6,846 research outputs found
Cellular decision-making bias: the missing ingredient in cell functional diversity
Cell functional diversity is a significant determinant on how biological
processes unfold. Most accounts of diversity involve a search for sequence or
expression differences. Perhaps there are more subtle mechanisms at work. Using
the metaphor of information processing and decision-making might provide a
clearer view of these subtleties. Understanding adaptive and transformative
processes (such as cellular reprogramming) as a series of simple decisions
allows us to use a technique called cellular signal detection theory (cellular
SDT) to detect potential bias in mechanisms that favor one outcome over
another. We can apply method of detecting cellular reprogramming bias to
cellular reprogramming and other complex molecular processes. To demonstrate
scope of this method, we will critically examine differences between cell
phenotypes reprogrammed to muscle fiber and neuron phenotypes. In cases where
the signature of phenotypic bias is cryptic, signatures of genomic bias
(pre-existing and induced) may provide an alternative. The examination of these
alternates will be explored using data from a series of fibroblast cell lines
before cellular reprogramming (pre-existing) and differences between fractions
of cellular RNA for individual genes after drug treatment (induced). In
conclusion, the usefulness and limitations of this method and associated
analogies will be discussed.Comment: 18 pages; 6 figures, 2 tables, 4 supplemental figure
A Specialized Processor for Track Reconstruction at the LHC Crossing Rate
We present the results of an R&D study of a specialized processor capable of
precisely reconstructing events with hundreds of charged-particle tracks in
pixel detectors at 40 MHz, thus suitable for processing LHC events at the full
crossing frequency. For this purpose we design and test a massively parallel
pattern-recognition algorithm, inspired by studies of the processing of visual
images by the brain as it happens in nature. We find that high-quality tracking
in large detectors is possible with sub-s latencies when this algorithm is
implemented in modern, high-speed, high-bandwidth FPGA devices. This opens a
possibility of making track reconstruction happen transparently as part of the
detector readout.Comment: Presented by G.Punzi at the conference on "Instrumentation for
Colliding Beam Physics" (INSTR14), 24 Feb to 1 Mar 2014, Novosibirsk, Russia.
Submitted to JINST proceeding
Switching patients from other inhaled corticosteroid devices to the Easyhaler(®) : historical, matched-cohort study of real-life asthma patients
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
- …