Nucleosomes on linear duplex DNA allow homologous pairing but prevent strand exchange promoted by RecA protein

To understand the molecular basis of gene targeting, we have studied interactions of nucleoprotein filaments comprised of single-stranded DNA and RecA protein with chromatin templates reconstituted from linear duplex DNA and histones. We observed that for the chromatin templates with histone/DNA mass ratios of 0.8 and 1.6, the efficiency of homologous pairing was indistinguishable from that of naked duplex DNA but strand exchange was repressed. In contrast, the chromatin templates with a histone/DNA mass ratio of 9.0 supported neither homologous pairing nor strand exchange. The addition of histone H1, in stoichiometric amounts, to chromatin templates quells homologous pairing. The pairing of chromatin templates with nucleoprotein filaments of RecA protein-single-stranded DNA proceeded without the production of detectable networks of DNA, suggesting that coaggregates are unlikely to be the intermediates in homologous pairing. The application of these observations to strategies for gene targeting and their implications for models of genetic recombination are discussed.

Implications of the half-duplex constraint on relay-aided cooperation using rateless codes

The half-duplex constraint, which mandates that a cooperative relay cannot transmit and receive simultaneously, considerably simplifies the demands made on the hardware and signal processing capabilities of a relay. However, the very inability of a relay to transmit and receive simultaneously leads to a potential under-utilization of time and bandwidth resources available to the system. We analyze the impact of the half-duplex constraint on the throughput of a cooperative relay system that uses rateless codes to harness spatial diversity and efficiently transmit information from a source to a destination. We derive closed-form expressions for the throughput of the system, and show that as the number of relays increases, the throughput approaches that of a system that uses more sophisticated full-duplex nodes. Thus, half-duplex nodes are well suited for cooperation using rateless codes despite the simplicity of both the cooperation protocol and the relays.

Scan cell reordering to minimize peak power during test cycle: A graph theoretic approach

Scan circuit is widely practiced DFT technology. The scan testing procedure consist of state initialization, test application, response capture and observation process. During the state initialization process the scan vectors are shifted into the scan cells and simultaneously the responses captured in last cycle are shifted out. During this shift operation the transitions that arise in the scan cells are propagated to the combinational circuit, which inturn create many more toggling activities in the combinational block and hence increases the dynamic power consumption. The dynamic power consumed during scan shift operation is much more higher than that of normal mode operation.

Detection and Evaluation of Impact damage in CFRP Laminates Using Ultrasound C-Scan and IR Thermography

Advanced composite structural components made up of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) used in aerospace structures such as in Fuselage, Leading & Trailing edges of wing and tail, Flaps, Elevator, Rudder and entire wing structures encounter most critical type of damage induced by low velocity impact (<10 m/s) loads. Tool dropped during maintenance & service,and hailstone impacts on runways are common and unavoidable low-velocity impacts. These lowvelocity impacts induce defects such as delaminations, matrix cracking and debonding in the layered material, which are sub-surface in nature and are barely visible on the surface known as Barely Visible Impact Damage (BVID). These damages may grow under service load, leading to catastrophic failure of the structure. Hence detection, evaluation and characterization of these types of damage is of major concern in aerospace industries as the life of the component depends on the size and shape of the damage.In this paper, details of experimental investigations carried out and results obtained from a low-velocity impact of 30 Joules corresponding to the hailstone impact on the wing surface,simulated on the 6 mm CFRP laminates using instrumented drop-weight impact testing machine are presented. The Ultrasound C-scan and Infrared thermography imaging techniques were utilized extensively to detect, evaluate and characterize impact damage across the thickness of the laminates.

