2,812 research outputs found
Hierarchically Porous Gd3+-Doped CeO2 Nanostructures for the Remarkable Enhancement of Optical and Magnetic Properties
Rare earth ion-doped CeO2 has attracted more and more attention because of its special electrical, optical, magnetic, or catalytic properties. In this paper, a facile electrochemical deposition route was reported for the direct growth of the porous Gd-doped CeO2. The formation process of Gd-doped CeO2 composites was investigated. The obtained deposits were characterized by SEM, EDS, XRD, and XPS. The porous Gd3+- doped CeO2 (10 at% Gd) displays a typical type I adsorption isotherm and yields a large specific surface area of 135 m2/g. As Gd3+ ions were doped into CeO2 lattice, the absorption spectrum of Gd3+-doped CeO2 nanocrystals exhibited a red shift compared with porous CeO2 nanocrystals and bulk CeO2, and the luminescence of Gd3+-doped CeO2 deposits was remarkably enhanced due to the presence of more oxygen vacancies. In addition, the strong magnetic properties of Gd-doped CeO2 (10 at% Gd) were observed, which may be caused by Gd3+ ions or more oxygen defects in deposits. In addition, the catalytic activity of porous Gd-doped CeO2 toward CO oxidation was studied
A thin layer angiogenesis assay: a modified basement matrix assay for assessment of endothelial cell differentiation
BACKGROUND: Basement matrices such as Matrigel™ and Geltrex™ are used in a variety of cell culture assays of anchorage-dependent differentiation including endothelial cell tube formation assays. The volumes of matrix recommended for these assays (approximately 150 μl/cm(2)) are costly, limit working distances for microscopy, and require cell detachment for subsequent molecular analysis. Here we describe the development and validation of a thin-layer angiogenesis (TLA) assay for assessing the angiogenic potential of endothelial cells that overcomes these limitations. RESULTS: Geltrex™ basement matrix at 5 μl/cm(2) in 24-well (10 μl) or 96-well (2 μl) plates supports endothelial cell differentiation into tube-like structures in a comparable manner to the standard larger volumes of matrix. Since working distances are reduced, high-resolution single cell microscopy, including DIC and confocal imaging, can be used readily. Using MitoTracker dye we now demonstrate, for the first time, live mitochondrial dynamics and visualise the 3-dimensional network of mitochondria present in differentiated endothelial cells. Using a standard commercial total RNA extraction kit (Qiagen) we also show direct RNA extraction and RT-qPCR from differentiated endothelial cells without the need to initially detach cells from their supporting matrix. CONCLUSIONS: We present here a new thin-layer assay (TLA) for measuring the anchorage-dependent differentiation of endothelial cells into tube-like structures which retains all the characteristics of the traditional approach but with the added benefit of a greatly lowered cost and better compatibility with other techniques, including RT-qPCR and high-resolution microscopy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12860-014-0041-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users
Stability Analysis of Frame Slotted Aloha Protocol
Frame Slotted Aloha (FSA) protocol has been widely applied in Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) systems as the de facto standard in tag identification.
However, very limited work has been done on the stability of FSA despite its
fundamental importance both on the theoretical characterisation of FSA
performance and its effective operation in practical systems. In order to
bridge this gap, we devote this paper to investigating the stability properties
of FSA by focusing on two physical layer models of practical importance, the
models with single packet reception and multipacket reception capabilities.
