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IB 2013061448 W | HAND-HELD APPLIANCE | The present application relates to a hand-held appliance comprising a housing including a reservoir to contain water and a tube to convey water from the reservoir for delivery to a surface. The tube extends into the reservoir and comprises multiple tube inlets spaced from each other within the reservoir so that, when the reservoir contains water, a tube inlet is submerged irrespective of the orientation of the housing. In one embodiment, the tube inlet comprises a separate valve assembly associated with each tube inlet so that a valve assembly associated with a submerged tube inlet opens to allow flow of water through that tube inlet and a valve assembly associated with a non-submerged tube inlet closes to prevent the flow of air through said non-submerged tube inlet.In an alternate embodiment, the appliance may be provided with a single valve member that allows water to flow through the valve assembly via a first opening, whilst also preventing the flow of air through the valve assembly through a second opening. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1111/tpj.13243 | The LORE1 insertion mutant resource | Long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposons are closely related to retroviruses, and their activities shape eukaryotic genomes. Here, we present a complete Lotus japonicus insertion mutant collection generated by identification of 640 653 new insertion events following de novo activation of the LTR element Lotus retrotransposon 1 (LORE1) (http://lotus. au. dk). Insertion preferences are critical for effective gene targeting, and we exploit our large dataset to analyse LTR element characteristics in this context. We infer the mechanism that generates the consensus palindromes typical of retroviral and LTR retrotransposon insertion sites, identify a short relaxed insertion site motif, and demonstrate selective integration into CHG-hypomethylated genes. These characteristics result in a steep increase in deleterious mutation rate following activation, and allow LORE1 active gene targeting to approach saturation within a population of 134 682 L. japonicus lines. We suggest that saturation mutagenesis using endogenous LTR retrotransposons with germinal activity can be used as a general and cost-efficient strategy for generation of non-transgenic mutant collections for unrestricted use in plant research. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering"
]
|
677878 | Neuronal Coding of Choice and Action-Selection during Decision-Making in Behaving Mice | Our daily life is a complex chain of decisions and actions that shapes our behaviors. Individuals tend to choose the best action possible among different alternatives through “goal-directed” decision-making. Given that action-selection is supposed to occur on the basis of the individual subjective evaluation of the relative costs and benefits of each action, two types of information need to be integrated within choice-specific neuronal representations: the causal consequences of an action (outcome) and the value of the outcome. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) appears to be well suited to organize such action-selection. However, despite the growing interest in decision-making over the past few years, the neuronal and synaptic mechanisms underlying goal-directed action-selection in normal and pathological conditions remain elusive. By using two-photon imaging over long-time frames in behaving mice, our project will first determine how alternative choices are encoded by specific neuronal representations in the PFC, and how they are compared during decision-making to select to best action possible. To achieve flexible behaviors in a dynamic environment, individuals must rapidly update these representations according to the difference between the predicted and the obtained outcome. Many cortical and subcortical structures act in coordination to encode and process changes in the outcome value, but the synaptic underpinnings remain unknown. Our proposal will take full advantage of in vivo methods combining electrophysiology, optogenetic and genetically-encoded calcium indicators to address the causal relationship between subcortical population dynamics and prefrontal neuronal processing during decision-making and behavioral flexibility. Finally, given that motivational alterations are observed in many human neuropsychiatric disorders including autism, we will tackle synaptic, cellular and behavioral decision-making deficits in a mouse model of autism. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
221254 | Improved trustworthiness and weather-independence of conditional automated vehicles in mixed traffic scenarios | Automated driving can be implemented with relatively simple controllers if the current location of the ego vehicle and the current and future locations of other road users are known without uncertainty. However, this is not going to happen in the initial stages of the introduction of automated driving systems into the market. As a consequence, system and human driver uncertainty pose a significant challenge in the development of trustable and fault-tolerant automated driving controllers, especially for conditional automation (SAE level 3) in mixed traffic scenarios. The TrustVehicle consortium brings together participants from the whole vehicle value chain to enhance safety and user-friendliness of level 3 automated driving systems. The main objectives are: (i) the systematic identification of critical road scenarios based on in-depth analysis of possible traffic situations and human behaviour; (ii) the setup of new tools for the cost- and time-effective assessment of driver-in/off-the-loop situations; (iii) design of controllers and sensor fusion systems capable of dealing with complex, uncertain and variable road scenarios to enhance road safety; (iv) the implementation of intuitive human-machine interfaces for the safe management of the transition phases taking into account user acceptance and gender-specific aspects; and (iv) the establishment of an adaptive and agile vehicle validation based on self-diagnostics and data logging to steadily extend the list of relevant scenarios and test cases. The outputs of the TrustVehicle project will be extensively assessed in real-world operating conditions on four demonstrators representing four vehicle classes. End users of the technology will systematically and thoroughly express their requirements, expectations, and concerns during the consortium activity. Special focus will be put on the demonstration of the fault-tolerant and fail-operational system behaviour at any time and for different kinds of weather conditions. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
DE 102011000427 A | Connection assembly for connecting rear seat unit to chassis of motor vehicle, has damping element arranged between cushion support and vehicle chassis, through which cushion support is fixed to vehicle chassis by nut and stud | The connection assembly (1) has stud (4) comprising screw thread (5) whose free end faces a cushion support (2) of rear seat unit. The stud is engaged in a cushion-carrier-side opening. A damping element (6) is arranged between the cushion support and vehicle chassis (3) and is connected with the cushion support. The damping element is the rubber ring. The cushion support is fixed to the vehicle chassis via the damping element by nut (7) and stud. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-642-33709-3_29 | Structured Image Segmentation Using Kernelized Features | Most state-of-the-art approaches to image segmentation formulate the problem using Conditional Random Fields. These models typically include a unary term and a pairwise term, whose parameters must be carefully chosen for optimal performance. Recently, structured learning approaches such as Structured SVMs (SSVM) have made it possible to jointly learn these model parameters. However, they have been limited to linear kernels, since more powerful non-linear kernels cause the learning to become prohibitively expensive. In this paper, we introduce an approach to "kernelize" the features so that a linear SSVM framework can leverage the power of non-linear kernels without incurring the high computational cost. We demonstrate the advantages of this approach in a series of image segmentation experiments on the MSRC data set as well as 2D and 3D datasets containing imagery of neural tissue acquired with electron microscopes. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
W2528850382 | The Educational Robotics Landscape Exploring Common Ground and Contact Points | In the last decades, educational robotics has gained increased attention evoking a need to discuss and document different approaches and lessons learned. In this article, we report our findings made during the “Educational Robotics Cafe”, a workshop format where experts engage in an open discussion about opportunities and challenges of the educational robotics landscape as well as advantages and shortcomings of various approaches. Interestingly, participants working on different educational robotics topics with different methods realized that all seemed to have similar problems and experiences. They could define areas of common ground, yet had difficulties in finding contact points between their educational robotics approaches to compare them. Known categorizations seemed not to fit or to be too high level. Based on these findings, we finish our article by suggesting a “tagging” approach to enable better communication between experts from different domains like education or robotics. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
EP 0104282 W | BENZOXAZINE DERIVATIVES AND BENZOTHIAZINE DERIVATIVES HAVING NOS-INHIBITORY AND ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES | The invention relates to compounds of formula (I) and to the tautomeric and isomeric forms and salts thereof, wherein: X represents O or S; R<1> represents -(CHR<9>)n-NR<7>-A-NR<8>-B, -(CHR<9>)n-NR<8>-B or -(CHR<9>)n-B; R<2> represents hydrogen or R<1> and R<2>, together with two adjacent carbon atoms, form a 5-, 6-, 7- or 8-member ring, which is monocyclic or bicyclic, saturated or unsaturated, and in which 1 or 2 CH2 groups can be replaced by oxygen or carbonyl, and which is substituted by -(CHR<9>)r-NR<7>-A-NR<8>-B, -(CHR<9>)n-B or -(CHR<9>)r-NR<8>-B; R<3> represents hydrogen or NR<15>R<16>; R<4> represents hydrogen or acyl; R<5> and R<6>, independent of one another, represent hydrogen, C3-7 cycloalkyl, phenyl, C1-6 alkyl, C2-6 alkenyl radicals or C2-6 alkynyl radicals, which can each be substituted by halogen, OH, O-C1-6 alkyl, SH, S-C1-6 alkyl, NR<15>R<16>, 5- or 6-member heteroaryl with 1-3 N, O or S atoms, phenyl or C3-7 cycloalkyl; A represents a straight-chain or branched C1-6 alkylene or -(CH2)p-Q-(CH2)q-, and; B represents (II) or (III). The invention also relates to the method for preparing said compounds and to their use in medicaments. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
W1539724337 | A Study of Housing and Identity in Northern Cyprus | This research mainly focuses on the relationship between environment and people’s identity by centralization of communicative aspects of residential environments. There is this potential to find out the dwellers’ identity, and this is where we come to the confluence of housing and identity. Therefore, it is significant to find out the residents’ attitudes considering their residences. The concept that enables individuals to retain their routines, costumes, habits and memories makes the focus of “housing and identity” a crucial and feasible research subject. The case studies are selected among high-quality and low-quality neighborhoods in Kaliland zone in Gazima?usa , one of the five districts of Northern Cyprus. In this survey questionnaires are used in order to explore residents’ interests, personality and relationships. This research is done based on the principles of home identity, communicating identity and self-perception. Consequently, the significant aspects in creating home identity will be discussed, and finally, the research will conclude the key role of memory, personal features and backgrounds in defining identity. Keywords: Housing, Dwelling, Identity, Residential Environment | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space",
"Studies of Cultures and Arts"
]
|
3732346 | Artificial translation with dynamic foldamers: relaying encoded messages into chemical function | We propose to apply the power of synthetic chemistry to a new challenge in synthetic biomimicry: the translation of encoded information into molecular function. We propose to design and build switchable synthetic molecules that are capable of communicating and processing information. This ambitious aim will be achieved through new classes of extended dynamic molecules that respond to their environment by changing shape, principally by invertase polarity/directionality. They will receive, communicate, amplify, transmit, and process information encoded in their molecular conformation and orientation. New analystic methods will be developed to explore their kinetics and thermodynamics. Characterized by a high level of intramolecular structural organization, they will participate in strong, selective mutual interactions, allowing them to process information through intramolecular and intermolecular interactions in simple and complex mixtures, both solution and in the membrane phase. These chemical systems will be able to extract information from their environment (the presence of a specific metal or organic molecule, a genetically encoded message, pH, or irradiation at a specific wavelength) and process it into chemical function. Life takes information in the form of bond polarity encoded in base pairs and translates it into biochemical function in the form of protein structure, and our synthetic structures will likewise translate molecular polarity into function by using new classes of ‘promiscuous’ Watson-Crick-like base-pairs, able to switch between alternative hydrogen-bond polarities. Applications for these synthetic communication systems will ultimately see them embedded into cell membranes, allowing the selective control of function by communicating into the interior of both artificial vesicles and living cells. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1109/ULIS.2014.6813911 | Fabrication Of Strained Ge On Insulator Via Room Temperature Wafer Bonding | This work describes a strained germanium on insulator (GeOI) fabrication process using wafer bonding and etch-back techniques. The strained Ge layer is fabricated epitaxially using reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD). The strained Ge is grown pseudomorphic on top of a partially relaxed Si 0. 66 Ge 0. 34 layer. Wafer bonding is performed at room temperature without post-anneal processes and the etch-back steps are performed without mechanical grinding and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1016/j.str.2015.05.013 | Outcome of the First wwPDB Hybrid/Integrative Methods Task Force Workshop | Structures of biomolecular systems are increasingly computed by integrative modeling that relies on varied types of experimental data and theoretical information. We describe here the proceedings and conclusions from the first wwPDB Hybrid/Integrative Methods Task Force Workshop held at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, UK, on October 6 and 7, 2014. At the workshop, experts in various experimental fields of structural biology, experts in integrative modeling and visualization, and experts in data archiving addressed a series of questions central to the future of structural biology. How should integrative models be represented? How should the data and integrative models be validated? What data should be archived? How should the data and models be archived? What information should accompany the publication of integrative models? | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
