Application of photosynthetic N2-fixing cyanobacteria to the CELSS program

Commercially available air lift fermentors were used to simultaneously monitor biomass production, N2-fixation, photosynthesis, respiration, and sensitivity to oxidative damage during growth under various nutritional and light regimes, to establish a data base for the integration of these organisms into a Closed Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) program. Certain cyanobacterial species have the unique ability to reduce atmospheric N2 to organic nitrogen. These organisms combine the ease of cultivation characteristics of prokaryotes with the fully developed photosynthetic apparatus of higher plants. This, along with their ability to adapt to changes in their environment by modulation of certain biochemical pathways, make them attractive candidates for incorporation into the CELSS program

Transverse instabilities of multiple vortex chains in superconductor-ferromagnet bilayers

Using scanning tunneling microscopy and Ginzburg-Landau simulations we explore vortex configurations in magnetically coupled NbSe$_2$-Permalloy superconductor-ferromagnet bilayer. The Permalloy film with stripe domain structure induces periodic local magnetic induction in the superconductor creating a series of pinning-antipinning channels for externally added magnetic flux quanta. Such laterally confined Abrikosov vortices form quasi-1D arrays (chains). The transitions between multichain states occur through propagation of kinks at the intermediate fields. At high fields we show that the system becomes non-linear due to a change in both the number of vortices and the confining potential. The longitudinal instabilities of the resulting vortex structures lead to vortices `levitating' in the anti-pinning channels.Comment: accepted in PRB-Rapid

РОД GYPSOPHILA (CARYOPHYLLACEAE) В АЛТАЙСКОЙ ГОРНОЙ СТРАНЕ

Diversity, synonymy and distribution of species of Gypsophila L. in Altai Mountain Country is revised. Original key to the species determination is presented. The synopsis of Gypsophila includes 10 species from 3 subgenera and 5 sections. The name G. desertorum is typified.Приведен видовой состав, распространение, а также синонимика для видов рода Gypsophila L., произрастающих на территории Алтайской горной страны. Составлен оригинальный ключ для определения видов и конспект рода Gypsophila, включающий 10 видов, относящихся к 3 подродам и 5 секциям. Типифицировано название G. desertorum

Респираторная нейромиопатия как важный компонент полинейромиопатии критических состояний

ABSTRACT. The attention of neurologists, neurosurgeons, intensive care physicians has been attracted recently by the new PICS (Post Intensive Care Syndrome) symptom complex (PIC) or PIC syndrome — Post Intensive Care Syndrome. One of the most severe options for PIT syndrome is critical illness polymyoneuropathy (CIP). Polyneuropathy (Critical illness polyneuropathies, or CIP) and myopathy (Critical illness myopathies, or CIM) are common complications of critical care. Several syndromes of muscle weakness are combined under the term «Intensive care unit-acquired weakness» or ICUAW. Respiratory neuropathy is a special case of PMCS, where respiratory failure is associated with damage to the neuromuscular apparatus of external respiration. The clinical consequence of respiratory neuropathy is an unsuccessful weaning from ventilator and a long stay of patients in ICU. This systematic review of the literature is an analysis of publications devoted to the main pathogenetic mechanisms of the development of CIP and respiratory neuropathy, diagnostic methods, new therapeutic approaches to the treatment of ICU patients with respiratory neuropathy. The special attention is given to the problem of acute muscle wasting, diagnosis and correction of proteinenergy metabolism disorders in patients with respiratory neuropathy.РЕЗЮМЕ. В последние годы внимание неврологов, нейрохирургов и анестезиологов-реаниматологов привлекает новый симптомокомплекс PICS (Post Intensive Care Syndrome) (англ.), или ПИТ-синдром — синдром «После интенсивной терапии». Одним из наиболее тяжелых вариантов течения ПИТ- синдрома является полимионейропатия критических состояний (ПМКС). Полинейропатия (Critical illness polyneuropathies, или CIP) и миопатия (Critical illness myopathies, или CIМ) критических со- стояний являются общими осложнениями тяжелой системной воспалительной реакции и полиорганной дисфункции. Несколько синдромов мышечной слабости объединены под термином «слабость, приобретенная в отделении реанимации и интенсивной терапии (ОРИТ)» (Intensive care unit-acquired weakness, или ICUAW). Респираторная нейромиопатия является компонентом ПМКС, в котором на первое место выходит проблема дыхательной недостаточности, связанной с поражением, в первую очередь, нервно-мышечного аппарата внешнего дыхания. Клиническим последствием респираторной нейропатии является неудачное отлучение от искусственной вентиляции легких и длительное нахождение пациента в ОРИТ. Данный систематический обзор литературы представляет собой анализ публикаций, посвященных основным патогенетическим механизмам развития CIP и респираторной нейромиопатии, методам диагностики и новым терапевтическим подходам к лечению пациентов ОРИТ с респираторной нейромиопатией. Особое внимание об- ращено на проблему острого мышечного истощения, диагностику и коррекцию расстройств белково-энергетического обмена у пациентов с респираторной нейромиопатией

Personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries

Widespread use of the Internet has resulted in digital libraries that are increasingly used by diverse communities of users for diverse purposes and in which sharing and collaboration have become important social elements. As such libraries become commonplace, as their contents and services become more varied, and as their patrons become more experienced with computer technology, users will expect more sophisticated services from these libraries. A simple search function, normally an integral part of any digital library, increasingly leads to user frustration as user needs become more complex and as the volume of managed information increases. Proactive digital libraries, where the library evolves from being passive and untailored, are seen as offering great potential for addressing and overcoming these issues and include techniques such as personalisation and recommender systems. In this paper, following on from the DELOS/NSF Working Group on Personalisation and Recommender Systems for Digital Libraries, which met and reported during 2003, we present some background material on the scope of personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries. We then outline the working group’s vision for the evolution of digital libraries and the role that personalisation and recommender systems will play, and we present a series of research challenges and specific recommendations and research priorities for the field

Nonmonotonic Decay of Nonequilibrium Polariton Condensate in Direct-Gap Semiconductors

Time evolution of a nonequilibrium polariton condensate has been studied in the framework of a microscopic approach. It has been shown that due to polariton-polariton scattering a significant condensate depletion takes place in a comparatively short time interval. The condensate decay occurs in the form of multiple echo signals. Distribution-function dynamics of noncondensate polaritons have been investigated. It has been shown that at the initial stage of evolution the distribution function has the form of a bell. Then oscillations arise in the contour of the distribution function, which further transform into small chaotic ripples. The appearance of a short-wavelength wing of the distribution function has been demonstrated. We have pointed out the enhancement and then partial extinction of the sharp extra peak arising within the time interval characterized by small values of polariton condensate density and its relatively slow changes.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX 2.09; in press in PR

Accessibility-based reranking in multimedia search engines

Traditional multimedia search engines retrieve results based mostly on the query submitted by the user, or using a log of previous searches to provide personalized results, while not considering the accessibility of the results for users with vision or other types of impairments. In this paper, a novel approach is presented which incorporates the accessibility of images for users with various vision impairments, such as color blindness, cataract and glaucoma, in order to rerank the results of an image search engine. The accessibility of individual images is measured through the use of vision simulation filters. Multi-objective optimization techniques utilizing the image accessibility scores are used to handle users with multiple vision impairments, while the impairment profile of a specific user is used to select one from the Pareto-optimal solutions. The proposed approach has been tested with two image datasets, using both simulated and real impaired users, and the results verify its applicability. Although the proposed method has been used for vision accessibility-based reranking, it can also be extended for other types of personalization context

Semantic distillation: a method for clustering objects by their contextual specificity

Techniques for data-mining, latent semantic analysis, contextual search of databases, etc. have long ago been developed by computer scientists working on information retrieval (IR). Experimental scientists, from all disciplines, having to analyse large collections of raw experimental data (astronomical, physical, biological, etc.) have developed powerful methods for their statistical analysis and for clustering, categorising, and classifying objects. Finally, physicists have developed a theory of quantum measurement, unifying the logical, algebraic, and probabilistic aspects of queries into a single formalism. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first to show that when formulated at an abstract level, problems from IR, from statistical data analysis, and from physical measurement theories are very similar and hence can profitably be cross-fertilised, and, secondly, to propose a novel method of fuzzy hierarchical clustering, termed \textit{semantic distillation} -- strongly inspired from the theory of quantum measurement --, we developed to analyse raw data coming from various types of experiments on DNA arrays. We illustrate the method by analysing DNA arrays experiments and clustering the genes of the array according to their specificity.Comment: Accepted for publication in Studies in Computational Intelligence, Springer-Verla