SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS OF REFERENCE GROUND CONTROL FOR ESTIMATING LIDAR/INS BORESIGHT MISALIGNMENT

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging, also known as Airborne Laser Scanning – ALS) is a powerful technology for obtaining detailed and accurate terrain models as well as precise description of natural and man-made objects from airborne platforms, with excellent vertical accuracy. High performance integrated GPS/INS systems provide the necessary navigation information for the LiDAR data acquisition platform, and therefore, the proper calibration of the entire Mobile Mapping System (MMS) including individual and inter-sensor calibration, is essential to determine the accurate spatial  relationship of the involved sensors. In particular, the spatial relationship between the INS body frame and the LiDAR body frame is of high importance as it could be the largest source of systematic errors in airborne MMS. The feasibility of using urban areas, especially buildings, for boresight misalignment is still investigated. In this research, regularly or randomly distributed, photogrammetrically restituted buildings are used as reference surfaces, to investigate the impact of  the spatial distribution and the distance between the necessary ‘building-positions’ on boresight’s misalignment parameter estimation. The data used for performance evaluation included LiDAR point clouds Pothou, A. et al  777 and aerial images captured in a test area in London, Ohio, USA. The city includes mainly residential houses and a few bigger buildings

Differential Regulation of Growth-Promoting Signalling Pathways by E-Cadherin

Background: Despite the well-documented association between loss of E-cadherin and carcinogenesis, as well as the link between restoration of its expression and suppression of proliferation in carcinoma cells, the ability of E-cadherin to modulate growth-promoting cell signalling in normal epithelial cells is less well understood and frequently contradictory. The potential for E-cadherin to co-ordinate different proliferation-associated signalling pathways has yet to be fully explored. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using a normal human urothelial (NHU) cell culture system and following a calcium-switch approach, we demonstrate that the stability of NHU cell-cell contacts differentially regulates the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR)/Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase (ERK) and Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase (PI3-K)/AKT pathways. We show that stable cell contacts down-modulate the EGFR/ERK pathway, whilst inducing PI3-K/AKT activity, which transiently enhances cell growth at low density. Functional inactivation of E-cadherin interferes with the capacity of NHU cells to form stable calcium-mediated contacts, attenuates E-cadherin-mediated PI3-K/AKT induction and enhances NHU cell proliferation by allowing de-repression of the EGFR/ERK pathway and constitutive activation of beta-catenin-TCF signalling. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings provide evidence that E-cadherin can differentially and concurrently regulate specific growth-related signalling pathways in a context-specific fashion, with direct, functional consequences for cell proliferation and population growth. Our observations not only reveal a novel, complex role for E-cadherin in normal epithelial cell homeostasis and tissue regeneration, but also provide the basis for a more complete understanding of the consequences of E-cadherin loss on malignant transformation

Foreign direct investment : the case of Eastern Europe

The purpose of this study is to examine the market’s reaction to the announcement foreign direct investment in Eastern Europe for firms from various Western European countries and from Japan during the first merge wave after the Berlin Wall removal. The results indicated that there is either an insignificant negative reaction, or no consistent significant reaction to the announcements of joint ventures or direct foreign investment. U.S.S.R. seems to be the most risky of the target countries. The present conditions of uncertainty and high political economic risk appear to offset any favourable effects. The results may be period specific since there was an unusually high level of uncertainty surrounding the removal of the Wall.peer-reviewe

Ubiquinone-8 Stimulates Phagocytosis in Macrophages by Modulation of the Kinetics of the Fc Receptor

The effect of exogenous ubiquinone-8 (Q8) on IgG- and C3b-mediated phagocytosis of sensitized sheep red blood cells and of opsonized Staphylococcus aureus by macrophages was studied by morphological and quantitative methods. Q8 stimulated the initial events of phagocytosis, that is, attachment and ingestion, in which occupancy of the Fe receptor by IgG was shown to be of critical significance. The kinetics of competitive inhibition of phagocytosis of opsonized bacteria by macrophages by using Fe fragments suggested the intimate role of the kinetics of the Fe receptor in the initial events of phagocytosis and, further, the modulation of the kinetics of the Fe receptor by Q8 as the basis of enhanced phagocytosis by Q

Retinoic acid and androgen receptors combine to achieve tissue specific control of human prostatic transglutaminase expression: a novel regulatory network with broader significance

