WorldWideScience

Sample records for smooth function spaces

  1. On spaces of functions of smoothness zero

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Besov, Oleg V

    2012-01-01

    The paper is concerned with the new spaces B-bar p,q 0 of functions of smoothness zero defined on the n-dimensional Euclidean space R n or on a subdomain G of R n . These spaces are compared with the spaces B p,q 0 (R n ) and bmo(R n ). The embedding theorems for Sobolev spaces are refined in terms of the space B-bar p,q 0 with the limiting exponent. Bibliography: 8 titles.

  2. Some properties of the smoothed Wigner function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soto, F.; Claverie, P.

    1981-01-01

    Recently it has been proposed a modification of the Wigner function which consists in smoothing it by convolution with a phase-space gaussian function; this smoothed Wigner function is non-negative if the gaussian parameters Δ and delta satisfy the condition Δdelta > h/2π. We analyze in this paper the predictions of this modified Wigner function for the harmonic oscillator, for anharmonic oscillator and finally for the hydrogen atom. We find agreement with experiment in the linear case, but for strongly nonlinear systems, such as the hydrogen atom, the results obtained are completely wrong. (orig.)

  3. Measurement-induced decoherence and Gaussian smoothing of the Wigner distribution function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chun, Yong-Jin; Lee, Hai-Woong

    2003-01-01

    We study the problem of measurement-induced decoherence using the phase-space approach employing the Gaussian-smoothed Wigner distribution function. Our investigation is based on the notion that measurement-induced decoherence is represented by the transition from the Wigner distribution to the Gaussian-smoothed Wigner distribution with the widths of the smoothing function identified as measurement errors. We also compare the smoothed Wigner distribution with the corresponding distribution resulting from the classical analysis. The distributions we computed are the phase-space distributions for simple one-dimensional dynamical systems such as a particle in a square-well potential and a particle moving under the influence of a step potential, and the time-frequency distributions for high-harmonic radiation emitted from an atom irradiated by short, intense laser pulses

  4. Estimate of K-functionals and modulus of smoothness constructed ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Casablanca, Morocco. E-mail: m_elhamma@yahoo.fr. MS received 17 January 2013. Abstract. Using a generalized spherical mean operator, we define generalized modu- lus of smoothness in the space L2 k. (Rd). Based on the Dunkl operator we define. Sobolev-type space and K-functionals. The main result of the paper ...

  5. Smoothing dynamic positron emission tomography time courses using functional principal components

    OpenAIRE

    Jiang, Ci-Ren; Aston, John A. D.; Wang, Jane-Ling

    2009-01-01

    A functional smoothing approach to the analysis of PET time course data is presented. By borrowing information across space and accounting for this pooling through the use of a non-parametric covariate adjustment, it is possible to smooth the PET time course data thus reducing the noise. A new model for functional data analysis, the Multiplicative Nonparametric Random Effects Model, is introduced to more accurately account for the variation in the data. A locally adaptive bandwidth choice hel...

  6. Smooth renormings of the Lebesgue-Bochner function space L-1(mu, X)

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Fabian, Marián; Lajara, S.

    2012-01-01

    Roč. 209, č. 3 (2012), s. 247-265 ISSN 0039-3223 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP201/11/0345 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10190503 Keywords : Lebesgue-Bochner space * smooth norm * Orlicz-Bochner norm Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.549, year: 2012 http://journals.impan.pl/cgi-bin/doi?sm209-3-4

  7. Embeddings of Sobolev-type spaces into generalized Hölder spaces involving k-modulus of smoothness

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Gogatishvili, Amiran; Moura, S.; Neves, J. S.; Opic, B.

    2015-01-01

    Roč. 194, č. 2 (2015), s. 425-450 ISSN 0373-3114 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-14743S; GA ČR GA201/08/0383 Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : rearrangement-invariant Banach function space * modulus of smoothness * distributional gradient Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.861, year: 2015 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10231-013-0383-1

  8. Smoothness in Banach spaces. Selected problems

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Fabian, Marián; Montesinos, V.; Zizler, Václav

    2006-01-01

    Roč. 100, č. 2 (2006), s. 101-125 ISSN 1578-7303 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA201/04/0090; GA AV ČR(CZ) IAA100190610 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10190503 Keywords : smooth norm * renorming * weakly compactly generated space Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics

  9. Sharp Embeddings of Besov Spaces with Logarithmic Smoothness

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Gurka, P.; Opic, Bohumír

    2005-01-01

    Roč. 18, č. 1 (2005), s. 81-110 ISSN 1139-1138 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA201/01/0333 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10190503 Keywords : Besov spaces wirh logarithmic smoothness * Lorentz-Zygmund spaces * sharp embeddings Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics

  10. Topology, isomorphic smoothness and polyhedrality in Banach spaces

    OpenAIRE

    Smith, Richard J.

    2018-01-01

    In recent decades, topology has come to play an increasing role in some geometric aspects of Banach space theory. The class of so-called $w^*$-locally relatively compact sets was introduced recently by Fonf, Pallares, Troyanski and the author, and were found to be a useful topological tool in the theory of isomorphic smoothness and polyhedrality in Banach spaces. We develop the topological theory of these sets and present some Banach space applications.

  11. Radial Basis Function Based Quadrature over Smooth Surfaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-03-24

    Radial Basis Functions φ(r) Piecewise Smooth (Conditionally Positive Definite) MN Monomial |r|2m+1 TPS thin plate spline |r|2mln|r| Infinitely Smooth...smooth surfaces using polynomial interpolants, while [27] couples Thin - Plate Spline interpolation (see table 1) with Green’s integral formula [29

  12. Bandwidth selection in smoothing functions | Kibua | East African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... inexpensive and, hence, worth adopting. We argue that the bandwidth parameter is determined by two factors: the kernel function and the length of the smoothing region. We give an illustrative example of its application using real data. Keywords: Kernel, Smoothing functions, Bandwidth > East African Journal of Statistics ...

  13. Calculus Rules for V-Proximal Subdifferentials in Smooth Banach Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Messaoud Bounkhel

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In 2010, Bounkhel et al. introduced new proximal concepts (analytic proximal subdifferential, geometric proximal subdifferential, and proximal normal cone in reflexive smooth Banach spaces. They proved, in p-uniformly convex and q-uniformly smooth Banach spaces, the density theorem for the new concepts of proximal subdifferential and various important properties for both proximal subdifferential concepts and the proximal normal cone concept. In this paper, we establish calculus rules (fuzzy sum rule and chain rule for both proximal subdifferentials and we prove the Bishop-Phelps theorem for the proximal normal cone. The limiting concept for both proximal subdifferentials and for the proximal normal cone is defined and studied. We prove that both limiting constructions coincide with the Mordukhovich constructions under some assumptions on the space. Applications to nonconvex minimisation problems and nonconvex variational inequalities are established.

  14. Assessment of smoothed spectra using autocorrelation function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Urbanski, P.; Kowalska, E.

    2006-01-01

    Recently, data and signal smoothing became almost standard procedures in the spectrometric and chromatographic methods. In radiometry, the main purpose to apply smoothing is minimisation of the statistical fluctuation and avoid distortion. The aim of the work was to find a qualitative parameter, which could be used, as a figure of merit for detecting distortion of the smoothed spectra, based on the linear model. It is assumed that as long as the part of the raw spectrum removed by the smoothing procedure (v s ) will be of random nature, the smoothed spectrum can be considered as undistorted. Thanks to this feature of the autocorrelation function, drifts of the mean value in the removed noise vs as well as its periodicity can be more easily detected from the autocorrelogram than from the original data

  15. Smooth functions statistics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arnold, V.I.

    2006-03-01

    To describe the topological structure of a real smooth function one associates to it the graph, formed by the topological variety, whose points are the connected components of the level hypersurface of the function. For a Morse function, such a graph is a tree. Generically, it has T triple vertices, T + 2 endpoints, 2T + 2 vertices and 2T + 1 arrows. The main goal of the present paper is to study the statistics of the graphs, corresponding to T triple points: what is the growth rate of the number φ(T) of different graphs? Which part of these graphs is representable by the polynomial functions of corresponding degree? A generic polynomial of degree n has at most (n - 1) 2 critical points on R 2 , corresponding to 2T + 2 = (n - 1) 2 + 1, that is to T = 2k(k - 1) saddle-points for degree n = 2k

  16. Restoring a smooth function from its noisy integrals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goulko, Olga; Prokof'ev, Nikolay; Svistunov, Boris

    2018-05-01

    Numerical (and experimental) data analysis often requires the restoration of a smooth function from a set of sampled integrals over finite bins. We present the bin hierarchy method that efficiently computes the maximally smooth function from the sampled integrals using essentially all the information contained in the data. We perform extensive tests with different classes of functions and levels of data quality, including Monte Carlo data suffering from a severe sign problem and physical data for the Green's function of the Fröhlich polaron.

  17. International Conference on Function Spaces and Inequalities

    CERN Document Server

    Schmeisser, Hans-Jürgen

    2017-01-01

    This book features original research and survey articles on the topics of function spaces and inequalities. It focuses on (variable/grand/small) Lebesgue spaces, Orlicz spaces, Lorentz spaces, and Morrey spaces and deals with mapping properties of operators, (weighted) inequalities, pointwise multipliers and interpolation. Moreover, it considers Sobolev–Besov and Triebel–Lizorkin type smoothness spaces. The book includes papers by leading international researchers, presented at the International Conference on Function Spaces and Inequalities, held at the South Asian University, New Delhi, India, on 11–15 December 2015, which focused on recent developments in the theory of spaces with variable exponents. It also offers further investigations concerning Sobolev-type embeddings, discrete inequalities and harmonic analysis. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific topic and written by leading experts, providing an overview of the subject and stimulating future research.

  18. Walking smoothness is associated with self-reported function after accounting for gait speed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowry, Kristin A; Vanswearingen, Jessie M; Perera, Subashan; Studenski, Stephanie A; Brach, Jennifer S

    2013-10-01

    Gait speed has shown to be an indicator of functional status in older adults; however, there may be aspects of physical function not represented by speed but by the quality of movement. The purpose of this study was to determine the relations between walking smoothness, an indicator of the quality of movement based on trunk accelerations, and physical function. Thirty older adults (mean age, 77.7±5.1 years) participated. Usual gait speed was measured using an instrumented walkway. Walking smoothness was quantified by harmonic ratios derived from anteroposterior, vertical, and mediolateral trunk accelerations recorded during overground walking. Self-reported physical function was recorded using the function subscales of the Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument. Anteroposterior smoothness was positively associated with all function components of the Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument, whereas mediolateral smoothness exhibited negative associations. Adjusting for gait speed, anteroposterior smoothness remained associated with the overall and lower extremity function subscales, whereas mediolateral smoothness remained associated with only the advanced lower extremity subscale. These findings indicate that walking smoothness, particularly the smoothness of forward progression, represents aspects of the motor control of walking important for physical function not represented by gait speed alone.

  19. Quantum phase space with a basis of Wannier functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Yuan; Wu, Fan; Wu, Biao

    2018-02-01

    A quantum phase space with Wannier basis is constructed: (i) classical phase space is divided into Planck cells; (ii) a complete set of Wannier functions are constructed with the combination of Kohn’s method and Löwdin method such that each Wannier function is localized at a Planck cell. With these Wannier functions one can map a wave function unitarily onto phase space. Various examples are used to illustrate our method and compare it to Wigner function. The advantage of our method is that it can smooth out the oscillations in wave functions without losing any information and is potentially a better tool in studying quantum-classical correspondence. In addition, we point out that our method can be used for time-frequency analysis of signals.

  20. A Meshfree Cell-based Smoothed Point Interpolation Method for Solid Mechanics Problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang Guiyong; Liu Guirong

    2010-01-01

    In the framework of a weakened weak (W 2 ) formulation using a generalized gradient smoothing operation, this paper introduces a novel meshfree cell-based smoothed point interpolation method (CS-PIM) for solid mechanics problems. The W 2 formulation seeks solutions from a normed G space which includes both continuous and discontinuous functions and allows the use of much more types of methods to create shape functions for numerical methods. When PIM shape functions are used, the functions constructed are in general not continuous over the entire problem domain and hence are not compatible. Such an interpolation is not in a traditional H 1 space, but in a G 1 space. By introducing the generalized gradient smoothing operation properly, the requirement on function is now further weakened upon the already weakened requirement for functions in a H 1 space and G 1 space can be viewed as a space of functions with weakened weak (W 2 ) requirement on continuity. The cell-based smoothed point interpolation method (CS-PIM) is formulated based on the W 2 formulation, in which displacement field is approximated using the PIM shape functions, which possess the Kronecker delta property facilitating the enforcement of essential boundary conditions [3]. The gradient (strain) field is constructed by the generalized gradient smoothing operation within the cell-based smoothing domains, which are exactly the triangular background cells. A W 2 formulation of generalized smoothed Galerkin (GS-Galerkin) weak form is used to derive the discretized system equations. It was found that the CS-PIM possesses the following attractive properties: (1) It is very easy to implement and works well with the simplest linear triangular mesh without introducing additional degrees of freedom; (2) it is at least linearly conforming; (3) this method is temporally stable and works well for dynamic analysis; (4) it possesses a close-to-exact stiffness, which is much softer than the overly-stiff FEM model and

  1. Vardenafil inhibiting parasympathetic function of tracheal smooth muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Fei-Peng; Chao, Pin-Zhir; Wang, Hsing-Won

    2018-07-01

    Levitra, a phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitor, is the trade name of vardenafil. Nowadays, it is applied to treatment of erectile dysfunction. PDE5 inhibitors are employed to induce dilatation of the vascular smooth muscle. The effect of Levitra on impotency is well known; however, its effect on the tracheal smooth muscle has rarely been explored. When administered for sexual symptoms via oral intake or inhalation, Levitra might affect the trachea. This study assessed the effects of Levitra on isolated rat tracheal smooth muscle by examining its effect on resting tension of tracheal smooth muscle, contraction caused by 10 -6  M methacholine as a parasympathetic mimetic, and electrically induced tracheal smooth muscle contractions. The results showed that adding methacholine to the incubation medium caused the trachea to contract in a dose-dependent manner. Addition of Levitra at doses of 10 -5  M or above elicited a significant relaxation response to 10 -6  M methacholine-induced contraction. Levitra could inhibit electrical field stimulation-induced spike contraction. It alone had minimal effect on the basal tension of the trachea as the concentration increased. High concentrations of Levitra could inhibit parasympathetic function of the trachea. Levitra when administered via oral intake might reduce asthma attacks in impotent patients because it might inhibit parasympathetic function and reduce methacholine-induced contraction of the tracheal smooth muscle. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC.

  2. Effect of smoothing on robust chaos.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deshpande, Amogh; Chen, Qingfei; Wang, Yan; Lai, Ying-Cheng; Do, Younghae

    2010-08-01

    In piecewise-smooth dynamical systems, situations can arise where the asymptotic attractors of the system in an open parameter interval are all chaotic (e.g., no periodic windows). This is the phenomenon of robust chaos. Previous works have established that robust chaos can occur through the mechanism of border-collision bifurcation, where border is the phase-space region where discontinuities in the derivatives of the dynamical equations occur. We investigate the effect of smoothing on robust chaos and find that periodic windows can arise when a small amount of smoothness is present. We introduce a parameter of smoothing and find that the measure of the periodic windows in the parameter space scales linearly with the parameter, regardless of the details of the smoothing function. Numerical support and a heuristic theory are provided to establish the scaling relation. Experimental evidence of periodic windows in a supposedly piecewise linear dynamical system, which has been implemented as an electronic circuit, is also provided.

  3. Spaces on sets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Triebel, Hans

    2005-01-01

    This paper deals with spaces B s pq and F s pq of positive smoothness s>0, based on L p -spaces with 0< p≤∞ and reproducing formulae for smooth functions. These spaces are compared with other B-spaces and F-spaces obtained by different means

  4. Nonclassical states of light with a smooth P function

    Science.gov (United States)

    Damanet, François; Kübler, Jonas; Martin, John; Braun, Daniel

    2018-02-01

    There is a common understanding in quantum optics that nonclassical states of light are states that do not have a positive semidefinite and sufficiently regular Glauber-Sudarshan P function. Almost all known nonclassical states have P functions that are highly irregular, which makes working with them difficult and direct experimental reconstruction impossible. Here we introduce classes of nonclassical states with regular, non-positive-definite P functions. They are constructed by "puncturing" regular smooth positive P functions with negative Dirac-δ peaks or other sufficiently narrow smooth negative functions. We determine the parameter ranges for which such punctures are possible without losing the positivity of the state, the regimes yielding antibunching of light, and the expressions of the Wigner functions for all investigated punctured states. Finally, we propose some possible experimental realizations of such states.

  5. Geometry and Gâteaux smoothness in separable Banach spaces

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Hájek, Petr Pavel; Montesinos, V.; Zizler, Václav

    2012-01-01

    Roč. 6, č. 2 (2012), s. 201-232 ISSN 1846-3886 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP201/11/0345; GA AV ČR IAA100190901 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10190503 Keywords : Gâteaux differentiable norms * extreme points * Radon -Nikodým property Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.529, year: 2012 http://oam.ele-math.com/06-15/Geometry-and-Gateaux-smoothness-in-separable-Banach-spaces

  6. An inductive algorithm for smooth approximation of functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kupenova, T.N.

    2011-01-01

    An inductive algorithm is presented for smooth approximation of functions, based on the Tikhonov regularization method and applied to a specific kind of the Tikhonov parametric functional. The discrepancy principle is used for estimation of the regularization parameter. The principle of heuristic self-organization is applied for assessment of some parameters of the approximating function

  7. Fixed point iterations for quasi-contractive maps in uniformly smooth Banach spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chidume, C.E.; Osilike, M.O.

    1992-05-01

    Two well-known fixed point iteration methods are applied to approximate fixed points of quasi-contractive maps in real uniformly smooth Banach spaces. While our theorems generalize important known results, our method is of independent interest. (author). 25 refs

  8. Smooth manifolds

    CERN Document Server

    Sinha, Rajnikant

    2014-01-01

    This book offers an introduction to the theory of smooth manifolds, helping students to familiarize themselves with the tools they will need for mathematical research on smooth manifolds and differential geometry. The book primarily focuses on topics concerning differential manifolds, tangent spaces, multivariable differential calculus, topological properties of smooth manifolds, embedded submanifolds, Sard’s theorem and Whitney embedding theorem. It is clearly structured, amply illustrated and includes solved examples for all concepts discussed. Several difficult theorems have been broken into many lemmas and notes (equivalent to sub-lemmas) to enhance the readability of the book. Further, once a concept has been introduced, it reoccurs throughout the book to ensure comprehension. Rank theorem, a vital aspect of smooth manifolds theory, occurs in many manifestations, including rank theorem for Euclidean space and global rank theorem. Though primarily intended for graduate students of mathematics, the book ...

  9. Iterative solutions of nonlinear equations in smooth Banach spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chidume, C.E.

    1994-05-01

    Let E be a smooth Banach space over the real field, φ not= K is contained in E closed convex and bounded, T:K → K uniformly continuous and strongly pseudo-contractive. It is proved that the Ishikawa iteration process converges strongly to the unique fixed point of T. Applications of this result to the operator equations Au=f or u+Au=f where A is a strongly accretive mapping of E into itself and under various continuity assumptions on A are also given. (author). 41 refs

  10. Smoothed Conditional Scale Function Estimation in AR(1-ARCH(1 Processes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lema Logamou Seknewna

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The estimation of the Smoothed Conditional Scale Function for time series was taken out under the conditional heteroscedastic innovations by imitating the kernel smoothing in nonparametric QAR-QARCH scheme. The estimation was taken out based on the quantile regression methodology proposed by Koenker and Bassett. And the proof of the asymptotic properties of the Conditional Scale Function estimator for this type of process was given and its consistency was shown.

  11. A three critical point theorem for non-smooth functionals with ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    1Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics Sciences, ... In many applications, we encounter problems with non-smooth energy functionals. These .... The next lemma shows that a locally Lipschitz functional with a compact gradient, is.

  12. On the vanishing rate of smooth CR functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giuseppe Della Sala

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Let be a lineally convex hypersurface of ℂⁿ of finite type, 0∈. Then there exist non-trivial smooth CR functions on that are flat at 0, i.e. whose Taylor expansion about 0 vanishes identically. Our aim is to characterize the rate at which flat CR functions can decrease without vanishing identically. As it turns out, non-trivial CR functions cannot decay arbitrarily fast, and a possible way of expressing the critical rate is by comparison with a suitable exponential of the modulus of a local peak function.

  13. Estimate of K-functionals and modulus of smoothness constructed ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    ... and -functionals. The main result of the paper is the proof of the equivalence theorem for a -functional and a modulus of smoothness for the Dunkl transform on R d . Author Affiliations. M El Hamma1 R Daher1. Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Sciences Aïn Chock, University of Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco ...

  14. Convergence theorems for a class of nonlinear maps in uniformly smooth Banach spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chidume, C.E.; Osilike, M.O.

    1992-05-01

    Let K be a nonempty closed and convex subset of a real uniformly smooth Banach space, E, with modulus of smoothness of power type q>1. Let T be a mapping of K into itself, T is an element of C (in the notion of Browder and Petryshyn; and Rhoades). It is proved that the Mann iteration process, under suitable conditions, converges strongly to the unique fixed point of T. If K is also bounded, then the Ishikawa iteration process converges to the fixed point of T. While our theorems generalize important known results, our method is also of independent interest. (author). 14 refs

  15. Estimate of K-functionals and modulus of smoothness constructed ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    2016-08-26

    functional and a modulus of smoothness for the Dunkl transform on Rd. Author Affiliations. M El Hamma1 R Daher1. Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Sciences Aïn Chock, University of Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco. Dates.

  16. Unexpected properties of bandwidth choice when smoothing discrete data for constructing a functional data classifier

    KAUST Repository

    Carroll, Raymond J.

    2013-12-01

    The data functions that are studied in the course of functional data analysis are assembled from discrete data, and the level of smoothing that is used is generally that which is appropriate for accurate approximation of the conceptually smooth functions that were not actually observed. Existing literature shows that this approach is effective, and even optimal, when using functional data methods for prediction or hypothesis testing. However, in the present paper we show that this approach is not effective in classification problems. There a useful rule of thumb is that undersmoothing is often desirable, but there are several surprising qualifications to that approach. First, the effect of smoothing the training data can be more significant than that of smoothing the new data set to be classified; second, undersmoothing is not always the right approach, and in fact in some cases using a relatively large bandwidth can be more effective; and third, these perverse results are the consequence of very unusual properties of error rates, expressed as functions of smoothing parameters. For example, the orders of magnitude of optimal smoothing parameter choices depend on the signs and sizes of terms in an expansion of error rate, and those signs and sizes can vary dramatically from one setting to another, even for the same classifier.

  17. Unexpected properties of bandwidth choice when smoothing discrete data for constructing a functional data classifier

    KAUST Repository

    Carroll, Raymond J.; Delaigle, Aurore; Hall, Peter

    2013-01-01

    The data functions that are studied in the course of functional data analysis are assembled from discrete data, and the level of smoothing that is used is generally that which is appropriate for accurate approximation of the conceptually smooth functions that were not actually observed. Existing literature shows that this approach is effective, and even optimal, when using functional data methods for prediction or hypothesis testing. However, in the present paper we show that this approach is not effective in classification problems. There a useful rule of thumb is that undersmoothing is often desirable, but there are several surprising qualifications to that approach. First, the effect of smoothing the training data can be more significant than that of smoothing the new data set to be classified; second, undersmoothing is not always the right approach, and in fact in some cases using a relatively large bandwidth can be more effective; and third, these perverse results are the consequence of very unusual properties of error rates, expressed as functions of smoothing parameters. For example, the orders of magnitude of optimal smoothing parameter choices depend on the signs and sizes of terms in an expansion of error rate, and those signs and sizes can vary dramatically from one setting to another, even for the same classifier.

  18. Smooth function approximation using neural networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferrari, Silvia; Stengel, Robert F

    2005-01-01

    An algebraic approach for representing multidimensional nonlinear functions by feedforward neural networks is presented. In this paper, the approach is implemented for the approximation of smooth batch data containing the function's input, output, and possibly, gradient information. The training set is associated to the network adjustable parameters by nonlinear weight equations. The cascade structure of these equations reveals that they can be treated as sets of linear systems. Hence, the training process and the network approximation properties can be investigated via linear algebra. Four algorithms are developed to achieve exact or approximate matching of input-output and/or gradient-based training sets. Their application to the design of forward and feedback neurocontrollers shows that algebraic training is characterized by faster execution speeds and better generalization properties than contemporary optimization techniques.

  19. Smooth homogeneous structures in operator theory

    CERN Document Server

    Beltita, Daniel

    2005-01-01

    Geometric ideas and techniques play an important role in operator theory and the theory of operator algebras. Smooth Homogeneous Structures in Operator Theory builds the background needed to understand this circle of ideas and reports on recent developments in this fruitful field of research. Requiring only a moderate familiarity with functional analysis and general topology, the author begins with an introduction to infinite dimensional Lie theory with emphasis on the relationship between Lie groups and Lie algebras. A detailed examination of smooth homogeneous spaces follows. This study is illustrated by familiar examples from operator theory and develops methods that allow endowing such spaces with structures of complex manifolds. The final section of the book explores equivariant monotone operators and Kähler structures. It examines certain symmetry properties of abstract reproducing kernels and arrives at a very general version of the construction of restricted Grassmann manifolds from the theory of loo...

  20. Characterization of generalized Orlicz spaces

    KAUST Repository

    Ferreira, Rita

    2016-12-14

    The norm in classical Sobolev spaces can be expressed as a difference quotient. This expression can be used to generalize the space to the fractional smoothness case. Because the difference quotient is based on shifting the function, it cannot be used in generalized Orlicz spaces. In its place, we introduce a smoothed difference quotient and show that it can be used to characterize the generalized Orlicz-Sobolev space. Our results are new even in Orlicz spaces and variable exponent spaces.

  1. Characterization of generalized Orlicz spaces

    KAUST Repository

    Ferreira, Rita; Hä stö , Peter; Ribeiro, Ana Margarida

    2016-01-01

    The norm in classical Sobolev spaces can be expressed as a difference quotient. This expression can be used to generalize the space to the fractional smoothness case. Because the difference quotient is based on shifting the function, it cannot be used in generalized Orlicz spaces. In its place, we introduce a smoothed difference quotient and show that it can be used to characterize the generalized Orlicz-Sobolev space. Our results are new even in Orlicz spaces and variable exponent spaces.

  2. Bayesian Exponential Smoothing.

    OpenAIRE

    Forbes, C.S.; Snyder, R.D.; Shami, R.S.

    2000-01-01

    In this paper, a Bayesian version of the exponential smoothing method of forecasting is proposed. The approach is based on a state space model containing only a single source of error for each time interval. This model allows us to improve current practices surrounding exponential smoothing by providing both point predictions and measures of the uncertainty surrounding them.

  3. Fixed point iterations for strictly hemi-contractive maps in uniformly smooth Banach spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chidume, C.E.; Osilike, M.O.

    1993-05-01

    It is proved that the Mann iteration process converges strongly to the fixed point of a strictly hemi-contractive map in real uniformly smooth Banach spaces. The class of strictly hemi-contractive maps includes all strictly pseudo-contractive maps with nonempty fixed point sets. A related result deals with the Ishikawa iteration scheme when the mapping is Lipschitzian and strictly hemi-contractive. Our theorems generalize important known results. (author). 29 refs

  4. Convexity and the Euclidean Metric of Space-Time

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available We address the reasons why the “Wick-rotated”, positive-definite, space-time metric obeys the Pythagorean theorem. An answer is proposed based on the convexity and smoothness properties of the functional spaces purporting to provide the kinematic framework of approaches to quantum gravity. We employ moduli of convexity and smoothness which are eventually extremized by Hilbert spaces. We point out the potential physical significance that functional analytical dualities play in this framework. Following the spirit of the variational principles employed in classical and quantum Physics, such Hilbert spaces dominate in a generalized functional integral approach. The metric of space-time is induced by the inner product of such Hilbert spaces.

  5. Strong Convergence Theorems of a New General Iterative Process with Meir-Keeler Contractions for a Countable Family of -Strict Pseudocontractions in -Uniformly Smooth Banach Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Song Yanlai

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available We introduce a new iterative scheme with Meir-Keeler contractions for strict pseudocontractions in -uniformly smooth Banach spaces. We also discuss the strong convergence theorems for the new iterative scheme in -uniformly smooth Banach space. Our results improve and extend the corresponding results announced by many others.

  6. Human lung mast cells modulate the functions of airway smooth muscle cells in asthma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alkhouri, H; Hollins, F; Moir, L M; Brightling, C E; Armour, C L; Hughes, J M

    2011-09-01

    Activated mast cell densities are increased on the airway smooth muscle in asthma where they may modulate muscle functions and thus contribute to airway inflammation, remodelling and airflow obstruction. To determine the effects of human lung mast cells on the secretory and proliferative functions of airway smooth muscle cells from donors with and without asthma. Freshly isolated human lung mast cells were stimulated with IgE/anti-IgE. Culture supernatants were collected after 2 and 24 h and the mast cells lysed. The supernatants/lysates were added to serum-deprived, subconfluent airway smooth muscle cells for up to 48 h. Released chemokines and extracellular matrix were measured by ELISA, proliferation was quantified by [(3) H]-thymidine incorporation and cell counting, and intracellular signalling by phospho-arrays. Mast cell 2-h supernatants reduced CCL11 and increased CXCL8 and fibronectin production from both asthmatic and nonasthmatic muscle cells. Leupeptin reversed these effects. Mast cell 24-h supernatants and lysates reduced CCL11 release from both muscle cell types but increased CXCL8 release by nonasthmatic cells. The 24-h supernatants also reduced asthmatic, but not nonasthmatic, muscle cell DNA synthesis and asthmatic cell numbers over 5 days through inhibiting extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and phosphatidylinositol (PI3)-kinase pathways. However, prostaglandins, thromboxanes, IL-4 and IL-13 were not involved in reducing the proliferation. Mast cell proteases and newly synthesized products differentially modulated the secretory and proliferative functions of airway smooth muscle cells from donors with and without asthma. Thus, mast cells may modulate their own recruitment and airway smooth muscle functions locally in asthma. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

  7. Some remarks on smooth renormings of Banach spaces

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Hájek, Petr Pavel; Russo, T.

    2017-01-01

    Roč. 455, č. 2 (2017), s. 1272-1284 ISSN 0022-247X R&D Projects: GA ČR GA16-07378S Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : Fréchet smooth * approximation of norms * Ck-smooth norm Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics OBOR OECD: Pure mathematics Impact factor: 1.064, year: 2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022247X17305462?via%3Dihub

  8. A smoothing spline that approximates Laplace transform functions only known on measurements on the real axis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D’Amore, L; Campagna, R; Murli, A; Galletti, A; Marcellino, L

    2012-01-01

    The scientific and application-oriented interest in the Laplace transform and its inversion is testified by more than 1000 publications in the last century. Most of the inversion algorithms available in the literature assume that the Laplace transform function is available everywhere. Unfortunately, such an assumption is not fulfilled in the applications of the Laplace transform. Very often, one only has a finite set of data and one wants to recover an estimate of the inverse Laplace function from that. We propose a fitting model of data. More precisely, given a finite set of measurements on the real axis, arising from an unknown Laplace transform function, we construct a dth degree generalized polynomial smoothing spline, where d = 2m − 1, such that internally to the data interval it is a dth degree polynomial complete smoothing spline minimizing a regularization functional, and outside the data interval, it mimics the Laplace transform asymptotic behavior, i.e. it is a rational or an exponential function (the end behavior model), and at the boundaries of the data set it joins with regularity up to order m − 1, with the end behavior model. We analyze in detail the generalized polynomial smoothing spline of degree d = 3. This choice was motivated by the (ill)conditioning of the numerical computation which strongly depends on the degree of the complete spline. We prove existence and uniqueness of this spline. We derive the approximation error and give a priori and computable bounds of it on the whole real axis. In such a way, the generalized polynomial smoothing spline may be used in any real inversion algorithm to compute an approximation of the inverse Laplace function. Experimental results concerning Laplace transform approximation, numerical inversion of the generalized polynomial smoothing spline and comparisons with the exponential smoothing spline conclude the work. (paper)

  9. Isometries on Banach spaces function spaces

    CERN Document Server

    Fleming, Richard J

    2002-01-01

    Fundamental to the study of any mathematical structure is an understanding of its symmetries. In the class of Banach spaces, this leads naturally to a study of isometries-the linear transformations that preserve distances. In his foundational treatise, Banach showed that every linear isometry on the space of continuous functions on a compact metric space must transform a continuous function x into a continuous function y satisfying y(t) = h(t)x(p(t)), where p is a homeomorphism and |h| is identically one.Isometries on Banach Spaces: Function Spaces is the first of two planned volumes that survey investigations of Banach-space isometries. This volume emphasizes the characterization of isometries and focuses on establishing the type of explicit, canonical form given above in a variety of settings. After an introductory discussion of isometries in general, four chapters are devoted to describing the isometries on classical function spaces. The final chapter explores isometries on Banach algebras.This treatment p...

  10. Intelligent PV Power Smoothing Control Using Probabilistic Fuzzy Neural Network with Asymmetric Membership Function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Faa-Jeng Lin

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available An intelligent PV power smoothing control using probabilistic fuzzy neural network with asymmetric membership function (PFNN-AMF is proposed in this study. First, a photovoltaic (PV power plant with a battery energy storage system (BESS is introduced. The BESS consisted of a bidirectional DC/AC 3-phase inverter and LiFePO4 batteries. Then, the difference of the actual PV power and smoothed power is supplied by the BESS. Moreover, the network structure of the PFNN-AMF and its online learning algorithms are described in detail. Furthermore, the three-phase output currents of the PV power plant are converted to the dq-axis current components. The resulted q-axis current is the input of the PFNN-AMF power smoothing control, and the output is a smoothing PV power curve to achieve the effect of PV power smoothing. Comparing to the other smoothing methods, a minimum energy capacity of the BESS with a small fluctuation of the grid power can be achieved by the PV power smoothing control using PFNN-AMF. In addition, a personal computer- (PC- based PV power plant emulator and BESS are built for the experimentation. From the experimental results of various irradiance variation conditions, the effectiveness of the proposed intelligent PV power smoothing control can be verified.

  11. State Space Models and the Kalman-Filter in Stochastic Claims Reserving: Forecasting, Filtering and Smoothing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nataliya Chukhrova

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper gives a detailed overview of the current state of research in relation to the use of state space models and the Kalman-filter in the field of stochastic claims reserving. Most of these state space representations are matrix-based, which complicates their applications. Therefore, to facilitate the implementation of state space models in practice, we present a scalar state space model for cumulative payments, which is an extension of the well-known chain ladder (CL method. The presented model is distribution-free, forms a basis for determining the entire unobservable lower and upper run-off triangles and can easily be applied in practice using the Kalman-filter for prediction, filtering and smoothing of cumulative payments. In addition, the model provides an easy way to find outliers in the data and to determine outlier effects. Finally, an empirical comparison of the scalar state space model, promising prior state space models and some popular stochastic claims reserving methods is performed.

  12. Smooth values of the iterates of the Euler's Phi function

    OpenAIRE

    Lamzouri, Youness

    2005-01-01

    Let $\\phi(n)$ be the Euler-phi function, define $\\phi_0(n) = n$ and $\\phi_{k+1}(n)=\\phi(\\phi_{k}(n))$ for all $k\\geq 0$. We will determine an asymptotic formula for the set of integers $n$ less than $x$ for which $\\phi_k(n)$ is $y$-smooth, conditionally on a weak form of the Elliott-Halberstam conjecture.

  13. THE HALO MASS FUNCTION FROM EXCURSION SET THEORY. I. GAUSSIAN FLUCTUATIONS WITH NON-MARKOVIAN DEPENDENCE ON THE SMOOTHING SCALE

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maggiore, Michele; Riotto, Antonio

    2010-01-01

    A classic method for computing the mass function of dark matter halos is provided by excursion set theory, where density perturbations evolve stochastically with the smoothing scale, and the problem of computing the probability of halo formation is mapped into the so-called first-passage time problem in the presence of a barrier. While the full dynamical complexity of halo formation can only be revealed through N-body simulations, excursion set theory provides a simple analytic framework for understanding various aspects of this complex process. In this series of papers we propose improvements of both technical and conceptual aspects of excursion set theory, and we explore up to which point the method can reproduce quantitatively the data from N-body simulations. In Paper I of the series, we show how to derive excursion set theory from a path integral formulation. This allows us both to derive rigorously the absorbing barrier boundary condition, that in the usual formulation is just postulated, and to deal analytically with the non-Markovian nature of the random walk. Such a non-Markovian dynamics inevitably enters when either the density is smoothed with filters such as the top-hat filter in coordinate space (which is the only filter associated with a well-defined halo mass) or when one considers non-Gaussian fluctuations. In these cases, beside 'Markovian' terms, we find 'memory' terms that reflect the non-Markovianity of the evolution with the smoothing scale. We develop a general formalism for evaluating perturbatively these non-Markovian corrections, and in this paper we perform explicitly the computation of the halo mass function for Gaussian fluctuations, to first order in the non-Markovian corrections due to the use of a top-hat filter in coordinate space. In Paper II of this series we propose to extend excursion set theory by treating the critical threshold for collapse as a stochastic variable, which better captures some of the dynamical complexity of the

  14. Smooth Muscle Endothelin B Receptors Regulate Blood Pressure but Not Vascular Function or Neointimal Remodeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Eileen; Czopek, Alicja; Duthie, Karolina M; Kirkby, Nicholas S; van de Putte, Elisabeth E Fransen; Christen, Sibylle; Kimmitt, Robert A; Moorhouse, Rebecca; Castellan, Raphael F P; Kotelevtsev, Yuri V; Kuc, Rhoda E; Davenport, Anthony P; Dhaun, Neeraj; Webb, David J; Hadoke, Patrick W F

    2017-02-01

    The role of smooth muscle endothelin B (ET B ) receptors in regulating vascular function, blood pressure (BP), and neointimal remodeling has not been established. Selective knockout mice were generated to address the hypothesis that loss of smooth muscle ET B receptors would reduce BP, alter vascular contractility, and inhibit neointimal remodeling. ET B receptors were selectively deleted from smooth muscle by crossing floxed ET B mice with those expressing cre-recombinase controlled by the transgelin promoter. Functional consequences of ET B deletion were assessed using myography. BP was measured by telemetry, and neointimal lesion formation induced by femoral artery injury. Lesion size and composition (day 28) were analyzed using optical projection tomography, histology, and immunohistochemistry. Selective deletion of ET B was confirmed by genotyping, autoradiography, polymerase chain reaction, and immunohistochemistry. ET B -mediated contraction was reduced in trachea, but abolished from mesenteric veins, of knockout mice. Induction of ET B -mediated contraction in mesenteric arteries was also abolished in these mice. Femoral artery function was unaltered, and baseline BP modestly elevated in smooth muscle ET B knockout compared with controls (+4.2±0.2 mm Hg; P<0.0001), but salt-induced and ET B blockade-mediated hypertension were unaltered. Circulating endothelin-1 was not altered in knockout mice. ET B -mediated contraction was not induced in femoral arteries by incubation in culture medium or lesion formation, and lesion size was not altered in smooth muscle ET B knockout mice. In the absence of other pathology, ET B receptors in vascular smooth muscle make a small but significant contribution to ET B -dependent regulation of BP. These ET B receptors have no effect on vascular contraction or neointimal remodeling. © 2016 The Authors.

  15. Ant colony optimisation for economic dispatch problem with non-smooth cost functions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pothiya, Saravuth; Kongprawechnon, Waree [School of Communication, Instrumentation and Control, Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Thammasat University, P.O. Box 22, Pathumthani (Thailand); Ngamroo, Issarachai [Center of Excellence for Innovative Energy Systems, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut' s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok 10520 (Thailand)

    2010-06-15

    This paper presents a novel and efficient optimisation approach based on the ant colony optimisation (ACO) for solving the economic dispatch (ED) problem with non-smooth cost functions. In order to improve the performance of ACO algorithm, three additional techniques, i.e. priority list, variable reduction, and zoom feature are presented. To show its efficiency and effectiveness, the proposed ACO is applied to two types of ED problems with non-smooth cost functions. Firstly, the ED problem with valve-point loading effects consists of 13 and 40 generating units. Secondly, the ED problem considering the multiple fuels consists of 10 units. Additionally, the results of the proposed ACO are compared with those of the conventional heuristic approaches. The experimental results show that the proposed ACO approach is comparatively capable of obtaining higher quality solution and faster computational time. (author)

  16. Smoothing a Piecewise-Smooth: An Example from Plankton Population Dynamics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Piltz, Sofia Helena

    2016-01-01

    In this work we discuss a piecewise-smooth dynamical system inspired by plankton observations and constructed for one predator switching its diet between two different types of prey. We then discuss two smooth formulations of the piecewise-smooth model obtained by using a hyperbolic tangent funct...... function and adding a dimension to the system. We compare model behaviour of the three systems and show an example case where the steepness of the switch is determined from a comparison with data on freshwater plankton....

  17. Using Cochran's Z Statistic to Test the Kernel-Smoothed Item Response Function Differences between Focal and Reference Groups

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Yinggan; Gierl, Mark J.; Cui, Ying

    2010-01-01

    This study combined the kernel smoothing procedure and a nonparametric differential item functioning statistic--Cochran's Z--to statistically test the difference between the kernel-smoothed item response functions for reference and focal groups. Simulation studies were conducted to investigate the Type I error and power of the proposed…

  18. Some asymptotic theory for variance function smoothing | Kibua ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Simple selection of the smoothing parameter is suggested. Both homoscedastic and heteroscedastic regression models are considered. Keywords: Asymptotic, Smoothing, Kernel, Bandwidth, Bias, Variance, Mean squared error, Homoscedastic, Heteroscedastic. > East African Journal of Statistics Vol. 1 (1) 2005: pp. 9-22 ...

  19. ON THE DERIVATIVE OF SMOOTH MEANINGFUL FUNCTIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanjo Zlobec

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available The derivative of a function f in n variables at a point x* is one of the most important tools in mathematical modelling. If this object exists, it is represented by the row n-tuple f(x* = [∂f/∂xi(x*] called the gradient of f at x*, abbreviated: “the gradient”. The evaluation of f(x* is usually done in two stages, first by calculating the n partials and then their values at x = x*. In this talk we give an alternative approach. We show that one can characterize the gradient without differentiation! The idea is to fix an arbitrary row n-tuple G and answer the following question: What is a necessary and sufficient condition such that G is the gradient of a given f at a given x*? The answer is given after adjusting the quadratic envelope property introduced in [3]. We work with smooth, i.e., continuously differentiable, functions with a Lipschitz derivative on a compact convex set with a non-empty interior. Working with this class of functions is not a serious restriction. In fact, loosely speaking, “almost all” smooth meaningful functions used in modelling of real life situations are expected to have a bounded “acceleration” hence they belong to this class. In particular, the class contains all twice differentiable functions [1]. An important property of the functions from this class is that every f can be represented as the difference of some convex function and a convex quadratic function. This decomposition was used in [3] to characterize the zero derivative points. There we obtained reformulations and augmentations of some well known classic results on optimality such as Fermats extreme value theorem (known from high school and the Lagrange multiplier theorem from calculus [2, 3]. In this talk we extend the results on zero derivative points to characterize the relation G = f(x*, where G is an arbitrary n-tuple. Some special cases: If G = O, we recover the results on zero derivative points. For functions of a single

  20. Smooth and non-smooth travelling waves in a nonlinearly dispersive Boussinesq equation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shen Jianwei; Xu Wei; Lei Youming

    2005-01-01

    The dynamical behavior and special exact solutions of nonlinear dispersive Boussinesq equation (B(m,n) equation), u tt -u xx -a(u n ) xx +b(u m ) xxxx =0, is studied by using bifurcation theory of dynamical system. As a result, all possible phase portraits in the parametric space for the travelling wave system, solitary wave, kink and anti-kink wave solutions and uncountably infinite many smooth and non-smooth periodic wave solutions are obtained. It can be shown that the existence of singular straight line in the travelling wave system is the reason why smooth waves converge to cusp waves, finally. When parameter are varied, under different parametric conditions, various sufficient conditions guarantee the existence of the above solutions are given

  1. Banach spaces of continuous functions as dual spaces

    CERN Document Server

    Dales, H G; Lau, A T -M; Strauss, D

    2016-01-01

    This book gives a coherent account of the theory of Banach spaces and Banach lattices, using the spaces C_0(K) of continuous functions on a locally compact space K as the main example. The study of C_0(K) has been an important area of functional analysis for many years. It gives several new constructions, some involving Boolean rings, of this space as well as many results on the Stonean space of Boolean rings. The book also discusses when Banach spaces of continuous functions are dual spaces and when they are bidual spaces.

  2. Optimal Embeddings of Bessel-Potential-Type Spaces into Generalized Hölder Spaces Involving k-Modulus of Smoothness

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Gogatishvili, Amiran; Neves, J. S.; Opic, Bohumír

    2010-01-01

    Roč. 32, č. 3 (2010), s. 201-228 ISSN 0926-2601 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA201/05/2033; GA ČR GA201/08/0383 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10190503 Keywords : slowly varying functions * Lorentz-Karamata spaces * Rearrangement-invariant Banach function spaces * Bessel potentials * (fractional) Sobolev-type spaces * Hölder-type spaces * Zygmund-type spaces Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.853, year: 2010 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11118-009-9148-2

  3. Function spaces, 1

    CERN Document Server

    Pick, Luboš; John, Oldrich; Fucík, Svatopluk

    2012-01-01

    This is the first part of the second revised and extended edition of a well established monograph. It is an introduction to function spaces defined in terms of differentiability and integrability classes. It provides a catalogue of various spaces and benefits as a handbook for those who use function spaces to study other topics such as partial differential equations. Volum

  4. Picard iterations for nonlinear Lipschitz strong pseudo-contractions in uniformly smooth Banach spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chidume, C.E.

    1995-06-01

    Suppose E is a real uniformly smooth Banach space and K is a nonempty closed convex and bounded subset of E, T:K → K is a Lipschitz pseudo-contraction. It is proved that the Picard iterates of a suitably defined operator converges strongly to the unique fixed point of T. Furthermore, this result also holds for the slightly larger class of Lipschitz strong hemi-contractions. Related results deal with strong convergence of the Picard iterates to the unique solution of operator equations involving Lipschitz strongly accretive maps. Apart from establishing strong convergence, our theorems give existence, uniqueness and convergence-rate which is at least as fast as a geometric progression. (author). 51 refs

  5. Cytokine-induced differentiation of multipotent adult progenitor cells into functional smooth muscle cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, Jeffrey J; Hong, Zhigang; Willenbring, Ben; Zeng, Lepeng; Isenberg, Brett; Lee, Eu Han; Reyes, Morayma; Keirstead, Susan A; Weir, E Kenneth; Tranquillo, Robert T; Verfaillie, Catherine M

    2006-12-01

    Smooth muscle formation and function are critical in development and postnatal life. Hence, studies aimed at better understanding SMC differentiation are of great importance. Here, we report that multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs) isolated from rat, murine, porcine, and human bone marrow demonstrate the potential to differentiate into cells with an SMC-like phenotype and function. TGF-beta1 alone or combined with PDGF-BB in serum-free medium induces a temporally correct expression of transcripts and proteins consistent with smooth muscle development. Furthermore, SMCs derived from MAPCs (MAPC-SMCs) demonstrated functional L-type calcium channels. MAPC-SMCs entrapped in fibrin vascular molds became circumferentially aligned and generated force in response to KCl, the L-type channel opener FPL64176, or the SMC agonists 5-HT and ET-1, and exhibited complete relaxation in response to the Rho-kinase inhibitor Y-27632. Cyclic distention (5% circumferential strain) for 3 weeks increased responses by 2- to 3-fold, consistent with what occurred in neonatal SMCs. These results provide evidence that MAPC-SMCs are phenotypically and functionally similar to neonatal SMCs and that the in vitro MAPC-SMC differentiation system may be an ideal model for the study of SMC development. Moreover, MAPC-SMCs may lend themselves to tissue engineering applications.

  6. Phosphodiesterases regulate airway smooth muscle function in health and disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krymskaya, Vera P; Panettieri, Reynold A

    2007-01-01

    On the basis of structure, regulation, and kinetic properties, phosphodiesterases (PDEs) represent a superfamily of enzymes divided into 11 subfamilies that catalyze cytosolic levels of 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) or 3',5'-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) to 5'-AMP or 5'-GMP, respectively. PDE4 represents the major PDE expressed in inflammatory cells as well as airway smooth muscle (ASM), and selective PDE4 inhibitors provide a broad spectrum of anti-inflammatory effects such as abrogating cytokine and chemokine release from inflammatory cells and inhibiting inflammatory cell trafficking. Due to cell- and tissue-specific gene expression and regulation, PDEs modulate unique organ-based functions. New tools or compounds that selectively inhibit PDE subfamilies and genetically engineered mice deficient in selective isoforms have greatly enhanced our understanding of PDE function in airway inflammation and resident cell function. This chapter will focus on recent advances in our understanding of the role of PDE in regulating ASM function.

  7. Trajectories of Smooth: The Multidimensionality of Spatial Relations and Autism Spectrum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reddington, Sarah; Price, Deborah

    2017-01-01

    This paper examines how two men with autism spectrum (AS) experience educational spaces having attended public school in Nova Scotia, Canada. Smooth and striated space is mobilised as the main conceptual framework to account for the men's affectivities when experiencing the educational terrain. The central aim when applying smooth and striated…

  8. Experimental studies of mitochondrial function in CADASIL vascular smooth muscle cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Viitanen, Matti; Sundström, Erik; Baumann, Marc; Poyhonen, Minna; Tikka, Saara; Behbahani, Homira

    2013-01-01

    Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a familiar fatal progressive degenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline, and recurrent stroke in young adults. Pathological features include a dramatic reduction of brain vascular smooth muscle cells and severe arteriopathy with the presence of granular osmophilic material in the arterial walls. Here we have investigated the cellular and mitochondrial function in vascular smooth muscle cell lines (VSMCs) established from CADASIL mutation carriers (R133C) and healthy controls. We found significantly lower proliferation rates in CADASIL VSMC as compared to VSMC from controls. Cultured CADASIL VSMCs were not more vulnerable than control cells to a number of toxic substances. Morphological studies showed reduced mitochondrial connectivity and increased number of mitochondria in CADASIL VSMCs. Transmission electron microscopy analysis demonstrated increased irregular and abnormal mitochondria in CADASIL VSMCs. Measurements of mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψ m ) showed a lower percentage of fully functional mitochondria in CADASIL VSMCs. For a number of genes previously reported to be changed in CADASIL VSMCs, immunoblotting analysis demonstrated a significantly reduced SOD1 expression. These findings suggest that alteration of proliferation and mitochondrial function in CADASIL VSMCs might have an effect on vital cellular functions important for CADASIL pathology. -- Highlights: ► CADASIL is an inherited disease of cerebral vascular cells. ► Mitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated in the pathogenesis of CADASIL. ► Lower proliferation rates in CADASIL VSMC. ► Increased irregular and abnormal mitochondria and lower mitochondrial membrane potential in CADASIL VSMCs. ► Reduced mitochondrial connectivity and increased number of mitochondria in CADASIL VSMCs.

  9. Experimental studies of mitochondrial function in CADASIL vascular smooth muscle cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Viitanen, Matti [Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (Sweden); Department of Geriatrics, Turku City Hospital and University of Turku, Turku (Finland); Sundström, Erik [Division of Neurodegeneration, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (Sweden); Baumann, Marc [Protein Chemistry Unit, Institute of Biomedicine/Anatomy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki (Finland); Poyhonen, Minna [Department of Clinical Genetics, Helsinki University Hospital, HUSLAB, Helsinki (Finland); Tikka, Saara [Protein Chemistry Unit, Institute of Biomedicine/Anatomy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki (Finland); Behbahani, Homira, E-mail: homira.behbahani@ki.se [Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (Sweden); Karolinska Institutet Alzheimer' s Disease Research Center, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (Sweden)

    2013-02-01

    Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a familiar fatal progressive degenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline, and recurrent stroke in young adults. Pathological features include a dramatic reduction of brain vascular smooth muscle cells and severe arteriopathy with the presence of granular osmophilic material in the arterial walls. Here we have investigated the cellular and mitochondrial function in vascular smooth muscle cell lines (VSMCs) established from CADASIL mutation carriers (R133C) and healthy controls. We found significantly lower proliferation rates in CADASIL VSMC as compared to VSMC from controls. Cultured CADASIL VSMCs were not more vulnerable than control cells to a number of toxic substances. Morphological studies showed reduced mitochondrial connectivity and increased number of mitochondria in CADASIL VSMCs. Transmission electron microscopy analysis demonstrated increased irregular and abnormal mitochondria in CADASIL VSMCs. Measurements of mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψ{sub m}) showed a lower percentage of fully functional mitochondria in CADASIL VSMCs. For a number of genes previously reported to be changed in CADASIL VSMCs, immunoblotting analysis demonstrated a significantly reduced SOD1 expression. These findings suggest that alteration of proliferation and mitochondrial function in CADASIL VSMCs might have an effect on vital cellular functions important for CADASIL pathology. -- Highlights: ► CADASIL is an inherited disease of cerebral vascular cells. ► Mitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated in the pathogenesis of CADASIL. ► Lower proliferation rates in CADASIL VSMC. ► Increased irregular and abnormal mitochondria and lower mitochondrial membrane potential in CADASIL VSMCs. ► Reduced mitochondrial connectivity and increased number of mitochondria in CADASIL VSMCs.

