7,697 research outputs found

    Human motion tracking based on complementary Kalman filter

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    Miniaturized Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) has been widely used in many motion capturing applications. In order to overcome stability and noise problems of IMU, a lot of efforts have been made to develop appropriate data fusion method to obtain reliable orientation estimation from IMU data. This article presents a method which models the errors of orientation, gyroscope bias and magnetic disturbance, and compensate the errors of state variables with complementary Kalman filter in a body motion capture system. Experimental results have shown that the proposed method significantly reduces the accumulative orientation estimation errors

    Molecular Theory of Hydrophobic Effects: ``She is too mean to have her name repeated.''

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    This paper reviews the molecular theory of hydrophobic effects relevant to biomolecular structure and assembly in aqueous solution. Recent progress has resulted in simple, validated molecular statistical thermodynamic theories and clarification of confusing theories of decades ago. Current work is resolving effects of wider variations of thermodynamic state, e.g. pressure denaturation of soluble proteins, and more exotic questions such as effects of surface chemistry in treating stability of macromolecular structures in aqueous solutionComment: submitted to Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem., 31 pages, 245 references, 2 figure

    Low energy laser light (632.8 nm) suppresses amyloid-β peptide-induced oxidative and inflammatory responses in astrocytes

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    Oxidative stress and inflammation are important processes in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent studies have implicated the role of amyloid β-peptides (Aβ) in mediating these processes. In astrocytes, oligomeric Aβ induces the assembly of NADPH oxidase complexes resulting in its activation to produce anionic superoxide. Aβ also promotes production of pro-inflammatory factors in astrocytes. Since low energy laser has previously been reported to attenuate oxidative stress and inflammation in biological systems, the objective of this study was to examine whether this type of laser light was able to abrogate the oxidative and inflammatory responses induced by Aβ. Primary rat astrocytes were exposed to Helium-Neon laser (λ=632.8 nm), followed by the treatment with oligomeric Aβ. Primary rat astrocytes were used to measure Aβ-induced production of superoxide anions using fluorescence microscopy of dihydroethidium (DHE), assembly of NADPH oxidase subunits by the colocalization between the cytosolic p47phox subunit and the membrane gp91phox subunit using fluorescent confocal microscopy, phosphorylation of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2), and expressions of pro-inflammatory factors including interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS) using Western blot Analysis. Our data showed that laser light at 632.8 nm suppressed Aβ-induced superoxide production, colocalization between NADPH oxidase gp91phox and p47phox subunits, phosphorylation of cPLA2, and the expressions of IL-1β and iNOS in primary astrocytes. We demonstrated for the first time that 632.8 nm laser was capable of suppressing cellular pathways of oxidative stress and inflammatory responses critical in the pathogenesis in AD. This study should prove to provide the groundwork for further investigations for the potential use of laser therapy as a treatment for AD

    Low energy laser light (632.8 nm) suppresses amyloid-β peptide-induced oxidative and inflammatory responses in astrocytes

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    Oxidative stress and inflammation are important processes in the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent studies have implicated the role of amyloid β-peptides (Aβ) in mediating these processes. In astrocytes, oligomeric Aβ induces the assembly of NADPH oxidase complexes resulting in its activation to produce anionic superoxide. Aβ also promotes production of pro-inflammatory factors in astrocytes. Since low energy laser has previously been reported to attenuate oxidative stress and inflammation in biological systems, the objective of this study was to examine whether this type of laser light was able to abrogate the oxidative and inflammatory responses induced by Aβ. Primary rat astrocytes were exposed to Helium-Neon laser (λ=632.8 nm), followed by the treatment with oligomeric Aβ. Primary rat astrocytes were used to measure Aβ-induced production of superoxide anions using fluorescence microscopy of dihydroethidium (DHE), assembly of NADPH oxidase subunits by the colocalization between the cytosolic p47phox subunit and the membrane gp91phox subunit using fluorescent confocal microscopy, phosphorylation of cytosolic phospholipase A2 (cPLA2), and expressions of pro-inflammatory factors including interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS) using Western blot Analysis. Our data showed that laser light at 632.8 nm suppressed Aβ-induced superoxide production, colocalization between NADPH oxidase gp91phox and p47phox subunits, phosphorylation of cPLA2, and the expressions of IL-1β and iNOS in primary astrocytes. We demonstrated for the first time that 632.8 nm laser was capable of suppressing cellular pathways of oxidative stress and inflammatory responses critical in the pathogenesis in AD. This study should prove to provide the groundwork for further investigations for the potential use of laser therapy as a treatment for AD

    Fractional quantum Hall effect in the absence of Landau levels

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    It has been well-known that topological phenomena with fractional excitations, i.e., the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) \cite{Tsui1982} will emerge when electrons move in Landau levels. In this letter, we report the discovery of the FQHE in the absence of Landau levels in an interacting fermion model. The non-interacting part of our Hamiltonian is the recently proposed topologically nontrivial flat band model on the checkerboard lattice \cite{sun}. In the presence of nearest-neighboring repulsion (UU), we find that at 1/3 filling, the Fermi-liquid state is unstable towards FQHE. At 1/5 filling, however, a next-nearest-neighboring repulsion is needed for the occurrence of the 1/5 FQHE when UU is not too strong. We demonstrate the characteristic features of these novel states and determine the phase diagram correspondingly.Comment: 6 pages and 4 figure

