Insulin as a Primary Autoantigen for Type 1A Diabetes

Type 1A diabetes mellitus is caused by specific and progressive autoimmune destruction of the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans whereas the other cell types in the islet (alpha, delta, and PP) are spared. The autoantigens of Type 1A diabetes may be divided into subgroups based on their tissue distributions: Beta-cell-specific antigens like insulin, insulin derivatives, and IGRP (Islet-specific Glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit Related Peptide); neurendocrine antigens such as carboxypeptidase H, insulinoma-associated antigen (IA-2), glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65), and carboxypeptidase E; and those expressed ubiquitously like heat shock protein 60 (a putative autoantigen for type 1 diabetes). This review will focus specifically on insulin as a primary autoantigen, an essentia l target for disease, in type 1A diabetes mellitus. In particular, immunization with insulin peptide B:9-23 can be used to induce insulin autoantibodies and diabetes in animal models or used to prevent diabetes. Genetic manipulation of the insulin 1 and 2 genes reciprocally alters development of diabetes in the NOD mouse, and insulin gene polymorphisms are important determinants of childhood diabetes. We are pursuing the hypothesis that insulin is a primary autoantigen for type 1 diabetes, and thus the pathogenesis of the disease relates to specific recognition of one or more peptides

Acoustic Liner Drag: Further Measurements on Novel Facesheet Perforate Geometries

Over the past several years, the NASA Langley Liner Physics Team has worked to develop methods capable of characterizing the aerodynamic drag of acoustic liners in addition to their acoustic performance. For a given liner, one can compute its resistance factor, , based on static pressure drop measurements. The current study details experiments in the NASA Langley Grazing Flow Impedance Tube to quantify the relative drag of several perforate-over-honeycomb liner configurations at flow speeds of Mach 0.3 and 0.5. The liner facesheets incorporate novel perforate geometries rather than the conventional, round hole designs typically used. Measurements of the resistance factor for each liner are made with and without acoustic excitation. A tonal acoustic source is used at sound pressure levels of 140 and 150 dB over a frequency range of 400 to 3000 Hz when performing acoustic measurements. Educed impedance spectra are calculated to determine the impact of variations in perforate geometry on acoustic performance and the relationship between acoustic and drag performance

Corrugated channels heat transfer efficiency analysis based on velocity fields resulting from computer simulation and PIV measurements

Paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Mauritius, 11-13 July, 2011.Numerical and experimental studies of flow and heat transfer, in corrugated channels, are presented. Such channels are representative of compact heat exchangers − for example air or water pre-heaters. The most important characteristic parameter of these channels, apart from the channel wall shape, is the angle between two corrugated sheets. Paper presents measurement results, related to velocity field in such channels – by the PIV-method. The efficiency analysis, based on the irreversible entropy generation, takes account of two processes: flow resulting from the pressure gradient and heat transfer delivered from solid walls. This approach is checked initially, in details, for arrangements related to two values of the angle mentioned, i.e. 0 and 90° : it allows comparing velocity fields obtained from the computer simulation and PIV measurement (the latter in special corrugated sheets). More extensive computer simulation results, for different wall shapes (sinuses and semi-circles) and for angle value mentioned and equal to 90°, are also presented.mp201

1-(2-Hydr­oxy-5-methyl­phen­yl)-3-(3-methylthiophen-2-yl)prop-2-en-1-one

In the structure of the title compound, C15H14O2S, the benzene ring is nearly coplanar with the thio­phene ring. The hydroxy group substituted at C2 position is in an antiperi­planar conformation with respect to the phenyl ring. The crystal structure exhibits weak intramolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonding

Correlations between spatially resolved Raman shifts and dislocation density in GaN films

Spatially resolved Raman spectra were measured on thick GaN samples with known dislocation density grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy. The frequencies of the E-2 (high) and E-1 (transverse optical) phonons shift to lower wave number over a distance of 30 mum from the sapphire substrate/GaN interface. The shifts are linearly correlated with the dislocation density suggesting that the strain due to the lattice mismatch at the interface determines both quantities

Dimensional Effects on Solitonic Matter and Optical Waves with Normal and Anomalous Dispersion

We investigate bright and dark solitons with anomalous or normal dispersion and under transverse harmonic confinement. In matter waves, positive atomic mass implies anomalous dispersion (kinetic spreading) while negative mass gives normal dispersion (kinetic shrinking). We find that, contrary to the strictly one-dimensional case, the axial and transverse profiles of these solitons crucially depend on the strength of the nonlinearity and on their dispersive properties. In particular, we show that, like bright solitons with anomalous dispersion, also dark solitons with normal dispersion disappear at a critical axial density. Our predictions are useful for the study of atomic matter waves in Bose-Einstein condensates and also for optical bullets in inhomogeneous Kerr media.Comment: To be published in Journal of Physics B: At. Mol. Opt. Phy

A comparison of cloud-based speech recognition engines

Human-machine interaction is present in our routines and has become increasingly natural these days. Devices can record a person’s speech, transcribe into text and execute tasks accordingly. This kind of interaction provides more productivity for several operations since it allows users to have hands free through a more natural interface. Moreover, the speech recognition engines need to assure reliability and speed. However, the maturity of speech recognition systems vary from providers and most importantly accordingly to the language. For instance, Brazilian Portuguese language has a particularity of using several foreign terms, especially if we consider corporate environments.In this paper, an experiment was conducted, to evaluate three speech recognition engines regarding accuracy and performance: Bing Speech API, Google Cloud Speech and IBM Watson Speech to Text. To obtain the accuracy value, we used a well-known string similarity algorithm. The results showed a high level of accuracy for Google Cloud Speech and Bing Speech API. However, the best accuracy provided by Google services came with a cost on performance – requiring additional time to provide the speech to text transcription

Study of Fermi level movement during CdCl2 treatment of CdTe thin films using Ultra-violet Photoemission Spectroscopy

The CdCl2 treatment used in the development of high efficiency CdTe solar cells is an essential processing step but remains fully unexplored. What really happens during this treatment is not yet fully understood. The changes in doping concentrations during this processing step are a key parameter to investigate. Determination of the position of the Fermi level is a good method to explore these changes and therefore photoelectrochemical cell method and ultra-violet photoemission spectroscopy method have been used to investigate these trends. Four different CdTe layers prepared by electroplating have been used for this investigation. The overall observations indicate the settling down of the FL in the upper half of the bandgap after CdCl2 treatment