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Sample records for overlapping signal sequences

  1. Overlapping genomic sequences: a treasure trove of single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taillon-Miller, P; Gu, Z; Li, Q; Hillier, L; Kwok, P Y

    1998-07-01

    An efficient strategy to develop a dense set of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers is to take advantage of the human genome sequencing effort currently under way. Our approach is based on the fact that bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) and P1-based artificial chromosomes (PACs) used in long-range sequencing projects come from diploid libraries. If the overlapping clones sequenced are from different lineages, one is comparing the sequences from 2 homologous chromosomes in the overlapping region. We have analyzed in detail every SNP identified while sequencing three sets of overlapping clones found on chromosome 5p15.2, 7q21-7q22, and 13q12-13q13. In the 200.6 kb of DNA sequence analyzed in these overlaps, 153 SNPs were identified. Computer analysis for repetitive elements and suitability for STS development yielded 44 STSs containing 68 SNPs for further study. All 68 SNPs were confirmed to be present in at least one of the three (Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic) populations studied. Furthermore, 42 of the SNPs tested (62%) were informative in at least one population, 32 (47%) were informative in two or more populations, and 23 (34%) were informative in all three populations. These results clearly indicate that developing SNP markers from overlapping genomic sequence is highly efficient and cost effective, requiring only the two simple steps of developing STSs around the known SNPs and characterizing them in the appropriate populations.

  2. Overlapping Genomic Sequences: A Treasure Trove of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taillon-Miller, Patricia; Gu, Zhijie; Li, Qun; Hillier, LaDeana; Kwok, Pui-Yan

    1998-01-01

    An efficient strategy to develop a dense set of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers is to take advantage of the human genome sequencing effort currently under way. Our approach is based on the fact that bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) and P1-based artificial chromosomes (PACs) used in long-range sequencing projects come from diploid libraries. If the overlapping clones sequenced are from different lineages, one is comparing the sequences from 2 homologous chromosomes in the overlapping region. We have analyzed in detail every SNP identified while sequencing three sets of overlapping clones found on chromosome 5p15.2, 7q21–7q22, and 13q12–13q13. In the 200.6 kb of DNA sequence analyzed in these overlaps, 153 SNPs were identified. Computer analysis for repetitive elements and suitability for STS development yielded 44 STSs containing 68 SNPs for further study. All 68 SNPs were confirmed to be present in at least one of the three (Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic) populations studied. Furthermore, 42 of the SNPs tested (62%) were informative in at least one population, 32 (47%) were informative in two or more populations, and 23 (34%) were informative in all three populations. These results clearly indicate that developing SNP markers from overlapping genomic sequence is highly efficient and cost effective, requiring only the two simple steps of developing STSs around the known SNPs and characterizing them in the appropriate populations. [The sequence data described in this paper have been submitted to the GenBank data library under accession nos. AC003015 (for GS113423), AC002380 (GS330J10), AC000066 (RG293F11), AC003086 (RG104F04), AC002525 (257C22A), and U73331 (96A18A).] PMID:9685323

  3. Spreadsheet-based program for alignment of overlapping DNA sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anbazhagan, R; Gabrielson, E

    1999-06-01

    Molecular biology laboratories frequently face the challenge of aligning small overlapping DNA sequences derived from a long DNA segment. Here, we present a short program that can be used to adapt Excel spreadsheets as a tool for aligning DNA sequences, regardless of their orientation. The program runs on any Windows or Macintosh operating system computer with Excel 97 or Excel 98. The program is available for use as an Excel file, which can be downloaded from the BioTechniques Web site. Upon execution, the program opens a specially designed customized workbook and is capable of identifying overlapping regions between two sequence fragments and displaying the sequence alignment. It also performs a number of specialized functions such as recognition of restriction enzyme cutting sites and CpG island mapping without costly specialized software.

  4. Latin Square Thue-Morse Sequences are Overlap-Free

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    Christopher Robinson Tompkins

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available We define a morphism based upon a Latin square that generalizes the Thue-Morse morphism. We prove that fixed points of this morphism are overlap-free sequences, generalizing results of Allouche - Shallit and Frid.

  5. New tools to analyze overlapping coding regions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bayegan, Amir H; Garcia-Martin, Juan Antonio; Clote, Peter

    2016-12-13

    Retroviruses transcribe messenger RNA for the overlapping Gag and Gag-Pol polyproteins, by using a programmed -1 ribosomal frameshift which requires a slippery sequence and an immediate downstream stem-loop secondary structure, together called frameshift stimulating signal (FSS). It follows that the molecular evolution of this genomic region of HIV-1 is highly constrained, since the retroviral genome must contain a slippery sequence (sequence constraint), code appropriate peptides in reading frames 0 and 1 (coding requirements), and form a thermodynamically stable stem-loop secondary structure (structure requirement). We describe a unique computational tool, RNAsampleCDS, designed to compute the number of RNA sequences that code two (or more) peptides p,q in overlapping reading frames, that are identical (or have BLOSUM/PAM similarity that exceeds a user-specified value) to the input peptides p,q. RNAsampleCDS then samples a user-specified number of messenger RNAs that code such peptides; alternatively, RNAsampleCDS can exactly compute the position-specific scoring matrix and codon usage bias for all such RNA sequences. Our software allows the user to stipulate overlapping coding requirements for all 6 possible reading frames simultaneously, even allowing IUPAC constraints on RNA sequences and fixing GC-content. We generalize the notion of codon preference index (CPI) to overlapping reading frames, and use RNAsampleCDS to generate control sequences required in the computation of CPI. Moreover, by applying RNAsampleCDS, we are able to quantify the extent to which the overlapping coding requirement in HIV-1 [resp. HCV] contribute to the formation of the stem-loop [resp. double stem-loop] secondary structure known as the frameshift stimulating signal. Using our software, we confirm that certain experimentally determined deleterious HCV mutations occur in positions for which our software RNAsampleCDS and RNAiFold both indicate a single possible nucleotide. We

  6. An accurate clone-based haplotyping method by overlapping pool sequencing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Cheng; Cao, Changchang; Tu, Jing; Sun, Xiao

    2016-07-08

    Chromosome-long haplotyping of human genomes is important to identify genetic variants with differing gene expression, in human evolution studies, clinical diagnosis, and other biological and medical fields. Although several methods have realized haplotyping based on sequencing technologies or population statistics, accuracy and cost are factors that prohibit their wide use. Borrowing ideas from group testing theories, we proposed a clone-based haplotyping method by overlapping pool sequencing. The clones from a single individual were pooled combinatorially and then sequenced. According to the distinct pooling pattern for each clone in the overlapping pool sequencing, alleles for the recovered variants could be assigned to their original clones precisely. Subsequently, the clone sequences could be reconstructed by linking these alleles accordingly and assembling them into haplotypes with high accuracy. To verify the utility of our method, we constructed 130 110 clones in silico for the individual NA12878 and simulated the pooling and sequencing process. Ultimately, 99.9% of variants on chromosome 1 that were covered by clones from both parental chromosomes were recovered correctly, and 112 haplotype contigs were assembled with an N50 length of 3.4 Mb and no switch errors. A comparison with current clone-based haplotyping methods indicated our method was more accurate. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

  7. Recovery of Spectrally Overlapping QPSK Signals Using a Nonlinear Optoelectronic Filter

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-03-19

    J. D. McKinney, and K. J. Williams, “An optical technique for radio frequency interference mitigation,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 27 (2015). [3...systems that could exploit the ability to send and detect information covertly hidden beneath a strategically placed interferer , as well as, (2...large-signal interferer having an overlapping or nearby spectrum that is not only located in close frequency proximity to the desired signal but is

  8. Extracting protein dynamics information from overlapped NMR signals using relaxation dispersion difference NMR spectroscopy.

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    Konuma, Tsuyoshi; Harada, Erisa; Sugase, Kenji

    2015-12-01

    Protein dynamics plays important roles in many biological events, such as ligand binding and enzyme reactions. NMR is mostly used for investigating such protein dynamics in a site-specific manner. Recently, NMR has been actively applied to large proteins and intrinsically disordered proteins, which are attractive research targets. However, signal overlap, which is often observed for such proteins, hampers accurate analysis of NMR data. In this study, we have developed a new methodology called relaxation dispersion difference that can extract conformational exchange parameters from overlapped NMR signals measured using relaxation dispersion spectroscopy. In relaxation dispersion measurements, the signal intensities of fluctuating residues vary according to the Carr-Purcell-Meiboon-Gill pulsing interval, whereas those of non-fluctuating residues are constant. Therefore, subtraction of each relaxation dispersion spectrum from that with the highest signal intensities, measured at the shortest pulsing interval, leaves only the signals of the fluctuating residues. This is the principle of the relaxation dispersion difference method. This new method enabled us to extract exchange parameters from overlapped signals of heme oxygenase-1, which is a relatively large protein. The results indicate that the structural flexibility of a kink in the heme-binding site is important for efficient heme binding. Relaxation dispersion difference requires neither selectively labeled samples nor modification of pulse programs; thus it will have wide applications in protein dynamics analysis.

  9. Extracting protein dynamics information from overlapped NMR signals using relaxation dispersion difference NMR spectroscopy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Konuma, Tsuyoshi [Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Department of Structural and Chemical Biology (United States); Harada, Erisa [Suntory Foundation for Life Sciences, Bioorganic Research Institute (Japan); Sugase, Kenji, E-mail: sugase@sunbor.or.jp, E-mail: sugase@moleng.kyoto-u.ac.jp [Kyoto University, Department of Molecular Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering (Japan)

    2015-12-15

    Protein dynamics plays important roles in many biological events, such as ligand binding and enzyme reactions. NMR is mostly used for investigating such protein dynamics in a site-specific manner. Recently, NMR has been actively applied to large proteins and intrinsically disordered proteins, which are attractive research targets. However, signal overlap, which is often observed for such proteins, hampers accurate analysis of NMR data. In this study, we have developed a new methodology called relaxation dispersion difference that can extract conformational exchange parameters from overlapped NMR signals measured using relaxation dispersion spectroscopy. In relaxation dispersion measurements, the signal intensities of fluctuating residues vary according to the Carr-Purcell-Meiboon-Gill pulsing interval, whereas those of non-fluctuating residues are constant. Therefore, subtraction of each relaxation dispersion spectrum from that with the highest signal intensities, measured at the shortest pulsing interval, leaves only the signals of the fluctuating residues. This is the principle of the relaxation dispersion difference method. This new method enabled us to extract exchange parameters from overlapped signals of heme oxygenase-1, which is a relatively large protein. The results indicate that the structural flexibility of a kink in the heme-binding site is important for efficient heme binding. Relaxation dispersion difference requires neither selectively labeled samples nor modification of pulse programs; thus it will have wide applications in protein dynamics analysis.

  10. Interference-free acquisition of overlapping sequences in explicit spatial memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eggert, Thomas; Drever, Johannes; Straube, Andreas

    2014-04-01

    Some types of human sequential memory, e.g. the acquisition of a new composition by a trained musician, seem to be very efficient in extending the length of a memorized sequence and in flexible reuse of known subsequences in a newly acquired sequential context. This implies that interference between known and newly acquired subsequences can be avoided even when learning a sequence which is a partial mutation of a known sequence. It is known that established motor sequences do not have such flexibility. Using learning of deferred imitation, the current study investigates the flexibility of explicit spatial memory by quantifying the interferences between successively acquired, partially overlapping sequences. After learning a spatial sequence on day 1, this sequence was progressively modified on day 2. On day 3, a retention test was performed with both the initial and the modified sequence. The results show that subjects performed very well on day 1 and day 2. No spatial interference between changed and unchanged targets was observed during the stepwise progressive modification of the reproduced sequence. Surprisingly, subjects performed well on both sequences on day 3. Comparison with a control experiment without intermediate mutation training showed that the initial training on day 1 did not proactively interfere with the retention of the modified sequence on day 3. Vice versa, the mutation training on day 2 did not interfere retroactively with the retention of the original sequence as tested on day 3. The results underline the flexibility in acquiring explicit spatial memory. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. PairWise Neighbours database: overlaps and spacers among prokaryote genomes

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    Garcia-Vallvé Santiago

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Although prokaryotes live in a variety of habitats and possess different metabolic and genomic complexity, they have several genomic architectural features in common. The overlapping genes are a common feature of the prokaryote genomes. The overlapping lengths tend to be short because as the overlaps become longer they have more risk of deleterious mutations. The spacers between genes tend to be short too because of the tendency to reduce the non coding DNA among prokaryotes. However they must be long enough to maintain essential regulatory signals such as the Shine-Dalgarno (SD sequence, which is responsible of an efficient translation. Description PairWise Neighbours is an interactive and intuitive database used for retrieving information about the spacers and overlapping genes among bacterial and archaeal genomes. It contains 1,956,294 gene pairs from 678 fully sequenced prokaryote genomes and is freely available at the URL http://genomes.urv.cat/pwneigh. This database provides information about the overlaps and their conservation across species. Furthermore, it allows the wide analysis of the intergenic regions providing useful information such as the location and strength of the SD sequence. Conclusion There are experiments and bioinformatic analysis that rely on correct annotations of the initiation site. Therefore, a database that studies the overlaps and spacers among prokaryotes appears to be desirable. PairWise Neighbours database permits the reliability analysis of the overlapping structures and the study of the SD presence and location among the adjacent genes, which may help to check the annotation of the initiation sites.

  12. Optimal structural inference of signaling pathways from unordered and overlapping gene sets.

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    Acharya, Lipi R; Judeh, Thair; Wang, Guangdi; Zhu, Dongxiao

    2012-02-15

    A plethora of bioinformatics analysis has led to the discovery of numerous gene sets, which can be interpreted as discrete measurements emitted from latent signaling pathways. Their potential to infer signaling pathway structures, however, has not been sufficiently exploited. Existing methods accommodating discrete data do not explicitly consider signal cascading mechanisms that characterize a signaling pathway. Novel computational methods are thus needed to fully utilize gene sets and broaden the scope from focusing only on pairwise interactions to the more general cascading events in the inference of signaling pathway structures. We propose a gene set based simulated annealing (SA) algorithm for the reconstruction of signaling pathway structures. A signaling pathway structure is a directed graph containing up to a few hundred nodes and many overlapping signal cascades, where each cascade represents a chain of molecular interactions from the cell surface to the nucleus. Gene sets in our context refer to discrete sets of genes participating in signal cascades, the basic building blocks of a signaling pathway, with no prior information about gene orderings in the cascades. From a compendium of gene sets related to a pathway, SA aims to search for signal cascades that characterize the optimal signaling pathway structure. In the search process, the extent of overlap among signal cascades is used to measure the optimality of a structure. Throughout, we treat gene sets as random samples from a first-order Markov chain model. We evaluated the performance of SA in three case studies. In the first study conducted on 83 KEGG pathways, SA demonstrated a significantly better performance than Bayesian network methods. Since both SA and Bayesian network methods accommodate discrete data, use a 'search and score' network learning strategy and output a directed network, they can be compared in terms of performance and computational time. In the second study, we compared SA and

  13. Practical multipeptide synthesis: dedicated software for the definition of multiple, overlapping peptides covering polypeptide sequences.

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    Heegaard, P M; Holm, A; Hagerup, M

    1993-01-01

    A personal computer program for the conversion of linear amino acid sequences to multiple, small, overlapping peptide sequences has been developed. Peptide lengths and "jumps" (the distance between two consecutive overlapping peptides) are defined by the user. To facilitate the use of the program for parallel solid-phase chemical peptide syntheses for the synchronous production of multiple peptides, amino acids at each acylation step are laid out by the program in a convenient standard multi-well setup. Also, the total number of equivalents, as well as the derived amount in milligrams (depend-ending on user-defined equivalent weights and molar surplus), of each amino acid are given. The program facilitates the implementation of multipeptide synthesis, e.g., for the elucidation of polypeptide structure-function relationships, and greatly reduces the risk of introducing mistakes at the planning step. It is written in Pascal and runs on any DOS-based personal computer. No special graphic display is needed.

  14. PN Sequence Preestimator Scheme for DS-SS Signal Acquisition Using Block Sequence Estimation

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    Sang Kyu Park

    2005-03-01

    Full Text Available An m-sequence (PN sequence preestimator scheme for direct-sequence spread spectrum (DS-SS signal acquisition by using block sequence estimation (BSE is proposed and analyzed. The proposed scheme consists of an estimator and a verifier which work according to the PN sequence chip clock, and provides not only the enhanced chip estimates with a threshold decision logic and one-chip error correction among the first m received chips, but also the reliability check of the estimates with additional decision logic. The probabilities of the estimator and verifier operations are calculated. With these results, the detection, the false alarm, and the missing probabilities of the proposed scheme are derived. In addition, using a signal flow graph, the average acquisition time is calculated. The proposed scheme can be used as a preestimator and easily implemented by changing the internal signal path of a generally used digital matched filter (DMF correlator or any other correlator that has a lot of sampling data memories for sampled PN sequence. The numerical results show rapid acquisition performance in a relatively good CNR.

  15. Dynamic mesolimbic dopamine signaling during action sequence learning and expectation violation

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    Collins, Anne L.; Greenfield, Venuz Y.; Bye, Jeffrey K.; Linker, Kay E.; Wang, Alice S.; Wassum, Kate M.

    2016-01-01

    Prolonged mesolimbic dopamine concentration changes have been detected during spatial navigation, but little is known about the conditions that engender this signaling profile or how it develops with learning. To address this, we monitored dopamine concentration changes in the nucleus accumbens core of rats throughout acquisition and performance of an instrumental action sequence task. Prolonged dopamine concentration changes were detected that ramped up as rats executed each action sequence and declined after earned reward collection. With learning, dopamine concentration began to rise increasingly earlier in the execution of the sequence and ultimately backpropagated away from stereotyped sequence actions, becoming only transiently elevated by the most distal and unexpected reward predictor. Action sequence-related dopamine signaling was reactivated in well-trained rats if they became disengaged in the task and in response to an unexpected change in the value, but not identity of the earned reward. Throughout training and test, dopamine signaling correlated with sequence performance. These results suggest that action sequences can engender a prolonged mode of dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens core and that such signaling relates to elements of the motivation underlying sequence execution and is dynamic with learning, overtraining and violations in reward expectation. PMID:26869075

  16. Birth and death of gene overlaps in vertebrates

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    Makałowska Izabela

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Between five and fourteen per cent of genes in the vertebrate genomes do overlap sharing some intronic and/or exonic sequence. It was observed that majority of these overlaps are not conserved among vertebrate lineages. Although several mechanisms have been proposed to explain gene overlap origination the evolutionary basis of these phenomenon are still not well understood. Here, we present results of the comparative analysis of several vertebrate genomes. The purpose of this study was to examine overlapping genes in the context of their evolution and mechanisms leading to their origin. Results Based on the presence and arrangement of human overlapping genes orthologs in rodent and fish genomes we developed 15 theoretical scenarios of overlapping genes evolution. Analysis of these theoretical scenarios and close examination of genomic sequences revealed new mechanisms leading to the overlaps evolution and confirmed that many of the vertebrate gene overlaps are not conserved. This study also demonstrates that repetitive elements contribute to the overlapping genes origination and, for the first time, that evolutionary events could lead to the loss of an ancient overlap. Conclusion Birth as well as most probably death of gene overlaps occurred over the entire time of vertebrate evolution and there wasn't any rapid origin or 'big bang' in the course of overlapping genes evolution. The major forces in the gene overlaps origination are transposition and exaptation. Our results also imply that origin of overlapping genes is not an issue of saving space and contracting genomes size.

  17. Uniform, optimal signal processing of mapped deep-sequencing data.

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    Kumar, Vibhor; Muratani, Masafumi; Rayan, Nirmala Arul; Kraus, Petra; Lufkin, Thomas; Ng, Huck Hui; Prabhakar, Shyam

    2013-07-01

    Despite their apparent diversity, many problems in the analysis of high-throughput sequencing data are merely special cases of two general problems, signal detection and signal estimation. Here we adapt formally optimal solutions from signal processing theory to analyze signals of DNA sequence reads mapped to a genome. We describe DFilter, a detection algorithm that identifies regulatory features in ChIP-seq, DNase-seq and FAIRE-seq data more accurately than assay-specific algorithms. We also describe EFilter, an estimation algorithm that accurately predicts mRNA levels from as few as 1-2 histone profiles (R ∼0.9). Notably, the presence of regulatory motifs in promoters correlates more with histone modifications than with mRNA levels, suggesting that histone profiles are more predictive of cis-regulatory mechanisms. We show by applying DFilter and EFilter to embryonic forebrain ChIP-seq data that regulatory protein identification and functional annotation are feasible despite tissue heterogeneity. The mathematical formalism underlying our tools facilitates integrative analysis of data from virtually any sequencing-based functional profile.

  18. Molecular diagnosis of glycogen storage disease and disorders with overlapping clinical symptoms by massive parallel sequencing.

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    Vega, Ana I; Medrano, Celia; Navarrete, Rosa; Desviat, Lourdes R; Merinero, Begoña; Rodríguez-Pombo, Pilar; Vitoria, Isidro; Ugarte, Magdalena; Pérez-Cerdá, Celia; Pérez, Belen

    2016-10-01

    Glycogen storage disease (GSD) is an umbrella term for a group of genetic disorders that involve the abnormal metabolism of glycogen; to date, 23 types of GSD have been identified. The nonspecific clinical presentation of GSD and the lack of specific biomarkers mean that Sanger sequencing is now widely relied on for making a diagnosis. However, this gene-by-gene sequencing technique is both laborious and costly, which is a consequence of the number of genes to be sequenced and the large size of some genes. This work reports the use of massive parallel sequencing to diagnose patients at our laboratory in Spain using either a customized gene panel (targeted exome sequencing) or the Illumina Clinical-Exome TruSight One Gene Panel (clinical exome sequencing (CES)). Sequence variants were matched against biochemical and clinical hallmarks. Pathogenic mutations were detected in 23 patients. Twenty-two mutations were recognized (mostly loss-of-function mutations), including 11 that were novel in GSD-associated genes. In addition, CES detected five patients with mutations in ALDOB, LIPA, NKX2-5, CPT2, or ANO5. Although these genes are not involved in GSD, they are associated with overlapping phenotypic characteristics such as hepatic, muscular, and cardiac dysfunction. These results show that next-generation sequencing, in combination with the detection of biochemical and clinical hallmarks, provides an accurate, high-throughput means of making genetic diagnoses of GSD and related diseases.Genet Med 18 10, 1037-1043.

  19. Effect of promoter strength and signal sequence on the periplasmic ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Two plasmids, pFLAG-ATS and pET 26b(+), were studied for the periplasmic expression of recombinant human interferon-2b (IFN-2b) in Escherichia coli. The pFLAG-ATS contains ompA signal sequence and tac promoter while pET 26b(+) contains pelB signal sequence and T7lac promoter. It was observed that periplasmic ...

  20. Genomic signal processing methods for computation of alignment-free distances from DNA sequences.

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    Borrayo, Ernesto; Mendizabal-Ruiz, E Gerardo; Vélez-Pérez, Hugo; Romo-Vázquez, Rebeca; Mendizabal, Adriana P; Morales, J Alejandro

    2014-01-01

    Genomic signal processing (GSP) refers to the use of digital signal processing (DSP) tools for analyzing genomic data such as DNA sequences. A possible application of GSP that has not been fully explored is the computation of the distance between a pair of sequences. In this work we present GAFD, a novel GSP alignment-free distance computation method. We introduce a DNA sequence-to-signal mapping function based on the employment of doublet values, which increases the number of possible amplitude values for the generated signal. Additionally, we explore the use of three DSP distance metrics as descriptors for categorizing DNA signal fragments. Our results indicate the feasibility of employing GAFD for computing sequence distances and the use of descriptors for characterizing DNA fragments.

  1. In silico Analysis of 3′-End-Processing Signals in Aspergillus oryzae Using Expressed Sequence Tags and Genomic Sequencing Data

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    Tanaka, Mizuki; Sakai, Yoshifumi; Yamada, Osamu; Shintani, Takahiro; Gomi, Katsuya

    2011-01-01

    To investigate 3′-end-processing signals in Aspergillus oryzae, we created a nucleotide sequence data set of the 3′-untranslated region (3′ UTR) plus 100 nucleotides (nt) sequence downstream of the poly(A) site using A. oryzae expressed sequence tags and genomic sequencing data. This data set comprised 1065 sequences derived from 1042 unique genes. The average 3′ UTR length in A. oryzae was 241 nt, which is greater than that in yeast but similar to that in plants. The 3′ UTR and 100 nt sequence downstream of the poly(A) site is notably U-rich, while the region located 15–30 nt upstream of the poly(A) site is markedly A-rich. The most frequently found hexanucleotide in this A-rich region is AAUGAA, although this sequence accounts for only 6% of all transcripts. These data suggested that A. oryzae has no highly conserved sequence element equivalent to AAUAAA, a mammalian polyadenylation signal. We identified that putative 3′-end-processing signals in A. oryzae, while less well conserved than those in mammals, comprised four sequence elements: the furthest upstream U-rich element, A-rich sequence, cleavage site, and downstream U-rich element flanking the cleavage site. Although these putative 3′-end-processing signals are similar to those in yeast and plants, some notable differences exist between them. PMID:21586533

  2. A two-step recognition of signal sequences determines the translocation efficiency of proteins.

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    Belin, D; Bost, S; Vassalli, J D; Strub, K

    1996-02-01

    The cytosolic and secreted, N-glycosylated, forms of plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2) are generated by facultative translocation. To study the molecular events that result in the bi-topological distribution of proteins, we determined in vitro the capacities of several signal sequences to bind the signal recognition particle (SRP) during targeting, and to promote vectorial transport of murine PAI-2 (mPAI-2). Interestingly, the six signal sequences we compared (mPAI-2 and three mutated derivatives thereof, ovalbumin and preprolactin) were found to have the differential activities in the two events. For example, the mPAI-2 signal sequence first binds SRP with moderate efficiency and secondly promotes the vectorial transport of only a fraction of the SRP-bound nascent chains. Our results provide evidence that the translocation efficiency of proteins can be controlled by the recognition of their signal sequences at two steps: during SRP-mediated targeting and during formation of a committed translocation complex. This second recognition may occur at several time points during the insertion/translocation step. In conclusion, signal sequences have a more complex structure than previously anticipated, allowing for multiple and independent interactions with the translocation machinery.

  3. Improving Phrap-based assembly of the rat using "reliable" overlaps.

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    Michael Roberts

    2008-03-01

    Full Text Available The assembly methods used for whole-genome shotgun (WGS data have a major impact on the quality of resulting draft genomes. We present a novel algorithm to generate a set of "reliable" overlaps based on identifying repeat k-mers. To demonstrate the benefits of using reliable overlaps, we have created a version of the Phrap assembly program that uses only overlaps from a specific list. We call this version PhrapUMD. Integrating PhrapUMD and our "reliable-overlap" algorithm with the Baylor College of Medicine assembler, Atlas, we assemble the BACs from the Rattus norvegicus genome project. Starting with the same data as the Nov. 2002 Atlas assembly, we compare our results and the Atlas assembly to the 4.3 Mb of rat sequence in the 21 BACs that have been finished. Our version of the draft assembly of the 21 BACs increases the coverage of finished sequence from 93.4% to 96.3%, while simultaneously reducing the base error rate from 4.5 to 1.1 errors per 10,000 bases. There are a number of ways of assessing the relative merits of assemblies when the finished sequence is available. If one views the overall quality of an assembly as proportional to the inverse of the product of the error rate and sequence missed, then the assembly presented here is seven times better. The UMD Overlapper with options for reliable overlaps is available from the authors at http://www.genome.umd.edu. We also provide the changes to the Phrap source code enabling it to use only the reliable overlaps.

  4. Novel overlapping coding sequences in Chlamydia trachomatis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Klaus Thorleif; Petersen, Lise; Falk, Søren

    2006-01-01

    that are in agreement with the primary annotation. Forty two genes from the primary annotation are not predicted by EasyGene. The majority of these genes are listed as hypothetical in the primary annotation. The 15 novel predicted genes all overlap with genes on the complementary strand. We find homologues of several...... of the novel genes in C. trachomatis Serovar A and Chlamydia muridarum. Several of the genes have typical gene-like and protein-like features. Furthermore, we confirm transcriptional activity from 10 of the putative genes. The combined evidence suggests that at least seven of the 15 are protein coding genes...

  5. Overlapping activities of TGF-β and Hedgehog signaling in cancer: therapeutic targets for cancer treatment.

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    Perrot, Carole Y; Javelaud, Delphine; Mauviel, Alain

    2013-02-01

    Recent advances in the field of cancer therapeutics come from the development of drugs that specifically recognize validated oncogenic or pro-metastatic targets. The latter may be mutated proteins with altered function, such as kinases that become constitutively active, or critical components of growth factor signaling pathways, whose deregulation leads to aberrant malignant cell proliferation and dissemination to metastatic sites. We herein focus on the description of the overlapping activities of two important developmental pathways often exacerbated in cancer, namely Transforming Growth Factor-β (TGF-β) and Hedgehog (HH) signaling, with a special emphasis on the unifying oncogenic role played by GLI1/2 transcription factors. The latter are the main effectors of the canonical HH pathway, yet are direct target genes of TGF-β/SMAD signal transduction. While tumor-suppressor in healthy and pre-malignant tissues, TGF-β is often expressed at high levels in tumors and contributes to tumor growth, escape from immune surveillance, invasion and metastasis. HH signaling regulates cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis, and aberrant HH signaling is found in a variety of cancers. We discuss the current knowledge on HH and TGF-β implication in cancer including cancer stem cell biology, as well as the current state, both successes and failures, of targeted therapeutics aimed at blocking either of these pathways in the pre-clinical and clinical settings. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Iterative Overlap FDE for Multicode DS-CDMA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Takeda, Kazuaki; Tomeba, Hiromichi; Adachi, Fumiyuki

    Recently, a new frequency-domain equalization (FDE) technique, called overlap FDE, that requires no GI insertion was proposed. However, the residual inter/intra-block interference (IBI) cannot completely be removed. In addition to this, for multicode direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA), the presence of residual interchip interference (ICI) after FDE distorts orthogonality among the spreading codes. In this paper, we propose an iterative overlap FDE for multicode DS-CDMA to suppress both the residual IBI and the residual ICI. In the iterative overlap FDE, joint minimum mean square error (MMSE)-FDE and ICI cancellation is repeated a sufficient number of times. The bit error rate (BER) performance with the iterative overlap FDE is evaluated by computer simulation.

  7. Sub-Audible Speech Recognition Based upon Electromyographic Signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jorgensen, Charles C. (Inventor); Lee, Diana D. (Inventor); Agabon, Shane T. (Inventor)

    2012-01-01

    Method and system for processing and identifying a sub-audible signal formed by a source of sub-audible sounds. Sequences of samples of sub-audible sound patterns ("SASPs") for known words/phrases in a selected database are received for overlapping time intervals, and Signal Processing Transforms ("SPTs") are formed for each sample, as part of a matrix of entry values. The matrix is decomposed into contiguous, non-overlapping two-dimensional cells of entries, and neural net analysis is applied to estimate reference sets of weight coefficients that provide sums with optimal matches to reference sets of values. The reference sets of weight coefficients are used to determine a correspondence between a new (unknown) word/phrase and a word/phrase in the database.

  8. Large gene overlaps in prokaryotic genomes: result of functional constraints or mispredictions?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harrington Eoghan D

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Across the fully sequenced microbial genomes there are thousands of examples of overlapping genes. Many of these are only a few nucleotides long and are thought to function by permitting the coordinated regulation of gene expression. However, there should also be selective pressure against long overlaps, as the existence of overlapping reading frames increases the risk of deleterious mutations. Here we examine the longest overlaps and assess whether they are the product of special functional constraints or of erroneous annotation. Results We analysed the genes that overlap by 60 bps or more among 338 fully-sequenced prokaryotic genomes. The likely functional significance of an overlap was determined by comparing each of the genes to its respective orthologs. If a gene showed a significantly different length from its orthologs it was considered unlikely to be functional and therefore the result of an error either in sequencing or gene prediction. Focusing on 715 co-directional overlaps longer than 60 bps, we classified the erroneous ones into five categories: i 5'-end extension of the downstream gene due to either a mispredicted start codon or a frameshift at 5'-end of the gene (409 overlaps, ii fragmentation of a gene caused by a frameshift (163, iii 3'-end extension of the upstream gene due to either a frameshift at 3'-end of a gene or point mutation at the stop codon (68, iv Redundant gene predictions (4, v 5' & 3'-end extension which is a combination of i and iii (71. We also studied 75 divergent overlaps that could be classified as misannotations of group i. Nevertheless we found some convergent long overlaps (54 that might be true overlaps, although an important part of convergent overlaps could be classified as group iii (124. Conclusion Among the 968 overlaps larger than 60 bps which we analysed, we did not find a single real one among the co-directional and divergent orientations and concluded that there had been an

  9. Chiron: translating nanopore raw signal directly into nucleotide sequence using deep learning

    KAUST Repository

    Teng, Haotian; Cao, Minh Duc; Hall, Michael B; Duarte, Tania; Wang, Sheng; Coin, Lachlan J M

    2018-01-01

    Sequencing by translocating DNA fragments through an array of nanopores is a rapidly maturing technology that offers faster and cheaper sequencing than other approaches. However, accurately deciphering the DNA sequence from the noisy and complex electrical signal is challenging. Here, we report Chiron, the first deep learning model to achieve end-to-end basecalling and directly translate the raw signal to DNA sequence without the error-prone segmentation step. Trained with only a small set of 4,000 reads, we show that our model provides state-of-the-art basecalling accuracy, even on previously unseen species. Chiron achieves basecalling speeds of more than 2,000 bases per second using desktop computer graphics processing units.

  10. Chiron: translating nanopore raw signal directly into nucleotide sequence using deep learning

    KAUST Repository

    Teng, Haotian

    2018-04-10

    Sequencing by translocating DNA fragments through an array of nanopores is a rapidly maturing technology that offers faster and cheaper sequencing than other approaches. However, accurately deciphering the DNA sequence from the noisy and complex electrical signal is challenging. Here, we report Chiron, the first deep learning model to achieve end-to-end basecalling and directly translate the raw signal to DNA sequence without the error-prone segmentation step. Trained with only a small set of 4,000 reads, we show that our model provides state-of-the-art basecalling accuracy, even on previously unseen species. Chiron achieves basecalling speeds of more than 2,000 bases per second using desktop computer graphics processing units.

  11. The hydrophobic core of twin-arginine signal sequences orchestrates specific binding to Tat-pathway related chaperones.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anitha Shanmugham

    Full Text Available Redox enzyme maturation proteins (REMPs bind pre-proteins destined for translocation across the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane via the twin-arginine translocation system and enable the enzymatic incorporation of complex cofactors. Most REMPs recognize one specific pre-protein. The recognition site usually resides in the N-terminal signal sequence. REMP binding protects signal peptides against degradation by proteases. REMPs are also believed to prevent binding of immature pre-proteins to the translocon. The main aim of this work was to better understand the interaction between REMPs and substrate signal sequences. Two REMPs were investigated: DmsD (specific for dimethylsulfoxide reductase, DmsA and TorD (specific for trimethylamine N-oxide reductase, TorA. Green fluorescent protein (GFP was genetically fused behind the signal sequences of TorA and DmsA. This ensures native behavior of the respective signal sequence and excludes any effects mediated by the mature domain of the pre-protein. Surface plasmon resonance analysis revealed that these chimeric pre-proteins specifically bind to the cognate REMP. Furthermore, the region of the signal sequence that is responsible for specific binding to the corresponding REMP was identified by creating region-swapped chimeric signal sequences, containing parts of both the TorA and DmsA signal sequences. Surprisingly, specificity is not encoded in the highly variable positively charged N-terminal region of the signal sequence, but in the more similar hydrophobic C-terminal parts. Interestingly, binding of DmsD to its model substrate reduced membrane binding of the pre-protein. This property could link REMP-signal peptide binding to its reported proofreading function.

  12. Two different groups of signal sequence in M-superfamily conotoxins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Qi; Jiang, Hui; Han, Yu-Hong; Yuan, Duo-Duo; Chi, Cheng-Wu

    2008-04-01

    M-superfamily conotoxins can be divided into four branches (M-1, M-2, M-3 and M-4) according to the number of amino acid residues in the third Cys loop. In general, it is widely accepted that the conotoxin signal peptides of each superfamily are strictly conserved. Recently, we cloned six cDNAs of novel M-superfamily conotoxins from Conus leopardus, Conus marmoreus and Conus quercinus, belonging to either M-1 or M-3 branch. These conotoxins, judging from the putative peptide sequences deducted from cDNAs, are rich in acidic residues and share highly conserved signal and pro-peptide region. However, they are quite different from the reported conotoxins of M-2 and M-4 branches even in their signal peptides, which in general are considered highly conserved for each superfamily of conotoxins. The signal sequences of M-1 and M-3 conotoxins composed of 24 residues start with MLKMGVVL-, while those of M-2 and M-4 conotoxins composed of 25 residues start with MMSKLGVL-. It is another example that different types of signal peptides can exist within a superfamily besides the I-conotoxin superfamily. In addition to the different disulfide connectivity of M-1 conotoxins from that of M-4 or M-2 conotoxins, the sequence alignment, preferential Cys codon usage and phylogenetic tree analysis suggest that M-1 and M-3 conotoxins have much closer relationship, being different from the conotoxins of other two branches (M-4 and M-2) of M-superfamily.

  13. A two-step recognition of signal sequences determines the translocation efficiency of proteins.

    OpenAIRE

    Belin, D; Bost, S; Vassalli, J D; Strub, K

    1996-01-01

    The cytosolic and secreted, N-glycosylated, forms of plasminogen activator inhibitor-2 (PAI-2) are generated by facultative translocation. To study the molecular events that result in the bi-topological distribution of proteins, we determined in vitro the capacities of several signal sequences to bind the signal recognition particle (SRP) during targeting, and to promote vectorial transport of murine PAI-2 (mPAI-2). Interestingly, the six signal sequences we compared (mPAI-2 and three mutated...

  14. Towards rationally redesigning bacterial signaling systems using information encoded in abundant sequence data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Ryan; Morcos, Faruck; Levine, Herbert; Onuchic, Jose

    2014-03-01

    An important challenge in biology is to distinguish the subset of residues that allow bacterial two-component signaling (TCS) proteins to preferentially interact with their correct TCS partner such that they can bind and transfer signal. Detailed knowledge of this information would allow one to search sequence-space for mutations that can systematically tune the signal transmission between TCS partners as well as re-encode a TCS protein to preferentially transfer signals to a non-partner. Motivated by the notion that this detailed information is found in sequence data, we explore the mutual sequence co-evolution between signaling partners to infer how mutations can positively or negatively alter their interaction. Using Direct Coupling Analysis (DCA) for determining evolutionarily conserved interprotein interactions, we apply a DCA-based metric to quantify mutational changes in the interaction between TCS proteins and demonstrate that it accurately correlates with experimental mutagenesis studies probing the mutational change in the in vitro phosphotransfer. Our methodology serves as a potential framework for the rational design of TCS systems as well as a framework for the system-level study of protein-protein interactions in sequence-rich systems. This research has been supported by the NSF INSPIRE award MCB-1241332 and by the CTBP sponsored by the NSF (Grant PHY-1308264).

  15. Oscillating Evolution of a Mammalian Locus with Overlapping Reading Frames: An XLalphas/ALEX Relay.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    2005-08-01

    Full Text Available XLalphas and ALEX are structurally unrelated mammalian proteins translated from alternative overlapping reading frames of a single transcript. Not only are they encoded by the same locus, but a specific XLalphas/ALEX interaction is essential for G-protein signaling in neuroendocrine cells. A disruption of this interaction leads to abnormal human phenotypes, including mental retardation and growth deficiency. The region of overlap between the two reading frames evolves at a remarkable speed: the divergence between human and mouse ALEX polypeptides makes them virtually unalignable. To trace the evolution of this puzzling locus, we sequenced it in apes, Old World monkeys, and a New World monkey. We show that the overlap between the two reading frames and the physical interaction between the two proteins force the locus to evolve in an unprecedented way. Namely, to maintain two overlapping protein-coding regions the locus is forced to have high GC content, which significantly elevates its intrinsic evolutionary rate. However, the two encoded proteins cannot afford to change too quickly relative to each other as this may impair their interaction and lead to severe physiological consequences. As a result XLalphas and ALEX evolve in an oscillating fashion constantly balancing the rates of amino acid replacements. This is the first example of a rapidly evolving locus encoding interacting proteins via overlapping reading frames, with a possible link to the origin of species-specific neurological differences.

  16. Genomic signal processing for DNA sequence clustering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendizabal-Ruiz, Gerardo; Román-Godínez, Israel; Torres-Ramos, Sulema; Salido-Ruiz, Ricardo A; Vélez-Pérez, Hugo; Morales, J Alejandro

    2018-01-01

    Genomic signal processing (GSP) methods which convert DNA data to numerical values have recently been proposed, which would offer the opportunity of employing existing digital signal processing methods for genomic data. One of the most used methods for exploring data is cluster analysis which refers to the unsupervised classification of patterns in data. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for performing cluster analysis of DNA sequences that is based on the use of GSP methods and the K-means algorithm. We also propose a visualization method that facilitates the easy inspection and analysis of the results and possible hidden behaviors. Our results support the feasibility of employing the proposed method to find and easily visualize interesting features of sets of DNA data.

  17. SAGE: String-overlap Assembly of GEnomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ilie, Lucian; Haider, Bahlul; Molnar, Michael; Solis-Oba, Roberto

    2014-09-15

    De novo genome assembly of next-generation sequencing data is one of the most important current problems in bioinformatics, essential in many biological applications. In spite of significant amount of work in this area, better solutions are still very much needed. We present a new program, SAGE, for de novo genome assembly. As opposed to most assemblers, which are de Bruijn graph based, SAGE uses the string-overlap graph. SAGE builds upon great existing work on string-overlap graph and maximum likelihood assembly, bringing an important number of new ideas, such as the efficient computation of the transitive reduction of the string overlap graph, the use of (generalized) edge multiplicity statistics for more accurate estimation of read copy counts, and the improved use of mate pairs and min-cost flow for supporting edge merging. The assemblies produced by SAGE for several short and medium-size genomes compared favourably with those of existing leading assemblers. SAGE benefits from innovations in almost every aspect of the assembly process: error correction of input reads, string-overlap graph construction, read copy counts estimation, overlap graph analysis and reduction, contig extraction, and scaffolding. We hope that these new ideas will help advance the current state-of-the-art in an essential area of research in genomics.

  18. Of overlapping Cantor sets and earthquakes: analysis of the discrete Chakrabarti-Stinchcombe model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhattacharyya, Pratip

    2005-03-01

    We report an exact analysis of a discrete form of the Chakrabarti-Stinchcombe model for earthquakes (Physica A 270 (1999) 27), which considers a pair of dynamically overlapping finite generations of the Cantor set as a prototype of geological faults. In this model the nth generation of the Cantor set shifts on its replica in discrete steps of the length of a line segment in that generation and periodic boundary conditions are assumed. We determine the general form of time sequences for the constant magnitude overlaps and, hence, obtain the complete time-series of overlaps by the superposition of these sequences for all overlap magnitudes. From the time-series we derive the exact frequency distribution of the overlap magnitudes. The corresponding probability distribution of the logarithm of overlap magnitudes for the nth generation is found to assume the form of the binomial distribution for n Bernoulli trials with probability {1}/{3} for the success of each trial. For an arbitrary pair of consecutive overlaps in the time-series where the magnitude of the earlier overlap is known, we find that the magnitude of the later overlap can be determined with a definite probability; the conditional probability for each possible magnitude of the later overlap follows the binomial distribution for k Bernoulli trials with probability {1}/{2} for the success of each trial and the number k is determined by the magnitude of the earlier overlap. Although this model does not produce the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquakes, our results indicate that the fractal structure of faults admits a probabilistic prediction of earthquake magnitudes.

  19. Intercellular signalling in Vibrio harveyi: sequence and function of genes regulating expression of luminescence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bassler, B L; Wright, M; Showalter, R E; Silverman, M R

    1993-08-01

    Density-dependent expression of luminescence in Vibrio harveyi is regulated by the concentration of an extracellular signal molecule (autoinducer) in the culture medium. A recombinant clone that restored function to one class of spontaneous dim mutants was found to encode functions necessary for the synthesis of, and response to, a signal molecule. Sequence analysis of the region encoding these functions revealed three open reading frames, two (luxL and luxM) that are required for production of an autoinducer substance and a third (luxN) that is required for response to this signal substance. The LuxL and LuxM proteins are not similar in amino acid sequence to other proteins in the database, but the LuxN protein contains regions of sequence resembling both the histidine protein kinase and the response regulator domains of the family of two-component, signal transduction proteins. The phenotypes of mutants with luxL, luxM and luxN defects indicated that an additional signal-response system controlling density-dependent expression of luminescence remains to be identified.

  20. Information-optimal genome assembly via sparse read-overlap graphs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shomorony, Ilan; Kim, Samuel H; Courtade, Thomas A; Tse, David N C

    2016-09-01

    In the context of third-generation long-read sequencing technologies, read-overlap-based approaches are expected to play a central role in the assembly step. A fundamental challenge in assembling from a read-overlap graph is that the true sequence corresponds to a Hamiltonian path on the graph, and, under most formulations, the assembly problem becomes NP-hard, restricting practical approaches to heuristics. In this work, we avoid this seemingly fundamental barrier by first setting the computational complexity issue aside, and seeking an algorithm that targets information limits In particular, we consider a basic feasibility question: when does the set of reads contain enough information to allow unambiguous reconstruction of the true sequence? Based on insights from this information feasibility question, we present an algorithm-the Not-So-Greedy algorithm-to construct a sparse read-overlap graph. Unlike most other assembly algorithms, Not-So-Greedy comes with a performance guarantee: whenever information feasibility conditions are satisfied, the algorithm reduces the assembly problem to an Eulerian path problem on the resulting graph, and can thus be solved in linear time. In practice, this theoretical guarantee translates into assemblies of higher quality. Evaluations on both simulated reads from real genomes and a PacBio Escherichia coli K12 dataset demonstrate that Not-So-Greedy compares favorably with standard string graph approaches in terms of accuracy of the resulting read-overlap graph and contig N50. Available at github.com/samhykim/nsg courtade@eecs.berkeley.edu or dntse@stanford.edu Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  1. Application of native signal sequences for recombinant proteins secretion in Pichia pastoris

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Borodina, Irina; Do, Duy Duc; Eriksen, Jens C.

    Background Methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is widely used for recombinant protein production, largely due to its ability to secrete correctly folded heterologous proteins to the fermentation medium. Secretion is usually achieved by cloning the recombinant gene after a leader sequence, where...... alpha‐mating factor (MF) prepropeptide from Saccharomyces cerevisiae is most commonly used. Our aim was to test whether signal peptides from P. pastoris native secreted proteins could be used to direct secretion of recombinant proteins. Results Eleven native signal peptides from P. pastoris were tested...... by optimization of expression of three different proteins in P. pastoris. Conclusions Native signal peptides from P. pastoris can be used to direct secretion of recombinant proteins. A novel USER‐based P. pastoris system allows easy cloning of protein‐coding gene with the promoter and leader sequence of choice....

  2. Completed Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition: a Robust Signal Processing Tool to Identify Sequence Strata

    Science.gov (United States)

    Purba, H.; Musu, J. T.; Diria, S. A.; Permono, W.; Sadjati, O.; Sopandi, I.; Ruzi, F.

    2018-03-01

    Well logging data provide many geological information and its trends resemble nonlinear or non-stationary signals. As long well log data recorded, there will be external factors can interfere or influence its signal resolution. A sensitive signal analysis is required to improve the accuracy of logging interpretation which it becomes an important thing to determine sequence stratigraphy. Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (CEEMD) is one of nonlinear and non-stationary signal analysis method which decomposes complex signal into a series of intrinsic mode function (IMF). Gamma Ray and Spontaneous Potential well log parameters decomposed into IMF-1 up to IMF-10 and each of its combination and correlation makes physical meaning identification. It identifies the stratigraphy and cycle sequence and provides an effective signal treatment method for sequence interface. This method was applied to BRK- 30 and BRK-13 well logging data. The result shows that the combination of IMF-5, IMF-6, and IMF-7 pattern represent short-term and middle-term while IMF-9 and IMF-10 represent the long-term sedimentation which describe distal front and delta front facies, and inter-distributary mouth bar facies, respectively. Thus, CEEMD clearly can determine the different sedimentary layer interface and better identification of the cycle of stratigraphic base level.

  3. Genotyping common and rare variation using overlapping pool sequencing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pasaniuc Bogdan

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Recent advances in sequencing technologies set the stage for large, population based studies, in which the ANA or RNA of thousands of individuals will be sequenced. Currently, however, such studies are still infeasible using a straightforward sequencing approach; as a result, recently a few multiplexing schemes have been suggested, in which a small number of ANA pools are sequenced, and the results are then deconvoluted using compressed sensing or similar approaches. These methods, however, are limited to the detection of rare variants. Results In this paper we provide a new algorithm for the deconvolution of DNA pools multiplexing schemes. The presented algorithm utilizes a likelihood model and linear programming. The approach allows for the addition of external data, particularly imputation data, resulting in a flexible environment that is suitable for different applications. Conclusions Particularly, we demonstrate that both low and high allele frequency SNPs can be accurately genotyped when the DNA pooling scheme is performed in conjunction with microarray genotyping and imputation. Additionally, we demonstrate the use of our framework for the detection of cancer fusion genes from RNA sequences.

  4. Shotgun protein sequencing.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Faulon, Jean-Loup Michel; Heffelfinger, Grant S.

    2009-06-01

    A novel experimental and computational technique based on multiple enzymatic digestion of a protein or protein mixture that reconstructs protein sequences from sequences of overlapping peptides is described in this SAND report. This approach, analogous to shotgun sequencing of DNA, is to be used to sequence alternative spliced proteins, to identify post-translational modifications, and to sequence genetically engineered proteins.

  5. Signals for the initiation and termination of synthesis of the viral strand of bacteriophage f1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dotto, G.P.; Horiuchi, K.; Jakes, K.S.; Zinder, N.D.

    1983-01-01

    In this paper the sequence around the plus origin that is required for efficient plus-strand synthesis as well as that necessary for gene-II-protein recognition is described. Results which demonstrate that the nucleotide sequence of the f1 plus origin contains two overlapping but distinct signals, one for initiation and the other for termination of plus-strand synthesis is presented. 29 references, 6 figures, 1 table

  6. Identification and characterization of a nuclear localization signal of TRIM28 that overlaps with the HP1 box

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moriyama, Tetsuji; Sangel, Percival; Yamaguchi, Hiroki; Obuse, Chikashi; Miyamoto, Yoichi; Oka, Masahiro; Yoneda, Yoshihiro

    2015-01-01

    Tripartite motif-containing 28 (TRIM28) is a transcription regulator, which forms a repressor complex containing heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1). Here, we report identification of a nuclear localization signal (NLS) within the 462-494 amino acid region of TRIM28 that overlaps with its HP1 binding site, HP1 box. GST-pulldown experiments revealed the interaction of the arginine-rich TRIM28 NLS with various importin α subtypes (α1, α2 and α4). In vitro transport assay demonstrated that nuclear localization of GFP-TRIM28 NLS is mediated by importin αs, in conjunction with importin β1 and Ran. Further, we demonstrated that HP1 and importin αs compete for binding to TRIM28. Together, our findings suggest that importin α has an essential role in the nuclear delivery and preferential HP1 interaction of TRIM28. - Highlights: • TRIM28 contains an NLS within the 462-494 amino acid region. • The nuclear import of TRIM28 is mediated by importin α/importin β1. • TRIM28 NLS overlaps with HP1 Box. • HP1 and importin α compete for binding to TRIM28

  7. Identification and characterization of a nuclear localization signal of TRIM28 that overlaps with the HP1 box

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Moriyama, Tetsuji; Sangel, Percival [Laboratory of Nuclear Transport Dynamics, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition (NIBIOHN), Osaka 567-0085 (Japan); Yamaguchi, Hiroki [School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Obuse, Chikashi [Graduate School of Life Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021 (Japan); Miyamoto, Yoichi [Laboratory of Nuclear Transport Dynamics, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition (NIBIOHN), Osaka 567-0085 (Japan); Oka, Masahiro, E-mail: moka@nibiohn.go.jp [Laboratory of Nuclear Transport Dynamics, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition (NIBIOHN), Osaka 567-0085 (Japan); Laboratory of Biomedical Innovation, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Yoneda, Yoshihiro, E-mail: y-yoneda@nibiohn.go.jp [National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition (NIBIOHN), Osaka 567-0085 (Japan); Laboratory of Biomedical Innovation, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan)

    2015-07-03

    Tripartite motif-containing 28 (TRIM28) is a transcription regulator, which forms a repressor complex containing heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1). Here, we report identification of a nuclear localization signal (NLS) within the 462-494 amino acid region of TRIM28 that overlaps with its HP1 binding site, HP1 box. GST-pulldown experiments revealed the interaction of the arginine-rich TRIM28 NLS with various importin α subtypes (α1, α2 and α4). In vitro transport assay demonstrated that nuclear localization of GFP-TRIM28 NLS is mediated by importin αs, in conjunction with importin β1 and Ran. Further, we demonstrated that HP1 and importin αs compete for binding to TRIM28. Together, our findings suggest that importin α has an essential role in the nuclear delivery and preferential HP1 interaction of TRIM28. - Highlights: • TRIM28 contains an NLS within the 462-494 amino acid region. • The nuclear import of TRIM28 is mediated by importin α/importin β1. • TRIM28 NLS overlaps with HP1 Box. • HP1 and importin α compete for binding to TRIM28.

  8. PDL1 Signals through Conserved Sequence Motifs to Overcome Interferon-Mediated Cytotoxicity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Gato-Cañas

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available PDL1 blockade produces remarkable clinical responses, thought to occur by T cell reactivation through prevention of PDL1-PD1 T cell inhibitory interactions. Here, we find that PDL1 cell-intrinsic signaling protects cancer cells from interferon (IFN cytotoxicity and accelerates tumor progression. PDL1 inhibited IFN signal transduction through a conserved class of sequence motifs that mediate crosstalk with IFN signaling. Abrogation of PDL1 expression or antibody-mediated PDL1 blockade strongly sensitized cancer cells to IFN cytotoxicity through a STAT3/caspase-7-dependent pathway. Moreover, somatic mutations found in human carcinomas within these PDL1 sequence motifs disrupted motif regulation, resulting in PDL1 molecules with enhanced protective activities from type I and type II IFN cytotoxicity. Overall, our results reveal a mode of action of PDL1 in cancer cells as a first line of defense against IFN cytotoxicity.

  9. Probabilistic Inference on Multiple Normalized Signal Profiles from Next Generation Sequencing: Transcription Factor Binding Sites

    KAUST Repository

    Wong, Ka-Chun; Peng, Chengbin; Li, Yue

    2015-01-01

    With the prevalence of chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) with sequencing (ChIP-Seq) technology, massive ChIP-Seq data has been accumulated. The ChIP-Seq technology measures the genome-wide occupancy of DNA-binding proteins in vivo. It is well-known that different DNA-binding protein occupancies may result in a gene being regulated in different conditions (e.g. different cell types). To fully understand a gene's function, it is essential to develop probabilistic models on multiple ChIP-Seq profiles for deciphering the gene transcription causalities. In this work, we propose and describe two probabilistic models. Assuming the conditional independence of different DNA-binding proteins' occupancies, the first method (SignalRanker) is developed as an intuitive method for ChIP-Seq genome-wide signal profile inference. Unfortunately, such an assumption may not always hold in some gene regulation cases. Thus, we propose and describe another method (FullSignalRanker) which does not make the conditional independence assumption. The proposed methods are compared with other existing methods on ENCODE ChIP-Seq datasets, demonstrating its regression and classification ability. The results suggest that FullSignalRanker is the best-performing method for recovering the signal ranks on the promoter and enhancer regions. In addition, FullSignalRanker is also the best-performing method for peak sequence classification. We envision that SignalRanker and FullSignalRanker will become important in the era of next generation sequencing. FullSignalRanker program is available on the following website: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/∼wkc/FullSignalRanker/ © 2015 IEEE.

  10. Probabilistic Inference on Multiple Normalized Signal Profiles from Next Generation Sequencing: Transcription Factor Binding Sites

    KAUST Repository

    Wong, Ka-Chun

    2015-04-20

    With the prevalence of chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) with sequencing (ChIP-Seq) technology, massive ChIP-Seq data has been accumulated. The ChIP-Seq technology measures the genome-wide occupancy of DNA-binding proteins in vivo. It is well-known that different DNA-binding protein occupancies may result in a gene being regulated in different conditions (e.g. different cell types). To fully understand a gene\\'s function, it is essential to develop probabilistic models on multiple ChIP-Seq profiles for deciphering the gene transcription causalities. In this work, we propose and describe two probabilistic models. Assuming the conditional independence of different DNA-binding proteins\\' occupancies, the first method (SignalRanker) is developed as an intuitive method for ChIP-Seq genome-wide signal profile inference. Unfortunately, such an assumption may not always hold in some gene regulation cases. Thus, we propose and describe another method (FullSignalRanker) which does not make the conditional independence assumption. The proposed methods are compared with other existing methods on ENCODE ChIP-Seq datasets, demonstrating its regression and classification ability. The results suggest that FullSignalRanker is the best-performing method for recovering the signal ranks on the promoter and enhancer regions. In addition, FullSignalRanker is also the best-performing method for peak sequence classification. We envision that SignalRanker and FullSignalRanker will become important in the era of next generation sequencing. FullSignalRanker program is available on the following website: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/∼wkc/FullSignalRanker/ © 2015 IEEE.

  11. Prune belly syndrome with overlapping presentation of partial urorectal septum malformation sequence in a female newborn with absent perineal openings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farooqui, Azhar; AlAqeel, Alaa; Habib, Zakaria

    2014-01-01

    Prune belly syndrome (PBS) is a rare congenital anomaly characterized in males by a triad of anomalous genitourinary tract, deficient development of abdominal wall muscles, and bilateral cryptorchidism. Although similar anomalies have been reported in females, by definition they do not full fill the classical triad. Urorectal septum malformation sequence (URSM) is a lethal condition characterized by presence of ambiguous genitalia, absent perineal openings (urogenital and anal), and lumbosacral abnormalities. In this original case report, the authors discuss the presentation and management of what would be analogous to a Woodhouse category 1 PBS in a female newborn associated with an overlapping presentation of URSM.

  12. Prune Belly Syndrome with Overlapping Presentation of Partial Urorectal Septum Malformation Sequence in a Female Newborn with Absent Perineal Openings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Azhar Farooqui

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Prune belly syndrome (PBS is a rare congenital anomaly characterized in males by a triad of anomalous genitourinary tract, deficient development of abdominal wall muscles, and bilateral cryptorchidism. Although similar anomalies have been reported in females, by definition they do not full fill the classical triad. Urorectal septum malformation sequence (URSM is a lethal condition characterized by presence of ambiguous genitalia, absent perineal openings (urogenital and anal, and lumbosacral abnormalities. In this original case report, the authors discuss the presentation and management of what would be analogous to a Woodhouse category 1 PBS in a female newborn associated with an overlapping presentation of URSM.

  13. Evidence for a novel coding sequence overlapping the 5'-terminal ~90 codons of the Gill-associated and Yellow head okavirus envelope glycoprotein gene

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Atkins John F

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract The genus Okavirus (order Nidovirales includes a number of viruses that infect crustaceans, causing major losses in the shrimp industry. These viruses have a linear positive-sense ssRNA genome of ~26-27 kb, encoding a large replicase polyprotein that is expressed from the genomic RNA, and several additional proteins that are expressed from a nested set of 3'-coterminal subgenomic RNAs. In this brief report, we describe the bioinformatic discovery of a new, apparently coding, ORF that overlaps the 5' end of the envelope glycoprotein encoding sequence, ORF3, in the +2 reading frame. The new ORF has a strong coding signature and, in fact, is more conserved at the amino acid level than the overlapping region of ORF3. We propose that translation of the new ORF initiates at a conserved AUG codon separated by just 2 nt from the ORF3 AUG initiation codon, resulting in a novel 86 amino acid protein.

  14. Experimental characterization of Raman overlaps between mode-groups

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Erik Nicolai; Koefoed, Jacob Gade; Friis, Søren Michael Mørk

    2016-01-01

    Mode-division multiplexing has the potential to further increase data transmission capacity through optical fibers. In addition, distributed Raman amplification is a promising candidate for multi-mode signal amplification due to its desirable noise properties and the possibility of mode-equalized......Mode-division multiplexing has the potential to further increase data transmission capacity through optical fibers. In addition, distributed Raman amplification is a promising candidate for multi-mode signal amplification due to its desirable noise properties and the possibility of mode......-equalized gain. In this paper, we present an experimental characterization of the intermodal Raman intensity overlaps of a few-mode fiber using backward-pumped Raman amplification. By varying the input pump power and the degree of higher order mode-excitation for the pump and the signal in a 10km long two......-mode fiber, we are able to characterize all intermodal Raman intensity overlaps. Using these results, we perform a Raman amplification measurement and demonstrate a mode-differential gain of only 0.25dB per 10dB overall gain. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the lowest mode differential gain achieved...

  15. Bioinformatic analysis suggests that the Cypovirus 1 major core protein cistron harbours an overlapping gene

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Atkins John F

    2008-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Members of the genus Cypovirus (family Reoviridae are common pathogens of insects. These viruses have linear dsRNA genomes divided into 10–11 segments, which have generally been assumed to be monocistronic. Here, bioinformatic evidence is presented for a short overlapping coding sequence (CDS in the cypovirus genome segment encoding the major core capsid protein VP1, overlapping the 5'-terminal region of the VP1 ORF in the +1 reading frame. In Cypovirus type 1 (CPV-1, a 62-codon AUG-initiated open reading frame (hereafter ORFX is present in all four available segment 1 sequences. The pattern of base variations across the sequence alignment indicates that ORFX is subject to functional constraints at the amino acid level (even when the constraints due to coding in the overlapping VP1 reading frame are taken into account; MLOGD software. In fact the translated ORFX shows greater amino acid conservation than the overlapping region of VP1. The genomic location of ORFX is consistent with translation via leaky scanning. A 62–64 codon AUG-initiated ORF is present in a corresponding location and reading frame in other available cypovirus sequences (2 CPV-14, 1 CPV-15 and an 87-codon ORFX homologue may also be present in Aedes pseudoscutellaris reovirus. The ORFX amino acid sequences are hydrophilic and basic, with between 12 and 16 Arg/Lys residues in each though, at 7.5–10.2 kDa, the putative ORFX product is too small to appear on typical published protein gels.

  16. PRIMAL: Page Rank-Based Indoor Mapping and Localization Using Gene-Sequenced Unlabeled WLAN Received Signal Strength

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mu Zhou

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Due to the wide deployment of wireless local area networks (WLAN, received signal strength (RSS-based indoor WLAN localization has attracted considerable attention in both academia and industry. In this paper, we propose a novel page rank-based indoor mapping and localization (PRIMAL by using the gene-sequenced unlabeled WLAN RSS for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM. Specifically, first of all, based on the observation of the motion patterns of the people in the target environment, we use the Allen logic to construct the mobility graph to characterize the connectivity among different areas of interest. Second, the concept of gene sequencing is utilized to assemble the sporadically-collected RSS sequences into a signal graph based on the transition relations among different RSS sequences. Third, we apply the graph drawing approach to exhibit both the mobility graph and signal graph in a more readable manner. Finally, the page rank (PR algorithm is proposed to construct the mapping from the signal graph into the mobility graph. The experimental results show that the proposed approach achieves satisfactory localization accuracy and meanwhile avoids the intensive time and labor cost involved in the conventional location fingerprinting-based indoor WLAN localization.

  17. PRIMAL: Page Rank-Based Indoor Mapping and Localization Using Gene-Sequenced Unlabeled WLAN Received Signal Strength.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Mu; Zhang, Qiao; Xu, Kunjie; Tian, Zengshan; Wang, Yanmeng; He, Wei

    2015-09-25

    Due to the wide deployment of wireless local area networks (WLAN), received signal strength (RSS)-based indoor WLAN localization has attracted considerable attention in both academia and industry. In this paper, we propose a novel page rank-based indoor mapping and localization (PRIMAL) by using the gene-sequenced unlabeled WLAN RSS for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). Specifically, first of all, based on the observation of the motion patterns of the people in the target environment, we use the Allen logic to construct the mobility graph to characterize the connectivity among different areas of interest. Second, the concept of gene sequencing is utilized to assemble the sporadically-collected RSS sequences into a signal graph based on the transition relations among different RSS sequences. Third, we apply the graph drawing approach to exhibit both the mobility graph and signal graph in a more readable manner. Finally, the page rank (PR) algorithm is proposed to construct the mapping from the signal graph into the mobility graph. The experimental results show that the proposed approach achieves satisfactory localization accuracy and meanwhile avoids the intensive time and labor cost involved in the conventional location fingerprinting-based indoor WLAN localization.

  18. Prevalence of transcription promoters within archaeal operons and coding sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koide, Tie; Reiss, David J; Bare, J Christopher; Pang, Wyming Lee; Facciotti, Marc T; Schmid, Amy K; Pan, Min; Marzolf, Bruz; Van, Phu T; Lo, Fang-Yin; Pratap, Abhishek; Deutsch, Eric W; Peterson, Amelia; Martin, Dan; Baliga, Nitin S

    2009-01-01

    Despite the knowledge of complex prokaryotic-transcription mechanisms, generalized rules, such as the simplified organization of genes into operons with well-defined promoters and terminators, have had a significant role in systems analysis of regulatory logic in both bacteria and archaea. Here, we have investigated the prevalence of alternate regulatory mechanisms through genome-wide characterization of transcript structures of approximately 64% of all genes, including putative non-coding RNAs in Halobacterium salinarum NRC-1. Our integrative analysis of transcriptome dynamics and protein-DNA interaction data sets showed widespread environment-dependent modulation of operon architectures, transcription initiation and termination inside coding sequences, and extensive overlap in 3' ends of transcripts for many convergently transcribed genes. A significant fraction of these alternate transcriptional events correlate to binding locations of 11 transcription factors and regulators (TFs) inside operons and annotated genes-events usually considered spurious or non-functional. Using experimental validation, we illustrate the prevalence of overlapping genomic signals in archaeal transcription, casting doubt on the general perception of rigid boundaries between coding sequences and regulatory elements.

  19. High signals in the uterine cervix on T2-weighted MRI sequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Graef, De M.; Karam, R.; Daclin, P.Y.; Rouanet, J.P.; Juhan, V.; Maubon, A.J.

    2003-01-01

    The aim of this pictorial review was to illustrate the normal cervix appearance on T2-weighted images, and give a review of common or less common disorders of the uterine cervix that appear as high signal intensity lesions on T2-weighted sequences. Numerous aetiologies dominated by cervical cancer are reviewed and discussed. This gamut is obviously incomplete; however, radiologists who perform MR women's imaging should perform T2-weighted sequences in the sagittal plane regardless of the indication for pelvic MR. Those sequences will diagnose some previously unknown cervical cancers as well as many other unknown cervical or uterine lesions. (orig.)

  20. Influence of slice overlap on positron emission tomography image quality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McKeown, Clare; Gillen, Gerry; Dempsey, Mary Frances; Findlay, Caroline

    2016-01-01

    PET scans use overlapping acquisition beds to correct for reduced sensitivity at bed edges. The optimum overlap size for the General Electric (GE) Discovery 690 has not been established. This study assesses how image quality is affected by slice overlap. Efficacy of 23% overlaps (recommended by GE) and 49% overlaps (maximum possible overlap) were specifically assessed. European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) guidelines for calculating minimum injected activities based on overlap size were also reviewed. A uniform flood phantom was used to assess noise (coefficient of variation, (COV)) and voxel accuracy (activity concentrations, Bq ml −1 ). A NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) body phantom with hot/cold spheres in a background activity was used to assess contrast recovery coefficients (CRCs) and signal to noise ratios (SNR). Different overlap sizes and sphere-to-background ratios were assessed. COVs for 49% and 23% overlaps were 9% and 13% respectively. This increased noise was difficult to visualise on the 23% overlap images. Mean voxel activity concentrations were not affected by overlap size. No clinically significant differences in CRCs were observed. However, visibility and SNR of small, low contrast spheres (⩽13 mm diameter, 2:1 sphere to background ratio) may be affected by overlap size in low count studies if they are located in the overlap area. There was minimal detectable influence on image quality in terms of noise, mean activity concentrations or mean CRCs when comparing 23% overlap with 49% overlap. Detectability of small, low contrast lesions may be affected in low count studies—however, this is a worst-case scenario. The marginal benefits of increasing overlap from 23% to 49% are likely to be offset by increased patient scan times. A 23% overlap is therefore appropriate for clinical use. An amendment to EANM guidelines for calculating injected activities is also proposed which better reflects the effect overlap size

  1. Fungal-host diversity among mycoheterotrophic plants increases proportionally to their fungal-host overlap.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gomes, Sofia I F; Merckx, Vincent S F T; Saavedra, Serguei

    2017-05-01

    The vast majority of plants obtain an important proportion of vital resources from soil through mycorrhizal fungi. Generally, this happens in exchange of photosynthetically fixed carbon, but occasionally the interaction is mycoheterotrophic, and plants obtain carbon from mycorrhizal fungi. This process results in an antagonistic interaction between mycoheterotrophic plants and their fungal hosts. Importantly, the fungal-host diversity available for plants is restricted as mycoheterotrophic interactions often involve narrow lineages of fungal hosts. Unfortunately, little is known whether fungal-host diversity may be additionally modulated by plant-plant interactions through shared hosts. Yet, this may have important implications for plant competition and coexistence. Here, we use DNA sequencing data to investigate the interaction patterns between mycoheterotrophic plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. We find no phylogenetic signal on the number of fungal hosts nor on the fungal hosts shared among mycoheterotrophic plants. However, we observe a potential trend toward increased phylogenetic diversity of fungal hosts among mycoheterotrophic plants with increasing overlap in their fungal hosts. While these patterns remain for groups of plants regardless of location, we do find higher levels of overlap and diversity among plants from the same location. These findings suggest that species coexistence cannot be fully understood without attention to the two sides of ecological interactions.

