167 research outputs found
Circulating microRNAs as potential biomarkers of early vascular damage in vitamin D deficiency, obese, and diabetic patients
Vitamin D3 deficiency, obesity, and diabetes mellitus (DM) have been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). However, the early detection of vascular damage in those patients is still difficult to ascertain. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are recognized to play a critical role in initiation and pathogenesis of vascular dysfunction. Herein, we aimed to identify circulating miRNA biomarkers of vascular dysfunction as early predictors of CVDs. We have recruited 23 middle-aged Emiratis patients with the following criteria: A healthy control group with vitamin D â„ 20ng, and BMI 1.5) in high-risk patients for CVDs vs healthy controls. Collectively, our result indicates that four specific circulating miRNA signature, may be utilized as non-invasive, diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for early vascular damage in patients suffering from vitamin D deficiency, obesity and DM
Dynamical compressibility of dense granular shear flows
It has been conjectured by Bagnold [1] that an assembly of hard
non-deformable spheres could behave as a compressible medium when slowly
sheared, as the average density of such a system effectively depends on the
confining pressure. Here we use discrete element simulations to show the
existence of transverse and sagittal waves associated to this dynamical
compressibility. For this purpose, we study the resonance of these waves in a
linear Couette cell and compare the results with those predicted from a
continuum local constitutive relation
Optimal Byzantine Resilient Convergence in Asynchronous Robot Networks
We propose the first deterministic algorithm that tolerates up to
byzantine faults in -sized networks and performs in the asynchronous
CORDA model. Our solution matches the previously established lower bound for
the semi-synchronous ATOM model on the number of tolerated Byzantine robots.
Our algorithm works under bounded scheduling assumptions for oblivious robots
moving in a uni-dimensional space
Rendezvous on a Line by Location-Aware Robots Despite the Presence of Byzantine Faults
A set of mobile robots is placed at points of an infinite line. The robots
are equipped with GPS devices and they may communicate their positions on the
line to a central authority. The collection contains an unknown subset of
"spies", i.e., byzantine robots, which are indistinguishable from the
non-faulty ones. The set of the non-faulty robots need to rendezvous in the
shortest possible time in order to perform some task, while the byzantine
robots may try to delay their rendezvous for as long as possible. The problem
facing a central authority is to determine trajectories for all robots so as to
minimize the time until the non-faulty robots have rendezvoused. The
trajectories must be determined without knowledge of which robots are faulty.
Our goal is to minimize the competitive ratio between the time required to
achieve the first rendezvous of the non-faulty robots and the time required for
such a rendezvous to occur under the assumption that the faulty robots are
known at the start. We provide a bounded competitive ratio algorithm, where the
central authority is informed only of the set of initial robot positions,
without knowing which ones or how many of them are faulty. When an upper bound
on the number of byzantine robots is known to the central authority, we provide
algorithms with better competitive ratios. In some instances we are able to
show these algorithms are optimal
Pattern formation
The Pattern Formation problem is one of the most important coordination problem for robotic systems. Initially the entities are in arbitrary positions; within finite time they must arrange themselves in the space so to form a pattern given in input. In this chapter, we will mainly deal with the problem in the OBLOT model
Multisite campaign on the open cluster M67. III. Delta Scuti pulsations in the blue stragglers
We have made an asteroseismic analysis of the variable blue stragglers in the
open cluster M67. The data set consists of photometric time series from eight
sites using nine 0.6-2.1 meter telescopes with a time baseline of 43 days. In
two stars, EW Cnc and EX Cnc, we detect the highest number of frequencies (41
and 26) detected in delta Scuti stars belonging to a stellar cluster, and EW
Cnc has the second highest number of frequencies detected in any delta Scuti
star. We have computed a grid of pulsation models that take the effects of
rotation into account. The distribution of observed and theoretical frequencies
show that in a wide frequency range a significant fraction of the radial and
non-radial low-degree modes are excited to detectable amplitudes. Despite the
large number of observed frequencies we cannot constrain the fundamental
parameters of the stars. To make progress we need to identify the degrees of
some of the modes either from multi-colour photometry or spectroscopy.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figs, one appendix. Part three in a series of papers
describing results from an extensive multi-site campaign on the open cluster
M6
Multi-site campaign on the open cluster M67. I. Observations and photometric reductions
We report on an ambitious multi-site campaign aimed at detecting stellar
variability, particularly solar-like oscillations, in the red giant stars in
the open cluster M67 (NGC 2682). During the six-week observing run, which
comprised 164 telescope nights, we used nine 0.6-m to 2.1-m class telescopes
located around the world to obtain uninterrupted time-series photometry. We
outline here the data acquisition and reduction, with emphasis on the
optimisation of the signal-to-noise of the low amplitude (50-500 micromag)
solar-like oscillations. This includes a new and efficient method for obtaining
the linearity profile of the CCD response at ultra high precision (~10 parts
per million). The noise in the final time series is 0.50 mmag per minute
integration for the best site, while the noise in the Fourier spectrum of all
sites combined is 20 micromag. In addition to the red giant stars, this data
set proves to be very valuable for studying high-amplitude variable stars such
as eclipsing binaries, W UMa systems and delta Scuti stars.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, accepted by MNRA
Genomic analysis of the necrotrophic fungal pathogens Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinerea
This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Botrytis cinerea are closely related necrotrophic plant pathogenic fungi notable for their wide host ranges and environmental persistence. These attributes have made these species models for understanding the complexity of necrotrophic, broad host-range pathogenicity. Despite their similarities, the two species differ in mating behaviour and the ability to produce asexual spores. We have sequenced the genomes of one strain of S. sclerotiorum and two strains of B. cinerea. The comparative analysis of these genomes relative to one another and to other sequenced fungal genomes is provided here. Their 38-39 Mb genomes include 11,860-14,270 predicted genes, which share 83% amino acid identity on average between the two species. We have mapped the S. sclerotiorum assembly to 16 chromosomes and found large-scale co-linearity with the B. cinerea genomes. Seven percent of the S. sclerotiorum genome comprises transposable elements compared to <1% of B. cinerea. The arsenal of genes associated with necrotrophic processes is similar between the species, including genes involved in plant cell wall degradation and oxalic acid production. Analysis of secondary metabolism gene clusters revealed an expansion in number and diversity of B. cinerea-specific secondary metabolites relative to S. sclerotiorum. The potential diversity in secondary metabolism might be involved in adaptation to specific ecological niches. Comparative genome analysis revealed the basis of differing sexual mating compatibility systems between S. sclerotiorum and B. cinerea. The organization of the mating-type loci differs, and their structures provide evidence for the evolution of heterothallism from homothallism. These data shed light on the evolutionary and mechanistic bases of the genetically complex traits of necrotrophic pathogenicity and sexual mating. This resource should facilitate the functional studies designed to better understand what makes these fungi such successful and persistent pathogens of agronomic crops.The Sclerotinia sclerotiorum genome project was supported by the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (USDA-NRI 2004). Sclerotinia sclerotiorum ESTs were funded by a grant to JA Rollins from USDA specific cooperative agreement 58-5442-4-281. The genome sequence of Botrytis cinerea strain T4 was funded by Genoscope, CEA, France. M Viaud was funded by the âProjet INRA Jeune-Equipeâ. PM Coutinho and B Henrissat were funded by the ANR to project E-Tricel (grant ANR-07-BIOE-006). The CAZy database is funded in part by GIS-IBiSA. DM Soanes and NJ Talbot were partly funded by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. KM Plummer was partially funded by the New Zealand Bio-Protection Research Centre, http://bioprotection.org.nz/. BJ Howlett and A Sexton were partially funded by the Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation, www.grdc.com.au. L Kohn was partially funded by NSERC Discovery Grant (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) - Grant number 458078. M Dickman was supported by the NSF grant MCB-092391 and BARD grant US-4041-07C. O Yarden was supported by BARD grant US-4041-07C. EG Danchin obtained financial support from the European Commission (STREP FungWall grant, contract: LSHB - CT- 2004 - 511952). A Botrytis Genome Workshop (Kaiserslautern, Germany) was supported by a grant from the German Science Foundation (DFG; HA1486) to M Hahn
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