Experimental study of the sub-wavelength imaging by a wire medium slab

An experimental investigation of sub-wavelength imaging by a wire medium slab is performed. A complex-shaped near field source is used in order to test imaging performance of the device. It is demonstrated that the ultimate bandwidth of operation of the constructed imaging device is 4.5% that coincides with theoretical predictions [Phys. Rev. E 73, 056607 (2006)]. Within this band the wire medium slab is capable of transmitting images with \lambda/15 resolution irrespectively of the shape and complexity of the source. Actual bandwidth of operation for particular near-field sources can be larger than the ultimate value but it strongly depends on the configuration of the source.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, submitted to AP

Feeling the Earthship house: eliciting a perspective of posterity through immersive virtual reality

Purpose: The surging cost of living and shortage of affordable and sustainable homes fuel the global housing crisis. Earthship buildings are marketed as the epitome of affordable and sustainable alternative housing. This paper aimed to elicit the perception of Earthship buildings among youngsters in the United Kingdom using immersive virtual reality technology. Additionally, the impact of virtual reality on perception compared with two-dimensional drawings was investigated in the study. Design/methodology/approach: A three-phase, experiment-based survey was adopted: Phase 1: literature review, Earthship house model conception and the virtual environment creation; Phase 2: two-dimensional drawing-based pre-visualisation survey; Phase 3: virtual reality–based post-visualisation survey. Findings: The findings indicated that youngsters had a remarkable, positive change in attitude towards the uptake of the Earthship houses after virtual reality visualisation. In contrast, sustainability experts shared more concerns regarding the concept's viability in the United Kingdom, even after the virtual reality visualisation. However, both youngsters and experts agreed with the pre-eminence of virtual reality over two-dimensional drawings. Originality/value: The lack of awareness about Earthship buildings for posterity was noted in previous studies, which could be attributed to there being very few Earthship buildings in the United Kingdom. The importance of this awareness among youngsters cannot be over-emphasised since youngsters are affected most by the shortage of affordable and sustainable homes. This gap was addressed by enlightening the youth about Earthship houses and imparting awareness through near-real-life virtual reality visualisation

Antiproliferative effects of total alkaloid extract of roots of Chassalia curviflora (Wall.) Thwaites on cancer cell lines

389-395Chassalia curviflora is used in folklore medicines for treating several ailments and infections owing to its anti-inflammatory properties. Though the plant has been reported to possess anti-inflammatory antihepatotoxic and analgesic activities, its anticancer potential has not been studied so far. In the present study, we investigated the antiproliferative effects of the total alkaloids isolated from the roots of C. curviflora. The total alkaloid was validated by MTT assay in three cancer cell lines, such as liver cancer cell line-A549, breast cancer cell line-MCF-7 and ovarian cancer cell line -HeLa. Significant antiproliferative effect (IC50 value 3.59±0.14*** µg/mL) was observed in A549 cells, and was taken for further studies. Cell cycle analysis showed that the cells got arrested in sub G0 phase and annexin V-FITC assay revealed that 27.4% cells were in early apoptosis and 7% cells in late apoptosis. The study revealed that the total alkaloids of Chassalia curviflora roots possess significant antiproliferative and apoptotic activity

Changes in expression of VE-cadherin and MMPs in endothelial cells: Implications for angiogenesis

The mechanism of cell-cell contact dependent regulation of pericellular proteolysis in angiogenesis was examined by studying the expression of MMPs using isolated HUVECs in culture. Zymography, Immunoblot and RT-PCR analysis showed that the production and secretion of matrixmetalloproteinase-2 and matrixmetalloproteinase-9 by HUVECs in culture were high when they remain as individual cells and significantly decreased during later stages of culture when cells developed cell-cell contact and tubular network-like structure. As MMPs decreased there was significant upregulation of VE-cadherin in cells undergoing angiogenic transition. Investigations to understand the signaling pathways downstream of VE-cadherin showed a relatively high level of β-catenin in the nucleus of endothelial cells in culture during initial stages and decrease in its levels in the nucleus, associated with an increase in the cytosol during later stages of culture. The distribution of β-catenin was found to be regulated by Tyr/Ser phosphorylation status of this protein. Cell-cell contact dependent downregulation of MMPs during angiogenesis was also observed in experiments using proangiogenic substances which caused a rapid rate of downregulation of MMP-2 and MMP-9 and absence of downregulation of MMPs when treated with anti-angiogenic agents

Comparative analysis of Erk phosphorylation suggests a mixed strategy for measuring phospho-form distributions.

