914 | Spectroscopic Time Series Analysis Of R Canis Majoris | R Canis Majoris is the prototype of a small group of Algol-type stars showing short orbital periods and low mass ratios. A previous detection of short-term oscillations in its light curve has not yet been confirmed. We investigate a new time series of high-resolution spectra with the aim to derive improved stellar and system parameters, to search for the possible impact of a third component in the observed spectra, to look for indications of activity in the Algol system, and to search for short-term variations in radial velocities. We disentangled the composite spectra into the spectra of the binary components. Then we analysed the resulting high signal-to-noise spectra of both stars. Using a newly developed program code based on an improved method of least-squares deconvolution, we were able to determine the radial velocities of both components also during primary eclipse. This allowed us to develop a better model of the system including the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect and to derive improved orbital parameters. Combining the results with those from spectrum analysis, we obtain accurate stellar and system parameters. We further deduce at least one oscillation frequency of 21. 38 c/d. It could be detected during primary eclipses only and confirms a previous photometric finding. Results point to an amplitude amplification of non-radial pulsation modes due to the eclipse mapping effect. The presence of a He\,I line in the spectra indicates mass transfer in the R CMa system. Calculations of its Roche geometry give evidence that the cool secondary component may fill its Roche lobe. No evidence of a third body in the system could be found in the observed spectra. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
W2220984266 | Going more private and sustainable: ex-post assessment of armenian water utilities | Recent worldwide changes in water policies emphasize the role of the private sector in the provision of water services with the expectation of market forces to redress public provision failures and introduce innovative approaches for promoting sustainability. Armenia has experienced unprecedented rapid and mass privatization in the water sector: in a decade from zero reaching 63% of the population, which records the third highest level in Europe. The paper examines the impacts of privatization on sustainability performance of all water utilities. Ex-post benchmarking is employed for assessing relative and absolute sustainability measures and developing scores for utility sustainability ranking. The paper focuses on utility performance in time and scale dimensions and on the international level. The paper shows that transition to the public–private partnerships positively influenced the sustainability performance of all utilities. All utilities have improved their relative to pre-privatization performance. Considerable progress was seen in social followed by environmental performance. Armenian utilities also succeed in performing well internationally. The paper concludes that though water privatization may lead to sustainability of utility performance, the scale of impact may depend on the initial state of the enterprise and the local context. Moreover, after the low-hanging fruits are reached at the first stage, more efforts will be required for enhancing long-term sustainability and effectiveness, consistent with social and environmental needs. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
US 0335618 W | SMALL TECHNETIUM-99M AND RHENIUM LABELED AGENTS AND METHODS FOR IMAGING TISSUES, ORGANS AND TUMORS | The present invention relates to compounds and related technetium and rhenium complexes thereof which are suitable for imaging or therapeutic treatment of tissues, organs, or tumors. In another embodiment, the invention relates the methods of imaging tissues, organs or tumors using radiolabeled metal complexes, particularly tissues, organs, or tumors which express certain receptors to which the compounds or complexes of the invention have an affinity. The present invention also relates to methods of treating cancer, particularly those cancer lines which express certain receptors to which the compounds or complexes of the invention have an affinity. In yet another embodiment, the present invention provides methods of imaging and/or inhibiting receptors or neuroreceptors using compounds or complexes of the invention which have an affinity for the receptor or neuroreceptor to be imaged and/or inhibited. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
W4281900057 | Estado, Política Industrial e Tecnológica: reflexões sobre alternativas para a retomada da indústria brasileira | The objective of the article is, through a review of the relevant literature, to discuss alternatives for industrial and technological development for Brazil.What we seek to demonstrate is that despite the restrictive view of multilateral organizations (World Bank and WTO) whether regarding the role of the state or the role of industrial and technological policies, it is possible to pursue a path of resumption of Brazilian industrial development.The presence of a proactive and disciplinarian state is paramount. | [
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
815943 | Reliable Data-Driven Decision Making in Cyber-Physical Systems | This ERC project pushes the boundary of reliable data-driven decision making in cyber-physical systems (CPS), by bridging reinforcement learning (RL), nonparametric estimation and robust optimization. RL is a powerful abstraction of decision making under uncertainty and has witnessed dramatic recent breakthroughs. Most of these successes have been in games such as Go - well specified, closed environments that - given enough computing power - can be extensively simulated and explored. In real-world CPS, however, accurate simulations are rarely available, and exploration in these applications is a highly dangerous proposition.
We strive to rethink Reinforcement Learning from the perspective of reliability and robustness required by real-world applications. We build on our recent breakthrough result on safe Bayesian optimization (SAFE-OPT): The approach allows - for the first time - to identify provably near-optimal policies in episodic RL tasks, while guaranteeing under some regularity assumptions that with high probability no unsafe states are visited - even if the set of safe parameter values is a priori unknown.
While extremely promising, this result has several fundamental limitations, which we seek to overcome in this ERC project. To this end we will (1) go beyond low-dimensional Gaussian process models and towards much richer deep Bayesian models; (2) go beyond episodic tasks, by explicitly reasoning about the dynamics and employing ideas from robust control theory and (3) tackle bootstrapping of safe initial policies by bridging simulations and real-world experiments via multi-fidelity Bayesian optimization, and by pursuing safe active imitation learning.
Our research is motivated by three real-world CPS applications, which we pursue in interdisciplinary collaboration: Safe exploration of and with robotic platforms; tuning the energy efficiency of photovoltaic powerplants and safely optimizing the performance of a Free Electron Laser. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-319-59129-2_18 | Physics Aware Gaussian Processes For Earth Observation | Earth observation from satellite sensory data pose challenging problems, where machine learning is currently a key player. In recent years, Gaussian Process (GP) regression and other kernel methods have excelled in biophysical parameter estimation tasks from space. GP regression is based on solid Bayesian statistics, and generally yield efficient and accurate parameter estimates. However, GPs are typically used for inverse modeling based on concurrent observations and in situ measurements only. Very often a forward model encoding the well-understood physical relations is available though. In this work, we review three GP models that respect and learn the physics of the underlying processes in the context of inverse modeling. First, we will introduce a Joint GP (JGP) model that combines in situ measurements and simulated data in a single GP model. Second, we present a latent force model (LFM) for GP modeling that encodes ordinary differential equations to blend data-driven modeling and physical models of the system. The LFM performs multi-output regression, adapts to the signal characteristics, is able to cope with missing data in the time series, and provides explicit latent functions that allow system analysis and evaluation. Finally, we present an Automatic Gaussian Process Emulator (AGAPE) that approximates the forward physical model via interpolation, reducing the number of necessary nodes. Empirical evidence of the performance of these models will be presented through illustrative examples of vegetation monitoring and atmospheric modeling. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
948716 | All-Optical Dissection of Hippocampal Circuits Using Voltage Imaging | The hippocampus is critical for the storage of episodic memories and has been extensively studied on its role in spatial memory. The hippocampus is also a central model for in vitro studies on the molecular, cellular and microcircuit basis for learning and memory. I propose to use a new technology that I developed to record and manipulate the membrane potential of multiple neurons, simultaneously, in behaving animals to reveal the mechanisms by which hippocampal circuits process spatial information. This research will bridge the gap between the in vitro mechanistic studies and the in vivo efforts to describe the spatial representations.