Technically, we model the FSA system backlog as a Markov chain with its states
being backlog size at the beginning of each frame. The objective is to analyze
the ergodicity of the Markov chain and demonstrate its properties in different
regions, particularly the instability region. By employing drift analysis, we
obtain the closed-form conditions for the stability of FSA and show that the
stability region is maximised when the frame length equals the backlog size in
the single packet reception model and when the ratio of the backlog size to
frame length equals in order of magnitude the maximum multipacket reception
capacity in the multipacket reception model. Furthermore, to characterise
system behavior in the instability region, we mathematically demonstrate the
existence of transience of the backlog Markov chain.Comment: 14 pages, submitted to IEEE Transaction on Information Theor
FANCJ/BACH1 Acetylation at Lysine 1249 Regulates the DNA Damage Response
BRCA1 promotes DNA repair through interactions with multiple proteins, including CtIP and FANCJ (also known as BRIP1/BACH1). While CtIP facilitates DNA end resection when de-acetylated, the function of FANCJ in repair processing is less well defined. Here, we report that FANCJ is also acetylated. Preventing FANCJ acetylation at lysine 1249 does not interfere with the ability of cells to survive DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICLs). However, resistance is achieved with reduced reliance on recombination. Mechanistically, FANCJ acetylation facilitates DNA end processing required for repair and checkpoint signaling. This conclusion was based on the finding that FANCJ and its acetylation were required for robust RPA foci formation, RPA phosphorylation, and Rad51 foci formation in response to camptothecin (CPT). Furthermore, both preventing and mimicking FANCJ acetylation at lysine 1249 disrupts FANCJ function in checkpoint maintenance. Thus, we propose that the dynamic regulation of FANCJ acetylation is critical for robust DNA damage response, recombination-based processing, and ultimately checkpoint maintenance
Robust Machine Learning Applied to Astronomical Datasets III: Probabilistic Photometric Redshifts for Galaxies and Quasars in the SDSS and GALEX
We apply machine learning in the form of a nearest neighbor instance-based
algorithm (NN) to generate full photometric redshift probability density
functions (PDFs) for objects in the Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (SDSS DR5). We use a conceptually simple but novel application of NN to
generate the PDFs - perturbing the object colors by their measurement error -
and using the resulting instances of nearest neighbor distributions to generate
numerous individual redshifts. When the redshifts are compared to existing SDSS
spectroscopic data, we find that the mean value of each PDF has a dispersion
between the photometric and spectroscopic redshift consistent with other
machine learning techniques, being sigma = 0.0207 +/- 0.0001 for main sample
galaxies to r < 17.77 mag, sigma = 0.0243 +/- 0.0002 for luminous red galaxies
to r < ~19.2 mag, and sigma = 0.343 +/- 0.005 for quasars to i < 20.3 mag. The
PDFs allow the selection of subsets with improved statistics. For quasars, the
improvement is dramatic: for those with a single peak in their probability
distribution, the dispersion is reduced from 0.343 to sigma = 0.117 +/- 0.010,
and the photometric redshift is within 0.3 of the spectroscopic redshift for
99.3 +/- 0.1% of the objects. Thus, for this optical quasar sample, we can
virtually eliminate 'catastrophic' photometric redshift estimates. In addition
to the SDSS sample, we incorporate ultraviolet photometry from the Third Data
Release of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer All-Sky Imaging Survey (GALEX AIS GR3)
to create PDFs for objects seen in both surveys. For quasars, the increased
coverage of the observed frame UV of the SED results in significant improvement
over the full SDSS sample, with sigma = 0.234 +/- 0.010. We demonstrate that
this improvement is genuine. [Abridged]Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 10 pages, 12 figures, uses emulateapj.cl
Multi-user video streaming using unequal error protection network coding in wireless networks
In this paper, we investigate a multi-user video streaming system applying unequal error protection (UEP) network coding (NC) for simultaneous real-time exchange of scalable video streams among multiple users. We focus on a simple wireless scenario where users exchange encoded data packets over a common central network node (e.g., a base station or an access point) that aims to capture the fundamental system behaviour. Our goal is to present analytical tools that provide both the decoding probability analysis and the expected delay guarantees for different importance layers of scalable video streams. Using the proposed tools, we offer a simple framework for design and analysis of UEP NC based multi-user video streaming systems and provide examples of system design for video conferencing scenario in broadband wireless cellular networks
Testing gene-environment interactions in gene-based association studies
