Sample records for accompanies robust resistance

  1. Rapid development of systemic insulin resistance with overeating is not accompanied by robust changes in skeletal muscle glucose and lipid metabolism

    PubMed Central

    Cornford, Andrea S.; Hinko, Alexander; Nelson, Rachael K.; Barkan, Ariel L.; Horowitz, Jeffrey F.

    2014-01-01

    Prolonged overeating and the resultant weight gain are clearly linked with the development of insulin resistance and other cardiometabolic abnormalities, but adaptations that occur after relatively short periods of overeating are not completely understood. The purpose of this study was to characterize metabolic adaptations that may accompany the development of insulin resistance after 2 weeks of overeating. Healthy, nonobese subjects (n = 9) were admitted to the hospital for 2 weeks, during which time they ate ~4000 kcals·day−1 (70 kcal·kg−1 fat free mass·day−1). Insulin sensitivity was estimated during a meal tolerance test, and a muscle biopsy was obtained to assess muscle lipid accumulation and protein markers associated with insulin resistance, inflammation, and the regulation of lipid metabolism. Whole-body insulin sensitivity declined markedly after 2 weeks of overeating (Matsuda composite index: 8.3 ± 1.3 vs. 4.6 ± 0.7, p < 0.05). However, muscle markers of insulin resistance and inflammation (i.e., phosphorylation of IRS-1-Ser312, Akt-Ser473, and c-Jun N-terminal kinase) were not altered by overeating. Intramyocellular lipids tended to increase after 2 weeks of overeating (triacylglyceride: 7.6 ± 1.6 vs. 10.0 ± 1.8 nmol·mg−1 wet weight; diacylglyceride: 104 ± 10 vs. 142 ± 23 pmol·mg−1 wet weight) but these changes did not reach statistical significance. Overeating induced a 2-fold increase in 24-h insulin response (area under the curve (AUC); p < 0.05), with a resultant ~35% reduction in 24-h plasma fatty acid AUC (p < 0.05). This chronic reduction in circulating fatty acids may help explain the lack of a robust increase in muscle lipid accumulation. In summary, our findings suggest alterations in skeletal muscle metabolism may not contribute meaningfully to the marked whole-body insulin resistance observed after 2 weeks of overeating. PMID:23668758

  2. Rapid development of systemic insulin resistance with overeating is not accompanied by robust changes in skeletal muscle glucose and lipid metabolism.

    PubMed

    Cornford, Andrea S; Hinko, Alexander; Nelson, Rachael K; Barkan, Ariel L; Horowitz, Jeffrey F

    2013-05-01

    Prolonged overeating and the resultant weight gain are clearly linked with the development of insulin resistance and other cardiometabolic abnormalities, but adaptations that occur after relatively short periods of overeating are not completely understood. The purpose of this study was to characterize metabolic adaptations that may accompany the development of insulin resistance after 2 weeks of overeating. Healthy, nonobese subjects (n = 9) were admitted to the hospital for 2 weeks, during which time they ate ∼4000 kcals·day(-1) (70 kcal·kg(-1) fat free mass·day(-1)). Insulin sensitivity was estimated during a meal tolerance test, and a muscle biopsy was obtained to assess muscle lipid accumulation and protein markers associated with insulin resistance, inflammation, and the regulation of lipid metabolism. Whole-body insulin sensitivity declined markedly after 2 weeks of overeating (Matsuda composite index: 8.3 ± 1.3 vs. 4.6 ± 0.7, p < 0.05). However, muscle markers of insulin resistance and inflammation (i.e., phosphorylation of IRS-1-Ser(312), Akt-Ser(473), and c-Jun N-terminal kinase) were not altered by overeating. Intramyocellular lipids tended to increase after 2 weeks of overeating (triacylglyceride: 7.6 ± 1.6 vs. 10.0 ± 1.8 nmol·mg(-1) wet weight; diacylglyceride: 104 ± 10 vs. 142 ± 23 pmol·mg(-1) wet weight) but these changes did not reach statistical significance. Overeating induced a 2-fold increase in 24-h insulin response (area under the curve (AUC); p < 0.05), with a resultant ∼35% reduction in 24-h plasma fatty acid AUC (p < 0.05). This chronic reduction in circulating fatty acids may help explain the lack of a robust increase in muscle lipid accumulation. In summary, our findings suggest alterations in skeletal muscle metabolism may not contribute meaningfully to the marked whole-body insulin resistance observed after 2 weeks of overeating.

  3. All-organic superhydrophobic coatings with mechanochemical robustness and liquid impalement resistance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peng, Chaoyi; Chen, Zhuyang; Tiwari, Manish K.

    2018-03-01

    Superhydrophobicity is a remarkable evolutionary adaption manifested by several natural surfaces. Artificial superhydrophobic coatings with good mechanical robustness, substrate adhesion and chemical robustness have been achieved separately. However, a simultaneous demonstration of these features along with resistance to liquid impalement via high-speed drop/jet impact is challenging. Here, we describe all-organic, flexible superhydrophobic nanocomposite coatings that demonstrate strong mechanical robustness under cyclic tape peels and Taber abrasion, sustain exposure to highly corrosive media, namely aqua regia and sodium hydroxide solutions, and can be applied to surfaces through scalable techniques such as spraying and brushing. In addition, the mechanical flexibility of our coatings enables impalement resistance to high-speed drops and turbulent jets at least up to 35 m s-1 and a Weber number of 43,000. With multifaceted robustness and scalability, these coatings should find potential usage in harsh chemical engineering as well as infrastructure, transport vehicles and communication equipment.

  4. Addressing Antibiotic Resistance Requires Robust International Accountability Mechanisms.

    PubMed

    Hoffman, Steven J; Ottersen, Trygve

    2015-01-01

    A proposed international agreement on antibiotic resistance will depend on robust accountability mechanisms for real-world impact. This article examines the central aspects of accountability relationships in international agreements and lays out ways to strengthen them. We provide a menu of accountability mechanisms that facilitate transparency, oversight, complaint, and enforcement, describe how these mechanisms can promote compliance, and identify key considerations for a proposed international agreement on antibiotic resistance. These insights can be useful for bringing about the revolutionary changes that new international agreements aspire to achieve. © 2015 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

  5. Gonorrhea: Data on antibiotic resistance and accompanying infections at the University Hospital Dresden over a 10-year time period.

    PubMed

    Abraham, Susanne; Poehlmann, Christoph; Spornraft-Ragaller, Petra

    2013-03-01

    Over the last years, growing resistance of gonorrhea to quinolones has emerged worldwide. Currently, cases with resistance to oral and parenteral third-generation cephalosporins are increasingly reported. Because gonorrhea is not a notifiable infection in Germany, data on epidemiology and antimicrobial surveillance of gonorrhea are scarce. We present the results of N. gonorrhoea testing at the University Hospital Dresden over the course of ten years. The results of cultural and nucleic acid amplification testing of gonorrhea and accompanying infections of 1,850 smears between 2001 and 2010 were analyzed retrospectively. Among 181 patients (mean age 30.4 years) 159 had positive PCR analyses for gonorrhea and 50 positive cultures of Neisseria gonorrhoea. The rate of ciprofloxacin resistance was high (in 46% of all isolates), primarily in men. Resistance to cefotaxime and ceftriaxone could not be detected so far. In 40% of the cases at least one accompanying urogenital infection occurred, predominantly with Chlamydia trachomatis. Similar to other regions of Germany, a high percentage of resistance to quinolones was found in gonorrhea, but not to cephalosporins. Additionally, accompanying infections were frequent and warrant screening. In the light of recent cases of resistance to cephalosporins currently emerging in Europe, cultural diagnosis of gonorrhea should definitely be intensified by all means. The results should be integrated into a surveillance system. © The Authors | Journal compilation © Blackwell Verlag GmbH, Berlin.

  6. A Secure and Robust Approach to Software Tamper Resistance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ghosh, Sudeep; Hiser, Jason D.; Davidson, Jack W.

    Software tamper-resistance mechanisms have increasingly assumed significance as a technique to prevent unintended uses of software. Closely related to anti-tampering techniques are obfuscation techniques, which make code difficult to understand or analyze and therefore, challenging to modify meaningfully. This paper describes a secure and robust approach to software tamper resistance and obfuscation using process-level virtualization. The proposed techniques involve novel uses of software check summing guards and encryption to protect an application. In particular, a virtual machine (VM) is assembled with the application at software build time such that the application cannot run without the VM. The VM provides just-in-time decryption of the program and dynamism for the application's code. The application's code is used to protect the VM to ensure a level of circular protection. Finally, to prevent the attacker from obtaining an analyzable snapshot of the code, the VM periodically discards all decrypted code. We describe a prototype implementation of these techniques and evaluate the run-time performance of applications using our system. We also discuss how our system provides stronger protection against tampering attacks than previously described tamper-resistance approaches.

  7. Robust phase-shifting interferometry resistant to multiple disturbances

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Qian; Yue, Xiaobin; Li, Lulu; Zhang, Hui; He, Jianguo

    2018-04-01

    Phase-shifting interferometry (PSI) is sensitive to many disturbances, including the environmental vibration, laser instability, phase-shifting error and camera nonlinearity. A robust PSI (RPSI) based on the temporal spectrum analysis is proposed to suppress the effects of these common disturbances. RPSI retrieves wavefront phase from the temporal Fourier spectrum peak, which is identified by detecting the modulus of spectrum, and a referencing method is presented to improve the phase extracting accuracy. Simulations demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of RPSI. Experimental results indicate that RPSI is resistant to common disturbances in implementing PSI and achieves accuracy better than 0.03 rad in the disturbed environment. RPSI relaxes requirements on the hardware, environment and operator, and provides an easy-to-use design of an interferometer.

  8. Protocols for Robust Herbicide Resistance Testing in Different Weed Species.

    PubMed

    Panozzo, Silvia; Scarabel, Laura; Collavo, Alberto; Sattin, Maurizio

    2015-07-02

    Robust protocols to test putative herbicide resistant weed populations at whole plant level are essential to confirm the resistance status. The presented protocols, based on whole-plant bioassays performed in a greenhouse, can be readily adapted to a wide range of weed species and herbicides through appropriate variants. Seed samples from plants that survived a field herbicide treatment are collected and stored dry at low temperature until used. Germination methods differ according to weed species and seed dormancy type. Seedlings at similar growth stage are transplanted and maintained in the greenhouse under appropriate conditions until plants have reached the right growth stage for herbicide treatment. Accuracy is required to prepare the herbicide solution to avoid unverifiable mistakes. Other critical steps such as the application volume and spray speed are also evaluated. The advantages of this protocol, compared to others based on whole plant bioassays using one herbicide dose, are related to the higher reliability and the possibility of inferring the resistance level. Quicker and less expensive in vivo or in vitro diagnostic screening tests have been proposed (Petri dish bioassays, spectrophotometric tests), but they provide only qualitative information and their widespread use is hindered by the laborious set-up that some species may require. For routine resistance testing, the proposed whole plant bioassay can be applied at only one herbicide dose, so reducing the costs.

  9. Robust and underwater superoleophobic coating with excellent corrosion and biofouling resistance in harsh environments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Mingji; Liu, Yong; Zhang, Yuhong; Wang, Zhiguo; Li, Yulin; He, Peixin

    2018-04-01

    Underwater superoleophobic surfaces are based on the surface with micro-/nanoscale roughness and hydration layer. But the self-cleaning surfaces are usually mechanically weak and will lose their underwater superoleophobicity when the surfaces are corroded or damaged. In this paper, to overcome these problems, the robust underwater superoleophobic coating (HN/ER-coating) has been fabricated successfully through MPS (methacryloxy propyl trimethoxyl silane)-SiO2/PNIPAM (N-isopropylacryamide) hybrid nanoparticles and epoxy resin (ER) via a simple solution-casting method. The SiO2/PNIPAM hybrid nanoparticles can enhance multiscale roughness and excellent abrasion-resistant property, and the epoxy resin can be used as an interlayer between hybrid nanoparticles and substrates to promote the robustness and corrosion resistance of the coating. The obtained coatings have excellent underwater superoleophobicity, and exhibit highly stability in harsh environments (including acid-base, strong ionic strength, mechanical abrasion). Moreover, this coating can provide protective effect on the substrate in corrosive solution, and may also resist bacterial attachment and subsequent biofilm formation because of the presence of high density PNIPAM polymers. Herein, the developed underwater superoleophobic coating can be applied as an effective platform for the applications in underwater instruments, underwater oil transport, marine oil platform and ships.

  10. A Unifying Mathematical Framework for Genetic Robustness, Environmental Robustness, Network Robustness and their Tradeoff on Phenotype Robustness in Biological Networks Part II: Ecological Networks

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Bor-Sen; Lin, Ying-Po

    2013-01-01

    In ecological networks, network robustness should be large enough to confer intrinsic robustness for tolerating intrinsic parameter fluctuations, as well as environmental robustness for resisting environmental disturbances, so that the phenotype stability of ecological networks can be maintained, thus guaranteeing phenotype robustness. However, it is difficult to analyze the network robustness of ecological systems because they are complex nonlinear partial differential stochastic systems. This paper develops a unifying mathematical framework for investigating the principles of both robust stabilization and environmental disturbance sensitivity in ecological networks. We found that the phenotype robustness criterion for ecological networks is that if intrinsic robustness + environmental robustness ≦ network robustness, then the phenotype robustness can be maintained in spite of intrinsic parameter fluctuations and environmental disturbances. These results in robust ecological networks are similar to that in robust gene regulatory networks and evolutionary networks even they have different spatial-time scales. PMID:23515112

  11. Topological robustness analysis of protein interaction networks reveals key targets for overcoming chemotherapy resistance in glioma

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Azevedo, Hátylas; Moreira-Filho, Carlos Alberto

    2015-11-01

    Biological networks display high robustness against random failures but are vulnerable to targeted attacks on central nodes. Thus, network topology analysis represents a powerful tool for investigating network susceptibility against targeted node removal. Here, we built protein interaction networks associated with chemoresistance to temozolomide, an alkylating agent used in glioma therapy, and analyzed their modular structure and robustness against intentional attack. These networks showed functional modules related to DNA repair, immunity, apoptosis, cell stress, proliferation and migration. Subsequently, network vulnerability was assessed by means of centrality-based attacks based on the removal of node fractions in descending orders of degree, betweenness, or the product of degree and betweenness. This analysis revealed that removing nodes with high degree and high betweenness was more effective in altering networks’ robustness parameters, suggesting that their corresponding proteins may be particularly relevant to target temozolomide resistance. In silico data was used for validation and confirmed that central nodes are more relevant for altering proliferation rates in temozolomide-resistant glioma cell lines and for predicting survival in glioma patients. Altogether, these results demonstrate how the analysis of network vulnerability to topological attack facilitates target prioritization for overcoming cancer chemoresistance.

  12. A Unifying Mathematical Framework for Genetic Robustness, Environmental Robustness, Network Robustness and their Trade-off on Phenotype Robustness in Biological Networks Part I: Gene Regulatory Networks in Systems and Evolutionary Biology

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Bor-Sen; Lin, Ying-Po

    2013-01-01

    Robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation are ubiquitous systematic properties observed in biological systems at different levels. The underlying principles for robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation are universal to both complex biological systems and sophisticated engineering systems. In many biological networks, network robustness should be enough to confer intrinsic robustness in order to tolerate intrinsic parameter fluctuations, genetic robustness for buffering genetic variations, and environmental robustness for resisting environmental disturbances. With this, the phenotypic stability of biological network can be maintained, thus guaranteeing phenotype robustness. This paper presents a survey on biological systems and then develops a unifying mathematical framework for investigating the principles of both robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation in systems and evolutionary biology. Further, from the unifying mathematical framework, it was discovered that the phenotype robustness criterion for biological networks at different levels relies upon intrinsic robustness + genetic robustness + environmental robustness ≦ network robustness. When this is true, the phenotype robustness can be maintained in spite of intrinsic parameter fluctuations, genetic variations, and environmental disturbances. Therefore, the trade-offs between intrinsic robustness, genetic robustness, environmental robustness, and network robustness in systems and evolutionary biology can also be investigated through their corresponding phenotype robustness criterion from the systematic point of view. PMID:23515240

  13. A Unifying Mathematical Framework for Genetic Robustness, Environmental Robustness, Network Robustness and their Trade-off on Phenotype Robustness in Biological Networks Part I: Gene Regulatory Networks in Systems and Evolutionary Biology.

    PubMed

    Chen, Bor-Sen; Lin, Ying-Po

    2013-01-01

    Robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation are ubiquitous systematic properties observed in biological systems at different levels. The underlying principles for robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation are universal to both complex biological systems and sophisticated engineering systems. In many biological networks, network robustness should be enough to confer intrinsic robustness in order to tolerate intrinsic parameter fluctuations, genetic robustness for buffering genetic variations, and environmental robustness for resisting environmental disturbances. With this, the phenotypic stability of biological network can be maintained, thus guaranteeing phenotype robustness. This paper presents a survey on biological systems and then develops a unifying mathematical framework for investigating the principles of both robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation in systems and evolutionary biology. Further, from the unifying mathematical framework, it was discovered that the phenotype robustness criterion for biological networks at different levels relies upon intrinsic robustness + genetic robustness + environmental robustness ≦ network robustness. When this is true, the phenotype robustness can be maintained in spite of intrinsic parameter fluctuations, genetic variations, and environmental disturbances. Therefore, the trade-offs between intrinsic robustness, genetic robustness, environmental robustness, and network robustness in systems and evolutionary biology can also be investigated through their corresponding phenotype robustness criterion from the systematic point of view.

  14. A Unifying Mathematical Framework for Genetic Robustness, Environmental Robustness, Network Robustness and their Trade-offs on Phenotype Robustness in Biological Networks. Part III: Synthetic Gene Networks in Synthetic Biology

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Bor-Sen; Lin, Ying-Po

    2013-01-01

    Robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation are ubiquitous systematic properties that are observed in biological systems at many different levels. The underlying principles for robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation are universal to both complex biological systems and sophisticated engineering systems. In many biological networks, network robustness should be large enough to confer: intrinsic robustness for tolerating intrinsic parameter fluctuations; genetic robustness for buffering genetic variations; and environmental robustness for resisting environmental disturbances. Network robustness is needed so phenotype stability of biological network can be maintained, guaranteeing phenotype robustness. Synthetic biology is foreseen to have important applications in biotechnology and medicine; it is expected to contribute significantly to a better understanding of functioning of complex biological systems. This paper presents a unifying mathematical framework for investigating the principles of both robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation for synthetic gene networks in synthetic biology. Further, from the unifying mathematical framework, we found that the phenotype robustness criterion for synthetic gene networks is the following: if intrinsic robustness + genetic robustness + environmental robustness ≦ network robustness, then the phenotype robustness can be maintained in spite of intrinsic parameter fluctuations, genetic variations, and environmental disturbances. Therefore, the trade-offs between intrinsic robustness, genetic robustness, environmental robustness, and network robustness in synthetic biology can also be investigated through corresponding phenotype robustness criteria from the systematic point of view. Finally, a robust synthetic design that involves network evolution algorithms with desired behavior under intrinsic parameter fluctuations, genetic variations, and environmental

  15. A Unifying Mathematical Framework for Genetic Robustness, Environmental Robustness, Network Robustness and their Trade-offs on Phenotype Robustness in Biological Networks. Part III: Synthetic Gene Networks in Synthetic Biology.

    PubMed

    Chen, Bor-Sen; Lin, Ying-Po

    2013-01-01

    Robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation are ubiquitous systematic properties that are observed in biological systems at many different levels. The underlying principles for robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation are universal to both complex biological systems and sophisticated engineering systems. In many biological networks, network robustness should be large enough to confer: intrinsic robustness for tolerating intrinsic parameter fluctuations; genetic robustness for buffering genetic variations; and environmental robustness for resisting environmental disturbances. Network robustness is needed so phenotype stability of biological network can be maintained, guaranteeing phenotype robustness. Synthetic biology is foreseen to have important applications in biotechnology and medicine; it is expected to contribute significantly to a better understanding of functioning of complex biological systems. This paper presents a unifying mathematical framework for investigating the principles of both robust stabilization and environmental disturbance attenuation for synthetic gene networks in synthetic biology. Further, from the unifying mathematical framework, we found that the phenotype robustness criterion for synthetic gene networks is the following: if intrinsic robustness + genetic robustness + environmental robustness ≦ network robustness, then the phenotype robustness can be maintained in spite of intrinsic parameter fluctuations, genetic variations, and environmental disturbances. Therefore, the trade-offs between intrinsic robustness, genetic robustness, environmental robustness, and network robustness in synthetic biology can also be investigated through corresponding phenotype robustness criteria from the systematic point of view. Finally, a robust synthetic design that involves network evolution algorithms with desired behavior under intrinsic parameter fluctuations, genetic variations, and environmental

  16. Robust zero resistance in a superconducting high-entropy alloy at pressures up to 190 GPa

    PubMed Central

    Guo, Jing; Wang, Honghong; von Rohr, Fabian; Wang, Zhe; Cai, Shu; Zhou, Yazhou; Yang, Ke; Li, Aiguo; Jiang, Sheng; Wu, Qi; Cava, Robert J.; Sun, Liling

    2017-01-01

    We report the observation of extraordinarily robust zero-resistance superconductivity in the pressurized (TaNb)0.67(HfZrTi)0.33 high-entropy alloy––a material with a body-centered-cubic crystal structure made from five randomly distributed transition-metal elements. The transition to superconductivity (TC) increases from an initial temperature of 7.7 K at ambient pressure to 10 K at ∼60 GPa, and then slowly decreases to 9 K by 190.6 GPa, a pressure that falls within that of the outer core of the earth. We infer that the continuous existence of the zero-resistance superconductivity from 1 atm up to such a high pressure requires a special combination of electronic and mechanical characteristics. This high-entropy alloy superconductor thus may have a bright future for applications under extreme conditions, and also poses a challenge for understanding the underlying quantum physics. PMID:29183981

  17. Robust zero resistance in a superconducting high-entropy alloy at pressures up to 190 GPa

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guo, Jing; Wang, Honghong; von Rohr, Fabian; Wang, Zhe; Cai, Shu; Zhou, Yazhou; Yang, Ke; Li, Aiguo; Jiang, Sheng; Wu, Qi; Cava, Robert J.; Sun, Liling

    2017-12-01

    We report the observation of extraordinarily robust zero-resistance superconductivity in the pressurized (TaNb)0.67(HfZrTi)0.33 high-entropy alloy--a material with a body-centered-cubic crystal structure made from five randomly distributed transition-metal elements. The transition to superconductivity (TC) increases from an initial temperature of 7.7 K at ambient pressure to 10 K at ˜60 GPa, and then slowly decreases to 9 K by 190.6 GPa, a pressure that falls within that of the outer core of the earth. We infer that the continuous existence of the zero-resistance superconductivity from 1 atm up to such a high pressure requires a special combination of electronic and mechanical characteristics. This high-entropy alloy superconductor thus may have a bright future for applications under extreme conditions, and also poses a challenge for understanding the underlying quantum physics.

  18. A Virus-Derived Stacked RNAi Construct Confers Robust Resistance to Cassava Brown Streak Disease

    PubMed Central

    Beyene, Getu; Chauhan, Raj Deepika; Ilyas, Muhammad; Wagaba, Henry; Fauquet, Claude M.; Miano, Douglas; Alicai, Titus; Taylor, Nigel J.

    2017-01-01

    Cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) threatens food and economic security for smallholder farmers throughout East and Central Africa, and poses a threat to cassava production in West Africa. CBSD is caused by two whitefly-transmitted virus species: Cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) and Ugandan cassava brown streak virus (UCBSV) (Genus: Ipomovirus, Family Potyviridae). Although varying levels of tolerance have been achieved through conventional breeding, to date, effective resistance to CBSD within East African cassava germplasm has not been identified. RNAi technology was utilized to integrate CBSD resistance into the Ugandan farmer-preferred cassava cultivar TME 204. Transgenic plant lines were generated expressing an inverted repeat construct (p5001) derived from coat-protein (CP) sequences of CBSV and UCBSV fused in tandem. Northern blots using probes specific for each CP sequence were performed to characterize 169 independent transgenic lines for accumulation of CP-derived siRNAs. Transgenic plant lines accumulating low, medium and high levels of siRNAs were bud graft challenged with the virulent CBSV Naliendele isolate alone or in combination with UCBSV. Resistance to CBSD in the greenhouse directly correlated to levels of CP-derived siRNAs as determined by visual assessment of leaf and storage root symptoms, and RT-PCR diagnosis for presence of the pathogens. Low expressing lines were found to be susceptible to CBSV and UCBSV, while medium to high accumulating plant lines were resistant to both virus species. Absence of detectable virus in the best performing p5001 transgenic lines was further confirmed by back-inoculation via sap or graft challenge to CBSD susceptible Nicotiana benthamiana and cassava cultivar 60444, respectively. Data presented shows robust resistance of transgenic p5001 TME 204 lines to both CBSV and UCBSV under greenhouse conditions. Levels of resistance correlated directly with levels of transgene derived siRNA expression such that the

  19. Efficient Robust Regression via Two-Stage Generalized Empirical Likelihood

    PubMed Central

    Bondell, Howard D.; Stefanski, Leonard A.

    2013-01-01

    Large- and finite-sample efficiency and resistance to outliers are the key goals of robust statistics. Although often not simultaneously attainable, we develop and study a linear regression estimator that comes close. Efficiency obtains from the estimator’s close connection to generalized empirical likelihood, and its favorable robustness properties are obtained by constraining the associated sum of (weighted) squared residuals. We prove maximum attainable finite-sample replacement breakdown point, and full asymptotic efficiency for normal errors. Simulation evidence shows that compared to existing robust regression estimators, the new estimator has relatively high efficiency for small sample sizes, and comparable outlier resistance. The estimator is further illustrated and compared to existing methods via application to a real data set with purported outliers. PMID:23976805

  20. Robustness and Radiation Resistance of the Pale Grass Blue Butterfly from Radioactively Contaminated Areas: A Possible Case of Adaptive Evolution.

    PubMed

    Nohara, Chiyo; Hiyama, Atsuki; Taira, Wataru; Otaki, Joji M

    2018-02-14

    The pale grass blue butterfly, Zizeeria maha, has been used to evaluate biological impacts of the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011. Here, we examined the possibility that butterflies have adapted to be robust in the contaminated environment. Larvae (n = 2432) were obtained from adult butterflies (n = 20) collected from 7 localities with various contamination levels in May 2012, corresponding to the 7th generation after the accident. When the larvae were reared on non-contaminated host plant leaves from Okinawa, the normality rates of natural exposure without artificial irradiation (as an indication of robustness) were high not only in the least contaminated locality but also in the most contaminated localities. The normality rates were similarly obtained when the larvae were reared on non-contaminated leaves with external irradiation or on contaminated leaves from Fukushima to deliver internal irradiation. The normality rate of natural exposure and that of external or internal exposure were correlated, suggesting that radiation resistance (or susceptibility) likely reflects general state of health. The normality rate of external or internal exposure was divided by the relative normality rate of natural exposure, being defined as the resistance value. The resistance value was the highest in the populations of heavily contaminated localities and was inversely correlated with the distance from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. These results suggest that the butterfly population might have adapted to the contaminated environment within approximately 1 year after the accident. The present study may partly explain the decrease in mortality and abnormality rates later observed in the contaminated areas. © The American Genetic Association 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  1. 19 CFR 148.4 - Accompanying articles.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Accompanying articles. 148.4 Section 148.4 Customs... (CONTINUED) PERSONAL DECLARATIONS AND EXEMPTIONS General Provisions § 148.4 Accompanying articles. (a) Generally. Articles shall be considered as accompanying a passenger or brought in by him if the articles...

  2. 19 CFR 148.4 - Accompanying articles.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Accompanying articles. 148.4 Section 148.4 Customs... (CONTINUED) PERSONAL DECLARATIONS AND EXEMPTIONS General Provisions § 148.4 Accompanying articles. (a) Generally. Articles shall be considered as accompanying a passenger or brought in by him if the articles...

  3. 19 CFR 148.4 - Accompanying articles.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Accompanying articles. 148.4 Section 148.4 Customs... (CONTINUED) PERSONAL DECLARATIONS AND EXEMPTIONS General Provisions § 148.4 Accompanying articles. (a) Generally. Articles shall be considered as accompanying a passenger or brought in by him if the articles...

  4. 19 CFR 148.4 - Accompanying articles.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Accompanying articles. 148.4 Section 148.4 Customs... (CONTINUED) PERSONAL DECLARATIONS AND EXEMPTIONS General Provisions § 148.4 Accompanying articles. (a) Generally. Articles shall be considered as accompanying a passenger or brought in by him if the articles...

  5. 19 CFR 148.4 - Accompanying articles.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Accompanying articles. 148.4 Section 148.4 Customs... (CONTINUED) PERSONAL DECLARATIONS AND EXEMPTIONS General Provisions § 148.4 Accompanying articles. (a) Generally. Articles shall be considered as accompanying a passenger or brought in by him if the articles...

  6. Livestock-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) Isolates of Swine Origin Form Robust Biofilms

    PubMed Central

    Nicholson, Tracy L.; Shore, Sarah M.; Smith, Tara C.; Fraena, Timothy S.

    2013-01-01

    Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization of livestock animals is common and prevalence rates for pigs have been reported to be as high as 49%. Mechanisms contributing to the persistent carriage and high prevalence rates of livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) strains in swine herds and production facilities have not been investigated. One explanation for the high prevalence of MRSA in swine herds is the ability of these organisms to exist as biofilms. In this report, the ability of swine LA-MRSA strains, including ST398, ST9, and ST5, to form biofilms was quantified and compared to several swine and human isolates. The contribution of known biofilm matrix components, polysaccharides, proteins and extracellular DNA (eDNA), was tested in all strains as well. All MRSA swine isolates formed robust biofilms similar to human clinical isolates. The addition of Dispersin B had no inhibitory effect on swine MRSA isolates when added at the initiation of biofilm growth or after pre-established mature biofilms formed. In contrast, the addition of proteinase K inhibited biofilm formation in all strains when added at the initiation of biofilm growth and was able to disperse pre-established mature biofilms. Of the LA-MRSA strains tested, we found ST398 strains to be the most sensitive to both inhibition of biofilm formation and dispersal of pre-formed biofilms by DNaseI. Collectively, these findings provide a critical first step in designing strategies to control or eliminate MRSA in swine herds. PMID:23951352

  7. Disruption of diphthamide synthesis genes and resulting toxin resistance as a robust technology for quantifying and optimizing CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing.

    PubMed

    Killian, Tobias; Dickopf, Steffen; Haas, Alexander K; Kirstenpfad, Claudia; Mayer, Klaus; Brinkmann, Ulrich

    2017-11-13

    We have devised an effective and robust method for the characterization of gene-editing events. The efficacy of editing-mediated mono- and bi-allelic gene inactivation and integration events is quantified based on colony counts. The combination of diphtheria toxin (DT) and puromycin (PM) selection enables analyses of 10,000-100,000 individual cells, assessing hundreds of clones with inactivated genes per experiment. Mono- and bi-allelic gene inactivation is differentiated by DT resistance, which occurs only upon bi-allelic inactivation. PM resistance indicates integration. The robustness and generalizability of the method were demonstrated by quantifying the frequency of gene inactivation and cassette integration under different editing approaches: CRISPR/Cas9-mediated complete inactivation was ~30-50-fold more frequent than cassette integration. Mono-allelic inactivation without integration occurred >100-fold more frequently than integration. Assessment of gRNA length confirmed 20mers to be most effective length for inactivation, while 16-18mers provided the highest overall integration efficacy. The overall efficacy was ~2-fold higher for CRISPR/Cas9 than for zinc-finger nuclease and was significantly increased upon modulation of non-homologous end joining or homology-directed repair. The frequencies and ratios of editing events were similar for two different DPH genes (independent of the target sequence or chromosomal location), which indicates that the optimization parameters identified with this method can be generalized.

  8. One-step solvothermal deposition of ZnO nanorod arrays on a wood surface for robust superamphiphobic performance and superior ultraviolet resistance

    PubMed Central

    Yao, Qiufang; Wang, Chao; Fan, Bitao; Wang, Hanwei; Sun, Qingfeng; Jin, Chunde; Zhang, Hong

    2016-01-01

    In the present paper, uniformly large-scale wurtzite-structured ZnO nanorod arrays (ZNAs) were deposited onto a wood surface through a one-step solvothermal method. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetry (TG), and differential thermal analysis (DTA). ZNAs with a diameter of approximately 85 nm and a length of approximately 1.5 μm were chemically bonded onto the wood surface through hydrogen bonds. The superamphiphobic performance and ultraviolet resistance were measured and evaluated by water or oil contact angles (WCA or OCA) and roll-off angles, sand abrasion tests and an artificially accelerated ageing test. The results show that the ZNA-treated wood demonstrates a robust superamphiphobic performance under mechanical impact, corrosive liquids, intermittent and transpositional temperatures, and water spray. Additionally, the as-prepared wood sample shows superior ultraviolet resistance. PMID:27775091

  9. One-step solvothermal deposition of ZnO nanorod arrays on a wood surface for robust superamphiphobic performance and superior ultraviolet resistance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yao, Qiufang; Wang, Chao; Fan, Bitao; Wang, Hanwei; Sun, Qingfeng; Jin, Chunde; Zhang, Hong

    2016-10-01

    In the present paper, uniformly large-scale wurtzite-structured ZnO nanorod arrays (ZNAs) were deposited onto a wood surface through a one-step solvothermal method. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetry (TG), and differential thermal analysis (DTA). ZNAs with a diameter of approximately 85 nm and a length of approximately 1.5 μm were chemically bonded onto the wood surface through hydrogen bonds. The superamphiphobic performance and ultraviolet resistance were measured and evaluated by water or oil contact angles (WCA or OCA) and roll-off angles, sand abrasion tests and an artificially accelerated ageing test. The results show that the ZNA-treated wood demonstrates a robust superamphiphobic performance under mechanical impact, corrosive liquids, intermittent and transpositional temperatures, and water spray. Additionally, the as-prepared wood sample shows superior ultraviolet resistance.

  10. Effect of prolonged hypokinesia on resistance of resistive vessels in rats

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Saltykova, V. A.

    1982-01-01

    Under the effect of prolonged hypokinesia, the perfusion pressure in resistive vessels, measured under conditions of deep anesthesia and complete denervation, increased by approximately the same degree as arterial pressure in non-anesthetized animals. The increase in arterial, perfusion pressure and the resistance of resistive vessels in animals subjected to prolonged hypokinesia was accompanied by an increase in adrenoreactivity. During prolonged hypokinesia, partial obliteration of the vascular bed of the skeletal muscles plays a significant role in the observed increase in resistance of vessels of the extremities. The increase in adrenoreactivity of the vessels during hypokinesia may be realized as a partial case of an increase in the adrenoreactivity of structures whose innervation is disturbed.

  11. Mechanical design in embryos: mechanical signalling, robustness and developmental defects.

    PubMed

    Davidson, Lance A

    2017-05-19

    Embryos are shaped by the precise application of force against the resistant structures of multicellular tissues. Forces may be generated, guided and resisted by cells, extracellular matrix, interstitial fluids, and how they are organized and bound within the tissue's architecture. In this review, we summarize our current thoughts on the multiple roles of mechanics in direct shaping, mechanical signalling and robustness of development. Genetic programmes of development interact with environmental cues to direct the composition of the early embryo and endow cells with active force production. Biophysical advances now provide experimental tools to measure mechanical resistance and collective forces during morphogenesis and are allowing integration of this field with studies of signalling and patterning during development. We focus this review on concepts that highlight this integration, and how the unique contributions of mechanical cues and gradients might be tested side by side with conventional signalling systems. We conclude with speculation on the integration of large-scale programmes of development, and how mechanical responses may ensure robust development and serve as constraints on programmes of tissue self-assembly.This article is part of the themed issue 'Systems morphodynamics: understanding the development of tissue hardware'. © 2017 The Author(s).

  12. Robust photometric invariant features from the color tensor.

    PubMed

    van de Weijer, Joost; Gevers, Theo; Smeulders, Arnold W M

    2006-01-01

    Luminance-based features are widely used as low-level input for computer vision applications, even when color data is available. The extension of feature detection to the color domain prevents information loss due to isoluminance and allows us to exploit the photometric information. To fully exploit the extra information in the color data, the vector nature of color data has to be taken into account and a sound framework is needed to combine feature and photometric invariance theory. In this paper, we focus on the structure tensor, or color tensor, which adequately handles the vector nature of color images. Further, we combine the features based on the color tensor with photometric invariant derivatives to arrive at photometric invariant features. We circumvent the drawback of unstable photometric invariants by deriving an uncertainty measure to accompany the photometric invariant derivatives. The uncertainty is incorporated in the color tensor, hereby allowing the computation of robust photometric invariant features. The combination of the photometric invariance theory and tensor-based features allows for detection of a variety of features such as photometric invariant edges, corners, optical flow, and curvature. The proposed features are tested for noise characteristics and robustness to photometric changes. Experiments show that the proposed features are robust to scene incidental events and that the proposed uncertainty measure improves the applicability of full invariants.

  13. Atomically manufactured nickel–silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Cheng, Jian -Yih; Fisher, Brandon L.; Guisinger, Nathan P.

    Providing a spin-free host material in the development of quantum information technology has made silicon a very interesting and desirable material for qubit design. Much of the work and experimental progress has focused on isolated phosphorous atoms. In this article, we report on the exploration of Ni–Si clusters that are atomically manufactured via self-assembly from the bottom-up and behave as isolated quantum dots. These small quantum dot structures are probed at the atomic-scale with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, revealing robust resonance through discrete quantized energy levels within the Ni–Si clusters. The resonance energy is reproducible and the peak spacingmore » of the quantum dot structures increases as the number of atoms in the cluster decrease. Probing these quantum dot structures on degenerately doped silicon results in the observation of negative differential resistance in both I–V and dI/dV spectra. At higher surface coverage of nickel, a well-known √19 surface modification is observed and is essentially a tightly packed array of the clusters. Spatial conductance maps reveal variations in the local density of states that suggest the clusters are influencing the electronic properties of their neighbors. Furthermore, all of these results are extremely encouraging towards the utilization of metal modified silicon surfaces to advance or complement existing quantum information technology.« less

  14. Atomically manufactured nickel-silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Jian-Yih; Fisher, Brandon L.; Guisinger, Nathan P.; Lilley, Carmen M.

    2017-12-01

    Providing a spin-free host material in the development of quantum information technology has made silicon a very interesting and desirable material for qubit design. Much of the work and experimental progress has focused on isolated phosphorous atoms. In this article, we report on the exploration of Ni-Si clusters that are atomically manufactured via self-assembly from the bottom-up and behave as isolated quantum dots. These small quantum dot structures are probed at the atomic-scale with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, revealing robust resonance through discrete quantized energy levels within the Ni-Si clusters. The resonance energy is reproducible and the peak spacing of the quantum dot structures increases as the number of atoms in the cluster decrease. Probing these quantum dot structures on degenerately doped silicon results in the observation of negative differential resistance in both I-V and dI/dV spectra. At higher surface coverage of nickel, a well-known √19 surface modification is observed and is essentially a tightly packed array of the clusters. Spatial conductance maps reveal variations in the local density of states that suggest the clusters are influencing the electronic properties of their neighbors. All of these results are extremely encouraging towards the utilization of metal modified silicon surfaces to advance or complement existing quantum information technology.

  15. Atomically manufactured nickel–silicon quantum dots displaying robust resonant tunneling and negative differential resistance

    DOE PAGES

    Cheng, Jian -Yih; Fisher, Brandon L.; Guisinger, Nathan P.; ...

    2017-05-22

    Providing a spin-free host material in the development of quantum information technology has made silicon a very interesting and desirable material for qubit design. Much of the work and experimental progress has focused on isolated phosphorous atoms. In this article, we report on the exploration of Ni–Si clusters that are atomically manufactured via self-assembly from the bottom-up and behave as isolated quantum dots. These small quantum dot structures are probed at the atomic-scale with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, revealing robust resonance through discrete quantized energy levels within the Ni–Si clusters. The resonance energy is reproducible and the peak spacingmore » of the quantum dot structures increases as the number of atoms in the cluster decrease. Probing these quantum dot structures on degenerately doped silicon results in the observation of negative differential resistance in both I–V and dI/dV spectra. At higher surface coverage of nickel, a well-known √19 surface modification is observed and is essentially a tightly packed array of the clusters. Spatial conductance maps reveal variations in the local density of states that suggest the clusters are influencing the electronic properties of their neighbors. Furthermore, all of these results are extremely encouraging towards the utilization of metal modified silicon surfaces to advance or complement existing quantum information technology.« less

  16. Development of disease-resistant rice using regulatory components of induced disease resistance

    PubMed Central

    Takatsuji, Hiroshi

    2014-01-01

    Infectious diseases cause huge crop losses annually. In response to pathogen attacks, plants activate defense systems that are mediated through various signaling pathways. The salicylic acid (SA) signaling pathway is the most powerful of these pathways. Several regulatory components of the SA signaling pathway have been identified, and are potential targets for genetic manipulation of plants’ disease resistance. However, the resistance associated with these regulatory components is often accompanied by fitness costs; that is, negative effects on plant growth and crop yield. Chemical defense inducers, such as benzothiadiazole and probenazole, act on the SA pathway and induce strong resistance to various pathogens without major fitness costs, owing to their ‘priming effect.’ Studies on how benzothiadiazole induces disease resistance in rice have identified WRKY45, a key transcription factor in the branched SA pathway, and OsNPR1/NH1. Rice plants overexpressing WRKY45 were extremely resistant to rice blast disease caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae and bacterial leaf blight disease caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), the two major rice diseases. Disease resistance is often accompanied by fitness costs; however, WRKY45 overexpression imposed relatively small fitness costs on rice because of its priming effect. This priming effect was similar to that of chemical defense inducers, although the fitness costs were amplified by some environmental factors. WRKY45 is degraded by the ubiquitin–proteasome system, and the dual role of this degradation partly explains the priming effect. The synergistic interaction between SA and cytokinin signaling that activates WRKY45 also likely contributes to the priming effect. With a main focus on these studies, I review the current knowledge of SA-pathway-dependent defense in rice by comparing it with that in Arabidopsis, and discuss potential strategies to develop disease-resistant rice using signaling components

  17. How robust is a robust policy? A comparative analysis of alternative robustness metrics for supporting robust decision analysis.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kwakkel, Jan; Haasnoot, Marjolijn

    2015-04-01

    In response to climate and socio-economic change, in various policy domains there is increasingly a call for robust plans or policies. That is, plans or policies that performs well in a very large range of plausible futures. In the literature, a wide range of alternative robustness metrics can be found. The relative merit of these alternative conceptualizations of robustness has, however, received less attention. Evidently, different robustness metrics can result in different plans or policies being adopted. This paper investigates the consequences of several robustness metrics on decision making, illustrated here by the design of a flood risk management plan. A fictitious case, inspired by a river reach in the Netherlands is used. The performance of this system in terms of casualties, damages, and costs for flood and damage mitigation actions is explored using a time horizon of 100 years, and accounting for uncertainties pertaining to climate change and land use change. A set of candidate policy options is specified up front. This set of options includes dike raising, dike strengthening, creating more space for the river, and flood proof building and evacuation options. The overarching aim is to design an effective flood risk mitigation strategy that is designed from the outset to be adapted over time in response to how the future actually unfolds. To this end, the plan will be based on the dynamic adaptive policy pathway approach (Haasnoot, Kwakkel et al. 2013) being used in the Dutch Delta Program. The policy problem is formulated as a multi-objective robust optimization problem (Kwakkel, Haasnoot et al. 2014). We solve the multi-objective robust optimization problem using several alternative robustness metrics, including both satisficing robustness metrics and regret based robustness metrics. Satisficing robustness metrics focus on the performance of candidate plans across a large ensemble of plausible futures. Regret based robustness metrics compare the

  18. Social norms of accompanied young children and observed crossing behaviors.

    PubMed

    Rosenbloom, Tova; Sapir-Lavid, Yael; Hadari-Carmi, Ofri

    2009-01-01

    Social norms for accompanied young children and crossing behaviors were examined in two studies conducted in an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Israel. In Study 1, road behaviors of young children crossing with and without accompaniment and older children were observed, and the actual social norm for accompanied school children younger than 9-years-old was examined. In Study 2, the perceived norm of accompaniment was tested by questionnaires. Young children who crossed without accompaniment exhibited poorer crossing skills compared to older children and to young children crossing with accompaniment. In the four locations observed, the actual accompaniment rate ranged between 15%-60%. The perceived social norm for child accompaniment was lower than the actual norm. The discussion refers to both theoretical issues and their practical implications.

  19. Circumvention of Mcl-1-dependent drug resistance by simultaneous Chk1 and MEK1/2 inhibition in human multiple myeloma cells.

    PubMed

    Pei, Xin-Yan; Dai, Yun; Felthousen, Jessica; Chen, Shuang; Takabatake, Yukie; Zhou, Liang; Youssefian, Leena E; Sanderson, Michael W; Bodie, Wesley W; Kramer, Lora B; Orlowski, Robert Z; Grant, Steven

    2014-01-01

    The anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1 plays a major role in multiple myeloma (MM) cell survival as well as bortezomib- and microenvironmental forms of drug resistance in this disease. Consequently, there is a critical need for strategies capable of targeting Mcl-1-dependent drug resistance in MM. The present results indicate that a regimen combining Chk1 with MEK1/2 inhibitors effectively kills cells displaying multiple forms of drug resistance stemming from Mcl-1 up-regulation in association with direct transcriptional Mcl-1 down-regulation and indirect disabling of Mcl-1 anti-apoptotic function through Bim up-regulation and increased Bim/Mcl-1 binding. These actions release Bak from Mcl-1, accompanied by Bak/Bax activation. Analogous events were observed in both drug-naïve and acquired bortezomib-resistant MM cells displaying increased Mcl-1 but diminished Bim expression, or cells ectopically expressing Mcl-1. Moreover, concomitant Chk1 and MEK1/2 inhibition blocked Mcl-1 up-regulation induced by IL-6/IGF-1 or co-culture with stromal cells, effectively overcoming microenvironment-related drug resistance. Finally, this regimen down-regulated Mcl-1 and robustly killed primary CD138+ MM cells, but not normal hematopoietic cells. Together, these findings provide novel evidence that this targeted combination strategy could be effective in the setting of multiple forms of Mcl-1-related drug resistance in MM.

  20. Circumvention of Mcl-1-Dependent Drug Resistance by Simultaneous Chk1 and MEK1/2 Inhibition in Human Multiple Myeloma Cells

    PubMed Central

    Pei, Xin-Yan; Dai, Yun; Felthousen, Jessica; Chen, Shuang; Takabatake, Yukie; Zhou, Liang; Youssefian, Leena E.; Sanderson, Michael W.; Bodie, Wesley W.; Kramer, Lora B.; Orlowski, Robert Z.; Grant, Steven

    2014-01-01

    The anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1 plays a major role in multiple myeloma (MM) cell survival as well as bortezomib- and microenvironmental forms of drug resistance in this disease. Consequently, there is a critical need for strategies capable of targeting Mcl-1-dependent drug resistance in MM. The present results indicate that a regimen combining Chk1 with MEK1/2 inhibitors effectively kills cells displaying multiple forms of drug resistance stemming from Mcl-1 up-regulation in association with direct transcriptional Mcl-1 down-regulation and indirect disabling of Mcl-1 anti-apoptotic function through Bim up-regulation and increased Bim/Mcl-1 binding. These actions release Bak from Mcl-1, accompanied by Bak/Bax activation. Analogous events were observed in both drug-naïve and acquired bortezomib-resistant MM cells displaying increased Mcl-1 but diminished Bim expression, or cells ectopically expressing Mcl-1. Moreover, concomitant Chk1 and MEK1/2 inhibition blocked Mcl-1 up-regulation induced by IL-6/IGF-1 or co-culture with stromal cells, effectively overcoming microenvironment-related drug resistance. Finally, this regimen down-regulated Mcl-1 and robustly killed primary CD138+ MM cells, but not normal hematopoietic cells. Together, these findings provide novel evidence that this targeted combination strategy could be effective in the setting of multiple forms of Mcl-1-related drug resistance in MM. PMID:24594907

  1. Biological robustness.

    PubMed

    Kitano, Hiroaki

    2004-11-01

    Robustness is a ubiquitously observed property of biological systems. It is considered to be a fundamental feature of complex evolvable systems. It is attained by several underlying principles that are universal to both biological organisms and sophisticated engineering systems. Robustness facilitates evolvability and robust traits are often selected by evolution. Such a mutually beneficial process is made possible by specific architectural features observed in robust systems. But there are trade-offs between robustness, fragility, performance and resource demands, which explain system behaviour, including the patterns of failure. Insights into inherent properties of robust systems will provide us with a better understanding of complex diseases and a guiding principle for therapy design.

  2. 9 CFR 93.409 - Articles accompanying ruminants.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Articles accompanying ruminants. 93.409 Section 93.409 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT...; REQUIREMENTS FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Ruminants § 93.409 Articles accompanying ruminants...

  3. 9 CFR 93.409 - Articles accompanying ruminants.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Articles accompanying ruminants. 93.409 Section 93.409 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT...; REQUIREMENTS FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Ruminants § 93.409 Articles accompanying ruminants...

  4. 9 CFR 93.409 - Articles accompanying ruminants.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Articles accompanying ruminants. 93.409 Section 93.409 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT...; REQUIREMENTS FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Ruminants § 93.409 Articles accompanying ruminants...

  5. 9 CFR 93.409 - Articles accompanying ruminants.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Articles accompanying ruminants. 93.409 Section 93.409 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT...; REQUIREMENTS FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Ruminants § 93.409 Articles accompanying ruminants...

  6. 9 CFR 93.409 - Articles accompanying ruminants.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Articles accompanying ruminants. 93.409 Section 93.409 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT...; REQUIREMENTS FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Ruminants § 93.409 Articles accompanying ruminants...

  7. 16 CFR 1500.125 - Labeling requirements for accompanying literature.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 2 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Labeling requirements for accompanying literature. 1500.125 Section 1500.125 Commercial Practices CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION FEDERAL... REGULATIONS § 1500.125 Labeling requirements for accompanying literature. When any accompanying literature...

  8. 16 CFR 1500.125 - Labeling requirements for accompanying literature.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 2 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Labeling requirements for accompanying literature. 1500.125 Section 1500.125 Commercial Practices CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION FEDERAL... REGULATIONS § 1500.125 Labeling requirements for accompanying literature. When any accompanying literature...

  9. 16 CFR 1500.125 - Labeling requirements for accompanying literature.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 2 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Labeling requirements for accompanying literature. 1500.125 Section 1500.125 Commercial Practices CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION FEDERAL... REGULATIONS § 1500.125 Labeling requirements for accompanying literature. When any accompanying literature...

  10. 16 CFR 1500.125 - Labeling requirements for accompanying literature.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Labeling requirements for accompanying literature. 1500.125 Section 1500.125 Commercial Practices CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION FEDERAL... REGULATIONS § 1500.125 Labeling requirements for accompanying literature. When any accompanying literature...

  11. 9 CFR 93.307 - Articles accompanying horses.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Articles accompanying horses. 93.307 Section 93.307 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Horses § 93.307 Articles accompanying horses. No...

  12. 9 CFR 93.208 - Articles accompanying poultry.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Articles accompanying poultry. 93.208 Section 93.208 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Poultry § 93.208 Articles accompanying poultry. No...

  13. 9 CFR 93.307 - Articles accompanying horses.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Articles accompanying horses. 93.307 Section 93.307 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Horses § 93.307 Articles accompanying horses. No...

  14. 9 CFR 93.208 - Articles accompanying poultry.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Articles accompanying poultry. 93.208 Section 93.208 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Poultry § 93.208 Articles accompanying poultry. No...

  15. 9 CFR 93.307 - Articles accompanying horses.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Articles accompanying horses. 93.307 Section 93.307 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Horses § 93.307 Articles accompanying horses. No...

  16. 9 CFR 93.508 - Articles accompanying swine.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Articles accompanying swine. 93.508 Section 93.508 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Swine § 93.508 Articles accompanying swine. No litter...

  17. 9 CFR 93.508 - Articles accompanying swine.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Articles accompanying swine. 93.508 Section 93.508 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Swine § 93.508 Articles accompanying swine. No litter...

  18. 9 CFR 93.508 - Articles accompanying swine.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Articles accompanying swine. 93.508 Section 93.508 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Swine § 93.508 Articles accompanying swine. No litter...

  19. 9 CFR 93.208 - Articles accompanying poultry.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Articles accompanying poultry. 93.208 Section 93.208 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Poultry § 93.208 Articles accompanying poultry. No...

  20. 9 CFR 93.208 - Articles accompanying poultry.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Articles accompanying poultry. 93.208 Section 93.208 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Poultry § 93.208 Articles accompanying poultry. No...

  1. 9 CFR 93.508 - Articles accompanying swine.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Articles accompanying swine. 93.508 Section 93.508 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Swine § 93.508 Articles accompanying swine. No litter...

  2. 9 CFR 93.208 - Articles accompanying poultry.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Articles accompanying poultry. 93.208 Section 93.208 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Poultry § 93.208 Articles accompanying poultry. No...

  3. 9 CFR 93.307 - Articles accompanying horses.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Articles accompanying horses. 93.307 Section 93.307 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Horses § 93.307 Articles accompanying horses. No...

  4. 9 CFR 93.307 - Articles accompanying horses.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Articles accompanying horses. 93.307 Section 93.307 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Horses § 93.307 Articles accompanying horses. No...

  5. 9 CFR 93.508 - Articles accompanying swine.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Articles accompanying swine. 93.508 Section 93.508 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... FOR MEANS OF CONVEYANCE AND SHIPPING CONTAINERS Swine § 93.508 Articles accompanying swine. No litter...

  6. Robustness

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ryan, R.

    1993-03-01

    Robustness is a buzz word common to all newly proposed space systems design as well as many new commercial products. The image that one conjures up when the word appears is a 'Paul Bunyon' (lumberjack design), strong and hearty; healthy with margins in all aspects of the design. In actuality, robustness is much broader in scope than margins, including such factors as simplicity, redundancy, desensitization to parameter variations, control of parameter variations (environments flucation), and operational approaches. These must be traded with concepts, materials, and fabrication approaches against the criteria of performance, cost, and reliability. This includes manufacturing, assembly, processing, checkout, and operations. The design engineer or project chief is faced with finding ways and means to inculcate robustness into an operational design. First, however, be sure he understands the definition and goals of robustness. This paper will deal with these issues as well as the need for the requirement for robustness.

  7. Robustness

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ryan, R.

    1993-01-01

    Robustness is a buzz word common to all newly proposed space systems design as well as many new commercial products. The image that one conjures up when the word appears is a 'Paul Bunyon' (lumberjack design), strong and hearty; healthy with margins in all aspects of the design. In actuality, robustness is much broader in scope than margins, including such factors as simplicity, redundancy, desensitization to parameter variations, control of parameter variations (environments flucation), and operational approaches. These must be traded with concepts, materials, and fabrication approaches against the criteria of performance, cost, and reliability. This includes manufacturing, assembly, processing, checkout, and operations. The design engineer or project chief is faced with finding ways and means to inculcate robustness into an operational design. First, however, be sure he understands the definition and goals of robustness. This paper will deal with these issues as well as the need for the requirement for robustness.

  8. Multilayer perceptron for robust nonlinear interval regression analysis using genetic algorithms.

    PubMed

    Hu, Yi-Chung

    2014-01-01

    On the basis of fuzzy regression, computational models in intelligence such as neural networks have the capability to be applied to nonlinear interval regression analysis for dealing with uncertain and imprecise data. When training data are not contaminated by outliers, computational models perform well by including almost all given training data in the data interval. Nevertheless, since training data are often corrupted by outliers, robust learning algorithms employed to resist outliers for interval regression analysis have been an interesting area of research. Several approaches involving computational intelligence are effective for resisting outliers, but the required parameters for these approaches are related to whether the collected data contain outliers or not. Since it seems difficult to prespecify the degree of contamination beforehand, this paper uses multilayer perceptron to construct the robust nonlinear interval regression model using the genetic algorithm. Outliers beyond or beneath the data interval will impose slight effect on the determination of data interval. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method performs well for contaminated datasets.

  9. Effector-triggered immunity: from pathogen perception to robust defense.

    PubMed

    Cui, Haitao; Tsuda, Kenichi; Parker, Jane E

    2015-01-01

    In plant innate immunity, individual cells have the capacity to sense and respond to pathogen attack. Intracellular recognition mechanisms have evolved to intercept perturbations by pathogen virulence factors (effectors) early in host infection and convert it to rapid defense. One key to resistance success is a polymorphic family of intracellular nucleotide-binding/leucine-rich-repeat (NLR) receptors that detect effector interference in different parts of the cell. Effector-activated NLRs connect, in various ways, to a conserved basal resistance network in order to transcriptionally boost defense programs. Effector-triggered immunity displays remarkable robustness against pathogen disturbance, in part by employing compensatory mechanisms within the defense network. Also, the mobility of some NLRs and coordination of resistance pathways across cell compartments provides flexibility to fine-tune immune outputs. Furthermore, a number of NLRs function close to the nuclear chromatin by balancing actions of defense-repressing and defense-activating transcription factors to program cells dynamically for effective disease resistance.

  10. Fabrics coated with lubricated nanostructures display robust omniphobicity

    DOE PAGES

    Shillingford, Cicely; MacCallum, Noah; Wong, Tak -Sing; ...

    2013-12-11

    The development of a stain-resistant and pressure-stable textile is desirable for consumer and industrial applications alike, yet it remains a challenge that current technologies have been unable to fully address. Traditional superhydrophobic surfaces, inspired by the lotus plant, are characterized by two main components: hydrophobic chemical functionalization and surface roughness. While this approach produces water-resistant surfaces, these materials have critical weaknesses that hinder their practical utility, in particular as robust stain-free fabrics. For example, traditional superhydrophobic surfaces fail (i.e., become stained) when exposed to low-surface-tension liquids, under pressure when impacted by a high-velocity stream of water (e.g., rain), and whenmore » exposed to physical forces such as abrasion and twisting. We have recently introduced slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), a self-healing, pressure-tolerant and omniphobic surface, to address these issues. However we present the rational design and optimization of nanostructured lubricant-infused fabrics and demonstrate markedly improved performance over traditional superhydrophobic textile treatments: SLIPS-functionalized cotton and polyester fabrics exhibit decreased contact angle hysteresis and sliding angles, omni-repellent properties against various fluids including polar and nonpolar liquids, pressure tolerance and mechanical robustness, all of which are not readily achievable with the state-of-the-art superhydrophobic coatings.« less

  11. Fabrics coated with lubricated nanostructures display robust omniphobicity

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Shillingford, C; MacCallum, N; Wong, TS

    2013-12-11

    The development of a stain-resistant and pressure-stable textile is desirable for consumer and industrial applications alike, yet it remains a challenge that current technologies have been unable to fully address. Traditional superhydrophobic surfaces, inspired by the lotus plant, are characterized by two main components: hydrophobic chemical functionalization and surface roughness. While this approach produces water-resistant surfaces, these materials have critical weaknesses that hinder their practical utility, in particular as robust stain-free fabrics. For example, traditional superhydrophobic surfaces fail (i.e., become stained) when exposed to low-surface-tension liquids, under pressure when impacted by a high-velocity stream of water (e. g., rain), andmore » when exposed to physical forces such as abrasion and twisting. We have recently introduced slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), a self-healing, pressure-tolerant and omniphobic surface, to address these issues. Herein we present the rational design and optimization of nanostructured lubricant-infused fabrics and demonstrate markedly improved performance over traditional superhydrophobic textile treatments: SLIPS-functionalized cotton and polyester fabrics exhibit decreased contact angle hysteresis and sliding angles, omni-repellent properties against various fluids including polar and nonpolar liquids, pressure tolerance and mechanical robustness, all of which are not readily achievable with the state-of-the-art superhydrophobic coatings.« less

  12. Fabrics coated with lubricated nanostructures display robust omniphobicity.

    PubMed

    Shillingford, Cicely; MacCallum, Noah; Wong, Tak-Sing; Kim, Philseok; Aizenberg, Joanna

    2014-01-10

    The development of a stain-resistant and pressure-stable textile is desirable for consumer and industrial applications alike, yet it remains a challenge that current technologies have been unable to fully address. Traditional superhydrophobic surfaces, inspired by the lotus plant, are characterized by two main components: hydrophobic chemical functionalization and surface roughness. While this approach produces water-resistant surfaces, these materials have critical weaknesses that hinder their practical utility, in particular as robust stain-free fabrics. For example, traditional superhydrophobic surfaces fail (i.e., become stained) when exposed to low-surface-tension liquids, under pressure when impacted by a high-velocity stream of water (e.g., rain), and when exposed to physical forces such as abrasion and twisting. We have recently introduced slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), a self-healing, pressure-tolerant and omniphobic surface, to address these issues. Herein we present the rational design and optimization of nanostructured lubricant-infused fabrics and demonstrate markedly improved performance over traditional superhydrophobic textile treatments: SLIPS-functionalized cotton and polyester fabrics exhibit decreased contact angle hysteresis and sliding angles, omni-repellent properties against various fluids including polar and nonpolar liquids, pressure tolerance and mechanical robustness, all of which are not readily achievable with the state-of-the-art superhydrophobic coatings.