I first propose to employ the voltage imaging technology for detailed mechanistic studies of the function and plasticity of hippocampal microcircuits during place cell formation (Objective 1). To this end, we will combine voltage imaging with Optogenetics in head-fixed mice performing virtual navigation in familiar and novel environments. To expand to a ‘systems’ view on hippocampal plasticity, we will next establish a method for optical selection of single neurons based on their functional profile (Objective 2). We will use this technology to trace the long-range projections and the pre- and postsynaptic landscape of photo-selected CA1 neurons. In the last objective, we will combine both technologies to dissect the contribution of different entorhinal cell types (i.e. grid cells, border cells, and speed cells) to place cell formation in CA1 (objective 3). To this end, we will image the entorhinal cortex and photo-select cells based on their functional profiles. We will then image CA1 while manipulating the activity of the selected entorhinal cells. Our work will provide new discoveries on the mechanistic basis for spatial memory and will comprise a first step towards broader understanding of how the brain stores and retrieves episodic memories. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1021/nl500449x | Nanoparticle organization in sandwiched polymer brushes | The organization of nanoparticles inside grafted polymer layers is governed by the interplay of polymer-induced entropic interactions and the action of externally applied fields. Earlier work had shown that strong external forces can drive the formation of colloidal structures in polymer brushes. Here we show that external fields are not essential to obtain such colloidal patterns: we report Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations that demonstrate that ordered structures can be achieved by compressing a "sandwich" of two grafted polymer layers, or by squeezing a coated nanotube, with nanoparticles in between. We show that the pattern formation can be efficiently controlled by the applied pressure, while the characteristic length-scale, that is, the typical width of the patterns, is sensitive to the length of the polymers. Based on the results of the simulations, we derive an approximate equation of state for nanosandwiches. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1145/2682628 | Imagespirit Verbal Guided Image Parsing | Humans describe images in terms of nouns and adjectives while algorithms operate on images represented as sets of pixels. Bridging this gap between how humans would like to access images versus their typical representation is the goal of image parsing, which involves assigning object and attribute labels to pixels. In this article we propose treating nouns as object labels and adjectives as visual attribute labels. This allows us to formulate the image parsing problem as one of jointly estimating per-pixel object and attribute labels from a set of training images. We propose an efficient (interactive time) solution. Using the extracted labels as handles, our system empowers a user to verbally refine the results. This enables hands-free parsing of an image into pixel-wise object/attribute labels that correspond to human semantics. Verbally selecting objects of interest enables a novel and natural interaction modality that can possibly be used to interact with new generation devices (e. g. , smartphones, Google Glass, livingroom devices). We demonstrate our system on a large number of real-world images with varying complexity. To help understand the trade-offs compared to traditional mouse-based interactions, results are reported for both a large-scale quantitative evaluation and a user study. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
EP 0009558 W | BIODEGRADABLE EXCIPIENT SYSTEMS FOR THERAPEUTICALLY ACTIVE SUBSTANCES AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING THE SAME | The invention relates to a formulation for a sustained-release biodegradable medicament that contains an excipient system. Said excipient system consists of biodegradable blood plasma products that have been dried in a fluidized bed while maintaining their properties and an active substance to be applied as a sustained-release substance or a combination of active substances. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.1093/astrogeo/ataa031 | Alfvén on heating by waves | Ineke De Moortel, Isobel Falconer and Robert Stack explore the achievements and influence of Hannes Alfvén, in particular his seminal Monthly Notices paper of 1947 on the heating of the solar corona. | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter"
]
|
10.3389/fbioe.2020.00577 | Zinc Oxide Nanocrystals and High-Energy Shock Waves: A New Synergy for the Treatment of Cancer Cells | In the last years, different nanotools have been developed to fight cancer cells. They could be administered alone, exploiting their intrinsic toxicity, or remotely activated to achieve cell death. In the latter case, ultrasound (US) has been recently proposed to stimulate some nanomaterials because of the US outstanding property of deep tissue penetration and the possibility of focusing. In this study, for the first time, we report on the highly efficient killing capability of amino-propyl functionalized ZnO nanocrystals (ZnO NCs) in synergy with high-energy ultrasound shock waves (SW) for the treatment of cancer cells. The cytotoxicity and internalization of ZnO NCs were evaluated in cervical adenocarcinoma KB cells, as well as the safety of the SW treatment alone. Then, the remarkably high cytotoxic combination of ZnO NCs and SW was demonstrated, comparing the effect of multiple (3 times/day) SW treatments toward a single one, highlighting that multiple treatments are necessary to achieve efficient cell death. At last, preliminary tests to understand the mechanism of the observed synergistic effect were carried out, correlating the nanomaterial surface chemistry to the specific type of stimulus used. The obtained results can thus pave the way for a novel nanomedicine treatment, based on the synergistic effect of nanocrystals combined with highly intense mechanical pressure waves, offering high efficiency, deep and focused tissue penetration, and a reduction of side effects on healthy cells. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1145/2063576.2063800 | Semantic Data Markets A Flexible Environment For Knowledge Management | We present Nyaya, a system for the management of Semantic-Web data which couples a general-purpose and extensible storage mechanism with efficient ontology reasoning and querying capabilities. Nyaya processes large Semantic-Web datasets, expressed in multiple formalisms, by transforming them into a collection of Semantic Data Kiosks. Nyaya uniformly exposes the native meta-data of each kiosk using the datalog+- language, a powerful rule-based modelling language for ontological databases. The kiosks form a Semantic Data Market where the data in each kiosk can be uniformly accessed using conjunctive queries and where users can specify user-defined constraints over the data. Nyaya is easily extensible and robust to updates of both data and meta-data in the kiosk and can readily adapt to different logical organization of the persistent storage. The approach has been experimented using well-known benchmarks, and compared to state-of-the-art research prototypes and commercial systems. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W1944060924 | Effect of solution and post-mortem time on mechanical and histological properties of liver during cold preservation | In this study, we examine the mechanical and histological properties of the bovine liver tissue stored in Lactated Ringers (control), HTK and UW solutions as a function of preservation period. The mechanical experiments are conducted with a shear rheometer on cylindrical tissue samples extracted from 3 bovine livers and the change in viscoelastic material properties of the bovine liver is characterized using the fractional derivative Kelvin-Voigt Model. Also, the histological examinations are performed on the same liver samples under a light microscope. The results show that the preservation solution and period have a significant effect on the mechanical and histological properties of the liver tissue. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.1021/acs.cgd.8b00949 | Understanding GaAs Nanowire Growth in the Ag-Au Seed Materials System | The integration of III-V semiconductors with Si in device fabrication is facilitated by the use of nanoscale structures such as nanowires. Nanowires are predominantly grown using Au seed particles; however, the seed material is known to affect the nanowire growth and properties. Here we present growth of GaAs nanowires using three different seed particle materials: Au, Ag, and a AgAu alloy. By comparing the results from the different seeds, we found that the growths of Au- and AgAu-seeded nanowires were in general very similar, with homogeneous and vertical nanowires observed in both cases. The Ag-seeded growths instead revealed a lower yield of vertical nanowires with large variations in lengths. Different Ga-concentrations were measured in the different seed particles, which suggested that the Au and the AgAu seed particles were liquid during growth, whereas Ag particles were solid. The chemical potential of Ga was however found to be similar for all three seed materials. We propose that the Ga concentrations are determined by the chemical potential of Ga, which in turn explains why Ag-seeded nanowire growth proceeds with a solid particle. Overall, this study shows that varying the seed material can be a powerful tool to gain a deeper understanding of particle assisted nanowire growth. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1016/j.labeco.2012.05.006 | Discrimination, technology and unemployment | I study the interaction between discrimination and investment using a directed search model where firms decide the capital intensity of their production technologies before being matched. Discrimination makes some workers cheap to hire. As a consequence, some firms might save on capital costs adopting labour intensive technologies. This framework allows one to reconcile search models with three well-known facts regarding the labour market outcomes of minority workers: low wages, high unemployment and occupational segregation. Furthermore, the model questions the role of equal pay legislation in reducing inequality since removing this restriction, i. e. , allowing firms to post type-contingent wages, eliminates the negative effects of discrimination on investment and wages. | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