  10. Edge preserving smoothing and segmentation of 4-D images via transversely isotropic scale-space processing and fingerprint analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reutter, Bryan W.; Algazi, V. Ralph; Gullberg, Grant T; Huesman, Ronald H.

    2004-01-01

    Enhancements are described for an approach that unifies edge preserving smoothing with segmentation of time sequences of volumetric images, based on differential edge detection at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Potential applications of these 4-D methods include segmentation of respiratory gated positron emission tomography (PET) transmission images to improve accuracy of attenuation correction for imaging heart and lung lesions, and segmentation of dynamic cardiac single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images to facilitate unbiased estimation of time-activity curves and kinetic parameters for left ventricular volumes of interest. Improved segmentation of lung surfaces in simulated respiratory gated cardiac PET transmission images is achieved with a 4-D edge detection operator composed of edge preserving 1-D operators applied in various spatial and temporal directions. Smoothing along the axis of a 1-D operator is driven by structure separation seen in the scale-space fingerprint, rather than by image contrast. Spurious noise structures are reduced with use of small-scale isotropic smoothing in directions transverse to the 1-D operator axis. Analytic expressions are obtained for directional derivatives of the smoothed, edge preserved image, and the expressions are used to compose a 4-D operator that detects edges as zero-crossings in the second derivative in the direction of the image intensity gradient. Additional improvement in segmentation is anticipated with use of multiscale transversely isotropic smoothing and a novel interpolation method that improves the behavior of the directional derivatives. The interpolation method is demonstrated on a simulated 1-D edge and incorporation of the method into the 4-D algorithm is described

  11. A Paley-Wiener theorem for reductive symmetric spaces

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ban, E.P. van den; Schlichtkrull, H.

    2006-01-01

    Let X = G/H be a reductive symmetric space and K a maximal compact subgroup of G. The image under the Fourier transform of the space of K-finite compactly supported smooth functions on X is characterized.

  12. Convergence of Implicit and Explicit Schemes for an Asymptotically Nonexpansive Mapping in -Uniformly Smooth and Strictly Convex Banach Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meng Wen

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available We introduce a new iterative scheme with Meir-Keeler contractions for an asymptotically nonexpansive mapping in -uniformly smooth and strictly convex Banach spaces. We also proved the strong convergence theorems of implicit and explicit schemes. The results obtained in this paper extend and improve many recent ones announced by many others.

  13. A class of Matérn-like covariance functions for smooth processes on a sphere

    KAUST Repository

    Jeong, Jaehong

    2015-02-01

    © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. There have been noticeable advancements in developing parametric covariance models for spatial and spatio-temporal data with various applications to environmental problems. However, literature on covariance models for processes defined on the surface of a sphere with great circle distance as a distance metric is still sparse, due to its mathematical difficulties. It is known that the popular Matérn covariance function, with smoothness parameter greater than 0.5, is not valid for processes on the surface of a sphere with great circle distance. We introduce an approach to produce Matérn-like covariance functions for smooth processes on the surface of a sphere that are valid with great circle distance. The resulting model is isotropic and positive definite on the surface of a sphere with great circle distance, with a natural extension for nonstationarity case. We present extensive numerical comparisons of our model, with a Matérn covariance model using great circle distance as well as chordal distance. We apply our new covariance model class to sea level pressure data, known to be smooth compared to other climate variables, from the CMIP5 climate model outputs.

  14. A class of Matérn-like covariance functions for smooth processes on a sphere

    KAUST Repository

    Jeong, Jaehong; Jun, Mikyoung

    2015-01-01

    © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. There have been noticeable advancements in developing parametric covariance models for spatial and spatio-temporal data with various applications to environmental problems. However, literature on covariance models for processes defined on the surface of a sphere with great circle distance as a distance metric is still sparse, due to its mathematical difficulties. It is known that the popular Matérn covariance function, with smoothness parameter greater than 0.5, is not valid for processes on the surface of a sphere with great circle distance. We introduce an approach to produce Matérn-like covariance functions for smooth processes on the surface of a sphere that are valid with great circle distance. The resulting model is isotropic and positive definite on the surface of a sphere with great circle distance, with a natural extension for nonstationarity case. We present extensive numerical comparisons of our model, with a Matérn covariance model using great circle distance as well as chordal distance. We apply our new covariance model class to sea level pressure data, known to be smooth compared to other climate variables, from the CMIP5 climate model outputs.

  15. A function space framework for structural total variation regularization with applications in inverse problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hintermüller, Michael; Holler, Martin; Papafitsoros, Kostas

    2018-06-01

    In this work, we introduce a function space setting for a wide class of structural/weighted total variation (TV) regularization methods motivated by their applications in inverse problems. In particular, we consider a regularizer that is the appropriate lower semi-continuous envelope (relaxation) of a suitable TV type functional initially defined for sufficiently smooth functions. We study examples where this relaxation can be expressed explicitly, and we also provide refinements for weighted TV for a wide range of weights. Since an integral characterization of the relaxation in function space is, in general, not always available, we show that, for a rather general linear inverse problems setting, instead of the classical Tikhonov regularization problem, one can equivalently solve a saddle-point problem where no a priori knowledge of an explicit formulation of the structural TV functional is needed. In particular, motivated by concrete applications, we deduce corresponding results for linear inverse problems with norm and Poisson log-likelihood data discrepancy terms. Finally, we provide proof-of-concept numerical examples where we solve the saddle-point problem for weighted TV denoising as well as for MR guided PET image reconstruction.

  16. Expansion of direction space around the cardinal axes revealed by smooth pursuit eye movements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krukowski, Anton E.; Stone, Leland S.

    2005-01-01

    It is well established that perceptual direction discrimination shows an oblique effect; thresholds are higher for motion along diagonal directions than for motion along cardinal directions. Here, we compare simultaneous direction judgments and pursuit responses for the same motion stimuli and find that both pursuit and perceptual thresholds show similar anisotropies. The pursuit oblique effect is robust under a wide range of experimental manipulations, being largely resistant to changes in trajectory (radial versus tangential motion), speed (10 versus 25 deg/s), directional uncertainty (blocked versus randomly interleaved), and cognitive state (tracking alone versus concurrent tracking and perceptual tasks). Our data show that the pursuit oblique effect is caused by an effective expansion of direction space surrounding the cardinal directions and the requisite compression of space for other directions. This expansion suggests that the directions around the cardinal directions are in some way overrepresented in the visual cortical pathways that drive both smooth pursuit and perception.

  17. Bifurcation theory for finitely smooth planar autonomous differential systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Maoan; Sheng, Lijuan; Zhang, Xiang

    2018-03-01

    In this paper we establish bifurcation theory of limit cycles for planar Ck smooth autonomous differential systems, with k ∈ N. The key point is to study the smoothness of bifurcation functions which are basic and important tool on the study of Hopf bifurcation at a fine focus or a center, and of Poincaré bifurcation in a period annulus. We especially study the smoothness of the first order Melnikov function in degenerate Hopf bifurcation at an elementary center. As we know, the smoothness problem was solved for analytic and C∞ differential systems, but it was not tackled for finitely smooth differential systems. Here, we present their optimal regularity of these bifurcation functions and their asymptotic expressions in the finite smooth case.

  18. Smooth semi-nonparametric (SNP) estimation of the cumulative incidence function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duc, Anh Nguyen; Wolbers, Marcel

    2017-08-15

    This paper presents a novel approach to estimation of the cumulative incidence function in the presence of competing risks. The underlying statistical model is specified via a mixture factorization of the joint distribution of the event type and the time to the event. The time to event distributions conditional on the event type are modeled using smooth semi-nonparametric densities. One strength of this approach is that it can handle arbitrary censoring and truncation while relying on mild parametric assumptions. A stepwise forward algorithm for model estimation and adaptive selection of smooth semi-nonparametric polynomial degrees is presented, implemented in the statistical software R, evaluated in a sequence of simulation studies, and applied to data from a clinical trial in cryptococcal meningitis. The simulations demonstrate that the proposed method frequently outperforms both parametric and nonparametric alternatives. They also support the use of 'ad hoc' asymptotic inference to derive confidence intervals. An extension to regression modeling is also presented, and its potential and challenges are discussed. © 2017 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. © 2017 The Authors. Statistics in Medicine Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. Overexpression of functional TrkA receptors after internalisation in human airway smooth muscle cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freund-Michel, Véronique; Frossard, Nelly

    2008-10-01

    Trafficking of the TrkA receptor after stimulation by NGF is of emerging importance in structural cells in the context of airway inflammatory diseases. We have recently reported the expression of functional TrkA receptors in human airway smooth muscle cells (HASMC). We have here studied the TrkA trafficking mechanisms in these cells. TrkA disappearance from the cell membrane was induced within 5 min of NGF (3pM) stimulation. Co-immunoprecipitation of clathrin-TrkA was revealed, and TrkA internalisation inhibited either by clathrin inhibitors or by siRNA inducing downregulation of endogenous clathrin. TrkA internalised receptors were totally degraded in lysosomes, with no recycling phenomenon. Newly synthesized TrkA receptors were thereafter re-expressed at the cell membrane within 10 h. TrkA re-synthesis was inhibited by blockade of clathrin-dependent internalisation, but not of TrkA receptors lysosomal degradation. Finally, we observed that NGF multiple stimulations progressively increased TrkA expression in HASMC, which was associated with an increase in NGF/TrkA-dependent proliferation. In conclusion, we show here the occurrence of clathrin-dependent TrkA internalisation and lysosomal degradation in the airway smooth muscle, followed by upregulated re-synthesis of functional TrkA receptors and increased proliferative effect in the human airway smooth muscle. This may have pathophysiological consequences in airway inflammatory diseases.

  20. Smooth embeddings with Stein surface images

    OpenAIRE

    Gompf, Robert E.

    2011-01-01

    A simple characterization is given of open subsets of a complex surface that smoothly perturb to Stein open subsets. As applications, complex 2-space C^2 contains domains of holomorphy (Stein open subsets) that are exotic R^4's, and others homotopy equivalent to the 2-sphere but cut out by smooth, compact 3-manifolds. Pseudoconvex embeddings of Brieskorn spheres and other 3-manifolds into complex surfaces are constructed, as are pseudoconcave holomorphic fillings (with disagreeing contact and...

  1. Calcium dynamics in vascular smooth muscle

    OpenAIRE

    Amberg, Gregory C.; Navedo, Manuel F.

    2013-01-01

    Smooth muscle cells are ultimately responsible for determining vascular luminal diameter and blood flow. Dynamic changes in intracellular calcium are a critical mechanism regulating vascular smooth muscle contractility. Processes influencing intracellular calcium are therefore important regulators of vascular function with physiological and pathophysiological consequences. In this review we discuss the major dynamic calcium signals identified and characterized in vascular smooth muscle cells....

  2. Evaluating the impact of spatio-temporal smoothness constraints on the BOLD hemodynamic response function estimation: an analysis based on Tikhonov regularization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Casanova, R; Yang, L; Hairston, W D; Laurienti, P J; Maldjian, J A

    2009-01-01

    Recently we have proposed the use of Tikhonov regularization with temporal smoothness constraints to estimate the BOLD fMRI hemodynamic response function (HRF). The temporal smoothness constraint was imposed on the estimates by using second derivative information while the regularization parameter was selected based on the generalized cross-validation function (GCV). Using one-dimensional simulations, we previously found this method to produce reliable estimates of the HRF time course, especially its time to peak (TTP), being at the same time fast and robust to over-sampling in the HRF estimation. Here, we extend the method to include simultaneous temporal and spatial smoothness constraints. This method does not need Gaussian smoothing as a pre-processing step as usually done in fMRI data analysis. We carried out two-dimensional simulations to compare the two methods: Tikhonov regularization with temporal (Tik-GCV-T) and spatio-temporal (Tik-GCV-ST) smoothness constraints on the estimated HRF. We focus our attention on quantifying the influence of the Gaussian data smoothing and the presence of edges on the performance of these techniques. Our results suggest that the spatial smoothing introduced by regularization is less severe than that produced by Gaussian smoothing. This allows more accurate estimates of the response amplitudes while producing similar estimates of the TTP. We illustrate these ideas using real data. (note)

  3. Smooth solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pokhozhaev, S I

    2014-01-01

    We consider smooth solutions of the Cauchy problem for the Navier-Stokes equations on the scale of smooth functions which are periodic with respect to x∈R 3 . We obtain existence theorems for global (with respect to t>0) and local solutions of the Cauchy problem. The statements of these depend on the smoothness and the norm of the initial vector function. Upper bounds for the behaviour of solutions in both classes, which depend on t, are also obtained. Bibliography: 10 titles

  4. Subretinal Implantation of Electrospun, Short Nanowire, and Smooth Poly(e-caprolactone) Scaffolds to the Subretinal Space of Porcine Eyes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christiansen, A T; Tao, Shanwen; Smith, M

    2012-01-01

    Biodegradable scaffolds play an important adjunct role in transplantation of retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) to the subretinal space. Poly(e-Caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds with different modifications were subretinally implanted in 28 porcine eyes and evaluated by multifocal electroretinography (mf...... for the PCL Smooth. We conclude that of the tested scaffolds, PCL Short Nanowire is the best candidate for subretinal implantation....

  5. A remark on smooth images of Banach spaces

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Hájek, Petr Pavel; Johanis, M.

    2018-01-01

    Roč. 458, č. 2 (2018), s. 1307-1313 ISSN 0022-247X R&D Projects: GA ČR GA16-07378S Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : smooth surjections Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics OBOR OECD: Pure mathematics Impact factor: 1.064, year: 2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article /pii/S0022247X17309186?via%3Dihub

  6. A remark on smooth images of Banach spaces

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Hájek, Petr Pavel; Johanis, M.

    2018-01-01

    Roč. 458, č. 2 (2018), s. 1307-1313 ISSN 0022-247X R&D Projects: GA ČR GA16-07378S Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : smooth surjections Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics OBOR OECD: Pure mathematics Impact factor: 1.064, year: 2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022247X17309186?via%3Dihub

  7. Smooth conditional distribution function and quantiles under random censorship.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leconte, Eve; Poiraud-Casanova, Sandrine; Thomas-Agnan, Christine

    2002-09-01

    We consider a nonparametric random design regression model in which the response variable is possibly right censored. The aim of this paper is to estimate the conditional distribution function and the conditional alpha-quantile of the response variable. We restrict attention to the case where the response variable as well as the explanatory variable are unidimensional and continuous. We propose and discuss two classes of estimators which are smooth with respect to the response variable as well as to the covariate. Some simulations demonstrate that the new methods have better mean square error performances than the generalized Kaplan-Meier estimator introduced by Beran (1981) and considered in the literature by Dabrowska (1989, 1992) and Gonzalez-Manteiga and Cadarso-Suarez (1994).

  8. Role of dystrophin in airway smooth muscle phenotype, contraction and lung function.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pawan Sharma

    Full Text Available Dystrophin links the transmembrane dystrophin-glycoprotein complex to the actin cytoskeleton. We have shown that dystrophin-glycoprotein complex subunits are markers for airway smooth muscle phenotype maturation and together with caveolin-1, play an important role in calcium homeostasis. We tested if dystrophin affects phenotype maturation, tracheal contraction and lung physiology. We used dystrophin deficient Golden Retriever dogs (GRMD and mdx mice vs healthy control animals in our approach. We found significant reduction of contractile protein markers: smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (smMHC and calponin and reduced Ca2+ response to contractile agonist in dystrophin deficient cells. Immunocytochemistry revealed reduced stress fibers and number of smMHC positive cells in dystrophin-deficient cells, when compared to control. Immunoblot analysis of Akt1, GSK3β and mTOR phosphorylation further revealed that downstream PI3K signaling, which is essential for phenotype maturation, was suppressed in dystrophin deficient cell cultures. Tracheal rings from mdx mice showed significant reduction in the isometric contraction to methacholine (MCh when compared to genetic control BL10ScSnJ mice (wild-type. In vivo lung function studies using a small animal ventilator revealed a significant reduction in peak airway resistance induced by maximum concentrations of inhaled MCh in mdx mice, while there was no change in other lung function parameters. These data show that the lack of dystrophin is associated with a concomitant suppression of ASM cell phenotype maturation in vitro, ASM contraction ex vivo and lung function in vivo, indicating that a linkage between the DGC and the actin cytoskeleton via dystrophin is a determinant of the phenotype and functional properties of ASM.

  9. Classification of smooth structures on a homotopy complex ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Abstract. We classify, up to diffeomorphism, all closed smooth manifolds homeo- morphic to the complex projective n-space CPn, where n = 3 and 4. Let M2n be a closed smooth 2n-manifold homotopy equivalent to CPn. We show that, up to diffeo- morphism, M6 has a unique differentiable structure and M8 has at most two ...

  10. Classification of smooth structures on a homotopy complex ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    We classify, up to diffeomorphism, all closed smooth manifolds homeomorphic to the complex projective n -space C P n , where n = 3 and 4. Let M 2 n be a closed smooth 2 n -manifold homotopy equivalent to C P n . We show that, up to diffeomorphism, M 6 has a unique differentiable structure and M 8 has at most two ...

  11. Spaces defined by the Paley function

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Astashkin, S V [Samara State University, Samara (Russian Federation); Semenov, E M [Voronezh State University, Faculty of Mathematics, Voronezh (Russian Federation)

    2013-07-31

    The paper is concerned with Haar and Rademacher series in symmetric spaces, and also with the properties of spaces defined by the Paley function. In particular, the symmetric hull of the space of functions with uniformly bounded Paley function is found. Bibliography: 27 titles.

  12. Fourier inversion on a reductive symmetric space

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ban, E.P. van den

    1999-01-01

    Let X be a semisimple symmetric space. In previous papers, [8] and [9], we have dened an explicit Fourier transform for X and shown that this transform is injective on the space C 1 c (X) ofcompactly supported smooth functions on X. In the present paper, which is a continuation of these papers, we

  13. Efficient computation of smoothing splines via adaptive basis sampling

    KAUST Repository

    Ma, Ping

    2015-06-24

    © 2015 Biometrika Trust. Smoothing splines provide flexible nonparametric regression estimators. However, the high computational cost of smoothing splines for large datasets has hindered their wide application. In this article, we develop a new method, named adaptive basis sampling, for efficient computation of smoothing splines in super-large samples. Except for the univariate case where the Reinsch algorithm is applicable, a smoothing spline for a regression problem with sample size n can be expressed as a linear combination of n basis functions and its computational complexity is generally O(n3). We achieve a more scalable computation in the multivariate case by evaluating the smoothing spline using a smaller set of basis functions, obtained by an adaptive sampling scheme that uses values of the response variable. Our asymptotic analysis shows that smoothing splines computed via adaptive basis sampling converge to the true function at the same rate as full basis smoothing splines. Using simulation studies and a large-scale deep earth core-mantle boundary imaging study, we show that the proposed method outperforms a sampling method that does not use the values of response variables.

  14. Efficient computation of smoothing splines via adaptive basis sampling

    KAUST Repository

    Ma, Ping; Huang, Jianhua Z.; Zhang, Nan

    2015-01-01

    © 2015 Biometrika Trust. Smoothing splines provide flexible nonparametric regression estimators. However, the high computational cost of smoothing splines for large datasets has hindered their wide application. In this article, we develop a new method, named adaptive basis sampling, for efficient computation of smoothing splines in super-large samples. Except for the univariate case where the Reinsch algorithm is applicable, a smoothing spline for a regression problem with sample size n can be expressed as a linear combination of n basis functions and its computational complexity is generally O(n3). We achieve a more scalable computation in the multivariate case by evaluating the smoothing spline using a smaller set of basis functions, obtained by an adaptive sampling scheme that uses values of the response variable. Our asymptotic analysis shows that smoothing splines computed via adaptive basis sampling converge to the true function at the same rate as full basis smoothing splines. Using simulation studies and a large-scale deep earth core-mantle boundary imaging study, we show that the proposed method outperforms a sampling method that does not use the values of response variables.

  15. Weighted semiconvex spaces of measurable functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olaleru, J.O.

    2001-12-01

    Semiconvex spaces are intermediates between locally convex spaces and the non locally convex topological vector spaces. They include all locally convex spaces; hence it is a generalization of locally convex spaces. In this article, we make a study of weighted semiconvex spaces parallel to weighted locally convex spaces where continuous functions are replaced with measurable functions and N p family replaces Nachbin family on a locally compact space X. Among others, we examine the Hausdorffness, completeness, inductive limits, barrelledness and countably barrelledness of weighted semiconvex spaces. New results are obtained while we have a more elegant proofs of old results. Furthermore, we get extensions of some of the old results. It is observed that the technique of proving theorems in weighted locally convex spaces can be adapted to that of weighted semicovex spaces of measurable functions in most cases. (author)

  16. Interpolation in Spaces of Functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Mosaleheh

    2006-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we consider the interpolation by certain functions such as trigonometric and rational functions for finite dimensional linear space X. Then we extend this to infinite dimensional linear spaces

  17. Theory of function spaces

    CERN Document Server

    Triebel, Hans

    1983-01-01

    The book deals with the two scales Bsp,q and Fsp,q of spaces of distributions, where -8spaces, such as Hölder spaces, Zygmund classes, Sobolev spaces, Besov spaces, Bessel-potential spaces, Hardy spaces and spaces of BMO-type. It is the main aim of this book to give a unified treatment of the corresponding spaces on the Euclidean n-space Rn in the framework of Fourier analysis, which is based on the technique of maximal functions, Fourier multipliers and interpolation assertions. These topics are treated in Chapter 2, which is the heart

  18. Pulmonary function in space

    Science.gov (United States)

    West, J. B.; Elliott, A. R.; Guy, H. J.; Prisk, G. K.

    1997-01-01

    The lung is exquisitely sensitive to gravity, and so it is of interest to know how its function is altered in the weightlessness of space. Studies on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Spacelabs during the last 4 years have provided the first comprehensive data on the extensive changes in pulmonary function that occur in sustained microgravity. Measurements of pulmonary function were made on astronauts during space shuttle flights lasting 9 and 14 days and were compared with extensive ground-based measurements before and after the flights. Compared with preflight measurements, cardiac output increased by 18% during space flight, and stroke volume increased by 46%. Paradoxically, the increase in stroke volume occurred in the face of reductions in central venous pressure and circulating blood volume. Diffusing capacity increased by 28%, and the increase in the diffusing capacity of the alveolar membrane was unexpectedly large based on findings in normal gravity. The change in the alveolar membrane may reflect the effects of uniform filling of the pulmonary capillary bed. Distributions of blood flow and ventilation throughout the lung were more uniform in space, but some unevenness remained, indicating the importance of nongravitational factors. A surprising finding was that airway closing volume was approximately the same in microgravity and in normal gravity, emphasizing the importance of mechanical properties of the airways in determining whether they close. Residual volume was unexpectedly reduced by 18% in microgravity, possibly because of uniform alveolar expansion. The findings indicate that pulmonary function is greatly altered in microgravity, but none of the changes observed so far will apparently limit long-term space flight. In addition, the data help to clarify how gravity affects pulmonary function in the normal gravity environment on Earth.

  19. Spaces of continuous functions

    CERN Document Server

    Groenewegen, G L M

    2016-01-01

    The space C(X) of all continuous functions on a compact space X carries the structure of a normed vector space, an algebra and a lattice. On the one hand we study the relations between these structures and the topology of X, on the other hand we discuss a number of classical results according to which an algebra or a vector lattice can be represented as a C(X). Various applications of these theorems are given. Some attention is devoted to related theorems, e.g. the Stone Theorem for Boolean algebras and the Riesz Representation Theorem. The book is functional analytic in character. It does not presuppose much knowledge of functional analysis; it contains introductions into subjects such as the weak topology, vector lattices and (some) integration theory.

  20. Properties of field functionals and characterization of local functionals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brouder, Christian; Dang, Nguyen Viet; Laurent-Gengoux, Camille; Rejzner, Kasia

    2018-02-01

    Functionals (i.e., functions of functions) are widely used in quantum field theory and solid-state physics. In this paper, functionals are given a rigorous mathematical framework and their main properties are described. The choice of the proper space of test functions (smooth functions) and of the relevant concept of differential (Bastiani differential) are discussed. The relation between the multiple derivatives of a functional and the corresponding distributions is described in detail. It is proved that, in a neighborhood of every test function, the support of a smooth functional is uniformly compactly supported and the order of the corresponding distribution is uniformly bounded. Relying on a recent work by Dabrowski, several spaces of functionals are furnished with a complete and nuclear topology. In view of physical applications, it is shown that most formal manipulations can be given a rigorous meaning. A new concept of local functionals is proposed and two characterizations of them are given: the first one uses the additivity (or Hammerstein) property, the second one is a variant of Peetre's theorem. Finally, the first step of a cohomological approach to quantum field theory is carried out by proving a global Poincaré lemma and defining multi-vector fields and graded functionals within our framework.

  1. An advanced complex analysis problem book topological vector spaces, functional analysis, and Hilbert spaces of analytic functions

    CERN Document Server

    Alpay, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    This is an exercises book at the beginning graduate level, whose aim is to illustrate some of the connections between functional analysis and the theory of functions of one variable. A key role is played by the notions of positive definite kernel and of reproducing kernel Hilbert space. A number of facts from functional analysis and topological vector spaces are surveyed. Then, various Hilbert spaces of analytic functions are studied.

  2. Schroedinger--Dirac spaces of entire functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    De Branges, L.

    1977-01-01

    A study is made of some Hilbert spaces of entire function which appear in the quantum mechanical theory of the hydrogen atoms. These spaces are examples in the theory of Hilbert spaces whose elements are entire functions and which have certain given properties. 1 reference

  3. Carrier tracking by smoothing filter improves symbol SNR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pomalaza-Raez, Carlos A.; Hurd, William J.

    1986-01-01

    The potential benefit of using a smoothing filter to estimate carrier phase over use of phase locked loops (PLL) is determined. Numerical results are presented for the performance of three possible configurations of the deep space network advanced receiver. These are residual carrier PLL, sideband aided residual carrier PLL, and finally sideband aiding with a Kalman smoother. The average symbol signal to noise ratio (SNR) after losses due to carrier phase estimation error is computed for different total power SNRs, symbol rates and symbol SNRs. It is found that smoothing is most beneficial for low symbol SNRs and low symbol rates. Smoothing gains up to 0.4 dB over a sideband aided residual carrier PLL, and the combined benefit of smoothing and sideband aiding relative to a residual carrier loop is often in excess of 1 dB.

  4. Generalizing smooth transition autoregressions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Chini, Emilio Zanetti

    We introduce a variant of the smooth transition autoregression - the GSTAR model - capable to parametrize the asymmetry in the tails of the transition equation by using a particular generalization of the logistic function. A General-to-Specific modelling strategy is discussed in detail, with part......We introduce a variant of the smooth transition autoregression - the GSTAR model - capable to parametrize the asymmetry in the tails of the transition equation by using a particular generalization of the logistic function. A General-to-Specific modelling strategy is discussed in detail......, with particular emphasis on two different LM-type tests for the null of symmetric adjustment towards a new regime and three diagnostic tests, whose power properties are explored via Monte Carlo experiments. Four classical real datasets illustrate the empirical properties of the GSTAR, jointly to a rolling...

  5. On the probability density interpretation of smoothed Wigner functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    De Aguiar, M.A.M.; Ozorio de Almeida, A.M.

    1990-01-01

    It has been conjectured that the averages of the Wigner function over phase space volumes, larger than those of minimum uncertainty, are always positive. This is true for Gaussian averaging, so that the Husimi distribution is positive. However, we provide a specific counterexample for the averaging with a discontinuous hat function. The analysis of the specific system of a one-dimensional particle in a box also elucidates the respective advantages of the Wigner and the Husimi functions for the study of the semiclassical limit. The falsification of the averaging conjecture is shown not to depend on the discontinuities of the hat function, by considering the latter as the limit of a sequence of analytic functions. (author)

  6. The algebraic approach to space-time geometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heller, M.; Multarzynski, P.; Sasin, W.

    1989-01-01

    A differential manifold can be defined in terms of smooth real functions carried by it. By rejecting the postulate, in such a definition, demanding the local diffeomorphism of a manifold to the Euclidean space, one obtains the so-called differential space concept. Every subset of R n turns out to be a differential space. Extensive parts of differential geometry on differential spaces, developed by Sikorski, are reviewed and adapted to relativistic purposes. Differential space as a new model of space-time is proposed. The Lorentz structure and Einstein's field equations on differential spaces are discussed. 20 refs. (author)

  7. State Space Modeling Using SAS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rajesh Selukar

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available This article provides a brief introduction to the state space modeling capabilities in SAS, a well-known statistical software system. SAS provides state space modeling in a few different settings. SAS/ETS, the econometric and time series analysis module of the SAS system, contains many procedures that use state space models to analyze univariate and multivariate time series data. In addition, SAS/IML, an interactive matrix language in the SAS system, provides Kalman filtering and smoothing routines for stationary and nonstationary state space models. SAS/IML also provides support for linear algebra and nonlinear function optimization, which makes it a convenient environment for general-purpose state space modeling.

  8. Full-waveform inversion using a nonlinearly smoothed wavefield

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Yuanyuan

    2017-12-08

    Conventional full-waveform inversion (FWI) based on the least-squares misfit function faces problems in converging to the global minimum when using gradient methods because of the cycle-skipping phenomena. An initial model producing data that are at most a half-cycle away from the observed data is needed for convergence to the global minimum. Low frequencies are helpful in updating low-wavenumber components of the velocity model to avoid cycle skipping. However, low enough frequencies are usually unavailable in field cases. The multiplication of wavefields of slightly different frequencies adds artificial low-frequency components in the data, which can be used for FWI to generate a convergent result and avoid cycle skipping. We generalize this process by multiplying the wavefield with itself and then applying a smoothing operator to the multiplied wavefield or its square to derive the nonlinearly smoothed wavefield, which is rich in low frequencies. The global correlation-norm-based objective function can mitigate the dependence on the amplitude information of the nonlinearly smoothed wavefield. Therefore, we have evaluated the use of this objective function when using the nonlinearly smoothed wavefield. The proposed objective function has much larger convexity than the conventional objective functions. We calculate the gradient of the objective function using the adjoint-state technique, which is similar to that of the conventional FWI except for the adjoint source. We progressively reduce the smoothing width applied to the nonlinear wavefield to naturally adopt the multiscale strategy. Using examples on the Marmousi 2 model, we determine that the proposed FWI helps to generate convergent results without the need for low-frequency information.

  9. Composition operators on function spaces

    CERN Document Server

    Singh, RK

    1993-01-01

    This volume of the Mathematics Studies presents work done on composition operators during the last 25 years. Composition operators form a simple but interesting class of operators having interactions with different branches of mathematics and mathematical physics. After an introduction, the book deals with these operators on Lp-spaces. This study is useful in measurable dynamics, ergodic theory, classical mechanics and Markov process. The composition operators on functional Banach spaces (including Hardy spaces) are studied in chapter III. This chapter makes contact with the theory of analytic functions of complex variables. Chapter IV presents a study of these operators on locally convex spaces of continuous functions making contact with topological dynamics. In the last chapter of the book some applications of composition operators in isometries, ergodic theory and dynamical systems are presented. An interesting interplay of algebra, topology, and analysis is displayed. This comprehensive and up-to-date stu...

  10. Green functions in Bianci-type spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bukhbinder, I.L.; Kirillova, E.N.

    1988-01-01

    The theory of free scalar field with conformal connection in distorted space - time with Bianci 1 type metrics is considered. The presentation of the Green functions G-tilde approximately in in in the form of integral from the Schwinger - De Witt kernel over the contour in the plane of complex values of eigentime is obtained. The way, in which the transfer from the Green function in space with Euclidean signature to the Green functions in space with Minkowski signature and vice versa is realized, has been shown

  11. Carrier tracking by smoothing filter can improve symbol SNR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hurd, W. J.; Pomalaza-Raez, C. A.

    1985-01-01

    The potential benefit of using a smoothing filter to estimate carrier phase over use of phase locked loops (PLL) is determined. Numerical results are presented for the performance of three possible configurations of the deep space network advanced receiver. These are residual carrier PLL, sideband aided residual carrier PLL, and finally sideband aiding with a Kalman smoother. The average symbol signal to noise ratio (CNR) after losses due to carrier phase estimation error is computed for different total power SNRs, symbol rates and symbol SNRs. It is found that smoothing is most beneficial for low symbol SNRs and low symbol rates. Smoothing gains up to 0.4 dB over a sideband aided residual carrier PLL, and the combined benefit of smoothing and sideband aiding relative to a residual carrier loop is often in excess of 1 dB.

  12. The effect of image enhancement on the statistical analysis of functional neuroimages : Wavelet-based denoising and Gaussian smoothing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wink, AM; Roerdink, JBTM; Sonka, M; Fitzpatrick, JM

    2003-01-01

    The quality of statistical analyses of functional neuroimages is studied after applying various preprocessing methods. We present wavelet-based denoising as an alternative to Gaussian smoothing, the standard denoising method in statistical parametric mapping (SPM). The wavelet-based denoising

  13. Limit Formulae and Jump Relations of Potential Theory in Sobolev Spaces

    OpenAIRE

    Raskop, Thomas; Grothaus, Martin

    2009-01-01

    In this article we combine the modern theory of Sobolev spaces with the classical theory of limit formulae and jump relations of potential theory. Also other authors proved the convergence in Lebesgue spaces for integrable functions. The achievement of this paper is the L2 convergence for the weak derivatives of higher orders. Also the layer functions F are elements of Sobolev spaces and a two dimensional suitable smooth submanifold in R3, called regular Cm-surface. We are considering the pot...

  14. S1P receptor signalling and RGS proteins; expression and function in vascular smooth muscle cells and transfected CHO cells

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hendriks-Balk, Mariëlle C.; van Loenen, Pieter B.; Hajji, Najat; Michel, Martin C.; Peters, Stephan L. M.; Alewijnse, Astrid E.

    2009-01-01

    Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) signalling via G protein-coupled receptors is important for the regulation of cell function and differentiation. Specific Regulators of G protein Signalling (RGS) proteins modulate the function of these receptors in many cell types including vascular smooth muscle cells

  15. Non-parametric smoothing of experimental data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuketayev, A.T.; Pen'kov, F.M.

    2007-01-01

    Full text: Rapid processing of experimental data samples in nuclear physics often requires differentiation in order to find extrema. Therefore, even at the preliminary stage of data analysis, a range of noise reduction methods are used to smooth experimental data. There are many non-parametric smoothing techniques: interval averages, moving averages, exponential smoothing, etc. Nevertheless, it is more common to use a priori information about the behavior of the experimental curve in order to construct smoothing schemes based on the least squares techniques. The latter methodology's advantage is that the area under the curve can be preserved, which is equivalent to conservation of total speed of counting. The disadvantages of this approach include the lack of a priori information. For example, very often the sums of undifferentiated (by a detector) peaks are replaced with one peak during the processing of data, introducing uncontrolled errors in the determination of the physical quantities. The problem is solvable only by having experienced personnel, whose skills are much greater than the challenge. We propose a set of non-parametric techniques, which allows the use of any additional information on the nature of experimental dependence. The method is based on a construction of a functional, which includes both experimental data and a priori information. Minimum of this functional is reached on a non-parametric smoothed curve. Euler (Lagrange) differential equations are constructed for these curves; then their solutions are obtained analytically or numerically. The proposed approach allows for automated processing of nuclear physics data, eliminating the need for highly skilled laboratory personnel. Pursuant to the proposed approach is the possibility to obtain smoothing curves in a given confidence interval, e.g. according to the χ 2 distribution. This approach is applicable when constructing smooth solutions of ill-posed problems, in particular when solving

  16. Calcium signaling in smooth muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hill-Eubanks, David C; Werner, Matthias E; Heppner, Thomas J; Nelson, Mark T

    2011-09-01

    Changes in intracellular Ca(2+) are central to the function of smooth muscle, which lines the walls of all hollow organs. These changes take a variety of forms, from sustained, cell-wide increases to temporally varying, localized changes. The nature of the Ca(2+) signal is a reflection of the source of Ca(2+) (extracellular or intracellular) and the molecular entity responsible for generating it. Depending on the specific channel involved and the detection technology employed, extracellular Ca(2+) entry may be detected optically as graded elevations in intracellular Ca(2+), junctional Ca(2+) transients, Ca(2+) flashes, or Ca(2+) sparklets, whereas release of Ca(2+) from intracellular stores may manifest as Ca(2+) sparks, Ca(2+) puffs, or Ca(2+) waves. These diverse Ca(2+) signals collectively regulate a variety of functions. Some functions, such as contractility, are unique to smooth muscle; others are common to other excitable cells (e.g., modulation of membrane potential) and nonexcitable cells (e.g., regulation of gene expression).

  17. Role of Smooth Muscle in Intestinal Inflammation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen M Collins

    1996-01-01

    Full Text Available The notion that smooth muscle function is altered in inflammation is prompted by clinical observations of altered motility in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD. While altered motility may reflect inflammation-induced changes in intrinsic or extrinsic nerves to the gut, changes in gut hormone release and changes in muscle function, recent studies have provided in vitro evidence of altered muscle contractility in muscle resected from patients with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease. In addition, the observation that smooth muscle cells are more numerous and prominent in the strictured bowel of IBD patients compared with controls suggests that inflammation may alter the growth of intestinal smooth muscle. Thus, inflammation is associated with changes in smooth muscle growth and contractility that, in turn, contribute to important symptoms of IBD including diarrhea (from altered motility and pain (via either altered motility or stricture formation. The involvement of smooth muscle in this context may be as an innocent bystander, where cells and products of the inflammatory process induce alterations in muscle contractility and growth. However, it is likely that intestinal muscle cells play a more active role in the inflammatory process via the elaboration of mediators and trophic factors, including cytokines, and via the production of collagen. The concept of muscle cells as active participants in the intestinal inflammatory process is a new concept that is under intense study. This report summarizes current knowledge as it relates to these two aspects of altered muscle function (growth and contractility in the inflamed intestine, and will focus on mechanisms underlying these changes, based on data obtained from animal models of intestinal inflammation.

  18. Full Waveform Inversion Using Nonlinearly Smoothed Wavefields

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Y.; Choi, Yun Seok; Alkhalifah, Tariq Ali; Li, Z.

    2017-01-01

    The lack of low frequency information in the acquired data makes full waveform inversion (FWI) conditionally converge to the accurate solution. An initial velocity model that results in data with events within a half cycle of their location in the observed data was required to converge. The multiplication of wavefields with slightly different frequencies generates artificial low frequency components. This can be effectively utilized by multiplying the wavefield with itself, which is nonlinear operation, followed by a smoothing operator to extract the artificially produced low frequency information. We construct the objective function using the nonlinearly smoothed wavefields with a global-correlation norm to properly handle the energy imbalance in the nonlinearly smoothed wavefield. Similar to the multi-scale strategy, we progressively reduce the smoothing width applied to the multiplied wavefield to welcome higher resolution. We calculate the gradient of the objective function using the adjoint-state technique, which is similar to the conventional FWI except for the adjoint source. Examples on the Marmousi 2 model demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed FWI method to mitigate the cycle-skipping problem in the case of a lack of low frequency information.

  19. Full Waveform Inversion Using Nonlinearly Smoothed Wavefields

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Y.

    2017-05-26

    The lack of low frequency information in the acquired data makes full waveform inversion (FWI) conditionally converge to the accurate solution. An initial velocity model that results in data with events within a half cycle of their location in the observed data was required to converge. The multiplication of wavefields with slightly different frequencies generates artificial low frequency components. This can be effectively utilized by multiplying the wavefield with itself, which is nonlinear operation, followed by a smoothing operator to extract the artificially produced low frequency information. We construct the objective function using the nonlinearly smoothed wavefields with a global-correlation norm to properly handle the energy imbalance in the nonlinearly smoothed wavefield. Similar to the multi-scale strategy, we progressively reduce the smoothing width applied to the multiplied wavefield to welcome higher resolution. We calculate the gradient of the objective function using the adjoint-state technique, which is similar to the conventional FWI except for the adjoint source. Examples on the Marmousi 2 model demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed FWI method to mitigate the cycle-skipping problem in the case of a lack of low frequency information.

  20. Quantum phase space points for Wigner functions in finite-dimensional spaces

    OpenAIRE

    Luis Aina, Alfredo

    2004-01-01

    We introduce quantum states associated with single phase space points in the Wigner formalism for finite-dimensional spaces. We consider both continuous and discrete Wigner functions. This analysis provides a procedure for a direct practical observation of the Wigner functions for states and transformations without inversion formulas.

  1. Quantum phase space points for Wigner functions in finite-dimensional spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Luis, Alfredo

    2004-01-01

    We introduce quantum states associated with single phase space points in the Wigner formalism for finite-dimensional spaces. We consider both continuous and discrete Wigner functions. This analysis provides a procedure for a direct practical observation of the Wigner functions for states and transformations without inversion formulas

  2. Major vault protein in cardiac and smooth muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shults, Nataliia V; Das, Dividutta; Suzuki, Yuichiro J

    Major vault protein (MVP) is the major component of the vault particle whose functions are not well understood. One proposed function of the vault is to serve as a mechanism of drug transport, which confers drug resistance in cancer cells. We show that MVP can be found in cardiac and smooth muscle. In human airway smooth muscle cells, knocking down MVP was found to cause cell death, suggesting that MVP serves as a cell survival factor. Further, our laboratory found that MVP is S-glutathionylated in response to ligand/receptor-mediated cell signaling. The S-glutathionylation of MVP appears to regulate protein-protein interactions between MVP and a protein called myosin heavy chain 9 (MYH9). Through MYH9 and Vsp34, MVP may form a complex with Beclin-1 that regulates autophagic cell death. In pulmonary vascular smooth muscle, proteasome inhibition promotes the ubiquitination of MVP, which may function as a mechanism of proteasome inhibition-mediated cell death. Investigating the functions and the regulatory mechanisms of MVP and vault particles is an exciting new area of research in cardiovascular/pulmonary pathophysiology.

  3. Androgen action via testicular arteriole smooth muscle cells is important for Leydig cell function, vasomotion and testicular fluid dynamics.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michelle Welsh

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Regulation of blood flow through the testicular microvasculature by vasomotion is thought to be important for normal testis function as it regulates interstitial fluid (IF dynamics which is an important intra-testicular transport medium. Androgens control vasomotion, but how they exert these effects remains unclear. One possibility is by signalling via androgen receptors (AR expressed in testicular arteriole smooth muscle cells. To investigate this and determine the overall importance of this mechanism in testis function, we generated a blood vessel smooth muscle cell-specific AR knockout mouse (SMARKO. Gross reproductive development was normal in SMARKO mice but testis weight was reduced in adulthood compared to control littermates; this reduction was not due to any changes in germ cell volume or to deficits in testosterone, LH or FSH concentrations and did not cause infertility. However, seminiferous tubule lumen volume was reduced in adult SMARKO males while interstitial volume was increased, perhaps indicating altered fluid dynamics; this was associated with compensated Leydig cell failure. Vasomotion was impaired in adult SMARKO males, though overall testis blood flow was normal and there was an increase in the overall blood vessel volume per testis in adult SMARKOs. In conclusion, these results indicate that ablating arteriole smooth muscle AR does not grossly alter spermatogenesis or affect male fertility but does subtly impair Leydig cell function and testicular fluid exchange, possibly by locally regulating microvascular blood flow within the testis.

  4. Dynamic MRI Using SmooThness Regularization on Manifolds (SToRM).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poddar, Sunrita; Jacob, Mathews

    2016-04-01

    We introduce a novel algorithm to recover real time dynamic MR images from highly under-sampled k- t space measurements. The proposed scheme models the images in the dynamic dataset as points on a smooth, low dimensional manifold in high dimensional space. We propose to exploit the non-linear and non-local redundancies in the dataset by posing its recovery as a manifold smoothness regularized optimization problem. A navigator acquisition scheme is used to determine the structure of the manifold, or equivalently the associated graph Laplacian matrix. The estimated Laplacian matrix is used to recover the dataset from undersampled measurements. The utility of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by comparisons with state of the art methods in multi-slice real-time cardiac and speech imaging applications.

  5. Automatic smoothing parameter selection in GAMLSS with an application to centile estimation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rigby, Robert A; Stasinopoulos, Dimitrios M

    2014-08-01

    A method for automatic selection of the smoothing parameters in a generalised additive model for location, scale and shape (GAMLSS) model is introduced. The method uses a P-spline representation of the smoothing terms to express them as random effect terms with an internal (or local) maximum likelihood estimation on the predictor scale of each distribution parameter to estimate its smoothing parameters. This provides a fast method for estimating multiple smoothing parameters. The method is applied to centile estimation where all four parameters of a distribution for the response variable are modelled as smooth functions of a transformed explanatory variable x This allows smooth modelling of the location, scale, skewness and kurtosis parameters of the response variable distribution as functions of x. © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

  6. Singularities of lightcone pedals of spacelike curves in Lorentz-Minkowski 3-space

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chen Liang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, geometric properties of spacelike curves on a timelike surface in Lorentz-Minkowski 3-space are investigated by applying the singularity theory of smooth functions from the contact viewpoint.

  7. Inflation and Topological Phase Transition Driven by Exotic Smoothness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Torsten Asselmeyer-Maluga

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available We will discuss a model which describes the cause of inflation by a topological transition. The guiding principle is the choice of an exotic smoothness structure for the space-time. Here we consider a space-time with topology S3×ℝ. In case of an exotic S3×ℝ, there is a change in the spatial topology from a 3-sphere to a homology 3-sphere which can carry a hyperbolic structure. From the physical point of view, we will discuss the path integral for the Einstein-Hilbert action with respect to a decomposition of the space-time. The inclusion of the boundary terms produces fermionic contributions to the partition function. The expectation value of an area (with respect to some surface shows an exponential increase; that is, we obtain inflationary behavior. We will calculate the amount of this increase to be a topological invariant. Then we will describe this transition by an effective model, the Starobinski or R2 model which is consistent with the current measurement of the Planck satellite. The spectral index and other observables are also calculated.

  8. DAWN GRAND MAP CERES SMOOTHED HYDROGEN MAP V1.0

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — A smoothed, global map of the concentration of hydrogen within the regolith of asteroid 1 Ceres on two-degree equal-angle pixels is provided. Hydrogen concentrations...

  9. Fundamentals of tensor calculus for engineers with a primer on smooth manifolds

    CERN Document Server

    Mühlich, Uwe

    2017-01-01

    This book presents the fundamentals of modern tensor calculus for students in engineering and applied physics, emphasizing those aspects that are crucial for applying tensor calculus safely in Euclidian space and for grasping the very essence of the smooth manifold concept. After introducing the subject, it provides a brief exposition on point set topology to familiarize readers with the subject, especially with those topics required in later chapters. It then describes the finite dimensional real vector space and its dual, focusing on the usefulness of the latter for encoding duality concepts in physics. Moreover, it introduces tensors as objects that encode linear mappings and discusses affine and Euclidean spaces. Tensor analysis is explored first in Euclidean space, starting from a generalization of the concept of differentiability and proceeding towards concepts such as directional derivative, covariant derivative and integration based on differential forms. The final chapter addresses the role of smooth...

  10. Thermal expansion of an amorphous alloy. Reciprocal-space versus real-space distribution functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Louzguine-Luzgin, Dmitri V.; Inoue, Akihisa

    2007-01-01

    This paper describes the relation between the change in the position of the first X-ray diffraction maximum in reciprocal space and the first maximum of the distribution function in real space for the Ge 50 Al 40 Cr 10 amorphous alloy. It is also shown that the first diffraction maximum of the interference function carries the most significant information about the interatomic distances in real space while the subsequent peaks of the interference function are responsible for the shoulders of the main peak of the real-space distribution function. The results are used to support validity of the method previously used to monitor thermal expansion of the glassy alloys using an X-ray diffraction profile

  11. Modeling the dispersion effects of contractile fibers in smooth muscles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murtada, Sae-Il; Kroon, Martin; Holzapfel, Gerhard A.

    2010-12-01

    Micro-structurally based models for smooth muscle contraction are crucial for a better understanding of pathological conditions such as atherosclerosis, incontinence and asthma. It is meaningful that models consider the underlying mechanical structure and the biochemical activation. Hence, a simple mechanochemical model is proposed that includes the dispersion of the orientation of smooth muscle myofilaments and that is capable to capture available experimental data on smooth muscle contraction. This allows a refined study of the effects of myofilament dispersion on the smooth muscle contraction. A classical biochemical model is used to describe the cross-bridge interactions with the thin filament in smooth muscles in which calcium-dependent myosin phosphorylation is the only regulatory mechanism. A novel mechanical model considers the dispersion of the contractile fiber orientations in smooth muscle cells by means of a strain-energy function in terms of one dispersion parameter. All model parameters have a biophysical meaning and may be estimated through comparisons with experimental data. The contraction of the middle layer of a carotid artery is studied numerically. Using a tube the relationships between the internal pressure and the stretches are investigated as functions of the dispersion parameter, which implies a strong influence of the orientation of smooth muscle myofilaments on the contraction response. It is straightforward to implement this model in a finite element code to better analyze more complex boundary-value problems.

  12. Wigner function for the Dirac oscillator in spinor space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ma Kai; Wang Jianhua; Yuan Yi

    2011-01-01

    The Wigner function for the Dirac oscillator in spinor space is studied in this paper. Firstly, since the Dirac equation is described as a matrix equation in phase space, it is necessary to define the Wigner function as a matrix function in spinor space. Secondly, the matrix form of the Wigner function is proven to support the Dirac equation. Thirdly, by solving the Dirac equation, energy levels and the Wigner function for the Dirac oscillator in spinor space are obtained. (authors)

  13. Polynomial approximation of functions in Sobolev spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dupont, T.; Scott, R.

    1980-01-01

    Constructive proofs and several generalizations of approximation results of J. H. Bramble and S. R. Hilbert are presented. Using an averaged Taylor series, we represent a function as a polynomical plus a remainder. The remainder can be manipulated in many ways to give different types of bounds. Approximation of functions in fractional order Sobolev spaces is treated as well as the usual integer order spaces and several nonstandard Sobolev-like spaces

  14. Armstrong Laboratory Space Visual Function Tester Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oneal, Melvin R.; Task, H. Lee; Gleason, Gerald A.

    1992-01-01

    Viewgraphs on space visual function tester program are presented. Many astronauts and cosmonauts have commented on apparent changes in their vision while on-orbit. Comments have included descriptions of earth features and objects that would suggest enhanced distance visual acuity. In contrast, some cosmonaut observations suggest a slight loss in their object discrimination during initial space flight. Astronauts have also mentioned a decreased near vision capability that did not recover to normal until return to earth. Duntley space vision experiment, USSR space vision experiments, and visual function testers are described.

  15. Space-charge calculation for bunched beams with 3-D ellipsoidal symmetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Garnett, R.W.; Wangler, T.P.

    1991-01-01

    A method for calculating 3-D space-charge forces has been developed that is suitable for bunched beams of either ions or relativistic electrons. The method is based on the analytic relations between charge-density and electric fields for a distribution with 3-D ellipsoidal symmetry in real space. At each step we use a Fourier-series representation for the smooth particle-density function obtained from the distribution of the macroparticles being tracked through the elements of the system. The resulting smooth electric fields reduce the problem of noise from artificial collisions, associated with small numbers of interacting macroparticles. Example calculations will be shown for comparison with other methods. 4 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab

  16. Nodular smooth muscle metaplasia in multiple peritoneal endometriosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Hyun-Soo; Yoon, Gun; Ha, Sang Yun; Song, Sang Yong

    2015-01-01

    We report here an unusual presentation of peritoneal endometriosis with smooth muscle metaplasia as multiple protruding masses on the lateral pelvic wall. Smooth muscle metaplasia is a common finding in rectovaginal endometriosis, whereas in peritoneal endometriosis, smooth muscle metaplasia is uncommon and its nodular presentation on the pelvic wall is even rarer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of nodular smooth muscle metaplasia occurring in peritoneal endometriosis. As observed in this case, when performing laparoscopic surgery in order to excise malignant tumors of intra-abdominal or pelvic organs, it can be difficult for surgeons to distinguish the metastatic tumors from benign nodular pelvic wall lesions, including endometriosis, based on the gross findings only. Therefore, an intraoperative frozen section biopsy of the pelvic wall nodules should be performed to evaluate the peritoneal involvement by malignant tumors. Moreover, this report implies that peritoneal endometriosis, as well as rectovaginal endometriosis, can clinically present as nodular lesions if obvious smooth muscle metaplasia is present. The pathological investigation of smooth muscle cells in peritoneal lesions can contribute not only to the precise diagnosis but also to the structure and function of smooth muscle cells and related cells involved in the histogenesis of peritoneal endometriosis.

