Boundary Controllability and Observability of a Viscoelastic String

In this paper we consider an integrodifferential system, which governs the vibration of a viscoelastic one-dimensional object. We assume that we can act on the system at the boundary and we prove that it is possible to control both the position and the velocity at every point of the body and at a certain time $T$, large enough. We shall prove this result using moment theory and we shall prove that the solution of this problem leads to identify a Riesz sequence which solves controllability and observability. So, the result as presented here are constructive and can lead to simple numerical algorithms

One year of tropospheri clidar measurements of aerosol extinction and backscatter

The aerosol lidar system operational at IMAA-CNR in Tito Scalo (PZ) (Southern Italy, 40°36'N, 15°44'E, 820 m above sea level) is part of the EARLINET project. Systematic lidar measurements of aerosol backscatter and extinction in the troposphere have been performed since May 2000. Aerosol backscatter measurements were performed at both 355 nm and 532 nm, while aerosol extinction coeffi cient were retrieved from simultaneous N2 Raman backscatter signals at 386.6 nm. The observations were performed on a regular schedule of two night time measurements per week (around sunset) and one daytime measurement per week (around 13:00 UTC). Furthermore, special observations concerning Saharan dust outbreaks have been carried out. Starting in May 2000 the lidar measurements performed in Tito Scalo have been collected and analysed. Preliminary results regarding the fi rst year of measurements are reported. In particular, the evolution of the aerosol integrated backscatter and extinction as well as of the mean value of the lidar ratio in the whole aerosol layer is reported. Results show clear evidence of seasonal variation of the observed parameters, with higher values and greater variability during summertime

Liposomes loaded with everolimus and coated with hyaluronic acid: A promising approach for lung fibrosis

Chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) and interstitial lung disease associated with collagen tissue diseases (CTD-ILD) are two end-stage lung disorders in which different chronic triggers induce activation of myo-/fibroblasts (LFs). Everolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, can be adopted as a potential strategy for CLAD and CTD-ILD, however it exerts important side effects. This study aims to exploit nanomedicine to reduce everolimus side effects encapsulating it inside liposomes targeted against LFs, expressing a high rate of CD44. PEGylated liposomes were modified with high molecular weight hyaluronic acid and loaded with everolimus (PEG-LIP(ev)-HA400kDa). Liposomes were tested by in vitro experiments using LFs derived from broncholveolar lavage (BAL) of patients affected by CLAD and CTD-ILD, and on alveolar macrophages (AM) and lymphocytes isolated, respectively, from BAL and peripheral blood. PEG-LIP-HA400kDa demonstrated to be specific for LFs, but not for CD44-negative cells, and after loading everolimus, PEG-LIP(ev)-HA400kDa were able to arrest cell cycle arrest and to decrease phospho-mTOR level. PEG-LIP(ev)-HA400kDa showed anti-inflammatory effect on immune cells. This study opens the possibility to use everolimus in lung fibrotic diseases, demonstrating that our lipids-based vehicles can vehicle everolimus inside cells exerting the same drug molecular effect, not only in LFs, but also in immune cells

Overall Picture Of Expressed Heat Shock Factors In Glycine Max, Lotus Japonicusand Medicago Truncatula

