Methanol: a diagnostic tool for high-mass star-forming regions

We here present an innovative technique to handle the problem of deriving physical parameters from observed multi-line spectra of methanol, based on the simultaneous fit of all the lines with a synthetic spectrum computed under the Large Velocity Gradient approximation; the best physical parameters are found using numerical methods.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. (Co)authored by members of the MPIfR (Sub)millimeter Astronomy Group. To appear in the Proceedings of the 4th Cologne-Bonn-Zermatt-Symposium "The Dense Interstellar Medium in Galaxies" eds. S. Pfalzner, C. Kramer, C. Straubmeier, & A. Heithausen (Springer: Berlin

The Generation of Successive Unmarked Mutations and Chromosomal Insertion of Heterologous Genes in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae Using Natural Transformation

We have developed a simple method of generating scarless, unmarked mutations in Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae by exploiting the ability of this bacterium to undergo natural transformation, and with no need to introduce plasmids encoding recombinases or resolvases. This method involves two successive rounds of natural transformation using linear DNA: the first introduces a cassette carrying cat (which allows selection by chloramphenicol) and sacB (which allows counter-selection using sucrose) flanked by sequences to either side of the target gene; the second transformation utilises the flanking sequences ligated directly to each other in order to remove the cat-sacB cassette. In order to ensure efficient uptake of the target DNA during transformation, A. pleuropneumoniae uptake sequences are added into the constructs used in both rounds of transformation. This method can be used to generate multiple successive deletions and can also be used to introduce targeted point mutations or insertions of heterologous genes into the A. pleuropneumoniae chromosome for development of live attenuated vaccine strains. So far, we have applied this method to highly transformable isolates of serovars 8 (MIDG2331), which is the most prevalent in the UK, and 15 (HS143). By screening clinical isolates of other serovars, it should be possible to identify other amenable strains

Characterization of gene expression on genomic segment 7 of infectious salmon anaemia virus

BACKGROUND: Infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) virus (ISAV), an important pathogen of fish that causes disease accompanied by high mortality in marine-farmed Atlantic salmon, is the only species in the genus Isavirus, one of the five genera of the Orthomyxoviridae family. The Isavirus genome consists of eight single-stranded RNA species, and the virions have two surface glycoproteins; haemagglutinin-esterase (HE) protein encoded on segment 6 and fusion (F) protein encoded on segment 5. Based on the initial demonstration of two 5'-coterminal mRNA transcripts by RT-PCR, ISAV genomic segment 7 was suggested to share a similar coding strategy with segment 7 of influenza A virus, encoding two proteins. However, there appears to be confusion as to the protein sizes predicted from the two open reading frames (ORFs) of ISAV segment 7 which has in turn led to confusion of the predicted protein functions. The primary goal of the present work was to clone and express these two ORFs in order to assess whether the predicted protein sizes match those of the expressed proteins so as to clarify the coding assignments, and thereby identify any additional structural proteins of ISAV. RESULTS: In the present study we show that ISAV segment 7 encodes 3 proteins with estimated molecular masses of 32, 18, and 9.5 kDa. The 18-kDa and 9.5-kDa products are based on removal of an intron each from the primary transcript (7-ORF1) so that the translation continues in the +2 and +3 reading frames, respectively. The segment 7-ORF1/3 product is variably truncated in the sequence of ISAV isolates of the European genotype. All three proteins are recognized by rabbit antiserum against the 32-kDa product of the primary transcript, as they all share the N-terminal 22 amino acids. This antiserum detected a single 35-kDa protein in Western blots of purified virus, and immunoprecipitated a 32-kDa protein in ISAV-infected TO cells. Immunofluorescence staining of infected cells with the same antiserum revealed the protein(s) to be localized in the cytoplasm. Vaccination of farmed Atlantic salmon with the 32-kDa protein resulted in a higher survival rate than what was attainable with the HE protein, albeit a moderate protection against the low ISAV challenge. CONCLUSION: Collectively, our observations suggest that the product of ISAV segment 7 primary transcript (7-ORF1) is a structural protein. The 18-kDa (7-ORF1/2) protein is identified as the putative ISAV nuclear export protein based on the presence of nuclear export signals. The function of the 9.5-kDa (7-ORF1/3) protein is not presently known

