Effect of life history on microRNA expression during C. elegans development

Animals have evolved mechanisms to ensure the robustness of developmental outcomes to changing environments. MicroRNA expression may contribute to developmental robustness because microRNAs are key post-transcriptional regulators of developmental gene expression and can affect the expression of multiple target genes. Caenorhabditis elegans provides an excellent model to study developmental responses to environmental conditions. In favorable environments, C. elegans larvae develop rapidly and continuously through four larval stages. In contrast, in unfavorable conditions, larval development may be interrupted at either of two diapause stages: The L1 diapause occurs when embryos hatch in the absence of food, and the dauer diapause occurs after the second larval stage in response to environmental stimuli encountered during the first two larval stages. Dauer larvae are stress resistant and long lived, permitting survival in harsh conditions. When environmental conditions improve, dauer larvae re-enter development, and progress through two post-dauer larval stages to adulthood. Strikingly, all of these life history options (whether continuous or interrupted) involve an identical pattern and sequence of cell division and cell fates. To identify microRNAs with potential functions in buffering development in the context of C. elegans life history options, we used multiplex real-time PCR to assess the expression of 107 microRNAs throughout development in both continuous and interrupted life histories. We identified 17 microRNAs whose developmental profile of expression is affected by dauer life history and/or L1 diapause, compared to continuous development. Hence these microRNAs could function to regulate gene expression programs appropriate for different life history options in the developing worm

MIMO free-space optical communication employing subcarrier intensity modulation in atmospheric turbulence channels

In this paper, we analyse the error performance of transmitter/receiver array free-space optical (FSO) communication system employing binary phase shift keying (BPSK) subcarrier intensity modulation (SIM) in clear but turbulent atmospheric channel. Subcarrier modulation is employed to eliminate the need for adaptive threshold detector. Direct detection is employed at the receiver and each subcarrier is subsequently demodulated coherently. The effect of irradiance fading is mitigated with an array of lasers and photodetectors. The received signals are linearly combined using the optimal maximum ratio combining (MRC), the equal gain combining (EGC) and the selection combining (SelC). The bit error rate (BER) equations are derived considering additive white Gaussian noise and log normal intensity fluctuations. This work is part of the EU COST actions and EU projects

Numerical solution to the hermitian Yang-Mills equation on the Fermat quintic

We develop an iterative method for finding solutions to the hermitian Yang-Mills equation on stable holomorphic vector bundles, following ideas recently developed by Donaldson. As illustrations, we construct numerically the hermitian Einstein metrics on the tangent bundle and a rank three vector bundle on P^2. In addition, we find a hermitian Yang-Mills connection on a stable rank three vector bundle on the Fermat quintic.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figure

Retreatment with anti-EGFR based therapies in metastatic colorectal cancer: impact of intervening time interval and prior anti-EGFR response.

BackgroundThis retrospective study aims to investigate the activity of retreatment with anti-EGFR-based therapies in order to explore the concept of clonal evolution by evaluating the impact of prior activity and intervening time interval.MethodsEighty-nine KRAS exon 2-wild-type metastatic colorectal patients were retreated on phase I/II clinical trials containing anti-EGFR therapies after progressing on prior cetuximab or panitumumab. Response on prior anti-EGFR therapy was defined retrospectively per physician-records as response or stable disease ≥6 months. Multivariable statistical methods included a multiple logistic regression model for response, and Cox proportional hazards model for progression-free survival.ResultsRetreatment anti-EGFR agents were cetuximab (n = 76) or cetuximab plus erlotinib (n = 13). The median interval time between prior and retreatment regimens was 4.57 months (range: 0.46-58.7). Patients who responded to the prior cetuximab or panitumumab were more likely to obtain clinical benefit to the retreatment compared to the non-responders in both univariate (p = 0.007) and multivariate analyses (OR: 3.38, 95 % CI: 1.27, 9.31, p = 0.019). The clinical benefit rate on retreatment also showed a marginally significant association with interval time between the two anti-EGFR based therapies (p = 0.053). Median progression-free survival on retreatment was increased in prior responders (4.9 months, 95 % CI: 3.6, 6.2) compared to prior non-responders (2.5 months, 95 % CI, 1.58, 3.42) in univariate (p = 0.064) and multivariate analysis (HR: 0.70, 95 % CI: 0.43-1.15, p = 0.156).ConclusionOur data lends support to the concept of clonal evolution, though the clinical impact appears less robust than previously reported. Further work to determine which patients benefit from retreatment post progression is needed

Auction-based approach to resolve the scheduling problem in the steel making process

