313 research outputs found
MATLAB-Based Applications for Image Processing and Image Quality Assessment – Part I: Software Description
This paper describes several MATLAB-based applications useful for image processing and image quality assessment. The Image Processing Application helps user to easily modify images, the Image Quality Adjustment Application enables to create series of pictures with different quality. The Image Quality Assessment Application contains objective full reference quality metrics that can be used for image quality assessment. The Image Quality Evaluation Applications represent an easy way to compare subjectively the quality of distorted images with reference image. Results of these subjective tests can be processed by using the Results Processing Application. All applications provide Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the intuitive usage
Airy Distribution Function: From the Area Under a Brownian Excursion to the Maximal Height of Fluctuating Interfaces
The Airy distribution function describes the probability distribution of the
area under a Brownian excursion over a unit interval. Surprisingly, this
function has appeared in a number of seemingly unrelated problems, mostly in
computer science and graph theory. In this paper, we show that this
distribution also appears in a rather well studied physical system, namely the
fluctuating interfaces. We present an exact solution for the distribution
P(h_m,L) of the maximal height h_m (measured with respect to the average
spatial height) in the steady state of a fluctuating interface in a one
dimensional system of size L with both periodic and free boundary conditions.
For the periodic case, we show that P(h_m,L)=L^{-1/2}f(h_m L^{-1/2}) for all L
where the function f(x) is the Airy distribution function. This result is valid
for both the Edwards-Wilkinson and the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang interfaces. For the
free boundary case, the same scaling holds P(h_m,L)=L^{-1/2}F(h_m L^{-1/2}),
but the scaling function F(x) is different from that of the periodic case. We
compute this scaling function explicitly for the Edwards-Wilkinson interface
and call it the F-Airy distribution function. Numerical simulations are in
excellent agreement with our analytical results. Our results provide a rather
rare exactly solvable case for the distribution of extremum of a set of
strongly correlated random variables. Some of these results were announced in a
recent Letter [ S.N. Majumdar and A. Comtet, Phys. Rev. Lett., 92, 225501
(2004)].Comment: 27 pages, 10 .eps figures included. Two figures improved, new
discussion and references adde
Prediction of a gene regulatory network linked to prostate cancer from gene expression, microRNA and clinical data
Motivation: Cancer is a complex disease, triggered by mutations in multiple genes and pathways. There is a growing interest in the application of systems biology approaches to analyze various types of cancer-related data to understand the overwhelming complexity of changes induced by the disease
UHRF1 binds G9a and participates in p21 transcriptional regulation in mammalian cells
UHRF1 (ubiquitin-like, containing PHD and RING finger domains 1) is a multi-domain protein associated with cellular proliferation and epigenetic regulation. The UHRF1 binds to methylated CpG dinucleotides and recruits transcriptional repressors DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) and histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) through its distinct domains. However, the molecular basis of UHRF1-mediated transcriptional regulation via chromatin modifications is yet to be fully understood. Here we show that UHRF1 binds histone lysine methyltransferase G9a, and both are co-localized in the nucleus in a cell-cycle-dependent manner. Concurrent with the cell-cycle progression, gradual deposition of UHRF1 and G9a was observed, which mirrored H3K9me2 accumulation on chromatin. Murine Uhrf1-null embryonic stem (ES) cells displayed a reduced amount of G9a and H3K9me2 on chromatin. UHRF1 recruited and cooperated with G9a to inhibit the p21 promoter activity, which correlated with the elevated p21 protein level in both human UHRF1 siRNA-transfected HeLa cells and murine Uhrf1-null ES cells. Furthermore, endogenous p21 promoter remained bound to UHRF1, G9a, DNMT1 and HDAC1, and knockdown of UHRF1 impaired the association of all three chromatin modifiers with the promoter. Thus, our results suggest that UHRF1 may serve as a focal point of transcriptional regulation mediated by G9a and other chromatin modification enzymes
Functionals of the Brownian motion, localization and metric graphs
We review several results related to the problem of a quantum particle in a
random environment.
In an introductory part, we recall how several functionals of the Brownian
motion arise in the study of electronic transport in weakly disordered metals
(weak localization).
Two aspects of the physics of the one-dimensional strong localization are
reviewed : some properties of the scattering by a random potential (time delay
distribution) and a study of the spectrum of a random potential on a bounded
domain (the extreme value statistics of the eigenvalues).
Then we mention several results concerning the diffusion on graphs, and more
generally the spectral properties of the Schr\"odinger operator on graphs. The
interest of spectral determinants as generating functions characterizing the
diffusion on graphs is illustrated.