637225 | A new postdoctoral fellowship to address grand societal challenges | EPFL is one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and ranks among the top 20 universities worldwide. Its mission is to provide first-rate education, foster pioneering research, and promote cutting-edge technological innovation.As one of the world’s top technical universities and as a leading actor driving disruptive innovation in Switzerland and beyond, EPFL is playing a critical role in the transition towards a sustainable society. Such transition requires not only new knowledge and technology but also responsible scientific leaders with an ability to think across boundaries, to envision all-encompassing solutions to critical societal problems, and to communicate their research to policymakers. EPFL has been integrating sustainability into the training of Bachelor, Master, and PhD students. The EPFLinnovators4impact programme will go one step further by integrating sustainable innovation into the training of postdoctoral researchers who wish to be part of the next generation of sustainable science leaders. Given that the majority of PhD holders eventually choose to pursue another career path than academia, it is crucial to build their entrepreneurial and leadership skills and to focus on sustainable entrepreneurship for those who have developed the required skills and knowledge to address global sustainability challenges during their PhDs. EPFLinnovators4impact is is intended for experienced researchers who have the ambition and the potential to provide innovative solutions addressing one or several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This innovative programme will provide postdoctoral fellows with funding, training, lab facilities, and expert advice allowing them to develop a novel and impactful product or service. In the course of the programme, they will be able to evaluate the potential for the commercialization of this product or service before founding a startup or licensing intellectual property to an existing company. | [
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space",
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.115501 | Silicon-carbon bond inversions driven by 60-kev electrons in graphene | We demonstrate that 60-keV electron irradiation drives the diffusion of threefold-coordinated Si dopants in graphene by one lattice site at a time. First principles simulations reveal that each step is caused by an electron impact on a C atom next to the dopant. Although the atomic motion happens below our experimental time resolution, stochastic analysis of 38 such lattice jumps reveals a probability for their occurrence in a good agreement with the simulations. Conversions from three- to fourfold coordinated dopant structures and the subsequent reverse process are significantly less likely than the direct bond inversion. Our results thus provide a model of nondestructive and atomically precise structural modification and detection for two-dimensional materials. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
W1982141000 | Anthropometric and Physical Profiles of English Academy Rugby Union Players | The purpose of this study was to evaluate the anthropometric and physical characteristics of English regional academy rugby union players by age category (under 16s, under 18s and under 21s). Data were collected on 67 academy players at the beginning of the preseason period and comprised anthropometric (height, body mass, and sum of 8 skinfolds) and physical (5-, 10-, 20-, and 40-m sprint, acceleration, velocity, and momentum; agility 505; vertical jump; Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1; 30-15 intermittent fitness test; absolute and relative 3 repetition maximum front squat, split squat, bench press, prone row, and chin; and isometric mid-thigh pull). One-way analysis of variance demonstrated significant increases across the 3 age categories (p ≤ 0.05) for height (e.g., 16s = 178.8 ± 7.1; 18s = 183.5 ± 7.2; 21s = 186.7 ± 6.61 cm), body mass (e.g., 16s = 79.4 ± 12.8; 18s = 88.3 ± 11.9; 21s = 98.3 ± 10.4 kg), countermovement jump height and peak power, sprint momentum, velocity, and acceleration; absolute, relative, and isometric (e.g., 16s = 2,157.9 ± 309.9; 18s = 2,561.3 ± 339.4; 21s = 3,104.5 ± 354.0 N) strength. Momentum, maximal speed, and the ability to maintain acceleration were all discriminating factors between age categories, suggesting that these variables may be more important to monitor rather than sprint times. These findings highlight that anthropometric and physical characteristics develop across age categories and provide comparative data for English Academy Rugby Union players. | [
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.1111/cei.12669 | Oscillatory mTOR inhibition and T<inf>reg</inf> increase in kidney transplantation | Intracellular metabolic pathways dependent upon the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) play a key role in immune-tolerance control. In this study, we focused on long-term mTOR-dependent immune-modulating effects in kidney transplant recipients undergoing conversion from calcineurin inhibitors (CNI) to mTOR inhibitors (everolimus) in a 1-year follow-up. The conversion to everolimus is associated with a decrease of neutrophils and of CD8+ T cells. In addition, we observed a reduced production of interferon (IFN)-γ by CD8+ T cells and of interleukin (IL)-17 by CD4+ T lymphocytes. An increase in CD4+CD25+ forkhead box protein 3 (FoxP3)+ [regulatory T cell [(Treg)] numbers was also seen. Treg increase correlated with a higher proliferation rate of this regulatory subpopulation when compared with the CD4+FoxP3- effector counterpart. Basal phosphorylation level of S6 kinase, a major mTOR-dependent molecular target, was substantially maintained in patients treated with everolimus. Moreover, oscillations in serum concentration of everolimus were associated with changes in basal and activation-dependent S6 kinase phosphorylation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Indeed, T cell receptor (TCR) triggering was observed to induce significantly higher S6 kinase phosphorylation in the presence of lower everolimus serum concentrations. These results unveil the complex mTOR-dependent immune-metabolic network leading to long-term immune-modulation and might have relevance for novel therapeutic settings in kidney transplants. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
683043 | Resolving subglacial properties, hydrological networks and dynamic evolution of ice flow on the Greenland Ice Sheet | The Greenland Ice Sheet is losing mass at a growing rate and has since 2010 caused sea level rise of 1 mm/year. The most severe changes occur in the drainage basins of marine-terminating glaciers, which flow rapidly and drain 88% of the ice sheet. The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the widespread acceleration of these glaciers in recent years was a response to interaction with the ocean and unrelated to basal lubrication of ice flow; yet, observations have since shown that many of these glaciers respond to the growing volume of surface meltwater, which reaches the bed when surface lakes drain. This basal lubrication mechanism is unknown, but exhibits contrasting control on ice flow at the coast and in the interior where surface melting increasingly forms lakes. This lack of vital knowledge is a major source of uncertainty in the current generation of ice sheet models used to predict sea level change.
The fundamental goal of RESPONDER is to understand how hydrological networks at the base of the Greenland Ice Sheet evolve over seasons and over multiple years, and how this evolution impacts on ice flow in the interior and at the coast. The project has the following aims:
AIM 1 is to identify glaciological ‘hotspots’ and sites for subglacial access drilling and borehole exploration by tracking hydrological pathways beneath Store Glacier, a large marine-terminating glacier in Uummannaq Fjord, using novel geophysical imaging techniques and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
AIM 2 is to observe and quantify the hydrological networks of Store Glacier while measuring basal slip and strain within ice with probes and sensors installed in boreholes drilled at ‘coastal’ and ‘interior’ targets.
