A Second-Order Finite Volume Method that Reduces Numerical Shockwave Anomalies in One Dimension

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106462/1/AIAA2013-2699.pd

Raman signatures of classical and quantum phases in coupled dots: A theoretical prediction

We study electron molecules in realistic vertically coupled quantum dots in a strong magnetic field. Computing the energy spectrum, pair correlation functions, and dynamical form factor as a function of inter-dot coupling via diagonalization of the many-body Hamiltonian, we identify structural transitions between different phases, some of which do not have a classical counterpart. The calculated Raman cross section shows how such phases can be experimentally singled out.Comment: 9 pages, 2 postscript figures, 1 colour postscript figure, Latex 2e, Europhysics Letters style and epsfig macros. Submitted to Europhysics Letter

PASIV - A pooled approach-based workflow to overcome toxicity-induced Design of Experiments failures and inefficiencies

We present here a newly developed workflow - which we have called PASIV - designed to provide a solution to a practical problem with Design of Experiments methodology (DoE): i.e. what can be done if the scoping phase of the DoE cycle is severely hampered by burden and toxicity issues (either caused by the metabolite or an intermediary) making it unreliable or impossible to proceed to the screening phase? PASIV - standing for Pooled Approach, Screening, Identification and Visualization - was designed so the (viable) region of interest can be made to appear through an interplay between biology and software. This was achieved by combining multiplex construction in a pooled approach (one pot reaction) with a viability assay, and with a range of bioinformatic tools (including a novel construct matching tool). PASIV was tested on the exemplar of the lycopene pathway - under stressful constitutive expression yielding a region of interest with comparatively stronger producers

Removing the bottleneck : introducing cMatch - a lightweight tool for construct-matching in synthetic biology

We present a software tool, called cMatch, to reconstruct and identify synthetic genetic constructs from their sequences, or a set of sub-sequences - based on two practical pieces of information: their modular structure, and libraries of components. Although developed for combinatorial pathway engineering problems and addressing their quality control (QC) bottleneck, cMatch is not restricted to these applications. QC takes place post assembly, transformation and growth. It has a simple goal, to verify that the genetic material contained in a cell matches what was intended to be built - and when it is not the case, to locate the discrepancies and estimate their severity. In terms ofreproducibility/reliability, the QC step is crucial. Failure at this step requires repetition of the construction and/or sequencing steps. When performed manually or semi-manually QC is an extremely time-consuming, error prone process, which scales very poorly with the number of constructs and their complexity. To make QC frictionless and more reliable, cMatch performs an operation we have called ‘construct-matching’ and automates it. Construct-matching is more thorough than simple sequence-matching, as it matches at the functional level-and quantifies the matching at the individual component level and across thewhole construct

Multimodal evaluation for medical image segmentation

This paper is a joint effort between five institutionsthat introduces several novel similarity measures andcombines them to carry out a multimodal segmentationevaluation. The new similarity measures proposed arebased on the location and the intensity values of themisclassified voxels as well as on the connectivity andthe boundaries of the segmented data. We showexperimentally that the combination of these measuresimprove the quality of the evaluation. The study that weshow here has been carried out using four differentsegmentation methods from four different labs applied toa MRI simulated dataset of the brain. We claim that ournew measures improve the robustness of the evaluation andprovides better understanding about the differencebetween segmentation methods

Motility of adherent hemocytes as a potential marker of immunocompetence and immunotoxic effects in bivalves

International audienc

Bioturbation and soil resistance to wind erosion in Southern Tunisia

International audienceWind erosion is a major threat to the sustainability of arid and semi-arid ecosystems. In these environments, biological soil crusts positively impact soil resistance to erosion. Less is known, however, on the impact of soil bioturbation by animals. In Southern Tunisia, bioturbation is mainly carried out by termites, ants and rodents which deposit mineral and organic components on the soil surface in the form of soil sheetings for termites or as soil heaps for ants and rodents. We here question the properties of these soils and measure their resistance to wind erosion. We showed that soil sheetings are made of sand grains linked together by bridges of organic matter, clay particles and other small size minerals such as carbonates and gypsum. The stability of these aggregates is comparable to that of biological soil crusts, despite their very different organizations. Conversely, the soil excavated by ants and rodents mainly consists in individual sand grains, which are impoverished in organic carbon and prone to wind erosion. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of termites, as key soil bioturbator, on the dynamics of soil aggregates in Southern Tunisia. It also shows that they have an opposite effect than that of ants and rodents on the resistance of soil to erosion

CD36 Is Significantly Correlated with Adipophilin in Human Carotid Lesions and Inversely Correlated with Plasma ApoAI

OxLDL uptake and cholesterol efflux inhibition in macrophages play a key role in atherosclerotic plaque formation, rupture, and thrombotic ischemia. This study investigates genes implicated in OxLDL uptake (CD36, SRA), cholesterol efflux inhibition (adipophilin, ADFP), and inflammatory recruitments of leukocytes (IL-8) in plaque lesion areas (PLAs) compared to nonplaque lesion areas (NPLAs) in human carotid endarterectomy specimens. Gene and protein expressions were assayed using quantitative PCR and quantitative immunohistochemistry. Pearson tests were used to investigate potential correlation between (a) different gene expressions and (b) gene expression and patient's plasma constituents. CD36, SRA, ADFP, and IL-8 were shown to be significantly more expressed in PLA compared to NPLA. In PLA, a significant correlation was observed between CD36, SRA, ADFP, and IL-8 mRNA levels. Moreover, CD36 expression level was significantly inversely correlated to plasma marker ApoAI. The above investigated genes/proteins may play a key role in the maturation of atherosclerotic lesions. Copyright (C) 2008 Sophie Collot-Teixeira et al