VLSI Implementation of Discrete Cosine Transform Based on the Shared-Multiplier Algorithm

In this paper a new algorithm for discrete cosine transform (DCT) is proposed. This algorithm is especially efficient for VLSI implementation because each multiplier in @e 1-D DCT is shared by two constants rather than one. This greatly reduces the chip area, and the high speed characteristics are still retained. Based on this algorithm, we have developed the corresponding bit-parallel, fully-pipelined architecture for the size-8 DCT. The core area of the chip is only 8.6mm x 8.5mm, using 1.2um double-metal single-poly CMOS technology. This chip is simulated for operation at the maximum speed of 100 MHz which far exceeds the speed requirement of the HDTV system (70 MHz)

A bolometric measurement of the antineutrino mass

High statistics calorimetric measurements of the beta spectrum of 187Re are being performed with arrays of silver perrhenate crystals operated at low temperature. After a modification of the experimental set-up, which allowed to substantially reduce the background of spurious counts and therefore to increase the sensitivity on the electron antineutrino mass, a new measurement with 10 silver perrhenate microbolometers is running since July 2002. The crystals have masses between 250 and 350 micrograms and their average FWHM energy resolution, constantly monitored by means of fluorescence X-rays, is of 28.3 eV at the beta end-point. The Kurie plot collected during 4485 hours x mg effective running time has an end-point energy of 2466.1 +/- 0.8{stat} +/- 1.5 {syst} eV, while the half lifetime of the decay is found to be 43.2 +/- 0.2{stat} +/- 0.1{syst} Gy. These values are the most precise obtained so far for 187Re. From the fit of the Kurie plot we can deduce a value for the squared electron antineutrino mass m(nu)^2 of 147 +/- 237{stat} +/- 90{syst} eV^2. The corresponding 90% C.L. upper limit for m(nu) is 21.7 eV.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Numerical study of multilayer adsorption on fractal surfaces

We report a numerical study of van der Waals adsoprtion and capillary condensation effects on self-similar fractal surfaces. An assembly of uncoupled spherical pores with a power-law distributin of radii is used to model fractal surfaces with adjustable dimensions. We find that the commonly used fractal Frankel-Halsey-Hill equation systematically fails to give the correct dimension due to crossover effects, consistent with the findings of recent experiments. The effects of pore coupling and curvature dependent surface tension were also studied.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Temporal variation in pollination services to Cucurbita moschata is determined by bee gender and diversity

It has been proposed that species-rich insect communities and species turnover across landscapes enhance the pollination efficiency of crops through complementarity, where both the dominant and less abundant species contribute to reaching a yield threshold from pollination. Alternatively, fluctuations in the most abundant pollinator species, rather than changes in species richness, may drive temporal variation in pollination services. In this study, we used Cucurbita moschata as a model to investigate temporal variation in pollinator communities in a Mexican tropical dry forest region. We sampled floral visitors in the coastal region of Jalisco during the wet and dry seasons and determined the pollination efficiency of all floral visitors. Our results showed that there was temporal variation in the pollinator community and in the pollination efficiency of the main pollinators of Cucurbita moschata crops. In the wet season, native bees of the genus Peponapis were the most frequent and effective pollinators of C. moschata, whereas in the dry season, Peponapis bees were scarce and Apis mellifera became the most frequent floral visitor. Apis mellifera transfers smaller pollen loads than Peponapis, but it provides an effective pollination service in conjunction with other native bees during the dry season. There was also an interaction between flower gender and pollinator species, where A. mellifera had higher visitation rate to female C. moschata flowers, and Peponapis bees to staminate flowers. Mean visitation rate by Peponapis female bees was 17 times higher than visitation rate by male bees. This is the first report of a vis-à-vis relationship of pollinator gender with respect to plant gender in which plants of the genus Cucurbita that produce unisexual staminate and pistillate flowers are differentially visited by Peponapis male and female bees, where females are the main pollinators. Understanding the temporal variation in pollinator communities and the contribution of the different species of pollinators to the reproductive success of different crop species and varieties can be crucial to maintaining pollination services under the current global pollination crisis.Fil: Delgado-Carrillo, Oliverio. Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica; México. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Martén-Rodríguez, Silvana. Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica; MéxicoFil: Ashworth, Lorena. Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica; México. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Aguilar, Ramiro. Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica; México. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Lopezaraiza-Mikel, Martha. Universidad Autonoma de Guerrero; MéxicoFil: Quesada, Mauricio. Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica; Méxic