818195 | Trapped-ion quantum information in 2-dimensional Penning trap arrays | This project will develop a new platform for quantum computation and quantum simulation based on scalable two-dimensional arrays of ions in micro-fabricated Penning traps. It builds upon the rapid advances demonstrating high precision quantum control in micro-fabricated radio-frequency ion traps while eliminating the most problematic element - the radio-frequency potential - using a uniform magnetic field. This offers a significant advantage: since the magnetic field is uniform it provides confinement at any position for which a suitable static quadrupole can be generated. By contrast, r.f. potentials only provide good working conditions along a line. This changed perspective provides access to dense two-dimensional strongly interacting ion lattices, with the possibility to re-configure these lattices in real time. By combining closely-spaced static two-dimensional ion arrays with standard laser control methods, the project will demonstrate previously inaccessible many-body interacting spin Hamiltonians at ion numbers which are out of the reach of classical computers, providing a scalable quantum simulator with the potential to provide new insights into the links between microscopic physics and emergent behavior. Through dynamic control of electrode voltages, reconfigurable two-dimensional arrays will be used to realize a scalable quantum computing architecture, which will be benchmarked through landmark experiments on measurement-based quantum computation and high error-threshold surface codes which are natural to this configuration. Realizing multi-dimensional connectivity between qubits is a major problem facing a number of leading quantum computing architectures including trapped ions. By solving this problem, the proposed project will pave the way to large-scale universal quantum computing with impacts from fundamental physics through to chemistry, materials science and cryptography. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
10.1186/s12864-015-1594-1 | Genomic landscape of rat strain and substrain variation | Background: Since the completion of the rat reference genome in 2003, whole-genome sequencing data from more than 40 rat strains have become available. These data represent the broad range of strains that are used in rat research including commonly used substrains. Currently, this wealth of information cannot be used to its full extent, because the variety of different variant calling algorithms employed by different groups impairs comparison between strains. In addition, all rat whole genome sequencing studies to date used an outdated reference genome for analysis (RGSC3. 4 released in 2004). Results: Here we present a comprehensive, multi-sample and uniformly called set of genetic variants in 40 rat strains, including 19 substrains. We reanalyzed all primary data using a recent version of the rat reference assembly (RGSC5. 0 released in 2012) and identified over 12 million genomic variants (SNVs, indels and structural variants) among the 40 strains. 28,318 SNVs are specific to individual substrains, which may be explained by introgression from other unsequenced strains and ongoing evolution by genetic drift. Substrain SNVs may have a larger predicted functional impact compared to older shared SNVs. Conclusions: In summary we present a comprehensive catalog of uniformly analyzed genetic variants among 40 widely used rat inbred strains based on the RGSC5. 0 assembly. This represents a valuable resource, which will facilitate rat functional genomic research. In line with previous observations, our genome-wide analyses do not show evidence for contribution of multiple ancestral founder rat subspecies to the currently used rat inbred strains, as is the case for mouse. In addition, we find that the degree of substrain variation is highly variable between strains, which is of importance for the correct interpretation of experimental data from different labs. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.5194/acp-16-293-2016 | Hygroscopicity of nanoparticles produced from homogeneous nucleation in the CLOUD experiments | Sulfuric acid, amines and oxidized organics have been found to be important compounds in the nucleation and initial growth of atmospheric particles. Because of the challenges involved in determining the chemical composition of objects with very small mass, however, the properties of the freshly nucleated particles and the detailed pathways of their formation processes are still not clear. In this study, we focus on a challenging size range, i. e. , particles that have grown to diameters of 10 and 15gnm following nucleation, and measure their water uptake. Water uptake is useful information for indirectly obtaining chemical composition of aerosol particles. We use a nanometer-hygroscopicity tandem differential mobility analyzer (nano-HTDMA) at subsaturated conditions (ca. 90g% relative humidity at 293gK) to measure the hygroscopicity of particles during the seventh Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets (CLOUD7) campaign performed at CERN in 2012. In CLOUD7, the hygroscopicity of nucleated nanoparticles was measured in the presence of sulfuric acid, sulfuric acid-dimethylamine, and sulfuric acid-organics derived from α-pinene oxidation. The hygroscopicity parameter decreased with increasing particle size, indicating decreasing acidity of particles. No clear effect of the sulfuric acid concentration on the hygroscopicity of 10gnm particles produced from sulfuric acid and dimethylamine was observed, whereas the hygroscopicity of 15gnm particles sharply decreased with decreasing sulfuric acid concentrations. In particular, when the concentration of sulfuric acid was 5. 1 × 106gmoleculesgcmg'3 in the gas phase, and the dimethylamine mixing ratio was 11. 8gppt, the measured of 15gnm particles was 0. 31g±g0. 01: close to the value reported for dimethylaminium sulfate (DMAS) (DMAS g1/4 0. 28). Furthermore, the difference in between sulfuric acid and sulfuric acid-imethylamine experiments increased with increasing particle size. The values of particles in the presence of sulfuric acid and organics were much smaller than those of particles in the presence of sulfuric acid and dimethylamine. This suggests that the organics produced from α-pinene ozonolysis play a significant role in particle growth even at 10gnm sizes. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
10.1088/0004-637X/788/2/128 | Ogle 2008 Blg 355Lb A Massive Planet Around A Late Type Star | We report the discovery of a massive planet, OGLE-2008-BLG-355Lb. The light curve analysis indicates a planet:host mass ratio of q = 0. 0118 ± 0. 0006 at a separation of 0. 877 ± 0. 010 Einstein radii. We do not measure a significant microlensing parallax signal and do not have high angular resolution images that could detect the planetary host star. Therefore, we do not have a direct measurement of the host star mass. A Bayesian analysis, assuming that all host stars have equal probability to host a planet with the measured mass ratio, implies a host star mass of M{sub h}=0. 37{sub −0. 17}{sup +0. 30} M{sub ⊙} and a companion of mass M{sub P}=4. 6{sub −2. 2}{sup +3. 7}M{sub J}, at a projected separation of r{sub ⊥}=1. 70{sub −0. 30}{sup +0. 29} AU. The implied distance to the planetary system is D {sub L} = 6. 8 ± 1. 1 kpc. A planetary system with the properties preferred by the Bayesian analysis may be a challenge to the core accretion model of planet formation, as the core accretion model predicts that massive planets are far more likely to form around more massive host stars. This core accretion model prediction is not consistent with our Bayesian prior of an equal probability of host starsmore » of all masses to host a planet with the measured mass ratio. Thus, if the core accretion model prediction is right, we should expect that follow-up high angular resolution observations will detect a host star with a mass in the upper part of the range allowed by the Bayesian analysis. That is, the host would probably be a K or G dwarf. « less | [
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
10.15252/embj.201899672 | Pool size estimations for dense-core vesicles in mammalian CNS neurons | Neuropeptides are essential signaling molecules transported and secreted by dense-core vesicles (DCVs), but the number of DCVs available for secretion, their subcellular distribution, and release probability are unknown. Here, we quantified DCV pool sizes in three types of mammalian CNS neurons in vitro and in vivo. Super-resolution and electron microscopy reveal a total pool of 1,400–18,000 DCVs, correlating with neurite length. Excitatory hippocampal and inhibitory striatal neurons in vitro have a similar DCV density, and thalamo-cortical axons in vivo have a slightly higher density. Synapses contain on average two to three DCVs, at the periphery of synaptic vesicle clusters. DCVs distribute equally in axons and dendrites, but the vast majority (80%) of DCV fusion events occur at axons. The release probability of DCVs is 1–6%, depending on the stimulation. Thus, mammalian CNS neurons contain a large pool of DCVs of which only a small fraction can fuse, preferentially at axons. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
10.1038/s42255-019-0109-9 | Spatial sorting enables comprehensive characterization of liver zonation | The mammalian liver is composed of repeating hexagonal units termed lobules. Spatially resolved single-cell transcriptomics has revealed that about half of hepatocyte genes are differentially expressed across the lobule, yet technical limitations have impeded reconstructing similar global spatial maps of other hepatocyte features. Here, we show how zonated surface markers can be used to sort hepatocytes from defined lobule zones with high spatial resolution. We apply transcriptomics, microRNA (miRNA) array measurements and mass spectrometry proteomics to reconstruct spatial atlases of multiple zonated features. We demonstrate that protein zonation largely overlaps with messenger RNA zonation, with the periportal HNF4α as an exception. We identify zonation of miRNAs, such as miR-122, and inverse zonation of miRNAs and their hepatocyte target genes, highlighting potential regulation of gene expression levels through zonated mRNA degradation. Among the targets, we find the pericentral Wingless-related integration site (Wnt) receptors Fzd7 and Fzd8 and the periportal Wnt inhibitors Tcf7l1 and Ctnnbip1. Our approach facilitates reconstructing spatial atlases of multiple cellular features in the liver and other structured tissues. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
10.1016/j.ceb.2017.10.004 | Multiple ligand binding sites regulate the Hedgehog signal transducer Smoothened in vertebrates | The Hedgehog (Hh) pathway plays a central role in the development of multicellular organisms, guiding cell differentiation, proliferation and survival. While many components of the vertebrate pathway were discovered two decades ago, the mechanism by which the Hh signal is transmitted across the plasma membrane remains mysterious. This fundamental task in signalling is carried out by Smoothened (SMO), a human oncoprotein and validated cancer drug target that is a member of the G-protein coupled receptor protein family. Recent structural and functional studies have advanced our mechanistic understanding of SMO activation, revealing its unique regulation by two separable but allosterically-linked ligand-binding sites. Unexpectedly, these studies have nominated cellular cholesterol as having an instructive role in SMO signalling. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
639284 | INTerEthnic Relationships in contemporAry CommuniTies: How does ethnoracial diversity affect in- and out-group trust, solidarity, and cooperation | The increasingly multiethnic nature of modern societies has spurred academic interest in the consequences of diversity. Recent scholarship has linked ethnoracial diversity to undesirable collective outcomes, e.g., low levels of trust, civic engagement, and social capital. These findings have important policy implications, in part because they resonate with public anxieties about immigration, residential integration, and the role of the welfare state. The proposed research will investigate the micro-mechanisms through which contact promotes or impedes solidarity and cooperation in diverse communities. More generally, this research moves beyond communitarian conceptions of social capital to understand the building blocks of solidarity in contemporary, diverse societies.
To investigate the micro-level dynamics that link intergroup contact to solidarity and cooperation, this project takes an innovative field-experimental approach, which moves beyond observational data. In particular, the project uses lab-in-the-field experimental games to assess the dispositional mechanisms – such as generalized altruism, group solidarity, reciprocity, and sanctioning – that bring about solidarity and cooperation in various group settings.
This revised version of the proposal addresses all the panel observations and implements changes accordingly. First, I have limited the research to project 3 (P3), and cut projects 1 (P1) and 2 (P2). Second, the duration of the project has been reduced to 48 months. Third, all expenses related to P1 and P2 have been cut. | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"Studies of Cultures and Arts"
]
|
W1444185535 | LONG-TERM OUTCOME OF EPIRETINAL MEMBRANE SURGERY IN YOUNG CHILDREN | To describe the clinical characteristics of epiretinal membranes (ERMs) secondary to nonprogressive diseases in very young children and to assess their surgical outcome.Retrospective interventional case series study of 13 pediatric patients (aged less than 12 years) operated on for ERM more than a 6-year period. Visual acuity measurement, ophthalmic examination, and optical coherence tomography imaging were assessed preoperatively and postoperatively.Mean age was 6.5 years (3-12 years). Mean follow-up duration was of 28.5 months (12-69 months). Among the 13 patients, there were 7 cases of idiopathic ERM, 4 cases of combined hamartoma of the retina and retinal pigment epithelium, and 2 cases of posttraumatic ERM. The diagnosis of ERM was fortuitous in 10 cases (77%). Twelve children (92%) experienced a functional improvement. All patients received adjuvant treatment of amblyopia. Best-corrected visual acuity improved significantly after surgery from 20/160 to 20/40 (P = 0.001).Even in very young children, surgery resulted in a significant long-term improvement. Children screening was essential for diagnosis and treatment in most cases. | [
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
184822 | Post-Cellular wireless networks | POSTCELL aims at laying the foundation for future generations of wireless networks as they move past the reigning cell-centric paradigm and into the post-cellular era. This entails the definition of a new architecture for such networks and the characterization of the ensuing performance. For the future of wireless communications, the implications would be far-reaching.
The growth of wireless traffic is relentless, and it is actually gaining new momentum on account of fresh mechanisms: smartphones, cloud computing, and machine-to-machine communication. As a result, the volume of wireless traffic is poised to increase to truly staggering levels and, to face this challenge, wireless networks need to enter a new stage.
There is a fledging awareness that this challenge can only be fended off by a process of network massification, with two views about it. In the first view, densification is the only strategy through which dramatic improvements can be attained hereafter; this leads to a vision where base stations become tiny and exceedingly abundant. The second view, in turn, is built on the idea of dramatically scaling the number of colocated antennas per base station from the current handful to possibly hundreds. One of the seeds of POSTCELL is that, since neither form of massification can by itself resolve the challenge facing wireless systems, the two forms will have to end up coexisting.
