Donut-Shaped Fingerprint In Homologous Polypeptide Relationships-A Topological Feature Related To Pathogenic Structural Changes In Conformational Disease

Features of homologous relationship of proteins can provide us a general picture of protein universe, assist protein design and analysis, and further our comprehension of the evolution of organisms. Here we carried Out a Study of the evolution Of protein molecules by investigating homologous relationships among residue segments. The motive was to identify detailed topological features of homologous relationships for short residue segments in the whole protein universe. Based on the data of a large number of non-redundant Proteins, the universe of non-membrane polypeptide was analyzed by considering both residue mutations and structural conservation. By connecting homologous segments with edges, we obtained a homologous relationship network of the whole universe of short residue segments, which we named the graph of polypeptide relationships (GPR). Since the network is extremely complicated for topological transitions, to obtain an in-depth understanding, only subgraphs composed of vital nodes of the GPR were analyzed. Such analysis of vital subgraphs of the GPR revealed a donut-shaped fingerprint. Utilization of this topological feature revealed the switch sites (where the beginning of exposure Of previously hidden "hot spots" of fibril-forming happens, in consequence a further opportunity for protein aggregation is Provided; 188-202) of the conformational conversion of the normal alpha-helix-rich prion protein PrPC to the beta-sheet-rich PrPSc that is thought to be responsible for a group of fatal neurodegenerative diseases, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Efforts in analyzing other proteins related to various conformational diseases are also introduced. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A combined statistical model for multiple motifs search

Transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) play key roles in genebior 6.8 wavelet expression and regulation. They are short sequence segments with de¯nite structure and can be recognized by the corresponding transcription factors correctly. From the viewpoint of statistics, the candidates of TFBS should be quite di®erent from the segments that are randomly combined together by nucleotide. This paper proposes a combined statistical model for ¯nding over- represented short sequence segments in di®erent kinds of data set. While the over-represented short sequence segment is described by position weight matrix, the nucleotide distribution at most sites of the segment should be far from the background nucleotide distribution. The central idea of this approach is to search for such kind of signals. This algorithm is tested on 3 data sets, including binding sites data set of cyclic AMP receptor protein in E.coli, PlantProm DB which is a non-redundant collection of proximal promoter sequences from di®erent species, collection of the intergenic sequences of the whole genome of E.Coli. Even though the complexity of these three data sets is quite di®erent, the results show that this model is rather general and sensible.

Two-step digit-set-restricted modified signed-digit addition-subtraction algorithm and its optoelectronic implementation

A novel, to our knowledge, two-step digit-set-restricted modified signed-digit (MSD) addition-subtraction algorithm is proposed. With the introduction of the reference digits, the operand words are mapped into an intermediate carry word with all digits restricted to the set {(1) over bar, 0} and an intermediate sum word with all digits restricted to the set {0, 1}, which can be summed to form the final result without carry generation. The operation can be performed in parallel by use of binary logic. An optical system that utilizes an electron-trapping device is suggested for accomplishing the required binary logic operations. By programming of the illumination of data arrays, any complex logic operations of multiple variables can be realized without additional temporal latency of the intermediate results. This technique has a high space-bandwidth product and signal-to-noise ratio. The main structure can be stacked to construct a compact optoelectronic MSD adder-subtracter. (C) 1999 Optical Society of America.

A novel method to design flexible URAs

Aperture patterns play a vital role in coded aperture imaging ( CAI) applications. In recent years, many approaches were presented to design optimum or near-optimum aperture patterns. Uniformly redundant arrays (URAs) are, undoubtedly, the most successful for constant sidelobe of their periodic autocorrelation function. Unfortunately, the existing methods can only be used to design URAs with a limited number of array sizes and fixed autocorrelation sidelobe-to-peak ratios. In this paper, we present a novel method to design more flexible URAs. Our approach is based on a searching program driven by DIRECT, a global optimization algorithm. We transform the design question to a mathematical model, based on the DIRECT algorithm, which is advantageous for computer implementation. By changing determinative conditions, we obtain two kinds of types of URAs, including the filled URAs which can be constructed by existing methods and the sparse URAs which have never been mentioned by other authors as far as we know. Finally, we carry out an experiment to demonstrate the imaging performance of the sparse URAs.

