622 research outputs found
Understanding Link Dynamics in Wireless Sensor Networks with Dynamically Steerable Directional Antennas
Abstract. By radiating the power in the direction of choice, electronicallyswitched directional (ESD) antennas can reduce network contention and avoid packet loss. There exists some ESD antennas for wireless sensor networks, but so far researchers have mainly evaluated their directionality. There are no studies regarding the link dynamics of ESD antennas, in particular not for indoor deployments and other scenarios where nodes are not necessarily in line of sight. Our long-term experiments confirm that previous findings that have demonstrated the dependence of angleof-arrival on channel frequency also hold for directional transmissions with ESD antennas. This is important for the design of protocols for wireless sensor networks with ESD antennas: the best antenna direction, i.e., the direction that leads to the highest packet reception rate and signal strength at the receiver, is not stable but varies over time and with the selected IEEE 802.15.4 channel. As this requires protocols to incorporate some form of adaptation, we present an intentionally simple and yet efficient mechanism for selecting the best antenna direction at run-time with an energy overhead below 2 % compared to standard omni-directional transmissions.
The ghrelin paradox in the control of equine chondrocyte function: The good and the bad
Increasing evidence suggests a role for ghrelin in the control of articular inflammatory diseases like osteoarthritis (OA). In the present study we examined the ability of ghrelin to counteract LPS-induced necrosis and apoptosis of chondrocytes and the involvement of GH secretagogue receptor (GHS-R)1a in the protective action of ghrelin. The effects of ghrelin (10-7-10-11\u202fmol/L) on equine primary cultured chondrocytes viability and necrosis in basal conditions and under LPS treatment (100\u202fng/ml) were detected by using both acridine orange/propidium iodide staining and annexin-5/propidium iodide staining. The presence of GHS-R1a on chondrocytes was detected by Western Blot. The involvement of the GHS-R1a in the ghrelin effect against LPS-induced cytotoxicity was examined by pretreating chondrocytes with D-Lys3-GHRP-6, a specific GHS-R1a antagonist, and by using des-acyl ghrelin (DAG, 10-7and 10-9\u202fmol/L) which did not recognize the GHS-R 1a. Low ghrelin concentrations reduced chondrocyte viability whereas 10-7\u202fmol/L ghrelin protects against LPS-induced cellular damage. The protective effect of ghrelin depends on the interaction with the GHS-R1a since it is significantly reduced by D-Lys3-GHRP-6. The negative action of ghrelin involves caspase activation and could be due to an interaction with a GHS-R type different from the GHS-R1a recognized by both low ghrelin concentrations and DAG. DAG, in fact, induces a dose-dependent decrease in chondrocyte viability and exacerbates LPS-induced damage. These data indicate that ghrelin protects chondrocytes against LPS-induced damage via interaction with GHS-R1a and suggest the potential utility of local GHS-R1a agonist administration to treat articular inflammatory diseases such as OA
Perspective: How good is DFT for water?
Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT) has become established as an
indispensable tool for investigating aqueous systems of all kinds, including
those important in chemistry, surface science, biology and the earth sciences.
Nevertheless, many widely used approximations for the exchange-correlation (XC)
functional describe the properties of pure water systems with an accuracy that
is not fully satisfactory. The explicit inclusion of dispersion interactions
generally improves the description, but there remain large disagreements
between the predictions of different dispersion-inclusive methods. We present
here a review of DFT work on water clusters, ice structures and liquid water,
with the aim of elucidating how the strengths and weaknesses of different XC
approximations manifest themselves across this variety of water systems. Our
review highlights the crucial role of dispersion in describing the delicate
balance between compact and extended structures of many different water
systems, including the liquid. By referring to a wide range of published work,
we argue that the correct description of exchange-overlap interactions is also
extremely important, so that the choice of semi-local or hybrid functional
employed in dispersion-inclusive methods is crucial. The origins and
consequences of beyond-2-body errors of approximate XC functionals are noted,
and we also discuss the substantial differences between different
representations of dispersion. We propose a simple numerical scoring system
that rates the performance of different XC functionals in describing water
systems, and we suggest possible future developments
Genetic variability of the ovine αs1-casein
The casein genetic polymorphisms are important for their effects on quantitative traits and technological properties of milk. At the αs1-casein (CSN1S1) level three genetic variants were characterised (A, C, D) in ovine milk (Ferranti et al., 1995)
Portable implementation of a quantum thermal bath for molecular dynamics simulations
Recently, Dammak and coworkers (H. Dammak, Y. Chalopin, M. Laroche, M.
Hayoun, and J.J. Greffet. Quantumthermal bath for molecular dynamics
simulation. Phys. Rev. Lett., 103:190601, 2009.) proposed that the quantum
statistics of vibrations in condensed systems at low temperature could be
simulated by running molecular dynamics simulations in the presence of a
colored noise with an appropriate power spectral density. In the present
contribution, we show how this method can be implemented in a flexible manner
and at a low computational cost by synthesizing the corresponding noise 'on the
fly'. The proposed algorithm is tested for a simple harmonic chain as well as
for a more realistic model of aluminium crystal. The energy and Debye-Waller
factor are shown to be in good agreement with those obtained from harmonic
approximations based on the phonon spectrum of the systems. The limitations of
the method associated with anharmonic effects are also briefly discussed. Some
perspectives for disordered materials and heat transfer are considered.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Statistical Physic
Effects of deposition dynamics on epitaxial growth
The dynamic effects, such as the steering and the screening effects during
deposition, on an epitaxial growth (Cu/Cu(001)), is studied by kinetic Monte
Carlo simulation that incorporates molecular dynamic simulation to rigorously
take the interaction of the deposited atom with the substrate atoms into
account.
