MicroRNAs mir‐184 and let‐7 alter Drosophila metabolism and longevity

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140032/1/acel12673.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140032/2/acel12673-sup-0002-FigS1-S8.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140032/3/acel12673_am.pd

An Exploratory Study Investigating Data Quality in the Healthcare Industry: What are the Implicatons for Daya Warehousing?

Maintaining quality data and information challenges today’s organizations, and is essential to good decisionmaking and competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to understand the dimensions of data quality and to learn how managers perceive them. The 20 dimensions of data quality posited by Wang and Strong were used in this study. The relative importance of those dimensions by healthcare industry managers was assessed. Study findings indicate that all 20 of Wang and Strong’s data quality descriptive dimensions are important to the healthcare industry. Additionally, data from this exploratory research seems to suggest that there may not be a “one size fits all” model for data quality

A probable giant planet imaged in the Beta Pictoris disk

Since the discovery of its dusty disk in 1984, Beta Pictoris has become the prototype of young early-type planetary systems, and there are now various indications that a massive Jovian planet is orbiting the star at ~ 10 AU. However, no planets have been detected around this star so far. Our goal was to investigate the close environment of Beta Pic, searching for planetary companion(s). Deep adaptive-optics L'-band images of Beta Pic were recorded using the NaCo instrument at the Very Large Telescope. A faint point-like signal is detected at a projected distance of ~ 8 AU from the star, within the North-East side of the dust disk. Various tests were made to rule out with a good confidence level possible instrumental or atmospheric artifacts. The probability of a foreground or background contaminant is extremely low, based in addition on the analysis of previous deep Hubble Space Telescope images. The object L'=11.2 apparent magnitude would indicate a typical temperature of ~1500 K and a mass of ~ 8 Jovian masses. If confirmed, it could explain the main morphological and dynamical peculiarities of the Beta Pic system. The present detection is unique among A-stars by the proximity of the resolved planet to its parent star. Its closeness and location inside the Beta Pic disk suggest a formation process by core accretion or disk instabilities rather than a binary-like formation process.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. A&A Letters, in pres

An aperture masking mode for the MICADO instrument

MICADO is a near-IR camera for the Europea ELT, featuring an extended field (75" diameter) for imaging, and also spectrographic and high contrast imaging capabilities. It has been chosen by ESO as one of the two first-light instruments. Although it is ultimately aimed at being fed by the MCAO module called MAORY, MICADO will come with an internal SCAO system that will be complementary to it and will deliver a high performance on axis correction, suitable for coronagraphic and pupil masking applications. The basis of the pupil masking approach is to ensure the stability of the optical transfer function, even in the case of residual errors after AO correction (due to non common path errors and quasi-static aberrations). Preliminary designs of pupil masks are presented. Trade-offs and technical choices, especially regarding redundancy and pupil tracking, are explained.Comment: SPIE 2014 Proceeding -- Montrea

Modeling RNA loops using sequence homology and geometric constraints

Summary: RNA loop regions are essential structural elements of RNA molecules influencing both their structural and functional properties. We developed RLooM, a web application for homology-based modeling of RNA loops utilizing template structures extracted from the PDB. RLooM allows the insertion and replacement of loop structures of a desired sequence into an existing RNA structure. Furthermore, a comprehensive database of loops in RNA structures can be accessed through the web interface

NASSAM: a server to search for and annotate tertiary interactions and motifs in three-dimensional structures of complex RNA molecules

Similarities in the 3D patterns of RNA base interactions or arrangements can provide insights into their functions and roles in stabilization of the RNA 3D structure. Nucleic Acids Search for Substructures and Motifs (NASSAM) is a graph theoretical program that can search for 3D patterns of base arrangements by representing the bases as pseudo-atoms. The geometric relationship of the pseudo-atoms to each other as a pattern can be represented as a labeled graph where the pseudo-atoms are the graph's nodes while the edges are the inter-pseudo-atomic distances. The input files for NASSAM are PDB formatted 3D coordinates. This web server can be used to identify matches of base arrangement patterns in a query structure to annotated patterns that have been reported in the literature or that have possible functional and structural stabilization implications. The NASSAM program is freely accessible without any login requirement at http://mfrlab.org/grafss/nassam/

Mitochondrial thioredoxin reductase 2 is elevated in long‐lived primate as well as rodent species and extends fly mean lifespan

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137684/1/acel12596-sup-0001-SupInfo.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137684/2/acel12596.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137684/3/acel12596_am.pd

The FALCON concept: multi-object spectroscopy combined with MCAO in near-IR

A large fraction of the present-day stellar mass was formed between z=0.5 and z~3 and our understanding of the formation mechanisms at work at these epochs requires both high spatial and high spectral resolution: one shall simultaneously} obtain images of objects with typical sizes as small as 1-2kpc(~0''.1), while achieving 20-50 km/s (R >= 5000) spectral resolution. The obvious instrumental solution to adopt in order to tackle the science goal is therefore a combination of multi-object 3D spectrograph with multi-conjugate adaptive optics in large fields. A partial, but still competitive correction shall be prefered, over a much wider field of view. This can be done by estimating the turbulent volume from sets of natural guide stars, by optimizing the correction to several and discrete small areas of few arcsec2 selected in a large field (Nasmyth field of 25 arcmin) and by correcting up to the 6th, and eventually, up to the 60th Zernike modes. Simulations on real extragalactic fields, show that for most sources (>80%), the recovered resolution could reach 0".15-0".25 in the J and H bands. Detection of point-like objects is improved by factors from 3 to >10, when compared with an instrument without adaptive correction. The proposed instrument concept, FALCON, is equiped with deployable mini-integral field units (IFUs), achieving spectral resolutions between R=5000 and 20000. Its multiplex capability, combined with high spatial and spectral resolution characteristics, is a natural ground based complement to the next generation of space telescopes.Comment: ESO Workshop Proceedings: Scientific Drivers for ESO Future VLT/VLTI Instrumentation, 10 pages and 5 figure