Guanosine nucleotides regulate B2 kinin receptor affinity of agonists but not of antagonists: Discussion of a model proposing receptor precoupling to G protein

The effect of nucleotides on binding of the B2 kinin (BK) receptor agonist {[}H-3]BK and the antagonist {[}H-3]NPC17731 to particulate fractions of human foreskin fibroblasts was studied. At 0 degrees C, particulate fractions exhibited a single class of binding sites with a Kd of 2.3 nM for {[}H-3]BK and a K-d Of 3.8 nM for the antagonist {[}H-3]NPC17731. Incubation with radioligands at 37 degrees C for 5 min gave a reduction of agonist, as well as antagonist, binding that was between 0-40% depending on the preparation, even in the absence of guanosine nucleotides. As shown by Scatchard analysis, this reduction in specific binding was due to a shift in the affinity of at least a fraction of the receptors. The presence at 37 degrees C of the guanine nucleotides GTP, GDP and their poorly hydrolyzable analogs left {[}H-3]-NPC17731 binding unaffected, but reduced the receptor affinity for {[}H-3]BK to a K-d Of about 15 nM. The maximal number of receptors, however, was unchanged. This affinity change was strongly dependent on the presence of bivalent cations, in particular Mg2+. It was reversed by incubation at 0 degrees C, The rank order of the guanosine nucleotides for {[}H-3]BK binding reduction was GTP{[}gamma S] = Gpp{[}NH]p > GTP = GDP > GDP{[}beta S]. GMP, ATP, ADP and AMP showed no influence on agonist binding. A model for the interaction of the B2 kinin receptor with G proteins is discussed

An In Depth Study into Using EMI Signatures for Appliance Identification

Energy conservation is a key factor towards long term energy sustainability. Real-time end user energy feedback, using disaggregated electric load composition, can play a pivotal role in motivating consumers towards energy conservation. Recent works have explored using high frequency conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) on power lines as a single point sensing parameter for monitoring common home appliances. However, key questions regarding the reliability and feasibility of using EMI signatures for non-intrusive load monitoring over multiple appliances across different sensing paradigms remain unanswered. This work presents some of the key challenges towards using EMI as a unique and time invariant feature for load disaggregation. In-depth empirical evaluations of a large number of appliances in different sensing configurations are carried out, in both laboratory and real world settings. Insights into the effects of external parameters such as line impedance, background noise and appliance coupling on the EMI behavior of an appliance are realized through simulations and measurements. A generic approach for simulating the EMI behavior of an appliance that can then be used to do a detailed analysis of real world phenomenology is presented. The simulation approach is validated with EMI data from a router. Our EMI dataset - High Frequency EMI Dataset (HFED) is also released

Neural NILM: Deep Neural Networks Applied to Energy Disaggregation

Energy disaggregation estimates appliance-by-appliance electricity consumption from a single meter that measures the whole home's electricity demand. Recently, deep neural networks have driven remarkable improvements in classification performance in neighbouring machine learning fields such as image classification and automatic speech recognition. In this paper, we adapt three deep neural network architectures to energy disaggregation: 1) a form of recurrent neural network called `long short-term memory' (LSTM); 2) denoising autoencoders; and 3) a network which regresses the start time, end time and average power demand of each appliance activation. We use seven metrics to test the performance of these algorithms on real aggregate power data from five appliances. Tests are performed against a house not seen during training and against houses seen during training. We find that all three neural nets achieve better F1 scores (averaged over all five appliances) than either combinatorial optimisation or factorial hidden Markov models and that our neural net algorithms generalise well to an unseen house.Comment: To appear in ACM BuildSys'15, November 4--5, 2015, Seou

Multi-Channel Inverse Scattering Problem on the Line: Thresholds and Bound States

We consider the multi-channel inverse scattering problem in one-dimension in the presence of thresholds and bound states for a potential of finite support. Utilizing the Levin representation, we derive the general Marchenko integral equation for N-coupled channels and show that, unlike to the case of the radial inverse scattering problem, the information on the bound state energies and asymptotic normalization constants can be inferred from the reflection coefficient matrix alone. Thus, given this matrix, the Marchenko inverse scattering procedure can provide us with a unique multi-channel potential. The relationship to supersymmetric partner potentials as well as possible applications are discussed. The integral equation has been implemented numerically and applied to several schematic examples showing the characteristic features of multi-channel systems. A possible application of the formalism to technological problems is briefly discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