AIM 3 is to predict the co-evolution of ice flow and hydrological networks in the Store Glacier drainage basin, and assess the vulnerability of the Greenland Ice Sheet, by integrating field observations in state-of-the-art ice sheet models. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1002/ece3.4087 | A land classification protocol for pollinator ecology research: An urbanization case study | Land-use change is one of the most important drivers of widespread declines in pollinator populations. Comprehensive quantitative methods for land classification are critical to understanding these effects, but co-option of existing human-focussed land classifications is often inappropriate for pollinator research. Here, we present a flexible GIS-based land classification protocol for pollinator research using a bottom-up approach driven by reference to pollinator ecology, with urbanization as a case study. Our multistep method involves manually generating land cover maps at multiple biologically relevant radii surrounding study sites using GIS, with a focus on identifying land cover types that have a specific relevance to pollinators. This is followed by a three-step refinement process using statistical tools: (i) definition of land-use categories, (ii) principal components analysis on the categories, and (iii) cluster analysis to generate a categorical land-use variable for use in subsequent analysis. Model selection is then used to determine the appropriate spatial scale for analysis. We demonstrate an application of our protocol using a case study of 38 sites across a gradient of urbanization in South-East England. In our case study, the land classification generated a categorical land-use variable at each of four radii based on the clustering of sites with different degrees of urbanization, open land, and flower-rich habitat. Studies of land-use effects on pollinators have historically employed a wide array of land classification techniques from descriptive and qualitative to complex and quantitative. We suggest that land-use studies in pollinator ecology should broadly adopt GIS-based multistep land classification techniques to enable robust analysis and aid comparative research. Our protocol offers a customizable approach that combines specific relevance to pollinator research with the potential for application to a wide range of ecological questions, including agroecological studies of pest control. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Earth System Science",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W2013828358 | A comprehensive insight into bacterial virulence in drinking water using 454 pyrosequencing and Illumina high-throughput sequencing | In order to comprehensively investigate bacterial virulence in drinking water, 454 pyrosequencing and Illumina high-throughput sequencing were used to detect potential pathogenic bacteria and virulence factors (VFs) in a full-scale drinking water treatment and distribution system. 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing revealed high bacterial diversity in the drinking water (441-586 operational taxonomic units). Bacterial diversity decreased after chlorine disinfection, but increased after pipeline distribution. α-Proteobacteria was the most dominant taxonomic class. Alignment against the established pathogen database showed that several types of putative pathogens were present in the drinking water and Pseudomonas aeruginosa had the highest abundance (over 11‰ of total sequencing reads). Many pathogens disappeared after chlorine disinfection, but P. aeruginosa and Leptospira interrogans were still detected in the tap water. High-throughput sequencing revealed prevalence of various pathogenicity islands and virulence proteins in the drinking water, and translocases, transposons, Clp proteases and flagellar motor switch proteins were the predominant VFs. Both diversity and abundance of the detectable VFs increased after the chlorination, and decreased after the pipeline distribution. This study indicates that joint use of 454 pyrosequencing and Illumina sequencing can comprehensively characterize environmental pathogenesis, and several types of putative pathogens and various VFs are prevalent in drinking water. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering"
]
|
714427 | Authority and Innovation in Early Franciscan Thought (c. 1220-56) | INNOVATION anticipates a breakthrough in scholarly understanding of the medieval origins of modern Western philosophy. This breakthrough will be achieved by exposing the pioneering nature of early thirteenth-century Franciscan thought and its pivotal significance for the subsequent formation of the Western philosophical identity. The work of early Franciscans has largely been neglected in scholarly circles, on the assumption that they merely codified the work of past authorities, where later Franciscans developed innovative ideas that laid the foundation for the development of modern philosophy. INNOVATION will contest this assumption by producing the first comprehensive study of the sources, method, content, and later medieval reception of early Franciscan thought. In conducting this study, I will implement a groundbreaking method of reading scholastic texts, which is attentive to the way that practice informed theory in the high Middle Ages. This ‘practice-led’ hermeneutic will provide a resource for re-envisaging the entire state of the art in the study of scholasticism. As regards early Franciscans, it will allow me to identify novelty, often due to the use of Islamic sources, where past scholars have perceived unoriginality. On this basis, I will highlight previously unnoticed connections between the early and late Franciscan schools. By these means, I will illustrate how Western thought has been nourished by the ethos of a particular religious order and by Islamic thought, pointing up a shared Muslim-Western philosophical identity that is often overlooked but urgently needed to overcome severe fractures in today’s society. At the same time, I will emphasize that Franciscan ideas only became modern once removed from their practice-led context. In juxtaposing the cultural paradigms of philosophy and religious practice, consequently, I will advance knowledge by producing the first nuanced scholarly account of the Franciscan origins of modern Western thought. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Texts and Concepts"
]
|
10.1007/s10988-011-9083-8 | Pure quotation and general compositionality | Starting from the familiar observation that no straightforward treatment of pure quotation can be compositional in the standard (homomorphism) sense, we introduce general compositionality, which can be described as compositionality that takes linguistic context into account. A formal notion of linguistic context type is developed, allowing the context type of a complex expression to be distinct from those of its constituents. We formulate natural conditions under which an ordinary meaning assignment can be non-trivially extended to one that is sensitive to context types and satisfies general compositionality. As our main example we work out a Fregean treatment of pure quotation, but we also indicate that the method applies to other kinds of context, e. g. intensional contexts. | [
"Texts and Concepts",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
10.1021/acs.jpcb.8b05975 | Instrumental Effects in the Dynamics of an Ultrafast Folding Protein under Mechanical Force | The analysis and interpretation of single molecule force spectroscopy (smFS) experiments is often complicated by hidden effects from the measuring device. Here we investigate these effects in our recent smFS experiments on the ultrafast folding protein gpW, which has been previously shown to fold without crossing a free energy barrier in the absence of force (i. e. , downhill folding). Using atomic force microscopy (AFM) smFS experiments, we found that a very small force of ∼5 pN brings gpW near its unfolding midpoint and results in two-state (un)folding patterns that indicate the emergence of a force-induced free energy barrier. The change in the folding regime is concomitant with a 30,000-fold slowdown of the folding and unfolding times, from a few microseconds that it takes gpW to (un)fold at the midpoint temperature to seconds in the AFM. These results are puzzling because the barrier induced by force in the folding free energy landscape of gpW is far too small to account for such a difference in time scales. Here we use recently developed theoretical methods to resolve the origin of the strikingly slow dynamics of gpW under mechanical force. We find that, while the AFM experiments correctly capture the equilibrium distance distribution, the measured dynamics are entirely controlled by the response of the cantilever and polyprotein linker, which is much slower than the protein conformational dynamics. This interpretation is likely applicable to the folding of other small biomolecules in smFS experiments, and becomes particularly important in the case of systems with fast folding dynamics and small free energy barriers, and for instruments with slow response times. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1039/C6SC01477A | In Silico Design And Screening Of Hypothetical Mof 74 Analogs And Their Experimental Synthesis | In this work we present the in silico design of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) exhibiting 1-dimensional rod topologies. We introduce an algorithm for construction of this family of MOF topologies, and illustrate its application for enumerating MOF-74-type analogs. Furthermore, we perform a broad search for new linkers that satisfy the topological requirements of MOF-74 and consider the largest database of known chemical space for organic compounds, the PubChem database. Our in silico crystal assembly, when combined with dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT) calculations, is demonstrated to generate a hypothetical library of open-metal site containing MOF-74 analogs in the 1-D rod topology from which we can simulate the adsorption behavior of CO2. We finally conclude that these hypothetical structures have synthesizable potential through computational identification and experimental validation of a novel MOF-74 analog, Mg2(olsalazine). | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.12.022 | Temporalities of emergency: Migrant pregnancy and healthcare networks in Southern European borderlands | In Greece, Italy, and Spain, austerity policies combined with the structural density of migration flows have had concrete social and material manifestations in the delivery of public health care. Through our ethnographic case studies in Lampedusa and southeastern Sicily, Melilla, and Athens, we examine the maternity care offered to migrant patients in the midst and the aftermath of the so-called “migration crisis” in state and non-state structures. Research was conducted in Athens and southeastern Sicily from August 2016 to August 2017; in Melilla from August 2016 to October 2016 and in January 2017; and in Lampedusa from August 2016 to January 2017. Data collected consist in semi-structured interviews and long-term ethnographic observations. The article explores whether and how the understanding or the labeling of the maternity care of migrants as an emergency within a context of professed crisis generates new norms of care within health-care delivery. Our findings suggest a) the adoption of solutions or practices that in the past might have been considered urgent, ad hoc, or creative; b) their normalization, deeply connected to the wider social landscape of these European peripheries and c) the institutionalization of humanitarianism in the context of these practices. Our research points out temporalities of emergency against the background of a professed migration crisis. In the context of austerity-driven underfunding, temporary solutions become entrenched, producing a lasting emergency. Yet, we argue that “emergency” can, at some point, generate practices of resistance that undermine, subtly yet significantly, its own normalization. | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space"