  17. An Implementation and Parallelization of the Scale Space Meshing Algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Julie Digne

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Creating an interpolating mesh from an unorganized set of oriented points is a difficult problemwhich is often overlooked. Most methods focus indeed on building a watertight smoothed meshby defining some function whose zero level set is the surface of the object. However in some casesit is crucial to build a mesh that interpolates the points and does not fill the acquisition holes:either because the data are sparse and trying to fill the holes would create spurious artifactsor because the goal is to explore visually the data exactly as they were acquired without anysmoothing process. In this paper we detail a parallel implementation of the Scale-Space Meshingalgorithm, which builds on the scale-space framework for reconstructing a high precision meshfrom an input oriented point set. This algorithm first smoothes the point set, producing asingularity free shape. It then uses a standard mesh reconstruction technique, the Ball PivotingAlgorithm, to build a mesh from the smoothed point set. The final step consists in back-projecting the mesh built on the smoothed positions onto the original point set. The result ofthis process is an interpolating, hole-preserving surface mesh reconstruction.

  18. Functional equations in matrix normed spaces

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    The abstract characterization given for linear spaces of bounded Hilbert space operators in terms of ... effect on operator algebra theory (see [12]). .... of functional equations for the proof of new fixed point theorems with applications. By.

  19. Wigner functions on non-standard symplectic vector spaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dias, Nuno Costa; Prata, João Nuno

    2018-01-01

    We consider the Weyl quantization on a flat non-standard symplectic vector space. We focus mainly on the properties of the Wigner functions defined therein. In particular we show that the sets of Wigner functions on distinct symplectic spaces are different but have non-empty intersections. This extends previous results to arbitrary dimension and arbitrary (constant) symplectic structure. As a by-product we introduce and prove several concepts and results on non-standard symplectic spaces which generalize those on the standard symplectic space, namely, the symplectic spectrum, Williamson's theorem, and Narcowich-Wigner spectra. We also show how Wigner functions on non-standard symplectic spaces behave under the action of an arbitrary linear coordinate transformation.

  20. Expression pattern and function of tyrosine receptor kinase B isoforms in rat mesenteric arterial smooth muscle cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Otani, Kosuke; Okada, Muneyoshi; Yamawaki, Hideyuki

    2015-01-01

    Tyrosine receptor kinaseB (TrkB) is a high affinity receptor for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). TrkB isoforms involve full length TrkB (TrkB FL) and truncated TrkB type1 (TrkB T1) and type 2 (TrkB T2) in rats. The aim of present study was to explore their expression pattern and function in mesenteric arterial smooth muscle cells (MASMCs). The expression of TrkB isoform protein and mRNA was examined by Western blotting, immunofluorescence and quantitative RT-PCR analyses. Cell proliferation was measured by a bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation assay. Cell migration was measured by a Boyden chamber assay. Cell morphology was observed with a phase-contrast microscope. Protein and mRNA expression of BDNF and TrkB isoforms was confirmed in MASMCs. Expression level of TrkB FL was less, while that of TrkB T1 was the highest in MASMCs. Although BDNF increased phosphorylation of ERK, it had no influence on migration and proliferation of MASMCs. TrkB T1 gene knockdown by a RNA interference induced morphological changes and reduced expression level of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in MASMCs. Similar morphological changes and reduced α-SMA expression were induced in MASMCs by a Rho kinase inhibitor, Y-27632. In conclusion, we for the first time demonstrate that TrkB T1 expressed highly in MASMCs contributes to maintain normal cell morphology possibly via regulation of Rho activity. This study firstly defined expression level of TrkB isoforms and partly revealed their functions in peripheral vascular cells. - Highlights: • BDNF-TrkB axis mediates neurogenesis, growth, differentiation and survival. • Expression pattern and function of TrkB in vascular smooth muscle remain unclear. • Expression of TrkB FL is low, while that of TrkB T1 is the highest. • TrkB T1 contributes to maintain normal morphology possibly via activating Rho.

  1. Expression pattern and function of tyrosine receptor kinase B isoforms in rat mesenteric arterial smooth muscle cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Otani, Kosuke; Okada, Muneyoshi; Yamawaki, Hideyuki, E-mail: yamawaki@vmas.kitasato-u.ac.jp

    2015-11-27

    Tyrosine receptor kinaseB (TrkB) is a high affinity receptor for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). TrkB isoforms involve full length TrkB (TrkB FL) and truncated TrkB type1 (TrkB T1) and type 2 (TrkB T2) in rats. The aim of present study was to explore their expression pattern and function in mesenteric arterial smooth muscle cells (MASMCs). The expression of TrkB isoform protein and mRNA was examined by Western blotting, immunofluorescence and quantitative RT-PCR analyses. Cell proliferation was measured by a bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation assay. Cell migration was measured by a Boyden chamber assay. Cell morphology was observed with a phase-contrast microscope. Protein and mRNA expression of BDNF and TrkB isoforms was confirmed in MASMCs. Expression level of TrkB FL was less, while that of TrkB T1 was the highest in MASMCs. Although BDNF increased phosphorylation of ERK, it had no influence on migration and proliferation of MASMCs. TrkB T1 gene knockdown by a RNA interference induced morphological changes and reduced expression level of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in MASMCs. Similar morphological changes and reduced α-SMA expression were induced in MASMCs by a Rho kinase inhibitor, Y-27632. In conclusion, we for the first time demonstrate that TrkB T1 expressed highly in MASMCs contributes to maintain normal cell morphology possibly via regulation of Rho activity. This study firstly defined expression level of TrkB isoforms and partly revealed their functions in peripheral vascular cells. - Highlights: • BDNF-TrkB axis mediates neurogenesis, growth, differentiation and survival. • Expression pattern and function of TrkB in vascular smooth muscle remain unclear. • Expression of TrkB FL is low, while that of TrkB T1 is the highest. • TrkB T1 contributes to maintain normal morphology possibly via activating Rho.

  2. Generalized functions

    CERN Document Server

    Gelfand, I M; Graev, M I; Vilenkin, N Y; Pyatetskii-Shapiro, I I

    Volume 1 is devoted to basics of the theory of generalized functions. The first chapter contains main definitions and most important properties of generalized functions as functional on the space of smooth functions with compact support. The second chapter talks about the Fourier transform of generalized functions. In Chapter 3, definitions and properties of some important classes of generalized functions are discussed; in particular, generalized functions supported on submanifolds of lower dimension, generalized functions associated with quadratic forms, and homogeneous generalized functions are studied in detail. Many simple basic examples make this book an excellent place for a novice to get acquainted with the theory of generalized functions. A long appendix presents basics of generalized functions of complex variables.

  3. On quantum mechanical phase-space wave functions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wlodarz, Joachim J.

    1994-01-01

    An approach to quantum mechanics based on the notion of a phase-space wave function is proposed within the Weyl-Wigner-Moyal representation. It is shown that the Schrodinger equation for the phase-space wave function is equivalent to the quantum Liouville equation for the Wigner distribution...... function. The relationship to the recent results by Torres-Vega and Frederick [J. Chem. Phys. 98, 3103 (1993)] is also discussed....

  4. Discrete wavelet transform: a tool in smoothing kinematic data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ismail, A R; Asfour, S S

    1999-03-01

    Motion analysis systems typically introduce noise to the displacement data recorded. Butterworth digital filters have been used to smooth the displacement data in order to obtain smoothed velocities and accelerations. However, this technique does not yield satisfactory results, especially when dealing with complex kinematic motions that occupy the low- and high-frequency bands. The use of the discrete wavelet transform, as an alternative to digital filters, is presented in this paper. The transform passes the original signal through two complementary low- and high-pass FIR filters and decomposes the signal into an approximation function and a detail function. Further decomposition of the signal results in transforming the signal into a hierarchy set of orthogonal approximation and detail functions. A reverse process is employed to perfectly reconstruct the signal (inverse transform) back from its approximation and detail functions. The discrete wavelet transform was applied to the displacement data recorded by Pezzack et al., 1977. The smoothed displacement data were twice differentiated and compared to Pezzack et al.'s acceleration data in order to choose the most appropriate filter coefficients and decomposition level on the basis of maximizing the percentage of retained energy (PRE) and minimizing the root mean square error (RMSE). Daubechies wavelet of the fourth order (Db4) at the second decomposition level showed better results than both the biorthogonal and Coiflet wavelets (PRE = 97.5%, RMSE = 4.7 rad s-2). The Db4 wavelet was then used to compress complex displacement data obtained from a noisy mathematically generated function. Results clearly indicate superiority of this new smoothing approach over traditional filters.

  5. Invariant subspaces in some function spaces on symmetric spaces. II

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Platonov, S S

    1998-01-01

    Let G be a semisimple connected Lie group with finite centre, K a maximal compact subgroup of G, and M=G/K a Riemannian symmetric space of non-compact type. We study the problem of describing the structure of closed linear subspaces in various function spaces on M that are invariant under the quasiregular representation of the group G. We consider the case when M is a symplectic symmetric space of rank 1

  6. Epigenetic regulation of vascular smooth muscle cell function in atherosclerosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Findeisen, Hannes M; Kahles, Florian K; Bruemmer, Dennis

    2013-04-01

    Epigenetics involve heritable and acquired changes in gene transcription that occur independently of the DNA sequence. Epigenetic mechanisms constitute a hierarchic upper-level of transcriptional control through complex modifications of chromosomal components and nuclear structures. These modifications include, for example, DNA methylation or post-translational modifications of core histones; they are mediated by various chromatin-modifying enzymes; and ultimately they define the accessibility of a transcriptional complex to its target DNA. Integrating epigenetic mechanisms into the pathophysiologic concept of complex and multifactorial diseases such as atherosclerosis may significantly enhance our understanding of related mechanisms and provide promising therapeutic approaches. Although still in its infancy, intriguing scientific progress has begun to elucidate the role of epigenetic mechanisms in vascular biology, particularly in the control of smooth muscle cell phenotypes. In this review, we will summarize epigenetic pathways in smooth muscle cells, focusing on mechanisms involved in the regulation of vascular remodeling.

  7. Strict topoligies in non-Archimedean function spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. K. Katsaras

    1984-01-01

    Full Text Available Let F be a non-trivial complete non-Archimedean valued field. Some locally F-convex topologies, on the space Cb(X,E of all bounded continuous functions from a zero-dimensional topological space X to a non-Archimedean locally F-convex space E, are studied. The corresponding dual spaces are also investigated.

  8. Rate-Dependent Slip of Newtonian Liquid at Smooth Surfaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhu, Yingxi; Granick, Steve

    2001-01-01

    Newtonian fluids were placed between molecularly smooth surfaces whose spacing was vibrated at spacings where the fluid responded as a continuum. Hydrodynamic forces agreed with predictions from the no-slip boundary condition only provided that flow rate (peak velocity normalized by spacing) was low, but implied partial slip when it exceeded a critical level, different in different systems, correlated with contact angle (surface wettability). With increasing flow rate and partially wetted surfaces, hydrodynamic forces became up to 2--4 orders of magnitude less than expected by assuming the no-slip boundary condition that is commonly stated in textbooks

  9. Evaluating data acquisition and smoothing functions of currently available videokeratoscopes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belin, M W; Ratliff, C D

    1996-05-01

    To compare the accuracy of computerized videokeratography systems using identical, calibrated test objects. Lions Eye Institute, Albany, New York. We evaluated the accuracy and smoothing of raw data acquisition (axial solution) of seven commercially available videokeratoscopes: Alcon EyeMap, Computed Anatomy TMS, EyeSys CAS, Humphrey MasterVue, Topcon CM-1000, Optikon Keratron, and TechnoMed C-Scan. We used six calibrated test objects to simulate clinical settings: spherical, spherocylindrical, simulated myopic ablation, hyperopic ablation, and a simulated central island. None of the systems accurately imaged all objects. Although all systems imaged spherical objects with reasonable accuracy, errors greater than 4.0 diopters (D) frequently occurred in the central 6.0 mm optical zone (maximum error 10.0 D) Sources of error included excessive raw data smoothing, inability to read large transitions, loss of accuracy in the periphery, and poor central coverage. The clinician should be aware of the potential limitations of corneal topography when making clinical decisions.

  10. Inner Functions in Lipschitz, Besov, and Sobolev Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Girela

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available We study the membership of inner functions in Besov, Lipschitz, and Hardy-Sobolev spaces, finding conditions that enable an inner function to be in one of these spaces. Several results in this direction are given that complement or extend previous works on the subject from different authors. In particular, we prove that the only inner functions in either any of the Hardy-Sobolev spaces Hαp with 1/p≤α<∞ or any of the Besov spaces Bαp,  q with 0spaces B0∞,q, 0space VMOA. We prove also that for 2space contains infinite Blaschke products. Furthermore, we obtain distinct results for other values of α relating the membership of an inner function I in the spaces under consideration with the distribution of the sequences of preimages {I-1(a}, |a|<1. In addition, we include a section devoted to Blaschke products with zeros in a Stolz angle.

  11. Probabilistic Q-function distributions in fermionic phase-space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosales-Zárate, Laura E C; Drummond, P D

    2015-01-01

    We obtain a positive probability distribution or Q-function for an arbitrary fermionic many-body system. This is different to previous Q-function proposals, which were either restricted to a subspace of the overall Hilbert space, or used Grassmann methods that do not give probabilities. The fermionic Q-function obtained here is constructed using normally ordered Gaussian operators, which include both non-interacting thermal density matrices and BCS states. We prove that the Q-function exists for any density matrix, is real and positive, and has moments that correspond to Fermi operator moments. It is defined on a finite symmetric phase-space equivalent to the space of real, antisymmetric matrices. This has the natural SO(2M) symmetry expected for Majorana fermion operators. We show that there is a physical interpretation of the Q-function: it is the relative probability for observing a given Gaussian density matrix. The distribution has a uniform probability across the space at infinite temperature, while for pure states it has a maximum value on the phase-space boundary. The advantage of probabilistic representations is that they can be used for computational sampling without a sign problem. (fast track communication)

  12. Convergence of Hybrid Space Mapping Algorithms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madsen, Kaj; Søndergaard, Jacob

    2004-01-01

    may be poor, or the method may even fail to converge to a stationary point. We consider a convex combination of the space mapping technique with a classical optimization technique. The function to be optimized has the form \\$H \\$\\backslash\\$circ f\\$ where \\$H: \\$\\backslash\\$dR\\^m \\$\\backslash......\\$mapsto \\$\\backslash\\$dR\\$ is convex and \\$f: \\$\\backslash\\$dR\\^n \\$\\backslash\\$mapsto \\$\\backslash\\$dR\\^m\\$ is smooth. Experience indicates that the combined method maintains the initial efficiency of the space mapping technique. We prove that the global convergence property of the classical technique is also...

  13. Smooth controllability of infinite-dimensional quantum-mechanical systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, Re-Bing; Tarn, Tzyh-Jong; Li, Chun-Wen

    2006-01-01

    Manipulation of infinite-dimensional quantum systems is important to controlling complex quantum dynamics with many practical physical and chemical backgrounds. In this paper, a general investigation is casted to the controllability problem of quantum systems evolving on infinite-dimensional manifolds. Recognizing that such problems are related with infinite-dimensional controllability algebras, we introduce an algebraic mathematical framework to describe quantum control systems possessing such controllability algebras. Then we present the concept of smooth controllability on infinite-dimensional manifolds, and draw the main result on approximate strong smooth controllability. This is a nontrivial extension of the existing controllability results based on the analysis over finite-dimensional vector spaces to analysis over infinite-dimensional manifolds. It also opens up many interesting problems for future studies

  14. Non-linear second-order periodic systems with non-smooth potential

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    In this paper we study second order non-linear periodic systems driven by the ordinary vector -Laplacian with a non-smooth, locally Lipschitz potential function. Our approach is variational and it is based on the non-smooth critical point theory. We prove existence and multiplicity results under general growth conditions on ...

  15. Non-linear second-order periodic systems with non-smooth potential

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    R. Narasimhan (Krishtel eMaging) 1461 1996 Oct 15 13:05:22

    Abstract. In this paper we study second order non-linear periodic systems driven by the ordinary vector p-Laplacian with a non-smooth, locally Lipschitz potential function. Our approach is variational and it is based on the non-smooth critical point theory. We prove existence and multiplicity results under general growth ...

  16. Smooth polyhedral surfaces

    KAUST Repository

    Gü nther, Felix; Jiang, Caigui; Pottmann, Helmut

    2017-01-01

    Polyhedral surfaces are fundamental objects in architectural geometry and industrial design. Whereas closeness of a given mesh to a smooth reference surface and its suitability for numerical simulations were already studied extensively, the aim of our work is to find and to discuss suitable assessments of smoothness of polyhedral surfaces that only take the geometry of the polyhedral surface itself into account. Motivated by analogies to classical differential geometry, we propose a theory of smoothness of polyhedral surfaces including suitable notions of normal vectors, tangent planes, asymptotic directions, and parabolic curves that are invariant under projective transformations. It is remarkable that seemingly mild conditions significantly limit the shapes of faces of a smooth polyhedral surface. Besides being of theoretical interest, we believe that smoothness of polyhedral surfaces is of interest in the architectural context, where vertices and edges of polyhedral surfaces are highly visible.

  17. Smooth polyhedral surfaces

    KAUST Repository

    Günther, Felix

    2017-03-15

    Polyhedral surfaces are fundamental objects in architectural geometry and industrial design. Whereas closeness of a given mesh to a smooth reference surface and its suitability for numerical simulations were already studied extensively, the aim of our work is to find and to discuss suitable assessments of smoothness of polyhedral surfaces that only take the geometry of the polyhedral surface itself into account. Motivated by analogies to classical differential geometry, we propose a theory of smoothness of polyhedral surfaces including suitable notions of normal vectors, tangent planes, asymptotic directions, and parabolic curves that are invariant under projective transformations. It is remarkable that seemingly mild conditions significantly limit the shapes of faces of a smooth polyhedral surface. Besides being of theoretical interest, we believe that smoothness of polyhedral surfaces is of interest in the architectural context, where vertices and edges of polyhedral surfaces are highly visible.

  18. Supersymmetric 3-branes on smooth ALE manifolds with flux

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bertolini, M.; Campos, V.L.; Ferretti, G.; Fre, P.; Salomonson, P.; Trigiante, M.

    2001-01-01

    We construct a new family of classical BPS solutions of type IIB supergravity describing 3-branes transverse to a 6-dimensional space with topology R 2 xALE. They are characterized by a non-trivial flux of the supergravity 2-forms through the homology 2-cycles of a generic smooth ALE manifold. Our solutions have two Killing spinors and thus preserve N=2 supersymmetry. They are expressed in terms of a quasi harmonic function H (the 'warp factor'), whose properties we study in the case of the simplest ALE, namely the Eguchi-Hanson manifold. The equation for H is identified as an instance of the confluent Heun equation. We write explicit power series solutions and solve the recurrence relation for the coefficients, discussing also the relevant asymptotic expansions. While, as in all such N=2 solutions, supergravity breaks down near the brane, the smoothing out of the vacuum geometry has the effect that the warp factor is regular in a region near the cycle. We interpret the behavior of the warp factor as describing a three-brane charge 'smeared' over the cycle and consider the asymptotic form of the geometry in that region, showing that conformal invariance is broken even when the complex type IIB 3-form field strength is assumed to vanish. We conclude with a discussion of the basic features of the gauge theory dual

  19. Dual conformal transformations of smooth holographic Wilson loops

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dekel, Amit [Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University, Roslagstullsbacken 23, SE-106 91 Stockholm (Sweden)

    2017-01-19

    We study dual conformal transformations of minimal area surfaces in AdS{sub 5}×S{sup 5} corresponding to holographic smooth Wilson loops and some other related observables. To act with dual conformal transformations we map the string solutions to the dual space by means of T-duality, then we apply a conformal transformation and finally T-dualize back to the original space. The transformation maps between string solutions with different boundary contours. The boundary contours of the minimal surfaces are not mapped back to the AdS boundary, and the regularized area of the surface changes.

  20. One-Stage and Two-Stage Schemes of High Performance Synchronous PWM with Smooth Pulses-Ratio Changing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Oleschuk, V.; Blaabjerg, Frede

    2002-01-01

    This paper presents detailed description of one-stage and two-stage schemes of a novel method of synchronous, pulsewidth modulation (PWM) for voltage source inverters for ac drive application. The proposed control functions provide accurate realization of different versions of voltage space vector...... modulation with synchronization of the voltage waveform of the inverter and with smooth pulse-ratio changing. Voltage spectra do not contain even harmonic and sub-harmonics (combined harmonics) during the whole control range including the zone of overmodulation. Examples of determination of the basic control...

  1. SmoothMoves : Smooth pursuits head movements for augmented reality

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Esteves, Augusto; Verweij, David; Suraiya, Liza; Islam, Rasel; Lee, Youryang; Oakley, Ian

    2017-01-01

    SmoothMoves is an interaction technique for augmented reality (AR) based on smooth pursuits head movements. It works by computing correlations between the movements of on-screen targets and the user's head while tracking those targets. The paper presents three studies. The first suggests that head

  2. Thermo-elastic Green's functions for an infinite bi-material of one-dimensional hexagonal quasi-crystals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, P.D.; Li, X.Y.; Zheng, R.F.

    2013-01-01

    This Letter is concerned with thermo-elastic fundamental solutions of an infinite space, which is composed of two half-infinite bodies of different one-dimensional hexagonal quasi-crystals. A point thermal source is embedded in a half-space. The interface can be either perfectly bonded or smoothly contacted. On the basis of the newly developed general solution, the temperature-induced elastic field in full space is explicitly presented in terms of elementary functions. The interactions among the temperature, phonon and phason fields are revealed. The present work can play an important role in constructing farther analytical solutions for crack, inclusion and dislocation problems. -- Highlights: ► Green's functions are constructed in terms of 10 quasi-harmonic functions. ► Thermo-elastic field of a 1D hexagonal QC bi-material body is expressed explicitly. ► Both perfectly bonded and smoothly contacted interfaces are considered

  3. Conical square function estimates in UMD Banach spaces and applications to H?-functional calculi

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hytönen, T.; Van Neerven, J.; Portal, P.

    2008-01-01

    We study conical square function estimates for Banach-valued functions and introduce a vector-valued analogue of the Coifman-Meyer-Stein tent spaces. Following recent work of Auscher-M(c)Intosh-Russ, the tent spaces in turn are used to construct a scale of vector-valued Hardy spaces associated with

  4. The wave function behavior of the open topological string partition function on the conifold

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kashani-Poor, Amir-Kian

    2007-01-01

    We calculate the topological string partition function to all genus on the conifold, in the presence of branes. We demonstrate that the partition functions for different brane backgrounds (smoothly connected along a quantum corrected moduli space) can be interpreted as the same wave function in different polarizations. This behavior has a natural interpretation in the Chern-Simons target space description of the topological theory. Our detailed analysis however indicates that non-perturbatively, a modification of real Chern-Simons theory is required to capture the correct target space theory of the topological string. We perform our calculations in the framework of a free fermion representation of the open topological string, demonstrating that this framework extends beyond the simple C 3 geometry. The notion of a fermionic brane creation operator arises in this setting, and we study to what extent the wave function properties of the partition function can be extended to this operator

  5. Relationship between the Wigner function and the probability density function in quantum phase space representation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Qianshu; Lue Liqiang; Wei Gongmin

    2004-01-01

    This paper discusses the relationship between the Wigner function, along with other related quasiprobability distribution functions, and the probability density distribution function constructed from the wave function of the Schroedinger equation in quantum phase space, as formulated by Torres-Vega and Frederick (TF). At the same time, a general approach in solving the wave function of the Schroedinger equation of TF quantum phase space theory is proposed. The relationship of the wave functions between the TF quantum phase space representation and the coordinate or momentum representation is thus revealed

  6. Absolutely minimal extensions of functions on metric spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Milman, V A

    1999-01-01

    Extensions of a real-valued function from the boundary ∂X 0 of an open subset X 0 of a metric space (X,d) to X 0 are discussed. For the broad class of initial data coming under discussion (linearly bounded functions) locally Lipschitz extensions to X 0 that preserve localized moduli of continuity are constructed. In the set of these extensions an absolutely minimal extension is selected, which was considered before by Aronsson for Lipschitz initial functions in the case X 0 subset of R n . An absolutely minimal extension can be regarded as an ∞-harmonic function, that is, a limit of p-harmonic functions as p→+∞. The proof of the existence of absolutely minimal extensions in a metric space with intrinsic metric is carried out by the Perron method. To this end, ∞-subharmonic, ∞-superharmonic, and ∞-harmonic functions on a metric space are defined and their properties are established

  7. Log canonical thresholds of smooth Fano threefolds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cheltsov, Ivan A; Shramov, Konstantin A

    2008-01-01

    The complex singularity exponent is a local invariant of a holomorphic function determined by the integrability of fractional powers of the function. The log canonical thresholds of effective Q-divisors on normal algebraic varieties are algebraic counterparts of complex singularity exponents. For a Fano variety, these invariants have global analogues. In the former case, it is the so-called α-invariant of Tian; in the latter case, it is the global log canonical threshold of the Fano variety, which is the infimum of log canonical thresholds of all effective Q-divisors numerically equivalent to the anticanonical divisor. An appendix to this paper contains a proof that the global log canonical threshold of a smooth Fano variety coincides with its α-invariant of Tian. The purpose of the paper is to compute the global log canonical thresholds of smooth Fano threefolds (altogether, there are 105 deformation families of such threefolds). The global log canonical thresholds are computed for every smooth threefold in 64 deformation families, and the global log canonical thresholds are computed for a general threefold in 20 deformation families. Some bounds for the global log canonical thresholds are computed for 14 deformation families. Appendix A is due to J.-P. Demailly.

  8. Three-Dimensional Elasticity Solutions for Sound Radiation of Functionally Graded Materials Plates considering State Space Method

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tieliang Yang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an analytical study for sound radiation of functionally graded materials (FGM plate based on the three-dimensional theory of elasticity. The FGM plate is a mixture of metal and ceramic, and its material properties are assumed to have smooth and continuous variation in the thickness direction according to a power-law distribution in terms of volume fractions of the constituents. Based on the three-dimensional theory of elasticity and state space method, the governing equations with variable coefficients of the FGM plate are derived. The sound radiation of the vibration plate is calculated with Rayleigh integral. Comparisons of the present results with those of solutions in the available literature are made and good agreements are achieved. Finally, some parametric studies are carried out to investigate the sound radiation properties of FGM plates.

  9. The Smoothing Artifact of Spatially Constrained Canonical Correlation Analysis in Functional MRI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dietmar Cordes

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available A wide range of studies show the capacity of multivariate statistical methods for fMRI to improve mapping of brain activations in a noisy environment. An advanced method uses local canonical correlation analysis (CCA to encompass a group of neighboring voxels instead of looking at the single voxel time course. The value of a suitable test statistic is used as a measure of activation. It is customary to assign the value to the center voxel; however, this is a choice of convenience and without constraints introduces artifacts, especially in regions of strong localized activation. To compensate for these deficiencies, different spatial constraints in CCA have been introduced to enforce dominance of the center voxel. However, even if the dominance condition for the center voxel is satisfied, constrained CCA can still lead to a smoothing artifact, often called the “bleeding artifact of CCA”, in fMRI activation patterns. In this paper a new method is introduced to measure and correct for the smoothing artifact for constrained CCA methods. It is shown that constrained CCA methods corrected for the smoothing artifact lead to more plausible activation patterns in fMRI as shown using data from a motor task and a memory task.

  10. Kernel and wavelet density estimators on manifolds and more general metric spaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cleanthous, G.; Georgiadis, Athanasios; Kerkyacharian, G.

    We consider the problem of estimating the density of observations taking values in classical or nonclassical spaces such as manifolds and more general metric spaces. Our setting is quite general but also sufficiently rich in allowing the development of smooth functional calculus with well localized...... spectral kernels, Besov regularity spaces, and wavelet type systems. Kernel and both linear and nonlinear wavelet density estimators are introduced and studied. Convergence rates for these estimators are established, which are analogous to the existing results in the classical setting of real...

  11. On the structure of space-time caustics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosquist, K.

    1983-01-01

    Caustics formed by timelike and null geodesics in a space-time M are investigated. Care is taken to distinguish the conjugate points in the tangent space (T-conjugate points) from conjugate points in the manifold (M-conjugate points). It is shown that most nonspacelike conjugate points are regular, i.e. with all neighbouring conjugate points having the same degree of degeneracy. The regular timelike T-conjugate locus is shown to be a smooth 3-dimensional submanifold of the tangent space. Analogously, the regular null T-conjugate locus is shown to be a smooth 2-dimensional submanifold of the light cone in the tangent space. The smoothness properties of the null caustic are used to show that if an observer sees focusing in all directions, then there will necessarily be a cusp in the caustic. If, in addition, all the null conjugate points have maximal degree of degeneracy (as in the closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes), then the space-time is closed. (orig.)

  12. Enhancing the smoothness of joint motion induced by functional electrical stimulation using co-activation strategies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruppel Mirjana

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The motor precision of today’s neuroprosthetic devices that use artificial generation of limb motion using Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES is generally low. We investigate the adoption of natural co-activation strategies as present in antagonistic muscle pairs aiming to improve motor precision produced by FES. In a test in which artificial knee-joint movements were generated, we could improve the smoothness of FES-induced motion by 513% when applying co-activation during the phases in which torque production is switched between muscles – compared to no co-activation. We further demonstrated how the co-activation level influences the joint stiffness in a pendulum test.

  13. Smoothed Spectra, Ogives, and Error Estimates for Atmospheric Turbulence Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dias, Nelson Luís

    2018-01-01

    A systematic evaluation is conducted of the smoothed spectrum, which is a spectral estimate obtained by averaging over a window of contiguous frequencies. The technique is extended to the ogive, as well as to the cross-spectrum. It is shown that, combined with existing variance estimates for the periodogram, the variance—and therefore the random error—associated with these estimates can be calculated in a straightforward way. The smoothed spectra and ogives are biased estimates; with simple power-law analytical models, correction procedures are devised, as well as a global constraint that enforces Parseval's identity. Several new results are thus obtained: (1) The analytical variance estimates compare well with the sample variance calculated for the Bartlett spectrum and the variance of the inertial subrange of the cospectrum is shown to be relatively much larger than that of the spectrum. (2) Ogives and spectra estimates with reduced bias are calculated. (3) The bias of the smoothed spectrum and ogive is shown to be negligible at the higher frequencies. (4) The ogives and spectra thus calculated have better frequency resolution than the Bartlett spectrum, with (5) gradually increasing variance and relative error towards the low frequencies. (6) Power-law identification and extraction of the rate of dissipation of turbulence kinetic energy are possible directly from the ogive. (7) The smoothed cross-spectrum is a valid inner product and therefore an acceptable candidate for coherence and spectral correlation coefficient estimation by means of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. The quadrature, phase function, coherence function and spectral correlation function obtained from the smoothed spectral estimates compare well with the classical ones derived from the Bartlett spectrum.

  14. Discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin method based on the optimal test space norm for steady transport problems in one space dimension

    KAUST Repository

    Niemi, Antti

    2013-05-01

    We revisit the finite element analysis of convection-dominated flow problems within the recently developed Discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin (DPG) variational framework. We demonstrate how test function spaces that guarantee numerical stability can be computed automatically with respect to the optimal test space norm. This makes the DPG method not only stable but also robust, that is, uniformly stable with respect to the Péclet number in the current application. We employ discontinuous piecewise Bernstein polynomials as trial functions and construct a subgrid discretization that accounts for the singular perturbation character of the problem to resolve the corresponding optimal test functions. We also show that a smooth B-spline basis has certain computational advantages in the subgrid discretization. The overall effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated on two problems for the linear advection-diffusion equation. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

  15. Discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin method based on the optimal test space norm for steady transport problems in one space dimension

    KAUST Repository

    Niemi, Antti; Collier, Nathan; Calo, Victor M.

    2013-01-01

    We revisit the finite element analysis of convection-dominated flow problems within the recently developed Discontinuous Petrov-Galerkin (DPG) variational framework. We demonstrate how test function spaces that guarantee numerical stability can be computed automatically with respect to the optimal test space norm. This makes the DPG method not only stable but also robust, that is, uniformly stable with respect to the Péclet number in the current application. We employ discontinuous piecewise Bernstein polynomials as trial functions and construct a subgrid discretization that accounts for the singular perturbation character of the problem to resolve the corresponding optimal test functions. We also show that a smooth B-spline basis has certain computational advantages in the subgrid discretization. The overall effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated on two problems for the linear advection-diffusion equation. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

  16. The persistence of active smooth muscle in the female rat cervix through pregnancy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferland, David J; Darios, Emma S; Watts, Stephanie W

    2015-02-01

    A controversy exists as to whether functional smooth muscle exists in the cervix before and during pregnancy, potentially continuous with the uterus. We hypothesized that cervical smooth muscle persists through pregnancy and is functional. Uteri and cervices were taken from female virgin, 11 day, and 20 day (near labor) pregnant rats. All experiments used the uterus as a positive control. Three different smooth muscle proteins (smooth muscle α-actin, SM-22α, and calponin-1) allowed immunohistochemical detection of the continuous nature of the smooth muscle from the vagina, cervix, and uterus. Tissues were also hung in isolated tissue baths for the measurement of isometric smooth muscle contraction. Uterine and cervical homogenates were also used in Western analyses to measure protein expression. Immunohistochemistry revealed there to be smooth muscle as validated by an expression of all 3 markers in the cervix. This smooth muscle was continuous with that of the vagina and uterus. Smooth muscle α-actin was detected in virgin tissue (291.3 ± 32.2 arbitrary densitometry units/β-actin), day 11 (416.8 ± 19.5), and day 20 pregnant tissue (293.0 ± 34.4). The virgin, day 11, and day 20 cervices contracted 2.18 ± 0.24 g, 1.46 ± 0.08 g, and 3.88 ± 0.49 g (respectively) to depolarizing KCl. Cervices contracted at day 20 to the cholinergic muscarinic agonist carbamylcholine (maximum, 133% ± 18.2% KCl contraction, n = 4). These findings strongly support that smooth muscle is present in the cervix through pregnancy and continuous with the uterus. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. An adaptive segment method for smoothing lidar signal based on noise estimation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yuzhao; Luo, Pingping

    2014-10-01

    An adaptive segmentation smoothing method (ASSM) is introduced in the paper to smooth the signal and suppress the noise. In the ASSM, the noise is defined as the 3σ of the background signal. An integer number N is defined for finding the changing positions in the signal curve. If the difference of adjacent two points is greater than 3Nσ, the position is recorded as an end point of the smoothing segment. All the end points detected as above are recorded and the curves between them will be smoothed separately. In the traditional method, the end points of the smoothing windows in the signals are fixed. The ASSM creates changing end points in different signals and the smoothing windows could be set adaptively. The windows are always set as the half of the segmentations and then the average smoothing method will be applied in the segmentations. The Iterative process is required for reducing the end-point aberration effect in the average smoothing method and two or three times are enough. In ASSM, the signals are smoothed in the spacial area nor frequent area, that means the frequent disturbance will be avoided. A lidar echo was simulated in the experimental work. The echo was supposed to be created by a space-born lidar (e.g. CALIOP). And white Gaussian noise was added to the echo to act as the random noise resulted from environment and the detector. The novel method, ASSM, was applied to the noisy echo to filter the noise. In the test, N was set to 3 and the Iteration time is two. The results show that, the signal could be smoothed adaptively by the ASSM, but the N and the Iteration time might be optimized when the ASSM is applied in a different lidar.

  18. Function spaces with uniform, fine and graph topologies

    CERN Document Server

    McCoy, Robert A; Jindal, Varun

    2018-01-01

    This book presents a comprehensive account of the theory of spaces of continuous functions under uniform, fine and graph topologies. Besides giving full details of known results, an attempt is made to give generalizations wherever possible, enriching the existing literature. The goal of this monograph is to provide an extensive study of the uniform, fine and graph topologies on the space C(X,Y) of all continuous functions from a Tychonoff space X to a metric space (Y,d); and the uniform and fine topologies on the space H(X) of all self-homeomorphisms on a metric space (X,d). The subject matter of this monograph is significant from the theoretical viewpoint, but also has applications in areas such as analysis, approximation theory and differential topology. Written in an accessible style, this book will be of interest to researchers as well as graduate students in this vibrant research area.

  19. Functional vascular smooth muscle cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells via mesenchymal stem cell intermediates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bajpai, Vivek K.; Mistriotis, Panagiotis; Loh, Yuin-Han; Daley, George Q.; Andreadis, Stelios T.

    2012-01-01

    Aims Smooth muscle cells (SMC) play an important role in vascular homeostasis and disease. Although adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have been used as a source of contractile SMC, they suffer from limited proliferation potential and culture senescence, particularly when originating from older donors. By comparison, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) can provide an unlimited source of functional SMC for autologous cell-based therapies and for creating models of vascular disease. Our goal was to develop an efficient strategy to derive functional, contractile SMC from hiPSC. Methods and results We developed a robust, stage-wise, feeder-free strategy for hiPSC differentiation into functional SMC through an intermediate stage of multipotent MSC, which could be coaxed to differentiate into fat, bone, cartilage, and muscle. At this stage, the cells were highly proliferative and displayed higher clonogenic potential and reduced senescence when compared with parental hair follicle mesenchymal stem cells. In addition, when exposed to differentiation medium, the myogenic proteins such as α-smooth muscle actin, calponin, and myosin heavy chain were significantly upregulated and displayed robust fibrillar organization, suggesting the development of a contractile phenotype. Indeed, tissue constructs prepared from these cells exhibited high levels of contractility in response to receptor- and non-receptor-mediated agonists. Conclusion We developed an efficient stage-wise strategy that enabled hiPSC differentiation into contractile SMC through an intermediate population of clonogenic and multipotent MSC. The high yield of MSC and SMC derivation suggests that our strategy may facilitate an acquisition of the large numbers of cells required for regenerative medicine or for studying vascular disease pathophysiology. PMID:22941255

  20. Application of pattern search method to power system security constrained economic dispatch with non-smooth cost function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Al-Othman, A.K.; El-Naggar, K.M.

    2008-01-01

    Direct search methods are evolutionary algorithms used to solve optimization problems. (DS) methods do not require any information about the gradient of the objective function at hand while searching for an optimum solution. One of such methods is Pattern Search (PS) algorithm. This paper presents a new approach based on a constrained pattern search algorithm to solve a security constrained power system economic dispatch problem (SCED) with non-smooth cost function. Operation of power systems demands a high degree of security to keep the system satisfactorily operating when subjected to disturbances, while and at the same time it is required to pay attention to the economic aspects. Pattern recognition technique is used first to assess dynamic security. Linear classifiers that determine the stability of electric power system are presented and added to other system stability and operational constraints. The problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem in a way that insures a secure-economic system operation. Pattern search method is then applied to solve the constrained optimization formulation. In particular, the method is tested using three different test systems. Simulation results of the proposed approach are compared with those reported in literature. The outcome is very encouraging and proves that pattern search (PS) is very applicable for solving security constrained power system economic dispatch problem (SCED). In addition, valve-point effect loading and total system losses are considered to further investigate the potential of the PS technique. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the PS has demonstrated ability in handling highly nonlinear discontinuous non-smooth cost function of the SCED. (author)

  1. Foundations of symmetric spaces of measurable functions Lorentz, Marcinkiewicz and Orlicz spaces

    CERN Document Server

    Rubshtein, Ben-Zion A; Muratov, Mustafa A; Pashkova, Yulia S

    2016-01-01

    Key definitions and results in symmetric spaces, particularly Lp, Lorentz, Marcinkiewicz and Orlicz spaces are emphasized in this textbook. A comprehensive overview of the Lorentz, Marcinkiewicz and Orlicz spaces is presented based on concepts and results of symmetric spaces. Scientists and researchers will find the application of linear operators, ergodic theory, harmonic analysis and mathematical physics noteworthy and useful. This book is intended for graduate students and researchers in mathematics and may be used as a general reference for the theory of functions, measure theory, and functional analysis. This self-contained text is presented in four parts totaling seventeen chapters to correspond with a one-semester lecture course. Each of the four parts begins with an overview and is subsequently divided into chapters, each of which concludes with exercises and notes. A chapter called “Complements” is included at the end of the text as supplementary material to assist students with independent work.

  2. Localization and function of KLF4 in cytoplasm of vascular smooth muscle cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Yan; Zheng, Bin; Zhang, Xin-hua; Nie, Chan-juan; Li, Yong-hui; Wen, Jin-kun

    2013-01-01

    Highlights: •PDGF-BB prompts the translocation of KLF4 to the cytoplasm. •PDGF-BB promotes interaction between KLF4 and actin in the cytoplasm. •Phosphorylation and SUMOylation of KLF4 participates in regulation of cytoskeletal organization. •KLF4 regulates cytoskeleton by promoting the expression of contraction-associated genes. -- Abstract: The Krüppel-like factor 4 is a DNA-binding transcriptional regulator that regulates a diverse array of cellular processes, including development, differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. The previous studies about KLF4 functions mainly focused on its role as a transcription factor, its functions in the cytoplasm are still unknown. In this study, we found that PDGF-BB could prompt the translocation of KLF4 to the cytoplasm through CRM1-mediated nuclear export pathway in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and increased the interaction of KLF4 with actin in the cytoplasm. Further study showed that both KLF4 phosphorylation and SUMOylation induced by PDGF-BB participates in regulation of cytoskeletal organization by stabilizing the actin cytoskeleton in VSMCs. In conclusion, these results identify that KLF4 participates in the cytoskeletal organization by stabilizing cytoskeleton in the cytoplasm of VSMCs

  3. Localization and function of KLF4 in cytoplasm of vascular smooth muscle cell

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liu, Yan [Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Key Laboratory of Neurobiology and Vascular Biology (China); The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijazhuang (China); Zheng, Bin; Zhang, Xin-hua; Nie, Chan-juan; Li, Yong-hui [Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Key Laboratory of Neurobiology and Vascular Biology (China); Wen, Jin-kun, E-mail: wjk@hebmu.edu.cn [Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Key Laboratory of Neurobiology and Vascular Biology (China)

    2013-06-28

    Highlights: •PDGF-BB prompts the translocation of KLF4 to the cytoplasm. •PDGF-BB promotes interaction between KLF4 and actin in the cytoplasm. •Phosphorylation and SUMOylation of KLF4 participates in regulation of cytoskeletal organization. •KLF4 regulates cytoskeleton by promoting the expression of contraction-associated genes. -- Abstract: The Krüppel-like factor 4 is a DNA-binding transcriptional regulator that regulates a diverse array of cellular processes, including development, differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. The previous studies about KLF4 functions mainly focused on its role as a transcription factor, its functions in the cytoplasm are still unknown. In this study, we found that PDGF-BB could prompt the translocation of KLF4 to the cytoplasm through CRM1-mediated nuclear export pathway in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) and increased the interaction of KLF4 with actin in the cytoplasm. Further study showed that both KLF4 phosphorylation and SUMOylation induced by PDGF-BB participates in regulation of cytoskeletal organization by stabilizing the actin cytoskeleton in VSMCs. In conclusion, these results identify that KLF4 participates in the cytoskeletal organization by stabilizing cytoskeleton in the cytoplasm of VSMCs.

  4. Functional differential equations with unbounded delay in extrapolation spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mostafa Adimy

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available We study the existence, regularity and stability of solutions for nonlinear partial neutral functional differential equations with unbounded delay and a Hille-Yosida operator on a Banach space X. We consider two nonlinear perturbations: the first one is a function taking its values in X and the second one is a function belonging to a space larger than X, an extrapolated space. We use the extrapolation techniques to prove the existence and regularity of solutions and we establish a linearization principle for the stability of the equilibria of our equation.

  5. Fractals and spectra related to fourier analysis and function spaces

    CERN Document Server

    Triebel, Hans

    1997-01-01

    Fractals and Spectra Hans Triebel This book deals with the symbiotic relationship between the theory of function spaces, fractal geometry, and spectral theory of (fractal) pseudodifferential operators as it has emerged quite recently. Atomic and quarkonial (subatomic) decompositions in scalar and vector valued function spaces on the euclidean n-space pave the way to study properties (compact embeddings, entropy numbers) of function spaces on and of fractals. On this basis, distributions of eigenvalues of fractal (pseudo)differential operators are investigated. Diverse versions of fractal drums are played. The book is directed to mathematicians interested in functional analysis, the theory of function spaces, fractal geometry, partial and pseudodifferential operators, and, in particular, in how these domains are interrelated. ------ It is worth mentioning that there is virtually no literature on this topic and hence the most of the presented material is published here the first time. - Zentralblatt MATH (…) ...

  6. Enhanced elastin synthesis and maturation in human vascular smooth muscle tissue derived from induced-pluripotent stem cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eoh, Joon H; Shen, Nian; Burke, Jacqueline A; Hinderer, Svenja; Xia, Zhiyong; Schenke-Layland, Katja; Gerecht, Sharon

    2017-04-01

    Obtaining vascular smooth muscle tissue with mature, functional elastic fibers is a key obstacle in tissue-engineered blood vessels. Poor elastin secretion and organization leads to a loss of specialization in contractile smooth muscle cells, resulting in over proliferation and graft failure. In this study, human induced-pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) were differentiated into early smooth muscle cells, seeded onto a hybrid poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate/poly (l-lactide) (PEGdma-PLA) scaffold and cultured in a bioreactor while exposed to pulsatile flow, towards maturation into contractile smooth muscle tissue. We evaluated the effects of pulsatile flow on cellular organization as well as elastin expression and assembly in the engineered tissue compared to a static control through immunohistochemistry, gene expression and functionality assays. We show that culturing under pulsatile flow resulted in organized and functional hiPSC derived smooth muscle tissue. Immunohistochemistry analysis revealed hiPSC-smooth muscle tissue with robust, well-organized cells and elastic fibers and the supporting microfibril proteins necessary for elastic fiber assembly. Through qRT-PCR analysis, we found significantly increased expression of elastin, fibronectin, and collagen I, indicating the synthesis of necessary extracellular matrix components. Functionality assays revealed that hiPSC-smooth muscle tissue cultured in the bioreactor had an increased calcium signaling and contraction in response to a cholinergic agonist, significantly higher mature elastin content and improved mechanical properties in comparison to the static control. The findings presented here detail an effective approach to engineering elastic human vascular smooth muscle tissue with the functionality necessary for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. Obtaining robust, mature elastic fibers is a key obstacle in tissue-engineered blood vessels. Human induced-pluripotent stem cells have

  7. Smooth muscle adaptation after intestinal transection and resection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, J S; Quigley, E M; Adrian, T E

    1996-09-01

    Changes in motor function occur in the intestinal remnant after intestinal resection. Smooth muscle adaptation also occurs, particularly after extensive resection. The time course of these changes and their interrelationship are unclear. Our aim was to evaluate changes in canine smooth muscle structure and function during intestinal adaptation after transection and resection. Twenty-five dogs underwent either transection (N = 10), 50% distal resection (N = 10), or 50% proximal resection (N = 5). Thickness and length of the circular (CM) and longitudinal (LM) muscle layers were measured four and 12 weeks after resection. In vitro length-tension properties and response to a cholinergic agonist were studied in mid-jejunum and mid-ileum. Transection alone caused increased CM length in the jejunum proximal to the transection but did not affect LM length or muscle thickness. A 50% resection resulted in increased length of CM throughout the intestine and thickening of CM and LM near the anastomosis. Active tension of jejunal CM increased transiently four weeks after resection. Active tension in jejunal LM was decreased 12 weeks after transection and resection. Sensitivity of CM to carbachol was similar after transection and resection. It is concluded that: (1) Structural adaptation of both circular and longitudinal muscle occurs after intestinal resection. (2) This process is influenced by the site of the intestinal remnant. (3) Only minor and transient changes occur in smooth muscle function after resection. (4) Factors other than muscle adaptation are likely involved in the changes in motor function seen following massive bowel resection.

  8. On the computational efficiency of isogeometric methods for smooth elliptic problems using direct solvers

    KAUST Repository

    Collier, Nathan; Dalcin, Lisandro; Calo, Victor M.

    2014-01-01

    SUMMARY: We compare the computational efficiency of isogeometric Galerkin and collocation methods for partial differential equations in the asymptotic regime. We define a metric to identify when numerical experiments have reached this regime. We then apply these ideas to analyze the performance of different isogeometric discretizations, which encompass C0 finite element spaces and higher-continuous spaces. We derive convergence and cost estimates in terms of the total number of degrees of freedom and then perform an asymptotic numerical comparison of the efficiency of these methods applied to an elliptic problem. These estimates are derived assuming that the underlying solution is smooth, the full Gauss quadrature is used in each non-zero knot span and the numerical solution of the discrete system is found using a direct multi-frontal solver. We conclude that under the assumptions detailed in this paper, higher-continuous basis functions provide marginal benefits.

  9. On the computational efficiency of isogeometric methods for smooth elliptic problems using direct solvers

    KAUST Repository

    Collier, Nathan

    2014-09-17

    SUMMARY: We compare the computational efficiency of isogeometric Galerkin and collocation methods for partial differential equations in the asymptotic regime. We define a metric to identify when numerical experiments have reached this regime. We then apply these ideas to analyze the performance of different isogeometric discretizations, which encompass C0 finite element spaces and higher-continuous spaces. We derive convergence and cost estimates in terms of the total number of degrees of freedom and then perform an asymptotic numerical comparison of the efficiency of these methods applied to an elliptic problem. These estimates are derived assuming that the underlying solution is smooth, the full Gauss quadrature is used in each non-zero knot span and the numerical solution of the discrete system is found using a direct multi-frontal solver. We conclude that under the assumptions detailed in this paper, higher-continuous basis functions provide marginal benefits.

  10. Data preparation for functional data analysis of PM10 in Peninsular Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaadan, Norshahida; Jemain, Abdul Aziz; Deni, Sayang Mohd

    2014-07-01

    The use of curves or functional data in the study analysis is increasingly gaining momentum in the various fields of research. The statistical method to analyze such data is known as functional data analysis (FDA). The first step in FDA is to convert the observed data points which are repeatedly recorded over a period of time or space into either a rough (raw) or smooth curve. In the case of the smooth curve, basis functions expansion is one of the methods used for the data conversion. The data can be converted into a smooth curve either by using the regression smoothing or roughness penalty smoothing approach. By using the regression smoothing approach, the degree of curve's smoothness is very dependent on k number of basis functions; meanwhile for the roughness penalty approach, the smoothness is dependent on a roughness coefficient given by parameter λ Based on previous studies, researchers often used the rather time-consuming trial and error or cross validation method to estimate the appropriate number of basis functions. Thus, this paper proposes a statistical procedure to construct functional data or curves for the hourly and daily recorded data. The Bayesian Information Criteria is used to determine the number of basis functions while the Generalized Cross Validation criteria is used to identify the parameter λ The proposed procedure is then applied on a ten year (2001-2010) period of PM10 data from 30 air quality monitoring stations that are located in Peninsular Malaysia. It was found that the number of basis functions required for the construction of the PM10 daily curve in Peninsular Malaysia was in the interval of between 14 and 20 with an average value of 17; the first percentile is 15 and the third percentile is 19. Meanwhile the initial value of the roughness coefficient was in the interval of between 10-5 and 10-7 and the mode was 10-6. An example of the functional descriptive analysis is also shown.

  11. A higher order space-time Galerkin scheme for time domain integral equations

    KAUST Repository

    Pray, Andrew J.

    2014-12-01

    Stability of time domain integral equation (TDIE) solvers has remained an elusive goal formany years. Advancement of this research has largely progressed on four fronts: 1) Exact integration, 2) Lubich quadrature, 3) smooth temporal basis functions, and 4) space-time separation of convolutions with the retarded potential. The latter method\\'s efficacy in stabilizing solutions to the time domain electric field integral equation (TD-EFIE) was previously reported for first-order surface descriptions (flat elements) and zeroth-order functions as the temporal basis. In this work, we develop the methodology necessary to extend the scheme to higher order surface descriptions as well as to enable its use with higher order basis functions in both space and time. These basis functions are then used in a space-time Galerkin framework. A number of results are presented that demonstrate convergence in time. The viability of the space-time separation method in producing stable results is demonstrated experimentally for these examples.

  12. A higher order space-time Galerkin scheme for time domain integral equations

    KAUST Repository

    Pray, Andrew J.; Beghein, Yves; Nair, Naveen V.; Cools, Kristof; Bagci, Hakan; Shanker, Balasubramaniam

    2014-01-01

    Stability of time domain integral equation (TDIE) solvers has remained an elusive goal formany years. Advancement of this research has largely progressed on four fronts: 1) Exact integration, 2) Lubich quadrature, 3) smooth temporal basis functions, and 4) space-time separation of convolutions with the retarded potential. The latter method's efficacy in stabilizing solutions to the time domain electric field integral equation (TD-EFIE) was previously reported for first-order surface descriptions (flat elements) and zeroth-order functions as the temporal basis. In this work, we develop the methodology necessary to extend the scheme to higher order surface descriptions as well as to enable its use with higher order basis functions in both space and time. These basis functions are then used in a space-time Galerkin framework. A number of results are presented that demonstrate convergence in time. The viability of the space-time separation method in producing stable results is demonstrated experimentally for these examples.

  13. Research progress of free space coherent optical communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Zhenkun; Ke, Xizheng

    2018-02-01

    This paper mainly introduces the research progress of free space coherent optical communication in Xi'an University of Technology. In recent years, the research on the outer modulation technology of the laser, free-space-to-fiber coupling technique, the design of transmitting and receiving optical antenna, adaptive optical technology with or without wave-front sensor, automatic polarization control technology, frequency stabilization technology, heterodyne detection technology and high speed signal processing technology. Based on the above related research, the digital signal modulation, transmission, detection and data recovery are realized by the heterodyne detection technology in the free space optical communication system, and finally the function of smooth viewing high-definition video is realized.

