188 research outputs found
Level curvature distribution in a model of two uncoupled chaotic subsystems
We study distributions of eigenvalue curvatures for a block diagonal random matrix perturbed by
a full random matrix. The most natural physical realization of this model is a quantum chaotic system
with some inherent symmetry, such that its energy levels form two independent subsequences,
subject to a generic perturbation which does not respect the symmetry. We describe analytically
a crossover in the form of a curvature distribution with a tunable parameter namely the ratio of
inter/intra subsystem coupling strengths. We find that the peak value of the curvature distribution
is much more sensitive to the changes in this parameter than the power law tail behaviour. This
observation may help to clarify some qualitative features of the curvature distributions observed
experimentally in acoustic resonances of quartz blocks
Which morphological abnormalities better define the elongation of transverse aortic arch: a magnetic resonance angiography study
Background: The aim of the study is to investigate the relation between morphological abnormalities that might indicate elongation of transverse aortic arch (ETA) and various aortic and thoracic measurements, and to determine which morphological criteria define the elongated transverse arch better.Materials and methods: Patients under 40 years of age who underwent contrast enhanced thoracic magnetic resonance angiography were included in the study. Images were evaluated for the presence of morphological arch abnormalities such as late take off (LTO) of left subclavian artery (LSA), flattening of the arch, and kinking at the posterior or anterior contour of the lesser curvature. Various aortic and thoracic measurements, including the distance between the orifices of the left common carotid artery (LCCA) and LSA, were made. Statistical relation between morphological abnormalities and these measurements was analysed. The effect of morphological abnormalities and their combinations on the distance between LCCA and LSA orifices was evaluated by linear regression analysis.Results: Ninety three cases were included in the study. All morphological abnormalities and most of their combinations show statistically significant relation with longer LCCA to LSA distance. The parameters that most affected this distance were combination of flattening with LTO of LSA, anterior kinking and combination of anterior kinking with both flattening and LTO, respectively.Conclusions: Our study showed that the finding which best defines ETA is the combination of LTO and arch flattening. Therefore, we recommend using this combination in the diagnosis of ETA instead of the classical diagnostic criteria including combination of LTO and posterior kinking
An evolving network model with community structure
Many social and biological networks consist of communities—groups of nodes within which connections are dense, but between which connections are sparser. Recently, there has been considerable interest in designing algorithms for detecting community structures in real-world complex networks. In this paper, we propose an evolving network model which exhibits community structure. The network model is based on the inner-community preferential attachment and inter-community preferential attachment mechanisms. The degree distributions of this network model are analysed based on a mean-field method. Theoretical results and numerical simulations indicate that this network model has community structure and scale-free properties
Effect of clinoptilolite and/or phytase on broiler growth performance, carcass characteristics, intestinal histomorphology and tibia calcium and phosphorus levels
A preferential attachment model with random initial degrees
In this paper, a random graph process is studied and its
degree sequence is analyzed. Let be an i.i.d. sequence. The
graph process is defined so that, at each integer time , a new vertex, with
edges attached to it, is added to the graph. The new edges added at time
t are then preferentially connected to older vertices, i.e., conditionally on
, the probability that a given edge is connected to vertex i is
proportional to , where is the degree of vertex
at time , independently of the other edges. The main result is that the
asymptotical degree sequence for this process is a power law with exponent
, where is the power-law exponent
of the initial degrees and the exponent predicted
by pure preferential attachment. This result extends previous work by Cooper
and Frieze, which is surveyed.Comment: In the published form of the paper, the proof of Proposition 2.1 is
incomplete. This version contains the complete proo
Vascular Wall-Resident CD44+ Multipotent Stem Cells Give Rise to Pericytes and Smooth Muscle Cells and Contribute to New Vessel Maturation