Design of NRAs having higher aperture opening ratio and autocorrelation compression ratio by means of a global optimization method

When noises considerations are made, nonredundant arrays (NRAs) are endowed with many advantages which other arrays e.g., uniformly redundant arrays (URAs) do not possess in applications of coded aperture imaging. However, lower aperture opening ratio limits the applications of NRA in practice. In this paper, we present a computer searching method based on a global optimization algorithm named DIRECT to design NRAs. Compared with the existing NRAs e.g., Golay's NRAs, which are well known and widely used in various applications, NRAs found by our method have higher aperture opening ratio and auto correlation compression ratio. These advantages make our aperture arrays be very useful for practical applications especially for which of aperture size are limited. Here, we also present some aperture arrays we found. These aperture arrays have an interesting property that they belong to both NRA and URA. (C) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

太行花MADS-box基因克隆、表达模式及功能分析

基因的重复（duplication）及其功能的多样性（diversification）为生物体新的形态进化提供了原材料。重复的基因通过表达方式和（或）编码序列的改变而导致其亚功能化（subfunctionalization）和（或）新功能化（neofunctionalization），从而使这些重复基因有可能保留在生物体中，增添生物的遗传稳定性（robustness）和多样性。MADS-box基因在植物（特别是在被子植物）的进化过程中发生了大量的基因重复事件而形成一个多基因家族。MADS-box基因家族的不同成员在植物生长发育过程中起着非常重要的作用，在调控开花时间、决定花分生组织和花器官特征，以及调控根、叶、胚珠及果实的发育中起着广泛的作用。开展对MADS-box基因家族成员的序列结构、表达模式及编码蛋白的功能研究可以为这些同源基因在生物体中的可能命运提供很好的实验依据。本研究以我国特有的蔷薇科物种太行花做实验材料，通过3’ RACE和5’ RACE方法从太行花中克隆了7个MADS-box家族的基因。序列和系统进化树分析表明这7个基因分别与拟南芥的MADS-box基因AG、SHP（SHP1/2）、PI、AP1、FUL和SEP1以及与矮牵牛MADS-box基因PhTM6具有很高的同源性并聚为一支，从而将这7个MADS-box基因分别命名为TrAG（Taihangia rupestris AG）、TrSHP（Taihangia rupestris SHP）、TrPI（Taihangia rupestris PI）、TrAP1（Taihangia rupestris AP1）、TrFUL（Taihangia rupestris FUL）、TrSEP1（Taihangia rupestris SEP1）和TrTM6（Taihangia rupestris PhTM6）。针对克隆的这些基因，具体进行了以下几方面的研究： 第一，对TrAG和TrSHP两个MADS-box基因进行了研究，它们分别属于AG亚家族中旁系同源进化系euAG和PLE进化系的成员。通过原位杂交的方法分析了旁系同源基因TrAG和TrSHP的表达方式是否发生了分化;构建组成型表达载体转化野生型拟南芥，分析了TrAG和TrSHP的编码蛋白的功能是否发生了改变;并进一步通过酵母双杂交的方法比较了TrAG和TrSHP的相互作用方式是否发生了分化。原位杂交分析表明，TrAG和TrSHP主要在雄蕊、心皮和胚珠中表达。在花发育过程中，TrAG起始表达比TrSHP早，在随后将形成雄蕊和心皮原基的分生组织区域以及雄蕊原基中表达;然而直到雄蕊原基出现前未检测到TrSHP的表达。在雄蕊原基形成之后，TrAG和TrSHP在发育的雄蕊、随后将产生心皮原基的分生组织区域以及心皮原基中表达。在花发育的晚期，TrAG在发育的柱头、花柱以及胚珠中均有表达，而TrSHP仅在胚珠中表达。35S::TrAG和35S::TrSHP转基因拟南芥植株表现出相似的表型，包括开花提前;莲座叶和茎生叶向腹卷曲、变小;花芽在时期13前即开放，萼片包裹不住花芽;萼片和花瓣分别被同源异型转化为心皮化和雄蕊化器官，并在萼片向腹面产生异位的胚珠;在茎生叶上产生柱头化的乳突和胚珠;子房弯曲;果实提前沿着开裂区裂开，暴露出胚珠。此外，也观察到35S::TrAG和35S::TrSHP转基因拟南芥植株的一些表型差异，35S::TrAG转基因拟南芥植株花芽呈暗绿色，而35S::TrSHP转基因拟南芥植株花芽呈黄绿色;不同与35S::TrAG转基因植株表型的是，35S::TrSHP转基因拟南芥植株花被脱落受到了抑制，偶尔可以观察到花丝基部融合，果实变短、育性降低。酵母双杂交分析表明TrAG可以与TrSEP3相互作用，而TrSHP不能与TrSEP3形成异源二聚体。以上研究结果表明做为旁系同源基因，TrAG和TrSHP在表达方式上发生了改变，在蛋白编码序列上保持了其祖先的功能，但是编码序列的一些差异还是导致它们之间生化作用方式的不同和一定程度上的亚功能化。基于以上研究结果并结合先前报道的在拟南芥、金鱼草和矮牵牛等物种中旁系同源基因的表达和功能数据，我们提出在不同物种中旁系同源基因在进化过程中维持部分功能冗余（redundant），但是也通过改变表达方式、编码蛋白的功能及蛋白相互作用方式呈现出不同形式的亚功能化和（或）新功能化。 第二，对TrPI基因的功能也进行了初步研究，它属于AP3/PI亚家族PI-like进化系的成员。原位杂交结果表明，TrPI主要在花瓣、雄蕊和胚珠中表达。显示出TrPI与拟南芥同源基因PI保守的表达模式。35S::TrPI转基因拟南芥植株莲座叶发生延迟、变小、并且第一至第三片莲座叶呈白色针状;莲座叶和茎生叶并不像野生型呈有规则的螺旋状排列;花序茎基部、中间或顶端发生2-3个分支;在茎生叶的叶腋内的花序抽出时间明显晚于野生型，并且很小甚至不能完全抽出而藏在叶腋内。低温条件下转基因植株莲座叶的表型更加明显，表现为莲座叶变为针状，无叶片，仅有叶柄结构。这明显不同于35S::PI转基因拟南芥植株的表型。此外，酵母双杂交分析表明TrPI自身可以形成同源二聚体。这种相互作用方式也不同与拟南芥中PI的相互作用方式。以上研究结果表明，TrPI可能与拟南芥PI具有保守的表达模式但编码的蛋白可能获得了新的功能。 第三，构建了一个AP1-like基因（TrAP1）的过量表达载体，转化野生型拟南芥植株，通过反向遗传学分析了TrAP1的功能。35S::TrAP1转基因拟南芥植株开花提前;花序以两朵花终止，形成terminal flower的表型;偶尔可以观察到雄蕊转化为花瓣化的器官;莲座叶呈黄绿色并且其边缘呈锯齿状。酵母双杂交分析表明TrAP1蛋白自身可以形成同源二聚体。这些结果表明TrAP1可能与拟南芥同源基因AP1具有保守的功能。