  13. Fabrics coated with lubricated nanostructures display robust omniphobicity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shillingford, Cicely; MacCallum, Noah; Wong, Tak-Sing; Kim, Philseok; Aizenberg, Joanna

    2014-01-01

    The development of a stain-resistant and pressure-stable textile is desirable for consumer and industrial applications alike, yet it remains a challenge that current technologies have been unable to fully address. Traditional superhydrophobic surfaces, inspired by the lotus plant, are characterized by two main components: hydrophobic chemical functionalization and surface roughness. While this approach produces water-resistant surfaces, these materials have critical weaknesses that hinder their practical utility, in particular as robust stain-free fabrics. For example, traditional superhydrophobic surfaces fail (i.e., become stained) when exposed to low-surface-tension liquids, under pressure when impacted by a high-velocity stream of water (e.g., rain), and when exposed to physical forces such as abrasion and twisting. We have recently introduced slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), a self-healing, pressure-tolerant and omniphobic surface, to address these issues. Herein we present the rational design and optimization of nanostructured lubricant-infused fabrics and demonstrate markedly improved performance over traditional superhydrophobic textile treatments: SLIPS-functionalized cotton and polyester fabrics exhibit decreased contact angle hysteresis and sliding angles, omni-repellent properties against various fluids including polar and nonpolar liquids, pressure tolerance and mechanical robustness, all of which are not readily achievable with the state-of-the-art superhydrophobic coatings.

  14. Robust resistive memory devices using solution-processable metal-coordinated azo aromatics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Goswami, Sreetosh; Matula, Adam J.; Rath, Santi P.; Hedström, Svante; Saha, Surajit; Annamalai, Meenakshi; Sengupta, Debabrata; Patra, Abhijeet; Ghosh, Siddhartha; Jani, Hariom; Sarkar, Soumya; Motapothula, Mallikarjuna Rao; Nijhuis, Christian A.; Martin, Jens; Goswami, Sreebrata; Batista, Victor S.; Venkatesan, T.

    2017-12-01

    Non-volatile memories will play a decisive role in the next generation of digital technology. Flash memories are currently the key player in the field, yet they fail to meet the commercial demands of scalability and endurance. Resistive memory devices, and in particular memories based on low-cost, solution-processable and chemically tunable organic materials, are promising alternatives explored by the industry. However, to date, they have been lacking the performance and mechanistic understanding required for commercial translation. Here we report a resistive memory device based on a spin-coated active layer of a transition-metal complex, which shows high reproducibility (~350 devices), fast switching (<=30 ns), excellent endurance (~1012 cycles), stability (>106 s) and scalability (down to ~60 nm2). In situ Raman and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy alongside spectroelectrochemistry and quantum chemical calculations demonstrate that the redox state of the ligands determines the switching states of the device whereas the counterions control the hysteresis. This insight may accelerate the technological deployment of organic resistive memories.

  15. Robust biomimetic-structural superhydrophobic surface on aluminum alloy.

    PubMed

    Li, Lingjie; Huang, Tao; Lei, Jinglei; He, Jianxin; Qu, Linfeng; Huang, Peiling; Zhou, Wei; Li, Nianbing; Pan, Fusheng

    2015-01-28

    The following facile approach has been developed to prepare a biomimetic-structural superhydrophobic surface with high stabilities and strong resistances on 2024 Al alloy that are robust to harsh environments. First, a simple hydrothermal treatment in a La(NO3)3 aqueous solution was used to fabricate ginkgo-leaf like nanostructures, resulting in a superhydrophilic surface on 2024 Al. Then a low-surface-energy compound, dodecafluoroheptyl-propyl-trimethoxylsilane (Actyflon-G502), was used to modify the superhydrophilic 2024 Al, changing the surface character from superhydrophilicity to superhydrophobicity. The water contact angle (WCA) of such a superhydrophobic surface reaches up to 160°, demonstrating excellent superhydrophobicity. Moreover, the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface shows high stabilities in air-storage, chemical and thermal environments, and has strong resistances to UV irradiation, corrosion, and abrasion. The WCAs of such a surface almost remain unchanged (160°) after storage in air for 80 days, exposure in 250 °C atmosphere for 24 h, and being exposed under UV irradiation for 24 h, are more than 144° whether in acidic or alkali medium, and are more than 150° after 48 h corrosion and after abrasion under 0.98 kPa for 1000 mm length. The remarkable durability of the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface can be attributed to its stable structure and composition, which are due to the existence of lanthanum (hydr)oxides in surface layer. The robustness of the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface to harsh environments will open their much wider applications. The fabricating approach for such robust superhydrophobic surface can be easily extended to other metals and alloys.

  16. Robust design optimization using the price of robustness, robust least squares and regularization methods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bukhari, Hassan J.

    2017-12-01

    In this paper a framework for robust optimization of mechanical design problems and process systems that have parametric uncertainty is presented using three different approaches. Robust optimization problems are formulated so that the optimal solution is robust which means it is minimally sensitive to any perturbations in parameters. The first method uses the price of robustness approach which assumes the uncertain parameters to be symmetric and bounded. The robustness for the design can be controlled by limiting the parameters that can perturb.The second method uses the robust least squares method to determine the optimal parameters when data itself is subjected to perturbations instead of the parameters. The last method manages uncertainty by restricting the perturbation on parameters to improve sensitivity similar to Tikhonov regularization. The methods are implemented on two sets of problems; one linear and the other non-linear. This methodology will be compared with a prior method using multiple Monte Carlo simulation runs which shows that the approach being presented in this paper results in better performance.

  17. A Highly Stretchable and Robust Non-fluorinated Superhydrophobic Surface.

    PubMed

    Ju, Jie; Yao, Xi; Hou, Xu; Liu, Qihan; Zhang, Yu Shrike; Khademhosseini, Ali

    2017-08-21

    Superhydrophobic surface simultaneously possessing exceptional stretchability, robustness, and non-fluorination is highly desirable in applications ranging from wearable devices to artificial skins. While conventional superhydrophobic surfaces typically feature stretchability, robustness, or non-fluorination individually, co-existence of all these features still remains a great challenge. Here we report a multi-performance superhydrophobic surface achieved through incorporating hydrophilic micro-sized particles with pre-stretched silicone elastomer. The commercial silicone elastomer (Ecoflex) endowed the resulting surface with high stretchability; the densely packed micro-sized particles in multi-layers contributed to the preservation of the large surface roughness even under large strains; and the physical encapsulation of the microparticles by silicone elastomer due to the capillary dragging effect and the chemical interaction between the hydrophilic silica and the elastomer gave rise to the robust and non-fluorinated superhydrophobicity. It was demonstrated that the as-prepared fluorine-free surface could preserve the superhydrophobicity under repeated stretching-relaxing cycles. Most importantly, the surface's superhydrophobicity can be well maintained after severe rubbing process, indicating wear-resistance. Our novel superhydrophobic surface integrating multiple key properties, i.e. stretchability, robustness, and non-fluorination, is expected to provide unique advantages for a wide range of applications in biomedicine, energy, and electronics.

  18. A robust trust establishment scheme for wireless sensor networks.

    PubMed

    Ishmanov, Farruh; Kim, Sung Won; Nam, Seung Yeob

    2015-03-23

    Security techniques like cryptography and authentication can fail to protect a network once a node is compromised. Hence, trust establishment continuously monitors and evaluates node behavior to detect malicious and compromised nodes. However, just like other security schemes, trust establishment is also vulnerable to attack. Moreover, malicious nodes might misbehave intelligently to trick trust establishment schemes. Unfortunately, attack-resistance and robustness issues with trust establishment schemes have not received much attention from the research community. Considering the vulnerability of trust establishment to different attacks and the unique features of sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks, we propose a lightweight and robust trust establishment scheme. The proposed trust scheme is lightweight thanks to a simple trust estimation method. The comprehensiveness and flexibility of the proposed trust estimation scheme make it robust against different types of attack and misbehavior. Performance evaluation under different types of misbehavior and on-off attacks shows that the detection rate of the proposed trust mechanism is higher and more stable compared to other trust mechanisms.

  19. Multilayer Perceptron for Robust Nonlinear Interval Regression Analysis Using Genetic Algorithms

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    On the basis of fuzzy regression, computational models in intelligence such as neural networks have the capability to be applied to nonlinear interval regression analysis for dealing with uncertain and imprecise data. When training data are not contaminated by outliers, computational models perform well by including almost all given training data in the data interval. Nevertheless, since training data are often corrupted by outliers, robust learning algorithms employed to resist outliers for interval regression analysis have been an interesting area of research. Several approaches involving computational intelligence are effective for resisting outliers, but the required parameters for these approaches are related to whether the collected data contain outliers or not. Since it seems difficult to prespecify the degree of contamination beforehand, this paper uses multilayer perceptron to construct the robust nonlinear interval regression model using the genetic algorithm. Outliers beyond or beneath the data interval will impose slight effect on the determination of data interval. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method performs well for contaminated datasets. PMID:25110755

  20. The accompanying adult: authority to give consent in the UK.

    PubMed

    Lal, Seema Madhur Lata; Parekh, Susan; Mason, Carol; Roberts, Graham

    2007-05-01

    Children may be accompanied by various people when attending for dental treatment. Before treatment is started, there is a legal requirement that the operator obtain informed consent for the proposed procedure. In the case of minors, the person authorized to give consent (parental responsibility) is usually a parent. To ascertain if accompanying persons of children attending the Department of Paediatric Dentistry at the Eastman Dental Hospital, London were empowered to give consent for the child's dental treatment. A total of 250 accompanying persons of children attending were selected, over a 6-month period. A questionnaire was used to establish whether the accompanying person(s) were authorized to give consent. The study showed that 12% of accompanying persons had no legal authority to give consent for the child's dental treatment. Clinicians need to be aware of the status of persons accompanying children to ensure valid consent is obtained.

  1. Trichomonads, hydrogenosomes and drug resistance.

    PubMed

    Kulda, J

    1999-02-01

    Trichomonas vaginalis and Tritrichomonas foetus are sexually transmitted pathogens of the genito-urinary tract of humans and cattle, respectively. These organisms are amitochondrial anaerobes possessing hydrogenosomes, double membrane-bound organelles involved in catabolic processes extending glycolysis. The oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate in hydrogenosomes is coupled to ATP synthesis and linked to ferredoxin-mediated electron transport. This pathway is responsible for metabolic activation of 5-nitroimidazole drugs, such as metronidazole, used in chemotherapy of trichomoniasis. Prolonged cultivation of trichomonads under sublethal pressure of metronidazole results in development of drug resistance. In both pathogenic species the resistance develops in a multistep process involving a sequence of stages that differ in drug susceptibility and metabolic activities. Aerobic resistance, similar to that occurring in clinical isolates of T. vaginalis from treatment-refractory patients, appears as the earliest stage. The terminal stage is characterised by stable anaerobic resistance at which the parasites show very high levels of minimal lethal concentration for metronidazole under anaerobic conditions (approximately 1000 microg ml(-1)). The key event in the development of resistance is progressive decrease and eventual loss of the pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase so that the drug-activating process is averted. In T. vaginalis at least, the development of resistance is also accompanied by decreased expression of ferredoxin. The pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase deficiency completely precludes metronidazole activation in T. foetus, while T. vaginalis possesses an additional drug-activating system which must be eliminated before the full resistance is acquired. This alternative pathway involves the hydrogenosomal malic enzyme and NAD:ferredoxin oxidoreductase. Metronidazole-resistant trichomonads compensate for the hydrogenosomal deficiency by an increased rate of

  2. Creation of economical and robust large area MCPs by ALD method for photodetectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mane, Anil U.; Elam, Jeffrey W.; Wagner, Robert G.; Siegmund, Oswald H. W.; Minot, Michael J.

    2016-09-01

    We report a cost-effective and production achievable path to fabricate robust large-area microchannel plates (MCPs), which offers the new prospect for larger area MCP-based detector technologies. We used atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), a thin film growth technique, to independently adjust the desired electrical resistance and secondary electron emission (SEE) properties of low cost borosilicate glass micro-capillary arrays (MCAs). These capabilities allow a separation of the substrate material properties from the signal amplification properties. This methodology enables the functionalization of microporous, highly insulating MCA substrates to produce sturdy, large format MCPs with unique properties such as high gain (<107/MCP pair), low background noise, 10ps time resolution, sub-micron spatial resolution and excellent stability after only a short (2-3days) scrubbing time. The ALD self-limiting growth mechanism allows atomic level control over the thickness and composition of resistive and secondary electron emission (SEE) layers that can be deposited conformally on high aspect ratio ( 100) capillary glass arrays. We have developed several robust and consistent production doable ALD processes for the resistive coatings and SEE layers to give us precise control over the MCP parameters. Further, the adjustment of MCPs resistance by tailoring the ALD material composition permits the use of these MCPs at high or low temperature detector applications. Here we discuss ALD method for MCP functionalization and a variety of MCP testing results.

  3. 16 CFR § 1500.125 - Labeling requirements for accompanying literature.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 2 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Labeling requirements for accompanying literature. § 1500.125 Section § 1500.125 Commercial Practices CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION FEDERAL... REGULATIONS § 1500.125 Labeling requirements for accompanying literature. When any accompanying literature...

  4. Study on feasibility of laser reflective tomography with satellite-accompany

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gu, Yu; Hu, Yi-hua; Hao, Shi-qi; Gu, You-lin; Zhao, Nan-xiang; Wang, Yang-yang

    2015-10-01

    Laser reflective tomography is a long-range, high-resolution active detection technology, whose advantage is that the spatial resolution is unrelated with the imaging distance. Accompany satellite is a specific satellite around the target spacecraft with encircling movement. When using the accompany satellite to detect the target aircraft, multi-angle echo data can be obtained with the application of reflective tomography imaging. The feasibility of such detection working mode was studied in this article. Accompany orbit model was established with horizontal circular fleet and the parameters of accompany flight was defined. The simulation of satellite-to-satellite reflective tomography imaging with satellite-accompany was carried out. The operating mode of reflective tomographic data acquisition from monostatic laser radar was discussed and designed. The flight period, which equals to the all direction received data consuming time, is one of the important accompany flight parameters. The azimuth angle determines the plane of image formation while the elevation angle determines the projection direction. Both of the azimuth and elevation angles guide the satellite attitude stability controller in order to point the laser radar spot on the target. The influences of distance between accompany satellite and target satellite on tomographic imaging consuming time was analyzed. The influences of flight period, azimuth angle and elevation angle on tomographic imaging were analyzed as well. Simulation results showed that the satellite-accompany laser reflective tomography is a feasible and effective method to the satellite-to-satellite detection.

  5. Who accompanies children to a dental hospital appointment?

    PubMed

    Virdee, P K; Rodd, H D

    2007-06-01

    To determine who accompanies paediatric dental patients to their appointments, in a teaching hospital setting. Data were recorded prospectively for children attending the Paediatric Dentistry clinic of the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, Sheffield, England, over 4 months which included two school holiday periods. The data were recorded on a standardised data collection sheet, which included age and gender of the patient; number/s of accompanying adults and children and their relationship to the patient; the appointment session and appointment type. A total of 394 paediatric dental visits were recorded. Patients were of a mean age of 10 (range 1-17 years). Most visits were for treatment (44.7%) and review (39.8%), with a much smaller proportion being new patient assessments (8.9%) and emergency appointments (6.6%). The numbers of afternoon and morning sessions recorded were approximately similar and 35% of the visits were recorded in a school holiday day. The majority of patients attended with at least one parent (91.6%). A parent was most likely to attend a new patient assessment (97.1%) or review visit (94.3%). Parental presence was less likely for treatment (89%) and least likely for emergency visits (84%). Most patients attended with their mother (62.1%). Patients were less frequently accompanied by parents (13.1%), their father (12.1%) and one or both grandparents (4.3%). Smaller proportions were accompanied by older siblings, a step parent, other relatives or foster carers. Two patients attended unaccompanied. The time of day, or whether it was a school holiday period or not, did not influence parental presence or the numbers of adults accompanying patients. However the additional presence of other children (non patients) was more likely on morning sessions and during school holidays. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA), an independent sample t-test or chi-squared tests were undertaken as appropriate to determine whether there were any significant

  6. Bioinspired Zwitterionic Surface Coatings with Robust Photostability and Fouling Resistance.

    PubMed

    Huang, Chun-Jen; Chu, Sz-Hau; Wang, Lin-Chuan; Li, Chien-Hung; Lee, T Randall

    2015-10-28

    Great care has been paid to the biointerface between a bulk material and the biological environment, which plays a key role in the optimized performance of medical devices. In this work, we report a new superhydrophilic adsorbate, called L-cysteine betaine (Cys-b), having branched zwitterionic groups that give rise to surfaces and nanoparticles with enhanced chemical stability, biofouling resistance, and inertness to environmental changes. Cys-b was synthesized from the amphoteric sulfur-containing amino acid, L-cysteine (Cys), by quaternization of its amino group. Gold surfaces modified with Cys-b exhibited prominent repellence against the nonspecific adsorption of proteins, bacteria, and fibroblast cells. In addition, Cys-b existed in zwitterionic form over a wide pH range (i.e., pH 3.4 to 10.8), and showed excellent suppression in photoinduced oxidation on gold substrates. Furthermore, the modification of hollow Ag@Au nanoshells with Cys-b gave rise to nanoparticles with excellent colloidal stability and resistance to coordinative interaction with Cu(2+). Taken together, the unique features of Cys-b offer a new nanoscale coating for use in a wide spectrum of applications.

  7. Telomerase and drug resistance in cancer.

    PubMed

    Lipinska, Natalia; Romaniuk, Aleksandra; Paszel-Jaworska, Anna; Toton, Ewa; Kopczynski, Przemyslaw; Rubis, Blazej

    2017-11-01

    It is well known that a decreased expression or inhibited activity of telomerase in cancer cells is accompanied by an increased sensitivity to some drugs (e.g., doxorubicin, cisplatin, or 5-fluorouracil). However, the mechanism of the resistance resulting from telomerase alteration remains elusive. There are theories claiming that it might be associated with telomere shortening, genome instability, hTERT translocation, mitochondria functioning modulation, or even alterations in ABC family gene expression. However, association of those mechanisms, i.e., drug resistance and telomerase alterations, is not fully understood yet. We review the current theories on the aspect of the role of telomerase in cancer cells resistance to therapy. We believe that revealing/unravelling this correlation might significantly contribute to an increased efficiency of cancer cells elimination, especially the most difficult ones, i.e., drug resistant.

  8. Global Analysis of the Evolution and Mechanism of Echinocandin Resistance in Candida glabrata

    PubMed Central

    Singh-Babak, Sheena D.; Babak, Tomas; Diezmann, Stephanie; Hill, Jessica A.; Xie, Jinglin Lucy; Chen, Ying-Lien; Poutanen, Susan M.; Rennie, Robert P.; Heitman, Joseph; Cowen, Leah E.

    2012-01-01

    The evolution of drug resistance has a profound impact on human health. Candida glabrata is a leading human fungal pathogen that can rapidly evolve resistance to echinocandins, which target cell wall biosynthesis and are front-line therapeutics for Candida infections. Here, we provide the first global analysis of mutations accompanying the evolution of fungal drug resistance in a human host utilizing a series of C. glabrata isolates that evolved echinocandin resistance in a patient treated with the echinocandin caspofungin for recurring bloodstream candidemia. Whole genome sequencing identified a mutation in the drug target, FKS2, accompanying a major resistance increase, and 8 additional non-synonymous mutations. The FKS2-T1987C mutation was sufficient for echinocandin resistance, and associated with a fitness cost that was mitigated with further evolution, observed in vitro and in a murine model of systemic candidemia. A CDC6-A511G(K171E) mutation acquired before FKS2-T1987C(S663P), conferred a small resistance increase. Elevated dosage of CDC55, which acquired a C463T(P155S) mutation after FKS2-T1987C(S663P), ameliorated fitness. To discover strategies to abrogate echinocandin resistance, we focused on the molecular chaperone Hsp90 and downstream effector calcineurin. Genetic or pharmacological compromise of Hsp90 or calcineurin function reduced basal tolerance and resistance. Hsp90 and calcineurin were required for caspofungin-dependent FKS2 induction, providing a mechanism governing echinocandin resistance. A mitochondrial respiration-defective petite mutant in the series revealed that the petite phenotype does not confer echinocandin resistance, but renders strains refractory to synergy between echinocandins and Hsp90 or calcineurin inhibitors. The kidneys of mice infected with the petite mutant were sterile, while those infected with the HSP90-repressible strain had reduced fungal burden. We provide the first global view of mutations accompanying the

  9. High-throughput electrical characterization for robust overlay lithography control

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Devender, Devender; Shen, Xumin; Duggan, Mark; Singh, Sunil; Rullan, Jonathan; Choo, Jae; Mehta, Sohan; Tang, Teck Jung; Reidy, Sean; Holt, Jonathan; Kim, Hyung Woo; Fox, Robert; Sohn, D. K.

    2017-03-01

    Realizing sensitive, high throughput and robust overlay measurement is a challenge in current 14nm and advanced upcoming nodes with transition to 300mm and upcoming 450mm semiconductor manufacturing, where slight deviation in overlay has significant impact on reliability and yield1). Exponentially increasing number of critical masks in multi-patterning lithoetch, litho-etch (LELE) and subsequent LELELE semiconductor processes require even tighter overlay specification2). Here, we discuss limitations of current image- and diffraction- based overlay measurement techniques to meet these stringent processing requirements due to sensitivity, throughput and low contrast3). We demonstrate a new electrical measurement based technique where resistance is measured for a macro with intentional misalignment between two layers. Overlay is quantified by a parabolic fitting model to resistance where minima and inflection points are extracted to characterize overlay control and process window, respectively. Analyses using transmission electron microscopy show good correlation between actual overlay performance and overlay obtained from fitting. Additionally, excellent correlation of overlay from electrical measurements to existing image- and diffraction- based techniques is found. We also discuss challenges of integrating electrical measurement based approach in semiconductor manufacturing from Back End of Line (BEOL) perspective. Our findings open up a new pathway for accessing simultaneous overlay as well as process window and margins from a robust, high throughput and electrical measurement approach.

  10. Pigmentary glaucoma accompanied by Usher syndrome.

    PubMed

    Koucheki, Behrooz; Jalali, Kamran Hodjat

    2012-08-01

    To report a case of pigmentary glaucoma (PG) accompanied by Usher syndrome. Case report. The results were presented after standard ocular examination, visual field test, anterior segment and fundus photography, electroretinography, and otolaryngology consultation were conducted. Typical retinitis pigmentosa, flat electroretinography, congenital sensorineural hearing loss, high intraocular pressure, Krukenberg spindle, iris concavity, radial iris transillumination defect, severe pigment deposition on the trabecular meshwork, and glaucomatous optic nerve damage were indicative of PG accompanied by Usher syndrome. In some rare cases, PG may coexist with Usher syndrome. Common findings of Usher syndrome, including night blindness, impaired vision, visual field defects, and retinal changes may distract the clinician from considering the diagnosis of glaucoma. Such association should be borne in mind to make a timely diagnosis and treatment possible.

  11. 5 CFR 581.203 - Information minimally required to accompany legal process.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... accompany legal process. 581.203 Section 581.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT... Process § 581.203 Information minimally required to accompany legal process. (a) Sufficient identifying information must accompany the legal process in order to enable processing by the governmental entity named...

  12. 5 CFR 581.203 - Information minimally required to accompany legal process.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... accompany legal process. 581.203 Section 581.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT... Process § 581.203 Information minimally required to accompany legal process. (a) Sufficient identifying information must accompany the legal process in order to enable processing by the governmental entity named...

  13. 5 CFR 581.203 - Information minimally required to accompany legal process.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... accompany legal process. 581.203 Section 581.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT... Process § 581.203 Information minimally required to accompany legal process. (a) Sufficient identifying information must accompany the legal process in order to enable processing by the governmental entity named...

  14. 5 CFR 581.203 - Information minimally required to accompany legal process.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... accompany legal process. 581.203 Section 581.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT... Process § 581.203 Information minimally required to accompany legal process. (a) Sufficient identifying information must accompany the legal process in order to enable processing by the governmental entity named...

  15. 5 CFR 581.203 - Information minimally required to accompany legal process.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... accompany legal process. 581.203 Section 581.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT... Process § 581.203 Information minimally required to accompany legal process. (a) Sufficient identifying information must accompany the legal process in order to enable processing by the governmental entity named...

  16. A robust H.264/AVC video watermarking scheme with drift compensation.

    PubMed

    Jiang, Xinghao; Sun, Tanfeng; Zhou, Yue; Wang, Wan; Shi, Yun-Qing

    2014-01-01

    A robust H.264/AVC video watermarking scheme for copyright protection with self-adaptive drift compensation is proposed. In our scheme, motion vector residuals of macroblocks with the smallest partition size are selected to hide copyright information in order to hold visual impact and distortion drift to a minimum. Drift compensation is also implemented to reduce the influence of watermark to the most extent. Besides, discrete cosine transform (DCT) with energy compact property is applied to the motion vector residual group, which can ensure robustness against intentional attacks. According to the experimental results, this scheme gains excellent imperceptibility and low bit-rate increase. Malicious attacks with different quantization parameters (QPs) or motion estimation algorithms can be resisted efficiently, with 80% accuracy on average after lossy compression.

  17. Defining robustness protocols: a method to include and evaluate robustness in clinical plans

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McGowan, S. E.; Albertini, F.; Thomas, S. J.; Lomax, A. J.

    2015-04-01

    We aim to define a site-specific robustness protocol to be used during the clinical plan evaluation process. Plan robustness of 16 skull base IMPT plans to systematic range and random set-up errors have been retrospectively and systematically analysed. This was determined by calculating the error-bar dose distribution (ebDD) for all the plans and by defining some metrics used to define protocols aiding the plan assessment. Additionally, an example of how to clinically use the defined robustness database is given whereby a plan with sub-optimal brainstem robustness was identified. The advantage of using different beam arrangements to improve the plan robustness was analysed. Using the ebDD it was found range errors had a smaller effect on dose distribution than the corresponding set-up error in a single fraction, and that organs at risk were most robust to the range errors, whereas the target was more robust to set-up errors. A database was created to aid planners in terms of plan robustness aims in these volumes. This resulted in the definition of site-specific robustness protocols. The use of robustness constraints allowed for the identification of a specific patient that may have benefited from a treatment of greater individuality. A new beam arrangement showed to be preferential when balancing conformality and robustness for this case. The ebDD and error-bar volume histogram proved effective in analysing plan robustness. The process of retrospective analysis could be used to establish site-specific robustness planning protocols in proton therapy. These protocols allow the planner to determine plans that, although delivering a dosimetrically adequate dose distribution, have resulted in sub-optimal robustness to these uncertainties. For these cases the use of different beam start conditions may improve the plan robustness to set-up and range uncertainties.

  18. Critical thinking of student nurses during clinical accompaniment.

    PubMed

    Uys, B Y; Meyer, S M

    2005-08-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the methods of clinical accompaniment used by clinical facilitators in practice. The findings of the study also reflected facilitators' perceptions regarding critical thinking and the facilitation thereof. A quantitative research design was used. A literature study was conducted to identify the methods of accompaniment that facilitate critical thinking. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire developed for that purpose. Making a content-related validity judgment, and involving seven clinical facilitators in an academic institution, ensured the validity of the questionnaire. The results of the study indicated that various clinical methods of accompaniment were used. To a large extent, these methods correlated with those discussed in the literature review. The researcher further concluded that the concepts 'critical thinking' and 'facilitation' were not interpreted correctly by the respondents, and would therefore not be implemented in a proper manner in nursing practice. Furthermore, it seemed evident that tutor-driven learning realised more often than student-driven learning. In this regard, the requirement of outcomes-based education was not satisfied. The researcher is therefore of the opinion that a practical programme for the development of critical thinking skills during clinical accompaniment must be developed within the framework of outcomes-based education.

  19. Ocular myasthenia gravis accompanied by anosmia.

    PubMed

    Chen, Ying; Wang, Li; Zhou, Li; Gao, Ying

    2016-02-01

    We report a case of ocular myasthenia gravis (MG) accompanied by anosmia. A 76-year-old man had idiopathic anosmia of 2-year duration. Four months before consultation, he began to have drooping in the right upper eyelid along with muscle soreness, distension, and pain in the nape. His tongue was dark-red with a thin and white coating; his pulse was wiry and slippery. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, eyelid drooping and anosmia are the main signs of liver constraint and spleen deficiency. In Western Medicine, the diagnosis was ocular MG and idiopathic anosmia. Our patient, along with the literature, suggests that anosmia may be an early symptom before MG. MG accompanied by anosmia could be a special subtype of MG according to antibody production and symptoms.

  20. 9 CFR 93.314 - Horses, certification, and accompanying equipment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ..., certification, and accompanying equipment. (a) Horses offered for importation from any part of the world shall... region of origin, or if exported from Mexico, shall be accompanied either by such a certificate or by a... were imported from regions affected with CEM. (b) If a horse is presented for importation from a region...

  1. Mechanisms for Robust Cognition.

    PubMed

    Walsh, Matthew M; Gluck, Kevin A

    2015-08-01

    To function well in an unpredictable environment using unreliable components, a system must have a high degree of robustness. Robustness is fundamental to biological systems and is an objective in the design of engineered systems such as airplane engines and buildings. Cognitive systems, like biological and engineered systems, exist within variable environments. This raises the question, how do cognitive systems achieve similarly high degrees of robustness? The aim of this study was to identify a set of mechanisms that enhance robustness in cognitive systems. We identify three mechanisms that enhance robustness in biological and engineered systems: system control, redundancy, and adaptability. After surveying the psychological literature for evidence of these mechanisms, we provide simulations illustrating how each contributes to robust cognition in a different psychological domain: psychomotor vigilance, semantic memory, and strategy selection. These simulations highlight features of a mathematical approach for quantifying robustness, and they provide concrete examples of mechanisms for robust cognition. © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  2. Robust hashing for 3D models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berchtold, Waldemar; Schäfer, Marcel; Rettig, Michael; Steinebach, Martin

    2014-02-01

    3D models and applications are of utmost interest in both science and industry. With the increment of their usage, their number and thereby the challenge to correctly identify them increases. Content identification is commonly done by cryptographic hashes. However, they fail as a solution in application scenarios such as computer aided design (CAD), scientific visualization or video games, because even the smallest alteration of the 3D model, e.g. conversion or compression operations, massively changes the cryptographic hash as well. Therefore, this work presents a robust hashing algorithm for 3D mesh data. The algorithm applies several different bit extraction methods. They are built to resist desired alterations of the model as well as malicious attacks intending to prevent correct allocation. The different bit extraction methods are tested against each other and, as far as possible, the hashing algorithm is compared to the state of the art. The parameters tested are robustness, security and runtime performance as well as False Acceptance Rate (FAR) and False Rejection Rate (FRR), also the probability calculation of hash collision is included. The introduced hashing algorithm is kept adaptive e.g. in hash length, to serve as a proper tool for all applications in practice.

  3. Metastatic Basal cell carcinoma accompanying gorlin syndrome.

    PubMed

    Bilir, Yeliz; Gokce, Erkan; Ozturk, Banu; Deresoy, Faik Alev; Yuksekkaya, Ruken; Yaman, Emel

    2014-01-01

    Gorlin-Goltz syndrome or basal cell nevus syndrome is an autosomal dominant syndrome characterized by skeletal anomalies, numerous cysts observed in the jaw, and multiple basal cell carcinoma of the skin, which may be accompanied by falx cerebri calcification. Basal cell carcinoma is the most commonly skin tumor with slow clinical course and low metastatic potential. Its concomitance with Gorlin syndrome, resulting from a mutation in a tumor suppressor gene, may substantially change morbidity and mortality. A 66-year-old male patient with a history of recurrent basal cell carcinoma was presented with exophthalmus in the left eye and the lesions localized in the left lateral orbita and left zygomatic area. His physical examination revealed hearing loss, gapped teeth, highly arched palate, and frontal prominence. Left orbital mass, cystic masses at frontal and ethmoidal sinuses, and multiple pulmonary nodules were detected at CT scans. Basal cell carcinoma was diagnosed from biopsy of ethmoid sinus. Based on the clinical and typical radiological characteristics (falx cerebri calcification, bifid costa, and odontogenic cysts), the patient was diagnosed with metastatic skin basal cell carcinoma accompanied by Gorlin syndrome. Our case is a basal cell carcinoma with aggressive course accompanying a rarely seen syndrome.

  4. A Robust H.264/AVC Video Watermarking Scheme with Drift Compensation

    PubMed Central

    Sun, Tanfeng; Zhou, Yue; Shi, Yun-Qing

    2014-01-01

    A robust H.264/AVC video watermarking scheme for copyright protection with self-adaptive drift compensation is proposed. In our scheme, motion vector residuals of macroblocks with the smallest partition size are selected to hide copyright information in order to hold visual impact and distortion drift to a minimum. Drift compensation is also implemented to reduce the influence of watermark to the most extent. Besides, discrete cosine transform (DCT) with energy compact property is applied to the motion vector residual group, which can ensure robustness against intentional attacks. According to the experimental results, this scheme gains excellent imperceptibility and low bit-rate increase. Malicious attacks with different quantization parameters (QPs) or motion estimation algorithms can be resisted efficiently, with 80% accuracy on average after lossy compression. PMID:24672376

  5. Robust Fault Detection Using Robust Z1 Estimation and Fuzzy Logic

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Curry, Tramone; Collins, Emmanuel G., Jr.; Selekwa, Majura; Guo, Ten-Huei (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    This research considers the application of robust Z(sub 1), estimation in conjunction with fuzzy logic to robust fault detection for an aircraft fight control system. It begins with the development of robust Z(sub 1) estimators based on multiplier theory and then develops a fixed threshold approach to fault detection (FD). It then considers the use of fuzzy logic for robust residual evaluation and FD. Due to modeling errors and unmeasurable disturbances, it is difficult to distinguish between the effects of an actual fault and those caused by uncertainty and disturbance. Hence, it is the aim of a robust FD system to be sensitive to faults while remaining insensitive to uncertainty and disturbances. While fixed thresholds only allow a decision on whether a fault has or has not occurred, it is more valuable to have the residual evaluation lead to a conclusion related to the degree of, or probability of, a fault. Fuzzy logic is a viable means of determining the degree of a fault and allows the introduction of human observations that may not be incorporated in the rigorous threshold theory. Hence, fuzzy logic can provide a more reliable and informative fault detection process. Using an aircraft flight control system, the results of FD using robust Z(sub 1) estimation with a fixed threshold are demonstrated. FD that combines robust Z(sub 1) estimation and fuzzy logic is also demonstrated. It is seen that combining the robust estimator with fuzzy logic proves to be advantageous in increasing the sensitivity to smaller faults while remaining insensitive to uncertainty and disturbances.

  6. Rapid evolution of disease resistance is accompanied by functional changes in gene expression in a wild bird

    PubMed Central

    Bonneaud, Camille; Balenger, Susan L.; Russell, Andrew F.; Zhang, Jiangwen; Hill, Geoffrey E.; Edwards, Scott V.

    2011-01-01

    Wild organisms are under increasing pressure to adapt rapidly to environmental changes. Predicting the impact of these changes on natural populations requires an understanding of the speed with which adaptive phenotypes can arise and spread, as well as of the underlying mechanisms. However, our understanding of these parameters is poor in natural populations. Here we use experimental and molecular approaches to investigate the recent emergence of resistance in eastern populations of North American house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) to Mycoplasma galliseptum (MG), a severe conjunctivitis-causing bacterium. Two weeks following an experimental infection that took place in 2007, finches from eastern US populations with a 12-y history of exposure to MG harbored 33% lower MG loads in their conjunctivae than finches from western US populations with no prior exposure to MG. Using a cDNA microarray, we show that this phenotypic difference in resistance was associated with differences in splenic gene expression, with finches from the exposed populations up-regulating immune genes postinfection and those from the unexposed populations generally down-regulating them. The expression response of western US birds to experimental infection in 2007 was more similar to that of the eastern US birds studied in 2000, 7 y earlier in the epizootic, than to that of eastern birds in 2007. These results support the hypothesis that resistance has evolved by natural selection in the exposed populations over the 12 y of the epizootic. We hypothesize that host resistance arose and spread from standing genetic variation in the eastern US and highlight that natural selection can lead to rapid phenotypic evolution in populations when acting on such variation. PMID:21525409

  7. Arabidopsis non-host resistance to powdery mildews.

    PubMed

    Lipka, Ulrike; Fuchs, Rene; Lipka, Volker

    2008-08-01

    Immunity of an entire plant species against all genetic variants of a particular parasite is referred to as non-host resistance. Although non-host resistance represents the most common and durable form of plant resistance in nature, it has thus far been poorly understood at the molecular level. Recently, novel model systems have established the first mechanistic insights. The genetic dissection of Arabidopsis non-host resistance to non-adapted biotrophic powdery mildew fungi provided evidence for functionally redundant but operationally distinct pre- and post-invasion immune responses. Conceptually, these complex and successive defence mechanisms explain the durable and robust nature of non-host resistance. Pathogen lifestyle and infection biology, ecological parameters and the evolutionary relationship of the interaction partners determine differences and commonalities in other model systems.

  8. Improvement of mechanical robustness of the superhydrophobic wood surface by coating PVA/SiO2 composite polymer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Feng; Wang, Shuliang; Zhang, Ming; Ma, Miaolian; Wang, Chengyu; Li, Jian

    2013-09-01

    Improvement of the robustness of superhydrophobic surfaces is crucial for the purpose of achieving commercial applications of these surfaces in such various areas as self-cleaning, water repellency and corrosion resistance. We have investigated a fabrication of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/silica (SiO2) composite polymer coating on wooden substrates with super repellency toward water, low sliding angles, low contact angle hysteresis, and relatively better mechanical robustness. The composite polymer slurry, consisting of well-mixing SiO2 particles and PVA, is prepared simply and subsequently coated over wooden substrates with good adhesion. In this study, the mechanical robustness of superhydrophobic wood surfaces was evaluated. The effect of petaloid structures of the composite polymer on robustness was investigated using an abrasion test and the results were compared with those of superhydrophobic wood surfaces fabricated by other processes. The produced wood surfaces exhibited promising superhydrophobic properties with a contact angle of 159̊ and a sliding angle of 4̊, and the relatively better mechanical robustness.

  9. Robustness Analysis and Optimally Robust Control Design via Sum-of-Squares

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dorobantu, Andrei; Crespo, Luis G.; Seiler, Peter J.

    2012-01-01

    A control analysis and design framework is proposed for systems subject to parametric uncertainty. The underlying strategies are based on sum-of-squares (SOS) polynomial analysis and nonlinear optimization to design an optimally robust controller. The approach determines a maximum uncertainty range for which the closed-loop system satisfies a set of stability and performance requirements. These requirements, de ned as inequality constraints on several metrics, are restricted to polynomial functions of the uncertainty. To quantify robustness, SOS analysis is used to prove that the closed-loop system complies with the requirements for a given uncertainty range. The maximum uncertainty range, calculated by assessing a sequence of increasingly larger ranges, serves as a robustness metric for the closed-loop system. To optimize the control design, nonlinear optimization is used to enlarge the maximum uncertainty range by tuning the controller gains. Hence, the resulting controller is optimally robust to parametric uncertainty. This approach balances the robustness margins corresponding to each requirement in order to maximize the aggregate system robustness. The proposed framework is applied to a simple linear short-period aircraft model with uncertain aerodynamic coefficients.

  10. Metastatic Basal Cell Carcinoma Accompanying Gorlin Syndrome

    PubMed Central

    Bilir, Yeliz; Gokce, Erkan; Ozturk, Banu; Deresoy, Faik Alev; Yuksekkaya, Ruken; Yaman, Emel

    2014-01-01

    Gorlin-Goltz syndrome or basal cell nevus syndrome is an autosomal dominant syndrome characterized by skeletal anomalies, numerous cysts observed in the jaw, and multiple basal cell carcinoma of the skin, which may be accompanied by falx cerebri calcification. Basal cell carcinoma is the most commonly skin tumor with slow clinical course and low metastatic potential. Its concomitance with Gorlin syndrome, resulting from a mutation in a tumor suppressor gene, may substantially change morbidity and mortality. A 66-year-old male patient with a history of recurrent basal cell carcinoma was presented with exophthalmus in the left eye and the lesions localized in the left lateral orbita and left zygomatic area. His physical examination revealed hearing loss, gapped teeth, highly arched palate, and frontal prominence. Left orbital mass, cystic masses at frontal and ethmoidal sinuses, and multiple pulmonary nodules were detected at CT scans. Basal cell carcinoma was diagnosed from biopsy of ethmoid sinus. Based on the clinical and typical radiological characteristics (falx cerebri calcification, bifid costa, and odontogenic cysts), the patient was diagnosed with metastatic skin basal cell carcinoma accompanied by Gorlin syndrome. Our case is a basal cell carcinoma with aggressive course accompanying a rarely seen syndrome. PMID:25506011

  11. Robust odd-parity superconductivity in the doped topological insulator NbxBi2Se3

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smylie, M. P.; Willa, K.; Claus, H.; Snezhko, A.; Martin, I.; Kwok, W.-K.; Qiu, Y.; Hor, Y. S.; Bokari, E.; Niraula, P.; Kayani, A.; Mishra, V.; Welp, U.

    2017-09-01

    We present resistivity and magnetization measurements on proton-irradiated crystals demonstrating that the superconducting state in the doped topological insulator NbxBi2Se3 (x =0.25 ) is surprisingly robust against disorder-induced electron scattering. The superconducting transition temperature Tc decreases without indication of saturation with increasing defect concentration, and the corresponding scattering rates far surpass expectations based on conventional theory. The low-temperature variation of the London penetration depth Δ λ (T ) follows a power law [Δ λ (T ) ˜T2] indicating the presence of symmetry-protected point nodes. Our results are consistent with the proposed robust nematic Eu pairing state in this material.

  12. A case of peribiliary cysts accompanying bile duct carcinoma

    PubMed Central

    Miura, Fumihiko; Takada, Tadahiro; Amano, Hodaka; Yoshida, Masahiro; Isaka, Takahiro; Toyota, Naoyuki; Wada, Keita; Takagi, Kenji; Kato, Kenichiro

    2006-01-01

    A rare case of peribiliary cysts accompanying bile duct carcinoma is presented. A 54-year-old man was diagnosed as having lower bile duct carcinoma and peribiliary cysts by diagnostic imaging. He underwent pylorus preserving pancreatoduodenectomy. As for the peribiliary cysts, a course of observation was taken. Over surgery due to misdiagnosis of patients with biliary malignancy accompanied by peribiliary cysts should be avoided. PMID:16874882

  13. Water-based acrylate copolymer/silica hybrids for facile preparation of robust and durable superhydrophobic coatings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Meng; Li, Yu; Xue, Fang; Jing, Xinli

    2018-07-01

    Resin based superhydrophobic coatings are effective to construct robust superhydrophobic surfaces on large scale without limitation of substrates. However, for most of the common resin based superhydrophobic coatings, it is inevitable to deteriorate environmental or health problems due to release of a large amount volatile solvents. In this work, a kind of water-based organic/inorganic hybrid consisted of acrylate copolymers and superhydrophobic silica nanoparticles were synthesized. The highly water-repellent silica nanoparticles were successfully involved into the aqueous dispersion of acrylate copolymers without additional surfactants. The as-synthesized hybrids simultaneously retain the excellent film-forming property of acrylate resins and amplify the contributions of low surface energy nanoparticles to the superhydrophobicity. Robust superhydrophobic coatings (CA > 160°, CA < 7°) with high adhesion strength, good scratch-resistance and excellent abrasion-resistance were constructed using the synthesized hybrids with significantly reduced content of low surface energy particles and organic solvent. The hybrid coating can stand abrasion up to 300 cycles with a fine sand paper and up to 1200 cycles under rough sand paper abrasion. Benefited from its good water-repellence property, the hybrid coating with a water-based formula not only showed improved water-resistance in comparison with commercial products; but also displayed attractive performances in self-cleaning and oil/water separation processes.

  14. 7 CFR 319.37-12 - Prohibited articles accompanying restricted articles.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Prohibited articles accompanying restricted articles... Stock, Plants, Roots, Bulbs, Seeds, and Other Plant Products 1,2 § 319.37-12 Prohibited articles accompanying restricted articles. A restricted article for importation into the United States shall not be...

  15. 7 CFR 319.37-12 - Prohibited articles accompanying restricted articles.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 5 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Prohibited articles accompanying restricted articles... Stock, Plants, Roots, Bulbs, Seeds, and Other Plant Products 1,2 § 319.37-12 Prohibited articles accompanying restricted articles. A restricted article for importation into the United States shall not be...

  16. Toward a bioethical framework for antibiotic use, antimicrobial resistance and for empirically designing ethically robust strategies to protect human health: a research protocol

    PubMed Central

    Martins Pereira, Sandra; de Sá Brandão, Patrícia Joana; Araújo, Joana; Carvalho, Ana Sofia

    2017-01-01

    Introduction Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a challenging global and public health issue, raising bioethical challenges, considerations and strategies. Objectives This research protocol presents a conceptual model leading to formulating an empirically based bioethics framework for antibiotic use, AMR and designing ethically robust strategies to protect human health. Methods Mixed methods research will be used and operationalized into five substudies. The bioethical framework will encompass and integrate two theoretical models: global bioethics and ethical decision-making. Results Being a study protocol, this article reports on planned and ongoing research. Conclusions Based on data collection, future findings and using a comprehensive, integrative, evidence-based approach, a step-by-step bioethical framework will be developed for (i) responsible use of antibiotics in healthcare and (ii) design of strategies to decrease AMR. This will entail the analysis and interpretation of approaches from several bioethical theories, including deontological and consequentialist approaches, and the implications of uncertainty to these approaches. PMID:28459355

  17. Retrospective robustness of the continual reassessment method.

    PubMed

    O'Quigley, John; Zohar, Sarah

    2010-09-01

    We study model sensitivity of the continual reassessment method (CRM). The context is that of dose-finding designs where certain design parameters are fixed by the investigator. Although our focus is on the CRM (O'Quigley et al., 1990), the essential ideas can be applied to any sequential dose-finding method. It is expected that different choices of a model family and particular parameterizations will have an impact on performance. Assuming that the constraints outlined in Shen and O'Quigley (1996) are respected, large sample performance is unaffected. However small sample performance will be affected by these choices, which are to some degree arbitrary. This work focuses on the retrospective robustness of the CRM in practice. The question is not of a general theoretical nature where, in the background, we would want to consider large numbers of true potential situations. Instead, the question is raised in the specific context of any actual completed study and is the following: Would we have come to the same conclusion concerning the MTD had we worked with a design specified differently? The sequential nature of the CRM means that this question cannot be answered in any definitive way. We can, though, by appealing to the retrospective CRM (O'Quigley, 2005), provide consistent estimates of the relationships between the MTD and the chosen model. If these estimates suggest that changes in different family model parameters will be accompanied by changes in final recommendation, then we would not be confident in the reliability of the estimated MTD and more work would be needed. Also, of course, at the planning stage, prospective robustness could be studied by simulating trials using particular models and parameterizations.

  18. Extendibility of chemically amplified resists: another brick wall?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hinsberg, William D.; Houle, Frances A.; Sanchez, Martha I.; Hoffnagle, John A.; Wallraff, Gregory M.; Medeiros, David R.; Gallatin, Gregg M.; Cobb, Jonathan L.

    2003-06-01

    The chemically amplified resist concept, first described two decades past and originally targeted for the 1000 nm device generation, has proved to have remarkable versatility. The semiconductor industry has come to rely on the properties of CA resists to achieve high resolution, high aspect ratio imaging accompanied by the high throughput that stems from their catalytic imaging mechanism. As the industry maps the evolution of lithographic technology to the 20 nm regime, it is appropriate to review the factors that control the performance of CA resists, and examine whether the traditional evolutionary path of materials refinement will provide materials capable of supporting device manufacturing at those dimensions. The impacts of image blur, line-edge roughness and shot noise on the ability to image CA resists at nanoscale dimensions will be discussed.

  19. 31 CFR 560.507 - Accompanied baggage authorized.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... the United States directly or indirectly from Iran are authorized to import into the United States... Iran are authorized to export from the United States accompanied baggage normally incident to travel...

  20. 31 CFR 560.507 - Accompanied baggage authorized.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... the United States directly or indirectly from Iran are authorized to import into the United States... Iran are authorized to export from the United States accompanied baggage normally incident to travel...

  1. 22 CFR 40.102 - Guardian required to accompany excluded alien.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Guardian required to accompany excluded alien. 40.102 Section 40.102 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE VISAS REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO BOTH... Guardian required to accompany excluded alien. INA 212(a)(9)(B) is not applicable at the time of visa...

  2. 22 CFR 40.102 - Guardian required to accompany excluded alien.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Guardian required to accompany excluded alien. 40.102 Section 40.102 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE VISAS REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO BOTH... Guardian required to accompany excluded alien. INA 212(a)(9)(B) is not applicable at the time of visa...

  3. 22 CFR 40.102 - Guardian required to accompany excluded alien.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Guardian required to accompany excluded alien. 40.102 Section 40.102 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE VISAS REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO BOTH... Guardian required to accompany excluded alien. INA 212(a)(9)(B) is not applicable at the time of visa...

  4. 22 CFR 40.102 - Guardian required to accompany excluded alien.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Guardian required to accompany excluded alien. 40.102 Section 40.102 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE VISAS REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO BOTH... Guardian required to accompany excluded alien. INA 212(a)(9)(B) is not applicable at the time of visa...

  5. 22 CFR 40.102 - Guardian required to accompany excluded alien.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Guardian required to accompany excluded alien. 40.102 Section 40.102 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE VISAS REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO BOTH... Guardian required to accompany excluded alien. INA 212(a)(9)(B) is not applicable at the time of visa...

  6. 30 CFR 250.212 - What information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... management information required by § 250.226; (o) Environmental impact analysis information required by § 250... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What information must accompany the EP? 250.212... and Information Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 250.212 What information must accompany the EP...

  7. Phenotypic changes associated with the fitness cost in antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli strains.

    PubMed

    Suzuki, Shingo; Horinouchi, Takaaki; Furusawa, Chikara

    2016-02-01

    the acquisition of antibiotic resistance in bacterial cells is often accompanied with a reduction of fitness in the absence of antibiotics, known as the "fitness cost". The magnitude of this fitness cost is an important biological parameter that influences the degree to which antibiotic resistant strains become widespread. However, the relationship between the fitness cost and comprehensive phenotypic and genotypic changes remains unclear. Here, we quantified the fitness cost of resistant strains obtained by experimental evolution in the presence of various antibiotics, and analyzed how the cost correlated to phenotypic and genotypic changes in the resistant strains. we measured the specific growth rate of the resistant strains in the presence of various concentrations of drugs or in their absence. In the absence of drugs, the resistant strains showed reductions of approximately 20% to 50% in growth rate compared with the parent strain, which corresponded to the fitness cost. We found that the decrease of the specific growth rate was correlated with overall expression changes between the parent and resistant strains, measured by the Euclid distance between expression profiles. We also found that there are a number of genes whose changes in expression levels were significantly correlated with the growth rate, which may account for the observed correlation between the fitness cost and overall expression changes. our analysis provides a basis for quantitative understanding of the mechanism of the fitness cost. This understanding may provide clues on how to influence the fitness cost that accompanies resistance acquisition and consequently how to limit the spread of antibiotic resistant strains.

  8. Robust Bayesian clustering.

    PubMed

    Archambeau, Cédric; Verleysen, Michel

    2007-01-01

    A new variational Bayesian learning algorithm for Student-t mixture models is introduced. This algorithm leads to (i) robust density estimation, (ii) robust clustering and (iii) robust automatic model selection. Gaussian mixture models are learning machines which are based on a divide-and-conquer approach. They are commonly used for density estimation and clustering tasks, but are sensitive to outliers. The Student-t distribution has heavier tails than the Gaussian distribution and is therefore less sensitive to any departure of the empirical distribution from Gaussianity. As a consequence, the Student-t distribution is suitable for constructing robust mixture models. In this work, we formalize the Bayesian Student-t mixture model as a latent variable model in a different way from Svensén and Bishop [Svensén, M., & Bishop, C. M. (2005). Robust Bayesian mixture modelling. Neurocomputing, 64, 235-252]. The main difference resides in the fact that it is not necessary to assume a factorized approximation of the posterior distribution on the latent indicator variables and the latent scale variables in order to obtain a tractable solution. Not neglecting the correlations between these unobserved random variables leads to a Bayesian model having an increased robustness. Furthermore, it is expected that the lower bound on the log-evidence is tighter. Based on this bound, the model complexity, i.e. the number of components in the mixture, can be inferred with a higher confidence.

  9. Robust odd-parity superconductivity in the doped topological insulator Nb x Bi 2 Se 3

    DOE PAGES

    Smylie, M. P.; Willa, K.; Claus, H.; ...

    2017-09-15

    We present resistivity and magnetization measurements on proton-irradiated crystals demonstrating that the superconducting state in the doped topological insulator Nb xBi 2Se 3 (x = 0.25) is surprisingly robust against disorder-induced electron scattering. The superconducting transition temperature Tc decreases without indication of saturation with increasing defect concentration, and the corresponding scattering rates far surpass expectations based on conventional theory. The low-temperature variation of the London penetration depth Δλ(T) follows a power law [Δλ(T)~T 2] indicating the presence of symmetry-protected point nodes. Lastly, our results are consistent with the proposed robust nematic E u pairing state in this material.

  10. Robustness surfaces of complex networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Manzano, Marc; Sahneh, Faryad; Scoglio, Caterina; Calle, Eusebi; Marzo, Jose Luis

    2014-09-01

    Despite the robustness of complex networks has been extensively studied in the last decade, there still lacks a unifying framework able to embrace all the proposed metrics. In the literature there are two open issues related to this gap: (a) how to dimension several metrics to allow their summation and (b) how to weight each of the metrics. In this work we propose a solution for the two aforementioned problems by defining the R*-value and introducing the concept of robustness surface (Ω). The rationale of our proposal is to make use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). We firstly adjust to 1 the initial robustness of a network. Secondly, we find the most informative robustness metric under a specific failure scenario. Then, we repeat the process for several percentage of failures and different realizations of the failure process. Lastly, we join these values to form the robustness surface, which allows the visual assessment of network robustness variability. Results show that a network presents different robustness surfaces (i.e., dissimilar shapes) depending on the failure scenario and the set of metrics. In addition, the robustness surface allows the robustness of different networks to be compared.

  11. Robustness surfaces of complex networks

    PubMed Central

    Manzano, Marc; Sahneh, Faryad; Scoglio, Caterina; Calle, Eusebi; Marzo, Jose Luis

    2014-01-01

    Despite the robustness of complex networks has been extensively studied in the last decade, there still lacks a unifying framework able to embrace all the proposed metrics. In the literature there are two open issues related to this gap: (a) how to dimension several metrics to allow their summation and (b) how to weight each of the metrics. In this work we propose a solution for the two aforementioned problems by defining the R*-value and introducing the concept of robustness surface (Ω). The rationale of our proposal is to make use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). We firstly adjust to 1 the initial robustness of a network. Secondly, we find the most informative robustness metric under a specific failure scenario. Then, we repeat the process for several percentage of failures and different realizations of the failure process. Lastly, we join these values to form the robustness surface, which allows the visual assessment of network robustness variability. Results show that a network presents different robustness surfaces (i.e., dissimilar shapes) depending on the failure scenario and the set of metrics. In addition, the robustness surface allows the robustness of different networks to be compared. PMID:25178402

  12. Robustness surfaces of complex networks.

    PubMed

    Manzano, Marc; Sahneh, Faryad; Scoglio, Caterina; Calle, Eusebi; Marzo, Jose Luis

    2014-09-02

    Despite the robustness of complex networks has been extensively studied in the last decade, there still lacks a unifying framework able to embrace all the proposed metrics. In the literature there are two open issues related to this gap: (a) how to dimension several metrics to allow their summation and (b) how to weight each of the metrics. In this work we propose a solution for the two aforementioned problems by defining the R*-value and introducing the concept of robustness surface (Ω). The rationale of our proposal is to make use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). We firstly adjust to 1 the initial robustness of a network. Secondly, we find the most informative robustness metric under a specific failure scenario. Then, we repeat the process for several percentage of failures and different realizations of the failure process. Lastly, we join these values to form the robustness surface, which allows the visual assessment of network robustness variability. Results show that a network presents different robustness surfaces (i.e., dissimilar shapes) depending on the failure scenario and the set of metrics. In addition, the robustness surface allows the robustness of different networks to be compared.

  13. Combining targeted drugs to overcome and prevent resistance of solid cancers with some stem-like cell features

    PubMed Central

    Koivunen, Peppi; Koivunen, Jussi P.

    2014-01-01

    Treatment resistance significantly inhibits the efficiency of targeted cancer therapies in drug-sensitive genotypes. In the current work, we studied mechanisms for rapidly occurring, adaptive resistance in targeted therapy-sensitive lung, breast, and melanoma cancer cell lines. The results show that in ALK translocated lung cancer lines H3122 and H2228, cells with cancer stem-like cell features characterized by high expression of cancer stem cell markers and/or in vivo tumorigenesis can mediate adaptive resistance to oncogene ablative therapy. When pharmacological ablation of ALK oncogene was accompanied with PI3K inhibitor or salinomycin therapy, cancer stem-like cell features were reversed which was accompanied with decreased colony formation. Furthermore, co-targeting was able to block the formation of acquired resistance in H3122 line. The results suggest that cells with cancer stem-like cell features can mediate adaptive resistance to targeted therapies. Since these cells follow the stochastic model, concurrent therapy with an oncogene ablating agent and a stem-like cell-targeting drug is needed for maximal therapeutic efficiency. PMID:25238228

  14. Resolving Recent Plant Radiations: Power and Robustness of Genotyping-by-Sequencing.

    PubMed

    Fernández-Mazuecos, Mario; Mellers, Greg; Vigalondo, Beatriz; Sáez, Llorenç; Vargas, Pablo; Glover, Beverley J

    2018-03-01

    Disentangling species boundaries and phylogenetic relationships within recent evolutionary radiations is a challenge due to the poor morphological differentiation and low genetic divergence between species, frequently accompanied by phenotypic convergence, interspecific gene flow and incomplete lineage sorting. Here we employed a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach, in combination with morphometric analyses, to investigate a small western Mediterranean clade in the flowering plant genus Linaria that radiated in the Quaternary. After confirming the morphological and genetic distinctness of eight species, we evaluated the relative performances of concatenation and coalescent methods to resolve phylogenetic relationships. Specifically, we focused on assessing the robustness of both approaches to variations in the parameter used to estimate sequence homology (clustering threshold). Concatenation analyses suffered from strong systematic bias, as revealed by the high statistical support for multiple alternative topologies depending on clustering threshold values. By contrast, topologies produced by two coalescent-based methods (NJ$_{\\mathrm{st}}$, SVDquartets) were robust to variations in the clustering threshold. Reticulate evolution may partly explain incongruences between NJ$_{\\mathrm{st}}$, SVDquartets and concatenated trees. Integration of morphometric and coalescent-based phylogenetic results revealed (i) extensive morphological divergence associated with recent splits between geographically close or sympatric sister species and (ii) morphological convergence in geographically disjunct species. These patterns are particularly true for floral traits related to pollinator specialization, including nectar spur length, tube width and corolla color, suggesting pollinator-driven diversification. Given its relatively simple and inexpensive implementation, GBS is a promising technique for the phylogenetic and systematic study of recent radiations, but care must be

  15. Multi-focus image fusion and robust encryption algorithm based on compressive sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xiao, Di; Wang, Lan; Xiang, Tao; Wang, Yong

    2017-06-01

    Multi-focus image fusion schemes have been studied in recent years. However, little work has been done in multi-focus image transmission security. This paper proposes a scheme that can reduce data transmission volume and resist various attacks. First, multi-focus image fusion based on wavelet decomposition can generate complete scene images and optimize the perception of the human eye. The fused images are sparsely represented with DCT and sampled with structurally random matrix (SRM), which reduces the data volume and realizes the initial encryption. Then the obtained measurements are further encrypted to resist noise and crop attack through combining permutation and diffusion stages. At the receiver, the cipher images can be jointly decrypted and reconstructed. Simulation results demonstrate the security and robustness of the proposed scheme.

  16. 5 CFR 582.203 - Information minimally required to accompany legal process.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... accompany legal process. 582.203 Section 582.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS COMMERCIAL GARNISHMENT OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES' PAY Service of Legal Process § 582.203 Information minimally required to accompany legal process. (a) Sufficient identifying...