    Photocurrent measurements of supercollision cooling in graphene

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    The cooling of hot electrons in graphene is the critical process underlying the operation of exciting new graphene-based optoelectronic and plasmonic devices, but the nature of this cooling is controversial. We extract the hot electron cooling rate near the Fermi level by using graphene as novel photothermal thermometer that measures the electron temperature (T(t)T(t)) as it cools dynamically. We find the photocurrent generated from graphene pnp-n junctions is well described by the energy dissipation rate CdT/dt=A(T3Tl3)C dT/dt=-A(T^3-T_l^3), where the heat capacity is C=αTC=\alpha T and TlT_l is the base lattice temperature. These results are in disagreement with predictions of electron-phonon emission in a disorder-free graphene system, but in excellent quantitative agreement with recent predictions of a disorder-enhanced supercollision (SC) cooling mechanism. We find that the SC model provides a complete and unified picture of energy loss near the Fermi level over the wide range of electronic (15 to \sim3000 K) and lattice (10 to 295 K) temperatures investigated.Comment: 7pages, 5 figure

    Determinants of postnatal spleen tissue regeneration and organogenesis

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    Abstract The spleen is an organ that filters the blood and is responsible for generating blood-borne immune responses. It is also an organ with a remarkable capacity to regenerate. Techniques for splenic auto-transplantation have emerged to take advantage of this characteristic and rebuild spleen tissue in individuals undergoing splenectomy. While this procedure has been performed for decades, the underlying mechanisms controlling spleen regeneration have remained elusive. Insights into secondary lymphoid organogenesis and the roles of stromal organiser cells and lymphotoxin signalling in lymph node development have helped reveal similar requirements for spleen regeneration. These factors are now considered in the regulation of embryonic and postnatal spleen formation, and in the establishment of mature white pulp and marginal zone compartments which are essential for spleen-mediated immunity. A greater understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms which control spleen development will assist in the design of more precise and efficient tissue grafting methods for spleen regeneration on demand. Regeneration of organs which harbour functional white pulp tissue will also offer novel opportunities for effective immunotherapy against cancer as well as infectious diseases

    An Artificial Light Source Influences Mating and Oviposition of Black Soldier Flies, Hermetia illucens

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    Current methods for mass-rearing black soldier flies, Hermetia illucens (L.) (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), in the laboratory are dependent on sunlight. Quartz-iodine lamps and rare earth lamps were examined as artificial light sources for stimulating H. illucens to mate and lay eggs. Sunlight was used as the control. Adults in the quartz-iodine lamp treatment had a mating rate of 61% of those in the sunlight control. No mating occurred when the rare earth lamp was used as a substitute. Egg hatch for the quartz-iodine lamp and sunlight treatments occurred in approximately 4 days, and the hatch rate was similar between these two treatments. Larval and pupal development under these treatments required approximately 18 and 15 days at 28°° C, respectively. Development of methods for mass rearing of H. illucens using artificial light will enable production of this fly throughout the year without investing in greenhouse space or requiring sunlight

    A study on the application of GOCI to analyzing phytoplankton community distribution in the east sea

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    This is the final version. Available from The Korean Society of Remote Sensing via the DOI in this record. Phytoplankton controls marine ecosystems in terms of nutrients, photosynthetic rate, carbon cycle, etc. and the degree of its influence on the marine environment depends on their physical size. Many studies have been attempted to identify marine phytoplankton size classes using the remote sensing techniques. One of successful approach was the three-component model which estimates the chlorophyll concentrations of three phytoplankton size classes (micro-phytoplankton; >20 μm, nano-; 2-20 μm and pico-; <2 μm) as a function of total chlorophyll. Here, we examined the applicability of Geostationary Ocean Colour Imager (GOCI) to the mapping of the phytoplankton size class distribution in the East Sea. A fit of the three-component model to a biomarker pigment dataset collected in the study area for some years including a large harmful algal bloom period has been carried out to derive size-fractioned chlorophyll concentration (CHL). The tuned three-component model was applied to the hourly GOCI images to identify the fractions of each phytoplankton size class for the entire CHL. Then, we investigated the distribution of phytoplankton community in terms of the size structure in the East Sea during the harmful Cochlodinium polykrikoides blooms in the summer of 2013.Korea Institute of Ocean Science and TechnologyKorean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Researc

    Tin doped indium oxide core-TiO <inf>2</inf> shell nanowires on stainless steel mesh for flexible photoelectrochemical cells

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    Photoanode architecture is built on highly conductive tin doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowires (NWs) on a flexible stainless steel mesh (SSM). ITO nanowires were coated with the atomic layer deposition grown TiO 2 layer and the photoelectrochemical performance of the stainless steel mesh based photoanode were examined as a function of wire-length and shell-thickness. The photoanode consisting of 20 m-long nanowire core and 36 nm thick shell increased the photocurrent of the testing cell by 4 times, compared to a reference cell. This enhanced photochemical activity is attributed to higher light harvesting efficiency of nanowire arrays and suppressed charge recombination of core-shell structure. © 2012 American Institute of Physics
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