Reconciling these two forms of massification and enabling a truly phenomenal scaling calls for an entirely new architecture where cells and physical base stations become things of the past, replaced by dynamically defined virtual base stations, powerful caches, and the possibility of device clustering, among other leaps forward. The signal processing needs to shift away from base stations, which become deconstructed, so as to gather at new places. POSTCELL seeks to drive this transformation and to gauge the performance of post-cellular wireless networks. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-642-16612-9_13 | A Meta Aspect Protocol For Developing Dynamic Analyses | Dynamic aspect-oriented programming has been widely used for the development of dynamic analyses to abstract over low-level program instrumentation. Due to particular feature requirements in different analysis domains like debugging or testing, many different aspect languages were developed from scratch or by extensive compiler or interpreter extensions. We introduce another level of abstraction in form of a meta-aspect protocol to separate the host language from the analysis domain. A language expert can use this protocol to tailor an analysis-specific aspect language, based on which a domain expert can develop a particular analysis. Our design enables a flexible specification of the join point model, configurability of aspect deployment and scoping, and extensibility of pointcut and advice language. We present the application of our design to different dynamic analysis domains. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1016/j.envpol.2013.03.060 | Nitrogen deposition alters nitrogen cycling and reduces soil carbon content in low-productivity semiarid Mediterranean ecosystems | Anthropogenic N deposition poses a threat to European Mediterranean ecosystems. We combined data from an extant N deposition gradient (4. 3-7. 3 kg N ha-1 yr-1) from semiarid areas of Spain and a field experiment in central Spain to evaluate N deposition effects on soil fertility, function and cyanobacteria community. Soil organic N did not increase along the extant gradient. Nitrogen fixation decreased along existing and experimental N deposition gradients, a result possibly related to compositional shifts in soil cyanobacteria community. Net ammonification and nitrification (which dominated N-mineralization) were reduced and increased, respectively, by N fertilization, suggesting alterations in the N cycle. Soil organic C content, C:N ratios and the activity of β-glucosidase decreased along the extant gradient in most locations. Our results suggest that semiarid soils in low-productivity sites are unable to store additional N inputs, and that are also unable to mitigate increasing C emissions when experiencing increased N deposition. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
10.1186/s12915-015-0131-7 | Gene-specific selective sweeps in bacteria and archaea caused by negative frequency-dependent selection | Background: Fixation of beneficial genes in bacteria and archaea (collectively, prokaryotes) is often believed to erase pre-existing genomic diversity through the hitchhiking effect, a phenomenon known as genome-wide selective sweep. Recent studies, however, indicate that beneficial genes spread through a prokaryotic population via recombination without causing genome-wide selective sweeps. These gene-specific selective sweeps seem to be at odds with the existing estimates of recombination rates in prokaryotes, which appear far too low to explain such phenomena. Results: We use mathematical modeling to investigate potential solutions to this apparent paradox. Most microbes in nature evolve in heterogeneous, dynamic communities, in which ecological interactions can substantially impact evolution. Here, we focus on the effect of negative frequency-dependent selection (NFDS) such as caused by viral predation (kill-the-winner dynamics). The NFDS maintains multiple genotypes within a population, so that a gene beneficial to every individual would have to spread via recombination, hence a gene-specific selective sweep. However, gene loci affected by NFDS often are located in variable regions of microbial genomes that contain genes involved in the mobility of selfish genetic elements, such as integrases or transposases. Thus, the NFDS-affected loci are likely to experience elevated rates of recombination compared with the other loci. Consequently, these loci might be effectively unlinked from the rest of the genome, so that NFDS would be unable to prevent genome-wide selective sweeps. To address this problem, we analyzed population genetic models of selective sweeps in prokaryotes under NFDS. The results indicate that NFDS can cause gene-specific selective sweeps despite the effect of locally elevated recombination rates, provided NFDS affects more than one locus and the basal rate of recombination is sufficiently low. Although these conditions might seem to contradict the intuition that gene-specific selective sweeps require high recombination rates, they actually decrease the effective rate of recombination at loci affected by NFDS relative to the per-locus basal level, so that NFDS can cause gene-specific selective sweeps. Conclusion: Because many free-living prokaryotes are likely to evolve under NFDS caused by ubiquitous viruses, gene-specific selective sweeps driven by NFDS are expected to be a major, general phenomenon in prokaryotic populations. | [
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
IB 2011000989 W | SINGLE PIECE TRAY BASE FOR DISPLAYING DEVICES | A blank for a tray base comprising a first longitudinal section, and a second longitudinal section with at least two cuts, the second longitudinal section abutting the first longitudinal section in a lengthwise manner, each of the cuts forming a transversal section in the second longitudinal section, wherein the at least two cuts comprise three or more cut lines and wherein at least two of the cut lines of each of the at least two cuts abut with the first longitudinal section; the first longitudinal section being foldable in regards to the second section and the transversal sections being foldable in regards to each other. Different shapes of cut may be provided in the blank for a tray base, depending on the shape of the tray base. For example, a funnel-shaped cut may be provided; trapezoid and outwardly facing triangle cuts may also be provided. When folded the blank forms a tray base with at least one opening in the edges of each of the sides of the tray base. The tray base may be hanged to struts or posts of a display structure. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.5194/acp-9-7435-2009 | Sulfuric acid and OH concentrations in a boreal forest site | As demonstrated in a number of investigations, gaseous sulfuric acid plays a central role in atmospheric aerosol formation. Using chemical ionization mass spectrometer the gas-phase sulfuric acid and OH concentration were measured in Hyytiälä, SMEAR II station, Southern Finland during 24 March to 28 June 2007. Clear diurnal cycles were observed as well as differences between new particle formation event days and non-event days. Typically, the daily maximum concentrations of gas phase sulfuric acid varied from 3×l05 to 2×l06mole cm-3 between non-event and event days. Noon-time OH concentrations varied from 36 × 105 molec cm -3 and not a clear difference between event and non-events was detected. The measured time series were also used as a foundation to develop reasonable proxies for sulfuric acid concentration. The proxies utilized source and sink terms, and the simplest proxy is radiation times sulfur dioxide divided by condensation sink. Since it is still challenging to measure sulfuric acid in ambient concentrations, and due to its significant role in atmospheric particle formation, reasonable proxies are needed. We use all together three different proxies and one chemical box model and compared their results to the measured data. The proxies for the sulfuric acid concentration worked reasonably well, and will be used to describe sulfuric acid concentrations in SMEAR II station, when no measured sulfuric acid data is available. With caution the proxies could be applied to other environments as well. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1073/pnas.1318440111 | Resveratrol and aspirin eliminate tetraploid cells for anticancer chemoprevention | Tetraploidy constitutes a genomically metastable state that can lead to aneuploidy and genomic instability. Tetraploid cells are frequently found in preneoplastic lesions, including intestinal cancers arising due to the inactivation of the tumor suppressor adenomatous polyposis coli (APC). Using a phenotypic screen, we identified resveratrol as an agent that selectively reduces the fitness of tetraploid cells by slowing down their cell cycle progression and by stimulating the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. Selective killing of tetraploid cells was observed for a series of additional agents that indirectly or directly stimulate AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) including salicylate, whose chemopreventive action has been established by epidemiological studies and clinical trials. Both resveratrol and salicylate reduced the formation of tetraploid or higher-order polyploid cells resulting from the culture of human colon carcinoma cell lines or primary mouse epithelial cells lacking tumor protein p53 (TP53, best known as p53) in the presence of antimitotic agents, as determined by cytofluorometric and videomicroscopic assays. Moreover, oral treatment with either resveratrol or aspirin, the prodrug of salicylate, repressed the accumulation of tetraploid intestinal epithelial cells in the ApcMin/+ mouse model of colon cancer. Collectively, our results suggest that the chemopreventive action of resveratrol and aspirin involves the elimination of tetraploid cancer cell precursors. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.1140/epje/i2015-15042-3 | Three-sphere low-Reynolds-number swimmer with a passive elastic arm | Abstract. : One of the simplest model swimmers at low Reynolds number is the three-sphere swimmer by Najafi and Golestanian. It consists of three spheres connected by two rods which change their lengths periodically in non-reciprocal fashion. Here we investigate a variant of this model in which one rod is periodically actuated while the other is replaced by an elastic spring. We show that the competition between the elastic restoring force and the hydrodynamic drag produces a delay in the response of the passive elastic arm with respect to the active one. This leads to non-reciprocal shape changes and self-propulsion. After formulating the equations of motion, we study their solutions qualitatively and numerically. The leading-order term of the solution is computed analytically. We then address questions of optimization with respect to both actuation frequency and swimmer’s geometry. Our results can provide valuable conceptual guidance in the engineering of robotic microswimmers. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext. ] | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-319-18461-6_48 | Solving Minimal Surface Problems On Surfaces And Point Clouds | Minimal surface problems play an important role not only in physics or biology but also in mathematical signal and image processing. Although the computation of respective solutions is well-investigated in the setting of discrete images, only little attention has been payed to more complicated data, e. g. , surfaces represented as meshes or point clouds. In this work we introduce a novel family of discrete total variation seminorms for weighted graphs based on the upwind gradient and incorporate them into an efficient minimization algorithm to perform total variation denoising on graphs. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to utilize the latter algorithm to uniquely solve minimal surface problems on graphs. To show the universal applicability of this approach, we illustrate results from filtering and segmentation of 3D point cloud data. | [
"Mathematics",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.5194/se-2018-19 | Failure criteria for porous dome rocks and lavas: a study of Mt.
Unzen, Japan | Abstract. The strength and deformation mode (brittle vs ductile) of rocks is generally related to the porosity and pressure conditions, with occasional considerations of strain rate. At high temperature, molten rocks abide to Maxwell’s viscoelasticity and their deformation mode (brittle vs ductile) is generally defined by strain rate or reciprocally, by comparing the relaxation timescale of the material (for a given condition) to the observation timescale – a dimensionless ratio known as the Deborah (De) number. Volcanic materials are extremely heterogeneous, with variable concentrations of crystals, glass/ melt and vesicles (of different sizes), and a complete description of the conditions leading to flow or rupture as a function of temperature, stress and strain rate (or timescale of observation) eludes us. Here, we examined the conditions which lead to failure for variably vesicular (9–35 %), crystal-rich (~ 75 %), pristine and altered, dome rocks (at ambient temperature) and lavas (at 900 °C) from Mt. Unzen Volcano, Japan. We found that the strength of the dome rocks decreases with porosity and is commonly independent of strain rate; when comparing pristine and altered rocks, we found that alteration caused minor strengthening. The strength of the lavas (at 900 °C) also decreases with porosity. Importantly, the results demonstrate that these dome rocks are weaker at ambient temperatures than when heated and deformed at 900 °C (for a given strain rate resulting in brittle behaviour). Thermal stressing (by heating and cooling a rock up to 900 °C at a rate of 4 °C min−1, before testing its strength at ambient temperature) was found not to affect the strength of rocks. In the magmatic state (900 °C), the rheology of the dome lavas is strongly strain rate dependent. Under low strain rate conditions (≤ 10−4 s−1) the lavas behaved ductilly (i. e. , the material sustained substantial, pervasive deformation) and displayed a non–Newtonian, shear thinning behaviour. In this regime, the apparent viscosities of the dome lavas were found to be independent of vesicularity, likely due to efficient pore collapse during shear. At high strain rates (≥ 10−4 s−1) the lavas displayed an increasingly brittle response (i. e. , deformation resulted in failure along localised faults); we observed an increase in strength and a decrease in strain–to–failure as a function of strain rate. To constrain the conditions leading to failure of the lavas, we analysed and compared the critical Deborah number at failure (Dec, the ratio between the relaxation time and the experimental observation time) of these lavas to that of pure melt (Demelt=10−3–10−2; Webb & Dingwell, 1990). We found that the presence of crystals decreases Dec to 2. 11×10−4. The vesicularity (φ), which dictates the strength of lavas, further controls Dec following −5. 1×10−4φ+2. 11×10−4. We discuss the implications of these findings for the case of magma ascent and lava dome structural stability. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
interreg_1533 | Governance of Regionally Integrated Projects using Innovative Tools.Structural funds implementation in an integrated approach | Implementing EU policies has become an important task for public authorities at the regional and local levels across Europe. In particular when receiving and processing EU Structural Funds for the development of their regions, public authorities are facing demanding tasks of programme and project management. To enhance their administrative and project generating capacities for successful Structural Funds management regional institutions need to be well informed about tools such as project cycle management or integrated project management. The Regional Framework Operation “GRIP_IT: Governance of Regionally Integrated Projects using Innovative Tools” aims at promoting good practices and developing innovative methods for programming and implementing Structural Funds investments in their regions. This includes the development of a pipeline of well-crafted projects, governance arrangements for involving local actors, project appraisal and selection, reporting and payment, monitoring and evaluation. RFO subprojects will, among others, focus on developing training tools, exchanging experts, developing and testing innovative governance and management tools and elaborating guidelines. Subprojects will also focus on public-private-partnership within integrated projects and Operational Programmes. The operation “GRIP_IT” results in improved capacity of regional public actors for designing and managing effective Structural Funds interventions in their regions. GRIP_IT enables its partner administrations to successfully apply innovative governance and management tools for the next programming period of the Structural funds. Activities include the organisation of interregional meetings and conferences, information days and seminars about integrated project governance, identification of best practises and exchange of experts. | [
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
3731837 | Nonlinear astrophysical dynamos: a novel data-driven approach for interscale dynamics | Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in the Universe, and are thought to play a key role in evolution of stars, planets, accretion discs and black holes. Although it is generally accepted that these fields are created by the motions of conductive fluids – hydromagnetic dynamos, there is no ab initio predictive theory for their origin and evolution. Because of nonlinear coupling between magnetic field and fluid flow, and also due to extreme parameters of astrophysical objects, dynamos arise from interactions of the flow and field on extremely vast range of space and time scales. This limits the utility of computational approaches.
The DynMode project seeks to elucidate the nature of interscale nonlinear interactions using the novel data-based approach from dynamical systems theory, and to create nonlinear reduced-order models of astrophysical dynamos that represent dynamics on large, intermediate and small scales. This is crucial for our understanding of the operation of astrophysical dynamos. During this Fellowship, we will decompose the data of dynamo flows into dynamically relevant blocks (modes), identify principal nonlinear dynamics and energy exchange among those blocks, and create a reduced-order dynamo model by projecting the flow onto them. By analyzing data sets from self-sustained and convective-driven dynamos in different geometries, we will also address the question of intrinsic dynamo features as compared to influence of secondary physical effects and flow geometry. This approach, applied for the first time in dynamo research, will explain interactions between small-scale and large-scale dynamos and their nonlinear saturation, as well as physics of weak and strong geodynamos.
The project, bringing together physical modelling of the dynamos, study of the flow and magnetic field structures, and innovative data-driven strategy, has a potential to significantly advance the current understanding of dynamos, and impact wider research community in fluid dynamics | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Mathematics",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
Q3271218 | GESTÃO DE EVENTOS INTELIGENTES (APP + BEACON) | A operação consiste no desenvolvimento e comercialização de serviços inteligentes de gerenciamento de eventos e localização. É um sistema de aplicativos e Beacon que é instalado em um local específico (terminal de passageiros, estação ferroviária) ou um evento/loja esportivo que informa o utente que tem o aplicativo instalado, e na maioria dos casos é o objetivo de marketing direcionado e aumentar a receita do cliente usando a solução. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
171863 | The cambodian archaeological lidar initiative: exploring resilience in the engineered landscapes of early se asia | For over half a millennium, the great medieval capital of Angkor lay at the heart of a vast empire stretching across much of mainland SE Asia. Recent research has revealed that the famous monuments of Angkor were merely the epicentre of an immense settlement complex, with highly elaborate engineering works designed to manage water and mitigate the uncertainty of monsoon rains. Compelling evidence is now emerging that other temple complexes of the medieval Khmer Empire may also have formed the urban cores of dispersed, low-density settlements with similar systems of hydraulic engineering.
Using innovative airborne laser scanning (‘lidar’) technology, CALI will uncover, map and compare archaeological landscapes around all the major temple complexes of Cambodia, with a view to understanding what role these complex and vulnerable water management schemes played in the growth and decline of early civilisations in SE Asia. CALI will evaluate the hypothesis that the Khmer civilisation, in a bid to overcome the inherent constraints of a monsoon environment, became locked into rigid and inflexible traditions of urban development and large-scale hydraulic engineering that constrained their ability to adapt to rapidly-changing social, political and environmental circumstances.
