Presenting in Virtual Worlds: Towards an Architecture for a 3D Presenter explaining 2D-Presented Information

Entertainment, education and training are changing because of multi-party interaction technology. In the past we have seen the introduction of embodied agents and robots that take the role of a museum guide, a news presenter, a teacher, a receptionist, or someone who is trying to sell you insurances, houses or tickets. In all these cases the embodied agent needs to explain and describe. In this paper we contribute the design of a 3D virtual presenter that uses different output channels to present and explain. Speech and animation (posture, pointing and involuntary movements) are among these channels. The behavior is scripted and synchronized with the display of a 2D presentation with associated text and regions that can be pointed at (sheets, drawings, and paintings). In this paper the emphasis is on the interaction between 3D presenter and the 2D presentation

RNA interference machinery regulates chromosome dynamics during mitosis and meiosis in fission yeast

The regulation of higher-order chromosome structure is central to cell division and sexual reproduction. Heterochromatin assembly at the centromeres facilitates both kinetochore formation and sister chromatid cohesion, and the formation of specialized chromatin structures at telomeres serves to maintain the length of telomeric repeats, to suppress recombination, and to aid in formation of a bouquet-like structure that facilitates homologous chromosome pairing during meiosis. In fission yeast, genes encoding the Argonaute, Dicer, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase factors involved in RNA interference (RNAi) are required for heterochromatin formation at the centromeres and mating type region. In this study, we examine the effects of deletions of the fission yeast RNAi machinery on chromosome dynamics during mitosis and meiosis. We find that the RNAi machinery is required for the accurate segregation of chromosomes. Defects in mitotic chromosome segregation are correlated with loss of cohesin at centromeres. Although the telomeres of RNAi mutants maintain silencing, length, and localization of the heterochromatin protein Swi6, we discovered defects in the proper clustering of telomeres in interphase mitotic cells. Furthermore, a small proportion of RNAi mutant cells display aberrant telomere clustering during meiotic prophase. This study demonstrates that the fission yeast RNAi machinery is required for the proper regulation of chromosome architecture during mitosis and meiosis

Detection of telomerase activity in peritoneal lavage fluid from patients with gastric cancer using immunomagnetic beads

Cytologic examination of peritoneal lavage fluid is a useful predictor of peritoneal recurrence in gastric cancer. However, this technique is not overly sensitive and requires special abilities in the cytologist. In this study, telomerase activity was used to detect free cancer cells in peritoneal lavage fluid from patients with gastric cancer. In the first part, 12 lavage-fluid samples obtained from 12 patients with gastric cancer were analysed using the conventional telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay. Three of five patients with early gastric cancer had positive telomerase activity. These false-positive results may have been due to lymphocyte contamination. Furthermore, polymerase chain reaction inhibitors were also detected in the lavage-fluid samples. Therefore, we developed a novel method for elimination of haematopoietic cell and Taq polymerase inhibitors to increase the accuracy of the TRAP assay using immunomagnetic beads, which bind to most normal and neoplastic human epithelial cells. Telomerase activity was found in 10 of 20 (50%) lavage-fluid samples from patients with serosal or subserosal invasion. Cytologic examination was positive in nine of 20 (45%) samples. Both the telomerase activity and cytology were negative in all 14 patients without serosal or subserosal invasion. These results suggest that the TRAP assay combined with immunomagnetic beads might be useful for detection of free cancer cells in the peritoneal space in gastric cancer without the aid of an experienced cytologist. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Integrable Structure of 5d5d N=1\mathcal{N}=1 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills and Melting Crystal

We study loop operators of $5d$ $\mathcal{N}=1$ SYM in $\Omega$ background. For the case of U(1) theory, the generating function of correlation functions of the loop operators reproduces the partition function of melting crystal model with external potential. We argue the common integrable structure of $5d$ $\mathcal{N}=1$ SYM and melting crystal model.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, based on an invited talk presented at the international workshop "Progress of String Theory and Quantum Field Theory" (Osaka City University, December 7-10, 2007), to be published in the proceeding

Visual acuity and foveal thickness after vitrectomy for macular edema associated with branch retinal vein occlusion: a case series