A mostly-digital analog scan-out chain for low bandwidth voltage measurement for analog IP test

A method of precise measurement of on-chip analog voltages in a mostly-digital manner, with minimal overhead, is presented. A pair of clock signals is routed to the node of an analog voltage. This analog voltage controls the delay between this pair of clock signals, which is then measured in an all-digital manner using the technique of sub-sampling. This sub-sampling technique, having measurement time and accuracy trade-off, is well suited for low bandwidth signals. This concept is validated by designing delay cells, using current starved inverters in UMC 130nm CMOS process. Sub-mV accuracy is demonstrated for a measurement time of few seconds.

Interaction of G-Quadruplexes with Nonintercalating Duplex-DNA Minor Groove Binding Ligands

The enzyme telomerase synthesizes the G-rich DNA strands of the telomere and its activity is often associated with cancer. The telomerase may be therefore responsible for the ability of a cancer cell-to escape apoptosis. The G-rich DNA sequences often adopt tetra-stranded structure, known as the G-quadruplex DNA (G4-DNA). The stabilization of the telomeric DNA into the G4-DNA structures by small molecules has been the focus of many researchers for the design and development of new anticancer agents. The compounds which stabilize the G-quadruplex in the telomere inhibit the telomerase activity. Besides telomeres, the G4-DNA forming sequences are present in the genomic regions of biological significance including the transcriptional regulatory and promoter regions of several oncogenes. Inducing a G-quadruplex structure within the G-rich promoter sequences is a potential way of achieving selective gene regulation. Several G-quadruplex stabilizing ligands are known. Minor groove binding ligands (MGBLs) interact with the double-helical DNA through the minor grooves sequence-specifically and interfere with several DNA associated processes. These MGBLs when suitably modified switch their preference sometimes from the duplex DNA to G4-DNA and stabilize the G4-DNA as well. Herein, we focus on the recent advances in understanding the G-quadruplex structures, particularly made by the human telomeric ends, and review the results of various investigations of the interaction of designed organic ligands with the G-quadruplex DNA while highlighting the importance of MGBL-G-quadruplex interactions.

Performance evaluation of neural network algorithms for multisensor data fusion in an airborne track while scan radar

This paper deals with the solution to the problem of multisensor data fusion for a single target scenario as detected by an airborne track-while-scan radar. The details of a neural network implementation, various training algorithms based on standard backpropagation, and the results of training and testing the neural network are presented. The promising capabilities of RPROP algorithm for multisensor data fusion for various parameters are shown in comparison to other adaptive techniques

A scalable network port scan detection system on FPGA

With ever increasing network speed, scalable and reliable detection of network port scans has become a major challenge. In this paper, we present a scalable and flexible architecture and a novel algorithm, to detect and block port scans in real time. The proposed architecture detects fast scanners as well as stealth scanners having large inter-probe periods. FPGA implementation of the proposed system gives an average throughput of 2 Gbps with a system clock frequency of 100 MHz on Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGA. Experimental results on real network trace show the effectiveness of the proposed system in detecting and blocking network scans with very low false positives and false negatives.

Molecular Design of Synthetic Benzimidazoles for the Switchover of the Duplex to G-quadruplex DNA Recognition

Benzimidazole derivatives are well known for their antibacterial, antiviral, anticonvulsant, antihistaminic, anthelmintic and antidepressant activities. Benzimidazole's unique base-selective DNA recognition property has been studied widely. However, most of the early benzimidazole systems have been targeted towards the binding of duplex DNA. Here we have shown the evolution and progress of the design and synthesis of new benzimidazole systems towards selective recognition of the double-stranded DNA first. Then in order to achieve selective recognition of the G-quadruplex DNA and utilize their potential as future anti-cancer drug candidates, we have demonstrated their selective cytotoxicity towards the cancer cells and potent telomerase inhibition ability.

