Study of the Germination Dynamics for Plants using Advanced Image Processing Algorithms

Study of the Germination Dynamics for Plants using Advanced Image Processing Algorithm

Upregulation of the cell-cycle regulator RGC-32 in Epstein-Barr virus-immortalized cells

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple human tumours of lymphoid and epithelial origin. The virus infects and immortalizes B cells establishing a persistent latent infection characterized by varying patterns of EBV latent gene expression (latency 0, I, II and III). The CDK1 activator, Response Gene to Complement-32 (RGC-32, C13ORF15), is overexpressed in colon, breast and ovarian cancer tissues and we have detected selective high-level RGC-32 protein expression in EBV-immortalized latency III cells. Significantly, we show that overexpression of RGC-32 in B cells is sufficient to disrupt G2 cell-cycle arrest consistent with activation of CDK1, implicating RGC-32 in the EBV transformation process. Surprisingly, RGC-32 mRNA is expressed at high levels in latency I Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cells and in some EBV-negative BL cell-lines, although RGC-32 protein expression is not detectable. We show that RGC-32 mRNA expression is elevated in latency I cells due to transcriptional activation by high levels of the differentially expressed RUNX1c transcription factor. We found that proteosomal degradation or blocked cytoplasmic export of the RGC-32 message were not responsible for the lack of RGC-32 protein expression in latency I cells. Significantly, analysis of the ribosomal association of the RGC-32 mRNA in latency I and latency III cells revealed that RGC-32 transcripts were associated with multiple ribosomes in both cell-types implicating post-initiation translational repression mechanisms in the block to RGC-32 protein production in latency I cells. In summary, our results are the first to demonstrate RGC-32 protein upregulation in cells transformed by a human tumour virus and to identify post-initiation translational mechanisms as an expression control point for this key cell-cycle regulator

Structure of Kα1,2 - And Kβ1,3 -emission x-ray spectra for Se, Y, and Zr

UID/FIS/04559/2020 UID/MULTI/04046/2020 Project No. PTDC/FIS-AQM/31969/20 Grant No. 2017/25/B/ST2/00901The Kα and Kβ x-ray spectra of Se, Y, and Zr were studied experimentally and theoretically in order to obtain information on the Kα1 line asymmetry and the spin doublet in Kβ1,3 diagram lines. Using a high-resolution antiparallel double-crystal x-ray spectrometer, we obtained the line shapes, that is, asymmetry index and natural linewidths. We found that the corrected full width at half maximum of the Kα1 and Kα2 lines as a function of Z is in good agreement with the data in the literature. Furthermore, satellite lines arising from shake-off appear in the low-energy side of the Kα1 and Kα2 lines in Se but, in Y and Zr, it was very difficult to identify the contribution of the shake process to the overall lines. The Kβ1,3 natural linewidth of these elements was also corrected using the appropriate instrumental function for this type of x-ray spectrometer, and the spin doublet energies were obtained from the peak positions. The corrected full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the Kβ1 x-ray lines increases linearly with Z, but this tendency was found to be, in general, not linear for Kβ3 x-ray lines. This behavior may be due to the existence of satellite lines originated from shake processes. Simulated line profiles, obtained using the multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock formalism, accounting for radiative and radiationless transitions and shake-off processes, show a very good agreement with the high-resolution experimental spectra.publishersversionpublishe

Toward understanding the post-collisional evolution of an orogen influenced by convergence at adjacent plate margins; Late Cretaceous-Tertiary thermotectonic history of the Apuseni Mountains

The relationship between syn- to post-collisional orogenic shortening and stresses transmitted from other neighboring plate boundaries is important for understanding the kinematics of mountain belts, but has received little attention so far. The Apuseni Mountains are an example of an orogen in the interference zone between two other subduction systems located in the external Carpathians and Dinarides. This interference is demonstrated by the results of a combined thermochronological and structural field study that quantifies the post-collisional latest Cretaceous-Tertiary evolution. The exhumation history derived from apatite fission track and (U-Th)/He thermochronology indicates that the present-day topography of the Apuseni Mountains originates mainly from latest Cretaceous times, modified by two tectonic pulses during the Paleogene. The latter are suggested by cooling ages clustering around ∼45 Ma and ∼30 Ma and the associated shortening recorded along deep-seated fault systems. Paleogene exhumation pulses are similar in magnitude (∼3.5 km) and are coeval with the final collisional phases recorded in the Dinarides and with part of the Carpathian rotation around the Moesian promontory. These newly quantified Paleogene exhumation and shortening pulses contradict the general view of tectonic quiescence, subsidence and overall sedimentation for this time interval. The Miocene collapse of the Pannonian Basin did not induce significant regional exhumation along the western Apuseni flank, nor did the subsequent Carpathian collision. This is surprising in the overall context of Pannonian Basin formation and its subsequent inversion, in which the Apuseni Mountains were previously interpreted as being significantly uplifted in both deformation stages. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union

IMAGE INDEXING USING THE GENERAL THEORY OF MOMENTS Abstract

The performance evolution of the computers enabled us to efficiently build and exploit software platforms dedicated to research on color image indexing and classification. This paper presents a method for unsupervised image indexing using as main classification feature the color distribution of true color images. The goal of the paper is to evaluate and experiment the applicability of the theory of moments for image indexing purposes, as well as to experiment the influence of various color space encodings. The application is coded in MATLAB and is designed to complement th

A Hybrid 3D Learning-and-Interaction-based Segmentation Approach Applied on CT Liver Volumes

Medical volume segmentation in various imaging modalities using real 3D approaches (in contrast to slice-by-slice segmentation) represents an actual trend. The increase in the acquisition resolution leads to large amount of data, requiring solutions to reduce the dimensionality of the segmentation problem. In this context, the real-time interaction with the large medical data volume represents another milestone. This paper addresses the twofold problem of the 3D segmentation applied to large data sets and also describes an intuitive neuro-fuzzy trained interaction method. We present a new hybrid semi-supervised 3D segmentation, for liver volumes obtained from computer tomography scans. This is a challenging medical volume segmentation task, due to the acquisition and inter-patient variability of the liver parenchyma. The proposed solution combines a learning-based segmentation stage (employing 3D discrete cosine transform and a probabilistic support vector machine classifier) with a post-processing stage (automatic and manual segmentation refinement). Optionally, an optimization of the segmentation can be achieved by level sets, using as initialization the segmentation provided by the learning-based solution. The supervised segmentation is applied on elementary cubes in which the CT volume is decomposed by tilling, thus ensuring a significant reduction of the data to be classified by the support vector machine into liver/not liver. On real volumes, the proposed approach provides good segmentation accuracy, with a significant reduction in the computational complexity