]
|
10.1109/TIM.2010.2045551 | Input Dependent Integral Nonlinearity Modeling For Pipelined Analog Digital Converters | Integral nonlinearity (INL) for pipelined analog-digital converters (ADCs) operating at RF is measured and characterized. A parametric model for the INL of pipelined ADCs is proposed, and the corresponding least-squares problem is formulated and solved. The INL is modeled both with respect to the converter output code and the frequency stimuli, which is dynamic modeling. The INL model contains a static and a dynamic part. The former comprises two 1-D terms in ADC code that are a sequence of zero-centered linear segments and a polynomial term. The 2-D dynamic part consists of a set of polynomials whose parameters are dependent on the ADC input stimuli. The INL modeling methodology is applied to simulated and experimental data from a 12-bit commercial ADC running at 210 mega samples per second. It is demonstrated that the developed methodology is an efficient way to capture the INL of nowadays ADCs running at RF, and it is believed that the methodology is powerful for INL-based ADC postcorrection in wideband applications. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1002/mds.25944 | Action inhibition in Tourette syndrome | Tourette syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by tics. Tic generation is often linked to dysfunction of inhibitory brain networks. Some previous behavioral studies found deficiencies in inhibitory motor control in Tourette syndrome, but others suggested normal or even better-than-normal performance. Furthermore, neural correlates of action inhibition in these patients are poorly understood. We performed event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging during a stop-signal reaction-time task in 14 uncomplicated adult Tourette patients and 15 healthy controls. In patients, we correlated activations in stop-signal reaction-time task with their individual motor tic frequency. Task performance was similar in both groups. Activation of dorsal premotor cortex was stronger in the StopSuccess than in the Go condition in healthy controls. This pattern was reversed in Tourette patients. A significant positive correlation was present between motor tic frequency and activations in the supplementary motor area during StopSuccess versus Go in patients. Inhibitory brain networks differ between healthy controls and Tourette patients. In the latter the supplementary motor area is probably a key relay of inhibitory processes mediating both suppression of tics and inhibition of voluntary action. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.1002/adfm.201102763 | Preventing the reconstruction of the polar discontinuity at oxide heterointerfaces | Perovskite oxide heteroepitaxy receives much attention because of the possibility to combine the diverse functionalities of perovskite oxide building blocks. A general boundary condition for the epitaxy is the presence of polar discontinuities at heterointerfaces. These polar discontinuities result in reconstructions, often creating new functionalities at the interface. However, for a significant number of materials these reconstructions are unwanted as they alter the intrinsic materials properties at the interface. Therefore, a strategy to eliminate this reconstruction of the polar discontinuity at the interfaces is required. We show that the use of compositional interface engineering can prevent the reconstruction at the La 0. 67Sr 0. 33MnO 3/SrTiO 3 (LSMO/STO) interface. The polar discontinuity at this interface can be removed by the insertion of a single La 0. 33Sr 0. 67O layer, resulting in improved interface magnetization and electrical conductivity. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1002/2014GC005450 | Influences Of Surface Processes On Fold Growth During 3 D Detachment Folding | In order to understand the interactions between surface processes and multilayer folding systems, we here present fully coupled three-dimensional numerical simulations. The mechanical model represents a sedimentary cover with internal weak layers, detached over a much weaker basal layer representing salt or evaporites. Applying compression in one direction results in a series of three-dimensional buckle folds, of which the topographic expression consists of anticlines and synclines. This topography is modified through time by mass redistribution, which is achieved by a combination of fluvial and hillslope erosion, as well as deposition, and which can in return influence the subsequent deformation. Model results show that surface processes do not have a significant influence on folding patterns and aspect ratio of the folds. Nevertheless, erosion reduces the amount of shortening required to initiate folding and increases the exhumation rates. Increased sedimentation in the synclines contributes to this effect by amplifying the fold growth rate by gravity. The main contribution of surface processes is rather due to their ability to strongly modify the initial topography and hence the initial random noise, prior to deformation. If larger initial random noise is present, folds amplify faster, which is consistent with previous detachment folding theory. Variations in thickness of the sedimentary cover (in one or two directions) also have a significant influence on the folding pattern, resulting in linear, large aspect ratio folds. Our simulation results can be applied to folding-dominated fold-and-thrust belt systems, detached over weak basal layers, such as the Zagros Folded Belt. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1016/j.mam.2017.03.007 | Does promoting resolution instead of inhibiting inflammation represent the new paradigm in treating infections? | Infections arise when the host response is overwhelmed by pathogens leading to organ dysfunction. In some instances patients progress to more severe conditions, including septic shock, that are associated with increased mortality. Current strategies in treating infections aim at either blocking inflammation using inhibitors to pro-inflammatory molecules and/or inhibiting bacterial growth using antibiotics. These approaches find their origins in studies conducted by Joseph Lister who demonstrated that applying carbolic acid to wounds promoted wound healing without suppuration, reducing both the necessity of amputation and mortality. While this approach is still applicable to certain infections, inhibition of the immune response is also associated with increased mortality, especially in septic patients. In many instances sepsis survivors succumb later to persistent, recurrent, nosocomial and secondary infections. This, together with a rise in resistance to many frontline antibiotics, has prompted a search for alternative ways to treat infections. Recent studies investigating processes engaged by the host response during self-resolving infections identified a novel group of mediators, termed as specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPM). These molecules, produced via the enzymatic conversion of essential fatty acids, actively reprogram the immune response to promote clearance of invading pathogens, and counter-regulate the production of inflammation-initiating molecules. Furthermore, recent studies also demonstrate that these mediators promote tissue repair and regeneration, essential processes in the re-establishment of barrier and prevention of re-infection. The scope of the present review is to discuss the evidence underpinning the endogenous protective roles of these novel mediators, as well as the evidence demonstrating that dysregulation in their production and actions contribute to disease pathogenesis in infections. This review will also discuss the potential of resolution pharmacology-based approaches in developing new therapeutics for combatting infections that do not interfere with the immune response. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.1109/TRO.2016.2560898 | Cooperative Swinging Of Complex Pendulum Like Objects Experimental Evaluation | Cooperative dynamic object manipulation increases the manipulation repertoire of multiagent teams. As a first step toward cooperative dynamic object manipulation, we present an energy-based controller for cooperative swinging of two-agent pendulum-like objects. Projection of the complex underactuated mechanism onto an abstract cart–pendulum allows us to separate desired and undesired oscillations. The desired oscillation is excited up to a desired energy level, while an undesired oscillation can be actively damped. Communication between the agents is restricted to force feedback. The controller can render leader and follower agents. The follower actively assists the swinging task by imitating the leader's energy flow. Real-world experiments with a robot and a human swinging complex pendulum-like objects are presented. The experimental results indicate that no simultaneous damping of the undesired oscillation is needed, also because it disturbs the human partner. A successful contribution of the robotic follower to the swing-up effort in interaction with a human leader supports the proposed control approach. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W2339000038 | Design principles and field performance of a solar spectral irradiance meter | Abstract A solar spectral irradiance meter (SSIM), designed for measuring the direct normal irradiance (DNI) in six wavelength bands, has been combined with models to determine key atmospheric transmittances and the resulting spectral irradiance distribution of DNI under all sky conditions. The design principles of the SSIM, implementation of a parameterized transmittance model, and field performance comparisons of modeled solar spectra with reference radiometer measurements are presented. Two SSIMs were tested and calibrated at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) against four spectroradiometers and an absolute cavity radiometer. The SSIMs’ DNI was on average within 1% of the DNI values reported by one of NREL’s primary absolute cavity radiometers. An additional SSIM was installed at the SUNLAB Outdoor Test Facility in September 2014, with ongoing collection of environmental and spectral data. The SSIM’s performance in Ottawa was compared against a commercial pyrheliometer and a spectroradiometer over an eight month study. The difference in integrated daily spectral irradiance between the SSIM and the ASD spectroradiometer was found to be less than 1%. The cumulative energy density collected by the SSIM over this duration agreed with that measured by an Eppley model NIP pyrheliometer to within 0.5%. No degradation was observed. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1093/restud/rdx014 | Conservation contracts and political regimes | This article provides a flexible model of resource extraction, such as deforestation, and derives the optimal conservation contract. When property rights are "strong" and districts are in charge of extracting their own resources to get revenues, conservation in one district benefits the others since the reduced supply raises the sales price. A central authority would internalize this positive externality and thus conserve more. When property rights are instead weak and extraction is illegal or costly control, conservation in one district increases the price and thus the profit from illegally depleting the resource in the other districts. The externality from conservation is then negative, and centralization would lead to less conservation. We also derive the optimal conservation contract, and we explain when the principal, who values conservation, benefits from contracting with the districts directly even when contracting with a central authority would have led to more conservation, and vice versa. | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations",
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.028104 | Upstream Swimming in Microbiological Flows | Interactions between microorganisms and their complex flowing environments are essential in many biological systems. We develop a model for microswimmer dynamics in non-Newtonian Poiseuille flows. We predict that swimmers in shear-thickening (-thinning) fluids migrate upstream more (less) quickly than in Newtonian fluids and demonstrate that viscoelastic normal stress differences reorient swimmers causing them to migrate upstream at the centerline, in contrast to well-known boundary accumulation in quiescent Newtonian fluids. Based on these observations, we suggest a sorting mechanism to select microbes by swimming speed. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
10.3847/0004-637X/818/2/188 | The Mass Accretion Rate Of Galaxy Clusters A Measurable Quantity | We explore the possibility of measuring the mass accretion rate (MAR) of galaxy clusters from their mass profiles beyond the virial radius R200. We derive the accretion rate from the mass of a spherical shell whose inner radius is 2R200, whose thickness changes with redshift, and whose infall velocity is assumed to be equal to the mean infall velocity of the spherical shells of dark matter halos extracted from N-body simulations. This approximation is rather crude in hierarchical clustering scenarios where both smooth accretion and aggregation of smaller dark matter halos contribute to the mass accretion of clusters. Nevertheless, in the redshift range z = [0, 2], our prescription returns an average MAR within 20%–40% of the average rate derived from the merger trees of dark matter halos extracted from N-body simulations. The MAR of galaxy clusters has been the topic of numerous detailed numerical and theoretical investigations, but so far it has remained inaccessible to measurements in the real universe. Since the measurement of the mass profile of clusters beyond their virial radius can be performed with the caustic technique applied to dense redshift surveys of the cluster outer regions, our result suggests that measuring the mean MAR of a sample of galaxy clusters is actually feasible. We thus provide a new potential observational test of the cosmological and structure formation models. | [
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
Q2714502 | Working capital subsidy for the Food and INDUSTRIAL STORE BARBAR | The project concerns support to the company to provide liquidity and to support its day-to-day operations in view of the financial difficulties that have occurred in the company as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Financial aid under scheme SA.57015. | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b01121 | Investigating Unusual Homonuclear Intermolecular "through-Space" J Couplings in Organochalcogen Systems | Although the electron-mediated spin-spin or J coupling is conventionally viewed as transmitted via covalent bonds, examples of J couplings between atoms that are not formally bonded but are in close proximity (termed "through-space" J couplings) have been reported. In this work, we investigate the observation of homonuclear 31P J couplings in organochalcogen heterocycles, which occur between 31P in two separate molecules, confirming without doubt their through-space nature. The presence of this interaction is even more surprising for one compound, where it occurs between crystallographically equivalent species. Although crystallographically equivalent species need not be magnetically equivalent in the solid state, owing to the presence of anisotropic interactions, we demonstrate that it is not the shielding anisotropy that lifts magnetic equivalence, in this case, but the presence of heteronuclear couplings to 77Se. We support our experimental observations with periodic scalar-relativistic density functional theory calculations and coupling density deformation plots to visualize the mechanism of these interesting interactions. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
W2807806034 | Concentration fluctuations in the early stages of LLPS and partial dissolution of melt-memory in broadly distributed ethylene copolymers | Abstract The mechanism of liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) is investigated in a random ethylene 1-hexene copolymer (E/H) with a broad comonomer content distribution. SANS measurements were first carried out using the original resin with deuterium added via direct isotope exchange to preserve the original branching distribution. Upon lowering the melt temperature, the upshift of SANS profile observed only below a critical scattering vector is consistent with the signature of nucleation and growth during LLPS in the metastable region. Differences in branching distribution between the original broad resin and a broad multi-components blend of narrow E/H copolymers studied previously, result in slower LLPS dynamics in the former that has a more continuous change of comonomer content between molecules. Time-resolved light scattering and light transmittance measurements in the metastable region of the broad resin, reveal the nucleation and growth stages of LLPS. Dissolution of crystalline melt-memory, associated with an inversion of the crystallization rate with decreasing the temperature of the initial melt, is found to occur mainly within the LLPS induction period and is associated with concentration fluctuations prior to the LLPS nucleation step. The typical sea-island morphology associated with LLPS via nucleation and growth is observed under bright-field optical microscopy after one-day annealing in the metastable region. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
UA U200509874 U | DEVICE FOR REDUCTION OF THE TRACTIVE RESISTANCE OF A TRANSPORT FACILITY OR FLOW AROUND THE BODY BY MEDIUM | Device for reduction of the tractive resistance of a transport facility or flow around the body by medium contains the element of the structure of the streamlined part of its housing. Device is manufactured in the form of pipes or openings, by which the area of the medium upstream of the housing is connected with the area of the medium of reduced pressure downstream of the housing. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1038/ncomms8499 | SUMO and ubiquitin-dependent XPC exchange drives nucleotide excision repair | XPC recognizes UV-induced DNA lesions and initiates their removal by nucleotide excision repair (NER). Damage recognition in NER is tightly controlled by ubiquitin and SUMO modifications. Recent studies have shown that the SUMO-targeted ubiquitin ligase RNF111 promotes K63-linked ubiquitylation of SUMOylated XPC after DNA damage. However, the exact regulatory function of these modifications in vivo remains elusive. Here we show that RNF111 is required for efficient repair of ultraviolet-induced DNA lesions. RNF111-mediated ubiquitylation promotes the release of XPC from damaged DNA after NER initiation, and is needed for stable incorporation of the NER endonucleases XPG and ERCC1/XPF. Our data suggest that RNF111, together with the CRL4<sup>DDB2</sup> ubiquitin ligase complex, is responsible for sequential XPC ubiquitylation, which regulates the recruitment and release of XPC and is crucial for efficient progression of the NER reaction, thereby providing an extra layer of quality control of NER. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1002/lno.10130 | Biogeochemical and metagenomic analysis of nitrite accumulation in the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone | The Louisiana Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico experiences recurrent bottom water hypoxia under summertime eutrophic conditions. The onset, maintenance, and breakdown of hypoxia are associated with dynamic microbial biogeochemical cycles. However, the distribution of microbial taxa and metabolisms across Shelf oxygen gradients remains under-characterized. We combined biogeochemical analyses of nitrogen (N) distributions and metabolic rates with metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analysis of summertime Shelf waters. Samples from an east-west transect during July 2012 revealed an inverse relationship between nitrite and oxygen concentrations, with concentrations exceeding 1 μmol L-1 at ∼ 50% oxygen saturation and reaching 4. 6 μmol L-1 at the most oxygen-depleted sites. Historical data confirms that nitrite accumulation occurs frequently in this region both above and below the hypoxic threshold. Experimental incubations demonstrated a strong decoupling between the two steps of nitrification, with ammonia oxidation proceeding up to 30 times faster than nitrite oxidation under low oxygen. 