DMT of parallel-path and layered networks under the half-duplex constraint

In this paper, we study the diversity-multiplexing-gain tradeoff (DMT) of wireless relay networks under the half-duplex constraint. It is often unclear what penalty if any, is imposed by the half-duplex constraint on the DMT of such networks. We study two classes of networks; the first class, called KPP(I) networks, is the class of networks with the relays organized in K parallel paths between the source and the destination. While we assume that there is no direct source-destination path, the K relaying paths can interfere with each other. The second class, termed as layered networks, is comprised of relays organized in layers, where links exist only between adjacent layers. We present a communication scheme based on static schedules and amplify-and-forward relaying for these networks. We also show that for KPP(I) networks with K >= 3, the proposed schemes can achieve full-duplex DMT performance, thus demonstrating that there is no performance hit on the DMT due to the half-duplex constraint. We also show that, for layered networks, a linear DMT of d(max)(1 - r)(+) between the maximum diversity d(max) and the maximum MG, r(max) = 1 is achievable. We adapt existing DMT optimal coding schemes to these networks, thus specifying the end-to-end communication strategy explicitly.

On Averaging Multiview Relations for 3D Scan Registration

In this paper, we present an extension of the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm that simultaneously registers multiple 3D scans. While ICP fails to utilize the multiview constraints available, our method exploits the information redundancy in a set of 3D scans by using the averaging of relative motions. This averaging method utilizes the Lie group structure of motions, resulting in a 3D registration method that is both efficient and accurate. In addition, we present two variants of our approach, i.e., a method that solves for multiview 3D registration while obeying causality and a transitive correspondence variant that efficiently solves the correspondence problem across multiple scans. We present experimental results to characterize our method and explain its behavior as well as those of some other multiview registration methods in the literature. We establish the superior accuracy of our method in comparison to these multiview methods with registration results on a set of well-known real datasets of 3D scans.

Autocatalytic duplex Ni-P/Ni-W-P coatings on AZ31B magnesium alloy

Autocatalytic duplex Ni-P/Ni-W-P coatings were deposited on AZ31B magnesium alloy using stabilizer free nickel carbonate bath. Some of the coated specimens were passivated in chromate solution with and without heat treatment. Plain Ni-P coatings were also prepared for comparison. Coatings were characterized for their surface morphology, composition and corrosion resistance. Energy dispersive analysis of X-ray (EDX) showed that the phosphorous content in the Ni-P coating is 6 wt.% and for Ni-W-P it reduced to 3 wt.% due to the codeposition of tungsten in the Ni-P coating. Marginal increase in P and W contents was observed on passivated coupons along with Cr (0.18 wt.%) and O (2.8 wt.%) contents. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) examination of these coating surfaces exhibited the nodular morphology. Chromate passivated surfaces showed the presence of uniformly distributed bright Ni particles along with nodules. Potenfiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) studies were carried out in deaerated 0.15 M NaCI solution to find out the corrosion resistance of the coatings. Among the coatings developed, duplex-heat treated-passivated (duplex-HIP) coatings showed lower corrosion current density (i(corr)) and higher polarization resistance (R-p) indicating the improved corrosion resistance. The charge transfer resistance (R-ct) value obtained for the duplex-HIP was about 170 times higher compared to that for Ni P coating. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

On the Utility of Microscopy and C-Scan Techniques in the Study of Defects Arising From Resin Infusion Process and a Study on the Influence of Voids on the Impact Behavior of CFRP Composites

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic composites were fabricated through vacuum resin infusion technology by adopting two different processing conditions, viz., vacuum only in the first and vacuum plus external pressure in the next, in order to generate two levels of void-bearing samples. They were relatively graded as higher and lower void-bearing ones, respectively. Microscopy and C-scan techniques were utilized to describe the presence of voids arising from the two different processing parameters. Further, to determine the influence of voids on impact behavior, the fabricated +45 degrees/90 degrees/-45 degrees composite samples were subjected to low velocity impacts. The tests show impact properties like peak load and energy to peak load registering higher values for the lower void-bearing case where as the total energy, energy for propagation and ductility indexes were higher for the higher void-bearing ones. Fractographic analysis showed that higher void-bearing samples display lower number of separation of layers in the laminate. These and other results are described and discussed in this report.