In the human prostate, expression of prostate-specific genes is known to be directly regulated by the androgen–induced stimulation of the androgen receptor (AR). However, less is known about the expression control of the prostate-restricted TGM4 (hTGP) gene. In the present study we demonstrate that the regulation of the hTGP gene depends mainly on retinoic acid (RA). We provide evidence that the retinoic acid receptor gamma (RAR-G) plays a major role in the regulation of the hTGP gene and that presence of the AR, but not its transcriptional transactivation activity, is critical for hTGP transcription. RA and androgen responsive elements (RARE and ARE) were mapped to the hTGP promoter by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), which also indicated that the active ARE and RARE sites were adjacent, suggesting that the antagonistic effect of androgen and RA is related to the relative position of binding sites. Publicly available AR and RAR ChIP-seq data was used to find gene potentially regulated by AR and RAR. Four of these genes (CDCA7L, CDK6, BTG1 and SAMD3) were tested for RAR and AR binding and two of them (CDCA7L and CDK6) proved to be antagonistically regulated by androgens and RA confirming that this regulation is not particular of hTGP

Attentive Learning of Sequential Handwriting Movements: A Neural Network Model

Defense Advanced research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-0409, N00014-92-J-1309); National Science Foundation (IRI-97-20333); National Institutes of Health (I-R29-DC02952-01)

Function of Escherichia coli MsbA, an essential ABC family transporter, in lipid A and phospholipid biosynthesis

The Escherichia coli msbA gene, first identified as a multicopy suppressor of htrB mutations, has been proposed to transport nascent core-lipid A molecules across the inner membrane (Polissi, A., and Georgopoulos, C. (1996) Mol. Microbiol. 20, 1221-1233). msbA is an essential E. coli gene with high sequence similarity to mammalian Mdr proteins and certain types of bacterial ABC transporters. htrB is required for growth above 32 degreesC and encodes the lauroyltransferase that acts after Kdo addition during lipid A biosynthesis (Clementz, T., Bednarski, J., and Raetz, C. R. H. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 12095-12102). By using a quantitative new 32Pi labeling technique, we demonstrate that hexa-acylated species of lipid A predominate in the outer membranes of wild type E. coli labeled for several generations at 42 degreesC. In contrast, in htrB mutants shifted to 42 degreesC for 3 h, tetra-acylated lipid A species and glycerophospholipids accumulate in the inner membrane. Extra copies of the cloned msbA gene restore the ability of htrB mutants to grow at 42 degreesC, but they do not increase the extent of lipid A acylation. However, a significant fraction of the tetra-acylated lipid A species that accumulate in htrB mutants are transported to the outer membrane in the presence of extra copies of msbA. E. coli strains in which msbA synthesis is selectively shut off at 42 degreesC accumulate hexa-acylated lipid A and glycerophospholipids in their inner membranes. Our results support the view that MsbA plays a role in lipid A and possibly glycerophospholipid transport. The tetra-acylated lipid A precursors that accumulate in htrB mutants may not be transported as efficiently by MsbA as are penta- or hexa-acylated lipid A species

Two-dimensional discrete wavelet analysis of multiparticle event topology in heavy ion collisions

The event-by-event analysis of multiparticle production in high energy hadron and nuclei collisions can be performed using the discrete wavelet transformation. The ring-like and jet-like structures in two-dimensional angular histograms are well extracted by wavelet analysis. For the first time the method is applied to the jet-like events with background simulated by event generators, which are developed to describe nucleus-nucleus collisions at LHC energies. The jet positions are located quite well by the discrete wavelet transformation of angular particle distribution even in presence of strong background.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Modulation of human macrophage responses to mycobacterium tuberculosis by silver nanoparticles of different size and surface modification

Exposure to silver nanoparticles (AgNP) used in consumer products carries potential health risks including increased susceptibility to infectious pathogens. Systematic assessments of antimicrobial macrophage immune responses in the context of AgNP exposure are important because uptake of AgNP by macrophages may lead to alterations of innate immune cell functions. In this study we examined the effects of exposure to AgNP with different particle sizes (20 and 110 nm diameters) and surface chemistry (citrate or polyvinlypyrrolidone capping) on cellular toxicity and innate immune responses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) by human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM). Exposures of MDM to AgNP significantly reduced cellular viability, increased IL8 and decreased IL10 mRNA expression. Exposure of M.tb-infected MDM to AgNP suppressed M.tb-induced expression of IL1B, IL10, and TNFA mRNA. Furthermore, M.tb-induced IL-1β, a cytokine critical for host resistance to M.tb, was inhibited by AgNP but not by carbon black particles indicating that the observed immunosuppressive effects of AgNP are particle specific. Suppressive effects of AgNP on the M.tb-induced host immune responses were in part due to AgNP-mediated interferences with the TLR signaling pathways that culminate in the activation of the transcription factor NF-κB. AgNP exposure suppressed M.tb-induced expression of a subset of NF-κB mediated genes (CSF2, CSF3, IFNG, IL1A, IL1B, IL6, IL10, TNFA, NFKB1A). In addition, AgNP exposure increased the expression of HSPA1A mRNA and the corresponding stress-induced Hsp72 protein. Up-regulation of Hsp72 by AgNP can suppress M.tb-induced NF-κB activation and host immune responses. The observed ability of AgNP to modulate infectious pathogen-induced immune responses has important public health implications