MORE REALISTIC SINGLE EQUATION MODELS THROUGH SPECIFICATION OF RANDOM COEFFICIENTS

Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Courtyards and Corners: A New Rural Residential Dwelling

The project further explores the impact of site and circumstance on design as a way of place making and generating concepts. The project is a lakeside rural dwelling that focuses around a tight protected courtyard to the street address, opening to create a corner to the remaining site that fronts a lake

Opt: A Domain Specific Language for Non-linear Least Squares Optimization in Graphics and Imaging

Many graphics and vision problems can be expressed as non-linear least squares optimizations of objective functions over visual data, such as images and meshes. The mathematical descriptions of these functions are extremely concise, but their implementation in real code is tedious, especially when optimized for real-time performance on modern GPUs in interactive applications. In this work, we propose a new language, Opt (available under http://optlang.org), for writing these objective functions over image- or graph-structured unknowns concisely and at a high level. Our compiler automatically transforms these specifications into state-of-the-art GPU solvers based on Gauss-Newton or Levenberg-Marquardt methods. Opt can generate different variations of the solver, so users can easily explore tradeoffs in numerical precision, matrix-free methods, and solver approaches. In our results, we implement a variety of real-world graphics and vision applications. Their energy functions are expressible in tens of lines of code, and produce highly-optimized GPU solver implementations. These solver have performance competitive with the best published hand-tuned, application-specific GPU solvers, and orders of magnitude beyond a general-purpose auto-generated solver

Cuneiform Character Similarity Using Graph Representations

Motivated by the increased demand for computerized analysis of documents within the Digital Humanities we are developing algorithms for cuneiform tablets, which contain the oldest handwritten script used for more than three millennia. These tablets are typically found in the Middle East and contain a total amount of written words comparable to all documents in Latin or ancient Greek. In previous work we have shown how to extract vector drawings from 3D-models similar to those manually drawn over digital photographs. Both types of drawings share the Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) format representing the cuneiform characters as splines. These splines are transformed into a graph representation and extend these by triangulation. Based on graph kernel methods we show a similarity metric for cuneiform characters, which have higher degrees of freedom than handwriting with ink on paper. An evaluation of the precision and recall of our proposed approach is shown and compared to well-known methods for processing handwriting. Finally a summary and an outlook are given

Antiherpes simplex virus type 2 activity of the antimicrobial peptide subtilosin

In the present study we evaluated the antiviral activity of subtilosin, a cyclical peptide isolated from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, against herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) in cell cultures and we investigated subtilosin mode of action. We determined, using a virus yield inhibition assay, that non cytotoxic concentrations of subtilosin inhibit HSV-2 replication in Vero cell cultures. Subtilosin strongly inhibited extracellular and total virus production even when it was added at 8 h post-infection indicating that not only virus release but also viral particle formation is impeded by the antiviral peptide. Although viral glycoprotein gD level of expression is not affected by the bacteriocin, an altered pattern of gD intracellular localization was detected by immunofluorescence assay in subtilosin treated culture. On the other hand, at high concentrations subtilosin displays virucidal action.Fil: Quintana, Verónica Mara. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica. Laboratorio de Virología; ArgentinaFil: Torres, Nicolás. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica. Laboratorio de Virología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Wachsman, Mónica B.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica. Laboratorio de Virología; ArgentinaFil: Sinko, Patrick J.. State University of New Jersey; Estados UnidosFil: Castilla, Viviana. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Química Biológica. Laboratorio de Virología; ArgentinaFil: Chikindas, Michael. State University of New Jersey; Estados Unido

TIPT2 and geminin interact with basal transcription factors to synergize in transcriptional regulation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The re-replication inhibitor Geminin binds to several transcription factors including homeodomain proteins, and to members of the polycomb and the SWI/SNF complexes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we describe the TATA-binding protein-like factor-interacting protein (TIPT) isoform 2, as a strong binding partner of Geminin. TIPT2 is widely expressed in mouse embryonic and adult tissues, residing both in cyto- and nucleoplasma, and enriched in the nucleolus. Like Geminin, also TIPT2 interacts with several polycomb factors, with the general transcription factor TBP (TATA box binding protein), and with the related protein TBPL1 (TRF2). TIPT2 synergizes with geminin and TBP in the activation of TATA box-containing promoters, and with TBPL1 and geminin in the activation of the TATA-less NF1 promoter. Geminin and TIPT2 were detected in the chromatin near TBP/TBPL1 binding sites.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Together, our study introduces a novel transcriptional regulator and its function in cooperation with chromatin associated factors and the basal transcription machinery.</p