Heat shock (HS) leads to the activation of molecular mechanisms, known as HS-response, that prevent damage and enhance survival under stress. Plants have a flexible and specialized network of Heat Shock Factors (HSFs), which are transcription factors that induce the expression of heat shock proteins. The present work aimed to identify and characterize the Glycine maxHSF repertory in the Soybean Genome Project (GENOSOJA platform), comparing them with other legumes (Medicago truncatulaand Lotus japonicus) in view of current knowledge of Arabidopsis thaliana. The HSF characterization in leguminous plants led to the identification of 25, 19 and 21 candidate ESTs in soybean, Lotusand Medicago, respectively. A search in the SuperSAGE libraries revealed 68 tags distributed in seven HSF gene types. From the total number of obtained tags, more than 70% were related to root tissues (water deficit stress libraries vs.controls), indicating their role in abiotic stress responses, since the root is the first tissue to sense and respond to abiotic stress. Moreover, as heat stress is related to the pressure of dryness, a higher HSF expression was expected at the water deficit libraries. On the other hand, expressive HSF candidates were obtained from the library inoculated with Asian Soybean Rust, inferring crosstalk among genes associated with abiotic and biotic stresses. Evolutionary relationships among sequences were consistent with different HSF classes and subclasses. Expression profiling indicated that regulation of specific genes is associated with the stage of plant development and also with stimuli from other abiotic stresses pointing to the maintenance of HSF expression at a basal level in soybean, favoring its activation under heat-stress conditions. © 2012, Sociedade Brasileira de Genética.35SUPPL.1247259Altschul, S.F., Gish, W., Miller, W., Myers, E.W., Lipman, D.J., Basic local alignment search tool (1990) J Mol Biol, 215, pp. 403-410Baniwal, S.K., Chan, K.Y., Scharf, K.-D., Nover, L., Role of heat stress transcription factor HsfA5 as specific repressor of HsfA4* (2007) J Biol Chem, 282, pp. 3605-3613Bharti, K., Schimidt, E., Lyck, R., Bublak, D., Scharf, K.-D., Isolation and characterization of HsfA3, a new heat stress transcription factor of Lycopersicon peruvianum (2000) Plant J, 22, pp. 355-365Bharti, K., von Koskull-Döring, P., Bharti, S., Kumar, P., Tintschl-Körbitzer, A., Treuter, E., Nover, L., Tomato heat stress transcription factor HsfB1 represents a novel type of general transcription coactivator with a histone-like motif interacting with HAC1/CBP (2004) Plant Cell, 16, pp. 1521-1535Efeoglu, B., Heat shock proteins and heat shock response in plants (2009) G U J Sci, 22, pp. 67-75Eisen, M.B., Spellman, P.T., Brown, P.O., Botstein, D., Cluster analysis and display of genome-wide expression patterns (1998) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 95, pp. 14863-14868Fehr, W.R., Caviness, C.E., Burmood, D.T., Pennington, I.S., Stage of development descriptions for soybeans, Glycine max (L.) Merrill (1971) Crop Sci, 11, pp. 929-931Fehr, W.R., Caviness, C.E., (1977) Stage of Soybean Development, p. 12. , Special Report n. 80. Ames, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, IowaGlombitza, S., Dubuis, P.-H., Thulke, O., Welzl, G., Bovet, L., Götz, M., Affenzeller, M., Asnaghi, C., Crosstalk and differential response to abiotic and biotic stressors reflected at the transcriptional level of effector genes from secondary metabolism (2004) Plant Mol Biol, 54, pp. 817-835Heerklotz, D., Doring, P., Bonzelius, F., Winkelhaus, S., Nover, L., The balance of nuclear import and export determines the intracellular distribution and function of tomato heat stress transcription factor HsfA2 (2001) Mol Cell Biol, 21, pp. 1759-1768Hoagland, D., Arnon, D.I., The water culture method for growing plants without soil (1950) Calif Agric Exp Stn Circ, 347, pp. 1-32Hsu, S.-F., Lai, H.-C., Jinn, T.-L., Cytosol-localized heat shock factor-binding protein, AtHSBP, functions as a negative regulator of heat shock response by translocation to the nucleus and is required for seed development in Arabidopsis (2010) Plant Physiol, 153, pp. 773-784Hu, W., Hu, G., Han, B., Genome-wide survey and expression profiling of heat shock proteins and heat shock factors revealed overlapped and stress specific response under abiotic stresses in rice (2009) Plant Sci, 176, pp. 583-590Kido, E.A., Barbosa, P.K., Ferreira Neto, J.C.R., Pandolfi, V., Houllou-Kido, L.M., Crovella, S., Benko-Iseppon, A.M., Identification of plant protein kinases in response to abiotic and biotic stresses using SuperSAGE (2011) Curr Prot Pept Sci, 12, pp. 643-656Kotak, S., Port, M., Ganguli, A., Bicker, F., von Koskull-Doring, P., Characterization of C-terminal domains of Arabidopsis heat stress transcription factors (Hsfs) and identification of a new signature combination of plant class a Hsfs with AHA and NES motifs essential for activator function and intracellular localization (2004) Plant J, 39, pp. 98-112Kotak, S., Larkindale, J., Lee, U., von Koskull-Doring, P., Vierling, E., Scharf, K.D., Complexity of the heat stress response in plants (2007) Curr Opin Plant Biol, 10, pp. 310-316Li, H.