Factorizations of languages and commutativity conditions

Representations of languages as a product (catenation) of languages are investigated, where the factor languages are "prime", that is, cannot be decomposed further in a nontrivial manner. In general, such prime decompositions do not necessarily exist. If they exist, they are not necessarily unique - the number of factors can vary even exponentially. The paper investigates prime decompositions, as well as the commuting of the factors, especially for the case of finite languages. In particular, a technique about commuting is developed in Section 4, where the factorization of languages L1 and L2 is discussed under the assumption L1L2 = L2L1

Visual attention retargeting

This thesis explores attention retargeting---a concept related to visual saliency where the content or composition of an image is altered in an effort to guide the viewer\u27s attention. Attention retargeting is currently in its infancy with numerous unexplored possibilities, no common methodology for evaluating performance, and no unified framework. The difficulty of attention retargeting as a saliency inversion problem lies in the lack of one-to-one mapping between saliency and the image domain, in addition to the possible negative impact of saliency alterations on image naturalness. Several approaches from recent literature to solve this challenging problem are reviewed in this context. Two novel attention retargeting methods are proposed to efficiently compute a region\u27s propensity for drawing attention after it has been modified. The first method manipulates the orientation of a selected region, while the second modifies its hue. Both methods are applied to maximize the saliency of selected regions in various images. The likelihood of drawing attention towards the modified regions is evaluated through eye-tracking. Subjective experiments, in which participants are told to decide which image looks better between two alternatives, are used to measure the relative naturalness of the modification. An experiment was conducted to determine whether subliminal flicker is capable of drawing attention in natural images without the viewer\u27s knowledge. Flicker was introduced to selected regions in a set of images by alternating the contrast in these regions from high to low at a frequency of 50 Hz. A comparison of eye-tracking data between participants who viewed the flickering images against those who viewed the original images suggests that subliminal flicker may, on average, repel attention rather than attract it

P19-derived neuronal cells express H1, H2, and H3 histamine receptors: a biopharmaceutical approach to evaluate antihistamine agents

Histamine is a biogenic amine implicated in various biological and pathological processes. Convenient cellular models are needed to screen and develop new antihistamine agents. This report aimed to characterize the response of neurons differentiated from mouse P19 embryonal carcinoma cells to histamine treatment, and to investigate the modulation of this response by antihistamine drugs, vegetal diamine oxidase, and catalase. The exposure of P19 neurons to histamine reduced cell viability to 65% maximally. This effect involves specific histamine receptors, since it was prevented by treatment with desloratadine and cimetidine, respectively, H-1 and H-2 antagonists, but not by the H-3 antagonist ciproxifan. RT-PCR analysis showed that P19 neurons express H-1 and H-2 receptors, and the H-3 receptor, although it seemed not involved in the histamine effect on these cells. The H-4 receptor was not expressed. H-1 and H-2 antagonists as well as vegetal diamine oxidase diminished the intracellular Ca2+ mobilization triggered by histamine. The treatment with vegetal diamine oxidase or catalase protected against mortality and a significant reduction of H2O2 level, generated from the cells under the histamine action, was found upon treatments with desloratadine, cimetidine, vegetal diamine oxidase, or catalase. Overall, the results indicate the expression of functional histamine receptors and open the possibility of using P19 neurons as model system to study the roles of histamine and related drugs in neuronal pathogenesis. This model is less expensive to operate and can be easily implemented by current laboratories of analysis and by Contract Research Organizations

Pea Seedling Histaminase as a Novel Therapeutic Approach to Anaphylactic and Inflammatory Disorders

Amine oxidases (AOs) are ubiquitous enzymes involved in the metabolism of biogenic amines. Copper AOs (Cu-AOs) catalyze the oxidative deamination of primary amine groups of several biogenic amines, such as putrescine, cadaverine, and histamine. In the present review, the effects of a plant amine oxidase (Cu-AO, histaminase, EC1.4.3.6) purified from pea seedlings in the modulation of IgE-mediated allergic reactions, and in the prevention of cardiac and splachnic postischemic reperfusion damage are reported

SOLIDWORKS 3D PARAMETRIC MODELLING TECHNIQUE FOR ROOT CUTTING EQUIPMENT DECLINING GROWTH OF SHOOTS IN ORCHARDS

This work was focused, by using computer aided engineering application (SolidWorks) and structural simulation (SolidWorks SIMULATION), on obtaining a technical and economic strength indicator used in the analysis of metallic material choice from which is made active body large diameter disc knife type, that equips the technical equipment for soil tillage on trees row, while cuttings root for moderating growth of shoots and precision foliar fertilization. For this purpose, on the 3D parametric modeling were selected from the software library various metallic materials, followed by finite element analysis (FEA) which was carried out to simulate the distributions of stress and strain on the body active. Based on the resulting data, were determined the reports price- coefficient of resistance for the materials analyzed. Comparing these indicators led to the selection of a material that has high resistance under a price as low as possible. Analysis based on technical and economic choice of a metallic material reduces the time validation of the design, by eliminating the realization and physical testing, and allows management to determine the existing resources in the company in order to use their total for achieve economic and financial results as high

Zymographic assay of plant diamine oxidase on entrapped peroxidase polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. A study of stability to proteolysis

A zymographic assay of diamine oxidase (DAO, histaminase, EC 1.4.3.6), based on a coupled peroxidase reaction, and its behavior at proteolysis in simulated gastric and intestinal conditions, are described. The DAO activity from a vegetal extract of Lathyrus sativus seedlings was directly determined on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide electrophoretic gels containing entrapped horseradish peroxidase, with putrescine as substrate of histaminase and ortho-phenylenediamine as co-substrate of peroxidase. The accumulation of azo-aniline, as peroxidase-catalyzed oxidation product, led to well-defined yellow-brown bands on gels, with intensities corresponding to the enzymatic activity of DAO. After image analysis of gels, a linear dependency of DAO content (Coomassie-stained protein bands) and of its enzymatic activity (zymographic bands) with the concentration of the vegetal extract was obtained. In simulated gastric conditions (pH 1.2, 37 °C), the DAO from the vegetal extract lost its enzymatic activity before 15 min of incubation, either in the presence or absence of pepsin. The protein pattern (Coomassie-stained) revealed that the DAO content from the vegetal extract was kept almost constant in the simulated intestinal fluid (containing pancreatin or not), with a slight diminution in the presence of pancreatic proteases. After 10 h of incubation at 37 °C, the DAO enzymatic activity from the vegetal extract was 44.7% in media without pancreatin and 13.6% in the presence of pancreatin, whereas the purified DAO retained only 4.65% of its initial enzymatic activity in the presence of pancreatin

J.UCS Special Issue on Formal Languages and Automata (WFLA)

J.UCS Special Issue on Formal Languages and Automata (WFLA