  17. 5 CFR 582.203 - Information minimally required to accompany legal process.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... accompany legal process. 582.203 Section 582.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS COMMERCIAL GARNISHMENT OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES' PAY Service of Legal Process § 582.203 Information minimally required to accompany legal process. (a) Sufficient identifying...

  18. 5 CFR 582.203 - Information minimally required to accompany legal process.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... accompany legal process. 582.203 Section 582.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS COMMERCIAL GARNISHMENT OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES' PAY Service of Legal Process § 582.203 Information minimally required to accompany legal process. (a) Sufficient identifying...

  19. 5 CFR 582.203 - Information minimally required to accompany legal process.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... accompany legal process. 582.203 Section 582.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS COMMERCIAL GARNISHMENT OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES' PAY Service of Legal Process § 582.203 Information minimally required to accompany legal process. (a) Sufficient identifying...

  20. 5 CFR 582.203 - Information minimally required to accompany legal process.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... accompany legal process. 582.203 Section 582.203 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS COMMERCIAL GARNISHMENT OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES' PAY Service of Legal Process § 582.203 Information minimally required to accompany legal process. (a) Sufficient identifying...

  1. Stimulus fear relevance and the speed, magnitude, and robustness of vicariously learned fear.

    PubMed

    Dunne, Güler; Reynolds, Gemma; Askew, Chris

    2017-08-01

    Superior learning for fear-relevant stimuli is typically indicated in the laboratory by faster acquisition of fear responses, greater learned fear, and enhanced resistance to extinction. Three experiments investigated the speed, magnitude, and robustness of UK children's (6-10 years; N = 290; 122 boys, 168 girls) vicariously learned fear responses for three types of stimuli. In two experiments, children were presented with pictures of novel animals (Australian marsupials) and flowers (fear-irrelevant stimuli) alone (control) or together with faces expressing fear or happiness. To determine learning speed the number of stimulus-face pairings seen by children was varied (1, 10, or 30 trials). Robustness of learning was examined via repeated extinction procedures over 3 weeks. A third experiment compared the magnitude and robustness of vicarious fear learning for snakes and marsupials. Significant increases in fear responses were found for snakes, marsupials and flowers. There was no indication that vicarious learning for marsupials was faster than for flowers. Moreover, vicariously learned fear was neither greater nor more robust for snakes compared to marsupials, or for marsupials compared to flowers. These findings suggest that for this age group stimulus fear relevance may have little influence on vicarious fear learning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Thermo-compressive transfer printing for facile alignment and robust device integration of nanowires.

    PubMed

    Lee, Won Seok; Won, Sejeong; Park, Jeunghee; Lee, Jihye; Park, Inkyu

    2012-06-07

    Controlled alignment and mechanically robust bonding between nanowires (NWs) and electrodes are essential requirements for reliable operation of functional NW-based electronic devices. In this work, we developed a novel process for the alignment and bonding between NWs and metal electrodes by using thermo-compressive transfer printing. In this process, bottom-up synthesized NWs were aligned in parallel by shear loading onto the intermediate substrate and then finally transferred onto the target substrate with low melting temperature metal electrodes. In particular, multi-layer (e.g. Cr/Au/In/Au and Cr/Cu/In/Au) metal electrodes are softened at low temperatures (below 100 °C) and facilitate submergence of aligned NWs into the surface of electrodes at a moderate pressure (∼5 bar). By using this thermo-compressive transfer printing process, robust electrical and mechanical contact between NWs and metal electrodes can be realized. This method is believed to be very useful for the large-area fabrication of NW-based electrical devices with improved mechanical robustness, electrical contact resistance, and reliability.

  3. Antimicrobial Drug Use and Resistance in Europe

    PubMed Central

    van de Sande-Bruinsma, Nienke; Verloo, Didier; Tiemersma, Edine; Monen, Jos; Goossens, Herman; Ferech, Matus

    2008-01-01

    Our study confronts the use of antimicrobial agents in ambulatory care with the resistance trends of 2 major pathogens, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Escherichia coli, in 21 European countries in 2000–2005 and explores whether the notion that antimicrobial drug use determines resistance can be supported by surveillance data at national aggregation levels. The data obtained from the European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption and the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System suggest that variation of consumption coincides with the occurrence of resistance at the country level. Linear regression analysis showed that the association between antimicrobial drug use and resistance was specific and robust for 2 of 3 compound pathogen combinations, stable over time, but not sensitive enough to explain all of the observed variations. Ecologic studies based on routine surveillance data indicate a relation between use and resistance and support interventions designed to reduce antimicrobial drug consumption at a national level in Europe. PMID:18976555

  4. Dendrites Enable a Robust Mechanism for Neuronal Stimulus Selectivity.

    PubMed

    Cazé, Romain D; Jarvis, Sarah; Foust, Amanda J; Schultz, Simon R

    2017-09-01

    Hearing, vision, touch: underlying all of these senses is stimulus selectivity, a robust information processing operation in which cortical neurons respond more to some stimuli than to others. Previous models assume that these neurons receive the highest weighted input from an ensemble encoding the preferred stimulus, but dendrites enable other possibilities. Nonlinear dendritic processing can produce stimulus selectivity based on the spatial distribution of synapses, even if the total preferred stimulus weight does not exceed that of nonpreferred stimuli. Using a multi-subunit nonlinear model, we demonstrate that stimulus selectivity can arise from the spatial distribution of synapses. We propose this as a general mechanism for information processing by neurons possessing dendritic trees. Moreover, we show that this implementation of stimulus selectivity increases the neuron's robustness to synaptic and dendritic failure. Importantly, our model can maintain stimulus selectivity for a larger range of loss of synapses or dendrites than an equivalent linear model. We then use a layer 2/3 biophysical neuron model to show that our implementation is consistent with two recent experimental observations: (1) one can observe a mixture of selectivities in dendrites that can differ from the somatic selectivity, and (2) hyperpolarization can broaden somatic tuning without affecting dendritic tuning. Our model predicts that an initially nonselective neuron can become selective when depolarized. In addition to motivating new experiments, the model's increased robustness to synapses and dendrites loss provides a starting point for fault-resistant neuromorphic chip development.

  5. Separation of Singing Voice from Music Accompaniment for Monaural Recordings

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-09-01

    Directory: pub/tech-report/2005 File in pdf format: TR61.pdf Separation of Singing Voice from Music Accompaniment for Monaural Recordings Yipeng Li...Abstract Separating singing voice from music accompaniment is very useful in many applications, such as lyrics recognition and alignment, singer...identification, and music information retrieval. Although speech separation has been extensively studied for decades, singing voice separation has been little

  6. 30 CFR 250.228 - What administrative information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What administrative information must accompany the EP? 250.228 Section 250.228 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 250.228 What administrative information must accompany the EP? The...

  7. Fuzzy-information-based robustness of interconnected networks against attacks and failures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Qian; Zhu, Zhiliang; Wang, Yifan; Yu, Hai

    2016-09-01

    Cascading failure is fatal in applications and its investigation is essential and therefore became a focal topic in the field of complex networks in the last decade. In this paper, a cascading failure model is established for interconnected networks and the associated data-packet transport problem is discussed. A distinguished feature of the new model is its utilization of fuzzy information in resisting uncertain failures and malicious attacks. We numerically find that the giant component of the network after failures increases with tolerance parameter for any coupling preference and attacking ambiguity. Moreover, considering the effect of the coupling probability on the robustness of the networks, we find that the robustness of the assortative coupling and random coupling of the network model increases with the coupling probability. However, for disassortative coupling, there exists a critical phenomenon for coupling probability. In addition, a critical value that attacking information accuracy affects the network robustness is observed. Finally, as a practical example, the interconnected AS-level Internet in South Korea and Japan is analyzed. The actual data validates the theoretical model and analytic results. This paper thus provides some guidelines for preventing cascading failures in the design of architecture and optimization of real-world interconnected networks.

  8. Evaluating robustness of a diesel-degrading bacterial consortium isolated from contaminated soil.

    PubMed

    Sydow, Mateusz; Owsianiak, Mikołaj; Szczepaniak, Zuzanna; Framski, Grzegorz; Smets, Barth F; Ławniczak, Łukasz; Lisiecki, Piotr; Szulc, Alicja; Cyplik, Paweł; Chrzanowski, Łukasz

    2016-12-25

    It is not known whether diesel-degrading bacterial communities are structurally and functionally robust when exposed to different hydrocarbon types. Here, we exposed a diesel-degrading consortium to model either alkanes, cycloalkanes or aromatic hydrocarbons as carbon sources to study its structural resistance. The structural resistance was low, with changes in relative abundances of up to four orders of magnitude, depending on hydrocarbon type and bacterial taxon. This low resistance is explained by the presence of hydrocarbon-degrading specialists in the consortium and differences in growth kinetics on individual hydrocarbons. However, despite this low resistance, structural and functional resilience were high, as verified by re-exposing the hydrocarbon-perturbed consortium to diesel fuel. The high resilience is either due to the short exposure time, insufficient for permanent changes in consortium structure and function, or the ability of some consortium members to be maintained during exposure on degradation intermediates produced by other members. Thus, the consortium is expected to cope with short-term exposures to narrow carbon feeds, while maintaining its structural and functional integrity, which remains an advantage over biodegradation approaches using single species cultures. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Antibiotic Resistance in Plant-Pathogenic Bacteria.

    PubMed

    Sundin, George W; Wang, Nian

    2018-06-01

    Antibiotics have been used for the management of relatively few bacterial plant diseases and are largely restricted to high-value fruit crops because of the expense involved. Antibiotic resistance in plant-pathogenic bacteria has become a problem in pathosystems where these antibiotics have been used for many years. Where the genetic basis for resistance has been examined, antibiotic resistance in plant pathogens has most often evolved through the acquisition of a resistance determinant via horizontal gene transfer. For example, the strAB streptomycin-resistance genes occur in Erwinia amylovora, Pseudomonas syringae, and Xanthomonas campestris, and these genes have presumably been acquired from nonpathogenic epiphytic bacteria colocated on plant hosts under antibiotic selection. We currently lack knowledge of the effect of the microbiome of commensal organisms on the potential of plant pathogens to evolve antibiotic resistance. Such knowledge is critical to the development of robust resistance management strategies to ensure the safe and effective continued use of antibiotics in the management of critically important diseases. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Phytopathology Volume 56 is August 25, 2018. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

  10. 49 CFR 591.6 - Documents accompanying declarations.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... SAFETY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (CONTINUED) IMPORTATION OF VEHICLES AND EQUIPMENT SUBJECT TO FEDERAL SAFETY, BUMPER AND THEFT PREVENTION STANDARDS § 591.6 Documents accompanying... public roads, or that the equipment item was not manufactured for use on a motor vehicle or is not an...

  11. [A case of infected subdural hematoma accompanied by cerebral infarction].

    PubMed

    Fujii, Norio; Naito, Yuichiro; Takanashi, Shigehiko; Ueno, Toshiaki; Nakagomi, Tadayoshi

    2013-05-01

    Infected subdural hematoma(ISH)is a rare disease caused by hematogenous infection of a preexisting subdural hematoma. We report a rare case of ISH accompanied by cerebral infarction. A 76-year-old man who had suffered a closed head injury 3 months before presented fever, headache and left hemiparesis during the medical treatment of acute cholangitis and obstructive jaundice with pancreatic cancer at the department of surgical gastroenterology. At the consultation, computed tomography(CT)scan indicated right chronic subdural hematoma. We performed a burr hole opening surgery on the same day. Abscess and hematoma was aspirated from the subdural space, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA)was detected in this specimen. Thus the diagnosis of the infected subdural hematoma was confirmed. However, despite the antibiotics therapy, follow-up CT showed a low-density area close to the residual abscess, which suggested cerebral infarction. Cerebral angiography showed a vasospasm at the cortical segment of the right middle cerebral artery near the residual abscess. Eventually we carried out a small craniotomy to evacuate the abscess. Our case showed that prompt surgical treatment is required in case of ISH and the whole hematoma and abscess should be removed as soon as possible with an image diagnosis and an additional surgical operation.

  12. Probiotic approach to prevent antibiotic resistance.

    PubMed

    Ouwehand, Arthur C; Forssten, Sofia; Hibberd, Ashley A; Lyra, Anna; Stahl, Buffy

    2016-01-01

    Probiotics are live microorganisms, mainly belonging to the genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, although also strain of other species are commercialized, that have a beneficial effect on the host. From the perspective of antibiotic use, probiotics have been observed to reduce the risk of certain infectious disease such as certain types of diarrhea and respiratory tract infection. This may be accompanied with a reduced need of antibiotics for secondary infections. Antibiotics tend to be effective against most common diseases, but increasingly resistance is being observed among pathogens. Probiotics are specifically selected to not contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance and not carry transferable antibiotic resistance. Concomitant use of probiotics with antibiotics has been observed to reduce the incidence, duration and/or severity of antibiotic-associated diarrhea. This contributes to better adherence to the antibiotic prescription and thereby reduces the evolution of resistance. To what extent probiotics directly reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance is still much under investigation; but maintaining a balanced microbiota during antibiotic use may certainly provide opportunities for reducing the spread of resistances. Key messages Probiotics may reduce the risk for certain infectious diseases and thereby reduce the need for antibiotics. Probiotics may reduce the risk for antibiotic-associated diarrhea Probiotics do not contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance and may even reduce it.

  13. 39 CFR 320.7 - Suspension for advertisements accompanying parcels or periodicals.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 39 Postal Service 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Suspension for advertisements accompanying parcels or periodicals. 320.7 Section 320.7 Postal Service UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE RESTRICTIONS ON PRIVATE CARRIAGE OF LETTERS SUSPENSION OF THE PRIVATE EXPRESS STATUTES § 320.7 Suspension for advertisements accompanying parcels or periodicals. (a) Th...

  14. 41 CFR 101-25.110-3 - Tires accompanying new motor vehicles.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Tires accompanying new...-GENERAL 25.1-General Policies § 101-25.110-3 Tires accompanying new motor vehicles. The tire... vehicle manufacturer or his designee to maintain a record of tires on or in each vehicle shipped by him...

  15. Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing of Robust Superhydrophobic Coating on Metallic Engineering Materials.

    PubMed

    Dong, Shuliang; Wang, Zhenlong; Wang, Yukui; Bai, Xuelin; Fu, Yong Qing; Guo, Bin; Tan, Chaoliang; Zhang, Jia; Hu, PingAn

    2018-01-17

    Creating a robust superhydrophobic surface on the conventional engineering materials at mass production is of great importance for a self-cleaning, anti-icing, nonwetting surface and low flow resistance in industrial applications. Herein, we report a roll-to-roll strategy to create durable and robust superhydrophobic surfaces with designed micro-/nanoscale hierarchical structures on many conventional engineering materials by combining electrical discharge machining and coating of carbon nanoparticles, followed by oil penetration and drying. The treated surface shows good superhydrophobic properties with a static water contact angle of 170 ± 2° and slide angle of 3 ± 1°. The treated surface also exhibits good resilience and maintains the performance after being tested in various harsh conditions, including water flushing for several days, sand abrasion, scratching with sandpapers, and corrosive solution. Significantly, the superhydrophobic surfaces also show a high efficiency of self-cleaning properties even after oil contamination during applications.

  16. Robust Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy control for fractional order hydro-turbine governing system.

    PubMed

    Wang, Bin; Xue, Jianyi; Wu, Fengjiao; Zhu, Delan

    2016-11-01

    A robust fuzzy control method for fractional order hydro-turbine governing system (FOHGS) in the presence of random disturbances is investigated in this paper. Firstly, the mathematical model of FOHGS is introduced, and based on Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy rules, the generalized T-S fuzzy model of FOHGS is presented. Secondly, based on fractional order Lyapunov stability theory, a novel T-S fuzzy control method is designed for the stability control of FOHGS. Thirdly, the relatively loose sufficient stability condition is acquired, which could be transformed into a group of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) via Schur complement as well as the strict mathematical derivation is given. Furthermore, the control method could resist random disturbances, which shows the good robustness. Simulation results indicate the designed fractional order T-S fuzzy control scheme works well compared with the existing method. Copyright © 2016 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. TAK-242, a small-molecule inhibitor of Toll-like receptor 4 signalling, unveils similarities and differences in lipopolysaccharide- and lipidinduced inflammation and insulin resistance in muscle cells

    PubMed Central

    Hussey, Sophie E.; Liang, Hanyu; Costford, Sheila R.; Klip, Amira; DeFronzo, Ralph A.; Sanchez-Avila, Alicia; Ely, Brian; Musi, Nicolas

    2012-01-01

    Emerging evidence suggests that TLR (Toll-like receptor) 4 and downstream pathways [MAPKs (mitogen-activated protein kinases) and NF-κB (nuclear factor κB)] play an important role in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. LPS (lipopolysaccharide) and saturated NEFA (non-esterified fatty acids) activate TLR4, and plasma concentrations of these TLR4 ligands are elevated in obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Our goals were to define the role of TLR4 on the insulin resistance caused by LPS and saturated NEFA, and to dissect the independent contribution of LPS and NEFA to the activation of TLR4-driven pathways by employing TAK-242, a specific inhibitor of TLR4. LPS caused robust activation of the MAPK and NF-κB pathways in L6 myotubes, along with impaired insulin signalling and glucose transport. TAK-242 completely prevented the inflammatory response (MAPK and NF-κB activation) caused by LPS, and, in turn, improved LPS-induced insulin resistance. Similar to LPS, stearate strongly activated MAPKs, although stimulation of the NF-κB axis was modest. As seen with LPS, the inflammatory response caused by stearate was accompanied by impaired insulin action. TAK-242 also blunted stearate-induced inflammation; yet, the protective effect conferred by TAK-242 was partial and observed only on MAPKs. Consequently, the insulin resistance caused by stearate was only partially improved by TAK-242. In summary, TAK-242 provides complete and partial protection against LPS- and NEFA-induced inflammation and insulin resistance, respectively. Thus, LPS-induced insulin resistance depends entirely on TLR4, whereas NEFA works through TLR4-dependent and -independent mechanisms to impair insulin action. PMID:23050932

  18. Using robust principal component analysis to alleviate day-to-day variability in EEG based emotion classification.

    PubMed

    Ping-Keng Jao; Yuan-Pin Lin; Yi-Hsuan Yang; Tzyy-Ping Jung

    2015-08-01

    An emerging challenge for emotion classification using electroencephalography (EEG) is how to effectively alleviate day-to-day variability in raw data. This study employed the robust principal component analysis (RPCA) to address the problem with a posed hypothesis that background or emotion-irrelevant EEG perturbations lead to certain variability across days and somehow submerge emotion-related EEG dynamics. The empirical results of this study evidently validated our hypothesis and demonstrated the RPCA's feasibility through the analysis of a five-day dataset of 12 subjects. The RPCA allowed tackling the sparse emotion-relevant EEG dynamics from the accompanied background perturbations across days. Sequentially, leveraging the RPCA-purified EEG trials from more days appeared to improve the emotion-classification performance steadily, which was not found in the case using the raw EEG features. Therefore, incorporating the RPCA with existing emotion-aware machine-learning frameworks on a longitudinal dataset of each individual may shed light on the development of a robust affective brain-computer interface (ABCI) that can alleviate ecological inter-day variability.

  19. 31 CFR 538.511 - Accompanied baggage authorized.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance:Treasury 3 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Accompanied baggage authorized. 538.511 Section 538.511 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance (Continued... only articles that are necessary for personal use incident to travel, are not intended for any other...

  20. 31 CFR 538.511 - Accompanied baggage authorized.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance:Treasury 3 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Accompanied baggage authorized. 538.511 Section 538.511 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance (Continued... only articles that are necessary for personal use incident to travel, are not intended for any other...

  1. 31 CFR 538.511 - Accompanied baggage authorized.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance:Treasury 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Accompanied baggage authorized. 538.511 Section 538.511 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance (Continued... only articles that are necessary for personal use incident to travel, are not intended for any other...

  2. 31 CFR 538.511 - Accompanied baggage authorized.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Accompanied baggage authorized. 538.511 Section 538.511 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance (Continued... only articles that are necessary for personal use incident to travel, are not intended for any other...

  3. 31 CFR 538.511 - Accompanied baggage authorized.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance:Treasury 3 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Accompanied baggage authorized. 538.511 Section 538.511 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance (Continued... only articles that are necessary for personal use incident to travel, are not intended for any other...

  4. Robust low-bias negative differential resistance in graphene superlattices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sattari-Esfahlan, S. M.; Fouladi-Oskuei, J.; Shojaei, S.

    2017-06-01

    In this work, we present a detailed theoretical study on the low bias current-voltage (I-V) characteristic of biased planar graphene superlattice (PGSL), provided by a heterostructured substrate and a series of grounded metallic planes placed over a graphene sheet, which induce a periodically modulated Dirac gap and Fermi velocity barrier, respectively. We investigate the effect of PGSL parameters on the I-V characteristic and the appearance of multipeak negative differential resistance (NDR) in the proposed device within the Landauer-Buttiker formalism and adopted transfer matrix method. Moreover‚ we propose a novel venue to control the NDR in PGSL with Fermi velocity barrier. Different regimes of NDR have been recognized, based on the PGSL parameters and external bias. From this viewpoint‚ we obtain multipeak NDR through miniband aligning in PGSL. The maximum pick to valley ratio (PVR) up to 167 obtained for ~{{\\upsilon}c} , the Fermi velocity correlation (ratio of Fermi velocity in barrier and well region), is 1.9 at bias voltages between 70-130 mV. Our findings have good agreement with experiments and can be considered in designing multi-valued memory‚ functional circuit, low power and high-speed nanoelectronic device applications.

  5. 31 CFR 545.507 - Accompanied baggage authorized.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Accompanied baggage authorized. 545.507 Section 545.507 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance (Continued... that are necessary for personal use incident to travel, that are not intended for any other person or...

  6. 31 CFR 560.507 - Accompanied baggage authorized.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance:Treasury 3 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Accompanied baggage authorized. 560.507 Section 560.507 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance (Continued... for personal use incident to travel, not intended for any other person or for sale, and are not...

  7. Resistive flex sensors: a survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saggio, Giovanni; Riillo, Francesco; Sbernini, Laura; Quitadamo, Lucia Rita

    2016-01-01

    Resistive flex sensors can be used to measure bending or flexing with relatively little effort and a relatively low budget. Their lightness, compactness, robustness, measurement effectiveness and low power consumption make these sensors useful for manifold applications in diverse fields. Here, we provide a comprehensive survey of resistive flex sensors, taking into account their working principles, manufacturing aspects, electrical characteristics and equivalent models, useful front-end conditioning circuitry, and physic-bio-chemical aspects. Particular effort is devoted to reporting on and analyzing several applications of resistive flex sensors, related to the measurement of body position and motion, and to the implementation of artificial devices. In relation to the human body, we consider the utilization of resistive flex sensors for the measurement of physical activity and for the development of interaction/interface devices driven by human gestures. Concerning artificial devices, we deal with applications related to the automotive field, robots, orthosis and prosthesis, musical instruments and measuring tools. The presented literature is collected from different sources, including bibliographic databases, company press releases, patents, master’s theses and PhD theses.

  8. Melanoma patient derived xenografts acquire distinct Vemurafenib resistance mechanisms

    PubMed Central

    Monsma, David J; Cherba, David M; Eugster, Emily E; Dylewski, Dawna L; Davidson, Paula T; Peterson, Chelsea A; Borgman, Andrew S; Winn, Mary E; Dykema, Karl J; Webb, Craig P; MacKeigan, Jeffrey P; Duesbery, Nicholas S; Nickoloff, Brian J; Monks, Noel R

    2015-01-01

    Variable clinical responses, tumor heterogeneity, and drug resistance reduce long-term survival outcomes for metastatic melanoma patients. To guide and accelerate drug development, we characterized tumor responses for five melanoma patient derived xenograft models treated with Vemurafenib. Three BRAFV600E models showed acquired drug resistance, one BRAFV600E model had a complete and durable response, and a BRAFV600V model was expectedly unresponsive. In progressing tumors, a variety of resistance mechanisms to BRAF inhibition were uncovered, including mutant BRAF alternative splicing, NRAS mutation, COT (MAP3K8) overexpression, and increased mutant BRAF gene amplification and copy number. The resistance mechanisms among the patient derived xenograft models were similar to the resistance pathways identified in clinical specimens from patients progressing on BRAF inhibitor therapy. In addition, there was both inter- and intra-patient heterogeneity in resistance mechanisms, accompanied by heterogeneous pERK expression immunostaining profiles. MEK monotherapy of Vemurafenib-resistant tumors caused toxicity and acquired drug resistance. However, tumors were eradicated when Vemurafenib was combined the MEK inhibitor. The diversity of drug responses among the xenograft models; the distinct mechanisms of resistance; and the ability to overcome resistance by the addition of a MEK inhibitor provide a scheduling rationale for clinical trials of next-generation drug combinations. PMID:26101714

  9. TAK-242, a small-molecule inhibitor of Toll-like receptor 4 signalling, unveils similarities and differences in lipopolysaccharide- and lipid-induced inflammation and insulin resistance in muscle cells.

    PubMed

    Hussey, Sophie E; Liang, Hanyu; Costford, Sheila R; Klip, Amira; DeFronzo, Ralph A; Sanchez-Avila, Alicia; Ely, Brian; Musi, Nicolas

    2012-11-30

    Emerging evidence suggests that TLR (Toll-like receptor) 4 and downstream pathways [MAPKs (mitogen-activated protein kinases) and NF-κB (nuclear factor κB)] play an important role in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. LPS (lipopolysaccharide) and saturated NEFA (non-esterified fatty acids) activate TLR4, and plasma concentrations of these TLR4 ligands are elevated in obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Our goals were to define the role of TLR4 on the insulin resistance caused by LPS and saturated NEFA, and to dissect the independent contribution of LPS and NEFA to the activation of TLR4-driven pathways by employing TAK-242, a specific inhibitor of TLR4. LPS caused robust activation of the MAPK and NF-κB pathways in L6 myotubes, along with impaired insulin signalling and glucose transport. TAK-242 completely prevented the inflammatory response (MAPK and NF-κB activation) caused by LPS, and, in turn, improved LPS-induced insulin resistance. Similar to LPS, stearate strongly activated MAPKs, although stimulation of the NF-κB axis was modest. As seen with LPS, the inflammatory response caused by stearate was accompanied by impaired insulin action. TAK-242 also blunted stearate-induced inflammation; yet, the protective effect conferred by TAK-242 was partial and observed only on MAPKs. Consequently, the insulin resistance caused by stearate was only partially improved by TAK-242. In summary, TAK-242 provides complete and partial protection against LPS- and NEFA-induced inflammation and insulin resistance, respectively. Thus, LPS-induced insulin resistance depends entirely on TLR4, whereas NEFA works through TLR4-dependent and -independent mechanisms to impair insulin action.

  10. EGFR-TKIs resistance via EGFR-independent signaling pathways.

    PubMed

    Liu, Qian; Yu, Shengnan; Zhao, Weiheng; Qin, Shuang; Chu, Qian; Wu, Kongming

    2018-02-19

    Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs)-treatments bring significant benefit for patients harboring epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations, especially for those with lung cancer. Unfortunately, the majority of these patients ultimately develop to the acquired resistance after a period of treatment. Two central mechanisms are involved in the resistant process: EGFR secondary mutations and bypass signaling activations. In an EGFR-dependent manner, acquired mutations, such as T790 M, interferes the interaction between TKIs and the kinase domain of EGFR. While in an EGFR-independent manner, dysregulation of other receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) or abnormal activation of downstream compounds both have compensatory functions against the inhibition of EGFR through triggering phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling axes. Nowadays, many clinical trials aiming to overcome and prevent TKIs resistance in various cancers are ongoing or completed. EGFR-TKIs in accompany with the targeted agents for resistance-related factors afford a promising first-line strategy to further clinical application.

  11. Attraction Basins as Gauges of Robustness against Boundary Conditions in Biological Complex Systems

    PubMed Central

    Demongeot, Jacques; Goles, Eric; Morvan, Michel; Noual, Mathilde; Sené, Sylvain

    2010-01-01

    One fundamental concept in the context of biological systems on which researches have flourished in the past decade is that of the apparent robustness of these systems, i.e., their ability to resist to perturbations or constraints induced by external or boundary elements such as electromagnetic fields acting on neural networks, micro-RNAs acting on genetic networks and even hormone flows acting both on neural and genetic networks. Recent studies have shown the importance of addressing the question of the environmental robustness of biological networks such as neural and genetic networks. In some cases, external regulatory elements can be given a relevant formal representation by assimilating them to or modeling them by boundary conditions. This article presents a generic mathematical approach to understand the influence of boundary elements on the dynamics of regulation networks, considering their attraction basins as gauges of their robustness. The application of this method on a real genetic regulation network will point out a mathematical explanation of a biological phenomenon which has only been observed experimentally until now, namely the necessity of the presence of gibberellin for the flower of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana to develop normally. PMID:20700525

  12. Robustness. [in space systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ryan, Robert

    1993-01-01

    The concept of rubustness includes design simplicity, component and path redundancy, desensitization to the parameter and environment variations, control of parameter variations, and punctual operations. These characteristics must be traded with functional concepts, materials, and fabrication approach against the criteria of performance, cost, and reliability. The paper describes the robustness design process, which includes the following seven major coherent steps: translation of vision into requirements, definition of the robustness characteristics desired, criteria formulation of required robustness, concept selection, detail design, manufacturing and verification, operations.

  13. 30 CFR 250.221 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... monitoring information must accompany the EP? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your EP: (a) Monitoring systems. A description of any existing and planned...

  14. Concept and design philosophy of a person-accompanying robot

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mizoguchi, Hiroshi; Shigehara, Takaomi; Goto, Yoshiyasu; Hidai, Ken-ichi; Mishima, Taketoshi

    1999-01-01

    This paper proposes a person accompanying robot as a novel human collaborative robot. The person accompanying robot is such legged mobile robot that is possible to follow the person utilizing its vision. towards future aging society, human collaboration and human support are required as novel applications of robots. Such human collaborative robots share the same space with humans. But conventional robots are isolated from humans and lack the capability to observe humans. Study on human observing function of robot is crucial to realize novel robot such as service and pet robot. To collaborate and support humans properly human collaborative robot must have capability to observe and recognize humans. Study on human observing function of robot is crucial to realize novel robot such as service and pet robot. The authors are currently implementing a prototype of the proposed accompanying robot.As a base for the human observing function of the prototype robot, we have realized face tracking utilizing skin color extraction and correlation based tracking. We also develop a method for the robot to pick up human voice clearly and remotely by utilizing microphone arrays. Results of these preliminary study suggest feasibility of the proposed robot.

  15. Real-time implementation of an interactive jazz accompaniment system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Deshpande, Nikhil

    Modern computational algorithms and digital signal processing (DSP) are able to combine with human performers without forced or predetermined structure in order to create dynamic and real-time accompaniment systems. With modern computing power and intelligent algorithm layout and design, it is possible to achieve more detailed auditory analysis of live music. Using this information, computer code can follow and predict how a human's musical performance evolves, and use this to react in a musical manner. This project builds a real-time accompaniment system to perform together with live musicians, with a focus on live jazz performance and improvisation. The system utilizes a new polyphonic pitch detector and embeds it in an Ableton Live system - combined with Max for Live - to perform elements of audio analysis, generation, and triggering. The system also relies on tension curves and information rate calculations from the Creative Artificially Intuitive and Reasoning Agent (CAIRA) system to help understand and predict human improvisation. These metrics are vital to the core system and allow for extrapolated audio analysis. The system is able to react dynamically to a human performer, and can successfully accompany the human as an entire rhythm section.

  16. Gene pyramiding enhances durable blast disease resistance in rice

    PubMed Central

    Fukuoka, Shuichi; Saka, Norikuni; Mizukami, Yuko; Koga, Hironori; Yamanouchi, Utako; Yoshioka, Yosuke; Hayashi, Nagao; Ebana, Kaworu; Mizobuchi, Ritsuko; Yano, Masahiro

    2015-01-01

    Effective control of blast, a devastating fungal disease of rice, would increase and stabilize worldwide food production. Resistance mediated by quantitative trait loci (QTLs), which usually have smaller individual effects than R-genes but confer broad-spectrum or non-race-specific resistance, is a promising alternative to less durable race-specific resistance for crop improvement, yet evidence that validates the impact of QTL combinations (pyramids) on the durability of plant disease resistance has been lacking. Here, we developed near-isogenic experimental lines representing all possible combinations of four QTL alleles from a durably resistant cultivar. These lines enabled us to evaluate the QTLs singly and in combination in a homogeneous genetic background. We present evidence that pyramiding QTL alleles, each controlling a different response to M. oryzae, confers strong, non-race-specific, environmentally stable resistance to blast disease. Our results suggest that this robust defence system provides durable resistance, thus avoiding an evolutionary “arms race” between a crop and its pathogen. PMID:25586962

  17. Gene pyramiding enhances durable blast disease resistance in rice.

    PubMed

    Fukuoka, Shuichi; Saka, Norikuni; Mizukami, Yuko; Koga, Hironori; Yamanouchi, Utako; Yoshioka, Yosuke; Hayashi, Nagao; Ebana, Kaworu; Mizobuchi, Ritsuko; Yano, Masahiro

    2015-01-14

    Effective control of blast, a devastating fungal disease of rice, would increase and stabilize worldwide food production. Resistance mediated by quantitative trait loci (QTLs), which usually have smaller individual effects than R-genes but confer broad-spectrum or non-race-specific resistance, is a promising alternative to less durable race-specific resistance for crop improvement, yet evidence that validates the impact of QTL combinations (pyramids) on the durability of plant disease resistance has been lacking. Here, we developed near-isogenic experimental lines representing all possible combinations of four QTL alleles from a durably resistant cultivar. These lines enabled us to evaluate the QTLs singly and in combination in a homogeneous genetic background. We present evidence that pyramiding QTL alleles, each controlling a different response to M. oryzae, confers strong, non-race-specific, environmentally stable resistance to blast disease. Our results suggest that this robust defence system provides durable resistance, thus avoiding an evolutionary "arms race" between a crop and its pathogen.

  18. RSRE: RNA structural robustness evaluator

    PubMed Central

    Shu, Wenjie; Zheng, Zhiqiang; Wang, Shengqi

    2007-01-01

    Biological robustness, defined as the ability to maintain stable functioning in the face of various perturbations, is an important and fundamental topic in current biology, and has become a focus of numerous studies in recent years. Although structural robustness has been explored in several types of RNA molecules, the origins of robustness are still controversial. Computational analysis results are needed to make up for the lack of evidence of robustness in natural biological systems. The RNA structural robustness evaluator (RSRE) web server presented here provides a freely available online tool to quantitatively evaluate the structural robustness of RNA based on the widely accepted definition of neutrality. Several classical structure comparison methods are employed; five randomization methods are implemented to generate control sequences; sub-optimal predicted structures can be optionally utilized to mitigate the uncertainty of secondary structure prediction. With a user-friendly interface, the web application is easy to use. Intuitive illustrations are provided along with the original computational results to facilitate analysis. The RSRE will be helpful in the wide exploration of RNA structural robustness and will catalyze our understanding of RNA evolution. The RSRE web server is freely available at http://biosrv1.bmi.ac.cn/RSRE/ or http://biotech.bmi.ac.cn/RSRE/. PMID:17567615

  19. System robustness analysis for drought risk management in South Florida

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eilander, D.; Bouwer, L.; Barnes, J.; Mens, M.; Obeysekera, J.

    2015-12-01

    Drought is a frequently returning natural hazard in Florida, with at least one severe drought to be expected every decade. These droughts have had many impacts such as loss of agricultural products, inadequate public water supply and salt water intrusion into freshwater aquifers. Furthermore, climate change projections for South Florida suggest that dry spells are likely to be more frequent and prolonged, with negative impacts on water supply management for all users. In this study a System Robustness Analysis was conducted in order to analyse the effectiveness of strategies to limit the socio-economic impact of droughts under climate change. System Robustness Analysis (SRA) aims to support decision making by quantifying how well a system, with and without additional measures, can remain functioning under a range of external disturbances. Two system characteristics add up to system robustness: Resistance is the ability to withstand disturbances without responding (zero impact), and resilience is the ability to recover from the response to a disturbance. SRA can help to provide insight into the sensitivity of a system to changing magnitudes of extreme weather events. A regional-scale hydrologic and water management model is used to simulate the effect of changing precipitation and evaporation forcing on agricultural and urban water supply and demand in South Florida. The complex water management operational rules including water use restrictions are simulated in the model. Based on model runs with a various climate scenarios, drought events with a wide range of severity are identified and for each event the socio-economic impacts are determined. Here, a drought is defined as a reduced streamflow in the upstream Kissimmee basin, which contributes most to Lake Okeechobee, the major surface water storage in the system. The drought severity is characterized by the maximum drought deficit volume. Drought impacts are analyzed for several users in Miami Dade County. From

  20. Robust Magnetotelluric Impedance Estimation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sutarno, D.

    2010-12-01

    Robust magnetotelluric (MT) response function estimators are now in standard use by the induction community. Properly devised and applied, these have ability to reduce the influence of unusual data (outliers). The estimators always yield impedance estimates which are better than the conventional least square (LS) estimation because the `real' MT data almost never satisfy the statistical assumptions of Gaussian distribution and stationary upon which normal spectral analysis is based. This paper discuses the development and application of robust estimation procedures which can be classified as M-estimators to MT data. Starting with the description of the estimators, special attention is addressed to the recent development of a bounded-influence robust estimation, including utilization of the Hilbert Transform (HT) operation on causal MT impedance functions. The resulting robust performances are illustrated using synthetic as well as real MT data.

  1. 30 CFR 550.221 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Information Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 550.221 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your EP...

  2. 30 CFR 250.221 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 250.221 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your EP: (a...

  3. 30 CFR 550.221 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Information Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 550.221 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your EP...

  4. 30 CFR 550.221 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Information Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 550.221 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the EP? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your EP...

  5. Robustness Elasticity in Complex Networks

    PubMed Central

    Matisziw, Timothy C.; Grubesic, Tony H.; Guo, Junyu

    2012-01-01

    Network robustness refers to a network’s resilience to stress or damage. Given that most networks are inherently dynamic, with changing topology, loads, and operational states, their robustness is also likely subject to change. However, in most analyses of network structure, it is assumed that interaction among nodes has no effect on robustness. To investigate the hypothesis that network robustness is not sensitive or elastic to the level of interaction (or flow) among network nodes, this paper explores the impacts of network disruption, namely arc deletion, over a temporal sequence of observed nodal interactions for a large Internet backbone system. In particular, a mathematical programming approach is used to identify exact bounds on robustness to arc deletion for each epoch of nodal interaction. Elasticity of the identified bounds relative to the magnitude of arc deletion is assessed. Results indicate that system robustness can be highly elastic to spatial and temporal variations in nodal interactions within complex systems. Further, the presence of this elasticity provides evidence that a failure to account for nodal interaction can confound characterizations of complex networked systems. PMID:22808060

  6. Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) in Drug Resistance and their Therapeutic Implications in Cancer Treatment.

    PubMed

    Phi, Lan Thi Hanh; Sari, Ita Novita; Yang, Ying-Gui; Lee, Sang-Hyun; Jun, Nayoung; Kim, Kwang Seock; Lee, Yun Kyung; Kwon, Hyog Young

    2018-01-01

    Cancer stem cells (CSCs), also known as tumor-initiating cells (TICs), are suggested to be responsible for drug resistance and cancer relapse due in part to their ability to self-renew themselves and differentiate into heterogeneous lineages of cancer cells. Thus, it is important to understand the characteristics and mechanisms by which CSCs display resistance to therapeutic agents. In this review, we highlight the key features and mechanisms that regulate CSC function in drug resistance as well as recent breakthroughs of therapeutic approaches for targeting CSCs. This promises new insights of CSCs in drug resistance and provides better therapeutic rationales to accompany novel anticancer therapeutics.

  7. Peroneal tendon displacement accompanying intra-articular calcaneal fractures.

    PubMed

    Toussaint, Rull James; Lin, Darius; Ehrlichman, Lauren K; Ellington, J Kent; Strasser, Nicholas; Kwon, John Y

    2014-02-19

    Peroneal tendon displacement (subluxation or dislocation) accompanying an intra-articular calcaneal fracture is often undetected and under-treated. The goals of this study were to determine (1) the prevalence of peroneal tendon displacement accompanying intra-articular calcaneal fractures, (2) the association of tendon displacement with fracture classifications, (3) the association of tendon displacement with heel width, and (4) the rate of missed diagnosis of the tendon displacement on radiographs and computed tomography (CT) scans and the resulting treatment rate. A retrospective radiographic review of all calcaneal fractures presenting at three institutions from June 30, 2006, to June 30, 2011, was performed. CT imaging of 421 intra-articular calcaneal fractures involving the posterior facet was available for review. The prevalence of peroneal tendon displacement was noted and its associations with fracture classification and heel width were evaluated. Peroneal tendon displacement was identified in 118 (28.0%) of the 421 calcaneal fracture cases. The presence of tendon displacement was significantly associated with joint-depression fractures compared with tongue-type fractures (p < 0.001). Only twelve (10.2%) of the 118 cases of peroneal tendon displacement had been identified in the radiology reports. Although sixty-five (55.1%) of the fractures with tendon displacement had been treated with internal fixation, the tendon displacement was treated surgically in only seven (10.8%) of these cases. Analysis of CT images showed a 28% prevalence of peroneal tendon displacement accompanying intra-articular calcaneal fractures. Surgeons and radiologists are encouraged to consider this association.

  8. Resistance Emergence Mechanism and Mechanism of Resistance Suppression by Tobramycin for Cefepime for Pseudomonas aeruginosa

    PubMed Central

    Bonomo, Robert A.; Bahniuk, Nadzeya; Bulitta, Juergen B.; VanScoy, Brian; DeFiglio, Holland; Fikes, Steven; Brown, David; Drawz, Sarah M.; Kulawy, Robert; Louie, Arnold

    2012-01-01

    The panoply of resistance mechanisms in Pseudomonas aeruginosa makes resistance suppression difficult. Defining optimal regimens is critical. Cefepime is a cephalosporin whose 3′ side chain provides some stability against AmpC β-lactamases. We examined the activity of cefepime against P. aeruginosa wild-type strain PAO1 and its isogenic AmpC stably derepressed mutant in our hollow-fiber infection model. Dose-ranging studies demonstrated complete failure with resistance emergence (both isolates). Inoculum range studies demonstrated ultimate failure for all inocula. Lower inocula failed last (10 days to 2 weeks). Addition of a β-lactamase inhibitor suppressed resistance even with the stably derepressed isolate. Tobramycin combination studies demonstrated resistance suppression in both the wild-type and the stably derepressed isolates. Quantitating the RNA message by quantitative PCR demonstrated that tobramycin decreased the message relative to that in cefepime-alone experiments. Western blotting with AmpC-specific antibody for P. aeruginosa demonstrated decreased expression. We concluded that suppression of β-lactamase expression by tobramycin (a protein synthesis inhibitor) was at least part of the mechanism behind resistance suppression. Monte Carlo simulation demonstrated that a regimen of 2 g of cefepime every 8 h plus 7 mg/kg of body weight of tobramycin daily would provide robust resistance suppression for Pseudomonas isolates with cefepime MIC values up to 8 mg/liter and tobramycin MIC values up to 1 mg/liter. For P. aeruginosa resistance suppression, combination therapy is critical. PMID:22005996

  9. The comparison of robust partial least squares regression with robust principal component regression on a real

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Polat, Esra; Gunay, Suleyman

    2013-10-01

    One of the problems encountered in Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) is multicollinearity, which causes the overestimation of the regression parameters and increase of the variance of these parameters. Hence, in case of multicollinearity presents, biased estimation procedures such as classical Principal Component Regression (CPCR) and Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) are then performed. SIMPLS algorithm is the leading PLSR algorithm because of its speed, efficiency and results are easier to interpret. However, both of the CPCR and SIMPLS yield very unreliable results when the data set contains outlying observations. Therefore, Hubert and Vanden Branden (2003) have been presented a robust PCR (RPCR) method and a robust PLSR (RPLSR) method called RSIMPLS. In RPCR, firstly, a robust Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method for high-dimensional data on the independent variables is applied, then, the dependent variables are regressed on the scores using a robust regression method. RSIMPLS has been constructed from a robust covariance matrix for high-dimensional data and robust linear regression. The purpose of this study is to show the usage of RPCR and RSIMPLS methods on an econometric data set, hence, making a comparison of two methods on an inflation model of Turkey. The considered methods have been compared in terms of predictive ability and goodness of fit by using a robust Root Mean Squared Error of Cross-validation (R-RMSECV), a robust R2 value and Robust Component Selection (RCS) statistic.

  10. Designing robust control laws using genetic algorithms

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Marrison, Chris

    1994-01-01

    The purpose of this research is to create a method of finding practical, robust control laws. The robustness of a controller is judged by Stochastic Robustness metrics and the level of robustness is optimized by searching for design parameters that minimize a robustness cost function.

  11. 30 CFR 250.223 - What mitigation measures information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What mitigation measures information must accompany the EP? 250.223 Section 250.223 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 250.223 What mitigation measures information must accompany the EP? (a...

  12. 30 CFR 250.222 - What lease stipulations information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What lease stipulations information must accompany the EP? 250.222 Section 250.222 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 250.222 What lease stipulations information must accompany the EP? A...

  13. Robust Control Systems.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1981-12-01

    time control system algorithms that will perform adequately (i.e., at least maintain closed-loop system stability) when ucertain parameters in the...system design models vary significantly. Such a control algorithm is said to have stability robustness-or more simply is said to be "robust". This...cas6s above, the performance is analyzed using a covariance analysis. The development of all the controllers and the performance analysis algorithms is

  14. Impact of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 resistance to protease inhibitors on evolution of resistance to the maturation inhibitor bevirimat (PA-457).

    PubMed

    Adamson, Catherine S; Waki, Kayoko; Ablan, Sherimay D; Salzwedel, Karl; Freed, Eric O

    2009-05-01

    The maturation inhibitor bevirimat [3-O-(3',3'dimethysuccinyl)betulinic acid; BVM; also known as PA-457 or DSB] potently inhibits human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication by blocking protease (PR)-mediated cleavage at the junction between capsid (CA) and spacer peptide 1 (SP1) in Gag. We previously isolated a panel of single-amino-acid substitutions that confer resistance to BVM in vitro (C. S. Adamson, S. D. Ablan, I. Boeras, R. Goila-Gaur, F. Soheilian, K. Nagashima, F. Li, K. Salzwedel, M. Sakalian, C. T. Wild, and E. O. Freed, J. Virol. 80:10957-10971, 2006). The BVM resistance mutations cluster at or near the CA-SP1 cleavage site. Because BVM likely will be used clinically in patients harboring viruses resistant to PR inhibitors (PIs), in this study we evaluated the interplay between a PI-resistant (PIR) PR and the BVM resistance mutations in Gag. As expected, the PIR mutations had no effect on inhibition by BVM; however, we observed general processing defects and a slight delay in viral replication in Jurkat T cells associated with the PIR mutations, even in the absence of compound. When combined, most BVM resistance and PIR mutations acted additively to impair viral replication, particularly in the presence of BVM. The BVM-resistant mutant SP1-A1V was an exception, as it supported robust replication in the context of either wild-type (WT) or PIR PR, even at high BVM concentrations. Significantly, the emergence of BVM resistance was delayed in the context of the PIR PR, and the SP1-A1V mutation was acquired most frequently with either WT or PIR PR. These results suggest that resistance to BVM is less likely to emerge in patients who have failed PIs than in patients who are PI naive. We predict that the SP1-A1V substitution is the most likely to emerge in vivo, as this mutant replicates robustly independently of PR mutations or BVM. These findings offer insights into the effect of PIR mutations on the evolution of BVM resistance in PI

  15. Error free physically unclonable function with programmed resistive random access memory using reliable resistance states by specific identification-generation method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tseng, Po-Hao; Hsu, Kai-Chieh; Lin, Yu-Yu; Lee, Feng-Min; Lee, Ming-Hsiu; Lung, Hsiang-Lan; Hsieh, Kuang-Yeu; Chung Wang, Keh; Lu, Chih-Yuan

    2018-04-01

    A high performance physically unclonable function (PUF) implemented with WO3 resistive random access memory (ReRAM) is presented in this paper. This robust ReRAM-PUF can eliminated bit flipping problem at very high temperature (up to 250 °C) due to plentiful read margin by using initial resistance state and set resistance state. It is also promised 10 years retention at the temperature range of 210 °C. These two stable resistance states enable stable operation at automotive environments from -40 to 125 °C without need of temperature compensation circuit. The high uniqueness of PUF can be achieved by implementing a proposed identification (ID)-generation method. Optimized forming condition can move 50% of the cells to low resistance state and the remaining 50% remain at initial high resistance state. The inter- and intra-PUF evaluations with unlimited separation of hamming distance (HD) are successfully demonstrated even under the corner condition. The number of reproduction was measured to exceed 107 times with 0% bit error rate (BER) at read voltage from 0.4 to 0.7 V.

  16. Robust Fixed-Structure Controller Synthesis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Corrado, Joseph R.; Haddad, Wassim M.; Gupta, Kajal (Technical Monitor)

    2000-01-01

    The ability to develop an integrated control system design methodology for robust high performance controllers satisfying multiple design criteria and real world hardware constraints constitutes a challenging task. The increasingly stringent performance specifications required for controlling such systems necessitates a trade-off between controller complexity and robustness. The principle challenge of the minimal complexity robust control design is to arrive at a tractable control design formulation in spite of the extreme complexity of such systems. Hence, design of minimal complexitY robust controllers for systems in the face of modeling errors has been a major preoccupation of system and control theorists and practitioners for the past several decades.

  17. 76 FR 44926 - Renewal of Declaration Regarding Emergency Use of Doxycycline Hyclate Tablets Accompanied by...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-07-27

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    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

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  19. Robustness of spatial micronetworks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McAndrew, Thomas C.; Danforth, Christopher M.; Bagrow, James P.

    2015-04-01

    Power lines, roadways, pipelines, and other physical infrastructure are critical to modern society. These structures may be viewed as spatial networks where geographic distances play a role in the functionality and construction cost of links. Traditionally, studies of network robustness have primarily considered the connectedness of large, random networks. Yet for spatial infrastructure, physical distances must also play a role in network robustness. Understanding the robustness of small spatial networks is particularly important with the increasing interest in microgrids, i.e., small-area distributed power grids that are well suited to using renewable energy resources. We study the random failures of links in small networks where functionality depends on both spatial distance and topological connectedness. By introducing a percolation model where the failure of each link is proportional to its spatial length, we find that when failures depend on spatial distances, networks are more fragile than expected. Accounting for spatial effects in both construction and robustness is important for designing efficient microgrids and other network infrastructure.

  20. A Comparative Theoretical and Computational Study on Robust Counterpart Optimization: I. Robust Linear Optimization and Robust Mixed Integer Linear Optimization

    PubMed Central

    Li, Zukui; Ding, Ran; Floudas, Christodoulos A.

    2011-01-01

    Robust counterpart optimization techniques for linear optimization and mixed integer linear optimization problems are studied in this paper. Different uncertainty sets, including those studied in literature (i.e., interval set; combined interval and ellipsoidal set; combined interval and polyhedral set) and new ones (i.e., adjustable box; pure ellipsoidal; pure polyhedral; combined interval, ellipsoidal, and polyhedral set) are studied in this work and their geometric relationship is discussed. For uncertainty in the left hand side, right hand side, and objective function of the optimization problems, robust counterpart optimization formulations induced by those different uncertainty sets are derived. Numerical studies are performed to compare the solutions of the robust counterpart optimization models and applications in refinery production planning and batch process scheduling problem are presented. PMID:21935263

  1. Larson-Miller Constant of Heat-Resistant Steel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tamura, Manabu; Abe, Fujio; Shiba, Kiyoyuki; Sakasegawa, Hideo; Tanigawa, Hiroyasu

    2013-06-01

    Long-term rupture data for 79 types of heat-resistant steels including carbon steel, low-alloy steel, high-alloy steel, austenitic stainless steel, and superalloy were analyzed, and a constant for the Larson-Miller (LM) parameter was obtained in the current study for each material. The calculated LM constant, C, is approximately 20 for heat-resistant steels and alloys except for high-alloy martensitic steels with high creep resistance, for which C ≈ 30 . The apparent activation energy was also calculated, and the LM constant was found to be proportional to the apparent activation energy with a high correlation coefficient, which suggests that the LM constant is a material constant possessing intrinsic physical meaning. The contribution of the entropy change to the LM constant is not small, especially for several martensitic steels with large values of C. Deformation of such martensitic steels should accompany a large entropy change of 10 times the gas constant at least, besides the entropy change due to self-diffusion.

  2. Resistance training is medicine: effects of strength training on health.

    PubMed

    Westcott, Wayne L

    2012-01-01

    Inactive adults experience a 3% to 8% loss of muscle mass per decade, accompanied by resting metabolic rate reduction and fat accumulation. Ten weeks of resistance training may increase lean weight by 1.4 kg, increase resting metabolic rate by 7%, and reduce fat weight by 1.8 kg. Benefits of resistance training include improved physical performance, movement control, walking speed, functional independence, cognitive abilities, and self-esteem. Resistance training may assist prevention and management of type 2 diabetes by decreasing visceral fat, reducing HbA1c, increasing the density of glucose transporter type 4, and improving insulin sensitivity. Resistance training may enhance cardiovascular health, by reducing resting blood pressure, decreasing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides, and increasing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Resistance training may promote bone development, with studies showing 1% to 3% increase in bone mineral density. Resistance training may be effective for reducing low back pain and easing discomfort associated with arthritis and fibromyalgia and has been shown to reverse specific aging factors in skeletal muscle.

  3. Inhibition of autophagy by andrographolide resensitizes cisplatin-resistant non-small cell lung carcinoma cells via activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mi, Shanwei; Xiang, Gang

    Resistance to cisplatin is a major obstacle for the success of non-small cell lung cancer therapy. The mechanisms underlying cisplatin resistance are not fully understood. In this study, we found that the increase of basal auotophagy accompanied the development of cisplatin resistance. Meanwhile the blockade of the Akt/mTOR pathway occurred in the process. Inhibition of this pathway was induced by cisplatin treatment in the resistant non-small cell lung carcinoma cells. Andrographolide, a natural diterpenoid, promoted the activation of the Akt/mTOR signaling by downregulating PTEN and suppressed autophagy, which subsequently resensitized the resistant cells to cisplatin-mediated apoptosis. Cisplatin treatment in combinationmore » with andrographolide significantly prevented the growth of the resistant cells in vivo. These results highlight the involvement of autophagy in cisplatin-resistance development and suggest that inhibition of autophagy via tuning the Akt/mTOR signaling could be a promising strategy in the therapy for cisplatin-resistant non-small cell lung cancer. - Highlights: • The increase of basal auotophagy accompanied the development of cisplatin resistance in NSCLC cells. • Cisplatin induced the blockade of the Akt/mTOR pathway. • Andrographolide promoted the activation of the Akt/mTOR signaling. • Andrographolide downregulated PTEN expression. • Cisplatin treatment in combination with andrographolide resensitized the resistant cells to cisplatin.« less

  4. Multilevel robustness

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Girard, Henri-Louis; Khan, Sami; Varanasi, Kripa K.

    2018-03-01

    A combination of hard, soft and nanoscale organic components results in robust superhydrophobic surfaces that can withstand mechanical abrasion and chemical oxidation, and exhibit excellent substrate adhesion.

  5. A Rare Entity: Bilateral First Rib Fractures Accompanying Bilateral Scapular Fractures.

    PubMed

    Gulbahar, Gultekin; Kaplan, Tevfik; Turker, Hasan Bozkurt; Gundogdu, Ahmet Gokhan; Han, Serdar

    2015-01-01

    First rib fractures are scarce due to their well-protected anatomic locations. Bilateral first rib fractures accompanying bilateral scapular fractures are very rare, although they may be together with scapular and clavicular fractures. According to our knowledge, no case of bilateral first rib fractures accompanying bilateral scapular fractures has been reported, so we herein discussed the diagnosis, treatment, and complications of bone fractures due to thoracic trauma in bias of this rare entity.

  6. A Rare Entity: Bilateral First Rib Fractures Accompanying Bilateral Scapular Fractures

    PubMed Central

    Gulbahar, Gultekin; Kaplan, Tevfik; Turker, Hasan Bozkurt; Gundogdu, Ahmet Gokhan; Han, Serdar

    2015-01-01

    First rib fractures are scarce due to their well-protected anatomic locations. Bilateral first rib fractures accompanying bilateral scapular fractures are very rare, although they may be together with scapular and clavicular fractures. According to our knowledge, no case of bilateral first rib fractures accompanying bilateral scapular fractures has been reported, so we herein discussed the diagnosis, treatment, and complications of bone fractures due to thoracic trauma in bias of this rare entity. PMID:26175916

  7. Mechanisms for Robust Cognition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Walsh, Matthew M.; Gluck, Kevin A.

    2015-01-01

    To function well in an unpredictable environment using unreliable components, a system must have a high degree of robustness. Robustness is fundamental to biological systems and is an objective in the design of engineered systems such as airplane engines and buildings. Cognitive systems, like biological and engineered systems, exist within…

  8. Pressure-induced positive electrical resistivity coefficient in Ni-Nb-Zr-H glassy alloy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fukuhara, M.; Gangli, C.; Matsubayashi, K.; Uwatoko, Y.

    2012-06-01

    Measurements under hydrostatic pressure of the electrical resistivity of (Ni0.36Nb0.24Zr0.40)100-xHx (x = 9.8, 11.5, and 14) glassy alloys have been made in the range of 0-8 GPa and 0.5-300 K. The resistivity of the (Ni0.36Nb0.24Zr0.40)86H14 alloy changed its sign from negative to positive under application of 2-8 GPa in the temperature range of 300-22 K, coming from electron-phonon interaction in the cluster structure under pressure, accompanied by deformation of the clusters. In temperature region below 22 K, the resistivity showed negative thermal coefficient resistance by Debye-Waller factor contribution, and superconductivity was observed at 1.5 K.

  9. Ornamental fish as a source of plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes and antibiotic resistance plasmids.

    PubMed

    Dobiasova, Hana; Kutilova, Iva; Piackova, Veronika; Vesely, Tomas; Cizek, Alois; Dolejska, Monika

    2014-07-16

    Growing ornamental fish industry is associated with public health concerns including extensive antibiotic use accompanied by increasing antibiotic resistance. The aim of this study was to analyze Aeromonas isolates from imported tropical ornamental fish and coldwater koi carps bred in the Czech Republic to assess the potential risk of ornamental fish as a source of plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes (PMQR) and antibiotic resistance plasmids. A collection of Aeromonas spp. with reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin (MIC ≥ 0.05 mg/L) was selected for the detection of PMQR genes. Isolates harbouring PMQR genes were further analyzed for the additional antibiotic resistance, integron content, clonality, biofilm production and transferability of PMQR genes by conjugation and transformation. Comparative analysis of plasmids carrying PMQR genes was performed. Fifteen (19%, n=80) isolates from koi carps and 18 (24%, n=76) isolates from imported ornamental fish were positive for qnrS2, aac(6')-Ib-cr or qnrB17 genes. PMQR-positive isolates from imported ornamental fish showed higher MIC levels to quinolones, multiresistance and diverse content of antibiotic resistance genes and integrons compared to the isolates from the carps. Related IncU plasmids harbouring qnrS2 and aac(6')-Ib-cr genes were found in Aeromonas spp. from imported ornamental fish and koi carps from various geographical areas. Ornamental fish may represent a potential source of multiresistant bacteria and mobile genetic elements for the environment and for humans. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Selective leptin resistance revisited

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    In addition to effects on appetite and metabolism, leptin influences many neuroendocrine and physiological systems, including the sympathetic nervous system. Building on my Carl Ludwig Lecture of the American Physiological Society, I review the sympathetic and cardiovascular actions of leptin. The review focuses on a critical analysis of the concept of selective leptin resistance (SLR) and the role of leptin in the pathogenesis of obesity-induced hypertension in both experimental animals and humans. We introduced the concept of SLR in 2002 to explain how leptin might increase blood pressure (BP) in obese states, such as diet-induced obesity (DIO), that are accompanied by partial leptin resistance. This concept, analogous to selective insulin resistance in the metabolic syndrome, holds that in several genetic and acquired models of obesity, there is preservation of the renal sympathetic and pressor actions of leptin despite attenuation of the appetite and weight-reducing actions. Two potential overlapping mechanisms of SLR are reviewed: 1) differential leptin molecular signaling pathways that mediate selective as opposed to universal leptin action and 2) brain site-specific leptin action and resistance. Although the phenomenon of SLR in DIO has so far focused on preservation of sympathetic and BP actions of leptin, consideration should be given to the possibility that this concept may extend to preservation of other actions of leptin. Finally, I review perplexing data on the effects of leptin on sympathetic activity and BP in humans and its role in human obesity-induced hypertension. PMID:23883674

  11. Accompaniment and Quality in Childcare Services: The Emergence of a Culture of Professionalization

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pirard, Florence; Barbier, Jean-Marie

    2012-01-01

    This article addresses various educational cultures observed today in a variety of training and professional development contexts in the field of early childhood education. The paper also analyses methods of developing and implementing training or professional "accompaniment". This notion of "accompaniment" has been developed…

  12. Recent clinical and molecular insights into emerging artemisinin resistance in Plasmodium falciparum

    PubMed Central

    O’Brien, Connor; Henrich, Philipp P.; Passi, Neha; Fidock, David A.