The functional impact of multisite protein phosphorylation can depend on both the numbers and the positions of phosphorylated sites-the global pattern of phosphorylation or 'phospho-form'-giving biological systems profound capabilities for dynamic information processing. A central problem in quantitative systems biology, therefore, is to measure the 'phospho-form distribution': the relative amount of each of the 2(n) phospho-forms of a protein with n-phosphorylation sites. We compared four potential methods-western blots with phospho-specific antibodies, peptide-based liquid chromatography (LC) and mass spectrometry (MS; pepMS), protein-based LC/MS (proMS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR)-on differentially phosphorylated samples of the well-studied mitogen-activated protein kinase Erk2, with two phosphorylation sites. The MS methods were quantitatively consistent with each other and with NMR to within 10%, but western blots, while highly sensitive, showed significant discrepancies with MS. NMR also uncovered two additional phosphorylations, for which a combination of pepMS and proMS yielded an estimate of the 16-member phospho-form distribution. This combined MS strategy provides an optimal mixture of accuracy and coverage for quantifying distributions, but positional isomers remain a challenging problem

Response of surface chlorophyll to aerosol dust input in the Central Arabian Sea

The decadal trends in satellite-derived surface chlorophyll in conjunction with Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) are explored in a unique area in the central Arabian Sea, known to mimic High Nutrient and Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) like conditions during late summer monsoon. The analysis indicates two recurring seasonal blooms, possibly associated with distinct biogeochemical processes in the studied region. Furthermore, the mineral dust deposition in July every year coincides with one such increase in surface chlorophyll followed by a lag period until winter monsoon. This rapid increase in the phytoplankton biomass just after the aeolian input is possibly due to an enhancement in soluble iron within the mixed layer, as suggested by AOD dust data. Most likely, this rapid increase in biomass may induce further depletion of soluble iron leading to HNLC-like conditions during the late Summer Monsoon, as reported earlier. This hypothesis is consistent with the satellite observation, which shows a decrease in surface chlorophyll during subsequent months until the convective mixing between December – January (winter monsoon). The study reveals that the presence of the HNLC region in the central Arabian Sea during the summer monsoon is not perennial like the Southern Ocean. Instead, it is a transient phenomenon primarily controlled by aerosol deposition and rapid uptake of soluble iron, which facilitate the diatom blooms as suggested by the recent output from the NASA Ocean Biogeochemical Model (NOBM)

Antiproliferative effects of total alkaloid extract of roots of Chassaliacurviflora (Wall.) Thwaites on cancer cell lines

Chassaliacurviflora is used in folklore medicines for treating several ailments and infections owing to its anti-inflammatory properties. Though the plant has been reported to possess anti-inflammatory antihepatotoxic and analgesic activities, its anticancer potential has not been studied so far. In the present study, we investigated the antiproliferative effects of the total alkaloids isolated from the roots of C. curviflora.The total alkaloid was validated by MTT assay in three cancer cell lines, such as liver cancer cell line-A549, breast cancer cell line-MCF-7 and ovarian cancer cell line -HeLa. Significant antiproliferative effect (IC50 value 3.59±0.14*** µg/mL) was observed in A549 cells, and was taken for further studies. Cell cycle analysis showed that the cells got arrested in sub G0 phase and annexin V-FITC assay revealed that 27.4% cells were in early apoptosis and 7% cells in late apoptosis. The study revealed that the total alkaloids of Chassaliacurvifloraroots possess significant antiproliferative and apoptotic activit

Negative refraction of a three-dimensional metallic photonic crystal

A metamaterial with a negative effective index of refraction is made from a three-dimensional hexagonal lattice photonic crystal with a metallic basis embedded in foam. It has been simulated with Ansoft HFSSTM in a frequency range from 7.0 to 12.0 GHz. Simulated results tested experimentally and negative refraction verified in some frequencies. Experimental results are in excellent agreement with simulations

Quantitative profiling of peptides from RNAs classified as noncoding.

Only a small fraction of the mammalian genome codes for messenger RNAs destined to be translated into proteins, and it is generally assumed that a large portion of transcribed sequences--including introns and several classes of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs)--do not give rise to peptide products. A systematic examination of translation and physiological regulation of ncRNAs has not been conducted. Here we use computational methods to identify the products of non-canonical translation in mouse neurons by analysing unannotated transcripts in combination with proteomic data. This study supports the existence of non-canonical translation products from both intragenic and extragenic genomic regions, including peptides derived from antisense transcripts and introns. Moreover, the studied novel translation products exhibit temporal regulation similar to that of proteins known to be involved in neuronal activity processes. These observations highlight a potentially large and complex set of biologically regulated translational events from transcripts formerly thought to lack coding potential