  2. Defining a conformational consensus motif in cotransin-sensitive signal sequences: a proteomic and site-directed mutagenesis study.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wolfgang Klein

    Full Text Available The cyclodepsipeptide cotransin was described to inhibit the biosynthesis of a small subset of proteins by a signal sequence-discriminatory mechanism at the Sec61 protein-conducting channel. However, it was not clear how selective cotransin is, i.e. how many proteins are sensitive. Moreover, a consensus motif in signal sequences mediating cotransin sensitivity has yet not been described. To address these questions, we performed a proteomic study using cotransin-treated human hepatocellular carcinoma cells and the stable isotope labelling by amino acids in cell culture technique in combination with quantitative mass spectrometry. We used a saturating concentration of cotransin (30 micromolar to identify also less-sensitive proteins and to discriminate the latter from completely resistant proteins. We found that the biosynthesis of almost all secreted proteins was cotransin-sensitive under these conditions. In contrast, biosynthesis of the majority of the integral membrane proteins was cotransin-resistant. Cotransin sensitivity of signal sequences was neither related to their length nor to their hydrophobicity. Instead, in the case of signal anchor sequences, we identified for the first time a conformational consensus motif mediating cotransin sensitivity.

  3. Defining a Conformational Consensus Motif in Cotransin-Sensitive Signal Sequences: A Proteomic and Site-Directed Mutagenesis Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Wolfgang; Westendorf, Carolin; Schmidt, Antje; Conill-Cortés, Mercè; Rutz, Claudia; Blohs, Marcus; Beyermann, Michael; Protze, Jonas; Krause, Gerd; Krause, Eberhard; Schülein, Ralf

    2015-01-01

    The cyclodepsipeptide cotransin was described to inhibit the biosynthesis of a small subset of proteins by a signal sequence-discriminatory mechanism at the Sec61 protein-conducting channel. However, it was not clear how selective cotransin is, i.e. how many proteins are sensitive. Moreover, a consensus motif in signal sequences mediating cotransin sensitivity has yet not been described. To address these questions, we performed a proteomic study using cotransin-treated human hepatocellular carcinoma cells and the stable isotope labelling by amino acids in cell culture technique in combination with quantitative mass spectrometry. We used a saturating concentration of cotransin (30 micromolar) to identify also less-sensitive proteins and to discriminate the latter from completely resistant proteins. We found that the biosynthesis of almost all secreted proteins was cotransin-sensitive under these conditions. In contrast, biosynthesis of the majority of the integral membrane proteins was cotransin-resistant. Cotransin sensitivity of signal sequences was neither related to their length nor to their hydrophobicity. Instead, in the case of signal anchor sequences, we identified for the first time a conformational consensus motif mediating cotransin sensitivity. PMID:25806945

  4. Randomness control of vehicular motion through a sequence of traffic signals at irregular intervals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagatani, Takashi

    2010-01-01

    We study the regularization of irregular motion of a vehicle moving through the sequence of traffic signals with a disordered configuration. Each traffic signal is controlled by both cycle time and phase shift. The cycle time is the same for all signals, while the phase shift varies from signal to signal by synchronizing with intervals between a signal and the next signal. The nonlinear dynamic model of the vehicular motion is presented by the stochastic nonlinear map. The vehicle exhibits the very complex behavior with varying both cycle time and strength of irregular intervals. The irregular motion induced by the disordered configuration is regularized by adjusting the phase shift within the regularization regions.

  5. Using physicochemical and compositional characteristics of DNA sequence for prediction of genomic signals

    KAUST Repository

    Mulamba, Pierre Abraham

    2014-12-01

    The challenge in finding genes in eukaryotic organisms using computational methods is an ongoing problem in the biology. Based on various genomic signals found in eukaryotic genomes, this problem can be divided into many different sub­‐problems such as identification of transcription start sites, translation initiation sites, splice sites, poly (A) signals, etc. Each sub-­problem deals with a particular type of genomic signals and various computational methods are used to solve each sub-­problem. Aggregating information from all these individual sub-­problems can lead to a complete annotation of a gene and its component signals. The fundamental principle of most of these computational methods is the mapping principle – building an input-­output model for the prediction of a particular genomic signal based on a set of known input signals and their corresponding output signal. The type of input signals used to build the model is an essential element in most of these computational methods. The common factor of most of these methods is that they are mainly based on the statistical analysis of the basic nucleotide sequence string composition. 4 Our study is based on a novel approach to predict genomic signals in which uniquely generated structural profiles that combine compressed physicochemical properties with topological and compositional properties of DNA sequences are used to develop machine learning predictive models. The compression of the physicochemical properties is made using principal component analysis transformation. Our ideas are evaluated through prediction models of canonical splice sites using support vector machine models. We demonstrate across several species that the proposed methodology has resulted in the most accurate splice site predictors that are publicly available or described. We believe that the approach in this study is quite general and has various applications in other biological modeling problems.

  6. Evaluation of the reproducibility of amplicon sequencing with Illumina MiSeq platform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wen, Chongqing; Wu, Liyou; Qin, Yujia; Van Nostrand, Joy D; Ning, Daliang; Sun, Bo; Xue, Kai; Liu, Feifei; Deng, Ye; Liang, Yuting; Zhou, Jizhong

    2017-01-01

    Illumina's MiSeq has become the dominant platform for gene amplicon sequencing in microbial ecology studies; however, various technical concerns, such as reproducibility, still exist. To assess reproducibility, 16S rRNA gene amplicons from 18 soil samples of a reciprocal transplantation experiment were sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq. The V4 region of 16S rRNA gene from each sample was sequenced in triplicate with each replicate having a unique barcode. The average OTU overlap, without considering sequence abundance, at a rarefaction level of 10,323 sequences was 33.4±2.1% and 20.2±1.7% between two and among three technical replicates, respectively. When OTU sequence abundance was considered, the average sequence abundance weighted OTU overlap was 85.6±1.6% and 81.2±2.1% for two and three replicates, respectively. Removing singletons significantly increased the overlap for both (~1-3%, pdeep sequencing increased OTU overlap both when sequence abundance was considered (95%) and when not (44%). However, if singletons were not removed the overlap between two technical replicates (not considering sequence abundance) plateaus at 39% with 30,000 sequences. Diversity measures were not affected by the low overlap as α-diversities were similar among technical replicates while β-diversities (Bray-Curtis) were much smaller among technical replicates than among treatment replicates (e.g., 0.269 vs. 0.374). Higher diversity coverage, but lower OTU overlap, was observed when replicates were sequenced in separate runs. Detrended correspondence analysis indicated that while there was considerable variation among technical replicates, the reproducibility was sufficient for detecting treatment effects for the samples examined. These results suggest that although there is variation among technical replicates, amplicon sequencing on MiSeq is useful for analyzing microbial community structure if used appropriately and with caution. For example, including technical replicates

  7. Evidence of Alternative Cystatin C Signal Sequence Cleavage Which Is Influenced by the A25T Polymorphism.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annie Nguyen

    Full Text Available Cystatin C (Cys C is a small, potent, cysteine protease inhibitor. An Ala25Thr (A25T polymorphism in Cys C has been associated with both macular degeneration and late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Previously, studies have suggested that this polymorphism may compromise the secretion of Cys C. Interestingly, we found that untagged A25T, A25T tagged C-terminally with FLAG, or A25T FLAG followed by green fluorescent protein (GFP, were all secreted as efficiently from immortalized human cells as their wild-type (WT counterparts (e.g., 112%, 100%, and 88% of WT levels from HEK-293T cells, respectively. Supporting these observations, WT and A25T Cys C variants also showed similar intracellular steady state levels. Furthermore, A25T Cys C did not activate the unfolded protein response and followed the same canonical endoplasmic reticulum (ER-Golgi trafficking pathway as WT Cys C. WT Cys C has been shown to undergo signal sequence cleavage between residues Gly26 and Ser27. While the A25T polymorphism did not affect Cys C secretion, we hypothesized that it may alter where the Cys C signal sequence is preferentially cleaved. Under normal conditions, WT and A25T Cys C have the same signal sequence cleavage site after Gly26 (referred to as 'site 2' cleavage. However, in particular circumstances when the residues around site 2 are modified (such as by the presence of an N-terminal FLAG tag immediately after Gly26, or by a Gly26Lys (G26K mutation, A25T has a significantly higher likelihood than WT Cys C of alternative signal sequence cleavage after Ala20 ('site 1' or even earlier in the Cys C sequence. Overall, our results indicate that the A25T polymorphism does not cause a significant reduction in Cys C secretion, but instead predisposes the protein to be cleaved at an alternative signal sequence cleavage site if site 2 is hindered. Additional N-terminal amino acids resulting from alternative signal sequence cleavage may, in turn, affect the protease

  8. Sleep overlap syndrome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fariba Rezaeetalab

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Overlap syndrome, which is known as the coexistence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA, was first defined by Flenley. Although it can refer to concomitant occurrence of any of the pulmonary diseases and OSA, overlap syndrome is commonly considered as the coexistence of OSA and COPD. This disease has unique adverse health consequences distinct from either condition alone. Given the high prevalence of each solitary disease, overlap syndrome is also likely to be common and clinically relevant. Despite the fact that overlap syndrome has been described in the literature for nearly 30 years, paucity of evaluations and studies limited the discussion on diagnosis, prevalence, pathophysiology, treatment, and outcomes of this disease. This review article addresses these issues by reviewing several recent studies conducted in Iran or other countries. This review suggests that overlap syndrome has worse outcomes than either disease alone. Our findings accentuated the urgent need for further studies on overlap syndrome and all overlaps between OSA and chronic pulmonary disease to provide a deeper insight into diagnosis and non-invasive treatments of this disease.

  9. A novel wavelet sequence based on deep bidirectional LSTM network model for ECG signal classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yildirim, Özal

    2018-05-01

    Long-short term memory networks (LSTMs), which have recently emerged in sequential data analysis, are the most widely used type of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) architecture. Progress on the topic of deep learning includes successful adaptations of deep versions of these architectures. In this study, a new model for deep bidirectional LSTM network-based wavelet sequences called DBLSTM-WS was proposed for classifying electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. For this purpose, a new wavelet-based layer is implemented to generate ECG signal sequences. The ECG signals were decomposed into frequency sub-bands at different scales in this layer. These sub-bands are used as sequences for the input of LSTM networks. New network models that include unidirectional (ULSTM) and bidirectional (BLSTM) structures are designed for performance comparisons. Experimental studies have been performed for five different types of heartbeats obtained from the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database. These five types are Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR), Ventricular Premature Contraction (VPC), Paced Beat (PB), Left Bundle Branch Block (LBBB), and Right Bundle Branch Block (RBBB). The results show that the DBLSTM-WS model gives a high recognition performance of 99.39%. It has been observed that the wavelet-based layer proposed in the study significantly improves the recognition performance of conventional networks. This proposed network structure is an important approach that can be applied to similar signal processing problems. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Epidemic spreading on complex networks with overlapping and non-overlapping community structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shang, Jiaxing; Liu, Lianchen; Li, Xin; Xie, Feng; Wu, Cheng

    2015-02-01

    Many real-world networks exhibit community structure where vertices belong to one or more communities. Recent studies show that community structure plays an import role in epidemic spreading. In this paper, we investigate how the extent of overlap among communities affects epidemics. In order to experiment on the characteristic of overlapping communities, we propose a rewiring algorithm that can change the community structure from overlapping to non-overlapping while maintaining the degree distribution of the network. We simulate the Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) epidemic process on synthetic scale-free networks and real-world networks by applying our rewiring algorithm. Experiments show that epidemics spread faster on networks with higher level of overlapping communities. Furthermore, overlapping communities' effect interacts with the average degree's effect. Our work further illustrates the important role of overlapping communities in the process of epidemic spreading.

  11. Oleosome-Associated Protein of the Oleaginous Diatom Fistulifera solaris Contains an Endoplasmic Reticulum-Targeting Signal Sequence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoshiaki Maeda

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Microalgae tend to accumulate lipids as an energy storage material in the specific organelle, oleosomes. Current studies have demonstrated that lipids derived from microalgal oleosomes are a promising source of biofuels, while the oleosome formation mechanism has not been fully elucidated. Oleosome-associated proteins have been identified from several microalgae to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms of oleosome formation, although understanding their functions is still in infancy. Recently, we discovered a diatom-oleosome-associated-protein 1 (DOAP1 from the oleaginous diatom, Fistulifera solaris JPCC DA0580. The DOAP1 sequence implied that this protein might be transported into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER due to the signal sequence. To ensure this, we fused the signal sequence to green fluorescence protein. The fusion protein distributed around the chloroplast as like a meshwork membrane structure, indicating the ER localization. This result suggests that DOAP1 could firstly localize at the ER, then move to the oleosomes. This study also demonstrated that the DOAP1 signal sequence allowed recombinant proteins to be specifically expressed in the ER of the oleaginous diatom. It would be a useful technique for engineering the lipid synthesis pathways existing in the ER, and finally controlling the biofuel quality.

  12. Locating protein-coding sequences under selection for additional, overlapping functions in 29 mammalian genomes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lin, Michael F; Kheradpour, Pouya; Washietl, Stefan

    2011-01-01

    conservation compared to typical protein-coding genes—especially at synonymous sites. In this study, we use genome alignments of 29 placental mammals to systematically locate short regions within human ORFs that show conspicuously low estimated rates of synonymous substitution across these species. The 29......-species alignment provides statistical power to locate more than 10,000 such regions with resolution down to nine-codon windows, which are found within more than a quarter of all human protein-coding genes and contain ~2% of their synonymous sites. We collect numerous lines of evidence that the observed...... synonymous constraint in these regions reflects selection on overlapping functional elements including splicing regulatory elements, dual-coding genes, RNA secondary structures, microRNA target sites, and developmental enhancers. Our results show that overlapping functional elements are common in mammalian...

  13. A memory-efficient data structure representing exact-match overlap graphs with application for next-generation DNA assembly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dinh, Hieu; Rajasekaran, Sanguthevar

    2011-07-15

    Exact-match overlap graphs have been broadly used in the context of DNA assembly and the shortest super string problem where the number of strings n ranges from thousands to billions. The length ℓ of the strings is from 25 to 1000, depending on the DNA sequencing technologies. However, many DNA assemblers using overlap graphs suffer from the need for too much time and space in constructing the graphs. It is nearly impossible for these DNA assemblers to handle the huge amount of data produced by the next-generation sequencing technologies where the number n of strings could be several billions. If the overlap graph is explicitly stored, it would require Ω(n(2)) memory, which could be prohibitive in practice when n is greater than a hundred million. In this article, we propose a novel data structure using which the overlap graph can be compactly stored. This data structure requires only linear time to construct and and linear memory to store. For a given set of input strings (also called reads), we can informally define an exact-match overlap graph as follows. Each read is represented as a node in the graph and there is an edge between two nodes if the corresponding reads overlap sufficiently. A formal description follows. The maximal exact-match overlap of two strings x and y, denoted by ov(max)(x, y), is the longest string which is a suffix of x and a prefix of y. The exact-match overlap graph of n given strings of length ℓ is an edge-weighted graph in which each vertex is associated with a string and there is an edge (x, y) of weight ω=ℓ-|ov(max)(x, y)| if and only if ω ≤ λ, where |ov(max)(x, y)| is the length of ov(max)(x, y) and λ is a given threshold. In this article, we show that the exact-match overlap graphs can be represented by a compact data structure that can be stored using at most (2λ-1)(2⌈logn⌉+⌈logλ⌉)n bits with a guarantee that the basic operation of accessing an edge takes O(log λ) time. We also propose two algorithms for

  14. A new method for detecting signal regions in ordered sequences of real numbers, and application to viral genomic data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gog, Julia R; Lever, Andrew M L; Skittrall, Jordan P

    2018-01-01

    We present a fast, robust and parsimonious approach to detecting signals in an ordered sequence of numbers. Our motivation is in seeking a suitable method to take a sequence of scores corresponding to properties of positions in virus genomes, and find outlying regions of low scores. Suitable statistical methods without using complex models or making many assumptions are surprisingly lacking. We resolve this by developing a method that detects regions of low score within sequences of real numbers. The method makes no assumptions a priori about the length of such a region; it gives the explicit location of the region and scores it statistically. It does not use detailed mechanistic models so the method is fast and will be useful in a wide range of applications. We present our approach in detail, and test it on simulated sequences. We show that it is robust to a wide range of signal morphologies, and that it is able to capture multiple signals in the same sequence. Finally we apply it to viral genomic data to identify regions of evolutionary conservation within influenza and rotavirus.

  15. Recognition of secretory proteins in Escherichia coli requires signals in addition to the signal sequence and slow folding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Flower Ann M

    2002-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Sec-dependent protein export apparatus of Escherichia coli is very efficient at correctly identifying proteins to be exported from the cytoplasm. Even bacterial strains that carry prl mutations, which allow export of signal sequence-defective precursors, accurately differentiate between cytoplasmic and mutant secretory proteins. It was proposed previously that the basis for this precise discrimination is the slow folding rate of secretory proteins, resulting in binding by the secretory chaperone, SecB, and subsequent targeting to translocase. Based on this proposal, we hypothesized that a cytoplasmic protein containing a mutation that slows its rate of folding would be recognized by SecB and therefore targeted to the Sec pathway. In a Prl suppressor strain the mutant protein would be exported to the periplasm due to loss of ability to reject non-secretory proteins from the pathway. Results In the current work, we tested this hypothesis using a mutant form of λ repressor that folds slowly. No export of the mutant protein was observed, even in a prl strain. We then examined binding of the mutant λ repressor to SecB. We did not observe interaction by either of two assays, indicating that slow folding is not sufficient for SecB binding and targeting to translocase. Conclusions These results strongly suggest that to be targeted to the export pathway, secretory proteins contain signals in addition to the canonical signal sequence and the rate of folding.

  16. Investigating Multi-Array Antenna Signal Convergence using Wavelet Transform and Krylov Sequence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Ahmed Sikander

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available In the present world, wireless communication is becoming immensely popular for plethora of applications. Technology has been advancing at an accelerated rate leading to make communication reliable. Still, there are issues need to be address to minimize errors in the transmission. This research study expounds on the rapid convergence of the signal. Convergence is considered to be an important aspect in wireless communication. For rapid convergence, two ambiguities should be addressed; Eigenvalue spread and sparse identification or sparsity of the signal. Eigen value spread is defining as the ratio of minimum to maximum Eigenvalue, whereas sparsity is defining as the loosely bounded system. In this research, two of these attributes are investigated for MAA (Multi-Array Antenna signal using the cascading of Wavelet and Krylov processes. Specifically, the MAA signal is applied in the research because nowadays there are many physical hindrances in the communication path. These hurdles weaken the signal strength which in turn effects the quality of the reception. WT (Wavelet Transform is used to address the Eigenvalue problem and the Krylov sequence is used to attempt the sparse identification of the MAA signal. The results show that the convergence of the MMA signal is improved by applying Wavelet transform and Krylov Subspace.

  17. Investigating multi-array antenna signal convergence using wavelet transform and krylov sequence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sikander, M.A.; Hussain, R.; Hussain, R.

    2018-01-01

    In the present world, wireless communication is becoming immensely popular for plethora of applications. Technology has been advancing at an accelerated rate leading to make communication reliable. Still, there are issues need to be address to minimize errors in the transmission. This research study expounds on the rapid convergence of the signal. Convergence is considered to be an important aspect in wireless communication. For rapid convergence, two ambiguities should be addressed; Eigenvalue spread and sparse identification or sparsity of the signal. Eigen value spread is defining as the ratio of minimum to maximum Eigenvalue, whereas sparsity is defining as the loosely bounded system. In this research, two of these attributes are investigated for MAA (Multi-Array Antenna) signal using the cascading of Wavelet and Krylov processes. Specifically, the MAA signal is applied in the research because nowadays there are many physical hindrances in the communication path. These hurdles weaken the signal strength which in turn effects the quality of the reception. WT (Wavelet Transform) is used to address the Eigenvalue problem and the Krylov sequence is used to attempt the sparse identification of the MAA signal. The results show that the convergence of the MMA signal is improved by applying Wavelet transform and Krylov Subspace. (author)

  18. Overlapping hotspots in CDRs are critical sites for V region diversification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Lirong; Chahwan, Richard; Wang, Shanzhi; Wang, Xiaohua; Pham, Phuong T; Goodman, Myron F; Bergman, Aviv; Scharff, Matthew D; MacCarthy, Thomas

    2015-02-17

    Activation-induced deaminase (AID) mediates the somatic hypermutation (SHM) of Ig variable (V) regions that is required for the affinity maturation of the antibody response. An intensive analysis of a published database of somatic hypermutations that arose in the IGHV3-23*01 human V region expressed in vivo by human memory B cells revealed that the focus of mutations in complementary determining region (CDR)1 and CDR2 coincided with a combination of overlapping AGCT hotspots, the absence of AID cold spots, and an abundance of polymerase eta hotspots. If the overlapping hotspots in the CDR1 or CDR2 did not undergo mutation, the frequency of mutations throughout the V region was reduced. To model this result, we examined the mutation of the human IGHV3-23*01 biochemically and in the endogenous heavy chain locus of Ramos B cells. Deep sequencing revealed that IGHV3-23*01 in Ramos cells accumulates AID-induced mutations primarily in the AGCT in CDR2, which was also the most frequent site of mutation in vivo. Replacing the overlapping hotspots in CDR1 and CDR2 with neutral or cold motifs resulted in a reduction in mutations within the modified motifs and, to some degree, throughout the V region. In addition, some of the overlapping hotspots in the CDRs were at sites in which replacement mutations could change the structure of the CDR loops. Our analysis suggests that the local sequence environment of the V region, and especially of the CDR1 and CDR2, is highly evolved to recruit mutations to key residues in the CDRs of the IgV region.

  19. Human pro. cap alpha. 1(III) collagen: cDNA sequence for the 3' end

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mankoo, B S; Dalgleish, R

    1988-03-25

    The authors have previously isolated two overlapping cDNA clones, pIII-21 and pIII-33, which encode the C-terminal end of human type III procollagen. They now present the sequence of 2520 bases encoded in these cDNAs which overlaps other previously published sequences for the same gene. The sequence presented differs from previously published sequences at five positions.

  20. Measurement of elastic constants by simultaneously sensing longitudinal and shear waves as an overlapped signal

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Seo, Ho Geon; Song, Dong Gi; Jhang, Kyoung Young [Hanyang University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-04-15

    Measurement of elastic constants is crucial for engineering aspects of predicting the behavior of materials under load as well as structural health monitoring of material degradation. Ultrasonic velocity measurement for material properties has been broadly used as a nondestructive evaluation method for material characterization. In particular, pulse-echo method has been extensively utilized as it is not only simple but also effective when only one side of the inspected objects is accessible. However, the conventional technique in this approach measures longitudinal and shear waves individually to obtain their velocities. This produces a set of two data for each measurement. This paper proposes a simultaneous sensing system of longitudinal waves and shear waves for elastic constant measurement. The proposed system senses both these waves simultaneously as a single overlapped signal, which is then analyzed to calculate both the ultrasonic velocities for obtaining elastic constants. Therefore, this system requires just half the number of data to obtain elastic constants compared to the conventional individual measurement. The results of the proposed simultaneous measurement had smaller standard deviations than those in the individual measurement. These results validate that the proposed approach improves the efficiency and reliability of ultrasonic elastic constant measurement by reducing the complexity of the measurement system, its operating procedures, and the number of data.

  1. Measurement of elastic constants by simultaneously sensing longitudinal and shear waves as an overlapped signal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seo, Ho Geon; Song, Dong Gi; Jhang, Kyoung Young

    2016-01-01

    Measurement of elastic constants is crucial for engineering aspects of predicting the behavior of materials under load as well as structural health monitoring of material degradation. Ultrasonic velocity measurement for material properties has been broadly used as a nondestructive evaluation method for material characterization. In particular, pulse-echo method has been extensively utilized as it is not only simple but also effective when only one side of the inspected objects is accessible. However, the conventional technique in this approach measures longitudinal and shear waves individually to obtain their velocities. This produces a set of two data for each measurement. This paper proposes a simultaneous sensing system of longitudinal waves and shear waves for elastic constant measurement. The proposed system senses both these waves simultaneously as a single overlapped signal, which is then analyzed to calculate both the ultrasonic velocities for obtaining elastic constants. Therefore, this system requires just half the number of data to obtain elastic constants compared to the conventional individual measurement. The results of the proposed simultaneous measurement had smaller standard deviations than those in the individual measurement. These results validate that the proposed approach improves the efficiency and reliability of ultrasonic elastic constant measurement by reducing the complexity of the measurement system, its operating procedures, and the number of data

  2. Overlap functions

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Bustince, H.; Fernández, J.; Mesiar, Radko; Montero, J.; Orduna, R.

    2010-01-01

    Roč. 72, 3-4 (2010), s. 1488-1499 ISSN 0362-546X R&D Projects: GA ČR GA402/08/0618 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10750506 Keywords : t-norm * Migrative property * Homogeneity property * Overlap function Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 1.279, year: 2010 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2009/E/mesiar-overlap functions.pdf

  3. Implementation of 2D Discrete Wavelet Transform by Number Theoretic Transform and 2D Overlap-Save Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lina Yang

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available To reduce the computation complexity of wavelet transform, this paper presents a novel approach to be implemented. It consists of two key techniques: (1 fast number theoretic transform(FNTT In the FNTT, linear convolution is replaced by the circular one. It can speed up the computation of 2D discrete wavelet transform. (2 In two-dimensional overlap-save method directly calculating the FNTT to the whole input sequence may meet two difficulties; namely, a big modulo obstructs the effective implementation of the FNTT and a long input sequence slows the computation of the FNTT down. To fight with such deficiencies, a new technique which is referred to as 2D overlap-save method is developed. Experiments have been conducted. The fast number theoretic transform and 2D overlap-method have been used to implement the dyadic wavelet transform and applied to contour extraction in pattern recognition.

  4. Sequence-specific 1H NMR resonance assignments of Bacillus subtilis HPr: Use of spectra obtained from mutants to resolve spectral overlap

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wittekind, M.; Klevit, R.E.; Reizer, J.

    1990-01-01

    On the basis of an analysis of two-dimensional 1 H NMR spectra, the complete sequence-specific 1 H NMR assignments are presented for the phosphocarrier protein HPr from the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis. During the assignment procedure, extensive use was made of spectra obtained from point mutants of HPr in order to resolve spectral overlap and to provide verification of assignments. Regions of regular secondary structure were identified by characteristic patterns of sequential backbone proton NOEs and slowly exchanging amide protons. B subtilis HPr contains four β-strands that form a single antiparallel β-sheet and two well-defined α-helices. There are two stretches of extended backbone structure, one of which contains the active site His 15 . The overall fold of the protein is very similar to that of Escherichia coli HPr determined by NMR studies

  5. A Review on Successive Interference Cancellation-Based Optical PPM-CDMA Signaling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alsowaidi, Naif; Eltaif, Tawfig; Mokhtar, Mohd Ridzuan

    2017-06-01

    This paper presents a comprehensive review of successive interference cancellation (SIC) scheme using pulse position modulation (PPM) for optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) systems. SIC scheme focuses on high-intensity signal, which will be selected after all users were detected, and then it will be subtracted from the overall received signal, hence, generating a new received signal. This process continues till all users eliminated one by one have been detected. It is shown that the random location of the sequences due to PPM encoding can reduce the probability of concentrated buildup of the pulse overlap in any one-slot time, and support SIC to easily remove the effect of the strongest signal at each stage of the cancellation process. The system bit error rate (BER) performance with modified quadratic congruence (MQC) codes used as signature sequence has been investigated. A detailed theoretical analysis of proposed system taking into account the impact of imperfect interference cancellation, the loss produced from the splitting during encoding and decoding, the channel loss and multiple access interference is presented. Results show that under average effective power constraint optical CDMA system using SIC scheme with M-ary PPM modulation outperforms conventional correlator detector and SIC scheme with on-off keying (OOK) modulation.

  6. Optimization of sequence alignment for simple sequence repeat regions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ogbonnaya Francis C

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Microsatellites, or simple sequence repeats (SSRs, are tandemly repeated DNA sequences, including tandem copies of specific sequences no longer than six bases, that are distributed in the genome. SSR has been used as a molecular marker because it is easy to detect and is used in a range of applications, including genetic diversity, genome mapping, and marker assisted selection. It is also very mutable because of slipping in the DNA polymerase during DNA replication. This unique mutation increases the insertion/deletion (INDELs mutation frequency to a high ratio - more than other types of molecular markers such as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs. SNPs are more frequent than INDELs. Therefore, all designed algorithms for sequence alignment fit the vast majority of the genomic sequence without considering microsatellite regions, as unique sequences that require special consideration. The old algorithm is limited in its application because there are many overlaps between different repeat units which result in false evolutionary relationships. Findings To overcome the limitation of the aligning algorithm when dealing with SSR loci, a new algorithm was developed using PERL script with a Tk graphical interface. This program is based on aligning sequences after determining the repeated units first, and the last SSR nucleotides positions. This results in a shifting process according to the inserted repeated unit type. When studying the phylogenic relations before and after applying the new algorithm, many differences in the trees were obtained by increasing the SSR length and complexity. However, less distance between different linage had been observed after applying the new algorithm. Conclusions The new algorithm produces better estimates for aligning SSR loci because it reflects more reliable evolutionary relations between different linages. It reduces overlapping during SSR alignment, which results in a more realistic

  7. Taxonomic Characterization of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Pollen Foraging Based on Non-Overlapping Paired-End Sequencing of Nuclear Ribosomal Loci.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cornman, R Scott; Otto, Clint R V; Iwanowicz, Deborah; Pettis, Jeffery S

    2015-01-01

    Identifying plant taxa that honey bees (Apis mellifera) forage upon is of great apicultural interest, but traditional methods are labor intensive and may lack resolution. Here we evaluate a high-throughput genetic barcoding approach to characterize trap-collected pollen from multiple North Dakota apiaries across multiple years. We used the Illumina MiSeq platform to generate sequence scaffolds from non-overlapping 300-bp paired-end sequencing reads of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacers (ITS). Full-length sequence scaffolds represented ~530 bp of ITS sequence after adapter trimming, drawn from the 5' of ITS1 and the 3' of ITS2, while skipping the uninformative 5.8S region. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were picked from scaffolds clustered at 97% identity, searched by BLAST against the nt database, and given taxonomic assignments using the paired-read lowest common ancestor approach. Taxonomic assignments and quantitative patterns were consistent with known plant distributions, phenology, and observational reports of pollen foraging, but revealed an unexpected contribution from non-crop graminoids and wetland plants. The mean number of plant species assignments per sample was 23.0 (+/- 5.5) and the mean species diversity (effective number of equally abundant species) was 3.3 (+/- 1.2). Bray-Curtis similarities showed good agreement among samples from the same apiary and sampling date. Rarefaction plots indicated that fewer than 50,000 reads are typically needed to characterize pollen samples of this complexity. Our results show that a pre-compiled, curated reference database is not essential for genus-level assignments, but species-level assignments are hindered by database gaps, reference length variation, and probable errors in the taxonomic assignment, requiring post-hoc evaluation. Although the effective per-sample yield achieved using custom MiSeq amplicon primers was less than the machine maximum, primarily due to lower "read2" quality, further

  8. MRI investigation of normal fetal lung maturation using signal intensities on different imaging sequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Balassy, Csilla; Kasprian, Gregor; Weber, Michael; Hoermann, Marcus; Prayer, Daniela; Brugger, Peter C.; Csapo, Bence; Mittermayer, Christoph

    2007-01-01

    To purpose of this paper is to study the relation between normal lung maturation signal and changes in intensity ratios (SIR) and to determine which magnetic resonance imaging sequence provides the strongest correlation of normal lung SIs with gestational age. 126 normal singleton pregnancies (20-37 weeks) were examined with a 1.5 Tesla unit. Mean SIs for lungs, liver, and gastric fluid were assessed on six different sequences, and SIRs of lung/liver (LLSIR) and lung/gastric fluid (LGSIR) were correlated with gestational age for each sequence. To evaluate the feasibility of SIRs in the prediction of the state of the lung maturity, accuracy of the predicted SIRs (D*) was measured by calculating relative residuals (D*-D)/D for each sequence. LLSIRs showed significant changes in every sequence (p<0.05), while LGSIRs only on two sequences. Significant differences were shown for the mean of absolute residuals for both LLSIRs (p<0.001) and for LGSIRs (p=0.003). Relative residuals of LLSIRs were significantly smaller on T1-weighted sequence, whereas they were significantly higher for LGSIRs on FLAIR sequence. Fetal liver seems to be adequate reference for the investigation of lung maturation. T1-weighted sequence was the most accurate for the measurement of the lung SIs; thus, we propose to determine LLSIR on T1-weighted sequence when evaluating lung development. (orig.)

  9. MRI investigation of normal fetal lung maturation using signal intensities on different imaging sequences

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Balassy, Csilla; Kasprian, Gregor; Weber, Michael; Hoermann, Marcus; Prayer, Daniela [Medical University of Vienna, Department of Radiology, Vienna (Austria); Brugger, Peter C. [Medical University of Vienna, Center of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Vienna (Austria); Csapo, Bence [Medical University of Vienna, Department of Obstetrics and Gyneocology, Vienna (Austria); Mittermayer, Christoph [Medical University of Vienna, Department of Pediatrics, Vienna (Austria)

    2007-03-15

    To purpose of this paper is to study the relation between normal lung maturation signal and changes in intensity ratios (SIR) and to determine which magnetic resonance imaging sequence provides the strongest correlation of normal lung SIs with gestational age. 126 normal singleton pregnancies (20-37 weeks) were examined with a 1.5 Tesla unit. Mean SIs for lungs, liver, and gastric fluid were assessed on six different sequences, and SIRs of lung/liver (LLSIR) and lung/gastric fluid (LGSIR) were correlated with gestational age for each sequence. To evaluate the feasibility of SIRs in the prediction of the state of the lung maturity, accuracy of the predicted SIRs (D*) was measured by calculating relative residuals (D*-D)/D for each sequence. LLSIRs showed significant changes in every sequence (p<0.05), while LGSIRs only on two sequences. Significant differences were shown for the mean of absolute residuals for both LLSIRs (p<0.001) and for LGSIRs (p=0.003). Relative residuals of LLSIRs were significantly smaller on T1-weighted sequence, whereas they were significantly higher for LGSIRs on FLAIR sequence. Fetal liver seems to be adequate reference for the investigation of lung maturation. T1-weighted sequence was the most accurate for the measurement of the lung SIs; thus, we propose to determine LLSIR on T1-weighted sequence when evaluating lung development. (orig.)

  10. Osteogenesis imperfecta type III/Ehlers-Danlos overlap syndrome in a Chinese man.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Yanqin; Wang, Yanzhou; Rauch, Frank; Li, Hu; Zhang, Yao; Zhai, Naixiang; Zhang, Jian; Ren, Xiuzhi; Han, Jinxiang

    2018-02-01

    Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) are rare genetic disorders that are typically inherited in an autosomal dominant manner. Few cases of OI/EDS overlap syndrome have been documented. Described here is a 30-year-old Chinese male with OI type III and EDS. Sequencing of genomic DNA revealed a heterozygous COL1A1 mutation (c.671G>A, p.Gly224Asp) that affected the N-anchor domain of the alpha 1 chain of collagen type I. Ultrastructural analysis of a skin biopsy specimen revealed thin collagen fibers with irregular alignment of collagen fibers. These findings have expanded the genotypic spectrum of the OI/EDS overlap syndrome.

  11. OVERLAPPING VIRTUAL CADASTRAL DOCUMENTATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Madalina - Cristina Marian

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Two cadastrale plans of buildings, can overlap virtual. Overlap is highlighted when digital reception. According to Law no. 7/1996 as amended and supplemented, to solve these problems is by updating the database graphs, the repositioning. This paper addresses the issue of overlapping virtual cadastre in the history of the period 1999-2012.

  12. BPhyOG: An interactive server for genome-wide inference of bacterial phylogenies based on overlapping genes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lin Kui

    2007-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Overlapping genes (OGs in bacterial genomes are pairs of adjacent genes of which the coding sequences overlap partly or entirely. With the rapid accumulation of sequence data, many OGs in bacterial genomes have now been identified. Indeed, these might prove a consistent feature across all microbial genomes. Our previous work suggests that OGs can be considered as robust markers at the whole genome level for the construction of phylogenies. An online, interactive web server for inferring phylogenies is needed for biologists to analyze phylogenetic relationships among a set of bacterial genomes of interest. Description BPhyOG is an online interactive server for reconstructing the phylogenies of completely sequenced bacterial genomes on the basis of their shared overlapping genes. It provides two tree-reconstruction methods: Neighbor Joining (NJ and Unweighted Pair-Group Method using Arithmetic averages (UPGMA. Users can apply the desired method to generate phylogenetic trees, which are based on an evolutionary distance matrix for the selected genomes. The distance between two genomes is defined by the normalized number of their shared OG pairs. BPhyOG also allows users to browse the OGs that were used to infer the phylogenetic relationships. It provides detailed annotation for each OG pair and the features of the component genes through hyperlinks. Users can also retrieve each of the homologous OG pairs that have been determined among 177 genomes. It is a useful tool for analyzing the tree of life and overlapping genes from a genomic standpoint. Conclusion BPhyOG is a useful interactive web server for genome-wide inference of any potential evolutionary relationship among the genomes selected by users. It currently includes 177 completely sequenced bacterial genomes containing 79,855 OG pairs, the annotation and homologous OG pairs of which are integrated comprehensively. The reliability of phylogenies complemented by

  13. Overlapping positive and negative regulatory domains of the human β-interferon gene

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goodbourn, S.; Maniatis, T.

    1988-01-01

    Virus of poly(I) x poly(C) induction of human β-interferon gene expression requires a 40-base-pair DNA sequence designated the interferon gene regulatory element (IRE). Previous studies have shown that the IRE contains both positive and negative regulatory DNA sequences. To localize these sequences and study their interactions, the authors have examined the effects of a large number of single-base mutations within the IRE on β-interferon gene regulation. They find that the IRE consists of two genetically separable positive regulatory domains and an overlapping negative control sequence. They propose that the β-interferon gene is switched off in uninduced cells by a repressor that blocks the interaction between one of the two positive regulatory sequences and a specific transcription factor. Induction would then lead to inactivation or displacement of the repressor and binding of transcription factors to both positive regulatory domains

  14. Single-base resolution and long-coverage sequencing based on single-molecule nanomanipulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    An Hongjie; Huang Jiehuan; Lue Ming; Li Xueling; Lue Junhong; Li Haikuo; Zhang Yi; Li Minqian; Hu Jun

    2007-01-01

    We show new approaches towards a novel single-molecule sequencing strategy which consists of high-resolution positioning isolation of overlapping DNA fragments with atomic force microscopy (AFM), subsequent single-molecule PCR amplification and conventional Sanger sequencing. In this study, a DNA labelling technique was used to guarantee the accuracy in positioning the target DNA. Single-molecule multiplex PCR was carried out to test the contamination. The results showed that the two overlapping DNA fragments isolated by AFM could be successfully sequenced with high quality and perfect contiguity, indicating that single-base resolution and long-coverage sequencing have been achieved simultaneously

  15. Taxonomic characterization of honey bee (Apis mellifera) pollen foraging based on non-overlapping paired-end sequencing of nuclear ribosomal loci

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cornman, Robert S.; Otto, Clint R.; Iwanowicz, Deborah; Pettis, Jeffery S

    2015-01-01

    Identifying plant taxa that honey bees (Apis mellifera) forage upon is of great apicultural interest, but traditional methods are labor intensive and may lack resolution. Here we evaluate a high-throughput genetic barcoding approach to characterize trap-collected pollen from multiple North Dakota apiaries across multiple years. We used the Illumina MiSeq platform to generate sequence scaffolds from non-overlapping 300-bp paired-end sequencing reads of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacers (ITS). Full-length sequence scaffolds represented ~530 bp of ITS sequence after adapter trimming, drawn from the 5’ of ITS1 and the 3’ of ITS2, while skipping the uninformative 5.8S region. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were picked from scaffolds clustered at 97% identity, searched by BLAST against the nt database, and given taxonomic assignments using the paired-read lowest common ancestor approach. Taxonomic assignments and quantitative patterns were consistent with known plant distributions, phenology, and observational reports of pollen foraging, but revealed an unexpected contribution from non-crop graminoids and wetland plants. The mean number of plant species assignments per sample was 23.0 (+/- 5.5) and the mean species diversity (effective number of equally abundant species) was 3.3 (+/- 1.2). Bray-Curtis similarities showed good agreement among samples from the same apiary and sampling date. Rarefaction plots indicated that fewer than 50,000 reads are typically needed to characterize pollen samples of this complexity. Our results show that a pre-compiled, curated reference database is not essential for genus-level assignments, but species-level assignments are hindered by database gaps, reference length variation, and probable errors in the taxonomic assignment, requiring post-hoc evaluation. Although the effective per-sample yield achieved using custom MiSeq amplicon primers was less than the machine maximum, primarily due to lower “read2” quality

  16. Taxonomic Characterization of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera Pollen Foraging Based on Non-Overlapping Paired-End Sequencing of Nuclear Ribosomal Loci.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    R Scott Cornman

    Full Text Available Identifying plant taxa that honey bees (Apis mellifera forage upon is of great apicultural interest, but traditional methods are labor intensive and may lack resolution. Here we evaluate a high-throughput genetic barcoding approach to characterize trap-collected pollen from multiple North Dakota apiaries across multiple years. We used the Illumina MiSeq platform to generate sequence scaffolds from non-overlapping 300-bp paired-end sequencing reads of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacers (ITS. Full-length sequence scaffolds represented ~530 bp of ITS sequence after adapter trimming, drawn from the 5' of ITS1 and the 3' of ITS2, while skipping the uninformative 5.8S region. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs were picked from scaffolds clustered at 97% identity, searched by BLAST against the nt database, and given taxonomic assignments using the paired-read lowest common ancestor approach. Taxonomic assignments and quantitative patterns were consistent with known plant distributions, phenology, and observational reports of pollen foraging, but revealed an unexpected contribution from non-crop graminoids and wetland plants. The mean number of plant species assignments per sample was 23.0 (+/- 5.5 and the mean species diversity (effective number of equally abundant species was 3.3 (+/- 1.2. Bray-Curtis similarities showed good agreement among samples from the same apiary and sampling date. Rarefaction plots indicated that fewer than 50,000 reads are typically needed to characterize pollen samples of this complexity. Our results show that a pre-compiled, curated reference database is not essential for genus-level assignments, but species-level assignments are hindered by database gaps, reference length variation, and probable errors in the taxonomic assignment, requiring post-hoc evaluation. Although the effective per-sample yield achieved using custom MiSeq amplicon primers was less than the machine maximum, primarily due to lower "read2

  17. Overlapping clusters for distributed computation.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mirrokni, Vahab (Google Research, New York, NY); Andersen, Reid (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA); Gleich, David F.

    2010-11-01

    Scalable, distributed algorithms must address communication problems. We investigate overlapping clusters, or vertex partitions that intersect, for graph computations. This setup stores more of the graph than required but then affords the ease of implementation of vertex partitioned algorithms. Our hope is that this technique allows us to reduce communication in a computation on a distributed graph. The motivation above draws on recent work in communication avoiding algorithms. Mohiyuddin et al. (SC09) design a matrix-powers kernel that gives rise to an overlapping partition. Fritzsche et al. (CSC2009) develop an overlapping clustering for a Schwarz method. Both techniques extend an initial partitioning with overlap. Our procedure generates overlap directly. Indeed, Schwarz methods are commonly used to capitalize on overlap. Elsewhere, overlapping communities (Ahn et al, Nature 2009; Mishra et al. WAW2007) are now a popular model of structure in social networks. These have long been studied in statistics (Cole and Wishart, CompJ 1970). We present two types of results: (i) an estimated swapping probability {rho}{infinity}; and (ii) the communication volume of a parallel PageRank solution (link-following {alpha} = 0.85) using an additive Schwarz method. The volume ratio is the amount of extra storage for the overlap (2 means we store the graph twice). Below, as the ratio increases, the swapping probability and PageRank communication volume decreases.

  18. Phylogeography of the reef fish Cephalopholis argus (Epinephelidae) indicates Pleistocene isolation across the Indo-Pacific Barrier with contemporary overlap in The Coral Triangle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaither, Michelle R; Bowen, Brian W; Bordenave, Tiana-Rae; Rocha, Luiz A; Newman, Stephen J; Gomez, Juan A; van Herwerden, Lynne; Craig, Matthew T

    2011-07-01

    The Coral Triangle (CT), bounded by the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula, and New Guinea, is the epicenter of marine biodiversity. Hypotheses that explain the source of this rich biodiversity include 1) the center of origin, 2) the center of accumulation, and 3) the region of overlap. Here we contribute to the debate with a phylogeographic survey of a widely distributed reef fish, the Peacock Grouper (Cephalopholis argus; Epinephelidae) at 21 locations (N = 550) using DNA sequence data from mtDNA cytochrome b and two nuclear introns (gonadotropin-releasing hormone and S7 ribosomal protein). Population structure was significant (ΦST = 0.297, P Pacific (Line Islands to northeastern Australia), Indo-Pacific boundary (Bali and Rowley Shoals), eastern Indian Ocean (Cocos/Keeling and Christmas Island), and western Indian Ocean (Diego Garcia, Oman, and Seychelles). A strong signal of isolation by distance was detected in both mtDNA (r = 0.749, P = 0.001) and the combined nuclear loci (r = 0.715, P Pacific and Indian Oceans, with a low level of introgression observed outside a mixing zone at the Pacific-Indian boundary. We conclude that the Indo-Pacific Barrier, operating during low sea level associated with glaciation, defines the primary phylogeographic pattern in this species. These data support a scenario of isolation on the scale of 105 year glacial cycles, followed by population expansion toward the CT, and overlap of divergent lineages at the Pacific-Indian boundary. This pattern of isolation, divergence, and subsequent overlap likely contributes to species richness at the adjacent CT and is consistent with the region of overlap hypothesis.

  19. Statistically validated network of portfolio overlaps and systemic risk.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gualdi, Stanislao; Cimini, Giulio; Primicerio, Kevin; Di Clemente, Riccardo; Challet, Damien

    2016-12-21

    Common asset holding by financial institutions (portfolio overlap) is nowadays regarded as an important channel for financial contagion with the potential to trigger fire sales and severe losses at the systemic level. We propose a method to assess the statistical significance of the overlap between heterogeneously diversified portfolios, which we use to build a validated network of financial institutions where links indicate potential contagion channels. The method is implemented on a historical database of institutional holdings ranging from 1999 to the end of 2013, but can be applied to any bipartite network. We find that the proportion of validated links (i.e. of significant overlaps) increased steadily before the 2007-2008 financial crisis and reached a maximum when the crisis occurred. We argue that the nature of this measure implies that systemic risk from fire sales liquidation was maximal at that time. After a sharp drop in 2008, systemic risk resumed its growth in 2009, with a notable acceleration in 2013. We finally show that market trends tend to be amplified in the portfolios identified by the algorithm, such that it is possible to have an informative signal about institutions that are about to suffer (enjoy) the most significant losses (gains).

  20. Ripple artifact reduction using slice overlap in slice encoding for metal artifact correction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    den Harder, J Chiel; van Yperen, Gert H; Blume, Ulrike A; Bos, Clemens

    2015-01-01

    Multispectral imaging (MSI) significantly reduces metal artifacts. Yet, especially in techniques that use gradient selection, such as slice encoding for metal artifact correction (SEMAC), a residual ripple artifact may be prominent. Here, an analysis is presented of the ripple artifact and of slice overlap as an approach to reduce the artifact. The ripple artifact was analyzed theoretically to clarify its cause. Slice overlap, conceptually similar to spectral bin overlap in multi-acquisition with variable resonances image combination (MAVRIC), was achieved by reducing the selection gradient and, thus, increasing the slice profile width. Time domain simulations and phantom experiments were performed to validate the analyses and proposed solution. Discontinuities between slices are aggravated by signal displacement in the frequency encoding direction in areas with deviating B0. Specifically, it was demonstrated that ripple artifacts appear only where B0 varies both in-plane and through-plane. Simulations and phantom studies of metal implants confirmed the efficacy of slice overlap to reduce the artifact. The ripple artifact is an important limitation of gradient selection based MSI techniques, and can be understood using the presented simulations. At a scan-time penalty, slice overlap effectively addressed the artifact, thereby improving image quality near metal implants. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  1. Illusion induced overlapped optics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zang, XiaoFei; Shi, Cheng; Li, Zhou; Chen, Lin; Cai, Bin; Zhu, YiMing; Zhu, HaiBin

    2014-01-13

    The traditional transformation-based cloak seems like it can only hide objects by bending the incident electromagnetic waves around the hidden region. In this paper, we prove that invisible cloaks can be applied to realize the overlapped optics. No matter how many in-phase point sources are located in the hidden region, all of them can overlap each other (this can be considered as illusion effect), leading to the perfect optical interference effect. In addition, a singular parameter-independent cloak is also designed to obtain quasi-overlapped optics. Even more amazing of overlapped optics is that if N identical separated in-phase point sources covered with the illusion media, the total power outside the transformation region is N2I0 (not NI0) (I0 is the power of just one point source, and N is the number point sources), which seems violating the law of conservation of energy. A theoretical model based on interference effect is proposed to interpret the total power of these two kinds of overlapped optics effects. Our investigation may have wide applications in high power coherent laser beams, and multiple laser diodes, and so on.

  2. Organization of signal flow in directed networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bányai, M; Bazsó, F; Négyessy, L

    2011-01-01

    Confining an answer to the question of whether and how the coherent operation of network elements is determined by the network structure is the topic of our work. We map the structure of signal flow in directed networks by analysing the degree of edge convergence and the overlap between the in- and output sets of an edge. Definitions of convergence degree and overlap are based on the shortest paths, thus they encapsulate global network properties. Using the defining notions of convergence degree and overlapping set we clarify the meaning of network causality and demonstrate the crucial role of chordless circles. In real-world networks the flow representation distinguishes nodes according to their signal transmitting, processing and control properties. The analysis of real-world networks in terms of flow representation was in accordance with the known functional properties of the network nodes. It is shown that nodes with different signal processing, transmitting and control properties are randomly connected at the global scale, while local connectivity patterns depart from randomness. The grouping of network nodes according to their signal flow properties was unrelated to the network's community structure. We present evidence that the signal flow properties of small-world-like, real-world networks cannot be reconstructed by algorithms used to generate small-world networks. Convergence degree values were calculated for regular oriented trees, and the probability density function for networks grown with the preferential attachment mechanism. For Erdos–Rényi graphs we calculated the probability density function of both convergence degrees and overlaps

  3. Superharmonic imaging with chirp coded excitation: filtering spectrally overlapped harmonics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harput, Sevan; McLaughlan, James; Cowell, David M J; Freear, Steven

    2014-11-01

    Superharmonic imaging improves the spatial resolution by using the higher order harmonics generated in tissue. The superharmonic component is formed by combining the third, fourth, and fifth harmonics, which have low energy content and therefore poor SNR. This study uses coded excitation to increase the excitation energy. The SNR improvement is achieved on the receiver side by performing pulse compression with harmonic matched filters. The use of coded signals also introduces new filtering capabilities that are not possible with pulsed excitation. This is especially important when using wideband signals. For narrowband signals, the spectral boundaries of the harmonics are clearly separated and thus easy to filter; however, the available imaging bandwidth is underused. Wideband excitation is preferable for harmonic imaging applications to preserve axial resolution, but it generates spectrally overlapping harmonics that are not possible to filter in time and frequency domains. After pulse compression, this overlap increases the range side lobes, which appear as imaging artifacts and reduce the Bmode image quality. In this study, the isolation of higher order harmonics was achieved in another domain by using the fan chirp transform (FChT). To show the effect of excitation bandwidth in superharmonic imaging, measurements were performed by using linear frequency modulated chirp excitation with varying bandwidths of 10% to 50%. Superharmonic imaging was performed on a wire phantom using a wideband chirp excitation. Results were presented with and without applying the FChT filtering technique by comparing the spatial resolution and side lobe levels. Wideband excitation signals achieved a better resolution as expected, however range side lobes as high as -23 dB were observed for the superharmonic component of chirp excitation with 50% fractional bandwidth. The proposed filtering technique achieved >50 dB range side lobe suppression and improved the image quality without

  4. Pulse propagation in a two-pass optical amplifier with arbitrary laser beams overlap

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    AH Farahbod

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available An analytical model for two-pass optical amplifier with arbitrary beams overlap has been developed which generalized the classical theory of Frantz-Nodvik for single pass amplifier. The effect of counterpropagating beams on gain and output energy fluence included in the model. Moreover, the appropriate limiting relations for two special cases of weak input signal and saturation state of the amplifier gain have been derived. The results indicate that for complete beams overlap, the gain and output energy have the least values. The model predictions are consistent with experimental observations and exact analytical model for two-pass amplifier when beam propagation paths are coincided.

  5. The complete genome sequence of Trueperella pyogenes UFV1 reveals a processing system involved in the quorumsensing signal response

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Duarte, Vinicius da Silva; Treu, Laura; Campanaro, Stefano

    2017-01-01

    We present here the complete genome sequence of Trueperella pyogenes UFV1. The 2.3-Mbp genome contains an extremely interesting AI-2 transporter and processing system related to the quorum-sensing signal response. This specific feature is described in this species for the first time and might be ...... be responsible for a new pathogenic behavior.......We present here the complete genome sequence of Trueperella pyogenes UFV1. The 2.3-Mbp genome contains an extremely interesting AI-2 transporter and processing system related to the quorum-sensing signal response. This specific feature is described in this species for the first time and might...

  6. Overlapping structures in sensory-motor mappings.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kevin Earland

    Full Text Available This paper examines a biologically-inspired representation technique designed for the support of sensory-motor learning in developmental robotics. An interesting feature of the many topographic neural sheets in the brain is that closely packed receptive fields must overlap in order to fully cover a spatial region. This raises interesting scientific questions with engineering implications: e.g. is overlap detrimental? does it have any benefits? This paper examines the effects and properties of overlap between elements arranged in arrays or maps. In particular we investigate how overlap affects the representation and transmission of spatial location information on and between topographic maps. Through a series of experiments we determine the conditions under which overlap offers advantages and identify useful ranges of overlap for building mappings in cognitive robotic systems. Our motivation is to understand the phenomena of overlap in order to provide guidance for application in sensory-motor learning robots.

  7. Identifying structural variants using linked-read sequencing data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elyanow, Rebecca; Wu, Hsin-Ta; Raphael, Benjamin J

    2017-11-03

    Structural variation, including large deletions, duplications, inversions, translocations, and other rearrangements, is common in human and cancer genomes. A number of methods have been developed to identify structural variants from Illumina short-read sequencing data. However, reliable identification of structural variants remains challenging because many variants have breakpoints in repetitive regions of the genome and thus are difficult to identify with short reads. The recently developed linked-read sequencing technology from 10X Genomics combines a novel barcoding strategy with Illumina sequencing. This technology labels all reads that originate from a small number (~5-10) DNA molecules ~50Kbp in length with the same molecular barcode. These barcoded reads contain long-range sequence information that is advantageous for identification of structural variants. We present Novel Adjacency Identification with Barcoded Reads (NAIBR), an algorithm to identify structural variants in linked-read sequencing data. NAIBR predicts novel adjacencies in a individual genome resulting from structural variants using a probabilistic model that combines multiple signals in barcoded reads. We show that NAIBR outperforms several existing methods for structural variant identification - including two recent methods that also analyze linked-reads - on simulated sequencing data and 10X whole-genome sequencing data from the NA12878 human genome and the HCC1954 breast cancer cell line. Several of the novel somatic structural variants identified in HCC1954 overlap known cancer genes. Software is available at compbio.cs.brown.edu/software. braphael@princeton.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

  8. Norm overlap between many-body states: Uncorrelated overlap between arbitrary Bogoliubov product states

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bally, B.; Duguet, T.

    2018-02-01

    Background: State-of-the-art multi-reference energy density functional calculations require the computation of norm overlaps between different Bogoliubov quasiparticle many-body states. It is only recently that the efficient and unambiguous calculation of such norm kernels has become available under the form of Pfaffians [L. M. Robledo, Phys. Rev. C 79, 021302 (2009), 10.1103/PhysRevC.79.021302]. Recently developed particle-number-restored Bogoliubov coupled-cluster (PNR-BCC) and particle-number-restored Bogoliubov many-body perturbation (PNR-BMBPT) ab initio theories [T. Duguet and A. Signoracci, J. Phys. G 44, 015103 (2017), 10.1088/0954-3899/44/1/015103] make use of generalized norm kernels incorporating explicit many-body correlations. In PNR-BCC and PNR-BMBPT, the Bogoliubov states involved in the norm kernels differ specifically via a global gauge rotation. Purpose: The goal of this work is threefold. We wish (i) to propose and implement an alternative to the Pfaffian method to compute unambiguously the norm overlap between arbitrary Bogoliubov quasiparticle states, (ii) to extend the first point to explicitly correlated norm kernels, and (iii) to scrutinize the analytical content of the correlated norm kernels employed in PNR-BMBPT. Point (i) constitutes the purpose of the present paper while points (ii) and (iii) are addressed in a forthcoming paper. Methods: We generalize the method used in another work [T. Duguet and A. Signoracci, J. Phys. G 44, 015103 (2017), 10.1088/0954-3899/44/1/015103] in such a way that it is applicable to kernels involving arbitrary pairs of Bogoliubov states. The formalism is presently explicated in detail in the case of the uncorrelated overlap between arbitrary Bogoliubov states. The power of the method is numerically illustrated and benchmarked against known results on the basis of toy models of increasing complexity. Results: The norm overlap between arbitrary Bogoliubov product states is obtained under a closed

  9. A new phase modulated binomial-like selective-inversion sequence for solvent signal suppression in NMR.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Johnny; Zheng, Gang; Price, William S

    2017-02-01

    A new 8-pulse Phase Modulated binomial-like selective inversion pulse sequence, dubbed '8PM', was developed by optimizing the nutation and phase angles of the constituent radio-frequency pulses so that the inversion profile resembled a target profile. Suppression profiles were obtained for both the 8PM and W5 based excitation sculpting sequences with equal inter-pulse delays. Significant distortions were observed in both profiles because of the offset effect of the radio frequency pulses. These distortions were successfully reduced by adjusting the inter-pulse delays. With adjusted inter-pulse delays, the 8PM and W5 based excitation sculpting sequences were tested on an aqueous lysozyme solution. The 8 PM based sequence provided higher suppression selectivity than the W5 based sequence. Two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy experiments were also performed on the lysozyme sample with 8PM and W5 based water signal suppression. The 8PM based suppression provided a spectrum with significantly increased (~ doubled) cross-peak intensity around the suppressed water resonance compared to the W5 based suppression. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  10. Application of an E. coli signal sequence as a versatile inclusion body tag.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jong, Wouter S P; Vikström, David; Houben, Diane; van den Berg van Saparoea, H Bart; de Gier, Jan-Willem; Luirink, Joen

    2017-03-21

    Heterologous protein production in Escherichia coli often suffers from bottlenecks such as proteolytic degradation, complex purification procedures and toxicity towards the expression host. Production of proteins in an insoluble form in inclusion bodies (IBs) can alleviate these problems. Unfortunately, the propensity of heterologous proteins to form IBs is variable and difficult to predict. Hence, fusing the target protein to an aggregation prone polypeptide or IB-tag is a useful strategy to produce difficult-to-express proteins in an insoluble form. When screening for signal sequences that mediate optimal targeting of heterologous proteins to the periplasmic space of E. coli, we observed that fusion to the 39 amino acid signal sequence of E. coli TorA (ssTorA) did not promote targeting but rather directed high-level expression of the human proteins hEGF, Pla2 and IL-3 in IBs. Further analysis revealed that ssTorA even mediated IB formation of the highly soluble endogenous E. coli proteins TrxA and MBP. The ssTorA also induced aggregation when fused to the C-terminus of target proteins and appeared functional as IB-tag in E. coli K-12 as well as B strains. An additive effect on IB-formation was observed upon fusion of multiple ssTorA sequences in tandem, provoking almost complete aggregation of TrxA and MBP. The ssTorA-moiety was successfully used to produce the intrinsically unstable hEGF and the toxic fusion partner SymE, demonstrating its applicability as an IB-tag for difficult-to-express and toxic proteins. We present proof-of-concept for the use of ssTorA as a small, versatile tag for robust E. coli-based expression of heterologous proteins in IBs.

  11. Sequence Capture versus Restriction Site Associated DNA Sequencing for Shallow Systematics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harvey, Michael G; Smith, Brian Tilston; Glenn, Travis C; Faircloth, Brant C; Brumfield, Robb T

    2016-09-01

    Sequence capture and restriction site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-Seq) are two genomic enrichment strategies for applying next-generation sequencing technologies to systematics studies. At shallow timescales, such as within species, RAD-Seq has been widely adopted among researchers, although there has been little discussion of the potential limitations and benefits of RAD-Seq and sequence capture. We discuss a series of issues that may impact the utility of sequence capture and RAD-Seq data for shallow systematics in non-model species. We review prior studies that used both methods, and investigate differences between the methods by re-analyzing existing RAD-Seq and sequence capture data sets from a Neotropical bird (Xenops minutus). We suggest that the strengths of RAD-Seq data sets for shallow systematics are the wide dispersion of markers across the genome, the relative ease and cost of laboratory work, the deep coverage and read overlap at recovered loci, and the high overall information that results. Sequence capture's benefits include flexibility and repeatability in the genomic regions targeted, success using low-quality samples, more straightforward read orthology assessment, and higher per-locus information content. The utility of a method in systematics, however, rests not only on its performance within a study, but on the comparability of data sets and inferences with those of prior work. In RAD-Seq data sets, comparability is compromised by low overlap of orthologous markers across species and the sensitivity of genetic diversity in a data set to an interaction between the level of natural heterozygosity in the samples examined and the parameters used for orthology assessment. In contrast, sequence capture of conserved genomic regions permits interrogation of the same loci across divergent species, which is preferable for maintaining comparability among data sets and studies for the purpose of drawing general conclusions about the impact of

  12. Analysis of stacking overlap in nucleic acid structures: algorithm and application.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pingali, Pavan Kumar; Halder, Sukanya; Mukherjee, Debasish; Basu, Sankar; Banerjee, Rahul; Choudhury, Devapriya; Bhattacharyya, Dhananjay

    2014-08-01

    RNA contains different secondary structural motifs like pseudo-helices, hairpin loops, internal loops, etc. in addition to anti-parallel double helices and random coils. The secondary structures are mainly stabilized by base-pairing and stacking interactions between the planar aromatic bases. The hydrogen bonding strength and geometries of base pairs are characterized by six intra-base pair parameters. Similarly, stacking can be represented by six local doublet parameters. These dinucleotide step parameters can describe the quality of stacking between Watson-Crick base pairs very effectively. However, it is quite difficult to understand the stacking pattern for dinucleotides consisting of non canonical base pairs from these parameters. Stacking interaction is a manifestation of the interaction between two aromatic bases or base pairs and thus can be estimated best by the overlap area between the planar aromatic moieties. We have calculated base pair overlap between two consecutive base pairs as the buried van der Waals surface between them. In general, overlap values show normal distribution for the Watson-Crick base pairs in most double helices within a range from 45 to 50 Å(2) irrespective of base sequence. The dinucleotide steps with non-canonical base pairs also are seen to have high overlap value, although their twist and few other parameters are rather unusual. We have analyzed hairpin loops of different length, bulges within double helical structures and pseudo-continuous helices using our algorithm. The overlap area analyses indicate good stacking between few looped out bases especially in GNRA tetraloop, which was difficult to quantitatively characterise from analysis of the base pair or dinucleotide step parameters. This parameter is also seen to be capable to distinguish pseudo-continuous helices from kinked helix junctions.

  13. Efficient methods for overlapping group lasso.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yuan, Lei; Liu, Jun; Ye, Jieping

    2013-09-01

    The group Lasso is an extension of the Lasso for feature selection on (predefined) nonoverlapping groups of features. The nonoverlapping group structure limits its applicability in practice. There have been several recent attempts to study a more general formulation where groups of features are given, potentially with overlaps between the groups. The resulting optimization is, however, much more challenging to solve due to the group overlaps. In this paper, we consider the efficient optimization of the overlapping group Lasso penalized problem. We reveal several key properties of the proximal operator associated with the overlapping group Lasso, and compute the proximal operator by solving the smooth and convex dual problem, which allows the use of the gradient descent type of algorithms for the optimization. Our methods and theoretical results are then generalized to tackle the general overlapping group Lasso formulation based on the l(q) norm. We further extend our algorithm to solve a nonconvex overlapping group Lasso formulation based on the capped norm regularization, which reduces the estimation bias introduced by the convex penalty. We have performed empirical evaluations using both a synthetic and the breast cancer gene expression dataset, which consists of 8,141 genes organized into (overlapping) gene sets. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is more efficient than existing state-of-the-art algorithms. Results also demonstrate the effectiveness of the nonconvex formulation for overlapping group Lasso.

  14. Evidence for ribosomal frameshifting and a novel overlapping gene in the genomes of insect-specific flaviviruses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Firth, Andrew E.; Blitvich, Bradley J.; Wills, Norma M.; Miller, Cathy L.; Atkins, John F.

    2010-01-01

    Flaviviruses have a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA genome of ∼11 kb, encoding a large polyprotein that is cleaved to produce ∼10 mature proteins. Cell fusing agent virus, Kamiti River virus, Culex flavivirus and several recently discovered flaviviruses have no known vertebrate host and apparently infect only insects. We present compelling bioinformatic evidence for a 253-295 codon overlapping gene (designated fifo) conserved throughout these insect-specific flaviviruses and immunofluorescent detection of its product. Fifo overlaps the NS2A/NS2B coding sequence in the - 1/+ 2 reading frame and is most likely expressed as a trans-frame fusion protein via ribosomal frameshifting at a conserved GGAUUUY slippery heptanucleotide with 3'-adjacent RNA secondary structure (which stimulates efficient frameshifting in vitro). The discovery bears striking parallels to the recently discovered ribosomal frameshifting site in the NS2A coding sequence of the Japanese encephalitis serogroup of flaviviruses and suggests that programmed ribosomal frameshifting may be more widespread in flaviviruses than currently realized.

  15. Overlapping and distinct roles of AKIN10 and FUSCA3 in ABA and sugar signaling during seed germination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsai, Allen Yi-Lun; Gazzarrini, Sonia

    2012-10-01

    The Arabidopsis B3-domain transcription factor FUSCA3 (FUS3) is a master regulator of seed maturation and also a central modulator of hormonal responses during late embryogenesis and germination. Recently, we have identified AKIN10, the Arabidopsis ortholog of Snf1 (Sucrose Non-Fermenting-1)-Related Kinase1 (SnRK1), as a FUS3-interacting protein. We demonstrated that AKIN10 physically interacts with and phosphorylates FUS3 at its N-terminal region, and genetically interacts with FUS3 to regulate developmental phase transition and lateral organ growth. Snf1/AMPK/SnRK1 kinases are important sensors of the cellular energy level, and they are activated in response to starvation and cellular stress. Here we present findings that indicate FUS3 and AKIN10 functionally overlap in ABA signaling, but play different roles in sugar responses during germination. Seeds overexpressing FUS3 and AKIN10 both display ABA-hypersensitivity and delayed germination. The latter is partly dependent on de novo ABA synthesis in both genotypes, as delayed germination can be partially rescued by the ABA biosynthesis inhibitor, fluridone. However, seeds and seedlings overexpressing FUS3 and AKIN10 show different sugar responses. AKIN10-overexpressing seeds and seedlings are hypersensitive to glucose, while those overexpressing FUS3 display overall defects in osmotic stress, primarily during seedling growth, as they show increased sensitivity toward sorbitol and glucose. Hypersensitivity to sugar and/or osmotic stress during germination are partly dependent on de novo ABA synthesis for both genotypes, although are likely to act through distinct pathways. This data suggests that AKIN10 and FUS3 both act as positive regulators of seed responses to ABA, and that AKIN10 regulates sugar signaling while FUS3 mediates osmotic stress responses.

