Identification and characterization of insect-specific proteins by genome data analysis

Background: Insects constitute the vast majority of known species with their importance including biodiversity, agricultural, and human health concerns. It is likely that the successful adaptation of the Insecta clade depends on specific components in its

Relaxation of yeast mitochondrial functions after whole-genome duplication

Mitochondria are essential for cellular energy production in most eukaryotic organisms. However, when glucose is abundant, yeast species that underwent whole-genome duplication (WGD) mostly conduct fermentation even under aerobic conditions, and most can

Electronic and magnetic properties of Ti(2)O(3), Cr(2)O(3), and Fe(2)O(3) calculated by the screened exchange hybrid density functional.

The electronic and magnetic properties of the transition metal sesqui-oxides Cr(2)O(3), Ti(2)O(3), and Fe(2)O(3) have been calculated using the screened exchange (sX) hybrid density functional. This functional is found to give a band structure, bandgap, and magnetic moment in better agreement with experiment than the local density approximation (LDA) or the LDA+U methods. Ti(2)O(3) is found to be a spin-paired insulator with a bandgap of 0.22 eV in the Ti d orbitals. Cr(2)O(3) in its anti-ferromagnetic phase is an intermediate charge transfer Mott-Hubbard insulator with an indirect bandgap of 3.31 eV. Fe(2)O(3), with anti-ferromagnetic order, is found to be a wide bandgap charge transfer semiconductor with a 2.41 eV gap. Interestingly sX outperforms the HSE functional for the bandgaps of these oxides.

Automated 3D Vision Tracking for Project Control Support

On-site tracking in open construction sites is often difficult because of the large amounts of items that are present and need to be tracked. Additionally, the amounts of occlusions/obstructions present create a highly complex tracking environment. Existing tracking methods are based mainly on Radio Frequency technologies, including Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Bluetooth and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi, Ultra-Wideband, etc). These methods require considerable amounts of pre-processing time since they need to manually deploy tags and keep record of the items they are placed on. In construction sites with numerous entities, tags installation, maintenance and decommissioning become an issue since it increases the cost and time needed to implement these tracking methods. This paper presents a novel method for open site tracking with construction cameras based on machine vision. According to this method, video feed is collected from on site video cameras, and the user selects the entity he wishes to track. The entity is tracked in each video using 2D vision tracking. Epipolar geometry is then used to calculate the depth of the marked area to provide the 3D location of the entity. This method addresses the limitations of radio frequency methods by being unobtrusive and using inexpensive, and easy to deploy equipment. The method has been implemented in a C++ prototype and preliminary results indicate its effectiveness

Calculation of point defects in rutile TiO 2 by the screened-exchange hybrid functional

The formation energies of the oxygen vacancy and titanium interstitial in rutile TiO 2 were calculated by the screened-exchange (sX) hybrid density functional method, which gives a band gap of 3.1 eV, close to the experimental value. The oxygen vacancy gives rise to a gap state lying 0.7 eV below the conduction band edge, whose charge density is localized around the two of three Ti atoms next to the vacancy. The Ti interstitial (Ti int) generates four defect states in the gap, whose unpaired electrons lie on the interstitial and the adjacent Ti 3d orbitals. The formation energy for the neutral oxygen vacancy is 1.9 eV for the O-poor chemical potential. The neutral Ti interstitial has a lower formation energy than the O vacancy under O-poor conditions. This indicates that both the O vacancy and Ti int are relevant for oxygen deficiency in rutile TiO 2 but the O vacancy will dominate under O-rich conditions. This resolves questions about defect localization and defect predominance in the literature. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Electron spin resonance signature of the oxygen vacancy in HfO 2

The oxygen vacancy has been inferred to be the critical defect in HfO 2, responsible for charge trapping, gate threshold voltage instability, and Fermi level pinning for high work function gates, but it has never been conclusively identified. Here, the electron spin resonance g tensor parameters of the oxygen vacancy are calculated, using methods that do not over-estimate the delocalization of the defect wave function, to be g xx = 1.918, g yy = 1.926, g zz = 1.944, and are consistent with an observed spectrum. The defect undergoes a symmetry lowering polaron distortion to be localized mainly on a single adjacent Hf ion. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

阳光紫外辐射对褐藻羊栖菜生长和光合作用的影响

为探讨经济褐藻羊栖菜对阳光紫外辐射变化的响应,我们在全波段阳光辐射(280—700nm),去除UV-B辐射(320—700nm)以及光合有效辐射PAR(400—700nm)3种辐射条件下对其进行培养,测定了其光合作用与生长的变化。羊栖菜的生长是通过每两天测量一次藻体的湿重来测定的,光合放氧是用Clark型氧电极测定的,为了测定藻体叶绿素a和紫外吸收物质的含量,从250nm到750nm对羊栖菜的甲醇提取液进行扫描,叶绿素a的浓度用Porra的公式计算,紫外吸收物质的计算是根据Dunlap的方法先计算紫外吸收

Quantification of the effects of antibodies on the extra- and intracellular dynamics of Salmonella enterica.

