The transformation of irreducible tensor operators under spherical functions

The irreducible tensor operators and their tensor products employing Racah algebra are studied. Transformation procedure of the coordinate system operators act on are introduced. The rotation matrices and their parametrization by the spherical coordinates of vector in the fixed and rotated coordinate systems are determined. A new way of calculation of the irreducible coupled tensor product matrix elements is suggested. As an example, the proposed technique is applied for the matrix element construction for two electrons in a field of a fixed nucleus.Comment: To appear in Int. J. Theor. Phy

Evaluation of extra-virgin olive oils shelf life using an electronic tongue-chemometric approach

Physicochemical quality parameters, olfactory and gustatoryretronasal positive sensations of extra-virgin olive oils vary during storage leading to a decrease in the overall quality. Olive oil quality decline may prevent the compliance of olive oil quality with labeling and significantly reduce shelf life, resulting in important economic losses and negatively condition the consumer confidence. The feasibility of applying an electronic tongue to assess olive oils usual commercial light storage conditions and storage time was evaluated and compared with the discrimination potential of physicochemical or positive olfactory/gustatory sensorial parameters. Linear discriminant models, based on subsets of 58 electronic tongue sensor signals, selected by the meta-heuristic simulated annealing variable selection algorithm, allowed the correct classification of olive oils according to the light exposition conditions and/or storage time (sensitivities and specificities for leave-one-out cross-validation: 8296 %). The predictive performance of the E-tongue approach was further evaluated using an external independent dataset selected using the KennardStone algorithm and, in general, better classification rates (sensitivities and specificities for external dataset: 67100 %) were obtained compared to those achieved using physicochemical or sensorial data. So, the work carried out is a proof-of-principle that the proposed electrochemical device could be a practical and versatile tool for, in a single and fast electrochemical assay, successfully discriminate olive oils with different storage times and/or exposed to different light conditions.The authors acknowledge the financial support from the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, from Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006984—Associate Laboratory LSRELCM funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE2020—Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI)—and by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and under the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit. Nuno Rodrigues thanks FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for the Ph.D. Grant (SFRH/BD/104038/2014).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Supporting multiple isolation levels in replicated environments

Replication is used by databases to implement reliability and provide scalability. However, achieving transparent replication is not an easy task. A replicated database is transparent if it can seamlessly replace a standard stand-alone database without requiring any changes to the components of the system. Database replication transparency can be achieved if: (a) replication protocols remain hidden for all other components of the system; and (b) the functionality of a stand-alone database is provided. The ability to simultaneously execute transactions under different isolation levels is a functionality offered by all stand-alone databases but not by their replicated counterparts. Allowing different isolation levels may improve overall system performance. For example, the TPC-C benchmark specification tolerates execution of some transactions at weaker isolation levels in order to increase throughput of committed transactions. In this paper, we show how replication protocols can be extended to enable transactions to be executed under different isolation levels. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovation (MICINN) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF/FEDER) under research grants TIN2009-14460-C03-01 and TIN2010-17193. The translation of this paper was funded by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain.Bernabe Gisbert, JM.; Muñoz Escoí, FD. (2012). Supporting multiple isolation levels in replicated environments. Data and Knowledge Engineering. 79-80:1-16. doi:10.1016/j.datak.2012.05.001S11679-8

