On the nonlinear statistics of range image patches

In [A. B. Lee, K. S. Pedersen, and D. Mumford, Int. J. Comput. Vis., 54 (2003), pp. 83–103], the authors study the distributions of 3 × 3 patches from optical images and from range images. In [G. Carlsson, T. Ishkanov, V. de Silva, and A. Zomorodian, Int. J. Comput. Vis., 76 (2008), pp. 1–12], the authors apply computational topological tools to the data set of optical patches studied by Lee, Pedersen, and Mumford and find geometric structures for high density subsets. One high density subset is called the primary circle and essentially consists of patches with a line separating a light and a dark region. In this paper, we apply the techniques of Carlsson et al. to range patches. By enlarging to 5×5 and 7×7 patches, we find core subsets that have the topology of the primary circle, suggesting a stronger connection between optical patches and range patches than was found by Lee, Pedersen, and Mumford

Sand Penetration By High-Speed Projectiles

Tungsten projectiles were shot into sand at velocities between 600 and 2200 m/s. Penetration was maximum at about 775 m/s. Below that velocity, projectiles were apparently stabilized by a fin set. Above that velocity, projectiles were broken by transverse loads. High-speed penetration resulted in comminution of sand particles, reducing their size by about 1000 times.Mechanical Engineerin

Inflammation and changes in cytokine levels in neurological feline infectious peritonitis.

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a progressive, fatal, predominantly Arthus-type immune-mediated disease that is triggered when cats are infected with a mutant enteric coronavirus. The disease presents variably with multiple organ failure, seizures, generalized effusion, or shock. Neurological FIP is clinically and pathologically more homogeneous than systemic 'wet' or 'dry' FIP; thus, comparison of cytokine profiles from cats with neurological FIP, wet FIP, and non-FIP neurological disease may provide insight into some baseline characteristics relating to the immunopathogenesis of neurological FIP. This study characterizes inflammation and changes in cytokines in the brain tissue of FIP-affected cats. Cellular infiltrates in cats with FIP included lymphocytes, plasma cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and eosinophils. IL-1 beta, IL-6, IL-12, IL-18, TNF-alpha, macrophage inhibitory protein (MIP)-1 alpha, and RANTES showed no upregulation in the brains of control cats, moderate upregulation in neurological FIP cats, and very high upregulation in generalized FIP cats. Transcription of IFN-gamma appeared upregulated in cats with systemic FIP and slightly downregulated in neurological FIP. In most cytokines tested, variance was extremely high in generalized FIP and much less in neurological FIP. Principal components analysis was performed in order to find the least number of 'components' that would summarize the cytokine profiles in cats with neurological FIP. A large component of the variance (91.7%) was accounted for by levels of IL-6, MIP-1 alpha, and RANTES. These findings provide new insight into the immunopathogenesis of FIP and suggest targets for immune therapy of this disease

Ptychographic X-ray computed tomography of extended colloidal networks in food emulsions

As a main structural level in colloidal food materials, extended colloidal networks are important for texture and rheology. By obtaining the 3D microstructure of the network, macroscopic mechanical properties of the material can be inferred. However, this approach is hampered by the lack of suitable non-destructive 3D imaging techniques with submicron resolution. We present results of quantitative ptychographic X-ray computed tomography applied to a palm kernel oil based oil-in-water emulsion. The measurements were carried out at ambient pressure and temperature. The 3D structure of the extended colloidal network of fat globules was obtained with a resolution of around 300 nm. Through image analysis of the network structure, the fat globule size distribution was computed and compared to previous findings. In further support, the reconstructed electron density values were within 4% of reference values.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Food Structur

Elevated fetal steroidogenic activity in autism

Autism affects males more than females, giving rise to the idea that the influence of steroid hormones on early fetal brain development may be one important early biological risk factor. Utilizing the Danish Historic Birth Cohort and Danish Psychiatric Central Register, we identified all amniotic fluid samples of males born between 1993 and 1999 who later received ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision) diagnoses of autism, Asperger syndrome or PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified) (n=128) compared with matched typically developing controls. Concentration levels of Δ4 sex steroids (progesterone, 17α-hydroxy-progesterone, androstenedione and testosterone) and cortisol were measured with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. All hormones were positively associated with each other and principal component analysis confirmed that one generalized latent steroidogenic factor was driving much of the variation in the data. The autism group showed elevations across all hormones on this latent generalized steroidogenic factor (Cohen's d=0.37, P=0.0009) and this elevation was uniform across ICD-10 diagnostic label. These results provide the first direct evidence of elevated fetal steroidogenic activity in autism. Such elevations may be important as epigenetic fetal programming mechanisms and may interact with other important pathophysiological factors in autism

On the existence of impurity bound excitons in one-dimensional systems with zero range interactions

We consider a three-body one-dimensional Schr\"odinger operator with zero range potentials, which models a positive impurity with charge $\kappa > 0$ interacting with an exciton. We study the existence of discrete eigenvalues as $\kappa$ is varied. On one hand, we show that for sufficiently small $\kappa$ there exists a unique bound state whose binding energy behaves like $\kappa^4$, and we explicitly compute its leading coefficient. On the other hand, if $\kappa$ is larger than some critical value then the system has no bound states

Inducing spin-dependent tunneling to probe magnetic correlations in optical lattices

We suggest a simple experimental method for probing antiferromagnetic spin correlations of two-component Fermi gases in optical lattices. The method relies on a spin selective Raman transition to excite atoms of one spin species to their first excited vibrational mode where the tunneling is large. The resulting difference in the tunneling dynamics of the two spin species can then be exploited, to reveal the spin correlations by measuring the number of doubly occupied lattice sites at a later time. We perform quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the spin system and solve the optical lattice dynamics numerically to show how the timed probe can be used to identify antiferromagnetic spin correlations in optical lattices.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Thermodynamics of Heat Shock Response

Production of heat shock proteins are induced when a living cell is exposed to a rise in temperature. The heat shock response of protein DnaK synthesis in E.coli for temperature shifts from temperature T to T plus 7 degrees, respectively to T minus 7 degrees is measured as function of the initial temperature T. We observe a reversed heat shock at low T. The magnitude of the shock increases when one increase the distance to the temperature $T_0 \approx 23^o$, thereby mimicking the non monotous stability of proteins at low temperature. Further we found that the variation of the heat shock with T quantitatively follows the thermodynamic stability of proteins with temperature. This suggest that stability related to hot as well as cold unfolding of proteins is directly implemented in the biological control of protein folding. We demonstrate that such an implementation is possible in a minimalistic chemical network.Comment: To be published in Physical Review Letter

Charcoal rot -- a disease new to Iowa farmers

August was the driest month on record in Iowa with most of the state being in severe drought. Because of these extreme environmental conditions a disease new to soybean producers has been prevalent in Iowa soybean fields this year. The disease is charcoal rot, a yield robber from the south