Transfer hashing with privileged information

Most existing learning to hash methods assume that there are sufficient data, either labeled or unlabeled, on the domain of interest (i.e., the target domain) for training. However, this assumption cannot be satisfied in some real-world applications. To address this data sparsity issue in hashing, inspired by transfer learning, we propose a new framework named Transfer Hashing with Privileged Information (THPI). Specifically, we extend the standard learning to hash method, Iterative Quantization (ITQ), in a transfer learning manner, namely ITQ+. In ITQ+, a new slack function is learned from auxiliary data to approximate the quantization error in ITQ. We developed an alternating optimization approach to solve the resultant optimization problem for ITQ+. We further extend ITQ+ to LapITQ+ by utilizing the geometry structure among the auxiliary data for learning more precise binary codes in the target domain. Extensive experiments on several benchmark datasets verify the effectiveness of our proposed approaches through comparisons with several state-of-the-art baselines

Redistribution of multi-phase particulate organic carbon in a marine shelf and canyon system during an exceptional river flood: Effects of Typhoon Morakot on the Gaoping River-Canyon system

This is the final published version of the article. It was originally published in Marine Geology (Sparkes RB, Lin I-T, Hovius N, Galy A, Liu JT, Xu X, Yang R, Marine Geology 2015, 363, 191–201, doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2015.02.013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2015.02.013Volumetrically, turbidity currents are the prime suppliers of sediment to the deep sea, and conveyors of organic carbon from the terrestrial biosphere and submarine shelf into marine depositional basins. They result from complex processes of erosion, transport and deposition that can be difficult to study in detail. Here we present data from the Gaoping submarine canyon system, off SW Taiwan, which was perturbed in 2009 by the addition of flood deposits following Typhoon Morakot and sampled by gravity coring less than 2 months after the event. We use the different origins of organic carbon, distinguished by their carbon and nitrogen concentrations and δ13C and δ15N isotopic composition, to compare and contrast standard and extreme sedimentological conditions. Using well-constrained end-members, the results were de-convolved into inputs of metamorphic and sedimentary fossil organic carbon eroded within the Gaoping River basin, terrestrial non-fossil carbon and marine organic matter. In the upper Gaoping Canyon, sedimentation is dominated by the highly-localised hyperpycnal input of river washload and submarine sediment slumps, each associated with extensive flooding following Typhoon Morakot, whilst the shelf experienced deposition and reworking of hemi-pelagic marine sediments. A terrestrial signal is also found in the core-top of a fine-grained shelf sample over 20 km from the Gaoping Canyon, in a region normally dominated by marine carbon deposition, showing that Morakot was an unusually large flood event. Conversely, sediment from just above the canyon thalweg contains 0.23 wt.% depth-averaged marine organic carbon (37% of the TOC content) implying that terrestrial OC-dominated turbidites are tightly constrained within the canyon. Hyperpycnal processes can lead to the rapid and efficient transport of both terrestrial and submarine sediments to more permanent burial locations.RS was supported by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P502365/1 and EP/P504120/1) studentship. JTL was supported by grant number NSC95-2745-M-110-001 for the Fate of Terrestrial–Nonterrestrial Sediments in High Yield Particle–Export River–Sea Systems Program, which provided the cores in this study. We thank Peter Talling for his insightful and constructive comments on the manuscript and a further, anonymous reviewer for generous endorsement

Two maternal origins of Chinese domestic light-body type goose

China is particularly rich in goose genetic resources. The systemic study of genetic diversity and origin of Chinese indigenous geese will provide important scientific basis for the conservation, utilization of resources and human history. The 521 bp control region (D-loop) of mitochondrial DNA from 13 lightbody type breeds was sequenced. The results showed that in the D-loop region of the 13 gray goose breeds, the content of T, C, A and G nucleotides was 23.8, 29.0, 32.2 and 15.1%, respectively. The average haplotype diversity (Hd) and nucleotide diversity (Pi) of domestic geese were 0.2153 and 0.00046, respectively. The 13 light-body type breeds had bigger nucleotide variance value among populations than the value within populations and all the breeds did not exist population expansion.Shared haplotype analysis and systemic systematic evolution analysis revealed that Chinese lightbody type domestic goose owned two maternal origins. YL goose breed originated from greylag goose (anser anser), and the other 12 light- body type goose breeds originated from swan goose (anser cygnoides)

Experimental study on sensor fault detection and diagnosis and estimation of centrifugal chiller system

2007-2008 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Multi-step self-guided pathways for shape-changing metamaterials

