Level Crossing Rate of Macrodiversity System in the Presence of Multipath Fading and Shadowing

Macrodiversity system including macrodiversity SC receiver and two microdiversity SC receivers is considered in this paper. Received signal experiences, simultaneously, both, long term fading and short term fading. Microdiversity SC receivers reduces Rayleigh fading effects on system performance and macrodiversity SC receiver mitigate Gamma shadowing effects on system performance. Closed form expressions for level crossing rate of microdiversity SC receivers output signals envelopes are calculated. This expression is used for evaluation of level crossing rate of macrodiversity SC receiver output signal envelope. Numerical expressions are illustrated to show the influence of Gamma shadowing severity on level crossing rate

Mutually Uncorrelated Primers for DNA-Based Data Storage

We introduce the notion of weakly mutually uncorrelated (WMU) sequences, motivated by applications in DNA-based data storage systems and for synchronization of communication devices. WMU sequences are characterized by the property that no sufficiently long suffix of one sequence is the prefix of the same or another sequence. WMU sequences used for primer design in DNA-based data storage systems are also required to be at large mutual Hamming distance from each other, have balanced compositions of symbols, and avoid primer-dimer byproducts. We derive bounds on the size of WMU and various constrained WMU codes and present a number of constructions for balanced, error-correcting, primer-dimer free WMU codes using Dyck paths, prefix-synchronized and cyclic codes.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 1 Table. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1601.0817

Inter-individual Variation in Cancer and Cardiometabolic Health Outcomes in Response to Coffee Consumption : a Critical Review

Funding Sources None declared. Conflict of Interest None declared. Author Contributions E.V. and B.d.R. designed the study. E.V. created the search strategy under the supervision of B.d.R.E.V. and B.d.R. conducted the literature search, evaluated articles, and interpreted the data. E.V. drafted the manuscriptand B.d.R and J.M.G. reviewed and revised the article.Peer reviewedPostprin

Monitoring Tropical Forest Recovery Capacity Using RADAR Satellite Images

Recent extreme droughts combined with accelerating human exploitation are pushing tropical forests to the point where they cannot recover, making them vulnerable to large unprecedented wildfires. This causes an urgent need to monitor the recovery capacity of tropical forests. While time series-based break detection approaches have demonstrated potential to measure tropical forest recovery capacity, they have not yet been applied over large amounts of satellite data. To address this challenge, the SURF computing infrastructure, i.e., the SPIDER cluster and the Sentinel-1 data cube prepared by the EODC GmbH was used. Those resources were available within the C-SCALE project as a part of a use case defined and designed together with EOSC experts. The provided resources were extremely useful for the RETURN use case. This aims at exploring time series of satellite radar (Sentinel-1) images from the EU Copernicus Earth Observation (EO) Programme to understand the recovery capacity of the Amazon rainforest. The outcomes of the RETURN research are important to help identify areas with slower forest recovery in the Amazon basin and potentially understand their causes

Inhibition of c-Kit signaling is associated with reduced heat and cold pain sensitivity in humans

The tyrosine kinase receptor c-Kit is critically involved in the modulation of nociceptive sensitivity in mice. Ablation of the c-Kit gene results in hyposensitivity to thermal pain, while c-Kit activation produces hypersensitivity to the noxious heat, without altering sensitivity to innocuous mechanical stimuli. In this study we investigated the role of c-Kit signalling in human pain perception. We hypothesized that subjects treated with Imatinib or Nilotinib, potent inhibitors of tyrosine kinases including c-Kit, but also Abl1, PDFGFR{alpha}, and PDFGFR{beta}, that are used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), would experience changes in thermal pain sensitivity. We examined 31 asymptomatic CML patients (14 male, 17 female) under Imatinib/Nilotinib treatment and compared them to 39 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (12 male, 27 female). We used cutaneous heat and cold stimulation to test normal and noxious thermal sensitivity, and a grating orientation task to assess tactile acuity. Thermal pain thresholds were significantly increased in the Imatinib/Nilotinib-treated group, while innocuous thermal and tactile thresholds were unchanged compared to the control group. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the biological effects of c-Kit inhibition are comparable in mice and humans in that c-Kit activity is required to regulate thermal pain sensitivity, but does not affect innocuous thermal and mechanical sensation. The effect on experimental heat pain observed in our study is comparable to that of several common analgesics, thus modulation of the c-Kit pathway can be used to specifically modulate noxious heat and cold sensitivity in humans

The influence of brake pads thermal conductivity on passanger car brake system efficiency

In phase of vehicle braking system designing, besides of mechanical characteristics, it is also necessary to take under consideration the system's thermal fatures. This is because it is not enough just to achieve proper braking power, for the brake system to be effective but equally important thing is the dissipation of heat to the environment. Heat developed in the friction surfaces dissipate into the environment over the disk in one hand and through the brake linings and caliper, in the other. The striving is to make that greatest amount of heat to dissipate not threw the brake pads butthrew disc. The experimental researching of heat transfer process taking place at vehicle brakes was made in the R&D Center of Zastava automobili car factory in order to increase the efficiency of brake system. The standard laboratory and road test procedures were used, according to factory quality regulations. The modern equipment such as thermo camera, thermo couples, torque transducers, signal amplifiers, optical speed measuring system and laptop computer were used. In this paper will be shown the part of the experimental researching, whichrefers to the thermal conductivity ofbrake pad friction linings

Molecular evolution and functional divergence of the bestrophin protein family

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mutations in human bestrophin 1 are associated with at least three autosomal-dominant macular dystrophies including Best disease, adult onset vitelliform macular dystrophy and autosomal dominant vitreo-retinochoroidopathy. The protein is integral to the membrane and is likely involved in Ca²⁺-dependent transport of chloride ions across cellular membranes. Bestrophin 1 together with its three homologues forms a phylogenetically highly conserved family of proteins.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A bioinformatics study was performed to investigate the phylogenetic relationship among the bestrophin family members and to statistically evaluate sequence conservation and functional divergence. Phylogenetic tree assembly with all available eukaryotic bestrophin sequences suggests gene duplication events in the lineage leading to the vertebrates. A common N-terminal topology which includes four highly conserved transmembrane domains is shared by the members of the four paralogous groups of vertebrate bestrophins and has been constrained by purifying selection. Pairwise comparison shows that altered functional constraints have occurred at specific amino acid positions after phylogenetic diversification of the paralogues. Most notably, significant functional divergence was found between bestrophin 4 and the other family members, as well as between bestrophin 2 and bestrophin 3. Site-specific profiles were established by posterior probability analysis revealing significantly divergent clusters mainly in two hydrophilic loops and a region immediately adjacent to the last predicted transmembrane domain. Strikingly, codons 279 and 347 of human bestrophin 4 reveal high divergence when compared to the paralogous positions strongly indicating the functional importance of these residues for the bestrophin 4 protein. None of the functionally divergent amino acids were found to reside within obvious sequences patterns or motifs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study highlights the molecular evolution of the bestrophin family of transmembrane proteins and indicates amino acid residues likely relevant for distinct functional properties of the paralogues. These findings may provide a starting point for further experimental verifications.</p