ICESTARS : integrated circuit/EM simulation and design technologies for advanced radio systems-on-chip

ICESTARS solved a series of critical issues in the currently available infrastructure for the design and simulation of new and highly-complex Radio Frequency (RF) front ends operating beyond 10 and up to 100 GHz. Future RF designs demand an increasing blend of analog and digital functionalities. The super and extremely high frequency (SHF, 3-30GHz, and EHF, 30-300GHz) ranges will be used to accomplish future demands for higher capacity channels. With todays frequency bands of approximately 1 to 3 GHz it is impossible to realize extremely high data transfer rates. Only a new generation of CAD and EDA tools will ensure the realization of complex nanoscale designs. It necessitates both new modeling approaches and new mathematical solution procedures for differential equations with largely differing time scales, analysis of coupled systems of DAEs (circuit equations) and PDEs (Maxwell equations for electromagnetic couplings) plus numerical simulations with mixed analog and digital signals. In ICESTARS new techniques and mathematical models working in highly integrated environments were developed to resolve this dilemma. The ICESTARS research area covered the three domains of RF design: (1) time-domain techniques, (2) frequency-domain techniques, and (3) EM analysis and coupled EM circuit analysis. The ICESTARS consortium comprised two industrial partners (NXP Semiconductors, Infineon Technologies AG), two SMEs (Magwel, AWR-APLAC) and five universities (Upper Austria, Cologne, Oulu, Wuppertal, Aalto), involving mathematicians, electronic engineers, and software engineers

Human plasma proteomic profiles indicative of cardiorespiratory fitness

Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) is a direct measure of human cardiorespiratory fitness and is associated with health. However, the molecular determinants of interindividual differences in baseline (intrinsic) VO2max, and of increases of VO2max in response to exercise training (ΔVO2max), are largely unknown. Here, we measure ~5,000 plasma proteins using an affinity-based platform in over 650 sedentary adults before and after a 20-week endurance-exercise intervention and identify 147 proteins and 102 proteins whose plasma levels are associated with baseline VO2max and ΔVO2max, respectively. Addition of a protein biomarker score derived from these proteins to a score based on clinical traits improves the prediction of an individual’s ΔVO2max. We validate findings in a separate exercise cohort, further link 21 proteins to incident all-cause mortality in a community-based cohort and reproduce the specificity of ~75% of our key findings using antibody-based assays. Taken together, our data shed light on biological pathways relevant to cardiorespiratory fitness and highlight the potential additive value of protein biomarkers in identifying exercise responsiveness in humans

Phenelfamycins G and H, new elfamycin-type antibiotics produced by Streptomyces albospinus Acta 3619

Phenelfamycins G and H are new members of the family of elfamycin antibiotics with the basic structure of phenelfamycins E and F, respectively, which are also well known as ganefromycins α and β. Phenelfamycins G and H differ from phenelfamycins E and F by an additional hydroxy group at position C-30, which is not described so far for any of the elfamycin-type antibiotics. The actinomycete strain that produced phenelfamycins G and H was identified to be Streptomyces albospinus based on its 16S rRNA gene sequence. Phenelfamycins G and H exhibit a narrow antibacterial spectrum with a pronounced inhibitory activity against Propionibacterium acnes