Abstract Background The mechanism by which vitrectomy improves macular edema in patients with branch retinal vein occlusion remains unclear, although intraocular levels of vascular endothelial growth factor have been suggested to influence the visual prognosis and macular edema. Methods A series of 54 consecutive patients (54 eyes) with branch retinal vein occlusion was studied prospectively. All patients underwent pars plana vitrectomy for treatment of macular edema. Best corrected visual acuity and retinal thickness (examined by optical coherence tomography) were assessed before and after surgery. The level of vascular endothelial growth factor in vitreous fluid harvested at operation was determined. Patients were followed for at least 6 months postoperatively. Results Both the visual acuity and the retinal thickness showed significant improvement at 6 months postoperatively (P = 0.0002 and P Conclusions These results suggest that the vitreous level of vascular endothelial growth factor might influence the visual prognosis and the response of macular edema to vitrectomy in patients with branch retinal vein occlusion.</p

Dynamic Changes of Sp6 Transgene Expression in Dental Epithelial Cells During Long-term Culture

To investigate the function of specificity protein 6 (SP6) transcription factor by gain-of-function procedure, we established cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter-driven Sp6 stable transformants, C9 cells, using dental epithelialderived cells. Initially, C9 cells produced a significant amount of SP6 protein. However, SP6 expression was reduced in these cells upon long-term culture. We could detect Sp6 transcripts in C9 cells by RT-PCR throughout the passages, although the CMV promoter is known to be epigenetically silenced. We recently found that SP6 was a short-lived protein that was degraded by a ubiquitin-independent proteasome pathway, although it is yet unclear how Sp6 expression was regulated during culture. Thus, we studied the possibility of epigenetic regulation of Sp6 expression. Comparative analysis of endogenous and exogenous Sp6 mRNA expressions demonstrated the specific down-regulation of exogenous Sp6 mRNA levels during culture passages. A DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, 5-Aza-2\u27-deoxycytidine (5AC), and a histone deacetylase inhibitor, valproic acid (VPA), enhanced or induced SP6 protein expression up to passage 28 without enhancing the mRNA level. The dramatic up-regulation of exogenous Sp6 mRNA was uniquely observed only at passage 50 by 5AC or VPA treatment. These findings indicate that multiple epigenetic regulatory mechanisms operate to fine-tune Sp6 expression during long-term culture

Isolation and Characterization of Mouse Specificity Protein 6 Promoter

Specificity protein 6 (SP6) is a member of the SP/Krüppel-like transcription factor family and plays key roles in tooth development. To study its biological roles, it is important to understand the spatiotemporal regulation of Sp6 gene expression. For this purpose, we first identified two separate 5\u27 ends of the Sp6 cDNA by 5\u27 RACE analysis using mouse mandibular RNA. Next, we isolated mouse genomic DNA fragments covering the Sp6 gene including two putative mouse Sp6 promoter regions and generated a series of luciferase reporter constructs. We confirmed the activity of both promoters by a luciferase assay and found strong second promoter activity in dental epithelial cells. Unexpectedly, we also detected potential third promoter activity in the intron 2 of the Sp6 gene. Last, we also found that bone morphogenetic protein and wingless signals could enhance Sp6 promoter activity in dental epithelial cells, suggesting the regulatory roles of two cytokines in Sp6 gene expression during tooth development. Our findings may shed new light on the regulatory mechanisms of Sp6 gene expression and provide a possible linkage between cytokine regulation of Sp6 expression and inductive epithelial and mesenchymal interactions

Performance of MPLS-based virtual private networks and classic virtual private networks using advanced metrics

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is effective in managing and utilizing available network bandwidth. It has advanced security features and a lower time delay. The existing literature has covered the performance of MPLS-based networks in relation to conventional Internet Protocol (IP) networks. But, too few literatures exist on the performance of MPLS-based Virtual Private Networks (VPN) in relation to traditional VPN networks. In this paper, a comparison is made between the effectiveness of the MPLS-VPN network and a classic VPN network using simulation studies done on OPNET®. The performance metrics used to carry out the comparison include; End to End Delay, Voice Packet Sent/Received and Label Switched Path's Traffic. The simulation study was carried out with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as the test bed. The result of the study showed that MPLS-based VPN networks outperform classic VPN networks