Finally, we consider a two-dimensional model of a charged particle coupled to
the random magnetic field due to magnetic vortices. We recall the connection
between spectral properties of this model and winding functionals of the planar
Brownian motion.Comment: Review article. 50 pages, 21 eps figures. Version 2: section 5.5 and
conclusion added. Several references adde
Boolean-controlled systems via receding horizon and linear programing.
We consider dynamic systems controlled by boolean signals or decisions. We show that in a number of cases, the receding horizon formulation of the control problem can be solved via linear programing by relaxing the binary constraints on the control. The idea behind our approach is conceptually easy: a feasible control can be forced by imposing that the boolean signal is set to one at least one time over the horizon. We translate this idea into constraints on the controls and analyze the polyhedron of all feasible controls. We specialize the approach to the stabilizability of switched and impulsively controlled systems
Alternative approach to the optimality of the threshold strategy for spectrally negative Levy processes
Consider the optimal dividend problem for an insurance company whose
uncontrolled surplus precess evolves as a spectrally negative Levy process. We
assume that dividends are paid to the shareholders according to admissible
strategies whose dividend rate is bounded by a constant. The objective is to
find a dividend policy so as to maximize the expected discounted value of
dividends which are paid to the shareholders until the company is ruined.
Kyprianou, Loeffen and Perez [28] have shown that a refraction strategy (also
called threshold strategy) forms an optimal strategy under the condition that
the Levy measure has a completely monotone density. In this paper, we propose
an alternative approach to this optimal problem.Comment: 16 page
Three SRA-Domain Methylcytosine-Binding Proteins Cooperate to Maintain Global CpG Methylation and Epigenetic Silencing in Arabidopsis
Methylcytosine-binding proteins decipher the epigenetic information encoded by DNA methylation and provide a link between DNA methylation, modification of chromatin structure, and gene silencing. VARIANT IN METHYLATION 1 (VIM1) encodes an SRA (SET- and RING-associated) domain methylcytosine-binding protein in Arabidopsis thaliana, and loss of VIM1 function causes centromere DNA hypomethylation and centromeric heterochromatin decondensation in interphase. In the Arabidopsis genome, there are five VIM genes that share very high sequence similarity and encode proteins containing a PHD domain, two RING domains, and an SRA domain. To gain further insight into the function and potential redundancy among the VIM proteins, we investigated strains combining different vim mutations and transgenic vim knock-down lines that down-regulate multiple VIM family genes. The vim1 vim3 double mutant and the transgenic vim knock-down lines showed decreased DNA methylation primarily at CpG sites in genic regions, as well as repeated sequences in heterochromatic regions. In addition, transcriptional silencing was released in these plants at most heterochromatin regions examined. Interestingly, the vim1 vim3 mutant and vim knock-down lines gained ectopic CpHpH methylation in the 5S rRNA genes against a background of CpG hypomethylation. The vim1 vim2 vim3 triple mutant displayed abnormal morphological phenotypes including late flowering, which is associated with DNA hypomethylation of the 5′ region of FWA and release of FWA gene silencing. Our findings demonstrate that VIM1, VIM2, and VIM3 have overlapping functions in maintenance of global CpG methylation and epigenetic transcriptional silencing
Affine term structure models : a time-changed approach with perfect fit to market curves
We address the so-called calibration problem which consists of fitting in a
tractable way a given model to a specified term structure like, e.g., yield or
default probability curves. Time-homogeneous jump-diffusions like Vasicek or
Cox-Ingersoll-Ross (possibly coupled with compounded Poisson jumps, JCIR), are
tractable processes but have limited flexibility; they fail to replicate actual
market curves. The deterministic shift extension of the latter (Hull-White or
JCIR++) is a simple but yet efficient solution that is widely used by both
academics and practitioners. However, the shift approach is often not
appropriate when positivity is required, which is a common constraint when
dealing with credit spreads or default intensities. In this paper, we tackle
this problem by adopting a time change approach. On the top of providing an
elegant solution to the calibration problem under positivity constraint, our
model features additional interesting properties in terms of implied
volatilities. It is compared to the shift extension on various credit risk
applications such as credit default swap, credit default swaption and credit
valuation adjustment under wrong-way risk. The time change approach is able to
generate much larger volatility and covariance effects under the positivity
constraint. Our model offers an appealing alternative to the shift in such
cases.Comment: 44 pages, figures and table
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