Cairo's Urban Transformation: Mohandeseen and Zamalek Narratives

Im Gegensatz zu anderen Großstädten der Welt hat Kairo im Laufe seiner langen Geschichte einen bedeutenden Wandel durchlaufen. Während einige Elemente der Vergangenheit noch sichtbar sind, allen voran die Pyramiden von Gizeh, sind andere Elemente längst verschwunden. Es ist schwer vorstellbar, dass das historische Kairo einst das Zentrum einer fruchtbaren, von Seen durchzogenen Landschaft war, vor allem wenn man mit den heutigen Realitäten einer dichten, meist grauen Stadtlandschaft konfrontiert wird, die von einer dünnen Staubschicht und einer Vielzahl von Umweltproblemen bedeckt ist. Kairo ist die größte Mega-Stadt auf dem afrikanischen Kontinent und verändert sich weiterhin schnell, sowohl formal als auch informell. Um die Transformation Kairos zu steuern und die informelle Entwicklung auf dem verbleibenden fruchtbaren Land einzuschränken, werden neue staatlich finanzierte Wüstenstädte geplant, gebaut und bewohnt. Gleichzeitig haben massive Hochhäuser die einst charakteristischen großen, wohlhabenden Villensiedlungen in regulär entwickelten Kernstadtgebieten wie Zamalek und Mohandeseen ersetzt. In Zamalek hat sich diese Transformation dazu geführt, dass sich viele Bürger der Oberschicht in die Wüstenstädte zurückziehen und Spuren des Verfalls hinterlassen, während Mohandeseen zu einem der teuersten Gebiete in Kairo geworden ist, das fast keine Spuren des Garden City-Konzepts hinterlässt, das seine frühe Entwicklung bestimmt hat. Während viel Aufmerksamkeit auf die Erweiterung und Verbesserung informeller Gebiete und die Schaffung neuer Wüstenstädte gerichtet wird, ist es auch wichtig, aus der Vergangenheit zu lernen und die zukünftige Transformation von Kernstadtgebieten wie Mohandeseen und Zamalek zu steuern. Im Folgenden wird die Transformation ausgewählter Gebiete in Monhandeseen um die Libanon Street und den Assuan Square sowie um Zamalek im Norden des Gezira Sporting Club untersucht.Not unlike other major cities around the world, Cairo has undergone a significant transformation over the course of its long history. While some elements of the past are still visible, the most notable being the Pyramids of Giza, other elements have long since disappeared. It is hard to imagine that historic Cairo was once at the center of a fertile landscape dotted with lakes, especially when confronted with today’s realities of a dense mostly gray cityscape covered by a thin layer of dust and a host of environmental problems. Cairo is the largest mega-city on the African continent and it continues to transform rapidly, both formally and informally. In an effort to guide Cairo’s transformation and limit informal development on its remaining fertile land, new state funded desert cities are being planned, built and inhabited. At the same time, massive tower blocks have replaced the once characteristic large prosperous villa estates within formally developed core-city areas such as Zamalek and Mohandeseen. In Zamalek this transformation has caused many upper class residents to withdraw to the desert cities leaving behind signs of decay, while Mohandeseen has become one of the most expensive areas in Cairo leaving almost no trace of the Garden City concept which guided its early development. While much needed attention goes to the expansion and improvement of informal areas and to the creation of new desert cities, it is also important to learn from the past as well as to guide the future transformation of core-city areas such as Mohandeseen and Zamalek. The following investigates the transformation of select areas of Mohandeseen around Lebanon Street and Aswan Square in addition to Zamalek to the north of the Gezira Sporting Club

Usefulness of molecular biology performed with formaldehyde-fixed paraffin embedded tissue for the diagnosis of combined pulmonary invasive mucormycosis and aspergillosis in an immunocompromised patient

Immunocompromised patients who develop invasive filamentous mycotic infections can be efficiently treated if rapid identification of the causative fungus is obtained. We report a case of fatal necrotic pneumonia caused by combined pulmonary invasive mucormycosis and aspergillosis in a 66 year-old renal transplant recipient. Aspergillus was first identified during the course of the disease by cytological examination and culture (A. fumigatus) of bronchoalveolar fluid. Hyphae of Mucorales (Rhizopus microsporus) were subsequently identified by culture of a tissue specimen taken from the left inferior pulmonary lobe, which was surgically resected two days before the patient died. Histological analysis of the lung parenchyma showed the association of two different filamentous mycoses for which the morphological features were evocative of aspergillosis and mucormycosis. However, the definitive identification of the associative infection was made by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) performed on deparaffinized tissue sections using specific primers for aspergillosis and mucormycosis. This case demonstrates that discrepancies between histological, cytological and mycological analyses can occur in cases of combined mycotic infection. In this regard, it shows that PCR on selected paraffin blocks is a very powerful method for making or confirming the association of different filamentous mycoses and that this method should be made available to pathology laboratories

Dual DNA Methylation Patterns in the CNS Reveal Developmentally Poised Chromatin and Monoallelic Expression of Critical Genes

As a first step towards discovery of genes expressed from only one allele in the CNS, we used a tiling array assay for DNA sequences that are both methylated and unmethylated (the MAUD assay). We analyzed regulatory regions of the entire mouse brain transcriptome, and found that approximately 10% of the genes assayed showed dual DNA methylation patterns. They include a large subset of genes that display marks of both active and silent, i.e., poised, chromatin during development, consistent with a link between differential DNA methylation and lineage-specific differentiation within the CNS. Sixty-five of the MAUD hits and 57 other genes whose function is of relevance to CNS development and/or disorders were tested for allele-specific expression in F1 hybrid clonal neural stem cell (NSC) lines. Eight MAUD hits and one additional gene showed such expression. They include Lgi1, which causes a subtype of inherited epilepsy that displays autosomal dominance with incomplete penetrance; Gfra2, a receptor for glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor GDNF that has been linked to kindling epilepsy; Unc5a, a netrin-1 receptor important in neurodevelopment; and Cspg4, a membrane chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan associated with malignant melanoma and astrocytoma in human. Three of the genes, Camk2a, Kcnc4, and Unc5a, show preferential expression of the same allele in all clonal NSC lines tested. The other six genes show a stochastic pattern of monoallelic expression in some NSC lines and bi-allelic expression in others. These results support the estimate that 1–2% of genes expressed in the CNS may be subject to allelic exclusion, and demonstrate that the group includes genes implicated in major disorders of the CNS as well as neurodevelopment