Gene-based and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) set association studies provide an important complement to SNP analysis. Kernel-based nonparametric regression has recently emerged as a powerful and flexible tool for this purpose. Our goal is to explore whether this approach can be extended to incorporate and test for interaction effects, especially for genes containing rare variant SNPs. Here, we construct nonparametric regression models that can be used to include a gene-environment interaction effect under the framework of the least-squares kernel machine and examine the performance of the proposed method on the Genetic Analysis Workshop 17 unrelated individuals data set. Two hundred simulated replicates were used to explore the power for detecting interaction. We demonstrate through a genome scan of the quantitative phenotype Q1 that the simulated gene-environment interaction effect in the data can be detected with reasonable power by using the least-squares kernel machine method
Fluctuations in a Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz Bouncing Cosmology
Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity is a potentially UV complete theory with
important implications for the very early universe. In particular, in the
presence of spatial curvature it is possible to obtain a non-singular bouncing
cosmology. The bounce is realized as a consequence of higher order spatial
curvature terms in the gravitational action. Here, we extend the study of
linear cosmological perturbations in Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity coupled to
matter in the case when spatial curvature is present. As in the case without
spatial curvature, we find that there is no extra dynamical degree of freedom
for scalar metric perturbations. We study the evolution of fluctuations through
the bounce and show that the solutions remain non-singular throughout. If we
start with quantum vacuum fluctuations on sub-Hubble scales in the contracting
phase, and if the contracting phase is dominated by pressure-less matter, then
for and in the infrared limit the perturbations at late times are
scale invariant. Thus, Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity can provide a realization of
the ``matter bounce'' scenario of structure formation.Comment: 19 page
Improved catalytic activity of ruthenium–arene complexes in the reduction of NAD+
A series of neutral Ru-II half-sandwich complexes of the type [(eta(6)-arene)Ru(N,N')Cl] where the arene is para-cymene (p-cym), hexamethylbenzene (hmb), biphenyl (bip), or benzene (bn) and N,N' is N-(2-aminoethyl) -4-(trifluoromethyl)benzenesulfonamide (TfEn), N-(2-aminoethyl)-4-toluenesulfonamide (TsEn), or N-(2-aminoethyl)-methylenesulfonamide (MsEn) were synthesized and characterized. X-ray crystal structures of [(p-cym)Ru(MsEn)Cl] (1), [(hmb)Ru(TsEn)Cl] (5), [(hmb)Ru(TfEn)Cl] (6), [(bip)Ru(MsEn)Cl] (7), and [(bip)Ru(TsEn)Cl] (8) have been determined. The complexes can regioselectively catalyze the transfer hydrogenation of NAD(+) to give 1,4-NADH in the presence of formate. The turnover frequencies (TOF) when the arene is varied decrease in the order bn > bip > p-cym > hmb for complexes with the same N,N' chelating ligand. The TOF decreased with variation in the N,N' chelating ligand in the order TfEn > TsEn > MsEn for a given arene. [(bn)Ru(TfEn)Cl] (12) was the most active, with a TOP of 10.4 h(-1). The effects of NAD(+) and formate concentration on the reaction rates were determined for [(p-cym)Ru(TsEn)Cl] (2). Isotope studies implicated the formation of [(arene)Ru(N,N')(H)] as the rate-limiting step. The coordination of formate and subsequent CO2 elimination to generate the hydride were modeled computationally by density functional theory (DFT). CO2 elimination occurs via a two-step process with the coordinated formate first twisting to present its hydrogen toward the metal center. The computed barriers for CO2 release for arene = benzene follow the order MsEn > TsEn > TfEn, and for the Ms En system the barrier followed bn < hmb, both consistent with the observed rates. The effect of methanol on transfer hydrogenation rates in aqueous solution was investigated. A study of pH dependence of the reaction in D2O gave the optimum pH* as 7.2 with a TOF of 1.58 h(-1) for 2. The series of compounds reported here show an improvement in the catalytic activity by an order of magnitude compared to the ethylenediamine analogues
HopScotch - a low-power renewable energy base station network for rural broadband access
The provision of adequate broadband access to communities in sparsely populated rural areas has in the past been severely restricted. In this paper, we present a wireless broadband access test bed running in the Scottish Highlands and Islands which is based on a relay network of low-power base stations. Base stations are powered by a combination of renewable sources creating a low cost and scalable solution suitable for community ownership. The use of the 5~GHz bands allows the network to offer large data rates and the testing of ultra high frequency ``white space'' bands allow expansive coverage whilst reducing the number of base stations or required transmission power. We argue that the reliance on renewable power and the intelligent use of frequency bands makes this approach an economic green radio technology which can address the problem of rural broadband access
- …