Day Plots of Bacterial Magnetite from Sediments of Shira Lake (Khakassia, Russia)

The domain state of magnetite detected in sediments of Shira lake (Khakassia, Russia) was examined by means of magnetic hysteresis. Analysis of experimental data obtained on samples from different parts of bottom sediment cores in terms of Day plots allowed us to conclude that magnetite particles are in the pseudo-single-domain state. This indicates respectively small size of magnetite particles (< 100 nm) and reveals their bacterial origin. Biogenic magnetite buried in the bottom sediments can indicate the climatic changes in the Shira lake level in the Late Holocen

Optical and transport properties of short period InAs/GaAs superlattices near quantum dot formation

We have investigated the optical and transport properties of MBE grown short-period superlattices of InAs/GaAs with different numbers of periods (3 <= N <= 24) and a total thickness 14 nm. Bandstructure calculations show that these superlattices represent a quantum well with average composition In_0.16Ga_0.84As. The electron wave functions are only slightly modulated by the superlattice potential as compared to a single quantum well with the same composition, which was grown as a reference sample. The photoluminescence, the resistance, the Shubnikov-de Haas effect and the Hall effect have been measured as a function of the InAs layer thickness Q in the range 0.33 <= Q <= 2.7 monolayers (ML). The electron densities range from 6.8 to 11.5x10^11 cm^-2 for Q <= 2.0 ML. The photoluminescence and magnetotransport data show that only one subband is occupied. When Q >= 2.7 ML quantum dots are formed and the metallic type of conductivity changes to variable range hopping conductivity.Comment: 15 pages (incl.7 figures); pdf file; submitted to Semicond. Sci. Techno

Genome-wide changes in protein translation efficiency are associated with autism

We previously proposed that changes in the efficiency of protein translation are associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This hypothesis connects environmental factors and genetic factors because each can alter translation efficiency. For genetic factors, we previously tested our hypothesis using a small set of ASD-associated genes, a small set of ASD-associated variants, and a statistic to quantify by how much a single nucleotide variant (SNV) in a protein coding region changes translation speed. In this study, we confirm and extend our hypothesis using a published set of 1,800 autism quartets (parents, one affected child and one unaffected child) and genome-wide variants. Then, we extend the test statistic to combine translation efficiency with other possibly relevant variables: ribosome profiling data, presence/absence of CpG dinucleotides, and phylogenetic conservation. The inclusion of ribosome profiling abundances strengthens our results for male–male sibling pairs. The inclusion of CpG information strengthens our results for female–female pairs, giving an insight into the significant gender differences in autism incidence. By combining the single-variant test statistic for all variants in a gene, we obtain a single gene score to evaluate how well a gene distinguishes between affected and unaffected siblings. Using statistical methods, we compute gene sets that have some power to distinguish between affected and unaffected siblings by translation efficiency of gene variants. Pathway and enrichment analysis of those gene sets suggest the importance of Wnt signaling pathways, some other pathways related to cancer, ATP binding, and ATP-ase pathways in the etiology of ASDs

Evolution of alternative and constitutive regions of mammalian 5'UTRs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Alternative splicing (AS) in protein-coding sequences has emerged as an important mechanism of regulation and diversification of animal gene function. By contrast, the extent and roles of alternative events including AS and alternative transcription initiation (ATI) within the 5'-untranslated regions (5'UTRs) of mammalian genes are not well characterized.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We evaluated the abundance, conservation and evolution of putative regulatory control elements, namely, upstream start codons (uAUGs) and open reading frames (uORFs), in the 5'UTRs of human and mouse genes impacted by alternative events. For genes with alternative 5'UTRs, the fraction of alternative sequences (those present in a subset of the transcripts) is much greater than that in the corresponding coding sequence, conceivably, because 5'UTRs are not bound by constraints on protein structure that limit AS in coding regions. Alternative regions of mammalian 5'UTRs evolve faster and are subject to a weaker purifying selection than constitutive portions. This relatively weak selection results in over-abundance of uAUGs and uORFs in the alternative regions of 5'UTRs compared to constitutive regions. Nevertheless, even in alternative regions, uORFs evolve under a stronger selection than the rest of the sequences, indicating that some of the uORFs are conserved regulatory elements; some of the non-conserved uORFs could be involved in species-specific regulation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The findings on the evolution and selection in alternative and constitutive regions presented here are consistent with the hypothesis that alternative events, namely, AS and ATI, in 5'UTRs of mammalian genes are likely to contribute to the regulation of translation.</p

Impact of liquid metal surface on plasma-surface interaction in experiments with lithium and tin capillary porous systems

The lithium and tin capillary-porous systems (CPSs) were tested with steady-state plasma in the PLM plasma device which is the divertor simulator with plasma parameters relevant to divertor and SOL plasma of tokamaks. The CPS consists of tin/lithium tile fixed between two molybdenum meshs constructed in the module faced to plasma. Steady-state plasma load of 0.1 - 1 MW/m(2) on the CPS during more than 200 min was achieved in experiments on PLM which is a modeling far scrapeoff- layer and far zone of divertor plasma of a large tokamak. The heating of the CPS was controlled remotely including biasing technique which allows to regulate evaporated metal influx to plasma. After exposure, the materials of the tin and lithium CPSs were inspected and analyzed with optic and scanning electron micriscopy. Experiments have demonstrated sustainability of the tin and lithium CPSs to the high heat steady state plasma load expected in a large scale tokamak. The effect of evaporated lithium and tin on the plasma transport/radiation was studied with spectroscopy to evaluate changes of plasma properties and plasma-surface interaction

Современный Интернет Вещей для Умных городов

The IoT concept combines a network of physical devices, transceivers and software which allows a user to manage these devices to perform various actions that will solve everyday problems of city residents. It allows exchanging data between devices, store and process data. Creating common IoT architecture is a difficult task since there is a problem of connecting heterogeneous devices with heterogeneous data transfer protocols. The challenge will be to create the right architecture for urban IoT and methods that will solve the common problem with heterogeneous data. This paper focuses on the practical use of IoT in an urban environment. Smart cities are based on the use of modern technologies for the implementation of certain administrative services. This practice allows creating unique services that allow city authorities to reduce costs, optimize and automate typical city processes. IoT allows municipalities to make citizens’ life better. In addition, this paper addresses the example of the IoT technical implementation in Padova Smart City. The urban IoT main goal is to make the Internet wider and more convenient for the life of people.Интернет Вещей (IoT) объединяет сеть физических устройств, транспортных узлов, программного обеспечения. Данная парадигма позволяет пользователю программировать устройства на выполнение определённых функций, которые позволят решить повседневные проблемы жителей города. Эта сеть позволяет обмениваться данными между устройствами, хранить и обрабатывать эти данные. Создание общей архитектуры IoT является сложной задачей, так как существует проблема подключения разнородных устройств с разнородными протоколами передачи данных. Будет затронута проблема создания правильной архитектуры для городского IoT и методов, которые позволят решить распространенную проблему с разнородными данными. Данная статья будет посвящена практическому использованию IoT в городской среде. Таким образом реализуется концепция Умных городов. Умные города основываются на использовании современных технологий для осуществления разнообразных административных услуг. Данная практика позволит создать уникальные сервисы, которые позволят городским органам снизить расходы, оптимизировать и автоматизировать типичные процессы города. IoT позволит муниципалитетам сделать жизнь граждан лучше. Кроме этого, данная статья затронет пример технической реализации IoT в городе Падуя. Основная цель IoT - сделать Интернет более широким и удобным для жизни людей