  16. Indirect MRI of 17 o-labeled water using steady-state sequences: Signal simulation and preclinical experiment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kudo, Kohsuke; Harada, Taisuke; Kameda, Hiroyuki; Uwano, Ikuko; Yamashita, Fumio; Higuchi, Satomi; Yoshioka, Kunihiro; Sasaki, Makoto

    2018-05-01

    Few studies have been reported for T 2 -weighted indirect 17 O imaging. To evaluate the feasibility of steady-state sequences for indirect 17 O brain imaging. Signal simulation, phantom measurements, and prospective animal experiments were performed in accordance with the institutional guidelines for animal experiments. Signal simulations of balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) were performed for concentrations of 17 O ranging from 0.037-1.600%. Phantom measurements with concentrations of 17 O water ranging from 0.037-1.566% were also conducted. Six healthy beagle dogs were scanned with intravenous administration of 20% 17 O-labeled water (1 mL/kg). Dynamic 3D-bSSFP scans were performed at 3T MRI. 17 O-labeled water was injected 60 seconds after the scan start, and the total scan duration was 5 minutes. Based on the result of signal simulation and phantom measurement, signal changes in the beagle dogs were measured and converted into 17 O concentrations. The 17 O concentrations were averaged for every 15 seconds, and compared to the baseline (30-45 sec) with Dunnett's multiple comparison tests. Signal simulation revealed that the relationships between 17 O concentration and the natural logarithm of relative signals were linear. The intraclass correlation coefficient between relative signals in phantom measurement and signal simulations was 0.974. In the animal experiments, significant increases in 17 O concentration (P O. At the end of scanning, mean respective 17 O concentrations of 0.084 ± 0.026%, 0.117 ± 0.038, 0.082 ± 0.037%, and 0.049 ± 0.004% were noted for the cerebral cortex, cerebellar cortex, cerebral white matter, and ventricle. Dynamic steady-state sequences were feasible for indirect 17 O imaging, and absolute quantification was possible. This method can be applied for the measurement of permeability and blood flow in the brain, and for kinetic analysis of cerebrospinal fluid. 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson

  17. How long do satellites need to overlap? Evaluation of climate data stability from overlapping satellite records

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weatherhead, Elizabeth C.; Harder, Jerald; Araujo-Pradere, Eduardo A.; Bodeker, Greg; English, Jason M.; Flynn, Lawrence E.; Frith, Stacey M.; Lazo, Jeffrey K.; Pilewskie, Peter; Weber, Mark; Woods, Thomas N.

    2017-12-01

    Sensors on satellites provide unprecedented understanding of the Earth's climate system by measuring incoming solar radiation, as well as both passive and active observations of the entire Earth with outstanding spatial and temporal coverage. A common challenge with satellite observations is to quantify their ability to provide well-calibrated, long-term, stable records of the parameters they measure. Ground-based intercomparisons offer some insight, while reference observations and internal calibrations give further assistance for understanding long-term stability. A valuable tool for evaluating and developing long-term records from satellites is the examination of data from overlapping satellite missions. This paper addresses how the length of overlap affects the ability to identify an offset or a drift in the overlap of data between two sensors. Ozone and temperature data sets are used as examples showing that overlap data can differ by latitude and can change over time. New results are presented for the general case of sensor overlap by using Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SIM) and Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE) solar irradiance data as an example. To achieve a 1 % uncertainty in estimating the offset for these two instruments' measurement of the Mg II core (280 nm) requires approximately 5 months of overlap. For relative drift to be identified within 0.1 % yr-1 uncertainty (0.00008 W m-2 nm-1 yr-1), the overlap for these two satellites would need to be 2.5 years. Additional overlap of satellite measurements is needed if, as is the case for solar monitoring, unexpected jumps occur adding uncertainty to both offsets and drifts; the additional length of time needed to account for a single jump in the overlap data may be as large as 50 % of the original overlap period in order to achieve the same desired confidence in the stability of the merged data set. Results presented here are directly

  18. A Bac Library and Paired-PCR Approach to Mapping and Completing the Genome Sequence of Sulfolobus Solfataricus P2

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    She, Qunxin; Confalonieri, F.; Zivanovic, Y.

    2000-01-01

    The original strategy used in the Sulfolobus solfatnricus genome project was to sequence non overlapping, or minimally overlapping, cosmid or lambda inserts without constructing a physical map. However, after only about two thirds of the genome sequence was completed, this approach became counter......-productive because there was a high sequence bias in the cosmid and lambda libraries. Therefore, a new approach was devised for linking the sequenced regions which may be generally applicable. BAC libraries were constructed and terminal sequences of the clones were determined and used for both end mapping and PCR...

  19. Sample-based engine noise synthesis using an enhanced pitch-synchronous overlap-and-add method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jagla, Jan; Maillard, Julien; Martin, Nadine

    2012-11-01

    An algorithm for the real time synthesis of internal combustion engine noise is presented. Through the analysis of a recorded engine noise signal of continuously varying engine speed, a dataset of sound samples is extracted allowing the real time synthesis of the noise induced by arbitrary evolutions of engine speed. The sound samples are extracted from a recording spanning the entire engine speed range. Each sample is delimitated such as to contain the sound emitted during one cycle of the engine plus the necessary overlap to ensure smooth transitions during the synthesis. The proposed approach, an extension of the PSOLA method introduced for speech processing, takes advantage of the specific periodicity of engine noise signals to locate the extraction instants of the sound samples. During the synthesis stage, the sound samples corresponding to the target engine speed evolution are concatenated with an overlap and add algorithm. It is shown that this method produces high quality audio restitution with a low computational load. It is therefore well suited for real time applications.

  20. An extension to artifact-free projection overlaps

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, Jianyu

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: In multipinhole single photon emission computed tomography, the overlapping of projections has been used to increase sensitivity. Avoiding artifacts in the reconstructed image associated with projection overlaps (multiplexing) is a critical issue. In our previous report, two types of artifact-free projection overlaps, i.e., projection overlaps that do not lead to artifacts in the reconstructed image, were formally defined and proved, and were validated via simulations. In this work, a new proposition is introduced to extend the previously defined type-II artifact-free projection overlaps so that a broader range of artifact-free overlaps is accommodated. One practical purpose of the new extension is to design a baffle window multipinhole system with artifact-free projection overlaps. Methods: First, the extended type-II artifact-free overlap was theoretically defined and proved. The new proposition accommodates the situation where the extended type-II artifact-free projection overlaps can be produced with incorrectly reconstructed portions in the reconstructed image. Next, to validate the theory, the extended-type-II artifact-free overlaps were employed in designing the multiplexing multipinhole spiral orbit imaging systems with a baffle window. Numerical validations were performed via simulations, where the corresponding 1-pinhole nonmultiplexing reconstruction results were used as the benchmark for artifact-free reconstructions. The mean square error (MSE) was the metric used for comparisons of noise-free reconstructed images. Noisy reconstructions were also performed as part of the validations. Results: Simulation results show that for noise-free reconstructions, the MSEs of the reconstructed images of the artifact-free multiplexing systems are very similar to those of the corresponding 1-pinhole systems. No artifacts were observed in the reconstructed images. Therefore, the testing results for artifact-free multiplexing systems designed using the

  1. Leveraging disjoint communities for detecting overlapping community structure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chakraborty, Tanmoy

    2015-01-01

    Network communities represent mesoscopic structure for understanding the organization of real-world networks, where nodes often belong to multiple communities and form overlapping community structure in the network. Due to non-triviality in finding the exact boundary of such overlapping communities, this problem has become challenging, and therefore huge effort has been devoted to detect overlapping communities from the network.In this paper, we present PVOC (Permanence based Vertex-replication algorithm for Overlapping Community detection), a two-stage framework to detect overlapping community structure. We build on a novel observation that non-overlapping community structure detected by a standard disjoint community detection algorithm from a network has high resemblance with its actual overlapping community structure, except the overlapping part. Based on this observation, we posit that there is perhaps no need of building yet another overlapping community finding algorithm; but one can efficiently manipulate the output of any existing disjoint community finding algorithm to obtain the required overlapping structure. We propose a new post-processing technique that by combining with any existing disjoint community detection algorithm, can suitably process each vertex using a new vertex-based metric, called permanence, and thereby finds out overlapping candidates with their community memberships. Experimental results on both synthetic and large real-world networks show that PVOC significantly outperforms six state-of-the-art overlapping community detection algorithms in terms of high similarity of the output with the ground-truth structure. Thus our framework not only finds meaningful overlapping communities from the network, but also allows us to put an end to the constant effort of building yet another overlapping community detection algorithm. (paper)

  2. Single-shot T2 mapping using overlapping-echo detachment planar imaging and a deep convolutional neural network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cai, Congbo; Wang, Chao; Zeng, Yiqing; Cai, Shuhui; Liang, Dong; Wu, Yawen; Chen, Zhong; Ding, Xinghao; Zhong, Jianhui

    2018-04-24

    An end-to-end deep convolutional neural network (CNN) based on deep residual network (ResNet) was proposed to efficiently reconstruct reliable T 2 mapping from single-shot overlapping-echo detachment (OLED) planar imaging. The training dataset was obtained from simulations that were carried out on SPROM (Simulation with PRoduct Operator Matrix) software developed by our group. The relationship between the original OLED image containing two echo signals and the corresponding T 2 mapping was learned by ResNet training. After the ResNet was trained, it was applied to reconstruct the T 2 mapping from simulation and in vivo human brain data. Although the ResNet was trained entirely on simulated data, the trained network was generalized well to real human brain data. The results from simulation and in vivo human brain experiments show that the proposed method significantly outperforms the echo-detachment-based method. Reliable T 2 mapping with higher accuracy is achieved within 30 ms after the network has been trained, while the echo-detachment-based OLED reconstruction method took approximately 2 min. The proposed method will facilitate real-time dynamic and quantitative MR imaging via OLED sequence, and deep convolutional neural network has the potential to reconstruct maps from complex MRI sequences efficiently. © 2018 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

  3. Development of a functional cell-based assay that probes the specific interaction between influenza A virus NP and its packaging signal sequence RNA.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woo, Jiwon; Yu, Kyung Lee; Lee, Sun Hee; You, Ji Chang

    2015-02-06

    Although cis-acting packaging signal RNA sequences for the influenza virus NP encoding vRNA have been identified recently though genetic studies, little is known about the interaction between NP and the vRNA packaging signals either in vivo or in vitro. Here, we provide evidence that NP is able to interact specifically with the vRNA packaging sequence RNA within living cells and that the specific RNA binding activity of NP in vivo requires both the N-terminal and central region of the protein. This assay established would be a valuable tool for further detailed studies of the NP-packaging signal RNA interaction in living cells. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Disentangling evolutionary signals: conservation, specificity determining positions and coevolution. Implication for catalytic residue prediction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Teppa, Elin; Wilkins, Angela D.; Nielsen, Morten

    2012-01-01

    Background: A large panel of methods exists that aim to identify residues with critical impact on protein function based on evolutionary signals, sequence and structure information. However, it is not clear to what extent these different methods overlap, and if any of the methods have higher...... predictive potential compared to others when it comes to, in particular, the identification of catalytic residues (CR) in proteins. Using a large set of enzymatic protein families and measures based on different evolutionary signals, we sought to break up the different components of the information content......-value Evolutionary Trace (rvET) methods and conservation, another containing mutual information (MI) methods, and the last containing methods designed explicitly for the identification of specificity determining positions (SDPs): integer-value Evolutionary Trace (ivET), SDPfox, and XDET. In terms of prediction of CR...

  5. Applications of Some Classes of Sequences on Approximation of Functions (Signals by Almost Generalized Nörlund Means of Their Fourier Series

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xhevat Z. Krasniqi

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, using rest bounded variation sequences and head bounded variation sequences, some new results on approximation of functions (signals by almost generalized Nörlund means of their Fourier series are obtained. To our best knowledge this the first time to use such classes of sequences on approximations of the type treated in this paper. In addition, several corollaries are derived from our results as well as those obtained previously by others.

  6. Recombining overlapping BACs into a single larger BAC

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huxley Clare

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background BAC clones containing entire mammalian genes including all the transcribed region and long range controlling elements are very useful for functional analysis. Sequenced BACs are available for most of the human and mouse genomes and in many cases these contain intact genes. However, large genes often span more than one BAC, and single BACs covering the entire region of interest are not available. Here we describe a system for linking two or more overlapping BACs into a single clone by homologous recombination. Results The method was used to link a 61-kb insert carrying the final 5 exons of the human CFTR gene onto a 160-kb BAC carrying the first 22 exons. Two rounds of homologous recombination were carried out in the EL350 strain of bacteria which can be induced for the Red genes. In the first round, the inserts of the two overlapping BACs were subcloned into modified BAC vectors using homologous recombination. In the second round, the BAC to be added was linearised with the very rare-cutting enzyme I-PpoI and electroporated into recombination efficient EL350 bacteria carrying the other BAC. Recombined BACs were identified by antibiotic selection and PCR screening and 10% of clones contained the correctly recombined 220-kb BAC. Conclusion The system can be used to link the inserts from any overlapping BAC or PAC clones. The original orientation of the inserts is not important and desired regions of the inserts can be selected. The size limit for the fragments recombined may be larger than the 61 kb used here and multiple BACs in a contig could be combined by alternating use of the two pBACLink vectors. This system should be of use to many investigators wishing to carry out functional analysis on large mammalian genes which are not available in single BAC clones.

  7. Preliminary investigation of the categorization of gaps and overlaps in turn-taking interactions: Effects of noise and hearing loss

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Anna Josefine; Weisser, Adam; MacDonald, Ewen

    2017-01-01

    Normal conversation requires interlocutors to monitor the ongoing acoustic signal to judge when it is appropriate to start talking. Categorical thresholds for gaps and overlaps in turn-taking interactions were measured for normalhearing and hearing-impaired listeners in both quiet and multitalker...... babble (+6 dB SNR). The slope of the categorization functions were significantly shallower for hearing impaired listeners and in the presence of background noise. Moreover, the categorization threshold for overlaps increased in background noise....

  8. A New Method to Represent Speech Signals Via Predefined Signature and Envelope Sequences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Binboga Sıddık Yarman

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available A novel systematic procedure referred to as “SYMPES” to model speech signals is introduced. The structure of SYMPES is based on the creation of the so-called predefined “signature S={SR(n} and envelope E={EK(n}” sets. These sets are speaker and language independent. Once the speech signals are divided into frames with selected lengths, then each frame sequence Xi(n is reconstructed by means of the mathematical form Xi(n=CiEK(nSR(n. In this representation, Ci is called the gain factor, SR(n and EK(n are properly assigned from the predefined signature and envelope sets, respectively. Examples are given to exhibit the implementation of SYMPES. It is shown that for the same compression ratio or better, SYMPES yields considerably better speech quality over the commercially available coders such as G.726 (ADPCM at 16 kbps and voice excited LPC-10E (FS1015 at 2.4 kbps.

  9. Sorting of a HaloTag protein that has only a signal peptide sequence into exocrine secretory granules without protein aggregation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujita-Yoshigaki, Junko; Matsuki-Fukushima, Miwako; Yokoyama, Megumi; Katsumata-Kato, Osamu

    2013-11-15

    The mechanism involved in the sorting and accumulation of secretory cargo proteins, such as amylase, into secretory granules of exocrine cells remains to be solved. To clarify that sorting mechanism, we expressed a reporter protein HaloTag fused with partial sequences of salivary amylase protein in primary cultured parotid acinar cells. We found that a HaloTag protein fused with only the signal peptide sequence (Met(1)-Ala(25)) of amylase, termed SS25H, colocalized well with endogenous amylase, which was confirmed by immunofluorescence microscopy. Percoll-density gradient centrifugation of secretory granule fractions shows that the distributions of amylase and SS25H were similar. These results suggest that SS25H is transported to secretory granules and is not discriminated from endogenous amylase by the machinery that functions to remove proteins other than granule cargo from immature granules. Another reporter protein, DsRed2, that has the same signal peptide sequence also colocalized with amylase, suggesting that the sorting to secretory granules is not dependent on a characteristic of the HaloTag protein. Whereas Blue Native PAGE demonstrates that endogenous amylase forms a high-molecular-weight complex, SS25H does not participate in the complex and does not form self-aggregates. Nevertheless, SS25H was released from cells by the addition of a β-adrenergic agonist, isoproterenol, which also induces amylase secretion. These results indicate that addition of the signal peptide sequence, which is necessary for the translocation in the endoplasmic reticulum, is sufficient for the transportation and storage of cargo proteins in secretory granules of exocrine cells.

  10. CRISPR Detection From Short Reads Using Partial Overlap Graphs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ben-Bassat, Ilan; Chor, Benny

    2016-06-01

    Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) are structured regions in bacterial and archaeal genomes, which are part of an adaptive immune system against phages. CRISPRs are important for many microbial studies and are playing an essential role in current gene editing techniques. As such, they attract substantial research interest. The exponential growth in the amount of bacterial sequence data in recent years enables the exploration of CRISPR loci in more and more species. Most of the automated tools that detect CRISPR loci rely on fully assembled genomes. However, many assemblers do not handle repetitive regions successfully. The first tool to work directly on raw sequence data is Crass, which requires reads that are long enough to contain two copies of the same repeat. We present a method to identify CRISPR repeats from raw sequence data of short reads. The algorithm is based on an observation differentiating CRISPR repeats from other types of repeats, and it involves a series of partial constructions of the overlap graph. This enables us to avoid many of the difficulties that assemblers face, as we merely aim to identify the repeats that belong to CRISPR loci. A preliminary implementation of the algorithm shows good results and detects CRISPR repeats in cases where other existing tools fail to do so.

  11. Real time pressure signal system for a rotary engine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rice, W. J. (Inventor)

    1984-01-01

    A real-time IMEP signal which is a composite of those produced in any one chamber of a three-lobed rotary engine is developed by processing the signals of four transducers positioned in a Wankel engine housing such that the rotor overlaps two of the transducers for a brief period during each cycle. During the overlap period of any two transducers, their output is compared and sampled for 10 microseconds per 0.18 degree of rotation by a sampling switch and capacitive circuit. When the switch is closed, the instantaneous difference between the value of the transducer signals is provided while with the switch open the average difference is produced. This combined signal, along with the original signal of the second transducer, is fed through a multiplexer to a pressure output terminal. Timing circuits, controlled by a crank angle encoder on the engine, determine which compared transducer signals are applied to the output terminal and when, as well as the open and closed periods of the switches.

  12. A Practical and Scalable Tool to Find Overlaps between Sequences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maan Haj Rachid

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The evolution of the next generation sequencing technology increases the demand for efficient solutions, in terms of space and time, for several bioinformatics problems. This paper presents a practical and easy-to-implement solution for one of these problems, namely, the all-pairs suffix-prefix problem, using a compact prefix tree. The paper demonstrates an efficient construction of this time-efficient and space-economical tree data structure. The paper presents techniques for parallel implementations of the proposed solution. Experimental evaluation indicates superior results in terms of space and time over existing solutions. Results also show that the proposed technique is highly scalable in a parallel execution environment.

  13. Optimization of control bank overlap for SMART

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song, Jae Seung; Cho, Byung Oh; Zee, Sung Quun

    1998-07-01

    In the pressurized water reactor, control banks are operated by 40% effective core height overlap to avoid decrease of differential rod worth. This overlap does not effect on the core depletion history because the pressurized water reactor core operated at all rod out condition for the most of the operation time. For the boron free reactor SMART, however, one or more control banks are always inserted in the core to maintain critical condition, and the control bank overlap effects on the core depletion history. Since the cycle length of SMART is limited by three-dimensional core peaking factor at EOC, at which the control bank located at the core center is withdrawn, the cycle length of SMART is affected by the control bank overlap. In this report, the effect of control bank overlap on the core depletion history was evaluated. It is concluded that 60 cm control bank overlap corresponding to 30% effective core height was selected not to increase maximum peaking factor at EOC so that the control bank overlap does not affect the cycle length of the core. (author). 8 refs., 2 tabs., 19 figs

  14. Rhythmic Components in Extracranial Brain Signals Reveal Multifaceted Task Modulation of Overlapping Neuronal Activity.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roemer van der Meij

    Full Text Available Oscillatory neuronal activity is implicated in many cognitive functions, and its phase coupling between sensors may reflect networks of communicating neuronal populations. Oscillatory activity is often studied using extracranial recordings and compared between experimental conditions. This is challenging, because there is overlap between sensor-level activity generated by different sources, and this can obscure differential experimental modulations of these sources. Additionally, in extracranial data, sensor-level phase coupling not only reflects communicating populations, but can also be generated by a current dipole, whose sensor-level phase coupling does not reflect source-level interactions. We present a novel method, which is capable of separating and characterizing sources on the basis of their phase coupling patterns as a function of space, frequency and time (trials. Importantly, this method depends on a plausible model of a neurobiological rhythm. We present this model and an accompanying analysis pipeline. Next, we demonstrate our approach, using magnetoencephalographic (MEG recordings during a cued tactile detection task as a case study. We show that the extracted components have overlapping spatial maps and frequency content, which are difficult to resolve using conventional pairwise measures. Because our decomposition also provides trial loadings, components can be readily contrasted between experimental conditions. Strikingly, we observed heterogeneity in alpha and beta sources with respect to whether their activity was suppressed or enhanced as a function of attention and performance, and this happened both in task relevant and irrelevant regions. This heterogeneity contrasts with the common view that alpha and beta amplitude over sensory areas are always negatively related to attention and performance.

  15. Topological susceptibility from the overlap

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Del Debbio, Luigi; Pica, Claudio

    2004-01-01

    The chiral symmetry at finite lattice spacing of Ginsparg-Wilson fermionic actions constrains the renormalization of the lattice operators; in particular, the topological susceptibility does not require any renormalization, when using a fermionic estimator to define the topological charge. Therefore, the overlap formalism appears as an appealing candidate to study the continuum limit of the topological susceptibility while keeping the systematic errors under theoretical control. We present results for the SU(3) pure gauge theory using the index of the overlap Dirac operator to study the topology of the gauge configurations. The topological charge is obtained from the zero modes of the overlap and using a new algorithm for the spectral flow analysis. A detailed comparison with cooling techniques is presented. Particular care is taken in assessing the systematic errors. Relatively high statistics (500 to 1000 independent configurations) yield an extrapolated continuum limit with errors that are comparable with other methods. Our current value from the overlap is χ 1/4 = 188±12±5MeV (author)

  16. Prediction of peak overlap in NMR spectra

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hefke, Frederik; Schmucki, Roland; Güntert, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Peak overlap is one of the major factors complicating the analysis of biomolecular NMR spectra. We present a general method for predicting the extent of peak overlap in multidimensional NMR spectra and its validation using both, experimental data sets and Monte Carlo simulation. The method is based on knowledge of the magnetization transfer pathways of the NMR experiments and chemical shift statistics from the Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank. Assuming a normal distribution with characteristic mean value and standard deviation for the chemical shift of each observable atom, an analytic expression was derived for the expected overlap probability of the cross peaks. The analytical approach was verified to agree with the average peak overlap in a large number of individual peak lists simulated using the same chemical shift statistics. The method was applied to eight proteins, including an intrinsically disordered one, for which the prediction results could be compared with the actual overlap based on the experimentally measured chemical shifts. The extent of overlap predicted using only statistical chemical shift information was in good agreement with the overlap that was observed when the measured shifts were used in the virtual spectrum, except for the intrinsically disordered protein. Since the spectral complexity of a protein NMR spectrum is a crucial factor for protein structure determination, analytical overlap prediction can be used to identify potentially difficult proteins before conducting NMR experiments. Overlap predictions can be tailored to particular classes of proteins by preparing statistics from corresponding protein databases. The method is also suitable for optimizing recording parameters and labeling schemes for NMR experiments and improving the reliability of automated spectra analysis and protein structure determination.

  17. Bidirectional gene sequences with similar homology to functional proteins of alkane degrading bacterium pseudomonas fredriksbergensis DNA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Megeed, A.A.

    2011-01-01

    The potential for two overlapping fragments of DNA from a clone of newly isolated alkanes degrading bacterium Pseudomonas frederiksbergensis encoding sequences with similar homology to two parts of functional proteins is described. One strand contains a sequence with high homology to alkanes monooxygenase (alkB), a member of the alkanes hydroxylase family, and the other strand contains a sequence with some homology to alcohol dehydrogenase gene (alkJ). Overlapping of the genes on opposite strands has been reported in eukaryotic species, and is now reported in a bacterial species. The sequence comparisons and ORFS results revealed that the regulation and the genes organization involved in alkane oxidation represented in Pseudomonas frederiksberghensis varies among the different known alkane degrading bacteria. The alk gene cluster containing homologues to the known alkane monooxygenase (alkB), and rubredoxin (alkG) are oriented in the same direction, whereas alcohol dehydrogenase (alkJ) is oriented in the opposite direction. Such genomes encode messages on both strands of the DNA, or in an overlapping but different reading frames, of the same strand of DNA. The possibility of creating novel genes from pre-existing sequences, known as overprinting, which is a widespread phenomenon in small viruses. Here, the origin and evolution of the gene overlap to bacteriophages belonging to the family Microviridae have been investigated. Such a phenomenon is most widely described in extremely small genomes such as those of viruses or small plasmids, yet here is a unique phenomenon. (author)

  18. Burnout and depression: Label-related stigma, help-seeking, and syndrome overlap.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bianchi, Renzo; Verkuilen, Jay; Brisson, Romain; Schonfeld, Irvin Sam; Laurent, Eric

    2016-11-30

    We investigated whether burnout and depression differed in terms of public stigma and help-seeking attitudes and behaviors. Secondarily, we examined the overlap of burnout and depressive symptoms. A total of 1046 French schoolteachers responded to an Internet survey in November-December 2015. The survey included measures of public stigma, help-seeking attitudes and behaviors, burnout and depressive symptoms, self-rated health, neuroticism, extraversion, history of anxiety or depressive disorder, social desirability, and socio-demographic variables. The burnout label appeared to be less stigmatizing than the depression label. In either case, however, fewer than 1% of the participants exhibited stigma scores signaling agreement with the proposed stigmatizing statements. Help-seeking attitudes and behaviors did not differ between burnout and depression. Participants considered burnout and depression similarly worth-treating. A huge overlap was observed between the self-report, time-standardized measures of burnout and depressive symptoms (disattenuated correlation: .91). The overlap was further evidenced in a confirmatory factor analysis. Thus, while burnout and depression as syndromes are unlikely to be distinct, how burnout and depression are socially represented may differ. To our knowledge, this study is the first to compare burnout- and depression-related stigma and help-seeking in the French context. Cross-national, multi-occupational studies examining different facets of stigma are needed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Probabilistic Methods for Processing High-Throughput Sequencing Signals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Lasse Maretty

    High-throughput sequencing has the potential to answer many of the big questions in biology and medicine. It can be used to determine the ancestry of species, to chart complex ecosystems and to understand and diagnose disease. However, going from raw sequencing data to biological or medical insig....... By estimating the genotypes on a set of candidate variants obtained from both a standard mapping-based approach as well as de novo assemblies, we are able to find considerably more structural variation than previous studies...... for reconstructing transcript sequences from RNA sequencing data. The method is based on a novel sparse prior distribution over transcript abundances and is markedly more accurate than existing approaches. The second chapter describes a new method for calling genotypes from a fixed set of candidate variants....... The method queries the reads using a graph representation of the variants and hereby mitigates the reference-bias that characterise standard genotyping methods. In the last chapter, we apply this method to call the genotypes of 50 deeply sequencing parent-offspring trios from the GenomeDenmark project...

  20. SAAS-CNV: A Joint Segmentation Approach on Aggregated and Allele Specific Signals for the Identification of Somatic Copy Number Alterations with Next-Generation Sequencing Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Zhongyang; Hao, Ke

    2015-11-01

    Cancer genomes exhibit profound somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs). Studying tumor SCNAs using massively parallel sequencing provides unprecedented resolution and meanwhile gives rise to new challenges in data analysis, complicated by tumor aneuploidy and heterogeneity as well as normal cell contamination. While the majority of read depth based methods utilize total sequencing depth alone for SCNA inference, the allele specific signals are undervalued. We proposed a joint segmentation and inference approach using both signals to meet some of the challenges. Our method consists of four major steps: 1) extracting read depth supporting reference and alternative alleles at each SNP/Indel locus and comparing the total read depth and alternative allele proportion between tumor and matched normal sample; 2) performing joint segmentation on the two signal dimensions; 3) correcting the copy number baseline from which the SCNA state is determined; 4) calling SCNA state for each segment based on both signal dimensions. The method is applicable to whole exome/genome sequencing (WES/WGS) as well as SNP array data in a tumor-control study. We applied the method to a dataset containing no SCNAs to test the specificity, created by pairing sequencing replicates of a single HapMap sample as normal/tumor pairs, as well as a large-scale WGS dataset consisting of 88 liver tumors along with adjacent normal tissues. Compared with representative methods, our method demonstrated improved accuracy, scalability to large cancer studies, capability in handling both sequencing and SNP array data, and the potential to improve the estimation of tumor ploidy and purity.

  1. Xeroderma Pigmentosum-Trichothiodystrophy overlap patient with novel XPD/ERCC2 mutation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kralund, Henrik H; Ousager, Lilian; Jaspers, Nicolaas G

    2013-01-01

    outcome from many of these mutations. We demonstrate a patient, believed to represent an overlap between XP and TTD/CS. In addition to other organ dysfunctions, the young man presented with Photosensitivity, Ichthyosis, Brittle hair, Impaired physical and mental development, Decreased fertility and Short...... appearance also suggested XP, but fibroblast cultures only demonstrated x2 UV-sensitivity with expected NER and TFIIH-activity decrease. Genetic sequencing of the XPD/ERCC2 gene established the patient as heterozygote compound with a novel, N-terminal Y18H mutation and a known C-terminal (TTD) mutation, A725...

  2. Influences of overlap index on Fourier ptychography imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Honghong; Rong, Lu; Wang, Dayong; Zhang, Xu; Zhai, Changchao; Panezai, Spozmai; Wang, Yunxin; Zhao, Jie

    2018-01-01

    Fourier ptychography is a new type of synthetic aperture imaging technique based on phase retrieval method which can improve microscopeic imaging performance beyond the diffraction limit of the employed optical components by illuminating the object with oblique waves of different incident angles where the field of view remains unchanged. illumination angle and the overlap rate of spectrum will have a certain impact on the quality of reconstruction. In this paper, we study the effects of illumination angle and spectral overlap rate on the image quality of Fourier ptychography. The simulation results show that increasing the illumination angle and spectral overlap can improve the resolution, but there is a threshold for the key parameters of spectral overlap rate. The convergence rate decreases when the overlap rate exceeds 70%, and the reconstruction process is more time-consuming due to the high overlap rate. However the results of proposed study shows that an overlap of 60% is the optimal choice to acquire a high-quality recovery with high speed.

  3. [Reconstruction of long polynucleotide sequences from fragments using the Iskra-226 personal computer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kostetskiĭ, P V; Dobrova, I E

    1988-04-01

    An algorithm for reconstructing long DNA sequences, i.e. arranging all overlapping gel readings in the contigs, and the corresponding BASIC programme for personal computer "Iskra-226" (USSR) are described. The contig construction begins with the search for all fragments overlapping the basic (longest) one follower by determination of coordinates of 5' ends of the overlapping fragments. Then the gel reading with minimal 5' end coordinate and the gel reading with maximal 3' end coordinate are selected and used as basic ones at the next assembly steps. The procedure is finished when no gel reading overlapping the basic one can be found. All gel readings entered the contig are ignored at the next steps of the assembly. Finally, one or several contigs consisted of DNA fragments are obtained. Effectiveness of the algorithm was tested on a model based on the multiple assembly of the nucleotide sequence, encoding the Na, K-ATPase alpha-subunit of pig kidney. The programme does not call for user's participation and can comprise contigs up to 10,000 nucleotides long.

  4. Selecting Feature Subsets Based on SVM-RFE and the Overlapping Ratio with Applications in Bioinformatics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Xiaohui; Li, Chao; Zhang, Yanhui; Su, Benzhe; Fan, Meng; Wei, Hai

    2017-12-26

    Feature selection is an important topic in bioinformatics. Defining informative features from complex high dimensional biological data is critical in disease study, drug development, etc. Support vector machine-recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) is an efficient feature selection technique that has shown its power in many applications. It ranks the features according to the recursive feature deletion sequence based on SVM. In this study, we propose a method, SVM-RFE-OA, which combines the classification accuracy rate and the average overlapping ratio of the samples to determine the number of features to be selected from the feature rank of SVM-RFE. Meanwhile, to measure the feature weights more accurately, we propose a modified SVM-RFE-OA (M-SVM-RFE-OA) algorithm that temporally screens out the samples lying in a heavy overlapping area in each iteration. The experiments on the eight public biological datasets show that the discriminative ability of the feature subset could be measured more accurately by combining the classification accuracy rate with the average overlapping degree of the samples compared with using the classification accuracy rate alone, and shielding the samples in the overlapping area made the calculation of the feature weights more stable and accurate. The methods proposed in this study can also be used with other RFE techniques to define potential biomarkers from big biological data.

  5. Selecting Feature Subsets Based on SVM-RFE and the Overlapping Ratio with Applications in Bioinformatics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaohui Lin

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Feature selection is an important topic in bioinformatics. Defining informative features from complex high dimensional biological data is critical in disease study, drug development, etc. Support vector machine-recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE is an efficient feature selection technique that has shown its power in many applications. It ranks the features according to the recursive feature deletion sequence based on SVM. In this study, we propose a method, SVM-RFE-OA, which combines the classification accuracy rate and the average overlapping ratio of the samples to determine the number of features to be selected from the feature rank of SVM-RFE. Meanwhile, to measure the feature weights more accurately, we propose a modified SVM-RFE-OA (M-SVM-RFE-OA algorithm that temporally screens out the samples lying in a heavy overlapping area in each iteration. The experiments on the eight public biological datasets show that the discriminative ability of the feature subset could be measured more accurately by combining the classification accuracy rate with the average overlapping degree of the samples compared with using the classification accuracy rate alone, and shielding the samples in the overlapping area made the calculation of the feature weights more stable and accurate. The methods proposed in this study can also be used with other RFE techniques to define potential biomarkers from big biological data.

  6. Conserved PCR primer set designing for closely-related species to complete mitochondrial genome sequencing using a sliding window-based PSO algorithm.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cheng-Hong Yang

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Complete mitochondrial (mt genome sequencing is becoming increasingly common for phylogenetic reconstruction and as a model for genome evolution. For long template sequencing, i.e., like the entire mtDNA, it is essential to design primers for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR amplicons which are partly overlapping each other. The presented chromosome walking strategy provides the overlapping design to solve the problem for unreliable sequencing data at the 5' end and provides the effective sequencing. However, current algorithms and tools are mostly focused on the primer design for a local region in the genomic sequence. Accordingly, it is still challenging to provide the primer sets for the entire mtDNA. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The purpose of this study is to develop an integrated primer design algorithm for entire mt genome in general, and for the common primer sets for closely-related species in particular. We introduce ClustalW to generate the multiple sequence alignment needed to find the conserved sequences in closely-related species. These conserved sequences are suitable for designing the common primers for the entire mtDNA. Using a heuristic algorithm particle swarm optimization (PSO, all the designed primers were computationally validated to fit the common primer design constraints, such as the melting temperature, primer length and GC content, PCR product length, secondary structure, specificity, and terminal limitation. The overlap requirement for PCR amplicons in the entire mtDNA is satisfied by defining the overlapping region with the sliding window technology. Finally, primer sets were designed within the overlapping region. The primer sets for the entire mtDNA sequences were successfully demonstrated in the example of two closely-related fish species. The pseudo code for the primer design algorithm is provided. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In conclusion, it can be said that our proposed sliding window-based PSO

  7. Neural overlap in processing music and speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peretz, Isabelle; Vuvan, Dominique; Lagrois, Marie-Élaine; Armony, Jorge L.

    2015-01-01

    Neural overlap in processing music and speech, as measured by the co-activation of brain regions in neuroimaging studies, may suggest that parts of the neural circuitries established for language may have been recycled during evolution for musicality, or vice versa that musicality served as a springboard for language emergence. Such a perspective has important implications for several topics of general interest besides evolutionary origins. For instance, neural overlap is an important premise for the possibility of music training to influence language acquisition and literacy. However, neural overlap in processing music and speech does not entail sharing neural circuitries. Neural separability between music and speech may occur in overlapping brain regions. In this paper, we review the evidence and outline the issues faced in interpreting such neural data, and argue that converging evidence from several methodologies is needed before neural overlap is taken as evidence of sharing. PMID:25646513

  8. Genetics of Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases: Overlapping Discoveries from Association and Exome-Sequencing Studies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Langlais, David; Fodil, Nassima; Gros, Philippe

    2017-04-26

    Genome technologies have defined a complex genetic architecture in major infectious, inflammatory, and autoimmune disorders. High density marker arrays and Immunochips have powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that have mapped nearly 450 genetic risk loci in 22 major inflammatory diseases, including a core of common genes that play a central role in pathological inflammation. Whole-exome and whole-genome sequencing have identified more than 265 genes in which mutations cause primary immunodeficiencies and rare forms of severe inflammatory bowel disease. Combined analysis of inflammatory disease GWAS and primary immunodeficiencies point to shared proteins and pathways that are required for immune cell development and protection against infections and are also associated with pathological inflammation. Finally, sequencing of chromatin immunoprecipitates containing specific transcription factors, with parallel RNA sequencing, has charted epigenetic regulation of gene expression by proinflammatory transcription factors in immune cells, providing complementary information to characterize morbid genes at infectious and inflammatory disease loci.

  9. 454 Transcriptome sequencing suggests a role for two-component signalling in cellularization and differentiation of barley endosperm transfer cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thiel, Johannes; Hollmann, Julien; Rutten, Twan; Weber, Hans; Scholz, Uwe; Weschke, Winfriede

    2012-01-01

    Cell specification and differentiation in the endosperm of cereals starts at the maternal-filial boundary and generates the endosperm transfer cells (ETCs). Besides the importance in assimilate transfer, ETCs are proposed to play an essential role in the regulation of endosperm differentiation by affecting development of proximate endosperm tissues. We attempted to identify signalling elements involved in early endosperm differentiation by using a combination of laser-assisted microdissection and 454 transcriptome sequencing. 454 sequencing of the differentiating ETC region from the syncytial state until functionality in transfer processes captured a high proportion of novel transcripts which are not available in existing barley EST databases. Intriguingly, the ETC-transcriptome showed a high abundance of elements of the two-component signalling (TCS) system suggesting an outstanding role in ETC differentiation. All components and subfamilies of the TCS, including distinct kinds of membrane-bound receptors, have been identified to be expressed in ETCs. The TCS system represents an ancient signal transduction system firstly discovered in bacteria and has previously been shown to be co-opted by eukaryotes, like fungi and plants, whereas in animals and humans this signalling route does not exist. Transcript profiling of TCS elements by qRT-PCR suggested pivotal roles for specific phosphorelays activated in a coordinated time flow during ETC cellularization and differentiation. ETC-specificity of transcriptionally activated TCS phosphorelays was assessed for early differentiation and cellularization contrasting to an extension of expression to other grain tissues at the beginning of ETC maturation. Features of candidate genes of distinct phosphorelays and transcriptional activation of genes putatively implicated in hormone signalling pathways hint at a crosstalk of hormonal influences, putatively ABA and ethylene, and TCS signalling. Our findings suggest an integral

  10. A functional analysis of the spacer of V(DJ recombination signal sequences.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alfred Ian Lee

    2003-10-01

    Full Text Available During lymphocyte development, V(DJ recombination assembles antigen receptor genes from component V, D, and J gene segments. These gene segments are flanked by a recombination signal sequence (RSS, which serves as the binding site for the recombination machinery. The murine Jbeta2.6 gene segment is a recombinationally inactive pseudogene, but examination of its RSS reveals no obvious reason for its failure to recombine. Mutagenesis of the Jbeta2.6 RSS demonstrates that the sequences of the heptamer, nonamer, and spacer are all important. Strikingly, changes solely in the spacer sequence can result in dramatic differences in the level of recombination. The subsequent analysis of a library of more than 4,000 spacer variants revealed that spacer residues of particular functional importance are correlated with their degree of conservation. Biochemical assays indicate distinct cooperation between the spacer and heptamer/nonamer along each step of the reaction pathway. The results suggest that the spacer serves not only to ensure the appropriate distance between the heptamer and nonamer but also regulates RSS activity by providing additional RAG:RSS interaction surfaces. We conclude that while RSSs are defined by a "digital" requirement for absolutely conserved nucleotides, the quality of RSS function is determined in an "analog" manner by numerous complex interactions between the RAG proteins and the less-well conserved nucleotides in the heptamer, the nonamer, and, importantly, the spacer. Those modulatory effects are accurately predicted by a new computational algorithm for "RSS information content." The interplay between such binary and multiplicative modes of interactions provides a general model for analyzing protein-DNA interactions in various biological systems.

  11. Comparison of various HFB overlap formulae

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oi, M.

    2015-01-01

    The nuclear many-body approach beyond the mean-field approximation demands overlap calculations of different many-body states. Norm overlaps between two different Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov states can be calculated by means of the Onishi formula. However, the formula leaves the sign of the norm overlap undetermined. Several approaches have been proposed by Hara-Hayashi-Ring, Neergård-Wüst, and Robledo. In the present paper, the Neergård-Wüst formula is examined whether it is applicable to practical numerical calculations, although the formula was dismissed by many nuclear theoreticians so far for unknown reasons

  12. The genomic sequence of cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus and its similarities with other potyviruses

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mlotshwa, S.; Verver, J.; Sithole-Niang, I.; Kampen, van T.; Kammen, van A.; Wellink, J.

    2002-01-01

    The genomic sequence of a Zimbabwe isolate of Cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (CABMV-Z) was determined by sequencing overlapping viral cDNA clones generated by RT-PCR using degenerate and/or specific primers. The sequence is 9465 nucleotides in length excluding the 3' terminal poly (A) tail and

  13. Neural overlap in processing music and speech.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peretz, Isabelle; Vuvan, Dominique; Lagrois, Marie-Élaine; Armony, Jorge L

    2015-03-19

    Neural overlap in processing music and speech, as measured by the co-activation of brain regions in neuroimaging studies, may suggest that parts of the neural circuitries established for language may have been recycled during evolution for musicality, or vice versa that musicality served as a springboard for language emergence. Such a perspective has important implications for several topics of general interest besides evolutionary origins. For instance, neural overlap is an important premise for the possibility of music training to influence language acquisition and literacy. However, neural overlap in processing music and speech does not entail sharing neural circuitries. Neural separability between music and speech may occur in overlapping brain regions. In this paper, we review the evidence and outline the issues faced in interpreting such neural data, and argue that converging evidence from several methodologies is needed before neural overlap is taken as evidence of sharing. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

  14. On the acoustics of overlapping laughter in conversational speech

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Truong, Khiet Phuong; Trouvain, Jürgen

    The social nature of laughter invites people to laugh together. This joint vocal action often results in overlapping laughter. In this paper, we show that the acoustics of overlapping laughs are different from non-overlapping laughs. We found that overlapping laughs are stronger prosodically marked

  15. Solving the linearized forward-speed radiation problem using a high-order finite difference method on overlapping grids

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Amini Afshar, Mostafa; Bingham, Harry B.

    2017-01-01

    . Frequency-domain results are then obtained from a Fourier transform of the force and motion signals. In order to make a robust Fourier transform, and capture the response around the critical frequency, the tail of the force signal is asymptotically extrapolated assuming a linear decay rate. Fourth......The linearized potential flow approximation for the forward speed radiation problem is solved in the time domain using a high-order finite difference method. The finite-difference discretization is developed on overlapping, curvilinear body-fitted grids. To ensure numerical stability...

  16. Disk-based compression of data from genome sequencing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grabowski, Szymon; Deorowicz, Sebastian; Roguski, Łukasz

    2015-05-01

    High-coverage sequencing data have significant, yet hard to exploit, redundancy. Most FASTQ compressors cannot efficiently compress the DNA stream of large datasets, since the redundancy between overlapping reads cannot be easily captured in the (relatively small) main memory. More interesting solutions for this problem are disk based, where the better of these two, from Cox et al. (2012), is based on the Burrows-Wheeler transform (BWT) and achieves 0.518 bits per base for a 134.0 Gbp human genome sequencing collection with almost 45-fold coverage. We propose overlapping reads compression with minimizers, a compression algorithm dedicated to sequencing reads (DNA only). Our method makes use of a conceptually simple and easily parallelizable idea of minimizers, to obtain 0.317 bits per base as the compression ratio, allowing to fit the 134.0 Gbp dataset into only 5.31 GB of space. http://sun.aei.polsl.pl/orcom under a free license. sebastian.deorowicz@polsl.pl Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  17. Link overlap, viability, and mutual percolation in multiplex networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Min, Byungjoon; Lee, Sangchul; Lee, Kyu-Min; Goh, K.-I.

    2015-01-01

    Many real-world complex systems are best modeled by multiplex networks. The multiplexity has proved to have broad impact on the system’s structure and function. Most theoretical studies on multiplex networks to date, however, have largely ignored the effect of the link overlap across layers despite strong empirical evidences for its significance. In this article, we investigate the effect of the link overlap in the viability of multiplex networks, both analytically and numerically. After a short recap of the original multiplex viability study, the distinctive role of overlapping links in viability and mutual connectivity is emphasized and exploited for setting up a proper analytic framework. A rich phase diagram for viability is obtained and greatly diversified patterns of hysteretic behavior in viability are observed in the presence of link overlap. Mutual percolation with link overlap is revisited as a limit of multiplex viability problem, and the controversy between existing results is clarified. The distinctive role of overlapping links is further demonstrated by the different responses of networks under random removals of overlapping and non-overlapping links, respectively, as well as under several link-removal strategies. Our results show that the link overlap facilitates the viability and mutual percolation; at the same time, the presence of link overlap poses a challenge in analytical approaches to the problem

  18. FLIC-overlap fermions and topology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kamleh, W.; Kusterer, D.J.; Leinweber, D.B.; Williams, A.G.

    2003-01-01

    APE smearing the links in the irrelevant operators of clover fermions (Fat-Link Irrelevant Clover (FLIC) fermions) provides significant improvement in the condition number of the Hermitian-Dirac operator and gives rise to a factor of two savings in computing the overlap operator. This report investigates the effects of using a highly-improved definition of the lattice field-strength tensor F μν in the fermion action, made possible through the use of APE-smeared fat links in the construction of the irrelevant operators. Spurious double-zero crossings in the spectral flow of the Hermitian-Wilson Dirac operator associated with lattice artifacts at the scale of the lattice spacing are removed with FLIC fermions composed with an O(α 4 )-improved lattice field strength tensor. Hence, FLIC-Overlap fermions provide an additional benefit to the overlap formalism: a correct realization of topology in the fermion sector on the lattice

  19. Analysis of the coding potential of the partially overlapping 3' ORF in segment 5 of the plant fijiviruses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Atkins John F

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract The plant-infecting members of the genus Fijivirus (family Reoviridae have linear dsRNA genomes divided into 10 segments, two of which contain two substantial and non-overlapping ORFs, while the remaining eight are apparently monocistronic. However, one of these – namely segment 5 – contains a second long ORF (~200+ codons that overlaps the 3' end of the major ORF (~920–940 codons in the +1 reading frame. In this report, we use bioinformatic techniques to analyze the pattern of base variations across an alignment of fijivirus segment 5 sequences, and show that this 3' ORF has a strong coding signature. Possible translation mechanisms for this unusually positioned ORF are discussed.

  20. Generation of pseudo-random sequences for spread spectrum systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moser, R.; Stover, J.

    1985-05-01

    The characteristics of pseudo random radio signal sequences (PRS) are explored. The randomness of the PSR is a matter of artificially altering the sequence of binary digits broadcast. Autocorrelations of the two sequences shifted in time, if high, determine if the signals are the same and thus allow for position identification. Cross-correlation can also be calculated between sequences. Correlations closest to zero are obtained with large volume of prime numbers in the sequences. Techniques for selecting optimal and maximal lengths for the sequences are reviewed. If the correlations are near zero in the sequences, then signal channels can accommodate multiple users. Finally, Gold codes are discussed as a technique for maximizing the code lengths.

  1. Signal sequence and keyword trap in silico for selection of full-length human cDNAs encoding secretion or membrane proteins from oligo-capped cDNA libraries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Otsuki, Tetsuji; Ota, Toshio; Nishikawa, Tetsuo; Hayashi, Koji; Suzuki, Yutaka; Yamamoto, Jun-ichi; Wakamatsu, Ai; Kimura, Kouichi; Sakamoto, Katsuhiko; Hatano, Naoto; Kawai, Yuri; Ishii, Shizuko; Saito, Kaoru; Kojima, Shin-ichi; Sugiyama, Tomoyasu; Ono, Tetsuyoshi; Okano, Kazunori; Yoshikawa, Yoko; Aotsuka, Satoshi; Sasaki, Naokazu; Hattori, Atsushi; Okumura, Koji; Nagai, Keiichi; Sugano, Sumio; Isogai, Takao

    2005-01-01

    We have developed an in silico method of selection of human full-length cDNAs encoding secretion or membrane proteins from oligo-capped cDNA libraries. Fullness rates were increased to about 80% by combination of the oligo-capping method and ATGpr, software for prediction of translation start point and the coding potential. Then, using 5'-end single-pass sequences, cDNAs having the signal sequence were selected by PSORT ('signal sequence trap'). We also applied 'secretion or membrane protein-related keyword trap' based on the result of BLAST search against the SWISS-PROT database for the cDNAs which could not be selected by PSORT. Using the above procedures, 789 cDNAs were primarily selected and subjected to full-length sequencing, and 334 of these cDNAs were finally selected as novel. Most of the cDNAs (295 cDNAs: 88.3%) were predicted to encode secretion or membrane proteins. In particular, 165(80.5%) of the 205 cDNAs selected by PSORT were predicted to have signal sequences, while 70 (54.2%) of the 129 cDNAs selected by 'keyword trap' preserved the secretion or membrane protein-related keywords. Many important cDNAs were obtained, including transporters, receptors, and ligands, involved in significant cellular functions. Thus, an efficient method of selecting secretion or membrane protein-encoding cDNAs was developed by combining the above four procedures.

  2. The overlapping of sound and the narrative structure of the audiovisual message / La anticipación del sonido y su relación con la estructura narrativa del mensaje audiovisual

    OpenAIRE

    Ddo. Luis Fernando Morales Morante -

    2008-01-01

    Abstract: The delete in sound with respect to the image (overlapping) is an expressive resource of the audiovisual editing that is frequently used by directors to introduce a new or relevant action into the story being told. Nevertheless, there are no empirical studies that state this effect as a consequence of the overlapping. In this article, we carry out a qualitative study of 235 overlappings from sequences of films, news and TV commercials, retrieved in the Internet. As a result, we note...

  3. Ghost signals in Allison emittance scanners

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stockli, Martin P.; Leitner, M.; Moehs, D.P.; Keller, R.; Welton, R.F.

    2004-01-01

    For over 20 years, Allison scanners have been used to measure emittances of low-energy ion beams. We show that scanning large trajectory angles produces ghost signals caused by the sampled beamlet impacting on an electric deflection plate. The ghost signal strength is proportional to the amount of beam entering the scanner. Depending on the ions, and their velocity, the ghost signals can have the opposite or the same polarity as the main beam signals. The ghost signals cause significant errors in the emittance estimates because they appear at large trajectory angles. These ghost signals often go undetected because they partly overlap with the real signals, are mostly below the 1% level, and often hide in the noise. A simple deflection plate modification is shown to reduce the ghost signal strength by over 99%

  4. Ghost Signals In Allison Emittance Scanners

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stockli, Martin P.; Leitner, M.; Keller, R.; Moehs, D.P.; Welton, R. F.

    2005-01-01

    For over 20 years, Allison scanners have been used to measure emittances of low-energy ion beams. We show that scanning large trajectory angles produces ghost signals caused by the sampled beamlet impacting on an electric deflection plate. The ghost signal strength is proportional to the amount of beam entering the scanner. Depending on the ions, and their velocity, the ghost signals can have the opposite or the same polarity as the main beam signals. The ghost signals cause significant errors in the emittance estimates because they appear at large trajectory angles. These ghost signals often go undetected because they partly overlap with the real signals, are mostly below the 1% level, and often hide in the noise. A simple deflection plate modification is shown to reduce the ghost signal strength by over 99%

  5. Piles, tabs and overlaps in navigation among documents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jakobsen, Mikkel Rønne; Hornbæk, Kasper

    2010-01-01

    Navigation among documents is a frequent, but ill supported activity. Overlapping or tabbed documents are widespread, but they offer limited visibility of their content. We explore variations on navigation support: arranging documents with tabs, as overlapping windows, and in piles. In an experim......Navigation among documents is a frequent, but ill supported activity. Overlapping or tabbed documents are widespread, but they offer limited visibility of their content. We explore variations on navigation support: arranging documents with tabs, as overlapping windows, and in piles....... In an experiment we compared 11 participants’ navigation with these variations and found strong task effects. Overall, overlapping windows were preferred and their structured layout worked well with some tasks. Surprisingly, tabbed documents were efficient in tasks requiring simply finding a document. Piled...... on document navigation and its support by piling....

  6. Calculation of the probability of overlapping one family of nuclear levels with resonances of an independent family

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Difilippo, F.C.

    1982-01-01

    Calculations of the resonance integrals of particular isotopes in a mixture of isotopes show that the overlapping of the resonances of one isotope by resonances of other isotopes affects the final values of effective cross sections. The same effect might adversely influence those nondestructive techniques which assay fissile materials on the basis of resonance effects. Of relevance for these applications is the knowledge of the probability of overlapping resonances of a family of nuclear levels (class 1) with resonances of an independent family (class 2). For the sequence of class 1 resonances we calculate the probability distribution, p(delta), to find a class 2, first-neighbor resonance at distance (in energy) delta from a class 1 resonance; integration of p(delta) over the average finite width of the resonances would give the aforementioned probability of overlapping. Because a class 1 resonance can have a class 1 or a class 2 resonance as a first neighbor, the resultant p(delta) is not given by the distribution of spacings of the composite family

  7. Overlapping Requirements for Tet2 and Tet3 in Normal Development and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Emergence

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cheng Li

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The Tet family of methylcytosine dioxygenases (Tet1, Tet2, and Tet3 convert 5-methylcytosine to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine. To date, functional overlap among Tet family members has not been examined systematically in the context of embryonic development. To clarify the potential for overlap among Tet enzymes during development, we mutated the zebrafish orthologs of Tet1, Tet2, and Tet3 and examined single-, double-, and triple-mutant genotypes. Here, we identify Tet2 and Tet3 as the major 5-methylcytosine dioxygenases in the zebrafish embryo and uncover a combined requirement for Tet2 and Tet3 in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC emergence. We demonstrate that Notch signaling in the hemogenic endothelium is regulated by Tet2/3 prior to HSC emergence and show that restoring expression of the downstream gata2b/scl/runx1 transcriptional network can rescue HSCs in tet2/3 double mutant larvae. Our results reveal essential, overlapping functions for tet genes during embryonic development and uncover a requirement for 5hmC in regulating HSC production.

  8. Topological susceptibility from the overlap

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Del Debbio, Luigi; Pica, Claudio

    2003-01-01

    The chiral symmetry at finite lattice spacing of Ginsparg-Wilson fermionic actions constrains the renormalization of the lattice operators; in particular, the topological susceptibility does not require any renormalization, when using a fermionic estimator to define the topological charge....... Therefore, the overlap formalism appears as an appealing candidate to study the continuum limit of the topological susceptibility while keeping the systematic errors under theoretical control. We present results for the SU(3) pure gauge theory using the index of the overlap Dirac operator to study...

  9. The amino acid sequence of snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) ribonuclease

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Beintema, Jacob; Broos, Jaap; Meulenberg, Janneke; Schüller, Cornelis

    1985-01-01

    Snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) ribonuclease was isolated from pancreatic tissue. Turtle ribonuclease binds much more weakly to the affinity chromatography matrix used than mammalian ribonucleases. The amino acid sequence was determined from overlapping peptides obtained from three different

  10. Signal-BNF: A Bayesian Network Fusing Approach to Predict Signal Peptides

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhi Zheng

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available A signal peptide is a short peptide chain that directs the transport of a protein and has become the crucial vehicle in finding new drugs or reprogramming cells for gene therapy. As the avalanche of new protein sequences generated in the postgenomic era, the challenge of identifying new signal sequences has become even more urgent and critical in biomedical engineering. In this paper, we propose a novel predictor called Signal-BNF to predict the N-terminal signal peptide as well as its cleavage site based on Bayesian reasoning network. Signal-BNF is formed by fusing the results of different Bayesian classifiers which used different feature datasets as its input through weighted voting system. Experiment results show that Signal-BNF is superior to the popular online predictors such as Signal-3L and PrediSi. Signal-BNF is featured by high prediction accuracy that may serve as a useful tool for further investigating many unclear details regarding the molecular mechanism of the zip code protein-sorting system in cells.

  11. Finding overlapping communities in multilayer networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Weiyi; Suzumura, Toyotaro; Ji, Hongyu; Hu, Guangmin

    2018-01-01

    Finding communities in multilayer networks is a vital step in understanding the structure and dynamics of these layers, where each layer represents a particular type of relationship between nodes in the natural world. However, most community discovery methods for multilayer networks may ignore the interplay between layers or the unique topological structure in a layer. Moreover, most of them can only detect non-overlapping communities. In this paper, we propose a new community discovery method for multilayer networks, which leverages the interplay between layers and the unique topology in a layer to reveal overlapping communities. Through a comprehensive analysis of edge behaviors within and across layers, we first calculate the similarities for edges from the same layer and the cross layers. Then, by leveraging these similarities, we can construct a dendrogram for the multilayer networks that takes both the unique topological structure and the important interplay into consideration. Finally, by introducing a new community density metric for multilayer networks, we can cut the dendrogram to get the overlapping communities for these layers. By applying our method on both synthetic and real-world datasets, we demonstrate that our method has an accurate performance in discovering overlapping communities in multilayer networks.

  12. Closed-form expressions for flip angle variation that maximize total signal in T1-weighted rapid gradient echo MRI.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drobnitzky, Matthias; Klose, Uwe

    2017-03-01

    the MR signal collection in MPRAGE sequences as a Bellman problem is a new concept. By means of recursively solving a series of overlapping subproblems, this leads to an elegant solution for the problem of maximizing total available MR signal in k-space. A closed-form expression for flip angle variation avoids the complexity of numerical optimization and eases access to controlled variation in an attempt to identify potential clinical applications. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

  13. Netrin-1 - DCC Signaling Systems and Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Paul SanGiovanni

    Full Text Available We conducted a nested candidate gene study and pathway-based enrichment analysis on data from a multi-national 77,000-person project on the molecular genetics of age-related macular degeneration (AMD to identify AMD-associated DNA-sequence variants in genes encoding constituents of a netrin-1 (NTN1-based signaling pathway that converges on DNA-binding transcription complexes through a 3'-5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate-calcineurin (cAMP-CN-dependent axis. AMD-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs existed in 9 linkage disequilibrium-independent genomic regions; these included loci overlapping NTN1 (rs9899630, P ≤ 9.48 x 10(-5, DCC (Deleted in Colorectal Cancer--the gene encoding a primary NTN1 receptor (rs8097127, P ≤ 3.03 x 10(-5, and 6 other netrin-related genes. Analysis of the NTN1-DCC pathway with exact methods demonstrated robust enrichment with AMD-associated SNPs (corrected P-value = 0.038, supporting the idea that processes driven by NTN1-DCC signaling systems operate in advanced AMD. The NTN1-DCC pathway contains targets of FDA-approved drugs and may offer promise for guiding applied clinical research on preventive and therapeutic interventions for AMD.

  14. A convergent overlapping domain decomposition method for total variation minimization

    KAUST Repository

    Fornasier, Massimo

    2010-06-22

    In this paper we are concerned with the analysis of convergent sequential and parallel overlapping domain decomposition methods for the minimization of functionals formed by a discrepancy term with respect to the data and a total variation constraint. To our knowledge, this is the first successful attempt of addressing such a strategy for the nonlinear, nonadditive, and nonsmooth problem of total variation minimization. We provide several numerical experiments, showing the successful application of the algorithm for the restoration of 1D signals and 2D images in interpolation/inpainting problems, respectively, and in a compressed sensing problem, for recovering piecewise constant medical-type images from partial Fourier ensembles. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

  15. A functional analysis of the spacer of V(D)J recombination signal sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Alfred Ian; Fugmann, Sebastian D; Cowell, Lindsay G; Ptaszek, Leon M; Kelsoe, Garnett; Schatz, David G

    2003-10-01

    During lymphocyte development, V(D)J recombination assembles antigen receptor genes from component V, D, and J gene segments. These gene segments are flanked by a recombination signal sequence (RSS), which serves as the binding site for the recombination machinery. The murine Jbeta2.6 gene segment is a recombinationally inactive pseudogene, but examination of its RSS reveals no obvious reason for its failure to recombine. Mutagenesis of the Jbeta2.6 RSS demonstrates that the sequences of the heptamer, nonamer, and spacer are all important. Strikingly, changes solely in the spacer sequence can result in dramatic differences in the level of recombination. The subsequent analysis of a library of more than 4,000 spacer variants revealed that spacer residues of particular functional importance are correlated with their degree of conservation. Biochemical assays indicate distinct cooperation between the spacer and heptamer/nonamer along each step of the reaction pathway. The results suggest that the spacer serves not only to ensure the appropriate distance between the heptamer and nonamer but also regulates RSS activity by providing additional RAG:RSS interaction surfaces. We conclude that while RSSs are defined by a "digital" requirement for absolutely conserved nucleotides, the quality of RSS function is determined in an "analog" manner by numerous complex interactions between the RAG proteins and the less-well conserved nucleotides in the heptamer, the nonamer, and, importantly, the spacer. Those modulatory effects are accurately predicted by a new computational algorithm for "RSS information content." The interplay between such binary and multiplicative modes of interactions provides a general model for analyzing protein-DNA interactions in various biological systems.

  16. On the relationship between residue structural environment and sequence conservation in proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jen-Wei; Lin, Jau-Ji; Cheng, Chih-Wen; Lin, Yu-Feng; Hwang, Jenn-Kang; Huang, Tsun-Tsao

    2017-09-01

    Residues that are crucial to protein function or structure are usually evolutionarily conserved. To identify the important residues in protein, sequence conservation is estimated, and current methods rely upon the unbiased collection of homologous sequences. Surprisingly, our previous studies have shown that the sequence conservation is closely correlated with the weighted contact number (WCN), a measure of packing density for residue's structural environment, calculated only based on the C α positions of a protein structure. Moreover, studies have shown that sequence conservation is correlated with environment-related structural properties calculated based on different protein substructures, such as a protein's all atoms, backbone atoms, side-chain atoms, or side-chain centroid. To know whether the C α atomic positions are adequate to show the relationship between residue environment and sequence conservation or not, here we compared C α atoms with other substructures in their contributions to the sequence conservation. Our results show that C α positions are substantially equivalent to the other substructures in calculations of various measures of residue environment. As a result, the overlapping contributions between C α atoms and the other substructures are high, yielding similar structure-conservation relationship. Take the WCN as an example, the average overlapping contribution to sequence conservation is 87% between C α and all-atom substructures. These results indicate that only C α atoms of a protein structure could reflect sequence conservation at the residue level. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  17. Large scale analysis of signal reachability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Todor, Andrei; Gabr, Haitham; Dobra, Alin; Kahveci, Tamer

    2014-06-15

    Major disorders, such as leukemia, have been shown to alter the transcription of genes. Understanding how gene regulation is affected by such aberrations is of utmost importance. One promising strategy toward this objective is to compute whether signals can reach to the transcription factors through the transcription regulatory network (TRN). Due to the uncertainty of the regulatory interactions, this is a #P-complete problem and thus solving it for very large TRNs remains to be a challenge. We develop a novel and scalable method to compute the probability that a signal originating at any given set of source genes can arrive at any given set of target genes (i.e., transcription factors) when the topology of the underlying signaling network is uncertain. Our method tackles this problem for large networks while providing a provably accurate result. Our method follows a divide-and-conquer strategy. We break down the given network into a sequence of non-overlapping subnetworks such that reachability can be computed autonomously and sequentially on each subnetwork. We represent each interaction using a small polynomial. The product of these polynomials express different scenarios when a signal can or cannot reach to target genes from the source genes. We introduce polynomial collapsing operators for each subnetwork. These operators reduce the size of the resulting polynomial and thus the computational complexity dramatically. We show that our method scales to entire human regulatory networks in only seconds, while the existing methods fail beyond a few tens of genes and interactions. We demonstrate that our method can successfully characterize key reachability characteristics of the entire transcriptions regulatory networks of patients affected by eight different subtypes of leukemia, as well as those from healthy control samples. All the datasets and code used in this article are available at bioinformatics.cise.ufl.edu/PReach/scalable.htm. © The Author 2014

  18. Interleaved neuromuscular electrical stimulation: Motor unit recruitment overlap.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiest, Matheus J; Bergquist, Austin J; Schimidt, Helen L; Jones, Kelvin E; Collins, David F

    2017-04-01

    In this study, we quantified the "overlap" between motor units recruited by single pulses of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) delivered over the tibialis anterior muscle (mNMES) and the common peroneal nerve (nNMES). We then quantified the torque produced when pulses were alternated between the mNMES and nNMES sites at 40 Hz ("interleaved" NMES; iNMES). Overlap was assessed by comparing torque produced by twitches evoked by mNMES, nNMES, and both delivered together, over a range of stimulus intensities. Trains of iNMES were delivered at the intensity that produced the lowest overlap. Overlap was lowest (5%) when twitches evoked by both mNMES and nNMES produced 10% peak twitch torque. iNMES delivered at this intensity generated 25% of maximal voluntary dorsiflexion torque (11 Nm). Low intensity iNMES leads to low overlap and produces torque that is functionally relevant to evoke dorsiflexion during walking. Muscle Nerve 55: 490-499, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  19. De Novo Transcriptome Sequencing in Passiflora edulis Sims to Identify Genes and Signaling Pathways Involved in Cold Tolerance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sian Liu

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available The passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims, also known as the purple granadilla, is widely cultivated as the new darling of the fruit market throughout southern China. This exotic and perennial climber is adapted to warm and humid climates, and thus is generally intolerant of cold. There is limited information about gene regulation and signaling pathways related to the cold stress response in this species. In this study, two transcriptome libraries (KEDU_AP vs. GX_AP were constructed from the aerial parts of cold-tolerant and cold-susceptible varieties of P. edulis, respectively. Overall, 126,284,018 clean reads were obtained, and 86,880 unigenes with a mean size of 1449 bp were assembled. Of these, there were 64,067 (73.74% unigenes with significant similarity to publicly available plant protein sequences. Expression profiles were generated, and 3045 genes were found to be significantly differentially expressed between the KEDU_AP and GX_AP libraries, including 1075 (35.3% up-regulated and 1970 (64.7% down-regulated. These included 36 genes in enriched pathways of plant hormone signal transduction, and 56 genes encoding putative transcription factors. Six genes involved in the ICE1–CBF–COR pathway were induced in the cold-tolerant variety, and their expression levels were further verified using quantitative real-time PCR. This report is the first to identify genes and signaling pathways involved in cold tolerance using high-throughput transcriptome sequencing in P. edulis. These findings may provide useful insights into the molecular mechanisms regulating cold tolerance and genetic breeding in Passiflora spp.

  20. Transiting topological sectors with the overlap

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Creutz, Michael

    2003-01-01

    The overlap operator provides an elegant definition for the winding number of lattice gauge field configurations. Only for a set of configurations of measure zero is this procedure undefined. Without restrictions on the lattice fields, however, the space of gauge fields is simply connected. I present a simple low dimensional illustration of how the eigenvalues of a truncated overlap operator flow as one travels between different topological sectors

  1. Phylogenomics of Phrynosomatid Lizards: Conflicting Signals from Sequence Capture versus Restriction Site Associated DNA Sequencing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leaché, Adam D.; Chavez, Andreas S.; Jones, Leonard N.; Grummer, Jared A.; Gottscho, Andrew D.; Linkem, Charles W.

    2015-01-01

    Sequence capture and restriction site associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) are popular methods for obtaining large numbers of loci for phylogenetic analysis. These methods are typically used to collect data at different evolutionary timescales; sequence capture is primarily used for obtaining conserved loci, whereas RADseq is designed for discovering single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) suitable for population genetic or phylogeographic analyses. Phylogenetic questions that span both “recent” and “deep” timescales could benefit from either type of data, but studies that directly compare the two approaches are lacking. We compared phylogenies estimated from sequence capture and double digest RADseq (ddRADseq) data for North American phrynosomatid lizards, a species-rich and diverse group containing nine genera that began diversifying approximately 55 Ma. Sequence capture resulted in 584 loci that provided a consistent and strong phylogeny using concatenation and species tree inference. However, the phylogeny estimated from the ddRADseq data was sensitive to the bioinformatics steps used for determining homology, detecting paralogs, and filtering missing data. The topological conflicts among the SNP trees were not restricted to any particular timescale, but instead were associated with short internal branches. Species tree analysis of the largest SNP assembly, which also included the most missing data, supported a topology that matched the sequence capture tree. This preferred phylogeny provides strong support for the paraphyly of the earless lizard genera Holbrookia and Cophosaurus, suggesting that the earless morphology either evolved twice or evolved once and was subsequently lost in Callisaurus. PMID:25663487

  2. Direct, rapid RNA sequence analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peattie, D.A.

    1987-01-01

    The original methods of RNA sequence analysis were based on enzymatic production and chromatographic separation of overlapping oligonucleotide fragments from within an RNA molecule followed by identification of the mononucleotides comprising the oligomer. Over the past decade the field of nucleic acid sequencing has changed dramatically, however, and RNA molecules now can be sequenced in a variety of more streamlined fashions. Most of the more recent advances in RNA sequencing have involved one-dimensional electrophoretic separation of 32 P-end-labeled oligoribonucleotides on polyacrylamide gels. In this chapter the author discusses two of these methods for determining the nucleotide sequences of RNA molecules rapidly: the chemical method and the enzymatic method. Both methods are direct and degradative, i.e., they rely on fragmatic and chemical approaches should be utilized. The single-strand-specific ribonucleases (A, T 1 , T 2 , and S 1 ) provide an efficient means to locate double-helical regions rapidly, and the chemical reactions provide a means to determine the RNA sequence within these regions. In addition, the chemical reactions allow one to assign interactions to specific atoms and to distinguish secondary interactions from tertiary ones. If the RNA molecule is small enough to be sequenced directly by the enzymatic or chemical method, the probing reactions can be done easily at the same time as sequencing reactions

  3. Numerical properties of staggered overlap fermions

    CERN Document Server

    de Forcrand, Philippe; Panero, Marco

    2010-01-01

    We report the results of a numerical study of staggered overlap fermions, following the construction of Adams which reduces the number of tastes from 4 to 2 without fine-tuning. We study the sensitivity of the operator to the topology of the gauge field, its locality and its robustness to fluctuations of the gauge field. We make a first estimate of the computing cost of a quark propagator calculation, and compare with Neuberger's overlap.

