Optical waveform sampling of a 320 Gbits/s serial data signal using a hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide

We propose using a hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide for ultra-high-speed serial data waveform sampling. 320 Gbit/s serial optical data sampling is experimentally demonstrated with +12 dB intrinsic four wave mixing conversion efficiency

Multilayer clustering: Biomarker driven segmentation of Alzheimer's disease patient population

Identification of biomarkers for the Alzheimer's disease is a challenge and a very difficult task both for medical research and data analysis. In this work we present results obtained by application of a novel clustering tool. The goal is to identify subpopulations of the Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients that are homogeneous in respect of available clinical and biological descriptors. The result presents a segmentation of the Alzheimer's disease patient population and it may be expected that within each subpopulation separately it will be easier to identify connections between clinical and biological descriptors. Through the evaluation of the obtained clusters with AD subpopulations it has been noticed that for two of them relevant biological measurements (whole brain volume and intracerebral volume) change in opposite directions. If this observation is actually true it would mean that the diagnosed severe dementia problems are results of different physiological processes. The observation may have substantial consequences for medical research and clinical trial design. The used clustering methodology may be interesting also for other medical and biological domains

Simultaneous 160 Gb/s Add-Drop Multiplexing in a Non-Linear Optical Loop Mirror

We report on a demonstration of error-free simultaneous add-drop multiplexing of 160 Gb/s data in a non-linear optical loop mirror composed of 100 m highly non-linear fibre.</p

Designing a HER2/neu promoter to drive α1,3galactosyltransferase expression for targeted anti-αGal antibody-mediated tumor cell killing

INTRODUCTION: Our goal was to specifically render tumor cells susceptible to natural cytolytic anti-αGal antibodies by using a murine α1,3galactosyltransferase (mαGalT) transgene driven by a designed form of HER2/neu promoter (pNeu), the transcription of which is frequently observed to be above basal in breast tumors. Indeed, the αGalT activity that promotes Galα1,3Galβ1,4GlcNAc-R (αGal) epitope expression has been mutationally disrupted during the course of evolution, starting from Old World primates, and this has led to the counter-production of large amounts of cytotoxic anti-αGal antibodies in recent primates, including man. METHOD: Expression of the endogenous c-erbB-2 gene was investigated in various cell lines by northern blotting. A mαGalT cDNA was constructed into pcDNA3 vector downstream of the original CMV promoter (pCMV/mαGalT) and various forms of pNeu were prepared by PCR amplification and inserted in the pCMV/mαGalT construct upstream of the mαGalT cDNA, in the place of the CMV promoter. These constructs were transferred into HEK-293 control and breast tumor cell lines. Stably transfected cells were analyzed by northern blotting for their expression of αGalT and c-erbB-2, and by flow cytometry for their binding with fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated Griffonia simplicifolia/isolectin B4. RESULTS: We show that expression of the mαGalT was up- or down-modulated according to the level of endogenous pNeu activity and the particular form of constructed pNeu. Among several constructs, two particular forms of the promoter, pNeu250 containing the CCAAT box and the PEA3 motif adjacent to the TATAA box, and pNeu664, which has three additional PEA3 motifs upstream of the CCAAT box, were found to promote differential αGalT expression. CONCLUSION: Our results strengthen current concepts about the crucial role played by the proximal PEA3 motif of pNeu, and may represent a novel therapeutic approach for the development of targeted transgene expression

Identification of RPS14 as a 5q- syndrome gene by RNA interference screen

Somatic chromosomal deletions in cancer are thought to indicate the location of tumor suppressor genes, whereby complete loss of gene function occurs through biallelic deletion, point mutation, or epigenetic silencing, thus fulfilling Knudson's two-hit hypothesis.1 In many recurrent deletions, however, such biallelic inactivation has not been found. One prominent example is the 5q- syndrome, a subtype of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) characterized by a defect in erythroid differentiation.2 Here, we describe an RNA interference (RNAi)-based approach to discovery of the 5q- disease gene. We find that partial loss of function of the ribosomal protein RPS14 phenocopies the disease in normal hematopoietic progenitor cells, and moreover that forced expression of RPS14 rescues the disease phenotype in patient-derived bone marrow cells. In addition, we identified a block in the processing of pre-rRNA in RPS14 deficient cells that is highly analogous to the functional defect in Diamond Blackfan Anemia, linking the molecular pathophysiology of the 5q- syndrome to a congenital bone marrow failure syndrome. These results indicate that the 5q- syndrome is caused by a defect in ribosomal protein function, and suggests that RNAi screening is an effective strategy for identifying causal haploinsufficiency disease genes

Optical switching and detection of 640 Gbits/s optical time-division multiplexed data packets transmitted over 50 km of fiber

We demonstrate 1×4 optical-packet switching with error-free transmission of 640¿Gbits/s single-wavelength optical time-division multiplexed data packets including clock distribution and short pulse generation for optical time demultiplexing based on a cavityless pulse source