Defining the orientation of the tandem fusions that occurred during the evolution of Indian muntjac chromosomes by BAC mapping

The Indian muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak vaginalis) has a karyotype of 2n=6 in the female and 7 in the male, the karyotypic evolution of which through extensive tandem fusions and several centric fusions has been well-documented by recent molecular cytogenetic studies. In an attempt to define the fusion orientations of conserved chromosomal segments and the molecular mechanisms underlying the tandem fusions, we have constructed a highly redundant (more than six times of whole genome coverage) bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library of Indian muntjac. The BAC library contains 124,800 clones with no chromosome bias and has an average insert DNA size of 120 kb. A total of 223 clones have been mapped by fluorescent in situ hybridization onto the chromosomes of both Indian muntjac and Chinese muntjac and a high-resolution comparative map has been established. Our mapping results demonstrate that all tandem fusions that occurred during the evolution of Indian muntjac karyotype from the acrocentric 2n=70 hypothetical ancestral karyotype are centromere-telomere (head-tail) fusions.

Compact non-binary fast adders using single-electron devices

This paper proposes compact adders that are based on non-binary redundant number systems and single-electron (SE) devices. The adders use the number of single electrons to represent discrete multiple-valued logic state and manipulate single electrons to perform arithmetic operations. These adders have fast speed and are referred as fast adders. We develop a family of SE transfer circuits based on MOSFET-based SE turnstile. The fast adder circuit can be easily designed by directly mapping the graphical counter tree diagram (CTD) representation of the addition algorithm to SE devices and circuits. We propose two design approaches to implement fast adders using SE transfer circuits the threshold approach and the periodic approach. The periodic approach uses the voltage-controlled single-electron transfer characteristics to efficiently achieve periodic arithmetic functions. We use HSPICE simulator to verify fast adders operations. The speeds of the proposed adders are fast. The numbers of transistors of the adders are much smaller than conventional approaches. The power dissipations are much lower than CMOS and multiple-valued current-mode fast adders. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Digits speech recognition based on geometrical learning

We investigate the use of independent component analysis (ICA) for speech feature extraction in digits speech recognition systems.We observe that this may be true for a recognition tasks based on geometrical learning with little training data. In contrast to image processing, phase information is not essential for digits speech recognition. We therefore propose a new scheme that shows how the phase sensitivity can be removed by using an analytical description of the ICA-adapted basis functions via the Hilbert transform. Furthermore, since the basis functions are not shift invariant, we extend the method to include a frequency-based ICA stage that removes redundant time shift information. The digits speech recognition results show promising accuracy, Experiments show method based on ICA and geometrical learning outperforms HMM in different number of train samples.