  4. Spreading Sequence System for Full Connectivity Relay Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwon, Hyuck M. (Inventor); Yang, Jie (Inventor); Pham, Khanh D. (Inventor)

    2018-01-01

    Fully connected uplink and downlink fully connected relay network systems using pseudo-noise spreading and despreading sequences subjected to maximizing the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio. The relay network systems comprise one or more transmitting units, relays, and receiving units connected via a communication network. The transmitting units, relays, and receiving units each may include a computer for performing the methods and steps described herein and transceivers for transmitting and/or receiving signals. The computer encodes and/or decodes communication signals via optimum adaptive PN sequences found by employing Cholesky decompositions and singular value decompositions (SVD). The PN sequences employ channel state information (CSI) to more effectively and more securely computing the optimal sequences.

  5. Developmental roles of 21 Drosophila transcription factors are determined by quantitative differences in binding to an overlapping set of thousands of genomic regions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    MacArthur, Stewart; Li, Xiao-Yong; Li, Jingyi; Brown, James B.; Chu, Hou Cheng; Zeng, Lucy; Grondona, Brandi P.; Hechmer, Aaron; Simirenko, Lisa; Keranen, Soile V.E.; Knowles, David W.; Stapleton, Mark; Bickel, Peter; Biggin, Mark D.; Eisen, Michael B.

    2009-05-15

    BACKGROUND: We previously established that six sequence-specific transcription factors that initiate anterior/posterior patterning in Drosophila bind to overlapping sets of thousands of genomic regions in blastoderm embryos. While regions bound at high levels include known and probable functional targets, more poorly bound regions are preferentially associated with housekeeping genes and/or genes not transcribed in the blastoderm, and are frequently found in protein coding sequences or in less conserved non-coding DNA, suggesting that many are likely non-functional. RESULTS: Here we show that an additional 15 transcription factors that regulate other aspects of embryo patterning show a similar quantitative continuum of function and binding to thousands of genomic regions in vivo. Collectively, the 21 regulators show a surprisingly high overlap in the regions they bind given that they belong to 11 DNA binding domain families, specify distinct developmental fates, and can act via different cis-regulatory modules. We demonstrate, however, that quantitative differences in relative levels of binding to shared targets correlate with the known biological and transcriptional regulatory specificities of these factors. CONCLUSIONS: It is likely that the overlap in binding of biochemically and functionally unrelated transcription factors arises from the high concentrations of these proteins in nuclei, which, coupled with their broad DNA binding specificities, directs them to regions of open chromatin. We suggest that most animal transcription factors will be found to show a similar broad overlapping pattern of binding in vivo, with specificity achieved by modulating the amount, rather than the identity, of bound factor.

  6. Rapid Polymer Sequencer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stolc, Viktor (Inventor); Brock, Matthew W (Inventor)

    2013-01-01

    Method and system for rapid and accurate determination of each of a sequence of unknown polymer components, such as nucleic acid components. A self-assembling monolayer of a selected substance is optionally provided on an interior surface of a pipette tip, and the interior surface is immersed in a selected liquid. A selected electrical field is impressed in a longitudinal direction, or in a transverse direction, in the tip region, a polymer sequence is passed through the tip region, and a change in an electrical current signal is measured as each polymer component passes through the tip region. Each of the measured changes in electrical current signals is compared with a database of reference electrical change signals, with each reference signal corresponding to an identified polymer component, to identify the unknown polymer component with a reference polymer component. The nanopore preferably has a pore inner diameter of no more than about 40 nm and is prepared by heating and pulling a very small section of a glass tubing.

  7. Design of Long Period Pseudo-Random Sequences from the Addition of -Sequences over

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ren Jian

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available Pseudo-random sequence with good correlation property and large linear span is widely used in code division multiple access (CDMA communication systems and cryptology for reliable and secure information transmission. In this paper, sequences with long period, large complexity, balance statistics, and low cross-correlation property are constructed from the addition of -sequences with pairwise-prime linear spans (AMPLS. Using -sequences as building blocks, the proposed method proved to be an efficient and flexible approach to construct long period pseudo-random sequences with desirable properties from short period sequences. Applying the proposed method to , a signal set is constructed.

  8. CHARACTERIZATION AND AUTOMATIC COUNTING OF F.I.S.H. SIGNALS IN 3-D TISSUE IMAGES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Umesh PS Adiga

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available The evaluation of malignancy-related features often helps to determine the prognoses for patients with carcinomas. One technique, which is becoming increasingly important for assessing such prognostic features is that of Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (FISH. By counting the number of FISH signals in a stack of 2- D images of a tumor (which together constitute the 3-D image volume, it is possible to determine whether there has been any loss or gain of the target DNA sequences and thereby evaluate the stage of the disease. However, visual counting of the FISH signals in this way is a tedious, fatiguing and time-consuming task. Therefore, we have developed an automated system for the quantitative evaluation of FISH signals. We present and discuss the implementation of an image processing module that segments, characterizes and counts the FISH signals in 3-D images of thick prostate tumor tissue specimens. Possible errors in the automatic counting of signals are listed and ways to circumvent these errors are described. We define a feature vector for a FISH signal and describe how we have used the weighted feature vector to segment specific signals from noise artifacts. In addition, we present a method, which allows overlapping FISH signals to be distinguished by fitting a local Gaussian model around the intensity profile and studying the feature vector of each model. Our complete image processing module overcomes the problems of manual counting of FISH signals in 3-D images of tumor specimens, thereby providing improved diagnostic and prognostic capability in qualitative diagnostic pathology.

  9. Sequence-specific protection of duplex DNA against restriction and methylation enzymes by pseudocomplementary PNAs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Izvolsky, K I; Demidov, V V; Nielsen, P E

    2000-01-01

    I restriction endonuclease and dam methylase. The pcPNA-assisted protection against enzymatic methylation is more efficient when the PNA-binding site embodies the methylase-recognition site rather than overlaps it. We conclude that pcPNAs may provide the robust tools allowing to sequence-specifically manipulate...... DNA duplexes in a virtually sequence-unrestricted manner....

  10. Comparative genomics beyond sequence-based alignments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Þórarinsson, Elfar; Yao, Zizhen; Wiklund, Eric D.

    2008-01-01

    Recent computational scans for non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in multiple organisms have relied on existing multiple sequence alignments. However, as sequence similarity drops, a key signal of RNA structure--frequent compensating base changes--is increasingly likely to cause sequence-based alignment me...

  11. Sequence memory based on coherent spin-interaction neural networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Min; Wong, W K; Wang, Zhijie

    2014-12-01

    Sequence information processing, for instance, the sequence memory, plays an important role on many functions of brain. In the workings of the human brain, the steady-state period is alterable. However, in the existing sequence memory models using heteroassociations, the steady-state period cannot be changed in the sequence recall. In this work, a novel neural network model for sequence memory with controllable steady-state period based on coherent spininteraction is proposed. In the proposed model, neurons fire collectively in a phase-coherent manner, which lets a neuron group respond differently to different patterns and also lets different neuron groups respond differently to one pattern. The simulation results demonstrating the performance of the sequence memory are presented. By introducing a new coherent spin-interaction sequence memory model, the steady-state period can be controlled by dimension parameters and the overlap between the input pattern and the stored patterns. The sequence storage capacity is enlarged by coherent spin interaction compared with the existing sequence memory models. Furthermore, the sequence storage capacity has an exponential relationship to the dimension of the neural network.

  12. Mesoarchean Banded Iron Formation sequences in Dixon Island-Cleaverville Formation, Pilbara Australia: Oxygenic signal from DXCL project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiyokawa, S.; Ito, T.; Ikehara, M.; Yamaguchi, K. E.; Naraoka, H.; Onoue, T.; Horie, K.; Sakamoto, R.; Aihara, Y.; Miki, T.

    2013-12-01

    The 3.2-3.1 Ga Dixon island-Cleaverville formations are well-preserved Banded Iron Formation (BIF) within hydrothermal oceanic sequence at oceanic island arc setting (Kiyokawa et al., 2002, 2006, 2012). The stratigraphy of the Dixon Island (3195+15Ma) -Cleaverville (3108+13Ma) formations shows the well preserved environmental condition at the Mesoarchean ocean floor. The stratigraphy of these formations are formed about volcano-sedimentary sequences with hydrothermal chert, black shale and banded iron formation to the top. Based on the scientific drilling of DXCL project at 2007 and 2011, detail lithology between BIF sequence was clearly understood. Four drilling holes had been done at coastal sites; the Dixon Island Formation is DX site (100m) and the Cleaverville Formation is CL2 (40m), CL1 (60m) and CL3 (200m) sites and from stratigraphic bottom to top. Coarsening and thickening upward black shale-BIF sequences are well preserved of the stratigraphy form the core samples. The Dixon Island Formation consists komatiite-rhyolite sequences with many hydrothermal veins and very fine laminated cherty rocks above them. The Cleaverville Formation contains black shale, fragments-bearing pyroclastic beds, white chert, greenish shale and BIF. The CL3 core, which drilled through BIF, shows siderite-chert beds above black shale identified before magnetite lamination bed. U-Pb SHRIMP data of the tuff in lower Dixon Island Formation is 3195+15 Ma and the pyroclastic sequence below the Cleaverville BIF is 3108+13 Ma. Sedimentation rate of these sequence is 2-8 cm/ 1000year. The hole section of the organic carbon rich black shales below BIF are similar amount of organic content and 13C isotope (around -30per mill). There are very weak sulfur MIF signal (less 0.2%) in these black shale sequence. Our result show that thick organic rich sediments may be triggered to form iron rich siderite and magnetite iron beds. The stratigraphy in this sequence quite resemble to other Iron

  13. Simultaneous identification of long similar substrings in large sets of sequences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wittig Burghardt

    2007-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Sequence comparison faces new challenges today, with many complete genomes and large libraries of transcripts known. Gene annotation pipelines match these sequences in order to identify genes and their alternative splice forms. However, the software currently available cannot simultaneously compare sets of sequences as large as necessary especially if errors must be considered. Results We therefore present a new algorithm for the identification of almost perfectly matching substrings in very large sets of sequences. Its implementation, called ClustDB, is considerably faster and can handle 16 times more data than VMATCH, the most memory efficient exact program known today. ClustDB simultaneously generates large sets of exactly matching substrings of a given minimum length as seeds for a novel method of match extension with errors. It generates alignments of maximum length with a considered maximum number of errors within each overlapping window of a given size. Such alignments are not optimal in the usual sense but faster to calculate and often more appropriate than traditional alignments for genomic sequence comparisons, EST and full-length cDNA matching, and genomic sequence assembly. The method is used to check the overlaps and to reveal possible assembly errors for 1377 Medicago truncatula BAC-size sequences published at http://www.medicago.org/genome/assembly_table.php?chr=1. Conclusion The program ClustDB proves that window alignment is an efficient way to find long sequence sections of homogenous alignment quality, as expected in case of random errors, and to detect systematic errors resulting from sequence contaminations. Such inserts are systematically overlooked in long alignments controlled by only tuning penalties for mismatches and gaps. ClustDB is freely available for academic use.

  14. Evolution of electric communication signals in the South American ghost knifefishes (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae): A phylogenetic comparative study using a sequence-based phylogeny.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Adam R; Proffitt, Melissa R; Ho, Winnie W; Mullaney, Claire B; Maldonado-Ocampo, Javier A; Lovejoy, Nathan R; Alves-Gomes, José A; Smith, G Troy

    2016-10-01

    The electric communication signals of weakly electric ghost knifefishes (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae) provide a valuable model system for understanding the evolution and physiology of behavior. Apteronotids produce continuous wave-type electric organ discharges (EODs) that are used for electrolocation and communication. The frequency and waveform of EODs, as well as the structure of transient EOD modulations (chirps), vary substantially across species. Understanding how these signals have evolved, however, has been hampered by the lack of a well-supported phylogeny for this family. We constructed a molecular phylogeny for the Apteronotidae by using sequence data from three genes (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1, recombination activating gene 2, and cytochrome oxidase B) in 32 species representing 13 apteronotid genera. This phylogeny and an extensive database of apteronotid signals allowed us to examine signal evolution by using ancestral state reconstruction (ASR) and phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) models. Our molecular phylogeny largely agrees with another recent sequence-based phylogeny and identified five robust apteronotid clades: (i) Sternarchorhamphus+Orthosternarchus, (ii) Adontosternarchus, (iii) Apteronotus+Parapteronotus, (iv) Sternarchorhynchus, and (v) a large clade including Porotergus, 'Apteronotus', Compsaraia, Sternarchogiton, Sternarchella, and Magosternarchus. We analyzed novel chirp recordings from two apteronotid species (Orthosternarchus tamandua and Sternarchorhynchus mormyrus), and combined data from these species with that from previously recorded species in our phylogenetic analyses. Some signal parameters in O. tamandua were plesiomorphic (e.g., low frequency EODs and chirps with little frequency modulation that nevertheless interrupt the EOD), suggesting that ultra-high frequency EODs and "big" chirps evolved after apteronotids diverged from other gymnotiforms. In contrast to previous studies, our PGLS analyses using the

  15. Structure and expression of two nuclear receptor genes in marsupials: insights into the evolution of the antisense overlap between the α-thyroid hormone receptor and Rev-erbα

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brown M Scott

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Alternative processing of α-thyroid hormone receptor (TRα, NR1A1 mRNAs gives rise to two functionally antagonistic nuclear receptors: TRα1, the α-type receptor, and TRα2, a non-hormone binding variant that is found only in mammals. TRα2 shares an unusual antisense coding overlap with mRNA for Rev-erbα (NR1D1, another nuclear receptor protein. In this study we examine the structure and expression of these genes in the gray short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica, in comparison with that of eutherian mammals and three other marsupial species, Didelphis virginiana, Potorous tridactylus and Macropus eugenii, in order to understand the evolution and regulatory role of this antisense overlap. Results The sequence, expression and genomic organization of mRNAs encoding TRα1 and Rev-erbα are very similar in the opossum and eutherian mammals. However, the sequence corresponding to the TRα2 coding region appears truncated by almost 100 amino acids. While expression of TRα1 and Rev-erbα was readily detected in all tissues of M. domestica ages 0 days to 18 weeks, TRα2 mRNA was not detected in any tissue or stage examined. These results contrast with the widespread and abundant expression of TRα2 in rodents and other eutherian mammals. To examine requirements for alternative splicing of TRα mRNAs, a series of chimeric minigenes was constructed. Results show that the opossum TRα2-specific 5' splice site sequence is fully competent for splicing but the sequence homologous to the TRα2 3' splice site is not, even though the marsupial sequences are remarkably similar to core splice site elements in rat. Conclusions Our results strongly suggest that the variant nuclear receptor isoform, TRα2, is not expressed in marsupials and that the antisense overlap between TRα and Rev-erbα thus is unique to eutherian mammals. Further investigation of the TRα and Rev-erbα genes in marsupial and eutherian species promises to yield

  16. Structure and expression of two nuclear receptor genes in marsupials: insights into the evolution of the antisense overlap between the α-thyroid hormone receptor and Rev-erbα

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    Background Alternative processing of α-thyroid hormone receptor (TRα, NR1A1) mRNAs gives rise to two functionally antagonistic nuclear receptors: TRα1, the α-type receptor, and TRα2, a non-hormone binding variant that is found only in mammals. TRα2 shares an unusual antisense coding overlap with mRNA for Rev-erbα (NR1D1), another nuclear receptor protein. In this study we examine the structure and expression of these genes in the gray short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica, in comparison with that of eutherian mammals and three other marsupial species, Didelphis virginiana, Potorous tridactylus and Macropus eugenii, in order to understand the evolution and regulatory role of this antisense overlap. Results The sequence, expression and genomic organization of mRNAs encoding TRα1 and Rev-erbα are very similar in the opossum and eutherian mammals. However, the sequence corresponding to the TRα2 coding region appears truncated by almost 100 amino acids. While expression of TRα1 and Rev-erbα was readily detected in all tissues of M. domestica ages 0 days to 18 weeks, TRα2 mRNA was not detected in any tissue or stage examined. These results contrast with the widespread and abundant expression of TRα2 in rodents and other eutherian mammals. To examine requirements for alternative splicing of TRα mRNAs, a series of chimeric minigenes was constructed. Results show that the opossum TRα2-specific 5' splice site sequence is fully competent for splicing but the sequence homologous to the TRα2 3' splice site is not, even though the marsupial sequences are remarkably similar to core splice site elements in rat. Conclusions Our results strongly suggest that the variant nuclear receptor isoform, TRα2, is not expressed in marsupials and that the antisense overlap between TRα and Rev-erbα thus is unique to eutherian mammals. Further investigation of the TRα and Rev-erbα genes in marsupial and eutherian species promises to yield additional insight into the

  17. Pattern overlap implies runaway growth in hierarchical tile systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Doty

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available We show that in the hierarchical tile assembly model, if there is a producible assembly that overlaps a nontrivial translation of itself consistently (i.e., the pattern of tile types in the overlap region is identical in both translations, then arbitrarily large assemblies are producible. The significance of this result is that tile systems intended to controllably produce finite structures must avoid pattern repetition in their producible assemblies that would lead to such overlap.This answers an open question of Chen and Doty (SODA 2012, who showed that so-called "partial-order" systems producing a unique finite assembly and avoiding such overlaps must require time linear in the assembly diameter. An application of our main result is that any system producing a unique finite assembly is automatically guaranteed to avoid such overlaps, simplifying the hypothesis of Chen and Doty's main theorem.

  18. Overlapping patterns of brain activation to food and cocaine cues in cocaine abusers: association to striatal D2/D3 receptors

    OpenAIRE

    Tomasi, Dardo; Wang, Gene-Jack; Wang, Ruiliang; Caparelli, Elisabeth C.; Logan, Jean; Volkow, Nora D.

    2014-01-01

    Cocaine, through its activation of dopamine (DA) signaling, usurps pathways that process natural rewards. However, the extent to which there is overlap between the networks that process natural and drug rewards and whether DA signaling associated with cocaine abuse influences these networks have not been investigated in humans. We measured brain activation responses to food and cocaine cues with fMRI, and D2/D3 receptors in the striatum with [11C]raclopride and PET in 20 active cocaine abuser...

  19. Effect of pulse sequence parameter selection on signal strength in positive-contrast MRI markers for MRI-based prostate postimplant assessment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lim, Tze Yee [Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 and The University of Texas at Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 6767 Bertner Avenue, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Kudchadker, Rajat J., E-mail: rkudchad@mdanderson.org; Wang, Jihong; Ibbott, Geoffrey S. [Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Stafford, R. Jason [Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); MacLellan, Christopher [Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 and The University of Texas at Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 6767 Bertner Avenue, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Rao, Arvind [Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Frank, Steven J. [Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States)

    2016-07-15

    Purpose: For postimplant dosimetric assessment, computed tomography (CT) is commonly used to identify prostate brachytherapy seeds, at the expense of accurate anatomical contouring. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is superior to CT for anatomical delineation, but identification of the negative-contrast seeds is challenging. Positive-contrast MRI markers were proposed to replace spacers to assist seed localization on MRI images. Visualization of these markers under varying scan parameters was investigated. Methods: To simulate a clinical scenario, a prostate phantom was implanted with 66 markers and 86 seeds, and imaged on a 3.0T MRI scanner using a 3D fast radiofrequency-spoiled gradient recalled echo acquisition with various combinations of scan parameters. Scan parameters, including flip angle, number of excitations, bandwidth, field-of-view, slice thickness, and encoding steps were systematically varied to study their effects on signal, noise, scan time, image resolution, and artifacts. Results: The effects of pulse sequence parameter selection on the marker signal strength and image noise were characterized. The authors also examined the tradeoff between signal-to-noise ratio, scan time, and image artifacts, such as the wraparound artifact, susceptibility artifact, chemical shift artifact, and partial volume averaging artifact. Given reasonable scan time and managable artifacts, the authors recommended scan parameter combinations that can provide robust visualization of the MRI markers. Conclusions: The recommended MRI pulse sequence protocol allows for consistent visualization of the markers to assist seed localization, potentially enabling MRI-only prostate postimplant dosimetry.

  20. Human cyclophilin B: A second cyclophilin gene encodes a peptidyl-prolyl isomerase with a signal sequence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Price, E.R.; Zydowsky, L.D.; Jin, Mingjie; Baker, C.H.; McKeon, F.D.; Walsh, C.T.

    1991-01-01

    The authors report the cloning and characterization of a cDNA encoding a second human cyclosporin A-binding protein (hCyPB). Homology analyses reveal that hCyPB is a member of the cyclophilin B (CyPB) family, which includes yeast CyPB, Drosophila nina A, and rat cyclophilin-like protein. This family is distinguished from the cyclophilin A (CyPA) family by the presence of endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-directed signal sequences. hCyPB has a hydrophobic leader sequence not found in hCyPA, and its first 25 amino acids are removed upon expression in Escherichia coli. Moreover, they show that hCyPB is a peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase which can be inhibited by cyclosporin A. These observations suggest that other members of the CyPB family will have similar enzymatic properties. Sequence comparisons of the CyPB proteins show a central, 165-amino acid peptidyl-prolyl isomerase and cyclosprorin A-binding domain, flanked by variable N-terminal and C-terminal domains. These two variable regions may impart compartmental specificity and regulation to this family of cyclophilin proteins containing the conserved core domain. Northern blot analyses show that hCyPB mRNA is expressed in the Jurkat T-cell line, consistent with its possible target role in cyclosporin A-mediated immunosuppression

  1. Unprecedented high-resolution view of bacterial operon architecture revealed by RNA sequencing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conway, Tyrrell; Creecy, James P; Maddox, Scott M; Grissom, Joe E; Conkle, Trevor L; Shadid, Tyler M; Teramoto, Jun; San Miguel, Phillip; Shimada, Tomohiro; Ishihama, Akira; Mori, Hirotada; Wanner, Barry L

    2014-07-08

    We analyzed the transcriptome of Escherichia coli K-12 by strand-specific RNA sequencing at single-nucleotide resolution during steady-state (logarithmic-phase) growth and upon entry into stationary phase in glucose minimal medium. To generate high-resolution transcriptome maps, we developed an organizational schema which showed that in practice only three features are required to define operon architecture: the promoter, terminator, and deep RNA sequence read coverage. We precisely annotated 2,122 promoters and 1,774 terminators, defining 1,510 operons with an average of 1.98 genes per operon. Our analyses revealed an unprecedented view of E. coli operon architecture. A large proportion (36%) of operons are complex with internal promoters or terminators that generate multiple transcription units. For 43% of operons, we observed differential expression of polycistronic genes, despite being in the same operons, indicating that E. coli operon architecture allows fine-tuning of gene expression. We found that 276 of 370 convergent operons terminate inefficiently, generating complementary 3' transcript ends which overlap on average by 286 nucleotides, and 136 of 388 divergent operons have promoters arranged such that their 5' ends overlap on average by 168 nucleotides. We found 89 antisense transcripts of 397-nucleotide average length, 7 unannotated transcripts within intergenic regions, and 18 sense transcripts that completely overlap operons on the opposite strand. Of 519 overlapping transcripts, 75% correspond to sequences that are highly conserved in E. coli (>50 genomes). Our data extend recent studies showing unexpected transcriptome complexity in several bacteria and suggest that antisense RNA regulation is widespread. Importance: We precisely mapped the 5' and 3' ends of RNA transcripts across the E. coli K-12 genome by using a single-nucleotide analytical approach. Our resulting high-resolution transcriptome maps show that ca. one-third of E. coli operons are

  2. An efficient and high fidelity method for amplification, cloning and sequencing of complete tospovirus genomic RNA segments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amplification and sequencing of the complete M- and S-RNA segments of Tomato spotted wilt virus and Impatiens necrotic spot virus as a single fragment is useful for whole genome sequencing of tospoviruses co-infecting a single host plant. It avoids issues associated with overlapping amplicon-based ...

  3. Detecting highly overlapping community structure by greedy clique expansion

    OpenAIRE

    Lee, Conrad; Reid, Fergal; McDaid, Aaron; Hurley, Neil

    2010-01-01

    In complex networks it is common for each node to belong to several communities, implying a highly overlapping community structure. Recent advances in benchmarking indicate that existing community assignment algorithms that are capable of detecting overlapping communities perform well only when the extent of community overlap is kept to modest levels. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a new community assignment algorithm called Greedy Clique Expansion (GCE). The algorithm identifies d...

  4. MicroRNA Profiling in Aqueous Humor of Individual Human Eyes by Next-Generation Sequencing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wecker, Thomas; Hoffmeier, Klaus; Plötner, Anne; Grüning, Björn Andreas; Horres, Ralf; Backofen, Rolf; Reinhard, Thomas; Schlunck, Günther

    2016-04-01

    Extracellular microRNAs (miRNAs) in aqueous humor were suggested to have a role in transcellular signaling and may serve as disease biomarkers. The authors adopted next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques to further characterize the miRNA profile in single samples of 60 to 80 μL human aqueous humor. Samples were obtained at the outset of cataract surgery in nine independent, otherwise healthy eyes. Four samples were used to extract RNA and generate sequencing libraries, followed by an adapter-driven amplification step, electrophoretic size selection, sequencing, and data analysis. Five samples were used for quantitative PCR (qPCR) validation of NGS results. Published NGS data on circulating miRNAs in blood were analyzed in comparison. One hundred fifty-eight miRNAs were consistently detected by NGS in all four samples; an additional 59 miRNAs were present in at least three samples. The aqueous humor miRNA profile shows some overlap with published NGS-derived inventories of circulating miRNAs in blood plasma with high prevalence of human miR-451a, -21, and -16. In contrast to blood, miR-184, -4448, -30a, -29a, -29c, -19a, -30d, -205, -24, -22, and -3074 were detected among the 20 most prevalent miRNAs in aqueous humor. Relative expression patterns of miR-451a, -202, and -144 suggested by NGS were confirmed by qPCR. Our data illustrate the feasibility of miRNA analysis by NGS in small individual aqueous humor samples. Intraocular cells as well as blood plasma contribute to the extracellular aqueous humor miRNome. The data suggest possible roles of miRNA in intraocular cell adhesion and signaling by TGF-β and Wnt, which are important in intraocular pressure regulation and glaucoma.

  5. Generation of non-overlapping fiber architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chapelle, Lucie; Lévesque, M.; Brøndsted, Povl

    2015-01-01

    and polymer networks. The model takes into account the complex geometry of the fiber arrangement in which a fiber can be modeled with a certain degree of bending while keeping a main fiber orientation. The model is built in two steps. First, fibers are generated as a chain of overlapping spheres or as a chain......: a repulsion force to suppress the overlap between two fibers and a bending and stretching force to ensure that the fiber structure is kept unchanged. The model can be used as the geometrical basis for further finite-element modelling....

  6. High Frequency Components Recovery in Music Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. Sebesta

    1999-04-01

    Full Text Available A new technique is presented which improves the subjective quality of band-limited music by recovery of high frequency components. Sequences of harmonics are found in the band-limited signal and these sequences are expanded to the high frequency band to estimate the lost part of spectrum. High frequency signal is generated to match this estimation and is added to the band-limited signal.

  7. Method and apparatus for biological sequence comparison

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marr, T.G.; Chang, W.I.

    1997-12-23

    A method and apparatus are disclosed for comparing biological sequences from a known source of sequences, with a subject (query) sequence. The apparatus takes as input a set of target similarity levels (such as evolutionary distances in units of PAM), and finds all fragments of known sequences that are similar to the subject sequence at each target similarity level, and are long enough to be statistically significant. The invention device filters out fragments from the known sequences that are too short, or have a lower average similarity to the subject sequence than is required by each target similarity level. The subject sequence is then compared only to the remaining known sequences to find the best matches. The filtering member divides the subject sequence into overlapping blocks, each block being sufficiently large to contain a minimum-length alignment from a known sequence. For each block, the filter member compares the block with every possible short fragment in the known sequences and determines a best match for each comparison. The determined set of short fragment best matches for the block provide an upper threshold on alignment values. Regions of a certain length from the known sequences that have a mean alignment value upper threshold greater than a target unit score are concatenated to form a union. The current block is compared to the union and provides an indication of best local alignment with the subject sequence. 5 figs.

  8. [Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Odler, Balázs; Müller, Veronika

    2016-08-01

    Obstructive lung diseases represent a major health problem worldwide due to their high prevalence associated with elevated socioeconomic costs. Bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are chronic obstructive ventilatory disorders with airway inflammation, however they are separate nosological entities based on thedifferent development, diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, and prognostic features. However, these diseases may coexist and can be defined as the coexistence of increased variability of airflow in a patient with incompletely reversible airway obstruction. This phenotype is called asthma - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome. The syndrome is a clinical and scientific challenge as the majority of these patients have been excluded from the clinical and pharmacological trials, thus well-defined clinical characteristics and therapeutic approaches are lacking. The aim of this review is to summarize the currently available literature focusing on pathophysiological and clinical features, and discuss possible therapeutic approaches of patients with asthma - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome. Orv. Hetil., 2016, 157(33), 1304-1313.

  9. Obesity and addiction: neurobiological overlaps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Volkow, N D; Wang, G-J; Tomasi, D; Baler, R D

    2013-01-01

    Drug addiction and obesity appear to share several properties. Both can be defined as disorders in which the saliency of a specific type of reward (food or drug) becomes exaggerated relative to, and at the expense of others rewards. Both drugs and food have powerful reinforcing effects, which are in part mediated by abrupt dopamine increases in the brain reward centres. The abrupt dopamine increases, in vulnerable individuals, can override the brain's homeostatic control mechanisms. These parallels have generated interest in understanding the shared vulnerabilities between addiction and obesity. Predictably, they also engendered a heated debate. Specifically, brain imaging studies are beginning to uncover common features between these two conditions and delineate some of the overlapping brain circuits whose dysfunctions may underlie the observed deficits. The combined results suggest that both obese and drug-addicted individuals suffer from impairments in dopaminergic pathways that regulate neuronal systems associated not only with reward sensitivity and incentive motivation, but also with conditioning, self-control, stress reactivity and interoceptive awareness. In parallel, studies are also delineating differences between them that centre on the key role that peripheral signals involved with homeostatic control exert on food intake. Here, we focus on the shared neurobiological substrates of obesity and addiction. © 2012 The Authors. obesity reviews © 2012 International Association for the Study of Obesity.

  10. A High-Resolution Study of Hippocampal and Medial Temporal Lobe Correlates of Spatial Context and Prospective Overlapping Route Memory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Thackery I.; Hasselmo, Michael E.; Stern, Chantal E.

    2015-01-01

    When navigating our world we often first plan or retrieve an ideal route to our goal, avoiding alternative paths that lead to other destinations. The medial temporal lobe (MTL) has been implicated in processing contextual information, sequence memory, and uniquely retrieving routes that overlap or “cross paths.” However, the identity of subregions of the hippocampus and neighboring cortex that support these functions in humans remains unclear. The present study used high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (hr-fMRI) in humans to test whether the CA3/DG hippocampal subfield and para-hippocampal cortex are important for processing spatial context and route retrieval, and whether the CA1 subfield facilitates prospective planning of mazes that must be distinguished from alternative overlapping routes. During hr-fMRI scanning, participants navigated virtual mazes that were well-learned from prior training while also learning new mazes. Some routes learned during scanning shared hallways with those learned during pre-scan training, requiring participants to select between alternative paths. Critically, each maze began with a distinct spatial contextual Cue period. Our analysis targeted activity from the Cue period, during which participants identified the current navigational episode, facilitating retrieval of upcoming route components and distinguishing mazes that overlap. Results demonstrated that multiple MTL regions were predominantly active for the contextual Cue period of the task, with specific regions of CA3/DG, parahippocampal cortex, and perirhinal cortex being consistently recruited across trials for Cue periods of both novel and familiar mazes. During early trials of the task, both CA3/DG and CA1 were more active for overlapping than non-overlapping Cue periods. Trial-by-trial Cue period responses in CA1 tracked subsequent overlapping maze performance across runs. Together, our findings provide novel insight into the contributions of MTL

  11. Fat suppression in MR imaging with binomial pulse sequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baudovin, C.J.; Bryant, D.J.; Bydder, G.M.; Young, I.R.

    1989-01-01

    This paper reports on a study to develop pulse sequences allowing suppression of fat signal on MR images without eliminating signal from other tissues with short T1. They have developed such a technique involving selective excitation of protons in water, based on a binomial pulse sequence. Imaging is performed at 0.15 T. Careful shimming is performed to maximize separation of fat and water peaks. A spin-echo 1,500/80 sequence is used, employing 90 degrees pulse with transit frequency optimized for water with null excitation of 20 H offset, followed by a section-selective 180 degrees pulse. With use of the binomial sequence for imagining, reduction in fat signal is seen on images of the pelvis and legs of volunteers. Patient studies show dramatic improvement in visualization of prostatic carcinoma compared with standard sequences

  12. Semiautomated segmentation of blood vessels using ellipse-overlap criteria: Method and comparison to manual editing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shiffman, Smadar; Rubin, Geoffrey D.; Schraedley-Desmond, Pamela; Napel, Sandy

    2003-01-01

    Two-dimensional intensity-based methods for the segmentation of blood vessels from computed-tomography-angiography data often result in spurious segments that originate from other objects whose intensity distributions overlap with those of the vessels. When segmented images include spurious segments, additional methods are required to select segments that belong to the target vessels. We describe a method that allows experts to select vessel segments from sequences of segmented images with little effort. Our method uses ellipse-overlap criteria to differentiate between segments that belong to different objects and are separated in plane but are connected in the through-plane direction. To validate our method, we used it to extract vessel regions from volumes that were segmented via analysis of isolabel-contour maps, and showed that the difference between the results of our method and manually-edited results was within inter-expert variability. Although the total editing duration for our method, which included user-interaction and computer processing, exceeded that of manual editing, the extent of user interaction required for our method was about a fifth of that required for manual editing

  13. Unique presentation of LHON/MELAS overlap syndrome caused by m.13046T>C in MTND5.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolarova, Hana; Liskova, Petra; Tesarova, Marketa; Kucerova Vidrova, Vendula; Forgac, Martin; Zamecnik, Josef; Hansikova, Hana; Honzik, Tomas

    2016-12-01

    Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) and mitochondrial encephalopathy, myopathy, lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) syndromes are mitochondrially inherited disorders characterized by acute visual failure and variable multiorgan system presentation, respectively. A 12-year-old girl with otherwise unremarkable medical history presented with abrupt, painless loss of vision. Over the next few months, she developed moderate sensorineural hearing loss, vertigo, migraines, anhedonia and thyroiditis. Ocular examination confirmed bilateral optic nerve atrophy. Metabolic workup documented elevated cerebrospinal fluid lactate. Initial genetic analyses excluded the three most common LHON mutations. Subsequently, Sanger sequencing of the entire mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome was performed. Whole mtDNA sequencing revealed a pathogenic heteroplasmic mutation m.13046T>C in MTND5 encoding the ND5 subunit of complex I. This particular variant has previously been described in a single case report of MELAS/Leigh syndrome (subacute necrotizing encephalopathy). Based on the constellation of clinical symptoms in our patient, we diagnose the condition as LHON/MELAS overlap syndrome. We describe a unique presentation of LHON/MELAS overlap syndrome resulting from a m.13046T>C mutation in a 12-year-old girl. In patients with sudden vision loss in which three of the most prevalent LHON mitochondrial mutations have been ruled out, molecular genetic examination should be extended to other mtDNA-encoded subunits of MTND5 complex I. Furthermore, atypical clinical presentations must be considered, even in well-described phenotypes.

  14. Biosensors for DNA sequence detection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vercoutere, Wenonah; Akeson, Mark

    2002-01-01

    DNA biosensors are being developed as alternatives to conventional DNA microarrays. These devices couple signal transduction directly to sequence recognition. Some of the most sensitive and functional technologies use fibre optics or electrochemical sensors in combination with DNA hybridization. In a shift from sequence recognition by hybridization, two emerging single-molecule techniques read sequence composition using zero-mode waveguides or electrical impedance in nanoscale pores.

  15. Nucleotide sequence of the gene coding for human factor VII, a vitamin K-dependent protein participating in blood coagulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Hara, P.J.; Grant, F.J.; Haldeman, B.A.; Gray, C.L.; Insley, M.Y.; Hagen, F.S.; Murray, M.J.

    1987-01-01

    Activated factor VII (factor VIIa) is a vitamin K-dependent plasma serine protease that participates in a cascade of reactions leading to the coagulation of blood. Two overlapping genomic clones containing sequences encoding human factor VII were isolated and characterized. The complete sequence of the gene was determined and found to span about 12.8 kilobases. The mRNA for factor VII as demonstrated by cDNA cloning is polyadenylylated at multiple sites but contains only one AAUAAA poly(A) signal sequence. The mRNA can undergo alternative splicing, forming one transcript containing eight segments as exons and another with an additional exon that encodes a larger prepro leader sequence. The latter transcript has no known counterpart in the other vitamin K-dependent proteins. The positions of the introns with respect to the amino acid sequence encoded by the eight essential exons of factor VII are the same as those present in factor IX, factor X, protein C, and the first three exons of prothrombin. These exons code for domains generally conserved among members of this gene family. The comparable introns in these genes, however, are dissimilar with respect to size and sequence, with the exception of intron C in factor VII and protein C. The gene for factor VII also contains five regions made up of tandem repeats of oligonucleotide monomer elements. More than a quarter of the intron sequences and more than a third of the 3' untranslated portion of the mRNA transcript consist of these minisatellite tandem repeats

  16. Complete Genome Sequence of Zucchini Yellow Mosaic Virus Strain Kurdistan, Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maghamnia, Hamid Reza; Hajizadeh, Mohammad; Azizi, Abdolbaset

    2018-03-01

    The complete genome sequence of Zucchini yellow mosaic virus strain Kurdistan (ZYMV-Kurdistan) infecting squash from Iran was determined from 13 overlapping fragments. Excluding the poly (A) tail, ZYMV-Kurdistan genome consisted of 9593 nucleotides (nt), with 138 and 211 nt at the 5' and 3' non-translated regions, respectively. It contained two open-reading frames (ORFs), the large ORF encoding a polyprotein of 3080 amino acids (aa) and the small overlapping ORF encoding a P3N-PIPO protein of 74 aa. This isolate had six unique aa differences compared to other ZYMV isolates and shared 79.6-98.8% identities with other ZYMV genome sequences at the nt level and 90.1-99% identities at the aa level. A phylogenetic tree of ZYMV complete genomic sequences showed that Iranian and Central European isolates are closely related and form a phylogenetically homogenous group. All values in the ratio of substitution rates at non-synonymous and synonymous sites ( d N / d S ) were below 1, suggestive of strong negative selection forces during ZYMV protein history. This is the first report of complete genome sequence information of the most prevalent virus in the west of Iran. This study helps our understanding of the genetic diversity of ZYMV isolates infecting cucurbit plants in Iran, virus evolution and epidemiology and can assist in designing better diagnostic tools.

  17. Measuring long impulse responses with pseudorandom sequences and sweep signals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Torras Rosell, Antoni; Jacobsen, Finn

    2010-01-01

    In architectural acoustics, background noise, loudspeaker nonlinearities, and time variances are the most common disturbances that can compromise a measurement. The effects of such disturbances on measurement of long impulse responses with pseudorandom sequences (maximum-length sequences (MLS) an...

  18. GeneAnalytics Pathway Analysis and Genetic Overlap among Autism Spectrum Disorder, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naveen S. Khanzada

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Bipolar disorder (BPD and schizophrenia (SCH show similar neuropsychiatric behavioral disturbances, including impaired social interaction and communication, seen in autism spectrum disorder (ASD with multiple overlapping genetic and environmental influences implicated in risk and course of illness. GeneAnalytics software was used for pathway analysis and genetic profiling to characterize common susceptibility genes obtained from published lists for ASD (792 genes, BPD (290 genes and SCH (560 genes. Rank scores were derived from the number and nature of overlapping genes, gene-disease association, tissue specificity and gene functions subdivided into categories (e.g., diseases, tissues or functional pathways. Twenty-three genes were common to all three disorders and mapped to nine biological Superpathways including Circadian entrainment (10 genes, score = 37.0, Amphetamine addiction (five genes, score = 24.2, and Sudden infant death syndrome (six genes, score = 24.1. Brain tissues included the medulla oblongata (11 genes, score = 2.1, thalamus (10 genes, score = 2.0 and hypothalamus (nine genes, score = 2.0 with six common genes (BDNF, DRD2, CHRNA7, HTR2A, SLC6A3, and TPH2. Overlapping genes impacted dopamine and serotonin homeostasis and signal transduction pathways, impacting mood, behavior and physical activity level. Converging effects on pathways governing circadian rhythms support a core etiological relationship between neuropsychiatric illnesses and sleep disruption with hypoxia and central brain stem dysfunction.

  19. Transient-Switch-Signal Suppressor

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bozeman, Richard J., Jr.

    1995-01-01

    Circuit delays transmission of switch-opening or switch-closing signal until after preset suppression time. Used to prevent transmission of undesired momentary switch signal. Basic mode of operation simple. Beginning of switch signal initiates timing sequence. If switch signal persists after preset suppression time, circuit transmits switch signal to external circuitry. If switch signal no longer present after suppression time, switch signal deemed transient, and circuit does not pass signal on to external circuitry, as though no transient switch signal. Suppression time preset at value large enough to allow for damping of underlying pressure wave or other mechanical transient.

  20. Insight into biases and sequencing errors for amplicon sequencing with the Illumina MiSeq platform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schirmer, Melanie; Ijaz, Umer Z; D'Amore, Rosalinda; Hall, Neil; Sloan, William T; Quince, Christopher

    2015-03-31

    With read lengths of currently up to 2 × 300 bp, high throughput and low sequencing costs Illumina's MiSeq is becoming one of the most utilized sequencing platforms worldwide. The platform is manageable and affordable even for smaller labs. This enables quick turnaround on a broad range of applications such as targeted gene sequencing, metagenomics, small genome sequencing and clinical molecular diagnostics. However, Illumina error profiles are still poorly understood and programs are therefore not designed for the idiosyncrasies of Illumina data. A better knowledge of the error patterns is essential for sequence analysis and vital if we are to draw valid conclusions. Studying true genetic variation in a population sample is fundamental for understanding diseases, evolution and origin. We conducted a large study on the error patterns for the MiSeq based on 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing data. We tested state-of-the-art library preparation methods for amplicon sequencing and showed that the library preparation method and the choice of primers are the most significant sources of bias and cause distinct error patterns. Furthermore we tested the efficiency of various error correction strategies and identified quality trimming (Sickle) combined with error correction (BayesHammer) followed by read overlapping (PANDAseq) as the most successful approach, reducing substitution error rates on average by 93%. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

  1. Amino-terminal domain of the v-fms oncogene product includes a functional signal peptide that directs synthesis of a transforming glycoprotein in the absence of feline leukemia virus gag sequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wheeler, E.F.; Roussel, M.F.; Hampe, A.; Walker, M.H.; Fried, V.A.; Look, A.T.; Rettenmier, C.W.; Sherr, C.J.

    1986-01-01

    The nucleotide sequence of a 5' segment of the human genomic c-fms proto-oncogene suggested that recombination between feline leukemia virus and feline c-fms sequences might have occurred in a region encoding the 5' untranslated portion of c-fms mRNA. The polyprotein precursor gP180/sup gag-fms/ encoded by the McDonough strain of feline sarcoma virus was therefore predicted to contain 34 v-fms-coded amino acids derived from sequences of the c-fms gene that are not ordinarily translated from the proto-oncogene mRNA. The (gP180/sup gag-fms/) polyprotein was cotranslationally cleaved near the gag-fms junction to remove its gag gene-coded portion. Determination of the amino-terminal sequence of the resulting v-fms-coded glycoprotein, gp120/sup v-fms/, showed that the site of proteolysis corresponded to a predicted signal peptidase cleavage site within the c-fms gene product. Together, these analyses suggested that the linked gag sequences may not be necessary for expression of a biologically active v-fms gene product. The gag-fms sequences of feline sarcoma virus strain McDonough and the v-fms sequences alone were inserted into a murine retroviral vector containing a neomycin resistance gene. The authors conclude that a cryptic hydrophobic signal peptide sequence in v-fms was unmasked by gag deletion, thereby allowing the correct orientation and transport of the v-fms was unmasked by gag deletion, thereby allowing the correct orientation and transport of the v-fms gene product within membranous organelles. It seems likely that the proteolytic cleavage of gP180/gag-fms/ is mediated by signal peptidase and that the amino termini of gp140/sup v-fms/ and the c-fms gene product are identical

  2. Amino-terminal domain of the v-fms oncogene product includes a functional signal peptide that directs synthesis of a transforming glycoprotein in the absence of feline leukemia virus gag sequences

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wheeler, E.F.; Roussel, M.F.; Hampe, A.; Walker, M.H.; Fried, V.A.; Look, A.T.; Rettenmier, C.W.; Sherr, C.J.

    1986-08-01

    The nucleotide sequence of a 5' segment of the human genomic c-fms proto-oncogene suggested that recombination between feline leukemia virus and feline c-fms sequences might have occurred in a region encoding the 5' untranslated portion of c-fms mRNA. The polyprotein precursor gP180/sup gag-fms/ encoded by the McDonough strain of feline sarcoma virus was therefore predicted to contain 34 v-fms-coded amino acids derived from sequences of the c-fms gene that are not ordinarily translated from the proto-oncogene mRNA. The (gP180/sup gag-fms/) polyprotein was cotranslationally cleaved near the gag-fms junction to remove its gag gene-coded portion. Determination of the amino-terminal sequence of the resulting v-fms-coded glycoprotein, gp120/sup v-fms/, showed that the site of proteolysis corresponded to a predicted signal peptidase cleavage site within the c-fms gene product. Together, these analyses suggested that the linked gag sequences may not be necessary for expression of a biologically active v-fms gene product. The gag-fms sequences of feline sarcoma virus strain McDonough and the v-fms sequences alone were inserted into a murine retroviral vector containing a neomycin resistance gene. The authors conclude that a cryptic hydrophobic signal peptide sequence in v-fms was unmasked by gag deletion, thereby allowing the correct orientation and transport of the v-fms was unmasked by gag deletion, thereby allowing the correct orientation and transport of the v-fms gene product within membranous organelles. It seems likely that the proteolytic cleavage of gP180/gag-fms/ is mediated by signal peptidase and that the amino termini of gp140/sup v-fms/ and the c-fms gene product are identical.

  3. Advanced signal separation and recovery algorithms for digital x-ray spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mahmoud, Imbaby I.; El-Tokhy, Mohamed S.

    2015-01-01

    X-ray spectroscopy is widely used for in-situ applications for samples analysis. Therefore, spectrum drawing and assessment of x-ray spectroscopy with high accuracy is the main scope of this paper. A Silicon Lithium Si(Li) detector that cooled with a nitrogen is used for signal extraction. The resolution of the ADC is 12 bits. Also, the sampling rate of ADC is 5 MHz. Hence, different algorithms are implemented. These algorithms were run on a personal computer with Intel core TM i5-3470 CPU and 3.20 GHz. These algorithms are signal preprocessing, signal separation and recovery algorithms, and spectrum drawing algorithm. Moreover, statistical measurements are used for evaluation of these algorithms. Signal preprocessing based on DC-offset correction and signal de-noising is performed. DC-offset correction was done by using minimum value of radiation signal. However, signal de-noising was implemented using fourth order finite impulse response (FIR) filter, linear phase least-square FIR filter, complex wavelet transforms (CWT) and Kalman filter methods. We noticed that Kalman filter achieves large peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and lower error than other methods. However, CWT takes much longer execution time. Moreover, three different algorithms that allow correction of x-ray signal overlapping are presented. These algorithms are 1D non-derivative peak search algorithm, second derivative peak search algorithm and extrema algorithm. Additionally, the effect of signal separation and recovery algorithms on spectrum drawing is measured. Comparison between these algorithms is introduced. The obtained results confirm that second derivative peak search algorithm as well as extrema algorithm have very small error in comparison with 1D non-derivative peak search algorithm. However, the second derivative peak search algorithm takes much longer execution time. Therefore, extrema algorithm introduces better results over other algorithms. It has the advantage of recovering and

  4. Complementary DNA and derived amino acid sequence of the α subunit of human complement protein C8: evidence for the existence of a separate α subunit messenger RNA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rao, A.G.; Howard, O.M.Z.; Ng, S.C.; Whitehead, A.S.; Colten, H.R.; Sodetz, J.M.

    1987-01-01

    The entire amino acid sequence of the α subunit (M/sub r/ 64,000) of the eight component of complement (C8) was determined by characterizing cDNA clones isolated from a human liver cDNA library. Two clones with overlapping inserts of net length 2.44 kilobases (kb) were isolated and found to contain the entire α coding region [1659 base pairs (bp)]. The 5' end consists of an untranslated region and a leader sequence of 30 amino acids. This sequence contains an apparent initiation Met, signal peptide, and propeptide which ends with an arginine-rich sequence that is characteristic of proteolytic processing sites found in the pro form of protein precursors. The 3' untranslated region contains two polyadenylation signals and a poly(A)sequence. RNA blot analysis of total cellular RNA from the human hepatoma cell line HepG2 revealed a message size of ∼2.5 kb. Features of the 5' and 3' sequences and the message size suggest that a separate mRNA codes for α and argues against the occurrence of a single-chain precursor form of the disulfide-linked α-λ subunit found in mature C8. Analysis of the derived amino acid sequence revealed several membrane surface seeking domains and a possible transmembrane domain. Analysis of the carbohydrate composition indicates 1 or 2 asparagine-linked but no O-linked oligosaccharide chains, a result consistent with predictions from the amino acid sequence. Most significantly, it exhibits a striking overall homology to human C9, with values of 24% on the basis of identity and 46% when conserved substitutions are allowed. As described in an accompanying report this homology also extends to the β subunit of C8

  5. The mitochondrial DNA 10197 G > A mutation causes MELAS/Leigh overlap syndrome presenting with acute auditory agnosia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leng, Yinglin; Liu, Yuhe; Fang, Xiaojing; Li, Yao; Yu, Lei; Yuan, Yun; Wang, Zhaoxia

    2015-04-01

    Mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes/Leigh (MELAS/LS) overlap syndrome is a mitochondrial disorder subtype with clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features that are characteristic of both MELAS and Leigh syndrome (LS). Here, we report an MELAS/LS case presenting with cortical deafness and seizures. Cranial MRI revealed multiple lesions involving bilateral temporal lobes, the basal ganglia and the brainstem, which conformed to neuroimaging features of both MELAS and LS. Whole mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing and PCR-RFLP revealed a de novo heteroplasmic m.10197 G > A mutation in the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 3 gene (ND3), which was predicted to cause an alanine to threonine substitution at amino acid 47. Although the mtDNA m.10197 G > A mutation has been reported in association with LS, Leber hereditary optic neuropathy and dystonia, it has never been linked with MELAS/LS overlap syndrome. Our patient therefore expands the phenotypic spectrum of the mtDNA m.10197 G > A mutation.

  6. Properties of CIRRUS Overlapping Clouds as Deduced from the GOES-12 Imagery Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Fu-Lung; Minnis, Patrick; Lin, Bing; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Khaiyer, Mandana

    2006-01-01

    Understanding the impact of cirrus clouds on modifying both the solar reflected and terrestrial emitted radiations is crucial for climate studies. Unlike most boundary layer stratus and stratocumulus clouds that have a net cooling effect on the climate, high-level thin cirrus clouds can have a warming effect on our climate. Many research efforts have been devoted to retrieving cirrus cloud properties due to their ubiquitous presence. However, using satellite observations to detect and/or retrieve cirrus cloud properties faces two major challenges. First, they are often semitransparent at visible to infrared wavelengths; and secondly, they often occur over a lower cloud system. The overlapping of high-level cirrus and low-level stratus cloud poses a difficulty in determining the individual cloud top altitudes and optical properties, especially when the signals from cirrus clouds are overwhelmed by the signals of stratus clouds. Moreover, the operational satellite retrieval algorithms, which often assume only single layer cloud in the development of cloud retrieval techniques, cannot resolve the cloud overlapping situation properly. The new geostationary satellites, starting with the Twelfth Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-12), are providing a new suite of imager bands that have replaced the conventional 12-micron channel with a 13.3-micron CO2 absorption channel. The replacement of the 13.3-micron channel allows for the application of a CO2-slicing retrieval technique (Chahine et al. 1974; Smith and Platt 1978), which is one of the important passive satellite methods for remote sensing the altitudes of mid to high-level clouds. Using the CO2- slicing technique is more effective in detecting semitransparent cirrus clouds than using the conventional infrared-window method.

  7. Effect of spatial inhomogeneities on the membrane surface on receptor dimerization and signal initiation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Romica Kerketta

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Important signal transduction pathways originate on the plasma membrane, where microdomains may transiently entrap diffusing receptors. This results in a non-random distribution of receptors even in the resting state, which can be visualized as clusters by high resolution imaging methods. Here, we explore how spatial in-homogeneities in the plasma membrane might influence the dimerization and phosphorylation status of ErbB2 and ErbB3, two receptor tyrosine kinases that preferentially heterodimerize and are often co-expressed in cancer. This theoretical study is based upon spatial stochastic simulations of the two-dimensional membrane landscape, where variables include differential distributions and overlap of transient confinement zones (domains for the two receptor species. The in silico model is parameterized and validated using data from single particle tracking experiments. We report key differences in signaling output based on the degree of overlap between domains and the relative retention of receptors in such domains, expressed as escape probability. Results predict that a high overlap of domains, which favors transient co-confinement of both receptor species, will enhance the rate of hetero-interactions. Where domains do not overlap, simulations confirm expectations that homo-interactions are favored. Since ErbB3 is uniquely dependent on ErbB2 interactions for activation of its catalytic activity, variations in domain overlap or escape probability markedly alter the predicted patterns and time course of ErbB3 and ErbB2 phosphorylation. Taken together, these results implicate membrane domain organization as an important modulator of signal initiation, motivating the design of novel experimental approaches to measure these important parameters across a wider range of receptor systems.

  8. A CoGeNT confirmation of the DAMA signal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Foot, R.

    2010-01-01

    The CoGeNT Collaboration has recently reported a rising low energy spectrum in their ultra low noise Germanium detector. This is particularly interesting as the energy range probed by CoGeNT overlaps with the energy region in which DAMA has observed their annual modulation signal. We show that the mirror dark matter candidate can simultaneously explain both the DAMA annual modulation signal and the rising low energy spectrum observed by CoGeNT. This constitutes a model dependent confirmation of the DAMA signal and adds weight to the mirror dark matter paradigm.

  9. Overlap syndrome of COPD and OSA in Koreans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Kyung-Mee; Thomas, Robert J; Kim, Jinkwan; Lee, Seung Ku; Yoon, Dae Wui; Shin, Chol

    2017-07-01

    Overlap syndrome of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) leads to increased morbidity and mortality. There have been no reports available on the overlap syndrome for Koreans. Our primary aim was to identify prevalence and predictors of the overlap syndrome in Koreans.This is a cross-sectional study with a community-based sample of 1298 participants (mean age, 59.7 ± 6.7) from the cohort of Korean Genomic and Epidemiologic Study during 2013 to 2014. OSA and COPD were assessed by apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and the ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 s to forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC syndrome. The prevalence of COPD remained the same as 10.8% regardless of the presence of OSA. The mean ratio of FEV1/FVC for those with COPD was 0.77, regardless of OSA. The OR increased for age (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 1.0-1.1) and smokers (OR, 3.6; 95% CI, 2.0-6.4), but decreased for body mass index (BMI) (OR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.8-0.9) and overweight state (OR, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2-0.7). Risk factors of the overlap syndrome differed by OSA severity, that is, BMI in those with moderate-to-severe OSA, whereas sex (OR, 4.7; 95% CI, 2.1-10.6) and age (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 1.0-1.1) in those with mild OSA.In a population study from Korea, 10.8% of OSA patients had an overlap syndrome with COPD. Although BMI is a well-known risk factor of OSA, it is likely that being overweight may be protective for moderate-to-severe OSA patients from the risk of COPD (i.e., overlap syndrome).

  10. Characterizing leader sequences of CRISPR loci

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alkhnbashi, Omer; Shah, Shiraz Ali; Garrett, Roger Antony

    2016-01-01

    The CRISPR-Cas system is an adaptive immune system in many archaea and bacteria, which provides resistance against invading genetic elements. The first phase of CRISPR-Cas immunity is called adaptation, in which small DNA fragments are excised from genetic elements and are inserted into a CRISPR...... array generally adjacent to its so called leader sequence at one end of the array. It has been shown that transcription initiation and adaptation signals of the CRISPR array are located within the leader. However, apart from promoters, there is very little knowledge of sequence or structural motifs...... sequences by focusing on the consensus repeat of the adjacent CRISPR array and weak upstream conservation signals. We applied our tool to the analysis of a comprehensive genomic database and identified several characteristic properties of leader sequences specific to archaea and bacteria, ranging from...

  11. Perceived Non-Overlap of Objects in an Audiovisual Stream/Bounce Display

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yousuke Kawachi

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available In a stream/bounce display in which two identical visual objects move toward each other, coincide (completely overlap, and then move apart, the objects can be perceived as either streaming through or bouncing off each other. Despite the perceptual ambiguity in this display, the streaming percept is dominant. However, a sound burst presented at the time that the objects coincide facilitates the bouncing percept. Herein, we report a perceptual phenomenon in which the overlap between objects is illusorily perceived as a non-overlap in the stream/bounce display accompanied with sound. In the experiment, the amount of overlap between two objects was systematically manipulated in the presence/absence of a sound. Observers were asked to judge whether the two objects overlapped with each other and then asked whether the objects appeared to stream through or bounce off each other. The results were consistent with those of previous studies showing that sound promoted the bouncing percept. Most importantly, the sound presentation facilitated the perception of a non-overlap between the objects instead of a physical overlap, suggesting that the momentary overlap was inadequately perceived. We discuss the possibility that an abrupt sound temporally interrupts visual processing such as the formation of dynamic object representations.

  12. Chironomidae larvae (Diptera) of Neotropical floodplain: overlap niche in different habitats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butakka, C M M; Ragonha, F H; Takeda, A M

    2014-05-01

    The niche overlap between trophic groups of Chironomidae larvae in different habitats was observed between trophic groups and between different environments in Neotropical floodplain. For the evaluation we used the index of niche overlap (CXY) and analysis of trophic networks, both from the types and amount of food items identified in the larval alimentary canal. In all environments, the larvae fed on mainly organic matter such as plants fragments and algae, but there were many omnivore larvae. Species that have high values of food items occurred in diverse environments as generalists with great overlap niche and those with a low amount of food items with less overlap niche were classified as specialists. The largest number of trophic niche overlap was observed among collector-gatherers in connected floodplain lakes. The lower values of index niche overlap were predators. The similarity in the diet of different taxa in the same niche does not necessarily imply competition between them, but coexistence when the food resource is not scarce in the environment even in partially overlapping niches.

  13. Research on Some Bus Transport Networks with Random Overlapping Clique Structure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang Xuhua; Sun Youxian; Wang Bo; Wang Wanliang

    2008-01-01

    On the basis of investigating the statistical data of bus transport networks of three big cities in China, we propose that each bus route is a clique (maximal complete subgraph) and a bus transport network (BTN) consists of a lot of cliques, which intensively connect and overlap with each other. We study the network properties, which include the degree distribution, multiple edges' overlapping time distribution, distribution of the overlap size between any two overlapping cliques, distribution of the number of cliques that a node belongs to. Naturally, the cliques also constitute a network, with the overlapping nodes being their multiple links. We also research its network properties such as degree distribution, clustering, average path length, and so on. We propose that a BTN has the properties of random clique increment and random overlapping clique, at the same time, a BTN is a small-world network with highly clique-clustered and highly clique-overlapped. Finally, we introduce a BTN evolution model, whose simulation results agree well with the statistical laws that emerge in real BTNs

  14. Barcoding of GPCR trafficking and signaling through the various trafficking roadmaps by compartmentalized signaling networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bahouth, Suleiman W; Nooh, Mohammed M

    2017-08-01

    Proper signaling by G protein coupled receptors (GPCR) is dependent on the specific repertoire of transducing, enzymatic and regulatory kinases and phosphatases that shape its signaling output. Activation and signaling of the GPCR through its cognate G protein is impacted by G protein-coupled receptor kinase (GRK)-imprinted "barcodes" that recruit β-arrestins to regulate subsequent desensitization, biased signaling and endocytosis of the GPCR. The outcome of agonist-internalized GPCR in endosomes is also regulated by sequence motifs or "barcodes" within the GPCR that mediate its recycling to the plasma membrane or retention and eventual degradation as well as its subsequent signaling in endosomes. Given the vast number of diverse sequences in GPCR, several trafficking mechanisms for endosomal GPCR have been described. The majority of recycling GPCR, are sorted out of endosomes in a "sequence-dependent pathway" anchored around a type-1 PDZ-binding module found in their C-tails. For a subset of these GPCR, a second "barcode" imprinted onto specific GPCR serine/threonine residues by compartmentalized kinase networks was required for their efficient recycling through the "sequence-dependent pathway". Mutating the serine/threonine residues involved, produced dramatic effects on GPCR trafficking, indicating that they played a major role in setting the trafficking itinerary of these GPCR. While endosomal SNX27, retromer/WASH complexes and actin were required for efficient sorting and budding of all these GPCR, additional proteins were required for GPCR sorting via the second "barcode". Here we will review recent developments in GPCR trafficking in general and the human β 1 -adrenergic receptor in particular across the various trafficking roadmaps. In addition, we will discuss the role of GPCR trafficking in regulating endosomal GPCR signaling, which promote biochemical and physiological effects that are distinct from those generated by the GPCR signal transduction

  15. Iterative methods for overlap and twisted mass fermions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chiarappa, T.; Jansen, K.; Shindler, A.; Wetzorke, I.; Scorzato, L.; Urbach, C.; Wenger, U.

    2006-09-01

    We present a comparison of a number of iterative solvers of linear systems of equations for obtaining the fermion propagator in lattice QCD. In particular, we consider chirally invariant overlap and chirally improved Wilson (maximally) twisted mass fermions. The comparison of both formulations of lattice QCD is performed at four fixed values of the pion mass between 230 MeV and 720 MeV. For overlap fermions we address adaptive precision and low mode preconditioning while for twisted mass fermions we discuss even/odd preconditioning. Taking the best available algorithms in each case we find that calculations with the overlap operator are by a factor of 30-120 more expensive than with the twisted mass operator. (orig.)

  16. Iterative methods for overlap and twisted mass fermions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chiarappa, T. [Univ. di Milano Bicocca (Italy); Jansen, K.; Shindler, A.; Wetzorke, I. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Zeuthen (Germany). John von Neumann-Inst. fuer Computing NIC; Nagai, K.I. [Wuppertal Univ. (Gesamthochschule) (Germany). Fachbereich Physik; Papinutto, M. [INFN Sezione di Roma Tre, Rome (Italy); Scorzato, L. [European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT), Villazzano (Italy); Urbach, C. [Liverpool Univ. (United Kingdom). Dept. of Mathematical Sciences; Wenger, U. [ETH Zuerich (Switzerland). Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik

    2006-09-15

    We present a comparison of a number of iterative solvers of linear systems of equations for obtaining the fermion propagator in lattice QCD. In particular, we consider chirally invariant overlap and chirally improved Wilson (maximally) twisted mass fermions. The comparison of both formulations of lattice QCD is performed at four fixed values of the pion mass between 230 MeV and 720 MeV. For overlap fermions we address adaptive precision and low mode preconditioning while for twisted mass fermions we discuss even/odd preconditioning. Taking the best available algorithms in each case we find that calculations with the overlap operator are by a factor of 30-120 more expensive than with the twisted mass operator. (orig.)

  17. Whole Genome Sequencing of Enterovirus species C Isolates by High-throughput Sequencing: Development of Generic Primers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maël Bessaud

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Enteroviruses are among the most common viruses infecting humans and can cause diverse clinical syndromes ranging from minor febrile illness to severe and potentially fatal diseases. Enterovirus species C (EV-C consists of more than 20 types, among which the 3 serotypes of polioviruses, the etiological agents of poliomyelitis, are included. Biodiversity and evolution of EV-C genomes are shaped by frequent recombination events. Therefore, identification and characterization of circulating EV-C strains require the sequencing of different genomic regions.A simple method was developed to sequence quickly the entire genome of EV-C isolates. Four overlapping fragments were produced separately by RT-PCR performed with generic primers. The four amplicons were then pooled and purified prior to be sequenced by high-throughput technique.The method was assessed on a panel of EV-Cs belonging to a wide-range of types. It can be used to determine full-length genome sequences through de novo assembly of thousands of reads. It was also able to discriminate reads from closely related viruses in mixtures.By decreasing the workload compared to classical Sanger-based techniques, this method will serve as a precious tool for sequencing large panels of EV-Cs isolated in cell cultures during environmental surveillance or from patients, including vaccine-derived polioviruses.

  18. Predicting Secretory Proteins with SignalP

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Henrik

    2017-01-01

    SignalP is the currently most widely used program for prediction of signal peptides from amino acid sequences. Proteins with signal peptides are targeted to the secretory pathway, but are not necessarily secreted. After a brief introduction to the biology of signal peptides and the history...

  19. Sequence distance via parsing complexity: Heartbeat signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Degli Esposti, M.; Farinelli, C.; Menconi, G.

    2009-01-01

    We compare and discuss the use of different symbolic codings of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals in order to distinguish healthy patients from hospitalized ones. To this aim, we recall a parsing-based similarity distance and compare the performances of several methods of classification of data.