    2012-01-01

    Purpose of review Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) have been deployed globally with remarkable success for more than 10 years without having lost their malaria treatment efficacy. However, recent reports from the Thai–Cambodian border reveal evidence of emerging resistance to artemisinins. The latest published clinical and molecular findings are summarized herein. Recent findings Clinical studies have identified delayed parasite clearance time as the most robust marker of artemisinin resistance. Resistance has only been documented from Southeast Asia and has been observed in isolates that show no significant decrease in drug susceptibility in vitro. Genetic investigations have yet to uncover robust molecular markers. In-vitro studies have identified parasite quiescence or dormancy mechanisms that protect early ‘ring-stage’ intra-erythrocytic parasites against short-term artemisinin exposure. This might be achieved by reducing the rate of hemoglobin degradation, important for artemisinin bioactivation. Summary Should ACTs fail, no suitable alternatives exist as first-line treatments of P. falciparum malaria. Intensified efforts are essential to monitor the spread of resistance, define therapeutic and operational strategies to counter its impact, and understand its molecular basis. Success in these areas is critical to ensuring that recent gains in reducing the burden of malaria are not lost. PMID:22001944

  13. Robust control of accelerators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Joel, W.; Johnson, D.; Chaouki, Abdallah T.

    1991-07-01

    The problem of controlling the variations in the rf power system can be effectively cast as an application of modern control theory. Two components of this theory are obtaining a model and a feedback structure. The model inaccuracies influence the choice of a particular controller structure. Because of the modelling uncertainty, one has to design either a variable, adaptive controller or a fixed, robust controller to achieve the desired objective. The adaptive control scheme usually results in very complex hardware; and, therefore, shall not be pursued in this research. In contrast, the robust control method leads to simpler hardware. However, robust control requires a more accurate mathematical model of the physical process than is required by adaptive control. Our research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the University of New Mexico (UNM) has led to the development and implementation of a new robust rf power feedback system. In this article, we report on our research progress. In section 1, the robust control problem for the rf power system and the philosophy adopted for the beginning phase of our research is presented. In section 2, the results of our proof-of-principle experiments are presented. In section 3, we describe the actual controller configuration that is used in LANL FEL physics experiments. The novelty of our approach is that the control hardware is implemented directly in rf. without demodulating, compensating, and then remodulating.

  14. Robustness of networks formed from interdependent correlated networks under intentional attacks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Long; Meng, Ke; Dong, Zhaoyang

    2018-02-01

    We study the problem of intentional attacks targeting to interdependent networks generated with known degree distribution (in-degree oriented model) or distribution of interlinks (out-degree oriented model). In both models, each node's degree is correlated with the number of its links that connect to the other network. For both models, varying the correlation coefficient has a significant effect on the robustness of a system undergoing random attacks or attacks targeting nodes with low degree. For a system with an assortative relationship between in-degree and out-degree, reducing the broadness of networks' degree distributions can increase the resistance of systems against intentional attacks.

  15. Robust statistical methods for impulse noise suppressing of spread spectrum induced polarization data, with application to a mine site, Gansu province, China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Weiqiang; Chen, Rujun; Cai, Hongzhu; Luo, Weibin

    2016-12-01

    In this paper, we investigated the robust processing of noisy spread spectrum induced polarization (SSIP) data. SSIP is a new frequency domain induced polarization method that transmits pseudo-random m-sequence as source current where m-sequence is a broadband signal. The potential information at multiple frequencies can be obtained through measurement. Removing the noise is a crucial problem for SSIP data processing. Considering that if the ordinary mean stack and digital filter are not capable of reducing the impulse noise effectively in SSIP data processing, the impact of impulse noise will remain in the complex resistivity spectrum that will affect the interpretation of profile anomalies. We implemented a robust statistical method to SSIP data processing. The robust least-squares regression is used to fit and remove the linear trend from the original data before stacking. The robust M estimate is used to stack the data of all periods. The robust smooth filter is used to suppress the residual noise for data after stacking. For robust statistical scheme, the most appropriate influence function and iterative algorithm are chosen by testing the simulated data to suppress the outliers' influence. We tested the benefits of the robust SSIP data processing using examples of SSIP data recorded in a test site beside a mine in Gansu province, China.

  16. Computer Literacy: Handbook to Accompany VESL Vocabulary Cards.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Siefer, Nancy; Lenhart, Debra

    This manual is one of four self-contained components of a larger handbook designed to assist secondary and postsecondary instructors and support staff in meeting the needs of limited-English-proficiency (LEP) students in vocational training programs. Together with an accompanying set of vocational English as a second language (VESL) vocabulary…

  17. Robust mitotic entry is ensured by a latching switch.

    PubMed

    Tuck, Chloe; Zhang, Tongli; Potapova, Tamara; Malumbres, Marcos; Novák, Béla

    2013-01-01

    Cell cycle events are driven by Cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) and by their counter-acting phosphatases. Activation of the Cdk1:Cyclin B complex during mitotic entry is controlled by the Wee1/Myt1 inhibitory kinases and by Cdc25 activatory phosphatase, which are themselves regulated by Cdk1:Cyclin B within two positive circuits. Impairing these two feedbacks with chemical inhibitors induces a transient entry into M phase referred to as mitotic collapse. The pathology of mitotic collapse reveals that the positive circuits play a significant role in maintaining the M phase state. To better understand the function of these feedback loops during G2/M transition, we propose a simple model for mitotic entry in mammalian cells including spatial control over Greatwall kinase phosphorylation. After parameter calibration, the model is able to recapture the complex and non-intuitive molecular dynamics reported by Potapova et al. (Potapova et al., 2011). Moreover, it predicts the temporal patterns of other mitotic regulators which have not yet been experimentally tested and suggests a general design principle of cell cycle control: latching switches buffer the cellular stresses which accompany cell cycle processes to ensure that the transitions are smooth and robust.

  18. Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells adapted to benzalkonium chloride show resistance to other membrane-active agents but not to clinically relevant antibiotics.

    PubMed

    Loughlin, M F; Jones, M V; Lambert, P A

    2002-04-01

    Our objective was to determine whether strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa can adapt to growth in increasing concentrations of the disinfectant benzalkonium chloride (BKC), and whether co-resistance to clinically relevant antimicrobial agents occurs. Attempts were made to determine what phenotypic alterations accompanied resistance and whether these explained the mechanism of resistance. Strains were serially passaged in increasing concentrations of BKC in static nutrient broth cultures. Serotyping and genotyping were used to determine purity of the cultures. Two strains were examined for cross-resistance to other disinfectants and antibiotics by broth dilution MIC determination. Alterations in outer membrane proteins and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) expressed were examined by SDS-PAGE. Cell surface hydrophobicity and charge, uptake of disinfectant and proportion of specific fatty acid content of outer and cytoplasmic membranes were determined. Two P. aeruginosa strains showed a stable increase in resistance to BKC. Co-resistance to other quaternary ammonium compounds was observed in both strains; chloramphenicol and polymyxin B resistance were observed in one and a reduction in resistance to tobramycin observed in the other. However, no increased resistance to other biocides (chlorhexidine, triclosan, thymol) or antibiotics (ceftazidime, imipenem, ciprofloxacin, tobramycin) was detected. Characteristics accompanying resistance included alterations in outer membrane proteins, uptake of BKC, cell surface charge and hydrophobicity, and fatty acid content of the cytoplasmic membrane, although no evidence was found for alterations in LPS. Each of the two strains had different alterations in phenotype, indicating that such adaptation is unique to each strain of P. aeruginosa and does not result from a single mechanism shared by the whole species.

  19. Robust control for uncertain structures

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Douglas, Joel; Athans, Michael

    1991-01-01

    Viewgraphs on robust control for uncertain structures are presented. Topics covered include: robust linear quadratic regulator (RLQR) formulas; mismatched LQR design; RLQR design; interpretations of RLQR design; disturbance rejection; and performance comparisons: RLQR vs. mismatched LQR.

  20. Resistivity of Rotated Graphite-Graphene Contacts.

    PubMed

    Chari, Tarun; Ribeiro-Palau, Rebeca; Dean, Cory R; Shepard, Kenneth

    2016-07-13

    Robust electrical contact of bulk conductors to two-dimensional (2D) material, such as graphene, is critical to the use of these 2D materials in practical electronic devices. Typical metallic contacts to graphene, whether edge or areal, yield a resistivity of no better than 100 Ω μm but are typically >10 kΩ μm. In this Letter, we employ single-crystal graphite for the bulk contact to graphene instead of conventional metals. The graphite contacts exhibit a transfer length up to four-times longer than in conventional metallic contacts. Furthermore, we are able to drive the contact resistivity to as little as 6.6 Ω μm(2) by tuning the relative orientation of the graphite and graphene crystals. We find that the contact resistivity exhibits a 60° periodicity corresponding to crystal symmetry with additional sharp decreases around 22° and 39°, which are among the commensurate angles of twisted bilayer graphene.

  1. Robust estimation approach for blind denoising.

    PubMed

    Rabie, Tamer

    2005-11-01

    This work develops a new robust statistical framework for blind image denoising. Robust statistics addresses the problem of estimation when the idealized assumptions about a system are occasionally violated. The contaminating noise in an image is considered as a violation of the assumption of spatial coherence of the image intensities and is treated as an outlier random variable. A denoised image is estimated by fitting a spatially coherent stationary image model to the available noisy data using a robust estimator-based regression method within an optimal-size adaptive window. The robust formulation aims at eliminating the noise outliers while preserving the edge structures in the restored image. Several examples demonstrating the effectiveness of this robust denoising technique are reported and a comparison with other standard denoising filters is presented.

  2. Non-Hermitian bidirectional robust transport

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Longhi, Stefano

    2017-01-01

    Transport of quantum or classical waves in open systems is known to be strongly affected by non-Hermitian terms that arise from an effective description of system-environment interaction. A simple and paradigmatic example of non-Hermitian transport, originally introduced by Hatano and Nelson two decades ago [N. Hatano and D. R. Nelson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 570 (1996), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.570], is the hopping dynamics of a quantum particle on a one-dimensional tight-binding lattice in the presence of an imaginary vectorial potential. The imaginary gauge field can prevent Anderson localization via non-Hermitian delocalization, opening up a mobility region and realizing robust transport immune to disorder and backscattering. Like for robust transport of topologically protected edge states in quantum Hall and topological insulator systems, non-Hermitian robust transport in the Hatano-Nelson model is unidirectional. However, there is not any physical impediment to observe robust bidirectional non-Hermitian transport. Here it is shown that in a quasi-one-dimensional zigzag lattice, with non-Hermitian (imaginary) hopping amplitudes and a synthetic gauge field, robust transport immune to backscattering can occur bidirectionally along the lattice.

  3. Robust control of combustion instabilities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hong, Boe-Shong

    Several interactive dynamical subsystems, each of which has its own time-scale and physical significance, are decomposed to build a feedback-controlled combustion- fluid robust dynamics. On the fast-time scale, the phenomenon of combustion instability is corresponding to the internal feedback of two subsystems: acoustic dynamics and flame dynamics, which are parametrically dependent on the slow-time-scale mean-flow dynamics controlled for global performance by a mean-flow controller. This dissertation constructs such a control system, through modeling, analysis and synthesis, to deal with model uncertainties, environmental noises and time- varying mean-flow operation. Conservation law is decomposed as fast-time acoustic dynamics and slow-time mean-flow dynamics, served for synthesizing LPV (linear parameter varying)- L2-gain robust control law, in which a robust observer is embedded for estimating and controlling the internal status, while achieving trade- offs among robustness, performances and operation. The robust controller is formulated as two LPV-type Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs), whose numerical solver is developed by finite-element method. Some important issues related to physical understanding and engineering application are discussed in simulated results of the control system.

  4. More About Robustness of Coherence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Pi-Yu; Liu, Feng; Xu, Yan-Qin; La, Dong-Sheng

    2018-07-01

    Quantum coherence is an important physical resource in quantum computation and quantum information processing. In this paper, the distribution of the robustness of coherence in multipartite quantum system is considered. It is shown that the additivity of the robustness of coherence is not always valid for general quantum state, but the robustness of coherence is decreasing under partial trace for any bipartite quantum system. The ordering states with the coherence measures RoC, the l 1 norm of coherence C_{l1} and the relative entropy of coherence C r are also discussed.

  5. Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Endothelial Cells in Insulin Resistance and Metabolic Syndrome.

    PubMed

    Carcamo-Orive, Ivan; Huang, Ngan F; Quertermous, Thomas; Knowles, Joshua W

    2017-11-01

    Insulin resistance leads to a number of metabolic and cellular abnormalities including endothelial dysfunction that increase the risk of vascular disease. Although it has been particularly challenging to study the genetic determinants that predispose to abnormal function of the endothelium in insulin-resistant states, the possibility of deriving endothelial cells from induced pluripotent stem cells generated from individuals with detailed clinical phenotyping, including accurate measurements of insulin resistance accompanied by multilevel omic data (eg, genetic and genomic characterization), has opened new avenues to study this relationship. Unfortunately, several technical barriers have hampered these efforts. In the present review, we summarize the current status of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells for modeling endothelial dysfunction associated with insulin resistance and discuss the challenges to overcoming these limitations. © 2017 American Heart Association, Inc.

  6. The Global Education Practicum: Perspectives from Accompanying Academics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lang, Catherine; Cacciattolo, Marcelle; Kidman, Gillian

    2017-01-01

    The benefits of international education experiences for students are well documented. The effect on the individual of international experiences has been researched and theorised by authors for at least the last 20 years. In this paper the experiences of three academics who accompanied pre-service teachers on a 3 week international practicum are…

  7. Robustness and structure of complex networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shao, Shuai

    This dissertation covers the two major parts of my PhD research on statistical physics and complex networks: i) modeling a new type of attack -- localized attack, and investigating robustness of complex networks under this type of attack; ii) discovering the clustering structure in complex networks and its influence on the robustness of coupled networks. Complex networks appear in every aspect of our daily life and are widely studied in Physics, Mathematics, Biology, and Computer Science. One important property of complex networks is their robustness under attacks, which depends crucially on the nature of attacks and the structure of the networks themselves. Previous studies have focused on two types of attack: random attack and targeted attack, which, however, are insufficient to describe many real-world damages. Here we propose a new type of attack -- localized attack, and study the robustness of complex networks under this type of attack, both analytically and via simulation. On the other hand, we also study the clustering structure in the network, and its influence on the robustness of a complex network system. In the first part, we propose a theoretical framework to study the robustness of complex networks under localized attack based on percolation theory and generating function method. We investigate the percolation properties, including the critical threshold of the phase transition pc and the size of the giant component Pinfinity. We compare localized attack with random attack and find that while random regular (RR) networks are more robust against localized attack, Erdoḧs-Renyi (ER) networks are equally robust under both types of attacks. As for scale-free (SF) networks, their robustness depends crucially on the degree exponent lambda. The simulation results show perfect agreement with theoretical predictions. We also test our model on two real-world networks: a peer-to-peer computer network and an airline network, and find that the real-world networks

  8. Robust linearized image reconstruction for multifrequency EIT of the breast.

    PubMed

    Boverman, Gregory; Kao, Tzu-Jen; Kulkarni, Rujuta; Kim, Bong Seok; Isaacson, David; Saulnier, Gary J; Newell, Jonathan C

    2008-10-01

    Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a developing imaging modality that is beginning to show promise for detecting and characterizing tumors in the breast. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, we have developed a combined EIT-tomosynthesis system that allows for the coregistered and simultaneous analysis of the breast using EIT and X-ray imaging. A significant challenge in EIT is the design of computationally efficient image reconstruction algorithms which are robust to various forms of model mismatch. Specifically, we have implemented a scaling procedure that is robust to the presence of a thin highly-resistive layer of skin at the boundary of the breast and we have developed an algorithm to detect and exclude from the image reconstruction electrodes that are in poor contact with the breast. In our initial clinical studies, it has been difficult to ensure that all electrodes make adequate contact with the breast, and thus procedures for the use of data sets containing poorly contacting electrodes are particularly important. We also present a novel, efficient method to compute the Jacobian matrix for our linearized image reconstruction algorithm by reducing the computation of the sensitivity for each voxel to a quadratic form. Initial clinical results are presented, showing the potential of our algorithms to detect and localize breast tumors.

  9. Robustness Recipes for Minimax Robust Optimization in Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy for Oropharyngeal Cancer Patients

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Voort, Sebastian van der; Section of Nuclear Energy and Radiation Applications, Department of Radiation, Science and Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft; Water, Steven van de

    Purpose: We aimed to derive a “robustness recipe” giving the range robustness (RR) and setup robustness (SR) settings (ie, the error values) that ensure adequate clinical target volume (CTV) coverage in oropharyngeal cancer patients for given gaussian distributions of systematic setup, random setup, and range errors (characterized by standard deviations of Σ, σ, and ρ, respectively) when used in minimax worst-case robust intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) optimization. Methods and Materials: For the analysis, contoured computed tomography (CT) scans of 9 unilateral and 9 bilateral patients were used. An IMPT plan was considered robust if, for at least 98% of themore » simulated fractionated treatments, 98% of the CTV received 95% or more of the prescribed dose. For fast assessment of the CTV coverage for given error distributions (ie, different values of Σ, σ, and ρ), polynomial chaos methods were used. Separate recipes were derived for the unilateral and bilateral cases using one patient from each group, and all 18 patients were included in the validation of the recipes. Results: Treatment plans for bilateral cases are intrinsically more robust than those for unilateral cases. The required RR only depends on the ρ, and SR can be fitted by second-order polynomials in Σ and σ. The formulas for the derived robustness recipes are as follows: Unilateral patients need SR = −0.15Σ{sup 2} + 0.27σ{sup 2} + 1.85Σ − 0.06σ + 1.22 and RR=3% for ρ = 1% and ρ = 2%; bilateral patients need SR = −0.07Σ{sup 2} + 0.19σ{sup 2} + 1.34Σ − 0.07σ + 1.17 and RR=3% and 4% for ρ = 1% and 2%, respectively. For the recipe validation, 2 plans were generated for each of the 18 patients corresponding to Σ = σ = 1.5 mm and ρ = 0% and 2%. Thirty-four plans had adequate CTV coverage in 98% or more of the simulated fractionated treatments; the remaining 2 had adequate coverage in 97.8% and 97.9%. Conclusions: Robustness recipes were derived

  10. 30 CFR 250.261 - What environmental impact analysis (EIA) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... analysis (EIA) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The following EIA information must accompany... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What environmental impact analysis (EIA) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? 250.261 Section 250.261 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY...

  11. Mechanisms of Resistance to Bacteriocins Targeting the Mannose Phosphotransferase System ▿

    PubMed Central

    Kjos, Morten; Nes, Ingolf F.; Diep, Dzung B.

    2011-01-01

    The membrane proteins IIC and IID of the mannose phosphotransferase system (Man-PTS) together form a membrane-located complex that serves as a receptor for several different bacteriocins, including the pediocin-like class IIa bacteriocins and the class IIc bacteriocin lactococcin A. Bacterial strains sensitive to class IIa bacteriocins readily give rise to resistant mutants upon bacteriocin exposure. In the present study, we have therefore investigated lactococcin A-resistant mutants of Lactococcus lactis as well as natural food isolates of Listeria monocytogenes with different susceptibilities to class IIa bacteriocins. We found two major mechanisms of resistance. The first involves downregulation of Man-PTS gene expression, which takes place both in spontaneous resistant mutants and in natural resistant isolates. The second involves normal expression of the Man-PTS system, but the underlying mechanism of resistance for these cells is unknown. In some cases, the resistant phenotype was linked to a shift in the metabolism; i.e., reduced growth on glucose due to reduction in Man-PTS expression was accompanied by enhanced growth on another sugar, such as galactose. The implications of these findings in terms of metabolic heterogeneity are discussed. PMID:21421780

  12. Pyrosequencing for detection of lamivudine-resistant hepatitis B virus.

    PubMed

    Lindström, Anna; Odeberg, Jacob; Albert, Jan

    2004-10-01

    Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection can cause severe liver disease, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Lamivudine is a relatively recent alternative to alpha interferon for the treatment of HBV infection, but unfortunately, resistance to lamivudine commonly develops during monotherapy. Lamivudine-resistant HBV mutants display specific mutations in the YMDD (tyrosine, methionine, aspartate, aspartate) motif of the viral polymerase (reverse transcriptase [rt]), which is the catalytic site of the enzyme, i.e., methionine 204 to isoleucine (rtM204I) or valine (rtM204V). The latter mutation is often accompanied by a compensatory leucine-to-methionine change at codon 180 (rtL180M). In the present study, a novel sequencing method, pyrosequencing, was applied to the detection of lamivudine resistance mutations and was compared with direct Sanger sequencing. The new pyrosequencing method had advantages in terms of throughput. Experiments with mixtures of wild-type and resistant viruses indicated that pyrosequencing can detect minor sequence variants in heterogeneous virus populations. The new pyrosequencing method was evaluated with a small number of patient samples, and the results showed that the method could be a useful tool for the detection of lamivudine resistance in the clinical setting.

  13. Robust geostatistical analysis of spatial data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Papritz, Andreas; Künsch, Hans Rudolf; Schwierz, Cornelia; Stahel, Werner A.

    2013-04-01

    Most of the geostatistical software tools rely on non-robust algorithms. This is unfortunate, because outlying observations are rather the rule than the exception, in particular in environmental data sets. Outliers affect the modelling of the large-scale spatial trend, the estimation of the spatial dependence of the residual variation and the predictions by kriging. Identifying outliers manually is cumbersome and requires expertise because one needs parameter estimates to decide which observation is a potential outlier. Moreover, inference after the rejection of some observations is problematic. A better approach is to use robust algorithms that prevent automatically that outlying observations have undue influence. Former studies on robust geostatistics focused on robust estimation of the sample variogram and ordinary kriging without external drift. Furthermore, Richardson and Welsh (1995) proposed a robustified version of (restricted) maximum likelihood ([RE]ML) estimation for the variance components of a linear mixed model, which was later used by Marchant and Lark (2007) for robust REML estimation of the variogram. We propose here a novel method for robust REML estimation of the variogram of a Gaussian random field that is possibly contaminated by independent errors from a long-tailed distribution. It is based on robustification of estimating equations for the Gaussian REML estimation (Welsh and Richardson, 1997). Besides robust estimates of the parameters of the external drift and of the variogram, the method also provides standard errors for the estimated parameters, robustified kriging predictions at both sampled and non-sampled locations and kriging variances. Apart from presenting our modelling framework, we shall present selected simulation results by which we explored the properties of the new method. This will be complemented by an analysis a data set on heavy metal contamination of the soil in the vicinity of a metal smelter. Marchant, B.P. and Lark, R

  14. Robust Audio Watermarking by Using Low-Frequency Histogram

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xiang, Shijun

    In continuation to earlier work where the problem of time-scale modification (TSM) has been studied [1] by modifying the shape of audio time domain histogram, here we consider the additional ingredient of resisting additive noise-like operations, such as Gaussian noise, lossy compression and low-pass filtering. In other words, we study the problem of the watermark against both TSM and additive noises. To this end, in this paper we extract the histogram from a Gaussian-filtered low-frequency component for audio watermarking. The watermark is inserted by shaping the histogram in a way that the use of two consecutive bins as a group is exploited for hiding a bit by reassigning their population. The watermarked signals are perceptibly similar to the original one. Comparing with the previous time-domain watermarking scheme [1], the proposed watermarking method is more robust against additive noise, MP3 compression, low-pass filtering, etc.

  15. Hiding the weakness: structural robustness using origami design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Bin; Santangelo, Christian; Cohen, Itai

    2015-03-01

    A non-deformable structure is typically associated with infinitely stiff materials that resist distortion. In this work, we designed a structure with a region that will not deform even though it is made of arbitrarily compliant materials. More specifically, we show that a foldable sheet with a circular hole in the middle can be deformed externally with the internal geometry of the hole unaffected. Instead of strengthening the local stiffness, we fine tune the crease patterns so that all the soft modes that can potentially deform the internal geometry are not accessible through strain on the external boundary. The inner structure is thus protected by the topological mechanics, based on the detailed geometry of how the vertices in the foldable sheet are connected. In this way, we isolate the structural robustness from the mechanical properties of the materials, which introduces an extra degree of freedom for structural design.

  16. Mulberry hypertrophy and accompanying sinonasal pathologies: A review of 68 cases.

    PubMed

    Akduman, Davut; Haksever, Mehmet; Yanilmaz, Muhammed; Solmaz, Fevzi

    2016-08-01

    Mulberry hypertrophy occasionally coexists with sinonasal pathologies. There are very few reports in the literature on this clinical entity. We conducted a retrospective study to draw attention to this condition in the context of accompanying sinonasal pathologies. Our study group was made up of 68 patients-51 males and 17 females, aged 13 to 57 years (mean: 34.9)-who had been diagnosed with mulberry hypertrophy and at least one accompanying sinonasal pathology. All patients had a long-standing chronic discharge. Forty-nine of these patients (72.1%) had unilateral mulberry hypertrophy. The most common concomitant pathologies were chronic rhinosinusitis and ostiomeatal complex disease; others included septal deviation, nasal polyposis, allergic rhinitis, and concha bullosa. Thirty-six patients (52.9%) with varying degrees of choanal/nasal obstruction were operated on with endoscopic excision to treat the mulberry hypertrophy. In all, most patients underwent some sort of surgery to treat either the mulberry hypertrophy or the accompanying sinonasal pathology. Based on our findings, we suggest a clinical staging system to serve as a way to standardize management and guide future basic and clinical research.

  17. Robust detection-isolation-accommodation for sensor failures

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Weiss, J. L.; Pattipati, K. R.; Willsky, A. S.; Eterno, J. S.; Crawford, J. T.

    1985-01-01

    The results of a one year study to: (1) develop a theory for Robust Failure Detection and Identification (FDI) in the presence of model uncertainty, (2) develop a design methodology which utilizes the robust FDI ththeory, (3) apply the methodology to a sensor FDI problem for the F-100 jet engine, and (4) demonstrate the application of the theory to the evaluation of alternative FDI schemes are presented. Theoretical results in statistical discrimination are used to evaluate the robustness of residual signals (or parity relations) in terms of their usefulness for FDI. Furthermore, optimally robust parity relations are derived through the optimization of robustness metrics. The result is viewed as decentralization of the FDI process. A general structure for decentralized FDI is proposed and robustness metrics are used for determining various parameters of the algorithm.

  18. Robust Distribution Network Reconfiguration

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lee, Changhyeok; Liu, Cong; Mehrotra, Sanjay

    2015-03-01

    We propose a two-stage robust optimization model for the distribution network reconfiguration problem with load uncertainty. The first-stage decision is to configure the radial distribution network and the second-stage decision is to find the optimal a/c power flow of the reconfigured network for given demand realization. We solve the two-stage robust model by using a column-and-constraint generation algorithm, where the master problem and subproblem are formulated as mixed-integer second-order cone programs. Computational results for 16, 33, 70, and 94-bus test cases are reported. We find that the configuration from the robust model does not compromise much the power loss undermore » the nominal load scenario compared to the configuration from the deterministic model, yet it provides the reliability of the distribution system for all scenarios in the uncertainty set.« less

  19. Pinealitis accompanying equine recurrent uveitis.

    PubMed Central

    Kalsow, C M; Dwyer, A E; Smith, A W; Nifong, T P

    1993-01-01

    There is no direct verification of pineal gland involvement in human uveitis. Specimens of pineal tissue are not available during active uveitis in human patients. Naturally occurring uveitis in horses gives us an opportunity to examine tissues during active ocular inflammation. We examined the pineal gland of a horse that was killed because it had become blind during an episode of uveitis. The clinical history and histopathology of the eyes were consistent with post-leptospiral equine recurrent uveitis. The pineal gland of this horse had significant inflammatory infiltration consisting mainly of lymphocytes with some eosinophils. This observation of pinealitis accompanying equine uveitis supports the animal models of experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis with associated pinealitis and suggests that the pineal gland may be involved in some human uveitides. Images PMID:8435400

  20. 30 CFR 250.252 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Development Operations Coordination Documents (docd) § 250.252 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany...

  1. CA resist with high sensitivity and sub-100-nm resolution for advanced mask making

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Wu-Song; Kwong, Ranee W.; Hartley, John G.; Moreau, Wayne M.; Angelopoulos, Marie; Magg, Christopher; Lawliss, Mark

    2000-07-01

    Recently, there is significant interest in using CA resist for electron beam (E-beam) applications including mask making, direct write, and projection printing. CA resists provide superior lithographic performance in comparison to traditional non-CA E-beam resist in particular high contrast, resolution, and sensitivity. However, most of the commercially available CA resist have the concern of airborne base contaminants and sensitivity to PAB and/or PEB temperatures. In this presentation, we will discuss a new improved ketal resists system referred to as KRS-XE which exhibits excellent lithography, is robust toward airborne base, compatible with 0.263N TMAH aqueous developer and exhibits excellent lithography, is robust toward airborne base, compatible with 0.263N TMAH aqueous developer and exhibits a large PAB/PEB latitude. With the combination of a high performance mask making E-beam exposure tool, high kV shaped beam system EL4+ and the KRS-XE resist, we have printed 75nm lines/space feature with excellent profile control at a dose of 13(mu) C/cm2 at 75kV. The shaped beam vector scan system used here provides a unique property in resolving small features in lithography and throughput. Overhead in EL4+$ limits the systems ability to fully exploit the sensitivity of the new resist for throughput. The EL5 system has sufficiently low overhead that it is projected to print a 4X, 16G DRAM mask with OPC in under 3 hours with the CA resist. We will discuss the throughput advantages of the next generation EL5 system over the existing EL4+.

  2. Robust Portfolio Optimization Using Pseudodistances.

    PubMed

    Toma, Aida; Leoni-Aubin, Samuela

    2015-01-01

    The presence of outliers in financial asset returns is a frequently occurring phenomenon which may lead to unreliable mean-variance optimized portfolios. This fact is due to the unbounded influence that outliers can have on the mean returns and covariance estimators that are inputs in the optimization procedure. In this paper we present robust estimators of mean and covariance matrix obtained by minimizing an empirical version of a pseudodistance between the assumed model and the true model underlying the data. We prove and discuss theoretical properties of these estimators, such as affine equivariance, B-robustness, asymptotic normality and asymptotic relative efficiency. These estimators can be easily used in place of the classical estimators, thereby providing robust optimized portfolios. A Monte Carlo simulation study and applications to real data show the advantages of the proposed approach. We study both in-sample and out-of-sample performance of the proposed robust portfolios comparing them with some other portfolios known in literature.

  3. Robust Portfolio Optimization Using Pseudodistances

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    The presence of outliers in financial asset returns is a frequently occurring phenomenon which may lead to unreliable mean-variance optimized portfolios. This fact is due to the unbounded influence that outliers can have on the mean returns and covariance estimators that are inputs in the optimization procedure. In this paper we present robust estimators of mean and covariance matrix obtained by minimizing an empirical version of a pseudodistance between the assumed model and the true model underlying the data. We prove and discuss theoretical properties of these estimators, such as affine equivariance, B-robustness, asymptotic normality and asymptotic relative efficiency. These estimators can be easily used in place of the classical estimators, thereby providing robust optimized portfolios. A Monte Carlo simulation study and applications to real data show the advantages of the proposed approach. We study both in-sample and out-of-sample performance of the proposed robust portfolios comparing them with some other portfolios known in literature. PMID:26468948

  4. Tail mean and related robust solution concepts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ogryczak, Włodzimierz

    2014-01-01

    Robust optimisation might be viewed as a multicriteria optimisation problem where objectives correspond to the scenarios although their probabilities are unknown or imprecise. The simplest robust solution concept represents a conservative approach focused on the worst-case scenario results optimisation. A softer concept allows one to optimise the tail mean thus combining performances under multiple worst scenarios. We show that while considering robust models allowing the probabilities to vary only within given intervals, the tail mean represents the robust solution for only upper bounded probabilities. For any arbitrary intervals of probabilities the corresponding robust solution may be expressed by the optimisation of appropriately combined mean and tail mean criteria thus remaining easily implementable with auxiliary linear inequalities. Moreover, we use the tail mean concept to develope linear programming implementable robust solution concepts related to risk averse optimisation criteria.

  5. [MOLECULAR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS STRAINS IN THE NORTHWEST RUSSIA].

    PubMed

    Vyazovaya, A A; Mokrousov, I V; Zhuravlev, V Yu; Solovieva, N S; Otten, T F; Manicheva, O A; Vishnevsky, B I; Narvskaya, O V

    2016-01-01

    The goal of this work was to study the genotypic characteristics of the multidrug-resistant (MDR, i.e., resistant to at least rifampicine and isoniazid) Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated in 2011-2012 from tuberculosis (TB) patients in the Northwest Russia. Spoligotyping of 195 M. tuberculosis isolates identified 14 different spoligotypes and assigned isolates to the genetic families Beijing (n = 162, 83%), LAM (n = 15), H3/URAL (n = 14), as well as T, Haarlem and X. Spoligotypes SIT1 (Beijing), SIT42 (LAM) and SIT262 (H3/URAL) were the most prevalent. Irrespective to the genotype, all the isolates were resistant to streptomycin. The multidrug resistance was accompanied by the resistance to ethionamide (56%), amikacin (31%), kanamycin (40%), and capreomycin (33%). The ethambutol resistance was found in 71% (n = 115) and 42% (n = 14) of the Beijing and non-Beijing strains, respectively (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the multidrug resistant M. tuberculosis population circulating in the Northwest Russia continues to be dominated by the Beijing family strains.

  6. How Robust is Your System Resilience?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Homayounfar, M.; Muneepeerakul, R.

    2017-12-01

    Robustness and resilience are concepts in system thinking that have grown in importance and popularity. For many complex social-ecological systems, however, robustness and resilience are difficult to quantify and the connections and trade-offs between them difficult to study. Most studies have either focused on qualitative approaches to discuss their connections or considered only one of them under particular classes of disturbances. In this study, we present an analytical framework to address the linkage between robustness and resilience more systematically. Our analysis is based on a stylized dynamical model that operationalizes a widely used concept framework for social-ecological systems. The model enables us to rigorously define robustness and resilience and consequently investigate their connections. The results reveal the tradeoffs among performance, robustness, and resilience. They also show how the nature of the such tradeoffs varies with the choices of certain policies (e.g., taxation and investment in public infrastructure), internal stresses and external disturbances.

  7. The developmental genetics of biological robustness

    PubMed Central

    Mestek Boukhibar, Lamia; Barkoulas, Michalis

    2016-01-01

    Background Living organisms are continuously confronted with perturbations, such as environmental changes that include fluctuations in temperature and nutrient availability, or genetic changes such as mutations. While some developmental systems are affected by such challenges and display variation in phenotypic traits, others continue consistently to produce invariable phenotypes despite perturbation. This ability of a living system to maintain an invariable phenotype in the face of perturbations is termed developmental robustness. Biological robustness is a phenomenon observed across phyla, and studying its mechanisms is central to deciphering the genotype–phenotype relationship. Recent work in yeast, animals and plants has shown that robustness is genetically controlled and has started to reveal the underlying mechinisms behind it. Scope and Conclusions Studying biological robustness involves focusing on an important property of developmental traits, which is the phenotypic distribution within a population. This is often neglected because the vast majority of developmental biology studies instead focus on population aggregates, such as trait averages. By drawing on findings in animals and yeast, this Viewpoint considers how studies on plant developmental robustness may benefit from strict definitions of what is the developmental system of choice and what is the relevant perturbation, and also from clear distinctions between gene effects on the trait mean and the trait variance. Recent advances in quantitative developmental biology and high-throughput phenotyping now allow the design of targeted genetic screens to identify genes that amplify or restrict developmental trait variance and to study how variation propagates across different phenotypic levels in biological systems. The molecular characterization of more quantitative trait loci affecting trait variance will provide further insights into the evolution of genes modulating developmental robustness. The

  8. Buried Man-made Structure Imaging using 2-D Resistivity Inversion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anderson Bery, Andy; Nordiana, M. M.; El Hidayah Ismail, Noer; Jinmin, M.; Nur Amalina, M. K. A.

    2018-04-01

    This study is carried out with the objective to determine the suitable resistivity inversion method for buried man-made structure (bunker). This study was carried out with two stages. The first stage is suitable array determination using 2-D computerized modeling method. One suitable array is used for the infield resistivity survey to determine the dimension and location of the target. The 2-D resistivity inversion results showed that robust inversion method is suitable to resolve the top and bottom part of the buried bunker as target. In addition, the dimension of the buried bunker is successfully determined with height of 7 m and length of 20 m. The location of this target is located at -10 m until 10 m of the infield resistivity survey line. The 2-D resistivity inversion results obtained in this study showed that the parameters selection is important in order to give the optimum results. These parameters are array type, survey geometry and inversion method used in data processing.

  9. 30 CFR 550.252 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.252 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your DPP or...

  10. 30 CFR 550.252 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.252 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your DPP or...

  11. 30 CFR 550.252 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.252 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your DPP or...

  12. 30 CFR 250.252 - What environmental monitoring information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What environmental monitoring information must... Documents (docd) § 250.252 What environmental monitoring information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The following environmental monitoring information, as applicable, must accompany your DPP or DOCD: (a...

  13. Measurements of clothing evaporative resistance using a sweating thermal manikin: an overview

    PubMed Central

    WANG, Faming

    2017-01-01

    Evaporative resistance has been widely used to describe the evaporative heat transfer property of clothing. It is also a critical variable in heat stress models for predicting human physiological responses in various environmental conditions. At present, sweating thermal manikins provide a fast and cost-effective way to determine clothing evaporative resistance. Unfortunately, the measurement repeatability and reproducibility of evaporative resistance are rather low due to the complicated moisture transfer processes through clothing. This review article presents a systematical overview on major influential factors affecting the measurement precision of clothing evaporative resistance measurements. It also illustrates the state-of-the-art knowledge on the development of test protocol to measure clothing evaporative resistance by means of a sweating manikin. Some feasible and robust test procedures for measurement of clothing evaporative resistance using a sweating manikin are described. Recommendations on how to improve the measurement accuracy of clothing evaporative resistance are addressed and expected future trends on development of advanced sweating thermal manikins are finally presented. PMID:28566566

  14. Cell communities and robustness in development.

    PubMed

    Monk, N A

    1997-11-01

    The robustness of patterning events in development is a key feature that must be accounted for in proposed models of these events. When considering explicitly cellular systems, robustness can be exhibited at different levels of organization. Consideration of two widespread patterning mechanisms suggests that robustness at the level of cell communities can result from variable development at the level of individual cells; models of these mechanisms show how interactions between participating cells guarantee community-level robustness. Cooperative interactions enhance homogeneity within communities of like cells and the sharpness of boundaries between communities of distinct cells, while competitive interactions amplify small inhomogeneities within communities of initially equivalent cells, resulting in fine-grained patterns of cell specialization.

  15. Robust Control Design for Systems With Probabilistic Uncertainty

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Crespo, Luis G.; Kenny, Sean P.

    2005-01-01

    This paper presents a reliability- and robustness-based formulation for robust control synthesis for systems with probabilistic uncertainty. In a reliability-based formulation, the probability of violating design requirements prescribed by inequality constraints is minimized. In a robustness-based formulation, a metric which measures the tendency of a random variable/process to cluster close to a target scalar/function is minimized. A multi-objective optimization procedure, which combines stability and performance requirements in time and frequency domains, is used to search for robustly optimal compensators. Some of the fundamental differences between the proposed strategy and conventional robust control methods are: (i) unnecessary conservatism is eliminated since there is not need for convex supports, (ii) the most likely plants are favored during synthesis allowing for probabilistic robust optimality, (iii) the tradeoff between robust stability and robust performance can be explored numerically, (iv) the uncertainty set is closely related to parameters with clear physical meaning, and (v) compensators with improved robust characteristics for a given control structure can be synthesized.

  16. Ultrahigh Oxidation Resistance and High Electrical Conductivity in Copper-Silver Powder.

    PubMed

    Li, Jiaxiang; Li, Yunping; Wang, Zhongchang; Bian, Huakang; Hou, Yuhang; Wang, Fenglin; Xu, Guofu; Liu, Bin; Liu, Yong

    2016-12-22

    The electrical conductivity of pure Cu powder is typically deteriorated at elevated temperatures due to the oxidation by forming non-conducting oxides on surface, while enhancing oxidation resistance via alloying is often accompanied by a drastic decline of electrical conductivity. Obtaining Cu powder with both a high electrical conductivity and a high oxidation resistance represents one of the key challenges in developing next-generation electrical transferring powder. Here, we fabricate a Cu-Ag powder with a continuous Ag network along grain boundaries of Cu particles and demonstrate that this new structure can inhibit the preferential oxidation in grain boundaries at elevated temperatures. As a result, the Cu-Ag powder displays considerably high electrical conductivity and high oxidation resistance up to approximately 300 °C, which are markedly higher than that of pure Cu powder. This study paves a new pathway for developing novel Cu powders with much enhanced electrical conductivity and oxidation resistance in service.

  17. Ultrahigh Oxidation Resistance and High Electrical Conductivity in Copper-Silver Powder

    PubMed Central

    Li, Jiaxiang; Li, Yunping; Wang, Zhongchang; Bian, Huakang; Hou, Yuhang; Wang, Fenglin; Xu, Guofu; Liu, Bin; Liu, Yong

    2016-01-01

    The electrical conductivity of pure Cu powder is typically deteriorated at elevated temperatures due to the oxidation by forming non-conducting oxides on surface, while enhancing oxidation resistance via alloying is often accompanied by a drastic decline of electrical conductivity. Obtaining Cu powder with both a high electrical conductivity and a high oxidation resistance represents one of the key challenges in developing next-generation electrical transferring powder. Here, we fabricate a Cu-Ag powder with a continuous Ag network along grain boundaries of Cu particles and demonstrate that this new structure can inhibit the preferential oxidation in grain boundaries at elevated temperatures. As a result, the Cu-Ag powder displays considerably high electrical conductivity and high oxidation resistance up to approximately 300 °C, which are markedly higher than that of pure Cu powder. This study paves a new pathway for developing novel Cu powders with much enhanced electrical conductivity and oxidation resistance in service. PMID:28004839

  18. Effects of plants genetically modified for insect resistance on nontarget organisms.

    PubMed

    O'Callaghan, Maureen; Glare, Travis R; Burgess, Elisabeth P J; Malone, Louise A

    2005-01-01

    Insect resistance, based on Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) endotoxins, is the second most widely used trait (after herbicide resistance) in commercial genetically modified (GM) crops. Other modifications for insect resistance, such as proteinase inhibitors and lectins, are also being used in many experimental crops. The extensive testing on nontarget plant-feeding insects and beneficial species that has accompanied the long-term and wide-scale use of Bt plants has not detected significant adverse effects. GM plants expressing other insect-resistant proteins that have a broader spectrum of activity have been tested on only a limited number of nontarget species. Little is known about the persistence of transgene-derived proteins in soil, with the exception of Bt endotoxins, which can persist in soil for several months. Bt plants appear to have little impact on soil biota such as earthworms, collembolans, and general soil microflora. Further research is required on the effects of GM plants on soil processes such as decomposition. Assessment of nontarget impacts is an essential part of the risk assessment process for insect-resistant GM plants.

  19. Structural-phase states and wear resistance of surface formed on steel by surfacing

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kapralov, Evgenie V.; Raykov, Sergey V.; Vaschuk, Ekaterina S.

    2014-11-14

    Investigations of elementary and phase structure, state of defect structure and tribological characteristics of a surfacing, formed on a low carbon low-alloy steel by a welding method were carried out. It was revealed that a surfacing, formed on a steel surface is accompanied by the multilayer formation, and increases the wear resistance of the layer surfacing as determined.

  20. Robustness of airline route networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lordan, Oriol; Sallan, Jose M.; Escorihuela, Nuria; Gonzalez-Prieto, David

    2016-03-01

    Airlines shape their route network by defining their routes through supply and demand considerations, paying little attention to network performance indicators, such as network robustness. However, the collapse of an airline network can produce high financial costs for the airline and all its geographical area of influence. The aim of this study is to analyze the topology and robustness of the network route of airlines following Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) and Full Service Carriers (FSCs) business models. Results show that FSC hubs are more central than LCC bases in their route network. As a result, LCC route networks are more robust than FSC networks.

  1. SU-E-T-452: Impact of Respiratory Motion On Robustly-Optimized Intensity-Modulated Proton Therapy to Treat Lung Cancers

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Liu, W; Schild, S; Bues, M

    explicitly account for respiratory motion it produced motion-resistant treatment plans. However, further research is needed to incorporate respiratory motion into IMPT robust optimization.« less

  2. The Lr34 adult plant rust resistance gene provides seedling resistance in durum wheat without senescence.

    PubMed

    Rinaldo, Amy; Gilbert, Brian; Boni, Rainer; Krattinger, Simon G; Singh, Davinder; Park, Robert F; Lagudah, Evans; Ayliffe, Michael

    2017-07-01

    The hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum) adult plant resistance gene, Lr34/Yr18/Sr57/Pm38/Ltn1, provides broad-spectrum resistance to wheat leaf rust (Lr34), stripe rust (Yr18), stem rust (Sr57) and powdery mildew (Pm38) pathogens, and has remained effective in wheat crops for many decades. The partial resistance provided by this gene is only apparent in adult plants and not effective in field-grown seedlings. Lr34 also causes leaf tip necrosis (Ltn1) in mature adult plant leaves when grown under field conditions. This D genome-encoded bread wheat gene was transferred to tetraploid durum wheat (T. turgidum) cultivar Stewart by transformation. Transgenic durum lines were produced with elevated gene expression levels when compared with the endogenous hexaploid gene. Unlike nontransgenic hexaploid and durum control lines, these transgenic plants showed robust seedling resistance to pathogens causing wheat leaf rust, stripe rust and powdery mildew disease. The effectiveness of seedling resistance against each pathogen correlated with the level of transgene expression. No evidence of accelerated leaf necrosis or up-regulation of senescence gene markers was apparent in these seedlings, suggesting senescence is not required for Lr34 resistance, although leaf tip necrosis occurred in mature plant flag leaves. Several abiotic stress-response genes were up-regulated in these seedlings in the absence of rust infection as previously observed in adult plant flag leaves of hexaploid wheat. Increasing day length significantly increased Lr34 seedling resistance. These data demonstrate that expression of a highly durable, broad-spectrum adult plant resistance gene can be modified to provide seedling resistance in durum wheat. © 2016 The Authors. Plant Biotechnology Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and The Association of Applied Biologists and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  3. A network property necessary for concentration robustness

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eloundou-Mbebi, Jeanne M. O.; Küken, Anika; Omranian, Nooshin; Kleessen, Sabrina; Neigenfind, Jost; Basler, Georg; Nikoloski, Zoran

    2016-10-01

    Maintenance of functionality of complex cellular networks and entire organisms exposed to environmental perturbations often depends on concentration robustness of the underlying components. Yet, the reasons and consequences of concentration robustness in large-scale cellular networks remain largely unknown. Here, we derive a necessary condition for concentration robustness based only on the structure of networks endowed with mass action kinetics. The structural condition can be used to design targeted experiments to study concentration robustness. We show that metabolites satisfying the necessary condition are present in metabolic networks from diverse species, suggesting prevalence of this property across kingdoms of life. We also demonstrate that our predictions about concentration robustness of energy-related metabolites are in line with experimental evidence from Escherichia coli. The necessary condition is applicable to mass action biological systems of arbitrary size, and will enable understanding the implications of concentration robustness in genetic engineering strategies and medical applications.

  4. A network property necessary for concentration robustness.

    PubMed

    Eloundou-Mbebi, Jeanne M O; Küken, Anika; Omranian, Nooshin; Kleessen, Sabrina; Neigenfind, Jost; Basler, Georg; Nikoloski, Zoran

    2016-10-19

    Maintenance of functionality of complex cellular networks and entire organisms exposed to environmental perturbations often depends on concentration robustness of the underlying components. Yet, the reasons and consequences of concentration robustness in large-scale cellular networks remain largely unknown. Here, we derive a necessary condition for concentration robustness based only on the structure of networks endowed with mass action kinetics. The structural condition can be used to design targeted experiments to study concentration robustness. We show that metabolites satisfying the necessary condition are present in metabolic networks from diverse species, suggesting prevalence of this property across kingdoms of life. We also demonstrate that our predictions about concentration robustness of energy-related metabolites are in line with experimental evidence from Escherichia coli. The necessary condition is applicable to mass action biological systems of arbitrary size, and will enable understanding the implications of concentration robustness in genetic engineering strategies and medical applications.

  5. Drug resistance and treatment failure in leishmaniasis: A 21st century challenge

    PubMed Central

    Ponte-Sucre, Alicia; Gamarro, Francisco; Dujardin, Jean-Claude; Barrett, Michael P.; López-Vélez, Rogelio; García-Hernández, Raquel; Pountain, Andrew W.; Mwenechanya, Roy

    2017-01-01

    Reevaluation of treatment guidelines for Old and New World leishmaniasis is urgently needed on a global basis because treatment failure is an increasing problem. Drug resistance is a fundamental determinant of treatment failure, although other factors also contribute to this phenomenon, including the global HIV/AIDS epidemic with its accompanying impact on the immune system. Pentavalent antimonials have been used successfully worldwide for the treatment of leishmaniasis since the first half of the 20th century, but the last 10 to 20 years have witnessed an increase in clinical resistance, e.g., in North Bihar in India. In this review, we discuss the meaning of “resistance” related to leishmaniasis and discuss its molecular epidemiology, particularly for Leishmania donovani that causes visceral leishmaniasis. We also discuss how resistance can affect drug combination therapies. Molecular mechanisms known to contribute to resistance to antimonials, amphotericin B, and miltefosine are also outlined. PMID:29240765

  6. 30 CFR 550.249 - What air emissions information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... and Information Contents of Development and Production Plans (dpp) and Development Operations Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.249 What air emissions information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What air emissions information must accompany...

  7. 30 CFR 550.249 - What air emissions information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... and Information Contents of Development and Production Plans (dpp) and Development Operations Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.249 What air emissions information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What air emissions information must accompany...

  8. 30 CFR 550.249 - What air emissions information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... and Information Contents of Development and Production Plans (dpp) and Development Operations Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.249 What air emissions information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What air emissions information must accompany...

  9. 30 CFR 250.227 - What environmental impact analysis (EIA) information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... environmental impact analysis (EIA) information must accompany the EP? The following EIA information must... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What environmental impact analysis (EIA) information must accompany the EP? 250.227 Section 250.227 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT...

  10. METALLOPROTEINS DURING DEVELOPMENT OF WALKER-256 CARCINOSARCOMA RESISTANT PHENOTYPE.

    PubMed

    Chekhun, V F; Lozovska, Yu V; Burlaka, A P; Ganusevich, I I; Shvets, Yu V; Lukianova, N Yu; Todor, I M; Demash, D V; Pavlova, A A; Naleskina, L A

    2015-01-01

    The study was focused on the detection of changes in serum and tumor metal-containing proteins in animals during development ofdoxorubicin-resistant phenotype in malignant cells after 12 courses of chemotherapy. We found that on every stage of resistance development there was a significant increase in content of ferritin and transferrin proteins (which take part in iron traffick and storage) in Walker-256 carc'inosarcoma tissue. We observed decreased serumferritin levels at the beginning stage of the resistance development and significant elevation of this protein levels in the cases withfully developed resistance phenotype. Transferrin content showed changes opposite to that offerritin. During the development of resistance phenotype the tumor tissue also exhibited increased 'free iron' concentration that putatively correlate with elevation of ROS generation and levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 active forms. The tumor non-protein thiol content increases gradually as well. The serum of animals with early stages of resistance phenotype development showed high ceruloplasmin activity and its significant reduction after loss of tumor sensitivity to doxorubicin. Therefore, the development of resistance phenotype in Walker-256 carcinosarcoma is accompanied by both the deregulation of metal-containing proteins in serum and tumor tissue and by the changes in activity of antioxidant defense system. Thus, the results of this study allow us to determine the spectrum of metal-containing proteins that are involved in the development of resistant tumor phenotype and that may be targeted for methods for doxorubicin sensitivity correction therapy.

  11. Modern CACSD using the Robust-Control Toolbox

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chiang, Richard Y.; Safonov, Michael G.

    1989-01-01

    The Robust-Control Toolbox is a collection of 40 M-files which extend the capability of PC/PRO-MATLAB to do modern multivariable robust control system design. Included are robust analysis tools like singular values and structured singular values, robust synthesis tools like continuous/discrete H(exp 2)/H infinity synthesis and Linear Quadratic Gaussian Loop Transfer Recovery methods and a variety of robust model reduction tools such as Hankel approximation, balanced truncation and balanced stochastic truncation, etc. The capabilities of the toolbox are described and illustated with examples to show how easily they can be used in practice. Examples include structured singular value analysis, H infinity loop-shaping and large space structure model reduction.

  12. Accompanying Partners of International Students: Reflections on Three Issues

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cui, Dan; Arthur, Nancy; Domene, José F.

    2017-01-01

    This paper reviews and critiques the existing literature on accompanying partners of international students (APIS), who are often an ignored population in programs and services for the internationalization of Canadian higher education. Particularly, we identify three issues. First, we argue that current research on this group overwhelmingly…

  13. Effects of voice timbre and accompaniment on working memory as measured by sequential monosyllabic digit recall performance.

    PubMed

    Silverman, Michael J; Schwartzberg, Edward T

    2014-01-01

    Information is often paired with music in an attempt to facilitate recall and enhance learning. However, there is a lack of basic research investigating how music carrying information might facilitate recall and subsequent learning. The purpose of the current study was to determine the effects of voice timbre and accompaniment on working memory as measured by recall performance on a sequential digit recall task. Specific research questions were as follows: (a) How might female and male voice timbres affect serial recall? (b) How might piano, guitar, and no accompaniment affect serial recall? (c) Do music majors have enhanced recall accuracy when compared to nonmusic majors? The recall of information paired with six different melodies was tested on 60 university students. Melodies were composed and recorded using female and male voices with three levels of accompaniment: guitar, piano, and no accompaniment. Participants had more accurate recall during the male voice and piano and no accompaniment conditions and least accurate recall during the female voice and guitar accompaniment conditions. As participants had most accurate recall during the male voice and with piano or no accompaniment, clinicians are encouraged to consider using no accompaniment or piano accompaniment when initially teaching social and academic information paired with music for later recall. When possible, vocal timbre (i.e., the potential benefit of male voicing) should also be considered. Implications for clinical practice, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research are provided. © the American Music Therapy Association 2014. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  14. Declining prevalence of HIV-1 drug resistance in treatment-failing patients: a clinical cohort study.

    PubMed

    Di Giambenedetto, Simona; Bracciale, Laura; Colafigli, Manuela; Colatigli, Manuela; Cattani, Paola; Pinnetti, Carmen; Pannetti, Carmen; Bacarelli, Alessandro; Prosperi, Mattia; Fadda, Giovanni; Cauda, Roberto; De Luca, Andrea

    2007-01-01

    A major barrier to successful viral suppression in HIV type 1 (HIV-1)-infected individuals is the emergence of virus resistant to antiretroviral drugs. We explored the evolution of genotypic drug resistance prevalence in treatment-failing patients from 1999 to 2005 in a clinical cohort. Prevalence of major International AIDS Society-USA HIV-1 drug resistance mutations was measured over calendar years in a population with treatment failure and undergoing resistance testing. Predictors of the presence of resistance mutations were analysed by logistic regression. Significant reductions of the prevalence of resistance to all three drug classes examined were observed. This was accompanied by a reduction in the proportion of treatment-failing patients. Independent predictors of drug resistance were the earlier calendar year, prior use of suboptimal nucleoside analogue therapy, male sex and higher CD4 levels at testing. In a single clinical cohort, we observed a decrease in the prevalence of resistance to all three examined antiretroviral drug classes over time. If this finding is confirmed in multicentre cohorts it may translate into reduced transmission of drug-resistant virus from treated patients.

  15. Robustness of Oscillatory Behavior in Correlated Networks

    PubMed Central

    Sasai, Takeyuki; Morino, Kai; Tanaka, Gouhei; Almendral, Juan A.; Aihara, Kazuyuki

    2015-01-01

    Understanding network robustness against failures of network units is useful for preventing large-scale breakdowns and damages in real-world networked systems. The tolerance of networked systems whose functions are maintained by collective dynamical behavior of the network units has recently been analyzed in the framework called dynamical robustness of complex networks. The effect of network structure on the dynamical robustness has been examined with various types of network topology, but the role of network assortativity, or degree–degree correlations, is still unclear. Here we study the dynamical robustness of correlated (assortative and disassortative) networks consisting of diffusively coupled oscillators. Numerical analyses for the correlated networks with Poisson and power-law degree distributions show that network assortativity enhances the dynamical robustness of the oscillator networks but the impact of network disassortativity depends on the detailed network connectivity. Furthermore, we theoretically analyze the dynamical robustness of correlated bimodal networks with two-peak degree distributions and show the positive impact of the network assortativity. PMID:25894574

  16. A network property necessary for concentration robustness

    PubMed Central

    Eloundou-Mbebi, Jeanne M. O.; Küken, Anika; Omranian, Nooshin; Kleessen, Sabrina; Neigenfind, Jost; Basler, Georg; Nikoloski, Zoran

    2016-01-01

    Maintenance of functionality of complex cellular networks and entire organisms exposed to environmental perturbations often depends on concentration robustness of the underlying components. Yet, the reasons and consequences of concentration robustness in large-scale cellular networks remain largely unknown. Here, we derive a necessary condition for concentration robustness based only on the structure of networks endowed with mass action kinetics. The structural condition can be used to design targeted experiments to study concentration robustness. We show that metabolites satisfying the necessary condition are present in metabolic networks from diverse species, suggesting prevalence of this property across kingdoms of life. We also demonstrate that our predictions about concentration robustness of energy-related metabolites are in line with experimental evidence from Escherichia coli. The necessary condition is applicable to mass action biological systems of arbitrary size, and will enable understanding the implications of concentration robustness in genetic engineering strategies and medical applications. PMID:27759015

  17. Cross-Linkable, Solvent-Resistant Fullerene Contacts for Robust and Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells with Increased JSC and VOC.

    PubMed

    Watson, Brian L; Rolston, Nicholas; Bush, Kevin A; Leijtens, Tomas; McGehee, Michael D; Dauskardt, Reinhold H

    2016-10-05

    The active layers of perovskite solar cells are also structural layers and are central to ensuring that the structural integrity of the device is maintained over its operational lifetime. Our work evaluating the fracture energies of conventional and inverted solution-processed MAPbI 3 perovskite solar cells has revealed that the MAPbI 3 perovskite exhibits a fracture resistance of only ∼0.5 J/m 2 , while solar cells containing fullerene electron transport layers fracture at even lower values, below ∼0.25 J/m 2 . To address this weakness, a novel styrene-functionalized fullerene derivative, MPMIC 60 , has been developed as a replacement for the fragile PC 61 BM and C 60 transport layers. MPMIC 60 can be transformed into a solvent-resistant material through curing at 250 °C. As-deposited films of MPMIC 60 exhibit a marked 10-fold enhancement in fracture resistance over PC 61 BM and a 14-fold enhancement over C 60 . Conventional-geometry perovskite solar cells utilizing cured films of MPMIC 60 showed a significant, 205% improvement in fracture resistance while exhibiting only a 7% drop in PCE (13.8% vs 14.8% PCE) in comparison to the C 60 control, enabling larger V OC and J SC values. Inverted cells fabricated with MPMIC 60 exhibited a 438% improvement in fracture resistance with only a 6% reduction in PCE (12.3% vs 13.1%) in comparison to those utilizing PC 61 BM, again producing a higher J SC .

  18. Neural substrates of resisting craving during cigarette cue exposure.

    PubMed

    Brody, Arthur L; Mandelkern, Mark A; Olmstead, Richard E; Jou, Jennifer; Tiongson, Emmanuelle; Allen, Valerie; Scheibal, David; London, Edythe D; Monterosso, John R; Tiffany, Stephen T; Korb, Alex; Gan, Joanna J; Cohen, Mark S

    2007-09-15

    In cigarette smokers, the most commonly reported areas of brain activation during visual cigarette cue exposure are the prefrontal, anterior cingulate, and visual cortices. We sought to determine changes in brain activity in response to cigarette cues when smokers actively resist craving. Forty-two tobacco-dependent smokers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging, during which they were presented with videotaped cues. Three cue presentation conditions were tested: cigarette cues with subjects allowing themselves to crave (cigarette cue crave), cigarette cues with the instruction to resist craving (cigarette cue resist), and matched neutral cues. Activation was found in the cigarette cue resist (compared with the cigarette cue crave) condition in the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and precuneus. Lower magnetic resonance signal for the cigarette cue resist condition was found in the cuneus bilaterally, left lateral occipital gyrus, and right postcentral gyrus. These relative activations and deactivations were more robust when the cigarette cue resist condition was compared with the neutral cue condition. Suppressing craving during cigarette cue exposure involves activation of limbic (and related) brain regions and deactivation of primary sensory and motor cortices.