  14. Aging may negatively impact movement smoothness during stair negotiation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dixon, P C; Stirling, L; Xu, X; Chang, C C; Dennerlein, J T; Schiffman, J M

    2018-05-26

    Stairs represent a barrier to safe locomotion for some older adults, potentially leading to the adoption of a cautious gait strategy that may lack fluidity. This strategy may be characterized as unsmooth; however, stair negotiation smoothness has yet to be quantified. The aims of this study were to assess age- and task-related differences in head and body center of mass (COM) acceleration patterns and smoothness during stair negotiation and to determine if smoothness was associated with the timed "Up and Go" (TUG) test of functional movement. Motion data from nineteen older and twenty young adults performing stair ascent, stair descent, and overground straight walking trials were analyzed and used to compute smoothness based on the log-normalized dimensionless jerk (LDJ) and the velocity spectral arc length (SPARC) metrics. The associations between TUG and smoothness measures were evaluated using Pearson's correlation coefficient (r). Stair tasks increased head and body COM acceleration pattern differences across groups, compared to walking (p < 0.05). LDJ smoothness for the head and body COM decreased in older adults during stair descent, compared to young adults (p ≤ 0.015) and worsened with increasing TUG for all tasks (-0.60 ≤ r ≤ -0.43). SPARC smoothness of the head and body COM increased in older adults, regardless of task (p < 0.001), while correlations showed improved SPARC smoothness with increasing TUG for some tasks (0.33 ≤ r ≤ 0.40). The LDJ outperforms SPARC in identifying age-related stair negotiation adaptations and is associated with performance on a clinical test of gait. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. The optical smoothing for high power laser chain. Fundamental concepts and analytical modeling, computerized simulations, experiments on smoothing by multimode optical fiber

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Videau, Laurent

    1998-01-01

    Laser-plasma interaction experiments require a focal spot whose spatial width is imposed and whose energy distribution is uniform. Optical smoothing techniques have been developed for high power laser chains in order to reach the required uniformity level. We present theoretical principles for optical smoothing and we develop a statistical approach which allows a precise study of smoothing techniques. This study deals with the contrast of the time-integrated pattern and with the hot spot motion and their life time. We give more details about the technique of Smoothing by Optical Fiber (SOF). A broadband pulse is injected into a multimode optical fiber. At the output of the fiber, the spatial modes, correlated to a propagation angle in the core of the fiber, are statistically independent and produce a speckle pattern. The speckles move because of the temporal incoherence and the time-integrated pattern is smoothed. The smoothing is characterized by the spectral correlation width defined as the width of the spectral correlation function. We show a smoothing difference between the fiber image plane and the convergence one which is the Fourier plane. Furthermore, we analyze the mode coupling into the core of the fiber which allows an explanation of experimental results compared to theoretical ones. A second study presents experimental results of Smoothing by Optical Fiber on a high power laser chain. In fact, SOF implies amplitude modulations in spatial and temporal domains which induce nonlinear effects. We show that the amplification efficiency decreases and we compare experimental results with an analytic model which takes into account spatial and temporal incoherencies. Finally, we propose a different setup using the cascading effect which creates spatially and/or temporally incoherent pulses. (author) [fr

  16. Functional role of stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) in vascular smooth muscle cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takahashi, Yoichiro; Watanabe, Hiroyuki; Murakami, Manabu; Ono, Kyoichi; Munehisa, Yoshiko; Koyama, Takashi; Nobori, Kiyoshi; Iijima, Toshihiko; Ito, Hiroshi

    2007-01-01

    We investigated the functional role of STIM1, a Ca 2+ sensor in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) that regulates store-operated Ca 2+ entry (SOCE), in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). STIM1 was mainly localized at the ER and plasma membrane. The knockdown of STIM1 expression by small interfering (si) RNA drastically decreased SOCE. In contrast, an EF-hand mutant of STIM1, STIM1 E87A , produced a marked increase in SOCE, which was abolished by co-transfection with siRNA to transient receptor potential canonical 1 (TRPC1). In addition, transfection with siRNA against STIM1 suppressed phosphorylation of cAMP-responsive element binding protein (CREB) and cell growth. These results suggest that STIM1 is an essential component of SOCE and that it is involved in VSMC proliferation

  17. Direct transition from a stable equilibrium to quasiperiodicity in non-smooth systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhusubaliyev, Z.T.; Mosekilde, Erik

    2008-01-01

    The purpose of this Letter is to show how a border-collision bifurcation in a piecewise-smooth dynamical system can produce a direct transition from a stable equilibrium point to a two-dimensional invariant torus. Considering a system of nonautonomous differential equations describing the behavior...... of a power electronic DC/DC converter, we first determine the chart of dynamical modes and show that there is a region of parameter space in which the system has a single stable equilibrium point. Under variation of the parameters, this equilibrium may collide with a discontinuity boundary between two smooth...... regions in phase space. When this happens, one can observe a number of different bifurcation scenarios. One scenario is the continuous transformation of the stable equilibrium into a stable period-1 cycle. Another is the transformation of the stable equilibrium into an unstable period-1 cycle with complex...

  18. Bessel harmonic analysis and approximation of functions on the half-line

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Platonov, Sergei S

    2007-01-01

    We study problems of approximation of functions on [0,+∞) in the metric of L p with power weight using generalized Bessel shifts. We prove analogues of direct Jackson theorems for the modulus of smoothness of arbitrary order defined in terms of generalized Bessel shifts. We establish the equivalence of the modulus of smoothness and the K-functional. We define function spaces of Nikol'skii-Besov type and describe them in terms of best approximations. As a tool for approximation, we use a certain class of entire functions of exponential type. In this class, we prove analogues of Bernstein's inequality and others for the Bessel differential operator and its fractional powers. The main tool we use to solve these problems is Bessel harmonic analysis

  19. A Cp-theory problem book compactness in function spaces

    CERN Document Server

    Tkachuk, Vladimir V

    2015-01-01

    This third volume in Vladimir Tkachuk's series on Cp-theory problems applies all modern methods of Cp-theory to study compactness-like properties in function spaces and introduces the reader to the theory of compact spaces widely used in Functional Analysis. The text is designed to bring a dedicated reader from basic topological principles to the frontiers of modern research covering a wide variety of topics in Cp-theory and general topology at the professional level.  The first volume, Topological and Function Spaces © 2011, provided an introduction from scratch to Cp-theory and general topology, preparing the reader for a professional understanding of Cp-theory in the last section of its main text. The second volume, Special Features of Function Spaces © 2014, continued from the first, giving reasonably complete coverage of Cp-theory, systematically introducing each of the major topics and providing 500 carefully selected problems and exercises with complete solutions. This third volume is self-contained...

  20. Classification of smooth Fano polytopes

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Øbro, Mikkel

    A simplicial lattice polytope containing the origin in the interior is called a smooth Fano polytope, if the vertices of every facet is a basis of the lattice. The study of smooth Fano polytopes is motivated by their connection to toric varieties. The thesis concerns the classification of smooth...... Fano polytopes up to isomorphism. A smooth Fano -polytope can have at most vertices. In case of vertices an explicit classification is known. The thesis contains the classification in case of vertices. Classifications of smooth Fano -polytopes for fixed exist only for . In the thesis an algorithm...... for the classification of smooth Fano -polytopes for any given is presented. The algorithm has been implemented and used to obtain the complete classification for ....

  1. TGF-beta1 inhibits Cx43 expression and formation of functional syncytia in cultured smooth muscle cells from human detrusor.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neuhaus, Jochen; Heinrich, Marco; Schwalenberg, Thilo; Stolzenburg, Jens-Uwe

    2009-02-01

    Human detrusor smooth muscle cells (hBSMCs) are coupled by connexin 43 (Cx43)-positive gap junctions to form functional syncytia. Gap junctional communication likely is necessary for synchronised detrusor contractions and is supposed to be altered in voiding disturbances. Other authors have shown that the pleiotropic cytokine TGF-beta1 upregulates Cx43 expression in human aortic smooth muscle cells. In this study, we examined the TGF-beta1 effects on Cx43 expression in cultured hBSMCs. hBSMC cultures, established from patients undergoing cystectomy, were treated with recombinant human TGF-beta1. Cx43 expression was then examined by Western blotting, real-time PCR, and immunocytochemistry. Dye-injection experiments were used to study the size of functional syncytia. Dye-coupling experiments revealed stable formation of functional syncytia in passaged cell cultures (P1-P4). Stimulation with TGF-beta1 led to significant reduction of Cx43 immunoreactivity and coupling. Cx43 protein expression was significantly downregulated and Cx43 mRNA was only 30% of the control level. Interestingly, low phosphorylation species of Cx43 were particularly affected. Our experiments demonstrated a significant down regulation of connexin 43 by TGF-beta1 in cultured hBSMCs. These findings support the view that TGF-beta1 is involved in the pathophysiology of urinary bladder dysfunction.

  2. Impaired Arterial Smooth Muscle Cell Vasodilatory Function In Methamphetamine Users

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ghaemeh Nabaei

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: Methamphetamine use is a strong risk factor for stroke. This study was designed to evaluate arterial function and structure in methamphetamine users ultrasonographically. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 20 methamphetamine users and 21 controls, aged between 20 and 40years, were enrolled. Common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT marker of early atherogenesis, flow-mediated dilatation (FMD determinants of endothelium-dependent vasodilation, and nitroglycerine-mediated dilatation (NMD independent marker of vasodilation were measured in two groups. Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding demographic and metabolic characteristics. The mean (±SD CCA-IMT in methamphetamine users was 0.58±0.09mm, versus 0.59±0.07mm in the controls (p=0.84. Likewise, FMD% was not significantly different between the two groups [7.6±6.1% in methamphetamine users vs. 8.2±5.1% in the controls; p=0.72], nor were peak flow and shear rate after hyperemia. However, NMD% was considerably decreased in the methamphetamine users [8.5±7.8% in methamphetamine users vs. 13.4±6.2% in controls; p=0.03]. Conclusion: According to our results, NMD is reduced among otherwise healthy methamphetamine users, which represents smooth muscle dysfunction in this group. This may contribute to the high risk of stroke among methamphetamine users.

  3. Smooth-surface silver nanowire electrode with high conductivity and transparency on functional layer coated flexible film

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, So Hee; Lim, Sooman; Kim, Haekyoung, E-mail: hkkim@ynu.ac.kr

    2015-08-31

    Transparent conductive electrode (TCE) with silver nanowires has been widely studied as an alternative of indium tin oxide for flexible electronic or optical devices such as organic light-emitting diodes, and solar cells. However, it has an issue of surface roughness due to nanowire's intrinsic properties. Here, to achieve a smooth electrode with high conductivity and transmittance on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates, a functional layer of poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) is utilized with a mechanical transfer process. The silver nanowire electrode on PVP-coated PET with low surface roughness of 9 nm exhibits the low sheet resistance of 18 Ω □{sup −1} and high transmittance of 87.6%. It is produced by transferring the silver nanowire electrode spin-coated on the glass to PVP-coated PET using a pressure of 10 MPa for 10 min. Silver nanowire electrode on PVP-coated PET demonstrates the stable sheet resistance of 18 Ω □{sup −1} after the mechanical taping test due to strong adhesion between PVP functional layer and silver nanowires. Smooth TCE with silver nanowires could be proposed as a transparent electrode for flexible electronic or optical devices, which consist of thin electrical active layers on TCE. - Highlights: • Silver nanowire (Ag NWs) transparent electrodes were fabricated on flexible film. • Flexible film was coated with poly N-vinylpyrrolidone (PVP). • PVP layer plays roles as an adhesive layer and matrix in electrode. • Ag NWs electrode exhibited with low surface roughness of 9 nm. • Ag NWs electrode has a low resistance (18 Ω ☐{sup −1}) and high transmittance (87.6%)

  4. Smooth-surface silver nanowire electrode with high conductivity and transparency on functional layer coated flexible film

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, So Hee; Lim, Sooman; Kim, Haekyoung

    2015-01-01

    Transparent conductive electrode (TCE) with silver nanowires has been widely studied as an alternative of indium tin oxide for flexible electronic or optical devices such as organic light-emitting diodes, and solar cells. However, it has an issue of surface roughness due to nanowire's intrinsic properties. Here, to achieve a smooth electrode with high conductivity and transmittance on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates, a functional layer of poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) is utilized with a mechanical transfer process. The silver nanowire electrode on PVP-coated PET with low surface roughness of 9 nm exhibits the low sheet resistance of 18 Ω □ −1 and high transmittance of 87.6%. It is produced by transferring the silver nanowire electrode spin-coated on the glass to PVP-coated PET using a pressure of 10 MPa for 10 min. Silver nanowire electrode on PVP-coated PET demonstrates the stable sheet resistance of 18 Ω □ −1 after the mechanical taping test due to strong adhesion between PVP functional layer and silver nanowires. Smooth TCE with silver nanowires could be proposed as a transparent electrode for flexible electronic or optical devices, which consist of thin electrical active layers on TCE. - Highlights: • Silver nanowire (Ag NWs) transparent electrodes were fabricated on flexible film. • Flexible film was coated with poly N-vinylpyrrolidone (PVP). • PVP layer plays roles as an adhesive layer and matrix in electrode. • Ag NWs electrode exhibited with low surface roughness of 9 nm. • Ag NWs electrode has a low resistance (18 Ω ☐ −1 ) and high transmittance (87.6%)

  5. Fibonacci difference sequence spaces for modulus functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kuldip Raj

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available In the present paper we introduce Fibonacci difference sequence spaces l(F, Ƒ, p, u and  l_∞(F, Ƒ, p, u by using a sequence of modulus functions and a new band matrix F. We also make an effort to study some inclusion relations, topological and geometric properties of these spaces. Furthermore, the alpha, beta, gamma duals and matrix transformation of the space l(F, Ƒ, p, u are determined.

  6. Smooth Phase Interpolated Keying

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borah, Deva K.

    2007-01-01

    Smooth phase interpolated keying (SPIK) is an improved method of computing smooth phase-modulation waveforms for radio communication systems that convey digital information. SPIK is applicable to a variety of phase-shift-keying (PSK) modulation schemes, including quaternary PSK (QPSK), octonary PSK (8PSK), and 16PSK. In comparison with a related prior method, SPIK offers advantages of better performance and less complexity of implementation. In a PSK scheme, the underlying information waveform that one seeks to convey consists of discrete rectangular steps, but the spectral width of such a waveform is excessive for practical radio communication. Therefore, the problem is to smooth the step phase waveform in such a manner as to maintain power and bandwidth efficiency without incurring an unacceptably large error rate and without introducing undesired variations in the amplitude of the affected radio signal. Although the ideal constellation of PSK phasor points does not cause amplitude variations, filtering of the modulation waveform (in which, typically, a rectangular pulse is converted to a square-root raised cosine pulse) causes amplitude fluctuations. If a power-efficient nonlinear amplifier is used in the radio communication system, the fluctuating-amplitude signal can undergo significant spectral regrowth, thus compromising the bandwidth efficiency of the system. In the related prior method, one seeks to solve the problem in a procedure that comprises two major steps: phase-value generation and phase interpolation. SPIK follows the two-step approach of the related prior method, but the details of the steps are different. In the phase-value-generation step, the phase values of symbols in the PSK constellation are determined by a phase function that is said to be maximally smooth and that is chosen to minimize the spectral spread of the modulated signal. In this step, the constellation is divided into two groups by assigning, to information symbols, phase values

  7. Interval Forecast for Smooth Transition Autoregressive Model ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    In this paper, we propose a simple method for constructing interval forecast for smooth transition autoregressive (STAR) model. This interval forecast is based on bootstrapping the residual error of the estimated STAR model for each forecast horizon and computing various Akaike information criterion (AIC) function. This new ...

  8. Stochastic modeling and simulation of reaction-diffusion system with Hill function dynamics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Minghan; Li, Fei; Wang, Shuo; Cao, Young

    2017-03-14

    Stochastic simulation of reaction-diffusion systems presents great challenges for spatiotemporal biological modeling and simulation. One widely used framework for stochastic simulation of reaction-diffusion systems is reaction diffusion master equation (RDME). Previous studies have discovered that for the RDME, when discretization size approaches zero, reaction time for bimolecular reactions in high dimensional domains tends to infinity. In this paper, we demonstrate that in the 1D domain, highly nonlinear reaction dynamics given by Hill function may also have dramatic change when discretization size is smaller than a critical value. Moreover, we discuss methods to avoid this problem: smoothing over space, fixed length smoothing over space and a hybrid method. Our analysis reveals that the switch-like Hill dynamics reduces to a linear function of discretization size when the discretization size is small enough. The three proposed methods could correctly (under certain precision) simulate Hill function dynamics in the microscopic RDME system.

  9. A Note on Some Uniform Algebra Generated by Smooth Functions in the Plane

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raymond Mortini

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available We determine, via classroom proofs, the maximal ideal space, the Bass stable rank as well as the topological and dense stable rank of the uniform closure of all complex-valued functions continuously differentiable on neighborhoods of a compact planar set and holomorphic in the interior ∘ of . In this spirit, we also give elementary approaches to the calculation of these stable ranks for some classical function algebras on .

  10. Notes on pre-frölicher Spaces

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... is no discrete object. Using this Cartesian property, it is shown that the Gelfand representation is a smooth map, that the tangent as well as cotangent bundles are made smooth spaces in an unusual but more natural way via smooth curves. Mathematics Subject Classication (2010): 20G05, 46M15, 53B40, 54C40, 57R22.

  11. Arterial wall mechanics as a function of heart rate: role of vascular smooth muscle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salvucci, Fernando Pablo; Schiavone, Jonathan; Craiem, Damian; Barra, Juan Gabriel

    2007-01-01

    Vascular wall viscoelasticity can be evaluated using a first-order lumped model. This model consists of a spring with elastic constant E and a dashpot with viscous constant η. More importantly, this viscoelastic model can be fitted in-vivo measuring arterial pressure and diameter. The aim of this work is to analyze the influence of heart rate over E and η. In two anesthetized sheep, diameter in thoracic aorta and intravascular pressure has been registered. The right atrium was connected to a programmable stimulator through a pair of pace-maker wires to produce changes in stimulation heart rate (HR) from 80 to 160 bpm. Additionally, local activation of vascular smooth muscle was induced with phenylephrine. After converting pressure and diameter signals into stress and strain respectively, E y η were calculated in control state and during muscle activation. The elastic modulus E did not present significant changes with heart rate. The viscous modulus η decreased 49% with a two-fold acceleration in heart rate from 80 to 160 bpm. However, the product η HR remained stable. The viscous modulus η increased 39% with smooth muscle activation. No significant pressure changes were registered during the experiment. The contractile action of vascular smooth muscle could contribute to increasing arterial wall viscosity. The decrease of η when HR increased might be related to smooth muscle relaxation mediated by endothelium activity, which was stimulated by flow increase. We conclude that HR can modulate arterial wall viscoelasticity through endothelium-dependent mechanisms

  12. Synthetic smooth muscle in the outer blood plexus of the rhinarium skin of Lemur catta L.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elofsson, Rolf; Kröger, Ronald H H

    2017-01-01

    The skin of the lemur nose tip (rhinarium) has arterioles in the outer vascular plexus that are endowed with an unusual coat of smooth muscle cells. Comparison with the arterioles of the same area in a number of unrelated mammalians shows that the lemur pattern is unique. The vascular smooth muscle cells belong to the synthetic type. The function of synthetic smooth muscles around the terminal vessels in the lemur rhinarium is unclear but may have additional functions beyond regulation of vessel diameter.

  13. Generalized Wigner functions in curved spaces: A new approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kandrup, H.E.

    1988-01-01

    It is well known that, given a quantum field in Minkowski space, one can define Wigner functions f/sub W//sup N/(x 1 ,p 1 ,...,x/sub N/,p/sub N/) which (a) are convenient to analyze since, unlike the field itself, they are c-number quantities and (b) can be interpreted in a limited sense as ''quantum distribution functions.'' Recently, Winter and Calzetta, Habib and Hu have shown one way in which these flat-space Wigner functions can be generalized to a curved-space setting, deriving thereby approximate kinetic equations which make sense ''quasilocally'' for ''short-wavelength modes.'' This paper suggests a completely orthogonal approach for defining curved-space Wigner functions which generalizes instead an object such as the Fourier-transformed f/sub W/ 1 (k,p), which is effectively a two-point function viewed in terms of the ''natural'' creation and annihilation operators a/sup dagger/(p-(12k) and a(p+(12k). The approach suggested here lacks the precise phase-space interpretation implicit in the approach of Winter or Calzetta, Habib, and Hu, but it is useful in that (a) it is geared to handle any ''natural'' mode decomposition, so that (b) it can facilitate exact calculations at least in certain limits, such as for a source-free linear field in a static spacetime

  14. Arithmetic convergent sequence space defined by modulus function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Taja Yaying

    2019-10-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this article is to introduce the sequence spaces $AC(f$ and $AS(f$ using arithmetic convergence and modulus function, and study algebraic and topological properties of this space, and certain inclusion results.

  15. Momentum-space representation of Green's functions with modified dispersion on ultrastatic space-time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rinaldi, Massimiliano

    2007-01-01

    We consider Green's functions associated to a scalar field propagating on a curved, ultrastatic background, in the presence of modified dispersion relations. The usual proper-time DeWitt-Schwinger procedure to obtain a series representation of Green's functions is doomed to failure because of higher order spatial derivatives in the Klein-Gordon operator. We show how to overcome this difficulty by considering a preferred frame, associated to a unit timelike vector. With respect to this frame, we can express Green's functions as an integral over all frequencies of a space-dependent function. The latter can be expanded in momentum space, as a series with geometric coefficients similar to the DeWitt-Schwinger ones. By integrating over all frequencies, we finally find the expansion of Green's function up to four derivatives of the metric tensor. The relation with the proper-time formalism is also discussed

  16. Eigenvalue-eigenfunction problem for Steklov's smoothing operator and differential-difference equations of mixed type

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Serguei I. Iakovlev

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available It is shown that any \\(\\mu \\in \\mathbb{C}\\ is an infinite multiplicity eigenvalue of the Steklov smoothing operator \\(S_h\\ acting on the space \\(L^1_{loc}(\\mathbb{R}\\. For \\(\\mu \

  17. Three examples of quantum dynamics on the half-line with smooth bouncing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Almeida, C. R.; Bergeron, H.; Gazeau, J.-P.; Scardua, A. C.

    2018-05-01

    This article is an introductory presentation of the quantization of the half-plane based on affine coherent states (ACS). The half-plane carries a natural affine symmetry, i.e. it is a homogeneous space for the 1d-affine group, and it is viewed as the phase space for the dynamics of a positive physical quantity evolving with time. Its affine symmetry is preserved due to the covariance of this type of quantization. We promote the interest of such a procedure for transforming a classical model into a quantum one, since the singularity at the origin is systematically removed, and the arbitrariness of boundary conditions for the Schrödinger operator can be easily overcome. We explain some important mathematical aspects of the method. Three elementary examples of applications are presented, the quantum breathing of a massive sphere, the quantum smooth bouncing of a charged sphere, and a smooth bouncing of "dust" sphere as a simple model of quantum Newtonian cosmology.

  18. Sequential Generalized Transforms on Function Space

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jae Gil Choi

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available We define two sequential transforms on a function space Ca,b[0,T] induced by generalized Brownian motion process. We then establish the existence of the sequential transforms for functionals in a Banach algebra of functionals on Ca,b[0,T]. We also establish that any one of these transforms acts like an inverse transform of the other transform. Finally, we give some remarks about certain relations between our sequential transforms and other well-known transforms on Ca,b[0,T].

  19. Backfitting in Smoothing Spline Anova, with Application to Historical Global Temperature Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Zhen

    In the attempt to estimate the temperature history of the earth using the surface observations, various biases can exist. An important source of bias is the incompleteness of sampling over both time and space. There have been a few methods proposed to deal with this problem. Although they can correct some biases resulting from incomplete sampling, they have ignored some other significant biases. In this dissertation, a smoothing spline ANOVA approach which is a multivariate function estimation method is proposed to deal simultaneously with various biases resulting from incomplete sampling. Besides that, an advantage of this method is that we can get various components of the estimated temperature history with a limited amount of information stored. This method can also be used for detecting erroneous observations in the data base. The method is illustrated through an example of modeling winter surface air temperature as a function of year and location. Extension to more complicated models are discussed. The linear system associated with the smoothing spline ANOVA estimates is too large to be solved by full matrix decomposition methods. A computational procedure combining the backfitting (Gauss-Seidel) algorithm and the iterative imputation algorithm is proposed. This procedure takes advantage of the tensor product structure in the data to make the computation feasible in an environment of limited memory. Various related issues are discussed, e.g., the computation of confidence intervals and the techniques to speed up the convergence of the backfitting algorithm such as collapsing and successive over-relaxation.

  20. An approach for spherical harmonic analysis of non-smooth data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Hansheng; Wu, Patrick; Wang, Zhiyong

    2006-12-01

    A method is proposed to evaluate the spherical harmonic coefficients of a global or regional, non-smooth, observable dataset sampled on an equiangular grid. The method is based on an integration strategy using new recursion relations. Because a bilinear function is used to interpolate points within the grid cells, this method is suitable for non-smooth data; the slope of the data may be piecewise continuous, with extreme changes at the boundaries. In order to validate the method, the coefficients of an axisymmetric model are computed, and compared with the derived analytical expressions. Numerical results show that this method is indeed reasonable for non-smooth models, and that the maximum degree for spherical harmonic analysis should be empirically determined by several factors including the model resolution and the degree of non-smoothness in the dataset, and it can be several times larger than the total number of latitudinal grid points. It is also shown that this method is appropriate for the approximate analysis of a smooth dataset. Moreover, this paper provides the program flowchart and an internet address where the FORTRAN code with program specifications are made available.

  1. Phenotype modulation of airway smooth muscle in asthma

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wright, David B.; Trian, Thomas; Siddiqui, Sana; Pascoe, Chris D.; Johnson, Jill R.; Dekkers, Bart G. J.; Dakshinamurti, Shyamala; Bagchi, Rushita; Burgess, Janette K.; Kanabar, Varsha; Ojo, Oluwaseun O.

    The biological responses of airway smooth muscle (ASM) are diverse, in part due to ASM phenotype plasticity. ASM phenotype plasticity refers to the ability of ASM cells to change the degree of a variety of functions, including contractility, proliferation, migration and secretion of inflammatory

  2. Antibodies against AT1 receptors are associated with vascular endothelial and smooth muscle function impairment: protective effects of hydroxysafflor yellow A.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhu Jin

    Full Text Available Ample evidence has shown that autoantibodies against AT1 receptors (AT1-AA are closely associated with human cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to investigate mechanisms underlying AT1-AA-induced vascular structural and functional impairments in the formation of hypertension, and explore ways for preventive treatment. We used synthetic peptide corresponding to the sequence of the second extracellular loop of the AT1 receptor (165-191 to immunize rats and establish an active immunization model. Part of the model received preventive therapy by losartan (20 mg/kg/day and hyroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA (10 mg/kg/day. The result show that systolic blood pressure (SBP and heart rate (HR of immunized rats was significantly higher, and closely correlated with the plasma AT1-Ab titer. The systolic response of thoracic aortic was increased, but diastolic effects were attenuated markedly. Histological observation showed that the thoracic aortic endothelium of the immunized rats became thinner or ruptured, inflammatory cell infiltration, medial smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration, the vascular wall became thicker. There was no significant difference in serum antibody titer between losartan and HSYA groups and the immunized group. The vascular structure and function were reversed, and plasma biochemical parameters were also improved significantly in the two treatment groups. These results suggest that AT1-Ab could induce injury to vascular endothelial cells, and proliferation of smooth muscle cells. These changes were involved in the formation of hypertension. Treatment with AT1 receptor antagonists and anti oxidative therapy could block the pathogenic effect of AT1-Ab on vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells.

  3. Anti-smooth muscle antibody

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... gov/ency/article/003531.htm Anti-smooth muscle antibody To use the sharing features on this page, please enable JavaScript. Anti-smooth muscle antibody is a blood test that detects the presence ...

  4. Green functions and scattering amplitudes in many-dimensional space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fabre de la Ripelle, M.

    1993-01-01

    Methods for solving scattering are studied in many-dimensional space. Green function and scattering amplitudes are given in terms of the required asymptotic behaviour of the wave function. The Born approximation and the optical theorem are derived in many-dimensional space. Phase-shift analyses are performed for hypercentral potentials and for non-hypercentral potentials by use of the hyperspherical adiabatic approximation. (author)

  5. Smooth functors vs. differential forms

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schreiber, U.; Waldorf, K.

    2011-01-01

    We establish a relation between smooth 2-functors defined on the path 2-groupoid of a smooth manifold and differential forms on this manifold. This relation can be understood as a part of a dictionary between fundamental notions from category theory and differential geometry. We show that smooth

  6. On a class of smooth Frechet subalgebras of C-algebras

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Keywords. Smooth subalgebra of a *-algebra; spectral invariance; closure under functional calculus; Arens–Michael decomposition of a Frechet algebra; Banach ( D p ∗ ) -algebra; Frechet ( D ∞ ∗ ) -algebra.

  7. Functional Task Test: 3. Skeletal Muscle Performance Adaptations to Space Flight

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryder, Jeffrey W.; Wickwire, P. J.; Buxton, R. E.; Bloomberg, J. J.; Ploutz-Snyder, L.

    2011-01-01

    The functional task test is a multi-disciplinary study investigating how space-flight induced changes to physiological systems impacts functional task performance. Impairment of neuromuscular function would be expected to negatively affect functional performance of crewmembers following exposure to microgravity. This presentation reports the results for muscle performance testing in crewmembers. Functional task performance will be presented in the abstract "Functional Task Test 1: sensory motor adaptations associated with postflight alternations in astronaut functional task performance." METHODS: Muscle performance measures were obtained in crewmembers before and after short-duration space flight aboard the Space Shuttle and long-duration International Space Station (ISS) missions. The battery of muscle performance tests included leg press and bench press measures of isometric force, isotonic power and total work. Knee extension was used for the measurement of central activation and maximal isometric force. Upper and lower body force steadiness control were measured on the bench press and knee extension machine, respectively. Tests were implemented 60 and 30 days before launch, on landing day (Shuttle crew only), and 6, 10 and 30 days after landing. Seven Space Shuttle crew and four ISS crew have completed the muscle performance testing to date. RESULTS: Preliminary results for Space Shuttle crew reveal significant reductions in the leg press performance metrics of maximal isometric force, power and total work on R+0 (pperformance metrics were observed in returning Shuttle crew and these adaptations are likely contributors to impaired functional tasks that are ambulatory in nature (See abstract Functional Task Test: 1). Interestingly, no significant changes in central activation capacity were detected. Therefore, impairments in muscle function in response to short-duration space flight are likely myocellular rather than neuromotor in nature.

  8. Wiener-Hopf operators on spaces of functions on R+ with values in a Hilbert space

    OpenAIRE

    Petkova, Violeta

    2006-01-01

    A Wiener-Hopf operator on a Banach space of functions on R+ is a bounded operator T such that P^+S_{-a}TS_a=T, for every positive a, where S_a is the operator of translation by a. We obtain a representation theorem for the Wiener-Hopf operators on a large class of functions on R+ with values in a separable Hilbert space.

  9. On πgp-continuous functions in topological spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, Jin Han; Park, Jin Keun

    2004-01-01

    The concept of πgp-closed sets was introduced by Park [On πgp-closed sets in topological spaces, Indian J. Pure Appl. Math., in press]. The aim of this paper is to consider and characterize πgp-irresolute and πgp-continuous functions via the concept of πgp-closed sets and to relate these concepts to the classes of πGPO-compact spaces and πGP-connected spaces

  10. Analysis of elastic-plastic problems using edge-based smoothed finite element method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cui, X.Y.; Liu, G.R.; Li, G.Y.; Zhang, G.Y.; Sun, G.Y.

    2009-01-01

    In this paper, an edge-based smoothed finite element method (ES-FEM) is formulated for stress field determination of elastic-plastic problems using triangular meshes, in which smoothing domains associated with the edges of the triangles are used for smoothing operations to improve the accuracy and the convergence rate of the method. The smoothed Galerkin weak form is adopted to obtain the discretized system equations, and the numerical integration becomes a simple summation over the edge-based smoothing domains. The pseudo-elastic method is employed for the determination of stress field and Hencky's total deformation theory is used to define effective elastic material parameters, which are treated as field variables and considered as functions of the final state of stress fields. The effective elastic material parameters are then obtained in an iterative manner based on the strain controlled projection method from the uniaxial material curve. Some numerical examples are investigated and excellent results have been obtained demonstrating the effectivity of the present method.

  11. MURC deficiency in smooth muscle attenuates pulmonary hypertension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakanishi, Naohiko; Ogata, Takehiro; Naito, Daisuke; Miyagawa, Kotaro; Taniguchi, Takuya; Hamaoka, Tetsuro; Maruyama, Naoki; Kasahara, Takeru; Nishi, Masahiro; Matoba, Satoaki; Ueyama, Tomomi

    2016-08-22

    Emerging evidence suggests that caveolin-1 (Cav1) is associated with pulmonary arterial hypertension. MURC (also called Cavin-4) is a member of the cavin family, which regulates caveolar formation and functions together with caveolins. Here, we show that hypoxia increased Murc mRNA expression in the mouse lung, and that Murc-null mice exhibited attenuation of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH) accompanied by reduced ROCK activity in the lung. Conditional knockout mice lacking Murc in smooth muscle also resist hypoxia-induced PH. MURC regulates the proliferation and migration of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs) through Rho/ROCK signalling. Cav1 suppresses RhoA activity in PASMCs, which is reversed by MURC. MURC binds to Cav1 and inhibits the association of Cav1 with the active form of Gα13, resulting in the facilitated association of the active form of Gα13 with p115RhoGEF. These results reveal that MURC has a function in the development of PH through modulating Rho/ROCK signalling.

  12. Smoothing-based compressed state Kalman filter for joint state-parameter estimation: Applications in reservoir characterization and CO2 storage monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Y. J.; Kokkinaki, Amalia; Darve, Eric F.; Kitanidis, Peter K.

    2017-08-01

    The operation of most engineered hydrogeological systems relies on simulating physical processes using numerical models with uncertain parameters and initial conditions. Predictions by such uncertain models can be greatly improved by Kalman-filter techniques that sequentially assimilate monitoring data. Each assimilation constitutes a nonlinear optimization, which is solved by linearizing an objective function about the model prediction and applying a linear correction to this prediction. However, if model parameters and initial conditions are uncertain, the optimization problem becomes strongly nonlinear and a linear correction may yield unphysical results. In this paper, we investigate the utility of one-step ahead smoothing, a variant of the traditional filtering process, to eliminate nonphysical results and reduce estimation artifacts caused by nonlinearities. We present the smoothing-based compressed state Kalman filter (sCSKF), an algorithm that combines one step ahead smoothing, in which current observations are used to correct the state and parameters one step back in time, with a nonensemble covariance compression scheme, that reduces the computational cost by efficiently exploring the high-dimensional state and parameter space. Numerical experiments show that when model parameters are uncertain and the states exhibit hyperbolic behavior with sharp fronts, as in CO2 storage applications, one-step ahead smoothing reduces overshooting errors and, by design, gives physically consistent state and parameter estimates. We compared sCSKF with commonly used data assimilation methods and showed that for the same computational cost, combining one step ahead smoothing and nonensemble compression is advantageous for real-time characterization and monitoring of large-scale hydrogeological systems with sharp moving fronts.

  13. Green function and scattering amplitudes in many dimensional space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fabre de la Ripelle, M.

    1991-06-01

    Methods for solving scattering are studied in many dimensional space. Green function and scattering amplitudes are given in terms of the requested asymptotic behaviour of the wave function. The Born approximation and the optical theorem are derived in many dimensional space. Phase-shift analysis are developed for hypercentral potentials and for non-hypercentral potentials with the hyperspherical adiabatic approximation. (author) 16 refs., 3 figs

  14. Wigner function and Schroedinger equation in phase-space representation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chruscinski, Dariusz; Mlodawski, Krzysztof

    2005-01-01

    We discuss a family of quasidistributions (s-ordered Wigner functions of Agarwal and Wolf [Phys. Rev. D 2, 2161 (1970); Phys. Rev. D 2, 2187 (1970); Phys. Rev. D 2, 2206 (1970)]) and its connection to the so-called phase space representation of the Schroedinger equation. It turns out that although Wigner functions satisfy the Schroedinger equation in phase space, they have a completely different interpretation

  15. Smoothness in Binomial Edge Ideals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamid Damadi

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we study some geometric properties of the algebraic set associated to the binomial edge ideal of a graph. We study the singularity and smoothness of the algebraic set associated to the binomial edge ideal of a graph. Some of these algebraic sets are irreducible and some of them are reducible. If every irreducible component of the algebraic set is smooth we call the graph an edge smooth graph, otherwise it is called an edge singular graph. We show that complete graphs are edge smooth and introduce two conditions such that the graph G is edge singular if and only if it satisfies these conditions. Then, it is shown that cycles and most of trees are edge singular. In addition, it is proved that complete bipartite graphs are edge smooth.

  16. Regulation of collagen biosynthesis in cultured bovine aortic smooth muscle cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stepp, M.A.

    1986-01-01

    Aortic smooth muscles cells have been implicated in the etiology of lesions which occur in atherosclerosis and hypertension. Both diseases involve proliferation of smooth muscle cells and accumulation of excessive amounts of extracellular matrix proteins, including collagen type I and type III produced by the smooth muscle cells. To better understand the sites of regulation of collagen biosynthesis and to correlate these with the growth rate of the cells, cultured bovine aortic smooth muscle cells were studied as a function of the number of days (3 to 14) in second passage. Cells grew rapidly up to day 6 when confluence was reached. The total incorporation of [ 3 H]-proline into proteins was highest at day 3 and decreased to a constant level after the cultures reached confluence. In contrast, collagen protein production was lowest before confluence and continued to increase over the entire time course of the experiments. cDNA clones for the α1 and α2 chains of type I and the α1 chain of type III collagen were used to quantitate the steady state level of collagen mRNAs. RNA was tested in a cell-free translation system. Changes in the translational activity of collagen mRNAs parallelled the observed increases in collagen protein production. Thus, at later time points, collagen mRNAs are more active in directing synthesis of preprocollagens, even though less collagen mRNA is present. The conclusion is that the site of regulation of the expression of collagen genes is a function of the growth rate of cultured smooth muscle cells

  17. Smooth random change point models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van den Hout, Ardo; Muniz-Terrera, Graciela; Matthews, Fiona E

    2011-03-15

    Change point models are used to describe processes over time that show a change in direction. An example of such a process is cognitive ability, where a decline a few years before death is sometimes observed. A broken-stick model consists of two linear parts and a breakpoint where the two lines intersect. Alternatively, models can be formulated that imply a smooth change between the two linear parts. Change point models can be extended by adding random effects to account for variability between subjects. A new smooth change point model is introduced and examples are presented that show how change point models can be estimated using functions in R for mixed-effects models. The Bayesian inference using WinBUGS is also discussed. The methods are illustrated using data from a population-based longitudinal study of ageing, the Cambridge City over 75 Cohort Study. The aim is to identify how many years before death individuals experience a change in the rate of decline of their cognitive ability. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  18. Self-calibrated correlation imaging with k-space variant correlation functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yu; Edalati, Masoud; Du, Xingfu; Wang, Hui; Cao, Jie J

    2018-03-01

    Correlation imaging is a previously developed high-speed MRI framework that converts parallel imaging reconstruction into the estimate of correlation functions. The presented work aims to demonstrate this framework can provide a speed gain over parallel imaging by estimating k-space variant correlation functions. Because of Fourier encoding with gradients, outer k-space data contain higher spatial-frequency image components arising primarily from tissue boundaries. As a result of tissue-boundary sparsity in the human anatomy, neighboring k-space data correlation varies from the central to the outer k-space. By estimating k-space variant correlation functions with an iterative self-calibration method, correlation imaging can benefit from neighboring k-space data correlation associated with both coil sensitivity encoding and tissue-boundary sparsity, thereby providing a speed gain over parallel imaging that relies only on coil sensitivity encoding. This new approach is investigated in brain imaging and free-breathing neonatal cardiac imaging. Correlation imaging performs better than existing parallel imaging techniques in simulated brain imaging acceleration experiments. The higher speed enables real-time data acquisition for neonatal cardiac imaging in which physiological motion is fast and non-periodic. With k-space variant correlation functions, correlation imaging gives a higher speed than parallel imaging and offers the potential to image physiological motion in real-time. Magn Reson Med 79:1483-1494, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

  19. Quantum mechanics in an evolving Hilbert space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Artacho, Emilio; O'Regan, David D.

    2017-03-01

    Many basis sets for electronic structure calculations evolve with varying external parameters, such as moving atoms in dynamic simulations, giving rise to extra derivative terms in the dynamical equations. Here we revisit these derivatives in the context of differential geometry, thereby obtaining a more transparent formalization, and a geometrical perspective for better understanding the resulting equations. The effect of the evolution of the basis set within the spanned Hilbert space separates explicitly from the effect of the turning of the space itself when moving in parameter space, as the tangent space turns when moving in a curved space. New insights are obtained using familiar concepts in that context such as the Riemann curvature. The differential geometry is not strictly that for curved spaces as in general relativity, a more adequate mathematical framework being provided by fiber bundles. The language used here, however, will be restricted to tensors and basic quantum mechanics. The local gauge implied by a smoothly varying basis set readily connects with Berry's formalism for geometric phases. Generalized expressions for the Berry connection and curvature are obtained for a parameter-dependent occupied Hilbert space spanned by nonorthogonal Wannier functions. The formalism is applicable to basis sets made of atomic-like orbitals and also more adaptative moving basis functions (such as in methods using Wannier functions as intermediate or support bases), but should also apply to other situations in which nonorthogonal functions or related projectors should arise. The formalism is applied to the time-dependent quantum evolution of electrons for moving atoms. The geometric insights provided here allow us to propose new finite-difference time integrators, and also better understand those already proposed.

  20. Vestibular-related frontal cortical areas and their roles in smooth-pursuit eye movements: representation of neck velocity, neck-vestibular interactions and memory-based smooth-pursuit

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kikuro eFukushima

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Smooth-pursuit eye movements are voluntary responses to small slow-moving objects in the fronto-parallel plane. They evolved in primates, who possess high-acuity foveae, to ensure clear vision about the moving target. The primate frontal cortex contains two smooth-pursuit related areas; the caudal part of the frontal eye fields (FEF and the supplementary eye fields (SEF. Both areas receive vestibular inputs. We review functional differences between the two areas in smooth-pursuit. Most FEF pursuit neurons signal pursuit parameters such as eye velocity and gaze-velocity, and are involved in cancelling the vestibulo-ocular reflex by linear addition of vestibular and smooth-pursuit responses. In contrast, gaze-velocity signals are rarely represented in the SEF. Most FEF pursuit neurons receive neck velocity inputs, while discharge modulation during pursuit and trunk-on-head rotation adds linearly. Linear addition also occurs between neck velocity responses and vestibular responses during head-on-trunk rotation in a task-dependent manner. During cross-axis pursuit-vestibular interactions, vestibular signals effectively initiate predictive pursuit eye movements. Most FEF pursuit neurons discharge during the interaction training after the onset of pursuit eye velocity, making their involvement unlikely in the initial stages of generating predictive pursuit. Comparison of representative signals in the two areas and the results of chemical inactivation during a memory-based smooth-pursuit task indicate they have different roles; the SEF plans smooth-pursuit including working memory of motion-direction, whereas the caudal FEF generates motor commands for pursuit eye movements. Patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease were asked to perform this task, since impaired smooth-pursuit and visual working memory deficit during cognitive tasks have been reported in most patients. Preliminary results suggested specific roles of the basal ganglia in memory

  1. Smooth halos in the cosmic web

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gaite, José, E-mail: jose.gaite@upm.es [Physics Dept., ETSIAE, IDR, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pza. Cardenal Cisneros 3, E-28040 Madrid (Spain)

    2015-04-01

    Dark matter halos can be defined as smooth distributions of dark matter placed in a non-smooth cosmic web structure. This definition of halos demands a precise definition of smoothness and a characterization of the manner in which the transition from smooth halos to the cosmic web takes place. We introduce entropic measures of smoothness, related to measures of inequality previously used in economy and with the advantage of being connected with standard methods of multifractal analysis already used for characterizing the cosmic web structure in cold dark matter N-body simulations. These entropic measures provide us with a quantitative description of the transition from the small scales portrayed as a distribution of halos to the larger scales portrayed as a cosmic web and, therefore, allow us to assign definite sizes to halos. However, these ''smoothness sizes'' have no direct relation to the virial radii. Finally, we discuss the influence of N-body discreteness parameters on smoothness.

  2. Smooth halos in the cosmic web

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gaite, José

    2015-01-01

    Dark matter halos can be defined as smooth distributions of dark matter placed in a non-smooth cosmic web structure. This definition of halos demands a precise definition of smoothness and a characterization of the manner in which the transition from smooth halos to the cosmic web takes place. We introduce entropic measures of smoothness, related to measures of inequality previously used in economy and with the advantage of being connected with standard methods of multifractal analysis already used for characterizing the cosmic web structure in cold dark matter N-body simulations. These entropic measures provide us with a quantitative description of the transition from the small scales portrayed as a distribution of halos to the larger scales portrayed as a cosmic web and, therefore, allow us to assign definite sizes to halos. However, these ''smoothness sizes'' have no direct relation to the virial radii. Finally, we discuss the influence of N-body discreteness parameters on smoothness

  3. Space Shuttle Endeavour launch

    Science.gov (United States)

    1992-01-01

    A smooth countdown culminated in a picture-perfect launch as the Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-47) climbed skyward atop a ladder of billowing smoke. Primary payload for the plarned seven-day flight was Spacelab-J science laboratory. The second flight of Endeavour marks a number of historic firsts: the first space flight of an African-American woman, the first Japanese citizen to fly on a Space Shuttle, and the first married couple to fly in space.

  4. Functional Equations in Fuzzy Banach Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Eshaghi Gordji

    2012-01-01

    generalized Hyers-Ulam stability of the following additive-quadratic functional equation f(x+ky+f(x−ky=f(x+y+f(x−y+(2(k+1/kf(ky−2(k+1f(y for fixed integers k with k≠0,±1 in fuzzy Banach spaces.

  5. Functional Generalized Structured Component Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suk, Hye Won; Hwang, Heungsun

    2016-12-01

    An extension of Generalized Structured Component Analysis (GSCA), called Functional GSCA, is proposed to analyze functional data that are considered to arise from an underlying smooth curve varying over time or other continua. GSCA has been geared for the analysis of multivariate data. Accordingly, it cannot deal with functional data that often involve different measurement occasions across participants and a large number of measurement occasions that exceed the number of participants. Functional GSCA addresses these issues by integrating GSCA with spline basis function expansions that represent infinite-dimensional curves onto a finite-dimensional space. For parameter estimation, functional GSCA minimizes a penalized least squares criterion by using an alternating penalized least squares estimation algorithm. The usefulness of functional GSCA is illustrated with gait data.

  6. Comparison of some nonlinear smoothing methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bell, P.R.; Dillon, R.S.

    1977-01-01

    Due to the poor quality of many nuclear medicine images, computer-driven smoothing procedures are frequently employed to enhance the diagnostic utility of these images. While linear methods were first tried, it was discovered that nonlinear techniques produced superior smoothing with little detail suppression. We have compared four methods: Gaussian smoothing (linear), two-dimensional least-squares smoothing (linear), two-dimensional least-squares bounding (nonlinear), and two-dimensional median smoothing (nonlinear). The two dimensional least-squares procedures have yielded the most satisfactorily enhanced images, with the median smoothers providing quite good images, even in the presence of widely aberrant points

  7. Voluntary eye movements direct attention on the mental number space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ranzini, Mariagrazia; Lisi, Matteo; Zorzi, Marco

    2016-05-01

    Growing evidence suggests that orienting visual attention in space can influence the processing of numerical magnitude, with leftward orienting speeding up the processing of small numbers relative to larger ones and the converse for rightward orienting. The manipulation of eye movements is a convenient way to direct visuospatial attention, but several aspects of the complex relationship between eye movements, attention orienting and number processing remain unexplored. In a previous study, we observed that inducing involuntary, reflexive eye movements by means of optokinetic stimulation affected number processing only when numerical magnitude was task relevant (i.e., during magnitude comparison, but not during parity judgment; Ranzini et al., in J Cogn Psychol 27, 459-470, (2015). Here, we investigated whether processing of task-irrelevant numerical magnitude can be modulated by voluntary eye movements, and whether the type of eye movements (smooth pursuit vs. saccades) would influence this interaction. Participants tracked with their gaze a dot while listening to a digit. The numerical task was to indicate whether the digit was odd or even through non-spatial, verbal responses. The dot could move leftward or rightward either continuously, allowing tracking by smooth pursuit eye movements, or in discrete steps across a series of adjacent locations, triggering a sequence of saccades. Both smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements similarly affected number processing and modulated response times for large numbers as a function of direction of motion. These findings suggest that voluntary eye movements redirect attention in mental number space and highlight that eye movements should play a key factor in the investigation of number-space interactions.

  8. New dimensions for man. [human functions in future space missions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Louviere, A. J.

    1978-01-01

    The functions of man in space have been in a state of constant change since the first manned orbital flight. Initially, the onboard crewmen performed those tasks essential to piloting and navigating the spacecraft. The time devoted to these tasks has steadily decreased and the crewman's time is being allotted to functions other than orbital operations. The evolving functions include added orbital operational capabilities, experimentation, spacecraft maintenance, and fabrication of useful end items. The new functions will include routine utilization of the crewman to extend mission life, satellite retrieval and servicing, remote manipulator systems operations, and piloting of free-flying teleoperator systems. The most demanding tasks are anticipated to be associated with construction of large space structures. The projected changes will introduce innovative designs and revitalize the concepts for utilizing man in space.

  9. Seamless Heterogeneous 3D Tessellation via DWT Domain Smoothing and Mosaicking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gilles Gesquière

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available With todays geobrowsers, the tessellations are far from being smooth due to a variety of reasons: the principal being the light difference and resolution heterogeneity. Whilst the former has been extensively dealt with in the literature through classic mosaicking techniques, the latter has got little attention. We focus on this latter aspect and present two DWT domain methods to seamlessly stitch tiles of heterogeneous resolutions. The first method is local in that each of the tiles that constitute the view, is subjected to one of the three context-based smoothing functions proposed for horizontal, vertical, and radial smoothing, depending on its localization in the tessellation. These functions are applied at the DWT subband level and followed by an inverse DWT to give a smoothened tile. In the second method, though we assume the same tessellation scenario, the view field is thought to be of a sliding window which may contain parts of the tiles from the heterogeneous tessellation. The window is refined in the DWT domain through mosaicking and smoothing followed by a global inverse DWT. Rather than the traditional sense, the mosaicking employed over here targets the heterogeneous resolution. Perceptually, this second method has shown better results than the first one. The methods have been successfully applied to practical examples of both the texture and its corresponding DEM for seamless 3D terrain visualization.