By integrating data and techniques from fast-developing archaeological sciences like remote sensing, palaeoclimatology and geoinformatics, this work will provide important insights into the reasons for the collapse of inland agrarian empires in the middle of the second millennium AD, a transition that marks the emergence of modern mainland SE Asia. The lidar data will provide a comprehensive and internally-consistent archive of urban form at a regional scale, and offer a unique experimental space for evaluating socio-ecological resilience, persistence and transformation over two thousand years of human history, with clear implications for our understanding of contemporary urbanism and of urban futures. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Earth System Science",
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space"
]
|
10.4324/9781315229546-29 | Literary Networks In The Horn Of Africa Oromo And Amharic Intellectual Histories | In his 1971 study on Four African Literatures, Albert Gerard states that ‘no imaginative literature seems to have been produced in any of the non-Amharic vernaculars of Ethiopia’ so that ‘the phrase Amharic literature can legitimately be used as a synonym for Ethiopian literature’. A methodology is focused on networks allow to move beyond the nation as a unit of analysis. While national literary histories have rigidly assumed that state borders coincide with literary borders, an approach based on networks, in Vilashini Cooppan’s words, ‘allows to highlight the principle of circulation, sedimentation, and linkage; distinct objects such as languages, cultures, identities, and aesthetic forms that move rhizomatically’. Ethiopian emperors ruled for centuries over a highland territory that was for the large part Orthodox Christian, but with sizeable Muslim and Jewish minorities. In this area, from the beginning of the Solomonic dynasty in 1270 until the late nineteenth century, education revolved around centres of religious learning. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Texts and Concepts"
]
|
10.1128/IAI.00731-18 | A Glucuronoxylomannan Epitope Exhibits Serotype Specific Accessibility And Redistributes Towards The Capsule Surface During Titanization Of The Fungal Pathogen Cryptococcus Neoformans | Disseminated infections with the fungal species Cryptococcus neoformans or, less frequently, C. gattii, are an important cause of mortality in immunocompromised individuals. Central to the virulence of both species is an elaborate polysaccharide capsule that consists predominantly of glucuronoxylomannan (GXM). Due to its abundance, GXM is an ideal target for host antibodies, and several monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have previously been derived using purified GXM or whole capsular preparations as antigen. In addition to their application in the diagnosis of cryptococcosis, anti-GXM mAbs are invaluable tools for studying capsule structure. In this study, we report the production and characterisation of a novel anti-GXM mAb, Crp127, that unexpectedly reveals a role for GXM remodelling during the process of fungal Titanisation. We show that Crp127 recognises a GXM epitope in an O-acetylation dependent, but xylosylation-independent, manner. The epitope is differentially expressed by the four main serotypes of Cryptococcus neoformans and gattii, is heterogeneously expressed within clonal populations of C. gattii serotype B strains and is typically confined to the central region of the enlarged capsule. Uniquely, however, this epitope redistributes to the capsular surface in Titan cells, a recently characterised morphotype where haploid 5 μm cells convert to highly polyploid cells >10 μm with distinct but poorly understood capsular characteristics. Titans are produced in the host lung and critical for successful infection. Crp127 therefore advances our understanding of cryptococcal morphological change and may hold significant potential as a tool to differentially identify cryptococcal strains and subtypes. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.1371/journal.ppat.1008496 | Role for the shelterin protein TRF2 in human herpesvirus 6A/B chromosomal integration | Human herpesviruses 6A and 6B (HHV-6A/B) are unique among human herpesviruses in their ability to integrate their genome into host chromosomes. Viral integration occurs at the ends of chromosomes within the host telomeres. The ends of the HHV-6A/B genomes contain telomeric repeats that facilitate the integration process. Here, we report that productive infections are associated with a massive increase in telomeric sequences of viral origin. The majority of the viral telomeric signals can be detected within viral replication compartments (VRC) that contain the viral DNA processivity factor p41 and the viral immediate-early 2 (IE2) protein. Components of the shelterin protein complex present at telomeres, including TRF1 and TRF2 are also recruited to VRC during infection. Biochemical, immunofluorescence coupled with in situ hybridization and chromatin immunoprecipitation demonstrated the binding of TRF2 to the HHV-6A/B telomeric repeats. In addition, approximately 60% of the viral IE2 protein localize at cellular telomeres during infection. Transient knockdown of TRF2 resulted in greatly reduced (13%) localization of IE2 at cellular telomeres (p<0. 0001). Lastly, TRF2 knockdown reduced HHV-6A/B integration frequency (p<0. 05), while no effect was observed on the infection efficiency. Overall, our study identified that HHV-6A/B IE2 localizes to telomeres during infection and highlight the role of TRF2 in HHV-6A/B infection and chromosomal integration. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy"
]
|
10.1051/0004-6361/201834954 | Sugar An Improved Empirical Model Of Type Ia Supernovae Based On Spectral Features | Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) are widely used to measure the expansion of the Universe. Improving distance measurements of SNe Ia is one technique to better constrain the acceleration of expansion and determine its physical nature. This document develops a new SNe Ia spectral energy distribution (SED) model, called the SUpernova Generator And Reconstructor (SUGAR), which improves the spectral description of SNe Ia, and consequently could improve the distance measurements. This model is constructed from SNe Ia spectral properties and spectrophotometric data from The Nearby Supernova Factory collaboration. In a first step, a PCA-like method is used on spectral features measured at maximum light, which allows us to extract the intrinsic properties of SNe Ia. Next, the intrinsic properties are used to extract the average extinction curve. Third, an interpolation using Gaussian Processes facilitates using data taken at different epochs during the lifetime of a SN Ia and then projecting the data on a fixed time grid. Finally, the three steps are combined to build the SED model as a function of time and wavelength. This is the SUGAR model. The main advancement in SUGAR is the addition of two additional parameters to characterize SNe Ia variability. The first is tied to the properties of SNe Ia ejecta velocity, the second is correlated with their calcium lines. The addition of these parameters, as well as the high quality the Nearby Supernova Factory data, makes SUGAR an accurate and efficient model for describing the spectra of normal SNe Ia as they brighten and fade. The performance of this model makes it an excellent SED model for experiments like ZTF, LSST or WFIRST. | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1016/j.virol.2011.12.021 | Matrigel-embedded 3D culture of Huh-7 cells as a hepatocyte-like polarized system to study hepatitis C virus cycle | Hepatocytes are highly polarized cells where intercellular junctions, including tight junctions (TJs), determine the polarity. Recently, the TJ-associated proteins claudin-1 and occludin have been implicated in hepatitis C virus (HCV) entry and spread. Nevertheless, cell line-based experimental systems that exhibit hepatocyte-like polarity and permit robust infection and virion production are not currently available. Thus, we sought to determine whether cell line-based, Matrigel-embedded cultures could be used to study hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and virion production in a context of hepatocyte-like polarized cells. In contrast to standard bidimensional cultures, Matrigel-cultured Huh-7 cells adopted hepatocyte polarization features forming a continuous network of functional proto-bile canaliculi structures. These 3D cultures supported HCV infection by JFH-1 virus and produced infective viral particles which shifted towards lower densities with higher associated specific infectivity. In conclusion, our findings describe a novel use of Matrigel to study the entire HCV cycle in a more relevant context. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
10.1007/s00264-014-2402-2 | Skeletal tissue regeneration: Where can hydrogels play a role? | The emerging field of tissue engineering reveals promising approaches for the repair and regeneration of skeletal tissues including the articular cartilage, bone, and the entire joint. Amongst the myriad of biomaterials available to support this strategy, hydrogels are highly tissue mimicking substitutes and thus of great potential for the regeneration of functional tissues. This review comprises an overview of the novel and most promising hydrogels for articular cartilage, osteochondral and bone defect repair. Chondro- and osteo-conductive and -instructive hydrogels are presented, highlighting successful combinations with inductive signals and cell sources. Moreover, advantages, drawbacks, and future perspectives of the role of hydrogels in skeletal regeneration are addressed, pointing out the current state of this rising approach. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1039/c7ra06684h | Quantum dot encapsulation in virus-like particles with tuneable structural properties and low toxicity | Quantum dot encapsulation within cowpea chlorotic mottle virus-based capsid proteins to obtain size-tuneable, non-toxic, luminescent imaging probes is presented. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
W2925003105 | Temperature response characteristics of the thermal control system of alpha magnetic spectrometer under the operations of international space station | Abstract The alpha magnetic spectrometer (AMS) in orbit is thermally affected by operations of the international space station (ISS). According to long-term monitoring data in orbit, three kinds of the most frequent ISS operations were determined, they were locking the ISS solar arrays by themselves, changing the ISS flying attitude with locking solar arrays and rotating the ISS starboard radiator with locking solar arrays. The β interval of ( − 75 ° , − 21 ° ) in which these three kinds of ISS operations have the most significant effect on the AMS thermal environment was calculated in reference to the ISS geometric model, and the calculation result was proved to agree well with the temperature records in orbit. The AMS radiator heat balance model was found under the different ISS operations. The numerical simulations were performed to provide quantitative analysis on external heat flux on AMS radiators. Based on those, the general temperature responses of the AMS radiators following the ISS β angle under the most frequent ISS operations were analyzed accordingly. We found that the ISS operations have varying degrees of the thermal influence on the AMS radiators under the same β angle. The suggestions of controlling the possible temperature anomalies caused by the ISS operations were given according to the temperature response characteristics of the AMS components under the most frequent ISS operations. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
10.24963/ijcai.2017/667 | A Verified SAT Solver Framework with Learn, Forget, Restart, and Incrementality | We developed a formal framework for SAT solving using the Isabelle/HOL proof assistant. Through a chain of refinements, an abstract CDCL (conflict-driven clause learning) calculus is connected to a SAT solver that always terminates with correct answers. The framework offers a convenient way to prove theorems about the SAT solver and experiment with variants of the calculus. Compared with earlier verifications, the main novelties are the inclusion of the CDCL rules for forget, restart, and incremental solving and the use of refinement. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
243261 | Repair Spinal Cord Injury by Controlling Migration of Neural Stem Cells - multidiciplinary approaches of electric stimulation and nanotechnology | Millions of people worldwide suffer from spinal cord injury (SCI), with devastating consequences and costs. Various clinical approaches have been attempted to treat SCI with little satisfaction due to the limitation of self-regeneration of axons. Neural stem cell transplantation is an alternative approach with great potential to treat SCI, but the mechanisms controlling migration of implanted stem cells are unclear. A recent SCI clinical trial using implanted electric stimulators to promote axon regeneration showed promising results. However, the mechanism underpinning this technique also remains elusive. We shall investigate genes and molecules regulating the electric fields controlled neural stem cells migration. We have shown before that electric signals play essential roles in directing cell migration during wound healing, and that PI3K and PTEN are critical in the regulation of this event (Zhao, Song et al. Nature 2006). Pax6 and ephrin are also proved to be important in guiding cell migration, however the interactions between PI3K, PTEN and Pax6, Eph-ephrin pathways are unknown. We shall further investigate their potential interactions in this project.. Apart from electric signals, neural stem cell migration can be also regulated by chemical, physical, and haptotactic guidance cues. This project shall use multidisciplinary approaches to combine neural stem cells transplantation with electric stimulation and nanotechnology, to optimize a novel stem cell replacement therapy. We shall use multiple peptide structures to engineer diverse adhesion peptide motifs on the nanofibers, and embed EGF/bFGF into 3D nanofibers scaffold to encapsulate neural stem cells for the transplantation study. These shall be tested in both 2D / 3D in vitro and in SCI animal models in vivo. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Materials Engineering",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.3847/1538-4357/aabe7a | High-temperature Ionization-induced Synthesis of Biologically Relevant Molecules in the Protosolar Nebula | Biologically relevant molecules (hereafter biomolecules) have been commonly observed in extraterrestrial samples, but the mechanisms accounting for their synthesis in space are not well understood. While electron-driven production of organic solids from gas mixtures reminiscent of the photosphere of the protosolar nebula (PSN; i. e. , dominated by CO-N2-H2) successfully reproduced key specific features of the chondritic insoluble organic matter (e. g. , elementary and isotopic signatures of chondritic noble gases), the molecular diversity of organic materials has never been investigated. Here, we report that a large range of biomolecules detected in meteorites and comets can be synthesized under conditions typical of the irradiated gas phase of the PSN at temperatures = 800 K. Our results suggest that organic materials - including biomolecules - produced within the photosphere would have been widely dispersed in the protoplanetary disk through turbulent diffusion, providing a mechanism for the distribution of organic meteoritic precursors prior to any thermal/photoprocessing and subsequent modification by secondary parent body processes. Using a numerical model of dust transport in a turbulent disk, we propose that organic materials produced in the photosphere of the disk would likely be associated with small dust particles, which are coupled to the motion of gas within the disk and therefore preferentially lofted into the upper layers of the disk where organosynthesis occurs. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Universe Sciences",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.4049/jimmunol.1800690 | Differences in self-recognition between secreted antibody and membrane-bound B cell antigen receptor | The random gene segment rearrangement during B cell development ensures Ab repertoire diversity. Because this process might generate autoreactive specificities, it has been proposed that stringent selection mechanisms prevent the development of autoreactive B cells. However, conventional assays to identify autoreactive B cells usually employ in vitro–generated Abs, which differ from membrane-bound BCRs. In this study, we used a cell-based assay to investigate the autoreactivity of membrane-bound BCRs derived from different B cell developmental stages of human peripheral blood. Contrasted to soluble Ab counterparts, only a few of the tested BCRs were autoreactive, although the cell-based assay sensitively detects feeble Ag recognition of a germline-reverted murine BCR that was selected after OVA immunization of mice, whereas conventional assays failed to do so. Together, these data suggest that proper identification of autoreactive B cells requires the membrane-bound BCR, as the soluble Ab may largely differ from its BCR counterpart in Ag binding. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1088/1748-605X/ab5f1a | Biomimetic and mesoporous nano-hydroxyapatite for bone tissue application: A short review | In the last decades, many research groups have experimented the synthesis of hydroxyapatite (HA) for bone tissue application obtaining products with different shapes and dimensions. This review aims to summarise and critically analyse the most used methods to prepare physiologic-like nano-HA, in the form of plates or rods, similar to the HA present in the human bones. Moreover, mesoporous HA has gained increasing interest in the biomedical field due its pecualiar structural features, such as high surface area and accessible mesoporous volume, which is known to confer enhanced biological behaviour and the possibility to act as nanocarriers of functional agents for bone-related therapies. For this reason, more recent studies related to the synthesis of mesoporous HA, with physiological-like morphology, are also considered in this review. Since a wide class of surfactant molecules plays an essential role both in the shape and size control of HA crystals and in the formation of mesoporosity, a section devoted to the mechanisms of action of several surfactants is also provided. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
885698 | Generating New Evidence to Address Violence Against Women: Realizing Women’s Rights | Violence against women (VAW) is a fundamental cause of gender inequality and a substantial constraint on women’s lives, but it has drawn significantly less intellectual curiosity from economists than aspects of gender inequality such as the pay gap. I propose to redress this by acquiring, generating and analysing unavailable or under-used data using techniques for causal identification with a view to producing a rich tapestry of scientific evidence to guide policy and further scholarship. This is an important time to do this as there is a growing consensus around prioritizing VAW in international policymaking but the evidence base is thin. There are no systematic data on VAW, partly because women are inhibited in reporting. Creative new strategies are being used in many countries to reduce VAW, but without scientific evaluation.