  19. Environmental change makes robust ecological networks fragile

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Strona, Giovanni; Lafferty, Kevin D.

    2016-01-01

    Complex ecological networks appear robust to primary extinctions, possibly due to consumers’ tendency to specialize on dependable (available and persistent) resources. However, modifications to the conditions under which the network has evolved might alter resource dependability. Here, we ask whether adaptation to historical conditions can increase community robustness, and whether such robustness can protect communities from collapse when conditions change. Using artificial life simulations, we first evolved digital consumer-resource networks that we subsequently subjected to rapid environmental change. We then investigated how empirical host–parasite networks would respond to historical, random and expected extinction sequences. In both the cases, networks were far more robust to historical conditions than new ones, suggesting that new environmental challenges, as expected under global change, might collapse otherwise robust natural ecosystems.

  20. Exploiting Drug Addiction Mechanisms to Select against MAPKi-Resistant Melanoma.

    PubMed

    Hong, Aayoung; Moriceau, Gatien; Sun, Lu; Lomeli, Shirley; Piva, Marco; Damoiseaux, Robert; Holmen, Sheri L; Sharpless, Norman E; Hugo, Willy; Lo, Roger S

    2018-01-01

    Melanoma resistant to MAPK inhibitors (MAPKi) displays loss of fitness upon experimental MAPKi withdrawal and, clinically, may be resensitized to MAPKi therapy after a drug holiday. Here, we uncovered and therapeutically exploited the mechanisms of MAPKi addiction in MAPKi-resistant BRAF MUT or NRAS MUT melanoma. MAPKi-addiction phenotypes evident upon drug withdrawal spanned transient cell-cycle slowdown to cell-death responses, the latter of which required a robust phosphorylated ERK (pERK) rebound. Generally, drug withdrawal-induced pERK rebound upregulated p38-FRA1-JUNB-CDKN1A and downregulated proliferation, but only a robust pERK rebound resulted in DNA damage and parthanatos-related cell death. Importantly, pharmacologically impairing DNA damage repair during MAPKi withdrawal augmented MAPKi addiction across the board by converting a cell-cycle deceleration to a caspase-dependent cell-death response or by furthering parthanatos-related cell death. Specifically in MEKi-resistant NRAS MUT or atypical BRAF MUT melanoma, treatment with a type I RAF inhibitor intensified pERK rebound elicited by MEKi withdrawal, thereby promoting a cell death-predominant MAPKi-addiction phenotype. Thus, MAPKi discontinuation upon disease progression should be coupled with specific strategies that augment MAPKi addiction. Significance: Discontinuing targeted therapy may select against drug-resistant tumor clones, but drug-addiction mechanisms are ill-defined. Using melanoma resistant to but withdrawn from MAPKi, we defined a synthetic lethality between supraphysiologic levels of pERK and DNA damage. Actively promoting this synthetic lethality could rationalize sequential/rotational regimens that address evolving vulnerabilities. Cancer Discov; 8(1); 74-93. ©2017 AACR. See related commentary by Stern, p. 20 This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 1 . ©2017 American Association for Cancer Research.

  1. High throughput selection of antibiotic-resistant transgenic Arabidopsis plants.

    PubMed

    Nagashima, Yukihiro; Koiwa, Hisashi

    2017-05-15

    Kanamycin resistance is the most frequently used antibiotic-resistance marker for Arabidopsis transformations, however, this method frequently causes escape of untransformed plants, particularly at the high seedling density during the selection. Here we developed a robust high-density selection method using top agar for Arabidopsis thaliana. Top agar effectively suppressed growth of untransformed wild-type plants on selection media at high density. Survival of the transformed plants during the selection were confirmed by production of green true leaves and expression of a firefly luciferase reporter gene. Top agar method allowed selection using a large amount of seeds in Arabidopsis transformation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Robust, Optimal Subsonic Airfoil Shapes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rai, Man Mohan

    2014-01-01

    A method has been developed to create an airfoil robust enough to operate satisfactorily in different environments. This method determines a robust, optimal, subsonic airfoil shape, beginning with an arbitrary initial airfoil shape, and imposes the necessary constraints on the design. Also, this method is flexible and extendible to a larger class of requirements and changes in constraints imposed.

  3. Exploratory Study of 4D versus 3D Robust Optimization in Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy for Lung Cancer

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Liu, Wei, E-mail: Liu.Wei@mayo.edu; Schild, Steven E.; Chang, Joe Y.

    study showed that, compared to 3D robust optimization, 4D robust optimization produced significantly more robust and interplay-effect-resistant plans for targets with comparable dose distributions for normal tissues. A further study with a larger and more realistic patient population is warranted to generalize the conclusions.« less

  4. Exploratory Study of 4D Versus 3D Robust Optimization in Intensity-Modulated Proton Therapy for Lung Cancer

    PubMed Central

    Liu, Wei; Schild, Steven E.; Chang, Joe Y.; Liao, Zhongxing; Chang, Yu-Hui; Wen, Zhifei; Shen, Jiajian; Stoker, Joshua B.; Ding, Xiaoning; Hu, Yanle; Sahoo, Narayan; Herman, Michael G.; Vargas, Carlos; Keole, Sameer; Wong, William; Bues, Martin

    2015-01-01

    Background To compare the impact of uncertainties and interplay effect on 3D and 4D robustly optimized intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) plans for lung cancer in an exploratory methodology study. Methods IMPT plans were created for 11 non-randomly selected non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases: 3D robustly optimized plans on average CTs with internal gross tumor volume density overridden to irradiate internal target volume, and 4D robustly optimized plans on 4D CTs to irradiate clinical target volume (CTV). Regular fractionation (66 Gy[RBE] in 33 fractions) were considered. In 4D optimization, the CTV of individual phases received non-uniform doses to achieve a uniform cumulative dose. The root-mean-square-dose volume histograms (RVH) measured the sensitivity of the dose to uncertainties, and the areas under the RVH curve (AUCs) were used to evaluate plan robustness. Dose evaluation software modeled time-dependent spot delivery to incorporate interplay effect with randomized starting phases of each field per fraction. Dose-volume histogram indices comparing CTV coverage, homogeneity, and normal tissue sparing were evaluated using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results 4D robust optimization plans led to smaller AUC for CTV (14.26 vs. 18.61 (p=0.001), better CTV coverage (Gy[RBE]) [D95% CTV: 60.6 vs 55.2 (p=0.001)], and better CTV homogeneity [D5%–D95% CTV: 10.3 vs 17.7 (p=0.002)] in the face of uncertainties. With interplay effect considered, 4D robust optimization produced plans with better target coverage [D95% CTV: 64.5 vs 63.8 (p=0.0068)], comparable target homogeneity, and comparable normal tissue protection. The benefits from 4D robust optimization were most obvious for the 2 typical stage III lung cancer patients. Conclusions Our exploratory methodology study showed that, compared to 3D robust optimization, 4D robust optimization produced significantly more robust and interplay-effect-resistant plans for targets with comparable dose distributions

  5. [Effect of repeated cycles of tetraolean and oleandomycin administration on the indices of nonspecific resistence of the body in experimental staphylococcal sepsis].

    PubMed

    Plaksin, A I; Plaksina, A N

    1975-02-01

    The effect of repeated cycles of tetracycline and oleandomycin administration on the complement titer, content of lysozyme and bactericidal properties of the serum in rabbits with experimental staphylococcal sepsis was studied. It was shown that the septic process induced by intravenous inoculation of staphylococci was accompanied by stimulation of the host nonspecific resistance. However, repeated inoculations of the animals resulted in exhaustion of the host protective forces and decreased non-specific resistance. The use of tetracycline in experimental staphylococcal sepsis was accompanied by an increase in the complement titer, lysozyme content and bactericidal properties of the serum after both the 1st and 2nd cycles of the drug administration. The use of oleaudomycin induced an increase in the contents of the complement, lysozyme and bactericidal properties of the serum at the background of staphylococcal sepsis only after the 1st cycle. The repeated cycle of oleandomycin administration was accompanied by a decrease in the above indices. Such conditions should be taken into account in choosing the antibiotic for treatment of septic cases especially when repeated cycles of the drug administration are used.

  6. CARD 2017: expansion and model-centric curation of the comprehensive antibiotic resistance database

    PubMed Central

    Jia, Baofeng; Raphenya, Amogelang R.; Alcock, Brian; Waglechner, Nicholas; Guo, Peiyao; Tsang, Kara K.; Lago, Briony A.; Dave, Biren M.; Pereira, Sheldon; Sharma, Arjun N.; Doshi, Sachin; Courtot, Mélanie; Lo, Raymond; Williams, Laura E.; Frye, Jonathan G.; Elsayegh, Tariq; Sardar, Daim; Westman, Erin L.; Pawlowski, Andrew C.; Johnson, Timothy A.; Brinkman, Fiona S.L.; Wright, Gerard D.; McArthur, Andrew G.

    2017-01-01

    The Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD; http://arpcard.mcmaster.ca) is a manually curated resource containing high quality reference data on the molecular basis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), with an emphasis on the genes, proteins and mutations involved in AMR. CARD is ontologically structured, model centric, and spans the breadth of AMR drug classes and resistance mechanisms, including intrinsic, mutation-driven and acquired resistance. It is built upon the Antibiotic Resistance Ontology (ARO), a custom built, interconnected and hierarchical controlled vocabulary allowing advanced data sharing and organization. Its design allows the development of novel genome analysis tools, such as the Resistance Gene Identifier (RGI) for resistome prediction from raw genome sequence. Recent improvements include extensive curation of additional reference sequences and mutations, development of a unique Model Ontology and accompanying AMR detection models to power sequence analysis, new visualization tools, and expansion of the RGI for detection of emergent AMR threats. CARD curation is updated monthly based on an interplay of manual literature curation, computational text mining, and genome analysis. PMID:27789705

  7. Fighting an old disease with modern tools: characteristics and molecular detection methods of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

    PubMed

    Engström, Anna

    2016-01-01

    Tuberculosis (TB) is an ancient disease, but not a disease of the past. The increasing prevalence of drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of TB, demands new measures to combat the situation. Rapid and accurate detection of the pathogen, and its drug susceptibility pattern, is essential for timely initiation of treatment, and ultimately, control of the disease. Molecular-based methods offer a great chance to improve detection of drug-resistant TB; however, their development and usage should be accompanied with a profound understanding of drug resistance mechanisms and circulating M. tuberculosis strains in specific settings, as otherwise, the usefulness of such tests may be limited. This review gives an overview of the history of TB treatment and drug resistance, drug resistance mechanisms for the most commonly used drugs and molecular methods designed to detect drug-resistant strains.

  8. Measure of robustness for complex networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Youssef, Mina Nabil

    Critical infrastructures are repeatedly attacked by external triggers causing tremendous amount of damages. Any infrastructure can be studied using the powerful theory of complex networks. A complex network is composed of extremely large number of different elements that exchange commodities providing significant services. The main functions of complex networks can be damaged by different types of attacks and failures that degrade the network performance. These attacks and failures are considered as disturbing dynamics, such as the spread of viruses in computer networks, the spread of epidemics in social networks, and the cascading failures in power grids. Depending on the network structure and the attack strength, every network differently suffers damages and performance degradation. Hence, quantifying the robustness of complex networks becomes an essential task. In this dissertation, new metrics are introduced to measure the robustness of technological and social networks with respect to the spread of epidemics, and the robustness of power grids with respect to cascading failures. First, we introduce a new metric called the Viral Conductance (VCSIS ) to assess the robustness of networks with respect to the spread of epidemics that are modeled through the susceptible/infected/susceptible (SIS) epidemic approach. In contrast to assessing the robustness of networks based on a classical metric, the epidemic threshold, the new metric integrates the fraction of infected nodes at steady state for all possible effective infection strengths. Through examples, VCSIS provides more insights about the robustness of networks than the epidemic threshold. In addition, both the paradoxical robustness of Barabasi-Albert preferential attachment networks and the effect of the topology on the steady state infection are studied, to show the importance of quantifying the robustness of networks. Second, a new metric VCSIR is introduced to assess the robustness of networks with respect

  9. LRFD Resistance Factor Calibration for Axially Loaded Drilled Shafts in the Las Vegas Valley

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2016-07-19

    Resistance factors for LRFD of axially loaded drilled shafts in the Las Vegas Valley are calibrated using data from 41 field load tests. In addition to the traditional implementation of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations for calibration, a more robust tech...

  10. Environmental change makes robust ecological networks fragile

    PubMed Central

    Strona, Giovanni; Lafferty, Kevin D.

    2016-01-01

    Complex ecological networks appear robust to primary extinctions, possibly due to consumers' tendency to specialize on dependable (available and persistent) resources. However, modifications to the conditions under which the network has evolved might alter resource dependability. Here, we ask whether adaptation to historical conditions can increase community robustness, and whether such robustness can protect communities from collapse when conditions change. Using artificial life simulations, we first evolved digital consumer-resource networks that we subsequently subjected to rapid environmental change. We then investigated how empirical host–parasite networks would respond to historical, random and expected extinction sequences. In both the cases, networks were far more robust to historical conditions than new ones, suggesting that new environmental challenges, as expected under global change, might collapse otherwise robust natural ecosystems. PMID:27511722

  11. 78 FR 66357 - Proposed Changes to FCC Form 499-A, FCC Form 499-Q, and Accompanying Instructions

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-11-05

    ... 499-A, FCC Form 499-Q, and Accompanying Instructions AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION..., FCC Form 499-Q (Form 499-Q) and accompanying instructions (Form 499-Q Instructions) to be used in 2014... Worksheet, FCC Form 499-Q (Form 499-Q) and accompanying instructions (Form 499-Q Instructions) to be used in...

  12. Livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (LA-MRSA) isolates of swine origin form robust biofilms

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization of livestock animals is common and prevalence rates for pigs have been reported to be as high as 49%. One hypothesis to explain the high prevalence of MRSA in swine herds is the ability of these organisms to exist as biofilms. To invest...

  13. Robust superhydrophobic surface on Al substrate with durability, corrosion resistance and ice-phobicity

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Guoyong; Liu, Shuai; Wei, Sufeng; Liu, Yan; Lian, Jianshe; Jiang, Qing

    2016-01-01

    Practical application of superhydrophobic surfaces is limited by the fragility of nanoscale asperities. Combining chemical etching and anodization, microscale pits and nanoscale pores, instead of the micro and nano protrusions on traditional superhydrophobic surfaces mimicking Lutos leaves, were fabricated on commercially pure aluminum surfaces. After modified by FDTS, the surfaces were superhydrophobic and self-cleaning. The ultrahigh hardness and electrochemical stability of Al2O3 coating endowed the surface excellent mechanical durability and good corrosion resistance. Because the method is scalable, it may find practical application on body panels of automobiles and aircrafts and so on. PMID:26853810

  14. Low MITF/AXL ratio predicts early resistance to multiple targeted drugs in melanoma.

    PubMed

    Müller, Judith; Krijgsman, Oscar; Tsoi, Jennifer; Robert, Lidia; Hugo, Willy; Song, Chunying; Kong, Xiangju; Possik, Patricia A; Cornelissen-Steijger, Paulien D M; Geukes Foppen, Marnix H; Kemper, Kristel; Goding, Colin R; McDermott, Ultan; Blank, Christian; Haanen, John; Graeber, Thomas G; Ribas, Antoni; Lo, Roger S; Peeper, Daniel S

    2014-12-15

    Increased expression of the Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) contributes to melanoma progression and resistance to BRAF pathway inhibition. Here we show that the lack of MITF is associated with more severe resistance to a range of inhibitors, while its presence is required for robust drug responses. Both in primary and acquired resistance, MITF levels inversely correlate with the expression of several activated receptor tyrosine kinases, most frequently AXL. The MITF-low/AXL-high/drug-resistance phenotype is common among mutant BRAF and NRAS melanoma cell lines. The dichotomous behaviour of MITF in drug response is corroborated in vemurafenib-resistant biopsies, including MITF-high and -low clones in a relapsed patient. Furthermore, drug cocktails containing AXL inhibitor enhance melanoma cell elimination by BRAF or ERK inhibition. Our results demonstrate that a low MITF/AXL ratio predicts early resistance to multiple targeted drugs, and warrant clinical validation of AXL inhibitors to combat resistance of BRAF and NRAS mutant MITF-low melanomas.

  15. 76 FR 69738 - Revised 2011 Annual Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet (FCC Form 499-A) and Accompanying...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-11-09

    ... Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet (FCC Form 499-A) and Accompanying Instructions AGENCY: Federal Communications... Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet (FCC Form 499-A) and accompanying instructions that have been approved by the... INFORMATION CONTACT: Ernesto Beckford, Wireline Competition Bureau, Telecommunications Access Policy Division...

  16. Xylitol prevents NEFA-induced insulin resistance in rats

    PubMed Central

    Kishore, P.; Kehlenbrink, S.; Hu, M.; Zhang, K.; Gutierrez-Juarez, R.; Koppaka, S.; El-Maghrabi, M. R.

    2013-01-01

    Aims/hypothesis Increased NEFA levels, characteristic of type 2 diabetes mellitus, contribute to skeletal muscle insulin resistance. While NEFA-induced insulin resistance was formerly attributed to decreased glycolysis, it is likely that glucose transport is the rate-limiting defect. Recently, the plant-derived sugar alcohol xylitol has been shown to have favourable metabolic effects in various animal models. Furthermore, its derivative xylulose 5-phosphate may prevent NEFA-induced suppression of glycolysis. We therefore examined whether and how xylitol might prevent NEFA-induced insulin resistance. Methods We examined the ability of xylitol to prevent NEFA-induced insulin resistance. Sustained ~1.5-fold elevations in NEFA levels were induced with Intralipid/heparin infusions during 5 h euglycaemic–hyperinsulinaemic clamp studies in 24 conscious non-diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats, with or without infusion of xylitol. Results Intralipid infusion reduced peripheral glucose uptake by ~25%, predominantly through suppression of glycogen synthesis. Co-infusion of xylitol prevented the NEFA-induced decreases in both glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis. Although glycolysis was increased by xylitol infusion alone, there was minimal NEFA-induced suppression of glycolysis, which was not affected by co-infusion of xylitol. Conclusions/interpretation We conclude that xylitol prevented NEFA-induced insulin resistance, with favourable effects on glycogen synthesis accompanying the improved insulin-mediated glucose uptake. This suggests that this pentose sweetener has beneficial insulin-sensitising effects. PMID:22460760

  17. Evolution of Fitness Cost-Neutral Mutant PfCRT Conferring P. falciparum 4-Aminoquinoline Drug Resistance Is Accompanied by Altered Parasite Metabolism and Digestive Vacuole Physiology

    PubMed Central

    Gabryszewski, Stanislaw J.; Dhingra, Satish K.; Lewis, Ian A.; Callaghan, Paul S.; Hassett, Matthew R.; Siriwardana, Amila; Henrich, Philipp P.; Lee, Andrew H.; Gnädig, Nina F.; Musset, Lise; Llinás, Manuel; Egan, Timothy J.; Roepe, Paul D.

    2016-01-01

    Southeast Asia is an epicenter of multidrug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum strains. Selective pressures on the subcontinent have recurrently produced several allelic variants of parasite drug resistance genes, including the P. falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter (pfcrt). Despite significant reductions in the deployment of the 4-aminoquinoline drug chloroquine (CQ), which selected for the mutant pfcrt alleles that halted CQ efficacy decades ago, the parasite pfcrt locus is continuously evolving. This is highlighted by the presence of a highly mutated allele, Cam734 pfcrt, which has acquired the singular ability to confer parasite CQ resistance without an associated fitness cost. Here, we used pfcrt-specific zinc-finger nucleases to genetically dissect this allele in the pathogenic setting of asexual blood-stage infection. Comparative analysis of drug resistance and growth profiles of recombinant parasites that express Cam734 or variants thereof, Dd2 (the most common Southeast Asian variant), or wild-type pfcrt, revealed previously unknown roles for PfCRT mutations in modulating parasite susceptibility to multiple antimalarial agents. These results were generated in the GC03 strain, used in multiple earlier pfcrt studies, and might differ in natural isolates harboring this allele. Results presented herein show that Cam734-mediated CQ resistance is dependent on the rare A144F mutation that has not been observed beyond Southeast Asia, and reveal distinct impacts of this and other Cam734-specific mutations on CQ resistance and parasite growth rates. Biochemical assays revealed a broad impact of mutant PfCRT isoforms on parasite metabolism, including nucleoside triphosphate levels, hemoglobin catabolism and disposition of heme, as well as digestive vacuole volume and pH. Results from our study provide new insights into the complex molecular basis and physiological impact of PfCRT-mediated antimalarial drug resistance, and inform ongoing efforts to characterize

  18. Redundancy relations and robust failure detection

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chow, E. Y.; Lou, X. C.; Verghese, G. C.; Willsky, A. S.

    1984-01-01

    All failure detection methods are based on the use of redundancy, that is on (possible dynamic) relations among the measured variables. Consequently the robustness of the failure detection process depends to a great degree on the reliability of the redundancy relations given the inevitable presence of model uncertainties. The problem of determining redundancy relations which are optimally robust in a sense which includes the major issues of importance in practical failure detection is addressed. A significant amount of intuition concerning the geometry of robust failure detection is provided.

  19. Study of robust thin film PT-1000 temperature sensors for cryogenic process control applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ramalingam, R.; Boguhn, D.; Fillinger, H.; Schlachter, S. I.; Süßer, M.

    2014-01-01

    In some cryogenic process measurement applications, for example, in hydrogen technology and in high temperature superconductor based generators, there is a need of robust temperature sensors. These sensors should be able to measure the large temperature range of 20 - 500 K with reasonable resolution and accuracy. Thin film PT 1000 sensors could be a choice to cover this large temperature range. Twenty one sensors selected from the same production batch were tested for their temperature sensitivity which was then compared with different batch sensors. Furthermore, the sensor's stability was studied by subjecting the sensors to repeated temperature cycles of 78-525 K. Deviations in the resistance were investigated using ice point calibration and water triple point calibration methods. Also the study of directional oriented intense static magnetic field effects up to 8 Oersted (Oe) were conducted to understand its magneto resistance behaviour in the cryogenic temperature range from 77 K - 15 K. This paper reports all investigation results in detail.

  20. MDM2 antagonists synergize broadly and robustly with compounds targeting fundamental oncogenic signaling pathways

    PubMed Central

    Yu, Dongyin; Lofgren, Julie A.; Osgood, Tao; Robertson, Rebecca; Canon, Jude; Su, Cheng; Jones, Adrie; Zhao, Xiaoning; Deshpande, Chetan; Payton, Marc; Ledell, Jebediah; Hughes, Paul E.; Oliner, Jonathan D.

    2014-01-01

    While MDM2 inhibitors hold great promise as cancer therapeutics, drug resistance will likely limit their efficacy as single agents. To identify drug combinations that might circumvent resistance, we screened for agents that could synergize with MDM2 inhibition in the suppression of cell viability. We observed broad and robust synergy when combining MDM2 antagonists with either MEK or PI3K inhibitors. Synergy was not limited to cell lines harboring MAPK or PI3K pathway mutations, nor did it depend on which node of the PI3K axis was targeted. MDM2 inhibitors also synergized strongly with BH3 mimetics, BCR-ABL antagonists, and HDAC inhibitors. MDM2 inhibitor-mediated synergy with agents targeting these mechanisms was much more prevalent than previously appreciated, implying that clinical translation of these combinations could have far-reaching implications for public health. These findings highlight the importance of combinatorial drug targeting and provide a framework for the rational design of MDM2 inhibitor clinical trials. PMID:24810962

  1. Data-Adaptive Bias-Reduced Doubly Robust Estimation.

    PubMed

    Vermeulen, Karel; Vansteelandt, Stijn

    2016-05-01

    Doubly robust estimators have now been proposed for a variety of target parameters in the causal inference and missing data literature. These consistently estimate the parameter of interest under a semiparametric model when one of two nuisance working models is correctly specified, regardless of which. The recently proposed bias-reduced doubly robust estimation procedure aims to partially retain this robustness in more realistic settings where both working models are misspecified. These so-called bias-reduced doubly robust estimators make use of special (finite-dimensional) nuisance parameter estimators that are designed to locally minimize the squared asymptotic bias of the doubly robust estimator in certain directions of these finite-dimensional nuisance parameters under misspecification of both parametric working models. In this article, we extend this idea to incorporate the use of data-adaptive estimators (infinite-dimensional nuisance parameters), by exploiting the bias reduction estimation principle in the direction of only one nuisance parameter. We additionally provide an asymptotic linearity theorem which gives the influence function of the proposed doubly robust estimator under correct specification of a parametric nuisance working model for the missingness mechanism/propensity score but a possibly misspecified (finite- or infinite-dimensional) outcome working model. Simulation studies confirm the desirable finite-sample performance of the proposed estimators relative to a variety of other doubly robust estimators.

  2. 9 CFR 93.314 - Horses, certification, and accompanying equipment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    .... (c) Following the port-of-entry inspection required by § 93.306 of this part, and before a horse offered for importation from any part of the world is released from the port of entry, an inspector may..., certification, and accompanying equipment. (a) Horses offered for importation from any part of the world shall...

  3. Dual measurement self-sensing technique of NiTi actuators for use in robust control

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gurley, Austin; Lambert, Tyler Ross; Beale, David; Broughton, Royall

    2017-10-01

    Using a shape memory alloy actuator as both an actuator and a sensor provides huge benefits in cost reduction and miniaturization of robotic devices. Despite much effort, reliable and robust self-sensing (using the actuator as a position sensor) had not been achieved for general temperature, loading, hysteresis path, and fatigue conditions. Prior research has sought to model the intricacies of the electrical resistivity changes within the NiTi material. However, for the models to be solvable, nearly every previous technique only models the actuator within very specific boundary conditions. Here, we measure both the voltage across the entire NiTi wire and of a fixed-length segment of it; these dual measurements allow direct calculation of the actuator length without a material model. We review previous self-sensing literature, illustrate the mechanism design that makes the new technique possible, and use the dual measurement technique to determine the length of a single straight wire actuator under controlled conditions. This robust measurement can be used for feedback control in unknown ambient and loading conditions.

  4. Optimization-Based Robust Nonlinear Control

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-08-01

    ABSTRACT New control algorithms were developed for robust stabilization of nonlinear dynamical systems . Novel, linear matrix inequality-based synthesis...was to further advance optimization-based robust nonlinear control design, for general nonlinear systems (especially in discrete time ), for linear...Teel, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, vol. 14, no. 3, p. 398-407, May 2006. 3. "A unified framework for input-to-state stability in

  5. Multi-criteria robustness analysis of metro networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Xiangrong; Koç, Yakup; Derrible, Sybil; Ahmad, Sk Nasir; Pino, Willem J. A.; Kooij, Robert E.

    2017-05-01

    Metros (heavy rail transit systems) are integral parts of urban transportation systems. Failures in their operations can have serious impacts on urban mobility, and measuring their robustness is therefore critical. Moreover, as physical networks, metros can be viewed as topological entities, and as such they possess measurable network properties. In this article, by using network science and graph theory, we investigate ten theoretical and four numerical robustness metrics and their performance in quantifying the robustness of 33 metro networks under random failures or targeted attacks. We find that the ten theoretical metrics capture two distinct aspects of robustness of metro networks. First, several metrics place an emphasis on alternative paths. Second, other metrics place an emphasis on the length of the paths. To account for all aspects, we standardize all ten indicators and plot them on radar diagrams to assess the overall robustness for metro networks. Overall, we find that Tokyo and Rome are the most robust networks. Rome benefits from short transferring and Tokyo has a significant number of transfer stations, both in the city center and in the peripheral area of the city, promoting both a higher number of alternative paths and overall relatively short path-lengths.

  6. Improvement of electrical resistivity tomography for leachate injection monitoring.

    PubMed

    Clément, R; Descloitres, M; Günther, T; Oxarango, L; Morra, C; Laurent, J-P; Gourc, J-P

    2010-03-01

    Leachate recirculation is a key process in the scope of operating municipal waste landfills as bioreactors, which aims to increase the moisture content to optimize the biodegradation in landfills. Given that liquid flows exhibit a complex behaviour in very heterogeneous porous media, in situ monitoring methods are required. Surface time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is usually proposed. Using numerical modelling with typical 2D and 3D injection plume patterns and 2D and 3D inversion codes, we show that wrong changes of resistivity can be calculated at depth if standard parameters are used for time-lapse ERT inversion. Major artefacts typically exhibit significant increases of resistivity (more than +30%) which can be misinterpreted as gas migration within the waste. In order to eliminate these artefacts, we tested an advanced time-lapse ERT procedure that includes (i) two advanced inversion tools and (ii) two alternative array geometries. The first advanced tool uses invariant regions in the model. The second advanced tool uses an inversion with a "minimum length" constraint. The alternative arrays focus on (i) a pole-dipole array (2D case), and (ii) a star array (3D case). The results show that these two advanced inversion tools and the two alternative arrays remove almost completely the artefacts within +/-5% both for 2D and 3D situations. As a field application, time-lapse ERT is applied using the star array during a 3D leachate injection in a non-hazardous municipal waste landfill. To evaluate the robustness of the two advanced tools, a synthetic model including both true decrease and increase of resistivity is built. The advanced time-lapse ERT procedure eliminates unwanted artefacts, while keeping a satisfactory image of true resistivity variations. This study demonstrates that significant and robust improvements can be obtained for time-lapse ERT monitoring of leachate recirculation in waste landfills. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

  7. Improvement of electrical resistivity tomography for leachate injection monitoring

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Clement, R., E-mail: remi.clement@hmg.inpg.f; Descloitres, M.; Guenther, T., E-mail: Thomas.Guenther@liag-hannover.d

    2010-03-15

    Leachate recirculation is a key process in the scope of operating municipal waste landfills as bioreactors, which aims to increase the moisture content to optimize the biodegradation in landfills. Given that liquid flows exhibit a complex behaviour in very heterogeneous porous media, in situ monitoring methods are required. Surface time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is usually proposed. Using numerical modelling with typical 2D and 3D injection plume patterns and 2D and 3D inversion codes, we show that wrong changes of resistivity can be calculated at depth if standard parameters are used for time-lapse ERT inversion. Major artefacts typically exhibit significantmore » increases of resistivity (more than +30%) which can be misinterpreted as gas migration within the waste. In order to eliminate these artefacts, we tested an advanced time-lapse ERT procedure that includes (i) two advanced inversion tools and (ii) two alternative array geometries. The first advanced tool uses invariant regions in the model. The second advanced tool uses an inversion with a 'minimum length' constraint. The alternative arrays focus on (i) a pole-dipole array (2D case), and (ii) a star array (3D case). The results show that these two advanced inversion tools and the two alternative arrays remove almost completely the artefacts within +/-5% both for 2D and 3D situations. As a field application, time-lapse ERT is applied using the star array during a 3D leachate injection in a non-hazardous municipal waste landfill. To evaluate the robustness of the two advanced tools, a synthetic model including both true decrease and increase of resistivity is built. The advanced time-lapse ERT procedure eliminates unwanted artefacts, while keeping a satisfactory image of true resistivity variations. This study demonstrates that significant and robust improvements can be obtained for time-lapse ERT monitoring of leachate recirculation in waste landfills.« less

  8. No smile like another: adult age differences in identifying emotions that accompany smiles.

    PubMed

    Riediger, Michaela; Studtmann, Markus; Westphal, Andrea; Rauers, Antje; Weber, Hannelore

    2014-01-01

    People smile in various emotional contexts, for example, when they are amused or angry or simply being polite. We investigated whether younger and older adults differ in how well they are able to identify the emotional experiences accompanying smile expressions, and whether the age of the smiling person plays a role in this respect. With this aim, we produced 80 video episodes of three types of smile expressions: positive-affect smiles had been spontaneously displayed by target persons as they were watching amusing film clips and cartoons. Negative-affect smiles had been displayed spontaneously by target persons during an interaction in which they were being unfairly accused. Affectively neutral smiles were posed upon request. Differences in the accompanying emotional experiences were validated by target persons' self-reports. These smile videos served as experimental stimuli in two studies with younger and older adult participants. In Study 1, older participants were less likely to attribute positive emotions to smiles, and more likely to assume that a smile was posed. Furthermore, younger participants were more accurate than older adults at identifying emotional experiences accompanying smiles. In Study 2, both younger and older participants attributed positive emotions more frequently to smiles shown by older as compared to younger target persons, but older participants did so less frequently than younger participants. Again, younger participants were more accurate than older participants in identifying emotional experiences accompanying smiles, but this effect was attenuated for older target persons. Older participants could better identify the emotional state accompanying smiles shown by older than by younger target persons. Taken together, these findings indicate that there is an age-related decline in the ability to decipher the emotional meaning of smiles presented without context, which, however, is attenuated when the smiling person is also an older adult.

  9. No smile like another: adult age differences in identifying emotions that accompany smiles

    PubMed Central

    Riediger, Michaela; Studtmann, Markus; Westphal, Andrea; Rauers, Antje; Weber, Hannelore

    2014-01-01

    People smile in various emotional contexts, for example, when they are amused or angry or simply being polite. We investigated whether younger and older adults differ in how well they are able to identify the emotional experiences accompanying smile expressions, and whether the age of the smiling person plays a role in this respect. With this aim, we produced 80 video episodes of three types of smile expressions: positive-affect smiles had been spontaneously displayed by target persons as they were watching amusing film clips and cartoons. Negative-affect smiles had been displayed spontaneously by target persons during an interaction in which they were being unfairly accused. Affectively neutral smiles were posed upon request. Differences in the accompanying emotional experiences were validated by target persons' self-reports. These smile videos served as experimental stimuli in two studies with younger and older adult participants. In Study 1, older participants were less likely to attribute positive emotions to smiles, and more likely to assume that a smile was posed. Furthermore, younger participants were more accurate than older adults at identifying emotional experiences accompanying smiles. In Study 2, both younger and older participants attributed positive emotions more frequently to smiles shown by older as compared to younger target persons, but older participants did so less frequently than younger participants. Again, younger participants were more accurate than older participants in identifying emotional experiences accompanying smiles, but this effect was attenuated for older target persons. Older participants could better identify the emotional state accompanying smiles shown by older than by younger target persons. Taken together, these findings indicate that there is an age-related decline in the ability to decipher the emotional meaning of smiles presented without context, which, however, is attenuated when the smiling person is also an older adult

  10. TARCMO: Theory and Algorithms for Robust, Combinatorial, Multicriteria Optimization

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-11-28

    objective 9 4.6 On The Recoverable Robust Traveling Salesman Problem . . . . . 11 4.7 A Bicriteria Approach to Robust Optimization...be found. 4.6 On The Recoverable Robust Traveling Salesman Problem The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a well-known combinatorial optimiza- tion...procedure for the robust traveling salesman problem . While this iterative algorithms results in an optimal solution to the robust TSP, computation

  11. Bias in Examination Test Banks that Accompany Cost Accounting Texts.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clute, Ronald C.; McGrail, George R.

    1989-01-01

    Eight text banks that accompany cost accounting textbooks were evaluated for the presence of bias in the distribution of correct responses. All but one were found to have considerable bias, and three of eight were found to have significant choice bias. (SK)

  12. Poverty and prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in invasive isolates.

    PubMed

    Alvarez-Uria, Gerardo; Gandra, Sumanth; Laxminarayan, Ramanan

    2016-11-01

    To evaluate the association between the income status of a country and the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the three most common bacteria causing infections in hospitals and in the community: third-generation cephalosporin (3GC)-resistant Escherichia coli, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and 3GC-resistant Klebsiella species. Using 2013-2014 country-specific data from the ResistanceMap repository and the World Bank, the association between the prevalence of AMR in invasive samples and the gross national income (GNI) per capita was investigated through linear regression with robust standard errors. To account for non-linear association with the dependent variable, GNI per capita was log-transformed. The models predicted an 11.3% (95% confidence interval (CI) 6.5-16.2%), 18.2% (95% CI 11-25.5%), and 12.3% (95% CI 5.5-19.1%) decrease in the prevalence of 3GC-resistant E. coli, 3GC-resistant Klebsiella species, and MRSA, respectively, for each log GNI per capita. The association was stronger for 3GC-resistant E. coli and Klebsiella species than for MRSA. A significant negative association between GNI per capita and the prevalence of MRSA and 3GC-resistant E. coli and Klebsiella species was found. These results underscore the urgent need for new policies aimed at reducing AMR in resource-poor settings. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  13. Replication and robustness in developmental research.

    PubMed

    Duncan, Greg J; Engel, Mimi; Claessens, Amy; Dowsett, Chantelle J

    2014-11-01

    Replications and robustness checks are key elements of the scientific method and a staple in many disciplines. However, leading journals in developmental psychology rarely include explicit replications of prior research conducted by different investigators, and few require authors to establish in their articles or online appendices that their key results are robust across estimation methods, data sets, and demographic subgroups. This article makes the case for prioritizing both explicit replications and, especially, within-study robustness checks in developmental psychology. It provides evidence on variation in effect sizes in developmental studies and documents strikingly different replication and robustness-checking practices in a sample of journals in developmental psychology and a sister behavioral science-applied economics. Our goal is not to show that any one behavioral science has a monopoly on best practices, but rather to show how journals from a related discipline address vital concerns of replication and generalizability shared by all social and behavioral sciences. We provide recommendations for promoting graduate training in replication and robustness-checking methods and for editorial policies that encourage these practices. Although some of our recommendations may shift the form and substance of developmental research articles, we argue that they would generate considerable scientific benefits for the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

  14. On the robustness of Herlihy's hierarchy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jayanti, Prasad

    1993-01-01

    A wait-free hierarchy maps object types to levels in Z(+) U (infinity) and has the following property: if a type T is at level N, and T' is an arbitrary type, then there is a wait-free implementation of an object of type T', for N processes, using only registers and objects of type T. The infinite hierarchy defined by Herlihy is an example of a wait-free hierarchy. A wait-free hierarchy is robust if it has the following property: if T is at level N, and S is a finite set of types belonging to levels N - 1 or lower, then there is no wait-free implementation of an object of type T, for N processes, using any number and any combination of objects belonging to the types in S. Robustness implies that there are no clever ways of combining weak shared objects to obtain stronger ones. Contrary to what many researchers believe, we prove that Herlihy's hierarchy is not robust. We then define some natural variants of Herlihy's hierarchy, which are also infinite wait-free hierarchies. With the exception of one, which is still open, these are not robust either. We conclude with the open question of whether non-trivial robust wait-free hierarchies exist.

  15. Design and fabrication of chemically robust three-dimensional microfluidic valves.

    PubMed

    Maltezos, George; Garcia, Erika; Hanrahan, Grady; Gomez, Frank A; Vyawahare, Saurabh; Vyawhare, Saurabh; van Dam, R Michael; Chen, Yan; Scherer, Axel

    2007-09-01

    A current problem in microfluidics is that poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), used to fabricate many microfluidic devices, is not compatible with most organic solvents. Fluorinated compounds are more chemically robust than PDMS but, historically, it has been nearly impossible to construct valves out of them by multilayer soft lithography (MSL) due to the difficulty of bonding layers made of "non-stick" fluoropolymers necessary to create traditional microfluidic valves. With our new three-dimensional (3D) valve design we can fabricate microfluidic devices from fluorinated compounds in a single monolithic layer that is resistant to most organic solvents with minimal swelling. This paper describes the design and development of 3D microfluidic valves by molding of a perfluoropolyether, termed Sifel, onto printed wax molds. The fabrication of Sifel-based microfluidic devices using this technique has great potential in chemical synthesis and analysis.

  16. Lipid-Induced Insulin Resistance Affects Women Less Than Men and Is Not Accompanied by Inflammation or Impaired Proximal Insulin Signaling

    PubMed Central

    Høeg, Louise D.; Sjøberg, Kim A.; Jeppesen, Jacob; Jensen, Thomas E.; Frøsig, Christian; Birk, Jesper B.; Bisiani, Bruno; Hiscock, Natalie; Pilegaard, Henriette; Wojtaszewski, Jørgen F.P.; Richter, Erik A.; Kiens, Bente

    2011-01-01

    OBJECTIVE We have previously shown that overnight fasted women have higher insulin-stimulated whole body and leg glucose uptake despite a higher intramyocellular triacylglycerol concentration than men. Women also express higher muscle mRNA levels of proteins related to lipid metabolism than men. We therefore hypothesized that women would be less prone to lipid-induced insulin resistance. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Insulin sensitivity of whole-body and leg glucose disposal was studied in 16 young well-matched healthy men and women infused with intralipid or saline for 7 h. Muscle biopsies were obtained before and during a euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp (1.42 mU · kg−1 · min−1). RESULTS Intralipid infusion reduced whole-body glucose infusion rate by 26% in women and 38% in men (P < 0.05), and insulin-stimulated leg glucose uptake was reduced significantly less in women (45%) than men (60%) after intralipid infusion. Hepatic glucose production was decreased during the clamp similarly in women and men irrespective of intralipid infusion. Intralipid did not impair insulin or AMPK signaling in muscle and subcutaneous fat, did not cause accumulation of muscle lipid intermediates, and did not impair insulin-stimulated glycogen synthase activity in muscle or increase plasma concentrations of inflammatory cytokines. In vitro glucose transport in giant sarcolemmal vesicles was not decreased by acute exposure to fatty acids. Leg lactate release was increased and respiratory exchange ratio was decreased by intralipid. CONCLUSIONS Intralipid infusion causes less insulin resistance of muscle glucose uptake in women than in men. This insulin resistance is not due to decreased canonical insulin signaling, accumulation of lipid intermediates, inflammation, or direct inhibition of GLUT activity. Rather, a higher leg lactate release and lower glucose oxidation with intralipid infusion may suggest a metabolic feedback regulation of glucose metabolism. PMID:20956497

  17. A remote-control datalogger for large-scale resistivity surveys and robust processing of its signals using a software lock-in approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oppermann, Frank; Günther, Thomas

    2018-02-01

    We present a new versatile datalogger that can be used for a wide range of possible applications in geosciences. It is adjustable in signal strength and sampling frequency, battery saving and can remotely be controlled over a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) connection so that it saves running costs, particularly in monitoring experiments. The internet connection allows for checking functionality, controlling schedules and optimizing pre-amplification. We mainly use it for large-scale electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), where it independently registers voltage time series on three channels, while a square-wave current is injected. For the analysis of this time series we present a new approach that is based on the lock-in (LI) method, mainly known from electronic circuits. The method searches the working point (phase) using three different functions based on a mask signal, and determines the amplitude using a direct current (DC) correlation function. We use synthetic data with different types of noise to compare the new method with existing approaches, i.e. selective stacking and a modified fast Fourier transformation (FFT)-based approach that assumes a 1/f noise characteristics. All methods give comparable results, but the LI is better than the well-established stacking method. The FFT approach can be even better but only if the noise strictly follows the assumed characteristics. If overshoots are present in the data, which is typical in the field, FFT performs worse even with good data, which is why we conclude that the new LI approach is the most robust solution. This is also proved by a field data set from a long 2-D ERT profile.

  18. 30 CFR 250.226 - What Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) information must accompany the EP? 250.226 Section 250.226 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT... Zone Management Act (CZMA) information must accompany the EP? The following CZMA information must...

  19. Raman spectroscopy differentiates between sensitive and resistant multiple myeloma cell lines

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Franco, Domenico; Trusso, Sebastiano; Fazio, Enza; Allegra, Alessandro; Musolino, Caterina; Speciale, Antonio; Cimino, Francesco; Saija, Antonella; Neri, Fortunato; Nicolò, Marco S.; Guglielmino, Salvatore P. P.

    2017-12-01

    Current methods for identifying neoplastic cells and discerning them from their normal counterparts are often nonspecific and biologically perturbing. Here, we show that single-cell micro-Raman spectroscopy can be used to discriminate between resistant and sensitive multiple myeloma cell lines based on their highly reproducible biomolecular spectral signatures. In order to demonstrate robustness of the proposed approach, we used two different cell lines of multiple myeloma, namely MM.1S and U266B1, and their counterparts MM.1R and U266/BTZ-R subtypes, resistant to dexamethasone and bortezomib, respectively. Then, micro-Raman spectroscopy provides an easily accurate and noninvasive method for cancer detection for both research and clinical environments. Characteristic peaks, mostly due to different DNA/RNA ratio, nucleic acids, lipids and protein concentrations, allow for discerning the sensitive and resistant subtypes. We also explored principal component analysis (PCA) for resistant cell identification and classification. Sensitive and resistant cells form distinct clusters that can be defined using just two principal components. The identification of drug-resistant cells by confocal micro-Raman spectroscopy is thus proposed as a clinical tool to assess the development of resistance to glucocorticoids and proteasome inhibitors in myeloma cells.

  20. Tracking Weight Change, Insulin Resistance, Stress, and Aerobic Fitness over 4 Years of College

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hopper, Mari K.; Moninger, Shana Lynn

    2017-01-01

    Objective: To determine if weight gain is accompanied by development of insulin resistance (IR) during 4 years in college. Participants: Two cohorts of college students were enrolled in fall semesters 2009 and 2010 and tracked for 4 years. Methods: Following a 12-hour fast, subjects reported for measurement of body mass index (BMI), perceived…

  1. Robust digital image watermarking using distortion-compensated dither modulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Mianjie; Yuan, Xiaochen

    2018-04-01

    In this paper, we propose a robust feature extraction based digital image watermarking method using Distortion- Compensated Dither Modulation (DC-DM). Our proposed local watermarking method provides stronger robustness and better flexibility than traditional global watermarking methods. We improve robustness by introducing feature extraction and DC-DM method. To extract the robust feature points, we propose a DAISY-based Robust Feature Extraction (DRFE) method by employing the DAISY descriptor and applying the entropy calculation based filtering. The experimental results show that the proposed method achieves satisfactory robustness under the premise of ensuring watermark imperceptibility quality compared to other existing methods.

  2. The auditory scene: an fMRI study on melody and accompaniment in professional pianists.

    PubMed

    Spada, Danilo; Verga, Laura; Iadanza, Antonella; Tettamanti, Marco; Perani, Daniela

    2014-11-15

    The auditory scene is a mental representation of individual sounds extracted from the summed sound waveform reaching the ears of the listeners. Musical contexts represent particularly complex cases of auditory scenes. In such a scenario, melody may be seen as the main object moving on a background represented by the accompaniment. Both melody and accompaniment vary in time according to harmonic rules, forming a typical texture with melody in the most prominent, salient voice. In the present sparse acquisition functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated the interplay between melody and accompaniment in trained pianists, by observing the activation responses elicited by processing: (1) melody placed in the upper and lower texture voices, leading to, respectively, a higher and lower auditory salience; (2) harmonic violations occurring in either the melody, the accompaniment, or both. The results indicated that the neural activation elicited by the processing of polyphonic compositions in expert musicians depends upon the upper versus lower position of the melodic line in the texture, and showed an overall greater activation for the harmonic processing of melody over accompaniment. Both these two predominant effects were characterized by the involvement of the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus, among other associative brain regions. We discuss the prominent role of the posterior medial cortex in the processing of melodic and harmonic information in the auditory stream, and propose to frame this processing in relation to the cognitive construction of complex multimodal sensory imagery scenes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Design principles for robust oscillatory behavior.

    PubMed

    Castillo-Hair, Sebastian M; Villota, Elizabeth R; Coronado, Alberto M

    2015-09-01

    Oscillatory responses are ubiquitous in regulatory networks of living organisms, a fact that has led to extensive efforts to study and replicate the circuits involved. However, to date, design principles that underlie the robustness of natural oscillators are not completely known. Here we study a three-component enzymatic network model in order to determine the topological requirements for robust oscillation. First, by simulating every possible topological arrangement and varying their parameter values, we demonstrate that robust oscillators can be obtained by augmenting the number of both negative feedback loops and positive autoregulations while maintaining an appropriate balance of positive and negative interactions. We then identify network motifs, whose presence in more complex topologies is a necessary condition for obtaining oscillatory responses. Finally, we pinpoint a series of simple architectural patterns that progressively render more robust oscillators. Together, these findings can help in the design of more reliable synthetic biomolecular networks and may also have implications in the understanding of other oscillatory systems.

  4. Robust control algorithms for Mars aerobraking

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Shipley, Buford W., Jr.; Ward, Donald T.

    1992-01-01

    Four atmospheric guidance concepts have been adapted to control an interplanetary vehicle aerobraking in the Martian atmosphere. The first two offer improvements to the Analytic Predictor Corrector (APC) to increase its robustness to density variations. The second two are variations of a new Liapunov tracking exit phase algorithm, developed to guide the vehicle along a reference trajectory. These four new controllers are tested using a six degree of freedom computer simulation to evaluate their robustness. MARSGRAM is used to develop realistic atmospheres for the study. When square wave density pulses perturb the atmosphere all four controllers are successful. The algorithms are tested against atmospheres where the inbound and outbound density functions are different. Square wave density pulses are again used, but only for the outbound leg of the trajectory. Additionally, sine waves are used to perturb the density function. The new algorithms are found to be more robust than any previously tested and a Liapunov controller is selected as the most robust control algorithm overall examined.

  5. Robust reinforcement learning.

    PubMed

    Morimoto, Jun; Doya, Kenji

    2005-02-01

    This letter proposes a new reinforcement learning (RL) paradigm that explicitly takes into account input disturbance as well as modeling errors. The use of environmental models in RL is quite popular for both offline learning using simulations and for online action planning. However, the difference between the model and the real environment can lead to unpredictable, and often unwanted, results. Based on the theory of H(infinity) control, we consider a differential game in which a "disturbing" agent tries to make the worst possible disturbance while a "control" agent tries to make the best control input. The problem is formulated as finding a min-max solution of a value function that takes into account the amount of the reward and the norm of the disturbance. We derive online learning algorithms for estimating the value function and for calculating the worst disturbance and the best control in reference to the value function. We tested the paradigm, which we call robust reinforcement learning (RRL), on the control task of an inverted pendulum. In the linear domain, the policy and the value function learned by online algorithms coincided with those derived analytically by the linear H(infinity) control theory. For a fully nonlinear swing-up task, RRL achieved robust performance with changes in the pendulum weight and friction, while a standard reinforcement learning algorithm could not deal with these changes. We also applied RRL to the cart-pole swing-up task, and a robust swing-up policy was acquired.

  6. Family member accompaniment to routine medical visits is associated with better self-care in heart failure patients.

    PubMed

    Cené, Crystal W; Haymore, Laura Beth; Lin, Feng-Chang; Laux, Jeffrey; Jones, Christine Delong; Wu, Jia-Rong; DeWalt, Darren; Pignone, Mike; Corbie-Smith, Giselle

    2015-03-01

    To examine the association between frequency of family member accompaniment to medical visits and heart failure (HF) self-care maintenance and management and to determine whether associations are mediated through satisfaction with provider communication. Cross-sectional survey of 150 HF patients seen in outpatient clinics. HF self-care maintenance and management were assessed using the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index. Satisfaction with provider communication was assessed using a single question originally included in the American Board of Internal Medicine Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire. Frequency of family member accompaniment to visits was assessed using a single-item question. We performed regression analyses to examine associations between frequency of accompaniment and outcomes. Mediation analysis was conducted using MacKinnon's criteria. Overall, 61% reported accompaniment by family members to some/most/every visit. Accompaniment to some/most/every visit was associated with higher self-care maintenance (β = 6.4, SE 2.5; p = 0.01) and management (β = 12.7, SE 4.9; p = 0.01) scores. Satisfaction with provider communication may mediate the association between greater frequency of accompaniment to visits and self-care maintenance (1.092; p = 0.06) and self-care management (1.428; p = 0.13). Accompaniment to medical visits is associated with better HF self-care maintenance and management, and this effect may be mediated through satisfaction with provider communication. © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

  7. Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency Improves Insulin Resistance With Reduced Adipose Tissue Inflammation in Obesity.

    PubMed

    Ham, Mira; Choe, Sung Sik; Shin, Kyung Cheul; Choi, Goun; Kim, Ji-Won; Noh, Jung-Ran; Kim, Yong-Hoon; Ryu, Je-Won; Yoon, Kun-Ho; Lee, Chul-Ho; Kim, Jae Bum

    2016-09-01

    Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), a rate-limiting enzyme of the pentose phosphate pathway, plays important roles in redox regulation and de novo lipogenesis. It was recently demonstrated that aberrant upregulation of G6PD in obese adipose tissue mediates insulin resistance as a result of imbalanced energy metabolism and oxidative stress. It remains elusive, however, whether inhibition of G6PD in vivo may relieve obesity-induced insulin resistance. In this study we showed that a hematopoietic G6PD defect alleviates insulin resistance in obesity, accompanied by reduced adipose tissue inflammation. Compared with wild-type littermates, G6PD-deficient mutant (G6PD(mut)) mice were glucose tolerant upon high-fat-diet (HFD) feeding. Intriguingly, the expression of NADPH oxidase genes to produce reactive oxygen species was alleviated, whereas that of antioxidant genes was enhanced in the adipose tissue of HFD-fed G6PD(mut) mice. In diet-induced obesity (DIO), the adipose tissue of G6PD(mut) mice decreased the expression of inflammatory cytokines, accompanied by downregulated proinflammatory macrophages. Accordingly, macrophages from G6PD(mut) mice greatly suppressed lipopolysaccharide-induced proinflammatory signaling cascades, leading to enhanced insulin sensitivity in adipocytes and hepatocytes. Furthermore, adoptive transfer of G6PD(mut) bone marrow to wild-type mice attenuated adipose tissue inflammation and improved glucose tolerance in DIO. Collectively, these data suggest that inhibition of macrophage G6PD would ameliorate insulin resistance in obesity through suppression of proinflammatory responses. © 2016 by the American Diabetes Association.

  8. Adaptive Critic Nonlinear Robust Control: A Survey.

    PubMed

    Wang, Ding; He, Haibo; Liu, Derong

    2017-10-01

    Adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) and reinforcement learning are quite relevant to each other when performing intelligent optimization. They are both regarded as promising methods involving important components of evaluation and improvement, at the background of information technology, such as artificial intelligence, big data, and deep learning. Although great progresses have been achieved and surveyed when addressing nonlinear optimal control problems, the research on robustness of ADP-based control strategies under uncertain environment has not been fully summarized. Hence, this survey reviews the recent main results of adaptive-critic-based robust control design of continuous-time nonlinear systems. The ADP-based nonlinear optimal regulation is reviewed, followed by robust stabilization of nonlinear systems with matched uncertainties, guaranteed cost control design of unmatched plants, and decentralized stabilization of interconnected systems. Additionally, further comprehensive discussions are presented, including event-based robust control design, improvement of the critic learning rule, nonlinear H ∞ control design, and several notes on future perspectives. By applying the ADP-based optimal and robust control methods to a practical power system and an overhead crane plant, two typical examples are provided to verify the effectiveness of theoretical results. Overall, this survey is beneficial to promote the development of adaptive critic control methods with robustness guarantee and the construction of higher level intelligent systems.

  9. Resistance Training Effects on Metabolic Function Among Youth: A Systematic Review.

    PubMed

    Bea, Jennifer W; Blew, Robert M; Howe, Carol; Hetherington-Rauth, Megan; Going, Scott B

    2017-08-01

    This systematic review evaluates the relationship between resistance training and metabolic function in youth. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CINAHL, and ClinicalTrials. gov were searched for articles that (1): studied children (2); included resistance training (3); were randomized interventions; and (4) reported markers of metabolic function. The selected studies were analyzed using the Cochrane Risk-of-Bias Tool. Thirteen articles met inclusion criteria. Mean age ranged from 12.2 to 16.9 years, but most were limited to high school (n = 11) and overweight/obese (n = 12). Sample sizes (n = 22-304), session duration (40-60min), and intervention length (8-52 wks) varied. Exercise frequency was typically 2-3 d/wk. Resistance training was metabolically beneficial compared with control or resistance plus aerobic training in 5 studies overall and 3 out of the 4 studies with the fewest threats to bias (p ≤ .05); each was accompanied by beneficial changes in body composition, but only one study adjusted for change in body composition. Limited evidence suggests that resistance training may positively affect metabolic parameters in youth. Well-controlled resistance training interventions of varying doses are needed to definitively determine whether resistance training can mitigate metabolic dysfunction in youth and whether training benefits on metabolic parameters are independent of body composition changes.

  10. Robust Planning for Effects-Based Operations

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-06-01

    Algorithm ......................................... 34 2.6 Robust Optimization Literature ..................................... 36 2.6.1 Protecting Against...Model Formulation ...................... 55 3.1.5 Deterministic EBO Model Example and Performance ............. 59 3.1.6 Greedy Algorithm ...111 4.1.9 Conclusions on Robust EBO Model Performance .................... 116 4.2 Greedy Algorithm versus EBO Models

  11. Heading Estimation for Pedestrian Dead Reckoning Based on Robust Adaptive Kalman Filtering.

    PubMed

    Wu, Dongjin; Xia, Linyuan; Geng, Jijun

    2018-06-19

    Pedestrian dead reckoning (PDR) using smart phone-embedded micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) sensors plays a key role in ubiquitous localization indoors and outdoors. However, as a relative localization method, it suffers from the problem of error accumulation which prevents it from long term independent running. Heading estimation error is one of the main location error sources, and therefore, in order to improve the location tracking performance of the PDR method in complex environments, an approach based on robust adaptive Kalman filtering (RAKF) for estimating accurate headings is proposed. In our approach, outputs from gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer sensors are fused using the solution of Kalman filtering (KF) that the heading measurements derived from accelerations and magnetic field data are used to correct the states integrated from angular rates. In order to identify and control measurement outliers, a maximum likelihood-type estimator (M-estimator)-based model is used. Moreover, an adaptive factor is applied to resist the negative effects of state model disturbances. Extensive experiments under static and dynamic conditions were conducted in indoor environments. The experimental results demonstrate the proposed approach provides more accurate heading estimates and supports more robust and dynamic adaptive location tracking, compared with methods based on conventional KF.

  12. Robust climate policies under uncertainty: a comparison of robust decision making and info-gap methods.

    PubMed

    Hall, Jim W; Lempert, Robert J; Keller, Klaus; Hackbarth, Andrew; Mijere, Christophe; McInerney, David J

    2012-10-01

    This study compares two widely used approaches for robustness analysis of decision problems: the info-gap method originally developed by Ben-Haim and the robust decision making (RDM) approach originally developed by Lempert, Popper, and Bankes. The study uses each approach to evaluate alternative paths for climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions given the potential for nonlinear threshold responses in the climate system, significant uncertainty about such a threshold response and a variety of other key parameters, as well as the ability to learn about any threshold responses over time. Info-gap and RDM share many similarities. Both represent uncertainty as sets of multiple plausible futures, and both seek to identify robust strategies whose performance is insensitive to uncertainties. Yet they also exhibit important differences, as they arrange their analyses in different orders, treat losses and gains in different ways, and take different approaches to imprecise probabilistic information. The study finds that the two approaches reach similar but not identical policy recommendations and that their differing attributes raise important questions about their appropriate roles in decision support applications. The comparison not only improves understanding of these specific methods, it also suggests some broader insights into robustness approaches and a framework for comparing them. © 2012 RAND Corporation.

  13. Robustness of a cellular automata model for the HIV infection

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Figueirêdo, P. H.; Coutinho, S.; Zorzenon dos Santos, R. M.

    2008-11-01

    An investigation was conducted to study the robustness of the results obtained from the cellular automata model which describes the spread of the HIV infection within lymphoid tissues [R.M. Zorzenon dos Santos, S. Coutinho, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (2001) 168102]. The analysis focused on the dynamic behavior of the model when defined in lattices with different symmetries and dimensionalities. The results illustrated that the three-phase dynamics of the planar models suffered minor changes in relation to lattice symmetry variations and, while differences were observed regarding dimensionality changes, qualitative behavior was preserved. A further investigation was conducted into primary infection and sensitiveness of the latency period to variations of the model’s stochastic parameters over wide ranging values. The variables characterizing primary infection and the latency period exhibited power-law behavior when the stochastic parameters varied over a few orders of magnitude. The power-law exponents were approximately the same when lattice symmetry varied, but there was a significant variation when dimensionality changed from two to three. The dynamics of the three-dimensional model was also shown to be insensitive to variations of the deterministic parameters related to cell resistance to the infection, and the necessary time lag to mount the specific immune response to HIV variants. The robustness of the model demonstrated in this work reinforce that its basic hypothesis are consistent with the three-stage dynamic of the HIV infection observed in patients.

  14. The rice XA21 ectodomain fused to the Arabidopsis EFR cytoplasmic domain confers resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae.