  20. Comparison of Non-overlapping and Overlapping Local/Global Iteration Schemes for Whole-Core Deterministic Transport Calculation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yuk, Seung Su; Cho, Bumhee; Cho, Nam Zin

    2013-01-01

    In the case of deterministic transport model, fixed-k problem formulation is necessary and the overlapping local domain is chosen. However, as mentioned in, the partial current-based Coarse Mesh Finite Difference (p-CMFD) procedure enables also non-overlapping local/global (NLG) iteration. In this paper, NLG iteration is combined with p-CMFD and with CMFD (augmented with a concept of p-CMFD), respectively, and compared to OLG iteration on a 2-D test problem. Non-overlapping local/global iteration with p-CMFD and CMFD global calculation is introduced and tested on a 2-D deterministic transport problem. The modified C5G7 problem is analyzed with both NLG and OLG methods and the solutions converge to the reference solution except for some cases of NLG with CMFD. NLG with CMFD gives the best performance if the solution converges. But if fission-source iteration in local calculation is not enough, it is prone to diverge. The p-CMFD global solver gives unconditional convergence (for both OLG and NLG). A study of switching scheme is in progress, where NLG/p-CMFD is used as 'starter' and then switched to NLG/CMFD to render the whole-core transport calculation more efficient and robust. Parallel computation is another obvious future work

  1. Presentation of dynamically overlapping auditory messages in user interfaces

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Papp, III, Albert Louis [Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)

    1997-09-01

    This dissertation describes a methodology and example implementation for the dynamic regulation of temporally overlapping auditory messages in computer-user interfaces. The regulation mechanism exists to schedule numerous overlapping auditory messages in such a way that each individual message remains perceptually distinct from all others. The method is based on the research conducted in the area of auditory scene analysis. While numerous applications have been engineered to present the user with temporally overlapped auditory output, they have generally been designed without any structured method of controlling the perceptual aspects of the sound. The method of scheduling temporally overlapping sounds has been extended to function in an environment where numerous applications can present sound independently of each other. The Centralized Audio Presentation System is a global regulation mechanism that controls all audio output requests made from all currently running applications. The notion of multimodal objects is explored in this system as well. Each audio request that represents a particular message can include numerous auditory representations, such as musical motives and voice. The Presentation System scheduling algorithm selects the best representation according to the current global auditory system state, and presents it to the user within the request constraints of priority and maximum acceptable latency. The perceptual conflicts between temporally overlapping audio messages are examined in depth through the Computational Auditory Scene Synthesizer. At the heart of this system is a heuristic-based auditory scene synthesis scheduling method. Different schedules of overlapped sounds are evaluated and assigned penalty scores. High scores represent presentations that include perceptual conflicts between over-lapping sounds. Low scores indicate fewer and less serious conflicts. A user study was conducted to validate that the perceptual difficulties predicted by

  2. Phylogenomic Resolution of the Phylogeny of Laurasiatherian Mammals: Exploring Phylogenetic Signals within Coding and Noncoding Sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Meng-Yun; Liang, Dan; Zhang, Peng

    2017-08-01

    The interordinal relationships of Laurasiatherian mammals are currently one of the most controversial questions in mammalian phylogenetics. Previous studies mainly relied on coding sequences (CDS) and seldom used noncoding sequences. Here, by data mining public genome data, we compiled an intron data set of 3,638 genes (all introns from a protein-coding gene are considered as a gene) (19,055,073 bp) and a CDS data set of 10,259 genes (20,994,285 bp), covering all major lineages of Laurasiatheria (except Pholidota). We found that the intron data contained stronger and more congruent phylogenetic signals than the CDS data. In agreement with this observation, concatenation and species-tree analyses of the intron data set yielded well-resolved and identical phylogenies, whereas the CDS data set produced weakly supported and incongruent results. Further analyses showed that the phylogeny inferred from the intron data is highly robust to data subsampling and change in outgroup, but the CDS data produced unstable results under the same conditions. Interestingly, gene tree statistical results showed that the most frequently observed gene tree topologies for the CDS and intron data are identical, suggesting that the major phylogenetic signal within the CDS data is actually congruent with that within the intron data. Our final result of Laurasiatheria phylogeny is (Eulipotyphla,((Chiroptera, Perissodactyla),(Carnivora, Cetartiodactyla))), favoring a close relationship between Chiroptera and Perissodactyla. Our study 1) provides a well-supported phylogenetic framework for Laurasiatheria, representing a step towards ending the long-standing "hard" polytomy and 2) argues that intron within genome data is a promising data resource for resolving rapid radiation events across the tree of life. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

  3. Performance of overlapped shield tunneling through an integrated physical model tests, numerical simulations and real-time field monitoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junlong Yang

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available In this work, deformations and internal forces of an existing tunnel subjected to a closely overlapped shield tunneling are monitored and analyzed using a series of physical model experiments and numerical simulations. Effects of different excavation sequences and speeds are explicitly considered in the analysis. The results of the physical model experiments show that the bottom-up tunneling procedure is better than the top-down tunneling procedure. The incurred deformations and internal forces of the existing tunnel increase with the excavation speed and the range of influence areas also increase accordingly. For construction process control, real-time monitoring of the power tunnel is used. The monitoring processes feature full automation, adjustable frequency, real-time monitor and dynamic feedback, which are used to guide the construction to achieve micro-disturbance control. In accordance with the situation of crossing construction, a numerical study on the performance of power tunnel is carried out. Construction control measures are given for the undercrossing construction, which helps to accomplish the desired result and meet protection requirements of the existing tunnel structure. Finally, monitoring data and numerical results are compared, and the displacement and joint fracture change models in the power tunnel subject to the overlapped shield tunnel construction are analyzed. Keywords: Overlapped tunnel, Automatic monitoring, Micro-disturbance control

  4. Complete genome sequence of Fer-de-Lance Virus reveals a novel gene in reptilian Paramyxoviruses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurath, G.; Batts, W.N.; Ahne, W.; Winton, J.R.

    2004-01-01

    The complete RNA genome sequence of the archetype reptilian paramyxovirus, Fer-de-Lance virus (FDLV), has been determined. The genome is 15,378 nucleotides in length and consists of seven nonoverlapping genes in the order 3??? N-U-P-M-F-HN-L 5???, coding for the nucleocapsid, unknown, phospho-, matrix, fusion, hemagglutinin-neuraminidase, and large polymerase proteins, respectively. The gene junctions contain highly conserved transcription start and stop signal sequences and tri-nucleotide intergenic regions similar to those of other Paramyxoviridae. The FDLV P gene expression strategy is like that of rubulaviruses, which express the accessory V protein from the primary transcript and edit a portion of the mRNA to encode P and I proteins. There is also an overlapping open reading frame potentially encoding a small basic protein in the P gene. The gene designated U (unknown), encodes a deduced protein of 19.4 kDa that has no counterpart in other paramyxoviruses and has no similarity with sequences in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database. Active transcription of the U gene in infected cells was demonstrated by Northern blot analysis, and bicistronic N-U mRNA was also evident. The genomes of two other snake paramyxovirus genotypes were also found to have U genes, with 11 to 16% nucleotide divergence from the FDLV U gene. Pairwise comparisons of amino acid identities and phylogenetic analyses of all deduced FDLV protein sequences with homologous sequences from other Paramyxoviridae indicate that FDLV represents a new genus within the subfamily Paramyxovirinae. We suggest the name Ferlavirus for the new genus, with FDLV as the type species.

  5. MR imaging of the orbit and eye using inversion recovery sequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, F.W.; Parekh, S.; Forrester, J.; Redpath, T.W.

    1986-01-01

    Most centers performing MR imaging use spin-echo sequences to produce images; however, there are many advantages to using short TI inversion-recovery sequences for examination of the orbits. By selecting a TI similar to the relaxation time of any structure, the signal from this can be suppressed, thereby enhancing the signal from other structures. Using a sequence of TR = 1,000 msec and TI of less than 200 msec, the signal from fat is suppressed, improving image quality adjacent to the surface coil and providing better contrast between orbital structures and fat. The use of this short TI sequence for the examination of the eye in patients with opaque lenses is an accurate method of diagnosis since the sequence enhances the signal from both long T1 and T2 lesions. Eighty-five patients with orbital or ocular pathology have been studied, and the results demonstrate the usefulness of this technique for diagnosis

  6. When syntax meets action: Brain potential evidence of overlapping between language and motor sequencing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casado, Pilar; Martín-Loeches, Manuel; León, Inmaculada; Hernández-Gutiérrez, David; Espuny, Javier; Muñoz, Francisco; Jiménez-Ortega, Laura; Fondevila, Sabela; de Vega, Manuel

    2018-03-01

    This study aims to extend the embodied cognition approach to syntactic processing. The hypothesis is that the brain resources to plan and perform motor sequences are also involved in syntactic processing. To test this hypothesis, Event-Related brain Potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read sentences with embedded relative clauses, judging for their acceptability (half of the sentences contained a subject-verb morphosyntactic disagreement). The sentences, previously divided into three segments, were self-administered segment-by-segment in two different sequential manners: linear or non-linear. Linear self-administration consisted of successively pressing three buttons with three consecutive fingers in the right hand, while non-linear self-administration implied the substitution of the finger in the middle position by the right foot. Our aim was to test whether syntactic processing could be affected by the manner the sentences were self-administered. Main results revealed that the ERPs LAN component vanished whereas the P600 component increased in response to incorrect verbs, for non-linear relative to linear self-administration. The LAN and P600 components reflect early and late syntactic processing, respectively. Our results convey evidence that language syntactic processing and performing non-linguistic motor sequences may share resources in the human brain. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Apoptosis-inducing signal sequence mutation in carbonic anhydrase IV identified in patients with the RP17 form of retinitis pigmentosa

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rebello, George; Ramesar, Rajkumar; Vorster, Alvera; Roberts, Lisa; Ehrenreich, Liezle; Oppon, Ekow; Gama, Dumisani; Bardien, Soraya; Greenberg, Jacquie; Bonapace, Giuseppe; Waheed, Abdul; Shah, Gul N.; Sly, William S.

    2004-01-01

    Genetic and physical mapping of the RP17 locus on 17q identified a 3.6-megabase candidate region that includes the gene encoding carbonic anhydrase IV (CA4), a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein that is highly expressed in the choriocapillaris of the human eye. By sequencing candidate genes in this region, we identified a mutation that causes replacement of an arginine with a tryptophan (R14W) in the signal sequence of the CA4 gene at position -5 relative to the signal sequence cleavage site. This mutation was found to cosegregate with the disease phenotype in two large families and was not found in 36 unaffected family members or 100 controls. Expression of the mutant cDNA in COS-7 cells produced several findings, suggesting a mechanism by which the mutation can explain the autosomal dominant disease. In transfected COS-7 cells, the R14W mutation (i) reduced the steady-state level of carbonic anhydrase IV activity expressed by 28% due to a combination of decreased synthesis and accelerated turnover; (ii) led to up-regulation of immunoglobulin-binding protein, double-stranded RNA-regulated protein kinase-like ER kinase, and CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein homologous protein, markers of the unfolded protein response and endoplasmic reticulum stress; and (iii) induced apoptosis, as evidenced by annexin V binding and terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling staining, in most cells expressing the mutant, but not the WT, protein. We suggest that a high level of expression of the mutant allele in the endothelial cells of the choriocapillaris leads to apoptosis, leading in turn to ischemia in the overlying retina and producing autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa. PMID:15090652

  8. Simple Comparative Analyses of Differentially Expressed Gene Lists May Overestimate Gene Overlap.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawhorn, Chelsea M; Schomaker, Rachel; Rowell, Jonathan T; Rueppell, Olav

    2018-04-16

    Comparing the overlap between sets of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) within or between transcriptome studies is regularly used to infer similarities between biological processes. Significant overlap between two sets of DEGs is usually determined by a simple test. The number of potentially overlapping genes is compared to the number of genes that actually occur in both lists, treating every gene as equal. However, gene expression is controlled by transcription factors that bind to a variable number of transcription factor binding sites, leading to variation among genes in general variability of their expression. Neglecting this variability could therefore lead to inflated estimates of significant overlap between DEG lists. With computer simulations, we demonstrate that such biases arise from variation in the control of gene expression. Significant overlap commonly arises between two lists of DEGs that are randomly generated, assuming that the control of gene expression is variable among genes but consistent between corresponding experiments. More overlap is observed when transcription factors are specific to their binding sites and when the number of genes is considerably higher than the number of different transcription factors. In contrast, overlap between two DEG lists is always lower than expected when the genetic architecture of expression is independent between the two experiments. Thus, the current methods for determining significant overlap between DEGs are potentially confounding biologically meaningful overlap with overlap that arises due to variability in control of expression among genes, and more sophisticated approaches are needed.

  9. Topological and magnetic properties of the QCD vacuum probed by overlap fermions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Braguta, V.V.; Buividovich, P.V.; Polikarpov, M.I.

    2013-02-01

    We study some of the local CP-odd and magnetic properties of the non-Abelian vacuum with use of overlap fermions within the quenched lattice gauge theory. Among these properties are the following: inhomogeneous spatial distribution of the topological charge density (chirality for massless fermions) in SU(2) gluodynamics (for uncooled gauge configurations the chirality is localized on low-dimensional defects with d=2.3, while a sequence of cooling steps gives rise to four-dimensional instantons and hence a four-dimensional structure of the chirality distribution); finite local fluctuations of the chirality growing with the strength of an external magnetic field; magnetization and susceptibility of the QCD vacuum in SU(3) theory; magnetic catalysis of the chiral symmetry breaking, and the electric conductivity of the QCD vacuum in strong magnetic fields.

  10. Topological and magnetic properties of the QCD vacuum probed by overlap fermions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Braguta, V.V. [Institut Fiziki Vysokikh Ehnergij, Protvino (Russian Federation); Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow (Russian Federation); Buividovich, P.V. [Univ. Regensburg (Germany). ITP; Kalaydzhyan, T. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Polikarpov, M.I. [Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2013-02-15

    We study some of the local CP-odd and magnetic properties of the non-Abelian vacuum with use of overlap fermions within the quenched lattice gauge theory. Among these properties are the following: inhomogeneous spatial distribution of the topological charge density (chirality for massless fermions) in SU(2) gluodynamics (for uncooled gauge configurations the chirality is localized on low-dimensional defects with d=2.3, while a sequence of cooling steps gives rise to four-dimensional instantons and hence a four-dimensional structure of the chirality distribution); finite local fluctuations of the chirality growing with the strength of an external magnetic field; magnetization and susceptibility of the QCD vacuum in SU(3) theory; magnetic catalysis of the chiral symmetry breaking, and the electric conductivity of the QCD vacuum in strong magnetic fields.

  11. Effect of signal peptide on stability and folding of Escherichia coli thioredoxin.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pranveer Singh

    Full Text Available The signal peptide plays a key role in targeting and membrane insertion of secretory and membrane proteins in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In E. coli, recombinant proteins can be targeted to the periplasmic space by fusing naturally occurring signal sequences to their N-terminus. The model protein thioredoxin was fused at its N-terminus with malE and pelB signal sequences. While WT and the pelB fusion are soluble when expressed, the malE fusion was targeted to inclusion bodies and was refolded in vitro to yield a monomeric product with identical secondary structure to WT thioredoxin. The purified recombinant proteins were studied with respect to their thermodynamic stability, aggregation propensity and activity, and compared with wild type thioredoxin, without a signal sequence. The presence of signal sequences leads to thermodynamic destabilization, reduces the activity and increases the aggregation propensity, with malE having much larger effects than pelB. These studies show that besides acting as address labels, signal sequences can modulate protein stability and aggregation in a sequence dependent manner.

  12. Effect of signal peptide on stability and folding of Escherichia coli thioredoxin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Pranveer; Sharma, Likhesh; Kulothungan, S Rajendra; Adkar, Bharat V; Prajapati, Ravindra Singh; Ali, P Shaik Syed; Krishnan, Beena; Varadarajan, Raghavan

    2013-01-01

    The signal peptide plays a key role in targeting and membrane insertion of secretory and membrane proteins in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In E. coli, recombinant proteins can be targeted to the periplasmic space by fusing naturally occurring signal sequences to their N-terminus. The model protein thioredoxin was fused at its N-terminus with malE and pelB signal sequences. While WT and the pelB fusion are soluble when expressed, the malE fusion was targeted to inclusion bodies and was refolded in vitro to yield a monomeric product with identical secondary structure to WT thioredoxin. The purified recombinant proteins were studied with respect to their thermodynamic stability, aggregation propensity and activity, and compared with wild type thioredoxin, without a signal sequence. The presence of signal sequences leads to thermodynamic destabilization, reduces the activity and increases the aggregation propensity, with malE having much larger effects than pelB. These studies show that besides acting as address labels, signal sequences can modulate protein stability and aggregation in a sequence dependent manner.

  13. A dynamic model for managing overlapped iterative product development

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lin, J.; Chai, K.H.; Wong, Y.S.; Brombacher, A.C.

    2008-01-01

    Intense competition in many industries impels firms to develop more products in less time. Overlapping of development activities is regarded as one of the most promising strategies to reduce project cycle time. However, the gain from overlapping must be weighed against the additional resource and

  14. Beam Dumping Ghost Signals in Electric Sweep Scanners

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stockli, M.P.; Leitner, M.; Keller, R.; Moehs, D.P.; Welton, R.F.

    2005-01-01

    Over the last 20 years many labs started to use Allison scanners to measure low-energy ion beam emittances. We show that large trajectory angles produce ghost signals due to the impact of the beamlet on the electric deflection plates. The strength of the ghost signal is proportional to the amount of beam entering the scanner. Depending on the ions and their velocity, ghost signals can have the opposite polarity as the main beam signals or the same polarity. These ghost signals are easily overlooked because they partly overlap the real signals, they are mostly below the 1% level, and they are often hidden in the noise. However, they cause significant errors in emittance estimates because they are associated with large trajectory angles. The strength of ghost signals, and the associated errors, can be drastically reduced with a simple modification of the deflection plates

  15. Beam dumping ghost signals in electric sweep scanners

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stockli, M.P.; SNS Project, Oak Ridge; Tennessee U.; Leitner, M.; LBL, Berkeley; Moehs, D.P.; Keller, R.; LBL, Berkeley; Welton, R.F.; SNS Project, Oak Ridge

    2004-01-01

    Over the last 20 years many labs started to use Allison scanners to measure loW--energy ion beam emittances. We show that large trajectory angles produce ghost signals due to the impact of the beamlet on the electric deflection plates. The strength of the ghost signal is proportional to the amount of beam entering the scanner. Depending on the ions and their velocity, ghost signals can have the opposite polarity as the main beam signals or the same polarity. These ghost signals are easily overlooked because they partly overlap the real signals, they are mostly below the 1% level, and they are often hidden in the noise. However, they cause significant errors in emittance estimates because they are associated with large trajectory angles. The strength of ghost signals, and the associated errors, can be drastically reduced with a simple modification of the deflection plates

  16. Optimization of overlap uniformness for ptychography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Xiaojing; Yan, Hanfei; Harder, Ross; Hwu, Yeukuang; Robinson, Ian K; Chu, Yong S

    2014-05-19

    We demonstrate the advantages of imaging with ptychography scans that follow a Fermat spiral trajectory. This scan pattern provides a more uniform coverage and a higher overlap ratio with the same number of scan points over the same area than the presently used mesh and concentric [13] patterns. Under realistically imperfect measurement conditions, numerical simulations show that the quality of the reconstructed image is improved significantly with a Fermat spiral compared with a concentric scan pattern. The result is confirmed by the performance enhancement with experimental data, especially under low-overlap conditions. These results suggest that the Fermat spiral pattern increases the quality of the reconstructed image and tolerance to data with imperfections.

  17. Communication Avoiding and Overlapping for Numerical Linear Algebra

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-08

    future exascale systems, communication cost must be avoided or overlapped. Communication-avoiding 2.5D algorithms improve scalability by reducing...linear algebra problems to future exascale systems, communication cost must be avoided or overlapped. Communication-avoiding 2.5D algorithms improve...will continue to grow relative to the cost of computation. With exascale computing as the long-term goal, the community needs to develop techniques

  18. Sequence Ready Characterization of the Pericentromeric Region of 19p12

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Evan E. Eichler

    2006-08-31

    Current mapping and sequencing strategies have been inadequate within the proximal portion of 19p12 due, in part, to the presence of a recently expanded ZNF (zinc-finger) gene family and the presence of large (25-50 kb) inverted beta-satellite repeat structures which bracket this tandemly duplicated gene family. The virtual of absence of classically defined “unique” sequence within the region has hampered efforts to identify and characterize a suitable minimal tiling path of clones which can be used as templates required for finished sequencing of the region. The goal of this proposal is to develop and implement a novel sequence-anchor strategy to generate a contiguous BAC map of the most proximal portion of chromosome 19p12 for the purpose of complete sequence characterization. The target region will be an estimated 4.5 Mb of DNA extending from STS marker D19S450 (the beginning of the ZNF gene cluster) to the centromeric (alpha-satellite) junction of 19p11. The approach will entail 1) pre-selection of 19p12 BAC and cosmid clones (NIH approved library) utilizing both 19p12 -unique and 19p12-SPECIFIC repeat probes (Eichler et al., 1998); 2) the generation of a BAC/cosmid end-sequence map across the region with a density of one marker every 8kb; 3) the development of a second-generation of STS (sequence tagged sites) which will be used to identify and verify clonal overlap at the level of the sequence; 4) incorporation of these sequence-anchored overlapping clones into existing cosmid/BAC restriction maps developed at Livermore National Laboratory; and 5) validation of the organization of this region utilizing high-resolution FISH techniques (extended chromatin analysis) on monochromosomal 19 somatic cell hybrids and parental cell lines of source material. The data generated will be used in the selection of the most parsimonious tiling path of BAC clones to be sequenced as part of the JGI effort on chromosome 19 and should serve as a model for the sequence

  19. Flanking signal and mature peptide residues influence signal peptide cleavage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ranganathan Shoba

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Signal peptides (SPs mediate the targeting of secretory precursor proteins to the correct subcellular compartments in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Identifying these transient peptides is crucial to the medical, food and beverage and biotechnology industries yet our understanding of these peptides remains limited. This paper examines the most common type of signal peptides cleavable by the endoprotease signal peptidase I (SPase I, and the residues flanking the cleavage sites of three groups of signal peptide sequences, namely (i eukaryotes (Euk (ii Gram-positive (Gram+ bacteria, and (iii Gram-negative (Gram- bacteria. Results In this study, 2352 secretory peptide sequences from a variety of organisms with amino-terminal SPs are extracted from the manually curated SPdb database for analysis based on physicochemical properties such as pI, aliphatic index, GRAVY score, hydrophobicity, net charge and position-specific residue preferences. Our findings show that the three groups share several similarities in general, but they display distinctive features upon examination in terms of their amino acid compositions and frequencies, and various physico-chemical properties. Thus, analysis or prediction of their sequences should be separated and treated as distinct groups. Conclusion We conclude that the peptide segment recognized by SPase I extends to the start of the mature protein to a limited extent, upon our survey of the amino acid residues surrounding the cleavage processing site. These flanking residues possibly influence the cleavage processing and contribute to non-canonical cleavage sites. Our findings are applicable in defining more accurate prediction tools for recognition and identification of cleavage site of SPs.

  20. Effects of coarse-graining on the scaling behavior of long-range correlated and anti-correlated signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Yinlin; Ma, Qianli D Y; Schmitt, Daniel T; Bernaola-Galván, Pedro; Ivanov, Plamen Ch

    2011-11-01

    We investigate how various coarse-graining (signal quantization) methods affect the scaling properties of long-range power-law correlated and anti-correlated signals, quantified by the detrended fluctuation analysis. Specifically, for coarse-graining in the magnitude of a signal, we consider (i) the Floor, (ii) the Symmetry and (iii) the Centro-Symmetry coarse-graining methods. We find that for anti-correlated signals coarse-graining in the magnitude leads to a crossover to random behavior at large scales, and that with increasing the width of the coarse-graining partition interval Δ, this crossover moves to intermediate and small scales. In contrast, the scaling of positively correlated signals is less affected by the coarse-graining, with no observable changes when Δ 1 a crossover appears at small scales and moves to intermediate and large scales with increasing Δ. For very rough coarse-graining (Δ > 3) based on the Floor and Symmetry methods, the position of the crossover stabilizes, in contrast to the Centro-Symmetry method where the crossover continuously moves across scales and leads to a random behavior at all scales; thus indicating a much stronger effect of the Centro-Symmetry compared to the Floor and the Symmetry method. For coarse-graining in time, where data points are averaged in non-overlapping time windows, we find that the scaling for both anti-correlated and positively correlated signals is practically preserved. The results of our simulations are useful for the correct interpretation of the correlation and scaling properties of symbolic sequences.

  1. Sequence and expression analysis of gaps in human chromosome 20

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Minocherhomji, Sheroy; Seemann, Stefan; Mang, Yuan

    2012-01-01

    /or overlap disease-associated loci, including the DLGAP4 locus. In this study, we sequenced ~99% of all three unfinished gaps on human chr 20, determined their complete genomic sizes and assessed epigenetic profiles using a combination of Sanger sequencing, mate pair paired-end high-throughput sequencing......The finished human genome-assemblies comprise several hundred un-sequenced euchromatic gaps, which may be rich in long polypurine/polypyrimidine stretches. Human chromosome 20 (chr 20) currently has three unfinished gaps remaining on its q-arm. All three gaps are within gene-dense regions and...... and chromatin, methylation and expression analyses. We found histone 3 trimethylated at Lysine 27 to be distributed across all three gaps in immortalized B-lymphocytes. In one gap, five novel CpG islands were predominantly hypermethylated in genomic DNA from peripheral blood lymphocytes and human cerebellum...

  2. Some new results on the central overlap problem in astrometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rapaport, M.

    1998-07-01

    The central overlap problem in astrometry has been revisited in the recent last years by Eichhorn (1988) who explicitly inverted the matrix of a constrained least squares problem. In this paper, the general explicit solution of the unconstrained central overlap problem is given. We also give the explicit solution for an other set of constraints; this result is a confirmation of a conjecture expressed by Eichhorn (1988). We also consider the use of iterative methods to solve the central overlap problem. A surprising result is obtained when the classical Gauss Seidel method is used; the iterations converge immediately to the general solution of the equations; we explain this property writing the central overlap problem in a new set of variables.

  3. Detection of Noise in Composite Step Signal Pattern by Visualizing Signal Waveforms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chaman Verma

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available The Step Composite Signals is the combination of vital informative signals that are compressed and coded to produce a predefined test image on a display device. It carries the desired sequence of information from source to destination. This information may be transmitted as digital signal, video information or data signal required as an input for the destination module. For testing of display panels, Composite Test Signals are the most important attribute of test signal transmission system. In the current research paper we present an approach for the noise detection in Composite Step Signal by analysing Composite Step Signal waveforms. The analysis of the signal waveforms reveals that the noise affected components of the signal and subsequently noise reduction process is initiated which targets noisy signal component only. Thus the quality of signal is not compromised during noise reduction process.

  4. The overlap Dirac operator as a continued fraction

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wenger, U.; Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron

    2004-03-01

    We use a continued fraction expansion of the sign-function in order to obtain a five dimensional formulation of the overlap lattice Dirac operator. Within this formulation the inverse of the overlap operator can be calculated by a single Krylov space method and nested conjugate gradient procedures are avoided. We point out that the five dimensional linear system can be made well conditioned using equivalence transformations on the continued fractions. (orig.)

  5. Cloning and sequencing of the bovine gastrin gene

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lund, T; Rehfeld, J F; Olsen, Jørgen

    1989-01-01

    In order to deduce the primary structure of bovine preprogastrin we therefore sequenced a gastrin DNA clone isolated from a bovine liver cosmid library. Bovine preprogastrin comprises 104 amino acids and consists of a signal peptide, a 37 amino acid spacer-sequence, the gastrin-34 sequence followed...

  6. Modeling of chromosome intermingling by partially overlapping uniform random polygons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blackstone, T; Scharein, R; Borgo, B; Varela, R; Diao, Y; Arsuaga, J

    2011-03-01

    During the early phase of the cell cycle the eukaryotic genome is organized into chromosome territories. The geometry of the interface between any two chromosomes remains a matter of debate and may have important functional consequences. The Interchromosomal Network model (introduced by Branco and Pombo) proposes that territories intermingle along their periphery. In order to partially quantify this concept we here investigate the probability that two chromosomes form an unsplittable link. We use the uniform random polygon as a crude model for chromosome territories and we model the interchromosomal network as the common spatial region of two overlapping uniform random polygons. This simple model allows us to derive some rigorous mathematical results as well as to perform computer simulations easily. We find that the probability that one uniform random polygon of length n that partially overlaps a fixed polygon is bounded below by 1 − O(1/√n). We use numerical simulations to estimate the dependence of the linking probability of two uniform random polygons (of lengths n and m, respectively) on the amount of overlapping. The degree of overlapping is parametrized by a parameter [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text] indicates no overlapping and [Formula: see text] indicates total overlapping. We propose that this dependence relation may be modeled as f (ε, m, n) = [Formula: see text]. Numerical evidence shows that this model works well when [Formula: see text] is relatively large (ε ≥ 0.5). We then use these results to model the data published by Branco and Pombo and observe that for the amount of overlapping observed experimentally the URPs have a non-zero probability of forming an unsplittable link.

  7. BAUM: Improving genome assembly by adaptive unique mapping and local overlap-layout-consensus approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Anqi; Wang, Zhanyu; Li, Zheng; Li, Lei M

    2018-01-15

    It is highly desirable to assemble genomes of high continuity and consistency at low cost. The current bottleneck of draft genome continuity using the Second Generation Sequencing (SGS) reads is primarily caused by uncertainty among repetitive sequences. Even though the Single-Molecule Real-Time sequencing technology is very promising to overcome the uncertainty issue, its relatively high cost and error rate add burden on budget or computation. Many long-read assemblers take the overlap-layout-consensus (OLC) paradigm, which is less sensitive to sequencing errors, heterozygosity and variability of coverage. However, current assemblers of SGS data do not sufficiently take advantage of the OLC approach. Aiming at minimizing uncertainty, the proposed method BAUM, breaks the whole genome into regions by adaptive unique mapping; then the local OLC is used to assemble each region in parallel. BAUM can: (1) perform reference-assisted assembly based on the genome of a close species; (2) or improve the results of existing assemblies that are obtained based on short or long sequencing reads. The tests on two eukaryote genomes, a wild rice Oryza longistaminata and a parrot Melopsittacus undulatus, show that BAUM achieved substantial improvement on genome size and continuity. Besides, BAUM reconstructed a considerable amount of repetitive regions that failed to be assembled by existing short read assemblers. We also propose statistical approaches to control the uncertainty in different steps of BAUM. http://www.zhanyuwang.xin/wordpress/index.php/2017/07/21/baum. lilei@amss.ac.cn. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2018). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

  8. Interference management with partial uplink/downlink spectrum overlap

    KAUST Repository

    Randrianantenaina, Itsikiantsoa

    2016-07-26

    Simultaneous reuse of spectral resources by uplink and downlink, denoted as in-band full duplex (FD) communication, is promoted to double the spectral efficiency when compared to its half-duplex (HD) counterpart. Interference management, however, remains challenging in FD cellular networks, especially when high disparity between uplink and downlink transmission powers exists. The uplink performance can be particularly deteriorated when operating on channels that are simultaneously occupied with downlink transmission. This paper considers a cellular wireless system with partial spectrum overlap between the downlink and uplink. The performance of the system becomes, therefore, a function of the overlap fraction, as well as the power levels of both the uplink and downlink transmissions. The paper considers the problem of maximizing an overall network utility to find the uplink/downlink transmission powers and the spectrum overlap fraction between the uplink and downlink spectrum in each cell, and proposes solving the problem using interior point method. Simulations results confirm the vulnerability of the uplink performance to the FD operation, and show the superiority of the proposed scheme over the FD and HD schemes. The results further show that explicit uplink and downlink performance should be considered for efficient design of cellular networks with overlapping uplink/downlink resources. © 2016 IEEE.

  9. Detection and Evaluation of Pre-Preg Gaps and Overlaps in Glare Laminates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nardi, Davide; Abouhamzeh, Morteza; Leonard, Rob; Sinke, Jos

    2018-03-01

    Gaps and overlaps between pre-preg plies represent common flaws in composite materials that can be introduced easily in an automated fibre placement manufacturing process and are potentially detrimental for the mechanical performances of the final laminates. Whereas gaps and overlaps have been addressed for full composite material, the topic has not been extended to a hybrid composite material such as Glare, a member of the family of Fibre Metal Laminates (FMLs). In this paper/research, the manufacturing, the detection, and the optical evaluation of intraply gaps and overlaps in Glare laminates are investigated. As part of an initial assessment study on the effect of gaps and overlaps on Glare, only the most critical lay-up has been considered. The experimental investigation started with the manufacturing of specimens having gaps and overlaps with different widths, followed by a non-destructive ultrasonic-inspection. An optical evaluation of the gaps and overlaps was performed by means of microscope image analysis of the cross sections of the specimens. The results from the non-destructive evaluations show the effectiveness of the ultrasonic detection of gaps and overlaps both in position, shape, width, and severity. The optical inspections confirm the accuracy of the non-destructive evaluation also adding useful insights about the geometrical features due to the presence of gaps and overlaps in the final Glare laminates. All the results justify the need for a further investigation on the effect of gaps and overlaps on the mechanical properties.

  10. Comparison of Patient Outcomes and Cost of Overlapping Versus Nonoverlapping Spine Surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zygourakis, Corinna C; Sizdahkhani, Saman; Keefe, Malla; Lee, Janelle; Chou, Dean; Mummaneni, Praveen V; Ames, Christopher P

    2017-04-01

    Overlapping surgery recently has gained significant media attention, but there are limited data on its safety and efficacy. To date, there has been no analysis of overlapping surgery in the field of spine. Our goal was to compare overlapping versus nonoverlapping spine surgery patient outcomes and cost. A retrospective review was undertaken of 2319 spine surgeries (n = 848 overlapping; 1471 nonoverlapping) performed by 3 neurosurgery attendings from 2012 to 2015 at the University of California San Francisco. Collected variables included patient age, sex, insurance, American Society of Anesthesiology score, severity of illness, risk of mortality, procedure type, surgeon, day of surgery, source of transfer, admission type, overlapping versus nonoverlapping surgery (≥1 minute of overlapping procedure time), Medicare-Severity Diagnosis-Related Group, osteotomy, and presence of another attending/fellow/resident. Univariate, then multivariate mixed-effect models were used to evaluate the effect of the collected variables on the following outcomes: procedure time, estimated blood loss, length of stay, discharge status, 30-day mortality, 30-day unplanned readmission, unplanned return to OR, and total hospital cost. Urgent spine cases were more likely to be done in an overlapping fashion (all P return to the operating room, estimated blood loss, length of stay, and total hospital cost (all P = ns). Overlapping spine surgery may be performed safely at our institution, although continued monitoring of patient outcomes is necessary. Overlapping surgery does not lead to greater hospital costs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Xeroderma Pigmentosum-Trichothiodystrophy overlap patient with novel XPD/ERCC2 mutation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kralund, Henrik H.; Ousager, Lilian; Jaspers, Nicolaas G.; Raams, Anja; Pedersen, Erling B.; Gade, Else; Bygum, Anette

    2013-01-01

    Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), Trichothiodystrophy (TTD) and Cockayne Syndrome (CS) are rare, recessive disorders caused by mutational defects in the Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) pathway and/or disruption of basic cellular DNA transcription. To date, a multitude of mutations in the XPD/ERCC2 gene have been described, many of which give rise to NER- and DNA transcription related diseases, which share certain diagnostic features and few overlap patients have been described. Despite increasing understanding of the roles of XPD/ERCC2 in mammalian cells, there is still weak predictability of somatic outcome from many of these mutations. We demonstrate a patient, believed to represent an overlap between XP and TTD/CS. In addition to other organ dysfunctions, the young man presented with Photosensitivity, Ichthyosis, Brittle hair, Impaired physical and mental development, Decreased fertility and Short stature (PIBIDS) suggestive of TTD, but lacking the almost patognomonic “tiger tail” banding of the hair under polarized light. Additionally, he developed basal cell carcinoma aged 28, as well as adult onset kidney failure, features normally not associated with TTD but rather XP/CS. His freckled appearance also suggested XP, but fibroblast cultures only demonstrated x2 UV-sensitivity with expected NER and TFIIH-activity decrease. Genetic sequencing of the XPD/ERCC2 gene established the patient as heterozygote compound with a novel, N-terminal Y18H mutation and a known C-terminal (TTD) mutation, A725P. The possible interplay between gene products and the patient phenotype is discussed. PMID:25002996

  12. Flow simulations about steady-complex and unsteady moving configurations using structured-overlapped and unstructured grids

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newman, James C., III

    1995-01-01

    The limiting factor in simulating flows past realistic configurations of interest has been the discretization of the physical domain on which the governing equations of fluid flow may be solved. In an attempt to circumvent this problem, many Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) methodologies that are based on different grid generation and domain decomposition techniques have been developed. However, due to the costs involved and expertise required, very few comparative studies between these methods have been performed. In the present work, the two CFD methodologies which show the most promise for treating complex three-dimensional configurations as well as unsteady moving boundary problems are evaluated. These are namely the structured-overlapped and the unstructured grid schemes. Both methods use a cell centered, finite volume, upwind approach. The structured-overlapped algorithm uses an approximately factored, alternating direction implicit scheme to perform the time integration, whereas, the unstructured algorithm uses an explicit Runge-Kutta method. To examine the accuracy, efficiency, and limitations of each scheme, they are applied to the same steady complex multicomponent configurations and unsteady moving boundary problems. The steady complex cases consist of computing the subsonic flow about a two-dimensional high-lift multielement airfoil and the transonic flow about a three-dimensional wing/pylon/finned store assembly. The unsteady moving boundary problems are a forced pitching oscillation of an airfoil in a transonic freestream and a two-dimensional, subsonic airfoil/store separation sequence. Accuracy was accessed through the comparison of computed and experimentally measured pressure coefficient data on several of the wing/pylon/finned store assembly's components and at numerous angles-of-attack for the pitching airfoil. From this study, it was found that both the structured-overlapped and the unstructured grid schemes yielded flow solutions of

  13. Overlap of PIV syndrome, VACTERL and Pallister-Hall syndrome: clinical and molecular analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Killoran, C E; Abbott, M; McKusick, V A; Biesecker, L G

    2000-07-01

    The polydactyly, imperforate anus, vertebral anomalies syndrome (PIV, OMIM 174100) was determined as a distinct syndrome by Say and Gerald in 1968 (Say B, Gerald PS. Lancet 1968: 2: 688). We noted that the features of PIV overlap with the VATER association and Pallister-Hall syndrome (PHS, OMIM 146510), which includes polydactyly, (central or postaxial), shortened fingers, hypoplastic nails, renal anomalies, imperforate anus, and hypothalamic hamartoma. Truncation mutations in GL13, a zinc finger transcription factor gene, have been shown to cause PHS. We performed a molecular evaluation on a patient diagnosed with PIV, whose mother, grandfather, and maternal aunt had similar malformations. We sequenced the GLI3 gene in the patient to determine if she had a mutation. The patient was found to have a deletion in nucleotides 2188-2207 causing a frameshift mutation that predicts a truncated protein product of the gene. Later clinical studies demonstrated that the patient also has a hypothalamic hamartoma, a finding in PHS. We concluded that this family had atypical PHS and not PIV. This result has prompted us to re-evaluate the PIV literature to see if PIV is a valid entity. Based on these data and our examination of the literature, we conclude that PIV is not a valid diagnostic entity. We conclude that patients diagnosed with PIV should be reclassified as having VACTERL, or PHS, or another syndrome with overlapping malformations.

  14. Multicolor fluorescent in situ hybridization to define abutting and overlapping gene expression in the embryonic zebrafish brain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hauptmann Giselbert

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background In recent years, mapping of overlapping and abutting regulatory gene expression domains by chromogenic two-color in situ hybridization has helped define molecular subdivisions of the developing vertebrate brain and shed light on its basic organization. Despite the benefits of this technique, visualization of overlapping transcript distributions by differently colored precipitates remains difficult because of masking of lighter signals by darker color precipitates and lack of three-dimensional visualization properties. Fluorescent detection of transcript distributions may be able to solve these issues. However, despite the use of signal amplification systems for increasing sensitivity, fluorescent detection in whole-mounts suffers from rapid quenching of peroxidase (POD activity compared to alkaline phosphatase chromogenic reactions. Thus, less strongly expressed genes cannot be efficiently detected. Results We developed an optimized procedure for fluorescent detection of transcript distribution in whole-mount zebrafish embryos using tyramide signal amplification (TSA. Conditions for hybridization and POD-TSA reaction were optimized by the application of the viscosity-increasing polymer dextran sulfate and the use of the substituted phenol compounds 4-iodophenol and vanillin as enhancers of POD activity. In combination with highly effective bench-made tyramide substrates, these improvements resulted in dramatically increased signal-to-noise ratios. The strongly enhanced signal intensities permitted fluorescent visualization of less abundant transcripts of tissue-specific regulatory genes. When performing multicolor fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH experiments, the highly sensitive POD reaction conditions required effective POD inactivation after each detection cycle by glycine-hydrochloric acid treatment. This optimized FISH procedure permitted the simultaneous fluorescent visualization of up to three unique transcripts

  15. Location of frame overlap choppers on pulsed source instruments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Narehood, D.G.; Pearce, J.V.; Sokol, P.E.

    2002-01-01

    A detailed study has been performed to investigate the effect of frame overlap in a cold neutron chopper spectrometer. The basic spectrometer is defined by two high-speed choppers, one near the moderator to shape the pulse from the moderator, and one near the sample to define energy resolution. Using ray-tracing timing diagrams, we have observed that there are regions along the guide where the trajectories of neutrons with different velocities converge temporally at characteristic points along the spectrometer. At these points of convergence, a frame overlap chopper would be totally ineffective, allowing neutrons of all velocities to pass through. Conversely, at points where trajectories of different velocity neutrons are divergent, a frame overlap chopper is most effective. An analytical model to describe this behaviour has been developed, and leads us to the counterintuitive conclusion that the optimum position for a frame overlap chopper is as close to the initial chopper as possible. We further demonstrate that detailed Monte Carlo simulations produce results which are consistent with this model

  16. Segmenting overlapping nano-objects in atomic force microscopy image

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Qian; Han, Yuexing; Li, Qing; Wang, Bing; Konagaya, Akihiko

    2018-01-01

    Recently, techniques for nanoparticles have rapidly been developed for various fields, such as material science, medical, and biology. In particular, methods of image processing have widely been used to automatically analyze nanoparticles. A technique to automatically segment overlapping nanoparticles with image processing and machine learning is proposed. Here, two tasks are necessary: elimination of image noises and action of the overlapping shapes. For the first task, mean square error and the seed fill algorithm are adopted to remove noises and improve the quality of the original image. For the second task, four steps are needed to segment the overlapping nanoparticles. First, possibility split lines are obtained by connecting the high curvature pixels on the contours. Second, the candidate split lines are classified with a machine learning algorithm. Third, the overlapping regions are detected with the method of density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN). Finally, the best split lines are selected with a constrained minimum value. We give some experimental examples and compare our technique with two other methods. The results can show the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

  17. Influence of different envelope maskers on signal recognition and neuronal representation in the auditory system of a grasshopper.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela Neuhofer

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Animals that communicate by sound face the problem that the signals arriving at the receiver often are degraded and masked by noise. Frequency filters in the receiver's auditory system may improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR by excluding parts of the spectrum which are not occupied by the species-specific signals. This solution, however, is hardly amenable to species that produce broad band signals or have ears with broad frequency tuning. In mammals auditory filters exist that work in the temporal domain of amplitude modulations (AM. Do insects also use this type of filtering? PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Combining behavioural and neurophysiological experiments we investigated whether AM filters may improve the recognition of masked communication signals in grasshoppers. The AM pattern of the sound, its envelope, is crucial for signal recognition in these animals. We degraded the species-specific song by adding random fluctuations to its envelope. Six noise bands were used that differed in their overlap with the spectral content of the song envelope. If AM filters contribute to reduced masking, signal recognition should depend on the degree of overlap between the song envelope spectrum and the noise spectra. Contrary to this prediction, the resistance against signal degradation was the same for five of six masker bands. Most remarkably, the band with the strongest frequency overlap to the natural song envelope (0-100 Hz impaired acceptance of degraded signals the least. To assess the noise filter capacities of single auditory neurons, the changes of spike trains as a function of the masking level were assessed. Increasing levels of signal degradation in different frequency bands led to similar changes in the spike trains in most neurones. CONCLUSIONS: There is no indication that auditory neurones of grasshoppers are specialized to improve the SNR with respect to the pattern of amplitude modulations.

  18. DeepSimulator: a deep simulator for Nanopore sequencing

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Yu

    2017-12-23

    Motivation: Oxford Nanopore sequencing is a rapidly developed sequencing technology in recent years. To keep pace with the explosion of the downstream data analytical tools, a versatile Nanopore sequencing simulator is needed to complement the experimental data as well as to benchmark those newly developed tools. However, all the currently available simulators are based on simple statistics of the produced reads, which have difficulty in capturing the complex nature of the Nanopore sequencing procedure, the main task of which is the generation of raw electrical current signals. Results: Here we propose a deep learning based simulator, DeepSimulator, to mimic the entire pipeline of Nanopore sequencing. Starting from a given reference genome or assembled contigs, we simulate the electrical current signals by a context-dependent deep learning model, followed by a base-calling procedure to yield simulated reads. This workflow mimics the sequencing procedure more naturally. The thorough experiments performed across four species show that the signals generated by our context-dependent model are more similar to the experimentally obtained signals than the ones generated by the official context-independent pore model. In terms of the simulated reads, we provide a parameter interface to users so that they can obtain the reads with different accuracies ranging from 83% to 97%. The reads generated by the default parameter have almost the same properties as the real data. Two case studies demonstrate the application of DeepSimulator to benefit the development of tools in de novo assembly and in low coverage SNP detection. Availability: The software can be accessed freely at: https://github.com/lykaust15/DeepSimulator.

  19. Overlapping communities detection based on spectral analysis of line graphs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gui, Chun; Zhang, Ruisheng; Hu, Rongjing; Huang, Guoming; Wei, Jiaxuan

    2018-05-01

    Community in networks are often overlapping where one vertex belongs to several clusters. Meanwhile, many networks show hierarchical structure such that community is recursively grouped into hierarchical organization. In order to obtain overlapping communities from a global hierarchy of vertices, a new algorithm (named SAoLG) is proposed to build the hierarchical organization along with detecting the overlap of community structure. SAoLG applies the spectral analysis into line graphs to unify the overlap and hierarchical structure of the communities. In order to avoid the limitation of absolute distance such as Euclidean distance, SAoLG employs Angular distance to compute the similarity between vertices. Furthermore, we make a micro-improvement partition density to evaluate the quality of community structure and use it to obtain the more reasonable and sensible community numbers. The proposed SAoLG algorithm achieves a balance between overlap and hierarchy by applying spectral analysis to edge community detection. The experimental results on one standard network and six real-world networks show that the SAoLG algorithm achieves higher modularity and reasonable community number values than those generated by Ahn's algorithm, the classical CPM and GN ones.

  20. On the interpretation of wave function overlaps in quantum dots

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stobbe, Søren; Hvam, Jørn Märcher; Lodahl, Peter

    2011-01-01

    The spontaneous emission rate of excitons strongly confined in quantum dots (QDs) is proportional to the overlap integral of electron and hole envelope wave functions. A common and intuitive interpretation of this result is that the spontaneous emission rate is proportional to the probability...... that the electron and the hole are located at the same point or region in space, i.e., they must coincide spatially to recombine. Here, we show that this interpretation is not correct even loosely speaking. By general mathematical considerations we compare the envelope wave function overlap, the exchange overlap...... integral, and the probability of electrons and holes coinciding, and find that the frequency dependence of the envelope wave function overlap integral is very different from that expected from the common interpretation. We show that these theoretical considerations lead to predictions for measurements. We...

  1. Same-strand overlapping genes in bacteria: compositional determinants of phase bias

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Landan Giddy

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Same-strand overlapping genes may occur in frameshifts of one (phase 1 or two nucleotides (phase 2. In previous studies of bacterial genomes, long phase-1 overlaps were found to be more numerous than long phase-2 overlaps. This bias was explained by either genomic location or an unspecified selection advantage. Models that focused on the ability of the two genes to evolve independently did not predict this phase bias. Here, we propose that a purely compositional model explains the phase bias in a more parsimonious manner. Same-strand overlapping genes may arise through either a mutation at the termination codon of the upstream gene or a mutation at the initiation codon of the downstream gene. We hypothesized that given these two scenarios, the frequencies of initiation and termination codons in the two phases may determine the number for overlapping genes. Results We examined the frequencies of initiation- and termination-codons in the two phases, and found that termination codons do not significantly differ between the two phases, whereas initiation codons are more abundant in phase 1. We found that the primary factors explaining the phase inequality are the frequencies of amino acids whose codons may combine to form start codons in the two phases. We show that the frequencies of start codons in each of the two phases, and, hence, the potential for the creation of overlapping genes, are determined by a universal amino-acid frequency and species-specific codon usage, leading to a correlation between long phase-1 overlaps and genomic GC content. Conclusion Our model explains the phase bias in same-strand overlapping genes by compositional factors without invoking selection. Therefore, it can be used as a null model of neutral evolution to test selection hypotheses concerning the evolution of overlapping genes. Reviewers This article was reviewed by Bill Martin, Itai Yanai, and Mikhail Gelfand.

  2. Overlapping bio-absorbable scaffolds: Aim for D2D technique?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Asaad A; Dangas, George D

    2018-06-01

    The results of overlapping metallic stents have been concerning but this practice is often unavoidable in the setting of long or tortuous lesions, diameter discrepancy of proximal and distal vessel, and for residual dissections. Theoretically, bio-absorbable scaffolds may carry an advantage over metallic stents due to the progressive resorption of the scaffold theoretically rendering the overlap a non-issue; this has not been clinically evident. Since stent/scaffold overlap cannot be entirely avoided, improved stent delivery/deployment and scaffold design modification may reduce complications in this complex patient subset. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  3. Human tissue factor: cDNA sequence and chromosome localization of the gene

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scarpati, E.M.; Wen, D.; Broze, G.J. Jr.; Miletich, J.P.; Flandermeyer, R.R.; Siegel, N.R.; Sadler, J.E.

    1987-01-01

    A human placenta cDNA library in λgt11 was screened for the expression of tissue factor antigens with rabbit polyclonal anti-human tissue factor immunoglobulin G. Among 4 million recombinant clones screened, one positive, λHTF8, expressed a protein that shared epitopes with authentic human brain tissue factor. The 1.1-kilobase cDNA insert of λHTF8 encoded a peptide that contained the amino-terminal protein sequence of human brain tissue factor. Northern blotting identified a major mRNA species of 2.2 kilobases and a minor species of ∼ 3.2 kilobases in poly(A) + RNA of placenta. Only 2.2-kilobase mRNA was detected in human brain and in the human monocytic U937 cell line. In U937 cells, the quantity of tissue factor mRNA was increased several fold by exposure of the cells to phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate. Additional cDNA clones were selected by hybridization with the cDNA insert of λHTF8. These overlapping isolates span 2177 base pairs of the tissue factor cDNA sequence that includes a 5'-noncoding region of 75 base pairs, an open reading frame of 885 base pairs, a stop codon, a 3'-noncoding region of 1141 base pairs, and a poly(a) tail. The open reading frame encodes a 33-kilodalton protein of 295 amino acids. The predicted sequence includes a signal peptide of 32 or 34 amino acids, a probable extracellular factor VII binding domain of 217 or 219 amino acids, a transmembrane segment of 23 acids, and a cytoplasmic tail of 21 amino acids. There are three potential glycosylation sites with the sequence Asn-X-Thr/Ser. The 3'-noncoding region contains an inverted Alu family repetitive sequence. The tissue factor gene was localized to chromosome 1 by hybridization of the cDNA insert of λHTF8 to flow-sorted human chromosomes

  4. The AHL- and BDSF-dependent quorum sensing systems control specific and overlapping sets of genes in Burkholderia cenocepacia H111.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nadine Schmid

    Full Text Available Quorum sensing in Burkholderia cenocepacia H111 involves two signalling systems that depend on different signal molecules, namely N-acyl homoserine lactones (AHLs and the diffusible signal factor cis-2-dodecenoic acid (BDSF. Previous studies have shown that AHLs and BDSF control similar phenotypic traits, including biofilm formation, proteolytic activity and pathogenicity. In this study we mapped the BDSF stimulon by RNA-Seq and shotgun proteomics analysis. We demonstrate that a set of the identified BDSF-regulated genes or proteins are also controlled by AHLs, suggesting that the two regulons partially overlap. The detailed analysis of two mutually regulated operons, one encoding three lectins and the other one encoding the large surface protein BapA and its type I secretion machinery, revealed that both AHLs and BDSF are required for full expression, suggesting that the two signalling systems operate in parallel. In accordance with this, we show that both AHLs and BDSF are required for biofilm formation and protease production.

  5. Specific surface area of overlapping spheres in the presence of obstructions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenkins, D R

    2013-02-21

    This study considers the random placement of uniform sized spheres, which may overlap, in the presence of another set of randomly placed (hard) spheres, which do not overlap. The overlapping spheres do not intersect the hard spheres. It is shown that the specific surface area of the collection of overlapping spheres is affected by the hard spheres, such that there is a minimum in the specific surface area as a function of the relative size of the two sets of spheres. The occurrence of the minimum is explained in terms of the break-up of pore connectivity. The configuration can be considered to be a simple model of the structure of a porous composite material. In particular, the overlapping particles represent voids while the hard particles represent fillers. Example materials are pervious concrete, metallurgical coke, ice cream, and polymer composites. We also show how the material properties of such composites are affected by the void structure.

  6. The overlap between cyberbullying and traditional bullying.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waasdorp, Tracy E; Bradshaw, Catherine P

    2015-05-01

    Cyberbullying appears to be on the rise among adolescents due in part to increased access to electronic devices and less online supervision. Less is known about how cyberbullying differs from traditional bullying which occurs in person and the extent to which these two forms overlap. Our first aim was to examine the overlap of traditional bullying (relational, verbal, and physical) with cyberbullying. The second aim examined student- and school-level correlates of cyber victimization as compared to traditional victims. The final aim explored details of the cyberbullying experience (e.g., who sent the message, how was the message sent, and what was the message about). Data came from 28,104 adolescents (grades, 9-12) attending 58 high schools. Approximately 23% of the youth reported being victims of any form of bullying (cyber, relational, physical, and verbal) within the last month, with 25.6% of those victims reporting being cyberbullied. The largest proportion (50.3%) of victims reported they were victimized by all four forms, whereas only 4.6% reported being only cyberbullied. Multilevel analyses indicated that as compared to those who were only traditionally bullied, those who were cyberbullied were more likely to have externalizing (odds ratio = 1.44) and internalizing symptoms (odds ratio = 1.25). Additional analyses examined detailed characteristics of the cyberbullying experiences, indicating a relatively high level of overlap between cyber and traditional bullying. Implications for preventive interventions targeting youth involved with cyberbullying and its overlap with other forms of bullying are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Overlapping community detection using weighted consensus ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    2016-09-21

    Sep 21, 2016 ... Complex networks; overlapping community; consensus clustering. PACS Nos 89.75 ... networks, a person may be in several social groups like family, friends ..... the social interactions between individuals in a karate club in an.

  8. Advantages of combined transmembrane topology and signal peptide prediction--the Phobius web server

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Käll, Lukas; Krogh, Anders; Sonnhammer, Erik L L

    2007-01-01

    . The method makes an optimal choice between transmembrane segments and signal peptides, and also allows constrained and homology-enriched predictions. We here present a web interface (http://phobius.cgb.ki.se and http://phobius.binf.ku.dk) to access Phobius. Udgivelsesdato: 2007-Jul......When using conventional transmembrane topology and signal peptide predictors, such as TMHMM and SignalP, there is a substantial overlap between these two types of predictions. Applying these methods to five complete proteomes, we found that 30-65% of all predicted signal peptides and 25-35% of all...

  9. NF-kappaB mediates FGF signal regulation of msx-1 expression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bushdid, P B; Chen, C L; Brantley, D M; Yull, F; Raghow, R; Kerr, L D; Barnett, J V

    2001-09-01

    The nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) family of transcription factors is involved in proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis in a stage- and cell-dependent manner. Recent evidence has shown that NF-kappaB activity is necessary for both chicken and mouse limb development. We report here that the NF-kappaB family member c-rel and the homeodomain gene msx-1 have partially overlapping expression patterns in the developing chick limb. In addition, inhibition of NF-kappaB activity resulted in a decrease in msx-1 mRNA expression. Sequence analysis of the msx-1 promoter revealed three potential kappaB-binding sites similar to the interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) kappaB-binding site. These sites bound to c-Rel, as shown by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). Furthermore, inhibition of NF-kappaB activity significantly reduced transactivation of the msx-1 promoter in response to FGF-2/-4, known stimulators of msx-1 expression. These results suggest that NF-kappaB mediates the FGF-2/-4 signal regulation of msx-1 gene expression. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

  10. Overlapping ETF: Pair trading between two gold stocks

    OpenAIRE

    Bell, Peter N; Lui, Brian; Brekke, Alex

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to propose a trading strategy for overlapping ETF and calculate the profitability using real price data. For two overlapping ETF that are designed to provide the same intraday percentage change, the difference in percentage changes is a measure of mispricing. This mispricing is the central focus of the paper. The premise of the paper is that mispricing can take large positive or negative values, but it will always come back to zero. This assumption reflects ou...

  11. Optimal overlapping of waveform relaxation method for linear differential equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamada, Susumu; Ozawa, Kazufumi

    2000-01-01

    Waveform relaxation (WR) method is extremely suitable for solving large systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) on parallel computers, but the convergence of the method is generally slow. In order to accelerate the convergence, the methods which decouple the system into many subsystems with overlaps some of the components between the adjacent subsystems have been proposed. The methods, in general, converge much faster than the ones without overlapping, but the computational cost per iteration becomes larger due to the increase of the dimension of each subsystem. In this research, the convergence of the WR method for solving constant coefficients linear ODEs is investigated and the strategy to determine the number of overlapped components which minimizes the cost of the parallel computations is proposed. Numerical experiments on an SR2201 parallel computer show that the estimated number of the overlapped components by the proposed strategy is reasonable. (author)

  12. Resolution enhancement of holographic printer using a hogel overlapping method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, Keehoon; Park, Soon-gi; Yeom, Jiwoon; Kim, Jonghyun; Chen, Ni; Pyun, Kyungsuk; Choi, Chilsung; Kim, Sunil; An, Jungkwuen; Lee, Hong-Seok; Chung, U-in; Lee, Byoungho

    2013-06-17

    We propose a hogel overlapping method for the holographic printer to enhance the lateral resolution of holographic stereograms. The hogel size is directly related to the lateral resolution of the holographic stereogram. Our analysis by computer simulation shows that there is a limit to decreasing the hogel size while printing holographic stereograms. Instead of reducing the size of hogel, the lateral resolution of holographic stereograms can be enhanced by printing overlapped hogels, which makes it possible to take advantage of multiplexing property of the volume hologram. We built a holographic printer, and recorded two holographic stereograms using the conventional and proposed overlapping methods. The images and movies of the holographic stereograms experimentally captured were compared between the conventional and proposed methods. The experimental results confirm that the proposed hogel overlapping method improves the lateral resolution of holographic stereograms compared to the conventional holographic printing method.

  13. The overlapping community structure of structural brain network in young healthy individuals.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kai Wu

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Community structure is a universal and significant feature of many complex networks in biology, society, and economics. Community structure has also been revealed in human brain structural and functional networks in previous studies. However, communities overlap and share many edges and nodes. Uncovering the overlapping community structure of complex networks remains largely unknown in human brain networks. Here, using regional gray matter volume, we investigated the structural brain network among 90 brain regions (according to a predefined anatomical atlas in 462 young, healthy individuals. Overlapped nodes between communities were defined by assuming that nodes (brain regions can belong to more than one community. We demonstrated that 90 brain regions were organized into 5 overlapping communities associated with several well-known brain systems, such as the auditory/language, visuospatial, emotion, decision-making, social, control of action, memory/learning, and visual systems. The overlapped nodes were mostly involved in an inferior-posterior pattern and were primarily related to auditory and visual perception. The overlapped nodes were mainly attributed to brain regions with higher node degrees and nodal efficiency and played a pivotal role in the flow of information through the structural brain network. Our results revealed fuzzy boundaries between communities by identifying overlapped nodes and provided new insights into the understanding of the relationship between the structure and function of the human brain. This study provides the first report of the overlapping community structure of the structural network of the human brain.

  14. Overlapped flowers yield detection using computer-based interface

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anuradha Sharma

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Precision agriculture has always dealt with the accuracy and timely information about agricultural products. With the help of computer hardware and software technology designing a decision support system that could generate flower yield information and serve as base for management and planning of flower marketing is made so easy. Despite such technologies, some problem still arise, for example, a colour homogeneity of a specimen which cannot be obtained similar to actual colour of image and overlapping of image. In this paper implementing a new ‘counting algorithm’ for overlapped flower is being discussed. For implementing this algorithm, some techniques and operations such as colour image segmentation technique, image segmentation, using HSV colour space and morphological operations have been used. In this paper used two most popular colour space; those are RGB and HSV. HSV colour space decouples brightness from a chromatic component in the image, by which it provides better result in case for occlusion and overlapping.

  15. Overlapping and disease specific aspects of impulsivity in children and adolescents with schizophrenia spectrum disorders or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jepsen, Jens Richardt Møllegaard; Rydkjær, Jacob; Fagerlund, Birgitte

    Objectives: To identify disease specific and overlapping aspects of impulsivity in children and adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders or ADHD. Methods: Motor impulsivity (Stop Signal Task), reflection impulsivity (Information Sampling Task), and trait impulsivity (Barratt ...... their decision making to gather more information in a condition with a conflict between reward and certainty. The reduced information sampling may also reflect an increased conviction in the decision at a point of relative uncertainty....

  16. An Economical Analytical Equation for the Integrated Vertical Overlap of Cumulus and Stratus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Sungsu

    2018-03-01

    By extending the previously proposed heuristic parameterization, the author derived an analytical equation computing the overlap areas between the precipitation (or radiation) areas and the cloud areas in a cloud system consisting of cumulus and stratus. The new analytical equation is accurate and much more efficient than the previous heuristic equation, which suffers from the truncation error in association with the digitalization of the overlap areas. Global test simulations with the new analytical formula in an offline mode showed that the maximum cumulus overlap simulates more surface precipitation flux than the random cumulus overlap. On the other hand, the maximum stratus overlap simulates less surface precipitation flux than random stratus overlap, which is due to the increase in the evaporation rate of convective precipitation from the random to maximum stratus overlap. The independent precipitation approximation (IPA) marginally decreases the surface precipitation flux, implying that IPA works well with other parameterizations. In contrast to the net production rate of precipitation and surface precipitation flux that increase when the cumulus and stratus are maximally and randomly overlapped, respectively, the global mean net radiative cooling and longwave cloud radiative forcing (LWCF) increase when the cumulus and stratus are randomly overlapped. On the global average, the vertical cloud overlap exerts larger impacts on the precipitation flux than on the radiation flux. The radiation scheme taking the subgrid variability of water vapor between the cloud and clear portions into account substantially increases the global mean LWCF in tropical deep convection and midlatitude storm track regions.

  17. Instruction of hematopoietic lineage choice by cytokine signaling

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Endele, Max; Etzrodt, Martin; Schroeder, Timm, E-mail: timm.schroeder@bsse.ethz.ch

    2014-12-10

    Hematopoiesis is the cumulative consequence of finely tuned signaling pathways activated through extrinsic factors, such as local niche signals and systemic hematopoietic cytokines. Whether extrinsic factors actively instruct the lineage choice of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells or are only selectively allowing survival and proliferation of already intrinsically lineage-committed cells has been debated over decades. Recent results demonstrated that cytokines can instruct lineage choice. However, the precise function of individual cytokine-triggered signaling molecules in inducing cellular events like proliferation, lineage choice, and differentiation remains largely elusive. Signal transduction pathways activated by different cytokine receptors are highly overlapping, but support the production of distinct hematopoietic lineages. Cellular context, signaling dynamics, and the crosstalk of different signaling pathways determine the cellular response of a given extrinsic signal. New tools to manipulate and continuously quantify signaling events at the single cell level are therefore required to thoroughly interrogate how dynamic signaling networks yield a specific cellular response. - Highlights: • Recent studies provided definite proof for lineage-instructive action of cytokines. • Signaling pathways involved in hematopoietic lineage instruction remain elusive. • New tools are emerging to quantitatively study dynamic signaling networks over time.

  18. Overlapping sphincteroplasty and posterior repair.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crane, Andrea K; Myers, Erinn M; Lippmann, Quinn K; Matthews, Catherine A

    2014-12-01

    Knowledge of how to anatomically reconstruct extensive posterior-compartment defects is variable among gynecologists. The objective of this video is to demonstrate an effective technique of overlapping sphincteroplasty and posterior repair. In this video, a scripted storyboard was constructed that outlines the key surgical steps of a comprehensive posterior compartment repair: (1) surgical incision that permits access to posterior compartment and perineal body, (2) dissection of the rectovaginal space up to the level of the cervix, (3) plication of the rectovaginal muscularis, (4) repair of internal and external anal sphincters, and (5) reconstruction of the perineal body. Using a combination of graphic illustrations and live video footage, tips on repair are highlighted. The goals at the end of repair are to: (1) have improved vaginal caliber, (2) increase rectal tone along the entire posterior vaginal wall, (3) have the posterior vaginal wall at a perpendicular plane to the perineal body, (4) reform the hymenal ring, and (5) not have an overly elongated perineal body. This video provides a step-by-step guide on how to perform an overlapping sphincteroplasty and posterior repair.

  19. A comparative study of chaotic and white noise signals in digital watermarking

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mooney, Aidan; Keating, John G.; Pitas, Ioannis

    2008-01-01

    Digital watermarking is an ever increasing and important discipline, especially in the modern electronically-driven world. Watermarking aims to embed a piece of information into digital documents which their owner can use to prove that the document is theirs, at a later stage. In this paper, performance analysis of watermarking schemes is performed on white noise sequences and chaotic sequences for the purpose of watermark generation. Pseudorandom sequences are compared with chaotic sequences generated from the chaotic skew tent map. In particular, analysis is performed on highpass signals generated from both these watermark generation schemes, along with analysis on lowpass watermarks and white noise watermarks. This analysis focuses on the watermarked images after they have been subjected to common image distortion attacks. It is shown that signals generated from highpass chaotic signals have superior performance than highpass noise signals, in the presence of such attacks. It is also shown that watermarks generated from lowpass chaotic signals have superior performance over the other signal types analysed

  20. Overlapping Chronic Pain Conditions: Implications for Diagnosis and Classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maixner, William; Fillingim, Roger B; Williams, David A; Smith, Shad B; Slade, Gary D

    2016-09-01

    There is increasing recognition that many if not most common chronic pain conditions are heterogeneous with a high degree of overlap or coprevalence of other common pain conditions along with influences from biopsychosocial factors. At present, very little attention is given to the high degree of overlap of many common pain conditions when recruiting for clinical trials. As such, many if not most patients enrolled into clinical studies are not representative of most chronic pain patients. The failure to account for the heterogeneous and overlapping nature of most common pain conditions may result in treatment responses of small effect size when these treatments are administered to patients with chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs) represented in the general population. In this brief review we describe the concept of COPCs and the putative mechanisms underlying COPCs. Finally, we present a series of recommendations that will advance our understanding of COPCs. This brief review describes the concept of COPCs. A mechanism-based heuristic model is presented and current knowledge and evidence for COPCs are presented. Finally, a set of recommendations is provided to advance our understanding of COPCs. Copyright © 2016 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Angular overlap model in actinides

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gajek, Z.; Mulak, J.

    1991-01-01

    Quantitative foundations of the Angular Overlap Model in actinides based on ab initio calculations of the crystal field effect in the uranium (III) (IV) and (V) ions in various crystals are presented. The calculations justify some common simplifications of the model and fix up the relations between the AOM parameters. Traps and limitations of the AOM phenomenology are discussed

  2. Angular overlap model in actinides

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gajek, Z.; Mulak, J. (Polska Akademia Nauk, Wroclaw (PL). Inst. Niskich Temperatur i Badan Strukturalnych)

    1991-01-01

    Quantitative foundations of the Angular Overlap Model in actinides based on ab initio calculations of the crystal field effect in the uranium (III) (IV) and (V) ions in various crystals are presented. The calculations justify some common simplifications of the model and fix up the relations between the AOM parameters. Traps and limitations of the AOM phenomenology are discussed.

  3. Enhanced signal dispersion in saturation transfer difference experiments by conversion to a 1D-STD-homodecoupled spectrum

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Martin-Pastor, Manuel; Vega-Vazquez, Marino [Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Laboratorio Integral de Dinamica e Estructura de Biomoleculas Jose R. Carracido, Unidade de Resonancia Magnetica, Edificio CACTUS, RIAIDT (Spain); Capua, Antonia De [Seconda Universita degli Studi di Napoli, Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali (Italy); Canales, Angeles [Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas, CSIC, Departamento de Estructura y funcion de proteinas (Spain); Andre, Sabine; Gabius, Hans-Joachim [Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet, Institut fuer Physiologische Chemie, Tieraerztliche Fakultaet (Germany); Jimenez-Barbero, Jesus [Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas, CSIC, Departamento de Estructura y funcion de proteinas (Spain)], E-mail: JJbarbero@cib.csic.es

    2006-10-15

    The saturation transfer difference (STD) experiment is a rich source of information on topological aspects of ligand binding to a receptor. The epitope mapping is based on a magnetization transfer after signal saturation from the receptor to the ligand, where interproton distances permit this process. Signal overlap in the STD spectrum can cause difficulties to correctly assign and/or quantitate the measured enhancements. To address this issue we report here a modified version of the routine experiment and a processing scheme that provides a 1D-STD homodecoupled spectrum (i.e. an experiment in which all STD signals appear as singlets) with line widths similar to those in original STD spectrum. These refinements contribute to alleviate problems of signal overlap. The experiment is based on 2D-J-resolved spectroscopy, one of the fastest 2D experiments under conventional data sampling in the indirect dimension, and provides excellent sensitivity, a key factor for the difference experiments.

  4. Symmetry and symmetry restoration of lattice chiral fermions in the overlap formalism

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kikukawa, Y.