This project will investigate institutional designs to encourage women reporting VAW and to deliver justice on VAW (including penalties for firms, feminization of the criminal justice system and the use of mobile phone apps and social media to provide women information and facilitate their coordination); it will implement and evaluate grassroots interventions designed to address VAW by inducing behavioural change among men and women; it will analyse the likely value of policies addressing proximate causes (alcohol ban, unemployment insurance); the potential of women’s political mobilisation; and the role of UN discourse on VAW.
Some projects use randomized control trials (RCTs), others leverage natural experimental variation from policy reform or institutional features. Many use longitudinal administrative data providing unparalleled opportunities for research. Within the RCTs, I will gather unique data on social norms, beliefs and social networks. Although focused on women’s rights, it addresses issues on the frontier of economics research, including inequality, productivity, institutional design, political economy, and legislative | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
interreg_1886 | Innovative Tools to increAse Competitiveness and sustainability of small pelagic fisheries | ITACA tackles the competitiveness of Adriatic fisheries sector, fostering the introduction of blue innovation and improving the sustainability of catch activities. ITACA focuses on small pelagic (SP) fisheries, meaning the fishing activities targeted on two main ichthyic species: anchovy and sardine that represent a significant share of income for the sector in the Adriatic. ITACA project contributes factually to the growth of the SP fisheries sector setting up (WP3), testing in 7 pilot regions (WP4) and fostering the large scale application (WP5) of innovative SMEs oriented tools to increase the competiveness of SP fisheries, together with establishing a SP fisheries enterprises cluster for a co-management of Adriatic ichthyic resources oriented to sustainability._x000D_
_x000D_
Information added on 2020-05-18, regarding the mitigation of the effects of COVID-19 (the coronavirus pandemic that started in 2019) (English language only): The ITACA project is developing a predictive software tool capable of supporting fishermen in planning daily catching activities in order to improve operational effectiveness and market orientation. These tools can include scenario like COVID and propose solution for the fishing volume, in addition cluster of the operators can manage more easily all the stop and go caused by future pandemia on fishing. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.1103/PhysRevE.94.052132 | Metastability in an open quantum Ising model | We apply a recently developed theory for metastability in open quantum systems to a one-dimensional dissipative quantum Ising model. Earlier results suggest this model features either a nonequilibrium phase transition or a smooth but sharp crossover, where the stationary state changes from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic, accompanied by strongly intermittent emission dynamics characteristic of first-order coexistence between dynamical phases. We show that for a range of parameters close to this transition or crossover point the dynamics of the finite system displays pronounced metastability, i. e. , the system relaxes first to long-lived metastable states before eventual relaxation to the true stationary state. From the spectral properties of the quantum master operator we characterize the low-dimensional manifold of metastable states, which are shown to be probability mixtures of two, paramagnetic and ferromagnetic, metastable phases. We also show that for long times the dynamics can be approximated by a classical stochastic dynamics between the metastable phases that is directly related to the intermittent dynamics observed in quantum trajectories and thus the dynamical phases. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter"
]
|
10.1063/1.4890371 | Accelerated Weight Histogram Method For Exploring Free Energy Landscapes | Calculating free energies is an important and notoriously difficult task for molecular simulations. The rapid increase in computational power has made it possible to probe increasingly complex systems, yet extracting accurate free energies from these simulations remains a major challenge. Fully exploring the free energy landscape of, say, a biological macromolecule typically requires sampling large conformational changes and slow transitions. Often, the only feasible way to study such a system is to simulate it using an enhanced sampling method. The accelerated weight histogram (AWH) method is a new, efficient extended ensemble sampling technique which adaptively biases the simulation to promote exploration of the free energy landscape. The AWH method uses a probability weight histogram which allows for efficient free energy updates and results in an easy discretization procedure. A major advantage of the method is its general formulation, making it a powerful platform for developing further extensions and analyzing its relation to already existing methods. Here, we demonstrate its efficiency and general applicability by calculating the potential of mean force along a reaction coordinate for both a single dimension and multiple dimensions. We make use of a non-uniform, free energy dependent target distribution in reaction coordinate space so that computational efforts are not wasted on physically irrelevant regions. We present numerical results for molecular dynamics simulations of lithium acetate in solution and chignolin, a 10-residue long peptide that folds into a $\beta$-hairpin. We further present practical guidelines for setting up and running an AWH simulation. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W1983593464 | Reliability-based maintenance scheduling of haulage system of drum shearer | Drum shearer is the most important component of production chain in longwall mining. This machine is driven along the face by a powerful haulage system. In this paper, the reliability of haulage system of shearer has been analysed. The result showed that Time Between Failures (TBF) data of this system obeys the three-parameter Weibull distribution. On the basis of the achieved reliability model, the Preventive Maintenance (PM) scheduling has been suggested for different reliability levels. The reliability-based maintenance intervals for 90, 80, 70 and 50% reliability are 19.4, 35, 49 and 96.8 h, respectively. If 35 h are considered as the PM intervals, mean TBF will be increased by 16.2%. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Mathematics"
]
|
W2364215832 | Evaluation of safety and short-term therapeutic effect of patients with breast cancer treated with endoscopic surgery | Objective To explore the safety and short-term therapeutic effect of patients with breast cancer treated with endoscopic surgery.Methods With the aid of endoscopy,71 patients with breast cancer were admitted into writer's department from September 2010 to October 2011 were given breast-conserving surgery.Results All patients were operated successfully and their surgical incisions healed in stage Ⅰ.According to the drainage situation,the axillary drainage tubes and surgical wires of these patients were removed 5-9 d and 7-11 d after the operation,respectively.There were 3 patients had postoperative complication,and the incidence rate was 4.2%.All patients felt that they had good breast shape all the same after the operation.Conclusion With the help of endoscopy,the breast-conserving surgery is of good short-term therapeutic effect,good breast shape after the operation,low incidence rate of complication and so on,so this technique is worthy of being popularized and applied clinically. | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.1111/dech.12272 | A State of Fragmentation: Enacting Sovereignty and Citizenship at the Edge of the Indonesian State | The topic of sovereignty and citizenship helps us to understand post-authoritarian autonomy movements and resource struggle in Indonesia's borderlands. This article presents a case study of the border district of Kapuas Hulu, where increased regional autonomy gained in the decade that followed the collapse of the authoritarian regime of President Suharto in 1998 has encouraged a scramble for political influence and natural resources. As elsewhere in Indonesia, local engagement in the politics of decentralization presents marginal communities with a chance to assert publicly their role and rights as modern Indonesian citizens, and hence stake their claims to local natural resources and customary territory. Claims to citizenship and resource claims go hand in hand. Although lines of authority have been rearranged through political rupture, continuities with former alliance-building strategies continue to structure the post-authoritarian landscape of political representation and resource access. However, when long-standing informal networks are merged with new institutional arrangements, openings emerge for certain fragments of local society to gain access and control over land and resources. Ultimately, the rupture from authoritarian to post-authoritarian rule creates new possibilities for claiming citizenship at the edge of the Indonesian state. | [
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
10.3389/fncom.2012.00068 | How anatomy shapes dynamics: A semi-analytical study of the brain at rest by a simple spin model | Resting state networks (RSNs) show a surprisingly coherent and robust spatiotemporal organization. Previous theoretical studies demonstrated that these patterns can be understood as emergent on the basis of the underlying neuroanatomical connectivity skeleton. Integrating the biologically realistic DTI/DSI-(Diffusion Tensor Imaging/Diffusion Spectrum Imaging)based neuroanatomical connectivity into a brain model of Ising spin dynamics, we found a system with multiple attractors, which can be studied analytically. The multistable attractor landscape thus defines a functionally meaningful dynamic repertoire of the brain network that is inherently present in the neuroanatomical connectivity. We demonstrate that the more entropy of attractors exists, the richer is the dynamical repertoire and consequently the brain network displays more capabilities of computation. We hypothesize therefore that human brain connectivity developed a scale free type of architecture in order to be able to store a large number of different and flexibly accessible brain functions. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1109/TVCG.2010.266 | Sketch Based Image Retrieval Benchmark And Bag Of Features Descriptors | We introduce a benchmark for evaluating the performance of large-scale sketch-based image retrieval systems. The necessary data are acquired in a controlled user study where subjects rate how well given sketch/image pairs match. We suggest how to use the data for evaluating the performance of sketch-based image retrieval systems. The benchmark data as well as the large image database are made publicly available for further studies of this type. Furthermore, we develop new descriptors based on the bag-of-features approach and use the benchmark to demonstrate that they significantly outperform other descriptors in the literature. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
310837 | Analysis of the interplay between genetic mutation and altered cellular metabolism in renal neoplasia | Defining and characterising the defective genes in hereditary cancer syndromes has advanced our understanding of cellular function and disease mechanisms. Interestingly, some of these genes have been directly implicated in metabolic dysregulation, thus providing a link between genetic mutation and altered metabolism in cancer. One such syndrome, hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC), is caused by germline mutations in the FH gene encoding the Krebs cycle enzyme fumarate hydratase. The aim of this proposal is to define pathways disrupted in HLRCC and within these to determine specific points, susceptible to genetic or chemical intervention, from which therapies might be derived to treat or prevent tumourigenesis. First, we will assess candidate mechanisms for FH-associated tumourigenesis which we have identified through recent studies, encompassing enzyme inhibition, protein modification, anti-oxidant signalling and altered energy metabolism. Secondly, to identify novel RCC associated mutations and clarify their relevance in the evolution and metabolism of RCC, transposon-based mutagenesis will be employed to induce RCCs in both wildtype and Fh1-deficient mice. Analyses will include histological analysis, metabolite profiling, and high resolution sequencing. Candidate genes will then be screened in relevant human RCC and pre-malignant lesions. Finally, a synthetic lethality screen will be performed in parallel with metabolic profiling to identify the pathways that are critical for the growth of FH-null cells. Taken together it is envisaged that this work will not only provide insights into this rare but aggressive disease but also inform on potential targets for intervention in more common cancers that are also characterised by metabolic dysregulation. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.1080/13632469.2016.1172373 | Using Discrete Event Simulation Models To Evaluate Resilience Of An Emergency Department | Hospitals are critical infrastructures which are vulnerable to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, man-made disasters and mass causalities events. During the emergency, the hospital might also incur in structural and non-structural damage, have limited communication and resources, so they might not be able to treat the large number of incoming patients. For this reason, the majority of medium- and large-size hospitals have an emergency plan that expands their services quickly beyond normal operating conditions to meet an increased demand for medical care, but it is impossible for them to test it before an emergency occurs. The objective of this article is to develop a simplified model that could describe the ability of the Hospital Emergency Department to provide service to all patients after a natural disaster or any other emergency. The waiting time is the main response parameter used to measure hospital resilience to disasters. The analytical model has been built using the following steps. First, a. . . | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1039/C5DT03477A | A Comparison Of The Amorphization Of Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks Zifs And Aluminosilicate Zeolites By Ball Milling | X-ray diffraction has been used to investigate the kinetics of amorphization through ball-milling at 20 Hz, for five zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) – ZIF-8, ZIF-4, ZIF-zni, BIF-1-Li and CdIF-1. We find that the rates of amorphization for the zinc-containing ZIFs increase with increasing solvent accessible volume (SAV) in the sequence ZIF-8 > ZIF-4 > ZIF-zni. The Li–B analogue of the dense ZIF-zni amorphizes more slowly than the corresponding zinc phase, with the behaviour showing a correlation with their relative bulk moduli and SAVs. The cadmium analogue of ZIF-8 (CdIF-1) amorphizes more rapidly than the zinc counterpart, which we ascribe primarily to its relatively weak M–N bonds as well as the higher SAV. The results for the ZIFs are compared to three classical zeolites – Na-X, Na-Y and ZSM-5 – with these taking up to four times longer to amorphize. The presence of adsorbed solvent in the pores is found to render both ZIF and zeolite frameworks more resistant to amorphization. X-ray total scattering measurements show that amorphous ZIF-zni is structurally indistinguishable from amorphous ZIF-4 with both structures retaining the same short-range order that is present in their crystalline precursors. By contrast, both X-ray total scattering measurements and 113Cd NMR measurements point to changes in the local environment of amorphous CdIF-1 compared with its crystalline CdIF-1 precursor. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
278428 | GaN Quantum Devices for T-Ray Sources | T-rays, often called terahertz radiation or submillimeter waves, are loosely defined as the wavelengths from 30 µm to 1,000 µm, or the frequencies from 10 THz to 300 GHz. This non-ionizing radiation appears as a harmless alternative to x-rays in medical, biological and security screening. Current solutions in terms of coherent sources of T-rays either require cryogenic temperatures or are relatively bulky equipments based on optically-pumped materials. The solid-state recourse consisting of GaAs-based quantum cascade lasers presents an intrinsic limitation in operation temperature: The low energy of the longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon in arsenide compounds hinders laser emission beyond 180 K at 4 THz, and forces operation below the liquid nitrogen temperature (< 70 K) for frequencies below 1 THz. Overcoming this limitation requires a technology revolution through introduction of a new material system. This project aims at exploring a novel semiconductor technology for high-performance photonic devices operating in the T-ray spectral region. The advanced materials that we will investigate consist of nitride-based [GaN/Al(Ga,In)N] superlattices and nanowires, where we can profit from unique properties of III-nitride semiconductors, namely the large LO-phonon energy and the strong electron-phonon interaction. Our target is to adapt the quantum cascade design and fabrication technology to these new materials, characterized by intense internal polarization fields. Our project aims at pushing intersubband transitions in this material family to unprecendently long wavelengths, in other to cover the whole T-ray spectral gap with coherent solid-state sources operating at room temperature and above. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1016/j.molcel.2019.03.037 | Structural Basis of an Asymmetric Condensin ATPase Cycle | Hassler et al. report structural and functional insights into the enzymatic core of the condensin protein complex that reveal large-scale conformational changes upon ATP binding by and subsequent dimerization of its catalytic SMC head domains. These movements presumably power the condensin-mediated extrusion of DNA loops during mitotic chromosome formation. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
10.1109/ICASSP.2017.7953062 | Phase Retrieval From Stft Measurements Via Non Convex Optimization | The problem of recovering a signal from its phaseless short-time Fourier transform (STFT) measurements arises in several applications, such as ultra-short pulse measurements and ptychography. The redundancy offered by the STFT enables unique recovery under mild conditions. We show that in some cases, the principle eigenvector of a designed matrix recovers the underlying signal. This matrix is constructed as the solution of a simple least-squares problem. When these conditions are not met, we suggest to use this principle eigenvector to initialize a gradient algorithm, minimizing a non-convex loss function. We prove that under appropriate conditions, this initialization results in a good estimate of the underlying signal. We further analyze the geometry of the loss function and show empirically that the gradient algorithm is robust to noise. Our method is both efficient and enjoys theoretical guarantees. | [
"Mathematics",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1093/scan/nsz018 | Exploring the neural basis for paternal protection: An investigation of the neural response to infants in danger | Perceiving potential threat to an infant and responding to it is crucial for offspring survival and parent-child bonding. Using a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging and multi-informant reports, this longitudinal study explores the neural basis for paternal responses to threat to infants pre-natally (N=21) and early post-natally (n=17). Participants viewed videos showing an infant in danger and matched control videos, while instructed to imagine that the infant was their own or someone else's. Effects were found for infant-threatening vs neutral situations in the amygdala (region-of-interest analyses) and in clusters spanning cortical and subcortical areas (whole-brain analyses). An interaction effect revealed increased activation for own (vs unknown) infants in threatening (vs neutral) situations in bilateral motor areas, possibly indicating preparation for action. Post-natal activation patterns were similar; however, in part of the superior frontal gyrus the distinction between threat to own and unknown infant faded. Fathers showing more protective behavior in daily life recruited part of the frontal pole more when confronted with threat to their own vs an unknown infant. This exploratory study is the first to describe neural mechanisms involved in paternal protection and provides a basis for future work on fathers' protective parenting. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