16S rRNA gene, metagenome, and metatranscriptome sequencing revealed a diverse microbial community, stratified over shallow (< 10 m) depth gradients, with an enrichment of ammonia-oxidizing Thaumarchaeota genes and transcripts in deeper more oxygen-depleted layers, and a comparatively low representation of sequences related to nitrite oxidation. A range of factors, including temperature and substrate availability, which may be linked indirectly to bottom water oxygen content, potentially drives decoupling of ammonia and nitrite oxidation on the Louisiana Shelf. Nitrite accumulation in hypoxic zones remains understudied and may have important effects on microbial nitrogen flux, algal dynamics, and production. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1016/j.msea.2012.11.089 | Creep mechanisms in an Mg-4Zn alloy in the as-cast and aged conditions | The impression creep behavior of the as-cast and aged Mg-4. wt% Zn alloy was investigated in the temperature range of 423-523. K under constant punching stresses. The ageing treatment resulted in improved creep resistance of the alloy. The creep behavior of the material was divided into high- and low-stress regimes. The stress exponent values of both the as-cast and the aged conditions were close to each other at each temperature and were in the range of 4-6 and 8-10 in the low and high-stress regimes, respectively. The activation energy values of both regimes were stress dependent. The zero-stress activation energy values in the high- and low-stress regimes were close to the activation energy of lattice and pipe diffusion for both conditions, respectively. However, the activation energy decreased by increasing the applied stress. Stress assisted dislocation climb controlled by lattice and pipe diffusion were the dominant creep mechanisms in the alloy in the high- and low-stress regimes, respectively. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1088/1361-6544/aa79cf | Antiholomorphic perturbations of Weierstrass Zeta functions and Green's function on tori | In Bergweiler and Eremenko (2016 Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 144 2911-22), Bergweiler and Eremenko computed the number of critical points of the Green's function on a torus by investigating the dynamics of a certain family of antiholomorphic meromorphic functions on tori. They also observed that hyperbolic maps are dense in this family of meromorphic functions in a rather trivial way. In this paper, we study the parameter space of this family of meromorphic functions, which can be written as antiholomorphic perturbations of Weierstrass Zeta functions. On the one hand, we give a complete topological description of the hyperbolic components and their boundaries, and on the other hand, we show that these sets admit natural parametrizations by associated dynamical invariants. This settles a conjecture, made in Lin and Wang (2010 Ann. Math. 172 911-54), on the topology of the regions in the upper half plane where the number of critical points of the Green's function remains constant. | [
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1080/13869795.2018.1492007 | The Group Knobe Effect Evidence That People Intuitively Attribute Agency And Responsibility To Groups | In the current paper, we present and discuss a series of experiments in which we investigated people’s willingness to ascribe intentions, as well as blame and praise, to groups. The experiments dra. . . | [
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
W1572877490 | Ethnicity and Trust: A Multifactorial Experiment | This article reports the results of an online experiment conducted in two ethnically fragmented societies in Spain: the Basque Country and Catalonia. It tests the effect of co-ethnicity on trust and reciprocity. Ethnicity was manipulated in the experimental context using three ethnic attributes: ancestors' origin, language and name. Additionally, the article reports a comparison of general levels of trust in the two regions. No co-ethnicity effect on trust is found, but there is significantly more reciprocal behaviour between Catalan speakers in Catalonia. Higher levels of trust and reciprocity are found in the more homogeneous society of the Basque Country. The lack of co-ethnicity effect on trust is especially significant given that the Basque Country has experienced decades of terrorism along ethnic lines. | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
10.1038/nsmb.2189 | Exploiting oncogene-induced replicative stress for the selective killing of Myc-driven tumors | Oncogene-induced replicative stress activates an Atr-and Chk1-dependent response, which has been proposed to be widespread in tumors. We explored whether the presence of replicative stress could be exploited for the selective elimination of cancer cells. To this end, we evaluated the impact of targeting the replicative stress-response on cancer development. In mice (Mus musculus), the reduced levels of Atr found on a mouse model of the Atr-Seckel syndrome completely prevented the development of Myc-induced lymphomas or pancreatic tumors, both of which showed abundant levels of replicative stress. Moreover, Chk1 inhibitors were highly effective in killing Myc-driven lymphomas. By contrast, pancreatic adenocarcinomas initiated by K-Ras G12V showed no detectable evidence of replicative stress and were nonresponsive to this therapy. Besides its impact on cancer, Myc overexpression aggravated the phenotypes of Atr-Seckel mice, revealing that oncogenes can modulate the severity of replicative stress-associated diseases. | [
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1038/nnano.2015.160 | High-frequency nano-optomechanical disk resonators in liquids | Nano- and micromechanical resonators are the subject of research that aims to develop ultrasensitive mass sensors for spectrometry, chemical analysis and biomedical diagnosis. Unfortunately, their merits generally diminish in liquids because of an increased dissipation. The development of faster and lighter miniaturized devices would enable improved performances, provided the dissipation was controlled and novel techniques were available to drive and readout their minute displacement. Here we report a nano-optomechanical approach to this problem using miniature semiconductor disks. These devices combine a mechanical motion at high frequencies (gigahertz and above) with an ultralow mass (picograms) and a moderate dissipation in liquids. We show that high-sensitivity optical measurements allow their Brownian vibrations to be resolved directly, even in the most-dissipative liquids. We investigate their interaction with liquids of arbitrary properties, and analyse measurements in light of new models. Nano-optomechanical disks emerge as probes of rheological information of unprecedented sensitivity and speed, which opens up applications in sensing and fundamental science. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
W2052334959 | Differential Virtual Screening (DVS) with Active and Inactive Molecular Models for Finding and Profiling GPCR Modulators: Case of the CCK1 Receptor | We discovered a constitutively activating mutation (CAM) V308E for the neurotensin NT1 receptor. Molecular dynamics (MD) performed for the CAM NT1-V308E exhibiting a high spontaneous activity, and for the wild-type NT1 without basal activity, show dramatic conformational changes for the CAM. To test if the two MD models could be valuable active and inactive templates for building molecular models for other class-A GPCR, supposed active and inactive models were built by homology for the cholecystokinin CCK1 receptor. Virtual screening of a corporate library with 250 000 compounds was performed with the two CCK1 models, and a differential virtual screening analysis (DVS), led us to isolate 250 predicted agonists and 250 predicted antagonists. The two sets were merged and the compounds were tested in CCK1 agonist and antagonist cellular assays. An excellent correlation was obtained between predictions and biological results. The effective profiling provided by DVS with active and inactive molecular models, opens new perspectives for finding agonists and antagonists for other class-A GPCR, notably for orphan GPCRs for which no ligands are known. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
W1564228916 | First Nations in Canada: Decolonization and Self-Determination | The study of geo-political and policy relationships between First Nations and Canada enables one to consider how Canada has used education as a process of colonizing First Nations, and to consider decolonization and self-determination as processes in education that can derail oppression in First Nation communities. From the position of an Indigenous paradigm, I use histography as an organizing element and consider power relationships through the metaphor of Foucault’s (1991) conceptual framework of panopticism. Colonization processes are deeply rooted in the historical context, policies, and institutions of Canada. Paternalistic power structures and colonization has impacted many generations in First Nation communities. Decolonization and self-determination processes provide an opportunity for First Nation communities to find their own answers. Keywords: Indigenous education; decolonization; self-determination | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"The Study of the Human Past"
]
|
10.1080/17449359.2017.1296773 | The Republic Of Sale 1627 1641 1666 An Alternative Pirate Organization Model | AbstractCritical management authors are constantly searching for alternative models. We could learn from the study of the functioning of pirate communities, for example. It would have been important for the critical authors to have an example of a real pirate city organized under libertarian principles, such as the Republic of Sale (1627–1641/1666). Unfortunately, the study of this case, based on historical sources, shows that it was not an ideal pirate city, but rather a maritime city state, a plutocracy, inserted in national and international trade networks. Even when demythologized, the pirate utopia remains a fascinating part of our collective imaginary and thus could provide us with solutions to the limitations of existing models. One could, however, say that fully assumed fiction would have more impact than this false reality to which is attributed things that did not even exist. | [
"Texts and Concepts",
"The Study of the Human Past"
]
|
10.1088/0266-5611/29/10/104002 | Completeness Of Generalized Transmission Eigenstates | We prove the completeness of the generalized (interior) transmission eigenstates for the acoustic and Schr?dinger equations. The method uses the ellipticity theory of Agranovich and Vishik. | [
