Device measures fluid drag on test vehicles

Electromechanical drag balance device measures the aerodynamic drag force acting on a vehicle as it moves through the atmosphere and telemeters the data to a remote receiving station. This device is also used for testing the hydrodynamic drag characteristics of underwater vehicles

Air frame drag balance Patent

Device for measuring drag forces in flight test

Performance Evaluation of Load-Balanced Routing via Bounded Randomization

Future computer networks are expected to carry bursty traffic. Shortest-path routing protocols such as OSPF and RIP have t he disadvantage of causing bottlenecks due to their inherent single-path routing. That is, the uniformly selected shortest path between a source and a destination may become highly congested even when many other paths have low utilization. We propose a family of routing schemes that distribute data traffic over the whole network via bounded randomization; in this way, they remove bottlenecks and consequently improve network performance. For each data message to be sent from a source s to a destination d, each of the proposed routing protocols randomly choose an intermediate node e from a selected set of network nodes, and routes the data message along a shortest path from s to e. Then, it routes the data message via a shortest path from e to d. Intuitively, we would expect that this increase the effective bandwidth between each source-destination pair. Our simulation results indicate that the family of proposed load-balanced routing protocols distribute traffic evenly over the whole network and, in consequence, increases network performance with respect to throughput, message loss, message delay and link utilization. Moreover, implementing our scheme requires only a simple extension to any shortest-path routing protocol

Rootletin forms centriole-associated filaments and functions in centrosome cohesion

After duplication of the centriole pair during S phase, the centrosome functions as a single microtubule-organizing center until the onset of mitosis, when the duplicated centrosomes separate for bipolar spindle formation. The mechanisms regulating centrosome cohesion and separation during the cell cycle are not well understood. In this study, we analyze the protein rootletin as a candidate centrosome linker component. As shown by immunoelectron microscopy, endogenous rootletin forms striking fibers emanating from the proximal ends of centrioles. Moreover, rootletin interacts with C-Nap1, a protein previously implicated in centrosome cohesion. Similar to C-Nap1, rootletin is phosphorylated by Nek2 kinase and is displaced from centrosomes at the onset of mitosis. Whereas the overexpression of rootletin results in the formation of extensive fibers, small interfering RNA–mediated depletion of either rootletin or C-Nap1 causes centrosome splitting, suggesting that both proteins contribute to maintaining centrosome cohesion. The ability of rootletin to form centriole-associated fibers suggests a dynamic model for centrosome cohesion based on entangling filaments rather than continuous polymeric linkers

cGMP kinase I regulates glucagon release

© 2009 Leiss et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Blood glucose levels are tightly controlled by the two peptide hormones glucagon and insulin. At hyperglycaemia, B-cells in the islets of Langerhans secrete insulin, whereas islet A-cells release glucagon at hypoglycaemia to stimulate e.g. glucose production in the liver. Previously, an important role for nitric oxide (NO) in the development of type-1 diabetes mellitus (insulin dependent diabetes mellitus) was reported [1]. The mechanisms are unknown whereby NO modulates islet (mal-)function. We hypothesized that NO signals via the cGMP/cGMP kinase I (cGKI) pathway to modulate the endocrine control of blood glucose levels. Glucose homeostasis was studied in the conventional cGKI knockouts (KOs) and in cGKI rescue mice (RM) [2] in comparison to age- and littermat

DIVERSIFICATION OF PYRROLIZIDINE ALKALOIDS AS PLANT DEFENCE COMPOUNDS AND THEIR EFFECT ON Spodoptera exigua CELL LINES

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are part of the constitutive chemical defence against herbivores. PA composition in plants is strongly determined by the environment, mostly in an unpredictable way. In this study the ability of different Jacobaea tissue cultures types including shoot, root and complete plants to produce and diversify PAs was evaluated. Jacobaea vulgaris, Jacobaea aquatica and three hybrids of a cross were used representing different genotypes. The cultures were harvested after nine weeks and PA content was measured using LC-MS/MS. We observed that not only roots, as known so far, but also shoots were able to synthesise de-novo PAs. Significant differences in total concentration of PAs were observed with the lowest concentration in the roots, followed by shoots and the highest concentration in complete plants. Evaluation of PA composition showed that senecionine- and otosenine-like PAs were present in both roots and shoots while next to senecionine-like PAs, jacobine- and erucifoline-like PAs occurred in the shoots and complete plants. Among these PAs, jacobine and erucifoline are the most effective against insect herbivores as indicated by correlative studies. In this way, the above-ground plants that suffer from herbivore attack are better defended. To test this, the two PAs and other commercially available senecionine­like PAs including, senecionine, seneciphylline, retrorsine, and senkirkine were tested as free base and N-oxide forms. A range of concentrations from 0 70 ppm was added to Spodoptera exigua cell line. The result showed jacobine and erucifoline appeared to be the most toxic PAs proving their major role in plant defence against generalist herbivores. Senkirkine and seneciphylline showed a lower toxicity than jacobine and erucifoline but higher than retrorsine. Senecionine was not toxic at the tested concentrations. In all toxic PAs the free base form was more toxic than the N-oxide form. The results obtained give us an insight in what plant organs PAs are produced and how there are distributed over different plant organs, that have great relevance to understand their role in plant defense.Keywords: Jacobaea, Spodoptera exigua, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, diversification, toxicity

The Machine Learning Landscape of Top Taggers

Based on the established task of identifying boosted, hadronically decaying top quarks, we compare a wide range of modern machine learning approaches. Unlike most established methods they rely on low-level input, for instance calorimeter output. While their network architectures are vastly different, their performance is comparatively similar. In general, we find that these new approaches are extremely powerful and great fun.Comment: Yet another tagger included