105 research outputs found
Experimental Results of Network-Assisted Interference Suppression Scheme Using Adaptive Beam-Tilt Switching
This paper introduces a network-assisted interference suppression scheme using beam-tilt switching per frame for wireless local area network systems and its effectiveness in an actual indoor environment. In the proposed scheme, two access points simultaneously transmit to their own desired station by adjusting angle of beam-tilt including transmit power assisted from network server for the improvement of system throughput. In the conventional researches, it is widely known that beam-tilt is effective for ICI suppression in the outdoor scenario. However, the indoor effectiveness of beam-tilt for ICI suppression has not yet been indicated from the experimental evaluation. Thus, this paper indicates the effectiveness of the proposed scheme by analyzing multiple-input multiple-output channel matrices from experimental measurements in an office environment. The experimental results clearly show that the proposed scheme offers higher system throughput than the conventional scheme using just transmit power control
Differential responses of normal human coronary artery endothelial cells against multiple cytokines comparatively assessed by gene expression profiles
AbstractEndothelial cells play an important role in terms of biological functions by responding to a variety of stimuli in the blood. However, little is known about the molecular mechanism involved in rendering the variety in the cellular response. To investigate the variety of the cellular responses against exogenous stimuli at the gene expression level, we attempted to describe the cellular responses with comprehensive gene expression profiles, dissect them into multiple response patterns, and characterize the response patterns according to the information accumulated so far on the genes included in the patterns. We comparatively analyzed in parallel the gene expression profiles obtained with DNA microarrays from normal human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAECs) stimulated with multiple cytokines, interleukin-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α, interferon-β, interferon-γ, and oncostatin M, which are profoundly involved in various functional responses of endothelial cells. These analyses revealed that the cellular responses of HCAECs against these cytokines included at least 15 response patterns specific to a single cytokine or common to multiple cytokines. Moreover, we statistically extracted genes contained within the individual response patterns and characterized the response patterns with the genes referring to the previously accumulated findings including the biological process defined by the Gene Ontology Consortium (GO). Out of the 15 response patterns in which at least one gene was successfully extracted through the statistical approach, 11 response patterns were differentially characterized by representing the number of genes contained in individual criteria of the biological process in the GO only. The approach to dissect cellular responses into response patterns and to characterize the pattern at the gene expression level may contribute to the gaining of insight for untangling the diversity of cellular functions
Structure of Cell Networks Critically Determines Oscillation Regularity
Biological rhythms are generated by pacemaker organs, such as the heart
pacemaker organ (the sinoatrial node) and the master clock of the circadian
rhythms (the suprachiasmatic nucleus), which are composed of a network of
autonomously oscillatory cells. Such biological rhythms have notable
periodicity despite the internal and external noise present in each cell.
Previous experimental studies indicate that the regularity of oscillatory
dynamics is enhanced when noisy oscillators interact and become synchronized.
This effect, called the collective enhancement of temporal precision, has been
studied theoretically using particular assumptions. In this study, we propose a
general theoretical framework that enables us to understand the dependence of
temporal precision on network parameters including size, connectivity, and
coupling intensity; this effect has been poorly understood to date. Our
framework is based on a phase oscillator model that is applicable to general
oscillator networks with any coupling mechanism if coupling and noise are
sufficiently weak. In particular, we can manage general directed and weighted
networks. We quantify the precision of the activity of a single cell and the
mean activity of an arbitrary subset of cells. We find that, in general
undirected networks, the standard deviation of cycle-to-cycle periods scales
with the system size as , but only up to a certain system size
that depends on network parameters. Enhancement of temporal precision is
ineffective when . We also reveal the advantage of long-range
interactions among cells to temporal precision
Nationwide surveillance of bacterial respiratory pathogens conducted by the surveillance committee of Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases, and the Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology in 2010: General view of the pathogens\u27 antibacterial susceptibility
The nationwide surveillance on antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial respiratory pathogens from patients in Japan, was conducted by Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases and Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology in 2010.The isolates were collected from clinical specimens obtained from well-diagnosed adult patients with respiratory tract infections during the period from January and April 2010 by three societies. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was conducted at the central reference laboratory according to the method recommended by Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institutes using maximum 45 antibacterial agents.Susceptibility testing was evaluable with 954 strains (206 Staphylococcus aureus, 189 Streptococcus pneumoniae, 4 Streptococcus pyogenes, 182 Haemophilus influenzae, 74 Moraxella catarrhalis, 139 Klebsiella pneumoniae and 160 Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Ratio of methicillin-resistant S.aureus was as high as 50.5%, and those of penicillin-intermediate and -resistant S.pneumoniae were 1.1% and 0.0%, respectively. Among H.influenzae, 17.6% of them were found to be β-lactamase-non-producing ampicillin (ABPC)-intermediately resistant, 33.5% to be β-lactamase-non-producing ABPC-resistant and 11.0% to be β-lactamase-producing ABPC-resistant strains. Extended spectrum β-lactamase-producing K.pneumoniae and multi-drug resistant P.aeruginosa with metallo β-lactamase were 2.9% and 0.6%, respectively.Continuous national surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility of respiratory pathogens is crucial in order to monitor changing patterns of susceptibility and to be able to update treatment recommendations on a regular basis
Improving the Propagation Environment by Using Tunable Passive Repeater
This paper presents a novel passive repeater that achieves enhanced Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication between two isolated terminals. The novel aspect of this work is an avoidance of the key-hole effect, which is normally caused by a repeater since all of the signal goes through the same point. Moreover, our idea uses electrical control, which is simply realized by only varactor diodes on the antennas, and this idea provides fast and low-cost control of the MIMO channel. This configuration allows the passive repeater to control the MIMO channel. MIMO channel capacity is maximized by controlling all repeater elements individually. The effectiveness of the passive repeater in enhancing MIMO channel capacity is verified by experiments. First of all, we obtained propagation data from field experiment, and propagation characteristics were evaluated using equations. The results show that the 10% value of MIMO channel capacity can be improved by 2.92 bits/s/Hz in an indoor propagation environment, which well confirms the effectiveness of the proposed method
In vivo imaging of clock gene expression in multiple tissues of freely moving mice
Clock genes are expressed throughout the body, although how they oscillate in unrestrained animals is not known. Here, we show an in vivo imaging technique that enables long-term simultaneous imaging of multiple tissues. We use dual-focal 3D tracking and signal-intensity calibration to follow gene expression in a target area. We measure circadian rhythms of clock genes in the olfactory bulb, right and left ears and cortices, and the skin. In addition, the kinetic relationship between gene expression and physiological responses to experimental cues is monitored. Under stable conditions gene expression is in phase in all tissues. In response to a long-duration light pulse, the olfactory bulb shifts faster than other tissues. In Cry1(-/-) Cry2(-/-) arrhythmic mice circadian oscillation is absent in all tissues. Thus, our system successfully tracks circadian rhythms in clock genes in multiple tissues in unrestrained mice
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