Specialized dynamical properties of promiscuous residues revealed by simulated conformational ensembles

The ability to interact with different partners is one of the most important features in proteins. Proteins that bind a large number of partners (hubs) have been often associated with intrinsic disorder. However, many examples exist of hubs with an ordered structure, and evidence of a general mechanism promoting promiscuity in ordered proteins is still elusive. An intriguing hypothesis is that promiscuous binding sites have specific dynamical properties, distinct from the rest of the interface and pre-existing in the protein isolated state. Here, we present the first comprehensive study of the intrinsic dynamics of promiscuous residues in a large protein data set. Different computational methods, from coarse-grained elastic models to geometry-based sampling methods and to full-atom Molecular Dynamics simulations, were used to generate conformational ensembles for the isolated proteins. The flexibility and dynamic correlations of interface residues with a different degree of binding promiscuity were calculated and compared considering side chain and backbone motions, the latter both on a local and on a global scale. The study revealed that (a) promiscuous residues tend to be more flexible than nonpromiscuous ones, (b) this additional flexibility has a higher degree of organization, and (c) evolutionary conservation and binding promiscuity have opposite effects on intrinsic dynamics. Findings on simulated ensembles were also validated on ensembles of experimental structures extracted from the Protein Data Bank (PDB). Additionally, the low occurrence of single nucleotide polymorphisms observed for promiscuous residues indicated a tendency to preserve binding diversity at these positions. A case study on two ubiquitin-like proteins exemplifies how binding promiscuity in evolutionary related proteins can be modulated by the fine-tuning of the interface dynamics. The interplay between promiscuity and flexibility highlighted here can inspire new directions in protein-protein interaction prediction and design methods. © 2013 American Chemical Society

Gene expression and splicing alterations analyzed by high throughput RNA sequencing of chronic lymphocytic leukemia specimens.

BackgroundTo determine differentially expressed and spliced RNA transcripts in chronic lymphocytic leukemia specimens a high throughput RNA-sequencing (HTS RNA-seq) analysis was performed.MethodsTen CLL specimens and five normal peripheral blood CD19+ B cells were analyzed by HTS RNA-seq. The library preparation was performed with Illumina TrueSeq RNA kit and analyzed by Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencing system.ResultsAn average of 48.5 million reads for B cells, and 50.6 million reads for CLL specimens were obtained with 10396 and 10448 assembled transcripts for normal B cells and primary CLL specimens respectively. With the Cuffdiff analysis, 2091 differentially expressed genes (DEG) between B cells and CLL specimens based on FPKM (fragments per kilobase of transcript per million reads and false discovery rate, FDR q < 0.05, fold change >2) were identified. Expression of selected DEGs (n = 32) with up regulated and down regulated expression in CLL from RNA-seq data were also analyzed by qRT-PCR in a test cohort of CLL specimens. Even though there was a variation in fold expression of DEG genes between RNA-seq and qRT-PCR; more than 90 % of analyzed genes were validated by qRT-PCR analysis. Analysis of RNA-seq data for splicing alterations in CLL and B cells was performed by Multivariate Analysis of Transcript Splicing (MATS analysis). Skipped exon was the most frequent splicing alteration in CLL specimens with 128 significant events (P-value <0.05, minimum inclusion level difference >0.1).ConclusionThe RNA-seq analysis of CLL specimens identifies novel DEG and alternatively spliced genes that are potential prognostic markers and therapeutic targets. High level of validation by qRT-PCR for a number of DEG genes supports the accuracy of this analysis. Global comparison of transcriptomes of B cells, IGVH non-mutated CLL (U-CLL) and mutated CLL specimens (M-CLL) with multidimensional scaling analysis was able to segregate CLL and B cell transcriptomes but the M-CLL and U-CLL transcriptomes were indistinguishable. The analysis of HTS RNA-seq data to identify alternative splicing events and other genetic abnormalities specific to CLL is an added advantage of RNA-seq that is not feasible with other genome wide analysis