    PubMed

    Thomas, Nicholas C; Oksenberg, Nir; Liu, Furong; Caddell, Daniel; Nalyvayko, Alina; Nguyen, Yen; Schwessinger, Benjamin; Ronald, Pamela C

    2018-01-01

    Rice ( Oryza sativa ) plants expressing the XA21 cell-surface receptor kinase are resistant to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) infection. We previously demonstrated that expressing a chimeric protein containing the ELONGATION FACTOR Tu RECEPTOR (EFR) ectodomain and the XA21 endodomain (EFR:XA21) in rice does not confer robust resistance to Xoo . To test if the XA21 ectodomain is required for Xoo resistance, we produced transgenic rice lines expressing a chimeric protein consisting of the XA21 ectodomain and EFR endodomain (XA21:EFR) and inoculated these lines with Xoo . We also tested if the XA21:EFR rice plants respond to a synthetic sulfated 21 amino acid derivative (RaxX21-sY) of the activator of XA21-mediated immunity, RaxX. We found that five independently transformed XA21:EFR rice lines displayed resistance to Xoo as measured by lesion length analysis, and showed that five lines share characteristic markers of the XA21 defense response (generation of reactive oxygen species and defense response gene expression) after treatment with RaxX21-sY. Our results indicate that expression of the XA21:EFR chimeric receptor in rice confers resistance to Xoo . These results suggest that the endodomain of the EFR and XA21 immune receptors are interchangeable and the XA21 ectodomain is the key determinant conferring robust resistance to Xoo .

  15. Incentive-Compatible Robust Line Planning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bessas, Apostolos; Kontogiannis, Spyros; Zaroliagis, Christos

    The problem of robust line planning requests for a set of origin-destination paths (lines) along with their frequencies in an underlying railway network infrastructure, which are robust to fluctuations of real-time parameters of the solution. In this work, we investigate a variant of robust line planning stemming from recent regulations in the railway sector that introduce competition and free railway markets, and set up a new application scenario: there is a (potentially large) number of line operators that have their lines fixed and operate as competing entities issuing frequency requests, while the management of the infrastructure itself remains the responsibility of a single entity, the network operator. The line operators are typically unwilling to reveal their true incentives, while the network operator strives to ensure a fair (or socially optimal) usage of the infrastructure, e.g., by maximizing the (unknown to him) aggregate incentives of the line operators.

  16. 30 CFR 250.215 - What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the EP? 250.215 Section 250.215 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE... Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 250.215 What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the EP...

  17. Robustness enhancement of neurocontroller and state estimator

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Troudet, Terry

    1993-01-01

    The feasibility of enhancing neurocontrol robustness, through training of the neurocontroller and state estimator in the presence of system uncertainties, is investigated on the example of a multivariable aircraft control problem. The performance and robustness of the newly trained neurocontroller are compared to those for an existing neurocontrol design scheme. The newly designed dynamic neurocontroller exhibits a better trade-off between phase and gain stability margins, and it is significantly more robust to degradations of the plant dynamics.

  18. 30 CFR 250.212 - What information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... support facilities information required by § 250.225; (n) Coastal zone management information required by... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What information must accompany the EP? 250.212 Section 250.212 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE OIL AND...

  19. 19 CFR 133.3 - Documents and fee to accompany application.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Documents and fee to accompany application. 133.3 Section 133.3 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY TRADEMARKS, TRADE NAMES, AND COPYRIGHTS Recordation of Trademarks § 133.3...

  20. Robust-yet-fragile nature of interdependent networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tan, Fei; Xia, Yongxiang; Wei, Zhi

    2015-05-01

    Interdependent networks have been shown to be extremely vulnerable based on the percolation model. Parshani et al. [Europhys. Lett. 92, 68002 (2010), 10.1209/0295-5075/92/68002] further indicated that the more intersimilar networks are, the more robust they are to random failures. When traffic load is considered, how do the coupling patterns impact cascading failures in interdependent networks? This question has been largely unexplored until now. In this paper, we address this question by investigating the robustness of interdependent Erdös-Rényi random graphs and Barabási-Albert scale-free networks under either random failures or intentional attacks. It is found that interdependent Erdös-Rényi random graphs are robust yet fragile under either random failures or intentional attacks. Interdependent Barabási-Albert scale-free networks, however, are only robust yet fragile under random failures but fragile under intentional attacks. We further analyze the interdependent communication network and power grid and achieve similar results. These results advance our understanding of how interdependency shapes network robustness.

  1. Mid-gestational serum uric acid concentration effect on neonate birth weight and insulin resistance in pregnant women.

    PubMed

    Nasri, Khadijeh; Razavi, Maryamsadat; Rezvanfar, Mohammad Reza; Mashhadi, Esmat; Chehrei, Ali; Mohammadbeigi, Abolfazl

    2015-01-01

    To investigate the relationship between mid-gestational serum uric acid and birth weight in diabetic pregnant women with or without insulin resistance. In a prospective cohort study, fasting uric acid, blood glucose, and serum insulin were measured in 247 pregnant women between 20-22 weeks of gestational period. Insulin resistance was estimated using the homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Stratification analysis and independent t-test was used to assess the association between uric acid and birth weights regarding to insulin resistance. The means of the mid-gestational serum uric acid concentrations were not significantly different in women with and without insulin resistance. But stratification analysis showed that there was a significant difference between uric acid concentration and macrosomic birth in diabetic women without insulin resistance. Higher mid - gestation serum uric acid concentration, even if it does not exceed the normal range, is accompanied by lower birth weight only in non-insulin resistance women. Insulin resistance could have a negative confounding effect on hyperuriemia and birth weight.

  2. A robust classic.

    PubMed

    Kutzner, Florian; Vogel, Tobias; Freytag, Peter; Fiedler, Klaus

    2011-01-01

    In the present research, we argue for the robustness of illusory correlations (ICs, Hamilton & Gifford, 1976) regarding two boundary conditions suggested in previous research. First, we argue that ICs are maintained under extended experience. Using simulations, we derive conflicting predictions. Whereas noise-based accounts predict ICs to be maintained (Fielder, 2000; Smith, 1991), a prominent account based on discrepancy-reducing feedback learning predicts ICs to disappear (Van Rooy et al., 2003). An experiment involving 320 observations with majority and minority members supports the claim that ICs are maintained. Second, we show that actively using the stereotype to make predictions that are met with reward and punishment does not eliminate the bias. In addition, participants' operant reactions afford a novel online measure of ICs. In sum, our findings highlight the robustness of ICs that can be explained as a result of unbiased but noisy learning.

  3. Morphological Changes and Antibiotic-Induced Thermal Resistance in Vegetative Cells of Bacillus subtilis

    PubMed Central

    Dul, Michael J.; McDonald, William C.

    1971-01-01

    The morphology and thermal resistance of vegetative cells of Bacillus subtilis W168 were examined after growth at 37 and 53 C. Vegetative cells grown at 37 C exhibited a typical trilaminar morphology, whereas cells grown at 53 C exhibited a cell wall which was apparently thicker and more loosely organized and had a poorly defined periphery. A concurrent increase in thermal resistance to a heat shock of 60 C occurs with the change in cell wall morphology. The change to the aberrant cell wall form, or its reversal to the normal form, is always accompanied by the gain or the loss of thermal resistance, respectively. The inhibition of protein synthesis by chloramphenicol has little effect upon the acquisition of thermal resistance at 53 C. Addition of the disaccharide pentapeptide subunit to the cell wall peptidoglycan is apparently essential to growth at 53 C and the acquisition of thermal resistance, since both growth and thermal resistance are inhibited by bacitracin. Two antibiotics, penicillin and cycloserine, which inhibit the final cross-linking of the cell wall peptidoglycan at two separate points, do not affect the acquisition of thermal resistance at 53 C. These same antibiotics induce a high degree of thermal resistance at 37 C. It is proposed that a change in the cell wall structure is related to an increased thermal resistance. Images PMID:4995654

  4. Robust regression for large-scale neuroimaging studies.

    PubMed

    Fritsch, Virgile; Da Mota, Benoit; Loth, Eva; Varoquaux, Gaël; Banaschewski, Tobias; Barker, Gareth J; Bokde, Arun L W; Brühl, Rüdiger; Butzek, Brigitte; Conrod, Patricia; Flor, Herta; Garavan, Hugh; Lemaitre, Hervé; Mann, Karl; Nees, Frauke; Paus, Tomas; Schad, Daniel J; Schümann, Gunter; Frouin, Vincent; Poline, Jean-Baptiste; Thirion, Bertrand

    2015-05-01

    Multi-subject datasets used in neuroimaging group studies have a complex structure, as they exhibit non-stationary statistical properties across regions and display various artifacts. While studies with small sample sizes can rarely be shown to deviate from standard hypotheses (such as the normality of the residuals) due to the poor sensitivity of normality tests with low degrees of freedom, large-scale studies (e.g. >100 subjects) exhibit more obvious deviations from these hypotheses and call for more refined models for statistical inference. Here, we demonstrate the benefits of robust regression as a tool for analyzing large neuroimaging cohorts. First, we use an analytic test based on robust parameter estimates; based on simulations, this procedure is shown to provide an accurate statistical control without resorting to permutations. Second, we show that robust regression yields more detections than standard algorithms using as an example an imaging genetics study with 392 subjects. Third, we show that robust regression can avoid false positives in a large-scale analysis of brain-behavior relationships with over 1500 subjects. Finally we embed robust regression in the Randomized Parcellation Based Inference (RPBI) method and demonstrate that this combination further improves the sensitivity of tests carried out across the whole brain. Altogether, our results show that robust procedures provide important advantages in large-scale neuroimaging group studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Jumbo squid beaks: inspiration for design of robust organic composites.

    PubMed

    Miserez, Ali; Li, Youli; Waite, J Herbert; Zok, Frank

    2007-01-01

    The hard tissues found in some invertebrate marine organisms represent intriguing paradigms for robust, lightweight materials. The present study focuses on one such tissue: that comprising the beak of the jumbo squid (Dosidicus gigas). Its main constituents are chitin fibers (15-20wt.%) and histidine- and glycine-rich proteins (40-45%). Notably absent are mineral phases, metals and halogens. Despite being fully organic, beak hardness and stiffness are at least twice those of the most competitive synthetic organic materials (notably engineering polymers) and comparable to those of Glycera and Nereis jaws. Furthermore, the combination of hardness and stiffness makes the beaks more resistant to plastic deformation when in contact with blunt abrasives than virtually all metals and polymers. The 3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine and abundant histidine content in the beak proteins as well as the pigmented hydrolysis-resistant residue are suggestive of aromatic cross-linking. A high cross-linking density between the proteins and chitin may be the single most important determinant of hardness and stiffness in the beak. Beak microstructure is characterized by a lamellar arrangement of the constituents, with a weak interface that promotes crack deflection and endows the structure with high fracture toughness. The susceptibility of this microstructure to cracking along these interfaces from contact stresses at the external surface is mitigated by the presence of a protective coating.

  6. Comparing Four Instructional Techniques for Promoting Robust Knowledge

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Richey, J. Elizabeth; Nokes-Malach, Timothy J.

    2015-01-01

    Robust knowledge serves as a common instructional target in academic settings. Past research identifying characteristics of experts' knowledge across many domains can help clarify the features of robust knowledge as well as ways of assessing it. We review the expertise literature and identify three key features of robust knowledge (deep,…

  7. Pyrosequencing the Bemisia tabaci Transcriptome Reveals a Highly Diverse Bacterial Community and a Robust System for Insecticide Resistance

    PubMed Central

    Wu, Qing-jun; Wang, Shao-li; Yang, Xin; Yang, Ni-na; Li, Ru-mei; Jiao, Xiao-guo; Pan, Hui-peng; Liu, Bai-ming; Su, Qi; Xu, Bao-yun; Hu, Song-nian; Zhou, Xu-guo; Zhang, You-jun

    2012-01-01

    Background Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) is a phloem-feeding insect poised to become one of the major insect pests in open field and greenhouse production systems throughout the world. The high level of resistance to insecticides is a main factor that hinders continued use of insecticides for suppression of B. tabaci. Despite its prevalence, little is known about B. tabaci at the genome level. To fill this gap, an invasive B. tabaci B biotype was subjected to pyrosequencing-based transcriptome analysis to identify genes and gene networks putatively involved in various physiological and toxicological processes. Methodology and Principal Findings Using Roche 454 pyrosequencing, 857,205 reads containing approximately 340 megabases were obtained from the B. tabaci transcriptome. De novo assembly generated 178,669 unigenes including 30,980 from insects, 17,881 from bacteria, and 129,808 from the nohit. A total of 50,835 (28.45%) unigenes showed similarity to the non-redundant database in GenBank with a cut-off E-value of 10–5. Among them, 40,611 unigenes were assigned to one or more GO terms and 6,917 unigenes were assigned to 288 known pathways. De novo metatranscriptome analysis revealed highly diverse bacterial symbionts in B. tabaci, and demonstrated the host-symbiont cooperation in amino acid production. In-depth transcriptome analysis indentified putative molecular markers, and genes potentially involved in insecticide resistance and nutrient digestion. The utility of this transcriptome was validated by a thiamethoxam resistance study, in which annotated cytochrome P450 genes were significantly overexpressed in the resistant B. tabaci in comparison to its susceptible counterparts. Conclusions This transcriptome/metatranscriptome analysis sheds light on the molecular understanding of symbiosis and insecticide resistance in an agriculturally important phloem-feeding insect pest, and lays the foundation for future functional genomics research of the B. tabaci complex

  8. Reactive oxygen species-mediated therapeutic response and resistance in glioblastoma

    PubMed Central

    Singer, E; Judkins, J; Salomonis, N; Matlaf, L; Soteropoulos, P; McAllister, S; Soroceanu, L

    2015-01-01

    Glioblastoma (GBM) resistance to therapy is the most common cause of tumor recurrence, which is ultimately fatal in 90% of the patients 5 years after initial diagnosis. A sub-population of tumor cells with stem-like properties, glioma stem cells (GSCs), is specifically endowed to resist or adapt to the standard therapies, leading to therapeutic resistance. Several anticancer agents, collectively termed redox therapeutics, act by increasing intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, we investigated mechanisms underlying GSC response and resistance to cannabidiol (CBD), a non-toxic, non-psychoactive cannabinoid and redox modulator. Using primary GSCs, we showed that CBD induced a robust increase in ROS, which led to the inhibition of cell survival, phosphorylated (p)-AKT, self-renewal and a significant increase in the survival of GSC-bearing mice. Inhibition of self-renewal was mediated by the activation of the p-p38 pathway and downregulation of key stem cell regulators Sox2, Id1 and p-STAT3. Following CBD treatment, a subset of GSC successfully adapted, leading to tumor regrowth. Microarray, Taqman and functional assays revealed that therapeutic resistance was mediated by enhanced expression of the antioxidant response system Xc catalytic subunit xCT (SLC7A11 (solute carrier family 7 (anionic amino-acid transporter light chain), member 11)) and ROS-dependent upregulation of mesenchymal (MES) markers with concomitant downregulation of proneural (PN) markers, also known as PN–MES transition. This ‘reprogramming' of GSCs occurred in culture and in vivo and was partially due to activation of the NFE2L2 (NRF2 (nuclear factor, erythroid 2-like)) transcriptional network. Using genetic knockdown and pharmacological inhibitors of SLC7A11, we demonstrated that combining CBD treatment with the inhibition of system Xc resulted in synergistic ROS increase leading to robust antitumor effects, that is, decreased GSC survival, self-renewal, and

  9. Body fat mass and the proportion of very large adipocytes in pregnant women are associated with gestational insulin resistance.

    PubMed

    Svensson, H; Wetterling, L; Bosaeus, M; Odén, B; Odén, A; Jennische, E; Edén, S; Holmäng, A; Lönn, M

    2016-04-01

    Pregnancy is accompanied by fat gain and insulin resistance. Changes in adipose tissue morphology and function during pregnancy and factors contributing to gestational insulin resistance are incompletely known. We sought to characterize adipose tissue in trimesters 1 and 3 (T1/T3) in normal weight (NW) and obese pregnant women, and identify adipose tissue-related factors associated with gestational insulin resistance. Twenty-two NW and 11 obese women were recruited early in pregnancy for the Pregnancy Obesity Nutrition and Child Health study. Examinations and sampling of blood and abdominal adipose tissue were performed longitudinally in T1/T3 to determine fat mass (air-displacement plethysmography); insulin resistance (homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, HOMA-IR); size, number and lipolytic activity of adipocytes; and adipokine release and density of immune cells and blood vessels in adipose tissue. Fat mass and HOMA-IR increased similarly between T1 and T3 in the groups; all remained normoglycemic. Adipocyte size increased in NW women. Adipocyte number was not influenced, but proportions of small and large adipocytes changed oppositely in the groups. Lipolytic activity and circulating adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein increased in both groups. Adiponectin release was reduced in NW women. Fat mass and the proportion of very large adipocytes were most strongly associated with T3 HOMA-IR by multivariable linear regression (R(2)=0.751, P<0.001). During pregnancy, adipose tissue morphology and function change comprehensively. NW women accumulated fat in existing adipocytes, accompanied by reduced adiponectin release. In comparison with the NW group, obese women had signs of adipocyte recruitment and maintained adiponectin levels. Body fat and large adipocytes may contribute significantly to gestational insulin resistance.

  10. 19 CFR 133.13 - Documents and fee to accompany application.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Documents and fee to accompany application. 133.13 Section 133.13 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY TRADEMARKS, TRADE NAMES, AND COPYRIGHTS Recordation of Trade Names § 133.13...

  11. 30 CFR 550.212 - What information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... § 550.226; (o) Environmental impact analysis information required by § 550.227; and (p) Administrative... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What information must accompany the EP? 550.212... OIL AND GAS AND SULPHUR OPERATIONS IN THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF Plans and Information Contents of...

  12. 30 CFR 550.212 - What information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... § 550.226; (o) Environmental impact analysis information required by § 550.227; and (p) Administrative... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What information must accompany the EP? 550.212... OIL AND GAS AND SULPHUR OPERATIONS IN THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF Plans and Information Contents of...

  13. 30 CFR 550.212 - What information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... § 550.226; (o) Environmental impact analysis information required by § 550.227; and (p) Administrative... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What information must accompany the EP? 550.212... OIL AND GAS AND SULPHUR OPERATIONS IN THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF Plans and Information Contents of...

  14. Petroleum refinery operational planning using robust optimization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leiras, A.; Hamacher, S.; Elkamel, A.

    2010-12-01

    In this article, the robust optimization methodology is applied to deal with uncertainties in the prices of saleable products, operating costs, product demand, and product yield in the context of refinery operational planning. A numerical study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed robust approach. The benefits of incorporating uncertainty in the different model parameters were evaluated in terms of the cost of ignoring uncertainty in the problem. The calculations suggest that this benefit is equivalent to 7.47% of the deterministic solution value, which indicates that the robust model may offer advantages to those involved with refinery operational planning. In addition, the probability bounds of constraint violation are calculated to help the decision-maker adopt a more appropriate parameter to control robustness and judge the tradeoff between conservatism and total profit.

  15. Robust geostatistical analysis of spatial data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Papritz, A.; Künsch, H. R.; Schwierz, C.; Stahel, W. A.

    2012-04-01

    Most of the geostatistical software tools rely on non-robust algorithms. This is unfortunate, because outlying observations are rather the rule than the exception, in particular in environmental data sets. Outlying observations may results from errors (e.g. in data transcription) or from local perturbations in the processes that are responsible for a given pattern of spatial variation. As an example, the spatial distribution of some trace metal in the soils of a region may be distorted by emissions of local anthropogenic sources. Outliers affect the modelling of the large-scale spatial variation, the so-called external drift or trend, the estimation of the spatial dependence of the residual variation and the predictions by kriging. Identifying outliers manually is cumbersome and requires expertise because one needs parameter estimates to decide which observation is a potential outlier. Moreover, inference after the rejection of some observations is problematic. A better approach is to use robust algorithms that prevent automatically that outlying observations have undue influence. Former studies on robust geostatistics focused on robust estimation of the sample variogram and ordinary kriging without external drift. Furthermore, Richardson and Welsh (1995) [2] proposed a robustified version of (restricted) maximum likelihood ([RE]ML) estimation for the variance components of a linear mixed model, which was later used by Marchant and Lark (2007) [1] for robust REML estimation of the variogram. We propose here a novel method for robust REML estimation of the variogram of a Gaussian random field that is possibly contaminated by independent errors from a long-tailed distribution. It is based on robustification of estimating equations for the Gaussian REML estimation. Besides robust estimates of the parameters of the external drift and of the variogram, the method also provides standard errors for the estimated parameters, robustified kriging predictions at both sampled

  16. Risk, Robustness and Water Resources Planning Under Uncertainty

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Borgomeo, Edoardo; Mortazavi-Naeini, Mohammad; Hall, Jim W.; Guillod, Benoit P.

    2018-03-01

    Risk-based water resources planning is based on the premise that water managers should invest up to the point where the marginal benefit of risk reduction equals the marginal cost of achieving that benefit. However, this cost-benefit approach may not guarantee robustness under uncertain future conditions, for instance under climatic changes. In this paper, we expand risk-based decision analysis to explore possible ways of enhancing robustness in engineered water resources systems under different risk attitudes. Risk is measured as the expected annual cost of water use restrictions, while robustness is interpreted in the decision-theoretic sense as the ability of a water resource system to maintain performance—expressed as a tolerable risk of water use restrictions—under a wide range of possible future conditions. Linking risk attitudes with robustness allows stakeholders to explicitly trade-off incremental increases in robustness with investment costs for a given level of risk. We illustrate the framework through a case study of London's water supply system using state-of-the -art regional climate simulations to inform the estimation of risk and robustness.

  17. The creatine kinase response to resistance exercise.

    PubMed

    Koch, A J; Pereira, R; Machado, M

    2014-03-01

    Resistance exercise can result in localized damage to muscle tissue. This damage may be observed in sarcolemma, basal lamina, as well as, in the contractile elements and the cytoskeleton. Usually the damage is accompanied by release of enzymes such as creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase, myoglobin and other proteins into the blood. Serum CK has been proposed as one of the best indirect indicators of muscle damage due to its ease of identification and the relatively low cost of assays to quantify it. Thus, CK has been used as an indicator of the training intensity and a diagnostic marker of overtraining. However, some issues complicate CK's use in this manner. There is great interindividual variability in serum CK, which complicates the assignment of reliable reference values for athletes. Furthermore, factors such as training level, muscle groups involved, and gender can influence CK levels to a greater extent than differences in exercise volume completed. This review will detail the process by which resistance exercise induces a rise in circulating CK, illuminate the various factors that affect the CK response to resistance exercise, and discuss the relative usefulness of CK as a marker of training status, in light of these factors.

  18. Will Half a Degree Make a Difference? Robust Projections of Indices of Mean and Extreme Climate in Europe Under 1.5°C, 2°C, and 3°C Global Warming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dosio, Alessandro; Fischer, Erich M.

    2018-01-01

    Based on high-resolution models, we investigate the change in climate extremes and impact-relevant indicators over Europe under different levels of global warming. We specifically assess the robustness of the changes and the benefits of limiting warming to 1.5°C instead of 2°C. Compared to 1.5°C world, a further 0.5°C warming results in a robust change of minimum summer temperature indices (mean, Tn10p, and Tn900p) over more than 70% of Europe. Robust changes (more than 0.5°C) in maximum temperature affect smaller areas (usually less than 20%). There is a substantial nonlinear change of fixed-threshold indices, with more than 60% increase of the number of tropical nights over southern Europe and more than 50% decrease in the number of frost days over central Europe. The change in mean precipitation due to 0.5°C warming is mostly nonsignificant at the grid point level, but, locally, it is accompanied by a more marked change in extreme rainfall.

  19. Robust Crossfeed Design for Hovering Rotorcraft

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Catapang, David R.

    1993-01-01

    Control law design for rotorcraft fly-by-wire systems normally attempts to decouple angular responses using fixed-gain crossfeeds. This approach can lead to poor decoupling over the frequency range of pilot inputs and increase the load on the feedback loops. In order to improve the decoupling performance, dynamic crossfeeds may be adopted. Moreover, because of the large changes that occur in rotorcraft dynamics due to small changes about the nominal design condition, especially for near-hovering flight, the crossfeed design must be 'robust'. A new low-order matching method is presented here to design robust crossfeed compensators for multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) systems. The technique identifies degrees-of-freedom that can be decoupled using crossfeeds, given an anticipated set of parameter variations for the range of flight conditions of concern. Cross-coupling is then reduced for degrees-of-freedom that can use crossfeed compensation by minimizing off-axis response magnitude average and variance. Results are presented for the analysis of pitch, roll, yaw and heave coupling of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in near-hovering flight. Robust crossfeeds are designed that show significant improvement in decoupling performance and robustness over nominal, single design point, compensators. The design method and results are presented in an easily used graphical format that lends significant physical insight to the design procedure. This plant pre-compensation technique is an appropriate preliminary step to the design of robust feedback control laws for rotorcraft.

  20. The different expression of TRPM7 and MagT1 impacts on the proliferation of colon carcinoma cells sensitive or resistant to doxorubicin.

    PubMed

    Cazzaniga, Alessandra; Moscheni, Claudia; Trapani, Valentina; Wolf, Federica I; Farruggia, Giovanna; Sargenti, Azzurra; Iotti, Stefano; Maier, Jeanette A M; Castiglioni, Sara

    2017-01-17

    The processes leading to anticancer drug resistance are not completely unraveled. To get insights into the underlying mechanisms, we compared colon carcinoma cells sensitive to doxorubicin with their resistant counterpart. We found that resistant cells are growth retarded, and show staminal and ultrastructural features profoundly different from sensitive cells. The resistant phenotype is accompanied by the upregulation of the magnesium transporter MagT1 and the downregulation of the ion channel kinase TRPM7. We demonstrate that the different amounts of TRPM7 and MagT1 account for the different proliferation rate of sensitive and resistant colon carcinoma cells. It remains to be verified whether they are also involved in the control of other "staminal" traits.

  1. An Intercompany Perspective on Biopharmaceutical Drug Product Robustness Studies.

    PubMed

    Morar-Mitrica, Sorina; Adams, Monica L; Crotts, George; Wurth, Christine; Ihnat, Peter M; Tabish, Tanvir; Antochshuk, Valentyn; DiLuzio, Willow; Dix, Daniel B; Fernandez, Jason E; Gupta, Kapil; Fleming, Michael S; He, Bing; Kranz, James K; Liu, Dingjiang; Narasimhan, Chakravarthy; Routhier, Eric; Taylor, Katherine D; Truong, Nobel; Stokes, Elaine S E

    2018-02-01

    The Biophorum Development Group (BPDG) is an industry-wide consortium enabling networking and sharing of best practices for the development of biopharmaceuticals. To gain a better understanding of current industry approaches for establishing biopharmaceutical drug product (DP) robustness, the BPDG-Formulation Point Share group conducted an intercompany collaboration exercise, which included a bench-marking survey and extensive group discussions around the scope, design, and execution of robustness studies. The results of this industry collaboration revealed several key common themes: (1) overall DP robustness is defined by both the formulation and the manufacturing process robustness; (2) robustness integrates the principles of quality by design (QbD); (3) DP robustness is an important factor in setting critical quality attribute control strategies and commercial specifications; (4) most companies employ robustness studies, along with prior knowledge, risk assessments, and statistics, to develop the DP design space; (5) studies are tailored to commercial development needs and the practices of each company. Three case studies further illustrate how a robustness study design for a biopharmaceutical DP balances experimental complexity, statistical power, scientific understanding, and risk assessment to provide the desired product and process knowledge. The BPDG-Formulation Point Share discusses identified industry challenges with regard to biopharmaceutical DP robustness and presents some recommendations for best practices. Copyright © 2018 American Pharmacists Association®. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. 19 CFR 133.33 - Documents and fee to accompany application.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Documents and fee to accompany application. 133.33 Section 133.33 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... matter readily identifiable by title and author or if it covers a sound recording. Five likenesses of a...

  3. 19 CFR 133.33 - Documents and fee to accompany application.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Documents and fee to accompany application. 133.33 Section 133.33 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... matter readily identifiable by title and author or if it covers a sound recording. Five likenesses of a...

  4. 19 CFR 133.33 - Documents and fee to accompany application.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Documents and fee to accompany application. 133.33 Section 133.33 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... matter readily identifiable by title and author or if it covers a sound recording. Five likenesses of a...

  5. Designing for Reliability and Robustness

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Svetlik, Randall G.; Moore, Cherice; Williams, Antony

    2017-01-01

    Long duration spaceflight has a negative effect on the human body, and exercise countermeasures are used on-board the International Space Station (ISS) to minimize bone and muscle loss, combatting these effects. Given the importance of these hardware systems to the health of the crew, this equipment must continue to be readily available. Designing spaceflight exercise hardware to meet high reliability and availability standards has proven to be challenging throughout the time the crewmembers have been living on ISS beginning in 2000. Furthermore, restoring operational capability after a failure is clearly time-critical, but can be problematic given the challenges of troubleshooting the problem from 220 miles away. Several best-practices have been leveraged in seeking to maximize availability of these exercise systems, including designing for robustness, implementing diagnostic instrumentation, relying on user feedback, and providing ample maintenance and sparing. These factors have enhanced the reliability of hardware systems, and therefore have contributed to keeping the crewmembers healthy upon return to Earth. This paper will review the failure history for three spaceflight exercise countermeasure systems identifying lessons learned that can help improve future systems. Specifically, the Treadmill with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System (TVIS), Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System (CEVIS), and the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) will be reviewed, analyzed, and conclusions identified so as to provide guidance for improving future exercise hardware designs. These lessons learned, paired with thorough testing, offer a path towards reduced system down-time.

  6. Middleware Design for Swarm-Driving Robots Accompanying Humans.

    PubMed

    Kim, Min Su; Kim, Sang Hyuck; Kang, Soon Ju

    2017-02-17

    Research on robots that accompany humans is being continuously studied. The Pet-Bot provides walking-assistance and object-carrying services without any specific controls through interaction between the robot and the human in real time. However, with Pet-Bot, there is a limit to the number of robots a user can use. If this limit is overcome, the Pet-Bot can provide services in more areas. Therefore, in this study, we propose a swarm-driving middleware design adopting the concept of a swarm, which provides effective parallel movement to allow multiple human-accompanying robots to accomplish a common purpose. The functions of middleware divide into three parts: a sequence manager for swarm process, a messaging manager, and a relative-location identification manager. This middleware processes the sequence of swarm-process of robots in the swarm through message exchanging using radio frequency (RF) communication of an IEEE 802.15.4 MAC protocol and manages an infrared (IR) communication module identifying relative location with IR signal strength. The swarm in this study is composed of the master interacting with the user and the slaves having no interaction with the user. This composition is intended to control the overall swarm in synchronization with the user activity, which is difficult to predict. We evaluate the accuracy of the relative-location estimation using IR communication, the response time of the slaves to a change in user activity, and the time to organize a network according to the number of slaves.

  7. Middleware Design for Swarm-Driving Robots Accompanying Humans

    PubMed Central

    Kim, Min Su; Kim, Sang Hyuck; Kang, Soon Ju

    2017-01-01

    Research on robots that accompany humans is being continuously studied. The Pet-Bot provides walking-assistance and object-carrying services without any specific controls through interaction between the robot and the human in real time. However, with Pet-Bot, there is a limit to the number of robots a user can use. If this limit is overcome, the Pet-Bot can provide services in more areas. Therefore, in this study, we propose a swarm-driving middleware design adopting the concept of a swarm, which provides effective parallel movement to allow multiple human-accompanying robots to accomplish a common purpose. The functions of middleware divide into three parts: a sequence manager for swarm process, a messaging manager, and a relative-location identification manager. This middleware processes the sequence of swarm-process of robots in the swarm through message exchanging using radio frequency (RF) communication of an IEEE 802.15.4 MAC protocol and manages an infrared (IR) communication module identifying relative location with IR signal strength. The swarm in this study is composed of the master interacting with the user and the slaves having no interaction with the user. This composition is intended to control the overall swarm in synchronization with the user activity, which is difficult to predict. We evaluate the accuracy of the relative-location estimation using IR communication, the response time of the slaves to a change in user activity, and the time to organize a network according to the number of slaves. PMID:28218650

  8. Robust tracking control of a magnetically suspended rigid body

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lim, Kyong B.; Cox, David E.

    1994-01-01

    This study is an application of H-infinity and micro-synthesis for designing robust tracking controllers for the Large Angle Magnetic Suspension Test Facility. The modeling, design, analysis, simulation, and testing of a control law that guarantees tracking performance under external disturbances and model uncertainties is investigated. The type of uncertainties considered and the tracking performance metric used is discussed. This study demonstrates the tradeoff between tracking performance at low frequencies and robustness at high frequencies. Two sets of controllers were designed and tested. The first set emphasized performance over robustness, while the second set traded off performance for robustness. Comparisons of simulation and test results are also included. Current simulation and experimental results indicate that reasonably good robust tracking performance can be attained for this system using multivariable robust control approach.

  9. Robust Variable Selection with Exponential Squared Loss.

    PubMed

    Wang, Xueqin; Jiang, Yunlu; Huang, Mian; Zhang, Heping

    2013-04-01

    Robust variable selection procedures through penalized regression have been gaining increased attention in the literature. They can be used to perform variable selection and are expected to yield robust estimates. However, to the best of our knowledge, the robustness of those penalized regression procedures has not been well characterized. In this paper, we propose a class of penalized robust regression estimators based on exponential squared loss. The motivation for this new procedure is that it enables us to characterize its robustness that has not been done for the existing procedures, while its performance is near optimal and superior to some recently developed methods. Specifically, under defined regularity conditions, our estimators are [Formula: see text] and possess the oracle property. Importantly, we show that our estimators can achieve the highest asymptotic breakdown point of 1/2 and that their influence functions are bounded with respect to the outliers in either the response or the covariate domain. We performed simulation studies to compare our proposed method with some recent methods, using the oracle method as the benchmark. We consider common sources of influential points. Our simulation studies reveal that our proposed method performs similarly to the oracle method in terms of the model error and the positive selection rate even in the presence of influential points. In contrast, other existing procedures have a much lower non-causal selection rate. Furthermore, we re-analyze the Boston Housing Price Dataset and the Plasma Beta-Carotene Level Dataset that are commonly used examples for regression diagnostics of influential points. Our analysis unravels the discrepancies of using our robust method versus the other penalized regression method, underscoring the importance of developing and applying robust penalized regression methods.

  10. Robust Variable Selection with Exponential Squared Loss

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Xueqin; Jiang, Yunlu; Huang, Mian; Zhang, Heping

    2013-01-01

    Robust variable selection procedures through penalized regression have been gaining increased attention in the literature. They can be used to perform variable selection and are expected to yield robust estimates. However, to the best of our knowledge, the robustness of those penalized regression procedures has not been well characterized. In this paper, we propose a class of penalized robust regression estimators based on exponential squared loss. The motivation for this new procedure is that it enables us to characterize its robustness that has not been done for the existing procedures, while its performance is near optimal and superior to some recently developed methods. Specifically, under defined regularity conditions, our estimators are n-consistent and possess the oracle property. Importantly, we show that our estimators can achieve the highest asymptotic breakdown point of 1/2 and that their influence functions are bounded with respect to the outliers in either the response or the covariate domain. We performed simulation studies to compare our proposed method with some recent methods, using the oracle method as the benchmark. We consider common sources of influential points. Our simulation studies reveal that our proposed method performs similarly to the oracle method in terms of the model error and the positive selection rate even in the presence of influential points. In contrast, other existing procedures have a much lower non-causal selection rate. Furthermore, we re-analyze the Boston Housing Price Dataset and the Plasma Beta-Carotene Level Dataset that are commonly used examples for regression diagnostics of influential points. Our analysis unravels the discrepancies of using our robust method versus the other penalized regression method, underscoring the importance of developing and applying robust penalized regression methods. PMID:23913996

  11. Emergence of robustness in networks of networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Roth, Kevin; Morone, Flaviano; Min, Byungjoon; Makse, Hernán A.

    2017-06-01

    A model of interdependent networks of networks (NONs) was introduced recently [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 114, 3849 (2017), 10.1073/pnas.1620808114] in the context of brain activation to identify the neural collective influencers in the brain NON. Here we investigate the emergence of robustness in such a model, and we develop an approach to derive an exact expression for the random percolation transition in Erdös-Rényi NONs of this kind. Analytical calculations are in agreement with numerical simulations, and highlight the robustness of the NON against random node failures, which thus presents a new robust universality class of NONs. The key aspect of this robust NON model is that a node can be activated even if it does not belong to the giant mutually connected component, thus allowing the NON to be built from below the percolation threshold, which is not possible in previous models of interdependent networks. Interestingly, the phase diagram of the model unveils particular patterns of interconnectivity for which the NON is most vulnerable, thereby marking the boundary above which the robustness of the system improves with increasing dependency connections.

  12. Functional Trade-Offs in Promiscuous Enzymes Cannot Be Explained by Intrinsic Mutational Robustness of the Native Activity.

    PubMed

    Kaltenbach, Miriam; Emond, Stephane; Hollfelder, Florian; Tokuriki, Nobuhiko

    2016-10-01

    The extent to which an emerging new function trades off with the original function is a key characteristic of the dynamics of enzyme evolution. Various cases of laboratory evolution have unveiled a characteristic trend; a large increase in a new, promiscuous activity is often accompanied by only a mild reduction of the native, original activity. A model that associates weak trade-offs with "evolvability" was put forward, which proposed that enzymes possess mutational robustness in the native activity and plasticity in promiscuous activities. This would enable the acquisition of a new function without compromising the original one, reducing the benefit of early gene duplication and therefore the selection pressure thereon. Yet, to date, no experimental study has examined this hypothesis directly. Here, we investigate the causes of weak trade-offs by systematically characterizing adaptive mutations that occurred in two cases of evolutionary transitions in enzyme function: (1) from phosphotriesterase to arylesterase, and (2) from atrazine chlorohydrolase to melamine deaminase. Mutational analyses in various genetic backgrounds revealed that, in contrast to the prevailing model, the native activity is less robust to mutations than the promiscuous activity. For example, in phosphotriesterase, the deleterious effect of individual mutations on the native phosphotriesterase activity is much larger than their positive effect on the promiscuous arylesterase activity. Our observations suggest a revision of the established model: weak trade-offs are not caused by an intrinsic robustness of the native activity and plasticity of the promiscuous activity. We propose that upon strong adaptive pressure for the new activity without selection against the original one, selected mutations will lead to the largest possible increases in the new function, but whether and to what extent they decrease the old function is irrelevant, creating a bias towards initially weak trade-offs and the

  13. Bell's Palsy: Symptoms Preceding and Accompanying the Facial Paresis

    PubMed Central

    Mancini, Patrizia; Minni, Antonio; Prosperini, Luca; De Seta, Elio; Attanasio, Giuseppe; Covelli, Edoardo; De Carlo, Andrea; Filipo, Roberto

    2014-01-01

    This individual prospective cohort study aims to report and analyze the symptoms preceding and accompanying the facial paresis in Bell's palsy (BP). Two hundred sixty-nine patients affected by BP with a maximum delay of 48 hours from the onset were enrolled in the study. The evolution of the facial paresis expressed as House-Brackmann grade in the first 10 days and its correlation with symptoms were analyzed. At the onset, 136 patients presented postauricular pain, 114 were affected by dry eye, and 94 reported dysgeusia. Dry mouth was present in 54 patients (19.7%), facial pain, hyperlacrimation, aural fullness, and hyperacusis represented a smaller percentage of the reported symptoms. After 10 days, 39.9% of the group had a severe paresis while 10.2% reached a complete recovery. Dry mouth at the onset was correlated with severe grade of palsy and was prognostic for poor recovery in the early period. These outcomes lead to the deduction that the nervus intermedius plays an important role in the presentation of the BP and it might be responsible for most of the accompanying symptomatology of the paresis. Our findings could be of important interest to early address a BP patient to further examinations and subsequent therapy. PMID:25544960

  14. Designing Phononic Crystals with Wide and Robust Band Gaps

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jia, Zian; Chen, Yanyu; Yang, Haoxiang; Wang, Lifeng

    2018-04-01

    Phononic crystals (PnCs) engineered to manipulate and control the propagation of mechanical waves have enabled the design of a range of novel devices, such as waveguides, frequency modulators, and acoustic cloaks, for which wide and robust phononic band gaps are highly preferable. While numerous PnCs have been designed in recent decades, to the best of our knowledge, PnCs that possess simultaneous wide and robust band gaps (to randomness and deformations) have not yet been reported. Here, we demonstrate that by combining the band-gap formation mechanisms of Bragg scattering and local resonances (the latter one is dominating), PnCs with wide and robust phononic band gaps can be established. The robustness of the phononic band gaps are then discussed from two aspects: robustness to geometric randomness (manufacture defects) and robustness to deformations (mechanical stimuli). Analytical formulations further predict the optimal design parameters, and an uncertainty analysis quantifies the randomness effect of each designing parameter. Moreover, we show that the deformation robustness originates from a local resonance-dominant mechanism together with the suppression of structural instability. Importantly, the proposed PnCs require only a small number of layers of elements (three unit cells) to obtain broad, robust, and strong attenuation bands, which offer great potential in designing flexible and deformable phononic devices.

  15. Robust Fault Detection and Isolation for Stochastic Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    George, Jemin; Gregory, Irene M.

    2010-01-01

    This paper outlines the formulation of a robust fault detection and isolation scheme that can precisely detect and isolate simultaneous actuator and sensor faults for uncertain linear stochastic systems. The given robust fault detection scheme based on the discontinuous robust observer approach would be able to distinguish between model uncertainties and actuator failures and therefore eliminate the problem of false alarms. Since the proposed approach involves precise reconstruction of sensor faults, it can also be used for sensor fault identification and the reconstruction of true outputs from faulty sensor outputs. Simulation results presented here validate the effectiveness of the robust fault detection and isolation system.

  16. Studies on a morphologically distinct colchicine-resistance variant of Entamoeba sp.

    PubMed

    Injeyan, H; Huebner, E; Meerovitch, E

    1979-05-01

    Colchicine has a temperature-dependent cytotoxic effect on Entamoeba sp. (Laredo isolate) that is most apparent when the drug is applied during the initiation of cultures at a concentration of 7.5 mM or higher. Continued transfer of cultures in medium containing progressively increasing concentrations of colchicine has resulted in a variant that grows prolifically in the presence of colchicine (7.5 mM) with a generation time comparable to that of the parent stock, Comparison of a number of parameters of the 2 variants revealed that colchicine resistance was accompanied by a change in cell shape, a reduced membrane permeability, which could partially be overcome by the addition of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and a reduced tolerance to osmotic stress. However, the parent strain and resistant variant were equally susceptible to cycloheximide and puromycin suggesting that the acquired colchicine resistance may not be explained on the basis of an entirely unspecific generalized reduced ability for drug uptake. Colchicine resistance and altered structure were found to be stable over a long period of time. The possible interdependence of these 2 parameters and their relation to cell motility in Entamoeba sp. are discussed.

  17. Robust superhydrophobic needle-like nanostructured ZnO surfaces prepared without post chemical-treatment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Velayi, Elmira; Norouzbeigi, Reza

    2017-12-01

    Robust superhydrophobic ZnO surfaces with micro/nano hybrid hierarchical structures were synthesized on the stainless steel mesh by a facile single-step chemical bath deposition (CBD) method without using further low surface energy materials. The Taguchi L16 experimental design was applied to evaluate the effects of reaction time, type and concentration of the additive, type of the chelating agent, and the molar ratio of the chelating agent to the initial zinc (II) ions. The prepared sample at the optimal conditions exhibited a sustainable and time-independent superhydrophobic behavior with the water contact angle (WCA) of 162.8° ± 2.5° and contact angle hysteresis (CAH) of 1.8° ± 0.5°. The XRD, SEM, TEM and FTIR analyses were used to characterize the prepared samples. Surface characterization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated accumulation of micro/nano branched ZnO needles on the substrate with the average diameters of ∼85 nm. After 20 abrasion cycles the optimum sample indicated an excellent mechanical robustness via exposure to the pressure of 4.7 kPa. A suitable chemical resistance to the acidic and basic droplets with the pH range of 4 and 9 was observed.

  18. [Sarcopenia intervention with progressive resistance training and protein nutritional supplements].

    PubMed

    Palop Montoro, M Victoria; Párraga Montilla, Juan Antonio; Lozano Aguilera, Emilio; Arteaga Checa, Milagros

    2015-04-01

    Aging is accompanied by changes in body composition among which is a progressive reduction in muscle mass, which may contribute to the development of functional limitations in older people, and where the lifestyle plays a particularly important role. To test the effectiveness of progressive resistance training, protein nutritional supplements and both interventions combined in the treatment of sarcopenia. Review of literature in Medline, ScienceDirect, CINAHL, ISI WOK and PEDro data by combining the descriptors of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) concerning sarcopenia, progressive resistance training, protein supplements and seniors. A total of 147 studies were found which resistance exercise performed by sessions 45-60 minutes, 2-3 times a week, and 3-4 sets of 8 repetitions, to an increasing intensity. This exercise resulted in increased muscle mass and strength, and increased skeletal muscle protein synthesis and muscle fiber size. Nutritional supplements such as beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate, leucine and essential amino acids produced gains in muscle mass. All supplements increased strength, especially when combined with resistance exercise. The combination of progressive resistance training and protein included in the diet, either in the form of nutritional supplements, strengthens the impact that each of these interventions can have on the treatment of sarcopenia in the elderly. Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

  19. Antibiotic resistance and virulence genes in coliform water isolates.

    PubMed

    Stange, C; Sidhu, J P S; Tiehm, A; Toze, S

    2016-11-01

    Widespread fecal pollution of surface water may present a major health risk and a significant pathway for dissemination of antibiotic resistance bacteria. The River Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe and an important raw water source for drinking water production. A total of 100 coliform isolates obtained from River Rhine (Germany) were examined for their susceptibility to seven antimicrobial agents. Resistances against amoxicillin, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and tetracycline were detected in 48%, 11% and 9% of isolates respectively. The antibiotic resistance could be traced back to the resistance genes bla TEM , bla SHV , ampC, sul1, sul2, dfrA1, tet(A) and tet(B). Whereby, the ampC gene represents a special case, because its presence is not inevitably linked to a phenotypic antibiotic resistance. Multiple antibiotics resistance was often accompanied by the occurrence of class 1 or 2 integrons. E. coli isolates belonging to phylogenetic groups A and B1 (commensal) were more predominant (57%) compared to B2 and D groups (43%) which are known to carry virulent genes. Additionally, six E. coli virulence genes were also detected. However, the prevalence of virulence genes in the E. coli isolates was low (not exceeding 4.3% per gene) and no diarrheagenic E. coli pathotypes were detected. This study demonstrates that surface water is an important reservoir of ARGs for a number of antibiotic classes such as sulfonamide, trimethoprim, beta-lactam-antibiotics and tetracycline. The occurrence of antibiotic resistance in coliform bacteria isolated from River Rhine provides evidence for the need to develop management strategies to limit the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria in aquatic environment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  20. Robustness analysis of an air heating plant and control law by using polynomial chaos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Colón, Diego; Ferreira, Murillo A. S.; Bueno, Átila M.

    2014-12-10

    This paper presents a robustness analysis of an air heating plant with a multivariable closed-loop control law by using the polynomial chaos methodology (MPC). The plant consists of a PVC tube with a fan in the air input (that forces the air through the tube) and a mass flux sensor in the output. A heating resistance warms the air as it flows inside the tube, and a thermo-couple sensor measures the air temperature. The plant has thus two inputs (the fan's rotation intensity and heat generated by the resistance, both measured in percent of the maximum value) and two outputsmore » (air temperature and air mass flux, also in percent of the maximal value). The mathematical model is obtained by System Identification techniques. The mass flux sensor, which is nonlinear, is linearized and the delays in the transfer functions are properly approximated by non-minimum phase transfer functions. The resulting model is transformed to a state-space model, which is used for control design purposes. The multivariable robust control design techniques used is the LQG/LTR, and the controllers are validated in simulation software and in the real plant. Finally, the MPC is applied by considering some of the system's parameters as random variables (one at a time, and the system's stochastic differential equations are solved by expanding the solution (a stochastic process) in an orthogonal basis of polynomial functions of the basic random variables. This method transforms the stochastic equations in a set of deterministic differential equations, which can be solved by traditional numerical methods (That is the MPC). Statistical data for the system (like expected values and variances) are then calculated. The effects of randomness in the parameters are evaluated in the open-loop and closed-loop pole's positions.« less

  1. Ultralow contact resistance at an epitaxial metal/oxide heterojunction through interstitial site doping.

    PubMed

    Chambers, Scott A; Gu, Meng; Sushko, Peter V; Yang, Hao; Wang, Chongmin; Browning, Nigel D

    2013-08-07

    Heteroepitaxial growth of Cr metal on Nb-doped SrTiO₃(001) is accompanied by Cr diffusion to interstitial sites within the first few atomic planes, an anchoring of the Cr film to the substrate, charge transfer from Cr to Ti, and metallization of the near-surface region, as depicted in the figure. The contact resistance of the resulting interface is exceedingly low. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  2. SU-E-T-625: Robustness Evaluation and Robust Optimization of IMPT Plans Based on Per-Voxel Standard Deviation of Dose Distributions.

    PubMed

    Liu, W; Mohan, R

    2012-06-01

    Proton dose distributions, IMPT in particular, are highly sensitive to setup and range uncertainties. We report a novel method, based on per-voxel standard deviation (SD) of dose distributions, to evaluate the robustness of proton plans and to robustly optimize IMPT plans to render them less sensitive to uncertainties. For each optimization iteration, nine dose distributions are computed - the nominal one, and one each for ± setup uncertainties along x, y and z axes and for ± range uncertainty. SD of dose in each voxel is used to create SD-volume histogram (SVH) for each structure. SVH may be considered a quantitative representation of the robustness of the dose distribution. For optimization, the desired robustness may be specified in terms of an SD-volume (SV) constraint on the CTV and incorporated as a term in the objective function. Results of optimization with and without this constraint were compared in terms of plan optimality and robustness using the so called'worst case' dose distributions; which are obtained by assigning the lowest among the nine doses to each voxel in the clinical target volume (CTV) and the highest to normal tissue voxels outside the CTV. The SVH curve and the area under it for each structure were used as quantitative measures of robustness. Penalty parameter of SV constraint may be varied to control the tradeoff between robustness and plan optimality. We applied these methods to one case each of H&N and lung. In both cases, we found that imposing SV constraint improved plan robustness but at the cost of normal tissue sparing. SVH-based optimization and evaluation is an effective tool for robustness evaluation and robust optimization of IMPT plans. Studies need to be conducted to test the methods for larger cohorts of patients and for other sites. This research is supported by National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant P01CA021239, the University Cancer Foundation via the Institutional Research Grant program at the University of Texas MD

  3. Evaluation of Recoverable-Robust Timetables on Tree Networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    D'Angelo, Gianlorenzo; di Stefano, Gabriele; Navarra, Alfredo

    In the context of scheduling and timetabling, we study a challenging combinatorial problem which is interesting from both a practical and a theoretical point of view. The motivation behind it is to cope with scheduled activities which might be subject to unavoidable disturbances, such as delays, occurring during the operational phase. The idea is to preventively plan some extra time for the scheduled activities in order to be "prepared" if a delay occurs, and to absorb it without the necessity of re-scheduling the activities from scratch. This realizes the concept of designing so called robust timetables. During the planning phase, one has to consider recovery features that might be applied at runtime if delays occur. Such recovery capabilities are given as input along with the possible delays that must be considered. The objective is the minimization of the overall needed time. The quality of a robust timetable is measured by the price of robustness, i.e. the ratio between the cost of the robust timetable and that of a non-robust optimal timetable. The considered problem is known to be NP-hard. We propose a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm and apply it on random networks and real case scenarios provided by Italian railways. We evaluate the effect of robustness on the scheduling of the activities and provide the price of robustness with respect to different scenarios. We experimentally show the practical effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

  4. The Effects of Harmonic Accompaniment on the Tonal Improvisations of Students in First through Sixth Grade

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guilbault, Denise Marie

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of harmonic accompaniment on the tonal improvisations of elementary school students. Specifically, this study was designed to (a) determine if the addition of a root melody accompaniment to song instruction affects the implied harmonic changes and harmonic rhythm in the tonal improvisations…

  5. Antimicrobial resistance: from global agenda to national strategic plan, Thailand.

    PubMed

    Tangcharoensathien, Viroj; Sattayawutthipong, Wanchai; Kanjanapimai, Sukhum; Kanpravidth, Wantanee; Brown, Richard; Sommanustweechai, Angkana

    2017-08-01

    In Thailand, antimicrobial resistance has formed a small component of national drug policies and strategies on emerging infectious diseases. However, poor coordination and a lack of national goals and monitoring and evaluation platforms have reduced the effectiveness of the corresponding national actions. On the basis of local evidence and with the strong participation of relevant stakeholders, the first national strategic plan on antimicrobial resistance has been developed in Thailand. Before the development of the plan, ineffective coordination meant that antimicrobial resistance profiles produced at sentinel hospitals were not used effectively for clinical decision-making. There was no integrated system for the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance, no system for monitoring consumption of antimicrobial drugs by humans, livestock and pets and little public awareness of antimicrobial resistance. In August 2016, the Thai government endorsed a national strategic plan on antimicrobial resistance that comprised six strategic actions and five targets. A national steering committee guides the plan's implementation and a module to assess the prevalence of household antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance awareness has been embedded into the biennial national health survey. A national system for the surveillance of antimicrobial consumption has also been initiated. Strong political commitment, national ownership and adequate multisectoral institutional capacities will be essential for the effective implementation of the national plan. A robust monitoring and evaluation platform now contributes to evidence-based interventions. An integrated system for the surveillance of antimicrobial resistance still needs to be established.

  6. Genetic methods for detection of antibiotic resistance: focus on extended-spectrum β-lactamases.

    PubMed

    Chroma, Magdalena; Kolar, Milan

    2010-12-01

    In 1928, the first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered. That was the beginning of a great era in the development and prescription of antibiotics. However, the introduction of these antimicrobial agents into clinical practice was accompanied by the problem of antibiotic resistance. Currently, bacterial resistance to antibiotics poses a major problem in both hospital and community settings throughout the world. This review provides examples of modern genetic methods and their practical application in the field of extended-spectrum β-lactamase detection. Since extended-spectrum β-lactamases are the main mechanism of Gram-negative bacterial resistance to oxyimino-cephalosporins, rapid and accurate detection is requested in common clinical practice. Currently, the detection of extended-spectrum β-lactamases is primarily based on the determination of bacterial phenotypes rather than genotypes. This is because therapeutic decisions are based on assessing the susceptibility rather than presence of resistance genes. One of the main disadvantages of genetic methods is high costs, including those of laboratory equipment. On the other hand, if these modern methods are introduced into diagnostics, they often help in rapid and accurate detection of certain microorganisms or their resistance and pathogenic determinants.

  7. Exploratory analysis of meal composition in Australia: meat and accompanying foods.

    PubMed

    Sui, Zhixian; Raubenheimer, David; Rangan, Anna

    2017-08-01

    The study of meal patterns and overall diet in relation to health outcomes may be more important than focusing on single nutrients or food groups. The present study aimed to explore the composition of main meals and snacks in the Australian population and examine associations between meat/poultry/fish and other foods. The study utilised 24 h recalls. Meal composition was defined based on average intakes of food groups per meal disaggregated from all food sources. 2011-12 National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey. Australian people (n12153) aged 2 years or above. Overall, breakfast was the smallest meal of the day, typically consisting of grains, dairy products and fruit. Lunch was the second largest meal, consisting mostly of grains, non-starchy vegetables and meat/poultry/fish. The largest meal was dinner, comprising meat/poultry/fish, vegetables (starchy and non-starchy), grains and often including discretionary beverages (children) or alcohol (adults). The main food groups consumed at snacking occasions were dairy, fruit, discretionary foods and beverages (including alcohol for adults). The most frequently consumed meat types were beef and chicken at dinner and ham at lunch. Non-starchy vegetables were accompanying foods for red meat, poultry and fish/seafood consumed in varying portion sizes, but did not accompany processed meat. The present study considered meat, poultry and fish as the meal centre and their accompaniments of other food groups at different eating occasions. These findings expand the background evidence for health professionals developing meal-based framework/guidelines and public health messages.

  8. A robust nonlinear position observer for synchronous motors with relaxed excitation conditions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bobtsov, Alexey; Bazylev, Dmitry; Pyrkin, Anton; Aranovskiy, Stanislav; Ortega, Romeo

    2017-04-01

    A robust, nonlinear and globally convergent rotor position observer for surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motors was recently proposed by the authors. The key feature of this observer is that it requires only the knowledge of the motor's resistance and inductance. Using some particular properties of the mathematical model it is shown that the problem of state observation can be translated into one of estimation of two constant parameters, which is carried out with a standard gradient algorithm. In this work, we propose to replace this estimator with a new one called dynamic regressor extension and mixing, which has the following advantages with respect to gradient estimators: (1) the stringent persistence of excitation (PE) condition of the regressor is not necessary to ensure parameter convergence; (2) the latter is guaranteed requiring instead a non-square-integrability condition that has a clear physical meaning in terms of signal energy; (3) if the regressor is PE, the new observer (like the old one) ensures convergence is exponential, entailing some robustness properties to the observer; (4) the new estimator includes an additional filter that constitutes an additional degree of freedom to satisfy the non-square integrability condition. Realistic simulation results show significant performance improvement of the position observer using the new parameter estimator, with a less oscillatory behaviour and a faster convergence speed.

  9. Anthelmintic resistance in equine nematodes

    PubMed Central

    Matthews, Jacqueline B.

    2014-01-01

    Anthelmintics have been applied indiscriminately to control horse nematodes for over 40 years. Three broad-spectrum anthelmintic classes are currently registered for nematode control in horses: benzimidazoles (fenbendazole, oxibendazole), tetrahydropyrimidines (pyrantel) and macrocyclic lactones (ivermectin, moxidectin). Generally, control strategies have focused on nematode egg suppression regimens that involve the frequent application of anthelmintics to all horses at intervals based on strongyle egg reappearance periods after treatment. The widespread use of such programmes has substantially reduced clinical disease, especially that associated with large strongyle species; however, high treatment frequency has led to considerable selection pressure for anthelmintic resistance, particularly in cyathostomin species. Field studies published over the last decade indicate that benzimidazole resistance is widespread globally in cyathostomins and there are also many reports of resistance to pyrantel in these worms. Cyathostomin resistance to macrocyclic lactone compounds is emerging, principally measured as a reduction in strongyle egg reappearance time observed after treatment. Ivermectin resistance is a further concern in the small intestinal nematode, Parascaris equorum, an important pathogen of foals. These issues indicate that horse nematodes must now be controlled using methods less dependent on anthelmintic use and more reliant on management practices designed to reduce the force of infection in the environment. Such strategies include improved grazing management integrated with targeted anthelmintic administration involving faecal egg count (FEC)-directed treatments. The latter require that the supporting diagnostic tests available are robust and practically applicable. Recent research has focused on maximising the value of FEC analysis in horses and on optimizing protocols for anthelmintic efficacy testing. Other studies have sought to develop diagnostics

  10. Robust Learning Control Design for Quantum Unitary Transformations.

    PubMed

    Wu, Chengzhi; Qi, Bo; Chen, Chunlin; Dong, Daoyi

    2017-12-01

    Robust control design for quantum unitary transformations has been recognized as a fundamental and challenging task in the development of quantum information processing due to unavoidable decoherence or operational errors in the experimental implementation of quantum operations. In this paper, we extend the systematic methodology of sampling-based learning control (SLC) approach with a gradient flow algorithm for the design of robust quantum unitary transformations. The SLC approach first uses a "training" process to find an optimal control strategy robust against certain ranges of uncertainties. Then a number of randomly selected samples are tested and the performance is evaluated according to their average fidelity. The approach is applied to three typical examples of robust quantum transformation problems including robust quantum transformations in a three-level quantum system, in a superconducting quantum circuit, and in a spin chain system. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the SLC approach and show its potential applications in various implementation of quantum unitary transformations.

  11. Resistive spectroscopy coupled with non-contacting oscillator for detecting discontinuous-continuous transition of metallic films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nakamura, N.; Ogi, H.

    2017-09-01

    In spectroscopic measurements, one measures responses of specimens to oscillating fields (including electric, magnetic, and stress fields) at different frequencies for characterizing the samples. In contrast, we develop spectroscopy where the response (loss) is measured by changing the electric resistance, named the resistive spectroscopy. In the resistive spectroscopy, an energy-loss peak appears when the resistance is changed. We here apply it for studying the morphological change of thin films. When a metallic material is deposited on a substrate, the morphological transition from discontinuous islands to the continuous film occurs. It accompanies a drastic change in the resistance of the deposited material because of the transition from an insulator to a conductor. We find that the energy-loss peak appears at the transition moment during deposition of Ag. The resistive spectroscopy we develop uses no electrodes; it adopts the electric field generated by a piezoelectric material vibrating at its resonant frequency beneath the substrate. It is observed that the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the resonance shows the peak during the deposition for high resistance substrates. The FWHM peak fails to be found for low resistance substrates, but it appears when the resonance frequency is increased. We propose an electrical-circuit model for explaining these observations.