Multi-step pathways, constituted of a sequence of reconfigurations, are central to a wide variety of natural and man-made systems. Such pathways autonomously execute in self-guided processes such as protein folding and self-assembly, but require external control in macroscopic mechanical systems, provided by, e.g., actuators in robotics or manual folding in origami. Here we introduce shape-changing mechanical metamaterials, that exhibit self-guided multi-step pathways in response to global uniform compression. Their design combines strongly nonlinear mechanical elements with a multimodal architecture that allows for a sequence of topological reconfigurations, i.e., modifications of the topology caused by the formation of internal self-contacts. We realized such metamaterials by digital manufacturing, and show that the pathway and final configuration can be controlled by rational design of the nonlinear mechanical elements. We furthermore demonstrate that self-contacts suppress pathway errors. Finally, we demonstrate how hierarchical architectures allow to extend the number of distinct reconfiguration steps. Our work establishes general principles for designing mechanical pathways, opening new avenues for self-folding media, pluripotent materials, and pliable devices in, e.g., stretchable electronics and soft robotics.Comment: 16 pages, 3 main figures, 10 extended data figures. See https://youtu.be/8m1QfkMFL0I for an explanatory vide

Language-dependent changes in pitch-relevant neural activity in the auditory cortex reflect differential weighting of temporal attributes of pitch contours

There remains a gap in our knowledge base about neural representation of pitch attributes that occur between onset and offset of dynamic, curvilinear pitch contours. The aim is to evaluate how language experience shapes processing of pitch contours as reflected in the amplitude of cortical pitch-specific response components. Responses were elicited from three nonspeech, bidirectional (falling-rising) pitch contours representative of Mandarin Tone 2 varying in location of the turning point with fixed onset and offset. At the frontocentral Fz electrode site, Na–Pb and Pb–Nb amplitude of the Chinese group was larger than the English group for pitch contours exhibiting later location of the turning point relative to the one with the earliest location. Chinese listeners’ amplitude was also greater than that of English in response to those same pitch contours with later turning points. At lateral temporal sites (T7/T8), Na–Pb amplitude was larger in Chinese listeners relative to English over the right temporal site. In addition, Pb–Nb amplitude of the Chinese group showed a rightward asymmetry. The pitch contour with its turning point located about halfway of total duration evoked a rightward asymmetry regardless of group. These findings suggest that neural mechanisms processing pitch in the right auditory cortex reflect experience-dependent modulation of sensitivity to weighted integration of changes in acceleration rates of rising and falling sections and the location of the turning point

Characteristics of innovators adopting a national personal health record in Portugal : cross-sectional study

©Liliana Laranjo, Inês Rodolfo, Ana Marta Pereira, Armando Brito de Sá. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 11.10.2017. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Medical Informatics, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://medinform.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.Background: Personal health records (PHRs) are increasingly being deployed worldwide, but their rates of adoption by patients vary widely across countries and health systems. Five main categories of adopters are usually considered when evaluating the diffusion of innovations: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Objective: We aimed to evaluate adoption of the Portuguese PHR 3 months after its release, as well as characterize the individuals who registered and used the system during that period (the innovators). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study. Users and nonusers were defined based on their input, or not, of health-related information into the PHR. Users of the PHR were compared with nonusers regarding demographic and clinical variables. Users were further characterized according to their intensity of information input: single input (one single piece of health-related information recorded) and multiple inputs. Multivariate logistic regression was used to model the probability of being in the multiple inputs group. ArcGis (ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA) was used to create maps of the proportion of PHR registrations by region and district. Results: The number of registered individuals was 109,619 (66,408/109,619, 60.58% women; mean age: 44.7 years, standard deviation [SD] 18.1 years). The highest proportion of registrations was observed for those aged between 30 and 39 years (25,810/109,619, 23.55%). Furthermore, 16.88% (18,504/109,619) of registered individuals were considered users and 83.12% (91,115/109,619) nonusers. Among PHR users, 32.18% (5955/18,504) engaged in single input and 67.82% (12,549/18,504) in multiple inputs. Younger individuals and male users had higher odds of engaging in multiple inputs (odds ratio for male individuals 1.32, CI 1.19-1.48). Geographic analysis revealed higher proportions of PHR adoption in urban centers when compared with rural noncoastal districts. Conclusions: Approximately 1% of the country’s population registered during the first 3 months of the Portuguese PHR. Registered individuals were more frequently female aged between 30 and 39 years. There is evidence of a geographic gap in the adoption of the Portuguese PHR, with higher proportions of adopters in urban centers than in rural noncoastal districts.This work was supported by a Junior Clinical Research award from the Harvard Medical School—Portugal program (HMSP-ICJ/0005/2010; Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) attributed to the first author.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio