Transformation of the Methylotrophic Actinomycete Amycolatopis methanolica with Plasmid DNA: Stimulatory Effect of a pMEA300-Encoded Gene

Amycolatopsis methanolica contains a 13.29-kb plasmid (pMEA300) present both in the free state and integrated at a unique genomic location. A pMEA300-free derivative (strain WV1) was selected, allowing further analysis of pMEA300-encoded functions. Whole cells of strain WV1 could be transformed at high frequencies (approximately 10^6 transformants per microgram of plasmid DNA) with both circular and linear plasmid DNA, provided that the pMEA300-encoded stf (stimulation of transformation frequency) gene was present. stf would encode a putative protein of 373 amino acids with Mr 40,201, resembling putative regulatory proteins involved in sporulation of Streptomyces griseus and Streptomyces coelicolor.

Quantitative sensitivity analysis of surface attached optical fiber strain sensor

Optical fiber strain sensors, in particular, the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) type, are widely applied in different applications. The most common installation method is surface-attached. In principle, the optical fiber strain sensor with adequate sampling and signal processing techniques is usually more accurate than electrical resistive strain gauge. However, the strain of the surface of structure may not transfer to the sensing element perfectly. The ratio between the measured and actual strain can be correlated by a strain transfer factor (STF). However, it depends on the material and geometrical properties of the optical fiber and adhesive. It is noneconomical and impractical to measure the STF for every installed sensor. It is desirable to identify the most of the sensitive parameters on the variation of the STF so that the quality control and assurance procedure can be performed more efficiently. In this paper, a quantitative global sensitivity analysis, called extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test will be performed to compute the first-order and total sensitivity indexes based on a well-established semi-analytical/empirical mechanical model of three material and five geometrical parameters of both integral and optical FBG type optical fiber strain sensor with two different kinds of polymeric coating under three types of strain field in 16 different configurations. From the detail analysis, the most of the sensitive parameters on the STF are bond length, the thickness of adhesive beneath the optical fiber and the deviation of grating position, which are related to workmanship instead of the material properties of the optical fiber and adhesive

Semi-classical trace formula, isochronous case. Application to conservative systems

Under conditions of clean flow we compute the leading term in the STF when the set of periods of the energy surface is discrete. Comparing to the case of non-degenerate periodic orbits, we obtain a supplementary term which is given in terms of the linearized flow. As particular cases, we give a STF for quadratic Hamiltonians and we obtain the Berry-Tabor formula for integrable systems. For conservative systems (i.e. systems with several first integrals), we give practical conditions to get a clean flow and interpret the leading term of the STF for a compact symmetry. We give several examples to illustrate our computation.Comment: 24 page

Homogenization studies for optical sensors based on sculptured thin films

In this thesis we investigate theoretically various types of sculptured thin film (STF) envi�sioned as platforms for optical sensing. A STF consists of an array of parallel nanowires which can be grown on a substrate using vapour deposition techniques. Typically, each nanowire has a diameter in the range from ∼ 10−300 nm while the film thickness is . 1µm. Through careful control of the fabrication process, both the optical properties and the porosity of the STF can be tailored to order. These abilities make STFs promising for optical sensing applications, wherein it is envisaged that the material to be sensed infiltrates the void re�gion in between the parallel nanowires and hence changes the optical properties of the STF. Various homogenization formalisms can be used to estimate the constitutive parameters of the infiltrated STFs. In this thesis two different homogenization formalisms were used: the Bruggeman formalism (extended and non–extended versions) and the strong-permittivity�fluctuation theory (SPFT). These were used in investigations of the following optical–sensing scenarios: (i) Electromagnetic radiation emitted by a dipole source inside an infiltrated chiral STF. The effects of using the extended Bruggeman homogenization formalism, which takes into account the nonzero size of the component particles, were studied. (ii) Surface–plasmon– polariton waves on a metal–coated, infiltrated columnar thin film. The influences of using the extended SPFT formalism, which takes into account the nonzero size of the component particles and their statistical distributions, were explored. (iii) A metal-coated infiltrated chiral STF which supports both surface-plasmon-polariton waves and the circular Bragg phe�nomenon. The possibility of using in parallel both surface-plasmon-polariton waves and the circular Bragg phenomenon was investigated using the non–extended Bruggeman formalism. Our numerical studies revealed that the design performance parameters of the infiltrated STF are bode well for these optical–sensing scenarios. The use of inverse Bruggeman formalism was also investigated: this was found to be problematic in certain constitutive parameter regimes, but not those for optical–sensing scenarios considered in this thesis

Dynamical Synapses Enhance Neural Information Processing: Gracefulness, Accuracy and Mobility

Experimental data have revealed that neuronal connection efficacy exhibits two forms of short-term plasticity, namely, short-term depression (STD) and short-term facilitation (STF). They have time constants residing between fast neural signaling and rapid learning, and may serve as substrates for neural systems manipulating temporal information on relevant time scales. The present study investigates the impact of STD and STF on the dynamics of continuous attractor neural networks (CANNs) and their potential roles in neural information processing. We find that STD endows the network with slow-decaying plateau behaviors-the network that is initially being stimulated to an active state decays to a silent state very slowly on the time scale of STD rather than on the time scale of neural signaling. This provides a mechanism for neural systems to hold sensory memory easily and shut off persistent activities gracefully. With STF, we find that the network can hold a memory trace of external inputs in the facilitated neuronal interactions, which provides a way to stabilize the network response to noisy inputs, leading to improved accuracy in population decoding. Furthermore, we find that STD increases the mobility of the network states. The increased mobility enhances the tracking performance of the network in response to time-varying stimuli, leading to anticipative neural responses. In general, we find that STD and STP tend to have opposite effects on network dynamics and complementary computational advantages, suggesting that the brain may employ a strategy of weighting them differentially depending on the computational purpose.Comment: 40 pages, 17 figure

Towards the Usage of MBT at ETSI

In 2012 the Specialists Task Force (STF) 442 appointed by the European Telcommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) explored the possibilities of using Model Based Testing (MBT) for test development in standardization. STF 442 performed two case studies and developed an MBT-methodology for ETSI. The case studies were based on the ETSI-standards GeoNetworking protocol (ETSI TS 102 636) and the Diameter-based Rx protocol (ETSI TS 129 214). Models have been developed for parts of both standards and four different MBT-tools have been employed for generating test cases from the models. The case studies were successful in the sense that all the tools were able to produce the test suites having the same test adequacy as the corresponding manually developed conformance test suites. The MBT-methodology developed by STF 442 is based on the experiences with the case studies. It focusses on integrating MBT into the sophisticated standardization process at ETSI. This paper summarizes the results of the STF 442 work.Comment: In Proceedings MBT 2013, arXiv:1303.037

Visualizing Spacetime Curvature via Frame-Drag Vortexes and Tidal Tendexes I. General Theory and Weak-Gravity Applications

When one splits spacetime into space plus time, the Weyl curvature tensor (vacuum Riemann tensor) gets split into two spatial, symmetric, and trace-free (STF) tensors: (i) the Weyl tensor's so-called "electric" part or tidal field, and (ii) the Weyl tensor's so-called "magnetic" part or frame-drag field. Being STF, the tidal field and frame-drag field each have three orthogonal eigenvector fields which can be depicted by their integral curves. We call the integral curves of the tidal field's eigenvectors tendex lines, we call each tendex line's eigenvalue its tendicity, and we give the name tendex to a collection of tendex lines with large tendicity. The analogous quantities for the frame-drag field are vortex lines, their vorticities, and vortexes. We build up physical intuition into these concepts by applying them to a variety of weak-gravity phenomena: a spinning, gravitating point particle, two such particles side by side, a plane gravitational wave, a point particle with a dynamical current-quadrupole moment or dynamical mass-quadrupole moment, and a slow-motion binary system made of nonspinning point particles. [Abstract is abbreviated; full abstract also mentions additional results.]Comment: 25 pages, 20 figures, matches the published versio