We find three characteristic features of the surface morphology developed by
grazing angle deposition:
(1) enhanced surface roughness, (2) asymmetric mound, and (3) asymmetric
slopes of mound sides.
Regarding their dependence on both deposition angle and substrate
temperature, a reasonable agreement of the simulated results with the previous
experimental ones is found.
The characteristic growth features by grazing angle deposition are mainly
caused by the inhomogeneous deposition flux due to the steering and screening
effects, where the steering effects play the major role rather than the
screening effects.
Newly observed in the present simulation is that the side of mound in each
direction is composed of various facets instead of all being in one selected
mound angle even if the slope selection is attained, and that the slope
selection does not necessarily mean the facet selection.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure
Impact-driven effects in thin-film growth: steering and transient mobility at the Ag(110) surface
Low-energy atomic impacts on the Ag(110) surface are investigated by
molecular dynamics simulations based on reliable many-body semiempirical
potentials. Trajectory deflections (steering) caused by the atom-surface
interaction are observed, together with impact-following, transient-mobility
effects. Such processes are quantitatively analysed and their dependence on the
initial kinetic energy and on the impinging direction is discussed. A clear
influence of the surface anisotropy on both steering and transient mobility
effects is revealed by our simulations for the simple isolated-atom case and in
the submonolayer-growth regime. For the latter case, we illustrate how steering
and transient mobility affect the film morphology at the nanoscale.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure
Short communication: Carora cattle shows high variability at αsl-casein
The objective of this study was to analyze the genetic variability of milk proteins of the Carora, a shorthorned
Bos taurus cattle breed in Venezuela and in other Southern American countries that is primarily used for milk production. A total of 184 individual milk samples were collected from Carora cattle in 5 herds in Venezuela. The milk protein genes alphas1-casein (CN) (CSN1S1), alphas2-CN (CSN2), beta-CN (CSN3), and beta-lactoglobulin (LGB) were typed at the protein level by isoelectrofocusing. It was necessary to further analyze CSN1S1 at the DNA level by a PCR-based method to distinguish CSN1S1*G from B. Increased variation
was found in particular at the CSN1S1 gene, where 4
variants were identified. The predominant variant was
CSN1S1*B (frequency = 0.8). The second most common
CSN1S1 variant was CSN1S1*G (0.101), followed by CSN1S1*C (0.082). Moreover, a new isoelectrofocusing
pattern was identified, which may result from a novel CSN1S1 variant, named CSN1S1*I, migrating at an intermediate position between CSN1S1*B and CSN1S1*C. Six cows carried the variant at the heterozygous condition. For the other loci, predominance of CSN2*A2 (0.764), CSN3*B (0.609), and LGB*B (0.592) was observed. Haplotype frequencies (AF) at the CSN1S1-CSN2-CSN3 complex were also estimated by
taking association into account. Only 7 haplotypes showed AF values >0.05, accounting for a cumulative frequency of 0.944. The predominant haplotype was B-A2-B (frequency = 0.418), followed by B-A2-A (0.213). The occurrence of the G variant is at a rather high frequency, which is of interest for selection within the Carora breed because of the negative association of this variant with the synthesis of the specific protein. From a cheese-making point of view, this variant is associated with improved milk-clotting parameters but is negatively associated with cheese ripening. Thus, milk protein typing should be routinely carried out in the breed, with particular emphasis on using a DNA test to detect the CSN1S*G variant. The CSN1S*G allele is likely to have descended from the Brown Swiss, which contributed to the Carora breed and also carries this allele
Feedback Control Goes Wireless: Guaranteed Stability over Low-power Multi-hop Networks
Closing feedback loops fast and over long distances is key to emerging
applications; for example, robot motion control and swarm coordination require
update intervals of tens of milliseconds. Low-power wireless technology is
preferred for its low cost, small form factor, and flexibility, especially if
the devices support multi-hop communication. So far, however, feedback control
over wireless multi-hop networks has only been shown for update intervals on
the order of seconds. This paper presents a wireless embedded system that tames
imperfections impairing control performance (e.g., jitter and message loss),
and a control design that exploits the essential properties of this system to
provably guarantee closed-loop stability for physical processes with linear
time-invariant dynamics. Using experiments on a cyber-physical testbed with 20
wireless nodes and multiple cart-pole systems, we are the first to demonstrate
and evaluate feedback control and coordination over wireless multi-hop networks
for update intervals of 20 to 50 milliseconds.Comment: Accepted final version to appear in: 10th ACM/IEEE International
Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (with CPS-IoT Week 2019) (ICCPS '19),
April 16--18, 2019, Montreal, QC, Canad
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