Gradients of Taxonomic Diversity among Local Floras in the Russian Arctic

Latitudinal and longitudinal changes in taxonomic variables were analyzed in 319 local floras in the Russian Arctic. Within the studied segment of latitudinal gradient, most changes can be described in terms of linear regression with negative coefficients (a number of species, genera and families), or positive coefficients (a proportion of the leading families and genera). However, the mean number of species in a family or genus almost does not change with increasing latitude, although it slightly increases as one moves eastward. The proportion of monocots does not correlate with latitude, but slightly decreases as one moves eastward. Proportions of various families change asynchronously. Although correlation with longitude was less pronounced, mean species richness was specific to many subprovinces, even within a certain subzone. These differences reflect both the diversity of landscapes and the history of flora formation. Keywords: the Arctic, local floras, latitudinal and longitudinal gradient, floristic subprovince

Cytokine-related genes identified from the RIKEN full-length mouse cDNA data set

To identify novel cytokine-related genes, we searched the set of 60,770 annotated RIKEN mouse cDNA clones (FANTOM2 clones), using keywords such as cytokine itself or cytokine names (such as interferon, interleukin, epidermal growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, and transforming growth factor). This search produced 108 known cytokines and cytokine-related products such as cytokine receptors, cytokine-associated genes, or their products (enhancers, accessory proteins, cytokine-induced genes). We found 15 clusters of FANTOM2 clones that are candidates for novel cytokine-related genes. These encoded products with strong sequence similarity to guanylate-binding protein (GBP-5), interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 2 (IRAK-2), interleukin 20 receptor alpha isoform 3, a member of the interferon-inducible proteins of the Ifi 200 cluster, four members of the membrane-associated family 1-8 of interferon-inducible proteins, one p27-like protein, and a hypothetical protein containing a Toll/Interleukin receptor domain. All four clones representing novel candidates of gene products from the family contain a novel highly conserved cross-species domain. Clones similar to growth factor-related products included transforming growth factor beta-inducible early growth response protein 2 (TIEG-2), TGFbeta-induced factor 2, integrin beta-like 1, latent TGF-binding protein 4S, and FGF receptor 4B. We performed a detailed sequence analysis of the candidate novel genes to elucidate their likely functional properties

БЫСТРОЕ ПРОТОТИПИРОВАНИЕ ВСТРАИВАЕМЫХ ПРОГРАММИРУЕМЫХ СИСТЕМ НА ПЛИС ДЛЯ МУЛЬТИМЕДИЙНЫХ ПРИЛОЖЕНИЙ

This paper illustrates rapid prototyping method applied for mobile multimedia systems with L2L (lossless-to-lossy) compression scheme. Debug module Xilinx ML-401 based on the FPGA (Filed Programmable Gate Array) is taken as the basis. Microblaze soft-processor is used as the main control unit. Proposed DCT-IDCT cores are developed using VHDL hardware description language as FSL (Fast Simples Link) coprocessors for Microblaze or standalone PLB (Processor Logical Bus) acceleration peripheral. Result of image processing is displayed on the screen connected via VGA interface. Proposed recursive architecture of DCT-IDCT core can be used as a basis of L2L coder.Рассматривается процесс быстрого прототипирования мобильных мультимедийных систем трансформационного кодирования изображений по схеме L2L (lossless-to-lossy): сжатие и восстановление изображения как без потерь, так и с контролируемым внесением артефактов. За основу берется отладочный модуль Xilinx ML-401, в качестве основного управляющего ядра используется встроенный софт-процессор MicroBlaze. Процессоры дискретного косинусного преобразования (ДКП) представляются в виде модулей на языке описания аппаратуры VHDL, которые подключаются к софт-процессору MicroBlaze в виде сопроцессора, результат обработки изображений выводится через VGA-интерфейс на экран монитора. Предлагается архитектура рекурсивного процессора вычисления ДКП – обратного ДКП, которая может рассматриваться как базовая при построении кодеров класса L2L

CORDIC-ТЕХНИКА ДЛЯ ФИКСИРОВАННОГО УГЛА ВРАЩЕНИЯ В ОПЕРАЦИИ УМНОЖЕНИЯ КВАТЕРНИОНОВ

The article contains a number of solutions for the key element of paraunitary filter banks based on quaternionic algebra (Q-PUBF) – the multiplier of quaternions with usage of CORDIC (Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer) techniques for the fixed angle of rotation where, unlike known solutions, 4D rotation control parameters are represented by nonlinear function of shifts number of input operands of the microrotation operation. Suggested approach of the multiplier designing on a quaternion-constant allows reaching the maximum performance of the multiplier scheme with low use of resources, for example, of FPGA.Предлагается ряд решений ключевого элемента параунитарного банка фильтров на основе алгебры кватернионов – умножителя кватернионов с использованием CORDIC (Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer)-техники для фиксированного угла вращения, в которых в отличие от известных решений параметры управления 4D-вращением представляются нелинейной функцией числа сдвигов входных операндов операции микровращения. Предложенный подход проектирования умножителя на кватернион-константу позволяет достигать максимальной производительности схемы умножителя при скромном использовании ресурсов, например FPGA

