Mentat: An object-oriented macro data flow system

Mentat, an object-oriented macro data flow system designed to facilitate parallelism in distributed systems, is presented. The macro data flow model is a model of computation similar to the data flow model with two principal differences: the computational complexity of the actors is much greater than in traditional data flow systems, and there are persistent actors that maintain state information between executions. Mentat is a system that combines the object-oriented programming paradigm and the macro data flow model of computation. Mentat programs use a dynamic structure called a future list to represent the future of computations

Spin-Flipping Half Vortex in a Macroscopic Polariton Spinor Ring Condensate

We report the observation of vorticity in a macroscopic Bose-Einstein condensate of polaritons in a ring geometry. Because it is a spinor condensate, the elementary excitations are "half vortices" in which there is a phase rotation of $\pi$ in connection with a polarization vector rotation of $\pi$ around a closed path. This is clearly seen in the experimental observations of the polarization rotation around the ring. In the ring geometry, a new type of half vortex is allowed in which the handedness of the spin flips from one side of the ring to the other, in addition to the rotation of the linear polarization component; such a state is not allowed in a simply-connected geometry. Theoretical calculation of the energy of this state shows that when many-body interactions are taken into account, it is lower in energy than a simple half vortex. The direction of circulation of the flow around the ring fluctuates randomly between clockwise and counterclockwise from one shot to the next; this corresponds to spontaneous breaking of time-reversal symmetry in the system. These new, macroscopic polariton ring condensates allow for the possibility of direct control of the vorticity of the condensate.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, including supplemental information; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) (2015

Biomarker Exploration in Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells for Monitoring Sulforaphane Treatment Responses in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders with no drugs treating the core symptoms and no validated biomarkers for clinical use. The multi-functional phytochemical sulforaphane affects many of the biochemical abnormalities associated with ASD. We investigated potential molecular markers from three ASD-associated physiological pathways that can be affected by sulforaphane: redox metabolism/oxidative stress; heat shock response; and immune dysregulation/inflammation, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors and patients with ASD. We first analyzed the mRNA levels of selected molecular markers in response to sulforaphane ex vivo treatment in PBMCs from healthy donors by real-time quantitative PCR. All of the tested markers showed quantifiability, accuracy and reproducibility. We then compared the expression levels of those markers in PBMCs taken from ASD patients in response to orally-delivered sulforaphane. The mRNA levels of cytoprotective enzymes (NQO1, HO-1, AKR1C1), and heat shock proteins (HSP27 and HSP70), increased. Conversely, mRNA levels of pro-inflammatory markers (IL-6, IL-1beta, COX-2 and TNF-alpha) decreased. Individually none is sufficiently specific or sensitive, but when grouped by function as two panels, these biomarkers show promise for monitoring pharmacodynamic responses to sulforaphane in both healthy and autistic humans, and providing guidance for biomedical interventions

The gold standard: accurate stellar and planetary parameters for eight Kepler M dwarf systems enabled by parallaxes

We report parallaxes and proper motions from the Hawaii Infrared Parallax Program for eight nearby M dwarf stars with transiting exoplanets discovered by Kepler. We combine our directly measured distances with mass-luminosity and radius–luminosity relationships to significantly improve constraints on the host stars’ properties. Our astrometry enables the identification of wide stellar companions to the planet hosts. Within our limited sample, all the multi-transiting planet hosts (three of three) appear to be single stars, while nearly all (four of five) of the systems with a single detected planet have wide stellar companions. By applying strict priors on average stellar density from our updated radius and mass in our transit fitting analysis, we measure the eccentricity probability distributions for each transiting planet. Planets in single-star systems tend to have smaller eccentricities than those in binaries, although this difference is not significant in our small sample. In the case of Kepler-42bcd, where the eccentricities are known to be ≃0, we demonstrate that such systems can serve as powerful tests of M dwarf evolutionary models by working in L⋆ − ρ⋆ space. The transit-fit density for Kepler- 42bcd is inconsistent with model predictions at 2.1σ (22%), but matches more empirical estimates at 0.2σ (2%), consistent with earlier results showing model radii of M dwarfs are underinflated. Gaia will provide high-precision parallaxes for the entire Kepler M dwarf sample, and TESS will identify more planets transiting nearby, late-type stars, enabling significant improvements in our understanding of the eccentricity distribution of small planets and the parameters of late-type dwarfs.Support for Program number HST-HF2-51364.001-A was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555.Some of the data presented in this paper were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. Support for MAST for non-HST data is provided by the NASA Office of Space Science via grant NNX09AF08G and by other grants and contracts. This paper includes data collected by the Kepler mission. Funding for the Kepler mission is provided by the NASA Science Mission directorate. The authors acknowledge the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin for providing HPC resources that have contributed to the research results reported within this paper. URL: http://www.tacc.utexas.edu. (HST-HF2-51364.001-A - NASA through Space Telescope Science Institute; NAS5-26555 - NASA; NNX09AF08G - NASA Office of Space Science; NASA Science Mission directorate

Effects of HDM2 antagonism on sunitinib resistance, p53 activation, SDF-1 induction, and tumor infiltration by CD11b+/Gr-1+ myeloid derived suppressor cells

Background: The studies reported herein were undertaken to determine if the angiostatic function of p53 could be exploited as an adjunct to VEGF-targeted therapy in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Methods: Nude/beige mice bearing human RCC xenografts were treated with various combinations of sunitinib and the HDM2 antagonist MI-319. Tumors were excised at various time points before and during treatment and analyzed by western blot and IHC for evidence of p53 activation and function. Results: Sunitinib treatment increased p53 levels in RCC xenografts and transiently induced the expression of p21waf1, Noxa, and HDM2, the levels of which subsequently declined to baseline (or undetectable) with the emergence of sunitinib resistance. The development of resistance and the suppression of p53-dependent gene expression temporally correlated with the induction of the p53 antagonist HDMX. The concurrent administration of MI-319 markedly increased the antitumor and anti-angiogenic activities of sunitinib and led to sustained p53-dependent gene expression. It also suppressed the expression of the chemokine SDF-1 (CXCL12) and the influx of CD11b+/Gr-1+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) otherwise induced by sunitinib. Although p53 knockdown markedly reduced the production of the angiostatic peptide endostatin, the production of endostatin was not augmented by MI-319 treatment. Conclusions: The evasion of p53 function (possibly through the expression of HDMX) is an essential element in the development of resistance to VEGF-targeted therapy in RCC. The maintenance of p53 function through the concurrent administration of an HDM2 antagonist is an effective means of delaying or preventing the development of resistance

Delay-Guaranteed Admission Control for LAA Coexisting with WiFi

© 2012 IEEE. Licensed-assisted-access (LAA) is used to extend the LTE link into the unlicensed band. How to guarantee the quality-of-service (QoS) for LTE devices in the unlicensed band is a challenging problem due to the listen-before-talk contention access in 5-GHz unlicensed bands. In this letter, we quantitatively analyze the medium access control delay for tagged LAA eNBs and propose a delay-guaranteed admission control scheme. We consider the freezing time of busy slots caused by collision or successful transmission, and introduce the exponential backoff mechanism for delay analysis. Validated by simulation results, our method provides important insights into the system admission performance and fairness of access