    1999-01-01

    Three aspects of the symmetry structure of lattice chiral fermions in the overlap formalism are discussed. By the weak coupling expansion of the overlap Dirac operator, the axial anomaly associated to the chiral transformation proposed by Luescher is evaluated and is shown to have the correct form of the topological charge density for perturbative backgrounds. Next we discuss the exponential suppression of the self-energy correction of the lightest mode in the domain-wall fermion/truncated overlap. Finally, we consider a supersymmetric extension of the overlap formula in the case of the chiral multiplet and examine the symmetry structure of the action

  5. NLSdb-major update for database of nuclear localization signals and nuclear export signals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernhofer, Michael; Goldberg, Tatyana; Wolf, Silvana; Ahmed, Mohamed; Zaugg, Julian; Boden, Mikael; Rost, Burkhard

    2018-01-04

    NLSdb is a database collecting nuclear export signals (NES) and nuclear localization signals (NLS) along with experimentally annotated nuclear and non-nuclear proteins. NES and NLS are short sequence motifs related to protein transport out of and into the nucleus. The updated NLSdb now contains 2253 NLS and introduces 398 NES. The potential sets of novel NES and NLS have been generated by a simple 'in silico mutagenesis' protocol. We started with motifs annotated by experiments. In step 1, we increased specificity such that no known non-nuclear protein matched the refined motif. In step 2, we increased the sensitivity trying to match several different families with a motif. We then iterated over steps 1 and 2. The final set of 2253 NLS motifs matched 35% of 8421 experimentally verified nuclear proteins (up from 21% for the previous version) and none of 18 278 non-nuclear proteins. We updated the web interface providing multiple options to search protein sequences for NES and NLS motifs, and to evaluate your own signal sequences. NLSdb can be accessed via Rostlab services at: https://rostlab.org/services/nlsdb/. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

  6. MERRF/MELAS overlap syndrome due to the m.3291T>C mutation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Kaiming; Zhao, Hui; Ji, Kunqian; Yan, Chuanzhu

    2014-03-01

    We report the case of a 19-year-old Chinese female harboring the m.3291T>C mutation in the MT-TL1 gene encoding the mitochondrial transfer RNA for leucine. She presented with a complex phenotype characterized by progressive cerebellar ataxia, frequent myoclonus seizures, recurrent stroke-like episodes, migraine-like headaches with nausea and vomiting, and elevated resting lactate blood level. It is known that the myoclonus epilepsy with ragged-red fibers (MERRF) is characterized by cerebellar ataxia and myoclonus epilepsy, while that the mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) is characterized by recurrent stroke-like episodes, migraine-like headaches, and elevated resting lactate blood level. So the patient's clinical manifestations suggest the presence of a MERRF/MELAS overlap syndrome. Muscle biopsy of the patient showed the presence of numerous scattered ragged-red fibers, some cytochrome c oxidase-deficient fibers, and several strongly succinate dehygrogenase-reactive vessels, suggestive of a mitochondrial disorder. Direct sequencing of the complete mitochondrial genome of the proband revealed no mutations other than the T-to-C transition at nucleotide position 3291. Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of the proband and her family revealed maternal inheritance of the mutation in a heteroplasmic manner. The analysis of aerobic respiration and glycolysis demonstrated that the fibroblasts from the patient had mitochondrial dysfunction. Our results suggest that the m.3291T>C is pathogenic. This study is the first to describe the m.3291T>C mutation in association with the MERRF/MELAS overlap syndrome.

  7. Segmentation of Overlapping Shapes using Test Ray Intersections

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmusson, Allan

    As the use of digital images have become standard in everyday bioimaging, people are naturally trying to utilize computer algorithms for automating laborious and repetetive image analysis tasks. A preliminary task is the segmentation of structures of interest from digital images. This may in itself....... This may, however, quickly lead to the implementation of complex descriptions of any possible configuration the overlapping shapes may appear in. Presented here is a new approach to segment overlapping shapes which utilizes information gained from probing the image with test rays. Test rays intersections...

  8. Design of Long Period Pseudo-Random Sequences from the Addition of m -Sequences over 𝔽 p

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ren Jian

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available Pseudo-random sequence with good correlation property and large linear span is widely used in code division multiple access (CDMA communication systems and cryptology for reliable and secure information transmission. In this paper, sequences with long period, large complexity, balance statistics, and low cross-correlation property are constructed from the addition of m -sequences with pairwise-prime linear spans (AMPLS. Using m -sequences as building blocks, the proposed method proved to be an efficient and flexible approach to construct long period pseudo-random sequences with desirable properties from short period sequences. Applying the proposed method to 𝔽 2 , a signal set ( ( 2 n − 1 ( 2 m − 1 , ( 2 n + 1 ( 2 m + 1 , ( 2 ( n + 1 / 2 + 1 ( 2 ( m + 1 / 2 + 1 is constructed.

  9. Overlaps of partial Néel states and Bethe states

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Foda, O; Zarembo, K

    2016-01-01

    Partial Néel states are generalizations of the ordinary Néel (classical anti-ferromagnet) state that can have arbitrary integer spin. We study overlaps of these states with Bethe states. We first identify this overlap with a partial version of reflecting-boundary domain-wall partition function, and then derive various determinant representations for off-shell and on-shell Bethe states. (paper: quantum statistical physics, condensed matter, integrable systems)

  10. Improving Inversions of the Overlap Operator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krieg, S.; Cundy, N.; Eshof, J. van den; Frommer, A.; Lippert, Th.; Schaefer, K.

    2005-01-01

    We present relaxation and preconditioning techniques which accelerate the inversion of the overlap operator by a factor of four on small lattices, with larger gains as the lattice size increases. These improvements can be used in both propagator calculations and dynamical simulations

  11. Low Self-Control and the Victim-Offender Overlap: A Gendered Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flexon, Jamie L; Meldrum, Ryan C; Piquero, Alex R

    2016-07-01

    The overlap between victimization and offending is well documented. Yet, there have been fewer investigations of the reasons underlying this relationship. One possible, but understudied, explanation lies with Gottfredson and Hirschi's arguments regarding self-control. The current study adds to this line of inquiry by assessing whether low self-control accounts for the victim-offender overlap in a sample of young adults and whether self-control accounts for the observed overlap similarly across gender. Results from a series of bivariate probit regression models indicate that low self-control is positively related to both victimization and offending. However, only among males does low self-control account for a substantive portion of the victim-offender overlap. Limitations of the study and implications and directions for future research are discussed. © The Author(s) 2015.

  12. Statistical approach of measurement of signal to noise ratio in according to change pulse sequence on brain MRI meningioma and cyst images

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Eul Kyu; Choi, Kwan Woo; Jeong, Hoi Woun; Jang, Seo Goo; Kim, Ki Won; Son, Soon Yong; Min, Jung Whan; Son, Jin Hyun

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to needed basis of measure MRI CAD development for signal to noise ratio (SNR) by pulse sequence analysis from region of interest (ROI) in brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast. We examined images of brain MRI contrast enhancement of 117 patients, from January 2005 to December 2015 in a University-affiliated hospital, Seoul, Korea. Diagnosed as one of two brain diseases such as meningioma and cysts SNR for each patient's image of brain MRI were calculated by using Image J. Differences of SNR among two brain diseases were tested by SPSS Statistics21 ANOVA test for there was statistical significance (p < 0.05). We have analysis socio-demographical variables, SNR according to sequence disease, 95% confidence according to SNR of sequence and difference in a mean of SNR. Meningioma results, with the quality of distributions in the order of T1CE, T2 and T1, FLAIR. Cysts results, with the quality of distributions in the order of T2 and T1, T1CE and FLAIR. SNR of MRI sequences of the brain would be useful to classify disease. Therefore, this study will contribute to evaluate brain diseases, and be a fundamental to enhancing the accuracy of CAD development

  13. Statistical approach of measurement of signal to noise ratio in according to change pulse sequence on brain MRI meningioma and cyst images

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Eul Kyu [Inje Paik University Hospital Jeo-dong, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Choi, Kwan Woo [Asan Medical Center, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Jeong, Hoi Woun [The Baekseok Culture University, Cheonan (Korea, Republic of); Jang, Seo Goo [The Soonchunhyang University, Asan (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Ki Won [Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gang-dong, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Son, Soon Yong [The Wonkwang Health Science University, Iksan (Korea, Republic of); Min, Jung Whan; Son, Jin Hyun [The Shingu University, Sungnam (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-09-15

    The purpose of this study was to needed basis of measure MRI CAD development for signal to noise ratio (SNR) by pulse sequence analysis from region of interest (ROI) in brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast. We examined images of brain MRI contrast enhancement of 117 patients, from January 2005 to December 2015 in a University-affiliated hospital, Seoul, Korea. Diagnosed as one of two brain diseases such as meningioma and cysts SNR for each patient's image of brain MRI were calculated by using Image J. Differences of SNR among two brain diseases were tested by SPSS Statistics21 ANOVA test for there was statistical significance (p < 0.05). We have analysis socio-demographical variables, SNR according to sequence disease, 95% confidence according to SNR of sequence and difference in a mean of SNR. Meningioma results, with the quality of distributions in the order of T1CE, T2 and T1, FLAIR. Cysts results, with the quality of distributions in the order of T2 and T1, T1CE and FLAIR. SNR of MRI sequences of the brain would be useful to classify disease. Therefore, this study will contribute to evaluate brain diseases, and be a fundamental to enhancing the accuracy of CAD development.

  14. Murine mammary tumor virus pol-related sequences in human DNA: characterization and sequence comparison with the complete murine mammary tumor virus pol gene

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deen, K.C.; Sweet, R.W.

    1986-01-01

    Sequences in the human genome with homology to the murine mammary tumor virus (MMTV) pol gene were isolated from a human phage library. Ten clones with extensive pol homology were shown to define five separate loci. These loci share common sequences immediately adjacent to the pol-like segments and, in addition, contain a related repeat element which bounds this region. This organization is suggestive of a proviral structure. The authors estimate that the human genome contains 30 to 40 copies of these pol-related sequences. The pol region of one of the cloned segments (HM16) and the complete MMTV pol gene were sequenced and compared. The nucleotide homology between these pol sequences is 52% and is concentrated in the terminal regions. The MMTV pol gene contains a single long open reading frame encoding 899 amino acids and is demarcated from the partially overlapping putative gag gene by termination codons and a shift in translational reading frame. The pol sequence of HM16 is multiply terminated but does contain open reading frames which encode 370, 105, and 112 amino acids residues in separate reading frames. The authors deduced a composite pol protein sequence for HM16 by aligning it to the MMTV pol gene and then compared these sequences with other retroviral pol protein sequences. Conserved sequences occur in both the amino and carboxyl regions which lie within the polymerase and endonuclease domains of pol, respectively

  15. Neural responses to multimodal ostensive signals in 5-month-old infants.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eugenio Parise

    Full Text Available Infants' sensitivity to ostensive signals, such as direct eye contact and infant-directed speech, is well documented in the literature. We investigated how infants interpret such signals by assessing common processing mechanisms devoted to them and by measuring neural responses to their compounds. In Experiment 1, we found that ostensive signals from different modalities display overlapping electrophysiological activity in 5-month-old infants, suggesting that these signals share neural processing mechanisms independently of their modality. In Experiment 2, we found that the activation to ostensive signals from different modalities is not additive to each other, but rather reflects the presence of ostension in either stimulus stream. These data support the thesis that ostensive signals obligatorily indicate to young infants that communication is directed to them.

  16. ASAP: Amplification, sequencing & annotation of plastomes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Folta Kevin M

    2005-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Availability of DNA sequence information is vital for pursuing structural, functional and comparative genomics studies in plastids. Traditionally, the first step in mining the valuable information within a chloroplast genome requires sequencing a chloroplast plasmid library or BAC clones. These activities involve complicated preparatory procedures like chloroplast DNA isolation or identification of the appropriate BAC clones to be sequenced. Rolling circle amplification (RCA is being used currently to amplify the chloroplast genome from purified chloroplast DNA and the resulting products are sheared and cloned prior to sequencing. Herein we present a universal high-throughput, rapid PCR-based technique to amplify, sequence and assemble plastid genome sequence from diverse species in a short time and at reasonable cost from total plant DNA, using the large inverted repeat region from strawberry and peach as proof of concept. The method exploits the highly conserved coding regions or intergenic regions of plastid genes. Using an informatics approach, chloroplast DNA sequence information from 5 available eudicot plastomes was aligned to identify the most conserved regions. Cognate primer pairs were then designed to generate ~1 – 1.2 kb overlapping amplicons from the inverted repeat region in 14 diverse genera. Results 100% coverage of the inverted repeat region was obtained from Arabidopsis, tobacco, orange, strawberry, peach, lettuce, tomato and Amaranthus. Over 80% coverage was obtained from distant species, including Ginkgo, loblolly pine and Equisetum. Sequence from the inverted repeat region of strawberry and peach plastome was obtained, annotated and analyzed. Additionally, a polymorphic region identified from gel electrophoresis was sequenced from tomato and Amaranthus. Sequence analysis revealed large deletions in these species relative to tobacco plastome thus exhibiting the utility of this method for structural and

  17. Speech overlap detection in a two-pass speaker diarization system

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huijbregts, M.A.H.; Leeuwen, D.A. van; Jong, F. M. G de

    2009-01-01

    In this paper we present the two-pass speaker diarization system that we developed for the NIST RT09s evaluation. In the first pass of our system a model for speech overlap detection is gen- erated automatically. This model is used in two ways to reduce the diarization errors due to overlapping

  18. Speech overlap detection in a two-pass speaker diarization system

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huijbregts, M.; Leeuwen, D.A. van; Jong, F.M.G. de

    2009-01-01

    In this paper we present the two-pass speaker diarization system that we developed for the NIST RT09s evaluation. In the first pass of our system a model for speech overlap detection is generated automatically. This model is used in two ways to reduce the diarization errors due to overlapping

  19. Comparisons of Satellite-Deduced Overlapping Cloud Properties and CALIPSO CloudSat Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Fu-Lung; Minnis, Patrick; Lin, Bing; Sun-Mack, Sunny

    2010-01-01

    Introduction to the overlapped cloud properties derived from polar-orbiting (MODIS) and geostationary (GOES-12, -13, Meteosat-8, -9, etc.) meteorological satellites, which are produced at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) cloud research & development team (NASA lead scientist: Dr. Patrick Minnis). Comparison of the LaRC CERES MODIS Edition-3 overlapped cloud properties to the CALIPSO and the CloudSat active sensing data. High clouds and overlapped clouds occur frequently as deduced by CALIPSO (44 & 25%), CloudSat (25 & 4%), and MODIS (37 & 6%). Large fractions of optically-thin cirrus and overlapped clouds are deduced from CALIPSO, but much smaller fractions are from CloudSat and MODIS. For overlapped clouds, the averaged upper-layer CTHs are about 12.8 (CALIPSO), 10.9 (CloudSat) and 10 km (MODIS), and the averaged lower-layer CTHs are about 3.6 (CALIPSO), 3.2 (CloudSat) and 3.9 km (MODIS). Based on comparisons of upper and lower-layer cloud properties as deduced from the MODIS, CALIPSO and CloudSat data, more enhanced passive satellite methods for retrieving thin cirrus and overlapped cloud properties are needed and are under development.

  20. Pairwise Sequence Alignment Library

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2015-05-20

    Vector extensions, such as SSE, have been part of the x86 CPU since the 1990s, with applications in graphics, signal processing, and scientific applications. Although many algorithms and applications can naturally benefit from automatic vectorization techniques, there are still many that are difficult to vectorize due to their dependence on irregular data structures, dense branch operations, or data dependencies. Sequence alignment, one of the most widely used operations in bioinformatics workflows, has a computational footprint that features complex data dependencies. The trend of widening vector registers adversely affects the state-of-the-art sequence alignment algorithm based on striped data layouts. Therefore, a novel SIMD implementation of a parallel scan-based sequence alignment algorithm that can better exploit wider SIMD units was implemented as part of the Parallel Sequence Alignment Library (parasail). Parasail features: Reference implementations of all known vectorized sequence alignment approaches. Implementations of Smith Waterman (SW), semi-global (SG), and Needleman Wunsch (NW) sequence alignment algorithms. Implementations across all modern CPU instruction sets including AVX2 and KNC. Language interfaces for C/C++ and Python.

  1. Portuguese Lexical Clusters and CVC Sequences in Speech Perception and Production.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cunha, Conceição

    2015-01-01

    This paper investigates similarities between lexical consonant clusters and CVC sequences differing in the presence or absence of a lexical vowel in speech perception and production in two Portuguese varieties. The frequent high vowel deletion in the European variety (EP) and the realization of intervening vocalic elements between lexical clusters in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) may minimize the contrast between lexical clusters and CVC sequences in the two Portuguese varieties. In order to test this hypothesis we present a perception experiment with 72 participants and a physiological analysis of 3-dimensional movement data from 5 EP and 4 BP speakers. The perceptual results confirmed a gradual confusion of lexical clusters and CVC sequences in EP, which corresponded roughly to the gradient consonantal overlap found in production. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  2. Signals, systems, transforms, and digital signal processing with Matlab

    CERN Document Server

    Corinthios, Michael

    2009-01-01

    Continuous-Time and Discrete-Time Signals and SystemsIntroductionContinuous-Time SignalsPeriodic FunctionsUnit Step FunctionGraphical Representation of FunctionsEven and Odd Parts of a FunctionDirac-Delta ImpulseBasic Properties of the Dirac-Delta ImpulseOther Important Properties of the ImpulseContinuous-Time SystemsCausality, StabilityExamples of Electrical Continuous-Time SystemsMechanical SystemsTransfer Function and Frequency ResponseConvolution and CorrelationA Right-Sided and a Left-Sided FunctionConvolution with an Impulse and Its DerivativesAdditional Convolution PropertiesCorrelation FunctionProperties of the Correlation FunctionGraphical InterpretationCorrelation of Periodic FunctionsAverage, Energy and Power of Continuous-Time SignalsDiscrete-Time SignalsPeriodicityDifference EquationsEven/Odd DecompositionAverage Value, Energy and Power SequencesCausality, StabilityProblemsAnswers to Selected ProblemsFourier Series ExpansionTrigonometric Fourier SeriesExponential Fourier SeriesExponential versus ...

  3. Decomposition of overlapping protein complexes: A graph theoretical method for analyzing static and dynamic protein associations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guimarães Katia S

    2006-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Most cellular processes are carried out by multi-protein complexes, groups of proteins that bind together to perform a specific task. Some proteins form stable complexes, while other proteins form transient associations and are part of several complexes at different stages of a cellular process. A better understanding of this higher-order organization of proteins into overlapping complexes is an important step towards unveiling functional and evolutionary mechanisms behind biological networks. Results We propose a new method for identifying and representing overlapping protein complexes (or larger units called functional groups within a protein interaction network. We develop a graph-theoretical framework that enables automatic construction of such representation. We illustrate the effectiveness of our method by applying it to TNFα/NF-κB and pheromone signaling pathways. Conclusion The proposed representation helps in understanding the transitions between functional groups and allows for tracking a protein's path through a cascade of functional groups. Therefore, depending on the nature of the network, our representation is capable of elucidating temporal relations between functional groups. Our results show that the proposed method opens a new avenue for the analysis of protein interaction networks.

  4. Ptychographic overlap constraint errors and the limits of their numerical recovery using conjugate gradient descent methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tripathi, Ashish; McNulty, Ian; Shpyrko, Oleg G

    2014-01-27

    Ptychographic coherent x-ray diffractive imaging is a form of scanning microscopy that does not require optics to image a sample. A series of scanned coherent diffraction patterns recorded from multiple overlapping illuminated regions on the sample are inverted numerically to retrieve its image. The technique recovers the phase lost by detecting the diffraction patterns by using experimentally known constraints, in this case the measured diffraction intensities and the assumed scan positions on the sample. The spatial resolution of the recovered image of the sample is limited by the angular extent over which the diffraction patterns are recorded and how well these constraints are known. Here, we explore how reconstruction quality degrades with uncertainties in the scan positions. We show experimentally that large errors in the assumed scan positions on the sample can be numerically determined and corrected using conjugate gradient descent methods. We also explore in simulations the limits, based on the signal to noise of the diffraction patterns and amount of overlap between adjacent scan positions, of just how large these errors can be and still be rendered tractable by this method.

  5. DNA watermarks in non-coding regulatory sequences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pyka Martin

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background DNA watermarks can be applied to identify the unauthorized use of genetically modified organisms. It has been shown that coding regions can be used to encrypt information into living organisms by using the DNA-Crypt algorithm. Yet, if the sequence of interest presents a non-coding DNA sequence, either the function of a resulting functional RNA molecule or a regulatory sequence, such as a promoter, could be affected. For our studies we used the small cytoplasmic RNA 1 in yeast and the lac promoter region of Escherichia coli. Findings The lac promoter was deactivated by the integrated watermark. In addition, the RNA molecules displayed altered configurations after introducing a watermark, but surprisingly were functionally intact, which has been verified by analyzing the growth characteristics of both wild type and watermarked scR1 transformed yeast cells. In a third approach we introduced a second overlapping watermark into the lac promoter, which did not affect the promoter activity. Conclusion Even though the watermarked RNA and one of the watermarked promoters did not show any significant differences compared to the wild type RNA and wild type promoter region, respectively, it cannot be generalized that other RNA molecules or regulatory sequences behave accordingly. Therefore, we do not recommend integrating watermark sequences into regulatory regions.

  6. Divide and conquer: enriching environmental sequencing data.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anne Bergeron

    2007-09-01

    Full Text Available In environmental sequencing projects, a mix of DNA from a whole microbial community is fragmented and sequenced, with one of the possible goals being to reconstruct partial or complete genomes of members of the community. In communities with high diversity of species, a significant proportion of the sequences do not overlap any other fragment in the sample. This problem will arise not only in situations with a relatively even distribution of many species, but also when the community in a particular environment is routinely dominated by the same few species. In the former case, no genomes may be assembled at all, while in the latter case a few dominant species in an environment will always be sequenced at high coverage to the detriment of coverage of the greater number of sparse species.Here we show that, with the same global sequencing effort, separating the species into two or more sub-communities prior to sequencing can yield a much higher proportion of sequences that can be assembled. We first use the Lander-Waterman model to show that, if the expected percentage of singleton sequences is higher than 25%, then, under the uniform distribution hypothesis, splitting the community is always a wise choice. We then construct simulated microbial communities to show that the results hold for highly non-uniform distributions. We also show that, for the distributions considered in the experiments, it is possible to estimate quite accurately the relative diversity of the two sub-communities.Given the fact that several methods exist to split microbial communities based on physical properties such as size, density, surface biochemistry, or optical properties, we strongly suggest that groups involved in environmental sequencing, and expecting high diversity, consider splitting their communities in order to maximize the information content of their sequencing effort.

  7. [Symptom overlaps between functional heartburn, functional dyspepsia, and irritable bowel syndrome].

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-05-01

    To determine symptom overlaps between functional heartburn (FH), functional dyspepsia (FD), and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). One hundred and ten patients with frequent heartburn but no mucosa breakage under endoscopy were enrolled consecutively. They were required to fill out a questionnaire. The overlapped symptoms of FD and IBS symptoms were screened using Rome ill criteria. The participants were also examined using Hamilton anxiety scale/Hamilton depression scale. All of the participants were followed with 24 h esophageal multichannel intra-luminal impedance monitoring with pH sensor (MII-pH) monitoring and proton pump inhibitor (PPI) trials. The participants were divided into non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) and FH groups. The prevalence of symptom overlaps FD and IBS, between NERD and FH groups was analyzed. Women were more likely to present with FH than with NERD (P heartburn symptom had FD symptoms; 31 (28.2%) had IBS symptoms, and 10 (9.09%) had both FD and IBS symptoms. Patients with FH were more likely to have symptom overlaps of FD and IBS than those with NERD (62% vs. 35%, 48% vs. 11.7%, respectively; P 0.05). IBS-diarrhea was also slightly more likely to have overlapped NERD and FH symptoms than IBS-constipation. Again, the difference was not significant (16.4% vs. 11.8%, P > 0.05). Female, higher prevalence of anxiety and depression, overlapped FD and IBS symptoms are more likely to appear in FH patients than in NERD patients.

  8. A search for pre-main-sequence stars in high-latitude molecular clouds. 3: A survey of the Einstein database

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caillault, Jean-Pierre; Magnani, Loris; Fryer, Chris

    1995-01-01

    In order to discern whether the high-latitude molecular clouds are regions of ongoing star formation, we have used X-ray emission as a tracer of youthful stars. The entire Einstein database yields 18 images which overlap 10 of the clouds mapped partially or completely in the CO (1-0) transition, providing a total of approximately 6 deg squared of overlap. Five previously unidentified X-ray sources were detected: one has an optical counterpart which is a pre-main-sequence (PMS) star, and two have normal main-sequence stellar counterparts, while the other two are probably extragalactic sources. The PMS star is located in a high Galactic latitude Lynds dark cloud, so this result is not too suprising. The translucent clouds, though, have yet to reveal any evidence of star formation.

  9. The chemical structure of DNA sequence signals for RNA transcription

    Science.gov (United States)

    George, D. G.; Dayhoff, M. O.

    1982-01-01

    The proposed recognition sites for RNA transcription for E. coli NRA polymerase, bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase, and eukaryotic RNA polymerase Pol II are evaluated in the light of the requirements for efficient recognition. It is shown that although there is good experimental evidence that specific nucleic acid sequence patterns are involved in transcriptional regulation in bacteria and bacterial viruses, among the sequences now available, only in the case of the promoters recognized by bacteriophage T7 polymerase does it seem likely that the pattern is sufficient. It is concluded that the eukaryotic pattern that is investigated is not restrictive enough to serve as a recognition site.

  10. Contact resistance and overlapping capacitance in flexible sub-micron long oxide thin-film transistors for above 100 MHz operation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Münzenrieder, Niko, E-mail: muenzenrieder@ife.ee.ethz.ch; Salvatore, Giovanni A.; Petti, Luisa; Zysset, Christoph; Büthe, Lars; Vogt, Christian; Cantarella, Giuseppe; Tröster, Gerhard [Electronics Laboratory Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, Gloriastrasse 35, 8092 Zürich (Switzerland)

    2014-12-29

    In recent years new forms of electronic devices such as electronic papers, flexible displays, epidermal sensors, and smart textiles have become reality. Thin-film transistors (TFTs) are the basic blocks of the circuits used in such devices and need to operate above 100 MHz to efficiently treat signals in RF systems and address pixels in high resolution displays. Beyond the choice of the semiconductor, i.e., silicon, graphene, organics, or amorphous oxides, the junctionless nature of TFTs and its geometry imply some limitations which become evident and important in devices with scaled channel length. Furthermore, the mechanical instability of flexible substrates limits the feature size of flexible TFTs. Contact resistance and overlapping capacitance are two parasitic effects which limit the transit frequency of transistors. They are often considered independent, while a deeper analysis of TFTs geometry imposes to handle them together; in fact, they both depend on the overlapping length (L{sub OV}) between source/drain and the gate contacts. Here, we conduct a quantitative analysis based on a large number of flexible ultra-scaled IGZO TFTs. Devices with three different values of overlap length and channel length down to 0.5 μm are fabricated to experimentally investigate the scaling behavior of the transit frequency. Contact resistance and overlapping capacitance depend in opposite ways on L{sub OV}. These findings establish routes for the optimization of the dimension of source/drain contact pads and suggest design guidelines to achieve megahertz operation in flexible IGZO TFTs and circuits.

  11. Algebraic Methods to Design Signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-08-27

    to date on designing signals using algebraic and combinatorial methods. Mathematical tools from algebraic number theory, representation theory and... combinatorial objects in designing signals for communication purposes. Sequences and arrays with desirable autocorrelation properties have many...multiple access methods in mobile radio communication systems. We continue our mathematical framework based on group algebras, character theory

  12. Generalized morphea/eosinophilic fasciitis overlap after epoxy exposure

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Warren H. Chan, MS

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Generalized morphea is associated with epoxy resin vapors and is characterized by the development of lesions shortly after exposure. Morphea presenting along with eosinophilic fasciitis (EF, or morphea/EF overlap, is rare and an indicator of poor prognosis and resistance to treatment. Here we present a case of generalized morphea/EF overlap linked to epoxy exposure. Our patient received multiple therapies—ultraviolet A1 phototherapy, prednisone, methotrexate, azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil, cyclophosphamide, cyclosporine, and rituximab—none of which led to a significant response. The refractory nature of this disease warrants vigilance in its association with epoxy exposure.

  13. Walkable self-overlapping virtual reality maze and map visualization demo

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Serubugo, Sule; Skantarova, Denisa; Evers, Nicolaj

    2017-01-01

    This paper describes our demonstration of a walkable self-overlapping maze and its corresponding map to facilitate asymmetric collaboration for room-scale virtual reality setups in public places.......This paper describes our demonstration of a walkable self-overlapping maze and its corresponding map to facilitate asymmetric collaboration for room-scale virtual reality setups in public places....

  14. [The automatic iris map overlap technology in computer-aided iridiagnosis].

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Jia-feng; Ye, Hu-nian; Ye, Miao-yuan

    2002-11-01

    In the paper, iridology and computer-aided iridiagnosis technologies are briefly introduced and the extraction method of the collarette contour is then investigated. The iris map can be overlapped on the original iris image based on collarette contour extraction. The research on collarette contour extraction and iris map overlap is of great importance to computer-aided iridiagnosis technologies.

  15. Signaling pathways in a Citrus EST database

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angela Mehta

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Citrus spp. are economically important crops, which in Brazil are grown mainly in the State of São Paulo. Citrus cultures are attacked by several pathogens, causing severe yield losses. In order to better understand this culture, the Millenium Project (IAC Cordeirópolis was launched in order to sequence Citrus ESTs (expressed sequence tags from different tissues, including leaf, bark, fruit, root and flower. Plants were submitted to biotic and abiotic stresses and investigated under different development stages (adult vs. juvenile. Several cDNA libraries were constructed and the sequences obtained formed the Citrus ESTs database with almost 200,000 sequences. Searches were performed in the Citrus database to investigate the presence of different signaling pathway components. Several of the genes involved in the signaling of sugar, calcium, cytokinin, plant hormones, inositol phosphate, MAPKinase and COP9 were found in the citrus genome and are discussed in this paper. The results obtained may indicate that similar mechanisms described in other plants, such as Arabidopsis, occur in citrus. Further experimental studies must be conducted in order to understand the different signaling pathways present.

  16. An empirical analysis of overlap publication in Chinese language and English research manuscripts.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joseph D Tucker

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: There are a number of sound justifications for publishing nearly identical information in Chinese and English medical journals, assuming several conditions are met. Although overlap publication is perceived as undesirable and ethically questionable in Europe and North America, it may serve an important function in some regions where English is not the native tongue. There is no empirical data on the nature and degree of overlap publication in English and Chinese language journals. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A random sample of 100 English manuscripts from Chinese institutions was selected from PubMed. Key words and institutions were searched in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, a comprehensive Chinese language research database. Unacknowledged overlap was a priori defined according to International Committee of Medical Journal Editor (ICMJE guidelines following examination by two individuals. 19% (95% CI 11-27 of English manuscripts from Chinese institutions were found to have substantial overlap with Chinese published work based on full text examination. None of the manuscripts met all of the criteria established by the ICMJE for an acknowledged overlap publication. Individual-level, journal-level, and institutional factors seem to influence overlap publication. Manuscripts associated with an institution outside of China and with more than one institution were significantly less likely to have substantial overlap (p<0.05. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Overlap publication was common in this context, but instances of standard ICMJE notations to acknowledge this practice were rare. This research did not cite the identified overlap manuscripts with the hope that these empirical data will inform journal policy changes and structural initiatives to promote clearer policies and manuscripts.

  17. Continuum-limit scaling of overlap fermions as valence quarks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cichy, Krzysztof; Herdoiza, Gregorio; Jansen, Karl

    2009-10-01

    We present the results of a mixed action approach, employing dynamical twisted mass fermions in the sea sector and overlap valence fermions, with the aim of testing the continuum limit scaling behaviour of physical quantities, taking the pion decay constant as an example. To render the computations practical, we impose for this purpose a fixed finite volume with lattice size L∼1.3 fm. We also briefly review the techniques we have used to deal with overlap fermions. (orig.)

  18. Solving radiative transfer with line overlaps using Gauss-Seidel algorithms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniel, F.; Cernicharo, J.

    2008-09-01

    Context: The improvement in observational facilities requires refining the modelling of the geometrical structures of astrophysical objects. Nevertheless, for complex problems such as line overlap in molecules showing hyperfine structure, a detailed analysis still requires a large amount of computing time and thus, misinterpretation cannot be dismissed due to an undersampling of the whole space of parameters. Aims: We extend the discussion of the implementation of the Gauss-Seidel algorithm in spherical geometry and include the case of hyperfine line overlap. Methods: We first review the basics of the short characteristics method that is used to solve the radiative transfer equations. Details are given on the determination of the Lambda operator in spherical geometry. The Gauss-Seidel algorithm is then described and, by analogy to the plan-parallel case, we see how to introduce it in spherical geometry. Doing so requires some approximations in order to keep the algorithm competitive. Finally, line overlap effects are included. Results: The convergence speed of the algorithm is compared to the usual Jacobi iterative schemes. The gain in the number of iterations is typically factors of 2 and 4 for the two implementations made of the Gauss-Seidel algorithm. This is obtained despite the introduction of approximations in the algorithm. A comparison of results obtained with and without line overlaps for N2H^+, HCN, and HNC shows that the J=3-2 line intensities are significantly underestimated in models where line overlap is neglected.

  19. Measuring the extent of overlaps in protected area designations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deguignet, Marine; Arnell, Andy; Juffe-Bignoli, Diego; Shi, Yichuan; Bingham, Heather; MacSharry, Brian; Kingston, Naomi

    2017-01-01

    Over the past decades, a number of national policies and international conventions have been implemented to promote the expansion of the world's protected area network, leading to a diversification of protected area strategies, types and designations. As a result, many areas are protected by more than one convention, legal instrument, or other effective means which may result in a lack of clarity around the governance and management regimes of particular locations. We assess the degree to which different designations overlap at global, regional and national levels to understand the extent of this phenomenon at different scales. We then compare the distribution and coverage of these multi-designated areas in the terrestrial and marine realms at the global level and among different regions, and we present the percentage of each county's protected area extent that is under more than one designation. Our findings show that almost a quarter of the world's protected area network is protected through more than one designation. In fact, we have documented up to eight overlapping designations. These overlaps in protected area designations occur in every region of the world, both in the terrestrial and marine realms, but are more common in the terrestrial realm and in some regions, notably Europe. In the terrestrial realm, the most common overlap is between one national and one international designation. In the marine realm, the most common overlap is between any two national designations. Multi-designations are therefore a widespread phenomenon but its implications are not well understood. This analysis identifies, for the first time, multi-designated areas across all designation types. This is a key step to understand how these areas are managed and governed to then move towards integrated and collaborative approaches that consider the different management and conservation objectives of each designation.

  20. Tyrosine kinase chromosomal translocations mediate distinct and overlapping gene regulation events

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Hani; Gillis, Lisa C; Jarvis, Jordan D; Yang, Stuart; Huang, Kai; Der, Sandy; Barber, Dwayne L

    2011-01-01

    Leukemia is a heterogeneous disease commonly associated with recurrent chromosomal translocations that involve tyrosine kinases including BCR-ABL, TEL-PDGFRB and TEL-JAK2. Most studies on the activated tyrosine kinases have focused on proximal signaling events, but little is known about gene transcription regulated by these fusions. Oligonucleotide microarray was performed to compare mRNA changes attributable to BCR-ABL, TEL-PDGFRB and TEL-JAK2 after 1 week of activation of each fusion in Ba/F3 cell lines. Imatinib was used to control the activation of BCR-ABL and TEL-PDGFRB, and TEL-JAK2-mediated gene expression was examined 1 week after Ba/F3-TEL-JAK2 cells were switched to factor-independent conditions. Microarray analysis revealed between 800 to 2000 genes induced or suppressed by two-fold or greater by each tyrosine kinase, with a subset of these genes commonly induced or suppressed among the three fusions. Validation by Quantitative PCR confirmed that eight genes (Dok2, Mrvi1, Isg20, Id1, gp49b, Cxcl10, Scinderin, and collagen Vα1(Col5a1)) displayed an overlapping regulation among the three tested fusion proteins. Stat1 and Gbp1 were induced uniquely by TEL-PDGFRB. Our results suggest that BCR-ABL, TEL-PDGFRB and TEL-JAK2 regulate distinct and overlapping gene transcription profiles. Many of the genes identified are known to be involved in processes associated with leukemogenesis, including cell migration, proliferation and differentiation. This study offers the basis for further work that could lead to an understanding of the specificity of diseases caused by these three chromosomal translocations

  1. Whole-Genome Sequencing Coupled to Imputation Discovers Genetic Signals for Anthropometric Traits

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    I. Tachmazidou (Ioanna); Süveges, D. (Dániel); J. Min (Josine); G.R.S. Ritchie (Graham R.S.); Steinberg, J. (Julia); K. Walter (Klaudia); V. Iotchkova (Valentina); J.A. Schwartzentruber (Jeremy); J. Huang (Jian); Y. Memari (Yasin); McCarthy, S. (Shane); Crawford, A.A. (Andrew A.); C. Bombieri (Cristina); M. Cocca (Massimiliano); A.-E. Farmaki (Aliki-Eleni); T.R. Gaunt (Tom); P. Jousilahti (Pekka); M.N. Kooijman (Marjolein ); Lehne, B. (Benjamin); G. Malerba (Giovanni); S. Männistö (Satu); A. Matchan (Angela); M.C. Medina-Gomez (Carolina); S. Metrustry (Sarah); A. Nag (Abhishek); I. Ntalla (Ioanna); L. Paternoster (Lavinia); N.W. Rayner (Nigel William); C. Sala (Cinzia); W.R. Scott (William R.); H.A. Shihab (Hashem A.); L. Southam (Lorraine); B. St Pourcain (Beate); M. Traglia (Michela); K. Trajanoska (Katerina); Zaza, G. (Gialuigi); W. Zhang (Weihua); M.S. Artigas; Bansal, N. (Narinder); M. Benn (Marianne); Chen, Z. (Zhongsheng); P. Danecek (Petr); Lin, W.-Y. (Wei-Yu); A. Locke (Adam); J. Luan (Jian'An); A.K. Manning (Alisa); Mulas, A. (Antonella); C. Sidore (Carlo); A. Tybjaerg-Hansen; A. Varbo (Anette); M. Zoledziewska (Magdalena); C. Finan (Chris); Hatzikotoulas, K. (Konstantinos); A.E. Hendricks (Audrey E.); J.P. Kemp (John); A. Moayyeri (Alireza); Panoutsopoulou, K. (Kalliope); Szpak, M. (Michal); S.G. Wilson (Scott); M. Boehnke (Michael); F. Cucca (Francesco); Di Angelantonio, E. (Emanuele); C. Langenberg (Claudia); C.M. Lindgren (Cecilia M.); McCarthy, M.I. (Mark I.); A.P. Morris (Andrew); B.G. Nordestgaard (Børge); R.A. Scott (Robert); M.D. Tobin (Martin); N.J. Wareham (Nick); P.R. Burton (Paul); J.C. Chambers (John); Smith, G.D. (George Davey); G.V. Dedoussis (George); J.F. Felix (Janine); O.H. Franco (Oscar); Gambaro, G. (Giovanni); P. Gasparini (Paolo); C.J. Hammond (Christopher J.); A. Hofman (Albert); V.W.V. Jaddoe (Vincent); M.E. Kleber (Marcus); J.S. Kooner (Jaspal S.); M. Perola (Markus); C.L. Relton (Caroline); S.M. Ring (Susan); F. Rivadeneira Ramirez (Fernando); V. Salomaa (Veikko); T.D. Spector (Timothy); O. Stegle (Oliver); D. Toniolo (Daniela); A.G. Uitterlinden (André); I.E. Barroso (Inês); C.M.T. Greenwood (Celia); Perry, J.R.B. (John R.B.); Walker, B.R. (Brian R.); A.S. Butterworth (Adam); Y. Xue (Yali); R. Durbin (Richard); K.S. Small (Kerrin); N. Soranzo (Nicole); N.J. Timpson (Nicholas); E. Zeggini (Eleftheria)

    2016-01-01

    textabstractDeep sequence-based imputation can enhance the discovery power of genome-wide association studies by assessing previously unexplored variation across the common- and low-frequency spectra. We applied a hybrid whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and deep imputation approach to examine the

  2. Whole-Genome Sequencing Coupled to Imputation Discovers Genetic Signals for Anthropometric Traits

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tachmazidou, Ioanna; Süveges, Dániel; Min, Josine L

    2017-01-01

    Deep sequence-based imputation can enhance the discovery power of genome-wide association studies by assessing previously unexplored variation across the common- and low-frequency spectra. We applied a hybrid whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and deep imputation approach to examine the broader alleli...

  3. Electricity sequence control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shin, Heung Ryeol

    2010-03-01

    The contents of the book are introduction of control system, like classification and control signal, introduction of electricity power switch, such as push-button and detection switch sensor for induction type and capacitance type machinery for control, solenoid valve, expression of sequence and type of electricity circuit about using diagram, time chart, marking and term, logic circuit like Yes, No, and, or and equivalence logic, basic electricity circuit, electricity sequence control, added condition, special program control about choice and jump of program, motor control, extra circuit on repeat circuit, pause circuit in a conveyer, safety regulations and rule about classification of electricity disaster and protective device for insulation.

  4. An accurate and rapid continuous wavelet dynamic time warping algorithm for unbalanced global mapping in nanopore sequencing

    KAUST Repository

    Han, Renmin; Li, Yu; Wang, Sheng; Gao, Xin

    2017-01-01

    Long-reads, point-of-care, and PCR-free are the promises brought by nanopore sequencing. Among various steps in nanopore data analysis, the global mapping between the raw electrical current signal sequence and the expected signal sequence from

  5. RNA Sequencing Identifies Upregulated Kyphoscoliosis Peptidase and Phosphatidic Acid Signaling Pathways in Muscle Hypertrophy Generated by Transgenic Expression of Myostatin Propeptide

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuanxin Miao

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Myostatin (MSTN, a member of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily, plays a crucial negative role in muscle growth. MSTN mutations or inhibitions can dramatically increase muscle mass in most mammal species. Previously, we generated a transgenic mouse model of muscle hypertrophy via the transgenic expression of the MSTN N-terminal propeptide cDNA under the control of the skeletal muscle-specific MLC1 promoter. Here, we compare the mRNA profiles between transgenic mice and wild-type littermate controls with a high-throughput RNA sequencing method. The results show that 132 genes were significantly differentially expressed between transgenic mice and wild-type control mice; 97 of these genes were up-regulated, and 35 genes were down-regulated in the skeletal muscle. Several genes that had not been reported to be involved in muscle hypertrophy were identified, including up-regulated myosin binding protein H (mybph, and zinc metallopeptidase STE24 (Zmpste24. In addition, kyphoscoliosis peptidase (Ky, which plays a vital role in muscle growth, was also up-regulated in the transgenic mice. Interestingly, a pathway analysis based on grouping the differentially expressed genes uncovered that cardiomyopathy-related pathways and phosphatidic acid (PA pathways (Dgki, Dgkz, Plcd4 were up-regulated. Increased PA signaling may increase mTOR signaling, resulting in skeletal muscle growth. The findings of the RNA sequencing analysis help to understand the molecular mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy caused by MSTN inhibition.

  6. RNA sequencing identifies upregulated kyphoscoliosis peptidase and phosphatidic acid signaling pathways in muscle hypertrophy generated by transgenic expression of myostatin propeptide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miao, Yuanxin; Yang, Jinzeng; Xu, Zhong; Jing, Lu; Zhao, Shuhong; Li, Xinyun

    2015-04-09

    Myostatin (MSTN), a member of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily, plays a crucial negative role in muscle growth. MSTN mutations or inhibitions can dramatically increase muscle mass in most mammal species. Previously, we generated a transgenic mouse model of muscle hypertrophy via the transgenic expression of the MSTN N-terminal propeptide cDNA under the control of the skeletal muscle-specific MLC1 promoter. Here, we compare the mRNA profiles between transgenic mice and wild-type littermate controls with a high-throughput RNA sequencing method. The results show that 132 genes were significantly differentially expressed between transgenic mice and wild-type control mice; 97 of these genes were up-regulated, and 35 genes were down-regulated in the skeletal muscle. Several genes that had not been reported to be involved in muscle hypertrophy were identified, including up-regulated myosin binding protein H (mybph), and zinc metallopeptidase STE24 (Zmpste24). In addition, kyphoscoliosis peptidase (Ky), which plays a vital role in muscle growth, was also up-regulated in the transgenic mice. Interestingly, a pathway analysis based on grouping the differentially expressed genes uncovered that cardiomyopathy-related pathways and phosphatidic acid (PA) pathways (Dgki, Dgkz, Plcd4) were up-regulated. Increased PA signaling may increase mTOR signaling, resulting in skeletal muscle growth. The findings of the RNA sequencing analysis help to understand the molecular mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy caused by MSTN inhibition.

  7. Phylogeography of the reef fish Cephalopholis argus (Epinephelidae indicates Pleistocene isolation across the indo-pacific barrier with contemporary overlap in the coral triangle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gomez Juan A

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Coral Triangle (CT, bounded by the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula, and New Guinea, is the epicenter of marine biodiversity. Hypotheses that explain the source of this rich biodiversity include 1 the center of origin, 2 the center of accumulation, and 3 the region of overlap. Here we contribute to the debate with a phylogeographic survey of a widely distributed reef fish, the Peacock Grouper (Cephalopholis argus; Epinephelidae at 21 locations (N = 550 using DNA sequence data from mtDNA cytochrome b and two nuclear introns (gonadotropin-releasing hormone and S7 ribosomal protein. Results Population structure was significant (ΦST = 0.297, P FST = 0.078, P FST = 0.099, P P = 0.001 and the combined nuclear loci (r = 0.715, P d = 0.008, corresponding to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with a low level of introgression observed outside a mixing zone at the Pacific-Indian boundary. Conclusions We conclude that the Indo-Pacific Barrier, operating during low sea level associated with glaciation, defines the primary phylogeographic pattern in this species. These data support a scenario of isolation on the scale of 105 year glacial cycles, followed by population expansion toward the CT, and overlap of divergent lineages at the Pacific-Indian boundary. This pattern of isolation, divergence, and subsequent overlap likely contributes to species richness at the adjacent CT and is consistent with the region of overlap hypothesis.

  8. Sequencing and Characterization of Novel PII Signaling Protein Gene in Microalga Haematococcus pluvialis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruijuan Ma

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available The PII signaling protein is a key protein for controlling nitrogen assimilatory reactions in most organisms, but little information is reported on PII proteins of green microalga Haematococcus pluvialis. Since H. pluvialis cells can produce a large amount of astaxanthin upon nitrogen starvation, its PII protein may represent an important factor on elevated production of Haematococcus astaxanthin. This study identified and isolated the coding gene (HpGLB1 from this microalga. The full-length of HpGLB1 was 1222 bp, including 621 bp coding sequence (CDS, 103 bp 5′ untranslated region (5′ UTR, and 498 bp 3′ untranslated region (3′ UTR. The CDS could encode a protein with 206 amino acids (HpPII. Its calculated molecular weight (Mw was 22.4 kDa and the theoretical isoelectric point was 9.53. When H. pluvialis cells were exposed to nitrogen starvation, the HpGLB1 expression was increased 2.46 times in 48 h, concomitant with the raise of astaxanthin content. This study also used phylogenetic analysis to prove that HpPII was homogeneous to the PII proteins of other green microalgae. The results formed a fundamental basis for the future study on HpPII, for its potential physiological function in Haematococcus astaxanthin biosysthesis.

  9. A Heuristic Parameterization for the Integrated Vertical Overlap of Cumulus and Stratus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Sungsu

    2017-10-01

    The author developed a heuristic parameterization to handle the contrasting vertical overlap structures of cumulus and stratus in an integrated way. The parameterization assumes that cumulus is maximum-randomly overlapped with adjacent cumulus; stratus is maximum-randomly overlapped with adjacent stratus; and radiation and precipitation areas at each model interface are grouped into four categories, that is, convective, stratiform, mixed, and clear areas. For simplicity, thermodynamic scalars within individual portions of cloud, radiation, and precipitation areas are assumed to be internally homogeneous. The parameterization was implemented into the Seoul National University Atmosphere Model version 0 (SAM0) in an offline mode and tested over the globe. The offline control simulation reasonably reproduces the online surface precipitation flux and longwave cloud radiative forcing (LWCF). Although the cumulus fraction is much smaller than the stratus fraction, cumulus dominantly contributes to precipitation production in the tropics. For radiation, however, stratus is dominant. Compared with the maximum overlap, the random overlap of stratus produces stronger LWCF and, surprisingly, more precipitation flux due to less evaporation of convective precipitation. Compared with the maximum overlap, the random overlap of cumulus simulates stronger LWCF and weaker precipitation flux. Compared with the control simulation with separate cumulus and stratus, the simulation with a single-merged cloud substantially enhances the LWCF in the tropical deep convection and midlatitude storm track regions. The process-splitting treatment of convective and stratiform precipitation with an independent precipitation approximation (IPA) simulates weaker surface precipitation flux than the control simulation in the tropical region.

  10. Overlap between functional abdominal pain disorders and organic diseases in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Langshaw, A H; Rosen, J M; Pensabene, L; Borrelli, O; Salvatore, S; Thapar, N; Concolino, D; Saps, M

    2018-04-02

    Functional abdominal pain disorders are highly prevalent in children. These disorders can be present in isolation or combined with organic diseases, such as celiac disease and inflammatory bowel diseases. Intestinal inflammation (infectious and non-infectious) predisposes children to the development of visceral hypersensitivity that can manifest as functional abdominal pain disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome. The new onset of irritable bowel syndrome symptoms in a patient with an underlying organic disease, such as inflammatory bowel disease, is clinically challenging, given that the same symptomatology may represent a flare-up of the inflammatory bowel disease or an overlapping functional abdominal pain disorder. Similarly, irritable bowel syndrome symptoms in a child previously diagnosed with celiac disease may occur due to poorly controlled celiac disease or the overlap with a functional abdominal pain disorder. There is little research on the overlap of functional abdominal disorders with organic diseases in children. Studies suggest that the overlap between functional abdominal pain disorders and inflammatory bowel disease is more common in adults than in children. The causes for these differences in prevalence are unknown. Only a handful of studies have been published on the overlap between celiac disease and functional abdominal pain disorders in children. The present article provides a review of the literature on the overlap between celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and functional abdominal pain disorders in children and establish comparisons with studies conducted on adults. Copyright © 2018 Asociación Mexicana de Gastroenterología. Publicado por Masson Doyma México S.A. All rights reserved.

  11. Investigation of generalized overlap amplitudes via (e,2e) spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Williams, G.R.J.; McCarthy, I.E.; Weigold, E.

    1976-11-01

    The (e,2e) reaction has previously been shown to be an extremely direct and accurate measure of the overlap of the wave function of a target molecule with that of different resolved electronic states of the positive ion resulting from electron knockout. The present paper discusses the reaction in relation to the direct computation of the structure overlaps for different ion states as the generalized overlap amplitudes appearing in the spectral resolution of the one-particle Green's function. The case of water is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the Green's function technique for calculating (e,2e) cross sections of the principal ion states and the use of the reaction as a very sensitive measure of the long-range charge density. (Author)

  12. Communication: Unambiguous comparison of many-electron wavefunctions through their overlaps

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Plasser, Felix, E-mail: felix.plasser@univie.ac.at; González, Leticia, E-mail: leticia.gonzalez@univie.ac.at [Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währingerstr. 17, 1090 Vienna (Austria)

    2016-07-14

    A simple and powerful method for comparing many-electron wavefunctions constructed at different levels of theory is presented. By using wavefunction overlaps, it is possible to analyze the effects of varying wavefunction models, molecular orbitals, and one-electron basis sets. The computation of wavefunction overlaps eliminates the inherent ambiguity connected to more rudimentary wavefunction analysis protocols, such as visualization of orbitals or comparing selected physical observables. Instead, wavefunction overlaps allow processing the many-electron wavefunctions in their full inherent complexity. The presented method is particularly effective for excited state calculations as it allows for automatic monitoring of changes in the ordering of the excited states. A numerical demonstration based on multireference computations of two test systems, the selenoacrolein molecule and an iridium complex, is presented.

  13. A new approach to study of seabird-fishery overlap: Connecting chick feeding with parental foraging and overlap with fishing vessels

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junichi Sugishita

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Incidental fisheries bycatch is recognised as a major threat to albatross populations worldwide. However, fishery discards and offal produced in large quantities might benefit some scavenging seabirds. Here, we demonstrate an integrated approach to better understand the ecological ramifications of fine-scale overlap between seabirds and fisheries. As a case study, we examined whether foraging in association with a fishing vessel is advantageous for chick provisioning in terms of quantity of food delivered to chicks, in northern royal albatross (Diomedea sanfordi at Taiaroa Head, New Zealand. Fine-scale overlap between albatrosses and vessels was quantified by integrating GPS tracking and Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS. Meal size delivered to chicks was measured using custom-designed nest balances, and monitoring of attendance of adults fitted with radio transmitters was used in conjunction with time-lapse photography at the nest allowed us to allocate each feeding event to a specific parent. The combination of these techniques enabled comparison of meal sizes delivered to chicks with parental foraging trip durations with or without fishing vessels association. A total of 45 foraging trips and associated chick feeding events were monitored during the chick-rearing period in 2012. Differences in the meal size and foraging trip duration relative to foraging overlap with fisheries were examined using a linear mixed-effect model, adjusted for chick age. Our results, based on three birds, suggest that foraging in association with vessels does not confer an advantage for chick feeding for this population that demonstrated low rates of overlap while foraging. The integrated research design presented can be applied to other seabird species that are susceptible to bycatch, and offers a valuable approach to evaluate habitat quality by linking habitat use and foraging success in terms of total amount of food delivered to offspring.

  14. Modular Organization of the NusA- and NusG-Stimulated RNA Polymerase Pause Signal That Participates in the Bacillus subtilis trp Operon Attenuation Mechanism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mondal, Smarajit; Yakhnin, Alexander V; Babitzke, Paul

    2017-07-15

    The Bacillus subtilis trpEDCFBA operon is regulated by a transcription attenuation mechanism in which tryptophan-activated TRAP binds to the nascent transcript and blocks the formation of an antiterminator structure such that the formation of an overlapping intrinsic terminator causes termination in the 5' untranslated region (5' UTR). In the absence of bound TRAP, the antiterminator forms and transcription continues into the trp genes. RNA polymerase pauses at positions U107 and U144 in the 5' UTR. The general transcription elongation factors NusA and NusG stimulate pausing at both positions. NusG-stimulated pausing at U144 requires sequence-specific contacts with a T tract in the nontemplate DNA (ntDNA) strand within the paused transcription bubble. Pausing at U144 participates in a trpE translation repression mechanism. Since U107 just precedes the critical overlap between the antiterminator and terminator structures, pausing at this position is thought to participate in attenuation. Here we carried out in vitro pausing and termination experiments to identify components of the U107 pause signal and to determine whether pausing affects the termination efficiency in the 5' UTR. We determined that the U107 and U144 pause signals are organized in a modular fashion containing distinct RNA hairpin, U-tract, and T-tract components. NusA-stimulated pausing was affected by hairpin strength and the U-tract sequence, whereas NusG-stimulated pausing was affected by hairpin strength and the T-tract sequence. We also determined that pausing at U107 results in increased TRAP-dependent termination in the 5' UTR, implying that NusA- and NusG-stimulated pausing participates in the trp operon attenuation mechanism by providing additional time for TRAP binding. IMPORTANCE The expression of several bacterial operons is controlled by regulated termination in the 5' untranslated region (5' UTR). Transcription attenuation is defined as situations in which the binding of a regulatory

  15. Limited overlap between phylogenetic HIV and hepatitis C virus clusters illustrates the dynamic sexual network structure of Dutch HIV-infected MSM.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanhommerig, Joost W; Bezemer, Daniela; Molenkamp, Richard; Van Sighem, Ard I; Smit, Colette; Arends, Joop E; Lauw, Fanny N; Brinkman, Kees; Rijnders, Bart J; Newsum, Astrid M; Bruisten, Sylvia M; Prins, Maria; Van Der Meer, Jan T; Van De Laar, Thijs J; Schinkel, Janke

    2017-09-24

    MSM are at increased risk for infection with HIV-1 and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Is HIV/HCV coinfection confined to specific HIV transmission networks? A HIV phylogenetic tree was constructed for 5038 HIV-1 subtype B polymerase (pol) sequences obtained from MSM in the AIDS therapy evaluation in the Netherlands cohort. We investigated the existence of HIV clusters with increased HCV prevalence, the HIV phylogenetic density (i.e. the number of potential HIV transmission partners) of HIV/HCV-coinfected MSM compared with HIV-infected MSM without HCV, and the overlap in HIV and HCV phylogenies using HCV nonstructural protein 5B sequences from 183 HIV-infected MSM with acute HCV infection. Five hundred and sixty-three of 5038 (11.2%) HIV-infected MSM tested HCV positive. Phylogenetic analysis revealed 93 large HIV clusters (≥10 MSM), 370 small HIV clusters (2-9 MSM), and 867 singletons with a median HCV prevalence of 11.5, 11.6, and 9.3%, respectively. We identified six large HIV clusters with elevated HCV prevalence (range 23.5-46.2%). Median HIV phylogenetic densities for MSM with HCV (3, interquartile range 1-7) and without HCV (3, interquartile range 1-8) were similar. HCV phylogeny showed 12 MSM-specific HCV clusters (clustersize: 2-39 HCV sequences); 12.7% of HCV infections were part of the same HIV and HCV cluster. We observed few HIV clusters with elevated HCV prevalence, no increase in the HIV phylogenetic density of HIV/HCV-coinfected MSM compared to HIV-infected MSM without HCV, and limited overlap between HIV and HCV phylogenies among HIV/HCV-coinfected MSM. Our data do not support the existence of MSM-specific sexual networks that fuel both the HIV and HCV epidemic.

  16. An Evolutionary Machine Learning Framework for Big Data Sequence Mining

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamath, Uday Krishna

    2014-01-01

    Sequence classification is an important problem in many real-world applications. Unlike other machine learning data, there are no "explicit" features or signals in sequence data that can help traditional machine learning algorithms learn and predict from the data. Sequence data exhibits inter-relationships in the elements that are…

  17. A 5' UTR-Overlapping LncRNA Activates the Male-Determining Gene doublesex1 in the Crustacean Daphnia magna.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kato, Yasuhiko; Perez, Christelle Alexa G; Mohamad Ishak, Nur Syafiqah; Nong, Quang D; Sudo, Yuumi; Matsuura, Tomoaki; Wada, Tadashi; Watanabe, Hajime

    2018-06-04

    Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are pervasively transcribed in the eukaryotic genome [1] and are important for the control of master regulatory genes that are involved in cell differentiation and development [2, 3]. Here, we show that a 5' UTR-overlapping lncRNA regulates the male-specific expression of the DM-domain gene doublesex1 (dsx1) in the crustacean Daphnia magna, which produces males in response to environmental stimuli. This lncRNA, named doublesex1 alpha promoter-associated long RNA (DAPALR), is transcribed upstream the transcription start site (TSS) in a sense orientation and subjected to 5' end capping and 3' end processing at a stem-loop structure before the dsx1 coding exon. Similar to dsx1, its expression is only activated in males by the juvenile hormone (JH) and basic-leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor Vrille (Vri) and is maintained during embryogenesis. Knockdown of DAPALR in males silenced dsx1 and led to feminization, including egg production, whereas ectopic expression of DAPALR in dsx1-silenced females resulted in the de-repression of dsx1. We further demonstrate that the DAPALR transcript overlaps the dsx1 5'-UTR, and this overlapping region is required for dsx1 activation. Our results suggest that DAPALR can transactivate and possibly maintain dsx1 expression. This might be important for converting transient environmental signals into stable male development, controlled by the continuous expression of dsx1. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Architecture and dynamics of overlapped RNA regulatory networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lapointe, Christopher P; Preston, Melanie A; Wilinski, Daniel; Saunders, Harriet A J; Campbell, Zachary T; Wickens, Marvin

    2017-11-01

    A single protein can bind and regulate many mRNAs. Multiple proteins with similar specificities often bind and control overlapping sets of mRNAs. Yet little is known about the architecture or dynamics of overlapped networks. We focused on three proteins with similar structures and related RNA-binding specificities-Puf3p, Puf4p, and Puf5p of S. cerevisiae Using RNA Tagging, we identified a "super-network" comprised of four subnetworks: Puf3p, Puf4p, and Puf5p subnetworks, and one controlled by both Puf4p and Puf5p. The architecture of individual subnetworks, and thus the super-network, is determined by competition among particular PUF proteins to bind mRNAs, their affinities for binding elements, and the abundances of the proteins. The super-network responds dramatically: The remaining network can either expand or contract. These strikingly opposite outcomes are determined by an interplay between the relative abundance of the RNAs and proteins, and their affinities for one another. The diverse interplay between overlapping RNA-protein networks provides versatile opportunities for regulation and evolution. © 2017 Lapointe et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the RNA Society.

  19. Overlapping community detection in networks with positive and negative links

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, Y; Wang, X L; Yuan, B; Tang, B Z

    2014-01-01

    Complex networks considering both positive and negative links have gained considerable attention during the past several years. Community detection is one of the main challenges for complex network analysis. Most of the existing algorithms for community detection in a signed network aim at providing a hard-partition of the network where any node should belong to a community or not. However, they cannot detect overlapping communities where a node is allowed to belong to multiple communities. The overlapping communities widely exist in many real-world networks. In this paper, we propose a signed probabilistic mixture (SPM) model for overlapping community detection in signed networks. Compared with the existing models, the advantages of our methodology are (i) providing soft-partition solutions for signed networks; (ii) providing soft memberships of nodes. Experiments on a number of signed networks show that our SPM model: (i) can identify assortative structures or disassortative structures as the same as other state-of-the-art models; (ii) can detect overlapping communities; (iii) outperforms other state-of-the-art models at shedding light on the community detection in synthetic signed networks. (paper)

  20. Overlapping ETS and CRE Motifs (G/CCGGAAGTGACGTCA) Preferentially Bound by GABPα and CREB Proteins

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chatterjee, Raghunath; Zhao, Jianfei; He, Ximiao; Shlyakhtenko, Andrey; Mann, Ishminder; Waterfall, Joshua J.; Meltzer, Paul; Sathyanarayana, B. K.; FitzGerald, Peter C.; Vinson, Charles

    2012-01-01

    Previously, we identified 8-bps long DNA sequences (8-mers) that localize in human proximal promoters and grouped them into known transcription factor binding sites (TFBS). We now examine split 8-mers consisting of two 4-mers separated by 1-bp to 30-bps (X4-N1-30-X4) to identify pairs of TFBS that localize in proximal promoters at a precise distance. These include two overlapping TFBS: the ETS⇔ETS motif (C/GCCGGAAGCGGAA) and the ETS⇔CRE motif (C/GCGGAAGTGACGTCAC). The nucleotides in bold are part of both TFBS. Molecular modeling shows that the ETS⇔CRE motif can be bound simultaneously by both the ETS and the B-ZIP domains without protein-protein clashes. The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) shows that the ETS protein GABPα and the B-ZIP protein CREB preferentially bind to the ETS⇔CRE motif only when the two TFBS overlap precisely. In contrast, the ETS domain of ETV5 and CREB interfere with each other for binding the ETS⇔CRE. The 11-mer (CGGAAGTGACG), the conserved part of the ETS⇔CRE motif, occurs 226 times in the human genome and 83% are in known regulatory regions. In vivo GABPα and CREB ChIP-seq peaks identified the ETS⇔CRE as the most enriched motif occurring in promoters of genes involved in mRNA processing, cellular catabolic processes, and stress response, suggesting that a specific class of genes is regulated by this composite motif. PMID:23050235

  1. Clinical features of SMARCA2 duplication overlap with Coffin-Siris syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyake, Noriko; Abdel-Salam, Ghada; Yamagata, Takanori; Eid, Maha M; Osaka, Hitoshi; Okamoto, Nobuhiko; Mohamed, Amal M; Ikeda, Takahiro; Afifi, Hanan H; Piard, Juliette; van Maldergem, Lionel; Mizuguchi, Takeshi; Miyatake, Satoko; Tsurusaki, Yoshinori; Matsumoto, Naomichi

    2016-10-01

    Coffin-Siris syndrome is a rare congenital malformation and intellectual disability syndrome. Mutations in at least seven genes have been identified. Here, we performed copy number analysis in 37 patients with features of CSS in whom no causative mutations were identified by exome sequencing. We identified a patient with a 9p24.3-p22.2 duplication and another patient with the chromosome der(6)t(6;9)(p25;p21)mat. Both patients share a duplicated 15.8-Mb region containing 46 protein coding genes, including SMARCA2. Dominant negative effects of SMARCA2 mutations may contribute to Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome. We conclude that their features better resemble Coffin-Siris syndrome, rather than Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome and that these features likely arise from SMARCA2 over-dosage. Pure 9p duplications (not caused by unbalanced translocations) are rare. Copy number analysis in patients with features that overlap with Coffin-Siris syndrome is recommended to further determine their genetic aspects. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  2. Analysis of transcript and protein overlap in a human osteosarcoma cell line

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emanuelsson Olof

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background An interesting field of research in genomics and proteomics is to compare the overlap between the transcriptome and the proteome. Recently, the tools to analyse gene and protein expression on a whole-genome scale have been improved, including the availability of the new generation sequencing instruments and high-throughput antibody-based methods to analyze the presence and localization of proteins. In this study, we used massive transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq to investigate the transcriptome of a human osteosarcoma cell line and compared the expression levels with in situ protein data obtained in-situ from antibody-based immunohistochemistry (IHC and immunofluorescence microscopy (IF. Results A large-scale analysis based on 2749 genes was performed, corresponding to approximately 13% of the protein coding genes in the human genome. We found the presence of both RNA and proteins to a large fraction of the analyzed genes with 60% of the analyzed human genes detected by all three methods. Only 34 genes (1.2% were not detected on the transcriptional or protein level with any method. Our data suggest that the majority of the human genes are expressed at detectable transcript or protein levels in this cell line. Since the reliability of antibodies depends on possible cross-reactivity, we compared the RNA and protein data using antibodies with different reliability scores based on various criteria, including Western blot analysis. Gene products detected in all three platforms generally have good antibody validation scores, while those detected only by antibodies, but not by RNA sequencing, generally consist of more low-scoring antibodies. Conclusion This suggests that some antibodies are staining the cells in an unspecific manner, and that assessment of transcript presence by RNA-seq can provide guidance for validation of the corresponding antibodies.

  3. Efficient and Flexible Computation of Many-Electron Wave Function Overlaps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plasser, Felix; Ruckenbauer, Matthias; Mai, Sebastian; Oppel, Markus; Marquetand, Philipp; González, Leticia

    2016-03-08

    A new algorithm for the computation of the overlap between many-electron wave functions is described. This algorithm allows for the extensive use of recurring intermediates and thus provides high computational efficiency. Because of the general formalism employed, overlaps can be computed for varying wave function types, molecular orbitals, basis sets, and molecular geometries. This paves the way for efficiently computing nonadiabatic interaction terms for dynamics simulations. In addition, other application areas can be envisaged, such as the comparison of wave functions constructed at different levels of theory. Aside from explaining the algorithm and evaluating the performance, a detailed analysis of the numerical stability of wave function overlaps is carried out, and strategies for overcoming potential severe pitfalls due to displaced atoms and truncated wave functions are presented.

  4. Direct and indirect effects in the regulation of overlapping promoters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bendtsen, Kristian Moss; Erdossy, Janos; Csiszovski, Zsolt

    2011-01-01

    promoter database we found that ~14% of the identified 'forward' promoters overlap with a promoter oriented in the opposite direction. In this article we combine a mathematical model with experimental analysis of synthetic regulatory regions to investigate interference of overlapping promoters. We find...... that promoter interference depends on the characteristics of overlapping promoters. The model predicts that promoter strength and interference can be regulated separately, which provides unique opportunities for regulation. Our experimental data suggest that in principle any DNA binding protein can be used......Optimal response to environmental stimuli often requires activation of certain genes and repression of others. Dual function regulatory proteins play a key role in the differential regulation of gene expression. While repression can be achieved by any DNA binding protein through steric occlusion...

  5. Effective automated feature construction and selection for classification of biological sequences.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Uday Kamath

    Full Text Available Many open problems in bioinformatics involve elucidating underlying functional signals in biological sequences. DNA sequences, in particular, are characterized by rich architectures in which functional signals are increasingly found to combine local and distal interactions at the nucleotide level. Problems of interest include detection of regulatory regions, splice sites, exons, hypersensitive sites, and more. These problems naturally lend themselves to formulation as classification problems in machine learning. When classification is based on features extracted from the sequences under investigation, success is critically dependent on the chosen set of features.We present an algorithmic framework (EFFECT for automated detection of functional signals in biological sequences. We focus here on classification problems involving DNA sequences which state-of-the-art work in machine learning shows to be challenging and involve complex combinations of local and distal features. EFFECT uses a two-stage process to first construct a set of candidate sequence-based features and then select a most effective subset for the classification task at hand. Both stages make heavy use of evolutionary algorithms to efficiently guide the search towards informative features capable of discriminating between sequences that contain a particular functional signal and those that do not.To demonstrate its generality, EFFECT is applied to three separate problems of importance in DNA research: the recognition of hypersensitive sites, splice sites, and ALU sites. Comparisons with state-of-the-art algorithms show that the framework is both general and powerful. In addition, a detailed analysis of the constructed features shows that they contain valuable biological information about DNA architecture, allowing biologists and other researchers to directly inspect the features and potentially use the insights obtained to assist wet-laboratory studies on retainment or modification

  6. 9 CFR 121.6 - Exemptions for overlap select agents and toxins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    .... (a) Clinical or diagnostic laboratories and other entities that possess, use, or transfer an overlap... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Exemptions for overlap select agents and toxins. 121.6 Section 121.6 Animals and Animal Products ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE...

  7. Extracting attosecond delays from spectrally overlapping interferograms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jordan, Inga; Wörner, Hans Jakob

    2018-02-01

    Attosecond interferometry is becoming an increasingly popular technique for measuring the dynamics of photoionization in real time. Whereas early measurements focused on atomic systems with very simple photoelectron spectra, the technique is now being applied to more complex systems including isolated molecules and solids. The increase in complexity translates into an augmented spectral congestion, unavoidably resulting in spectral overlap in attosecond interferograms. Here, we discuss currently used methods for phase retrieval and introduce two new approaches for determining attosecond photoemission delays from spectrally overlapping photoelectron spectra. We show that the previously used technique, consisting in the spectral integration of the areas of interest, does in general not provide reliable results. Our methods resolve this problem, thereby opening the technique of attosecond interferometry to complex systems and fully exploiting its specific advantages in terms of spectral resolution compared to attosecond streaking.