  12. Designing Phononic Crystals with Wide and Robust Band Gaps

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jia, Zian; Chen, Yanyu; Yang, Haoxiang

    Here, phononic crystals (PnCs) engineered to manipulate and control the propagation of mechanical waves have enabled the design of a range of novel devices, such as waveguides, frequency modulators, and acoustic cloaks, for which wide and robust phononic band gaps are highly preferable. While numerous PnCs have been designed in recent decades, to the best of our knowledge, PnCs that possess simultaneous wide and robust band gaps (to randomness and deformations) have not yet been reported. Here, we demonstrate that by combining the band-gap formation mechanisms of Bragg scattering and local resonances (the latter one is dominating), PnCs with widemore » and robust phononic band gaps can be established. The robustness of the phononic band gaps are then discussed from two aspects: robustness to geometric randomness (manufacture defects) and robustness to deformations (mechanical stimuli). Analytical formulations further predict the optimal design parameters, and an uncertainty analysis quantifies the randomness effect of each designing parameter. Moreover, we show that the deformation robustness originates from a local resonance-dominant mechanism together with the suppression of structural instability. Importantly, the proposed PnCs require only a small number of layers of elements (three unit cells) to obtain broad, robust, and strong attenuation bands, which offer great potential in designing flexible and deformable phononic devices.« less

  13. Designing Phononic Crystals with Wide and Robust Band Gaps

    DOE PAGES

    Jia, Zian; Chen, Yanyu; Yang, Haoxiang; ...

    2018-04-16

    Here, phononic crystals (PnCs) engineered to manipulate and control the propagation of mechanical waves have enabled the design of a range of novel devices, such as waveguides, frequency modulators, and acoustic cloaks, for which wide and robust phononic band gaps are highly preferable. While numerous PnCs have been designed in recent decades, to the best of our knowledge, PnCs that possess simultaneous wide and robust band gaps (to randomness and deformations) have not yet been reported. Here, we demonstrate that by combining the band-gap formation mechanisms of Bragg scattering and local resonances (the latter one is dominating), PnCs with widemore » and robust phononic band gaps can be established. The robustness of the phononic band gaps are then discussed from two aspects: robustness to geometric randomness (manufacture defects) and robustness to deformations (mechanical stimuli). Analytical formulations further predict the optimal design parameters, and an uncertainty analysis quantifies the randomness effect of each designing parameter. Moreover, we show that the deformation robustness originates from a local resonance-dominant mechanism together with the suppression of structural instability. Importantly, the proposed PnCs require only a small number of layers of elements (three unit cells) to obtain broad, robust, and strong attenuation bands, which offer great potential in designing flexible and deformable phononic devices.« less

  14. Feedforward/feedback control synthesis for performance and robustness

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wie, Bong; Liu, Qiang

    1990-01-01

    Both feedforward and feedback control approaches for uncertain dynamical systems are investigated. The control design objective is to achieve a fast settling time (high performance) and robustness (insensitivity) to plant modeling uncertainty. Preshapong of an ideal, time-optimal control input using a 'tapped-delay' filter is shown to provide a rapid maneuver with robust performance. A robust, non-minimum-phase feedback controller is synthesized with particular emphasis on its proper implementation for a non-zero set-point control problem. The proposed feedforward/feedback control approach is robust for a certain class of uncertain dynamical systems, since the control input command computed for a given desired output does not depend on the plant parameters.

  15. PCR-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism for Rapid, Low-Cost Identification of Isoniazid-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis▿

    PubMed Central

    Caws, Maxine; Tho, Dau Quang; Duy, Phan Minh; Lan, Nguyen Thi Ngoc; Hoa, Dai Viet; Torok, Mili Estee; Chau, Tran Thi Hong; Van Vinh Chau, Nguyen; Chinh, Nguyen Tran; Farrar, Jeremy

    2007-01-01

    PCR-restriction fragment length poymorphism (PCR-RFLP) is a simple, robust technique for the rapid identification of isoniazid-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. One hundred consecutive isolates from a Vietnamese tuberculosis hospital were tested by MspA1I PCR-RFLP for the detection of isoniazid-resistant katG_315 mutants. The test had a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 100% against conventional phenotypic drug susceptibility testing. The positive and negative predictive values were 1 and 0.86, respectively. None of the discrepant isolates had mutant katG_315 codons by sequencing. The test is cheap (less than $1.50 per test), specific, and suitable for the rapid identification of isoniazid resistance in regions with a high prevalence of katG_315 mutants among isoniazid-resistant M. tuberculosis isolates. PMID:17428939

  16. Robust modular product family design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jiang, Lan; Allada, Venkat

    2001-10-01

    This paper presents a modified Taguchi methodology to improve the robustness of modular product families against changes in customer requirements. The general research questions posed in this paper are: (1) How to effectively design a product family (PF) that is robust enough to accommodate future customer requirements. (2) How far into the future should designers look to design a robust product family? An example of a simplified vacuum product family is used to illustrate our methodology. In the example, customer requirements are selected as signal factors; future changes of customer requirements are selected as noise factors; an index called quality characteristic (QC) is set to evaluate the product vacuum family; and the module instance matrix (M) is selected as control factor. Initially a relation between the objective function (QC) and the control factor (M) is established, and then the feasible M space is systemically explored using a simplex method to determine the optimum M and the corresponding QC values. Next, various noise levels at different time points are introduced into the system. For each noise level, the optimal values of M and QC are computed and plotted on a QC-chart. The tunable time period of the control factor (the module matrix, M) is computed using the QC-chart. The tunable time period represents the maximum time for which a given control factor can be used to satisfy current and future customer needs. Finally, a robustness index is used to break up the tunable time period into suitable time periods that designers should consider while designing product families.

  17. Network Robustness: the whole story

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Longjas, A.; Tejedor, A.; Zaliapin, I. V.; Ambroj, S.; Foufoula-Georgiou, E.

    2014-12-01

    A multitude of actual processes operating on hydrological networks may exhibit binary outcomes such as clean streams in a river network that may become contaminated. These binary outcomes can be modeled by node removal processes (attacks) acting in a network. Network robustness against attacks has been widely studied in fields as diverse as the Internet, power grids and human societies. However, the current definition of robustness is only accounting for the connectivity of the nodes unaffected by the attack. Here, we put forward the idea that the connectivity of the affected nodes can play a crucial role in proper evaluation of the overall network robustness and its future recovery from the attack. Specifically, we propose a dual perspective approach wherein at any instant in the network evolution under attack, two distinct networks are defined: (i) the Active Network (AN) composed of the unaffected nodes and (ii) the Idle Network (IN) composed of the affected nodes. The proposed robustness metric considers both the efficiency of destroying the AN and the efficiency of building-up the IN. This approach is motivated by concrete applied problems, since, for example, if we study the dynamics of contamination in river systems, it is necessary to know both the connectivity of the healthy and contaminated parts of the river to assess its ecological functionality. We show that trade-offs between the efficiency of the Active and Idle network dynamics give rise to surprising crossovers and re-ranking of different attack strategies, pointing to significant implications for decision making.

  18. Body fat mass and the proportion of very large adipocytes in pregnant women are associated with gestational insulin resistance

    PubMed Central

    Svensson, H; Wetterling, L; Bosaeus, M; Odén, B; Odén, A; Jennische, E; Edén, S; Holmäng, A; Lönn, M

    2016-01-01

    Background/Objectives: Pregnancy is accompanied by fat gain and insulin resistance. Changes in adipose tissue morphology and function during pregnancy and factors contributing to gestational insulin resistance are incompletely known. We sought to characterize adipose tissue in trimesters 1 and 3 (T1/T3) in normal weight (NW) and obese pregnant women, and identify adipose tissue-related factors associated with gestational insulin resistance. Subjects/Methods: Twenty-two NW and 11 obese women were recruited early in pregnancy for the Pregnancy Obesity Nutrition and Child Health study. Examinations and sampling of blood and abdominal adipose tissue were performed longitudinally in T1/T3 to determine fat mass (air-displacement plethysmography); insulin resistance (homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, HOMA-IR); size, number and lipolytic activity of adipocytes; and adipokine release and density of immune cells and blood vessels in adipose tissue. Results: Fat mass and HOMA-IR increased similarly between T1 and T3 in the groups; all remained normoglycemic. Adipocyte size increased in NW women. Adipocyte number was not influenced, but proportions of small and large adipocytes changed oppositely in the groups. Lipolytic activity and circulating adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein increased in both groups. Adiponectin release was reduced in NW women. Fat mass and the proportion of very large adipocytes were most strongly associated with T3 HOMA-IR by multivariable linear regression (R2=0.751, P<0.001). Conclusions: During pregnancy, adipose tissue morphology and function change comprehensively. NW women accumulated fat in existing adipocytes, accompanied by reduced adiponectin release. In comparison with the NW group, obese women had signs of adipocyte recruitment and maintained adiponectin levels. Body fat and large adipocytes may contribute significantly to gestational insulin resistance. PMID:26563815

  19. Scalable Robust Principal Component Analysis Using Grassmann Averages.

    PubMed

    Hauberg, Sren; Feragen, Aasa; Enficiaud, Raffi; Black, Michael J

    2016-11-01

    In large datasets, manual data verification is impossible, and we must expect the number of outliers to increase with data size. While principal component analysis (PCA) can reduce data size, and scalable solutions exist, it is well-known that outliers can arbitrarily corrupt the results. Unfortunately, state-of-the-art approaches for robust PCA are not scalable. We note that in a zero-mean dataset, each observation spans a one-dimensional subspace, giving a point on the Grassmann manifold. We show that the average subspace corresponds to the leading principal component for Gaussian data. We provide a simple algorithm for computing this Grassmann Average ( GA), and show that the subspace estimate is less sensitive to outliers than PCA for general distributions. Because averages can be efficiently computed, we immediately gain scalability. We exploit robust averaging to formulate the Robust Grassmann Average (RGA) as a form of robust PCA. The resulting Trimmed Grassmann Average ( TGA) is appropriate for computer vision because it is robust to pixel outliers. The algorithm has linear computational complexity and minimal memory requirements. We demonstrate TGA for background modeling, video restoration, and shadow removal. We show scalability by performing robust PCA on the entire Star Wars IV movie; a task beyond any current method. Source code is available online.

  20. A Robust Zero-Watermarking Algorithm for Audio

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Ning; Zhu, Jie

    2007-12-01

    In traditional watermarking algorithms, the insertion of watermark into the host signal inevitably introduces some perceptible quality degradation. Another problem is the inherent conflict between imperceptibility and robustness. Zero-watermarking technique can solve these problems successfully. Instead of embedding watermark, the zero-watermarking technique extracts some essential characteristics from the host signal and uses them for watermark detection. However, most of the available zero-watermarking schemes are designed for still image and their robustness is not satisfactory. In this paper, an efficient and robust zero-watermarking technique for audio signal is presented. The multiresolution characteristic of discrete wavelet transform (DWT), the energy compression characteristic of discrete cosine transform (DCT), and the Gaussian noise suppression property of higher-order cumulant are combined to extract essential features from the host audio signal and they are then used for watermark recovery. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our scheme in terms of inaudibility, detection reliability, and robustness.

  1. Robust nonlinear control of vectored thrust aircraft

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Doyle, John C.; Murray, Richard; Morris, John

    1993-01-01

    An interdisciplinary program in robust control for nonlinear systems with applications to a variety of engineering problems is outlined. Major emphasis will be placed on flight control, with both experimental and analytical studies. This program builds on recent new results in control theory for stability, stabilization, robust stability, robust performance, synthesis, and model reduction in a unified framework using Linear Fractional Transformations (LFT's), Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI's), and the structured singular value micron. Most of these new advances have been accomplished by the Caltech controls group independently or in collaboration with researchers in other institutions. These recent results offer a new and remarkably unified framework for all aspects of robust control, but what is particularly important for this program is that they also have important implications for system identification and control of nonlinear systems. This combines well with Caltech's expertise in nonlinear control theory, both in geometric methods and methods for systems with constraints and saturations.

  2. Magnetic field and pressure dependant resistivity behaviour of MnAs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Satya, A. T.; Amaladass, E. P.; Mani, Awadhesh

    2018-04-01

    The studies on the effect of magnetic field and external pressure on temperature dependant electrical resistivity behaviour of polycrystalline MnAs have been reported. At ambient pressure, ρ(T) shows a first order magnetic transition associated with change in sign of the temperature coefficient of resistivity from positive in the ferromagnetic (FM) phase to negative in the paramagnetic (PM) phase. The magneto resistance is negative and shows a peak at the FM transition temperature (T C ). The first order hysteresis width decreases with increase in magnetic field and the intersection of extrapolated linear variations of T C with field for the cooling and warming cycles enabled determination of the tricritical point. At high pressures, ρ(T) displays non monotonic variation exhibiting a low temperature minimum ({T}\\min L) and a high temperature maximum ({T}\\max H) accompanying broad thermal hysteresis above {T}\\min L. It is surmised that spin disorder scattering is responsible for the resistivity behaviour above {T}\\min L and the essential features of ρ(T) are qualitatively explained using Kasuya theoretical model. Below the {T}\\min L, ρ(T) follows linear logarithmic temperature dependence similar to the effect occurring due to Kondo type of scattering of conduction electrons with localised moments.

  3. The different expression of TRPM7 and MagT1 impacts on the proliferation of colon carcinoma cells sensitive or resistant to doxorubicin

    PubMed Central

    Cazzaniga, Alessandra; Moscheni, Claudia; Trapani, Valentina; Wolf, Federica I.; Farruggia, Giovanna; Sargenti, Azzurra; Iotti, Stefano; Maier, Jeanette A. M.; Castiglioni, Sara

    2017-01-01

    The processes leading to anticancer drug resistance are not completely unraveled. To get insights into the underlying mechanisms, we compared colon carcinoma cells sensitive to doxorubicin with their resistant counterpart. We found that resistant cells are growth retarded, and show staminal and ultrastructural features profoundly different from sensitive cells. The resistant phenotype is accompanied by the upregulation of the magnesium transporter MagT1 and the downregulation of the ion channel kinase TRPM7. We demonstrate that the different amounts of TRPM7 and MagT1 account for the different proliferation rate of sensitive and resistant colon carcinoma cells. It remains to be verified whether they are also involved in the control of other “staminal” traits. PMID:28094304

  4. On adaptive robustness approach to Anti-Jam signal processing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Poberezhskiy, Y. S.; Poberezhskiy, G. Y.

    An effective approach to exploiting statistical differences between desired and jamming signals named adaptive robustness is proposed and analyzed in this paper. It combines conventional Bayesian, adaptive, and robust approaches that are complementary to each other. This combining strengthens the advantages and mitigates the drawbacks of the conventional approaches. Adaptive robustness is equally applicable to both jammers and their victim systems. The capabilities required for realization of adaptive robustness in jammers and victim systems are determined. The employment of a specific nonlinear robust algorithm for anti-jam (AJ) processing is described and analyzed. Its effectiveness in practical situations has been proven analytically and confirmed by simulation. Since adaptive robustness can be used by both sides in electronic warfare, it is more advantageous for the fastest and most intelligent side. Many results obtained and discussed in this paper are also applicable to commercial applications such as communications in unregulated or poorly regulated frequency ranges and systems with cognitive capabilities.

  5. Criteria for robustness of heteroclinic cycles in neural microcircuits

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    We introduce a test for robustness of heteroclinic cycles that appear in neural microcircuits modeled as coupled dynamical cells. Robust heteroclinic cycles (RHCs) can appear as robust attractors in Lotka-Volterra-type winnerless competition (WLC) models as well as in more general coupled and/or symmetric systems. It has been previously suggested that RHCs may be relevant to a range of neural activities, from encoding and binding to spatio-temporal sequence generation. The robustness or otherwise of such cycles depends both on the coupling structure and the internal structure of the neurons. We verify that robust heteroclinic cycles can appear in systems of three identical cells, but only if we require perturbations to preserve some invariant subspaces for the individual cells. On the other hand, heteroclinic attractors can appear robustly in systems of four or more identical cells for some symmetric coupling patterns, without restriction on the internal dynamics of the cells. PMID:22656192

  6. Robust optical fiber patch-cords for in vivo optogenetic experiments in rats.

    PubMed

    Trujillo-Pisanty, Ivan; Sanio, Christian; Chaudhri, Nadia; Shizgal, Peter

    2015-01-01

    In vivo optogenetic experiments commonly employ long lengths of optical fiber to connect the light source (commonly a laser) to the optical fiber implants in the brain. Commercially available patch cords are expensive and break easily. Researchers have developed methods to build these cables in house for in vivo experiments with rodents [1-4]. However, the half-life of those patch cords is greatly reduced when they are used with behaving rats, which are strong enough to break the delicate cable tip and to bite through the optical fiber and furcation tubing. Based on [3] we have strengthened the patch-cord tip that connects to the optical implant, and we have incorporated multiple layers of shielding to produce more robust and resistant cladding. Here, we illustrate how to build these patch cords with FC or M3 connectors. However, the design can be adapted for use with other common optical-fiber connectors. We have saved time and money by using this design in our optical self-stimulation experiments with rats, which are commonly several months long and last four to eleven hours per session. The main advantages are: •Long half-life.•Resistant to moderate rodent bites.•Suitable for long in vivo optogenetic experiments with large rodents.

  7. Accuracy of immunization histories provided by adults accompanying preschool children to a pediatric emergency department.

    PubMed

    Goldstein, K P; Kviz, F J; Daum, R S

    1993-11-10

    Because some have advocated the use of emergency departments to administer delayed childhood immunizations, we evaluated the accuracy of immunization histories obtained in this setting by comparison with medical records of inner-city health care facilities. Questionnaires were orally administered to adults accompanying children to the emergency department. Individual medical records were reviewed. Pediatric emergency department at Wyler Children's Hospital, University of Chicago and 68 inner-city primary care clinics. Children aged 3 to 65 months registering for medical care. Of the sample, 98% were African American; 75% were Medicaid recipients. Adults' knowledge of immunization histories, immunization cards, and medical records compared with American Academy of Pediatrics/Immunization Practices Advisory Committee recommendations. Of the accompanying adults, 64% stated that their child's general immunization status was "up-to-date"; 65% of these had clinic records confirming that status. Only 8% of specific regimens stated by these adults accurately matched those found in clinic records. Moreover, 45% of adults accompanying children at least 16 months and older provided inaccurate information regarding previous receipt of measles immunization. Information provided by accompanying adults (from recall or from immunization cards) is inadequate to determine accurately which preschoolers in the pediatric emergency department are delayed in immunizations.

  8. [Tension hemothorax accompanying rupture of the descending aortic aneurysm].

    PubMed

    Inafuku, Kenji; Imoto, Kiyotaka; Kano, Kazuki; Amano, Shinya; Cho, Tomoki; Minami, Tomoyuki; Uchida, Keiji; Masuda, Munetaka

    2014-11-01

    Although, tension hemothorax appears along with thoracic injuries in many cases, the incidence is rare and the concept itself has not yet been established. Moreover, reports on tension hemothorax caused by the rupture of thoracic aortic aneurysms are very rare. Herein, we report a case in which thoracic endovascular aortic repair( TEVAR) was carried out following chest drainage in order to treat tension hemothorax accompanying rupture of the descending aortic aneurysm, thus leading to the survival of the patient.

  9. Environmentally Resistant Mo-Si-B-Based Coatings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Perepezko, J. H.; Sossaman, T. A.; Taylor, M.

    2017-06-01

    High-temperature applications have demonstrated aluminide-coated nickel-base superalloys to be remarkably effective, but are reaching their service limit. Alternate materials such as refractory (e.g., W, Mo) silicide alloys and SiC composites are being considered to extend high temperature capability, but the silica surfaces on these materials require coatings for enhanced environmental resistance. This can be accomplished with a Mo-Si-B-based coating that is deposited by a spray deposition of Mo followed by a chemical vapor deposition of Si and B by pack cementation to develop an aluminoborosilica surface. Oxidation of the as-deposited (Si + B)-pack coatings proceeds with partial consumption of the initial MoSi2 forming amorphous silica. This Si depletion leads to formation of a B-saturated Mo5Si3 (T1) phase. Reactions between the Mo and the B rich phases develop an underlying Mo5SiB2 (T2) layer. The T1 phase saturated with B has robust oxidation resistance, and the Si depletion is prevented by the underlying diffusion barrier (T2). Further, due to the natural phase transformation characteristics of the Mo-Si-B system, cracks or scratches to the outer silica and T1 layers can be repaired from the Si and B reservoirs of T2 + MoB layer to yield a self-healing characteristic. Mo-Si-B-based coatings demonstrate robust performance up to at least 1700 °C not only to the rigors of elevated temperature oxidation, but also to CMAS attack, hot corrosion attack, water vapor and thermal cycling.

  10. Analytical and clinical performance characteristics of the Abbott RealTime MTB RIF/INH Resistance, an assay for the detection of rifampicin and isoniazid resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in pulmonary specimens.

    PubMed

    Kostera, Joshua; Leckie, Gregor; Tang, Ning; Lampinen, John; Szostak, Magdalena; Abravaya, Klara; Wang, Hong

    2016-12-01

    Clinical management of drug-resistant tuberculosis patients continues to present significant challenges to global health. To tackle these challenges, the Abbott RealTime MTB RIF/INH Resistance assay was developed to accelerate the diagnosis of rifampicin and/or isoniazid resistant tuberculosis to within a day. This article summarizes the performance of the Abbott RealTime MTB RIF/INH Resistance assay; including reliability, analytical sensitivity, and clinical sensitivity/specificity as compared to Cepheid GeneXpert MTB/RIF version 1.0 and Hain MTBDRplus version 2.0. The limit of detection (LOD) of the Abbott RealTime MTB RIF/INH Resistance assay was determined to be 32 colony forming units/milliliter (cfu/mL) using the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strain H37Rv cell line. For rifampicin resistance detection, the Abbott RealTime MTB RIF/INH Resistance assay demonstrated statistically equivalent clinical sensitivity and specificity as compared to Cepheid GeneXpert MTB/RIF. For isoniazid resistance detection, the assay demonstrated statistically equivalent clinical sensitivity and specificity as compared to Hain MTBDRplus. The performance data presented herein demonstrate that the Abbott RealTime MTB RIF/INH Resistance assay is a sensitive, robust, and reliable test for realtime simultaneous detection of first line anti-tuberculosis antibiotics rifampicin and isoniazid in patient specimens. Copyright © 2016 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  11. The robust corrective action priority-an improved approach for selecting competing corrective actions in FMEA based on principle of robust design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sutrisno, Agung; Gunawan, Indra; Vanany, Iwan

    2017-11-01

    In spite of being integral part in risk - based quality improvement effort, studies improving quality of selection of corrective action priority using FMEA technique are still limited in literature. If any, none is considering robustness and risk in selecting competing improvement initiatives. This study proposed a theoretical model to select risk - based competing corrective action by considering robustness and risk of competing corrective actions. We incorporated the principle of robust design in counting the preference score among corrective action candidates. Along with considering cost and benefit of competing corrective actions, we also incorporate the risk and robustness of corrective actions. An example is provided to represent the applicability of the proposed model.

  12. Selective robust optimization: A new intensity-modulated proton therapy optimization strategy

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Li, Yupeng; Niemela, Perttu; Siljamaki, Sami

    2015-08-15

    Purpose: To develop a new robust optimization strategy for intensity-modulated proton therapy as an important step in translating robust proton treatment planning from research to clinical applications. Methods: In selective robust optimization, a worst-case-based robust optimization algorithm is extended, and terms of the objective function are selectively computed from either the worst-case dose or the nominal dose. Two lung cancer cases and one head and neck cancer case were used to demonstrate the practical significance of the proposed robust planning strategy. The lung cancer cases had minimal tumor motion less than 5 mm, and, for the demonstration of the methodology,more » are assumed to be static. Results: Selective robust optimization achieved robust clinical target volume (CTV) coverage and at the same time increased nominal planning target volume coverage to 95.8%, compared to the 84.6% coverage achieved with CTV-based robust optimization in one of the lung cases. In the other lung case, the maximum dose in selective robust optimization was lowered from a dose of 131.3% in the CTV-based robust optimization to 113.6%. Selective robust optimization provided robust CTV coverage in the head and neck case, and at the same time improved controls over isodose distribution so that clinical requirements may be readily met. Conclusions: Selective robust optimization may provide the flexibility and capability necessary for meeting various clinical requirements in addition to achieving the required plan robustness in practical proton treatment planning settings.« less

  13. 30 CFR 250.228 - What administrative information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What administrative information must accompany the EP? 250.228 Section 250.228 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, REGULATION, AND... SHELF Plans and Information Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 250.228 What administrative information...

  14. 41 CFR 101-25.110-3 - Tires accompanying new motor vehicles.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... motor vehicles. 101-25.110-3 Section 101-25.110-3 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal...-GENERAL 25.1-General Policies § 101-25.110-3 Tires accompanying new motor vehicles. The tire identifications and recordkeeping regulations issued by the Department of Transportation require each motor...

  15. 77 FR 74010 - Proposed Changes to FCC Form 499-A, FCC Form 499-Q, and Accompanying Instructions

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-12-12

    ... 499-A, FCC Form 499-Q, and Accompanying Instructions AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION... revenues, and the quarterly Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet, FCC Form 499-Q (Form 499-Q) and accompanying instructions (Form 499-Q Instructions) to be used in 2013 to report projected collected revenues...

  16. Synthesis Methods for Robust Passification and Control

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kelkar, Atul G.; Joshi, Suresh M. (Technical Monitor)

    2000-01-01

    The research effort under this cooperative agreement has been essentially the continuation of the work from previous grants. The ongoing work has primarily focused on developing passivity-based control techniques for Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) systems. During this period, there has been a significant progress made in the area of passivity-based control of LTI systems and some preliminary results have also been obtained for nonlinear systems, as well. The prior work has addressed optimal control design for inherently passive as well as non- passive linear systems. For exploiting the robustness characteristics of passivity-based controllers the passification methodology was developed for LTI systems that are not inherently passive. Various methods of passification were first proposed in and further developed. The robustness of passification was addressed for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems for certain classes of uncertainties using frequency-domain methods. For MIMO systems, a state-space approach using Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI)-based formulation was presented, for passification of non-passive LTI systems. An LMI-based robust passification technique was presented for systems with redundant actuators and sensors. The redundancy in actuators and sensors was used effectively for robust passification using the LMI formulation. The passification was designed to be robust to an interval-type uncertainties in system parameters. The passification techniques were used to design a robust controller for Benchmark Active Control Technology wing under parametric uncertainties. The results on passive nonlinear systems, however, are very limited to date. Our recent work in this area was presented, wherein some stability results were obtained for passive nonlinear systems that are affine in control.

  17. Robust Inference of Risks of Large Portfolios

    PubMed Central

    Fan, Jianqing; Han, Fang; Liu, Han; Vickers, Byron

    2016-01-01

    We propose a bootstrap-based robust high-confidence level upper bound (Robust H-CLUB) for assessing the risks of large portfolios. The proposed approach exploits rank-based and quantile-based estimators, and can be viewed as a robust extension of the H-CLUB procedure (Fan et al., 2015). Such an extension allows us to handle possibly misspecified models and heavy-tailed data, which are stylized features in financial returns. Under mixing conditions, we analyze the proposed approach and demonstrate its advantage over H-CLUB. We further provide thorough numerical results to back up the developed theory, and also apply the proposed method to analyze a stock market dataset. PMID:27818569

  18. The Utility of Robust Means in Statistics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goodwyn, Fara

    2012-01-01

    Location estimates calculated from heuristic data were examined using traditional and robust statistical methods. The current paper demonstrates the impact outliers have on the sample mean and proposes robust methods to control for outliers in sample data. Traditional methods fail because they rely on the statistical assumptions of normality and…

  19. Robust Unit Commitment Considering Uncertain Demand Response

    DOE PAGES

    Liu, Guodong; Tomsovic, Kevin

    2014-09-28

    Although price responsive demand response has been widely accepted as playing an important role in the reliable and economic operation of power system, the real response from demand side can be highly uncertain due to limited understanding of consumers' response to pricing signals. To model the behavior of consumers, the price elasticity of demand has been explored and utilized in both research and real practice. However, the price elasticity of demand is not precisely known and may vary greatly with operating conditions and types of customers. To accommodate the uncertainty of demand response, alternative unit commitment methods robust to themore » uncertainty of the demand response require investigation. In this paper, a robust unit commitment model to minimize the generalized social cost is proposed for the optimal unit commitment decision taking into account uncertainty of the price elasticity of demand. By optimizing the worst case under proper robust level, the unit commitment solution of the proposed model is robust against all possible realizations of the modeled uncertain demand response. Numerical simulations on the IEEE Reliability Test System show the e ectiveness of the method. Finally, compared to unit commitment with deterministic price elasticity of demand, the proposed robust model can reduce the average Locational Marginal Prices (LMPs) as well as the price volatility.« less

  20. Slow recovery of the impaired fatigue resistance in postunloading mouse soleus muscle corresponding to decreased mitochondrial function and a compensatory increase in type I slow fibers

    PubMed Central

    Feng, Han-Zhong; Chen, Xuequn; Malek, Moh H.

    2015-01-01

    Unloading or disuse rapidly results in skeletal muscle atrophy, switching to fast-type fibers, and decreased resistance to fatigue. The recovery process is of major importance in rehabilitation for various clinical conditions. Here we studied mouse soleus muscle during 60 days of reloading after 4 wk of hindlimb suspension. Unloading produced significant atrophy of soleus muscle with decreased contractile force and fatigue resistance, accompanied by switches of myosin isoforms from IIa to IIx and IIb and fast troponin T to more low-molecular-weight splice forms. The total mass, fiber size, and contractile force of soleus muscle recovered to control levels after 15 days of reloading. However, the fatigue resistance showed a trend of worsening during this period with significant infiltration of inflammatory cells at days 3 and 7, indicating reloading injuries that were accompanied by active regeneration with upregulations of filamin-C, αB-crystallin, and desmin. The fatigue resistance partially recovered after 30–60 days of reloading. The expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator 1α and mitofusin-2 showed changes parallel to that of fatigue resistance after unloading and during reloading, suggesting a causal role of decreased mitochondrial function. Slow fiber contents in the soleus muscle were increased after 30–60 days of reloading to become significantly higher than the normal level, indicating a secondary adaption to compensate for the slow recovery of fatigue resistance. PMID:26447205

  1. 30 CFR 250.213 - What general information must accompany the EP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What general information must accompany the EP? 250.213 Section 250.213 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, REGULATION, AND... SHELF Plans and Information Contents of Exploration Plans (ep) § 250.213 What general information must...

  2. Using MIDI Accompaniments for Music Learning at School and at Home

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kersten, Fred

    2004-01-01

    This article discusses how MIDI and other computer technologies can help students build their musical skills in the classroom and at home. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) has provided music teachers with increasing opportunity to use quality computer-developed musical accompaniments in teaching music to children. Standard MIDI files…

  3. Efficient robust doubly adaptive regularized regression with applications.

    PubMed

    Karunamuni, Rohana J; Kong, Linglong; Tu, Wei

    2018-01-01

    We consider the problem of estimation and variable selection for general linear regression models. Regularized regression procedures have been widely used for variable selection, but most existing methods perform poorly in the presence of outliers. We construct a new penalized procedure that simultaneously attains full efficiency and maximum robustness. Furthermore, the proposed procedure satisfies the oracle properties. The new procedure is designed to achieve sparse and robust solutions by imposing adaptive weights on both the decision loss and the penalty function. The proposed method of estimation and variable selection attains full efficiency when the model is correct and, at the same time, achieves maximum robustness when outliers are present. We examine the robustness properties using the finite-sample breakdown point and an influence function. We show that the proposed estimator attains the maximum breakdown point. Furthermore, there is no loss in efficiency when there are no outliers or the error distribution is normal. For practical implementation of the proposed method, we present a computational algorithm. We examine the finite-sample and robustness properties using Monte Carlo studies. Two datasets are also analyzed.

  4. Strain-Dependent Transcriptome Signatures for Robustness in Lactococcus lactis

    PubMed Central

    Dijkstra, Annereinou R.; Alkema, Wynand; Starrenburg, Marjo J. C.; van Hijum, Sacha A. F. T.; Bron, Peter A.

    2016-01-01

    Recently, we demonstrated that fermentation conditions have a strong impact on subsequent survival of Lactococcus lactis strain MG1363 during heat and oxidative stress, two important parameters during spray drying. Moreover, employment of a transcriptome-phenotype matching approach revealed groups of genes associated with robustness towards heat and/or oxidative stress. To investigate if other strains have similar or distinct transcriptome signatures for robustness, we applied an identical transcriptome-robustness phenotype matching approach on the L. lactis strains IL1403, KF147 and SK11, which have previously been demonstrated to display highly diverse robustness phenotypes. These strains were subjected to an identical fermentation regime as was performed earlier for strain MG1363 and consisted of twelve conditions, varying in the level of salt and/or oxygen, as well as fermentation temperature and pH. In the exponential phase of growth, cells were harvested for transcriptome analysis and assessment of heat and oxidative stress survival phenotypes. The variation in fermentation conditions resulted in differences in heat and oxidative stress survival of up to five 10-log units. Effects of the fermentation conditions on stress survival of the L. lactis strains were typically strain-dependent, although the fermentation conditions had mainly similar effects on the growth characteristics of the different strains. By association of the transcriptomes and robustness phenotypes highly strain-specific transcriptome signatures for robustness towards heat and oxidative stress were identified, indicating that multiple mechanisms exist to increase robustness and, as a consequence, robustness of each strain requires individual optimization. However, a relatively small overlap in the transcriptome responses of the strains was also identified and this generic transcriptome signature included genes previously associated with stress (ctsR and lplL) and novel genes, including nan

  5. Anethole induces apoptotic cell death accompanied by reactive oxygen species production and DNA fragmentation in Aspergillus fumigatus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

    PubMed

    Fujita, Ken-Ichi; Tatsumi, Miki; Ogita, Akira; Kubo, Isao; Tanaka, Toshio

    2014-02-01

    trans-Anethole (anethole), a major component of anise oil, has a broad antimicrobial spectrum, and antimicrobial activity that is weaker than that of other antibiotics on the market. When combined with polygodial, nagilactone E, and n-dodecanol, anethole has been shown to possess significant synergistic antifungal activity against a budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and a human opportunistic pathogenic yeast, Candida albicans. However, the antifungal mechanism of anethole has not been completely determined. We found that anethole stimulated cell death of a human opportunistic pathogenic fungus, Aspergillus fumigatus, in addition to S. cerevisiae. The anethole-induced cell death was accompanied by reactive oxygen species production, metacaspase activation, and DNA fragmentation. Several mutants of S. cerevisiae, in which genes related to the apoptosis-initiating execution signals from mitochondria were deleted, were resistant to anethole. These results suggest that anethole-induced cell death could be explained by oxidative stress-dependent apoptosis via typical mitochondrial death cascades in fungi, including A. fumigatus and S. cerevisiae. © 2014 FEBS.

  6. Identification and robust control of an experimental servo motor.

    PubMed

    Adam, E J; Guestrin, E D

    2002-04-01

    In this work, the design of a robust controller for an experimental laboratory-scale position control system based on a dc motor drive as well as the corresponding identification and robust stability analysis are presented. In order to carry out the robust design procedure, first, a classic closed-loop identification technique is applied and then, the parametrization by internal model control is used. The model uncertainty is evaluated under both parametric and global representation. For the latter case, an interesting discussion about the conservativeness of this description is presented by means of a comparison between the uncertainty disk and the critical perturbation radius approaches. Finally, conclusions about the performance of the experimental system with the robust controller are discussed using comparative graphics of the controlled variable and the Nyquist stability margin as a robustness measurement.

  7. Robustness analysis of elastoplastic structure subjected to double impulse

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kanno, Yoshihiro; Takewaki, Izuru

    2016-11-01

    The double impulse has extensively been used to evaluate the critical response of an elastoplastic structure against a pulse-type input, including near-fault earthquake ground motions. In this paper, we propose a robustness assessment method for elastoplastic single-degree-of-freedom structures subjected to the double impulse input. Uncertainties in the initial velocity of the input, as well as the natural frequency and the strength of the structure, are considered. As fundamental properties of the structural robustness, we show monotonicity of the robustness measure with respect to the natural frequency. In contrast, we show that robustness is not necessarily improved even if the structural strength is increased. Moreover, the robustness preference between two structures with different values of structural strength can possibly reverse when the performance requirement is changed.

  8. A scoring mechanism for the rank aggregation of network robustness

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yazdani, Alireza; Dueñas-Osorio, Leonardo; Li, Qilin

    2013-10-01

    To date, a number of metrics have been proposed to quantify inherent robustness of network topology against failures. However, each single metric usually only offers a limited view of network vulnerability to different types of random failures and targeted attacks. When applied to certain network configurations, different metrics rank network topology robustness in different orders which is rather inconsistent, and no single metric fully characterizes network robustness against different modes of failure. To overcome such inconsistency, this work proposes a multi-metric approach as the basis of evaluating aggregate ranking of network topology robustness. This is based on simultaneous utilization of a minimal set of distinct robustness metrics that are standardized so to give way to a direct comparison of vulnerability across networks with different sizes and configurations, hence leading to an initial scoring of inherent topology robustness. Subsequently, based on the inputs of initial scoring a rank aggregation method is employed to allocate an overall ranking of robustness to each network topology. A discussion is presented in support of the presented multi-metric approach and its applications to more realistically assess and rank network topology robustness.

  9. Demonstrated brain insulin resistance in Alzheimer’s disease patients is associated with IGF-1 resistance, IRS-1 dysregulation, and cognitive decline

    PubMed Central

    Talbot, Konrad; Wang, Hoau-Yan; Kazi, Hala; Han, Li-Ying; Bakshi, Kalindi P.; Stucky, Andres; Fuino, Robert L.; Kawaguchi, Krista R.; Samoyedny, Andrew J.; Wilson, Robert S.; Arvanitakis, Zoe; Schneider, Julie A.; Wolf, Bryan A.; Bennett, David A.; Trojanowski, John Q.; Arnold, Steven E.

    2012-01-01

    While a potential causal factor in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), brain insulin resistance has not been demonstrated directly in that disorder. We provide such a demonstration here by showing that the hippocampal formation (HF) and, to a lesser degree, the cerebellar cortex in AD cases without diabetes exhibit markedly reduced responses to insulin signaling in the IR→IRS-1→PI3K signaling pathway with greatly reduced responses to IGF-1 in the IGF-1R→IRS-2→PI3K signaling pathway. Reduced insulin responses were maximal at the level of IRS-1 and were consistently associated with basal elevations in IRS-1 phosphorylated at serine 616 (IRS-1 pS616) and IRS-1 pS636/639. In the HF, these candidate biomarkers of brain insulin resistance increased commonly and progressively from normal cases to mild cognitively impaired cases to AD cases regardless of diabetes or APOE ε4 status. Levels of IRS-1 pS616 and IRS-1 pS636/639 and their activated kinases correlated positively with those of oligomeric Aβ plaques and were negatively associated with episodic and working memory, even after adjusting for Aβ plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and APOE ε4. Brain insulin resistance thus appears to be an early and common feature of AD, a phenomenon accompanied by IGF-1 resistance and closely associated with IRS-1 dysfunction potentially triggered by Aβ oligomers and yet promoting cognitive decline independent of classic AD pathology. PMID:22476197

  10. Targeting the HER family with Pan-HER effectively overcomes resistance to cetuximab

    PubMed Central

    Iida, Mari; Bahrar, Harsh; Brand, Toni M; Pearson, Hannah E; Coan, John P; Orbuch, Rachel A; Flanigan, Bailey G; Swick, Adam D; Prabakaran, Prashanth; Lantto, Johan; Horak, Ivan D.; Kragh, Michael; Salgia, Ravi; Kimple, Randy J; Wheeler, Deric L

    2016-01-01

    Cetuximab, an antibody against the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) has shown efficacy in treating head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), metastatic colorectal cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Despite the clinical success of cetuximab, many patients do not respond to cetuximab. Furthermore, virtually all patients who do initially respond become refractory, highlighting both intrinsic and acquired resistance to cetuximab as significant clinical problems. To understand mechanistically how cancerous cells acquire resistance, we previously developed models of acquired resistance using the H226 NSCLC and UM-SCC1 HNSCC cell lines. Cetuximab-resistant clones showed a robust upregulation and dependency on the HER family receptors EGFR, HER2 and HER3. Here, we examined Pan-HER, a mixture of six antibodies targeting these receptors on cetuximab-resistant clones. In cells exhibiting acquired or intrinsic resistance to cetuximab, Pan-HER treatment decreased all three receptors’ protein levels and down-stream activation of AKT and MAPK. This correlated with decreased cell proliferation in cetuximab-resistant clones. To determine whether Pan-HER had a therapeutic benefit in vivo, we established de novo cetuximab-resistant mouse xenografts and treated resistant tumors with Pan-HER. This regimen resulted in a superior growth delay of cetuximab-resistant xenografts compared to mice continued on cetuximab. Furthermore, intrinsically cetuximab-resistant HNSCC patient-derived xenograft tumors treated with Pan-HER exhibited significant growth delay compared to vehicle/cetuximab controls. These results suggest that targeting HER family receptors simultaneously with Pan-HER is a promising treatment strategy for tumors displaying intrinsic or acquired resistance to cetuximab. PMID:27422810

  11. Novel Inhibitors of Staphyloxanthin Virulence Factor in Comparison with Linezolid and Vancomycin versus Methicillin-Resistant, Linezolid-Resistant, and Vancomycin-Intermediate Staphylococcus aureus Infections in Vivo.

    PubMed

    Ni, Shuaishuai; Wei, Hanwen; Li, Baoli; Chen, Feifei; Liu, Yifu; Chen, Wenhua; Xu, Yixiang; Qiu, Xiaoxia; Li, Xiaokang; Lu, Yanli; Liu, Wenwen; Hu, Linhao; Lin, Dazheng; Wang, Manjiong; Zheng, Xinyu; Mao, Fei; Zhu, Jin; Lan, Lefu; Li, Jian

    2017-10-12

    Our previous work ( Wang et al. J. Med. Chem. 2016 , 59 , 4831 - 4848 ) revealed that effective benzocycloalkane-derived staphyloxanthin inhibitors against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infections were accompanied by poor water solubility and high hERG inhibition and dosages (preadministration). In this study, 92 chroman and coumaran derivatives as novel inhibitors have been addressed for overcoming deficiencies above. Derivatives 69 and 105 displayed excellent pigment inhibitory activities and low hERG inhibition, along with improvement of solubility by salt type selection. The broad and significantly potent antibacterial spectra of 69 and 105 were displayed first with normal administration in the livers and hearts in mice against pigmented S. aureus Newman, Mu50 (vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus), and NRS271 (linezolid-resistant S. aureus), compared with linezolid and vancomycin. In summary, both 69 and 105 have the potential to be developed as good antibacterial candidates targeting virulence factors.

  12. Experimental verification of concrete resistance against effect of low pH

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dobias, D.; Rehacek, S.; Pokorny, P.; Citek, D.; Kolisko, J.

    2018-03-01

    In the introductory part of this article, the principles of a concrete degradation by organic acids are mentioned, these acids occur, particularly in silage and haylage troughs, biogas stations, on concrete floors and grates in the vicinity of drinking basins with an addition of formic acid and also in fermenters and slurry reservoirs. In the experimental part, the first results of monitoring resistance of a concrete with a sealing admixture on the basis of styrene-acrylate against an effect of a low pH are presented. Additional accompanying tests are stated in the tested concretes.

  13. The world`s first 27 T and 30 T resistive magnets

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bird, M.D.; Bole, S.; Eyssa, Y.M.

    1996-07-01

    The authors describe in detail a 30 Tesla, 32mm warm bore,m 15 MW resistive magnet which was put into operation at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, FL in March 1995. The magnet consists of three concentric axially-cooled Bitter stacks connected electrically in series. This magnet employs a substantial new development in Bitter magnet technology which allows high current densities without the usually accompanying high stresses. Details of magnet optimization, design, construction, testing and operation are presented. The authors also report on operating experience with the 27 T magnets.

  14. Robust keyword retrieval method for OCRed text

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fujii, Yusaku; Takebe, Hiroaki; Tanaka, Hiroshi; Hotta, Yoshinobu

    2011-01-01

    Document management systems have become important because of the growing popularity of electronic filing of documents and scanning of books, magazines, manuals, etc., through a scanner or a digital camera, for storage or reading on a PC or an electronic book. Text information acquired by optical character recognition (OCR) is usually added to the electronic documents for document retrieval. Since texts generated by OCR generally include character recognition errors, robust retrieval methods have been introduced to overcome this problem. In this paper, we propose a retrieval method that is robust against both character segmentation and recognition errors. In the proposed method, the insertion of noise characters and dropping of characters in the keyword retrieval enables robustness against character segmentation errors, and character substitution in the keyword of the recognition candidate for each character in OCR or any other character enables robustness against character recognition errors. The recall rate of the proposed method was 15% higher than that of the conventional method. However, the precision rate was 64% lower.

  15. Adaptation and evaluation of the bottle assay for monitoring insecticide resistance in disease vector mosquitoes in the Peruvian Amazon

    PubMed Central

    Zamora Perea, Elvira; Balta León, Rosario; Palomino Salcedo, Miriam; Brogdon, William G; Devine, Gregor J

    2009-01-01

    Background The purpose of this study was to establish whether the "bottle assay", a tool for monitoring insecticide resistance in mosquitoes, can complement and augment the capabilities of the established WHO assay, particularly in resource-poor, logistically challenging environments. Methods Laboratory reared Aedes aegypti and field collected Anopheles darlingi and Anopheles albimanus were used to assess the suitability of locally sourced solvents and formulated insecticides for use with the bottle assay. Using these adapted protocols, the ability of the bottle assay and the WHO assay to discriminate between deltamethrin-resistant Anopheles albimanus populations was compared. The diagnostic dose of deltamethrin that would identify resistance in currently susceptible populations of An. darlingi and Ae. aegypti was defined. The robustness of the bottle assay during a surveillance exercise in the Amazon was assessed. Results The bottle assay (using technical or formulated material) and the WHO assay were equally able to differentiate deltamethrin-resistant and susceptible An. albimanus populations. A diagnostic dose of 10 μg a.i./bottle was identified as the most sensitive discriminating dose for characterizing resistance in An. darlingi and Ae. aegypti. Treated bottles, prepared using locally sourced solvents and insecticide formulations, can be stored for > 14 days and used three times. Bottles can be stored and transported under local conditions and field-assays can be completed in a single evening. Conclusion The flexible and portable nature of the bottle assay and the ready availability of its components make it a potentially robust and useful tool for monitoring insecticide resistance and efficacy in remote areas that require minimal cost tools. PMID:19728871

  16. Non-destructive reversible resistive switching in Cr doped Mott insulator Ca2RuO4: Interface vs bulk effects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shen, Shida; Williamson, Morgan; Cao, Gang; Zhou, Jianshi; Goodenough, John; Tsoi, Maxim

    2017-12-01

    A non-destructive reversible resistive switching is demonstrated in single crystals of Cr-doped Mott insulator Ca2RuO4. An applied electrical bias was shown to reduce the DC resistance of the crystal by as much as 75%. The original resistance of the sample could be restored by applying an electrical bias of opposite polarity. We have studied this resistive switching as a function of the bias strength, applied magnetic field, and temperature. A combination of 2-, 3-, and 4-probe measurements provide a means to distinguish between bulk and interfacial contributions to the switching and suggests that the switching is mostly an interfacial effect. The switching was tentatively attributed to electric-field driven lattice distortions which accompany the impurity-induced Mott transition. This field effect was confirmed by temperature-dependent resistivity measurements which show that the activation energy of this material can be tuned by an applied DC electrical bias. The observed resistance switching can potentially be used for building non-volatile memory devices like resistive random access memory.

  17. 30 CFR 550.244 - What geological and geophysical (G&G) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What geological and geophysical (G&G... Operations Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.244 What geological and geophysical (G&G) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The following G&G information must accompany your DPP or DOCD: (a) Geological...

  18. 30 CFR 550.244 - What geological and geophysical (G&G) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What geological and geophysical (G&G... Operations Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.244 What geological and geophysical (G&G) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The following G&G information must accompany your DPP or DOCD: (a) Geological...

  19. 30 CFR 550.244 - What geological and geophysical (G&G) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What geological and geophysical (G&G... Operations Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.244 What geological and geophysical (G&G) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? The following G&G information must accompany your DPP or DOCD: (a) Geological...

  20. The impact of parental accompaniment in paediatric trauma: a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) perspective.

    PubMed

    Cowley, Alan; Durge, Neal

    2014-05-13

    Major trauma remains a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in young people and adolescents throughout the western world. Both the physical and psychological consequences of trauma are well documented and it is shown that peri-traumatic factors play a large part in the emotional recovery of children involved in trauma. Indeed, parental anxiety levels may play one of the biggest roles. There are no publically available guidelines on pre-hospital accompaniment, and where research has been done on parental presence it often focuses primarily on the parents or staff, rather than the child themselves. Whilst acknowledging the impact on parents and staff, the importance of the emotional wellbeing of the child should be reinforced, to reduce the likelihood of developing symptoms in keeping with post-traumatic stress disorder. This non-systematic literature review, aims to examine the impact of parental accompaniment to hospital, following paediatric trauma, and to help pre-hospital clinicians decide whether accompaniment would be of benefit to their patient population. The lack of published data does not enable a formal recommendation of parental accompaniment in the helicopter to be mandated, though it should be the preference in land based conveyance. Future research is needed into the emotional recovery of children after trauma, as well as the experiences of patient, parent and staff during conveyance.

  1. The impact of parental accompaniment in paediatric trauma: a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) perspective

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Major trauma remains a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in young people and adolescents throughout the western world. Both the physical and psychological consequences of trauma are well documented and it is shown that peri-traumatic factors play a large part in the emotional recovery of children involved in trauma. Indeed, parental anxiety levels may play one of the biggest roles. There are no publically available guidelines on pre-hospital accompaniment, and where research has been done on parental presence it often focuses primarily on the parents or staff, rather than the child themselves. Whilst acknowledging the impact on parents and staff, the importance of the emotional wellbeing of the child should be reinforced, to reduce the likelihood of developing symptoms in keeping with post-traumatic stress disorder. This non-systematic literature review, aims to examine the impact of parental accompaniment to hospital, following paediatric trauma, and to help pre-hospital clinicians decide whether accompaniment would be of benefit to their patient population. The lack of published data does not enable a formal recommendation of parental accompaniment in the helicopter to be mandated, though it should be the preference in land based conveyance. Future research is needed into the emotional recovery of children after trauma, as well as the experiences of patient, parent and staff during conveyance. PMID:24887082

  2. Effects of resistance training on performance in previously trained endurance runners: A systematic review.

    PubMed

    Alcaraz-Ibañez, Manuel; Rodríguez-Pérez, Manuel

    2018-03-01

    The aim of this work was to identify, synthesize and evaluate the results of randomized controlled trials examining the effects of resistance training on performance indicators in previously trained endurance runners. A database search was carried out in PubMed, Science Direct, OvidSPMedLine, Wiley, Web of Science, ProQuest and Google Scholar. In accordance with the PRISMA checklist, 18 published articles dated prior to May 2016 involving 321 endurance runners were reviewed using the PEDro scale. Resistance training led to general improvements in muscular strength, running economy, muscle power factors, and direct performance in distances between 1,500 and 10,000 m. Such improvements were not accompanied by a significant increase in body mass or signs of overtraining. However, improvements did not occur in all cases, suggesting that they might depend on the specific characteristics of the resistance training applied. Although current evidence supports the effectiveness of resistance training to improve performance in already trained endurance runners, the methodological inconsistencies identified suggest that the results should be interpreted with caution. Future studies ought to investigate the benefits of resistance training in endurance runners while considering the existence of possible differentiated effects based on the specific characteristics of the resistance training carried out.

  3. Aldo-keto reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase contribute to benznidazole natural resistance in Trypanosoma cruzi.

    PubMed

    González, Laura; García-Huertas, Paola; Triana-Chávez, Omar; García, Gabriela Andrea; Murta, Silvane Maria Fonseca; Mejía-Jaramillo, Ana M

    2017-12-01

    The improvement of Chagas disease treatment is focused not only on the development of new drugs but also in understanding mechanisms of action and resistance to drugs conventionally used. Thus, some strategies aim to detect specific changes in proteins between sensitive and resistant parasites and to evaluate the role played in these processes by functional genomics. In this work, we used a natural Trypanosoma cruzi population resistant to benznidazole, which has clones with different susceptibilities to this drug without alterations in the NTR I gene. Using 2DE-gel electrophoresis, the aldo-keto reductase and the alcohol dehydrogenase proteins were found up regulated in the natural resistant clone and therefore their possible role in the resistance to benznidazole and glyoxal was investigated. Both genes were overexpressed in a drug sensitive T. cruzi clone and the biological changes in response to these compounds were evaluated. The results showed that the overexpression of these proteins enhances resistance to benznidazole and glyoxal in T. cruzi. Moreover, a decrease in mitochondrial and cell membrane damage was observed, accompanied by a drop in the intracellular concentration of reactive oxygen species after treatment. Our results suggest that these proteins are involved in the mechanism of action of benznidazole. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Resistome of carbapenem- and colistin-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolates.

    PubMed

    Lomonaco, Sara; Crawford, Matthew A; Lascols, Christine; Timme, Ruth E; Anderson, Kevin; Hodge, David R; Fisher, Debra J; Pillai, Segaran P; Morse, Stephen A; Khan, Erum; Hughes, Molly A; Allard, Marc W; Sharma, Shashi K

    2018-01-01

    The emergence and dissemination of carbapenemases, bacterial enzymes able to inactivate most β-lactam antibiotics, in Enterobacteriaceae is of increasing concern. The concurrent spread of resistance against colistin, an antibiotic of last resort, further compounds this challenge further. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) can play a significant role in the rapid and accurate detection/characterization of existing and emergent resistance determinants, an essential aspect of public health surveillance and response activities to combat the spread of antimicrobial resistant bacteria. In the current study, WGS data was used to characterize the genomic content of antimicrobial resistance genes, including those encoding carbapenemases, in 10 multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from Pakistan. These clinical isolates represented five sequence types: ST11 (n = 3 isolates), ST14 (n = 3), ST15 (n = 1), ST101 (n = 2), and ST307 (n = 1). Resistance profiles against 25 clinically-relevant antimicrobials were determined by broth microdilution; resistant phenotypes were observed for at least 15 of the 25 antibiotics tested in all isolates except one. Specifically, 8/10 isolates were carbapenem-resistant and 7/10 isolates were colistin-resistant. The blaNDM-1 and blaOXA-48 carbapenemase genes were present in 7/10 and 5/10 isolates, respectively; including 2 isolates carrying both genes. No plasmid-mediated determinants for colistin resistance (e.g. mcr) were detected, but disruptions and mutations in chromosomal loci (i.e. mgrB and pmrB) previously reported to confer colistin resistance were observed. A blaOXA-48-carrying IncL/M-type plasmid was found in all blaOXA-48-positive isolates. The application of WGS to molecular epidemiology and surveillance studies, as exemplified here, will provide both a more complete understanding of the global distribution of MDR isolates and a robust surveillance tool useful for detecting emerging threats to public health.

  5. Resistome of carbapenem- and colistin-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae clinical isolates

    PubMed Central

    Crawford, Matthew A.; Lascols, Christine; Timme, Ruth E.; Anderson, Kevin; Hodge, David R.; Fisher, Debra J.; Pillai, Segaran P.; Morse, Stephen A.; Khan, Erum; Hughes, Molly A.; Allard, Marc W.; Sharma, Shashi K.

    2018-01-01

    The emergence and dissemination of carbapenemases, bacterial enzymes able to inactivate most β-lactam antibiotics, in Enterobacteriaceae is of increasing concern. The concurrent spread of resistance against colistin, an antibiotic of last resort, further compounds this challenge further. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) can play a significant role in the rapid and accurate detection/characterization of existing and emergent resistance determinants, an essential aspect of public health surveillance and response activities to combat the spread of antimicrobial resistant bacteria. In the current study, WGS data was used to characterize the genomic content of antimicrobial resistance genes, including those encoding carbapenemases, in 10 multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from Pakistan. These clinical isolates represented five sequence types: ST11 (n = 3 isolates), ST14 (n = 3), ST15 (n = 1), ST101 (n = 2), and ST307 (n = 1). Resistance profiles against 25 clinically-relevant antimicrobials were determined by broth microdilution; resistant phenotypes were observed for at least 15 of the 25 antibiotics tested in all isolates except one. Specifically, 8/10 isolates were carbapenem-resistant and 7/10 isolates were colistin-resistant. The blaNDM-1 and blaOXA-48 carbapenemase genes were present in 7/10 and 5/10 isolates, respectively; including 2 isolates carrying both genes. No plasmid-mediated determinants for colistin resistance (e.g. mcr) were detected, but disruptions and mutations in chromosomal loci (i.e. mgrB and pmrB) previously reported to confer colistin resistance were observed. A blaOXA-48-carrying IncL/M-type plasmid was found in all blaOXA-48-positive isolates. The application of WGS to molecular epidemiology and surveillance studies, as exemplified here, will provide both a more complete understanding of the global distribution of MDR isolates and a robust surveillance tool useful for detecting emerging threats to public health. PMID:29883490

  6. The Mechanism of Atomization Accompanying Solid Injection

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Castleman, R A , Jr

    1933-01-01

    A brief historical and descriptive account of solid injection is followed by a detailed review of the available theoretical and experimental data that seem to throw light on the mechanism of this form of atomization. It is concluded that this evidence indicates that (1) the atomization accompanying solid injection occurs at the surface of the liquid after it issues as a solid stream from the orifice; and (2) that such atomization has a mechanism physically identical with the atomization which takes place in an air stream, both being due merely to the formation, at the gas-liquid interface, of fine ligaments under the influence of the relative motion of gas and liquid, and to their collapse, under the influence of surface tension, to form the drops in the spray.

  7. Steam thermolysis of tire shreds: modernization in afterburning of accompanying gas with waste steam

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kalitko, V. A.

    2010-03-01

    On the basis of experience in the commercial operation of tire-shred steam thermolysis in EnresTec Inc. (Taiwan) producing high-grade commercial carbon, liquid pyrolysis fuel, and accompanying fuel gas by this method, we have proposed a number of engineering solutions and calculated-analytical substantiations for modernization and intensification of the process by afterburning the accompanying gas with waste steam condensable in the scrubber of water gas cleaning of afterburning products. The condensate is completely freed of the organic pyrolysis impurities and the necessity of separating it from the liquid fuel, as is the case with the active process, is excluded.

  8. Suppression of Ghrelin Exacerbates HFCS-Induced Adiposity and Insulin Resistance

    PubMed Central

    Ma, Xiaojun; Lin, Ligen; Yue, Jing; Wu, Chia-Shan; Guo, Cathy A.; Wang, Ruitao; Yu, Kai-Jiang; Devaraj, Sridevi; Murano, Peter; Chen, Zheng; Sun, Yuxiang

    2017-01-01

    High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is widely used as sweetener in processed foods and soft drinks in the United States, largely substituting sucrose (SUC). The orexigenic hormone ghrelin promotes obesity and insulin resistance; ghrelin responds differently to HFCS and SUC ingestion. Here we investigated the roles of ghrelin in HFCS- and SUC-induced adiposity and insulin resistance. To mimic soft drinks, 10-week-old male wild-type (WT) and ghrelin knockout (Ghrelin−/−) mice were subjected to ad lib. regular chow diet supplemented with either water (RD), 8% HFCS (HFCS), or 10% sucrose (SUC). We found that SUC-feeding induced more robust increases in body weight and body fat than HFCS-feeding. Comparing to SUC-fed mice, HFCS-fed mice showed lower body weight but higher circulating glucose and insulin levels. Interestingly, we also found that ghrelin deletion exacerbates HFCS-induced adiposity and inflammation in adipose tissues, as well as whole-body insulin resistance. Our findings suggest that HFCS and SUC have differential effects on lipid metabolism: while sucrose promotes obesogenesis, HFCS primarily enhances inflammation and insulin resistance, and ghrelin confers protective effects for these metabolic dysfunctions. PMID:28629187

  9. Suppression of Ghrelin Exacerbates HFCS-Induced Adiposity and Insulin Resistance.

    PubMed

    Ma, Xiaojun; Lin, Ligen; Yue, Jing; Wu, Chia-Shan; Guo, Cathy A; Wang, Ruitao; Yu, Kai-Jiang; Devaraj, Sridevi; Murano, Peter; Chen, Zheng; Sun, Yuxiang

    2017-06-19

    High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is widely used as sweetener in processed foods and soft drinks in the United States, largely substituting sucrose (SUC). The orexigenic hormone ghrelin promotes obesity and insulin resistance; ghrelin responds differently to HFCS and SUC ingestion. Here we investigated the roles of ghrelin in HFCS- and SUC-induced adiposity and insulin resistance. To mimic soft drinks, 10-week-old male wild-type (WT) and ghrelin knockout ( Ghrelin -/- ) mice were subjected to ad lib. regular chow diet supplemented with either water (RD), 8% HFCS (HFCS), or 10% sucrose (SUC). We found that SUC-feeding induced more robust increases in body weight and body fat than HFCS-feeding. Comparing to SUC-fed mice, HFCS-fed mice showed lower body weight but higher circulating glucose and insulin levels. Interestingly, we also found that ghrelin deletion exacerbates HFCS-induced adiposity and inflammation in adipose tissues, as well as whole-body insulin resistance. Our findings suggest that HFCS and SUC have differential effects on lipid metabolism: while sucrose promotes obesogenesis, HFCS primarily enhances inflammation and insulin resistance, and ghrelin confers protective effects for these metabolic dysfunctions.