  10. Invariant Hilbert spaces of holomorphic functions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Faraut, J; Thomas, EGF

    1999-01-01

    A Hilbert space of holomorphic functions on a complex manifold Z, which is invariant under a group G of holomorphic automorphisms of Z, can be decomposed into irreducible subspaces by using Choquet theory. We give a geometric condition on Z and G which implies that this decomposition is multiplicity

  11. Smooth Muscle-Like Cells Generated from Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Display Marker Gene Expression and Electrophysiological Competence Comparable to Bladder Smooth Muscle Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brun, Juliane; Lutz, Katrin A; Neumayer, Katharina M H; Klein, Gerd; Seeger, Tanja; Uynuk-Ool, Tatiana; Wörgötter, Katharina; Schmid, Sandra; Kraushaar, Udo; Guenther, Elke; Rolauffs, Bernd; Aicher, Wilhelm K; Hart, Melanie L

    2015-01-01

    The use of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) differentiated toward a smooth muscle cell (SMC) phenotype may provide an alternative for investigators interested in regenerating urinary tract organs such as the bladder where autologous smooth muscle cells cannot be used or are unavailable. In this study we measured the effects of good manufacturing practice (GMP)-compliant expansion followed by myogenic differentiation of human MSCs on the expression of a range of contractile (from early to late) myogenic markers in relation to the electrophysiological parameters to assess the functional role of the differentiated MSCs and found that differentiation of MSCs associated with electrophysiological competence comparable to bladder SMCs. Within 1-2 weeks of myogenic differentiation, differentiating MSCs significantly expressed alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA; ACTA2), transgelin (TAGLN), calponin (CNN1), and smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SM-MHC; MYH11) according to qRT-PCR and/or immunofluorescence and Western blot. Voltage-gated Na+ current levels also increased within the same time period following myogenic differentiation. In contrast to undifferentiated MSCs, differentiated MSCs and bladder SMCs exhibited elevated cytosolic Ca2+ transients in response to K+-induced depolarization and contracted in response to K+ indicating functional maturation of differentiated MSCs. Depolarization was suppressed by Cd2+, an inhibitor of voltage-gated Ca2+-channels. The expression of Na+-channels was pharmacologically identified as the Nav1.4 subtype, while the K+ and Ca2+ ion channels were identified by gene expression of KCNMA1, CACNA1C and CACNA1H which encode for the large conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channel BKCa channels, Cav1.2 L-type Ca2+ channels and Cav3.2 T-type Ca2+ channels, respectively. This protocol may be used to differentiate adult MSCs into smooth muscle-like cells with an intermediate-to-late SMC contractile phenotype exhibiting voltage-gated ion channel

  12. Smooth Muscle-Like Cells Generated from Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Display Marker Gene Expression and Electrophysiological Competence Comparable to Bladder Smooth Muscle Cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juliane Brun

    Full Text Available The use of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs differentiated toward a smooth muscle cell (SMC phenotype may provide an alternative for investigators interested in regenerating urinary tract organs such as the bladder where autologous smooth muscle cells cannot be used or are unavailable. In this study we measured the effects of good manufacturing practice (GMP-compliant expansion followed by myogenic differentiation of human MSCs on the expression of a range of contractile (from early to late myogenic markers in relation to the electrophysiological parameters to assess the functional role of the differentiated MSCs and found that differentiation of MSCs associated with electrophysiological competence comparable to bladder SMCs. Within 1-2 weeks of myogenic differentiation, differentiating MSCs significantly expressed alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA; ACTA2, transgelin (TAGLN, calponin (CNN1, and smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SM-MHC; MYH11 according to qRT-PCR and/or immunofluorescence and Western blot. Voltage-gated Na+ current levels also increased within the same time period following myogenic differentiation. In contrast to undifferentiated MSCs, differentiated MSCs and bladder SMCs exhibited elevated cytosolic Ca2+ transients in response to K+-induced depolarization and contracted in response to K+ indicating functional maturation of differentiated MSCs. Depolarization was suppressed by Cd2+, an inhibitor of voltage-gated Ca2+-channels. The expression of Na+-channels was pharmacologically identified as the Nav1.4 subtype, while the K+ and Ca2+ ion channels were identified by gene expression of KCNMA1, CACNA1C and CACNA1H which encode for the large conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channel BKCa channels, Cav1.2 L-type Ca2+ channels and Cav3.2 T-type Ca2+ channels, respectively. This protocol may be used to differentiate adult MSCs into smooth muscle-like cells with an intermediate-to-late SMC contractile phenotype exhibiting voltage-gated ion

  13. Human capabilities in space. [man machine interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicogossian, A. E.

    1984-01-01

    Man's ability to live and perform useful work in space was demonstrated throughout the history of manned space flight. Current planning envisions a multi-functional space station. Man's unique abilities to respond to the unforeseen and to operate at a level of complexity exceeding any reasonable amount of previous planning distinguish him from present day machines. His limitations, however, include his inherent inability to survive without protection, his limited strength, and his propensity to make mistakes when performing repetitive and monotonous tasks. By contrast, an automated system does routine and delicate tasks, exerts force smoothly and precisely, stores, and recalls large amounts of data, and performs deductive reasoning while maintaining a relative insensitivity to the environment. The establishment of a permanent presence of man in space demands that man and machines be appropriately combined in spaceborne systems. To achieve this optimal combination, research is needed in such diverse fields as artificial intelligence, robotics, behavioral psychology, economics, and human factors engineering.

  14. The variation of the density functions on chaotic spheres in chaotic space-like Minkowski space time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    El-Ahmady, A.E.

    2007-01-01

    In this article we introduce types of chaotic spheres in chaotic space-like Minkowski space time M n+1 . The variations of the density functions under the folding of these chaotic spheres are defined. The foldings restriction imposed on the density function are also discussed. The relations between the folding of geometry and pure chaotic manifolds are deduced. Some theorems concerning these relations are presented

  15. Strong Proximities on Smooth Manifolds and Vorono\\" i Diagrams

    OpenAIRE

    Peters, J. F.; Guadagni, C.

    2015-01-01

    This article introduces strongly near smooth manifolds. The main results are (i) second countability of the strongly hit and far-miss topology on a family $\\mathcal{B}$ of subsets on the Lodato proximity space of regular open sets to which singletons are added, (ii) manifold strong proximity, (iii) strong proximity of charts in manifold atlases implies that the charts have nonempty intersection. The application of these results is given in terms of the nearness of atlases and charts of proxim...

  16. Strictly diagonal holomorphic functions on Banach spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. I. Fedak

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we investigate the boundedness of holomorphic functionals on a Banach space with a normalized basis $\\{e_n\\}$ which have a very special form $f(x=f(0+\\sum_{n=1}^\\infty c_nx_n^n$ and which we call strictly diagonal. We consider under which conditions strictly diagonal functions are entire and uniformly continuous on every ball of a fixed radius.

  17. Electron histochemical and autoradiographic studies of vascular smooth muscle cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kameyama, Kohji; Aida, Takeo; Asano, Goro

    1982-01-01

    The authors have studied the vascular smooth muscle cell in the aorta and the arteries of brain, heart in autopsied cases, cholesterol fed rabbits and canine through electron histochemical and autoradiographic methods, using 3 H-proline and 3 H-thymidine. The vascular changes are variable presumably due to the functional and morphological difference of vessels. Aging, pathological condition and physiological requirement induce the disturbances of vascular functions as contractility. According to various pathological conditions, the smooth muscle cell altered their shape, surface properties and arrangement of subcellular organelles including changes in number. The morphological features of arteries during aging is characterized by the thickening of endothelium and media. Decreasing cellularity and increasing collagen contents in media. The autoradiographic and histochemical observations using periodic acid methenamine silver (PAM) and ruthenium red stains demonstrated that the smooth muscle cell is a connective tissue synthetic cell. The PAM impregnation have proved that the small bundle of microfilaments become associated with small conglomerate of collagen and elastic fibers. Cytochemical examination will provide sufficient evidence to establish the contribution of subcellular structure. The acid phosphatase play an important role in vascular disease and they are directly involved in cellular lipid metabolism in cholesterol fed animals, and the activity of Na-K ATPase on the plasma membrane may contribute to the regulation of vascular blood flow and vasospasms. Direct injury and subsequent abnormal contraction of smooth muscle cell may initiate increased permeability of plasma protein and lipid in the media layer and eventually may developed and enhance arteriosclerosis. (author)

  18. A relationship between scalar Green functions on hyperbolic and Euclidean Rindler spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haba, Z

    2007-01-01

    We derive a formula connecting in any dimension the Green function on the (D + 1)-dimensional Euclidean Rindler space and the one for a minimally coupled scalar field with a mass m in the D-dimensional hyperbolic space. The relation takes a simple form in the momentum space where the Green functions are equal at the momenta (p 0 , p) for Rindler and (m,p-hat) for hyperbolic space with a simple additive relation between the squares of the mass and the momenta. The formula has applications to finite temperature Green functions, Green functions on the cone and on the (compactified) Milne spacetime. Analytic continuations and interacting quantum fields are briefly discussed

  19. Modeling and control of three phase rectifier with electronic smoothing inductor

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Singh, Yash Veer; Rasmussen, Peter Omand; Andersen, Torben Ole

    2011-01-01

    This paper presents a simple, direct method for deriving the approximate, small-signal, average model and control strategy for three-phase diode bridge rectifier operating with electronic smoothing technique. Electronic smoothing inductor (ESI) performs the function of an inductor that has...... controlled variable impedance. This increases power factor (PF) and reduces total harmonic distortions (THDs) in mains current. The ESI based rectifier enables compact and cost effective design of three phase electric drive as size of passive components is reduced significantly. In order to carry out...

  20. Smoothing the payoff for efficient computation of Basket option prices

    KAUST Repository

    Bayer, Christian

    2017-07-22

    We consider the problem of pricing basket options in a multivariate Black–Scholes or Variance-Gamma model. From a numerical point of view, pricing such options corresponds to moderate and high-dimensional numerical integration problems with non-smooth integrands. Due to this lack of regularity, higher order numerical integration techniques may not be directly available, requiring the use of methods like Monte Carlo specifically designed to work for non-regular problems. We propose to use the inherent smoothing property of the density of the underlying in the above models to mollify the payoff function by means of an exact conditional expectation. The resulting conditional expectation is unbiased and yields a smooth integrand, which is amenable to the efficient use of adaptive sparse-grid cubature. Numerical examples indicate that the high-order method may perform orders of magnitude faster than Monte Carlo or Quasi Monte Carlo methods in dimensions up to 35.

  1. Mediators on human airway smooth muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Armour, C; Johnson, P; Anticevich, S; Ammit, A; McKay, K; Hughes, M; Black, J

    1997-01-01

    1. Bronchial hyperresponsiveness in asthma may be due to several abnormalities, but must include alterations in the airway smooth muscle responsiveness and/or volume. 2. Increased responsiveness of airway smooth muscle in vitro can be induced by certain inflammatory cell products and by induction of sensitization (atopy). 3. Increased airway smooth muscle growth can also be induced by inflammatory cell products and atopic serum. 4. Mast cell numbers are increased in the airways of asthmatics and, in our studies, in airway smooth muscle that is sensitized and hyperresponsive. 5. We propose that there is a relationship between mast cells and airway smooth muscle cells which, once an allergic process has been initiated, results in the development of critical features in the lungs in asthma.

  2. Nuclear fusion-independent smooth muscle differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells induced by a smooth muscle environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Rong; Jack, Gregory S; Rao, Nagesh; Zuk, Patricia; Ignarro, Louis J; Wu, Benjamin; Rodríguez, Larissa V

    2012-03-01

    Human adipose-derived stem cells hASC have been isolated and were shown to have multilineage differentiation capacity. Although both plasticity and cell fusion have been suggested as mechanisms for cell differentiation in vivo, the effect of the local in vivo environment on the differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells has not been evaluated. We previously reported the in vitro capacity of smooth muscle differentiation of these cells. In this study, we evaluate the effect of an in vivo smooth muscle environment in the differentiation of hASC. We studied this by two experimental designs: (a) in vivo evaluation of smooth muscle differentiation of hASC injected into a smooth muscle environment and (b) in vitro evaluation of smooth muscle differentiation capacity of hASC exposed to bladder smooth muscle cells. Our results indicate a time-dependent differentiation of hASC into mature smooth muscle cells when these cells are injected into the smooth musculature of the urinary bladder. Similar findings were seen when the cells were cocultured in vitro with primary bladder smooth muscle cells. Chromosomal analysis demonstrated that microenvironment cues rather than nuclear fusion are responsible for this differentiation. We conclude that cell plasticity is present in hASCs, and their differentiation is accomplished in the absence of nuclear fusion. Copyright © 2011 AlphaMed Press.

  3. A change of coordinates on the large phase space of quantum cohomology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kabanov, A.

    2001-01-01

    The Gromov-Witten invariants of a smooth, projective variety V, when twisted by the tautological classes on the moduli space of stable maps, give rise to a family of cohomological field theories and endow the base of the family with coordinates. We prove that the potential functions associated to the tautological ψ classes (the large phase space) and the κ classes are related by a change of coordinates which generalizes a change of basis on the ring of symmetric functions. Our result is a generalization of the work of Manin-Zograf who studied the case where V is a point. We utilize this change of variables to derive the topological recursion relations associated to the κ classes from those associated to the ψ classes. (orig.)

  4. On the Level Set of a Function with Degenerate Minimum Point

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasuhiko Kamiyama

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available For n≥2, let M be an n-dimensional smooth closed manifold and f:M→R a smooth function. We set minf(M=m and assume that m is attained by unique point p∈M such that p is a nondegenerate critical point. Then the Morse lemma tells us that if a is slightly bigger than m, f-1(a is diffeomorphic to Sn-1. In this paper, we relax the condition on p from being nondegenerate to being an isolated critical point and obtain the same consequence. Some application to the topology of polygon spaces is also included.

  5. Feynman rules and generalized ward identities in phase space functional integral

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Ziping

    1996-01-01

    Based on the phase-space generating functional of Green function, the generalized canonical Ward identities are derived. It is point out that one can deduce Feynman rules in tree approximation without carrying out explicit integration over canonical momenta in phase-space generating functional. If one adds a four-dimensional divergence term to a Lagrangian of the field, then, the propagator of the field can be changed

  6. FGWAS: Functional genome wide association analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Chao; Thompson, Paul; Wang, Yalin; Yu, Yang; Zhang, Jingwen; Kong, Dehan; Colen, Rivka R; Knickmeyer, Rebecca C; Zhu, Hongtu

    2017-10-01

    Functional phenotypes (e.g., subcortical surface representation), which commonly arise in imaging genetic studies, have been used to detect putative genes for complexly inherited neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. However, existing statistical methods largely ignore the functional features (e.g., functional smoothness and correlation). The aim of this paper is to develop a functional genome-wide association analysis (FGWAS) framework to efficiently carry out whole-genome analyses of functional phenotypes. FGWAS consists of three components: a multivariate varying coefficient model, a global sure independence screening procedure, and a test procedure. Compared with the standard multivariate regression model, the multivariate varying coefficient model explicitly models the functional features of functional phenotypes through the integration of smooth coefficient functions and functional principal component analysis. Statistically, compared with existing methods for genome-wide association studies (GWAS), FGWAS can substantially boost the detection power for discovering important genetic variants influencing brain structure and function. Simulation studies show that FGWAS outperforms existing GWAS methods for searching sparse signals in an extremely large search space, while controlling for the family-wise error rate. We have successfully applied FGWAS to large-scale analysis of data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative for 708 subjects, 30,000 vertices on the left and right hippocampal surfaces, and 501,584 SNPs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Lensing smoothing of BAO wiggles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dio, Enea Di, E-mail: enea.didio@oats.inaf.it [INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via G.B. Tiepolo 11, I-34143 Trieste (Italy)

    2017-03-01

    We study non-perturbatively the effect of the deflection angle on the BAO wiggles of the matter power spectrum in real space. We show that from redshift z ∼2 this introduces a dispersion of roughly 1 Mpc at BAO scale, which corresponds approximately to a 1% effect. The lensing effect induced by the deflection angle, which is completely geometrical and survey independent, smears out the BAO wiggles. The effect on the power spectrum amplitude at BAO scale is about 0.1 % for z ∼2 and 0.2 % for z ∼4. We compare the smoothing effects induced by the lensing potential and non-linear structure formation, showing that the two effects become comparable at z ∼ 4, while the lensing effect dominates for sources at higher redshifts. We note that this effect is not accounted through BAO reconstruction techniques.

  8. Functional Use Change in Green Spaces: A Case Study of Kirklareli Province

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sat Gungor, Beyza; Culha Ozanguc, Kadiriye

    2017-10-01

    Green spaces which are one of the most important public spaces in urban design have an important role on qualified daily urban life. People escape from intense work pressure and traffic jam of metropoles to those urban green areas to take a breath even they cover a small size. In time, people’s expectations from green spaces as functional and quantitative needs are changing. This change occurs due to increasing population and as the character of the urban life. This study examines the functional use and quantitative change of urban green spaces of Kırklareli Province from past to present. Kırklareli is a border city to Bulgaria which is located in north-west part of Turkey and this gives a transitional and a multicultural character to the city. The population is about 67360. In the course of time; green space needs have increased by the increasing population. In addition to this, green spaces’ functional use change has been identified. According to the results of the study; from the aspect of the green space standards, Kırklareli found above standards with 17.5 m2 per capita, but on the other hand, sport and playground areas found insufficient. The Oldest and the newest city plans of Kırklareli (1940s and 2012s cadastral plans) have been compared and site surveys implemented as the methodology. In site survey, current green spaces’ functional uses as sport or playground are observed and determined and also current quantitative measure of the green spaces are verified. Urban green spaces in Kırklareli Province evaluated through considering world’s most populated urban green space standards and Turkey’s standards. This study utilizes to compose a substructure of the urban green space. Determined deficiencies and inadequacies of green spaces and functional needs in this study, can guide to further studies and implementations of Kırklareli Municipality.

  9. Contrast and assimilation in motion perception and smooth pursuit eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spering, Miriam; Gegenfurtner, Karl R

    2007-09-01

    The analysis of visual motion serves many different functions ranging from object motion perception to the control of self-motion. The perception of visual motion and the oculomotor tracking of a moving object are known to be closely related and are assumed to be controlled by shared brain areas. We compared perceived velocity and the velocity of smooth pursuit eye movements in human observers in a paradigm that required the segmentation of target object motion from context motion. In each trial, a pursuit target and a visual context were independently perturbed simultaneously to briefly increase or decrease in speed. Observers had to accurately track the target and estimate target speed during the perturbation interval. Here we show that the same motion signals are processed in fundamentally different ways for perception and steady-state smooth pursuit eye movements. For the computation of perceived velocity, motion of the context was subtracted from target motion (motion contrast), whereas pursuit velocity was determined by the motion average (motion assimilation). We conclude that the human motion system uses these computations to optimally accomplish different functions: image segmentation for object motion perception and velocity estimation for the control of smooth pursuit eye movements.

  10. Quantum mechanics on phase space: The hydrogen atom and its Wigner functions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campos, P.; Martins, M. G. R.; Fernandes, M. C. B.; Vianna, J. D. M.

    2018-03-01

    Symplectic quantum mechanics (SQM) considers a non-commutative algebra of functions on a phase space Γ and an associated Hilbert space HΓ, to construct a unitary representation for the Galilei group. From this unitary representation the Schrödinger equation is rewritten in phase space variables and the Wigner function can be derived without the use of the Liouville-von Neumann equation. In this article the Coulomb potential in three dimensions (3D) is resolved completely by using the phase space Schrödinger equation. The Kustaanheimo-Stiefel(KS) transformation is applied and the Coulomb and harmonic oscillator potentials are connected. In this context we determine the energy levels, the amplitude of probability in phase space and correspondent Wigner quasi-distribution functions of the 3D-hydrogen atom described by Schrödinger equation in phase space.

  11. Smoothing technology of gamma-ray spectrometry data based on matched filtering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gu Min; Ge Liangquan

    2009-01-01

    Traditional method of smoothness of gamma-ray spectrometry data gives rise to aberration of spectra curves easily. The article improve convolution sliding transformation using idea of matched filtering. Gauss adding the exponential function instead of Gauss function is used as converting function. The improved method not only suppresses statistical fluctuation mostly but also keeps feature of spectra curves. Instance verified superiority of this new method. (authors)

  12. Space Charge Effects

    CERN Document Server

    Ferrario, M.; Palumbo, L.

    2014-12-19

    The space charge forces are those generated directly by the charge distribution, with the inclusion of the image charges and currents due to the interaction of the beam with a perfectly conducting smooth pipe. Space charge forces are responsible for several unwanted phenomena related to beam dynamics, such as energy loss, shift of the synchronous phase and frequency , shift of the betatron frequencies, and instabilities. We will discuss in this lecture the main feature of space charge effects in high-energy storage rings as well as in low-energy linacs and transport lines.

  13. multiscale smoothing in supervised statistical learning

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Optimum level of smoothing is chosen based on the entire training sample, while a good choice of smoothing parameter may also depend on the observation to be classified. One may like to assess the strength of evidence in favor of different competing class at different scale of smoothing. In allows only one single ...

  14. Smoothness of limit functors

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Abstract. Let S be a scheme. Assume that we are given an action of the one dimen- sional split torus Gm,S on a smooth affine S-scheme X. We consider the limit (also called attractor) subfunctor Xλ consisting of points whose orbit under the given action. 'admits a limit at 0'. We show that Xλ is representable by a smooth ...

  15. Localized states in an unbounded neural field equation with smooth firing rate function: a multi-parameter analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faye, Grégory; Rankin, James; Chossat, Pascal

    2013-05-01

    The existence of spatially localized solutions in neural networks is an important topic in neuroscience as these solutions are considered to characterize working (short-term) memory. We work with an unbounded neural network represented by the neural field equation with smooth firing rate function and a wizard hat spatial connectivity. Noting that stationary solutions of our neural field equation are equivalent to homoclinic orbits in a related fourth order ordinary differential equation, we apply normal form theory for a reversible Hopf bifurcation to prove the existence of localized solutions; further, we present results concerning their stability. Numerical continuation is used to compute branches of localized solution that exhibit snaking-type behaviour. We describe in terms of three parameters the exact regions for which localized solutions persist.

  16. Bloch spaces of holomorphic functions in the polydisk

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anahit Harutyunyan

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available This work is an introduction to anisotropic spaces of holomorphic functions, which have ω-weight and are generalizations of Bloch spaces to a polydisc. We prove that these classes form an algebra and are invariant with respect to monomial multiplication. Some theorems on projection and diagonal mapping are proved. We establish a description of (Ap(ω* (or (Hp(ω* via the Bloch classes for all 0

  17. Cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscle mitochondrial respiration: are all mitochondria created equal?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Song-Young; Gifford, Jayson R; Andtbacka, Robert H I; Trinity, Joel D; Hyngstrom, John R; Garten, Ryan S; Diakos, Nikolaos A; Ives, Stephen J; Dela, Flemming; Larsen, Steen; Drakos, Stavros; Richardson, Russell S

    2014-08-01

    Unlike cardiac and skeletal muscle, little is known about vascular smooth muscle mitochondrial respiration. Therefore, the present study examined mitochondrial respiratory rates in smooth muscle of healthy human feed arteries and compared with that of healthy cardiac and skeletal muscles. Cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscles were harvested from a total of 22 subjects (53 ± 6 yr), and mitochondrial respiration was assessed in permeabilized fibers. Complex I + II, state 3 respiration, an index of oxidative phosphorylation capacity, fell progressively from cardiac to skeletal to smooth muscles (54 ± 1, 39 ± 4, and 15 ± 1 pmol·s(-1)·mg(-1), P respiration rates were normalized by CS (respiration per mitochondrial content), oxidative phosphorylation capacity was no longer different between the three muscle types. Interestingly, complex I state 2 normalized for CS activity, an index of nonphosphorylating respiration per mitochondrial content, increased progressively from cardiac to skeletal to smooth muscles, such that the respiratory control ratio, state 3/state 2 respiration, fell progressively from cardiac to skeletal to smooth muscles (5.3 ± 0.7, 3.2 ± 0.4, and 1.6 ± 0.3 pmol·s(-1)·mg(-1), P respiration highlight the existence of intrinsic functional differences between these muscle mitochondria. This likely influences the efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation and could potentially alter ROS production.

  18. Matrix stiffness-modulated proliferation and secretory function of the airway smooth muscle cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shkumatov, Artem; Thompson, Michael; Choi, Kyoung M; Sicard, Delphine; Baek, Kwanghyun; Kim, Dong Hyun; Tschumperlin, Daniel J; Prakash, Y S; Kong, Hyunjoon

    2015-06-01

    Multiple pulmonary conditions are characterized by an abnormal misbalance between various tissue components, for example, an increase in the fibrous connective tissue and loss/increase in extracellular matrix proteins (ECM). Such tissue remodeling may adversely impact physiological function of airway smooth muscle cells (ASMCs) responsible for contraction of airways and release of a variety of bioactive molecules. However, few efforts have been made to understand the potentially significant impact of tissue remodeling on ASMCs. Therefore, this study reports how ASMCs respond to a change in mechanical stiffness of a matrix, to which ASMCs adhere because mechanical stiffness of the remodeled airways is often different from the physiological stiffness. Accordingly, using atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements, we found that the elastic modulus of the mouse bronchus has an arithmetic mean of 23.1 ± 14 kPa (SD) (median 18.6 kPa). By culturing ASMCs on collagen-conjugated polyacrylamide hydrogels with controlled elastic moduli, we found that gels designed to be softer than average airway tissue significantly increased cellular secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Conversely, gels stiffer than average airways stimulated cell proliferation, while reducing VEGF secretion and agonist-induced calcium responses of ASMCs. These dependencies of cellular activities on elastic modulus of the gel were correlated with changes in the expression of integrin-β1 and integrin-linked kinase (ILK). Overall, the results of this study demonstrate that changes in matrix mechanics alter cell proliferation, calcium signaling, and proangiogenic functions in ASMCs. Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.

  19. PPARγ Ligands Regulate Noncontractile and Contractile Functions of Airway Smooth Muscle: Implications for Asthma Therapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chantal Donovan

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available In asthma, the increase in airway smooth muscle (ASM can contribute to inflammation, airway wall remodeling and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR. Targetting peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ, a receptor upregulated in ASM in asthmatic airways, may provide a novel approach to regulate these contributions. This review summarises experimental evidence that PPARγ ligands, such as rosiglitazone (RGZ and pioglitazone (PGZ, inhibit proliferation and inflammatory cytokine production from ASM in vitro. In addition, inhaled administration of these ligands reduces inflammatory cell infiltration and airway remodelling in mouse models of allergen-induced airways disease. PPARγ ligands can also regulate ASM contractility, with acute treatment eliciting relaxation of mouse trachea in vitro through a PPARγ-independent mechanism. Chronic treatment can protect against the loss of bronchodilator sensitivity to β2-adrenoceptor agonists and inhibit the development of AHR associated with exposure to nicotine in utero or following allergen challenge. Of particular interest, a small clinical trial has shown that oral RGZ treatment improves lung function in smokers with asthma, a group that is generally unresponsive to conventional steroid treatment. These combined findings support further investigation of the potential for PPARγ agonists to target the noncontractile and contractile functions of ASM to improve outcomes for patients with poorly controlled asthma.

  20. "Becoming" Learners/Teachers in Nomadic Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorodetsky, Malka; Barak, Judith

    2016-01-01

    This paper suggests a conjunction between the learning space of educational edge community (EEC) and the Deleuzeguattarian thought regarding the nature of teachers' "becoming." It attends to the emerging subjectivities of teachers/learners within an EEC, a nomadic, open, and smooth space of learning. It is suggested that autonomous…

  1. PySSM: A Python Module for Bayesian Inference of Linear Gaussian State Space Models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher Strickland

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available PySSM is a Python package that has been developed for the analysis of time series using linear Gaussian state space models. PySSM is easy to use; models can be set up quickly and efficiently and a variety of different settings are available to the user. It also takes advantage of scientific libraries NumPy and SciPy and other high level features of the Python language. PySSM is also used as a platform for interfacing between optimized and parallelized Fortran routines. These Fortran routines heavily utilize basic linear algebra and linear algebra Package functions for maximum performance. PySSM contains classes for filtering, classical smoothing as well as simulation smoothing.

  2. The Koslowski-Sahlmann representation: quantum configuration space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campiglia, Miguel; Varadarajan, Madhavan

    2014-09-01

    The Koslowski-Sahlmann (KS) representation is a generalization of the representation underlying the discrete spatial geometry of loop quantum gravity (LQG), to accommodate states labelled by smooth spatial geometries. As shown recently, the KS representation supports, in addition to the action of the holonomy and flux operators, the action of operators which are the quantum counterparts of certain connection dependent functions known as ‘background exponentials’. Here we show that the KS representation displays the following properties which are the exact counterparts of LQG ones: (i) the abelian * algebra of SU(2) holonomies and ‘U(1)’ background exponentials can be completed to a C* algebra, (ii) the space of semianalytic SU(2) connections is topologically dense in the spectrum of this algebra, (iii) there exists a measure on this spectrum for which the KS Hilbert space is realized as the space of square integrable functions on the spectrum, (iv) the spectrum admits a characterization as a projective limit of finite numbers of copies of SU(2) and U(1), (v) the algebra underlying the KS representation is constructed from cylindrical functions and their derivations in exactly the same way as the LQG (holonomy-flux) algebra except that the KS cylindrical functions depend on the holonomies and the background exponentials, this extra dependence being responsible for the differences between the KS and LQG algebras. While these results are obtained for compact spaces, they are expected to be of use for the construction of the KS representation in the asymptotically flat case.

  3. Y spaces and global smooth solution of fractional Navier-Stokes equations with initial value in the critical oscillation spaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Qixiang; Yang, Haibo

    2018-04-01

    For fractional Navier-Stokes equations and critical initial spaces X, one used to establish the well-posedness in the solution space which is contained in C (R+ , X). In this paper, for heat flow, we apply parameter Meyer wavelets to introduce Y spaces Y m , β where Y m , β is not contained in C (R+, B˙∞ 1 - 2 β , ∞). Consequently, for 1/2 global well-posedness of fractional Navier-Stokes equations with small initial data in all the critical oscillation spaces. The critical oscillation spaces may be any Besov-Morrey spaces (B˙p,q γ1 ,γ2 (Rn)) n or any Triebel-Lizorkin-Morrey spaces (F˙p,q γ1 ,γ2 (Rn)) n where 1 ≤ p , q ≤ ∞ , 0 ≤γ2 ≤ n/p, γ1 -γ2 = 1 - 2 β. These critical spaces include many known spaces. For example, Besov spaces, Sobolev spaces, Bloch spaces, Q-spaces, Morrey spaces and Triebel-Lizorkin spaces etc.

  4. SMOOTH MYOCYTES AND COLLAGENOUS FIBERS OF THE URINARY BLADDER OF RATS IN DIABETES MELLITUS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nadiya Tokaruk

    2015-12-01

    Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine   Key words: diabetes mellitus; smooth myocytes; collagenous fibers.   Introduction. Diabetes mellitus (DM causes diabetic cystopathy, which is associated with detrusor dysfunction and the content of collagenous fibers. The results of the performed studies are ambiguous and often contradictory, requiring objective data which could be obtained on the basis of the simultaneous determination of relative areas of smooth myocytes and collagenous fibers and their ultrastructural study. Objective: To determine the peculiarities of the structural and metric organization of smooth myocytes and collagenous fibers of the urinary bladder (UB of rats during different stages of DM. Materials and methods. DM was modeled by streptozotocin in Wistar rats. Relative areas of the studied structures were defined on digital images of histological sections of UB stained by Mason using the original automatic way. Smooth myocytes were studied ultrastructurally. Results. During the 14th-28th day of DM development the percent of collagenous fibers area decreases and the percentage of smooth myocytes area of UB wall increases. The expanding of intercellular spaces and the development of vacuolar degeneration of myocytes are observed. During the 42nd-56th days the percentage of collagenous fibers area increases and the percentage of the area of smooth myocytes decreases. Ultrastructurally subsiding of vacuolar dystrophy, short-term baloon dystrophy, the appearance of dark myocytes, moderate karyorrhexis were observed. During the 70th day of the experiment the percentage of collagenous fibers and smooth myocytes areas does not change significantly, most dark myocytes are involutive, there are local fibrosis and myocyte sequestration areas. Conclusions. Ultrastructural changes are characterized by a pronounced polymorphism and have a chronological relationship. Author’s worked out original method of determination of the

  5. Space shuttle configuration accounting functional design specification

    Science.gov (United States)

    1974-01-01

    An analysis is presented of the requirements for an on-line automated system which must be capable of tracking the status of requirements and engineering changes and of providing accurate and timely records. The functional design specification provides the definition, description, and character length of the required data elements and the interrelationship of data elements to adequately track, display, and report the status of active configuration changes. As changes to the space shuttle program levels II and III configuration are proposed, evaluated, and dispositioned, it is the function of the configuration management office to maintain records regarding changes to the baseline and to track and report the status of those changes. The configuration accounting system will consist of a combination of computers, computer terminals, software, and procedures, all of which are designed to store, retrieve, display, and process information required to track proposed and proved engineering changes to maintain baseline documentation of the space shuttle program levels II and III.

  6. Generalized Harmonic Functions and the Dewetting of Thin Films

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Auchmuty, Giles; Kloucek, Petr

    2007-01-01

    This paper describes the solvability of Dirichlet problems for Laplace's equation when the boundary data is not smooth enough for the existence of a weak solution in H 1 Ω. Scales of spaces of harmonic functions and of boundary traces are defined and the solutions are characterized as limits of classical harmonic functions in special norms. The generalized harmonic functions, and their norms, are defined using series expansions involving harmonic Steklov eigenfunctions on the domain. It is shown that the usual trace operator has a continuous extension to an isometric isomorphism of specific spaces. This provides a characterization of the generalized solutions of harmonic Dirichlet problems. Numerical simulations of a model problem are described. This problem is related to the dewetting of thin films and the associated phenomenology is described

  7. Smooth Optical Self-similar Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lipunov, Vladimir; Simakov, Sergey; Gorbovskoy, Evgeny; Vlasenko, Daniil, E-mail: lipunov2007@gmail.com [Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Universitetsky prospect, 13, 119992, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2017-08-10

    We offer a new type of calibration for gamma-ray bursts (GRB), in which some class of GRB can be marked and share a common behavior. We name this behavior Smooth Optical Self-similar Emission (SOS-similar Emission) and identify this subclasses of GRBs with optical light curves described by a universal scaling function.

  8. Mg(2+,ATP-dependent plasma membrane calcium pump of smooth muscle cells. ІІ. Regulation of activity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    T. О. Veklich

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Plasma membrane Ca2+-pump is one of key proteins, which takes part in Ca2+ exchange in smooth muscle cells. It has a lot of diverse functions from control of basal cytoplasmal Ca2+ concentration to regulation of proteins involved in Ca2+-dependent signal pathway. Ca2+ pump function is often depen­dent on the isoform or even form of alternative splicing. Allowing for a variety of Ca2+-pump functions and properties, which were reviewed in detail in the first part of our review article cycle (Ukr. Biochem. J., 2015; 87(1, the precise control of the mentioned pump activity is very important for cell functioning­. The other part of this article is dedicated to different regulation factors of smooth muscle plasma membrane Ca2+-pump activity: endogenous and exo­genous, biotic and abiotic factors. Special attention is given to literature data and own results about design and the search of selective plasma membrane Ca2+-pump inhibitor which would allow examining its functioning in smooth muscle cells more meticulously.

  9. Improving the resolution for Lamb wave testing via a smoothed Capon algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Xuwei; Zeng, Liang; Lin, Jing; Hua, Jiadong

    2018-04-01

    Lamb wave testing is promising for damage detection and evaluation in large-area structures. The dispersion of Lamb waves is often unavoidable, restricting testing resolution and making the signal hard to interpret. A smoothed Capon algorithm is proposed in this paper to estimate the accurate path length of each wave packet. In the algorithm, frequency domain whitening is firstly used to obtain the transfer function in the bandwidth of the excitation pulse. Subsequently, wavenumber domain smoothing is employed to reduce the correlation between wave packets. Finally, the path lengths are determined by distance domain searching based on the Capon algorithm. Simulations are applied to optimize the number of smoothing times. Experiments are performed on an aluminum plate consisting of two simulated defects. The results demonstrate that spatial resolution is improved significantly by the proposed algorithm.

  10. Analysis of Discrete L2 Projection on Polynomial Spaces with Random Evaluations

    KAUST Repository

    Migliorati, Giovanni; Nobile, Fabio; von Schwerin, Erik; Tempone, Raul

    2014-01-01

    We analyze the problem of approximating a multivariate function by discrete least-squares projection on a polynomial space starting from random, noise-free observations. An area of possible application of such technique is uncertainty quantification for computational models. We prove an optimal convergence estimate, up to a logarithmic factor, in the univariate case, when the observation points are sampled in a bounded domain from a probability density function bounded away from zero and bounded from above, provided the number of samples scales quadratically with the dimension of the polynomial space. Optimality is meant in the sense that the weighted L2 norm of the error committed by the random discrete projection is bounded with high probability from above by the best L∞ error achievable in the given polynomial space, up to logarithmic factors. Several numerical tests are presented in both the univariate and multivariate cases, confirming our theoretical estimates. The numerical tests also clarify how the convergence rate depends on the number of sampling points, on the polynomial degree, and on the smoothness of the target function. © 2014 SFoCM.

  11. Analysis of Discrete L2 Projection on Polynomial Spaces with Random Evaluations

    KAUST Repository

    Migliorati, Giovanni

    2014-03-05

    We analyze the problem of approximating a multivariate function by discrete least-squares projection on a polynomial space starting from random, noise-free observations. An area of possible application of such technique is uncertainty quantification for computational models. We prove an optimal convergence estimate, up to a logarithmic factor, in the univariate case, when the observation points are sampled in a bounded domain from a probability density function bounded away from zero and bounded from above, provided the number of samples scales quadratically with the dimension of the polynomial space. Optimality is meant in the sense that the weighted L2 norm of the error committed by the random discrete projection is bounded with high probability from above by the best L∞ error achievable in the given polynomial space, up to logarithmic factors. Several numerical tests are presented in both the univariate and multivariate cases, confirming our theoretical estimates. The numerical tests also clarify how the convergence rate depends on the number of sampling points, on the polynomial degree, and on the smoothness of the target function. © 2014 SFoCM.

  12. Smooth surfaces from rational bilinear patches

    KAUST Repository

    Shi, Ling

    2014-01-01

    Smooth freeform skins from simple panels constitute a challenging topic arising in contemporary architecture. We contribute to this problem area by showing how to approximate a negatively curved surface by smoothly joined rational bilinear patches. The approximation problem is solved with help of a new computational approach to the hyperbolic nets of Huhnen-Venedey and Rörig and optimization algorithms based on it. We also discuss its limits which lie in the topology of the input surface. Finally, freeform deformations based on Darboux transformations are used to generate smooth surfaces from smoothly joined Darboux cyclide patches; in this way we eliminate the restriction to surfaces with negative Gaussian curvature. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

  13. The Complex Role of Store Operated Calcium Entry Pathways and Related Proteins in the Function of Cardiac, Skeletal and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Javier Avila-Medina

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Cardiac, skeletal, and smooth muscle cells shared the common feature of contraction in response to different stimuli. Agonist-induced muscle's contraction is triggered by a cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration increase due to a rapid Ca2+ release from intracellular stores and a transmembrane Ca2+ influx, mainly through L-type Ca2+ channels. Compelling evidences have demonstrated that Ca2+ might also enter through other cationic channels such as Store-Operated Ca2+ Channels (SOCCs, involved in several physiological functions and pathological conditions. The opening of SOCCs is regulated by the filling state of the intracellular Ca2+ store, the sarcoplasmic reticulum, which communicates to the plasma membrane channels through the Stromal Interaction Molecule 1/2 (STIM1/2 protein. In muscle cells, SOCCs can be mainly non-selective cation channels formed by Orai1 and other members of the Transient Receptor Potential-Canonical (TRPC channels family, as well as highly selective Ca2+ Release-Activated Ca2+ (CRAC channels, formed exclusively by subunits of Orai proteins likely organized in macromolecular complexes. This review summarizes the current knowledge of the complex role of Store Operated Calcium Entry (SOCE pathways and related proteins in the function of cardiac, skeletal, and vascular smooth muscle cells.

  14. Phase-space path-integral calculation of the Wigner function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Samson, J H

    2003-01-01

    The Wigner function W(q, p) is formulated as a phase-space path integral, whereby its sign oscillations can be seen to follow from interference between the geometrical phases of the paths. The approach has similarities to the path-centroid method in the configuration-space path integral. Paths can be classified by the midpoint of their ends; short paths where the midpoint is close to (q, p) and which lie in regions of low energy (low P function of the Hamiltonian) will dominate, and the enclosed area will determine the sign of the Wigner function. As a demonstration, the method is applied to a sequence of density matrices interpolating between a Poissonian number distribution and a number state, each member of which can be represented exactly by a discretized path integral with a finite number of vertices. Saddle-point evaluation of these integrals recovers (up to a constant factor) the WKB approximation to the Wigner function of a number state

  15. Bifurcations of non-smooth systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angulo, Fabiola; Olivar, Gerard; Osorio, Gustavo A.; Escobar, Carlos M.; Ferreira, Jocirei D.; Redondo, Johan M.

    2012-12-01

    Non-smooth systems (namely piecewise-smooth systems) have received much attention in the last decade. Many contributions in this area show that theory and applications (to electronic circuits, mechanical systems, …) are relevant to problems in science and engineering. Specially, new bifurcations have been reported in the literature, and this was the topic of this minisymposium. Thus both bifurcation theory and its applications were included. Several contributions from different fields show that non-smooth bifurcations are a hot topic in research. Thus in this paper the reader can find contributions from electronics, energy markets and population dynamics. Also, a carefully-written specific algebraic software tool is presented.

  16. Functional spaces and operators connected with some L\\'evy noises

    OpenAIRE

    Lytvynov, E.

    2006-01-01

    We review some recent developments in white noise analysis and quantum probability. We pay a special attention to spaces of test and generalized functionals of some L\\'evy white noises, as well as as to the structure of quantum white noise on these spaces.

  17. The Navier-Stokes equations an elementary functional analytic approach

    CERN Document Server

    Sohr, Hermann

    2001-01-01

    The primary objective of this monograph is to develop an elementary and self­ contained approach to the mathematical theory of a viscous incompressible fluid in a domain 0 of the Euclidean space ]Rn, described by the equations of Navier­ Stokes. The book is mainly directed to students familiar with basic functional analytic tools in Hilbert and Banach spaces. However, for readers' convenience, in the first two chapters we collect without proof some fundamental properties of Sobolev spaces, distributions, operators, etc. Another important objective is to formulate the theory for a completely general domain O. In particular, the theory applies to arbitrary unbounded, non-smooth domains. For this reason, in the nonlinear case, we have to restrict ourselves to space dimensions n = 2,3 that are also most significant from the physical point of view. For mathematical generality, we will develop the lin­ earized theory for all n 2 2. Although the functional-analytic approach developed here is, in principle, known ...

  18. Semiclassical scar functions in phase space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rivas, Alejandro M F

    2007-01-01

    We develop a semiclassical approximation for the scar function in the Weyl-Wigner representation in the neighborhood of a classically unstable periodic orbit of chaotic two-dimensional systems. The prediction of hyperbolic fringes, asymptotic to the stable and unstable manifolds, is verified computationally for a (linear) cat map, after the theory is adapted to a discrete phase space appropriate to a quantized torus. Characteristic fringe patterns can be distinguished even for quasi-energies where the fixed point is not Bohr-quantized. Also the patterns are highly localized in the neighborhood of the periodic orbit and along its stable and unstable manifolds without any long distance patterns that appear for the case of the spectral Wigner function

  19. A note of spaces of test and generalized functions of Poisson white noise

    OpenAIRE

    Lytvynov, E.

    2006-01-01

    The paper is devoted to construction and investigation of some riggings of the $L^2$-space of Poisson white noise. A particular attention is paid to the existence of a continuous version of a function from a test space, and to the property of an algebraic structure under pointwise multiplication of functions from a test space.

  20. THE EFFECTS OF SPATIAL SMOOTHING ON SOLAR MAGNETIC HELICITY PARAMETERS AND THE HEMISPHERIC HELICITY SIGN RULE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ocker, Stella Koch [Department of Physics, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 44074 (United States); Petrie, Gordon, E-mail: socker@oberlin.edu, E-mail: gpetrie@nso.edu [National Solar Observatory, Boulder, CO 80303 (United States)

    2016-12-01

    The hemispheric preference for negative/positive helicity to occur in the northern/southern solar hemisphere provides clues to the causes of twisted, flaring magnetic fields. Previous studies on the hemisphere rule may have been affected by seeing from atmospheric turbulence. Using Hinode /SOT-SP data spanning 2006–2013, we studied the effects of two spatial smoothing tests that imitate atmospheric seeing: noise reduction by ignoring pixel values weaker than the estimated noise threshold, and Gaussian spatial smoothing. We studied in detail the effects of atmospheric seeing on the helicity distributions across various field strengths for active regions (ARs) NOAA 11158 and NOAA 11243, in addition to studying the average helicities of 179 ARs with and without smoothing. We found that, rather than changing trends in the helicity distributions, spatial smoothing modified existing trends by reducing random noise and by regressing outliers toward the mean, or removing them altogether. Furthermore, the average helicity parameter values of the 179 ARs did not conform to the hemisphere rule: independent of smoothing, the weak-vertical-field values tended to be negative in both hemispheres, and the strong-vertical-field values tended to be positive, especially in the south. We conclude that spatial smoothing does not significantly affect the overall statistics for space-based data, and thus seeing from atmospheric turbulence seems not to have significantly affected previous studies’ ground-based results on the hemisphere rule.

  1. Velocity-space tomography of the fast-ion distribution function

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jacobsen, Asger Schou; Salewski, Mirko; Geiger, Benedikt

    2013-01-01

    probes certain regions in velocity-space, determined by the geometry of the set-up. Exploiting this, the fast-ion distribution function can be inferred using a velocity-space tomography method. This poster contains a tomography calculated from measured spectra from three different FIDA views at ASDEX......Fast ions play an important role in heating the plasma in a magnetic confinement fusion device. Fast-ion Dα(FIDA) spectroscopy diagnoses fast ions in small measurement volumes. Spectra measured by a FIDA diagnostic can be related to the 2D fast-ion velocity distribution function. A single FIDA view...... Upgrade. The quality of the tomography improves with the number of FIDA views simultaneously measuring the same volume. To investigate the potential benefits of including additional views (up to 18), tomographies are inferred from synthetic spectra calculated from a simulated distribution function...

  2. A SAS IML Macro for Loglinear Smoothing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moses, Tim; von Davier, Alina

    2011-01-01

    Polynomial loglinear models for one-, two-, and higher-way contingency tables have important applications to measurement and assessment. They are essentially regarded as a smoothing technique, which is commonly referred to as loglinear smoothing. A SAS IML (SAS Institute, 2002a) macro was created to implement loglinear smoothing according to…

  3. A Pragmatic Smoothing Method for Improving the Quality of the Results in Atomic Spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennun, Leonardo

    2017-07-01

    A new smoothing method for the improvement on the identification and quantification of spectral functions based on the previous knowledge of the signals that are expected to be quantified, is presented. These signals are used as weighted coefficients in the smoothing algorithm. This smoothing method was conceived to be applied in atomic and nuclear spectroscopies preferably to these techniques where net counts are proportional to acquisition time, such as particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and other X-ray fluorescence spectroscopic methods, etc. This algorithm, when properly applied, does not distort the form nor the intensity of the signal, so it is well suited for all kind of spectroscopic techniques. This method is extremely effective at reducing high-frequency noise in the signal much more efficient than a single rectangular smooth of the same width. As all of smoothing techniques, the proposed method improves the precision of the results, but in this case we found also a systematic improvement on the accuracy of the results. We still have to evaluate the improvement on the quality of the results when this method is applied over real experimental results. We expect better characterization of the net area quantification of the peaks, and smaller Detection and Quantification Limits. We have applied this method to signals that obey Poisson statistics, but with the same ideas and criteria, it could be applied to time series. In a general case, when this algorithm is applied over experimental results, also it would be required that the sought characteristic functions, required for this weighted smoothing method, should be obtained from a system with strong stability. If the sought signals are not perfectly clean, this method should be carefully applied

  4. WIENER-HOPF SOLVER WITH SMOOTH PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTIONS OF ITS COMPONENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mr. Vladimir A. Smagin

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The Wiener – Hopf solver with smooth probability distributions of its component is presented. The method is based on hyper delta approximations of initial distributions. The use of Fourier series transformation and characteristic function allows working with the random variable method concentrated in transversal axis of absc.

  5. Income and Consumption Smoothing among US States

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, Bent; Yosha, Oved

    within regions but not between regions. This suggests that capital markets transcend regional barriers while credit markets are regional in their nature. Smoothing within the club of rich states is accomplished mainly via capital markets whereas consumption smoothing is dominant within the club of poor...... states. The fraction of a shock to gross state products smoothed by the federal tax-transfer system is the same for various regions and other clubs of states. We calculate the scope for consumption smoothing within various regions and clubs, finding that most gains from risk sharing can be achieved...

  6. Second-Order Perturbation Theory for Generalized Active Space Self-Consistent-Field Wave Functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Dongxia; Li Manni, Giovanni; Olsen, Jeppe; Gagliardi, Laura

    2016-07-12

    A multireference second-order perturbation theory approach based on the generalized active space self-consistent-field (GASSCF) wave function is presented. Compared with the complete active space (CAS) and restricted active space (RAS) wave functions, GAS wave functions are more flexible and can employ larger active spaces and/or different truncations of the configuration interaction expansion. With GASSCF, one can explore chemical systems that are not affordable with either CASSCF or RASSCF. Perturbation theory to second order on top of GAS wave functions (GASPT2) has been implemented to recover the remaining electron correlation. The method has been benchmarked by computing the chromium dimer ground-state potential energy curve. These calculations show that GASPT2 gives results similar to CASPT2 even with a configuration interaction expansion much smaller than the corresponding CAS expansion.

  7. Verification of micro-scale photogrammetry for smooth three-dimensional object measurement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sims-Waterhouse, Danny; Piano, Samanta; Leach, Richard

    2017-05-01

    By using sub-millimetre laser speckle pattern projection we show that photogrammetry systems are able to measure smooth three-dimensional objects with surface height deviations less than 1 μm. The projection of laser speckle patterns allows correspondences on the surface of smooth spheres to be found, and as a result, verification artefacts with low surface height deviations were measured. A combination of VDI/VDE and ISO standards were also utilised to provide a complete verification method, and determine the quality parameters for the system under test. Using the proposed method applied to a photogrammetry system, a 5 mm radius sphere was measured with an expanded uncertainty of 8.5 μm for sizing errors, and 16.6 μm for form errors with a 95 % confidence interval. Sphere spacing lengths between 6 mm and 10 mm were also measured by the photogrammetry system, and were found to have expanded uncertainties of around 20 μm with a 95 % confidence interval.

  8. Sparse and smooth canonical correlation analysis through rank-1 matrix approximation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aïssa-El-Bey, Abdeldjalil; Seghouane, Abd-Krim

    2017-12-01

    Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is a well-known technique used to characterize the relationship between two sets of multidimensional variables by finding linear combinations of variables with maximal correlation. Sparse CCA and smooth or regularized CCA are two widely used variants of CCA because of the improved interpretability of the former and the better performance of the later. So far, the cross-matrix product of the two sets of multidimensional variables has been widely used for the derivation of these variants. In this paper, two new algorithms for sparse CCA and smooth CCA are proposed. These algorithms differ from the existing ones in their derivation which is based on penalized rank-1 matrix approximation and the orthogonal projectors onto the space spanned by the two sets of multidimensional variables instead of the simple cross-matrix product. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed algorithms are tested on simulated experiments. On these results, it can be observed that they outperform the state of the art sparse CCA algorithms.

  9. A functional study on small intestinal smooth muscles in jejunal atresia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Preeti Tyagi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Aim: The present study was aimed to assess the contractile status of neonatal small intestinal smooth muscle of dilated pre-atretic part of intestinal atresia to resolve debatable issues related to mechanisms of persistent dysmotility after surgical repair. Materials and Methods: A total of 34 longitudinally sectioned strips were prepared from pre-atretic dilated part of freshly excised 8 jejunal atresia type III a cases. Spontaneous as well as acetylcholine- and histamine-induced contractions were recorded in vitro by using organ bath preparations. Chemically evoked contractions were further evaluated after application of atropine (muscarinic blocker, pheniramine (H1 blocker, and lignocaine (neuronal blocker to ascertain receptors and neuronal involvement. Histological examinations of strips were made by using Masson trichrome stain to assess the fibrotic changes. Results: All 34 strips, except four showed spontaneous contractions with mean frequency and amplitude of 5.49 ± 0.26/min and 24.41 ± 5.26 g/g wet tissue respectively. The response to ACh was nearly twice as compared to histamine for equimolar concentrations (100 μM. ACh (100 μM induced contractions were attenuated (by 60% by atropine. Histamine (100 μM-induced contractions was blocked by pheniramine (0.32 μM and lignocaine (4 μM by 74% and 78%, respectively. Histopathological examination showed varying degree of fibrotic changes in muscle layers. Conclusions: Pre-atretic dilated part of jejunal atresia retains functional activity but with definitive histopathologic abnormalities. It is suggested that excision of a length of pre-atretic part and early stimulation of peristalsis by locally acting cholinomimetic or H1 agonist may help in reducing postoperative motility problems in atresia patients.

  10. A functional study on small intestinal smooth muscles in jejunal atresia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tyagi, Preeti; Mandal, Maloy B; Gangopadhyay, Ajay N; Patne, Shashikant C U

    2016-01-01

    The present study was aimed to assess the contractile status of neonatal small intestinal smooth muscle of dilated pre-atretic part of intestinal atresia to resolve debatable issues related to mechanisms of persistent dysmotility after surgical repair. A total of 34 longitudinally sectioned strips were prepared from pre-atretic dilated part of freshly excised 8 jejunal atresia type III a cases. Spontaneous as well as acetylcholine- and histamine-induced contractions were recorded in vitro by using organ bath preparations. Chemically evoked contractions were further evaluated after application of atropine (muscarinic blocker), pheniramine (H1 blocker), and lignocaine (neuronal blocker) to ascertain receptors and neuronal involvement. Histological examinations of strips were made by using Masson trichrome stain to assess the fibrotic changes. All 34 strips, except four showed spontaneous contractions with mean frequency and amplitude of 5.49 ± 0.26/min and 24.41 ± 5.26 g/g wet tissue respectively. The response to ACh was nearly twice as compared to histamine for equimolar concentrations (100 μM). ACh (100 μM) induced contractions were attenuated (by 60%) by atropine. Histamine (100 μM)-induced contractions was blocked by pheniramine (0.32 μM) and lignocaine (4 μM) by 74% and 78%, respectively. Histopathological examination showed varying degree of fibrotic changes in muscle layers. Pre-atretic dilated part of jejunal atresia retains functional activity but with definitive histopathologic abnormalities. It is suggested that excision of a length of pre-atretic part and early stimulation of peristalsis by locally acting cholinomimetic or H1 agonist may help in reducing postoperative motility problems in atresia patients.