  8. On the improvement of speaker diarization by detecting overlapped speech

    OpenAIRE

    Hernando Pericás, Francisco Javier; Hernando Pericás, Francisco Javier

    2010-01-01

    Simultaneous speech in meeting environment is responsible for a certain amount of errors caused by standard speaker diarization systems. We are presenting an overlap detection system for far-field data based on spectral and spatial features, where the spatial features obtained on different microphone pairs are fused by means of principal component analysis. Detected overlap segments are applied for speaker diarization in order to increase the purity of speaker clusters an...

  9. Overlapping Neural Correlates of Reading Emotionally Positive and Negative Adjectives

    OpenAIRE

    Demirakca, Traute; Herbert, Cornelia; Kissler, Johanna; Ruf, Matthias; Wokrina, Tim; Ende, Gabriele

    2009-01-01

    Comparison of positive and negative naturally read adjectives to neutral adjectives yielded an overlapping higher BOLD response in the occipital and the orbitofrontal cortex (gyrus rectus). Superior medial frontal gyrus and posterior cingulate gyrus showed higher BOLD response to negative adjectives and inferior frontal gyrus to positive adjectives. The overlap of activated regions and lack of pronounced distinct regions supports the assumption that the processing of negative and positive wor...

  10. The Influence of Sex and Season on Conspecific Spatial Overlap in a Large, Actively-Foraging Colubrid Snake.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Javan M Bauder

    Full Text Available Understanding the factors influencing the degree of spatial overlap among conspecifics is important for understanding multiple ecological processes. Compared to terrestrial carnivores, relatively little is known about the factors influencing conspecific spatial overlap in snakes, although across snake taxa there appears to be substantial variation in conspecific spatial overlap. In this study, we described conspecific spatial overlap of eastern indigo snakes (Drymarchon couperi in peninsular Florida and examined how conspecific spatial overlap varied by sex and season (breeding season vs. non-breeding season. We calculated multiple indices of spatial overlap using 6- and 3-month utilization distributions (UD of dyads of simultaneously adjacent telemetered snakes. We also measured conspecific UD density values at each telemetry fix and modeled the distribution of those values as a function of overlap type, sex, and season using generalized Pareto distributions. Home range overlap between males and females was significantly greater than overlap between individuals of the same sex and male home ranges often completely contained female home ranges. Male home ranges overlapped little during both seasons, whereas females had higher levels of overlap during the non-breeding season. The spatial patterns observed in our study are consistent with those seen in many mammalian carnivores, in which low male-male overlap and high inter-sexual overlap provides males with greater access to females. We encourage additional research on the influence of prey availability on conspecific spatial overlap in snakes as well as the behavioral mechanisms responsible for maintaining the low levels of overlap we observed.

  11. Overlap valence quarks on an twisted mass sea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cichy, K. [Adam Mickiewicz Univ., Poznan (Poland). Faculty of Physics; Drach, V.; Garcia-Ramos, E.; Herdoiza, G.; Jansen, K. [DESY, Zeuthen (Germany). John von Neumann-Institut fuer Computing NIC

    2010-12-15

    We present the results of an investigation of a mixed action approach of overlap valence and maximally twisted mass sea quarks. Employing a particular matching condition on the pion mass, we analyze the continuum limit scaling of the pion decay constant and the role of chiral zero modes of the overlap operator in this process. We employ gauge field configurations generated by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration with linear lattice size L ranging from 1.3 to 1.9 fm. The continuum limit is taken at a fixed value of L=1.3 fm, employing three values of the lattice spacing and two values of the pion mass constructed from sea quarks only. (orig.)

  12. Generation and reception of spread-spectrum signals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moser, R.

    1983-05-01

    The term 'spread-spectrum' implies a technique whereby digitized information is added to a pseudo-random number sequence and the resultant bit stream changes some parameter of the carrier frequency in discrete increments. The discrete modulation of the carrier frequency is usually realized either as a multiple level phase shift keyed or frequency shift keyed signal. The resultant PSK-modulated frequency spectrum is referred to as direct sequence spread-spectrum, whereas the FSK-modulated carrier frequency is referred to as a frequency hopped spread spectrum. These can be considered the major subsets of the more general term 'spread-spectrum'. In discussing signal reception, it is pointed out that active correlation methods are used for channel synchronization when the psuedo random sequences are long or when the processing gain is large, whereas the passive methods may be used for either short pseudo-random noise generation codes or to assist in attaining initial synchronization in long sequence spread-spectrum systems.

  13. Unveiling Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae Promoters: Sequence Definition and Genomic Distribution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weber, Shana de Souto; Sant'Anna, Fernando Hayashi; Schrank, Irene Silveira

    2012-01-01

    Several Mycoplasma species have had their genome completely sequenced, including four strains of the swine pathogen Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae. Nevertheless, little is known about the nucleotide sequences that control transcriptional initiation in these microorganisms. Therefore, with the objective of investigating the promoter sequences of M. hyopneumoniae, 23 transcriptional start sites (TSSs) of distinct genes were mapped. A pattern that resembles the σ70 promoter −10 element was found upstream of the TSSs. However, no −35 element was distinguished. Instead, an AT-rich periodic signal was identified. About half of the experimentally defined promoters contained the motif 5′-TRTGn-3′, which was identical to the −16 element usually found in Gram-positive bacteria. The defined promoters were utilized to build position-specific scoring matrices in order to scan putative promoters upstream of all coding sequences (CDSs) in the M. hyopneumoniae genome. Two hundred and one signals were found associated with 169 CDSs. Most of these sequences were located within 100 nucleotides of the start codons. This study has shown that the number of promoter-like sequences in the M. hyopneumoniae genome is more frequent than expected by chance, indicating that most of the sequences detected are probably biologically functional. PMID:22334569

  14. Noise reduction methods for nucleic acid and macromolecule sequencing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schuller, Ivan K.; Di Ventra, Massimiliano; Balatsky, Alexander

    2018-05-08

    Methods, systems, and devices are disclosed for processing macromolecule sequencing data with substantial noise reduction. In one aspect, a method for reducing noise in a sequential measurement of a macromolecule comprising serial subunits includes cross-correlating multiple measured signals of a physical property of subunits of interest of the macromolecule, the multiple measured signals including the time data associated with the measurement of the signal, to remove or at least reduce signal noise that is not in the same frequency and in phase with the systematic signal contribution of the measured signals.

  15. Oscillation-Driven Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity Allows Multiple Overlapping Pattern Recognition in Inhibitory Interneuron Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Garrido, Jesús A.; Luque, Niceto R.; Tolu, Silvia

    2016-01-01

    The majority of operations carried out by the brain require learning complex signal patterns for future recognition, retrieval and reuse. Although learning is thought to depend on multiple forms of long-term synaptic plasticity, the way this latter contributes to pattern recognition is still poorly...... and at the inhibitory interneuron-interneuron synapses, the interneurons rapidly learned complex input patterns. Interestingly, induction of plasticity required that the network be entrained into theta-frequency band oscillations, setting the internal phase-reference required to drive STDP. Inhibitory plasticity...... effectively distributed multiple patterns among available interneurons, thus allowing the simultaneous detection of multiple overlapping patterns. The addition of plasticity in intrinsic excitability made the system more robust allowing self-adjustment and rescaling in response to a broad range of input...

  16. Segmentation, Inference and Classification of Partially Overlapping Nanoparticles

    KAUST Repository

    Chiwoo Park,

    2013-03-01

    This paper presents a method that enables automated morphology analysis of partially overlapping nanoparticles in electron micrographs. In the undertaking of morphology analysis, three tasks appear necessary: separate individual particles from an agglomerate of overlapping nano-objects; infer the particle\\'s missing contours; and ultimately, classify the particles by shape based on their complete contours. Our specific method adopts a two-stage approach: the first stage executes the task of particle separation, and the second stage conducts simultaneously the tasks of contour inference and shape classification. For the first stage, a modified ultimate erosion process is developed for decomposing a mixture of particles into markers, and then, an edge-to-marker association method is proposed to identify the set of evidences that eventually delineate individual objects. We also provided theoretical justification regarding the separation capability of the first stage. In the second stage, the set of evidences become inputs to a Gaussian mixture model on B-splines, the solution of which leads to the joint learning of the missing contour and the particle shape. Using twelve real electron micrographs of overlapping nanoparticles, we compare the proposed method with seven state-of-the-art methods. The results show the superiority of the proposed method in terms of particle recognition rate.

  17. Fingerprint image reconstruction for swipe sensor using Predictive Overlap Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mardiansyah Ahmad Zafrullah

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Swipe sensor is one of many biometric authentication sensor types that widely applied to embedded devices. The sensor produces an overlap on every pixel block of the image, so the picture requires a reconstruction process before heading to the feature extraction process. Conventional reconstruction methods require extensive computation, causing difficult to apply to embedded devices that have limited computing process. In this paper, image reconstruction is proposed using predictive overlap method, which determines the image block shift from the previous set of change data. The experiments were performed using 36 images generated by a swipe sensor with 128 x 8 pixels size of the area, where each image has an overlap in each block. The results reveal computation can increase up to 86.44% compared with conventional methods, with accuracy decreasing to 0.008% in average.

  18. Modelling estimation and analysis of dynamic processes from image sequences using temporal random closed sets and point processes with application to the cell exocytosis and endocytosis

    OpenAIRE

    Díaz Fernández, Ester

    2010-01-01

    In this thesis, new models and methodologies are introduced for the analysis of dynamic processes characterized by image sequences with spatial temporal overlapping. The spatial temporal overlapping exists in many natural phenomena and should be addressed properly in several Science disciplines such as Microscopy, Material Sciences, Biology, Geostatistics or Communication Networks. This work is related to the Point Process and Random Closed Set theories, within Stochastic Ge...

  19. Living as an LGBTQ Adolescent and a Parent's Child: Overlapping or Separate Experiences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehus, Christopher J; Watson, Ryan J; Eisenberg, Marla E; Corliss, Heather L; Porta, Carolyn M

    2017-05-01

    It is well known that parental and community-based support are each related to healthy development in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, but little research has explored the ways these contexts interact and overlap. Through go-along interviews (a method in which participants guide the interviewer around the community) with 66 youth in British Columbia, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, adolescents (aged 14-19 years) reported varying extent of overlap between their LGBTQ experiences and their parent-youth experiences; parents and youth each contributed to the extent of overlap. Youth who reported high overlap reported little need for resources outside their families but found resources easy to access if wanted. Youth who reported little overlap found it difficult to access resources. Findings suggest that in both research and practice, considering the extent to which youth feel they can express their authentic identity in multiple contexts may be more useful than simply evaluating parental acceptance or access to resources.

  20. Image sequence analysis

    CERN Document Server

    1981-01-01

    The processing of image sequences has a broad spectrum of important applica­ tions including target tracking, robot navigation, bandwidth compression of TV conferencing video signals, studying the motion of biological cells using microcinematography, cloud tracking, and highway traffic monitoring. Image sequence processing involves a large amount of data. However, because of the progress in computer, LSI, and VLSI technologies, we have now reached a stage when many useful processing tasks can be done in a reasonable amount of time. As a result, research and development activities in image sequence analysis have recently been growing at a rapid pace. An IEEE Computer Society Workshop on Computer Analysis of Time-Varying Imagery was held in Philadelphia, April 5-6, 1979. A related special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Anal­ ysis and Machine Intelligence was published in November 1980. The IEEE Com­ puter magazine has also published a special issue on the subject in 1981. The purpose of this book ...

  1. MRI of bone marrow: opposed-phase gradient-echo sequences with long repetition time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seiderer, M.; Staebler, A.; Wagner, H.

    1999-01-01

    Signal intensity for opposed-phase gradient-echo (GE) sequences of tissues composed of fat- and water-equivalent cells such as red bone marrow is extremely sensitive to variation of the ratio of both cell populations (fat-to-water ratio Q F/W ). Because most bone marrow pathology results in variation of Q F/W , GE sequences are characterized by high-contrast imaging of pathology. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of TR, TE, FA, Q F/W and histology on signal intensity. Signal intensity of opposed-phase GE sequences as a function of TR, TE, FA, and Q F/W was measured for a fat-water phantom and cadaver specimens of normal bone marrow (red and yellow) and pathological bone marrow (tumors). All specimens were correlated to histology. Opposed-phase GE imaging of red bone marrow pathology results in low-signal-intensity imaging of intact red bone marrow and high-signal-intensity positive contrast imaging of pathology associated with a change in Q F/W . In first-order approximation the signal intensity of pathology is linearly correlated to the change in Q F/W . Opposed-phase GE imaging is a sensitive imaging technique for red bone marrow pathology. Relative contrast of red bone marrow pathology is similar to fat-suppressed imaging techniques. Acquisition time is identical to T1-weighted SE sequences. (orig.)

  2. Inaudible functional MRI using a truly mute gradient echo sequence

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marcar, V.L.; Girard, F.; Rinkel, Y.; Schneider, J.F.; Martin, E.

    2002-01-01

    We performed functional MRI experiments using a mute version of a gradient echo sequence on adult volunteers using either a simple visual stimulus (flicker goggles: 4 subjects) or an auditory stimulus (music: 4 subjects). Because the mute sequence delivers fewer images per unit time than a fast echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence, we explored our data using a parametric ANOVA test and a non-parametric Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test in addition to performing a cross-correlation analysis. All three methods were in close agreement regarding the location of the BOLD contrast signal change. We demonstrated that, using appropriate statistical analysis, functional MRI using an MR sequence that is acoustically inaudible to the subject is feasible. Furthermore compared with the ''silent'' event-related procedures involving an EPI protocol, our mGE protocol compares favourably with respect to experiment time and the BOLD signal. (orig.)

  3. Femtosecond resolved diagnostics for electron beam and XUV seed temporal overlap at sFLASH

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tarkeshian, Roxana

    2012-02-01

    sFLASH is a seeded experiment at the Free-Electron Laser FLASH in Hamburg. It uses a 38 nm High-Harmonic-Generation (HHG) scheme to seed the FEL-process in a 10m long variable-gap undulator. The temporal overlap between the electron and HHG pulses is critical to the seeding process. The use of a 3 rd harmonic accelerating module provides a high current electron beam with ∝ (400 fs) FWHM bunch duration. The duration of the HHG laser pulse is ≤ (30 fs) FWHM . The desired overlap is achieved in two steps. Firstly, the HHG drive laser is brought to temporal overlap with the incoherent spontaneous radiation from an upstream undulator with picosecond resolution. The temporal overlap is periodically monitored using a streak camera installed in the linear accelerator tunnel. Next, the coherent radiation from an undulator is used to determine the exact overlap of the electron beam in a modulator-radiator set-up with sub-picosecond resolution. The physical and technical principles of the setup providing the temporal overlap are described. Results of the system are analyzed. An analytical approach and simulation results for the performance of the seeding experiment are presented. First attempts at demonstration of seeding are discussed. Strategies for optimizing overlap conditions are presented. (orig.)

  4. Femtosecond resolved diagnostics for electron beam and XUV seed temporal overlap at sFLASH

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tarkeshian, Roxana

    2012-02-15

    sFLASH is a seeded experiment at the Free-Electron Laser FLASH in Hamburg. It uses a 38 nm High-Harmonic-Generation (HHG) scheme to seed the FEL-process in a 10m long variable-gap undulator. The temporal overlap between the electron and HHG pulses is critical to the seeding process. The use of a 3{sup rd} harmonic accelerating module provides a high current electron beam with {proportional_to} (400 fs){sub FWHM} bunch duration. The duration of the HHG laser pulse is {<=} (30 fs){sub FWHM}. The desired overlap is achieved in two steps. Firstly, the HHG drive laser is brought to temporal overlap with the incoherent spontaneous radiation from an upstream undulator with picosecond resolution. The temporal overlap is periodically monitored using a streak camera installed in the linear accelerator tunnel. Next, the coherent radiation from an undulator is used to determine the exact overlap of the electron beam in a modulator-radiator set-up with sub-picosecond resolution. The physical and technical principles of the setup providing the temporal overlap are described. Results of the system are analyzed. An analytical approach and simulation results for the performance of the seeding experiment are presented. First attempts at demonstration of seeding are discussed. Strategies for optimizing overlap conditions are presented. (orig.)

  5. Use of the Frank sequence in pulsed EPR

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tseitlin, Mark; Quine, Richard W.; Eaton, Sandra S.

    2011-01-01

    The Frank polyphase sequence has been applied to pulsed EPR of triarylmethyl radicals at 256MHz (9.1mT magnetic field), using 256 phase pulses. In EPR, as in NMR, use of a Frank sequence of phase steps permits pulsed FID signal acquisition with very low power microwave/RF pulses (ca. 1.5m......W in the application reported here) relative to standard pulsed EPR. A 0.2mM aqueous solution of a triarylmethyl radical was studied using a 16mm diameter cross-loop resonator to isolate the EPR signal detection system from the incident pulses. Keyword: Correlation spectroscopy,Multi-pulse EPR,Low power pulses,NMR,EPR...

  6. Overlap of disease susceptibility loci for rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinks, Anne; Eyre, Steve; Ke, Xiayi; Barton, Anne; Martin, Paul; Flynn, Edward; Packham, Jon; Worthington, Jane; Thomson, Wendy

    2010-01-01

    Background Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been extremely successful in the search for susceptibility risk factors for complex genetic autoimmune diseases. As more studies are published, evidence is emerging of considerable overlap of loci between these diseases. In juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), another complex genetic autoimmune disease, the strategy of using information from autoimmune disease GWAS or candidate gene studies to help in the search for novel JIA susceptibility loci has been successful, with confirmed association with two genes, PTPN22 and IL2RA. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that shares similar clinical and pathological features with JIA and, therefore, recently identified confirmed RA susceptibility loci are also excellent JIA candidate loci. Objective To determine the overlap of disease susceptibility loci for RA and JIA. Methods Fifteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at nine RA-associated loci were genotyped in Caucasian patients with JIA (n=1054) and controls (n=3531) and tested for association with JIA. Allele and genotype frequencies were compared between cases and controls using the genetic analysis software, PLINK. Results Two JIA susceptibility loci were identified, one of which was a novel JIA association (STAT4) and the second confirmed previously published associations of the TRAF1/C5 locus with JIA. Weak evidence of association of JIA with three additional loci (Chr6q23, KIF5A and PRKCQ) was also obtained, which warrants further investigation. Conclusion All these loci are good candidates in view of the known pathogenesis of JIA, as genes within these regions (TRAF1, STAT4, TNFAIP3, PRKCQ) are known to be involved in T-cell receptor signalling or activation pathways. PMID:19674979

  7. The role of learning-related dopamine signals in addiction vulnerability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huys, Quentin J M; Tobler, Philippe N; Hasler, Gregor; Flagel, Shelly B

    2014-01-01

    Dopaminergic signals play a mathematically precise role in reward-related learning, and variations in dopaminergic signaling have been implicated in vulnerability to addiction. Here, we provide a detailed overview of the relationship between theoretical, mathematical, and experimental accounts of phasic dopamine signaling, with implications for the role of learning-related dopamine signaling in addiction and related disorders. We describe the theoretical and behavioral characteristics of model-free learning based on errors in the prediction of reward, including step-by-step explanations of the underlying equations. We then use recent insights from an animal model that highlights individual variation in learning during a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm to describe overlapping aspects of incentive salience attribution and model-free learning. We argue that this provides a computationally coherent account of some features of addiction. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Linear inequalities and overlap bounds: a novel use of an operator inequality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cohen, M.; Leopold, J.G.

    1976-01-01

    Bounds to overlap integrals are obtained by an operator inequality technique. The formulation involves a set of linear inequalities with several overlap integrals as unknowns. The 'solution' of this set of inequalities leads to bound expressions which complement those of other workers. (author)

  9. MytiBase: a knowledgebase of mussel (M. galloprovincialis transcribed sequences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roch Philippe

    2009-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Although Bivalves are among the most studied marine organisms due to their ecological role, economic importance and use in pollution biomonitoring, very little information is available on the genome sequences of mussels. This study reports the functional analysis of a large-scale Expressed Sequence Tag (EST sequencing from different tissues of Mytilus galloprovincialis (the Mediterranean mussel challenged with toxic pollutants, temperature and potentially pathogenic bacteria. Results We have constructed and sequenced seventeen cDNA libraries from different Mediterranean mussel tissues: gills, digestive gland, foot, anterior and posterior adductor muscle, mantle and haemocytes. A total of 24,939 clones were sequenced from these libraries generating 18,788 high-quality ESTs which were assembled into 2,446 overlapping clusters and 4,666 singletons resulting in a total of 7,112 non-redundant sequences. In particular, a high-quality normalized cDNA library (Nor01 was constructed as determined by the high rate of gene discovery (65.6%. Bioinformatic screening of the non-redundant M. galloprovincialis sequences identified 159 microsatellite-containing ESTs. Clusters, consensuses, related similarities and gene ontology searches have been organized in a dedicated, searchable database http://mussel.cribi.unipd.it. Conclusion We defined the first species-specific catalogue of M. galloprovincialis ESTs including 7,112 unique transcribed sequences. Putative microsatellite markers were identified. This annotated catalogue represents a valuable platform for expression studies, marker validation and genetic linkage analysis for investigations in the biology of Mediterranean mussels.

  10. Net Analyte Signal Standard Additions Method for Simultaneous Determination of Sulfamethoxazole and Trimethoprim in Pharmaceutical Formulations and Biological Fluids

    OpenAIRE

    Givianrad, M. H.; Mohagheghian, M.

    2012-01-01

    The applicability of a novel net analyte signal standard addition method (NASSAM) to the resolving of overlapping spectra corresponding to the sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim was verified by UV-visible spectrophotometry. The results confirmed that the net analyte signal standard additions method with simultaneous addition of both analytes is suitable for the simultaneous determination of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim in aqueous media. Moreover, applying the net analyte signal standard a...

  11. Safety of Running Two Rooms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Overlapping Neurosurgical Procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Self, D Mitchell; Ilyas, Adeel; Stetler, William R

    2018-04-27

    Overlapping surgery, a long-standing practice within academic neurosurgery centers nationwide, has recently come under scrutiny from the government and media as potentially harmful to patients. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to determine the safety of overlapping neurosurgical procedures. The authors performed a systematic review and meta-analysis in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. A review of PubMed and Medline databases was undertaken with the search phrase "overlapping surgery AND neurosurgery AND outcomes." Data regarding patient demographics, type of neurosurgical procedure, and outcomes and complications were extracted from each study. The principle summary measure was odds ratio (OR) of the association of overlapping versus non-overlapping surgery with outcomes. The literature search yielded a total of 36 studies, of which 5 studies met inclusion criteria and were included in this study. These studies included a total of 25,764 patients undergoing neurosurgical procedures. Overlapping surgery was associated with an increased likelihood of being discharged home (OR = 1.32; 95% CI 1.20 to 1.44; P < 0.001) and a reduced 30-day unexpected return to the operating room (OR = 0.79; 95% CI 0.72 to 0.87; P < 0.001). Overlapping surgery did not significantly affect OR of length of surgery, 30-day mortality, or 30-day readmission. Overlapping neurosurgical procedures were not associated with worse patient outcomes. Additional, prospective studies are needed to further assess the safety overlapping procedures. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  12. On-the-fly Overlapping of Sparse Generations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Chres Wiant; Roetter, Daniel Enrique Lucani; Fitzek, Frank

    2014-01-01

    Traditionally, the idea of overlapping generations in network coding research has focused on reducing the complexity of decoding large data files while maintaining the delay performance expected of a system that combines all data packets. However, the effort for encoding and decoding individual g...

  13. Overlapping community detection in weighted networks via a Bayesian approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yi; Wang, Xiaolong; Xiang, Xin; Tang, Buzhou; Chen, Qingcai; Fan, Shixi; Bu, Junzhao

    2017-02-01

    Complex networks as a powerful way to represent complex systems have been widely studied during the past several years. One of the most important tasks of complex network analysis is to detect communities embedded in networks. In the real world, weighted networks are very common and may contain overlapping communities where a node is allowed to belong to multiple communities. In this paper, we propose a novel Bayesian approach, called the Bayesian mixture network (BMN) model, to detect overlapping communities in weighted networks. The advantages of our method are (i) providing soft-partition solutions in weighted networks; (ii) providing soft memberships, which quantify 'how strongly' a node belongs to a community. Experiments on a large number of real and synthetic networks show that our model has the ability in detecting overlapping communities in weighted networks and is competitive with other state-of-the-art models at shedding light on community partition.

  14. ASSET: Analysis of Sequences of Synchronous Events in Massively Parallel Spike Trains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Canova, Carlos; Denker, Michael; Gerstein, George; Helias, Moritz

    2016-01-01

    With the ability to observe the activity from large numbers of neurons simultaneously using modern recording technologies, the chance to identify sub-networks involved in coordinated processing increases. Sequences of synchronous spike events (SSEs) constitute one type of such coordinated spiking that propagates activity in a temporally precise manner. The synfire chain was proposed as one potential model for such network processing. Previous work introduced a method for visualization of SSEs in massively parallel spike trains, based on an intersection matrix that contains in each entry the degree of overlap of active neurons in two corresponding time bins. Repeated SSEs are reflected in the matrix as diagonal structures of high overlap values. The method as such, however, leaves the task of identifying these diagonal structures to visual inspection rather than to a quantitative analysis. Here we present ASSET (Analysis of Sequences of Synchronous EvenTs), an improved, fully automated method which determines diagonal structures in the intersection matrix by a robust mathematical procedure. The method consists of a sequence of steps that i) assess which entries in the matrix potentially belong to a diagonal structure, ii) cluster these entries into individual diagonal structures and iii) determine the neurons composing the associated SSEs. We employ parallel point processes generated by stochastic simulations as test data to demonstrate the performance of the method under a wide range of realistic scenarios, including different types of non-stationarity of the spiking activity and different correlation structures. Finally, the ability of the method to discover SSEs is demonstrated on complex data from large network simulations with embedded synfire chains. Thus, ASSET represents an effective and efficient tool to analyze massively parallel spike data for temporal sequences of synchronous activity. PMID:27420734

  15. Multiple scattering in closely packed systems of arbitrary non-overlapping shapes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Keister, B.D.

    1982-11-01

    It has long been known that the multiple scattering of waves from a system of obstacles of finite extent can be described completely with a knowledge of the on-shell amplitudes of the individual scatterers, provided that the minimally enclosing spheres concentric with the scattering centers do not overlap. In this paper, it is shown that on-shell amplitudes alone suffice for a wider class of scattering configurations, in which the individual scatterers do not overlap, but their geometries do not satisfy the above condition. These extended geometries require a careful treatment of certain partial wave sums. An example is also discussed in which a pair of non-overlapping scatterers requires more than the on-shell amplitudes for a solution

  16. Study of {sup 14}N NQR response to SORC pulse sequence

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Konnai, A., E-mail: konnai@nmri.go.jp; Odano, N. [National Maritime Research Institute, Department of Navigation and System Engineering (Japan); Asaji, T. [Nihon University, Department of Chemistry, College of Humanities and Sciences (Japan)

    2008-01-15

    The behavior of nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) signals between RF pulses of the strong off-resonance comb (SORC) as well as the spin-locking spin-echo (SLSE) pulse sequences was studied as for {sup 14}N NQR line {nu}{sub +} of dimethylnitramine (CH{sub 3}){sub 2}NNO{sub 2} at 77 K. The periodic variation of the signal amplitude observed by using SORC pulse sequence could be reasonably explained by the theoretical expression reported in the literature.

  17. Next-generation sequencing and phylogenetic signal of complete mitochondrial genomes for resolving the evolutionary history of leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Botero-Castro, Fidel; Tilak, Marie-ka; Justy, Fabienne; Catzeflis, François; Delsuc, Frédéric; Douzery, Emmanuel J P

    2013-12-01

    Leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) are one of the most studied groups within the order Chiroptera mainly because of their outstanding species richness and diversity in morphological and ecological traits. Rapid diversification and multiple homoplasies have made the phylogeny of the family difficult to solve using morphological characters. Molecular data have contributed to shed light on the evolutionary history of phyllostomid bats, yet several relationships remain unresolved at the intra-familial level. Complete mitochondrial genomes have proven useful to deal with this kind of situation in other groups of mammals by providing access to a large number of molecular characters. At present, there are only two mitogenomes available for phyllostomid bats hinting at the need for further exploration of the mitogenomic approach in this group. We used both standard Sanger sequencing of PCR products and next-generation sequencing (NGS) of shotgun genomic DNA to obtain new complete mitochondrial genomes from 10 species of phyllostomid bats, including representatives of major subfamilies, plus one outgroup belonging to the closely-related mormoopids. We then evaluated the contribution of mitogenomics to the resolution of the phylogeny of leaf-nosed bats and compared the results to those based on mitochondrial genes and the RAG2 and VWF nuclear makers. Our results demonstrate the advantages of the Illumina NGS approach to efficiently obtain mitogenomes of phyllostomid bats. The phylogenetic signal provided by entire mitogenomes is highly comparable to the one of a concatenation of individual mitochondrial and nuclear markers, and allows increasing both resolution and statistical support for several clades. This enhanced phylogenetic signal is the result of combining markers with heterogeneous evolutionary rates representing a large number of nucleotide sites. Our results illustrate the potential of the NGS mitogenomic approach for resolving the evolutionary history of

  18. Bottom-up driven involuntary auditory evoked field change: constant sound sequencing amplifies but does not sharpen neural activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okamoto, Hidehiko; Stracke, Henning; Lagemann, Lothar; Pantev, Christo

    2010-01-01

    The capability of involuntarily tracking certain sound signals during the simultaneous presence of noise is essential in human daily life. Previous studies have demonstrated that top-down auditory focused attention can enhance excitatory and inhibitory neural activity, resulting in sharpening of frequency tuning of auditory neurons. In the present study, we investigated bottom-up driven involuntary neural processing of sound signals in noisy environments by means of magnetoencephalography. We contrasted two sound signal sequencing conditions: "constant sequencing" versus "random sequencing." Based on a pool of 16 different frequencies, either identical (constant sequencing) or pseudorandomly chosen (random sequencing) test frequencies were presented blockwise together with band-eliminated noises to nonattending subjects. The results demonstrated that the auditory evoked fields elicited in the constant sequencing condition were significantly enhanced compared with the random sequencing condition. However, the enhancement was not significantly different between different band-eliminated noise conditions. Thus the present study confirms that by constant sound signal sequencing under nonattentive listening the neural activity in human auditory cortex can be enhanced, but not sharpened. Our results indicate that bottom-up driven involuntary neural processing may mainly amplify excitatory neural networks, but may not effectively enhance inhibitory neural circuits.

  19. Isolation of anonymous DNA sequences from within a submicroscopic X chromosomal deletion in a patient with choroideremia, deafness, and mental retardation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nussbaum, R.L.; Lesko, J.G.; Lewis, R.A.; Ledbetter, S.A.; Ledbetter, D.H.

    1987-01-01

    Choroideremia, an X-chromosome linked retinal dystrophy of unknown pathogenesis, causes progressive nightblindness and eventual central blindness in affected males by the third to fourth decade of life. Choroideremia has been mapped to Xq13-21 by tight linkage to restriction fragment length polymorphism loci. The authors have recently identified two families in which choroideremia is inherited with mental retardation and deafness. In family XL-62, an interstitial deletion Xq21 is visible by cytogenetic analysis and two linked anonymous DNA markers, DXYS1 and DXS72, are deleted. In the second family, XL-45, an interstitial deletion was suspected on phenotypic grounds but could not be confirmed by high-resolution cytogenetic analysis. They used phenol-enhanced reassociation of 48,XXXX DNA in competition with excess XL-45 DNA to generate a library of cloned DNA enriched for sequences that might be deleted in XL-45. Two of the first 83 sequences characterized from the library were found to be deleted in probands from family XL-45 as well as from family XL-62. Isolation of these sequences proves that XL-45 does contain a submicroscopic deletion and provides a starting point for identifying overlapping genomic sequences that span the XL-45 deletion. Each overlapping sequence will be studied to identify exons from the choroideremia locus

  20. cDNA sequences of two apolipoproteins from lamprey

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pontes, M.; Xu, X.; Graham, D.; Riley, M.; Doolittle, R.F.

    1987-01-01

    The messages for two small but abundant apolipoproteins found in lamprey blood plasma were cloned with the aid of oligonucleotide probes based on amino-terminal sequences. In both cases, numerous clones were identified in a lamprey liver cDNA library, consistent with the great abundance of these proteins in lamprey blood. One of the cDNAs (LAL1) has a coding region of 105 amino acids that corresponds to a 21-residue signal peptide, a putative 8-residue propeptide, and the 76-residue mature protein found in blood. The other cDNA (LAL2) codes for a total of 191 residues, the first 23 of which constitute a signal peptide. The two proteins, which occur in the high-density lipoprotein fraction of ultracentrifuged plasma, have amino acid compositions similar to those of apolipoproteins found in mammalian blood; computer analysis indicates that the sequences are largely helix-permissive. When the sequences were searched against an amino acid sequence data base, rat apolipoprotein IV was the best matching candidate in both cases. Although a reasonable alignment can be made with that sequence and LAL1, definitive assignment of the two lamprey proteins to typical mammalian classes cannot be made at this point

  1. ADHD and autism: differential diagnosis or overlapping traits? A selective review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taurines, Regina; Schwenck, Christina; Westerwald, Eva; Sachse, Michael; Siniatchkin, Michael; Freitag, Christine

    2012-09-01

    According to DSM-IV TR and ICD-10, a diagnosis of autism or Asperger Syndrome precludes a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, despite the different conceptualization, population-based twin studies reported symptom overlap, and a recent epidemiologically based study reported a high rate of ADHD in autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In the planned revision of the DSM-IV TR, dsm5 (www.dsm5.org), the diagnoses of autistic disorder and ADHD will not be mutually exclusive any longer. This provides the basis of more differentiated studies on overlap and distinction between both disorders. This review presents data on comorbidity rates and symptom overlap and discusses common and disorder-specific risk factors, including recent proteomic studies. Neuropsychological findings in the areas of attention, reward processing, and social cognition are then compared between both disorders, as these cognitive abilities show overlapping as well as specific impairment for one of both disorders. In addition, selective brain imaging findings are reported. Therapeutic options are summarized, and new approaches are discussed. The review concludes with a prospectus on open questions for research and clinical practice.

  2. Inaudible functional MRI using a truly mute gradient echo sequence

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Marcar, V.L. [University of Zurich, Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology, Treichlerstrasse 10, 8032 Zurich (Switzerland); Girard, F. [GE Medical Systems SA, 283, rue de la Miniere B.P. 34, 78533 Buc Cedex (France); Rinkel, Y.; Schneider, J.F.; Martin, E. [University Children' s Hospital, Neuroradiology and Magnetic Resonance, Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Steinwiesstrasse 75, 8032 Zurich (Switzerland)

    2002-11-01

    We performed functional MRI experiments using a mute version of a gradient echo sequence on adult volunteers using either a simple visual stimulus (flicker goggles: 4 subjects) or an auditory stimulus (music: 4 subjects). Because the mute sequence delivers fewer images per unit time than a fast echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence, we explored our data using a parametric ANOVA test and a non-parametric Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test in addition to performing a cross-correlation analysis. All three methods were in close agreement regarding the location of the BOLD contrast signal change. We demonstrated that, using appropriate statistical analysis, functional MRI using an MR sequence that is acoustically inaudible to the subject is feasible. Furthermore compared with the ''silent'' event-related procedures involving an EPI protocol, our mGE protocol compares favourably with respect to experiment time and the BOLD signal. (orig.)

  3. Spatially resolved RNA-sequencing of the embryonic heart identifies a role for Wnt/β-catenin signaling in autonomic control of heart rate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burkhard, Silja Barbara

    2018-01-01

    Development of specialized cells and structures in the heart is regulated by spatially -restricted molecular pathways. Disruptions in these pathways can cause severe congenital cardiac malformations or functional defects. To better understand these pathways and how they regulate cardiac development we used tomo-seq, combining high-throughput RNA-sequencing with tissue-sectioning, to establish a genome-wide expression dataset with high spatial resolution for the developing zebrafish heart. Analysis of the dataset revealed over 1100 genes differentially expressed in sub-compartments. Pacemaker cells in the sinoatrial region induce heart contractions, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying their development. Using our transcriptome map, we identified spatially restricted Wnt/β-catenin signaling activity in pacemaker cells, which was controlled by Islet-1 activity. Moreover, Wnt/β-catenin signaling controls heart rate by regulating pacemaker cellular response to parasympathetic stimuli. Thus, this high-resolution transcriptome map incorporating all cell types in the embryonic heart can expose spatially restricted molecular pathways critical for specific cardiac functions. PMID:29400650

  4. Temporal overlap estimation based on interference spectrum in CARS microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yongning; Jiang, Junfeng; Liu, Kun; Huang, Can; Wang, Shuang; Zhang, Xuezhi; Liu, Tiegen

    2018-01-01

    Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) microscopy has attracted lots of attention because of the advantages, such as noninvasive, label-free, chemical specificity, intrinsic three-dimension spatial resolution and so on. However, the temporal overlap of pump and Stokes has not been solved owing to the ultrafast optical pulse used in CARS microscopy. We combine interference spectrum of residual pump in Stokes path and nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE) to realize the temporal overlap of pump pulse and Stokes pulse. At first, based on the interference spectrum of pump pulse and residual pump in Stokes path, the optical delay is defined when optical path difference between pump path and Stokes path is zero. Then the relative optical delay between Stokes pulse and residual pump in PCF can be calculated by NLSE. According to the spectrum interference and NLSE, temporal overlap of pump pulse and Stokes pulse will be realized easily and the imaging speed will be improved in CARS microscopy.

  5. Interference of Homologous Sequences on the SNP Study of CYP2A13 Gene

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qinghua ZHOU

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Background and objective It has been proven that cytochrome P450 enzyme 2A13 (CYP2A13 played an important role in the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP and human diseases. Cytochrome P450 enzymes are a group of isoenzymes, whose sequence homology may interfere with the study for SNP. The aim of this study is to explore the interference on the SNP study of CYP2A13 caused by homologous sequences. Methods Taqman probe was applied to detect distribution of rs8192789 sites in 573 subjects, and BLAST method was used to analyze the amplified sequences. Partial sequences of CYP2A13 were emplified by PCR from 60 cases. The emplified sequences were TA cloned and sequenced. Results For rs8192789 loci in 573 cases, only 3 cases were TT, while the rest were CT heterozygotes, which was caused by homologous sequences. There are a large number of overlapping peaks in identical sequences of 60 cases, and the SNP of 101 amino acid site reported in the SNP database is not found. The cloned sequences are 247 bp, 235 bp fragments. Conclusion The homologous sequences may interfere the study for SNP of CYP2A13, and some SNP may not exist.

  6. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy: overlapping co-axial modulated fields

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Metcalfe, P; Tangboonduangjit, P; White, P

    2004-01-01

    The Varian multi-leaf collimator has a 14.5 cm leaf extension limit from each carriage. This means the target volumes in the head and neck region are sometimes too wide for standard width-modulated fields to provide adequate dose coverage. A solution is to set up asymmetric co-axial overlapping fields. This protects the MLC carriage while in return the MLC provides modulated dose blending in the field overlap region. Planar dose maps for coincident fields from the Pinnacle radiotherapy treatment planning system are compared with planar dose maps reconstructed from radiographic film and electronic portal images. The film and portal images show small leaf-jaw matchlines at each field overlap border. Linear profiles taken across each image show that the observed leaf-jaw matchlines from the accelerator images are not accounted for by the treatment planning system. Dose difference between film reconstructed electronic portal images and planning system are about 2.5 cGy in a modulated field at d max . While the magnitude of the dose differences are small improved round end leaf modelling combined with a finer dose calculation grid may minimize the discrepancy between calculated and delivered dose

  7. Enhanced angular overlap model for nonmetallic f -electron systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gajek, Z.

    2005-07-01

    An efficient method of interpretation of the crystal field effect in nonmetallic f -electron systems, the enhanced angular overlap model (EAOM), is presented. The method is established on the ground of perturbation expansion of the effective Hamiltonian for localized electrons and first-principles calculations related to available experimental data. The series of actinide compounds AO2 , oxychalcogenides AOX , and dichalcogenides UX2 where X=S ,Se,Te and A=U ,Np serve as probes of the effectiveness of the proposed method. An idea is to enhance the usual angular overlap model with ab initio calculations of those contributions to the crystal field potential, which cannot be represented by the usual angular overlap model (AOM). The enhancement leads to an improved fitting and makes the approach intrinsically coherent. In addition, the ab initio calculations of the main, AOM-consistent part of the crystal field potential allows one to fix the material-specific relations for the EAOM parameters in the effective Hamiltonian. Consequently, the electronic structure interpretation based on EAOM can be extended to systems of the lowest point symmetries or/and deficient experimental data. Several examples illustrating the promising capabilities of EAOM are given.

  8. A separable surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate modified with MIL-101 for detection of overlapping and invisible compounds after thin-layer chromatography development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Bin Bin; Shi, Yi; Chen, Hui; Zhu, Qing Xia; Lu, Feng; Li, Ying Wei

    2018-01-02

    By coupling surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with thin-layer chromatography (TLC), a powerful method for detecting complex samples was successfully developed. However, in the TLC-SERS method, metal nanoparticles serving as the SERS-active substrate are likely to disturb the detection of target compounds, particularly in overlapping compounds after TLC development. In addition, the SERS detection of compounds that are invisible under both visible light and UV 254/365 after TLC development is still a significant challenge. In this study, we demonstrated a facile strategy to fabricate a TLC plate with metal-organic framework-modified gold nanoparticles as a separable SERS substrate, on which all separated components, including overlapping and invisible compounds, could be detected by a point-by-point SERS scan along the developing direction. Rhodamine 6G (R6G) was used as a probe to evaluate the performance of the substrate. The results indicated that the substrate provided good sensitivity and reproducibility, and optimal SERS signals could be collected in 5 s. Furthermore, this new substrate exhibited a long shelf life. Thus, our method has great potential for the sensitive and rapid detection of overlapping and invisible compounds in complex samples after TLC development. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Determination of genetic relatedness from low-coverage human genome sequences using pedigree simulations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Michael D; Jay, Flora; Castellano, Sergi; Slatkin, Montgomery

    2017-08-01

    We develop and evaluate methods for inferring relatedness among individuals from low-coverage DNA sequences of their genomes, with particular emphasis on sequences obtained from fossil remains. We suggest the major factors complicating the determination of relatedness among ancient individuals are sequencing depth, the number of overlapping sites, the sequencing error rate and the presence of contamination from present-day genetic sources. We develop a theoretical model that facilitates the exploration of these factors and their relative effects, via measurement of pairwise genetic distances, without calling genotypes, and determine the power to infer relatedness under various scenarios of varying sequencing depth, present-day contamination and sequencing error. The model is validated by a simulation study as well as the analysis of aligned sequences from present-day human genomes. We then apply the method to the recently published genome sequences of ancient Europeans, developing a statistical treatment to determine confidence in assigned relatedness that is, in some cases, more precise than previously reported. As the majority of ancient specimens are from animals, this method would be applicable to investigate kinship in nonhuman remains. The developed software grups (Genetic Relatedness Using Pedigree Simulations) is implemented in Python and freely available. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  10. Identification of Gene Loci That Overlap Between Schizophrenia and Educational Attainment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Le Hellard, Stéphanie; Wang, Yunpeng; Witoelar, Aree

    2017-01-01

    . Here we investigated the shared genetic architecture between SCZ and educational attainment, which is regarded as a "proxy phenotype" for cognitive abilities, but may also reflect other traits. We applied a conditional false discovery rate (condFDR) method to GWAS of SCZ (n = 82 315), college...... completion ("College," n = 95 427), and years of education ("EduYears," n = 101 069). Variants associated with College or EduYears showed enrichment of association with SCZ, demonstrating polygenic overlap. This was confirmed by an increased replication rate in SCZ. By applying a condFDR threshold ... of these loci had effects in opposite directions. Our results provide evidence for polygenic overlap between SCZ and educational attainment, and identify novel pleiotropic loci. Other studies have reported genetic overlap between SCZ and cognition, or SCZ and educational attainment, with negative correlation...

  11. Noncoding sequence classification based on wavelet transform analysis: part I

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paredes, O.; Strojnik, M.; Romo-Vázquez, R.; Vélez Pérez, H.; Ranta, R.; Garcia-Torales, G.; Scholl, M. K.; Morales, J. A.

    2017-09-01

    DNA sequences in human genome can be divided into the coding and noncoding ones. Coding sequences are those that are read during the transcription. The identification of coding sequences has been widely reported in literature due to its much-studied periodicity. Noncoding sequences represent the majority of the human genome. They play an important role in gene regulation and differentiation among the cells. However, noncoding sequences do not exhibit periodicities that correlate to their functions. The ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA elements) and Epigenomic Roadmap Project projects have cataloged the human noncoding sequences into specific functions. We study characteristics of noncoding sequences with wavelet analysis of genomic signals.

  12. Exome localization of complex disease association signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lewis Cathryn M

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Genome-wide association studies (GWAS of common diseases have had a tremendous impact on genetic research over the last five years; the field is now moving from microarray-based technology towards next-generation sequencing. To evaluate the potential of association studies for complex diseases based on exome sequencing we analysed the distribution of association signal with respect to protein-coding genes based on GWAS data for seven diseases from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. Results We find significant concentration of association signal in exons and genes for Crohn's Disease, Type 1 Diabetes and Bipolar Disorder, but also observe enrichment from up to 40 kilobases upstream to 40 kilobases downstream of protein-coding genes for Crohn's Disease and Type 1 Diabetes; the exact extent of the distribution is disease dependent. Conclusions Our work suggests that exome sequencing may be a feasible approach to find genetic variation associated with complex disease. Extending the exome sequencing to include flanking regions therefore promises further improvement of covering disease-relevant variants.

  13. Distinct and Overlapping Functions of TEC Kinase and BTK in B Cell Receptor Signaling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Bruijn, Marjolein J W; Rip, Jasper; van der Ploeg, Esmee K; van Greuningen, Lars W; Ta, Van T B; Kil, Laurens P; Langerak, Anton W; Rimmelzwaan, Guus F; Ellmeier, Wilfried; Hendriks, Rudi W; Corneth, Odilia B J

    2017-04-15

    The Tec tyrosine kinase is expressed in many cell types, including hematopoietic cells, and is a member of the Tec kinase family that also includes Btk. Although the role of Btk in B cells has been extensively studied, the role of Tec kinase in B cells remains largely unclear. It was previously shown that Tec kinase has the ability to partly compensate for loss of Btk activity in B cell differentiation, although the underlying mechanism is unknown. In this study, we confirm that Tec kinase is not essential for normal B cell development when Btk is present, but we also found that Tec-deficient mature B cells showed increased activation, proliferation, and survival upon BCR stimulation, even in the presence of Btk. Whereas Tec deficiency did not affect phosphorylation of phospholipase Cγ or Ca 2+ influx, it was associated with significantly increased activation of the intracellular Akt/S6 kinase signaling pathway upon BCR and CD40 stimulation. The increased S6 kinase phosphorylation in Tec-deficient B cells was dependent on Btk kinase activity, as ibrutinib treatment restored pS6 to wild-type levels, although Btk protein and phosphorylation levels were comparable to controls. In Tec-deficient mice in vivo, B cell responses to model Ags and humoral immunity upon influenza infection were enhanced. Moreover, aged mice lacking Tec kinase developed a mild autoimmune phenotype. Taken together, these data indicate that in mature B cells, Tec and Btk may compete for activation of the Akt signaling pathway, whereby the activating capacity of Btk is limited by the presence of Tec kinase. Copyright © 2017 by The American Association of Immunologists, Inc.

  14. Machine learning approaches for the prediction of signal peptides and otherprotein sorting signals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Henrik; Brunak, Søren; von Heijne, Gunnar

    1999-01-01

    Prediction of protein sorting signals from the sequence of amino acids has great importance in the field of proteomics today. Recently,the growth of protein databases, combined with machine learning approaches, such as neural networks and hidden Markov models, havemade it possible to achieve...

  15. HTSeq--a Python framework to work with high-throughput sequencing data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anders, Simon; Pyl, Paul Theodor; Huber, Wolfgang

    2015-01-15

    A large choice of tools exists for many standard tasks in the analysis of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data. However, once a project deviates from standard workflows, custom scripts are needed. We present HTSeq, a Python library to facilitate the rapid development of such scripts. HTSeq offers parsers for many common data formats in HTS projects, as well as classes to represent data, such as genomic coordinates, sequences, sequencing reads, alignments, gene model information and variant calls, and provides data structures that allow for querying via genomic coordinates. We also present htseq-count, a tool developed with HTSeq that preprocesses RNA-Seq data for differential expression analysis by counting the overlap of reads with genes. HTSeq is released as an open-source software under the GNU General Public Licence and available from http://www-huber.embl.de/HTSeq or from the Python Package Index at https://pypi.python.org/pypi/HTSeq. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press.

  16. A novel method for fat suppression in RARE sequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Higuchi, Nobuya

    1999-01-01

    Rapid acquisition relaxation-enhanced (RARE) sequences utilize one or several Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) echo trains to sample a number of k-space lines each repetition time TR. The technique can rapidly generate multislice T2-weighted images which, as a rule, are strikingly similar in contrast to conventional T2-weighted spin-echo (SE) images. An exception to this rule is the appearance of very bright signal from fat in T2-weighted RARE images as compared to conventional T2-weighted SE images. To reduce this fat signal, we introduce a time delay, τc, between the 90 degrees x and first 180 degrees y pulse of each echo train such that a phase angle of pi/2 develops between fat and the reference (water) line at echo maxima. The technique leads to single-acquisition fat suppression without the use of frequency-selective saturation pulses and concomitant loss of slices per TR. A Bloch equation analysis is used to identify two major mechanisms contributing to suppression of off-resonance spins such that w τc =pi/2. Namely, the CPMG sequence becomes a CP sequence with no self-correction properties for imperfect 180 degrees pulses leading to enhanced signal decay, and the raw k-space data matrix become segmented into blocks alternately multiplied by +/- i, leading to signal dispersion following Fourier transformation. (K.H.)

  17. Depression, anxiety and somatization in primary care: syndrome overlap and functional impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Löwe, Bernd; Spitzer, Robert L; Williams, Janet B W; Mussell, Monika; Schellberg, Dieter; Kroenke, Kurt

    2008-01-01

    To determine diagnostic overlap of depression, anxiety and somatization as well as their unique and overlapping contribution to functional impairment. Two thousand ninety-one consecutive primary care clinic patients participated in a multicenter cross-sectional survey in 15 primary care clinics in the United States (participation rate, 92%). Depression, anxiety, somatization and functional impairment were assessed using validated scales from the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) (PHQ-8, eight-item depression module; GAD-7, seven-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale; and PHQ-15, 15-item somatic symptom scale) and the Short-Form General Health Survey (SF-20). Multiple linear regression analyses were used to investigate unique and overlapping associations of depression, anxiety and somatization with functional impairment. In over 50% of cases, comorbidities existed between depression, anxiety and somatization. The contribution of the commonalities of depression, anxiety and somatization to functional impairment substantially exceeded the contribution of their independent parts. Nevertheless, depression, anxiety and somatization did have important and individual effects (i.e., separate from their overlap effect) on certain areas of functional impairment. Given the large syndrome overlap, a potential consideration for future diagnostic classification would be to describe basic diagnostic criteria for a single overarching disorder and to optionally code additional diagnostic features that allow a more detailed classification into specific depressive, anxiety and somatoform subtypes.

  18. Candidates in Astroviruses, Seadornaviruses, Cytorhabdoviruses and Coronaviruses for +1 frame overlapping genes accessed by leaky scanning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Atkins John F

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Overlapping genes are common in RNA viruses where they serve as a mechanism to optimize the coding potential of compact genomes. However, annotation of overlapping genes can be difficult using conventional gene-finding software. Recently we have been using a number of complementary approaches to systematically identify previously undetected overlapping genes in RNA virus genomes. In this article we gather together a number of promising candidate new overlapping genes that may be of interest to the community. Results Overlapping gene predictions are presented for the astroviruses, seadornaviruses, cytorhabdoviruses and coronaviruses (families Astroviridae, Reoviridae, Rhabdoviridae and Coronaviridae, respectively.

  19. MR imaging of the knee: Improvement of signal and contrast efficiency of T1-weighted turbo spin echo sequences by applying a driven equilibrium (DRIVE) pulse

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Radlbauer, Rudolf, E-mail: rudolf.radlbauer@stpoelten.lknoe.a [MR Physics Group, Department of Radiology, Landesklinikum St. Poelten, Propst Fuehrer Strasse 4, 3100 St. Poelten (Austria); Lomoschitz, Friedrich, E-mail: friedrich.lomoschitz@stpoelten.lknoe.a [MR Physics Group, Department of Radiology, Landesklinikum St. Poelten, Propst Fuehrer Strasse 4, 3100 St. Poelten (Austria); Salomonowitz, Erich, E-mail: erich.salomonowitz@stpoelten.lknoe.a [MR Physics Group, Department of Radiology, Landesklinikum St. Poelten, Propst Fuehrer Strasse 4, 3100 St. Poelten (Austria); Eberhardt, Knut E., E-mail: info@mrt-kompetenzzentrum.d [MRT Competence Center Schloss Werneck, Balthasar-Neumann-Platz 2, 97440 Werneck (Germany); Stadlbauer, Andreas, E-mail: andi@nmr.a [MR Physics Group, Department of Radiology, Landesklinikum St. Poelten, Propst Fuehrer Strasse 4, 3100 St. Poelten (Austria); Department of Neurosurgery, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054 Erlangen (Germany)

    2010-08-15

    The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of a driven equilibrium (DRIVE) pulse incorporated in a standard T1-weighted turbo spin echo (TSE) sequence as used in our routine MRI protocol for examination of pathologies of the knee. Sixteen consecutive patients with knee disorders were examined using the routine MRI protocol, including T1-weighted TSE-sequences with and without a DRIVE pulse. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of anatomical structures and pathologies were calculated and compared for both sequences. The differences in diagnostic value of the T1-weighted images with and without DRIVE pulse were assessed. SNR was significantly higher on images acquired with DRIVE pulse for fluid, effusion, cartilage and bone. Differences in the SNR of meniscus and muscle between the two sequences were not statistically significant. CNR was significantly increased between muscle and effusion, fluid and cartilage, fluid and meniscus, cartilage and meniscus, bone and cartilage on images acquired using the DRIVE pulse. Diagnostic value of the T1-weighted images was found to be improved for delineation of anatomic structures and for diagnosing a variety of pathologies when a DRIVE pulse is incorporated in the sequence. Incorporation of a DRIVE pulse into a standard T1-weighted TSE-sequence leads to significant increase of SNR and CNR of both, anatomical structures and pathologies, and consequently to an increase in diagnostic value within the same acquisition time.

  20. MR imaging of the knee: Improvement of signal and contrast efficiency of T1-weighted turbo spin echo sequences by applying a driven equilibrium (DRIVE) pulse

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radlbauer, Rudolf; Lomoschitz, Friedrich; Salomonowitz, Erich; Eberhardt, Knut E.; Stadlbauer, Andreas

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of a driven equilibrium (DRIVE) pulse incorporated in a standard T1-weighted turbo spin echo (TSE) sequence as used in our routine MRI protocol for examination of pathologies of the knee. Sixteen consecutive patients with knee disorders were examined using the routine MRI protocol, including T1-weighted TSE-sequences with and without a DRIVE pulse. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of anatomical structures and pathologies were calculated and compared for both sequences. The differences in diagnostic value of the T1-weighted images with and without DRIVE pulse were assessed. SNR was significantly higher on images acquired with DRIVE pulse for fluid, effusion, cartilage and bone. Differences in the SNR of meniscus and muscle between the two sequences were not statistically significant. CNR was significantly increased between muscle and effusion, fluid and cartilage, fluid and meniscus, cartilage and meniscus, bone and cartilage on images acquired using the DRIVE pulse. Diagnostic value of the T1-weighted images was found to be improved for delineation of anatomic structures and for diagnosing a variety of pathologies when a DRIVE pulse is incorporated in the sequence. Incorporation of a DRIVE pulse into a standard T1-weighted TSE-sequence leads to significant increase of SNR and CNR of both, anatomical structures and pathologies, and consequently to an increase in diagnostic value within the same acquisition time.

  1. [The Overlap Syndrome: association of COPD and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weitzenblum, E; Chaouat, A; Kessler, R; Canuet, M; Hirschi, S

    2010-04-01

    Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS) are both common diseases affecting respectively 10 and 5% of the adult population over 40 years of age. Their coexistence, which is denominated "Overlap Syndrome", can be expected to occur in about 0.5% of this population. Two recent epidemiologic studies have shown that the prevalence of OSAHS is not higher in COPD than in the general population, and that the coexistence of the two conditions is due to chance and not through a pathophysiological linkage. Patients with "overlap" have a higher risk of sleep-related O(2) desaturation than do patients with COPD alone and the same degree of bronchial obstruction. They have an increased risk of developing hypercapnic respiratory failure and pulmonary hypertension when compared with patients with OSAHS alone and with patients with "usual" COPD. In patients with overlap, hypoxaemia, hypercapnia, and pulmonary hypertension can be observed in the presence of mild to moderate bronchial obstruction, which is different from "usual" COPD. Treatment of the overlap syndrome consists of nasal continuous positive airway pressure or nocturnal non-invasive ventilation (NIV), with or without nocturnal O(2). Patients who are markedly hypoxaemic during the daytime (PaO(2)<55-60 mmHg) should be given conventional long-term O(2) therapy in addition to nocturnal ventilation. Copyright 2010 SPLF. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  2. Clinical usefulness of fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequences in intracranial lesions focusing on emergent cases

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kuramochi, Masashi; Niitsu, Mamoru; Itai, Yuji [Tsukuba Univ., Ibaraki (Japan). Inst. of Clinical Medicine; Wada, Mitsuyoshi

    1997-06-01

    Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) Pulse Sequences with inversion times of 1700 ms and echo times of 110 ms were used to demonstrate the brain of cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and brain trauma. The long inversion times and long echo times nulls the signal from cerebrospinal fluid and produces heavy T{sub 2} weighting images. We compared FLAIR Pulse Sequences with T{sub 2} weighted image Pulse Sequences for signal intensities of CVD and trauma. FLAIR Pulse Sequences is useful to detect at the periphery of the cerebral hemispheres, but infratentorial small infarctions often cannot be detected for its iso-intensity and slight intensity changes. In all patient of traumatic-subarachnoid hemorrhage (t-SAH) can be definitely detected high signal intensity of the cerebral hemispheres. (author)

  3. Genetic architecture of sporadic frontotemporal dementia and overlap with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ferrari, Raffaele; Wang, Yunpeng; Vandrovcova, Jana

    2017-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Clinical, pathological and genetic overlap between sporadic frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) has been suggested; however, the relationship between these disorders is still not well understood. Here we evaluated genetic overlap between...

  4. Living as an LGBTQ adolescent and a parent’s child: Overlapping or separate experiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watson, Ryan J.; Eisenberg, Marla E.; Corliss, Heather L.; Porta, Carolyn M.

    2017-01-01

    It is well known that parental and community-based support are each related to healthy development in LGBTQ youth, but little research has explored the ways these contexts interact and overlap. Through go-along interviews (a method in which participants guide the interviewer around the community) with 66 youth in British Columbia, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, adolescents (aged 14–19 years) reported varying extent of overlap between their LGBTQ experiences and their parent-youth experiences; parents and youth each contributed to the extent of overlap. Youth who reported high overlap reported little need for resources outside their families but found resources easy to access if wanted. Youth who reported little overlap found it difficult to access resources. Findings suggest that in both research and practice, considering the extent to which youth feel they can express their authentic identity in multiple contexts may be more useful than simply evaluating parental acceptance or access to resources. PMID:28795897

  5. Hybridized Kibble-Zurek scaling in the driven critical dynamics across an overlapping critical region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhai, Liang-Jun; Wang, Huai-Yu; Yin, Shuai

    2018-04-01

    The conventional Kibble-Zurek scaling describes the scaling behavior in the driven dynamics across a single critical region. In this paper, we study the driven dynamics across an overlapping critical region, in which a critical region (Region A) is overlaid by another critical region (Region B). We develop a hybridized Kibble-Zurek scaling (HKZS) to characterize the scaling behavior in the driven process. According to the HKZS, the driven dynamics in the overlapping region can be described by the critical theories for both Region A and Region B simultaneously. This results in a constraint on the scaling function in the overlapping critical region. We take the quantum Ising chain in an imaginary longitudinal field as an example. In this model, the critical region of the Yang-Lee edge singularity and the critical region of the ferromagnetic-paramagnetic phase transition overlap with each other. We numerically confirm the HKZS by simulating the driven dynamics in this overlapping critical region. The HKZSs in other models are also discussed.

  6. The Size of Activating and Inhibitory Killer Ig-like Receptor Nanoclusters Is Controlled by the Transmembrane Sequence and Affects Signaling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Oszmiana

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Super-resolution microscopy has revealed that immune cell receptors are organized in nanoscale clusters at cell surfaces and immune synapses. However, mechanisms and functions for this nanoscale organization remain unclear. Here, we used super-resolution microscopy to compare the surface organization of paired killer Ig-like receptors (KIR, KIR2DL1 and KIR2DS1, on human primary natural killer cells and cell lines. Activating KIR2DS1 assembled in clusters two-fold larger than its inhibitory counterpart KIR2DL1. Site-directed mutagenesis established that the size of nanoclusters is controlled by transmembrane amino acid 233, a lysine in KIR2DS1. Super-resolution microscopy also revealed two ways in which the nanoscale clustering of KIR affects signaling. First, KIR2DS1 and DAP12 nanoclusters are juxtaposed in the resting cell state but coalesce upon receptor ligation. Second, quantitative super-resolution microscopy revealed that phosphorylation of the kinase ZAP-70 or phosphatase SHP-1 is favored in larger KIR nanoclusters. Thus, the size of KIR nanoclusters depends on the transmembrane sequence and affects downstream signaling.

  7. Genome sequence of an enhancin gene-rich nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) from Agrotis segetum: collinearity with Spodoptera exigua multiple NPV

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jakubowska, A.K.; Peters, S.A.; Ziemnicka, J.; Vlak, J.M.; Oers, van M.M.

    2006-01-01

    The genome sequence of a Polish isolate of Agrotis segetum nucleopolyhedrovirus (AgseNPV-A) was determined and analysed. The circular genome is composed of 147 544 bp and has a G+C content of 45¿7 mol%. It contains 153 putative, non-overlapping open reading frames (ORFs) encoding predicted proteins

  8. DNA Measurement of Overlapping Cell Nuclei in Thick Tissue Sections

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liang Ji

    1997-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper describes an improved image analysis procedure for measuring the DNA content of cell nuclei in thick sections of liver tissue by absorption densitometry. Whereas previous methods only permitted the analysis of isolated nuclei, the new technique enables both isolated and overlapping nuclei to be measured. A 3D segmentation procedure determines whether each object is an isolated nucleus or a pair of overlapping nuclei; in the latter case the combined optical density is redistributed to the individual nuclei. A selection procedure ensures that only complete nuclei are measured.

  9. Device for overlapping of a column of pump compressor pipes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sharafutdinov, I.G.; Akhmerov, M.N.; Asadullin, Kh.F.; Prokopov, O.I.

    1980-02-16

    A device is proposed for automatic overlapping of pump compressor pipes of gushing petroleum and gas wells when losses occur near the well. The objective of the invention is to increase efficiency of the overlapping of the pipe column by recharging the device directly at the hole without disassembling the head equipment. This objective is achieved as follows. The device is equipped with elastic spacers located in the channels of a ring. They are mounted with the possibility of interaction with ball catches. A drawing and description of the device are given.

  10. Prediction of non-canonical polyadenylation signals in human genomic sequences based on a novel algorithm using a fuzzy membership function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamasawa, Masami; Horiuchi, Jun-Ichi

    2009-05-01

    Computational prediction of polyadenylation signals (PASes) is essential for analysis of alternative polyadenylation that plays crucial roles in gene regulations by generating heterogeneity of 3'-UTR of mRNAs. To date, several algorithms that are mostly based on machine learning methods have been developed to predict PASes. Accuracies of predictions by those algorithms have improved significantly for the last decade. However, they are designed primarily for prediction of the most canonical AAUAAA and its common variant AUUAAA whereas other variants have been ignored in their predictions despite recent studies indicating that non-canonical variants of AAUAAA are more important in the polyadenylation process than commonly recognized. Here we present a new algorithm "PolyF" employing fuzzy logic to confer an advance in computational PAS prediction--enable prediction of the non-canonical variants, and improve the accuracies for the canonical A(A/U)UAAA prediction. PolyF is a simple computational algorithm that is composed of membership functions defining sequence features of downstream sequence element (DSE) and upstream sequence element (USE), together with an inference engine. As a result, PolyF successfully identified the 10 single-nucleotide variants with approximately the same or higher accuracies compared to those for A(A/U)UAAA. PolyF also achieved higher accuracies for A(A/U)UAAA prediction than those by commonly known PAS finder programs, Polyadq and Erpin. Incorporating the USE into the PolyF algorithm was found to enhance prediction accuracies for all the 12 PAS hexamers compared to those using only the DSE, suggesting an important contribution of the USE in the polyadenylation process.

  11. GeneChip microarrays-signal intensities, RNA concentrations and probe sequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Binder, Hans; Preibisch, Stephan

    2006-01-01

    GeneChip microarrays consist of hundreds of thousands of oligonucleotide probes. The transformation of their signal intensities into RNA transcript concentrations requires the knowledge of the response function of the measuring device. We analysed the 'apparatus' function of perfect match (PM) and mismatched (MM) oligonucleotide probes of GeneChip microarrays after changes of the target concentration using the results of a spiked-in experiment. In agreement with previous studies we found that a competitive two-species Langmuir-adsorption model describes the probe intensities well. Each PM and MM probe is characterized by two hybridization constants which specify the propensity of the probe to bind specific and non-specific transcripts. The affinity for non-specific hybridization is on average equal for PM and MM. The purine-pyrimidine asymmetry of base pair interaction strengths, however, causes a characteristic PM-MM intensity difference, the sign of which depends on the middle base of the probe. The affinity for specific hybridization of the PM exceeds that of the MM on average by nearly one order of magnitude because the central mismatched base only weakly contributes to the stability of the probe/target duplexes. For the first time we differentiate between the free energy parameters related to the 64 possible middle-triples of DNA/RNA oligomer duplexes with a central Watson-Crick pairing and a central mismatched pairing. Both the PM and MM probes respond to the concentration of specific transcripts, which can be estimated from the PM and MM probe intensities using the Langmuir-model. The analysis of the PM-MM intensity difference provides at least no loss of accuracy and precision of the estimated concentration compared with the PM-only estimates which in turn outperform the MM-only estimates. The results show that the processing of the PM-MM intensity difference requires the consideration of a background term due to non-specific hybridization, which is

  12. Strong genetic overlap between executive functions and intelligence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Engelhardt, Laura E; Mann, Frank D; Briley, Daniel A; Church, Jessica A; Harden, K Paige; Tucker-Drob, Elliot M

    2016-09-01

    Executive functions (EFs) are cognitive processes that control, monitor, and coordinate more basic cognitive processes. EFs play instrumental roles in models of complex reasoning, learning, and decision making, and individual differences in EFs have been consistently linked with individual differences in intelligence. By middle childhood, genetic factors account for a moderate proportion of the variance in intelligence, and these effects increase in magnitude through adolescence. Genetic influences on EFs are very high, even in middle childhood, but the extent to which these genetic influences overlap with those on intelligence is unclear. We examined genetic and environmental overlap between EFs and intelligence in a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 811 twins ages 7 to 15 years (M = 10.91, SD = 1.74) from the Texas Twin Project. A general EF factor representing variance common to inhibition, switching, working memory, and updating domains accounted for substantial proportions of variance in intelligence, primarily via a genetic pathway. General EF continued to have a strong, genetically mediated association with intelligence even after controlling for processing speed. Residual variation in general intelligence was influenced only by shared and nonshared environmental factors, and there remained no genetic variance in general intelligence that was unique of EF. Genetic variance independent of EF did remain, however, in a more specific perceptual reasoning ability. These results provide evidence that genetic influences on general intelligence are highly overlapping with those on EF. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  13. Individual foraging strategies reveal niche overlap between endangered galapagos pinnipeds.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stella Villegas-Amtmann

    Full Text Available Most competition studies between species are conducted from a population-level approach. Few studies have examined inter-specific competition in conjunction with intra-specific competition, with an individual-based approach. To our knowledge, none has been conducted on marine top predators. Sympatric Galapagos fur seals (Arctocephalus galapagoensis and sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki share similar geographic habitats and potentially compete. We studied their foraging niche overlap at Cabo Douglas, Fernandina Island from simultaneously collected dive and movement data to examine spatial and temporal inter- and intra-specific competition. Sea lions exhibited 3 foraging strategies (shallow, intermediate and deep indicating intra-specific competition. Fur seals exhibited one foraging strategy, diving predominantly at night, between 0-80 m depth and mostly at 19-22 h. Most sea lion dives also occurred at night (63%, between 0-40 m, within fur seals' diving depth range. 34% of sea lions night dives occurred at 19-22 h, when fur seals dived the most, but most of them occurred at dawn and dusk, when fur seals exhibited the least amount of dives. Fur seals and sea lions foraging behavior overlapped at 19 and 21 h between 0-30 m depths. Sea lions from the deep diving strategy exhibited the greatest foraging overlap with fur seals, in time (19 h, depth during overlapping time (21-24 m, and foraging range (37.7%. Fur seals foraging range was larger. Cabo Douglas northwest coastal area, region of highest diving density, is a foraging "hot spot" for both species. Fur seals and sea lions foraging niche overlap occurred, but segregation also occurred; fur seals primarily dived at night, while sea lions exhibited night and day diving. Both species exploited depths and areas exclusive to their species. Niche breadth generally increases with environmental uncertainty and decreased productivity. Potential competition between these species could be greater during

  14. Retrospective analysis of autoimmune hepatitis-primary biliary cirrhosis overlap syndrome in Korea: characteristics, treatments, and outcomes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoonsang Park

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Background/AimsOverlap syndrome of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC (AIH-PBC overlap syndrome is a rare disease that has not been clearly characterized in Korean patients. This study investigated the clinical features of AIH-PBC overlap syndrome compared with those of AIH and PBC alone.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study included 158 consecutive patients who were diagnosed as AIH (n=61, PBC (n=81, or AIH-PBC overlap syndrome (n=9 based on the Paris and the International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group (IAIHG criteria from 2001 to 2011 in Korea. We compared the clinical features of these three groups retrospectively, including their biochemical characteristics, treatments, responses, and clinical outcomes.ResultsThe AIH-PBC overlap syndrome patients exhibited biochemical characteristics of both AIH and PBC, and showed a similar response to ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA monotherapy as for the PBC patients. However, the response of AIH-PBC overlap syndrome patients to UDCA and steroid combination therapy was worse than the response of AIH patients to steroid-based therapy (P=0.024. Liver cirrhosis developed more rapidly in AIH-PBC overlap syndrome patients than in AIH patients group (P=0.013, but there was no difference between AIH-PBC overlap syndrome patients and PBC patients. The rates of developing hepatic decompensation did not differ significantly between the groups.ConclusionsThe AIH-PBC overlap syndrome patients exhibited a worse response to UDCA and steroid combination therapy and a faster cirrhotic progression compared with AIH patients.