Antibodies are known to be essential in controlling Salmonella infection, but their exact role remains elusive. We recently developed an in vitro model to investigate the relative efficiency of four different human immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclasses in modulating the interaction of the bacteria with human phagocytes. Our results indicated that different IgG subclasses affect the efficacy of Salmonella uptake by human phagocytes. In this study, we aim to quantify the effects of IgG on intracellular dynamics of infection by combining distributions of bacterial numbers per phagocyte observed by fluorescence microscopy with a mathematical model that simulates the in vitro dynamics. We then use maximum likelihood to estimate the model parameters and compare them across IgG subclasses. The analysis reveals heterogeneity in the division rates of the bacteria, strongly suggesting that a subpopulation of intracellular Salmonella, while visible under the microscope, is not dividing. Clear differences in the observed distributions among the four IgG subclasses are best explained by variations in phagocytosis and intracellular dynamics. We propose and compare potential factors affecting the replication and death of bacteria within phagocytes, and we discuss these results in the light of recent findings on dormancy of Salmonella.

Intrinsic state lifetimes in Pd103 and Cd106,107

The mean-lifetimes, τ, of various medium-spin excited states in Pd103 and Cd106,107 have been deduced using the Recoil Distance Doppler Shift technique and the Differential Decay Curve Method. In Cd106, the mean-lifetimes of the Iπ=12+ state at Ex=5418 keV and the Iπ=11- state at Ex=4324 keV have been deduced as 11.4(17)ps and 8.2(7)ps, respectively. The associated β2 deformation within the axially-symmetric deformed rotor model for these states are 0.14(1) and 0.14(1), respectively. The β2 deformation of 0.14(1) for the Iπ=12+ state in Cd106 compares with a predicted β2 value from total Routhian surface (TRS) calculations of 0.17. In addition, the mean-lifetimes of the yrast Iπ=152- states in Pd103 (at Ex=1262 keV) and Cd107 (at Ex=1360 keV) have been deduced to be 31.2(44)ps and 31.4(17)ps, respectively, corresponding to β2 values of 0.16(1) and 0.12(1) assuming axial symmetry. Agreement with TRS calculations are good for Pd103 but deviate for that predicted for Cd107. © 2007 The American Physical Society.

Lifetime determination of excited states in106Cd

Two separate experiments using the Differential Decay Curve Method have been performed to extract mean lifetimes of excited states in 106Cd. The medium-spin states of interest were populated by the 98Mo( 12C, 4n) 106Cd reaction performed at the Wright Nuclear Structure Lab., Yale University. From this experiment, two isomeric state mean lifetimes have been deduced. The low-lying states were populated by the 96Mo(13C, 3n)106Cd reaction performed at the Institut für Kernphysik, Universität zu Köln. The mean lifetime of the Iπ = 21 + state was deduced, tentatively, as 16.4(9) ps. This value differs from the previously accepted literature value from Coulomb excitation of 10.43(9) ps.

Recoil distance method lifetime measurements in 107Cd and 103Pd

Preliminary lifetime values have been measured for a number of near-yrast states in the odd-A transitional nuclei 107Cd and 103Pd. The reaction used to populate the nuclei of interest was 98Mo( 12C,3nxα)107Cd, 103Pd, with the beam delivered by the tandem accelerator of the Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory at an incident beam energy of 60 MeV. Our experiment was aimed at the investigation of collective excitations built on the unnatural parity, ν h11/2 orbital, specifically by measuring the B(E2) values of decays from the excited levels built on this intrinsic structure, using the Doppler Recoil Distance Method. We report lifetimes and associated transition probabilities for decays from the 15/2- and the 19/2- states in 107Cd and the first measurement of the 15/2- state in 103Pd. These results suggest that neither a simple rotational or vibrational interpretation is sufficient to explain the observed structures. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.

RDM lifetime measurements in 107Cd

Lifetimes for decays linking near-yrast states in 107Cd have been measured using the recoil distance method (RDM). The nucleus of interest was populated via the 98Mo(12C,3n)107Cd fusion-evaporation reaction at an incident beam energy of 60 MeV. From the measured lifetimes, transition probabilities have been deduced and compared with the theoretical B(E2) values for limiting cases of harmonic vibrational and axially deformed rotational systems. Our initial results suggest a rotor-like behaviour for the structure based on the unnatural-parity, h11/2 orbital in 107Cd, providing further evidence for the role of this 'shape-polarizing' orbital in stabilizing the nuclear deformation in the A ∼ 100 transitional region. © 2005 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Power absorption invariance for brownian spring forcing

In [5] it was shown that, for a standard quarter-car vehicle model and a road disturbance whose velocity profile is white noise of intensity A, the mean power dissipated in the suspension is equal to kA/2 where k is the tyre vertical stiffness. It is remarkable that the power dissipation turns out to be independent of all masses and suspension parameters. The proof in [5] makes use of a spectral formulation of white noise and is specific to linear systems. This paper casts the result in a more general form and shows that it follows from a simple application of Ito calculus. © 2012 IEEE.