СИНТЕЗ ПАРАУНИТАРНЫХ БАНКОВ ФИЛЬТРОВ В АЛГЕБРЕ КВАТЕРНИОНОВ ДЛЯ ВЫЧИСЛИТЕЛЬНЫХ СТРУКТУР С ФИКСИРОВАННОЙ ЗАПЯТОЙ

The synthesis method of paraunitary filter banks based on the quaternion algebra (Q-PUBF) for computing structures constrained by fixed point arithmetic is proposed. Synthesis problem using method of Lagrange multipliers is solved. It is shown that the Q-PUBF represents integer transform and can be used for image coding by scheme L2L (lossless-to-lossy).Предлагается метод синтеза параунитарных банков фильтров на основе алгебры кватернионов (Q-ПУБФ) для вычислительных структур с фиксированной запятой. Задача синтеза решается с помощью метода множителей Лагранжа. Показано, что Q-ПУБФ представляет собой целочисленное преобразование и может быть использовано для кодирования изображений по схеме L2L (lossless-to-lossy)

СИНТЕЗ FPGA-АРХИТЕКТУР БАНКОВ ФИЛЬТРОВ НА ОСНОВЕ БЛОЧНОЙ ЛЕСТНИЧНОЙ ФАКТОРИЗАЦИИ В АЛГЕБРЕ КВАТЕРНИОНОВ (ЧАСТЬ 1)

Nowadays the methodology for designing systems on a chip is based on highly parameterized IP components which provide a wide range of adjustment of costs in resources, fixed point arithmetic data formats and system performance for a specific target application. The article presents a systematic approach for synthesizing FPGA architectures of integer reversible paraunitary filter banks in quaternion algebra (Int-Q-PUBB) for L2L (lossless-to-lossy) image transformed encoding. It is shown that the basic elementary transformation of the filter bank is the operation of quaternion multiplication (Q-MUL), the block-lifting factorization of which and the distributed arithmetic on the adder are the basis of the parametrizable Q-MUL IP-component.В настоящее время методологии проектирования систем на кристалле основываются на высокопараметризированных IP-компонентах (IP – intellectual property), которые для конкретного целевого приложения обеспечивают широкий диапазон регулировки затрат ресурсов, форматов данных арифметики с фиксированной запятой и производительности системы. В статье представлен систематический подход к синтезу FPGA-архитектур целочисленных обратимых параунитарных банков фильтров в алгебре кватернионов (Int-Q-ПУБФ) для трансформационного кодирования изображений по схеме L2L (lossless-to-lossy). Показывается, что базовым элементарным преобразованием банка фильтров является операция умножения кватернионов (Q-MUL). Блочная лестничная факторизация данной операции и распределенная арифметика на сумматорах положены в основу параметризируемого Q-MUL IP-компонента

Antegrade lithoextraction as perspective technique for mechanical jaundice radical treatment

Objective. Improvement of treatment outcomes in patients with the cholelithiasis complicated by mechanical jaundice when it is impossible to apply retrograde techniques for biliary tract decompression.Material and Methods. From 2014 to 2017 in our hospital 1158 patients with cholelithiasis complicated by mechanical jaundice have been treated. The group consisted of 59 (5.1%) patients with initially predicted difficulties for endoscopic lithoextraction. In 12 of that group antegrade decompression was the only surgical method for completing treatment. In 2 cases the ‘rendezvous’ technique was used, and in 23 patients the antegrade decompression it was complemented with laparotomy and choledocholithotomy. In 22 patients for verification the nature of the bile-excreting ducts and the cholelithic occlusion revealed at the same time the first stage included an antegrade decompression that allowed to finish surgical treatment by an endoscopic transpapillary lithoextraction.Results. In the main group of clinical observations for 59 patients the surgical treatment complemented with an antegrade decompression was without fatal outcomes. All patients were cured of cholelithic occlusion and recovered. In the study group with 1099 patients that were treated with only an endoscopic lithoextraction 8 patients died that showed 0.7 ± 0.2% of operational mortality. Complications, in the form of operational wounds in the main group of observations were found in 7 patients and it was 11.8 ± 4.2%. Other postoperative complications in the main group were not observed. In the control group similar wound complications were seen in 13 patients (1.2%). In the control group with 57 patients we observed intraabdominal complications which resulted in mortality (5.2 ± 0.7%). Of those postoperative reversible pancreatitis was found in 34 patients, 3 patients had fulminant pancreonecrosis, in 4 cases there was profuse bleeding from a papillosphincterotomy area, in 3 cases we observed insertion of Dormia basket at lithoextraction, septic cholangitis was in 11 and duodenum perforation with retroperitoneal phlegmon was in 3 cases.Conclusion. Mortality in the group with antegrade treatment application for choledocholithiasis was not found. On the contrary, rather higher rate of complications in the control group testifies in advantage of the antegrade techniques for choledocholithiasis treatment in the shown cases

Null Energy Condition Violation and Classical Stability in the Bianchi I Metric

The stability of isotropic cosmological solutions in the Bianchi I model is considered. We prove that the stability of isotropic solutions in the Bianchi I metric for a positive Hubble parameter follows from their stability in the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric. This result is applied to models inspired by string field theory, which violate the null energy condition. Examples of stable isotropic solutions are presented. We also consider the k-essence model and analyse the stability of solutions of the form $\Phi(t)=t$.Comment: 27 pages, references added, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.