Surgery groups of the fundamental groups of hyperplane arrangement complements

Using a recent result of Bartels and Lueck (arXiv:0901.0442) we deduce that the Farrell-Jones Fibered Isomorphism conjecture in L-theory is true for any group which contains a finite index strongly poly-free normal subgroup, in particular, for the Artin full braid groups. As a consequence we explicitly compute the surgery groups of the Artin pure braid groups. This is obtained as a corollary to a computation of the surgery groups of a more general class of groups, namely for the fundamental group of the complement of any fiber-type hyperplane arrangement in the complex n-space.Comment: 11 pages, AMSLATEX file, revised following referee's comments and suggestions, to appear in Archiv der Mathemati

Probing Spin-Polarized Currents in the Quantum Hall Regime

An experiment to probe spin-polarized currents in the quantum Hall regime is suggested that takes advantage of the large Zeeman-splitting in the paramagnetic diluted magnetic semiconductor zinc manganese selenide (Zn$_{1-x}$Mn$_x$Se). In the proposed experiment spin-polarized electrons are injected by ZnMnSe-contacts into a gallium arsenide (GaAs) two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) arranged in a Hall bar geometry. We calculated the resulting Hall resistance for this experimental setup within the framework of the Landauer-B\"uttiker formalism. These calculations predict for 100% spininjection through the ZnMnSe-contacts a Hall resistance twice as high as in the case of no spin-polarized injection of charge carriers into a 2DEG for filling factor $\nu=2$. We also investigated the influence of the equilibration of the spin-polarized electrons within the 2DEG on the Hall resistance. In addition, in our model we expect no coupling between the contact and the 2DEG for odd filling factors of the 2DEG for 100% spininjection, because of the opposite sign of the g-factors of ZnMnSe and GaAs.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Relevance of pseudospin symmetry in proton-nucleus scattering

The manifestation of pseudospin-symmetry in proton-nucleus scattering is discussed. Constraints on the pseudospin-symmetry violating scattering amplitude are given which require as input cross section and polarization data, but no measurements of the spin rotation function. Application of these constraints to p-58Ni and p-208Pb scattering data in the laboratory energy range of 200 MeV to 800 MeV, reveals a significant violation of the symmetry at lower energies and a weak one at higher energies. Using a schematic model within the Dirac phenomenology, the role of the Coulomb potential in proton-nucleus scattering with regard to pseudospin symmetry is studied. Our results indicate that the existence of pseudospin-symmetry in proton-nucleus scattering is questionable in the whole energy region considered and that the violation of this symmetry stems from the long range nature of the Coulomb interaction.Comment: 22 pages including 9 figures, correction of 1 reference, revision of abstract and major modification of chapter 4, Fig. 6, and Fig. 7; addition of Fig. 8 and Fig.

KRT5 missense variant in a Cardigan Welsh Corgi with epidermolysis bullosa simplex.

Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a group of blistering disorders that includes several subtypes, classified according to their level of cleavage. Typical clinical signs are blisters and erosions resulting from minimal trauma. The disease has been described in many mammalian species and pathogenic variants in at least 18 different genes have been identified. In the present study, we investigated a Cardigan Welsh Corgi with congenital clinical signs consistent with epidermolysis bullosa. The puppy had blisters and erosions on the paw pads, and the oral mucosa. Histologic examination demonstrated the typical clefting between the dermis and epidermis and confirmed the clinical suspicion. We obtained whole genome sequencing data from the affected puppy and searched for variants in candidate genes known to cause EB. This revealed a heterozygous missense variant, KRT5:p.(E476K), affecting the highly conserved KLLEGE motif of keratin 5. The mutant allele in the affected puppy arose owing to a de novo mutation event as it was absent from both unaffected parents. Knowledge of the functional impact of KRT5 variants in other species together with the demonstration of the de novo mutation event establishes KRT5:p.(E476K) as causative variant for the observed EBS

Complete determination of the reflection coefficient in neutron specular reflection by absorptive non-magnetic media

An experimental method is proposed which allows the complete determination of the complex reflection coefficient for absorptive media for positive and negative values of the momenta. It makes use of magnetic reference layers and is a modification of a recently proposed technique for phase determination based on polarization measurements. The complex reflection coefficient resulting from a simulated application of the method is used for a reconstruction of the scattering density profiles of absorptive non-magnetic media by inversion.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, reformulation of abstract, ref.12 added, typographical correction

Detecting unambiguously non-Abelian geometric phases with trapped ions

We propose for the first time an experimentally feasible scheme to disclose the noncommutative effects induced by a light-induced non-Abelian gauge structure with trapped ions. Under an appropriate configuration, a true non-Abelian gauge potential naturally arises in connection with the geometric phase associated with two degenerated dark states in a four-state atomic system interacting with three pulsed laser fields. We show that the population in atomic state at the end of a composed path formed by two closed loops $C_1$ and $C_2$ in the parameter space can be significantly different from the composed counter-ordered path. This population difference is directly induced by the noncommutative feature of non-Abelian geometric phases and can be detected unambiguously with current technology.Comment: 6 page