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-319-56620-7_11 | One Shot Verifiable Encryption From Lattices | Verifiable encryption allows one to prove properties about encrypted data and is an important building block in the design of cryptographic protocols, e. g. , group signatures, key escrow, fair exchange protocols, etc. Existing lattice-based verifiable encryption schemes, and even just proofs of knowledge of the encrypted data, require parallel composition of proofs to reduce the soundness error, resulting in proof sizes that are only truly practical when amortized over a large number of ciphertexts. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1126/science.aab1586 | Identification of the algal dimethyl sulfide-releasing enzyme: A missing link in the marine sulfur cycle | Algal blooms produce large amounts of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a volatile with a diverse signaling role in marine food webs that is emitted to the atmosphere, where it can affect cloud formation. The algal enzymes responsible for forming DMS from dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) remain unidentified despite their critical role in the global sulfur cycle. We identified and characterized Alma1, a DMSP lyase from the bloom-forming algae Emiliania huxleyi. Alma1 is a tetrameric, redox-sensitive enzyme of the aspartate racemase superfamily. Recombinant Alma1 exhibits biochemical features identical to the DMSP lyase in E. huxleyi, and DMS released by various E. huxleyi isolates correlates with their Alma1 levels. Sequence homology searches suggest that Alma1 represents a gene family present in major, globally distributed phytoplankton taxa and in other marine organisms. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
W361458199 | XNDDF: Towards a Framework for Flexible Near-Duplicate Document Detection Using Supervised and Unsupervised Learning | Abstract The WWW has witnessed the exponential growth of web documents. People of all walks of life depend on the electronic superhighway, Internet, for retrieving information. Search engines retrieve data. Detecting near duplicate documents and handling them can help search engines to improve performance. In this paper, we proposed two algorithms. The first algorithm is meant for unsupervised probabilistic clustering of documents while the second algorithm is to detect near duplicates that can handle in offline processing of search engines. The clustered documents can avoid unnecessary comparisons while near duplicate detection algorithm involve local feature selection in are given document based on weights assigned to terms. A classifier is built to have supervised learning for discriminating documents. We proposed a framework named eXtensible Near Duplicate Detection Framework (XNDDF) which provides various components that provide room for flexible duplicate detection solutions besides showing offline and online processing required by a search engine. Our future work is to implement the framework components through a prototype application. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1016/j.ydbio.2018.04.002 | Nodal and BMP dispersal during early zebrafish development | The secreted TGF-β superfamily signals Nodal and BMP coordinate the patterning of vertebrate embryos. Nodal specifies endoderm and mesoderm during germ layer formation, and BMP specifies ventral fates and patterns the dorsal/ventral axis. Five major models have been proposed to explain how the correct distributions of Nodal and BMP are achieved within tissues to orchestrate embryogenesis: source/sink, transcriptional determination, relay, self-regulation, and shuttling. Here, we discuss recent experiments probing these signal dispersal models, focusing on early zebrafish development. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1051/0004-6361/200810644 | Photometric Redshifts And Cluster Tomography In The Eso Distant Cluster Survey | This paper reports the results obtained on the photometric redshifts measurement and accuracy, and cluster tomography in the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS) fields. Photometric redshifts were computed using two independent codes (Hyperz and G. Rudnick's code). The accuracy of photometric redshifts was assessed by comparing our estimates with the spectroscopic redshifts of ~1400 galaxies in the 0. 3<z<1. 0 domain. The accuracy for galaxies fainter than the spectroscopic control sample was estimated using a degraded version of the photometric catalog for the spectroscopic sample. The accuracy of photometric redshifts is typically sigma(Delta z/(1+z)) ~ 0. 05+/-0. 01, depending on the field, the filter set, and the spectral type of the galaxies. The quality of the photometric redshifts degrades by a factor of two in sigma(Delta z/(1+z)) between the brightest (I~22) and the faintest (I~24-24. 5) galaxies in the EDisCS sample. The photometric determination of cluster redshifts in the EDisCS fields using a simple algorithm based on photoz is in excellent agreement with the spectroscopic values (delta(z) ~0. 03-0. 04 in the high-z sample and ~0. 05 in the low-z sample). We also developed a method that uses both photz codes jointly to reject interlopers at magnitudes fainter than the spectroscopic limit. When applied to the spectroscopic sample, this method rejects ~50-90% of all spectroscopically confirmed non-members, while retaining at least 90% of all confirmed members. Photometric redshifts are found to be particularly useful for the identification and study of clusters of galaxies in large surveys. They enable efficient and complete pre-selection of cluster members for spectroscopy, allow accurate determinations of the cluster redshifts, and provide a means of determining cluster membership. (Abridged) | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.03.003 | Single subject analyses reveal consistent recruitment of frontal operculum in performance monitoring | There are continuing uncertainties regarding whether performance monitoring recruits the anterior insula (aI) and/or the frontal operculum (fO). The proximity and morphological complexity of these two regions make proper identification and isolation of the loci of activation extremely difficult. The use of group averaging methods in human neuroimaging might contribute to this problem. The result has been heterogeneous labeling of this region as aI, fO, or aI/fO, and a discussion of results oriented towards either cognitive or interoceptive functions depending on labeling. In the present article, we adapted the spatial preprocessing of functional magnetic resonance imaging data to account for group averaging artifacts and performed a subject-by-subject analysis in three performance monitoring tasks. Results show that functional activity related to feedback or action monitoring consistently follows local morphology in this region and demonstrate that the activity is located predominantly in the fO rather than in the aI. From these results, we propose that a full understanding of the respective role of aI and fO would benefit from increased spatial resolution and subject-by-subject analysis. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System"
]
|
W2034984693 | Daytime sleepiness, psychomotor performance, waking EEG spectra and evoked potentials in women with severe premenstrual syndrome | We assessed daytime sleepiness using objective and subjective measures in women with severe premenstrual syndrome (PMS) compared with women without significant premenstrual symptoms. Nine women with severe PMS and eight controls (aged 18-40 years) completed a laboratory-based daytime protocol including the maintenance of wakefulness test (MWT), psychomotor vigilance task (PVT), quantitative waking electroencephalogram (EEG), auditory and visual event-related potentials (ERPs), and sleepiness and mood scales during the mid-follicular and late-luteal (premenstrual) phases of the menstrual cycle. In association with increased perceived sleepiness, fatigue and other premenstrual symptoms in the late-luteal phase, women with PMS performed more poorly on the PVT, with increased lapses and slower reaction times (P < 0.05), compared with the follicular phase and controls. However, there were no significant group or menstrual phase differences in latency to sleep on the MWT. Waking spectral EEG power and ERP measures also did not differentiate PMS women when symptomatic. Both groups of women displayed increased spectral power in the delta/theta frequencies (2-6 Hz) and fast alpha frequency (11-12 Hz) in the late-luteal phase relative to the follicular phase. Trait-like differences were apparent in that women with PMS had increased beta1 (12-16 Hz) power and smaller P300 amplitude than controls in both menstrual cycle phases. Our findings indicate that women with severe PMS are subjectively sleepy and fatigued, and show psychomotor slowing when symptomatic compared with when they are symptom-free and compared with controls. However, the ability to maintain wakefulness under soporific conditions, spectral properties of waking EEG and cognitive processing do not vary in synchrony with premenstrual symptoms. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
322842 | Metabolic functions of p53 in non-cancer pathologies | Extensive study of the p53 protein has resulted in a detailed understanding of its role in tumour suppression, information that is being used to develop small molecule modulators of p53 that are presently under evaluation for cancer therapy. However, it has recently become clear that p53 also plays roles in aspects of human health and disease extending beyond cancer - although most of these are poorly understood. We therefore propose to investigate some of these non-cancer functions of p53, with an emphasis on the role of p53 in the regulation of metabolism, extending to an analysis of whether p53 contributes to pathologies such as diabetes and obesity. This is a pioneering project that brings p53 research into new areas, yet builds on the solid platform of existing knowledge about the regulation and function of p53. State of the art genomic, proteomic, metabolomic and imaging analyses will be used to identify the roles of p53 in the response to metabolic stress caused by nutrient deficiency or excess, and investigate how these activities balance cell survival and cell death. Models will be developed to address how these functions of p53 relate to the control of metabolism and disease in vivo. Understanding how the cellular response to metabolic stress is controlled, and identifying a role for p53 in the regulation of metabolic homeostasis has enormous potential to influence the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The proposal will help to define the role of p53 in the development of diabetes and obesity, and lay the groundwork for the investigation of a role for p53 in other pathologies, such as neurodegenerative disease, cardiovascular disease and liver disease. These studies will therefore have far-reaching impact on some of the most prominent health threats in the developed world. | [
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
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