Searchable Sky Coverage of Astronomical Observations: Footprints and Exposures

Sky coverage is one of the most important pieces of information about astronomical observations. We discuss possible representations, and present algorithms to create and manipulate shapes consisting of generalized spherical polygons with arbitrary complexity and size on the celestial sphere. This shape specification integrates well with our Hierarchical Triangular Mesh indexing toolbox, whose performance and capabilities are enhanced by the advanced features presented here. Our portable implementation of the relevant spherical geometry routines comes with wrapper functions for database queries, which are currently being used within several scientific catalog archives including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Hubble Legacy Archive projects as well as the Footprint Service of the Virtual Observatory.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PAS

Aldosterone Antagonists in Monotherapy Are Protective against Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Nephropathy in Rats

Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) are the standard clinical therapy of diabetic nephropathy (DN), while aldosterone antagonists are only used as adjuncts. Previously in experimental DN we showed that Na/K ATPase (NKA) is mislocated and angiotensin II leads to superimposed renal progression. Here we investigated the monotherapeutic effect of aldosterone blockers on the progression of DN and renal NKA alteration in comparison to ACEi and ARBs. Streptozotocin-diabetic rats developing DN were treated with aldosterone antagonists; ACEi and ARB. Renal function, morphology, protein level and tubular localization of NKA were analyzed. To evaluate the effect of high glucose per se; HK-2 proximal tubular cells were cultured in normal or high concentration of glucose and treated with the same agents. Aldosterone antagonists were the most effective in ameliorating functional and structural kidney damage and they normalized diabetes induced bradycardia and weight loss. Aldosterone blockers also prevented hyperglycemia and diabetes induced increase in NKA protein level and enzyme mislocation. A monotherapy with aldosterone antagonists might be as, or more effective than ACEi or ARBs in the prevention of STZ-induced DN. Furthermore the alteration of the NKA could represent a novel pathophysiological feature of DN and might serve as an additional target of aldosterone blockers

Competitive Factors of Fashion Retail Sector with Special Focus on SMEs

: Nowadays small and medium sized enterprises have become increasingly important in contribution to job creation and economic growth both in national and European level. Considering the rapidly and continuously changing business environment, due to the impacts of globalization and concentration, staying competitive is a great challenge for companies in the 21st century, especially in fashion retail sector. The current paper is intended to map the current situation of the sector—focusing primarily on SMEs—through the extensive literature review; and provide a better understanding of sector-specific competitive factors in fashion industry. The research methods are the analysis of different related articles, reports and other scientific literature sources, in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey. The survey was validated by confirmatory factor analysis, data were analyzed and evaluated through PLS-SEM model. The main findings of the study show that the most important competitive factor is the compliance with consumer needs. Furthermore, the research also points out that SME sector lag behind chains, thus, they need to focus more on better understanding and meeting consumer expectations. In this activity, it would be useful if they received EU and domestic support for educational assistance

The role of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and nitric oxide in cochlear dopamine release

Dopamine (DA) released from lateral olivocochlear (LOC) terminals may have a neuroprotective effect in the cochlea. To explore the role of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors and nitric oxide (NO) in the modulation of a cochlear DA release, we measured the release of [(3)H]DA from isolated mouse cochlea in response to the application of NMDA. NMDA at 100 mu M significantly increased the electrical-field stimulation-evoked and resting release of DA from the cochlea. The NO donor sodium nitroprusside enhanced the basal outflow of DA but failed to influence the evoked release. The administration of the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) alone was ineffective, but it significantly inhibited the initial phase of the NMDA-induced elevation of DA outflow, which suggested the role of NO in the NMDA-induced DA release. The DA uptake inhibitor nomifensine increased the electrically evoked release of DA. Nomifensine failed to change the effect of NMDA on the resting or electrically-evoked DA release, which suggested that the uptake mechanism does not play a role in NMDA-evoked and NO-mediated DA release. In summary, we provide evidence that NO can modulate the release of DA from the cochlea following NMDA receptor activation, but does not affect the uptake of DA. (C) 2008 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Relational Algebra for Spatial Data Search

We explored ways of doing spatial search within a relational database: (1) hierarchical triangular mesh (a tessellation of the sphere), (2) a zoned bucketing system, and (3) representing areas as disjunctive-normal form constraints. Each of these approaches has merits. They all allow efficient point-in-region queries. A relational representation for regions allows Boolean operations among them and allows quick tests for point-in-region, regionscontaining point, and region overlap. The speed of these algorithms is much improved by a zone and multi-scale zonepyramid scheme. The approach has the virtue that the zone mechanism works well on B-Trees native to all SQL systems and integrates naturally with current query optimizers -- rather than requiring a new spatial access method and concomitant query optimizer extensions. Over the last 5 years, we have used these techniques extensively in our work on SkyServer.sdss.org, SkyQuery.net, and TerraService.net

One test for all: whole exome sequencing signifcantly improves the diagnostic yield in growth retarded patients referred for molecular testing for Silver–Russell syndrome

Background:Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS) is an imprinting disorder which is characterised by severe primordial growth retardation, relative macrocephaly and a typical facial gestalt. The clinical heterogeneity of SRS is reflected by a broad spectrum of molecular changes with hypomethylation in 11p15 and maternal uniparental disomy of chromo-some 7 (upd(7)mat) as the most frequent findings. Monogenetic causes are rare, but a clinical overlap with numerous other disorders has been reported. However, a comprehensive overview on the contribution of mutations in differential diagnostic genes to phenotypes reminiscent to SRS is missing due to the lack of appropriate tests. With the implementation of next generation sequencing (NGS) tools this limitation can now be circumvented.Main body:We analysed 75 patients referred for molecular testing for SRS by a NGS-based multigene panel, whole exome sequencing (WES), and trio-based WES. In 21/75 patients a disease-causing variant could be identified among them variants in known SRS genes (IGF2, PLAG1, HMGA2). Several patients carried variants in genes which have not yet been considered as differential diagnoses of SRS.Conclusions:WES approaches significantly increase the diagnostic yield in patients referred for SRS testing. Several of the identified monogenetic disorders have a major impact on clinical management and genetic counseling