10.1140/epje/i2015-15049-8 | Motion of an elastic capsule in a constricted microchannel | Abstract: We study the motion of an elastic capsule through a microchannel characterized by a localized constriction. We consider a capsule with a stress-free spherical shape and impose its steady-state configuration in an infinitely long straight channel as the initial condition for our calculations. We report how the capsule deformation, velocity, retention time, and maximum stress of the membrane are affected by the capillary number, Ca , and the constriction shape. We estimate the deformation by measuring the variation of the three-dimensional surface area and a series of alternative quantities easier to extract from experiments. These are the Taylor parameter, the perimeter and the area of the capsule in the spanwise plane. We find that the perimeter is the quantity that best reproduces the behavior of the three-dimensional surface area. This is maximum at the centre of the constriction and shows a second peak after it, whose location depends on the Ca number. We observe that, in general, area-deformation-correlated quantities grow linearly with Ca , while velocity-correlated quantities saturate for large Ca but display a steeper increase for small Ca. The velocity of the capsule divided by the velocity of the flow displays, surprisingly, two different qualitative behaviors for small and large capillary numbers. Finally, we report that longer constrictions and spanwise wall bounded (versus spanwise periodic) domains cause larger deformations and velocities. If the deformation and velocity in the spanwise wall bounded domains are rescaled by the initial equilibrium deformation and velocity, their behavior is undistinguishable from that in a periodic domain. In contrast, a remarkably different behavior is reported in sinusoidally shaped and smoothed rectangular constrictions indicating that the capsule dynamics is particularly sensitive to abrupt changes in the cross section. In a smoothed rectangular constriction larger deformations and velocities occur over a larger distance. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext. ] | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-319-30000-9_1 | Non Zero Sum Games For Reactive Synthesis | In this invited contribution, we summarize new solution concepts useful for the synthesis of reactive systems that we have introduced in several recent publications. These solution concepts are developed in the context of non-zero sum games played on graphs. They are part of the contributions obtained in the inVEST project funded by the European Research Council. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1007/s00429-015-1047-2 | Topographic organization of the human and non-human primate subthalamic nucleus | Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is used to relieve motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. A tripartite system of STN subdivisions serving motoric, associative, and limbic functions was proposed, mainly based on tracing studies, which are limited by low numbers of observations. The evidence is compelling and raises the question as to what extent these functional zones are anatomically segregated. The majority of studies indicate that there is anatomical overlap between STN functional zones. Using ultrahigh-resolution magnetic resonance imaging techniques it is now possible to visualize the STN with high spatial resolution, and it is feasible that in the near future stereotactic guided placement of electrical stimulators aided by high-resolution imaging will allow for more specific stimulation of the STN. The neuroanatomical and functional makeup of these subdivisions and their level of overlap would benefit from clarification before serving as surgical targets. We discuss histological and imaging studies, as well as clinical observations and electrophysiological recordings in DBS patients. These studies provide evidence for a topographical organization within the STN, although it remains unclear to what extent functionally and anatomically distinct subdivisions overlap. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.1038/nature22997 | Tundra uptake of atmospheric elemental mercury drives Arctic mercury pollution | Anthropogenic activities have led to large-scale mercury (Hg) pollution in the Arctic. It has been suggested that sea-salt-induced chemical cycling of Hg (through 'atmospheric mercury depletion events', or AMDEs) and wet deposition via precipitation are sources of Hg to the Arctic in its oxidized form (Hg(ii)). However, there is little evidence for the occurrence of AMDEs outside of coastal regions, and their importance to net Hg deposition has been questioned. Furthermore, wet-deposition measurements in the Arctic showed some of the lowest levels of Hg deposition via precipitation worldwide, raising questions as to the sources of high Arctic Hg loading. Here we present a comprehensive Hg-deposition mass-balance study, and show that most of the Hg (about 70%) in the interior Arctic tundra is derived from gaseous elemental Hg (Hg(0)) deposition, with only minor contributions from the deposition of Hg(ii) via precipitation or AMDEs. We find that deposition of Hg(0)-the form ubiquitously present in the global atmosphere-occurs throughout the year, and that it is enhanced in summer through the uptake of Hg(0) by vegetation. Tundra uptake of gaseous Hg(0) leads to high soil Hg concentrations, with Hg masses greatly exceeding the levels found in temperate soils. Our concurrent Hg stable isotope measurements in the atmosphere, snowpack, vegetation and soils support our finding that Hg(0) dominates as a source to the tundra. Hg concentration and stable isotope data from an inland-To-coastal transect show high soil Hg concentrations consistently derived from Hg(0), suggesting that the Arctic tundra might be a globally important Hg sink. We suggest that the high tundra soil Hg concentrations might also explain why Arctic rivers annually transport large amounts of Hg to the Arctic Ocean. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
10.1126/science.aaa6100 | Molecular nitrogen in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko indicates a low formation temperature | Molecular nitrogen (N<inf>2</inf>) is thought to have been the most abundant form of nitrogen in the protosolar nebula. It is the main N-bearing molecule in the atmospheres of Pluto and Triton and probably the main nitrogen reservoir from which the giant planets formed. Yet in comets, often considered the most primitive bodies in the solar system, N<inf>2</inf> has not been detected. Here we report the direct in situ measurement of N<inf>2</inf> in the Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, made by the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis mass spectrometer aboard the Rosetta spacecraft. A N<inf>2</inf>/CO ratio of (5. 70 ± 0. 66) × 10<sup>-3</sup> (2σ standard deviation of the sampled mean) corresponds to depletion by a factor of ∼25. 4 ± 8. 9 as compared to the protosolar value. This depletion suggests that cometary grains formed at low-temperature conditions below ∼30 kelvin. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
10.1021/acsomega.7b01303 | Hybrid Protein-Glycosaminoglycan Hydrogels Promote Chondrogenic Stem Cell Differentiation | Gelatin-hyaluronic acid (Gel-HA) hybrid hydrogels have been proposed as matrices for tissue engineering because of their ability to mimic the architecture of the extracellular matrix. Our aim was to explore whether tyramine conjugates of Gel and HA, producing injectable hydrogels, are able to induce a particular phenotype of encapsulated human mesenchymal stem cells without the need for growth factors. While pure Gel allowed good cell adhesion without remarkable differentiation and pure HA triggered chondrogenic differentiation without cell spreading, the hybrids, especially those rich in HA, promoted chondrogenic differentiation as well as cell proliferation and adhesion. Secretion of chondrogenic markers such as aggrecan, SOX-9, collagen type II, and glycosaminoglycans was observed, whereas osteogenic, myogenic, and adipogenic markers (RUNX2, sarcomeric myosin, and lipoproteinlipase, respectively) were not present after 2 weeks in the growth medium. The most promising matrix for chondrogenesis seems to be a mixture containing 70% HA and 30% Gel as it is the material with the best mechanical properties from all compositions tested here, and at the same time, it provides an environment suitable for balanced cell adhesion and chondrogenic differentiation. Thus, it represents a system that has a high potential to be used as the injectable material for cartilage regeneration therapies. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.1080/13629387.2017.1340841 | Political Legitimacy And Variations In State Religion Relations In Tunisia | ABSTRACTWhat are the main factors explaining the dynamics of secularisation and de-(re)secularisation? In this article we go beyond both traditional understandings of state-religion relations as mechanically determined by structural forces (i. e. modernisation) and more recent accounts, which posit that processes of secularisation and de-secularisation are largely influenced by ‘civilization histories’. We maintain that these historical processes are instead the result of contingent political choices and reflect the struggle for survival of both secular and religious forces. More specifically, we argue that the quest for political legitimacy had an impact in determining actors’ stances toward the role of religion in politics and society. We use the aforementioned theoretical framework to explain the secularisation, de-secularisation and finally re-secularisation processes in Tunisia from its independence to the latest Ennahda Congress held in May 2016. | [
"The Social World and Its Interactions",
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems"
]
|
W2121145693 | Youth exposure to alcohol advertising on television in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany | Exposure of young people to alcohol advertising is a risk factor for underage drinking. This study assessed youth exposure to television alcohol advertising in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, from December 2010 to May 2011.A negative binomial regression model predicted number of alcohol advertisements from the proportion of the television viewership in each age group. This allowed comparison of alcohol advertisement incidence for each youth age category relative to an adult reference category.In the UK, those aged 10-15 years were significantly more exposed to alcohol advertisements per viewing hour than adults aged ≥ 25 years [incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 1.11; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.06, 1.18; P < 0.01]; in the Netherlands, those aged 13-19 years were more exposed per viewing hour than adults aged ≥ 20 years (IRR = 1.29; 95% CI: 1.19, 1.39; P < 0.01). Conversely, in Germany, those aged 10-15 years were less exposed to alcohol advertisements than adults aged ≥ 25 years (IRR = 0.79; 95% CI: 0.73, 0.85; P < 0.01). In each country, young children (aged 4-9 years in the UK and Germany, 6-12 years in the Netherlands) were less exposed than adults.Adolescents in the UK and the Netherlands, but not Germany, had higher exposure to television alcohol advertising relative to adults than would be expected from their television viewing. Further work across a wider range of countries is needed to understand the relationship between national policies and youth exposure to alcohol advertising on television. | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-642-31594-7_61 | Quasi Polynomial Local Search For Restricted Max Min Fair Allocation | The restricted max-min fair allocation problem (also known as the restricted Santa Claus problem) is one of few problems that enjoys the intriguing status of having a better estimation algorithm than approximation algorithm. Indeed, Asadpour et al. [1] proved that a certain configuration LP can be used to estimate the optimal value within a factor 1/(4+e), for any e>0, but at the same time it is not known how to efficiently find a solution with a comparable performance guarantee. A natural question that arises from their work is if the difference between these guarantees is inherent or because of a lack of suitable techniques. We address this problem by giving a quasi-polynomial approximation algorithm with the mentioned performance guarantee. More specifically, we modify the local search of [1] and provide a novel analysis that lets us significantly improve the bound on its running time: from 2O(n) to nO(logn). Our techniques also have the interesting property that although we use the rather complex configuration LP in the analysis, we never actually solve it and therefore the resulting algorithm is purely combinatorial. | [
"Mathematics",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1016/j.heares.2017.12.018 | Computational modeling of the human auditory periphery: Auditory-nerve responses, evoked potentials and hearing loss | Models of the human auditory periphery range from very basic functional descriptions of auditory filtering to detailed computational models of cochlear mechanics, inner-hair cell (IHC), auditory-nerve (AN) and brainstem signal processing. It is challenging to include detailed physiological descriptions of cellular components into human auditory models because single-cell data stems from invasive animal recordings while human reference data only exists in the form of population responses (e. g. , otoacoustic emissions, auditory evoked potentials). To embed physiological models within a comprehensive human auditory periphery framework, it is important to capitalize on the success of basic functional models of hearing and render their descriptions more biophysical where possible. At the same time, comprehensive models should capture a variety of key auditory features, rather than fitting their parameters to a single reference dataset. In this study, we review and improve existing models of the IHC-AN complex by updating their equations and expressing their fitting parameters into biophysical quantities. The quality of the model framework for human auditory processing is evaluated using recorded auditory brainstem response (ABR) and envelope-following response (EFR) reference data from normal and hearing-impaired listeners. We present a model with 12 fitting parameters from the cochlea to the brainstem that can be rendered hearing impaired to simulate how cochlear gain loss and synaptopathy affect human population responses. The model description forms a compromise between capturing well-described single-unit IHC and AN properties and human population response features. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.15184/aqy.2019.3 | FINDER project: Collagen fingerprinting (ZooMS) for the identification of new human fossils | The FINDER project aims to apply ZooMS to identify new hominin fossils from across large parts of Eurasia previously lacking in such evidence. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
10.1002/evan.21374 | Cooperation and conflict between women in the family | Here I review recent research on reproductive conflict between females in families and how it influences their reproductive behaviour. Kin selection can favor cooperation between parent and offspring, siblings, or unrelated co-residents who share interests in other family members such as grand-offspring. However, these are also the individuals most likely to be sharing resources, and so conflict can also emerge. While substantial interest has arisen in evolutionary anthropology, especially over the last two decades, in the possibility of cooperative breeding in humans, less attention has been paid to reproductive conflict among female kin. Communal breeding in animals is generally understood as emerging from competition over the resources needed to breed. Competition for household resources is a problem that also faces human families. Models suggest that in some circumstances, inclusive fitness can be maximized by sharing reproduction rather than harming relatives by fighting with them, even if the shares that emerge are not equal. Thus, competition and cooperation turn out to be strongly related to each other. Reproductive competition within and between families may have underpinned the biological evolution of fertility patterns (such as menopause) and the cultural evolution of marriage, residence, and inheritance norms (such as late male marriage or primogeniture), which can enhance cooperation and minimize the observed incidence of such conflicts. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
10.1126/sciadv.1600188 | Material-driven fibronectin assembly for high-efficiency presentation of growth factors | Growth factors (GFs) are powerful signaling molecules with the potential to drive regenerative strategies, including bone repair and vascularization. However, GFs are typically delivered in soluble format at supraphysiological doses because of rapid clearance and limited therapeutic impact. These high doses have serious side effects and are expensive. Although it is well established that GF interactions with extracellular matrix proteins such as fibronectin control GF presentation and activity, a translation-ready approach to unlocking GF potential has not been realized. We demonstrate a simple, robust, and controlled material-based approach to enhance the activity of GFs during tissue healing. The underlying mechanism is based on spontaneous fibrillar organization of fibronectin driven by adsorption onto the polymer poly(ethyl acrylate). Fibrillar fibronectin on this polymer, but not a globular conformation obtained on control polymers, promotes synergistic presentation of integrin-binding sites and bound bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2), which enhances mesenchymal stem cell osteogenesis in vitro and drives full regeneration of a nonhealing bone defect in vivo at low GF concentrations. This simple and translatable technology could unlock the full regenerative potential of GF therapies while improving safety and cost-effectiveness. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
10.1109/TCPMT.2014.2347965 | Characterization And Modeling Of Multiple Coupled Inductors Based On On Chip Four Port Measurement | Because of the compact layout of RFICs and mm-wave ICs, coupling effects among neighboring inductors may seriously degrade circuit performance. This paper analyzes the coupling effects among multiple on-chip spiral inductors and develops a fully scalable compact lumped element model for multiple coupled inductors by using four-port S-parameters. Each single inductor model is directly extracted from four-port S-parameters based on a one-port extraction algorithm. Mutual inductance and coupling capacitance among inductors is extracted and added to the single inductor models. Compared with the measurement, the proposed model can accurately predict the physical behavior of multiple coupled inductors from dc to self-resonant frequencies, as well as EM simulation results. The test structures were fabricated in a commercial 0. 18 μm RFCMOS process. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
W2084038661 | CFD investigation of nanofluid effects (cooling performance and pressure drop) in mini-channel heat sink | Abstract For improvement in information technology (IT), removing heat from electrical devices is an important factor, and current activities try to investigate (numerically, experimentally) new methods of thermal load managing. Mini-channel liquid cooling is one of the candidates for this purpose. Nanofluid as an innovative heat-transfer fluid was used in mini-channel heat sink. Modeling analyzed in this study is a mini-channel heat sink with 20 × 20 mm bottom. For this purpose, five nanoparticle volume fractions namely 0.8, 1.6, 2.4, 3.2 and 4% in five inlet velocities for both types of nanoparticle containing TiO 2 and SiC were used. Furthermore, effect of a nanoparticle volume fraction on the convective heat transfer coefficient was investigated in different Reynolds numbers. Modeling results were compared with reference analytical calculations. In addition according to the modeling results, correlated equations were obtained for Nusselt number and friction factor, and its accuracies were acceptable. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
771599 | Exploration below the tip of the microtubule | Microtubules (MTs) are dynamic cytoskeleton filaments. They permanently transit between growth and shrinkage. This famous “dynamic instability” is governed by the addition and loss of tubulin dimers at their tips. In contrast to the tip, the MT lattice was considered to be a passive structure supporting intracellular transport. However, we recently found that MT lattice is dynamic and active! Actually, tubulin dimers can be exchanged with the cytoplasmic pool along the entire length of the MT. These incorporations can repair sites on the lattice that have been mechanically damaged. These repair sites protect the MTs from depolymerisation and increase the MT’s life span. This discovery opens up a new vista for understanding MT biology.