  10. Transportation Infrastructure Robustness : Joint Engineering and Economic Analysis

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2017-11-01

    The objectives of this study are to develop a methodology for assessing the robustness of transportation infrastructure facilities and assess the effect of damage to such facilities on travel demand and the facilities users welfare. The robustness...

  11. A robust uniqueness-and-anonymity-preserving remote user authentication scheme for connected health care.

    PubMed

    Wen, Fengtong

    2013-12-01

    User authentication plays an important role to protect resources or services from being accessed by unauthorized users. In a recent paper, Das et al. proposed a secure and efficient uniqueness-and-anonymity-preserving remote user authentication scheme for connected health care. This scheme uses three factors, e.g. biometrics, password, and smart card, to protect the security. It protects user privacy and is believed to have many abilities to resist a range of network attacks, even if the secret information stored in the smart card is compromised. In this paper, we analyze the security of Das et al.'s scheme, and show that the scheme is in fact insecure against the replay attack, user impersonation attacks and off-line guessing attacks. Then, we also propose a robust uniqueness-and-anonymity-preserving remote user authentication scheme for connected health care. Compared with the existing schemes, our protocol uses a different user authentication mechanism to resist replay attack. We show that our proposed scheme can provide stronger security than previous protocols. Furthermore, we demonstrate the validity of the proposed scheme through the BAN (Burrows, Abadi, and Needham) logic.

  12. Resistive hydrogen sensing element

    DOEpatents

    Lauf, Robert J.

    2000-01-01

    Systems and methods are described for providing a hydrogen sensing element with a more robust exposed metallization by application of a discontinuous or porous overlay to hold the metallization firmly on the substrate. An apparatus includes: a substantially inert, electrically-insulating substrate; a first Pd containing metallization deposited upon the substrate and completely covered by a substantially hydrogen-impermeable layer so as to form a reference resistor on the substrate; a second Pd containing metallization deposited upon the substrate and at least a partially accessible to a gas to be tested, so as to form a hydrogen-sensing resistor; a protective structure disposed upon at least a portion of the second Pd containing metallization and at least a portion of the substrate to improve the attachment of the second Pd containing metallization to the substrate while allowing the gas to contact said the second Pd containing metallization; and a resistance bridge circuit coupled to both the first and second Pd containing metallizations. The circuit determines the difference in electrical resistance between the first and second Pd containing metallizations. The hydrogen concentration in the gas may be determined. The systems and methods provide advantages because adhesion is improved without adversely effecting measurement speed or sensitivity.

  13. Analysis for collapse behavior of resist pattern in short develop time process using atomic force microscope

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sanada, Masakazu; Tamada, Osamu; Ishikawa, Atsushi; Kawai, Akira

    2005-05-01

    Adhesion property of resist is characterized with DPAT (direct peeling with atomic force microscope (AFM) tip) method using 193 nm resist patterns of 180 nm dot shape which were developed for various developing time between 12 and 120 seconds in order to analyze the phenomenon which the short develop time process had led to suppress the pattern collapse. Surface free energy and refractive index of resist film treated with the developing time were also investigated from a thermodynamic point of view. The balance model among surface energy was adopted for analyzing intrusion phenomenon of developer solution into the resist-substrate interface. It can be explained quantitatively that the intrusion energy of developer solution acts to weaken the adhesion strength of resist pattern to the substrate. Furthermore, the intrusion energy became larger with increasing developing time. Analysis with the DPAT method indicates that the pattern collapse occurs accompanied with interface and cohesion destruction. Interface-scientifically speaking, the short develop time process proved to be effective to suppress the pattern collapse because of higher adhesion energy of the resist pattern to the substrate in shorter developing time.

  14. Panaceas, uncertainty, and the robust control framework in sustainability science

    PubMed Central

    Anderies, John M.; Rodriguez, Armando A.; Janssen, Marco A.; Cifdaloz, Oguzhan

    2007-01-01

    A critical challenge faced by sustainability science is to develop strategies to cope with highly uncertain social and ecological dynamics. This article explores the use of the robust control framework toward this end. After briefly outlining the robust control framework, we apply it to the traditional Gordon–Schaefer fishery model to explore fundamental performance–robustness and robustness–vulnerability trade-offs in natural resource management. We find that the classic optimal control policy can be very sensitive to parametric uncertainty. By exploring a large class of alternative strategies, we show that there are no panaceas: even mild robustness properties are difficult to achieve, and increasing robustness to some parameters (e.g., biological parameters) results in decreased robustness with respect to others (e.g., economic parameters). On the basis of this example, we extract some broader themes for better management of resources under uncertainty and for sustainability science in general. Specifically, we focus attention on the importance of a continual learning process and the use of robust control to inform this process. PMID:17881574

  15. Bayesian network analyses of resistance pathways against efavirenz and nevirapine

    PubMed Central

    Deforche, Koen; Camacho, Ricardo J.; Grossman, Zehave; Soares, Marcelo A.; Laethem, Kristel Van; Katzenstein, David A.; Harrigan, P. Richard; Kantor, Rami; Shafer, Robert; Vandamme, Anne-Mieke

    2016-01-01

    Objective To clarify the role of novel mutations selected by treatment with efavirenz or nevirapine, and investigate the influence of HIV-1 subtype on nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (nNRTI) resistance pathways. Design By finding direct dependencies between treatment-selected mutations, the involvement of these mutations as minor or major resistance mutations against efavirenz, nevirapine, or coadministrated nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) is hypothesized. In addition, direct dependencies were investigated between treatment-selected mutations and polymorphisms, some of which are linked with subtype, and between NRTI and nNRTI resistance pathways. Methods Sequences from a large collaborative database of various subtypes were jointly analyzed to detect mutations selected by treatment. Using Bayesian network learning, direct dependencies were investigated between treatment-selected mutations, NRTI and nNRTI treatment history, and known NRTI resistance mutations. Results Several novel minor resistance mutations were found: 28K and 196R (for resistance against efavirenz), 101H and 138Q (nevirapine), and 31L (lamivudine). Robust interactions between NRTI mutations (65R, 74V, 75I/M, and 184V) and nNRTI resistance mutations (100I, 181C, 190E and 230L) may affect resistance development to particular treatment combinations. For example, an interaction between 65R and 181C predicts that the nevirapine and tenofovir and lamivudine/emtricitabine combination should be more prone to failure than efavirenz and tenofovir and lamivudine/emtricitabine. Conclusion Bayesian networks were helpful in untangling the selection of mutations by NRTI versus nNRTI treatment, and in discovering interactions between resistance mutations within and between these two classes of inhibitors. PMID:18832874

  16. Effect of smoothing on robust chaos.

    PubMed

    Deshpande, Amogh; Chen, Qingfei; Wang, Yan; Lai, Ying-Cheng; Do, Younghae

    2010-08-01

    In piecewise-smooth dynamical systems, situations can arise where the asymptotic attractors of the system in an open parameter interval are all chaotic (e.g., no periodic windows). This is the phenomenon of robust chaos. Previous works have established that robust chaos can occur through the mechanism of border-collision bifurcation, where border is the phase-space region where discontinuities in the derivatives of the dynamical equations occur. We investigate the effect of smoothing on robust chaos and find that periodic windows can arise when a small amount of smoothness is present. We introduce a parameter of smoothing and find that the measure of the periodic windows in the parameter space scales linearly with the parameter, regardless of the details of the smoothing function. Numerical support and a heuristic theory are provided to establish the scaling relation. Experimental evidence of periodic windows in a supposedly piecewise linear dynamical system, which has been implemented as an electronic circuit, is also provided.

  17. Robust adaptive vibration control of a flexible structure.

    PubMed

    Khoshnood, A M; Moradi, H M

    2014-07-01

    Different types of L1 adaptive control systems show that using robust theories with adaptive control approaches has produced high performance controllers. In this study, a model reference adaptive control scheme considering robust theories is used to propose a practical control system for vibration suppression of a flexible launch vehicle (FLV). In this method, control input of the system is shaped from the dynamic model of the vehicle and components of the control input are adaptively constructed by estimating the undesirable vibration frequencies. Robust stability of the adaptive vibration control system is guaranteed by using the L1 small gain theorem. Simulation results of the robust adaptive vibration control strategy confirm that the effects of vibration on the vehicle performance considerably decrease without the loss of the phase margin of the system. Copyright © 2014 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Uniting Gradual and Abrupt set Processes in Resistive Switching Oxides

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fleck, Karsten; La Torre, Camilla; Aslam, Nabeel; Hoffmann-Eifert, Susanne; Böttger, Ulrich; Menzel, Stephan

    2016-12-01

    Identifying limiting factors is crucial for a better understanding of the dynamics of the resistive switching phenomenon in transition-metal oxides. This improved understanding is important for the design of fast-switching, energy-efficient, and long-term stable redox-based resistive random-access memory devices. Therefore, this work presents a detailed study of the set kinetics of valence change resistive switches on a time scale from 10 ns to 104 s , taking Pt /SrTiO3/TiN nanocrossbars as a model material. The analysis of the transient currents reveals that the switching process can be subdivided into a linear-degradation process that is followed by a thermal runaway. The comparison with a dynamical electrothermal model of the memory cell allows the deduction of the physical origin of the degradation. The origin is an electric-field-induced increase of the oxygen-vacancy concentration near the Schottky barrier of the Pt /SrTiO3 interface that is accompanied by a steadily rising local temperature due to Joule heating. The positive feedback of the temperature increase on the oxygen-vacancy mobility, and thereby on the conductivity of the filament, leads to a self-acceleration of the set process.

  19. Within-Subject Testing of the Signaled-Reinforcement Effect on Operant Responding as Measured by Response Rate and Resistance to Change

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reed, Phil; Doughty, Adam H.

    2005-01-01

    Response rates under random-interval schedules are lower when a brief (500 ms) signal accompanies reinforcement than when there is no signal. The present study examined this signaled-reinforcement effect and its relation to resistance to change. In Experiment 1, rats responded on a multiple random-interval 60-s random-interval 60-s schedule, with…

  20. 30 CFR 550.245 - What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? 550.245 Section 550.245 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT... Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.245 What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD...

  1. 30 CFR 550.245 - What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? 550.245 Section 550.245 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT... Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.245 What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD...

  2. 30 CFR 550.245 - What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD? 550.245 Section 550.245 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT... Coordination Documents (docd) § 550.245 What hydrogen sulfide (H2S) information must accompany the DPP or DOCD...

  3. The Elicitor Protein AsES Induces a Systemic Acquired Resistance Response Accompanied by Systemic Microbursts and Micro-Hypersensitive Responses in Fragaria ananassa.

    PubMed

    Hael-Conrad, Verónica; Perato, Silvia Marisa; Arias, Marta Eugenia; Martínez-Zamora, Martín Gustavo; Di Peto, Pía de Los Ángeles; Martos, Gustavo Gabriel; Castagnaro, Atilio Pedro; Díaz-Ricci, Juan Carlos; Chalfoun, Nadia Regina

    2018-01-01

    The elicitor AsES (Acremonium strictum elicitor subtilisin) is a 34-kDa subtilisin-like protein secreted by the opportunistic fungus Acremonium strictum. AsES activates innate immunity and confers resistance against anthracnose and gray mold diseases in strawberry plants (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) and the last disease also in Arabidopsis. In the present work, we show that, upon AsES recognition, a cascade of defense responses is activated, including: calcium influx, biphasic oxidative burst (O 2 ⋅- and H 2 O 2 ), hypersensitive cell-death response (HR), accumulation of autofluorescent compounds, cell-wall reinforcement with callose and lignin deposition, salicylic acid accumulation, and expression of defense-related genes, such as FaPR1, FaPG1, FaMYB30, FaRBOH-D, FaRBOH-F, FaCHI23, and FaFLS. All these responses occurred following a spatial and temporal program, first induced in infiltrated leaflets (local acquired resistance), spreading out to untreated lateral leaflets, and later, to distal leaves (systemic acquired resistance). After AsES treatment, macro-HR and macro-oxidative bursts were localized in infiltrated leaflets, while micro-HRs and microbursts occurred later in untreated leaves, being confined to a single cell or a cluster of a few epidermal cells that differentiated from the surrounding ones. The differentiated cells initiated a time-dependent series of physiological and anatomical changes, evolving to idioblasts accumulating H 2 O 2 and autofluorescent compounds that blast, delivering its content into surrounding cells. This kind of systemic cell-death process in plants is described for the first time in response to a single elicitor. All data presented in this study suggest that AsES has the potential to activate a wide spectrum of biochemical and molecular defense responses in F. ananassa that may explain the induced protection toward pathogens of opposite lifestyle, like hemibiotrophic and necrotrophic fungi.

  4. Endothelin-1 exacerbates development of hypertension and atherosclerosis in modest insulin resistant syndrome

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lin, Yan-Jie; Department of Medical Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Juan, Chi-Chang

    Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is known as potent vasoconstrictor, by virtue of its mitogenic effects, and may deteriorate the process of hypertension and atherosclerosis by aggravating hyperplasia and migration in VSMCs. Our previous study demonstrated that insulin infusion caused sequential induction of hyperinsulinemia, hyperendothelinemia, insulin resistance, and then hypertension in rats. However, the underlying mechanism of ET-1 interfere insulin signaling in VSMCs remains unclear. To characterize insulin signaling during modest insulin resistant syndrome, we established and monitored rats by feeding high fructose-diet (HFD) until high blood pressure and modest insulin resistance occurred. To explore the role of ET-1/ET{sub A}R during insulin resistance,more » ET{sub A}R expression, ET-1 binding, and insulin signaling were investigated in the HFD-fed rats and cultured A-10 VSMCs. Results showed that high blood pressure, tunica medial wall thickening, plasma ET-1 and insulin, and accompanied with modest insulin resistance without overweight and hyperglycemia occurred in early-stage HFD-fed rats. In the endothelium-denuded aorta from HFD-fed rats, ET{sub A}R expression, but not ET{sub B}R, and ET-1 binding in aorta were increased. Moreover, decreasing of insulin-induced Akt phosphorylation and increasing of insulin-induced ERK phosphorylation were observed in aorta during modest insulin resistance. Interestingly, in ET-1 pretreated VSMCs, the increment of insulin-induced Akt phosphorylation was decreased whereas the increment of insulin-induced ERK phosphorylation was increased. In addition, insulin potentiated ET-1-induced VSMCs migration and proliferation due to increasing ET-1 binding. ETAR antagonist reversed effects of ET-1 on insulin-induced signaling and VSMCs migration and proliferation. In summary, modest insulin resistance syndrome accompanied with hyperinsulinemia leading to the potentiation on ET-1-induced actions in aortic VSMCs. ET-1 via ET{sub A}R pathway

  5. HCV Genotype 6a Escape From and Resistance to Velpatasvir, Pibrentasvir, and Sofosbuvir in Robust Infectious Cell Culture Models.

    PubMed

    Pham, Long V; Ramirez, Santseharay; Gottwein, Judith M; Fahnøe, Ulrik; Li, Yi-Ping; Pedersen, Jannie; Bukh, Jens

    2018-06-01

    Chronic liver diseases caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 6 are prevalent in Asia, and millions of people require treatment with direct-acting antiviral regimens, such as NS5A inhibitor velpatasvir combined with the NS5B polymerase inhibitor sofosbuvir. We developed infectious cell culture models of HCV genotype 6a infection to study the effects of these inhibitors and the development of resistance. The consensus sequences of strains HK2 (MG717925) and HK6a (MG717928), originating from serum of patients with chronic HCV infection, were determined by Sanger sequencing of genomes amplified by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. In vitro noninfectious full-length clones of these 6a strains were subsequently adapted in Huh7.5 cells, primarily by using substitutions identified in JFH1-based Core-NS5A and Core-NS5B genotype 6a recombinants. We studied the efficacy of NS5A and NS5B inhibitors in concentration-response assays. We examined the effects of long-term culture of Huh7.5 cells incubated with velpatasvir and sofosbuvir singly or combined following infection with passaged full-length HK2 or HK6a recombinant viruses. Resistance-associated substitutions (RAS) were identified by Sanger and next-generation sequencing, and their effects on viral fitness and in drug susceptibility were determined in reverse-genetic experiments. Adapted full-length HCV genotype 6a recombinants HK2cc and HK6acc had fast propagation kinetics and high infectivity titers. Compared with an HCV genotype 1a recombinant, HCV genotype 6a recombinants of strains HK2 and HK6a were equally sensitive to daclatasvir, elbasvir, velpatasvir, pibrentasvir, and sofosbuvir, but less sensitive to ledipasvir, ombitasvir, and dasabuvir. Long-term exposure of HCV genotype 6a-infected Huh7.5 cells with a combination of velpatasvir and sofosbuvir resulted in clearance of the virus, but the virus escaped the effects of single inhibitors via emergence of the RAS L31V in NS5A (conferring

  6. Selectivity and resistance to poisons of commercial hydrogen sensors

    DOE PAGES

    Palmisano, V.; Weidner, E.; Boon-Brett, L.; ...

    2015-03-20

    The resistance of several models of catalytic, workfunction-based metal-oxide-semiconductor and electrochemical hydrogen sensors to chemical contaminants such as SO 2, H 2S, NO 2 and hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDS) has been investigated. These sensor platforms are among the most commonly used for the detection of hydrogen. The evaluation protocols were based on the methods recommended in the ISO 26142:2010 standard. Permanent alteration of the sensor response to the target analyte (H 2) following exposure to potential poisons at the concentrations specified in ISO 26142 was rarely observed. Although a shift in the baseline response was often observed during exposure to the potentialmore » poisons, only in a few cases did this shift persist after removal of the contaminants. Overall, the resistance of the sensors to poisoning was good. However, a change in sensitivity to hydrogen was observed in the electrochemical platform after exposure to NO 2 and for a catalytic sensor during exposure to SO 2. The siloxane resistance test prescribed in ISO 26142, based on exposure to 10 ppm HMDS, may possibly not properly reflect sensor robustness to siloxanes. In conclusion, further evaluation of the resistance of sensors to other Si-based contaminants and other exposure profiles (e.g., concentration, exposure times) is needed.« less

  7. Differential insulin and steroidogenic signaling in insulin resistant and non-insulin resistant human luteinized granulosa cells-A study in PCOS patients.

    PubMed

    Belani, Muskaan; Deo, Abhilash; Shah, Preeti; Banker, Manish; Singal, Pawan; Gupta, Sarita

    2018-04-01

    Insulin resistance (IR) is one of the significant aberrations in polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), however is only observed in 70%-80% of obese PCOS and 20%-25% of lean PCOS. Hyperinsulinemia accompanies PCOS-IR along with hyperandrogenemia against normal insulin and androgen levels in PCOS-non insulin resistance (NIR). This could possibly be due to defects in the downstream signaling pathways. The study thus aims to unravel insulin and steroidogenic signaling pathways in luteinized granulosa cells isolated from PCOS-IR and NIR vs matched controls. Luteinized granulosa cells from 30 controls and 39 PCOS were classified for IR based on a novel method of down regulation of protein expression of insulin receptor-β (INSR- β) as shown in our previous paper. We evaluated expression of molecules involved in insulin, steroidogenic signaling and lipid metabolism in luteinized granulosa cells followed by analysis of estradiol, progesterone and testosterone in follicular fluid. Protein expression of INSR- β, pIRS (ser 307), PI(3)K, PKC-ζ, pAkt, ERK1/2, pP38MAPK and gene expression of IGF showed differential expression in the two groups. Increased protein expression of PPAR-γ was accompanied by up regulation in SREBP1c, FAS, CPT-1 and ACC-1 genes in PCOS-IR group. Expression of StAR, CYP19A1, 17 β- HSD and 3 β- HSD demonstrated significant decrease along with increase in CYP11A1, FSH-R and LH-R in both the groups. Follicular fluid testosterone increased and progesterone decreased in PCOS-IR group. This study shows how candidate molecules that were differentially expressed, aid in designing targeted therapy against the two phenotypes of PCOS. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Influence of aggregate type and chemical admixtures on frost resistance of lightweight mortars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Klimek, Beata; Widomski, Marcin K.; Barnat-Hunek, Danuta

    2017-07-01

    The aim of studies presented in this paper covered analyses of type of lightweight aggregate as well as aeration and hydrophobic admixtures influence on absorbability and frost resistance of heat-insulating mortars applied in the energy-efficient construction. In the presented research, expanded perlite (EP) and expanded clay aggregate (ceramsite) were used as lightweight aggregates. The measurements of the basic mechanical and physical characteristics of tested mortars were performed, including, inter alia, compressive and flexural tensile strength, density, effective (open) and total porosity, absorbability, thermal conductivity as well as frost resistance after 25 cycles of freezing and thawing. Substitution of some part of sand fraction by the lightweight aggregates, expanded clay aggregate or perlite, resulted in changes in physical properties of the tested mortars. The observed decrease in density (specific weight), coefficient of heat transport and strength parameters were simultaneously accompanied by the increase in absorbability. Researches concerning frost resistance of mortars containing ceramsite and perlite showed the improved frost resistance of mortar utilizing perlite. Most of the tested mortars shoved satisfactory frost resistance, only samples of mortar containing ceramsite and aeration admixture were destroyed. The significant influence of aerating admixture on frost resistance of mortars was determined. Hydrophobic siloxanes addition failed to adequately protect the mortars against frost erosion, regardless the type of applied aggregate.

  9. Exchange bias and bistable magneto-resistance states in amorphous TbFeCo thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Li, Xiaopu, E-mail: xl6ba@virginia.edu; Ma, Chung T.; Poon, S. Joseph, E-mail: sjp9x@virginia.edu

    2016-01-04

    Amorphous TbFeCo thin films sputter deposited at room temperature on thermally oxidized Si substrate are found to exhibit strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Atom probe tomography, scanning transmission electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mapping have revealed two nanoscale amorphous phases with different Tb atomic percentages distributed within the amorphous film. Exchange bias accompanied by bistable magneto-resistance states has been uncovered near room temperature by magnetization and magneto-transport measurements. The exchange anisotropy originates from the exchange interaction between the ferrimagnetic and ferromagnetic components corresponding to the two amorphous phases. This study provides a platform for exchange bias and magneto-resistance switchingmore » using single-layer amorphous ferrimagnetic thin films that require no epitaxial growth.« less

  10. FabH Mutations Confer Resistance to FabF-Directed Antibiotics in Staphylococcus aureus

    PubMed Central

    Parsons, Joshua B.; Yao, Jiangwei; Frank, Matthew W.

    2014-01-01

    Delineating the mechanisms for genetically acquired antibiotic resistance is a robust approach to target validation and anticipates the evolution of clinical drug resistance. This study defines a spectrum of mutations in fabH that render Staphylococcus aureus resistant to multiple natural products known to inhibit the elongation condensing enzyme (FabF) of bacterial type II fatty acid synthesis. Twenty independently isolated clones resistant to platensimycin, platencin, or thiolactomycin were isolated. All mutants selected against one antibiotic were cross-resistant to the other two antibiotics. Mutations were not detected in fabF, but the resistant strains harbored missense mutations in fabH. The altered amino acids clustered in and around the FabH active-site tunnel. The mutant FabH proteins were catalytically compromised based on the low activities of the purified enzymes, a fatty acid-dependent growth phenotype, and elevated expression of the fabHF operon in the mutant strains. Independent manipulation of fabF and fabH expression levels showed that the FabH/FabF activity ratio was a major determinant of antibiotic sensitivity. Missense mutations that reduce FabH activity are sufficient to confer resistance to multiple antibiotics that bind to the FabF acyl-enzyme intermediate in S. aureus. PMID:25403676

  11. [Diagnosis and treatment of adipsic diabetes insipidus accompanied with intracranial calcification].

    PubMed

    Hu, Ming-ming; Liu, Min; Liu, Wei

    2013-04-01

    To summarize our experience in the management of adipsic central diabetes insipidus(ADI) accompanied with intracranial calcification. The clinical data of one ADI patient accompanied with intracranial calcification who was treated in our hospital since December 2011 were retrospectively summarized. The 24-hour urine volume was 800 ml. She didn't feel thirsty even with increased plasma sodium concentration(153 mmol/L) and blood osmotic pressure(333 mmol/L) . Combined water deprivation and vasopressin test revealed the diagnosis of central diabetes insipidus. The high intensity signal(on T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging) in the posterior lobe of pituitary gland was found. Computed tomography showed calcifications in the bilateral basal ganglia.Serum cytomegalovirus IgG was positive. She was treated with desmopressin and asked for regular water intake regardless of the adipsia. The plasma sodium concentration was still below 150 mmol/L during the 4-month follow-up. Routine adipsia evaluation and combined water deprivation and vasopressin test are critical for the diagnosis and treatment of ADI. Past insidious intracranial cytomegalovirus infection may explain the cause of ADI and calcification.

  12. A Branched-Chain Amino Acid-Related Metabolic Signature that Differentiates Obese and Lean Humans and Contributes to Insulin Resistance

    PubMed Central

    Newgard, Christopher B; An, Jie; Bain, James R; Muehlbauer, Michael J; Stevens, Robert D; Lien, Lillian F; Haqq, Andrea M; Shah, Svati H.; Arlotto, Michelle; Slentz, Cris A; Rochon, James; Gallup, Dianne; Ilkayeva, Olga; Wenner, Brett R; Yancy, William E; Eisenson, Howard; Musante, Gerald; Surwit, Richard; Millington, David S; Butler, Mark D; Svetkey, Laura P

    2009-01-01

    Summary Metabolomic profiling of obese versus lean humans reveals a branched-chain amino acid (BCAA)-related metabolite signature that is suggestive of increased catabolism of BCAA and correlated with insulin resistance. To test its impact on metabolic homeostasis, we fed rats on high-fat (HF), HF with supplemented BCAA (HF/BCAA) or standard chow (SC) diets. Despite having reduced food intake and weight gain equivalent to the SC group, HF/BCAA rats were equally insulin resistant as HF rats. Pair-feeding of HF diet to match the HF/BCAA animals or BCAA addition to SC diet did not cause insulin resistance. Insulin resistance induced by HF/BCAA feeding was accompanied by chronic phosphorylation of mTOR, JNK, and IRS1(ser307), accumulation of multiple acylcarnitines in muscle, and was reversed by the mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin. Our findings show that in the context of a poor dietary pattern that includes high fat consumption, BCAA contributes to development of obesity-associated insulin resistance. PMID:19356713

  13. Genetic instability of an oligomycin resistance mutation in yeast is associated with an amplification of a mitochondrial DNA segment.

    PubMed Central

    Ragnini, A; Fukuhara, H

    1989-01-01

    In the yeast Kluyveromyces lactis, mutations affecting mitochondrial functions are often highly unstable. In order to understand the basis of this genetic instability, we examined the case of an oligomycin resistant mutant. When the mutant was grown in the absence of the drug, the resistance was rapidly lost. This character showed a typical cytoplasmic inheritance. The unstable resistance was found to be associated with the presence of a repetitive DNA in which the repeating unit was a specific segment of the mitochondrial DNA. The amplified molecules were co-replicating with the wild type genome in the mutant cells. The spontaneous loss of the drug resistance was accompanied by the disappearance of the amplified DNA. The repetitive sequence came from a 405 base-pair segment immediately downstream of a cluster of two transfer RNA genes (threonyl 2 and glutamyl). Modified processing of these tRNAs was detected in the mutant. A possible mechanism by which these events could lead to drug resistance is discussed. Images PMID:2780315

  14. Collusion-Resistant Audio Fingerprinting System in the Modulated Complex Lapped Transform Domain

    PubMed Central

    Garcia-Hernandez, Jose Juan; Feregrino-Uribe, Claudia; Cumplido, Rene

    2013-01-01

    Collusion-resistant fingerprinting paradigm seems to be a practical solution to the piracy problem as it allows media owners to detect any unauthorized copy and trace it back to the dishonest users. Despite the billionaire losses in the music industry, most of the collusion-resistant fingerprinting systems are devoted to digital images and very few to audio signals. In this paper, state-of-the-art collusion-resistant fingerprinting ideas are extended to audio signals and the corresponding parameters and operation conditions are proposed. Moreover, in order to carry out fingerprint detection using just a fraction of the pirate audio clip, block-based embedding and its corresponding detector is proposed. Extensive simulations show the robustness of the proposed system against average collusion attack. Moreover, by using an efficient Fast Fourier Transform core and standard computer machines it is shown that the proposed system is suitable for real-world scenarios. PMID:23762455

  15. Acetic acid fermentation of acetobacter pasteurianus: relationship between acetic acid resistance and pellicle polysaccharide formation.

    PubMed

    Kanchanarach, Watchara; Theeragool, Gunjana; Inoue, Taketo; Yakushi, Toshiharu; Adachi, Osao; Matsushita, Kazunobu

    2010-01-01

    Acetobacter pasteurianus strains IFO3283, SKU1108, and MSU10 were grown under acetic acid fermentation conditions, and their growth behavior was examined together with their capacity for acetic acid resistance and pellicle formation. In the fermentation process, the cells became aggregated and covered by amorphous materials in the late-log and stationary phases, but dispersed again in the second growth phase (due to overoxidation). The morphological change in the cells was accompanied by changes in sugar contents, which might be related to pellicle polysaccharide formation. To determine the relationship between pellicle formation and acetic acid resistance, a pellicle-forming R strain and a non-forming S strain were isolated, and their fermentation ability and acetic acid diffusion activity were compared. The results suggest that pellicle formation is directly related to acetic acid resistance ability, and thus is important to acetic acid fermentation in these A. pasteurianus strains.

  16. Robust estimation for ordinary differential equation models.

    PubMed

    Cao, J; Wang, L; Xu, J

    2011-12-01

    Applied scientists often like to use ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to model complex dynamic processes that arise in biology, engineering, medicine, and many other areas. It is interesting but challenging to estimate ODE parameters from noisy data, especially when the data have some outliers. We propose a robust method to address this problem. The dynamic process is represented with a nonparametric function, which is a linear combination of basis functions. The nonparametric function is estimated by a robust penalized smoothing method. The penalty term is defined with the parametric ODE model, which controls the roughness of the nonparametric function and maintains the fidelity of the nonparametric function to the ODE model. The basis coefficients and ODE parameters are estimated in two nested levels of optimization. The coefficient estimates are treated as an implicit function of ODE parameters, which enables one to derive the analytic gradients for optimization using the implicit function theorem. Simulation studies show that the robust method gives satisfactory estimates for the ODE parameters from noisy data with outliers. The robust method is demonstrated by estimating a predator-prey ODE model from real ecological data. © 2011, The International Biometric Society.

  17. Comparison of robustness to outliers between robust poisson models and log-binomial models when estimating relative risks for common binary outcomes: a simulation study.

    PubMed

    Chen, Wansu; Shi, Jiaxiao; Qian, Lei; Azen, Stanley P

    2014-06-26

    To estimate relative risks or risk ratios for common binary outcomes, the most popular model-based methods are the robust (also known as modified) Poisson and the log-binomial regression. Of the two methods, it is believed that the log-binomial regression yields more efficient estimators because it is maximum likelihood based, while the robust Poisson model may be less affected by outliers. Evidence to support the robustness of robust Poisson models in comparison with log-binomial models is very limited. In this study a simulation was conducted to evaluate the performance of the two methods in several scenarios where outliers existed. The findings indicate that for data coming from a population where the relationship between the outcome and the covariate was in a simple form (e.g. log-linear), the two models yielded comparable biases and mean square errors. However, if the true relationship contained a higher order term, the robust Poisson models consistently outperformed the log-binomial models even when the level of contamination is low. The robust Poisson models are more robust (or less sensitive) to outliers compared to the log-binomial models when estimating relative risks or risk ratios for common binary outcomes. Users should be aware of the limitations when choosing appropriate models to estimate relative risks or risk ratios.

  18. Construction and functional analysis of Trichoderma harzianum mutants that modulate maize resistance to the pathogen Curvularia lunata.

    PubMed

    Fan, Lili; Fu, Kehe; Yu, Chuanjin; Ma, Jia; Li, Yaqian; Chen, Jie

    2014-01-01

    Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) was used to generate an insertional mutant library of the mycelial fungus Trichoderma harzianum. From a total of 450 mutants, six mutants that showed significant influence on maize resistance to C. lunata were analyzed in detail. Maize coated with these mutants was more susceptible to C. lunata compared with those coated with a wild-type (WT) strain. Similar to other fungal ATMT libraries, all six mutants were single copy integrations, which occurred preferentially in noncoding regions (except two mutants) and were frequently accompanied by the loss of border sequences. Two mutants (T66 and T312) that were linked to resistance were characterized further. Maize seeds coated with T66 and T312 were more susceptible to C. lunata than those treated with WT. Moreover, the mutants affected the resistance of maize to C. lunata by enhancing jasmonate-responsive gene expression. T66 and T312 induced maize resistance to C. lunata infection through a jasmonic acid-dependent pathway.

  19. Kinematic characteristics of the stroke and orientation of the hand during front crawl resisted swimming.

    PubMed

    Gourgoulis, Vassilios; Antoniou, Panagiotis; Aggeloussis, Nikolaos; Mavridis, Georgios; Kasimatis, Panagiotis; Vezos, Nikolaos; Boli, Alexia; Mavromatis, Georgios

    2010-09-01

    The aim of this study was to examine the acute effect of front crawl sprint resisted swimming with different added resistances on the kinematic characteristics of the stroke and the orientation of the hand. Ten female swimmers swam four maximal trials (25 m) with small, moderate, large, and no added resistance respectively. Four camcorders were used to record the underwater motion of the right hand and digitizing was undertaken using the Ariel Performance Analysis System. Stroke rate, the stroke length, and mean swimming velocity were significantly decreased, whereas the total duration of the stroke and the relative duration of the pull and push phases were significantly increased during resisted swimming. The increase in the total duration of the stroke was accompanied by an increase in absolute pull length, while no alterations were observed in relative pull length or medial-lateral displacements of the hand. Moreover, the mean resultant velocity of the hand, as well as the pitch and the sweepback angles of the hand were not modified. In conclusion, resisted swimming appears to be a specific form of training, at least regarding its acute effect, although long-term effects should be investigated further.

  20. Revisiting Robustness and Evolvability: Evolution in Weighted Genotype Spaces

    PubMed Central

    Partha, Raghavendran; Raman, Karthik

    2014-01-01

    Robustness and evolvability are highly intertwined properties of biological systems. The relationship between these properties determines how biological systems are able to withstand mutations and show variation in response to them. Computational studies have explored the relationship between these two properties using neutral networks of RNA sequences (genotype) and their secondary structures (phenotype) as a model system. However, these studies have assumed every mutation to a sequence to be equally likely; the differences in the likelihood of the occurrence of various mutations, and the consequence of probabilistic nature of the mutations in such a system have previously been ignored. Associating probabilities to mutations essentially results in the weighting of genotype space. We here perform a comparative analysis of weighted and unweighted neutral networks of RNA sequences, and subsequently explore the relationship between robustness and evolvability. We show that assuming an equal likelihood for all mutations (as in an unweighted network), underestimates robustness and overestimates evolvability of a system. In spite of discarding this assumption, we observe that a negative correlation between sequence (genotype) robustness and sequence evolvability persists, and also that structure (phenotype) robustness promotes structure evolvability, as observed in earlier studies using unweighted networks. We also study the effects of base composition bias on robustness and evolvability. Particularly, we explore the association between robustness and evolvability in a sequence space that is AU-rich – sequences with an AU content of 80% or higher, compared to a normal (unbiased) sequence space. We find that evolvability of both sequences and structures in an AU-rich space is lesser compared to the normal space, and robustness higher. We also observe that AU-rich populations evolving on neutral networks of phenotypes, can access less phenotypic variation compared to

  1. The Behavior of Staphylococcus aureus Dual-Species Biofilms Treated with Bacteriophage phiIPLA-RODI Depends on the Accompanying Microorganism.

    PubMed

    González, Silvia; Fernández, Lucía; Campelo, Ana Belén; Gutiérrez, Diana; Martínez, Beatriz; Rodríguez, Ana; García, Pilar

    2017-02-01

    The use of bacteriophages as antimicrobials against pathogenic bacteria offers a promising alternative to traditional antibiotics and disinfectants. Significantly, phages may help to remove biofilms, which are notoriously resistant to commonly used eradication methods. However, the successful development of novel antibiofilm strategies must take into account that real-life biofilms usually consist of mixed-species populations. Within this context, this study aimed to explore the effectiveness of bacteriophage-based sanitation procedures for removing polymicrobial biofilms from food industry surfaces. We treated dual-species biofilms formed by the food pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus in combination with Lactobacillus plantarum, Enterococcus faecium, or Lactobacillus pentosus with the staphylococcal phage phiIPLA-RODI. Our results suggest that the impact of bacteriophage treatment on S. aureus mixed-species biofilms varies depending on the accompanying species and the infection conditions. For instance, short treatments (4 h) with a phage suspension under nutrient-limiting conditions reduced the number of S. aureus cells in 5-h biofilms by ∼1 log unit without releasing the nonsusceptible species. In contrast, longer infection periods (18 h) with no nutrient limitation increased the killing of S. aureus cells by the phage (decrease of up to 2.9 log units). However, in some cases, these conditions promoted the growth of the accompanying species. For example, the L. plantarum cell count in the treated sample was up to 2.3 log units higher than that in the untreated control. Furthermore, phage propagation inside dual-species biofilms also depended greatly on the accompanying species, with the highest rate detected in biofilms formed by S. aureus-L. pentosus Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) also showed changes in the three-dimensional structures of the mixed-species biofilms after phage treatment. Altogether

  2. The Behavior of Staphylococcus aureus Dual-Species Biofilms Treated with Bacteriophage phiIPLA-RODI Depends on the Accompanying Microorganism

    PubMed Central

    González, Silvia; Fernández, Lucía; Campelo, Ana Belén; Gutiérrez, Diana; Martínez, Beatriz; Rodríguez, Ana

    2016-01-01

    ABSTRACT The use of bacteriophages as antimicrobials against pathogenic bacteria offers a promising alternative to traditional antibiotics and disinfectants. Significantly, phages may help to remove biofilms, which are notoriously resistant to commonly used eradication methods. However, the successful development of novel antibiofilm strategies must take into account that real-life biofilms usually consist of mixed-species populations. Within this context, this study aimed to explore the effectiveness of bacteriophage-based sanitation procedures for removing polymicrobial biofilms from food industry surfaces. We treated dual-species biofilms formed by the food pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus in combination with Lactobacillus plantarum, Enterococcus faecium, or Lactobacillus pentosus with the staphylococcal phage phiIPLA-RODI. Our results suggest that the impact of bacteriophage treatment on S. aureus mixed-species biofilms varies depending on the accompanying species and the infection conditions. For instance, short treatments (4 h) with a phage suspension under nutrient-limiting conditions reduced the number of S. aureus cells in 5-h biofilms by ∼1 log unit without releasing the nonsusceptible species. In contrast, longer infection periods (18 h) with no nutrient limitation increased the killing of S. aureus cells by the phage (decrease of up to 2.9 log units). However, in some cases, these conditions promoted the growth of the accompanying species. For example, the L. plantarum cell count in the treated sample was up to 2.3 log units higher than that in the untreated control. Furthermore, phage propagation inside dual-species biofilms also depended greatly on the accompanying species, with the highest rate detected in biofilms formed by S. aureus-L. pentosus. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) also showed changes in the three-dimensional structures of the mixed-species biofilms after phage treatment

  3. Extraordinary Hall resistance and unconventional magnetoresistance in Pt/LaCoO 3 hybrids

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shang, T.; Zhan, Q. F.; Yang, H. L.; Zuo, Z. H.; Xie, Y. L.; Zhang, Y.; Liu, L. P.; Wang, B. M.; Wu, Y. H.; Zhang, S.; Li, Run-Wei

    2015-10-01

    We report an investigation of transverse Hall resistance and longitudinal resistance on Pt thin films sputtered on epitaxial LaCoO3 (LCO) ferromagnetic insulator films. The LaCoO3 films were deposited on several single crystalline substrates [LaAlO3,(La,Sr)(Al,Ta)O3, and SrTiO3] with (001) orientation. The physical properties of LaCoO3 films were characterized by the measurements of magnetic and transport properties. The LaCoO3 films undergo a paramagnetic to ferromagnetic (FM) transition at Curie temperatures ranging from 40 to 85 K, below which the Pt/LCO hybrids exhibit significant extraordinary Hall resistance up to 50 m Ω and unconventional magnetoresistance ratio Δ ρ /ρ0 about 1.2 ×10-4 , accompanied by the conventional magnetoresistance. The observed spin transport properties share some common features as well as some unique characteristics when compared with well-studied Y3Fe5O12 -based Pt thin films. Our findings call for new theories since the extraordinary Hall resistance and magnetoresistance cannot be consistently explained by the existing theories.

  4. Cyclic oxidation resistance of a reaction milled NiAl-AlN composite

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lowell, Carl E.; Barrett, Charles A.; Whittenberger, J. D.

    1990-01-01

    Based upon recent mechanical property tests a NiAl-AlN composite produced by cryomilling has very attractive high temperature strength. This paper focuses on the oxidation resistance of the NiAl-AlN composite at 1473 and 1573 K as compared to that of Ni-47Al-0.15Zr, one of the most oxidation resistant intermetallics. The results of cyclic oxidation tests show that the NiAl-AlN composite has excellent properties although not quite as good as those of Ni-47Al-0.15Zr. The onset of failure of the NiAl-AlN was unique in that it was not accompanied by a change in scale composition from alumina to less protective oxides. Failure in the composite appears to be related to the entrapment of AlN particles within the alumina scale.

  5. Real-time control systems: feedback, scheduling and robustness

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Simon, Daniel; Seuret, Alexandre; Sename, Olivier

    2017-08-01

    The efficient control of real-time distributed systems, where continuous components are governed through digital devices and communication networks, needs a careful examination of the constraints arising from the different involved domains inside co-design approaches. Thanks to the robustness of feedback control, both new control methodologies and slackened real-time scheduling schemes are proposed beyond the frontiers between these traditionally separated fields. A methodology to design robust aperiodic controllers is provided, where the sampling interval is considered as a control variable of the system. Promising experimental results are provided to show the feasibility and robustness of the approach.

  6. A high-performance, flexible and robust metal nanotrough-embedded transparent conducting film for wearable touch screen panels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Im, Hyeon-Gyun; An, Byeong Wan; Jin, Jungho; Jang, Junho; Park, Young-Geun; Park, Jang-Ung; Bae, Byeong-Soo

    2016-02-01

    We report a high-performance, flexible and robust metal nanotrough-embedded transparent conducting hybrid film (metal nanotrough-GFRHybrimer). Using an electro-spun polymer nanofiber web as a template and vacuum-deposited gold as a conductor, a junction resistance-free continuous metal nanotrough network is formed. Subsequently, the metal nanotrough is embedded on the surface of a glass-fabric reinforced composite substrate (GFRHybrimer). The monolithic composite structure of our transparent conducting film allows simultaneously high thermal stability (24 h at 250 °C in air), a smooth surface topography (Rrms < 1 nm) and excellent opto-electrical properties. A flexible touch screen panel (TSP) is fabricated using the transparent conducting films. The flexible TSP device stably operates on the back of a human hand and on a wristband.We report a high-performance, flexible and robust metal nanotrough-embedded transparent conducting hybrid film (metal nanotrough-GFRHybrimer). Using an electro-spun polymer nanofiber web as a template and vacuum-deposited gold as a conductor, a junction resistance-free continuous metal nanotrough network is formed. Subsequently, the metal nanotrough is embedded on the surface of a glass-fabric reinforced composite substrate (GFRHybrimer). The monolithic composite structure of our transparent conducting film allows simultaneously high thermal stability (24 h at 250 °C in air), a smooth surface topography (Rrms < 1 nm) and excellent opto-electrical properties. A flexible touch screen panel (TSP) is fabricated using the transparent conducting films. The flexible TSP device stably operates on the back of a human hand and on a wristband. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5nr07657a

  7. Robust synthetic biology design: stochastic game theory approach.

    PubMed

    Chen, Bor-Sen; Chang, Chia-Hung; Lee, Hsiao-Ching

    2009-07-15

    Synthetic biology is to engineer artificial biological systems to investigate natural biological phenomena and for a variety of applications. However, the development of synthetic gene networks is still difficult and most newly created gene networks are non-functioning due to uncertain initial conditions and disturbances of extra-cellular environments on the host cell. At present, how to design a robust synthetic gene network to work properly under these uncertain factors is the most important topic of synthetic biology. A robust regulation design is proposed for a stochastic synthetic gene network to achieve the prescribed steady states under these uncertain factors from the minimax regulation perspective. This minimax regulation design problem can be transformed to an equivalent stochastic game problem. Since it is not easy to solve the robust regulation design problem of synthetic gene networks by non-linear stochastic game method directly, the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model is proposed to approximate the non-linear synthetic gene network via the linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique through the Robust Control Toolbox in Matlab. Finally, an in silico example is given to illustrate the design procedure and to confirm the efficiency and efficacy of the proposed robust gene design method. http://www.ee.nthu.edu.tw/bschen/SyntheticBioDesign_supplement.pdf.

  8. Genome-Wide Association of Rice Blast Disease Resistance and Yield-Related Components of Rice.

    PubMed

    Wang, Xueyan; Jia, Melissa H; Ghai, Pooja; Lee, Fleet N; Jia, Yulin

    2015-12-01

    Robust disease resistance may require an expenditure of energy that may limit crop yield potential. In the present study, a subset of a United States Department of Agriculture rice core collection consisting of 151 accessions was selected using a major blast resistance (R) gene, Pi-ta, marker and was genotyped with 156 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Disease reactions to Magnaporthe oryzae, the causal agent of rice blast disease, were evaluated under greenhouse and field conditions, and heading date, plant height, paddy and brown seed weight in two field environments were analyzed, using an association mapping approach. A total of 21 SSR markers distributed among rice chromosomes 2 to 12 were associated with blast resistance, and 16 SSR markers were associated with seed weight, heading date, and plant height. Most noticeably, shorter plants were significantly correlated with resistance to blast, rice genomes with Pi-ta were associated with lighter seed weights, and the susceptible alleles of RM171 and RM6544 were associated with heavier seed weight. These findings unraveled a complex relationship between disease resistance and yield-related components.

  9. Towards a tolerance toolkit: Gene expression signatures enabling the emergence of resistant bacterial strains

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Erickson, Keesha; Chatterjee, Anushree

    2014-03-01

    Microbial pathogens are able to rapidly acquire tolerance to chemical toxins. Developing next-generation antibiotics that impede the emergence of resistance will help avoid a world-wide health crisis. Conversely, the ability to induce rapid tolerance gains could lead to high-yielding strains for sustainable production of biofuels and commodity chemicals. Achieving these goals requires an understanding of the general mechanisms allowing microbes to become resistant to diverse toxins. We apply top-down and bottom-up methodologies to identify biological network changes leading to adaptation and tolerance. Using a top-down approach, we perform evolution experiments to isolate resistant strains, collect samples for transcriptomic and proteomic analysis, and use the omics data to inform mathematical gene regulatory models. Using a bottom-up approach, we build and test synthetic genetic devices that enable increased or decreased expression of selected genes. Unique patterns in gene expression are identified in cultures actively gaining resistance, especially in pathways known to be involved with stress response, efflux, and mutagenesis. Genes correlated with tolerance could potentially allow the design of resistance-free antibiotics or robust chemical production strains.

  10. Robust output tracking control of a laboratory helicopter for automatic landing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Hao; Lu, Geng; Zhong, Yisheng

    2014-11-01

    In this paper, robust output tracking control problem of a laboratory helicopter for automatic landing in high seas is investigated. The motion of the helicopter is required to synchronise with that of an oscillating platform, e.g. the deck of a vessel subject to wave-induced motions. A robust linear time-invariant output feedback controller consisting of a nominal controller and a robust compensator is designed. The robust compensator is introduced to restrain the influences of parametric uncertainties, nonlinearities and external disturbances. It is shown that robust stability and robust tracking property can be achieved simultaneously. Experimental results on the laboratory helicopter for automatic landing demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed control approach.

  11. The non-biphenyl-tetrazole angiotensin AT1 receptor antagonist eprosartan is a unique and robust inverse agonist of the active state of the AT1 receptor.

    PubMed

    Takezako, Takanobu; Unal, Hamiyet; Karnik, Sadashiva S; Node, Koichi

    2018-03-23

    Conditions such as hypertension and renal allograft rejection are accompanied by chronic, agonist-independent, signalling by angiotensin II AT 1 receptors. The current treatment paradigm for these diseases entails the preferred use of inverse agonist AT 1 receptor blockers (ARBs). However, variability in the inverse agonist activities of common biphenyl-tetrazole ARBs for the active state of AT 1 receptors often leads to treatment failure. Therefore, characterization of robust inverse agonist ARBs for the active state of AT 1 receptors is necessary. To identify the robust inverse agonist for active state of AT 1 receptors and its molecular mechanism, we performed site-directed mutagenesis, competition binding assay, inositol phosphate production assay and molecular modelling for both ground-state wild-type AT 1 receptors and active-state N111G mutant AT 1 receptors. Although candesartan and telmisartan exhibited weaker inverse agonist activity for N111G- compared with WT-AT 1 receptors, only eprosartan exhibited robust inverse agonist activity for both N111G- and WT- AT 1 receptors. Specific ligand-receptor contacts for candesartan and telmisartan are altered in the active-state N111G- AT 1 receptors compared with the ground-state WT-AT 1 receptors, suggesting an explanation of their attenuated inverse agonist activity for the active state of AT 1 receptors. In contrast, interactions between eprosartan and N111G-AT 1 receptors were not significantly altered, and the inverse agonist activity of eprosartan was robust. Eprosartan may be a better therapeutic option than other ARBs. Comparative studies investigating eprosartan and other ARBs for the treatment of diseases caused by chronic, agonist-independent, AT 1 receptor activation are warranted. © 2018 The British Pharmacological Society.

  12. Preparation of Polyurethane/Graphite Composite Films with Stable Mechanical Property and Wear Resistance Underwater.

    PubMed

    Wang, Miaomiao; Wang, Zubin; Chen, Qirong; Meng, Xiangfu; Heng, Liping

    2018-06-01

    The wear resistance and stable mechanical properties affect the service life of the underwater functional materials to a certain extent. Unfortunately, the current study of underwater functional materials is rarely related to these aspects. Herein, we successfully designed and prepared polyurethane/graphite nanosheet (PU/GN) composite materials, which exhibited excellent wear resistance and stable mechanical properties underwater. The PU/GN composite films were prepared by evaporating a mixed solution of PU and GN on concave hexagonal honeycomb silicon templates. The mechanical properties of the composite films were determined by tensile test, and the wear resistance was evaluated by comparing the surface morphology before and after grind. By adjusting the content of graphite in the composite films, we found that the composite films containing 23 wt% GN had higher tensile strength and superior wear resistance. Moreover, this composite film showed an outstanding stability when expose to water. The impressive results along with simple preparation process made PU/GN composite films had potential applications in robust underwater functional materials.

  13. Influence of deep cryogenic treatment on structure and wear resistance of materials of hydraulic breaker chisels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bolobov, V. I.; BinhLe, Thanh

    2018-03-01

    It is shown that shallow cryogenic treatment at -75°C (SCT) of the materials of hydraulic breaker chisels - P20, 1080 and D2 steels leads to a decrease (44 ÷ 82%) in the amount of retained austenite and an increase (26 ÷ 99%) in the amount of carbides in the structure of hardened steel, which is accompanied by an increase in its hardness (1.4 ÷ 2.1%) and abrasive wear resistance (10 ÷ 31%) with a simultaneous decrease in impact toughness (19 ÷ 24%). Deep cryogenic treatment at -196°C (DCT) and subsequent low-temperature tempering of D2 steel leads to a significant increase in its wear resistance (98%) and impact toughness (32%).

  14. Novel Digital Features Discriminate Between Drought Resistant and Drought Sensitive Rice Under Controlled and Field Conditions.

    PubMed

    Duan, Lingfeng; Han, Jiwan; Guo, Zilong; Tu, Haifu; Yang, Peng; Zhang, Dong; Fan, Yuan; Chen, Guoxing; Xiong, Lizhong; Dai, Mingqiu; Williams, Kevin; Corke, Fiona; Doonan, John H; Yang, Wanneng

    2018-01-01

    Dynamic quantification of drought response is a key issue both for variety selection and for functional genetic study of rice drought resistance. Traditional assessment of drought resistance traits, such as stay-green and leaf-rolling, has utilized manual measurements, that are often subjective, error-prone, poorly quantified and time consuming. To relieve this phenotyping bottleneck, we demonstrate a feasible, robust and non-destructive method that dynamically quantifies response to drought, under both controlled and field conditions. Firstly, RGB images of individual rice plants at different growth points were analyzed to derive 4 features that were influenced by imposition of drought. These include a feature related to the ability to stay green, which we termed greenness plant area ratio (GPAR) and 3 shape descriptors [total plant area/bounding rectangle area ratio (TBR), perimeter area ratio (PAR) and total plant area/convex hull area ratio (TCR)]. Experiments showed that these 4 features were capable of discriminating reliably between drought resistant and drought sensitive accessions, and dynamically quantifying the drought response under controlled conditions across time (at either daily or half hourly time intervals). We compared the 3 shape descriptors and concluded that PAR was more robust and sensitive to leaf-rolling than the other shape descriptors. In addition, PAR and GPAR proved to be effective in quantification of drought response in the field. Moreover, the values obtained in field experiments using the collection of rice varieties were correlated with those derived from pot-based experiments. The general applicability of the algorithms is demonstrated by their ability to probe archival Miscanthus data previously collected on an independent platform. In conclusion, this image-based technology is robust providing a platform-independent tool for quantifying drought response that should be of general utility for breeding and functional genomics in

  15. Robust motion artefact resistant circuit for calculation of Mean Arterial Pressure from pulse transit time.

    PubMed

    Bhattacharya, Tinish; Gupta, Ankesh; Singh, Salam ThoiThoi; Roy, Sitikantha; Prasad, Anamika

    2017-07-01

    Cuff-less and non-invasive methods of Blood Pressure (BP) monitoring have faced a lot of challenges like stability, noise, motion artefact and requirement for calibration. These factors are the major reasons why such devices do not get approval from the medical community easily. One such method is calculating Blood Pressure indirectly from pulse transit time (PTT) obtained from electrocardiogram (ECG) and Photoplethysmogram (PPG). In this paper we have proposed two novel analog signal conditioning circuits for ECG and PPG that increase stability, remove motion artefacts, remove the sinusoidal wavering of the ECG baseline due to respiration and provide consistent digital pulses corresponding to blood pulses/heart-beat. We have combined these two systems to obtain the PTT and then correlated it with the Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP). The aim was to perform major part of the processing in analog domain to decrease processing load over microcontroller so as to reduce cost and make it simple and robust. We have found from our experiments that the proposed circuits can calculate the Heart Rate (HR) with a maximum error of ~3.0% and MAP with a maximum error of ~2.4% at rest and ~4.6% in motion.

  16. Robust design of microchannel cooler

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    He, Ye; Yang, Tao; Hu, Li; Li, Leimin

    2005-12-01

    Microchannel cooler has offered a new method for the cooling of high power diode lasers, with the advantages of small volume, high efficiency of thermal dissipation and low cost when mass-produced. In order to reduce the sensitivity of design to manufacture errors or other disturbances, Taguchi method that is one of robust design method was chosen to optimize three parameters important to the cooling performance of roof-like microchannel cooler. The hydromechanical and thermal mathematical model of varying section microchannel was calculated using finite volume method by FLUENT. A special program was written to realize the automation of the design process for improving efficiency. The optimal design is presented which compromises between optimal cooling performance and its robustness. This design method proves to be available.

  17. Parallax-Robust Surveillance Video Stitching

    PubMed Central

    He, Botao; Yu, Shaohua

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents a parallax-robust video stitching technique for timely synchronized surveillance video. An efficient two-stage video stitching procedure is proposed in this paper to build wide Field-of-View (FOV) videos for surveillance applications. In the stitching model calculation stage, we develop a layered warping algorithm to align the background scenes, which is location-dependent and turned out to be more robust to parallax than the traditional global projective warping methods. On the selective seam updating stage, we propose a change-detection based optimal seam selection approach to avert ghosting and artifacts caused by moving foregrounds. Experimental results demonstrate that our procedure can efficiently stitch multi-view videos into a wide FOV video output without ghosting and noticeable seams. PMID:26712756

  18. GPS baseline configuration design based on robustness analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yetkin, M.; Berber, M.

    2012-11-01

    The robustness analysis results obtained from a Global Positioning System (GPS) network are dramatically influenced by the configurationof the observed baselines. The selection of optimal GPS baselines may allow for a cost effective survey campaign and a sufficiently robustnetwork. Furthermore, using the approach described in this paper, the required number of sessions, the baselines to be observed, and thesignificance levels for statistical testing and robustness analysis can be determined even before the GPS campaign starts. In this study, wepropose a robustness criterion for the optimal design of geodetic networks, and present a very simple and efficient algorithm based on thiscriterion for the selection of optimal GPS baselines. We also show the relationship between the number of sessions and the non-centralityparameter. Finally, a numerical example is given to verify the efficacy of the proposed approach.

  19. Activation of HER family signaling as a mechanism of acquired resistance to ALK inhibitors in EML4-ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer.

    PubMed

    Tanizaki, Junko; Okamoto, Isamu; Okabe, Takafumi; Sakai, Kazuko; Tanaka, Kaoru; Hayashi, Hidetoshi; Kaneda, Hiroyasu; Takezawa, Ken; Kuwata, Kiyoko; Yamaguchi, Haruka; Hatashita, Erina; Nishio, Kazuto; Nakagawa, Kazuhiko

    2012-11-15

    Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) such as crizotinib show marked efficacy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer positive for the echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4)-ALK fusion protein. However, acquired resistance to these agents has already been described in treated patients, and the mechanisms of such resistance remain largely unknown. We established lines of EML4-ALK-positive H3122 lung cancer cells that are resistant to the ALK inhibitor TAE684 (H3122/TR cells) and investigated their resistance mechanism with the use of immunoblot analysis, ELISA, reverse transcription and real-time PCR analysis, and an annexin V binding assay. We isolated EML4-ALK-positive lung cancer cells (K-3) from a patient who developed resistance to crizotinib and investigated their characteristics. The expression of EML4-ALK was reduced at the transcriptional level, whereas phosphorylation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), HER2, and HER3 was upregulated, in H3122/TR cells compared with those in H3122 cells. This activation of HER family proteins was accompanied by increased secretion of EGF. Treatment with an EGFR-TKI induced apoptosis in H3122/TR cells, but not in H3122 cells. The TAE684-induced inhibition of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and STAT3 phosphorylation observed in parental cells was prevented by exposure of these cells to exogenous EGF, resulting in a reduced sensitivity of cell growth to TAE684. K-3 cells also manifested HER family activation accompanied by increased EGF secretion. EGF-mediated activation of HER family signaling is associated with ALK-TKI resistance in lung cancer positive for EML4-ALK. ©2012 AACR.

  20. On the contributions of topological features to transcriptional regulatory network robustness

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background Because biological networks exhibit a high-degree of robustness, a systemic understanding of their architecture and function requires an appraisal of the network design principles that confer robustness. In this project, we conduct a computational study of the contribution of three degree-based topological properties (transcription factor-target ratio, degree distribution, cross-talk suppression) and their combinations on the robustness of transcriptional regulatory networks. We seek to quantify the relative degree of robustness conferred by each property (and combination) and also to determine the extent to which these properties alone can explain the robustness observed in transcriptional networks. Results To study individual properties and their combinations, we generated synthetic, random networks that retained one or more of the three properties with values derived from either the yeast or E. coli gene regulatory networks. Robustness of these networks were estimated through simulation. Our results indicate that the combination of the three properties we considered explains the majority of the structural robustness observed in the real transcriptional networks. Surprisingly, scale-free degree distribution is, overall, a minor contributor to robustness. Instead, most robustness is gained through topological features that limit the complexity of the overall network and increase the transcription factor subnetwork sparsity. Conclusions Our work demonstrates that (i) different types of robustness are implemented by different topological aspects of the network and (ii) size and sparsity of the transcription factor subnetwork play an important role for robustness induction. Our results are conserved across yeast and E Coli, which suggests that the design principles examined are present within an array of living systems. PMID:23194062