  15. RNA sequence determinants of a coupled termination-reinitiation strategy for downstream open reading frame translation in Helminthosporium victoriae virus 190S and other victoriviruses (Family Totiviridae).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Hua; Havens, Wendy M; Nibert, Max L; Ghabrial, Said A

    2011-07-01

    The genome-length, dicistronic mRNA of the double-stranded RNA fungal virus Helminthosporium victoriae virus 190S (genus Victorivirus, family Totiviridae) contains two long open reading frames (ORFs) that overlap in the tetranucleotide AUGA. Translation of the downstream ORF, which encodes the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), has been proposed to depend on ribosomal reinitiation following termination of the upstream ORF, which encodes the capsid protein. In the current study, we examined the RNA sequence determinants for RdRp translation in this virus and demonstrated that a coupled termination-reinitiation (stop-restart) strategy is indeed used. Signals for termination-reinitiation are found within a 32-nucleotide stretch of RNA immediately upstream of the AUGA motif, including a predicted pseudoknot structure. The close proximity in which this predicted structure is followed by the upstream ORF's stop codon appears to be especially important for promoting translation of the downstream ORF. The normal strong preferences for an AUG start codon and the canonical sequence context to favor translation initiation appear somewhat relaxed for the downstream ORF. Similar sequence motifs and predicted RNA structures in other victoriviruses suggest that they all share a related stop-restart strategy for RdRp translation. Members of the genus Victorivirus thus provide new and unique opportunities for exploring the molecular mechanisms of translational coupling, which remain only partly understood in this and other systems.

  16. A direct comparison of appetitive and aversive anticipation: Overlapping and distinct neural activation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sege, Christopher T; Bradley, Margaret M; Weymar, Mathias; Lang, Peter J

    2017-05-30

    fMRI studies of reward find increased neural activity in ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), whereas other regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and anterior insula, are activated when anticipating aversive exposure. Although these data suggest differential activation during anticipation of pleasant or of unpleasant exposure, they also arise in the context of different paradigms (e.g., preparation for reward vs. threat of shock) and participants. To determine overlapping and unique regions active during emotional anticipation, we compared neural activity during anticipation of pleasant or unpleasant exposure in the same participants. Cues signalled the upcoming presentation of erotic/romantic, violent, or everyday pictures while BOLD activity during the 9-s anticipatory period was measured using fMRI. Ventral striatum and a ventral mPFC subregion were activated when anticipating pleasant, but not unpleasant or neutral, pictures, whereas activation in other regions was enhanced when anticipating appetitive or aversive scenes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Changes in insulin-like growth factor signaling alter phenotypes in Fragile X Mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wise, T L

    2017-02-01

    Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is an inherited form of intellectual disability that is usually caused by expansion of a polymorphic CGG repeat in the 5' untranslated region of the X-linked FMR1 gene, which leads to hypermethylation and transcriptional silencing. Two non-neurological phenotypes of FXS are enlarged testes and connective tissue dysplasia, which could be caused by alterations in a growth factor signaling pathway. FXS patients also frequently have autistic-like symptoms, suggesting that the signaling pathways affected in FXS may overlap with those affected in autism. Identifying these pathways is important for both understanding the effects of FMR1 inactivation and developing treatments for both FXS and autism. Here we show that decreasing the levels of the insulin-like growth factor (Igf) receptor 1 corrects a number of phenotypes in the mouse model of FXS, including macro-orchidism, and that increasing the levels of IGF2 exacerbates the seizure susceptibility phenotype. These results suggest that the pathways altered by the loss of the FMR1-encoded protein (FMRP) may overlap with the pathways affected by changes in Igf signaling or that one or more of the proteins that play a role in Igf signaling could interact with FMRP. They also indicate a new set of potential targets for drug treatment of FXS and autism spectrum disorders. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.

  18. Auditing Complex Concepts in Overlapping Subsets of SNOMED

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yue; Wei, Duo; Xu, Junchuan; Elhanan, Gai; Perl, Yehoshua; Halper, Michael; Chen, Yan; Spackman, Kent A.; Hripcsak, George

    2008-01-01

    Limited resources and the sheer volume of concepts make auditing a large terminology, such as SNOMED CT, a daunting task. It is essential to devise techniques that can aid an auditor by automatically identifying concepts that deserve attention. A methodology for this purpose based on a previously introduced abstraction network (called the p-area taxonomy) for a SNOMED CT hierarchy is presented. The methodology algorithmically gathers concepts appearing in certain overlapping subsets, defined exclusively with respect to the p-area taxonomy, for review. The results of applying the methodology to SNOMED’s Specimen hierarchy are presented. These results are compared against a control sample composed of concepts residing in subsets without the overlaps. With the use of the double bootstrap, the concept group produced by our methodology is shown to yield a statistically significant higher proportion of error discoveries. PMID:18998838

  19. Phenotype of asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhee, Chin Kook

    2015-07-01

    Many patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have overlapping characteristics of both diseases. By spirometric definition, patients with both fixed airflow obstruction (AO) and bronchodilator reversibility or fixed AO and bronchial hyperresponsiveness can be considered to have asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS). However, patients regarded to have ACOS by spirometric criteria alone are heterogeneous and can be classified by phenotype. Eosinophilic inflammation, a history of allergic disease, and smoke exposure are important components in the classification of ACOS. Each phenotype has a different underlying pathophysiology, set of characteristics, and prognosis. Medical treatment for ACOS should be tailored according to phenotype. A narrower definition of ACOS that includes both spirometric and clinical criteria is needed.

  20. Serial or overlapping processing in multitasking as individual preference: Effects of stimulus preview on task switching and concurrent dual-task performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reissland, Jessika; Manzey, Dietrich

    2016-07-01

    Understanding the mechanisms and performance consequences of multitasking has long been in focus of scientific interest, but has been investigated by three research lines more or less isolated from each other. Studies in the fields of the psychological refractory period, task switching, and interruptions have scored with a high experimental control, but usually do not give participants many degrees of freedom to self-organize the processing of two concurrent tasks. Individual strategies as well as their impact on efficiency have mainly been neglected. Self-organized multitasking has been investigated in the field of human factors, but primarily with respect to overall performance without detailed investigation of how the tasks are processed. The current work attempts to link aspects of these research lines. All of them, explicitly or implicitly, provide hints about an individually preferred type of task organization, either more cautious trying to work strictly serially on only one task at a time or more daring with a focus on task interleaving and, if possible, also partially overlapping (parallel) processing. In two experiments we investigated different strategies of task organization and their impact on efficiency using a new measure of overall multitasking efficiency. Experiment 1 was based on a classical task switching paradigm with two classification tasks, but provided one group of participants with a stimulus preview of the task to switch to next, enabling at least partial overlapping processing. Indeed, this preview led to a reduction of switch costs and to an increase of dual-task efficiency, but only for a subgroup of participants. They obviously exploited the possibility of overlapping processing, while the others worked mainly serially. While task-sequence was externally guided in the first experiment, Experiment 2 extended the approach by giving the participants full freedom of task organization in concurrent performance of the same tasks. Fine

  1. Designing a Bioengine for Detection and Analysis of Base String on an Affected Sequence in High-Concentration Regions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Debnath Bhattacharyya

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available We design an Algorithm for bioengine. As a program are enable optimal alignments searching between two sequences, the host sequence (normal plant as well as query sequence (virus. Searching for homologues has become a routine operation of biological sequences in 4 × 4 combination with different subsequence (word size. This program takes the advantage of the high degree of homology between such sequences to construct an alignment of the matching regions. There is a main aim which is to detect the overlapping reading frames. This program also enables to find out the highly infected colones selection highest matching region with minimum gap or mismatch zones and unique virus colones matches. This is a small, portable, interactive, front-end program intended to be used to find out the regions of matching between host sequence and query subsequences. All the operations are carried out in fraction of seconds, depending on the required task and on the sequence length.

  2. Designing a Bioengine for Detection and Analysis of Base String on an Affected Sequence in High-Concentration Regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mandal, Bijoy Kumar; Kim, Tai-hoon

    2013-01-01

    We design an Algorithm for bioengine. As a program are enable optimal alignments searching between two sequences, the host sequence (normal plant) as well as query sequence (virus). Searching for homologues has become a routine operation of biological sequences in 4 × 4 combination with different subsequence (word size). This program takes the advantage of the high degree of homology between such sequences to construct an alignment of the matching regions. There is a main aim which is to detect the overlapping reading frames. This program also enables to find out the highly infected colones selection highest matching region with minimum gap or mismatch zones and unique virus colones matches. This is a small, portable, interactive, front-end program intended to be used to find out the regions of matching between host sequence and query subsequences. All the operations are carried out in fraction of seconds, depending on the required task and on the sequence length. PMID:24000321

  3. Segmentation, Inference and Classification of Partially Overlapping Nanoparticles

    KAUST Repository

    Chiwoo Park,; Huang, J. Z.; Ji, J. X.; Yu Ding,

    2013-01-01

    an agglomerate of overlapping nano-objects; infer the particle's missing contours; and ultimately, classify the particles by shape based on their complete contours. Our specific method adopts a two-stage approach: the first stage executes the task of particle

  4. ORIGINAL ARTICLE Farber disease overlapping with stiff skin ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    salah

    Aim of the Study: Diagnosis and clarification of overlapping in the clinical presentation of the ... and heart are particularly affected with ... painful swelling of the joints, especially the ankle, wrist ... exons and encoding a 395 amino acid precursor ...

  5. Complete cDNA sequence coding for human docking protein

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hortsch, M; Labeit, S; Meyer, D I

    1988-01-11

    Docking protein (DP, or SRP receptor) is a rough endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated protein essential for the targeting and translocation of nascent polypeptides across this membrane. It specifically interacts with a cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein complex, the signal recognition particle (SRP). The nucleotide sequence of cDNA encoding the entire human DP and its deduced amino acid sequence are given.

  6. Development of in vitro transposon assisted signal sequence trapping and its use in screening Bacillus halodurans C125 and Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 gene libraries

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Becker, F.; Schnorr, K.; Wilting, R.

    2004-01-01

    To identify genes encoding extracytosolic proteins, a minitransposon, TnSig, containing a signal-less beta-lactamase ('bla) as reporter gene, was constructed and used for in vitro transposition of genomic libraries made in Escherichia coli. The 'bla gene was cloned into a bacteriophage MU...... minitransposon enabling translational fusions between 'bla and target genes. Fusion of TnSig in the correct reading frame to a protein carrying transmembrane domains or signal peptides resulted in ampicillin resistance of the corresponding clone. Prokaryotic gene libraries from the alkaliphilic bacterium...... Bacillus halodurans C125 and the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 were tagged with TnSig. The genomic sequences, which are publicly available (EMBL BA000004 and EMBL AE006641), were used for rapid open reading frame (ORF) identification and prediction of protein localisation...

  7. Rolling Bearing Fault Diagnosis Using Modified Neighborhood Preserving Embedding and Maximal Overlap Discrete Wavelet Packet Transform with Sensitive Features Selection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fei Dong

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to enhance the performance of bearing fault diagnosis and classification, features extraction and features dimensionality reduction have become more important. The original statistical feature set was calculated from single branch reconstruction vibration signals obtained by using maximal overlap discrete wavelet packet transform (MODWPT. In order to reduce redundancy information of original statistical feature set, features selection by adjusted rand index and sum of within-class mean deviations (FSASD was proposed to select fault sensitive features. Furthermore, a modified features dimensionality reduction method, supervised neighborhood preserving embedding with label information (SNPEL, was proposed to realize low-dimensional representations for high-dimensional feature space. Finally, vibration signals collected from two experimental test rigs were employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed procedure. The results show that the effectiveness, adaptability, and superiority of the proposed procedure can serve as an intelligent bearing fault diagnosis system.

  8. Composite Binary Sequences with a Large Ensemble and Zero Correlation Zone

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. S. Yudachev

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The article considers a proposed class of derived signals such as composite binary sequences for application in advanced spread spectrum radio systems of various purposes, using signals based on spectrum spreading by direct sequence method. Considered composite sequences, having a representative set of lengths and unique correlation properties, compares favorably with the widely used at present large ensembles formed on a single algorithmic basis. To evaluate the properties of the composite sequences generated on the basis of two components - the Barker code and Kerdock sequences, expressions of periodic and aperiodic correlation functions are given.An algorithm for generating practical ensembles of composite sequences is presented. On the basis of the algorithm and its software implementation in C #, the samples of the sequence ensembles of various lengths were obtained and their periodic and aperiodic correlation functions and statistical characteristics were studied in detail. As an illustration, some of the most typical correlation functions are presented. The most remarkable characteristics allowing a ssessing the feasibility of using this type of sequences in the design of specific types of radio systems are considered.On the basis of the proposed program and the performed calculations the conclusions can be drawn about the possibility of using the sequences of these classes, with the aim of reducing intra-system disturbance in the projected spread spectrum CDMA.

  9. Autism and ADHD: Overlapping and Discriminating Symptoms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayes, Susan Dickerson; Calhoun, Susan L.; Mayes, Rebecca D.; Molitoris, Sarah

    2012-01-01

    Children with ADHD and autism have some similar features, complicating a differential diagnosis. The purpose of our study was to determine the degree to which core ADHD and autistic symptoms overlap in and discriminate between children 2-16 years of age with autism and ADHD. Our study demonstrated that 847 children with autism were easily…

  10. TREE2FASTA: a flexible Perl script for batch extraction of FASTA sequences from exploratory phylogenetic trees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sauvage, Thomas; Plouviez, Sophie; Schmidt, William E; Fredericq, Suzanne

    2018-03-05

    The body of DNA sequence data lacking taxonomically informative sequence headers is rapidly growing in user and public databases (e.g. sequences lacking identification and contaminants). In the context of systematics studies, sorting such sequence data for taxonomic curation and/or molecular diversity characterization (e.g. crypticism) often requires the building of exploratory phylogenetic trees with reference taxa. The subsequent step of segregating DNA sequences of interest based on observed topological relationships can represent a challenging task, especially for large datasets. We have written TREE2FASTA, a Perl script that enables and expedites the sorting of FASTA-formatted sequence data from exploratory phylogenetic trees. TREE2FASTA takes advantage of the interactive, rapid point-and-click color selection and/or annotations of tree leaves in the popular Java tree-viewer FigTree to segregate groups of FASTA sequences of interest to separate files. TREE2FASTA allows for both simple and nested segregation designs to facilitate the simultaneous preparation of multiple data sets that may overlap in sequence content.

  11. Magnetic breakdown in an array of overlapping Fermi surfaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kadigrobov, A.M.; Radić, D.; Bjeliš, A.

    2015-01-01

    We develop a theoretical framework for a magnetic breakdown in an array of circular two-dimensional bands with a finite overlap of neighboring Fermi surfaces due to the presence of a presumably weak periodic potential, and apply the obtained results to the electron bands in carbon honeycomb structures of doped graphene and intercalated graphite compounds. In contrast to the standard treatment, inaugurated more than fifty years ago by Slutskin and Kadigrobov, with electron semiclassical trajectories encircling significantly overlapping Fermi surfaces, we examine a configuration in which bands are related in a way that the Fermi surfaces only slightly overlap, forming internal band pockets with areas of the size comparable to the area of the quantum magnetic flux for a given external magnetic field. Such band configuration has to be treated quantum mechanically. The calculation leads to the results for magnetic breakdown coefficients comprising an additional large factor with respect to the standard results, proportional to the ratio of the Fermi energy and the cyclotron energy. Also, these coefficients show oscillating dependence on energy, as well as on the wave number of periodic potential. Both mentioned elements enable the adjustment of the preferred wave vector of possible magnetic breakdown induced density wave instability at the highest possible critical temperature

  12. Heterojunction fully depleted SOI-TFET with oxide/source overlap

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chander, Sweta; Bhowmick, B.; Baishya, S.

    2015-10-01

    In this work, a hetero-junction fully depleted (FD) Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) Tunnel Field Effect Transistor (TFET) nanostructure with oxide overlap on the Germanium-source region is proposed. Investigations using Synopsys Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) simulation tools reveal that the simple oxide overlap on the Germanium-source region increases the tunneling area as well as the tunneling current without degrading the band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) and improves the device performance. More importantly, the improvement is independent of gate overlap. Simulation study shows improvement in ON current, subthreshold swing (SS), OFF current, ION/IOFF ration, threshold voltage and transconductance. The proposed device with hafnium oxide (HfO2)/Aluminium Nitride (AlN) stack dielectric material offers an average subthreshold swing of 22 mV/decade and high ION/IOFF ratio (∼1010) at VDS = 0.4 V. Compared to conventional TFET, the Miller capacitance of the device shows the enhanced performance. The impact of the drain voltage variation on different parameters such as threshold voltage, subthreshold swing, transconductance, and ION/IOFF ration are also found to be satisfactory. From fabrication point of view also it is easy to utilize the existing CMOS process flows to fabricate the proposed device.

  13. Overlapping community detection based on link graph using distance dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Lei; Zhang, Jing; Cai, Li-Jun

    2018-01-01

    The distance dynamics model was recently proposed to detect the disjoint community of a complex network. To identify the overlapping structure of a network using the distance dynamics model, an overlapping community detection algorithm, called L-Attractor, is proposed in this paper. The process of L-Attractor mainly consists of three phases. In the first phase, L-Attractor transforms the original graph to a link graph (a new edge graph) to assure that one node has multiple distances. In the second phase, using the improved distance dynamics model, a dynamic interaction process is introduced to simulate the distance dynamics (shrink or stretch). Through the dynamic interaction process, all distances converge, and the disjoint community structure of the link graph naturally manifests itself. In the third phase, a recovery method is designed to convert the disjoint community structure of the link graph to the overlapping community structure of the original graph. Extensive experiments are conducted on the LFR benchmark networks as well as real-world networks. Based on the results, our algorithm demonstrates higher accuracy and quality than other state-of-the-art algorithms.

  14. Network neighborhood analysis with the multi-node topological overlap measure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ai; Horvath, Steve

    2007-01-15

    The goal of neighborhood analysis is to find a set of genes (the neighborhood) that is similar to an initial 'seed' set of genes. Neighborhood analysis methods for network data are important in systems biology. If individual network connections are susceptible to noise, it can be advantageous to define neighborhoods on the basis of a robust interconnectedness measure, e.g. the topological overlap measure. Since the use of multiple nodes in the seed set may lead to more informative neighborhoods, it can be advantageous to define multi-node similarity measures. The pairwise topological overlap measure is generalized to multiple network nodes and subsequently used in a recursive neighborhood construction method. A local permutation scheme is used to determine the neighborhood size. Using four network applications and a simulated example, we provide empirical evidence that the resulting neighborhoods are biologically meaningful, e.g. we use neighborhood analysis to identify brain cancer related genes. An executable Windows program and tutorial for multi-node topological overlap measure (MTOM) based analysis can be downloaded from the webpage (http://www.genetics.ucla.edu/labs/horvath/MTOM/).

  15. Specificity and overlap of attention and memory biases in depression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marchetti, Igor; Everaert, Jonas; Dainer-Best, Justin; Loeys, Tom; Beevers, Christopher G; Koster, Ernst H W

    2018-01-01

    Attentional and memory biases are viewed as crucial cognitive processes underlying symptoms of depression. However, it is still unclear whether these two biases are uniquely related to depression or whether they show substantial overlap. We investigated the degree of specificity and overlap of attentional and memory biases for depressotypic stimuli in relation to depression and anxiety by means of meta-analytic commonality analysis. By including four published studies, we considered a pool of 463 healthy and subclinically depressed individuals, different experimental paradigms, and different psychological measures. Memory bias is reliably and strongly related to depression and, specifically, to symptoms of negative mood, worthlessness, feelings of failure, and pessimism. Memory bias for negative information was minimally related to anxiety. Moreover, neither attentional bias nor the overlap between attentional and memory biases were significantly related to depression. Limitations include cross-sectional nature of the study. Our study showed that, across different paradigms and psychological measures, memory bias (and not attentional bias) represents a primary mechanism in depression. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Elimination of motion and pulsation artifacts using BLADE sequences in shoulder MR imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lavdas, E.; Zaloni, E.; Vlychou, M.; Vassiou, K.; Fezoulidis, I.; Tsagkalis, A.; Dailiana, Z.

    2015-01-01

    To evaluate the ability of proton-density with fat-suppression BLADE (proprietary name for periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction in MR systems from Siemens Healthcare, PDFS BLADE) and turbo inversion recovery magnitude-BLADE (TIRM BLADE) sequences to reduce motion and pulsation artifacts in shoulder magnetic resonance examinations. Forty-one consecutive patients who had been routinely scanned for shoulder examination participated in the study. The following pairs of sequences with and without BLADE were compared: (a) Oblique coronal proton-density sequence with fat saturation of 25 patients and (b) oblique sagittal T2 TIRM-weighed sequence of 20 patients. Qualitative analysis was performed by two experienced radiologists. Image motion and pulsation artifacts were also evaluated. In oblique coronal PDFS BLADE sequences, motion artifacts have been significantly eliminated, even in five cases of non-diagnostic value with conventional imaging. Similarly, in oblique sagittal T2 TIRM BLADE sequences, image quality has been improved, even in six cases of non-diagnostic value with conventional imaging. Furthermore, flow artifacts have been improved in more than 80% of all the cases. The use of BLADE sequences is recommended in shoulder imaging, especially in uncooperative patients because it effectively eliminates motion and pulsation artifacts. (orig.)

  17. Epidemiological study of overlapping of involved organs in functional gastrointestinal disorders in the Chinese naval servicemen

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zi-kai WANG

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Objective To study the overlapping of involved organs in functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs occurring in the Chinese naval servicemen, and to provide a sound basis for its diagnosis and treatment. Methods From November 2006 to April 2007, a questionnaire survey was conducted in 8600 officers and soldiers of Chinese naval force in three regions using randomized, stratified, multistage sampling method. All respondents completed the Rome Ⅲ Modular Questionnaire. The collected data were double input by EpiData3.02 software and analyzed by SPSS 13.0 software. Results 7454 valid questionnaires were retrieved. The incidence of overlapping was 46.7% involving two to five sites. In two-site overlap of FGIDs, the incidence of overlap functional gastroduodenal disorder (FGD and functional bowel disorder (FBD was shown to be highest (51.2%, 339/662, followed by the overlap of functional esophageal disorder (FED and FBD (15.4%, 102/662. In three-site overlap of FGIDs, the overlapping rate of FED, FGD and FBD was the highest (44.4%, 151/340, followed by that of FGD, FBD and functional abdominal pain syndrome (FAPS (20.3%, 69/340. The commonest four-site overlap of FGIDs included FED, FGD, FBD and FAPS (57.7%, 94/163. The five-site overlap of FGIDs was the combination of FED, FGD, FBD, FAPS and functional anorectal disorder (FAD. The incidence of FGIDs in southern military region was 49.8% (987/1983, which was higher than that of northern (31.8%, 1064/3351 and eastern (23.8%, 533/2240 regions. The incidence of FGIDs of single organ was 44.9% in southern military region, which was lower than 59.0% in eastern and 58.4% in northern region. The incidence of the illness involving two to five sites were higher in southern military region as compared with that of eastern and northern regions. Conclusions The rate of overlapping of FGIDs at different sites is common in the Chinese naval servicemen. There is a difference in rate of overlapping

  18. Areas activated during naturalistic reading comprehension overlap topological visual, auditory, and somatotomotor maps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sood, Mariam R; Sereno, Martin I

    2016-08-01

    Cortical mapping techniques using fMRI have been instrumental in identifying the boundaries of topological (neighbor-preserving) maps in early sensory areas. The presence of topological maps beyond early sensory areas raises the possibility that they might play a significant role in other cognitive systems, and that topological mapping might help to delineate areas involved in higher cognitive processes. In this study, we combine surface-based visual, auditory, and somatomotor mapping methods with a naturalistic reading comprehension task in the same group of subjects to provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the cortical overlap between sensory-motor maps in all major sensory modalities, and reading processing regions. Our results suggest that cortical activation during naturalistic reading comprehension overlaps more extensively with topological sensory-motor maps than has been heretofore appreciated. Reading activation in regions adjacent to occipital lobe and inferior parietal lobe almost completely overlaps visual maps, whereas a significant portion of frontal activation for reading in dorsolateral and ventral prefrontal cortex overlaps both visual and auditory maps. Even classical language regions in superior temporal cortex are partially overlapped by topological visual and auditory maps. By contrast, the main overlap with somatomotor maps is restricted to a small region on the anterior bank of the central sulcus near the border between the face and hand representations of M-I. Hum Brain Mapp 37:2784-2810, 2016. © 2016 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  19. Partial Stator Overlap in a Linear Generator for Wave Power: An Experimental Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna E. Frost

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a study on how the power absorption and damping in a linear generator for wave energy conversion are affected by partial overlap between stator and translator. The theoretical study shows that the electrical power as well as the damping coefficient change quadratically with partial stator overlap, if inductance, friction and iron losses are assumed independent of partial stator overlap or can be neglected. Results from onshore experiments on a linear generator for wave energy conversion cannot reject the quadratic relationship. Measurements were done on the inductance of the linear generator and no dependence on partial stator overlap could be found. Simulations of the wave energy converter’s operation in high waves show that entirely neglecting partial stator overlap will overestimate the energy yield and underestimate the peak forces in the line between the buoy and the generator. The difference between assuming a linear relationship instead of a quadratic relationship is visible but small in the energy yield in the simulation. Since the theoretical deduction suggests a quadratic relationship, this is advisable to use during modeling. However, a linear assumption could be seen as an acceptable simplification when modeling since other relationships can be computationally costly.

  20. Probing the topological structure of the QCD vacuum with overlap fermions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ilgenfritz, E.M.; Schierholz, G.; Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron; Streuer, T.; Weinberg, V.; Freie Univ. Berlin

    2005-12-01

    Overlap fermions implement exact chiral symmetry on the lattice and are thus an appropriate tool for investigating the chiral and topological structure of the QCD vacuum. We study various chiral and topological aspects on Luescher-Weisz-type quenched gauge field configurations using overlap fermions as a probe. Particular emphasis is placed upon the analysis of the spectral density and the localisation properties of the eigenmodes as well as on the local structure of topological charge fluctuations. (orig.)

  1. On the Effect of Sphere-Overlap on Super Coarse-Grained Models of Protein Assemblies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Degiacomi, Matteo T.

    2018-05-01

    Ion mobility mass spectrometry (IM/MS) can provide structural information on intact protein complexes. Such data, including connectivity and collision cross sections (CCS) of assemblies' subunits, can in turn be used as a guide to produce representative super coarse-grained models. These models are constituted by ensembles of overlapping spheres, each representing a protein subunit. A model is considered plausible if the CCS and sphere-overlap levels of its subunits fall within predetermined confidence intervals. While the first is determined by experimental error, the latter is based on a statistical analysis on a range of protein dimers. Here, we first propose a new expression to describe the overlap between two spheres. Then we analyze the effect of specific overlap cutoff choices on the precision and accuracy of super coarse-grained models. Finally, we propose a method to determine overlap cutoff levels on a per-case scenario, based on collected CCS data, and show that it can be applied to the characterization of the assembly topology of symmetrical homo-multimers. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

  2. Overlapping illusions by transformation optics without any negative refraction material

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Fei; He, Sailing

    2016-01-01

    A novel method to achieve an overlapping illusion without any negative refraction index material is introduced with the help of the optic-null medium (ONM) designed by an extremely stretching spatial transformation. Unlike the previous methods to achieve such an optical illusion by transformation optics (TO), our method can achieve a power combination and reshape the radiation pattern at the same time. Unlike the overlapping illusion with some negative refraction index material, our method is not sensitive to the loss of the materials. Other advantages over existing methods are discussed. Numerical simulations are given to verify the performance of the proposed devices.

  3. A Repeated Signal Difference for Recognising Patterns

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kieran Greer

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes a new mechanism that might help with defining pattern sequences, by the fact that it can produce an upper bound on the ensemble value that can persistently oscillate with the actual values produced from each pattern. With every firing event, a node also receives an on/off feedback switch. If the node fires then it sends a feedback result depending on the input signal strength. If the input signal is positive or larger, it can store an ‘on’ switch feedback for the next iteration. If the signal is negative or smaller it can store an ‘off’ switch feedback for the next iteration. If the node does not fire, then it does not affect the current feedback situation and receives the switch command produced by the last active pattern event for the same neuron. The upper bound therefore also represents the largest or most enclosing pattern set and the lower value is for the actual set of firing patterns. If the pattern sequence repeats, it will oscillate between the two values, allowing them to be recognised and measured more easily, over time. Tests show that changing the sequence ordering produces different value sets, which can also be measured.

  4. Identifying Overlapping Language Communities: The Case of Chiriquí and Panamanian Signed Languages

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parks, Elizabeth S.

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, I use a holographic metaphor to explain the identification of overlapping sign language communities in Panama. By visualizing Panama's complex signing communities as emitting community "hotspots" through social drama on multiple stages, I employ ethnographic methods to explore overlapping contours of Panama's sign language…

  5. Signal alteration of the cochlear perilymph on 3 different sequences after intratympanic Gd-DTPA administration at 3 tesla. Comparison of 3D-FLAIR, 3D-T1-weighted imaging, and 3D-CISS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamazaki, Masahiro; Naganawa, Shinji; Kawai, Hisashi; Nihashi, Takashi; Nakashima, Tsutomu

    2010-01-01

    Three-dimensional fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (3D-FLAIR) imaging after intratympanic gadolinium injection is useful for pathophysiologic and morphologic analysis of the inner ear. However, statistical analysis of differences in inner ear signal intensity among 3D-FLAIR and other sequences has not been reported. We evaluated the signal intensity of cochlear fluid on each of 3D-FLAIR, 3D-T 1 -weighted imaging (T 1 WI), and 3D-constructive interference in the steady state (CISS) to clarify the differences in contrast effect among these 3 sequences using intratympanic gadolinium injection. Twenty-one patients underwent 3D-FLAIR, 3D-T 1 WI, and 3D-CISS imaging at 3 tesla 24 hours after intratympanic injection of gadolinium. We determined regions of interest of the cochleae (C) and medulla oblongata (M) on each image, evaluated the signal intensity ratio between C and M (CM ratio), and determined the ratio of cochlear signal intensity of the injected side to that of the non-injected side (contrast value). The CM ratio of the injected side (3.00±1.31, range, 0.53 to 4.88, on 3D-FLAIR; 0.83±0.30, range, 0.36 to 1.58 on 3D-T 1 WI) was significantly higher than that of the non-injected side (0.52±0.14, range, 0.30 to 0.76 on 3D-FLAIR; 0.49±0.11, range, 0.30 to 0.71 on 3D-T 1 WI) on 3D-FLAIR and 3D-T 1 WI (P 1 WI (1.73±0.60 range, 0.98 to 3.09) (P<0.001). The 3D-FLAIR sequence is the most sensitive for observing alteration in inner ear fluid signal after intratympanic gadolinium injection. Our results warrant use of 3D-FLAIR as a sensitive imaging technique to clarify the pathological and morphological mechanisms of disorders of the inner ear. (author)

  6. Overlapping coalition formation games in wireless communication networks

    CERN Document Server

    Wang, Tianyu; Saad, Walid; Han, Zhu

    2017-01-01

    This brief introduces overlapping coalition formation games (OCF games), a novel mathematical framework from cooperative game theory that can be used to model, design and analyze cooperative scenarios in future wireless communication networks. The concepts of OCF games are explained, and several algorithmic aspects are studied. In addition, several major application scenarios are discussed. These applications are drawn from a variety of fields that include radio resource allocation in dense wireless networks, cooperative spectrum sensing for cognitive radio networks, and resource management for crowd sourcing. For each application, the use of OCF games is discussed in detail in order to show how this framework can be used to solve relevant wireless networking problems. Overlapping Coalition Formation Games in Wireless Communication Networks provides researchers, students and practitioners with a concise overview of existing works in this emerging area, exploring the relevant fundamental theories, key techniqu...

  7. Phase Grouping Line Extraction Algorithm Using Overlapped Partition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    WANG Jingxue

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Aiming at solving the problem of fracture at the discontinuities area and the challenges of line fitting in each partition, an innovative line extraction algorithm is proposed based on phase grouping using overlapped partition. The proposed algorithm adopted dual partition steps, which will generate overlapped eight partitions. Between the two steps, the middle axis in the first step coincides with the border lines in the other step. Firstly, the connected edge points that share the same phase gradients are merged into the line candidates, and fitted into line segments. Then to remedy the break lines at the border areas, the break segments in the second partition steps are refitted. The proposed algorithm is robust and does not need any parameter tuning. Experiments with various datasets have confirmed that the method is not only capable of handling the linear features, but also powerful enough in handling the curve features.

  8. Omalizumab Treatment Response in a Population With Severe Allergic Asthma and Overlapping COPD.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maltby, Steven; Gibson, Peter G; Powell, Heather; McDonald, Vanessa M

    2017-01-01

    Asthma and COPD are common airway diseases. Individuals with overlapping asthma and COPD experience increased health impairment and severe disease exacerbations. Efficacious treatment options are required for this population. Omalizumab (anti-IgE) therapy is effective in patients with severe persistent asthma, but limited data are available on efficacy in populations with overlapping asthma and COPD. Data from the Australian Xolair Registry were used to compare treatment responses in individuals with asthma-COPD overlap with responses in patients with severe asthma alone. Participants were assessed at baseline and after 6 months of omalizumab treatment. We used several different definitions of asthma-COPD overlap. First, we compared participants with a previous physician diagnosis of COPD to participants with no COPD diagnosis. We then made comparisons based on baseline lung function, comparing participants with an FEV 1 80% predicted after bronchodilator use. In the population with an FEV 1 Omalizumab treatment markedly improved asthma control and health-related quality of life in all populations assessed based on the Asthma Control Questionnaire and Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire scores. Omalizumab treatment did not improve lung function (FEV 1 , FVC, or FEV 1 /FVC ratio) in populations that were enriched for asthma-COPD overlap (diagnosis of COPD or FEV 1  omalizumab improves asthma control and health-related quality of life in individuals with severe allergic asthma and overlapping COPD. These findings provide real-world efficacy data for this patient population and suggest that omalizumab is useful in the management of severe asthma with COPD overlap. Copyright © 2016 American College of Chest Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Stream computing for biomedical signal processing: A QRS complex detection case-study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, B M; O'Driscoll, C; Boylan, G B; Lightbody, G; Marnane, W P

    2015-01-01

    Recent developments in "Big Data" have brought significant gains in the ability to process large amounts of data on commodity server hardware. Stream computing is a relatively new paradigm in this area, addressing the need to process data in real time with very low latency. While this approach has been developed for dealing with large scale data from the world of business, security and finance, there is a natural overlap with clinical needs for physiological signal processing. In this work we present a case study of streams processing applied to a typical physiological signal processing problem: QRS detection from ECG data.

  10. Complex overlapping concepts: An effective auditing methodology for families of similarly structured BioPortal ontologies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Ling; Chen, Yan; Elhanan, Gai; Perl, Yehoshua; Geller, James; Ochs, Christopher

    2018-05-28

    In previous research, we have demonstrated for a number of ontologies that structurally complex concepts (for different definitions of "complex") in an ontology are more likely to exhibit errors than other concepts. Thus, such complex concepts often become fertile ground for quality assurance (QA) in ontologies. They should be audited first. One example of complex concepts is given by "overlapping concepts" (to be defined below.) Historically, a different auditing methodology had to be developed for every single ontology. For better scalability and efficiency, it is desirable to identify family-wide QA methodologies. Each such methodology would be applicable to a whole family of similar ontologies. In past research, we had divided the 685 ontologies of BioPortal into families of structurally similar ontologies. We showed for four ontologies of the same large family in BioPortal that "overlapping concepts" are indeed statistically significantly more likely to exhibit errors. In order to make an authoritative statement concerning the success of "overlapping concepts" as a methodology for a whole family of similar ontologies (or of large subhierarchies of ontologies), it is necessary to show that "overlapping concepts" have a higher likelihood of errors for six out of six ontologies of the family. In this paper, we are demonstrating for two more ontologies that "overlapping concepts" can successfully predict groups of concepts with a higher error rate than concepts from a control group. The fifth ontology is the Neoplasm subhierarchy of the National Cancer Institute thesaurus (NCIt). The sixth ontology is the Infectious Disease subhierarchy of SNOMED CT. We demonstrate quality assurance results for both of them. Furthermore, in this paper we observe two novel, important, and useful phenomena during quality assurance of "overlapping concepts." First, an erroneous "overlapping concept" can help with discovering other erroneous "non-overlapping concepts" in its vicinity

  11. Transmembrane-sequence-dependent overexpression and secretion of glycoproteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schuster, M; Wasserbauer, E; Aversa, G; Jungbauer, A

    2001-02-01

    Protein expression using the secretory pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae can lead to high amounts of overexpressed and secreted proteins in culture supernatants in a short period of time. These post-translational modified expression products can be purified up to >90% in a single step. The overexpression and secretion of the transmembrane glycoprotein signaling lymphocytic activation molecule (SLAM) was studied. SLAM belongs to the immunoglobulin superfamily and its engagement results in T-cell expansion and INF-gamma production. The molecule is composed of an extracellular, a single-span transmembrane and a cytoplasmatic domain. The extracellular part may be relevant for stimulation studies in vitro since SLAM is a high-affinity self-ligand. Therefore several fragments of this region have been expressed as Flag-fusions in S. cerevisiae: a full-length fragment containing the transmembrane region and the autologous signal sequence, another without the transmembrane region, and two fragments without the autologous signal sequence with and without the transmembrane region. By molecular cloning, the different deletion mutants of the cDNA encoding the full-length construct have been inserted in a yeast episomal plasmid. Upstream of the cDNA, the alpha-leader sequence of a yeast mating pheromone has been cloned to direct the fusion proteins into the secretory protein maturation pathway. All four fragments were expressed but yield, location, and maturation were highly influenced by the transmembrane domain and the autologous signal sequence. Only the fragment without autologous signal sequence and transmembrane domain could be efficiently secreted. High-mannose glycosylation was analyzed by lectin mapping and digestion with specific glycosidases. After enzyme treatment, a single band product with the theoretical size could be detected and identified as SLAM by a specific monoclonal antibody. The fusion protein concentration in the supernatant was 30 microg/ml. The

  12. SH2/SH3 signaling proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlessinger, J

    1994-02-01

    SH2 and SH3 domains are small protein modules that mediate protein-protein interactions in signal transduction pathways that are activated by protein tyrosine kinases. SH2 domains bind to short phosphotyrosine-containing sequences in growth factor receptors and other phosphoproteins. SH3 domains bind to target proteins through sequences containing proline and hydrophobic amino acids. SH2 and SH3 domain containing proteins, such as Grb2 and phospholipase C gamma, utilize these modules in order to link receptor and cytoplasmic protein tyrosine kinases to the Ras signaling pathway and to phosphatidylinositol hydrolysis, respectively. The three-dimensional structures of several SH2 and SH3 domains have been determined by NMR and X-ray crystallography, and the molecular basis of their specificity is beginning to be unveiled.

  13. 42 CFR 73.4 - Overlap select agents and toxins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... genetically modified. (d) Overlap select agents or toxins that meet any of the following criteria are excluded... Equine Encephalitis virus (c) Genetic Elements, Recombinant Nucleic Acids, and Recombinant Organisms: (1...

  14. Impacts of cloud overlap assumptions on radiative budgets and heating fields in convective regions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, XiaoCong; Liu, YiMin; Bao, Qing

    2016-01-01

    Impacts of cloud overlap assumptions on radiative budgets and heating fields are explored with the aid of a cloud-resolving model (CRM), which provided cloud geometry as well as cloud micro and macro properties. Large-scale forcing data to drive the CRM are from TRMM Kwajalein Experiment and the Global Atmospheric Research Program's Atlantic Tropical Experiment field campaigns during which abundant convective systems were observed. The investigated overlap assumptions include those that were traditional and widely used in the past and the one that was recently addressed by Hogan and Illingworth (2000), in which the vertically projected cloud fraction is expressed by a linear combination of maximum and random overlap, with the weighting coefficient depending on the so-called decorrelation length Lcf. Results show that both shortwave and longwave cloud radiative forcings (SWCF/LWCF) are significantly underestimated under maximum (MO) and maximum-random (MRO) overlap assumptions, whereas remarkably overestimated under the random overlap (RO) assumption in comparison with that using CRM inherent cloud geometry. These biases can reach as high as 100 Wm- 2 for SWCF and 60 Wm- 2 for LWCF. By its very nature, the general overlap (GenO) assumption exhibits an encouraging performance on both SWCF and LWCF simulations, with the biases almost reduced by 3-fold compared with traditional overlap assumptions. The superiority of GenO assumption is also manifested in the simulation of shortwave and longwave radiative heating fields, which are either significantly overestimated or underestimated under traditional overlap assumptions. The study also pointed out the deficiency of constant assumption on Lcf in GenO assumption. Further examinations indicate that the CRM diagnostic Lcf varies among different cloud types and tends to be stratified in the vertical. The new parameterization that takes into account variation of Lcf in the vertical well reproduces such a relationship and

  15. Overlap Syndrome in Respiratory Medicine: Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandru Corlateanu

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD are highly prevalent chronic diseases in the general population. Both are characterized by similar mechanisms: airway inflammation, airway obstruction, and airway hyperresponsiveness. However, the distinction between the two obstructive diseases is not always clear. Multiple epidemiological studies demonstrate that in elderly people with obstructive airway disease, as many as half or more may have overlapping diagnoses of asthma and COPD. A COPD-Asthma overlap syndrome is defined as an airflow obstruction that is not completely reversible, accompanied by symptoms and signs of increased obstruction reversibility. For the clinical identification of overlap syndrome COPD-Asthma Spanish guidelines proposed six diagnostic criteria. The major criteria include very positive bronchodilator test [increase in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1 ≥15% and ≥400 ml], eosinophilia in sputum, and personal history of asthma. The minor criteria include high total IgE, personal history of atopy and positive bronchodilator test (increase in FEV1 ≥12% and ≥200 ml on two or more occasions. The overlap syndrome COPD-Asthma is associated with enhanced response to inhaled corticosteroids due to the predominance of eosinophilic bronchial inflammation.The future clinical studies and multicenter clinical trials should lead to the investigation of disease mechanisms and simultaneous development of the novel treatment.

  16. Non coding RNA: sequence-specific guide for chromatin modification and DNA damage signaling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sofia eFrancia

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Chromatin conformation shapes the environment in which our genome is transcribed into RNA. Transcription is a source of DNA damage, thus it often occurs concomitantly to DNA damage signaling. Growing amounts of evidence suggest that different types of RNAs can, independently from their protein-coding properties, directly affect chromatin conformation, transcription and splicing, as well as promote the activation of the DNA damage response (DDR and DNA repair. Therefore, transcription paradoxically functions to both threaten and safeguard genome integrity. On the other hand, DNA damage signaling is known to modulate chromatin to suppress transcription of the surrounding genetic unit. It is thus intriguing to understand how transcription can modulate DDR signaling while, in turn, DDR signaling represses transcription of chromatin around the DNA lesion. An unexpected player in this field is the RNA interference (RNAi machinery, which play roles in transcription, splicing and chromatin modulation in several organisms. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs and several protein factors involved in the RNAi pathway are well known master regulators of chromatin while only recent reports suggest that ncRNAs are involved in DDR signaling and homology-mediated DNA repair. Here, we discuss the experimental evidence supporting the idea that ncRNAs act at the genomic loci from which they are transcribed to modulate chromatin, DDR signaling and DNA repair.

  17. Peptide pheromone signaling in Streptococcus and Enterococcus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, Laura C.; Federle, Michael J.

    2014-01-01

    Intercellular chemical signaling in bacteria, commonly referred to as quorum sensing (QS), relies on the production and detection of compounds known as pheromones to elicit coordinated responses among members of a community. Pheromones produced by Gram-positive bacteria are comprised of small peptides. Based on both peptide structure and sensory system architectures, Gram-positive bacterial signaling pathways may be classified into one of four groups with a defining hallmark: cyclical peptides of the Agr type, peptides that contain Gly-Gly processing motifs, sensory systems of the RNPP family, or the recently characterized Rgg-like regulatory family. The recent discovery that Rgg family members respond to peptide pheromones increases substantially the number of species in which QS is likely a key regulatory component. These pathways control a variety of fundamental behaviors including conjugation, natural competence for transformation, biofilm development, and virulence factor regulation. Overlapping QS pathways found in multiple species and pathways that utilize conserved peptide pheromones provide opportunities for interspecies communication. Here we review pheromone signaling identified in the genera Enterococcus and Streptococcus, providing examples of all four types of pathways. PMID:24118108

  18. Metabolic signals in sleep regulation: recent insights

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shukla C

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Charu Shukla, Radhika Basheer Department of Psychiatry, VA Boston Healthcare System, Harvard Medical School, West Roxbury, MA, USA Abstract: Sleep and energy balance are essential for health. The two processes act in concert to regulate central and peripheral homeostasis. During sleep, energy is conserved due to suspended activity, movement, and sensory responses, and is redirected to restore and replenish proteins and their assemblies into cellular structures. During wakefulness, various energy-demanding activities lead to hunger. Thus, hunger promotes arousal, and subsequent feeding, followed by satiety that promotes sleep via changes in neuroendocrine or neuropeptide signals. These signals overlap with circuits of sleep-wakefulness, feeding, and energy expenditure. Here, we will briefly review the literature that describes the interplay between the circadian system, sleep-wake, and feeding-fasting cycles that are needed to maintain energy balance and a healthy metabolic profile. In doing so, we describe the neuroendocrine, hormonal/peptide signals that integrate sleep and feeding behavior with energy metabolism. Keywords: sleep, energy balance, hypothalamus, metabolism, homeostasis

  19. Prediction Error During Functional and Non-Functional Action Sequences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielbo, Kristoffer Laigaard; Sørensen, Jesper

    2013-01-01

    recurrent networks were made and the results are presented in this article. The simulations show that non-functional action sequences do indeed increase prediction error, but that context representations, such as abstract goal information, can modulate the error signal considerably. It is also shown...... that the networks are sensitive to boundaries between sequences in both functional and non-functional actions....

  20. Rework Impacts Evaluation Through System Dynamics Approach in Overlapped Product Development Schedule

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lino Guimarães Marujo

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available This work aims to explore a novel framework to analyze the planning concepts in product development projects employing techniques to reduce the lead-time of activities, such as overlapping of a pair of each. With the System Dynamics methodology a model to evaluate the rework fraction needed to accommodate the deviations proportional to the overlapping grade of the activities. A numerical example is provided to demonstrate the validity of the model. Although problems encountered during the project management are dynamic, they have been treated on a static basis, what has as result, chronic schedules delays, overruns and cost overspent persist in follow the managers’ (reactions. In this work, we have addressed this known problem by introducing and reviewing some characteristics of the concept of rework in overlapped schedules. This consists in observe and capture the relations feedbacks among the original planned project schedule, the overlapping strategy and the inherent uncertainty in a work being done with poor information. To realize this concept, we have faced with many behaviors patterns (e.g. rework, new duration, non-conformity, and analyze the output behavior pattern, produced by the proposed model.

  1. Base Sequence Context Effects on Nucleotide Excision Repair

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuqin Cai

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Nucleotide excision repair (NER plays a critical role in maintaining the integrity of the genome when damaged by bulky DNA lesions, since inefficient repair can cause mutations and human diseases notably cancer. The structural properties of DNA lesions that determine their relative susceptibilities to NER are therefore of great interest. As a model system, we have investigated the major mutagenic lesion derived from the environmental carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P, 10S (+-trans-anti-B[a]P-2-dG in six different sequence contexts that differ in how the lesion is positioned in relation to nearby guanine amino groups. We have obtained molecular structural data by NMR and MD simulations, bending properties from gel electrophoresis studies, and NER data obtained from human HeLa cell extracts for our six investigated sequence contexts. This model system suggests that disturbed Watson-Crick base pairing is a better recognition signal than a flexible bend, and that these can act in concert to provide an enhanced signal. Steric hinderance between the minor groove-aligned lesion and nearby guanine amino groups determines the exact nature of the disturbances. Both nearest neighbor and more distant neighbor sequence contexts have an impact. Regardless of the exact distortions, we hypothesize that they provide a local thermodynamic destabilization signal for repair.

  2. Decoding Overlapping Memories in the Medial Temporal Lobes Using High-Resolution fMRI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chadwick, Martin J.; Hassabis, Demis; Maguire, Eleanor A.

    2011-01-01

    The hippocampus is proposed to process overlapping episodes as discrete memory traces, although direct evidence for this in human episodic memory is scarce. Using green-screen technology we created four highly overlapping movies of everyday events. Participants were scanned using high-resolution fMRI while recalling the movies. Multivariate…

  3. On-line detection of apnea/hypopnea events using SpO2 signal: a rule-based approach employing binary classifier models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koley, Bijoy Laxmi; Dey, Debangshu

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents an online method for automatic detection of apnea/hypopnea events, with the help of oxygen saturation (SpO2) signal, measured at fingertip by Bluetooth nocturnal pulse oximeter. Event detection is performed by identifying abnormal data segments from the recorded SpO2 signal, employing a binary classifier model based on a support vector machine (SVM). Thereafter the abnormal segment is further analyzed to detect different states within the segment, i.e., steady, desaturation, and resaturation, with the help of another SVM-based binary ensemble classifier model. Finally, a heuristically obtained rule-based system is used to identify the apnea/hypopnea events from the time-sequenced decisions of these classifier models. In the developmental phase, a set of 34 time domain-based features was extracted from the segmented SpO2 signal using an overlapped windowing technique. Later, an optimal set of features was selected on the basis of recursive feature elimination technique. A total of 34 subjects were included in the study. The results show average event detection accuracies of 96.7% and 93.8% for the offline and the online tests, respectively. The proposed system provides direct estimation of the apnea/hypopnea index with the help of a relatively inexpensive and widely available pulse oximeter. Moreover, the system can be monitored and accessed by physicians through LAN/WAN/Internet and can be extended to deploy in Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones.

  4. A novel approach for baseline correction in 1H-MRS signals based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parto Dezfouli, Mohammad Ali; Dezfouli, Mohsen Parto; Rad, Hamidreza Saligheh

    2014-01-01

    Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) is a non-invasive diagnostic tool for measuring biochemical changes in the human body. Acquired (1)H-MRS signals may be corrupted due to a wideband baseline signal generated by macromolecules. Recently, several methods have been developed for the correction of such baseline signals, however most of them are not able to estimate baseline in complex overlapped signal. In this study, a novel automatic baseline correction method is proposed for (1)H-MRS spectra based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD). This investigation was applied on both the simulated data and the in-vivo (1)H-MRS of human brain signals. Results justify the efficiency of the proposed method to remove the baseline from (1)H-MRS signals.

  5. Crammed signaling motifs in the T-cell receptor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borroto, Aldo; Abia, David; Alarcón, Balbino

    2014-09-01

    Although the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) is long known to contain multiple signaling subunits (CD3γ, CD3δ, CD3ɛ and CD3ζ), their role in signal transduction is still not well understood. The presence of at least one immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM) in each CD3 subunit has led to the idea that the multiplication of such elements essentially serves to amplify signals. However, the evolutionary conservation of non-ITAM sequences suggests that each CD3 subunit is likely to have specific non-redundant roles at some stage of development or in mature T cell function. The CD3ɛ subunit is paradigmatic because in a relatively short cytoplasmic sequence (∼55 amino acids) it contains several docking sites for proteins involved in intracellular trafficking and signaling, proteins whose relevance in T cell activation is slowly starting to be revealed. In this review we will summarize our current knowledge on the signaling effectors that bind directly to the TCR and we will propose a hierarchy in their response to TCR triggering. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Frequency response testing at Experimental Breeder Reactor II using discrete-level periodic signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rhodes, W.D.; Larson, H.A.

    1990-01-01

    The Experimental Breeder Reactor 2 (EBR-2) reactivity-to-power frequency-response function was measured with pseudo-random, discrete-level, periodic signals. The reactor power deviation was small with insignificant perturbation of normal operation and in-place irradiation experiments. Comparison of results with measured rod oscillator data and with theoretical predictions show good agreement. Moreover, measures of input signal quality (autocorrelation function and energy spectra) confirm the ability to enable this type of frequency response determination at EBR-2. Measurements were made with the pseudo-random binary sequence, quadratic residue binary sequence, pseudo-random ternary sequence, and the multifrequency binary sequence. 10 refs., 7 figs., 3 tabs

  7. Pre-asymptotic behavior of single-particle overlap integrals of non-Borromean two-neutron halos

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Timofeyuk, N.K.; Tostevin, J.A.; Blokhintsev, L.D.

    2003-01-01

    For non-Borromean two-neutron halo nuclei, modifications to the behavior of single-particle overlap integrals will arise due to the correlations of the two interacting nucleons in the halo. An additional contribution to the overlap integral can be obtained using the Feynman diagram approach. This additional term is modeled using a simple local potential model. We show that these modifications may play a role in detailed interpretations of experimental results from single-nucleon knockout, transfer, and other reactions that probe the single-nucleon overlap functions

  8. Effect of overlapping on location of peaks in qualitative X-ray fluorescent analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jordanov, J.; Stefanov, R.; Tsanov, T.; Jordanov, N.

    1982-01-01

    To determine the location of the maxima in spectra without resorting to the comparatively complex Fourier-analysis apparatus it is proposed to take into account the overlapping of two adjacent peaks. A formula for the correction of the locations of overlapping maxima with an infinitely small step has been obtained and it is recommended when using X-ray apparatus with great resolution. With flat crystal-analyser apparata, which has a comparatively small resolution, a considerable number of maxima are obtained from the overlapping of at least two adjacent peaks. For that case another formula for the estimation of the shift of the maxima's location from their tabular values is proposed. (authors)

  9. Optimum source/drain overlap design for 16 nm high-k/metal gate MOSFETs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jang, Junyong; Lim, Towoo; Kim, Youngmin

    2009-01-01

    We explore a source/drain (S/D) design for a 16 nm MOSFET utilizing a replacement process for a high-k gate dielectric and metal gate electrode integration. Using TCAD simulation, a trade-off study between series resistance and overlap capacitance is carried out for a high-k dielectric surrounding gate structure, which results from the replacement process. An optimum S/D overlap to gate for the high-k surrounding gate structure is found to be different from the conventional gate structure, i.e. 0∼1 nm underlap is preferred for the surround high-k gate structure while 1∼2 nm overlap for the conventional gate one

  10. Novel Approach to Analyzing MFE of Noncoding RNA Sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    George, Tina P; Thomas, Tessamma

    2016-01-01

    Genomic studies have become noncoding RNA (ncRNA) centric after the study of different genomes provided enormous information on ncRNA over the past decades. The function of ncRNA is decided by its secondary structure, and across organisms, the secondary structure is more conserved than the sequence itself. In this study, the optimal secondary structure or the minimum free energy (MFE) structure of ncRNA was found based on the thermodynamic nearest neighbor model. MFE of over 2600 ncRNA sequences was analyzed in view of its signal properties. Mathematical models linking MFE to the signal properties were found for each of the four classes of ncRNA analyzed. MFE values computed with the proposed models were in concordance with those obtained with the standard web servers. A total of 95% of the sequences analyzed had deviation of MFE values within ±15% relative to those obtained from standard web servers.

  11. A game theoretic algorithm to detect overlapping community structure in networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Xu; Zhao, Xiaohui; Liu, Yanheng; Sun, Geng

    2018-04-01

    Community detection can be used as an important technique for product and personalized service recommendation. A game theory based approach to detect overlapping community structure is introduced in this paper. The process of the community formation is converted into a game, when all agents (nodes) cannot improve their own utility, the game process will be terminated. The utility function is composed of a gain and a loss function and we present a new gain function in this paper. In addition, different from choosing action randomly among join, quit and switch for each agent to get new label, two new strategies for each agent to update its label are designed during the game, and the strategies are also evaluated and compared for each agent in order to find its best result. The overlapping community structure is naturally presented when the stop criterion is satisfied. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms other similar algorithms for detecting overlapping communities in networks.

  12. An Overlapping Communities Detection Algorithm via Maxing Modularity in Opportunistic Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gao Zhi-Peng

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Community detection in opportunistic networks has been a significant and hot issue, which is used to understand characteristics of networks through analyzing structure of it. Community is used to represent a group of nodes in a network where nodes inside the community have more internal connections than external connections. However, most of the existing community detection algorithms focus on binary networks or disjoint community detection. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm via maxing modularity of communities (MMCto find overlapping community structure in opportunistic networks. It utilizes contact history of nodes to calculate the relation intensity between nodes. It finds nodes with high relation intensity as the initial community and extend the community with nodes of higher belong degree. The algorithm achieves a rapid and efficient overlapping community detection method by maxing the modularity of community continuously. The experiments prove that MMC is effective for uncovering overlapping communities and it achieves better performance than COPRA and Conductance.

  13. Enhanced throughput for infrared automated DNA sequencing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Middendorf, Lyle R.; Gartside, Bill O.; Humphrey, Pat G.; Roemer, Stephen C.; Sorensen, David R.; Steffens, David L.; Sutter, Scott L.

    1995-04-01

    Several enhancements have been developed and applied to infrared automated DNA sequencing resulting in significantly higher throughput. A 41 cm sequencing gel (31 cm well- to-read distance) combines high resolution of DNA sequencing fragments with optimized run times yielding two runs per day of 500 bases per sample. A 66 cm sequencing gel (56 cm well-to-read distance) produces sequence read lengths of up to 1000 bases for ds and ss templates using either T7 polymerase or cycle-sequencing protocols. Using a multichannel syringe to load 64 lanes allows 16 samples (compatible with 96-well format) to be visualized for each run. The 41 cm gel configuration allows 16,000 bases per day (16 samples X 500 bases/sample X 2 ten hour runs/day) to be sequenced with the advantages of infrared technology. Enhancements to internal labeling techniques using an infrared-labeled dATP molecule (Boehringer Mannheim GmbH, Penzberg, Germany; Sequenase (U.S. Biochemical) have also been made. The inclusion of glycerol in the sequencing reactions yields greatly improved results for some primer and template combinations. The inclusion of (alpha) -Thio-dNTP's in the labeling reaction increases signal intensity two- to three-fold.

  14. Activation of words with phonological overlap

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudia K. Friedrich

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Multiple lexical representations overlapping with the input (cohort neighbors are temporarily activated in the listener’s mental lexicon when speech unfolds in time. Activation for cohort neighbors appears to rapidly decline as soon as there is mismatch with the input. However, it is a matter of debate whether or not they are completely excluded from further processing. We recorded behavioral data and event-related brain potentials (ERPs in auditory-visual word onset priming during a lexical decision task. As primes we used the first two syllables of spoken German words. In a carrier word condition, the primes were extracted from spoken versions of the target words (ano-ANORAK 'anorak'. In a cohort neighbor condition, the primes were taken from words that overlap with the target word up to the second nucleus (ana- taken from ANANAS 'pineapple'. Relative to a control condition, where primes and targets were unrelated, lexical decision responses for cohort neighbors were delayed. This reveals that cohort neighbors are disfavored by the decision processes at the behavioral front end. In contrast, left-anterior ERPs reflected long-lasting facilitated processing of cohort neighbors. We interpret these results as evidence for extended parallel processing of cohort neighbors. That is, in parallel to the preparation and elicitation of delayed lexical decision responses to cohort neighbors, aspects of the processing system appear to keep track of those less efficient candidates.

  15. Capacities and overlap indexes with an application in fuzzy rule-based classification systems

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Paternain, D.; Bustince, H.; Pagola, M.; Sussner, P.; Kolesárová, A.; Mesiar, Radko

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 305, č. 1 (2016), s. 70-94 ISSN 0165-0114 Institutional support: RVO:67985556 Keywords : Capacity * Overlap index * Overlap function * Choquet integral * Fuzzy rule-based classification systems Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 2.718, year: 2016 http://library.utia.cas.cz/separaty/2016/E/mesiar-0465739.pdf

  16. Multilocus Sequence Typing for Interpreting Blood Isolates of Staphylococcus epidermidis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prannda Sharma

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Staphylococcus epidermidis is an important cause of nosocomial infection and bacteremia. It is also a common contaminant of blood cultures and, as a result, there is frequently uncertainty as to its diagnostic significance when recovered in the clinical laboratory. One molecular strategy that might be of value in clarifying the interpretation of S. epidermidis identified in blood culture is multilocus sequence typing. Here, we examined 100 isolates of this species (50 blood isolates representing true bacteremia, 25 likely contaminant isolates, and 25 skin isolates and the ability of sequence typing to differentiate them. Three machine learning algorithms (classification regression tree, support vector machine, and nearest neighbor were employed. Genetic variability was substantial between isolates, with 44 sequence types found in 100 isolates. Sequence types 2 and 5 were most commonly identified. However, among the classification algorithms we employed, none were effective, with CART and SVM both yielding only 73% diagnostic accuracy and nearest neighbor analysis yielding only 53% accuracy. Our data mirror previous studies examining the presence or absence of pathogenic genes in that the overlap between truly significant organisms and contaminants appears to prevent the use of MLST in the clarification of blood cultures recovering S. epidermidis.

  17. Complete nucleotide sequence and genome organization of Olive latent virus 3, a new putative member of the family Tymoviridae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alabdullah, Abdulkader; Minafra, Angelantonio; Elbeaino, Toufic; Saponari, Maria; Savino, Vito; Martelli, Giovanni P

    2010-09-01

    The complete nucleotide sequence and the genome organization were determined of a putative new member of the family Tymoviridae, tentatively named Olive latent virus 3 (OLV-3), recovered in southern Italy from a symptomless olive tree. The sequenced ssRNA genome comprises 7148 nucleotides excluding the poly(A) tail and contains four open reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 encodes a polyprotein of 221.6kDa in size, containing the conserved signatures of the methyltransferase (MTR), papain-like protease (PRO), helicase (HEL) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) domains of the replication-associated proteins of positive-strand RNA viruses. ORF2 overlaps completely ORF1 and encodes a putative protein of 43.33kDa showing limited sequence similarity with the putative movement protein of Maize rayado fino virus (MRFV). ORF3 codes for a protein with predicted molecular mass of 28.46kDa, identified as the coat protein (CP), whereas ORF4 overlaps ORF3 and encodes a putative protein of 16kDa with sequence similarity to the p16 and p31 proteins of Citrus sudden death-associated virus (CSDaV) and Grapevine fleck virus (GFkV), respectively. Within the family Tymoviridae, OLV-3 genome has the closest identity level (49-52%) with members of the genus Marafivirus, from which, however, it differs because of the diverse genome organization and the presence of a single type of CP subunits. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Monoclonal antibodies to meningococcal factor H binding protein with overlapping epitopes and discordant functional activity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giuntini, Serena; Beernink, Peter T; Reason, Donald C; Granoff, Dan M

    2012-01-01

    Meningococcal factor H binding protein (fHbp) is a promising vaccine candidate. Anti-fHbp antibodies can bind to meningococci and elicit complement-mediated bactericidal activity directly. The antibodies also can block binding of the human complement down-regulator, factor H (fH). Without bound fH, the organism would be expected to have increased susceptibility to bacteriolysis. Here we describe bactericidal activity of two anti-fHbp mAbs with overlapping epitopes in relation to their different effects on fH binding and bactericidal activity. Both mAbs recognized prevalent fHbp sequence variants in variant group 1. Using yeast display and site-specific mutagenesis, binding of one of the mAbs (JAR 1, IgG3) to fHbp was eliminated by a single amino acid substitution, R204A, and was decreased by K143A but not by R204H or D142A. The JAR 1 epitope overlapped that of previously described mAb (mAb502, IgG2a) whose binding to fHbp was eliminated by R204A or R204H substitutions, and was decreased by D142A but not by K143A. Although JAR 1 and mAb502 appeared to have overlapping epitopes, only JAR 1 inhibited binding of fH to fHbp and had human complement-mediated bactericidal activity. mAb502 enhanced fH binding and lacked human complement-mediated bactericidal activity. To control for confounding effects of different mouse IgG subclasses on complement activation, we created chimeric mAbs in which the mouse mAb502 or JAR 1 paratopes were paired with human IgG1 constant regions. While both chimeric mAbs showed similar binding to fHbp, only JAR 1, which inhibited fH binding, had human complement-mediated bactericidal activity. The lack of human complement-mediated bactericidal activity by anti-fHbp mAb502 appeared to result from an inability to inhibit binding of fH. These results underscore the importance of inhibition of fH binding for anti-fHbp mAb bactericidal activity.

  19. Reconstructing Quaternary pedogenesis in a paleosol sequence in Hungary

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Uveges, J.B.; Horvath, Z.; Micheli, E.; Mindszenty, A.; Nemeth, T. [Szent Istvan University, Godollo (Hungary). Dept. of Agricultural Chemistry & Soil Science

    2003-07-01

    In addition to conducting field observations, mineralogical, chemical, and micromorphological analyses, and scanning electron microscope studies were carried out to reconstruct soil forming processes in a paleosol profile sequence located in an open-cast lignite mine in North Central Hungary (Visonta, pediment of the Matra Mountains). Based on these investigations, several different, sometimes contradictory processes were identified: bioturbation on various scales, shrinking-swelling, leaching, CaCO{sub 3} and Fe-oxide precipitation, erosion, sedimentation, weathering, clay mineral transformation, clay illuviation, organic matter accumulations, reduction and oxidation, and frost action. Joint occurrence of these phenomena indicates environmental changes during the formation of the studied sequence. Many of these processes overlap and might have occurred several times. The presence of erosional surfaces makes it more difficult to establish the exact age of this complex formation. All observations suggest that sedimentation and soil formation on the Matra pediment were not continuous during the Quaternary Period

  20. 3D-Flair sequence at 3T in cochlear otosclerosis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lombardo, Francesco; De Cori, Sara; Aghakhanyan, Gayane; Montanaro, Domenico; De Marchi, Daniele; Frijia, Francesca; Canapicchi, Raffaello; Fortunato, Susanna; Forli, Francesca; Berrettini, Stefano; Chiappino, Dante

    2016-01-01

    To assess the capability of three-dimensional fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (3D-FLAIR) sequences in detecting signal alterations of the endolabyrinthine fluid in patients with otosclerosis. 3D-FLAIR before and after (-/+) gadolinium (Gd) administration was added to the standard MR protocol and acquired in 13 patients with a clinical/audiological diagnosis of severe/profound hearing loss in otosclerosis who were candidates for cochlear implantation and in 11 control subjects using 3-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment. The MRI signal of the fluid-filled cochlea was assessed both visually and calculating the signal intensity ratio (SIR = signal intensity cochlea/brainstem). We revealed no endocochlear signal abnormalities on T1-weighted -/+ Gd images for either group, while on 3D-FLAIR we found bilateral hyperintensity with enhancement after Gd administration in eight patients and bilateral hyperintensity without enhancement in one patient. No endocochlear signal abnormalities were detected in other patients or the control group. Using 3-T MRI equipment, the 3D-FLAIR -/+ Gd sequence is able to detect the blood-labyrinth barrier (BLB) breakdown responsible for alterations of the endolabyrinthine fluid in patients with cochlear otosclerosis. We believe that 3D-FLAIR +/- Gd is an excellent imaging modality to assess the intra-cochlear damage in otosclerosis patients. (orig.)