-Y., Chang, C.-S., Lu, L.-S., Liu, C.-A., Chan, M.-T., Charng, Y.-Y., Over-expression of Arabidopsis thaliana heat shock factor gene (AtHsfA1b) enhances chilling tolerance in transgenic tomato (2004) Bot Bull Acad Sin, 44, pp. 129-140Li, M., Berendzen, K.W., Schoffl, F., Promoter specificity and interactions between early and late Arabidopsis heat shock factors (2010) Plant Mol Biol, 73, pp. 559-567McClean, P.E., Mamidi, S., McConnell, M., Chikara, S., Lee, R., Synteny mapping between common bean and soybean reveals extensive blocks of shared loci (2010) BMC Genomics, 11, pp. e184Miller, G., Mittler, R., Could heat shock transcription factors function as hydrogen peroxide sensors in plant? (2006) Ann Bot, 98, pp. 279-288Mittal, D., Chakrabarti, S., Sarkar, A., Singh, A., Grover, A., Heat shock factor gene family in rice: Genomic organization and transcript expression profiling in response to high temperature, low temperature and oxidative stresses (2009) Plant Physiol Biochem, 47, pp. 785-795Mochida, K., Yoshida, T., Sakurai, T., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., Shinozaki, K., Tran, L.-S.P., In silico analysis of transcription factor repertoire and prediction of stress responsive transcription factors in soybean (2009) DNA Res, 16, pp. 353-369Mochida, K., Yoshida, T., Sakurai, T., Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K., Shinozaki, K., Tran, L.-S.P., LegumeTFDB: An in-tegrative database of Glycine max, Lotus japonicus and Medicago truncatula transcription factors (2009) Bioinformatics, 26, pp. 290-291Nascimento, L.C., Costa, G.G.L., Binneck, E., Pereira, G.A.G., Caraz-Zolle, M.F., A web-based bioinformatics interface applied to Genosoja Project: Databases and pipelines (2012) Genet Mol Biol, 35 (SUPPL. 1), pp. 203-211Nover, L., Bharti, K., Doring, P., Mishra, S.K., Ganguli, A., Scharf, K.-D., Arabidopsis and the heat stress transcription factor world: How many heat stress transcription factors do we need? (2001) Cell Stress Chap, 6, pp. 177-189Pirkkala, L., Nykanen, I., Sistonen, L., Roles of the heat shock transcription factors in regulation of the heat shock response and beyond (2001) FASEB J, 15, pp. 1118-1131Ruelland, E., Zachowski, A., How plants sense temperature (2010) Environ Exp Bot, 69, pp. 225-232Sato, Y., Yokoya, S., Enhanced tolerance to drought stress in transgenic rice plants overexpressing a small heat-shock protein, sHSP17.7 (2008) Plant Cell Rep, 27, pp. 329-334Scharf, K.-D., Rose, S., Thierfelder, J., Nover, L., Two cDNAs for tomato heat stress transcription factors (1993) Plant Physiol, 102, pp. 1355-1356Scharf, K.-D., Rose, S., Zott, W., Schoffl, F., Nover, L., Three tomato genes code for heat stress transcription factors with a regionofremarkable homology to the DNA-binding domain of the yeast HSF (1990) EMBO J, 9, pp. 4495-4501Schöff, F., Prändl, R., Reindl, A., Regulation of the heat-shock response (1998) Plant Physiol, 117, pp. 1135-1141Sung, D.-Y., Kaplan, F., Lee, K.-J., Guy, C.L., Acquired tolerance to temperature extremes (2003) Trends Plant Sci, 8, pp. 179-187Swindell, W.R., Huebner, M., Weber, A.P., Transcriptional profiling of Arabidopsis heat shock proteins and transcription factors reveals extensive overlap between heat and non-heat stress response pathways (2007) BMC Genomics, 8, pp. e125Tamura, K., Peterson, D., Peterson, N., Stecher, G., Nei, M., Kumar, S., MEGA5: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis using maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum parsimony methods (2011) Mol Biol Evol, 28, pp. 2731-2739Treshow, M., (1970) Environment and Plant Response, p. 421. , McGraw-Hill Company, New YorkTreuter, E., Nover, L., Ohme, K., Scharf, K.-D., Promoter specificity and deletion analysis of three tomato heat stress transcription factors (1993) Mol Gen Genet, 240, pp. 113-125Yamada, K., Fukao, Y., Hayashi, M., Fukazawa, M., Suzuki, I., Nishimura, M., Cytosolic HSP90 regulated the heat shock response that is responsible for heat acclimation in Arabidopsis thaliana (2007) J Biol Chem, 282, pp. 37794-3780

