A Liapunov functional for a matrix neutral difference-differential equation with one delay

AbstractFor the matrix neutral difference-differential equation ẋ(t) + Aẋ(t − τ)  Bx(t) + Cx(t − τ) we construct a quadratic Liapunov functional which gives necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymptotic stability of the solutions of that equation. We consider a difference equation approximation of the difference-differential equation, and for this difference equation we construct a Liapunov function from which we obtain the desired Liapunov functional by an appropriate limiting process. The Liapunov functional thus obtained gives the best possible estimate for the rates of growth or decay of the solutions of the matrix neutral difference-differential equation. The results obtained are natural generalizations of previous results obtained for a matrix retarded difference-differential equation with one delay

DDBJ dealing with mass data produced by the second generation sequencer

DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) (http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp) collected and released 2 368 110 entries or 1 415 106 598 bases in the period from July 2007 to June 2008. The releases in this period include genome scale data of Bombyx mori, Oryzas latipes, Drosophila and Lotus japonicus. In addition, from this year we collected and released trace archive data in collaboration with National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). The first release contains those of O. latipes and bacterial meta genomes in human gut. To cope with the current progress of sequencing technology, we also accepted and released more than 100 million of short reads of parasitic protozoa and their hosts that were produced by using a Solexa sequencer

Determining the 7Li(n,gamma) cross section via Coulomb dissociation of 8Li

The applicability of Coulomb dissociation reactions to determine the cross section for the inverse neutron capture reaction was explored using the reaction 8Li(gamma,n)7Li. A 69.5 MeV/nucleon 8Li beam was incident on a Pb target, and the outgoing neutron and 7Li nucleus were measured in coincidence. The deduced (n,gamma) excitation function is consistent with data for the direct capture reaction 7Li(n,gamma)8Li and with low-energy effective field theory calculations.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

The GTOP database in 2009: updated content and novel features to expand and deepen insights into protein structures and functions

The Genomes TO Protein Structures and Functions (GTOP) database (http://spock.genes.nig.ac.jp/~genome/gtop.html) freely provides an extensive collection of information on protein structures and functions obtained by application of various computational tools to the amino acid sequences of entirely sequenced genomes. GTOP contains annotations of 3D structures, protein families, functions, and other useful data of a protein of interest in user-friendly ways to give a deep insight into the protein structure. From the initial 1999 version, GTOP has been continually updated to reap the fruits of genome projects and augmented to supply novel information, in particular intrinsically disordered regions. As intrinsically disordered regions constitute a considerable fraction of proteins and often play crucial roles especially in eukaryotes, their assignments give important additional clues to the functionality of proteins. Additionally, we have incorporated the following features into GTOP: a platform independent structural viewer, results of HMM searches against SCOP and Pfam, secondary structure predictions, color display of exon boundaries in eukaryotic proteins, assignments of gene ontology terms, search tools, and master files

Super-long Anabiosis of Ancient Microorganisms in Ice and Terrestrial Models for Development of Methods to Search for Life on Mars, Europa and other Planetary Bodies

Successful missions to Mars, Europe and other bodies of the Solar system have created a prerequisite to search for extraterrestrial life. The first attempts of microbial life detection on the Martian surface by the Viking landed missions gave no biological results. Microbiological investigations of the Martian subsurface ground ice layers seem to be more promising. It is well substantiated to consider the Antarctic ice sheet and the Antarctic and Arctic permafrost as terrestrial analogues of Martian habitats. The results of our long-standing microbiological studies of the Antarctic ice would provide the basis for detection of viable microbial cells on Mars. Our microbiological investigations of the deepest and thus most ancient strata of the Antarctic ice sheet for the first time gave evidence for the natural phenomenon of long-term anabiosis (preservation of viability and vitality for millennia years). A combination of classical microbiological methods, epifluorescence microscopy, SEM, TEM, molecular diagnostics, radioisotope labeling and other techniques made it possible for us to obtain convincing proof of the presence of pro- and eukaryotes in the Antarctic ice sheet. In this communication, we will review and discuss some critical issues related to the detection of viable microorganisms in cold terrestrial environments with regard to future searches for microbial life and/or its biological signatures on extraterrestrial objects

Modeling of hysteretic Schottky diode-like conduction in Pt/BiFeO3/SrRuO3 switches

The hysteresis current-voltage (I-V) loops in Pt/BiFeO3/SrRuO3 structures are simulated using a Schottky diode-like conduction model with sigmoidally varying parameters, including series resistance correction and barrier lowering. The evolution of the system is represented by a vector in a 3D parameter space describing a closed trajectory with stationary states. It is shown that the hysteretic behavior is not only the result of a Schottky barrier height (SBH) variation arising from the BiFeO3 polarization reversal but also a consequence of the potential drop distribution across the device. The SBH modulation is found to be remarkably lower (0.5 eV). It is also shown that the p-type semiconducting nature of BiFeO3 can explain the large ideality factors (>6) required to simulate the I-V curves as well as the highly asymmetric set and reset voltages (4.7 V and 1.9 V) exhibited by our devices

Left atrial giant thrombus infected by Escherichia Coli. Case report

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