Continuous speech recognition based on ICA and geometrical learning

We investigate the use of independent component analysis (ICA) for speech feature extraction in digits speech recognition systems. We observe that this may be true for recognition tasks based on Geometrical Learning with little training data. In contrast to image processing, phase information is not essential for digits speech recognition. We therefore propose a new scheme that shows how the phase sensitivity can be removed by using an analytical description of the ICA-adapted basis functions. Furthermore, since the basis functions are not shift invariant, we extend the method to include a frequency-based ICA stage that removes redundant time shift information. The digits speech recognition results show promising accuracy. Experiments show that the method based on ICA and Geometrical Learning outperforms HMM in a different number of training samples.

Performing Fast Addition and Multiplication by Transferring Single Electrons

This paper proposes novel fast addition and multiplication circuits that are based on non-binary redundant number systems and single electron (SE) devices. The circuits consist of MOSFET-based single-electron (SE) turnstiles. We use the number of electrons to represent discrete multiple-valued logic states and we finish arithmetic operations by controlling the number of electrons transferred. We construct a compact PD2,3 adder and a 12x12bit multiplier using the PD2,3 adder. The speed of the adder can be as high as 600MHz with 400nW power dissipation. The speed of the adder is regardless of its operand length. The proposed circuits have much smaller transistors than conventional circuits.

Continuous speech recognition based on ICA and geometrical learning

We investigate the use of independent component analysis (ICA) for speech feature extraction in digits speech recognition systems. We observe that this may be true for recognition tasks based on Geometrical Learning with little training data. In contrast to image processing, phase information is not essential for digits speech recognition. We therefore propose a new scheme that shows how the phase sensitivity can be removed by using an analytical description of the ICA-adapted basis functions. Furthermore, since the basis functions are not shift invariant, we extend the method to include a frequency-based ICA stage that removes redundant time shift information. The digits speech recognition results show promising accuracy. Experiments show that the method based on ICA and Geometrical Learning outperforms HMM in a different number of training samples.

Proposed scheme for parallel 10Gb/s VSR system and its Verilog HDL realization

This paper proposes a novel and innovative scheme for 10Gb/s parallel Very Short Reach (VSR) optical communication system. The optimized scheme properly manages the SDH/SONET redundant bytes and adjusts the position of error detecting bytes and error correction bytes. Compared with the OIF-VSR4-01.0 proposal, the scheme has a coding process module. The SDH/SONET frames in transmission direction are disposed as follows: (1) The Framer-Serdes Interface (FSI) gets 16x622.08Mb/s STM-64 frame. (2) The STM-64 frame is byte-wise stripped across 12 channels, all channels are data channels. During this process, the parity bytes and CRC bytes are generated in the similar way as OIF-VSR4-01.0 and stored in the code process module. (3) The code process module will regularly convey the additional parity bytes and CRC bytes to all 12 data channels. (4) After the 8B/10B coding, the 12 channels is transmitted to the parallel VCSEL array. The receive process approximately in reverse order of transmission process. By applying this scheme to 10Gb/s VSR system, the frame size in VSR system is reduced from 15552x12 bytes to 14040x12 bytes, the system redundancy is reduced obviously.

Alteration mineral mapping using masking and Crosta technique for mineral exploration in mid-vegetated areas: a case study in Areletuobie, Xinjiang (China)

Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM)+ data have been successfully employed in the field of mineral exploration to identify key minerals over arid and semi-arid terrains. However, redundant vegetation and cloud may seriously interfere with the discrimination of the minerals with diagnostic features. Therefore, in this study, we use masking technique to eliminate the negative influence of vegetation and cloud and Crosta technique to identify the diagnostic features of hydroxyl-minerals, carbonate-minerals and iron oxides. Then the anomalies were endowed with special colours and overlapped with the remote-sensing and geochemical data, overlaying images as remote-sensing anomalies. The mineral exploration work was carried through by synthetic analysis of the remote-sensing images, geochemical data and structures. Finally, areas with high correlation between the occurrence of hydrothermal alteration and presence of main faults and geochemical anomalies were considered as mineral exploration targets worthy of further detailed exploration programmes.