Steel production is an extremely complex process and determining coherent schedules for the wide variety of production steps in a dynamic environment, where disturbances frequently occur, is a challenging task. In the steel production process, the blast furnace continuously produces liquid iron, which is transformed into liquid steel in the melt shop. The majority of the molten steel passes through a continuous caster to form large steel slabs, which are rolled into coils in the hot strip mill. The scheduling system of these processes has very different objectives and constraints, and operates in an environment where there is a substantial quantity of real-time information concerning production failures and customer requests. The steel making process, which includes steel making followed by continuous casting, is generally the main bottleneck in steel production. Therefore, comprehensive scheduling of this process is critical to improve the quality and productivity of the entire production system. This paper addresses the scheduling problem in the steel making process. The methodology of winner determination using the combinatorial auction process is employed to solve the aforementioned problem. In the combinatorial auction, allowing bidding on a combination of assets offers a way of enhancing the efficiency of allocating the assets. In this paper, the scheduling problem in steel making has been formulated as a linear integer program to determine the scheduling sequence for different charges. Bids are then obtained for sequencing the charges. Next, a heuristic approach is used to evaluate the bids. The computational results show that our algorithm can obtain optimal or near-optimal solutions for combinatorial problems in a reasonable computation time. The proposed algorithm has been verified by a case study

Theories for influencer identification in complex networks

In social and biological systems, the structural heterogeneity of interaction networks gives rise to the emergence of a small set of influential nodes, or influencers, in a series of dynamical processes. Although much smaller than the entire network, these influencers were observed to be able to shape the collective dynamics of large populations in different contexts. As such, the successful identification of influencers should have profound implications in various real-world spreading dynamics such as viral marketing, epidemic outbreaks and cascading failure. In this chapter, we first summarize the centrality-based approach in finding single influencers in complex networks, and then discuss the more complicated problem of locating multiple influencers from a collective point of view. Progress rooted in collective influence theory, belief-propagation and computer science will be presented. Finally, we present some applications of influencer identification in diverse real-world systems, including online social platforms, scientific publication, brain networks and socioeconomic systems.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

Numerical Hermitian Yang-Mills Connections and Vector Bundle Stability in Heterotic Theories

A numerical algorithm is presented for explicitly computing the gauge connection on slope-stable holomorphic vector bundles on Calabi-Yau manifolds. To illustrate this algorithm, we calculate the connections on stable monad bundles defined on the K3 twofold and Quintic threefold. An error measure is introduced to determine how closely our algorithmic connection approximates a solution to the Hermitian Yang-Mills equations. We then extend our results by investigating the behavior of non slope-stable bundles. In a variety of examples, it is shown that the failure of these bundles to satisfy the Hermitian Yang-Mills equations, including field-strength singularities, can be accurately reproduced numerically. These results make it possible to numerically determine whether or not a vector bundle is slope-stable, thus providing an important new tool in the exploration of heterotic vacua.Comment: 52 pages, 15 figures. LaTex formatting of figures corrected in version 2

A survey of performance enhancement of transmission control protocol (TCP) in wireless ad hoc networks

This Article is provided by the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund - Copyright @ 2011 Springer OpenTransmission control protocol (TCP), which provides reliable end-to-end data delivery, performs well in traditional wired network environments, while in wireless ad hoc networks, it does not perform well. Compared to wired networks, wireless ad hoc networks have some specific characteristics such as node mobility and a shared medium. Owing to these specific characteristics of wireless ad hoc networks, TCP faces particular problems with, for example, route failure, channel contention and high bit error rates. These factors are responsible for the performance degradation of TCP in wireless ad hoc networks. The research community has produced a wide range of proposals to improve the performance of TCP in wireless ad hoc networks. This article presents a survey of these proposals (approaches). A classification of TCP improvement proposals for wireless ad hoc networks is presented, which makes it easy to compare the proposals falling under the same category. Tables which summarize the approaches for quick overview are provided. Possible directions for further improvements in this area are suggested in the conclusions. The aim of the article is to enable the reader to quickly acquire an overview of the state of TCP in wireless ad hoc networks.This study is partly funded by Kohat University of Science & Technology (KUST), Pakistan, and the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan

Thermonuclear Burning Regimes and the Use of SNe Ia in Cosmology

The calculations of the light curves of thermonuclear supernovae are carried out by a method of multi-group radiation hydrodynamics. The effects of spectral lines and expansion opacity are taken into account. The predictions for UBVI fluxes are given. The values of rise time for B and V bands found in our calculations are in good agreement with the observed values. We explain why our results for the rise time have more solid physical justification than those obtained by other authors. It is shown that small variations in the chemical composition of the ejecta, produced in the explosions with different regimes of nuclear burning, can influence drastically the light curve decline in the B band and, to a lesser extent, in the V band. We argue that recent results on positive cosmological constant Lambda, found from the high redshift supernova observations, could be wrong in the case of possible variations of the preferred mode of nuclear burning in the earlier Universe.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, presented at the conference "Astronomy at the Eve of the New Century", Puschino, May 17-22, 1999. A few references and a table added, typos correcte