  11. Smooth transition for CPG-based body shape control of a snake-like robot

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nor, Norzalilah Mohamad; Ma, Shugen

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a locomotion control based on central pattern generator (CPG) of a snake-like robot. The main point addressed in this paper is a method that produces a smooth transition of the body shape of a snake-like robot. Body shape transition is important for snake-like robot locomotion to adapt to different space widths and also for obstacle avoidance. By manipulating the phase difference of the CPG outputs instantly, it will results in a sharp point or discontinuity which lead to an unstable movement of the snake-like robot. To tackle the problem, we propose a way of controlling the body shape: by incorporating activation function in the phase oscillator CPG model. The simplicity of the method promises an easy implementation and simple control. Simulation results and torque analysis confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control method and thus, can be used as a locomotion control in various potential applications of a snake-like robot. (paper)

  12. Infinite Grassmannian and moduli space of G-bundles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumar, S.; Ramanathan, A.

    1993-03-01

    Let C be a smooth irreducible projective curve and G a simply connected simple affine algebraic group of C. We study in this paper the relationship between the space of vacua defined in Conformal Field Theory and the space of sections of a line bundle on the moduli space of G-bundles over C. (author). 33 refs

  13. Riccion from higher-dimensional space-time with D-dimensional ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    suggest that space-time above 3 05¢1016 GeV should be fractal. .... Here VD is the volume of SD, g´4·Dµ is the determinant of the metric tensor gMN (M ...... means that above 3.05x1016 GeV, SD is not a smooth surface whereas M4 is smooth.

  14. Green's functions in Bianchi type-I spaces. Relation between Minkowski and Euclidean approaches

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bukhbinder, I.L.; Kirillova, E.N.

    1988-01-01

    A theory is considered for a free scalar field with a conformal connection in a curved space-time with a Bianchi type-I metric. A representation is obtained for the Green's function G∼ in in in the form of an integral of a Schwinger-DeWitt kernel along a contour in a plane of complex-valued proper time. It is shown how as transition may be accomplished from Green's functions in space with the Euclidean signature to Green's functions in space with Minkowski signature and vice versa

  15. Wavefronts, light rays and caustic of a circular wave reflected by an arbitrary smooth curve

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marciano-Melchor, Magdalena; Silva-Ortigoza, Ramón; Montiel-Piña, Enrique; Román-Hernández, Edwin; Santiago-Santiago, José Guadalupe; Silva-Ortigoza, Gilberto; Rosado, Alfonso; Suárez-Xique, Román

    2011-01-01

    The aim of the present work is to obtain expressions for both the wavefront train and the caustic associated with the light rays reflected by an arbitrary smooth curve after being emitted by a point light source located at an arbitrary position in the two-dimensional free space. To this end, we obtain an expression for the k-function associated with the general integral of Stavroudis to the eikonal equation that describes the evolution of the reflected light rays. The caustic is computed by using the definitions of the critical and caustic sets of the two-dimensional map that describes the evolution of an arbitrary wavefront associated with the general integral. The general results are applied to circular and parabolic mirrors. The main motivation to carry out this research is to establish, in future work, the caustic touching theorem in a two-dimensional optical medium and to study the diffraction problem by using the k-function concept. Both problems are important in the computation of the image of an arbitrary object under reflection and refraction

  16. Smooth surfaces from rational bilinear patches

    KAUST Repository

    Shi, Ling; Wang, Jun; Pottmann, Helmut

    2014-01-01

    Smooth freeform skins from simple panels constitute a challenging topic arising in contemporary architecture. We contribute to this problem area by showing how to approximate a negatively curved surface by smoothly joined rational bilinear patches

  17. Wigner Functions for the Bateman System on Noncommutative Phase Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heng, Tai-Hua; Lin, Bing-Sheng; Jing, Si-Cong

    2010-09-01

    We study an important dissipation system, i.e. the Bateman model on noncommutative phase space. Using the method of deformation quantization, we calculate the Exp functions, and then derive the Wigner functions and the corresponding energy spectra.

  18. Wigner Functions for the Bateman System on Noncommutative Phase Space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tai-Hua, Heng; Bing-Sheng, Lin; Si-Cong, Jing

    2010-01-01

    We study an important dissipation system, i.e. the Bateman model on noncommutative phase space. Using the method of deformation quantization, we calculate the Exp functions, and then derive the Wigner functions and the corresponding energy spectra

  19. Heterogeneity of smooth muscle cells in tunica media of aorta in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... of the tunica media of goat aorta are phenotypically heterogeneous and run in multiple directions. These characteristics probably confer mechanical strength and functional plasticity to the aortic wall. Designers of aortic substitutes should bear this in mind. Keywords: Vascular, Smooth Muscle Cells, Heterogeneity, Aorta ...

  20. Toward a standardized structural-functional group connectome in MNI space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horn, Andreas; Blankenburg, Felix

    2016-01-01

    The analysis of the structural architecture of the human brain in terms of connectivity between its subregions has provided profound insights into its underlying functional organization and has coined the concept of the "connectome", a structural description of the elements forming the human brain and the connections among them. Here, as a proof of concept, we introduce a novel group connectome in standard space based on a large sample of 169 subjects from the Enhanced Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample (eNKI-RS). Whole brain structural connectomes of each subject were estimated with a global tracking approach, and the resulting fiber tracts were warped into standard stereotactic (MNI) space using DARTEL. Employing this group connectome, the results of published tracking studies (i.e., the JHU white matter and Oxford thalamic connectivity atlas) could be largely reproduced directly within MNI space. In a second analysis, a study that examined structural connectivity between regions of a functional network, namely the default mode network, was reproduced. Voxel-wise structural centrality was then calculated and compared to others' findings. Furthermore, including additional resting-state fMRI data from the same subjects, structural and functional connectivity matrices between approximately forty thousand nodes of the brain were calculated. This was done to estimate structure-function agreement indices of voxel-wise whole brain connectivity. Taken together, the combination of a novel whole brain fiber tracking approach and an advanced normalization method led to a group connectome that allowed (at least heuristically) performing fiber tracking directly within MNI space. Such an approach may be used for various purposes like the analysis of structural connectivity and modeling experiments that aim at studying the structure-function relationship of the human connectome. Moreover, it may even represent a first step toward a standard DTI template of the human brain

  1. Functional Requirements for Onboard Management of Space Shuttle Consumables. Volume 2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graf, P. J.; Herwig, H. A.; Neel, L. W.

    1973-01-01

    This report documents the results of the study "Functional Requirements for Onboard Management of Space Shuttle Consumables." The study was conducted for the Mission Planning and Analysis Division of the NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, between 3 July 1972 and 16 November 1973. The overall study program objective was two-fold. The first objective was to define a generalized consumable management concept which is applicable to advanced spacecraft. The second objective was to develop a specific consumables management concept for the Space Shuttle vehicle and to generate the functional requirements for the onboard portion of that concept. Consumables management is the process of controlling or influencing the usage of expendable materials involved in vehicle subsystem operation. The report consists of two volumes. Volume I presents a description of the study activities related to general approaches for developing consumable management, concepts for advanced spacecraft applications, and functional requirements for a Shuttle consumables management concept. Volume II presents a detailed description of the onboard consumables management concept proposed for use on the Space Shuttle.

  2. Efficient Bayesian hierarchical functional data analysis with basis function approximations using Gaussian-Wishart processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Jingjing; Cox, Dennis D; Lee, Jong Soo; Ren, Peng; Choi, Taeryon

    2017-12-01

    Functional data are defined as realizations of random functions (mostly smooth functions) varying over a continuum, which are usually collected on discretized grids with measurement errors. In order to accurately smooth noisy functional observations and deal with the issue of high-dimensional observation grids, we propose a novel Bayesian method based on the Bayesian hierarchical model with a Gaussian-Wishart process prior and basis function representations. We first derive an induced model for the basis-function coefficients of the functional data, and then use this model to conduct posterior inference through Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. Compared to the standard Bayesian inference that suffers serious computational burden and instability in analyzing high-dimensional functional data, our method greatly improves the computational scalability and stability, while inheriting the advantage of simultaneously smoothing raw observations and estimating the mean-covariance functions in a nonparametric way. In addition, our method can naturally handle functional data observed on random or uncommon grids. Simulation and real studies demonstrate that our method produces similar results to those obtainable by the standard Bayesian inference with low-dimensional common grids, while efficiently smoothing and estimating functional data with random and high-dimensional observation grids when the standard Bayesian inference fails. In conclusion, our method can efficiently smooth and estimate high-dimensional functional data, providing one way to resolve the curse of dimensionality for Bayesian functional data analysis with Gaussian-Wishart processes. © 2017, The International Biometric Society.

  3. Methods of solving of the optimal stabilization problem for stationary smooth control systems. Part I

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G. Kondrat'ev

    1999-10-01

    Full Text Available In this article some ideas of Hamilton mechanics and differential-algebraic Geometry are used to exact definition of the potential function (Bellman-Lyapunov function in the optimal stabilization problem of smooth finite-dimensional systems.

  4. A Generalized Analytic Operator-Valued Function Space Integral and a Related Integral Equation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chang, K.S.; Kim, B.S.; Park, C.H.; Ryu, K.S.

    2003-01-01

    We introduce a generalized Wiener measure associated with a Gaussian Markov process and define a generalized analytic operator-valued function space integral as a bounded linear operator from L p into L p-ci r cumflexprime (1< p ≤ 2) by the analytic continuation of the generalized Wiener integral. We prove the existence of the integral for certain functionals which involve some Borel measures. Also we show that the generalized analytic operator-valued function space integral satisfies an integral equation related to the generalized Schroedinger equation. The resulting theorems extend the theory of operator-valued function space integrals substantially and previous theorems about these integrals are generalized by our results

  5. Conflict between object structural and functional affordances in peripersonal space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalénine, Solène; Wamain, Yannick; Decroix, Jérémy; Coello, Yann

    2016-10-01

    Recent studies indicate that competition between conflicting action representations slows down planning of object-directed actions. The present study aims to assess whether similar conflict effects exist during manipulable object perception. Twenty-six young adults performed reach-to-grasp and semantic judgements on conflictual objects (with competing structural and functional gestures) and non-conflictual objects (with similar structural and functional gestures) presented at difference distances in a 3D virtual environment. Results highlight a space-dependent conflict between structural and functional affordances. Perceptual judgments on conflictual objects were slower that perceptual judgments on non-conflictual objects, but only when objects were presented within reach. Findings demonstrate that competition between structural and functional affordances during object perception induces a processing cost, and further show that object position in space can bias affordance competition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Rho Kinase (ROCK) collaborates with Pak to Regulate Actin Polymerization and Contraction in Airway Smooth Muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Wenwu; Bhetwal, Bhupal P; Gunst, Susan J

    2018-05-10

    The mechanisms by which Rho kinase (ROCK) regulates airway smooth muscle contraction were determined in tracheal smooth muscle tissues. ROCK may mediate smooth muscle contraction by inhibiting myosin regulatory light chain (RLC) phosphatase. ROCK can also regulate F-actin dynamics during cell migration, and actin polymerization is critical for airway smooth muscle contraction. Our results show that ROCK does not regulate airway smooth muscle contraction by inhibiting myosin RLC phosphatase or by stimulating myosin RLC phosphorylation. We find that ROCK regulates airway smooth muscle contraction by activating the serine-threonine kinase Pak, which mediates the activation of Cdc42 and Neuronal-Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome protein (N-WASp). N-WASP transmits signals from cdc42 to the Arp2/3 complex for the nucleation of actin filaments. These results demonstrate a novel molecular function for ROCK in the regulation of Pak and cdc42 activation that is critical for the processes of actin polymerization and contractility in airway smooth muscle. Rho kinase (ROCK), a RhoA GTPase effector, can regulate the contraction of airway and other smooth muscle tissues. In some tissues, ROCK can inhibit myosin regulatory light chain (RLC) phosphatase, which increases the phosphorylation of myosin RLC and promotes smooth muscle contraction. ROCK can also regulate cell motility and migration by affecting F-actin dynamics. Actin polymerization is stimulated by contractile agonists in airway smooth muscle tissues and is required for contractile tension development in addition to myosin RLC phosphorylation. We investigated the mechanisms by which ROCK regulates the contractility of tracheal smooth muscle tissues by expressing a kinase inactive mutant of ROCK, ROCK-K121G, in the tissues or by treating them with the ROCK inhibitor, H-1152P. Our results show no role for ROCK in the regulation of non-muscle or smooth muscle myosin RLC phosphorylation during contractile stimulation in this tissue

  7. Pseudo-Random Sequences Generated by a Class of One-Dimensional Smooth Map

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xing-Yuan; Qin, Xue; Xie, Yi-Xin

    2011-08-01

    We extend a class of a one-dimensional smooth map. We make sure that for each desired interval of the parameter the map's Lyapunov exponent is positive. Then we propose a novel parameter perturbation method based on the good property of the extended one-dimensional smooth map. We perturb the parameter r in each iteration by the real number xi generated by the iteration. The auto-correlation function and NIST statistical test suite are taken to illustrate the method's randomness finally. We provide an application of this method in image encryption. Experiments show that the pseudo-random sequences are suitable for this application.

  8. TAX SMOOTHING: TESTS ON INDONESIAN DATA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rudi Kurniawan

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper contributes to the literature of public debt management by testing for tax smoothing behaviour in Indonesia. Tax smoothing means that the government smooths the tax rate across all future time periods to minimize the distortionary costs of taxation over time for a given path of government spending. In a stochastic economy with an incomplete bond market, tax smoothing implies that the tax rate approximates a random walk and changes in the tax rate are nearly unpredictable. For that purpose, two tests were performed. First, random walk behaviour of the tax rate was examined by undertaking unit root tests. The null hypothesis of unit root cannot be rejected, indicating that the tax rate is nonstationary and, hence, it follows a random walk. Second, the predictability of the tax rate was examined by regressing changes in the tax rate on its own lagged values and also on lagged values of changes in the goverment expenditure ratio, and growth of real output. They are found to be not significant in predicting changes in the tax rate. Taken together, the present evidence seems to be consistent with the tax smoothing, therefore provides support to this theory.

  9. The Ascoli property for function spaces and the weak topology of Banach and Fréchet spaces

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Gabriyelyan, S.; Kąkol, Jerzy; Plebanek, G.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 233, č. 2 (2016), s. 119-139 ISSN 0039-3223 R&D Projects: GA ČR GF16-34860L Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : locally convex-space Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.535, year: 2016 https://www.impan.pl/pl/wydawnictwa/czasopisma-i-serie-wydawnicze/studia-mathematica/all/233/2/91577/the-ascoli-property-for-function-spaces- and -the-weak-topology-of-banach- and -frechet-spaces

  10. Offset, tilted dipole models of Uranian smooth high-frequency radio emission

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schweitzer, A.E.; Romig, J.H.; Evans, D.R.; Sawyer, C.B.; Warwick, J.W.

    1990-01-01

    During the Voyager 2 encounter with Uranus in January 1986, the Planetary Radio Astronomy (PRA) experiment detected a complex pattern of radio emissions. Two types of emissions were seen: smooth and bursty. The smooth emission has been divided into smooth high-frequency (SHF) and smooth low-frequency (SLF) components which are presumed to come from different sources because of their distinctly different characteristics. The SHF component is considered in this paper. The SHF emission has been modeled by many authors on OTD (offset, tilted dipole (Ness et al., 1986)) L shells ranging from 5 to 40. However, the bursts have been modeled at much higher L shells. The authors complete an OTD investigation of the SHF emission at high L shells within the range of the bursty source locations, and present a viable high L shell model. This model has fundamentally the same longitudinally symmetric net emission pattern in space as the L shell 5 model presented in Romig et al. (1987) and Barbosa (1988). However, they were unable to produce an acceptable model on intermediate L shells without restricting source longitude. They discuss the similarities and distinctions between their two models and the models of other authors. They believe that the high L shell model (and others similar to it) cannot account for the observed smoothness and periodicity of the SHF emissions because it has open field lines containing untrapped particles, which should produce more variable emission than that seen in the SHF data. Therefore, the authors prefer models at L shells less than 18, the boundary for closed field lines (Ness et al., 1986). They then discuss and contrast two models within this boundary: the L = 5 model and an L ∼ 12 model by Kaiser et al. (1987) and Farrell and Calvert (1989b). The main distinction between these two models is the longitudinal extent of the source location

  11. On paranormed Zweier ideal convergent sequence spaces defined By Orlicz function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bipan Hazarika

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available In this article we introduce paranorm ideal convergent sequence spaces using Zweier transform and Orlicz function. We study some topological and algebraic properties. Further we prove some inclusion relations related to these new spaces.

  12. Exploring the Functioning of Decision Space: A Review of the Available Health Systems Literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tamlyn Eslie Roman

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Background The concept of decision space holds appeal as an approach to disaggregating the elements that may influence decision-making in decentralized systems. This narrative review aims to explore the functioning of decision space and the factors that influence decision space. Methods A narrative review of the literature was conducted with searches of online databases and academic journals including PubMed Central, Emerald, Wiley, Science Direct, JSTOR, and Sage. The articles were included in the review based on the criteria that they provided insight into the functioning of decision space either through the explicit application of or reference to decision space, or implicitly through discussion of decision-making related to organizational capacity or accountability mechanisms. Results The articles included in the review encompass literature related to decentralisation, management and decision space. The majority of the studies utilise qualitative methodologies to assess accountability mechanisms, organisational capacities such as finance, human resources and management, and the extent of decision space. Of the 138 articles retrieved, 76 articles were included in the final review. Conclusion The literature supports Bossert’s conceptualization of decision space as being related to organizational capacities and accountability mechanisms. These functions influence the decision space available within decentralized systems. The exact relationship between decision space and financial and human resource capacities needs to be explored in greater detail to determine the potential influence on system functioning.

  13. Effects of slope smoothing in river channel modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Kyungmin; Liu, Frank; Hodges, Ben R.

    2017-04-01

    In extending dynamic river modeling with the 1D Saint-Venant equations from a single reach to a large watershed there are critical questions as to how much bathymetric knowledge is necessary and how it should be represented parsimoniously. The ideal model will include the detail necessary to provide realism, but not include extraneous detail that should not exert a control on a 1D (cross-section averaged) solution. In a Saint-Venant model, the overall complexity of the river channel morphometry is typically abstracted into metrics for the channel slope, cross-sectional area, hydraulic radius, and roughness. In stream segments where cross-section surveys are closely spaced, it is not uncommon to have sharp changes in slope or even negative values (where a positive slope is the downstream direction). However, solving river flow with the Saint-Venant equations requires a degree of smoothness in the equation parameters or the equation set with the directly measured channel slopes may not be Lipschitz continuous. The results of non-smoothness are typically extended computational time to converge solutions (or complete failure to converge) and/or numerical instabilities under transient conditions. We have investigated using cubic splines to smooth the bottom slope and ensure always positive reference slopes within a 1D model. This method has been implemented in the Simulation Program for River Networks (SPRNT) and is compared to the standard HEC-RAS river solver. It is shown that the reformulation of the reference slope is both in keeping with the underlying derivation of the Saint-Venant equations and provides practical numerical stability without altering the realism of the simulation. This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant number CCF-1331610.

  14. A local-to-global singularity theorem for quantum field theory on curved space-time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radzikowski, M.J.; York Univ.

    1996-01-01

    We prove that if a reference two-point distribution of positive type on a time orientable curved space-time (CST) satisfies a certain condition on its wave front set (the ''class P M,g condition'') and if any other two-point distribution (i) is of positive type, (ii) has the same antisymmetric part as the reference modulo smooth function and (iii) has the same local singularity structure, then it has the same global singularity structure. In the proof we use a smoothing, positivity-preserving pseudo-differential operator the support of whose symbol is restricted to a certain conic region which depends on the wave front set of the reference state. This local-to-global theorem, together with results published elsewhere, leads to a verification of a conjecture by Kay that for quasi-free states of the Klein-Gordon quantum field on a globally hyperbolic CST, the local Hadamard condition implies the global Hadamard condition. A counterexample to the local-to-global theorem on a strip in Minkowski space is given when the class P M,g condition is not assumed. (orig.)

  15. Fuzzy weakly preopen (preclosed) function in Kubiak-Sostak fuzzy topological spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zahran, A.M.; Abd-Allah, M. Azab.; Abd El-Rahman, Abd El-Nasser G.

    2009-01-01

    In this paper, we introduce and characterize fuzzy weakly preopen and fuzzy weakly preclosed functions between L-fuzzy topological spaces in Kubiak-Sostak sense and also study these functions in relation to some other types of already known functions.

  16. Smooth Pursuit Saccade Amplitude Modulation During Exposure to Microgravity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reschke, M. F.; Kozlovskaya, I. B.; Sayenko, D. G.; Sayenko, I.; Somers, J. T.; Paloski, W. H.

    2002-01-01

    Russian investigators have reported changes in pursuit tracking of a vertically moving point stimulus during space flight. Early in microgravity, changes were manifested by decreased eye movement amplitude (undershooting) and the appearance of correction saccades. As the flight progressed, pursuit of the moving point stimulus deteriorated while associated saccadic movements were unchanged. Immediately postflight there was an improved execution of active head movements indicating that the deficiencies in pursuit function noted in microgravity may be of central origin. In contrast, tests of two cosmonauts showed that horizontal and vertical smooth pursuit were unchanged inflight. However, results of corresponding saccadic tasks showed a tendency toward the overshooting of a horizontal target early inflight with high accuracy developing later inflight, accompanied by an increased saccade velocity and a trend toward decreased saccade latency. Based on these equivocal results, we have further investigated the effects of space flight on the smooth pursuit mechanism during and after short duration flight, and postflight on returning MIR crewmembers. Sinusoidal target movement was presented horizontally at frequencies of 0.33 and 1.0 Hz. Subjects were asked to perform two trials for each stimulus combination: (1) moving eyes-only (EO) and (2) moving eyes and head (EH) with the target motion. Peak amplitude was 30 deg for 0.33 Hz trials and 15 deg for the 1.0 Hz trials. The relationship between saccade amplitude and peak velocity were plotted as a main sequence for each phase of flight, and linear regression analysis allowed us to determine the slope of each main sequence plot. The linear slopes were then combined for each flight phase for each individual subject. The main sequence for both EO and EH trials at both the 0.33 and 1.0 Hz frequencies during flight for the short duration flyers showed a reduction in saccade velocity and amplitude when compared to the preflight

  17. The distribution function of a probability measure on a space with a fractal structure

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sanchez-Granero, M.A.; Galvez-Rodriguez, J.F.

    2017-07-01

    In this work we show how to define a probability measure with the help of a fractal structure. One of the keys of this approach is to use the completion of the fractal structure. Then we use the theory of a cumulative distribution function on a Polish ultrametric space and describe it in this context. Finally, with the help of fractal structures, we prove that a function satisfying the properties of a cumulative distribution function on a Polish ultrametric space is a cumulative distribution function with respect to some probability measure on the space. (Author)

  18. Some double sequence spaces of interval numbers defined by Orlicz function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ayhan Esi

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available In this paper we introduce some interval valued double sequence spaces defined by Orlicz function and study different properties of these spaces like inclusion relations, solidity, etc. We establish some inclusion relations among them. Also we introduce the concept of double statistical convergence for interval number sequences and give an inclusion relation between interval valued double sequence spaces.

  19. Nodular smooth muscle metaplasia in multiple peritoneal endometriosis

    OpenAIRE

    Kim, Hyun-Soo; Yoon, Gun; Ha, Sang Yun; Song, Sang Yong

    2015-01-01

    We report here an unusual presentation of peritoneal endometriosis with smooth muscle metaplasia as multiple protruding masses on the lateral pelvic wall. Smooth muscle metaplasia is a common finding in rectovaginal endometriosis, whereas in peritoneal endometriosis, smooth muscle metaplasia is uncommon and its nodular presentation on the pelvic wall is even rarer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of nodular smooth muscle metaplasia occurring in peritoneal endometriosis. A...

  20. Design and simulation of origami structures with smooth folds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peraza Hernandez, E A; Hartl, D J; Lagoudas, D C

    2017-04-01

    Origami has enabled new approaches to the fabrication and functionality of multiple structures. Current methods for origami design are restricted to the idealization of folds as creases of zeroth-order geometric continuity. Such an idealization is not proper for origami structures of non-negligible fold thickness or maximum curvature at the folds restricted by material limitations. For such structures, folds are not properly represented as creases but rather as bent regions of higher-order geometric continuity. Such fold regions of arbitrary order of continuity are termed as smooth folds . This paper presents a method for solving the following origami design problem: given a goal shape represented as a polygonal mesh (termed as the goal mesh ), find the geometry of a single planar sheet, its pattern of smooth folds, and the history of folding motion allowing the sheet to approximate the goal mesh. The parametrization of the planar sheet and the constraints that allow for a valid pattern of smooth folds are presented. The method is tested against various goal meshes having diverse geometries. The results show that every determined sheet approximates its corresponding goal mesh in a known folded configuration having fold angles obtained from the geometry of the goal mesh.

  1. Space Shuttle critical function audit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sacks, Ivan J.; Dipol, John; Su, Paul

    1990-01-01

    A large fault-tolerance model of the main propulsion system of the US space shuttle has been developed. This model is being used to identify single components and pairs of components that will cause loss of shuttle critical functions. In addition, this model is the basis for risk quantification of the shuttle. The process used to develop and analyze the model is digraph matrix analysis (DMA). The DMA modeling and analysis process is accessed via a graphics-based computer user interface. This interface provides coupled display of the integrated system schematics, the digraph models, the component database, and the results of the fault tolerance and risk analyses.

  2. A real-space stochastic density matrix approach for density functional electronic structure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beck, Thomas L

    2015-12-21

    The recent development of real-space grid methods has led to more efficient, accurate, and adaptable approaches for large-scale electrostatics and density functional electronic structure modeling. With the incorporation of multiscale techniques, linear-scaling real-space solvers are possible for density functional problems if localized orbitals are used to represent the Kohn-Sham energy functional. These methods still suffer from high computational and storage overheads, however, due to extensive matrix operations related to the underlying wave function grid representation. In this paper, an alternative stochastic method is outlined that aims to solve directly for the one-electron density matrix in real space. In order to illustrate aspects of the method, model calculations are performed for simple one-dimensional problems that display some features of the more general problem, such as spatial nodes in the density matrix. This orbital-free approach may prove helpful considering a future involving increasingly parallel computing architectures. Its primary advantage is the near-locality of the random walks, allowing for simultaneous updates of the density matrix in different regions of space partitioned across the processors. In addition, it allows for testing and enforcement of the particle number and idempotency constraints through stabilization of a Feynman-Kac functional integral as opposed to the extensive matrix operations in traditional approaches.

  3. A perturbative approach to the redshift space correlation function: beyond the Standard Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bose, Benjamin; Koyama, Kazuya

    2017-08-01

    We extend our previous redshift space power spectrum code to the redshift space correlation function. Here we focus on the Gaussian Streaming Model (GSM). Again, the code accommodates a wide range of modified gravity and dark energy models. For the non-linear real space correlation function used in the GSM we use the Fourier transform of the RegPT 1-loop matter power spectrum. We compare predictions of the GSM for a Vainshtein screened and Chameleon screened model as well as GR. These predictions are compared to the Fourier transform of the Taruya, Nishimichi and Saito (TNS) redshift space power spectrum model which is fit to N-body data. We find very good agreement between the Fourier transform of the TNS model and the GSM predictions, with <= 6% deviations in the first two correlation function multipoles for all models for redshift space separations in 50Mpch <= s <= 180Mpc/h. Excellent agreement is found in the differences between the modified gravity and GR multipole predictions for both approaches to the redshift space correlation function, highlighting their matched ability in picking up deviations from GR. We elucidate the timeliness of such non-standard templates at the dawn of stage-IV surveys and discuss necessary preparations and extensions needed for upcoming high quality data.

  4. The metric on field space, functional renormalization, and metric–torsion quantum gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reuter, Martin; Schollmeyer, Gregor M.

    2016-01-01

    Searching for new non-perturbatively renormalizable quantum gravity theories, functional renormalization group (RG) flows are studied on a theory space of action functionals depending on the metric and the torsion tensor, the latter parameterized by three irreducible component fields. A detailed comparison with Quantum Einstein–Cartan Gravity (QECG), Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG), and “tetrad-only” gravity, all based on different theory spaces, is performed. It is demonstrated that, over a generic theory space, the construction of a functional RG equation (FRGE) for the effective average action requires the specification of a metric on the infinite-dimensional field manifold as an additional input. A modified FRGE is obtained if this metric is scale-dependent, as it happens in the metric–torsion system considered.

  5. Aging impairs smooth muscle-mediated regulation of aortic stiffness: a defect in shock absorption function?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Yuan Z.; Saphirstein, Robert J.; Yamin, Rina; Suki, Bela

    2014-01-01

    Increased aortic stiffness is an early and independent biomarker of cardiovascular disease. Here we tested the hypothesis that vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) contribute significantly to aortic stiffness and investigated the mechanisms involved. The relative contributions of VSMCs, focal adhesions (FAs), and matrix to stiffness in mouse aorta preparations at optimal length and with confirmed VSMC viability were separated by the use of small-molecule inhibitors and activators. Using biomechanical methods designed for minimal perturbation of cellular function, we directly quantified changes with aging in aortic material stiffness. An alpha adrenoceptor agonist, in the presence of NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME) to remove interference of endothelial nitric oxide, increases stiffness by 90–200% from baseline in both young and old mice. Interestingly, increases are robustly suppressed by the Src kinase inhibitor PP2 in young but not old mice. Phosphotyrosine screening revealed, with aging, a biochemical signature of markedly impaired agonist-induced FA remodeling previously associated with Src signaling. Protein expression measurement confirmed a decrease in Src expression with aging. Thus we report here an additive model for the in vitro biomechanical components of the mouse aortic wall in which 1) VSMCs are a surprisingly large component of aortic stiffness at physiological lengths and 2) regulation of the VSMC component through FA signaling and hence plasticity is impaired with aging, diminishing the aorta's normal shock absorption function in response to stressors. PMID:25128168

  6. Extreme boundary of space semi-additive functionals on finite set

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gayratbay F. Djabbarov

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The present paper is devoted to study of the extreme boundary of the convexcompact set of all semi-additive functionals on a finite-point compactum. We shall find some classes of extreme points of the space semi-additive functionals OS (n .

  7. Abnormalities in personal space and parietal–frontal function in schizophrenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daphne J. Holt

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Schizophrenia is associated with subtle abnormalities in day-to-day social behaviors, including a tendency in some patients to “keep their distance” from others in physical space. The neural basis of this abnormality, and related changes in social functioning, is unknown. Here we examined, in schizophrenic patients and healthy control subjects, the functioning of a parietal–frontal network involved in monitoring the space immediately surrounding the body (“personal space”. Using fMRI, we found that one region of this network, the dorsal intraparietal sulcus (DIPS, was hyper-responsive in schizophrenic patients to face stimuli appearing to move towards the subjects, intruding into personal space. This hyper-responsivity was predicted both by the size of personal space (which was abnormally elevated in the schizophrenia group and the severity of negative symptoms. In contrast, in a second study, the activity of two lower-level visual areas that send information to DIPS (the fusiform face area and middle temporal area was normal in schizophrenia. Together, these findings suggest that changes in parietal–frontal networks that support the sensory-guided initiation of behavior, including actions occurring in the space surrounding the body, contribute to social dysfunction and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

  8. Space Station flight telerobotic servicer functional requirements development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oberright, John; Mccain, Harry; Whitman, Ruth I.

    1987-01-01

    The Space Station flight telerobotic servicer (FTS), a flight robotic system for use on the first Space Station launch, is described. The objectives of the FTS program include: (1) the provision of an alternative crew EVA by supporting the crew in assembly, maintenance, and servicing activities, and (2) the improvement of crew safety by performing hazardous tasks such as spacecraft refueling or thermal and power system maintenance. The NASA/NBS Standard Reference Model provides the generic, hierarchical, structured functional control definition for the system. It is capable of accommodating additional degrees of machine intelligence in the future.

  9. Interpolation and sampling in spaces of analytic functions

    CERN Document Server

    Seip, Kristian

    2004-01-01

    The book is about understanding the geometry of interpolating and sampling sequences in classical spaces of analytic functions. The subject can be viewed as arising from three classical topics: Nevanlinna-Pick interpolation, Carleson's interpolation theorem for H^\\infty, and the sampling theorem, also known as the Whittaker-Kotelnikov-Shannon theorem. The book aims at clarifying how certain basic properties of the space at hand are reflected in the geometry of interpolating and sampling sequences. Key words for the geometric descriptions are Carleson measures, Beurling densities, the Nyquist rate, and the Helson-Szegő condition. The book is based on six lectures given by the author at the University of Michigan. This is reflected in the exposition, which is a blend of informal explanations with technical details. The book is essentially self-contained. There is an underlying assumption that the reader has a basic knowledge of complex and functional analysis. Beyond that, the reader should have some familiari...

  10. MF-CRA: Multi-Function Cognitive Radio Architecture for Space Communications, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — EpiSys Science, Inc. and University of Arizona propose to develop, implement, and demonstrate Multi-Function Cognitive Radio Architecture (MF-CRA) for Space...

  11. Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour STS-47 Launch

    Science.gov (United States)

    1992-01-01

    A smooth countdown culminated in a picture-perfect launch as the Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavour (STS-47) climbed skyward atop a ladder of billowing smoke on September 12, 1992. The primary payload for the plarned seven-day flight was the Spacelab-J science laboratory. The second flight of Endeavour marks a number of historic firsts: the first space flight of an African-American woman, the first Japanese citizen to fly on a Space Shuttle, and the first married couple to fly in space.

  12. Modelling Conditional and Unconditional Heteroskedasticity with Smoothly Time-Varying Structure

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Amado, Christina; Teräsvirta, Timo

    multiplier type misspecification tests. Finite-sample properties of these procedures and tests are examined by simulation. An empirical application to daily stock returns and another one to daily exchange rate returns illustrate the functioning and properties of our modelling strategy in practice......In this paper, we propose two parametric alternatives to the standard GARCH model. They allow the conditional variance to have a smooth time-varying structure of either ad- ditive or multiplicative type. The suggested parameterizations describe both nonlinearity and structural change...... in the conditional and unconditional variances where the transition between regimes over time is smooth. A modelling strategy for these new time-varying parameter GARCH models is developed. It relies on a sequence of Lagrange multiplier tests, and the adequacy of the estimated models is investigated by Lagrange...

  13. Smoothed Analysis of Local Search Algorithms

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Manthey, Bodo; Dehne, Frank; Sack, Jörg-Rüdiger; Stege, Ulrike

    2015-01-01

    Smoothed analysis is a method for analyzing the performance of algorithms for which classical worst-case analysis fails to explain the performance observed in practice. Smoothed analysis has been applied to explain the performance of a variety of algorithms in the last years. One particular class of

  14. The Temporal Association Between Executive Function and Life-Space Mobility in Old Age.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poranen-Clark, Taina; von Bonsdorff, Mikaela B; Rantakokko, Merja; Portegijs, Erja; Eronen, Johanna; Pynnönen, Katja; Eriksson, Johan G; Viljanen, Anne; Rantanen, Taina

    2018-05-09

    Life-space mobility, an indicator of community mobility, describes person's movements in terms of the distance from home, the frequency of movement, and the need of assistance for movement. Executive function (EF) is a higher-order cognitive function that supervises motor control and plays a key role in a person's ability to function independently. Cognitive impairment often co-occurs with restricted life-space mobility; however, the direction of the longitudinal associations between EF and life-space mobility is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the temporal associations between EF and life-space mobility among community-dwelling older people. One hundred eight community-dwelling persons aged 76 to 91 years participated in the 2 year follow-up study. EF was measured with the Trail Making Test. The Life-Space Assessment (range 0-120, higher scores indicate more mobility) was used to assess life-space mobility. Cross-lagged model design was used to examine longitudinal relationship between EF and life-space mobility. The model was adjusted for age and gender. Average age of participants at baseline was 82.2 (SD 4.1) years and 59% were women. Better EF at baseline predicted higher life-space mobility at follow-up (path coefficient = 3.81, 95% confidential interval; 0.84, 6.78, p = .012), whereas baseline life-space mobility did not predict EF at follow-up. EF was a determinant of life-space mobility. Supporting EF may enhance maintaining independence and active participation in old age.

  15. 16-dimensional smooth projective planes with large collineation groups

    OpenAIRE

    Bödi, Richard

    1998-01-01

    Erworben im Rahmen der Schweizer Nationallizenzen (http://www.nationallizenzen.ch) Smooth projective planes are projective planes defined on smooth manifolds (i.e. the set of points and the set of lines are smooth manifolds) such that the geometric operations of join and intersection are smooth. A systematic study of such planes and of their collineation groups can be found in previous works of the author. We prove in this paper that a 16-dimensional smooth projective plane which admits a ...

  16. Neurophysiology and Neuroanatomy of Smooth Pursuit in Humans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lencer, Rebekka; Trillenberg, Peter

    2008-01-01

    Smooth pursuit eye movements enable us to focus our eyes on moving objects by utilizing well-established mechanisms of visual motion processing, sensorimotor transformation and cognition. Novel smooth pursuit tasks and quantitative measurement techniques can help unravel the different smooth pursuit components and complex neural systems involved…

  17. Functional Modeling of the Shift in Cellular Calcium Dynamics at the Onset of Synchronization in Smooth Muscle Cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Postnov, D E; Brings Jacobsen, J C; von Holstein-Rathlou, Niels-Henrik

    2011-01-01

    In the present paper we address the nature of synchronization properties found in populations of mesenteric artery smooth muscle cells. We present a minimal model of the onset of synchronization in the individual smooth muscle cell that is manifested as a transition from calcium waves to whole......-cell calcium oscillations. We discuss how different types of ion currents may influence both amplitude and frequency in the regime of whole-cell oscillations. The model may also explain the occurrence of mixed-mode oscillations and chaotic oscillations frequently observed in the experimental system....

  18. Pseudo-Random Sequences Generated by a Class of One-Dimensional Smooth Map

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Xing-Yuan; Qin Xue; Xie Yi-Xin

    2011-01-01

    We extend a class of a one-dimensional smooth map. We make sure that for each desired interval of the parameter the map's Lyapunov exponent is positive. Then we propose a novel parameter perturbation method based on the good property of the extended one-dimensional smooth map. We perturb the parameter r in each iteration by the real number x i generated by the iteration. The auto-correlation function and NIST statistical test suite are taken to illustrate the method's randomness finally. We provide an application of this method in image encryption. Experiments show that the pseudo-random sequences are suitable for this application. (general)

  19. Intrinsic functional brain mapping in reconstructed 4D magnetic susceptibility (χ) data space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Zikuan; Calhoun, Vince

    2015-02-15

    By solving an inverse problem of T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging for a dynamic fMRI study, we reconstruct a 4D magnetic susceptibility source (χ) data space for intrinsic functional mapping. A 4D phase dataset is calculated from a 4D complex fMRI dataset. The background field and phase wrapping effect are removed by a Laplacian technique. A 3D χ source map is reconstructed from a 3D phase image by a computed inverse MRI (CIMRI) scheme. A 4D χ data space is reconstructed by repeating the 3D χ source reconstruction for each time point. A functional map is calculated by a temporal correlation between voxel signals in the 4D χ space and the timecourse of the task paradigm. With a finger-tapping experiment, we obtain two 3D functional mappings in the 4D magnitude data space and in the reconstructed 4D χ data space. We find that the χ-based functional mapping reveals co-occurrence of bidirectional responses in a 3D activation map that is different from the conventional magnitude-based mapping. The χ-based functional mapping can also be achieved by a 3D deconvolution of a phase activation map. Based on a subject experimental comparison, we show that the 4D χ tomography method could produce a similar χ activation map as obtained by the 3D deconvolution method. By removing the dipole effect and other fMRI technological contaminations, 4D χ tomography provides a 4D χ data space that allows a more direct and truthful functional mapping of a brain activity. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  20. A smooth exit from eternal inflation?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawking, S. W.; Hertog, Thomas

    2018-04-01

    The usual theory of inflation breaks down in eternal inflation. We derive a dual description of eternal inflation in terms of a deformed Euclidean CFT located at the threshold of eternal inflation. The partition function gives the amplitude of different geometries of the threshold surface in the no-boundary state. Its local and global behavior in dual toy models shows that the amplitude is low for surfaces which are not nearly conformal to the round three-sphere and essentially zero for surfaces with negative curvature. Based on this we conjecture that the exit from eternal inflation does not produce an infinite fractal-like multiverse, but is finite and reasonably smooth.

  1. Green's function for anti--de Sitter space gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kleppe, G.

    1994-01-01

    We solve for the retarded Green's function for linearized gravity in a background with a negative cosmological constant, anti--de Sitter space. In this background, it is possible for a signal to reach spatial infinity in a finite time. Therefore the form of the Green's function depends on a choice of boundary condition at spatial infinity. We take as our condition that a signal which reaches infinity should be lost, not reflected back. We calculate the Green's function associated with this condition, and show that it reproduces the correct classical solution for a point mass at the origin, the anti--de Sitter--Schwarzschild solution

  2. Comment on "Wigner phase-space distribution function for the hydrogen atom"

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dahl, Jens Peder; Springborg, Michael

    1999-01-01

    We object to the proposal that the mapping of the three-dimensional hydrogen atom into a four-dimensional harmonic oscillator can be readily used to determine the Wigner phase-space distribution function for the hydrogen atom. [S1050-2947(99)07005-5].......We object to the proposal that the mapping of the three-dimensional hydrogen atom into a four-dimensional harmonic oscillator can be readily used to determine the Wigner phase-space distribution function for the hydrogen atom. [S1050-2947(99)07005-5]....

  3. Euclidean scalar Green function in a higher dimensional global monopole space-time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bezerra de Mello, E.R.

    2002-01-01

    We construct the explicit Euclidean scalar Green function associated with a massless field in a higher dimensional global monopole space-time, i.e., a (1+d)-space-time with d≥3 which presents a solid angle deficit. Our result is expressed in terms of an infinite sum of products of Legendre functions with Gegenbauer polynomials. Although this Green function cannot be expressed in a closed form, for the specific case where the solid angle deficit is very small, it is possible to develop the sum and obtain the Green function in a more workable expression. Having this expression it is possible to calculate the vacuum expectation value of some relevant operators. As an application of this formalism, we calculate the renormalized vacuum expectation value of the square of the scalar field, 2 (x)> Ren , and the energy-momentum tensor, μν (x)> Ren , for the global monopole space-time with spatial dimensions d=4 and d=5

  4. A perturbative approach to the redshift space correlation function: beyond the Standard Model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bose, Benjamin; Koyama, Kazuya, E-mail: benjamin.bose@port.ac.uk, E-mail: kazuya.koyama@port.ac.uk [Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 3FX (United Kingdom)

    2017-08-01

    We extend our previous redshift space power spectrum code to the redshift space correlation function. Here we focus on the Gaussian Streaming Model (GSM). Again, the code accommodates a wide range of modified gravity and dark energy models. For the non-linear real space correlation function used in the GSM we use the Fourier transform of the RegPT 1-loop matter power spectrum. We compare predictions of the GSM for a Vainshtein screened and Chameleon screened model as well as GR. These predictions are compared to the Fourier transform of the Taruya, Nishimichi and Saito (TNS) redshift space power spectrum model which is fit to N-body data. We find very good agreement between the Fourier transform of the TNS model and the GSM predictions, with ≤ 6% deviations in the first two correlation function multipoles for all models for redshift space separations in 50Mpc h ≤ s ≤ 180Mpc/ h . Excellent agreement is found in the differences between the modified gravity and GR multipole predictions for both approaches to the redshift space correlation function, highlighting their matched ability in picking up deviations from GR. We elucidate the timeliness of such non-standard templates at the dawn of stage-IV surveys and discuss necessary preparations and extensions needed for upcoming high quality data.

  5. Doing smooth pursuit paradigms in Windows 7

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wilms, Inge Linda

    predict strengths or deficits in perception and attention. However, smooth pursuit movements have been difficult to study and very little normative data is available for smooth pursuit performance in children and adults. This poster describes the challenges in setting up a smooth pursuit paradigm...... in Windows 7 with live capturing of eye movements using a Tobii TX300 eye tracker. In particular, the poster describes the challenges and limitations created by the hardware and the software...

  6. Optimal HRF and smoothing parameters for fMRI time series within an autoregressive modeling framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galka, Andreas; Siniatchkin, Michael; Stephani, Ulrich; Groening, Kristina; Wolff, Stephan; Bosch-Bayard, Jorge; Ozaki, Tohru

    2010-12-01

    The analysis of time series obtained by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) may be approached by fitting predictive parametric models, such as nearest-neighbor autoregressive models with exogeneous input (NNARX). As a part of the modeling procedure, it is possible to apply instantaneous linear transformations to the data. Spatial smoothing, a common preprocessing step, may be interpreted as such a transformation. The autoregressive parameters may be constrained, such that they provide a response behavior that corresponds to the canonical haemodynamic response function (HRF). We present an algorithm for estimating the parameters of the linear transformations and of the HRF within a rigorous maximum-likelihood framework. Using this approach, an optimal amount of both the spatial smoothing and the HRF can be estimated simultaneously for a given fMRI data set. An example from a motor-task experiment is discussed. It is found that, for this data set, weak, but non-zero, spatial smoothing is optimal. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that activated regions can be estimated within the maximum-likelihood framework.

  7. Smooth pursuit eye movements and schizophrenia: literature review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franco, J G; de Pablo, J; Gaviria, A M; Sepúlveda, E; Vilella, E

    2014-09-01

    To review the scientific literature about the relationship between impairment on smooth pursuit eye movements and schizophrenia. Narrative review that includes historical articles, reports about basic and clinical investigation, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis on the topic. Up to 80% of schizophrenic patients have impairment of smooth pursuit eye movements. Despite the diversity of test protocols, 65% of patients and controls are correctly classified by their overall performance during this pursuit. The smooth pursuit eye movements depend on the ability to anticipate the target's velocity and the visual feedback, as well as on learning and attention. The neuroanatomy implicated in smooth pursuit overlaps to some extent with certain frontal cortex zones associated with some clinical and neuropsychological characteristics of the schizophrenia, therefore some specific components of smooth pursuit anomalies could serve as biomarkers of the disease. Due to their sedative effect, antipsychotics have a deleterious effect on smooth pursuit eye movements, thus these movements cannot be used to evaluate the efficacy of the currently available treatments. Standardized evaluation of smooth pursuit eye movements on schizophrenia will allow to use specific aspects of that pursuit as biomarkers for the study of its genetics, psychopathology, or neuropsychology. Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Oftalmología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  8. Smoothing-Norm Preconditioning for Regularizing Minimum-Residual Methods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Per Christian; Jensen, Toke Koldborg

    2006-01-01

    take into account a smoothing norm for the solution. This technique is well established for CGLS, but it does not immediately carry over to minimum-residual methods when the smoothing norm is a seminorm or a Sobolev norm. We develop a new technique which works for any smoothing norm of the form $\\|L...

  9. An MPCC Formulation and Its Smooth Solution Algorithm for Continuous Network Design Problem

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guangmin Wang

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Continuous network design problem (CNDP is searching for a transportation network configuration to minimize the sum of the total system travel time and the investment cost of link capacity expansions by considering that the travellers follow a traditional Wardrop user equilibrium (UE to choose their routes. In this paper, the CNDP model can be formulated as mathematical programs with complementarity constraints (MPCC by describing UE as a non-linear complementarity problem (NCP. To address the difficulty resulting from complementarity constraints in MPCC, they are substituted by the Fischer-Burmeister (FB function, which can be smoothed by the introduction of the smoothing parameter. Therefore, the MPCC can be transformed into a well-behaved non-linear program (NLP by replacing the complementarity constraints with a smooth equation. Consequently, the solver such as LINDOGLOBAL in GAMS can be used to solve the smooth approximate NLP to obtain the solution to MPCC for modelling CNDP. The numerical experiments on the example from the literature demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is feasible.

  10. Continuous Slice Functional Calculus in Quaternionic Hilbert Spaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghiloni, Riccardo; Moretti, Valter; Perotti, Alessandro

    2013-04-01

    The aim of this work is to define a continuous functional calculus in quaternionic Hilbert spaces, starting from basic issues regarding the notion of spherical spectrum of a normal operator. As properties of the spherical spectrum suggest, the class of continuous functions to consider in this setting is the one of slice quaternionic functions. Slice functions generalize the concept of slice regular function, which comprises power series with quaternionic coefficients on one side and that can be seen as an effective generalization to quaternions of holomorphic functions of one complex variable. The notion of slice function allows to introduce suitable classes of real, complex and quaternionic C*-algebras and to define, on each of these C*-algebras, a functional calculus for quaternionic normal operators. In particular, we establish several versions of the spectral map theorem. Some of the results are proved also for unbounded operators. However, the mentioned continuous functional calculi are defined only for bounded normal operators. Some comments on the physical significance of our work are included.

  11. A local cubic smoothing in an adaptation mode

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dikoussar, N.D.

    2001-01-01

    A new approach to a local curve approximation and the smoothing is proposed. The relation between curve points is defined using a special cross-ratio weight functions. The coordinates of three curve points are used as parameters for both the weight functions and the tree-point cubic model (TPS). A very simple in computing and stable to random errors cubic smoother in an adaptation mode (LOCUS) is constructed. The free parameter of TPS is estimated independently of the fixed parameters by recursion with the effective error suppression and can be controlled by the cross-ratio parameters. Efficiency and the noise stability of the algorithm are confirmed by examples and by comparison with other known non-parametric smoothers

  12. Evaluation of functional substances in the selected food materials for space agriculture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomita-Yokotani, Kaori; Kimura, Yasuko; Yamashita, Masamichi; Kimura, Shunta; Sato, Seigo; Katoh, Hiroshi; Abe, Yusuke; Ajioka, Reiko

    We have been studying the useful life-support system in closed bio-ecosystem for space agriculture. We have already proposed the several species as food material, such as Nostoc sp. HK-01 and Prunnus sp., cyanobacterium and Japanese cherry tree, respectively. The cyanobacterium, Nostoc sp Hk-01, has high tolerances to several space environment. Furthermore, the woody plant materials have useful utilization elements in our habitation environment. The studies of woody plants under a space-environment in the vegetable kingdom have a high contribution to the study of various and exotic environmental responses, too. We have already found that they can produce the important functional substances for human. Here, we will show the evaluation of functional substances in the selected food materials under the possible conditions for space agriculture after cooking.

  13. Opportunities to Target Specific Contractile Abnormalities with Smooth Muscle Protein Kinase Inhibitors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annegret Ulke-Lemée

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Smooth muscle is a major component of most hollow organ systems (e.g., airways, vasculature, bladder and gut/gastrointestine; therefore, the coordinated regulation of contraction is a key property of smooth muscle. When smooth muscle functions normally, it contributes to general health and wellness, but its dysfunction is associated with morbidity and mortality. Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK is central to calcium-independent, actomyosin-mediated contractile force generation in the vasculature, thereby playing a role in smooth muscle contraction, cell motility and adhesion. Recent evidence supports an important role for ROCK in the increased vasoconstriction and remodeling observed in various models of hypertension. This review will provide a commentary on the development of specific ROCK inhibitors and their clinical application. Fasudil will be discussed as an example of bench-to-bedside development of a clinical therapeutic that is used to treat conditions of vascular hypercontractility. Due to the wide spectrum of biological processes regulated by ROCK, many additional clinical indications might also benefit from ROCK inhibition. Apart from the importance of ROCK in smooth muscle contraction, a variety of other protein kinases are known to play similar roles in regulating contractile force. The zipper-interacting protein kinase (ZIPK and integrin-linked kinase (ILK are two well-described regulators of contraction. The relative contribution of each kinase to contraction depends on the muscle bed as well as hormonal and neuronal stimulation. Unfortunately, specific inhibitors for ZIPK and ILK are still in the development phase, but the success of fasudil suggests that inhibitors for these other kinases may also have valuable clinical applications. Notably, the directed inhibition of ZIPK with a pseudosubstrate molecule shows unexpected effects on the contractility of gastrointestinal smooth muscle.

  14. Novel approach for tomographic reconstruction of gas concentration distributions in air: Use of smooth basis functions and simulated annealing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drescher, A. C.; Gadgil, A. J.; Price, P. N.; Nazaroff, W. W.

    Optical remote sensing and iterative computed tomography (CT) can be applied to measure the spatial distribution of gaseous pollutant concentrations. We conducted chamber experiments to test this combination of techniques using an open path Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (OP-FTIR) and a standard algebraic reconstruction technique (ART). Although ART converged to solutions that showed excellent agreement with the measured ray-integral concentrations, the solutions were inconsistent with simultaneously gathered point-sample concentration measurements. A new CT method was developed that combines (1) the superposition of bivariate Gaussians to represent the concentration distribution and (2) a simulated annealing minimization routine to find the parameters of the Gaussian basis functions that result in the best fit to the ray-integral concentration data. This method, named smooth basis function minimization (SBFM), generated reconstructions that agreed well, both qualitatively and quantitatively, with the concentration profiles generated from point sampling. We present an analysis of two sets of experimental data that compares the performance of ART and SBFM. We conclude that SBFM is a superior CT reconstruction method for practical indoor and outdoor air monitoring applications.