ФЛУОРЕСЦЕНТНОЕ ОПРЕДЕЛЕНИЕ ПАРОВ НИТРОБЕНЗОЛА С ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕМ ДОПИРОВАННОГО ФЛУОРОФОРАМИ ПОЛИСТИРОЛА

Integration of fluorescent substances into polymeric matrices can improve their sensory properties and photostability. In this work, fluorescent materials based on fluorophore-doped polystyrene were obtained and characterized as sensors towards the ecotoxicant nitrobenzene in gas phase. Melamine-formaldehyde foam has been proposed as a permeable substrate for the sensor material deposition applicable for gas-phase measurements. The effect on sensor properties of the porous material surface obtained via Breath Figure pore generation technique was investigated. Limits of detection and calibration relationships of obtained materials towards nitrobenzene were evaluated by materials exposure to low concentrations of nitrobenzene vapors. The sorption properties of polystyrene allow the retention of the quencher near the fluorophore, leading to improved detection limits compared with pure fluorophores. Obtaining a porous surface of the polymer material by the Breath Figure technique increases the scale of its fluorescence quenching by vapors. Detection limits (down to 0.45 ppm) and detectable concentration ranges (0.5 - 371.6 ppm) have been experimentally established. The relative standard deviations of the fluorescent signal of polymer materials do not exceed 13.3 % for a number of concentrations in the detectable range. The applicability of the calibration linear relationship of the logarithm of the fluorescent signal on the logarithm of the nitrobenzene vapor concentration is shown. Fluorescence signal measurements were performed using the original sensor element and the luminescence detector employing an array of fluorescent materials. The developed device is simple in application, portable, automated, and in combination with the used polymeric materials allows detection of nitrobenzene vapors in concentrations 2.5 times lower than the maximum permissible level.  Keywords: Fluorescence, nitrobenzene, polystyrene, melamine, doping, breath figure, fluorescence readerИнтеграцией флуоресцентных веществ в полимерные матрицы можно улучшить их сенсорные свойства и фотостабильность. В работе получены и исследованы флуоресцентные материалы на основе допированного флуорофорами полистирола в качестве сенсоров на экотоксикант нитробензол в газовой фазе. Меламин-формальдегидная пена предложена в качестве проницаемого субстрата для нанесения сенсорных составов. Исследовано влияние техники создания пористой поверхности материала Breath Figure на сенсорные свойства. Пределы обнаружения нитробензола в газовой фазе с использованием полученных материалов были оценены экспозицией малым концентрациям паров нитробензола. Измерения флуоресцентного сигнала были выполнены с помощью оригинальных сенсорного элемента и регистратора люминесценции, применяющих комбинацию флуоресцентных материалов. Разработанное техническое решение регистратора люминесценции является простым в применении, портативным, автоматизированным и позволяет с использованием полученных полимерных материалов обнаружение паров нитробензола в концентрациях ниже предельно допустимой по гигиеническим нормативам

Surgery for recurrent inflammatory pseudotumor of the lung

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cases of recurrent inflammatory pseudotumor have only rarely been reported. The treatment for recurrent pseudotumor is surgery. Patients not eligible for surgery require different treatment, and the optimal type of the treatment is controversial.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>A 54-year-old woman was noted to have an abnormal shadow in the right middle lung field on chest X-ray. Computed tomography of the chest revealed an infiltrative lesion in the right segment 4 and a nodule in the right segment 8. She underwent right middle lobectomy and partial resection of the right segment 8. Histopathology revealed non-atypical lymphocytes and plasma cells infiltrates, leading to the diagnosis of the lymphoplasmacytic type of inflammatory pseudotumor. During postoperative follow-up, chest computed tomography revealed a nodular lesion in the left segment 3 and an infiltrative lesion in the right segment 2. Left segment 3 segmentectomy and right segment 2 wedge resection were performed. The histopathological findings were similar to those of the first surgical specimen, leading to the diagnosis of recurrent lymphoplasmacytic type of inflammatory pseudotumor.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Surgical cases of recurrent inflammatory pseudotumor of the lung have been reported only very rarely. We believe that surgery is the best treatment for recurrent inflammatory pseudotumor of the lung when patients are eligible.</p