Triassic MORB magmatism in the Southern Mirdita zone (Albania)

In southern Albania the Mirdita Ophiolitic nappe is characterized by subophiolitic complexes in which remnants of volcanic ophiolite sequences of Triassic age have been identified, either as rare blocks of variable dimension in the Rubik Complex, or as a thin tectonic unit (the Porava Unit), sited immediately under the main ophiolitic masses of the Eastern Ophiolite Belt. In this paper the results of petrological investigations on basalts and biostratigraphical studies on associated radiolarian cherts included in these subophiolitic complexes units are presented. Biostratigraphical investigations indicate that cherts have ages ranging from Middle to Late Triassic. The associated basalts are represented by both high-Ti mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORB) and alkaline ocean island basalts (OIB). MORB rocks mainly consist of basalts and ferrobasalts with a mild enrichment in low field strength elements and flat rare earth element patterns and, subordinately, by basalts strongly depleted in incompatible elements and light rare earth elements. The chemistry of slightly enriched MORB is consistent with a generation in a mid-ocean ridge setting, from somewhat enriched sub-oceanic mantle source(s), whereas depleted MORB generated from a primitive MOR-type mantle source. The OIB rocks imply a generation in a within-plate oceanic setting from a mantle source enriched by plume chemical components. Basalts and associated cherts from southern Albania subophiolitic mélanges represent remnants of a Triassic oceanic lithosphere, which testify for the existence, from northern Albania to southern Greece, of a Middle to Late Triassic oceanic basin located between the Adria and Eurasia plates. The occurrence in the Rubik Complex and Porava Unit of MOR basalts generated from differently enriched sources, as well as of alkaline OIBs, suggests that the early stage of oceanic spreading was variably associated with a plume activity

Performance of a Tungsten-Cerium Fluoride Sampling Calorimeter in High-Energy Electron Beam Tests

A prototype for a sampling calorimeter made out of cerium fluoride crystals interleaved with tungsten plates, and read out by wavelength-shifting fibres, has been exposed to beams of electrons with energies between 20 and 150 GeV, produced by the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator complex. The performance of the prototype is presented and compared to that of a Geant4 simulation of the apparatus. Particular emphasis is given to the response uniformity across the channel front face, and to the prototype's energy resolution.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to NIM

Transcriptoma supersage de feijão-caupi sob desidratação radicular.

O feijão-caupi é uma planta de ampla plasticidade fenotípica, podendo produzir mesmo em condições não satisfatória para outras culturas. Assim, identificar genes estresse responsivo nesta cultura é de vital importância, tanto para a espécie quanto para outras leguminosas. Estudos em transcriptômica, proporcionados pela técnica SuperSAGE, origina tags de 26 pb que podem ser quantificadas e estatisticamente analisadas, sendo classificadas em superexpressas ou reprimidas. Unitags (tags diferentes) de raízes de feijao-caupi submetidas a estresse de desidratação radicular (de até 150 min, após exposição ao ar) foram analisadas procurando-se identificar unitags diferencialmente expressas nas respostas dos genótipos analisados, considerados tolerante e sensível a seca. As anotações de gene/ função das unitags, associadas à regulação (induzida ou reprimida nas bibliotecas sob estresse em relação às bibliotecas controle) permitiram identificar alvos moleculares com potencial para desenvolvimento de marcadores moleculares e ou estudos de transgenia, visando uso futuro em programas de melhoramentos da espécie e de leguminosas relacionadas