  15. Body Unloading Associated with Space Flight and Bed-rest Impacts Functional Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bloomberg, J. J.; Ballard, K. L.; Batson, C. D.; Buxton, R. E.; Feiveson, A. H.; Kofman, I. S.; Lee, S. M. C.; Miller, C. A.; Mulavara, A. P.; Peters, B. T.; hide

    2014-01-01

    The goal of the Functional Task Test study is to determine the effects of space flight on functional tests that are representative of high priority exploration mission tasks and to identify the key underlying physiological factors that contribute to decrements in performance. Ultimately this information will be used to assess performance risks and inform the design of countermeasures for exploration class missions. We are currently conducting studies on both ISS crewmembers and on subjects experiencing 70 days of 6 degrees head-down bed-rest as an analog for space flight. Bed-rest provides the opportunity for us to investigate the role of prolonged axial body unloading in isolation from the other physiological effects produced by exposure to the microgravity environment of space flight. This allows us to parse out the contribution of the body unloading component on functional performance. In this on-going study both ISS crewmembers and bed-rest subjects were tested using an interdisciplinary protocol that evaluated functional performance and related physiological changes before and after 6 months in space and 70 days of 6? head-down bed-rest, respectively. Functional tests included ladder climbing, hatch opening, jump down, manual manipulation of objects and tool use, seat egress and obstacle avoidance, recovery from a fall, and object translation tasks. Crewmembers were tested three times before flight, and on 1, 6 and 30 days after landing. Bed-rest subjects were tested three times before bed-rest and immediately after getting up from bed-rest as well as 1, 6 and 12 days after reambulation. A comparison of bed-rest and space flight data showed a significant concordance in performance changes across all functional tests. Tasks requiring a greater demand for dynamic control of postural equilibrium (i.e. fall recovery, seat egress/obstacle avoidance during walking, object translation, jump down) showed the greatest decrement in performance. Functional tests with

  16. The Morse oscillator in position space, momentum space, and phase space

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dahl, Jens Peder; Springborg, Michael

    1988-01-01

    We present a unified description of the position-space wave functions, the momentum-space wave functions, and the phase-space Wigner functions for the bound states of a Morse oscillator. By comparing with the functions for the harmonic oscillator the effects of anharmonicity are visualized....... Analytical expressions for the wave functions and the phase space functions are given, and it is demonstrated how a numerical problem arising from the summation of an alternating series in evaluating Laguerre functions can be circumvented. The method is applicable also for other problems where Laguerre...... functions are to be calculated. The wave and phase space functions are displayed in a series of curves and contour diagrams. An Appendix discusses the calculation of the modified Bessel functions of real, positive argument and complex order, which is required for calculating the phase space functions...

  17. Divergent effects of 17-β-estradiol on human vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cell function diminishes TNF-α-induced neointima formation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nintasen, Rungrat; Riches, Kirsten; Mughal, Romana S.; Viriyavejakul, Parnpen; Chaisri, Urai; Maneerat, Yaowapa; Turner, Neil A.; Porter, Karen E.

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► TNF-α augments neointimal hyperplasia in human saphenous vein. ► TNF-α induces detrimental effects on endothelial and smooth muscle cell function. ► Estradiol exerts modulatory effects on TNF-induced vascular cell functions. ► The modulatory effects of estradiol are discriminatory and cell-type specific. -- Abstract: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a condition characterized by increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). TNF-α can induce vascular endothelial cell (EC) and smooth muscle cell (SMC) dysfunction, central events in development of neointimal lesions. The reduced incidence of CHD in young women is believed to be due to the protective effects of estradiol (E2). We therefore investigated the effects of TNF-α on human neointima formation and SMC/EC functions and any modulatory effects of E2. Saphenous vein (SV) segments were cultured in the presence of TNF-α (10 ng/ml), E2 (2.5 nM) or both in combination. Neointimal thickening was augmented by incubation with TNF-α, an effect that was abolished by co-culture with E2. TNF-α increased SV–SMC proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner that was optimal at 10 ng/ml (1.5-fold increase), and abolished by E2 at all concentrations studied (1–50 nM). Surprisingly, E2 itself at low concentrations (1 and 5 nM) stimulated SV–SMC proliferation to a level comparable to that of TNF-α alone. SV–EC migration was significantly impaired by TNF-α (42% of control), and co-culture with E2 partially restored the ability of SV–EC to migrate and repair the wound. In contrast, TNF-α increased SV–SMC migration by 1.7-fold, an effect that was completely reversed by co-incubation with E2. Finally, TNF-α potently induced ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 expression in both SV–EC and SV–SMC. However there was no modulation by E2 in either cell-type. In conclusion, TNF-α induced SV neointima formation, increased SMC proliferation and migration, impaired

  18. Maximum profile likelihood estimation of differential equation parameters through model based smoothing state estimates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campbell, D A; Chkrebtii, O

    2013-12-01

    Statistical inference for biochemical models often faces a variety of characteristic challenges. In this paper we examine state and parameter estimation for the JAK-STAT intracellular signalling mechanism, which exemplifies the implementation intricacies common in many biochemical inference problems. We introduce an extension to the Generalized Smoothing approach for estimating delay differential equation models, addressing selection of complexity parameters, choice of the basis system, and appropriate optimization strategies. Motivated by the JAK-STAT system, we further extend the generalized smoothing approach to consider a nonlinear observation process with additional unknown parameters, and highlight how the approach handles unobserved states and unevenly spaced observations. The methodology developed is generally applicable to problems of estimation for differential equation models with delays, unobserved states, nonlinear observation processes, and partially observed histories. Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Stability of Pexiderized Quadratic Functional Equation in Random 2-Normed Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammed A. Alghamdi

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to investigate the stability of Hyers-Ulam-Rassias type theorems by considering the pexiderized quadratic functional equation in the setting of random 2-normed spaces (RTNS, while the concept of random 2-normed space has been recently studied by Goleţ (2005.

  20. Exploring the Functioning of Decision Space: A Review of the Available Health Systems Literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roman, Tamlyn Eslie; Cleary, Susan; McIntyre, Diane

    2017-02-27

    The concept of decision space holds appeal as an approach to disaggregating the elements that may influence decision-making in decentralized systems. This narrative review aims to explore the functioning of decision space and the factors that influence decision space. A narrative review of the literature was conducted with searches of online databases and academic journals including PubMed Central, Emerald, Wiley, Science Direct, JSTOR, and Sage. The articles were included in the review based on the criteria that they provided insight into the functioning of decision space either through the explicit application of or reference to decision space, or implicitly through discussion of decision-making related to organizational capacity or accountability mechanisms. The articles included in the review encompass literature related to decentralisation, management and decision space. The majority of the studies utilise qualitative methodologies to assess accountability mechanisms, organisational capacities such as finance, human resources and management, and the extent of decision space. Of the 138 articles retrieved, 76 articles were included in the final review. The literature supports Bossert's conceptualization of decision space as being related to organizational capacities and accountability mechanisms. These functions influence the decision space available within decentralized systems. The exact relationship between decision space and financial and human resource capacities needs to be explored in greater detail to determine the potential influence on system functioning. © 2017 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

  1. Recursive evaluation of space-time lattice Green's functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    De Hon, Bastiaan P; Arnold, John M

    2012-01-01

    Up to a multiplicative constant, the lattice Green's function (LGF) as defined in condensed matter physics and lattice statistical mechanics is equivalent to the Z-domain counterpart of the finite-difference time-domain Green's function (GF) on a lattice. Expansion of a well-known integral representation for the LGF on a ν-dimensional hyper-cubic lattice in powers of Z −1 and application of the Chu–Vandermonde identity results in ν − 1 nested finite-sum representations for discrete space-time GFs. Due to severe numerical cancellations, these nested finite sums are of little practical use. For ν = 2, the finite sum may be evaluated in closed form in terms of a generalized hypergeometric function. For special lattice points, that representation simplifies considerably, while on the other hand the finite-difference stencil may be used to derive single-lattice-point second-order recurrence schemes for generating 2D discrete space-time GF time sequences on the fly. For arbitrary symbolic lattice points, Zeilberger's algorithm produces a third-order recurrence operator with polynomial coefficients of the sixth degree. The corresponding recurrence scheme constitutes the most efficient numerical method for the majority of lattice points, in spite of the fact that for explicit numeric lattice points the associated third-order recurrence operator is not the minimum recurrence operator. As regards the asymptotic bounds for the possible solutions to the recurrence scheme, Perron's theorem precludes factorial or exponential growth. Along horizontal lattices directions, rapid initial growth does occur, but poses no problems in augmented dynamic-range fixed precision arithmetic. By analysing long-distance wave propagation along a horizontal lattice direction, we have concluded that the chirp-up oscillations of the discrete space-time GF are the root cause of grid dispersion anisotropy. With each factor of ten increase in the lattice distance, one would have to roughly

  2. Quantum key distribution with finite resources: Smooth Min entropy vs. Smooth Renyi entropy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mertz, Markus; Abruzzo, Silvestre; Bratzik, Sylvia; Kampermann, Hermann; Bruss, Dagmar [Institut fuer Theoretische Physik III, Duesseldorf (Germany)

    2010-07-01

    We consider different entropy measures that play an important role in the analysis of the security of QKD with finite resources. The smooth min entropy leads to an optimal bound for the length of a secure key. Another bound on the secure key length was derived by using Renyi entropies. Unfortunately, it is very hard or even impossible to calculate these entropies for realistic QKD scenarios. To estimate the security rate it becomes important to find computable bounds on these entropies. Here, we compare a lower bound for the smooth min entropy with a bound using Renyi entropies. We compare these entropies for the six-state protocol with symmetric attacks.

  3. Radiation durability and functional reliability of polymeric materials in space systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haruvy, Y.

    1990-01-01

    Polymeric materials are preferred for the light-weight construction of space-systems. Materials in space systems are required to fulfill a complete set of specifications, at utmost reliability, throughout the whole period of service in space, while being exposed to the hazardous influence of the space environment. The major threats of the space environment in orbits at the geostationary altitude (GSO) arise from ionizing radiations, the main constituents of which are highly energetic protons (affecting mainly the surface) and fast electrons (which produce the main threat to the electronic components). The maximum dose of ionizing radiation (within the limits of uncertainty of the calculations) at the surface of a material mounted on a space system, namely the ''Skin-Dose'', is ca. 2500 Mrads/yr. Space systems such as telecommunication satellites are planned to serve for prolonged periods of 30 years and longer. The cumulative predicted dose of ionizing-radiation over such periods presents a severe threat of chemical degradation to most of the polymeric construction materials commonly utilized in space systems. The reliability of each of the polymeric materials must be evaluated in detail, considering each of the relevant typical threats, such as ionizing-radiation, UV radiation, meteoroides flux, thermal cycling and ultra-high vacuum. For each of the exposed materials, conservation of the set of functional characteristics such as mechanical integrity, electrical and thermo-optical properties, electrical conductivity, surface charging and outgassing properties, which may cause contamination of neighboring systems, is evaluated. The reliability of functioning of the materials exposed to the space environment can thus be predicted, utilizing data from the literature, experimental results reported from space flights and laboratory simulations, and by chemical similarity of untested polymers to others. (author)

  4. Pathologic bladder microenvironment attenuates smooth muscle differentiation of skin derived precursor cells: implications for tissue regeneration.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cornelia Tolg

    Full Text Available Smooth muscle cell containing organs (bladder, heart, blood vessels are damaged by a variety of pathological conditions necessitating surgery or organ replacement. Currently, regeneration of contractile tissues is hampered by lack of functional smooth muscle cells. Multipotent skin derived progenitor cells (SKPs can easily be isolated from adult skin and can be differentiated in vitro into contractile smooth muscle cells by exposure to FBS. Here we demonstrate an inhibitory effect of a pathologic contractile organ microenvironment on smooth muscle cell differentiation of SKPs. In vivo, urinary bladder strain induces microenvironmental changes leading to de-differentiation of fully differentiated bladder smooth muscle cells. Co-culture of SKPs with organoids isolated from ex vivo stretched bladders or exposure of SKPs to diffusible factors released by stretched bladders (e.g. bFGF suppresses expression of smooth muscle markers (alpha SMactin, calponin, myocardin, myosin heavy chain as demonstrated by qPCR and immunofluorescent staining. Rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR signalling, previously observed to prevent bladder strain induced de-differentiation of fully differentiated smooth muscle cells in vitro, inhibits FBS-induced smooth muscle cell differentiation of undifferentiated SKPs. These results suggest that intended precursor cell differentiation may be paradoxically suppressed by the disease context for which regeneration may be required. Organ-specific microenvironment contexts, particularly prevailing disease, may play a significant role in modulating or attenuating an intended stem cell phenotypic fate, possibly explaining the variable and inefficient differentiation of stem cell constructs in in vivo settings. These observations must be considered in drafting any regeneration strategies.

  5. Fractional Klein-Gordon equation composed of Jumarie fractional derivative and its interpretation by a smoothness parameter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghosh, Uttam; Banerjee, Joydip; Sarkar, Susmita; Das, Shantanu

    2018-06-01

    Klein-Gordon equation is one of the basic steps towards relativistic quantum mechanics. In this paper, we have formulated fractional Klein-Gordon equation via Jumarie fractional derivative and found two types of solutions. Zero-mass solution satisfies photon criteria and non-zero mass satisfies general theory of relativity. Further, we have developed rest mass condition which leads us to the concept of hidden wave. Classical Klein-Gordon equation fails to explain a chargeless system as well as a single-particle system. Using the fractional Klein-Gordon equation, we can overcome the problem. The fractional Klein-Gordon equation also leads to the smoothness parameter which is the measurement of the bumpiness of space. Here, by using this smoothness parameter, we have defined and interpreted the various cases.

  6. The implicit function theorem history, theory, and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Krantz, Steven G

    2003-01-01

    The implicit function theorem is part of the bedrock of mathematics analysis and geometry. Finding its genesis in eighteenth century studies of real analytic functions and mechanics, the implicit and inverse function theorems have now blossomed into powerful tools in the theories of partial differential equations, differential geometry, and geometric analysis. There are many different forms of the implicit function theorem, including (i) the classical formulation for Ck functions, (ii) formulations in other function spaces, (iii) formulations for non-smooth function, (iv) formulations for functions with degenerate Jacobian. Particularly powerful implicit function theorems, such as the Nash-Moser theorem, have been developed for specific applications (e.g., the imbedding of Riemannian manifolds). All of these topics, and many more, are treated in the present volume. The history of the implicit function theorem is a lively and complex store, and intimately bound up with the development of fundamental ideas in a...

  7. Myosin Va Plays a Role in Nitrergic Smooth Muscle Relaxation in Gastric Fundus and Corpora Cavernosa of Penis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carew, Josephine A.; Goyal, Raj K.; Sullivan, Maryrose P.

    2014-01-01

    The intracellular motor protein myosin Va is involved in nitrergic neurotransmission possibly by trafficking of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) within the nerve terminals. In this study, we examined the role of myosin Va in the stomach and penis, proto-typical smooth muscle organs in which nitric oxide (NO) mediated relaxation is critical for function. We used confocal microscopy and co-immunoprecipitation of tissue from the gastric fundus (GF) and penile corpus cavernosum (CCP) to localize myosin Va with nNOS and demonstrate their molecular interaction. We utilized in vitro mechanical studies to test whether smooth muscle relaxations during nitrergic neuromuscular neurotransmission is altered in DBA (dilute, brown, non-agouti) mice which lack functional myosin Va. Myosin Va was localized in nNOS-positive nerve terminals and was co-immunoprecipitated with nNOS in both GF and CCP. In comparison to C57BL/6J wild type (WT) mice, electrical field stimulation (EFS) of precontracted smooth muscles of GF and CCP from DBA animals showed significant impairment of nitrergic relaxation. An NO donor, Sodium nitroprusside (SNP), caused comparable levels of relaxation in smooth muscles of WT and DBA mice. These normal postjunctional responses to SNP in DBA tissues suggest that impairment of smooth muscle relaxation resulted from inhibition of NO synthesis in prejunctional nerve terminals. Our results suggest that normal physiological processes of relaxation of gastric and cavernosal smooth muscles that facilitate food accommodation and penile erection, respectively, may be disrupted under conditions of myosin Va deficiency, resulting in complications like gastroparesis and erectile dysfunction. PMID:24516539

  8. Smitin, a novel smooth muscle titin-like protein, interacts with myosin filaments in vivo and in vitro.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Kyoungtae; Keller, Thomas C S

    2002-01-07

    Smooth muscle cells use an actin-myosin II-based contractile apparatus to produce force for a variety of physiological functions, including blood pressure regulation and gut peristalsis. The organization of the smooth muscle contractile apparatus resembles that of striated skeletal and cardiac muscle, but remains much more poorly understood. We have found that avian vascular and visceral smooth muscles contain a novel, megadalton protein, smitin, that is similar to striated muscle titin in molecular morphology, localization in a contractile apparatus, and ability to interact with myosin filaments. Smitin, like titin, is a long fibrous molecule with a globular domain on one end. Specific reactivities of an anti-smitin polyclonal antibody and an anti-titin monoclonal antibody suggest that smitin and titin are distinct proteins rather than differentially spliced isoforms encoded by the same gene. Smitin immunofluorescently colocalizes with myosin in chicken gizzard smooth muscle, and interacts with two configurations of smooth muscle myosin filaments in vitro. In physiological ionic strength conditions, smitin and smooth muscle myosin coassemble into irregular aggregates containing large sidepolar myosin filaments. In low ionic strength conditions, smitin and smooth muscle myosin form highly ordered structures containing linear and polygonal end-to-end and side-by-side arrays of small bipolar myosin filaments. We have used immunogold localization and sucrose density gradient cosedimentation analyses to confirm association of smitin with both the sidepolar and bipolar smooth muscle myosin filaments. These findings suggest that the titin-like protein smitin may play a central role in organizing myosin filaments in the contractile apparatus and perhaps in other structures in smooth muscle cells.

  9. Controllability for Semilinear Functional and Neutral Functional Evolution Equations with Infinite Delay in Frechet Spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Agarwal, Ravi P.; Baghli, Selma; Benchohra, Mouffak

    2009-01-01

    The controllability of mild solutions defined on the semi-infinite positive real interval for two classes of first order semilinear functional and neutral functional differential evolution equations with infinite delay is studied in this paper. Our results are obtained using a recent nonlinear alternative due to Avramescu for sum of compact and contraction operators in Frechet spaces, combined with the semigroup theory

  10. Smoothness without smoothing: why Gaussian naive Bayes is not naive for multi-subject searchlight studies.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rajeev D S Raizada

    Full Text Available Spatial smoothness is helpful when averaging fMRI signals across multiple subjects, as it allows different subjects' corresponding brain areas to be pooled together even if they are slightly misaligned. However, smoothing is usually not applied when performing multivoxel pattern-based analyses (MVPA, as it runs the risk of blurring away the information that fine-grained spatial patterns contain. It would therefore be desirable, if possible, to carry out pattern-based analyses which take unsmoothed data as their input but which produce smooth images as output. We show here that the Gaussian Naive Bayes (GNB classifier does precisely this, when it is used in "searchlight" pattern-based analyses. We explain why this occurs, and illustrate the effect in real fMRI data. Moreover, we show that analyses using GNBs produce results at the multi-subject level which are statistically robust, neurally plausible, and which replicate across two independent data sets. By contrast, SVM classifiers applied to the same data do not generate a replication, even if the SVM-derived searchlight maps have smoothing applied to them. An additional advantage of GNB classifiers for searchlight analyses is that they are orders of magnitude faster to compute than more complex alternatives such as SVMs. Collectively, these results suggest that Gaussian Naive Bayes classifiers may be a highly non-naive choice for multi-subject pattern-based fMRI studies.

  11. A note on tensor fields in Hilbert spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LEONARDO BILIOTTI

    2002-06-01

    Full Text Available We discuss and extend to infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces a well-known tensoriality criterion for linear endomorphisms of the space of smooth vector fields in n.Discutimos e estendemos para espaços de Hilbert um critério de tensorialidade para endomorfismos do espaço dos campos vetoriais em Rpot(n.

  12. Space Station data system analysis/architecture study. Task 1: Functional requirements definition, DR-5

    Science.gov (United States)

    1985-01-01

    The initial task in the Space Station Data System (SSDS) Analysis/Architecture Study is the definition of the functional and key performance requirements for the SSDS. The SSDS is the set of hardware and software, both on the ground and in space, that provides the basic data management services for Space Station customers and systems. The primary purpose of the requirements development activity was to provide a coordinated, documented requirements set as a basis for the system definition of the SSDS and for other subsequent study activities. These requirements should also prove useful to other Space Station activities in that they provide an indication of the scope of the information services and systems that will be needed in the Space Station program. The major results of the requirements development task are as follows: (1) identification of a conceptual topology and architecture for the end-to-end Space Station Information Systems (SSIS); (2) development of a complete set of functional requirements and design drivers for the SSIS; (3) development of functional requirements and key performance requirements for the Space Station Data System (SSDS); and (4) definition of an operating concept for the SSIS. The operating concept was developed both from a Space Station payload customer and operator perspective in order to allow a requirements practicality assessment.

  13. Configuration space analysis of common cost functions in radiotherapy beam-weight optimization algorithms

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rowbottom, Carl Graham [Joint Department of Physics, Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Trust, Sutton, Surrey (United Kingdom); Webb, Steve [Joint Department of Physics, Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Trust, Sutton, Surrey (United Kingdom)

    2002-01-07

    The successful implementation of downhill search engines in radiotherapy optimization algorithms depends on the absence of local minima in the search space. Such techniques are much faster than stochastic optimization methods but may become trapped in local minima if they exist. A technique known as 'configuration space analysis' was applied to examine the search space of cost functions used in radiotherapy beam-weight optimization algorithms. A downhill-simplex beam-weight optimization algorithm was run repeatedly to produce a frequency distribution of final cost values. By plotting the frequency distribution as a function of final cost, the existence of local minima can be determined. Common cost functions such as the quadratic deviation of dose to the planning target volume (PTV), integral dose to organs-at-risk (OARs), dose-threshold and dose-volume constraints for OARs were studied. Combinations of the cost functions were also considered. The simple cost function terms such as the quadratic PTV dose and integral dose to OAR cost function terms are not susceptible to local minima. In contrast, dose-threshold and dose-volume OAR constraint cost function terms are able to produce local minima in the example case studied. (author)

  14. A Collision-Free G2 Continuous Path-Smoothing Algorithm Using Quadratic Polynomial Interpolation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seong-Ryong Chang

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Most path-planning algorithms are used to obtain a collision-free path without considering continuity. On the other hand, a continuous path is needed for stable movement. In this paper, the searched path was converted into a G2 continuous path using the modified quadratic polynomial and membership function interpolation algorithm. It is simple, unique and provides a good geometric interpretation. In addition, a collision-checking and improvement algorithm is proposed. The collision-checking algorithm can check the collisions of a smoothed path. If collisions are detected, the collision improvement algorithm modifies the collision path to a collision-free path. The collision improvement algorithm uses a geometric method. This method uses the perpendicular line between a collision position and the collision piecewise linear path. The sub-waypoint is added, and the QPMI algorithm is applied again. As a result, the collision-smoothed path is converted into a collision-free smooth path without changing the continuity.

  15. Some splines produced by smooth interpolation

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Segeth, Karel

    2018-01-01

    Roč. 319, 15 February (2018), s. 387-394 ISSN 0096-3003 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA14-02067S Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : smooth data approximation * smooth data interpolation * cubic spline Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics OBOR OECD: Applied mathematics Impact factor: 1.738, year: 2016 http://www. science direct.com/ science /article/pii/S0096300317302746?via%3Dihub

  16. Some splines produced by smooth interpolation

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Segeth, Karel

    2018-01-01

    Roč. 319, 15 February (2018), s. 387-394 ISSN 0096-3003 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA14-02067S Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : smooth data approximation * smooth data interpolation * cubic spline Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics OBOR OECD: Applied mathematics Impact factor: 1.738, year: 2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0096300317302746?via%3Dihub

  17. Raman spectroscopy denoising based on smoothing filter combined with EEMD algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Dayong; Lv, Xiaoyi; Mo, Jiaqing; Chen, Chen

    2018-02-01

    In the extraction of Raman spectra, the signal will be affected by a variety of background noises, and then the effective information of Raman spectra is weakened or even submerged in noises, so the spectral analysis and denoising processing is very important. The traditional ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method is to remove the noises by removing the IMF components that mainly contain the noises. However, it will lose some details of the Raman signal. For the problem of EEMD algorithm, the denoising method of smoothing filter combined with EEMD is proposed in this paper. First, EEMD is used to decompose the Raman noise signal into several IMF components. Then, the components mainly containing noises are selected using the self-correlation function, and the smoothing filter is used to remove the noises of the components. Finally, the sum of the denoised components is added with the remaining components to obtain the final denoised signal. The experimental results show that compared with the traditional denoising algorithm, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the root mean square error (RMSE) and the correlation coefficient are significantly improved by using the proposed smoothing filter combined with EEMD.

  18. Recurrent neural network for non-smooth convex optimization problems with application to the identification of genetic regulatory networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Long; Hou, Zeng-Guang; Lin, Yingzi; Tan, Min; Zhang, Wenjun Chris; Wu, Fang-Xiang

    2011-05-01

    A recurrent neural network is proposed for solving the non-smooth convex optimization problem with the convex inequality and linear equality constraints. Since the objective function and inequality constraints may not be smooth, the Clarke's generalized gradients of the objective function and inequality constraints are employed to describe the dynamics of the proposed neural network. It is proved that the equilibrium point set of the proposed neural network is equivalent to the optimal solution of the original optimization problem by using the Lagrangian saddle-point theorem. Under weak conditions, the proposed neural network is proved to be stable, and the state of the neural network is convergent to one of its equilibrium points. Compared with the existing neural network models for non-smooth optimization problems, the proposed neural network can deal with a larger class of constraints and is not based on the penalty method. Finally, the proposed neural network is used to solve the identification problem of genetic regulatory networks, which can be transformed into a non-smooth convex optimization problem. The simulation results show the satisfactory identification accuracy, which demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach.

  19. A new smoothing procedure to reduce delivery segments for static MLC-based IMRT planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sun Xuepeng; Xia Ping

    2004-01-01

    In the application of pixel-based intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) using the step-and-shoot delivery method, one major difficulty is the prolonged delivery time. In this study, we present an integrated IMRT planning system that involves a simple smoothing method to reduce the complexity of the beam profiles. The system consists of three main steps: (a) an inverse planning process based on a least-square dose-based cost function; (b) smoothing of the intensity maps; (c) reoptimization of the segment weights. Step (a) obtains the best plan with the lowest cost value using a simulated annealing optimization algorithm with discrete intensity levels. Step (b) takes the intensity maps obtained from (a) and reduces the complexity of the maps by smoothing the adjacent beamlet intensities. During this process each beamlet is assigned a structure index based on anatomical information. A smoothing update is applied to average adjacent beamlets with the same index. To control the quality of the plan, a predefined clinical protocol is used as an acceptance criterion. The smoothing updates that violate the criterion are rejected. After the smoothing process, the segment weights are reoptimized in step (c) to further improve the plan quality. Three clinical cases were studied using this system: a medulloblastoma, a prostate cancer, and an oropharyngeal carcinoma. While the final plans demonstrate a degradation of the original plan quality, they still meet the plan acceptance criterion. On the other hand, the segment numbers or delivery times are reduced by 40%, 20%, and 20% for the three cases, respectively

  20. On the Space of Functions with Growths Tempered by a Modulus of Continuity and Its Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Józef Banaś

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available We are going to study the space of real functions defined on a bounded metric space and having growths tempered by a modulus of continuity. We prove also a sufficient condition for the relative compactness in the mentioned function space. Using that condition and the classical Schauder fixed point theorem, we show the existence theorem for some quadratic integral equations of Fredholm type in the space of functions satisfying the Hölder condition. An example illustrating the mentioned existence result is also included.

  1. On rationality of moduli spaces of vector bundles on real Hirzebruch ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Introduction. Moduli spaces of semistable vector bundles on a smooth projective variety are studied from various points of view. One of the questions that is often addressed is the birational type of the moduli space, more precisely, the question of rationality. It is known that the moduli space of semistable vector bundles of ...

  2. The Smoothing Hypothesis, Stock Returns and Risk in Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio Lopo Martinez

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Income smoothing is defined as the deliberate normalization of income in order to reach a desired trend. If the smoothing causes more information to be reflected in the stock price, it is likely to improve the allocation of resources and can be a critical factor in investment decisions. This study aims to build metrics to determine the degree of smoothing in Brazilian public companies, to classify them as smoothing and non-smoothing companies and additionally to present evidence on the long-term relationship between the smoothing hypothesis and stock return and risk. Using the Economatica and CVM databases, this study focuses on 145 companies in the period 1998-2007. We find that Brazilian smoothers have a smaller degree of systemic risk than non-smoothers. In average terms, the beta of smoothers is significantly lower than non-smoothers. Regarding return, we find that the abnormal annualized returns of smoothers are significantly higher. We confirm differences in the groups by nonparametric and parametric tests in cross section or as time series, indicating that there is a statistically significant difference in performance in the Brazilian market between firms that do and do not engage in smoothing.

  3. Cultured smooth muscle cells of the human vesical sphincter are more sensitive to histamine than are detrusor smooth muscle cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neuhaus, Jochen; Oberbach, Andreas; Schwalenberg, Thilo; Stolzenburg, Jens-Uwe

    2006-05-01

    To compare histamine receptor expression in cultured smooth muscle cells from the human detrusor and internal sphincter using receptor-specific agonists. Smooth muscle cells from the bladder dome and internal sphincter were cultured from 5 male patients undergoing cystectomy for bladder cancer therapy. Calcium transients in cells stimulated with carbachol, histamine, histamine receptor 1 (H1R)-specific heptanecarboxamide (HTMT), dimaprit (H2R), and R-(alpha)-methylhistamine (H3R) were measured by calcium imaging. Histamine receptor proteins were detected by Western blot analysis and immunocytochemistry. H1R, H2R, and H3R expression was found in tissue and cultured cells. Carbachol stimulated equal numbers of detrusor and sphincter cells (60% and 51%, respectively). Histamine stimulated significantly more cells than carbachol in detrusor (100%) and sphincter (99.34%) cells. Calcium responses to carbachol in detrusor and sphincter cells were comparable and did not differ from those to histamine in detrusor cells. However, histamine and specific agonists stimulated more sphincter cells than did carbachol (P <0.001), and the calcium increase was greater in sphincter cells than in detrusor cells. Single cell analysis revealed comparable H2R responses in detrusor and sphincter cells, but H1R and H3R-mediated calcium reactions were significantly greater in sphincter cells. Histamine very effectively induces calcium release in smooth muscle cells. In sphincter cells, histamine is even more effective than carbachol regarding the number of reacting cells and the intracellular calcium increase. Some of the variability in the outcome of antihistaminic interstitial cystitis therapies might be caused by the ineffectiveness of the chosen antihistaminic or unintentional weakening of sphincteric function.

  4. Gradient approach to quantify the gradation smoothness for output media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Youn Jin; Bang, Yousun; Choh, Heui-Keun

    2010-01-01

    We aim to quantify the perception of color gradation smoothness using objectively measurable properties. We propose a model to compute the smoothness of hardcopy color-to-color gradations. It is a gradient-based method that can be determined as a function of the 95th percentile of second derivative for the tone-jump estimator and the fifth percentile of first derivative for the tone-clipping estimator. Performance of the model and a previously suggested method were psychophysically appreciated, and their prediction accuracies were compared to each other. Our model showed a stronger Pearson correlation to the corresponding visual data, and the magnitude of the Pearson correlation reached up to 0.87. Its statistical significance was verified through analysis of variance. Color variations of the representative memory colors-blue sky, green grass and Caucasian skin-were rendered as gradational scales and utilized as the test stimuli.

  5. Embeddings between weighted Copson and Cesaro function spaces

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Gogatishvili, Amiran; Mustafayev, R.Ch.; Ünver, T.

    2017-01-01

    Roč. 67, č. 4 (2017), s. 1005-1132 ISSN 0011-4642 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-14743S Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : Cesaro and Copson function spaces * embedding * iterated Hardy inequalities Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics OBOR OECD: Pure mathematics Impact factor: 0.364, year: 2016 https://link.springer.com/article/10.21136/CMJ.2017.0424-16

  6. ALTAS DENSIDADES DE PLANTIO NA CULTURA DO ABACAXI CV. SMOOTH CAYENNE, SOB CONDIÇÕES DE SEQUEIRO HIGH PLANTING DENSITY FOR THE SMOOTH CAYENNE PINEAPPLE CROP, GROWN UNDER RAINFED CONDITIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LUCIANA LIMA DE ALMEIDA SANTANA

    2001-08-01

    crop yield. However, the international market, what may be followed by Brazilian consumers, is requiring smaller and smaller fruits. This work aimed in evaluating the effect of high densities in double row planting systems on the quantitative and qualitative production of Smooth Cayenne pineapple grown under rainfed conditions. Planting densities varying from 51.280 plants/ha to 100.000 plants/ha, were studied in a randomized blocks experimental design with five replications and 12 treatments in a factorial scheme of 4 x 3, corresponding to four combinations of spacing between double rows and between simple rows within double rows (90 x 40 cm, 90 x 30 cm, 80 x 30 cm, 70 x 30 cm, and to three spacing between plants within each row (30, 25 and 20 cm. The analyses of variance determined statistical difference only for the yield as a function of spacing between plants within the row, being the highest for 20 cm. Average fruit weight, dimensions and quality (sugars, acidity, juice content, sugar/acidity ratio were not significantly influenced by the densities studied, keeping up the values within the cultivar's patterns. For each increasing of 10.000 plants/ha yield grew by 8.27 t/ha and average fruit weight dropped by 102 g. Under the environmental conditions of the Coastal Tableland of North Bahia, Brazil, the Smooth Cayenne pineapple crop showed good potential for the use of high planting densities, even under rainfed cultivation, being possible to get yield above 80t/ha and average fruit weight over 1,0 kg.

  7. Nucleon structure functions in noncommutative space-time

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rafiei, A.; Rezaei, Z.; Mirjalili, A. [Yazd University, Physics Department, Yazd (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

    2017-05-15

    In the context of noncommutative space-time we investigate the nucleon structure functions which play an important role in identifying the internal structure of nucleons. We use the corrected vertices and employ new vertices that appear in two approaches of noncommutativity and calculate the proton structure functions in terms of the noncommutative tensor θ{sub μν}. To check our results we plot the nucleon structure function (NSF), F{sub 2}(x), and compare it with experimental data and the results from the GRV, GJR and CT10 parametrization models. We show that with the new vertex that arises the noncommutativity correction will lead to a better consistency between theoretical results and experimental data for the NSF. This consistency will be better for small values of the Bjorken variable x. To indicate and confirm the validity of our calculations we also act conversely. We obtain a lower bound for the numerical values of Λ{sub NC} scale which correspond to recent reports. (orig.)

  8. Smooth muscle-like tissue constructs with circumferentially oriented cells formed by the cell fiber technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsiao, Amy Y; Okitsu, Teru; Onoe, Hiroaki; Kiyosawa, Mahiro; Teramae, Hiroki; Iwanaga, Shintaroh; Kazama, Tomohiko; Matsumoto, Taro; Takeuchi, Shoji

    2015-01-01

    The proper functioning of many organs and tissues containing smooth muscles greatly depends on the intricate organization of the smooth muscle cells oriented in appropriate directions. Consequently controlling the cellular orientation in three-dimensional (3D) cellular constructs is an important issue in engineering tissues of smooth muscles. However, the ability to precisely control the cellular orientation at the microscale cannot be achieved by various commonly used 3D tissue engineering building blocks such as spheroids. This paper presents the formation of coiled spring-shaped 3D cellular constructs containing circumferentially oriented smooth muscle-like cells differentiated from dedifferentiated fat (DFAT) cells. By using the cell fiber technology, DFAT cells suspended in a mixture of extracellular proteins possessing an optimized stiffness were encapsulated in the core region of alginate shell microfibers and uniformly aligned to the longitudinal direction. Upon differentiation induction to the smooth muscle lineage, DFAT cell fibers self-assembled to coiled spring structures where the cells became circumferentially oriented. By changing the initial core-shell microfiber diameter, we demonstrated that the spring pitch and diameter could be controlled. 21 days after differentiation induction, the cell fibers contained high percentages of ASMA-positive and calponin-positive cells. Our technology to create these smooth muscle-like spring constructs enabled precise control of cellular alignment and orientation in 3D. These constructs can further serve as tissue engineering building blocks for larger organs and cellular implants used in clinical treatments.

  9. 45Ca distribution and transport in saponin skinned vascular smooth muscle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stout, M.A.; Diecke, F.P.

    1983-01-01

    45 Ca distribution and transport were studied in chemically skinned strips of caudal artery from Kyoto Wistar rats. Sarcolemmal membranes were made hyperpermeable by exposure for 60 min to solutions containing 0.1 mg/ml of saponin. Skinned helical strips responded with graded contractions to changes in ethylene glycol bis-(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N'-tetraacetic acid buffered free Ca solutions (10(-7) to 10(-5) M) and were sensitive to the Mg-ATP concentration. Tissues loaded in the presence of 10(-7) M Ca contracted in response to 10 mM caffeine. These experiments indicate the strips are skinned and possess a functional regulatory and contractile system and an intact Ca sequestering system. 45 Ca distributes in three compartments in skinned caudal artery strips. The Ca contents of two components are linear functions of the Ca-ethylene glycol bis-(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N'-tetraacetic acid concentration and desaturate at rapid rates. They correspond to the extracellular and cytoplasmic spaces. A significantly smaller component releases Ca at comparatively slower rates. 45 Ca uptake by the slow component consists of an ATP-dependent and an ATP-independent fraction. The 45 Ca content of the ATP-dependent fraction is a function of the free Ca concentration and is independent of the Ca-ethylene glycol bis-(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N'-tetraacetic acid concentration. Its content was enhanced by oxalate and was abolished by Triton X-100 skinning solutions. The ATP-independent component was not affected by Triton X-100 skinning and may represent Ca binding to cytoplasmic molecules and structures. The sequestered Ca was released with caffeine or Ca but not by epinephrine. The observations indicate that the sarcoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria of vascular smooth muscle strips skinned with saponin retain their functional integrity after saponin skinning

  10. Leading effect of visual plant characteristics for functional uses of green spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beyza Şat Güngör

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Plant materials have the ability to lead the people’s functional use purposes with their visual characteristics. In this study, we examined whether the functional use follows the plant materials’ visual characteristics like a big size tree’s shade use. As visual characteristics of the plants; size, texture, color, and planting design basics are considered. Six urban green spaces determined for this experimental field study in the center of Kırklareli Province, and then a site survey implemented to determine apparent visual characteristics of the plants and matched functional uses with their visual characteristics. Five functional use types determined according to the visual plant characteristics (sitting and resting, pedestrian transition, meeting point, walking and recreational uses. Best representing four photos of each green space’s plant materials are used in photo questionnaires. 89 photo questionnaires were conducted. Five functional use type options indicated in the questionnaire for each green space and one of the options were coinciding with the visual plant characteristics of that green space according to the site survey results. For the analyses of questionnaires; SPSS 17 statistical packages were used. As result; the hypothesis was confirmed by coinciding statistical analyses results with the site survey results.

  11. Mapping the Pareto optimal design space for a functionally deimmunized biotherapeutic candidate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salvat, Regina S; Parker, Andrew S; Choi, Yoonjoo; Bailey-Kellogg, Chris; Griswold, Karl E

    2015-01-01

    The immunogenicity of biotherapeutics can bottleneck development pipelines and poses a barrier to widespread clinical application. As a result, there is a growing need for improved deimmunization technologies. We have recently described algorithms that simultaneously optimize proteins for both reduced T cell epitope content and high-level function. In silico analysis of this dual objective design space reveals that there is no single global optimum with respect to protein deimmunization. Instead, mutagenic epitope deletion yields a spectrum of designs that exhibit tradeoffs between immunogenic potential and molecular function. The leading edge of this design space is the Pareto frontier, i.e. the undominated variants for which no other single design exhibits better performance in both criteria. Here, the Pareto frontier of a therapeutic enzyme has been designed, constructed, and evaluated experimentally. Various measures of protein performance were found to map a functional sequence space that correlated well with computational predictions. These results represent the first systematic and rigorous assessment of the functional penalty that must be paid for pursuing progressively more deimmunized biotherapeutic candidates. Given this capacity to rapidly assess and design for tradeoffs between protein immunogenicity and functionality, these algorithms may prove useful in augmenting, accelerating, and de-risking experimental deimmunization efforts.

  12. Molecular Expression and Pharmacological Evidence for a Functional Role of Kv7 Channel Subtypes in Guinea Pig Urinary Bladder Smooth Muscle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afeli, Serge A. Y.; Malysz, John; Petkov, Georgi V.

    2013-01-01

    Voltage-gated Kv7 (KCNQ) channels are emerging as essential regulators of smooth muscle excitability and contractility. However, their physiological role in detrusor smooth muscle (DSM) remains to be elucidated. Here, we explored the molecular expression and function of Kv7 channel subtypes in guinea pig DSM by RT-PCR, qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, electrophysiology, and isometric tension recordings. In whole DSM tissue, mRNAs for all Kv7 channel subtypes were detected in a rank order: Kv7.1~Kv7.2Kv7.3~Kv7.5Kv7.4. In contrast, freshly-isolated DSM cells showed mRNA expression of: Kv7.1~Kv7.2Kv7.5Kv7.3~Kv7.4. Immunohistochemical confocal microscopy analyses of DSM, conducted by using co-labeling of Kv7 channel subtype-specific antibodies and α-smooth muscle actin, detected protein expression for all Kv7 channel subtypes, except for the Kv7.4, in DSM cells. L-364373 (R-L3), a Kv7.1 channel activator, and retigabine, a Kv7.2-7.5 channel activator, inhibited spontaneous phasic contractions and the 10-Hz electrical field stimulation (EFS)-induced contractions of DSM isolated strips. Linopiridine and XE991, two pan-Kv7 (effective at Kv7.1-Kv7.5 subtypes) channel inhibitors, had opposite effects increasing DSM spontaneous phasic and 10 Hz EFS-induced contractions. EFS-induced DSM contractions generated by a wide range of stimulation frequencies were decreased by L-364373 (10 µM) or retigabine (10 µM), and increased by XE991 (10 µM). Retigabine (10 µM) induced hyperpolarization and inhibited spontaneous action potentials in freshly-isolated DSM cells. In summary, Kv7 channel subtypes are expressed at mRNA and protein levels in guinea pig DSM cells. Their pharmacological modulation can control DSM contractility and excitability; therefore, Kv7 channel subtypes provide potential novel therapeutic targets for urinary bladder dysfunction. PMID:24073284

  13. Space autonomy as migration of functionality: the mars case

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Grant, T.; Bos, A.; Neerincx, M.; Soler, A.O.; Brauer, U.; Wolff, M.

    2006-01-01

    This paper develops Grandjean and Lecouat's insight that spacecraft autonomy can be seen as the migration of functionality from the ground segment to the space segment. Their insight is extended to manned planetary exploration missions and applied to an IT-based crew assistant for supporting manned

  14. Instanton counting, Macdonald function and the moduli space of D-branes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Awata, Hidetoshi; Kanno, Hiroaki

    2005-01-01

    We argue the connection of Nekrasov's partition function in the Ω background and the moduli space of D-branes, suggested by the idea of geometric engineering and Gopakumar-Vafa invariants. In the instanton expansion of N = 2 SU(2) Yang-Mills theory the Nakrasov's partition function with equivariant parameters ε 1 ,ε 2 of toric action on C 2 factorizes correctly as the character of SU(2) L x SU(2) R spin representation. We show that up to two instantons the spin contents are consistent with the Lefschetz action on the moduli space of D2-branes on (local) F 0 . We also present an attempt at constructing a refined topological vertex in terms of the Macdonald function. The refined topological vertex with two parameters of T 2 action allows us to obtain the generating functions of equivariant χ y and elliptic genera of the Hilbert scheme of n points on C 2 by the method of topological vertex

  15. Scalar Green's functions in an Euclidean space with a conical-type line singularity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guimaraes, M.E.X.; Linet, B.

    1994-01-01

    In an Euclidean space with a conical-type line singularity, we determine the Green's function for a charged massive scalar field interacting with a magnetic flux running through the line singularity. We give an integral expression of the Green's function and a local form in the neighbourhood of the point source, where it is the sum of the usual Green's function in Euclidean space and a regular term. As an application, we derive the vacuum energy-momentum tensor in the massless case for an arbitrary magnetic flux. (orig.)

  16. Discrete Morse functions for graph configuration spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sawicki, A

    2012-01-01

    We present an alternative application of discrete Morse theory for two-particle graph configuration spaces. In contrast to previous constructions, which are based on discrete Morse vector fields, our approach is through Morse functions, which have a nice physical interpretation as two-body potentials constructed from one-body potentials. We also give a brief introduction to discrete Morse theory. Our motivation comes from the problem of quantum statistics for particles on networks, for which generalized versions of anyon statistics can appear. (paper)

  17. On form factors and correlation functions in twistor space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koster, Laura; Mitev, Vladimir; Staudacher, Matthias; Wilhelm, Matthias

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, we continue our study of form factors and correlation functions of gauge-invariant local composite operators in the twistor-space formulation of N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. Using the vertices for these operators obtained in our recent papers (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.011601; 10.1007/JHEP06(2016)162 ), we show how to calculate the twistor-space diagrams for general N k MHV form factors via the inverse soft limit, in analogy to the amplitude case. For general operators without α-dot indices, we then reexpress the NMHV form factors from the position-twistor calculation in terms of momentum twistors, deriving and expanding on a relation between the two twistor formalisms previously observed in the case of amplitudes. Furthermore, we discuss the calculation of generalized form factors and correlation functions as well as the extension to loop level, in particular providing an argument promised in https://www.doi.org/10.1002/prop.201400085.

  18. On form factors and correlation functions in twistor space

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Koster, Laura [Institut für Mathematik, Institut für Physik und IRIS Adlershof,Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin,Zum Großen Windkanal 6, 12489 Berlin (Germany); Mitev, Vladimir [PRISMA Cluster of Excellence, Institut für Physik, WA THEP,Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz,Staudingerweg 7, 55128 Mainz (Germany); Staudacher, Matthias [Institut für Mathematik, Institut für Physik und IRIS Adlershof,Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin,Zum Großen Windkanal 6, 12489 Berlin (Germany); Wilhelm, Matthias [Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University,Blegdamsvej 17, 2100 Copenhagen Ø (Denmark)

    2017-03-24

    In this paper, we continue our study of form factors and correlation functions of gauge-invariant local composite operators in the twistor-space formulation of N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. Using the vertices for these operators obtained in our recent papers (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.011601; 10.1007/JHEP06(2016)162 ), we show how to calculate the twistor-space diagrams for general N{sup k}MHV form factors via the inverse soft limit, in analogy to the amplitude case. For general operators without α-dot indices, we then reexpress the NMHV form factors from the position-twistor calculation in terms of momentum twistors, deriving and expanding on a relation between the two twistor formalisms previously observed in the case of amplitudes. Furthermore, we discuss the calculation of generalized form factors and correlation functions as well as the extension to loop level, in particular providing an argument promised in https://www.doi.org/10.1002/prop.201400085.

  19. Geometric properties of Banach spaces and nonlinear iterations

    CERN Document Server

    Chidume, Charles

    2009-01-01

    Nonlinear functional analysis and applications is an area of study that has provided fascination for many mathematicians across the world. This monograph delves specifically into the topic of the geometric properties of Banach spaces and nonlinear iterations, a subject of extensive research over the past thirty years. Chapters 1 to 5 develop materials on convexity and smoothness of Banach spaces, associated moduli and connections with duality maps. Key results obtained are summarized at the end of each chapter for easy reference. Chapters 6 to 23 deal with an in-depth, comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of the main ideas, concepts and results on iterative algorithms for the approximation of fixed points of nonlinear nonexpansive and pseudo-contractive-type mappings. This includes detailed workings on solutions of variational inequality problems, solutions of Hammerstein integral equations, and common fixed points (and common zeros) of families of nonlinear mappings. Carefully referenced and full of recent,...

  20. Investigation of angular and axial smoothing of PET data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Daube-Witherspoon, M.E.; Carson, R.E.

    1996-01-01

    Radial filtering of emission and transmission data is routinely performed in PET during reconstruction in order to reduce image noise. Angular smoothing is not typically done, due to the introduction of a non-uniform resolution loss; axial filtering is also not usually performed on data acquired in 2D mode. The goal of this paper was to assess the effects of angular and axial smoothing on noise and resolution. Angular and axial smoothing was incorporated into the reconstruction process on the Scanditronix PC2048-15B brain PET scanner. In-plane spatial resolution and noise reduction were measured for different amounts of radial and angular smoothing. For radial positions away from the center of the scanner, noise reduction and degraded tangential resolution with no loss of radial resolution were seen. Near the center, no resolution loss was observed, but there was also no reduction in noise for angular filters up to a 7 degrees FWHM. These results can be understood by considering the combined effects of smoothing projections across rows (angles) and then summing (backprojecting). Thus, angular smoothing is not optimal due to its anisotropic noise reduction and resolution degradation properties. However, uniform noise reduction comparable to that seen with radial filtering can be achieved with axial smoothing of transmission data. The axial results suggest that combined radial and axial transmission smoothing could lead to improved noise characteristics with more isotropic resolution degradation

  1. Mechanisms of mechanical strain memory in airway smooth muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Hak Rim; Hai, Chi-Ming

    2005-10-01

    We evaluated the hypothesis that mechanical deformation of airway smooth muscle induces structural remodeling of airway smooth muscle cells, thereby modulating mechanical performance in subsequent contractions. This hypothesis implied that past experience of mechanical deformation was retained (or "memorized") as structural changes in airway smooth muscle cells, which modulated the cell's subsequent contractile responses. We termed this phenomenon mechanical strain memory. Preshortening has been found to induce attenuation of both force and isotonic shortening velocity in cholinergic receptor-activated airway smooth muscle. Rapid stretching of cholinergic receptor-activated airway smooth muscle from an initial length to a final length resulted in post-stretch force and myosin light chain phosphorylation that correlated significantly with initial length. Thus post-stretch muscle strips appeared to retain memory of the initial length prior to rapid stretch (mechanical strain memory). Cytoskeletal recruitment of actin- and integrin-binding proteins and Erk 1/2 MAPK appeared to be important mechanisms of mechanical strain memory. Sinusoidal length oscillation led to force attenuation during oscillation and in subsequent contractions in intact airway smooth muscle, and p38 MAPK appeared to be an important mechanism. In contrast, application of local mechanical strain to cultured airway smooth muscle cells induced local actin polymerization and cytoskeletal stiffening. It is conceivable that deep inspiration-induced bronchoprotection may be a manifestation of mechanical strain memory such that mechanical deformation from past breathing cycles modulated the mechanical performance of airway smooth muscle in subsequent cycles in a continuous and dynamic manner.

  2. Cholesterol is necessary both for the toxic effect of Abeta peptides on vascular smooth muscle cells and for Abeta binding to vascular smooth muscle cell membranes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Subasinghe, Supundi; Unabia, Sharon; Barrow, Colin J; Mok, Su San; Aguilar, Marie-Isabel; Small, David H

    2003-02-01

    Accumulation of beta amyloid (Abeta) in the brain is central to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Abeta can bind to membrane lipids and this binding may have detrimental effects on cell function. In this study, surface plasmon resonance technology was used to study Abeta binding to membranes. Abeta peptides bound to synthetic lipid mixtures and to an intact plasma membrane preparation isolated from vascular smooth muscle cells. Abeta peptides were also toxic to vascular smooth muscle cells. There was a good correlation between the toxic effect of Abeta peptides and their membrane binding. 'Ageing' the Abeta peptides by incubation for 5 days increased the proportion of oligomeric species, and also increased toxicity and the amount of binding to lipids. The toxicities of various Abeta analogs correlated with their lipid binding. Significantly, binding was influenced by the concentration of cholesterol in the lipid mixture. Reduction of cholesterol in vascular smooth muscle cells not only reduced the binding of Abeta to purified plasma membrane preparations but also reduced Abeta toxicity. The results support the view that Abeta toxicity is a direct consequence of binding to lipids in the membrane. Reduction of membrane cholesterol using cholesterol-lowering drugs may be of therapeutic benefit because it reduces Abeta-membrane binding.

  3. Singular points in moduli spaces of Yang-Mills fields

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ticciati, R.

    1984-01-01

    This thesis investigates the metric dependence of the moduli spaces of Yang-Mills fields of an SU(2) principal bundle P with chern number -1 over a four-dimensional, simply-connected, oriented, compact smooth manifold M with positive definite intersection form. The purpose of this investigation is to suggest that the surgery class of the moduli space of irreducible connections is, for a generic metric, a Z 2 topological invariant of the smooth structure on M. There are three main parts. The first two parts are local analysis of singular points in the moduli spaces. The last part is global. The first part shows that the set of metrics for which the moduli space of irreducible connections has only non-degenerate singularities has codimension at least one in the space of all metrics. The second part shows that, for a one-parameter family of moduli spaces in a direction transverse to the set of metrics for which the moduli spaces have singularities, passing through a non-degenerate singularity of the simplest type changes the moduli space by a cobordism. The third part shows that generic one-parameter families of metrics give rise to six-dimensional manifolds, the corresponding family of moduli spaces of irreducible connections. It is shown that when M is homeomorphic to S 4 the six-dimensional manifold is a proper cobordism, thus establishing the independence of the surgery class of the moduli space on the metric on M

  4. Criterion for the nuclearity of spaces of functions of infinite number of variables

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gali, I.M.