Here, we identify CD44(+)CD90(+)CD73(+)CD34(−)CD45(−) cells within the adult human arterial adventitia with properties of multipotency which were named vascular wall-resident multipotent stem cells (VW-MPSCs). VW-MPSCs exhibit typical mesenchymal stem cell characteristics including cell surface markers in immunostaining and flow cytometric analyses, and differentiation into adipocytes, chondrocytes and osteocytes under culture conditions. Particularly, TGFß1 stimulation up-regulates smooth muscle cell markers in VW-MPSCs. Using fluorescent cell labelling and co-localisation studies we show that VW-MPSCs differentiate to pericytes/smooth muscle cells which cover the wall of newly formed endothelial capillary-like structures in vitro. Co-implantation of EGFP-labelled VW-MPSCs and human umbilical vein endothelial cells into SCID mice subcutaneously via Matrigel results in new vessels formation which were covered by pericyte- or smooth muscle-like cells generated from implanted VW-MPSCs. Our results suggest that VW-MPSCs are of relevance for vascular morphogenesis, repair and self-renewal of vascular wall cells and for local capacity of neovascularization in disease processes
Paying for parking : improving stated-preference surveys
This article describes an experiment which introduced random ranges into the variables used for the design of a stated preference survey and its effects on willingness to pay for parking. User behaviour at the time of parking was modelled to determine their willingness to pay in order to get to their final destination more quickly. Calculating willingness to pay is fundamental during the social and economic assessment of projects. It is important to correctly model how car parks and their users interact in order to get values which represent reality as closely as possible. Willingness to pay is calculated using a stated preference survey and by calibrating multinomial logit models, taking variable tastes into account. It is shown that a value with a low variability can be obtained for willingness to pay by correctly establishing the context of the choice and randomly changing the variables around an average value
An approach for the identification of targets specific to bone metastasis using cancer genes interactome and gene ontology analysis
Metastasis is one of the most enigmatic aspects of cancer pathogenesis and is
a major cause of cancer-associated mortality. Secondary bone cancer (SBC) is a
complex disease caused by metastasis of tumor cells from their primary site and
is characterized by intricate interplay of molecular interactions.
Identification of targets for multifactorial diseases such as SBC, the most
frequent complication of breast and prostate cancers, is a challenge. Towards
achieving our aim of identification of targets specific to SBC, we constructed
a 'Cancer Genes Network', a representative protein interactome of cancer genes.
Using graph theoretical methods, we obtained a set of key genes that are
relevant for generic mechanisms of cancers and have a role in biological
essentiality. We also compiled a curated dataset of 391 SBC genes from
published literature which serves as a basis of ontological correlates of
secondary bone cancer. Building on these results, we implement a strategy based
on generic cancer genes, SBC genes and gene ontology enrichment method, to
obtain a set of targets that are specific to bone metastasis. Through this
study, we present an approach for probing one of the major complications in
cancers, namely, metastasis. The results on genes that play generic roles in
cancer phenotype, obtained by network analysis of 'Cancer Genes Network', have
broader implications in understanding the role of molecular regulators in
mechanisms of cancers. Specifically, our study provides a set of potential
targets that are of ontological and regulatory relevance to secondary bone
cancer.Comment: 54 pages (19 pages main text; 11 Figures; 26 pages of supplementary
information). Revised after critical reviews. Accepted for Publication in
PLoS ON
Erratum to the “Use of pleural fluid C-reactive protein in diagnosis of pleural effusions” [Respiratory medicine 94(5) 432–435]
Effects of L1-ORF2 fragments on green fluorescent protein gene expression
The retrotransposon known as long interspersed nuclear element-1 (L1) is 6 kb long, although most L1s in mammalian and other eukaryotic cells are truncated. L1 contains two open reading frames, ORF1 and ORF2, that code for an RNA-binding protein and a protein with endonuclease and reverse transcriptase activities, respectively. In this work, we examined the effects of full length L1-ORF2 and ORF2 fragments on green fluorescent protein gene (GFP) expression when inserted into the pEGFP-C1 vector downstream of GFP. All of the ORF2 fragments in sense orientation inhibited GFP expression more than when in antisense orientation, which suggests that small ORF2 fragments contribute to the distinct inhibitory effects of this ORF on gene expression. These results provide the first evidence that different 280-bp fragments have distinct effects on the termination of gene transcription, and that when inserted in the antisense direction, fragment 280-9 (the 3' end fragment of ORF2) induces premature termination of transcription that is consistent with the effect of ORF2
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