First, we will investigate the biochemical consequences of MT-lattice turnover. We hypothesise that tubulin turnover affects the recruitment of MAPs, motors and tubulin-modifying enzymes. These recruitments may feedback on lattice turnover and further regulate MT life span and functions.
Second, we will investigate the mechanical impact of the MT-lattice plasticity. Tubulin removal is likely to be associated with a local reduction of MT stiffness that can impact MT shape and the propagation of forces along the lattice. We anticipate that such effects will require us to reformulate the biophysical rules directing network architecture.
To achieve this, we will use reconstituted MT networks in vitro to investigate the molecular mechanism regulating MT-lattice plasticity, and cultured cells to test the physiological relevance of these mechanisms. In both approaches, microfabricated devices will be used to control the spatial boundary conditions directing MT self-organisation.
By exploring the hidden 90% of MT iceberg we aim to show that the MT lattice is a dynamic mechano-sensory structure which regulates interphase MT-network architectures and possibly confers them unexpected functions. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
10.1090/tran/6782 | Curvature estimates for minimal submanifolds of higher codimension and small G-rank | We obtain new curvature estimates and Bernstein type results for a minimal
n
−
n-
submanifold in
R
n
+
m
,
m
≥
2
\mathbb {R}^{n+m},\, m\ge 2
, under the condition that the rank of its Gauss map is at most 2. In particular, this applies to minimal surfaces in Euclidean spaces of arbitrary codimension. | [
"Mathematics"
]
|
10.1002/2016GL070650 | Enceladus S And Dione S Floating Ice Shells Supported By Minimum Stress Isostasy | Enceladus's gravity and shape have been explained in terms of a thick isostatic ice shell floating on a global ocean, in contradiction of the thin shell implied by librations. Here we propose a new isostatic model minimizing crustal deviatoric stress, and demonstrate that gravity and shape data predict a $\rm{38\pm4\,km}$-thick ocean beneath a $\rm{23\pm4\,km}$-thick shell agreeing with -- but independent of -- libration data. Isostatic and tidal stresses are comparable in magnitude. South polar crust is only $7\pm4\rm\,km$ thick, facilitating the opening of water conduits and enhancing tidal dissipation through stress concentration. Enceladus's resonant companion, Dione, is in a similar state of minimum stress isostasy. Its gravity and shape can be explained in terms of a $\rm{99\pm23\,km}$-thick isostatic shell overlying a $\rm{65\pm30\,km}$-thick global ocean, thus providing the first clear evidence for a present-day ocean within Dione. | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1186/s12984-016-0178-x | Counteracting learned non-use in chronic stroke patients with reinforcement-induced movement therapy | Background: After stroke, patients who suffer from hemiparesis tend to suppress the use of the affected extremity, a condition called learned non-use. Consequently, the lack of training may lead to the progressive deterioration of motor function. Although Constraint-Induced Movement Therapies (CIMT) have shown to be effective in treating this condition, the method presents several limitations, and the high intensity of its protocols severely compromises its adherence. We propose a novel rehabilitation approach called Reinforcement-Induced Movement Therapy (RIMT), which proposes to restore motor function through maximizing arm use. This is achieved by exposing the patient to amplified goal-oriented movements in VR that match the intended actions of the patient. We hypothesize that through this method we can increase the patients self-efficacy, reverse learned non-use, and induce long-term motor improvements. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, longitudinal clinical study with 18 chronic stroke patients. Patients performed 30 minutes of daily VR-based training during six weeks. During training, the experimental group experienced goal-oriented movement amplification in VR. The control group followed the same training protocol but without movement amplification. Evaluators blinded to group designation performed clinical measurements at the beginning, at the end of the training and at 12-weeks follow-up. We used the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for the upper extremities (UE-FM) (Sanford et al. , Phys Ther 73:447-454, 1993) as a primary outcome measurement of motor recovery. Secondary outcome measurements included the Chedoke Arm and Hand Activity Inventory (CAHAI-7) (Barreca et al. , Arch Phys Med Rehabil 6:1616-1622, 2005) for measuring functional motor gains in the performance of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), the Barthel Index (BI) for the evaluation of the patient's perceived independence (Collin et al. , Int Disabil Stud 10:61-63, 1988), and the Hamilton scale (Knesevich et al. , Br J Psychiatr J Mental Sci 131:49-52, 1977) for the identification of improvements in mood disorders that could be induced by the reinforcement-based intervention. In order to study and predict the effects of this intervention we implemented a computational model of recovery after stroke. Results: While both groups showed significant motor gains at 6-weeks post-treatment, only the experimental group continued to exhibit further gains in UE-FM at 12-weeks follow-up (p < . 05). This improvement was accompanied by a significant increase in arm-use during training in the experimental group. Conclusions: Implicitly reinforcing arm-use by augmenting visuomotor feedback as proposed by RIMT seems beneficial for inducing significant improvement in chronic stroke patients. By challenging the patients' self-limiting believe system and perceived low self-efficacy this approach might counteract learned non-use. Trial registration: Clinical Trials NCT02657070. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W2046808739 | Neonatal alcohol exposure disrupts hippocampal neurogenesis and contextual fear conditioning in adult rats | Developmental alcohol exposure can permanently alter brain structures and produce functional impairments in many aspects of behavior, including learning and memory. This study evaluates the effect of neonatal alcohol exposure on adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and the implications of such exposure for hippocampus-dependent contextual fear conditioning. Alcohol-exposed rats (AE) received 5.25g/kg/day of alcohol on postnatal days (PD) 4-9 (third trimester in humans), in a binge-like manner. Two control groups were included: sham-intubated (SI) and suckle-control (SC). Animals were housed in social cages (3/cage) after weaning. On PD80, animals were injected with 200mg/kg BrdU. Half of the animals were sacrificed 2h later. The remainder were sacrificed on PD114 to evaluate cell survival; separate AE, SI, and SC rats not injected with BrdU were tested for the context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE; ~PD117). There was no difference in the number of BrdU+ cells in AE, SI and SC groups on PD80. On PD114, cell survival was significantly decreased in AE rats, demonstrating that developmental alcohol exposure damages new cells' ability to incorporate into the network and survive. Behaviorally tested SC and SI groups preexposed to the training context 24h prior to receiving a 1.5mA 2s footshock froze significantly more during the context test than their counterparts preexposed to an alternate context. AE rats failed to show the CPFE. The current study shows the detrimental, long-lasting effects of developmental alcohol exposure on hippocampal adult neurogenesis and contextual fear conditioning. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
10.3762/bjnano.6.126 | Nano-contact microscopy of supracrystals | Background: Highly ordered three-dimensional colloidal crystals (supracrystals) comprised of 7. 4 nm diameter Au nanocrystals (with a 5% size dispersion) have been imaged and analysed using a combination of scanning tunnelling microscopy and dynamic force microscopy. Results: By exploring the evolution of both the force and tunnel current with respect to tip–sample separation, we arrive at the surprising finding that single nanocrystal resolution is readily obtained in tunnelling microscopy images acquired more than 1 nm into the repulsive (i. e. , positive force) regime of the probe–nanocrystal interaction potential. Constant height force microscopy has been used to map tip–sample interactions in this regime, revealing inhomogeneities which arise from the convolution of the tip structure with the ligand distribution at the nanocrystal surface. Conclusion: Our combined STM–AFM measurements show that the contrast mechanism underpinning high resolution imaging of nanoparticle supracrystals involves a form of nanoscale contact imaging, rather than the through-vacuum tunnelling which underpins traditional tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
W1981953812 | Sortal concepts and pragmatic inference in children’s early quantification of objects | It is typically assumed that count nouns like fork act as logical sortals, specifying whether objects are countable units of a kind (e.g., that a whole fork counts as "one fork") or not (e.g., that a piece of a fork does not count as "one fork"). In four experiments, we provide evidence from linguistic and conceptual development that nouns do not specify units of quantification, but include both whole objects and their arbitrary parts in their denotations. We argue that, to restrict quantification to whole objects, nominal concepts are enriched pragmatically, via contrast with concepts denoted by alternative descriptions: a piece of a fork is not counted as "one fork" because it is "one piece of fork." Experiment 1 replicated previous findings that children count pieces of broken objects as whole objects (e.g., two pieces of fork as "two forks"), and showed that children also accept whole object labels as descriptions of object pieces (e.g., "two forks" to describe two pieces of fork). Experiment 2 showed that although children accept such descriptions in isolation, they prefer measure phrases (e.g., "two pieces of fork") when they are explicitly presented as alternatives. Experiment 3 found that children were better at excluding pieces from their counts of whole objects when measure phrases were primed prior to counting, making them accessible as alternatives to whole object labels. Finally, Experiment 4 taught children names for novel objects, and found that they do not count parts that are given unique labels or that have non-linguistic properties that suggest they are members of distinct object kinds (e.g., unique functions or physical affordances). Together, our results suggest that for children and adults alike, nominal concepts do not provide necessary and sufficient criteria for excluding parts from object kinds. To specify units of quantification--and do the work of sortals--concepts are contrasted with one another and enriched pragmatically. | [
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
10.1145/2628136.2628151 | Selinq Tracking Information Across Application Database Boundaries | The root cause for confidentiality and integrity attacks against computing systems is insecure information flow. The complexity of modern systems poses a major challenge to secure end-to-end information flow, ensuring that the insecurity of a single component does not render the entire system insecure. While information flow in a variety of languages and settings has been thoroughly studied in isolation, the problem of tracking information across component boundaries has been largely out of reach of the work so far. This is unsatisfactory because tracking information across component boundaries is necessary for end-to-end security. This paper proposes a framework for uniform tracking of information flow through both the application and the underlying database. Key enabler of the uniform treatment is recent work by Cheney et al. , which studies database manipulation via an embedded language-integrated query language (with Microsoft's LINQ on the backend). Because both the host language and the embedded query languages are functional F#-like languages, we are able to leverage information-flow enforcement for functional languages to obtain information-flow control for databases "for free", synergize it with information-flow control for applications and thus guarantee security across application-database boundaries. We develop the formal results in the form of a security type system that includes a treatment of algebraic data types and pattern matching, and establish its soundness. On the practical side, we implement the framework and demonstrate its usefulness in a case study with a realistic movie rental database. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1038/ncomms11638 | Structure of human Cdc45 and implications for CMG helicase function | Cell division cycle protein 45 (Cdc45) is required for DNA synthesis during genome duplication, as a component of the Cdc45-MCM-GINS (CMG) helicase. Despite its essential biological function, its biochemical role in DNA replication has remained elusive. Here we report the 2. 1-Å crystal structure of human Cdc45, which confirms its evolutionary link with the bacterial RecJ nuclease and reveals several unexpected features that underpin its function in eukaryotic DNA replication. These include a long-range interaction between N- and C-terminal DHH domains, blocking access to the DNA-binding groove of its RecJ-like fold, and a helical insertion in its N-terminal DHH domain, which appears poised for replisome interactions. In combination with available electron microscopy data, we validate by mutational analysis the mechanism of Cdc45 association with the MCM ring and GINS co-activator, critical for CMG assembly. These findings provide an indispensable molecular basis to rationalize the essential role of Cdc45 in genomic duplication. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
10.1145/2695664.2695784 | Polyhedra To The Rescue Of Array Interpolants | We propose a new approach to the automated verification of the correctness of programs handling arrays. An abstract interpreter supplies auxiliary numeric invariants to an interpolation-based refinement procedure suited to array programs. Experiments show that this combination approach, implemented in an enhanced version of the Booster software model-checker, performs better than the pure interpolation-based approach, at no additional cost. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.5194/acp-17-9585-2017 | How do changes in warm-phase microphysics affect deep convective clouds? | . Understanding aerosol effects on deep convective clouds and the derived effects on the radiation budget and rain patterns can largely contribute to estimations of climate uncertainties. The challenge is difficult in part because key microphysical processes in the mixed and cold phases are still not well understood. For deep convective clouds with a warm base, understanding aerosol effects on the warm processes is extremely important as they set the initial and boundary conditions for the cold processes. Therefore, the focus of this study is the warm phase, which can be better resolved. The main question is: How do aerosol-derived changes in the warm phase affect the properties of deep convective cloud systems? To explore this question, we used a weather research and forecasting (WRF) model with spectral bin microphysics to simulate a deep convective cloud system over the Marshall Islands during the Kwajalein Experiment (KWAJEX). The model results were validated against observations, showing similarities in the vertical profile of radar reflectivity and the surface rain rate. Simulations with larger aerosol loading resulted in a larger total cloud mass, a larger cloud fraction in the upper levels, and a larger frequency of strong updrafts and rain rates. Enlarged mass both below and above the zero temperature level (ZTL) contributed to the increase in cloud total mass (water and ice) in the polluted runs. Increased condensation efficiency of cloud droplets governed the gain in mass below the ZTL, while both enhanced condensational and depositional growth led to increased mass above it. The enhanced mass loading above the ZTL acted to reduce the cloud buoyancy, while the thermal buoyancy (driven by the enhanced latent heat release) increased in the polluted runs. The overall effect showed an increased upward transport (across the ZTL) of liquid water driven by both larger updrafts and larger droplet mobility. These aerosol effects were reflected in the larger ratio between the masses located above and below the ZTL in the polluted runs. When comparing the net mass flux crossing the ZTL in the clean and polluted runs, the difference was small. However, when comparing the upward and downward fluxes separately, the increase in aerosol concentration was seen to dramatically increase the fluxes in both directions, indicating the aerosol amplification effect of the convection and the affected cloud system properties, such as cloud fraction and rain rate. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1242/dev.095018 | Notch3 signaling gates cell cycle entry and limits neural stem cell amplification in the adult pallium | Maintaining the homeostasis of germinal zones in adult organs is a fundamental but mechanistically poorly understood process. In particular, what controls stem cell activation remains unclear. We have previously shown that Notch signaling limits neural stem cell (NSC) proliferation in the adult zebrafish pallium. Combining pharmacological and genetic manipulations, we demonstrate here that long-term Notch invalidation primarily induces NSC amplification through their activation from quiescence and increased occurrence of symmetric divisions. Expression analyses, morpholino-mediated invalidation and the generation of a notch3-null mutant directly implicate Notch3 in these effects. By contrast, abrogation of notch1b function results in the generation of neurons at the expense of the activated NSC state. Together, our results support a differential involvement of Notch receptors along the successive steps of NSC recruitment. They implicate Notch3 at the top of this hierarchy to gate NSC activation and amplification, protecting the homeostasis of adult NSC reservoirs under physiological conditions. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
W1518095112 | Surveillance on the Sucking Insect Pests and their Natural Enemies on Tomato Crop | The experiment was conducted at the experimental area of Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam during 2013. The Roma variety was cultivated for this purpose, the all agronomic practices were carried out accordingly. The temperature 15-24oC and relative humidity 45-68% was recorded during research work. The results of the present experiment showed that sucking insect pests as well as natural enemies’ population was observed through out cropping season from 1 st week of March to 1 st week of May 2013. The results reveled that the maximum population of whitefly (5.5±0.16/leaf) was recorded followed by jassid (4.7±0.21/leaf), aphid (4.4±0.37/leaf) and thrip (2.9±0.17/leaf) on tomato crop. However, the maximum population chrysoperla carniea (1.2±0.16/plant) was recorded followed by spider (2.6±0.23/plant) and lady bird beetle (2.5±0.22/plant) was recorded on tomato crop. The results further reveled that the over all impact of relative humidity on the most of the insect pests showed negative correlation. However, the temperature showed that over all positive impact of all the insect pests and predators except whitefly and spider. Key Word: Solanum lycopersicum, Surveillance, sucking insect pest, Predators | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering"
]
|
10.1007/s00262-012-1387-1 | Circulating tumor cells as therapy-related biomarkers in cancer patients | Carcinomas (tumors of epithelial origin) are responsible for most of all new cancers in the industrialized countries. Due to the high mortality rate caused by the metastatic spread of aggressive cancer cells, there is an urgent demand in finding new biomarkers, which should detect early formation of metastases and monitor efficacy of systemic adjuvant therapy in a timely manner. It has been considered that the molecular analysis of cells which are shed from tumors into the blood system (circulating tumor cells (CTCs)) might provide new insights for the clinical management of cancer, probably far earlier than using traditional high-resolution imaging technologies. Clinical trials indicated that CTCs can be deployed for diagnostic, monitoring, and prognostic purposes. Furthermore, these cells are discussed to be suitable as predictive markers. In any case, identification of CTCs requires innovative and challenging technologies as detection methods should be specific, sensitive, standardized, and highly reproducible. Although many different approaches have been developed until now, only the CellSearch™ method has been cleared by the American Food and Drug Administration. Although the detection of CTCs has already shown to have a prognostic impact in many tumor entities including breast, prostate, lung and colon cancer, ongoing and future studies are aimed to explore whether CTCs can be used for an individual therapy decision making including novel immunotherapeutic approaches. This review discusses (1) different detection strategies for CTCs, (2) their clinical impact, and (3) the potential use of CTCs guiding the treatment of individual cancer patients. | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
171972 | Energy efficient ventilated façades for optimal adaptability and heat exchange enabling low energy architectural concepts for the refurbishment of existing buildings | EVENT will develop, demonstrate and validate a cost effective, high energy efficient, low CO2 emissions, replicable, low intrusive, systemic approach for retrofitting of residential and commercial buildings, able to achieve NZEB retrofit standard levels, through the integration of an innovative adaptive ventilated façade system, including:
• Embedded, breakthrough smart modular heat recovery units, which allow thermal storage mode
• High efficient photovoltaic generation capability units
• Cost-effective, easy to install, high performance adapted products for external thermal insulation
• Energy efficient HVAC systems
The developed technologies will be integrated in the ventilated façade, and a real time intelligent façade management system will control operation of the system based on meteorological prediction methods for forecasting in advance the decentralised electricity production and the energy (electrical and thermal) demand of the building enabling maximum RE usage. It will inter-operate with existing or latest state-of-the-art Building Energy Management System, to achieve optimum energy efficiency by reducing primary energy needs, CO2 emissions and peak loads, assuring at least the same comfort levels required by Member States Building Codes, at an affordable price. Foreseen impact will be:
• Energy savings of more than 40%, by the holistic use of the ventilated façade, the heat recovery of ventilation air
• At least a reduction of 40% of CO2 emissions, as a consequence of the achieved primary energy savings
• Reduced thermal and electrical peak loads
• Typical performance target of less than 25 kWh/m 2 year (excluding appliances)
Use of heat recovery units, number of photovoltaic cells, natural lighting strategies, and insulation thickness; are variable depending on the characteristics of the building to be retrofitted. Therefore EVENT retrofitting system can be adaptable to different types of buildings and climates, which makes the system versatile. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.002 | New Neanderthal remains from Mani Peninsula, Southern Greece: The Kalamakia Middle Paleolithic cave site | The Kalamakia cave, a Middle Paleolithic site on the western coast of the Mani peninsula, Greece, was excavated in 1993-2006 by an interdisciplinary team from the Ephoreia of Paleoanthropology and Speleology (Greek Ministry of Culture) and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (Paris). The site is dated to between ca. 100,000 and >39,000 years BP (Before Present) and has yielded Mousterian lithics, a rich fauna, and human remains from several layers. The latter include 10 isolated teeth, a cranial fragment and three postcranial elements. The remains represent at least eight individuals, two of them subadults, and show both carnivore and anthropogenic modifications. They can be identified as Neanderthal on the basis of diagnostic morphology on most specimens. A diet similar to that of Neanderthals from mixed habitat is suggested by our analysis of dental wear (occlusal fingerprint analysis) and microwear (occlusal texture microwear analysis), in agreement with the faunal and palynological analyses of the site. These new fossils significantly expand the Neanderthal sample known from Greece. Together with the human specimens from Lakonis and Apidima, the Kalamakia human remains add to the growing evidence of a strong Neanderthal presence in the Mani region during the Late Pleistocene. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
10.22323/1.256.0282 | Chiral Perturbation Theory At Finite Volume And Or With Twisted Boundary Conditions | In this talk we discuss a number of ChPT calculations relevant for lattice QCD. These include the finite volume corrections at two-loop order for masses and decay constants. The second part is about hadronic vacuum polarization where we present the two-loop ChPT estimate for the disconnected and strange quark contributions. We also present the finite volume corrections at two-loop order. The final part is the one-loop finite volume with twisted boundary conditions contribution to f+(q2) and the full K&3 amplitude. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter"
]
|
10.3389/fimmu.2012.00127 | Chemokines and the signaling modules regulating integrin affinity | Integrin-mediated adhesion is a general concept referring to a series of adhesive phenomena including tethering-rolling, affinity, valency, and binding stabilization altogether controlling cell avidity (adhesiveness) for the substrate. Arrest chemokines modulate each aspect of integrin activation, although integrin affinity regulation has been recognized as the prominent event in rapid leukocyte arrest induced by chemokines. A variety of inside-out and outside-in signaling mechanisms have been related to the process of integrin-mediated adhesion in different cellular models, but only few of them have been clearly contextualized to rapid integrin affinity modulation by arrest chemokines in primary leukocytes. Complex signaling processes triggered by arrest chemokines and controlling leukocyte integrin activation have been described for ras-related rap and for rho-related small GTPases. We summarize the role of rap and rho small GTPases in the regulation of rapid integrin affinity in primary leukocytes and provide a modular view of these pro-adhesive signaling events. A potential, albeit still speculative, mechanism of rho-mediated regulation of cytoskeletal proteins controlling the last step of integrin activation is also discussed. We also discuss data suggesting a functional integration between the rhoand rap-modules of integrin activation. Finally we examine the universality of signaling mechanisms regulating integrin triggering by arrest chemokines. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration"
]
|
10.2741/S367 | Superfamily 1 Helicases | Superfamily 1 helicases are nucleic acid motor proteins that couple ATP hydrolysis to translocation along, and concomitant unwinding of, DNA or RNA. This is central to many aspects of cellular DNA and RNA metabolism and, accordingly, they are implicated in a wide range of nucleic acid processing events including DNA replication, recombination and repair as well as many aspects of RNA metabolism. This review discusses our current understanding of the structure, function and mechanism of Superfamily 1 helicases. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
W2275938590 | NaFe3(HPO3)2((H,F)PO2OH)6: A Potential Cathode Material and a Novel Ferrimagnet | A novel iron fluorophosphite, NaFe3(HPO3)2((H,F)PO2OH)6, was synthesized by a dry low-temperature synthesis route. The phase was shown to be electrochemically active for reversible insertion of Na(+) ions, with an average discharge voltage of 2.5 V and an experimental capacity at low rates of up to 90 mAhg(-1). Simple synthesis, low-cost materials, excellent capacity retention, and efficiency suggest this class of material is competitive with similar oxyanion-based compounds as a cathode material for Na batteries. The characterization of physical properties by means of magnetization, specific heat, and electron spin resonance measurements confirms the presence of two magnetically nonequivalent Fe(3+) sites. The compound orders magnetically at TC ≈ 9.4 K into a state with spontaneous magnetization. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
695481 | Resolving Morpho-Phonological Alternation: Historical, Neurolinguistic, and Computational Approaches | In morpho-phonological alternations the shapes of morphemes differ between morphologically related word forms. In these alternations the morphological environment is also implicated (revére ~ réverence verb [iː] ~ noun [ɛ] and stress differ) unlike alternations which are conditioned only by the phonological environment.
The opaque phonological relationship between morphologically related forms has been a long-standing challenge in theoretical, historical, psycho- and neuro-linguistics, and computational linguistics alike. Morpho-phonological alternations of all kinds have been analysed across the languages of the world; but fundamental questions have remained controversial or indeed unasked:
▪ Why do they exist in the first place and why are they so widespread?
▪ How do they come about and what is their diachronic time-course?
▪ How are they represented in mental lexicons and how are they processed?
Rather than setting morpho-phonological alternations aside as irregularities of morphology (requiring individual listing and storing), we recognise certain kinds of them (stress shifts, feature changes, deletions, and tonal changes) as something universally to be expected in mental lexicons and as something the brains of speakers and listeners can easily handle. The position that we advocate is that morpho-phonological variants are not listed and stored independently, but rather are mapped onto single abstract representations. This is a controversial position, and its defence requires the systematic study of types of alternations and their histories, and precise hypotheses about the nature of mental representations.
What distinguishes our approach is that we combine expertise in (a) theoretical and typological linguistics, (b) brain-imaging methods, and (c) computational modeling to shed light on our questions concerning the existence and cross-linguistic incidence of morpho-phonological alternations, their diachronic profiles, their processing and mental representation. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
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