    1977-08-01

    The paper formulates a new necessary and sufficient condition for the nuclearity of spaces of infinite number of variables, and defines new nuclear spaces which play an important role in the field of functional analysis and quantum field theory. Also the condition for nuclearity of the infinite weighted tensor product of nuclear spaces is given

  5. MicroRNAs dynamically remodel gastrointestinal smooth muscle cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chanjae Park

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Smooth muscle cells (SMCs express a unique set of microRNAs (miRNAs which regulate and maintain the differentiation state of SMCs. The goal of this study was to investigate the role of miRNAs during the development of gastrointestinal (GI SMCs in a transgenic animal model. We generated SMC-specific Dicer null animals that express the reporter, green fluorescence protein, in a SMC-specific manner. SMC-specific knockout of Dicer prevented SMC miRNA biogenesis, causing dramatic changes in phenotype, function, and global gene expression in SMCs: the mutant mice developed severe dilation of the intestinal tract associated with the thinning and destruction of the smooth muscle (SM layers; contractile motility in the mutant intestine was dramatically decreased; and SM contractile genes and transcriptional regulators were extensively down-regulated in the mutant SMCs. Profiling and bioinformatic analyses showed that SMC phenotype is regulated by a complex network of positive and negative feedback by SMC miRNAs, serum response factor (SRF, and other transcriptional factors. Taken together, our data suggest that SMC miRNAs are required for the development and survival of SMCs in the GI tract.

  6. Expression and function of K(V)2-containing channels in human urinary bladder smooth muscle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hristov, Kiril L; Chen, Muyan; Afeli, Serge A Y; Cheng, Qiuping; Rovner, Eric S; Petkov, Georgi V

    2012-06-01

    The functional role of the voltage-gated K(+) (K(V)) channels in human detrusor smooth muscle (DSM) is largely unexplored. Here, we provide molecular, electrophysiological, and functional evidence for the expression of K(V)2.1, K(V)2.2, and the electrically silent K(V)9.3 subunits in human DSM. Stromatoxin-1 (ScTx1), a selective inhibitor of K(V)2.1, K(V)2.2, and K(V)4.2 homotetrameric channels and of K(V)2.1/9.3 heterotetrameric channels, was used to examine the role of these channels in human DSM function. Human DSM tissues were obtained during open bladder surgeries from patients without a history of overactive bladder. Freshly isolated human DSM cells were studied using RT-PCR, immunocytochemistry, live-cell Ca(2+) imaging, and the perforated whole cell patch-clamp technique. Isometric DSM tension recordings of human DSM isolated strips were conducted using tissue baths. RT-PCR experiments showed mRNA expression of K(V)2.1, K(V)2.2, and K(V)9.3 (but not K(V)4.2) channel subunits in human isolated DSM cells. K(V)2.1 and K(V)2.2 protein expression was confirmed by Western blot analysis and immunocytochemistry. Perforated whole cell patch-clamp experiments revealed that ScTx1 (100 nM) inhibited the amplitude of the voltage step-induced K(V) current in freshly isolated human DSM cells. ScTx1 (100 nM) significantly increased the intracellular Ca(2+) level in DSM cells. In human DSM isolated strips, ScTx1 (100 nM) increased the spontaneous phasic contraction amplitude and muscle force, and enhanced the amplitude of the electrical field stimulation-induced contractions within the range of 3.5-30 Hz stimulation frequencies. These findings reveal that ScTx1-sensitive K(V)2-containing channels are key regulators of human DSM excitability and contractility and may represent new targets for pharmacological or genetic intervention for bladder dysfunction.

  7. Deletion of Dicer in smooth muscle affects voiding pattern and reduces detrusor contractility and neuroeffector transmission.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mardjaneh Karbalaei Sadegh

    Full Text Available MicroRNAs have emerged as important regulators of smooth muscle phenotype and may play important roles in pathogenesis of various smooth muscle related disease states. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of miRNAs for urinary bladder function. We used an inducible and smooth muscle specific Dicer knockout (KO mouse which resulted in significantly reduced levels of miRNAs, including miR-145, miR-143, miR-22, miR125b-5p and miR-27a, from detrusor preparations without mucosa. Deletion of Dicer resulted in a disturbed micturition pattern in vivo and reduced depolarization-induced pressure development in the isolated detrusor. Furthermore, electrical field stimulation revealed a decreased cholinergic but maintained purinergic component of neurogenic activation in Dicer KO bladder strips. The ultrastructure of detrusor smooth muscle cells was well maintained, and the density of nerve terminals was similar. Western blotting demonstrated reduced contents of calponin and desmin. Smooth muscle α-actin, SM22α and myocardin were unchanged. Activation of strips with exogenous agonists showed that depolarization-induced contraction was preferentially reduced; ATP- and calyculin A-induced contractions were unchanged. Quantitative real time PCR and western blotting demonstrated reduced expression of Cav1.2 (Cacna1c. It is concluded that smooth muscle miRNAs play an important role for detrusor contractility and voiding pattern of unrestrained mice. This is mediated in part via effects on expression of smooth muscle differentiation markers and L-type Ca(2+ channels in the detrusor.

  8. Surface smoothness

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tummala, Sudhakar; Dam, Erik B.

    2010-01-01

    accuracy, such novel markers must therefore be validated against clinically meaningful end-goals such as the ability to allow correct diagnosis. We present a method for automatic cartilage surface smoothness quantification in the knee joint. The quantification is based on a curvature flow method used....... We demonstrate that the fully automatic markers eliminate the time required for radiologist annotations, and in addition provide a diagnostic marker superior to the evaluated semi-manual markers....

  9. Estimating a Smooth Common Transfer Function with a Panel of Time Series - Inflow of Larvae Cod as an Example

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elizabeth Hansen

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} The annual response variable in an ecological monitoring study often relates linearly to the weighted cumulative effect of some daily covariate, after adjusting for other annual covariates. Here we consider the problem of non-parametrically estimating the weights involved in computing the aforementioned cumulative effect, with a panel of short and contemporaneously correlated time series whose responses share the common cumulative effect of a daily covariate. The sequence of (unknown daily weights constitutes the so-called transfer function. Specifically, we consider the problem of estimating a smooth common transfer function shared by a panel of short time series that are contemporaneously correlated. We propose an estimation scheme using a likelihood approach that penalizes the roughness of the common transfer function. We illustrate the proposed method with a simulation study and a biological example of indirectly estimating the spawning date distribution of North Sea cod.

  10. Experimental investigation of smoothing by spectral dispersion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Regan, Sean P.; Marozas, John A.; Kelly, John H.; Boehly, Thomas R.; Donaldson, William R.; Jaanimagi, Paul A.; Keck, Robert L.; Kessler, Terrance J.; Meyerhofer, David D.; Seka, Wolf

    2000-01-01

    Measurements of smoothing rates for smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) of high-power, solid-state laser beams used for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research are reported. Smoothing rates were obtained from the intensity distributions of equivalent target plane images for laser pulses of varying duration. Simulations of the experimental data with the known properties of the phase plates and the frequency modulators are in good agreement with the experimental data. These results inspire confidence in extrapolating to higher bandwidths and other SSD configurations that may be suitable for ICF experiments and ultimately for direct-drive laser-fusion ignition. (c) 2000 Optical Society of America

  11. Pure state condition for the semi-classical Wigner function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ozorio de Almeida, A.M.

    1982-01-01

    The Wigner function W(p,q) is a symmetrized Fourier transform of the density matrix e(q 1 ,q 2 ), representing quantum-mechanical states or their statistical mixture in phase space. Identification of these two alternatives in the case of density matrices depends on the projection identity e 2 = e; its Wigner correspondence is the pure state condition. This criterion is applied to the Wigner functions botained from standard semiclassical wave functions, determining as pure states those whose classical invariant tori satisfy the generalized Bohr-Sommerfeld conditions. Superpositions of eigenstates are then examined and it is found that the Wigner function corresponding to Gaussian random wave functions are smoothed out in the manner of mixedstate Wigner functions. Attention is also given to the pure-state condition in the case where an angular coordinate is used. (orig.)

  12. Smooth and robust solutions for Dirichlet boundary control of fluid-solid conjugate heat transfer problems

    KAUST Repository

    Yan, Yan

    2015-01-01

    We study a new optimization scheme that generates smooth and robust solutions for Dirichlet velocity boundary control (DVBC) of conjugate heat transfer (CHT) processes. The solutions to the DVBC of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are typically nonsmooth, due to the regularity degradation of the boundary stress in the adjoint Navier-Stokes equations. This nonsmoothness is inherited by the solutions to the DVBC of CHT processes, since the CHT process couples the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid motion with the convection-diffusion equations of fluid-solid thermal interaction. Our objective in the CHT boundary control problem is to select optimally the fluid inflow profile that minimizes an objective function that involves the sum of the mismatch between the temperature distribution in the fluid system and a prescribed temperature profile and the cost of the control.Our strategy to resolve the nonsmoothness of the boundary control solution is based on two features, namely, the objective function with a regularization term on the gradient of the control profile on both the continuous and the discrete levels, and the optimization scheme with either explicit or implicit smoothing effects, such as the smoothed Steepest Descent and the Limited-memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (L-BFGS) methods. Our strategy to achieve the robustness of the solution process is based on combining the smoothed optimization scheme with the numerical continuation technique on the regularization parameters in the objective function. In the section of numerical studies, we present two suites of experiments. In the first one, we demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our numerical schemes in recovering the boundary control profile of the standard case of a Poiseuille flow. In the second one, we illustrate the robustness of our optimization schemes via solving more challenging DVBC problems for both the channel flow and the flow past a square cylinder, which use initial

  13. Frames and other bases in abstract and function spaces novel methods in harmonic analysis

    CERN Document Server

    Gia, Quoc; Mayeli, Azita; Mhaskar, Hrushikesh; Zhou, Ding-Xuan

    2017-01-01

    The first of a two volume set on novel methods in harmonic analysis, this book draws on a number of original research and survey papers from well-known specialists detailing the latest innovations and recently discovered links between various fields. Along with many deep theoretical results, these volumes contain numerous applications to problems in signal processing, medical imaging, geodesy, statistics, and data science. The chapters within cover an impressive range of ideas from both traditional and modern harmonic analysis, such as: the Fourier transform, Shannon sampling, frames, wavelets, functions on Euclidean spaces, analysis on function spaces of Riemannian and sub-Riemannian manifolds, Fourier analysis on manifolds and Lie groups, analysis on combinatorial graphs, sheaves, co-sheaves, and persistent homologies on topological spaces. Volume I is organized around the theme of frames and other bases in abstract and function spaces, covering topics such as: The advanced development of frames, including ...

  14. Divergent effects of 17-{beta}-estradiol on human vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cell function diminishes TNF-{alpha}-induced neointima formation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nintasen, Rungrat [Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Center (MCRC), University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Department of Tropical Pathology, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University (Thailand); Riches, Kirsten; Mughal, Romana S. [Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Center (MCRC), University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Viriyavejakul, Parnpen; Chaisri, Urai; Maneerat, Yaowapa [Department of Tropical Pathology, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University (Thailand); Turner, Neil A. [Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Center (MCRC), University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Porter, Karen E., E-mail: medkep@leeds.ac.uk [Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom); Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Center (MCRC), University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT (United Kingdom)

    2012-04-20

    Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer TNF-{alpha} augments neointimal hyperplasia in human saphenous vein. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer TNF-{alpha} induces detrimental effects on endothelial and smooth muscle cell function. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Estradiol exerts modulatory effects on TNF-induced vascular cell functions. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer The modulatory effects of estradiol are discriminatory and cell-type specific. -- Abstract: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a condition characterized by increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-{alpha} (TNF-{alpha}). TNF-{alpha} can induce vascular endothelial cell (EC) and smooth muscle cell (SMC) dysfunction, central events in development of neointimal lesions. The reduced incidence of CHD in young women is believed to be due to the protective effects of estradiol (E2). We therefore investigated the effects of TNF-{alpha} on human neointima formation and SMC/EC functions and any modulatory effects of E2. Saphenous vein (SV) segments were cultured in the presence of TNF-{alpha} (10 ng/ml), E2 (2.5 nM) or both in combination. Neointimal thickening was augmented by incubation with TNF-{alpha}, an effect that was abolished by co-culture with E2. TNF-{alpha} increased SV-SMC proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner that was optimal at 10 ng/ml (1.5-fold increase), and abolished by E2 at all concentrations studied (1-50 nM). Surprisingly, E2 itself at low concentrations (1 and 5 nM) stimulated SV-SMC proliferation to a level comparable to that of TNF-{alpha} alone. SV-EC migration was significantly impaired by TNF-{alpha} (42% of control), and co-culture with E2 partially restored the ability of SV-EC to migrate and repair the wound. In contrast, TNF-{alpha} increased SV-SMC migration by 1.7-fold, an effect that was completely reversed by co-incubation with E2. Finally, TNF-{alpha} potently induced ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 expression in both SV-EC and SV-SMC. However there

  15. Fast compact algorithms and software for spline smoothing

    CERN Document Server

    Weinert, Howard L

    2012-01-01

    Fast Compact Algorithms and Software for Spline Smoothing investigates algorithmic alternatives for computing cubic smoothing splines when the amount of smoothing is determined automatically by minimizing the generalized cross-validation score. These algorithms are based on Cholesky factorization, QR factorization, or the fast Fourier transform. All algorithms are implemented in MATLAB and are compared based on speed, memory use, and accuracy. An overall best algorithm is identified, which allows very large data sets to be processed quickly on a personal computer.

  16. Direct numerical simulation of open channel flow over smooth-to-rough and rough-to-smooth step changes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rouhi, Amirreza; Chung, Daniel; Hutchins, Nicholas

    2017-11-01

    Direct numerical simulations (DNSs) are reported for open channel flow over streamwise-alternating patches of smooth and fully rough walls. Owing to the streamwise periodicity, the flow configuration is composed of a step change from smooth to rough, and a step change from rough to smooth. The friction Reynolds number varies from 443 over the smooth patch to 715 over the rough patch. The flow is thoroughly studied by mean and fluctuation profiles, and spectrograms. The detailed flow from DNS reveals discrepancies of up to 50% among the various definitions of the internal-layer thickness, with apparent power-law exponents differing by up to 60%. The definition based on the logarithmic slope of the velocity profile, as proposed by Chamorro et al. (Boundary-Layer Meteorol., vol. 130, 2009, pp. 29-41), is most consistent with the physical notion of the internal layer; this is supported by the defect similarity based on this internal-layer thickness, and the streamwise homogeneity of the dissipation length-scale within this internal layer. The statistics inside this internal-layer, and the growth of the internal layer itself, are minimally affected by the streamwise periodicity when the patch length is at least six times the channel height.

  17. Revealed smooth nontransitive preferences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Keiding, Hans; Tvede, Mich

    2013-01-01

    In the present paper, we are concerned with the behavioural consequences of consumers having nontransitive preference relations. Data sets consist of finitely many observations of price vectors and consumption bundles. A preference relation rationalizes a data set provided that for every observed...... consumption bundle, all strictly preferred bundles are more expensive than the observed bundle. Our main result is that data sets can be rationalized by a smooth nontransitive preference relation if and only if prices can normalized such that the law of demand is satisfied. Market data sets consist of finitely...... many observations of price vectors, lists of individual incomes and aggregate demands. We apply our main result to characterize market data sets consistent with equilibrium behaviour of pure-exchange economies with smooth nontransitive consumers....

  18. Space Science Cloud: a Virtual Space Science Research Platform Based on Cloud Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Xiaoyan; Tong, Jizhou; Zou, Ziming

    Through independent and co-operational science missions, Strategic Pioneer Program (SPP) on Space Science, the new initiative of space science program in China which was approved by CAS and implemented by National Space Science Center (NSSC), dedicates to seek new discoveries and new breakthroughs in space science, thus deepen the understanding of universe and planet earth. In the framework of this program, in order to support the operations of space science missions and satisfy the demand of related research activities for e-Science, NSSC is developing a virtual space science research platform based on cloud model, namely the Space Science Cloud (SSC). In order to support mission demonstration, SSC integrates interactive satellite orbit design tool, satellite structure and payloads layout design tool, payload observation coverage analysis tool, etc., to help scientists analyze and verify space science mission designs. Another important function of SSC is supporting the mission operations, which runs through the space satellite data pipelines. Mission operators can acquire and process observation data, then distribute the data products to other systems or issue the data and archives with the services of SSC. In addition, SSC provides useful data, tools and models for space researchers. Several databases in the field of space science are integrated and an efficient retrieve system is developing. Common tools for data visualization, deep processing (e.g., smoothing and filtering tools), analysis (e.g., FFT analysis tool and minimum variance analysis tool) and mining (e.g., proton event correlation analysis tool) are also integrated to help the researchers to better utilize the data. The space weather models on SSC include magnetic storm forecast model, multi-station middle and upper atmospheric climate model, solar energetic particle propagation model and so on. All the services above-mentioned are based on the e-Science infrastructures of CAS e.g. cloud storage and

  19. Effects of contrast on smooth pursuit eye movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spering, Miriam; Kerzel, Dirk; Braun, Doris I; Hawken, Michael J; Gegenfurtner, Karl R

    2005-05-20

    It is well known that moving stimuli can appear to move more slowly when contrast is reduced (P. Thompson, 1982). Here we address the question whether changes in stimulus contrast also affect smooth pursuit eye movements. Subjects were asked to smoothly track a moving Gabor patch. Targets varied in velocity (1, 8, and 15 deg/s), spatial frequency (0.1, 1, 4, and 8 c/deg), and contrast, ranging from just below individual thresholds to maximum contrast. Results show that smooth pursuit eye velocity gain rose significantly with increasing contrast. Below a contrast level of two to three times threshold, pursuit gain, acceleration, latency, and positional accuracy were severely impaired. Therefore, the smooth pursuit motor response shows the same kind of slowing at low contrast that was demonstrated in previous studies on perception.

  20. β-adrenergic relaxation of smooth muscle: differences between cells and tissues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scheid, C.R.

    1987-01-01

    The present studies were carried out in an attempt to resolve the controversy about the Na + dependence of β-adrenergic relaxation in smooth muscle. Previous studies on isolated smooth muscle cells from the toad stomach had suggested that at least some of the actions of β-adrenergic agents, including a stimulatory effect on 45 Ca efflux, were dependent on the presence of a normal transmembrane Na + gradient. Studies by other investigators using tissues derived from mammalian sources had suggested that the relaxing effect of β-adrenergic agents was Na + independent. Uncertainty remained as to whether these discrepancies reflected differences between cells and tissues or differences between species. Thus, in the present studies, the authors utilized both tissues and cells from the same source, the stomach muscle of the toad Bufo marinus, and assessed the Na + dependence of β-adrenergic relaxation. They found that elimination of a normal Na + gradient abolished β-adrenergic relaxation of isolated cells. In tissues, however, similar manipulations had no effect on relaxation. The reasons for this discrepancy are unclear but do not appear to be attributable to changes in smooth muscle function following enzymatic dispersion. Thus the controversy concerning the mechanisms of β-adrenergic relaxation may reflect inherent differences between tissues and cells

  1. Smoothing internal migration age profiles for comparative research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aude Bernard

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Background: Age patterns are a key dimension to compare migration between countries and over time. Comparative metrics can be reliably computed only if data capture the underlying age distribution of migration. Model schedules, the prevailing smoothing method, fit a composite exponential function, but are sensitive to function selection and initial parameter setting. Although non-parametric alternatives exist, their performance is yet to be established. Objective: We compare cubic splines and kernel regressions against model schedules by assessingwhich method provides an accurate representation of the age profile and best performs on metrics for comparing aggregate age patterns. Methods: We use full population microdata for Chile to perform 1,000 Monte-Carlo simulations for nine sample sizes and two spatial scales. We use residual and graphic analysis to assess model performance on the age and intensity at which migration peaks and the evolution of migration age patterns. Results: Model schedules generate a better fit when (1 the expected distribution of the age profile is known a priori, (2 the pre-determined shape of the model schedule adequately describes the true age distribution, and (3 the component curves and initial parameter values can be correctly set. When any of these conditions is not met, kernel regressions and cubic splines offer more reliable alternatives. Conclusions: Smoothing models should be selected according to research aims, age profile characteristics, and sample size. Kernel regressions and cubic splines enable a precise representation of aggregate migration age profiles for most sample sizes, without requiring parameter setting or imposing a pre-determined distribution, and therefore facilitate objective comparison.

  2. Monoids of moduli spaces of manifolds

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Galatius, Søren; Randal-Williams, Oscar

    2010-01-01

    We study categories of d–dimensional cobordisms from the perspective of Tillmann [Invent. Math. 130 (1997) 257–275] and Galatius, Madsen, Tillman and Weiss [Acta Math. 202 (2009) 195–239]. There is a category C¿ of closed smooth (d - 1)–manifolds and smooth d–dimensional cobordisms, equipped...... with generalised orientations specified by a map ¿: X ¿ BO(d). The main result of [Acta Math. 202 (2009) 195–239] is a determination of the homotopy type of the classifying space BC¿. The goal of the present paper is a systematic investigation of subcategories D¿C¿ with the property that BD¿ BC¿, the smaller...

  3. At the frontier of spacetime scalar-tensor theory, Bells inequality, Machs principle, exotic smoothness

    CERN Document Server

    Asselmeyer-Maluga, Torsten

    2016-01-01

    In this book, leading theorists present new contributions and reviews addressing longstanding challenges and ongoing progress in spacetime physics. In the anniversary year of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, developed 100 years ago, this collection reflects the subsequent and continuing fruitful development of spacetime theories. The volume is published in honour of Carl Brans on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Carl H. Brans, who also contributes personally, is a creative and independent researcher and one of the founders of the scalar-tensor theory, also known as Jordan-Brans-Dicke theory. In the present book, much space is devoted to scalar-tensor theories. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Brans has worked on new models of spacetime, collectively known as exotic smoothness, a field largely established by him. In this Festschrift, one finds an outstanding and unique collection of articles about exotic smoothness. Also featured are Bell's inequality and Mach's principle. Personal memories and hist...

  4. Oversampling smoothness: an effective algorithm for phase retrieval of noisy diffraction intensities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodriguez, Jose A; Xu, Rui; Chen, Chien-Chun; Zou, Yunfei; Miao, Jianwei

    2013-04-01

    Coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) is high-resolution lensless microscopy that has been applied to image a wide range of specimens using synchrotron radiation, X-ray free-electron lasers, high harmonic generation, soft X-ray lasers and electrons. Despite recent rapid advances, it remains a challenge to reconstruct fine features in weakly scattering objects such as biological specimens from noisy data. Here an effective iterative algorithm, termed oversampling smoothness (OSS), for phase retrieval of noisy diffraction intensities is presented. OSS exploits the correlation information among the pixels or voxels in the region outside of a support in real space. By properly applying spatial frequency filters to the pixels or voxels outside the support at different stages of the iterative process ( i.e. a smoothness constraint), OSS finds a balance between the hybrid input-output (HIO) and error reduction (ER) algorithms to search for a global minimum in solution space, while reducing the oscillations in the reconstruction. Both numerical simulations with Poisson noise and experimental data from a biological cell indicate that OSS consistently outperforms the HIO, ER-HIO and noise robust (NR)-HIO algorithms at all noise levels in terms of accuracy and consistency of the reconstructions. It is expected that OSS will find application in the rapidly growing CDI field, as well as other disciplines where phase retrieval from noisy Fourier magnitudes is needed. The MATLAB (The MathWorks Inc., Natick, MA, USA) source code of the OSS algorithm is freely available from http://www.physics.ucla.edu/research/imaging.

  5. Filtering and smoothing of stae vector for diffuse state space models

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koopman, S.J.; Durbin, J.

    2003-01-01

    This paper presents exact recursions for calculating the mean and mean square error matrix of the state vector given the observations for the multi-variate linear Gaussian state-space model in the case where the initial state vector is (partially) diffuse.

  6. Rac1 modulates G-protein-coupled receptor-induced bronchial smooth muscle contraction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakai, Hiroyasu; Kai, Yuki; Sato, Ken; Ikebe, Mitsuo; Chiba, Yohihiko

    2018-01-05

    Increasing evidence suggests a functional role of RhoA/Rho-kinase signalling as a mechanism for smooth muscle contraction; however, little is known regarding the roles of Rac1 and other members of the Rho protein family. This study aimed to examine whether Rac1 modulates bronchial smooth muscle contraction. Ring preparations of bronchi isolated from rats were suspended in an organ bath, and isometric contraction of circular smooth muscle was measured. Immunoblotting was used to examine myosin light chain phosphorylation in bronchial smooth muscle. Our results demonstrated that muscle contractions induced by carbachol (CCh) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) were inhibited by EHT1864, a selective Rac1 inhibitor, and NSC23766, a selective inhibitor of Rac1-specific guanine nucleotide exchange factors. Similarly, myosin light chain and myosin phosphatase target subunit 1 (MYPT1) at Thr853 phosphorylation induced by contractile agonist were inhibited with Rac1 inhibition. However, contractions induced by high K + , calyculin A (a potent protein phosphatase inhibitor) and K + /PDBu were not inhibited by these Rac1 inhibitors. Interestingly, NaF (a G-protein activator)-induced contractions were inhibited by EHT1864 but not by NSC23766. We next examined the effects of a trans-acting activator of transcription protein transduction domain (PTD) fusion protein with Rac1 (PTD-Rac1) on muscle contraction. The constitutively active form of PTD-Rac1 directly induced force development and contractions were abolished by EHT1864. These results suggest that Rac1, activated by G protein-coupled receptor agonists, such as CCh and ET-1, may induce myosin light chain and MYPT phosphorylation and modulate the contraction of bronchial smooth muscle. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Polarization beam smoothing for inertial confinement fusion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rothenberg, Joshua E.

    2000-01-01

    For both direct and indirect drive approaches to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) it is imperative to obtain the best possible drive beam uniformity. The approach chosen for the National Ignition Facility uses a random-phase plate to generate a speckle pattern with a precisely controlled envelope on target. A number of temporal smoothing techniques can then be employed to utilize bandwidth to rapidly change the speckle pattern, and thus average out the small-scale speckle structure. One technique which generally can supplement other smoothing methods is polarization smoothing (PS): the illumination of the target with two distinct and orthogonally polarized speckle patterns. Since these two polarizations do not interfere, the intensity patterns add incoherently, and the rms nonuniformity can be reduced by a factor of (√2). A number of PS schemes are described and compared on the basis of the aggregate rms and the spatial spectrum of the focused illumination distribution. The (√2) rms nonuniformity reduction of PS is present on an instantaneous basis and is, therefore, of particular interest for the suppression of laser plasma instabilities, which have a very rapid response time. When combining PS and temporal methods, such as smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD), PS can reduce the rms of the temporally smoothed illumination by an additional factor of (√2). However, it has generally been thought that in order to achieve this reduction of (√2), the increased divergence of the beam from PS must exceed the divergence of SSD. It is also shown here that, over the time scales of interest to direct or indirect drive ICF, under some conditions PS can reduce the smoothed illumination rms by nearly (√2) even when the PS divergence is much smaller than that of SSD. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics

  8. Damage Mechanism in Counter Pairs Caused by Bionic Non-smoothed Surface

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ZHANG Zhan-hui

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Four biomimetic non-smoothed surface specimens with different shapes were prepared by laser processing. Tests were conducted on MMU-5G wear and abrasion test machine to study the influencing rule of non-smoothed surfaces on counter pairs. The results show that the mass loss of the friction pair matching with the non-smoothed units is much greater than the ones matching with the smooth specimens. The pairs matching with different non-smoothed units suffer differently. The non-smoothed surface protruding zone exerts micro cutting on counter pairs. The striation causes the greatest mass loss of the pairs than the other non-smoothed units, which almost doubles the damage of the grid ones suffering the least. The difference in pairs damage is attributed to the different mechanism of undertaking the load in the process of wear. The damage can be alleviated effectively by changing the shapes of the units without increasing or decreasing the area ratio of the non-smoothed units.

  9. Optimal Smooth Consumption and Annuity Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bruhn, Kenneth; Steffensen, Mogens

    2013-01-01

    We propose an optimization criterion that yields extraordinary consumption smoothing compared to the well known results of the life-cycle model. Under this criterion we solve the related consumption and investment optimization problem faced by individuals with preferences for intertemporal stabil...... stability in consumption. We find that the consumption and investment patterns demanded under the optimization criterion is in general offered as annuity benefits from products in the class of ‘Formula Based Smoothed Investment-Linked Annuities’....

  10. Lyapunov exponents and smooth ergodic theory

    CERN Document Server

    Barreira, Luis

    2001-01-01

    This book is a systematic introduction to smooth ergodic theory. The topics discussed include the general (abstract) theory of Lyapunov exponents and its applications to the stability theory of differential equations, stable manifold theory, absolute continuity, and the ergodic theory of dynamical systems with nonzero Lyapunov exponents (including geodesic flows). The authors consider several non-trivial examples of dynamical systems with nonzero Lyapunov exponents to illustrate some basic methods and ideas of the theory. This book is self-contained. The reader needs a basic knowledge of real analysis, measure theory, differential equations, and topology. The authors present basic concepts of smooth ergodic theory and provide complete proofs of the main results. They also state some more advanced results to give readers a broader view of smooth ergodic theory. This volume may be used by those nonexperts who wish to become familiar with the field.

  11. Functional Parallel Factor Analysis for Functions of One- and Two-dimensional Arguments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Ji Yeh; Hwang, Heungsun; Timmerman, Marieke E

    2018-03-01

    Parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) is a useful multivariate method for decomposing three-way data that consist of three different types of entities simultaneously. This method estimates trilinear components, each of which is a low-dimensional representation of a set of entities, often called a mode, to explain the maximum variance of the data. Functional PARAFAC permits the entities in different modes to be smooth functions or curves, varying over a continuum, rather than a collection of unconnected responses. The existing functional PARAFAC methods handle functions of a one-dimensional argument (e.g., time) only. In this paper, we propose a new extension of functional PARAFAC for handling three-way data whose responses are sequenced along both a two-dimensional domain (e.g., a plane with x- and y-axis coordinates) and a one-dimensional argument. Technically, the proposed method combines PARAFAC with basis function expansion approximations, using a set of piecewise quadratic finite element basis functions for estimating two-dimensional smooth functions and a set of one-dimensional basis functions for estimating one-dimensional smooth functions. In a simulation study, the proposed method appeared to outperform the conventional PARAFAC. We apply the method to EEG data to demonstrate its empirical usefulness.

  12. On the Projective Description of Weighted (LF-Spaces of Continuous Functions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catherine V. Komarchuk

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available We solve the problem of the topological or algebraic description of countable inductive limits of weighted Fréchet spaces of continuous functions on a cone. This problem is investigated for two families of weights defined by positively homogeneous functions. Weights of this form play the important role in Fourier analysis.

  13. Bayesian estimation of dynamic matching function for U-V analysis in Japan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kyo, Koki; Noda, Hideo; Kitagawa, Genshiro

    2012-05-01

    In this paper we propose a Bayesian method for analyzing unemployment dynamics. We derive a Beveridge curve for unemployment and vacancy (U-V) analysis from a Bayesian model based on a labor market matching function. In our framework, the efficiency of matching and the elasticities of new hiring with respect to unemployment and vacancy are regarded as time varying parameters. To construct a flexible model and obtain reasonable estimates in an underdetermined estimation problem, we treat the time varying parameters as random variables and introduce smoothness priors. The model is then described in a state space representation, enabling the parameter estimation to be carried out using Kalman filter and fixed interval smoothing. In such a representation, dynamic features of the cyclic unemployment rate and the structural-frictional unemployment rate can be accurately captured.

  14. Approximation of Mixed-Type Functional Equations in Menger PN-Spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Eshaghi Gordji

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Let X and Y be vector spaces. We show that a function f:X→Y with f(0=0 satisfies Δf(x1,…,xn=0 for all x1,…,xn∈X, if and only if there exist functions C:X×X×X→Y, B:X×X→Y and A:X→Y such that f(x=C(x,x,x+B(x,x+A(x for all x∈X, where the function C is symmetric for each fixed one variable and is additive for fixed two variables, B is symmetric bi-additive, A is additive and Δf(x1,…,xn=∑k=2n(∑i1=2k∑i2=i1+1k+1⋯∑in-k+1=in-k+1nf(∑i=1,i≠i1,…,in-k+1nxi-∑r=1n-k+1xir+f(∑i=1nxi-2n-2∑i=2n(f(x1+xi+f(x1-xi+2n-1(n-2f(x1 (n∈N, n≥3 for all x1,…,xn∈X. Furthermore, we solve the stability problem for a given function f satisfying Δf(x1,…,xn=0, in the Menger probabilistic normed spaces.

  15. Wigner’s phase-space function and atomic structure: II. Ground states for closed-shell atoms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Springborg, Michael; Dahl, Jens Peder

    1987-01-01

    We present formulas for reduced Wigner phase-space functions for atoms, with an emphasis on the first-order spinless Wigner function. This function can be written as the sum of separate contributions from single orbitals (the natural orbitals). This allows a detailed study of the function. Here we...... display and analyze the function for the closed-shell atoms helium, beryllium, neon, argon, and zinc in the Hartree-Fock approximation. The quantum-mechanical exact results are compared with those obtained with the approximate Thomas-Fermi description of electron densities in phase space....

  16. Stimulation of aortic smooth muscle cell mitogenesis by serotonin

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nemecek, G.M.; Coughlin, S.R.; Handley, D.A.; Moskowitz, M.A.

    1986-01-01

    Bovine aortic smooth muscle cells in vitro responded to 1 nM to 10 μM serotonin with increased incorporation of [ 3 H]thymidine into DNA. The mitogenic effect of serotonin was half-maximal at 80 nM and maximal above 1 μM. At a concentration of 1 μM, serotonin stimulated smooth muscle cell mitogenesis to the same extent as human platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) at 12 ng/ml. Tryptamine was ≅ 1/10th as potent as serotonin as a mitogen for smooth muscle cells. Other indoles that are structurally related to serotonin (D- and L-tryptophan, 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan, N-acetyl-5-hydroxytryptamine, melatonin, 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, and 5-hydroxytryptophol) and quipazine were inactive. The stimulatory effect of serotonin on smooth muscle cell DNA synthesis required prolonged (20-24 hr) exposure to the agonist and was attenuated in the presence of serotonin D receptor antagonists. When smooth muscle cells were incubated with submaximal concentrations of serotonin and PDGF, synergistic rather than additive mitogenic responses were observed. These data indicate that serotonin has a significant mitogenic effect on smooth muscle cells in vitro, which appears to be mediated by specific plasma membrane receptors

  17. Implicit function with natural behavior over entire domain

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Itoh, Taku; Saitoh, Ayumu; Kamitani, Atsushi; Nakamura, Hiroaki

    2012-01-01

    To generate a smooth implicit function that behaves naturally over an entire domain, a method to smoothly combine an implicit function f(x) with a global support function g(x) has been proposed. The proposed method can be applied to large scattered point data, since the implicit function f(x) is generated by a partition-of-unity-based method. The global support function g(x) is generated by a radial basis function-based method or by the least-squares method. To ensure a smooth combination of f(x) and g(x), an appropriate weight function is employed. In numerical experiments, the proposed method is applied to large point data. The results illustrate that the proposed method can generate a smooth implicit function F(x) with natural behavior over the entire domain. In addition, on the given points, the accuracy of F(x) is exactly the same as that of f(x). Furthermore, the computational cost for generation of F(x) is almost the same as that of f(x). (author)

  18. Impact of spectral smoothing on gamma radiation portal alarm probabilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burr, T.; Hamada, M.; Hengartner, N.

    2011-01-01

    Gamma detector counts are included in radiation portal monitors (RPM) to screen for illicit nuclear material. Gamma counts are sometimes smoothed to reduce variance in the estimated underlying true mean count rate, which is the 'signal' in our context. Smoothing reduces total error variance in the estimated signal if the bias that smoothing introduces is more than offset by the variance reduction. An empirical RPM study for vehicle screening applications is presented for unsmoothed and smoothed gamma counts in low-resolution plastic scintillator detectors and in medium-resolution NaI detectors. - Highlights: → We evaluate options for smoothing counts from gamma detectors deployed for portal monitoring. → A new multiplicative bias correction (MBC) is shown to reduce bias in peak and valley regions. → Performance is measured using mean squared error and detection probabilities for sources. → Smoothing with the MBC improves detection probabilities and the mean squared error.

  19. Green's functions for spin half field theory in Rindler space

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Iyer, B R; Kumar, Arvind [Birla Inst. of Tech., Ranchi (India). Dept. of Physics

    1977-11-01

    The solutions of Dirac equation in different regions of the complete extension of Rindler space are obtained near the event horizons and in the asymptotic limits. Continuity of these solutions across the event horizons is established. The Green's functions are written down in the two casually disconnected regions, continued in the future (F) and past (P) regions using the techniques a la Boulware and a consistent scheme of Green's functions in all regions is exhibited.

  20. Mass functions from the excursion set model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hiotelis, Nicos; Del Popolo, Antonino

    2017-11-01

    Aims: We aim to study the stochastic evolution of the smoothed overdensity δ at scale S of the form δ(S) = ∫0S K(S,u)dW(u), where K is a kernel and dW is the usual Wiener process. Methods: For a Gaussian density field, smoothed by the top-hat filter, in real space, we used a simple kernel that gives the correct correlation between scales. A Monte Carlo procedure was used to construct random walks and to calculate first crossing distributions and consequently mass functions for a constant barrier. Results: We show that the evolution considered here improves the agreement with the results of N-body simulations relative to analytical approximations which have been proposed from the same problem by other authors. In fact, we show that an evolution which is fully consistent with the ideas of the excursion set model, describes accurately the mass function of dark matter haloes for values of ν ≤ 1 and underestimates the number of larger haloes. Finally, we show that a constant threshold of collapse, lower than it is usually used, it is able to produce a mass function which approximates the results of N-body simulations for a variety of redshifts and for a wide range of masses. Conclusions: A mass function in good agreement with N-body simulations can be obtained analytically using a lower than usual constant collapse threshold.

  1. Ensuring dynamic load smoothness in problem of controlling Atomic Electric Power Stations exclusive mechanisms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shumilov, V.F.

    2003-01-01

    New methods for the investigation of automatic systems based on the inverse tasks of dynamics with the use of rational, trigonometric and polynomial spline functions are discussed. By means of SH function the technological regimes: start-up, steadiness, racing, braking, reverse, stop were determined. Procedure for the provision of dynamic load smoothness is suggested, and example of control over the transport systems for fuel load is considered [ru

  2. Positive definite functions and dual pairs of locally convex spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Alpay

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Using pairs of locally convex topological vector spaces in duality and topologies defined by directed families of sets bounded with respect to the duality, we prove general factorization theorems and general dilation theorems for operator-valued positive definite functions.

  3. TOP-DRAWER, Histograms, Scatterplots, Curve-Smoothing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chaffee, R.B.

    1988-01-01

    Description of program or function: TOP DRAWER produces histograms, scatterplots, data points with error bars and plots symbols, and curves passing through data points, with elaborate titles. It also does smoothing and calculates frequency distributions. There is little facility, however, for arithmetic manipulation. Because of its restricted applicability, TOP DRAWER can be controlled by a relatively simple set of commands, and this control is further simplified by the choice of reasonable default values for all parameters. Despite this emphasis on simplicity, TOP DRAWER plots are of exceptional quality and are suitable for publication. Input is normally from card-image records, although a set of subroutines is provided to accommodate FORTRAN calls. The program contains switches which can be set to generate code suitable for execution on IBM, DECX VAX, and PRIME computers

  4. Intestinal smooth muscle response to chronic obstruction : possible applications in jejunoileal atresia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cloutier, R

    1975-02-01

    Hyperplasia is the main change occurring in intestinal smooth muscle above a chronic obstruction and explains the functional obstruction seen in the proximal bowel of a jejunoileal atresia. With an experimental model in dogs, this hyperplasia has been shown to be reversible. However, changes are extreme in atresia, and experiments in animals with induced atresia will best evaluate various kinds of treatment.

  5. Space Commercialization and the Development of Space Law

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yun, Zhao

    2017-05-01

    Shortly after the launch of the first manmade satellite in 1957, the United Nations (UN) took the lead in formulating international rules governing space activities. The five international conventions (i.e., the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the 1968 Rescue Agreement, the 1972 Liability Convention, the 1975 Registration Convention, and the 1979 Moon Agreement) within the UN framework constitute the nucleus of space law; laying a solid legal foundation for securing the smooth development of space activities over the next few decades. Outer space was soon found to be a place with abundant opportunities for commercialization: with telecommunications services the first and most successful commercial application followed by remote sensing and global navigation services. In the last decade, the rapid development of space technologies brought space tourism and space mining to the forefront as well. With more and more commercial activities taking place on a daily basis from the 1980s on, existing space law faces severe challenges. The five conventions, which were enacted at a time when space was monopolized by two superpowers—the United States and the former Soviet Union—also failed to take into account the commercial aspect of space activities. Although there are urgent needs for new rules to deal with the ongoing trend of space commercialization, the international society faces difficulties in adopting new rules due to diversified national interests. As a result, it adjusts legislative strategies by enacting soft laws. In view of the difficulty in adopting binding rules at the international level, states are encouraged to enact their own national space legislation providing sufficient guidance for their domestic space commercial activities. It is expected that the development of soft laws and national space legislation will be the mainstream regulatory activities in the space field for the foreseeable future.

  6. Equilibration in the time-dependent Hartree-Fock approach probed with the Wigner distribution function

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loebl, N.; Maruhn, J. A.; Reinhard, P.-G.

    2011-01-01

    By calculating the Wigner distribution function in the reaction plane, we are able to probe the phase-space behavior in the time-dependent Hartree-Fock scheme during a heavy-ion collision in a consistent framework. Various expectation values of operators are calculated by evaluating the corresponding integrals over the Wigner function. In this approach, it is straightforward to define and analyze quantities even locally. We compare the Wigner distribution function with the smoothed Husimi distribution function. Different reaction scenarios are presented by analyzing central and noncentral 16 O + 16 O and 96 Zr + 132 Sn collisions. Although we observe strong dissipation in the time evolution of global observables, there is no evidence for complete equilibration in the local analysis of the Wigner function. Because the initial phase-space volumes of the fragments barely merge and mean values of the observables are conserved in fusion reactions over thousands of fm/c, we conclude that the time-dependent Hartree-Fock method provides a good description of the early stage of a heavy-ion collision but does not provide a mechanism to change the phase-space structure in a dramatic way necessary to obtain complete equilibration.

  7. On the absence of the Efimov effect in spaces of functions of a given symmetry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vugal'ter, S.A.; Zhislin, G.M.

    1981-01-01

    Strict results on the discrete spectrum of Ho three-particle hamiltonians in certain spaces with a Bsup(delta) function of a given symmetry, are formulated. The theorems presented show that in spaces considered with short-acting potentials the Ho . discrete spectrum is finite, i.e. the Efimov effect is impossible. Theorems are proved using the improved techniques on the basis of properties of virtual levels of operators of the energy of the system of two particles in the function spaces [ru

  8. Gamow state vectors as functionals over subspaces of the nuclear space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bohm, A.

    1979-12-01

    Exponentially decaying Gamow state vectors are obtained from S-matrix poles in the lower half of the second sheet, and are defined as functionals over a subspace of the nuclear space, PHI. Exponentially growing Gamow state vectors are obtained from S-matrix poles in the upper half of the second sheet, and are defined as functionals over another subspace of PHI. On functionals over these two subspaces the dynamical group of time development splits into two semigroups

  9. On A Neutral Functional Differential Equation in a Fading Memory Space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1981-09-01

    the condition (2.1) in (301, plus the additional P(0) - 1. We call n an influence function dominated by P, if n is continuous, strictly positive, and... influence function n dominated by P satisfies (2.6) ;(t) < n(t) 4 P(t) (t e n) . We warn the reader that our definition of an influence function is...often irrelevant in which space the values of our measures lie, and we abbreviate both (PC) and M(P;C n xn ) by N(P). For every influence function n

  10. The manifold model for space-time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heller, M.

    1981-01-01

    Physical processes happen on a space-time arena. It turns out that all contemporary macroscopic physical theories presuppose a common mathematical model for this arena, the so-called manifold model of space-time. The first part of study is an heuristic introduction to the concept of a smooth manifold, starting with the intuitively more clear concepts of a curve and a surface in the Euclidean space. In the second part the definitions of the Csub(infinity) manifold and of certain structures, which arise in a natural way from the manifold concept, are given. The role of the enveloping Euclidean space (i.e. of the Euclidean space appearing in the manifold definition) in these definitions is stressed. The Euclidean character of the enveloping space induces to the manifold local Euclidean (topological and differential) properties. A suggestion is made that replacing the enveloping Euclidean space by a discrete non-Euclidean space would be a correct way towards the quantization of space-time. (author)

  11. Absence of a Scott correction for the total binding energy of noninteracting fermions in a smooth potential well

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huxtable, B.D.

    1988-01-01

    It is shown, for V in a particular class of smooth functions, that the total binding energy, E(Z), of Z noninteracting Fermions in the potential well Z 4/3 V(Z 1/3 X) obeys E(Z) = c TF (V)Z 7/3 + O(Z 5/3 ) as Z → ∞. Here c TF (V) is the coefficient predicted by Thomas-Fermi theory. This result is consistent with the conjectured Scott correction, which occurs at order Z 2 , to the total binding energy of an atomic number Z. This correction is thought to arise only because V(x)∼ - |x| -1 near x = 0 in the atomic problem, and so V is not a smooth function

  12. Role of SM22 in the differential regulation of phasic vs. tonic smooth muscle

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, Mehboob

    2015-01-01

    Preliminary proteomics studies between tonic vs. phasic smooth muscles identified three distinct protein spots identified to be those of transgelin (SM22). The latter was found to be distinctly downregulated in the internal anal sphincter (IAS) vs. rectal smooth muscle (RSM) SMC. The major focus of the present studies was to examine the differential molecular control mechanisms by SM22 in the functionality of truly tonic smooth muscle of the IAS vs. the adjoining phasic smooth muscle of the RSM. We monitored SMC lengths before and after incubation with pFLAG-SM22 (for SM22 overexpression), and SM22 small-interfering RNA. pFLAG-SM22 caused concentration-dependent and significantly greater relaxation in the IAS vs. the RSM SMCs. Conversely, temporary silencing of SM22 caused contraction in both types of the SMCs. Further studies revealed a significant reverse relationship between the levels of SM22 phosphorylation and the amount of SM22-actin binding in the IAS and RSM SMC. Data showed higher phospho-SM22 levels and decreased SM22-actin binding in the IAS, and reverse to be the case in the RSM SMCs. Experiments determining the mechanism for SM22 phosphorylation in these smooth muscles revealed that Y-27632 (Rho kinase inhibitor) but not Gö-6850 (protein kinase C inhibitor) caused concentration-dependent decreased phosphorylation of SM22. We speculate that SM22 plays an important role in the regulation of basal tone via Rho kinase-induced phosphorylation of SM22. PMID:25617350

  13. Compactness in quasi-Banach function spaces and applications to compact embeddings of Besov-type spaces

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Caetano, A.M.; Gogatishvili, Amiran; Opic, B.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 146, č. 5 (2016), s. 905-927 ISSN 0308-2105 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-14743S Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : quasi-Banach function space * compactness * compact embedding Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 1.158, year: 2016 http:// journals .cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10379393&fileId=S0308210515000761

  14. A Fourier transform method for the selection of a smoothing interval

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kekre, H.B.; Madan, V.K.; Bairi, B.R.

    1989-01-01

    A novel method for the selection of a smoothing interval for the widely used Savitzky and Golay's smoothing filter is proposed. Complementary bandwidths for the nuclear spectral data and the smoothing filter are defined. The criterion for the selection of smoothing interval is based on matching the bandwidths of the spectral data to the filter. Using the above method five real observed spectral peaks of different full width at half maximum, viz. 23.5, 19.5, 17, 8.5 and 6.5 channels, were smoothed and the results are presented. (orig.)

  15. Green's functions for spin half field theory in Rindler space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Iyer, B.R.; Kumar, Arvind

    1977-01-01

    The solutions of Dirac equation in different regions of the complete extension of Rindler space are obtained near the event horizons and in the asymptotic limits. Continuity of these solutions across the event horizons is established. The Green's functions are written down in the two casually disconnected regions, continued in the future (F) and past (P) regions using the techniques a la Boulware and a consistent scheme of Green's functions in all regions is exhibited. (author)

  16. Real-space Berry phases: Skyrmion soccer (invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Everschor-Sitte, Karin; Sitte, Matthias

    2014-05-01

    Berry phases occur when a system adiabatically evolves along a closed curve in parameter space. This tutorial-like article focuses on Berry phases accumulated in real space. In particular, we consider the situation where an electron traverses a smooth magnetic structure, while its magnetic moment adjusts to the local magnetization direction. Mapping the adiabatic physics to an effective problem in terms of emergent fields reveals that certain magnetic textures, skyrmions, are tailormade to study these Berry phase effects.

  17. Real-space Berry phases: Skyrmion soccer (invited)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Everschor-Sitte, Karin, E-mail: karin@physics.utexas.edu; Sitte, Matthias [The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Physics, 2515 Speedway, Austin, Texas 78712 (United States)

    2014-05-07

    Berry phases occur when a system adiabatically evolves along a closed curve in parameter space. This tutorial-like article focuses on Berry phases accumulated in real space. In particular, we consider the situation where an electron traverses a smooth magnetic structure, while its magnetic moment adjusts to the local magnetization direction. Mapping the adiabatic physics to an effective problem in terms of emergent fields reveals that certain magnetic textures, skyrmions, are tailormade to study these Berry phase effects.

  18. Real-space Berry phases: Skyrmion soccer (invited)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Everschor-Sitte, Karin; Sitte, Matthias

    2014-01-01

    Berry phases occur when a system adiabatically evolves along a closed curve in parameter space. This tutorial-like article focuses on Berry phases accumulated in real space. In particular, we consider the situation where an electron traverses a smooth magnetic structure, while its magnetic moment adjusts to the local magnetization direction. Mapping the adiabatic physics to an effective problem in terms of emergent fields reveals that certain magnetic textures, skyrmions, are tailormade to study these Berry phase effects

  19. Myosin light chain kinase phosphorylation in tracheal smooth muscle

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stull, J.T.; Hsu, L.C.; Tansey, M.G.; Kamm, K.E.

    1990-01-01

    Purified myosin light chain kinase from smooth muscle is phosphorylated by cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase, protein kinase C, and the multifunctional calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II. Because phosphorylation in a specific site (site A) by any one of these kinases desensitizes myosin light chain kinase to activation by Ca2+/calmodulin, kinase phosphorylation could play an important role in regulating smooth muscle contractility. This possibility was investigated in 32 P-labeled bovine tracheal smooth muscle. Treatment of tissues with carbachol, KCl, isoproterenol, or phorbol 12,13-dibutyrate increased the extent of kinase phosphorylation. Six primary phosphopeptides (A-F) of myosin light chain kinase were identified. Site A was phosphorylated to an appreciable extent only with carbachol or KCl, agents which contract tracheal smooth muscle. The extent of site A phosphorylation correlated to increases in the concentration of Ca2+/calmodulin required for activation. These results show that cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase and protein kinase C do not affect smooth muscle contractility by phosphorylating site A in myosin light chain kinase. It is proposed that phosphorylation of myosin light chain kinase in site A in contracting tracheal smooth muscle may play a role in the reported desensitization of contractile elements to activation by Ca2+

  20. The separating topology for the space-times of general relativity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lindstroem, U.

    1977-08-01

    The separating topology, first suggested by Zeeman, is defined for the space-times of general relativity. It is defined by a basis. A number of properties are derived. The topology induces the ordinary Euclidean topology on space-like hypersurfaces as well as on timelike curves and the discrete topology on null-cones. The group of auto-homeomorphisms is found to be the group of smooth conformal diffeomorphisms if the space-time is strongly causal. (author)

  1. Wind Power Fluctuation Smoothing Controller Based on Risk Assessment of Grid Frequency Deviation in an Isolated System

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lin, Jin; Sun, Yuanzhang; Song, Yonghua

    2013-01-01

    a smoothing controller to suppress the power fluctuation from doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind farm. This controller consists of threemain functionality components: risk assessmentmodel, wind turbine rotor speed optimizer, and rotor speed upper limiter. In order to avoid unnecessary energy...... curve with reduced output so that a trade-off between fluctuation smoothing and energy loss is achieved. Subsequently, the controller limits the maximum rotor speed to shift down the power curve of wind power plant based on the optimal wind turbine rotor speed. Therefore, the power fluctuation......Wind power fluctuation raises the security concern of grid frequency deviation, especially for an isolated power system. Thus, better control methodology needs to be developed to smooth the fluctuation without excessive spillage. Based on an actual industrial power system, this paper proposes...

  2. Stability of bumps in piecewise smooth neural fields with nonlinear adaptation

    KAUST Repository

    Kilpatrick, Zachary P.

    2010-06-01

    We study the linear stability of stationary bumps in piecewise smooth neural fields with local negative feedback in the form of synaptic depression or spike frequency adaptation. The continuum dynamics is described in terms of a nonlocal integrodifferential equation, in which the integral kernel represents the spatial distribution of synaptic weights between populations of neurons whose mean firing rate is taken to be a Heaviside function of local activity. Discontinuities in the adaptation variable associated with a bump solution means that bump stability cannot be analyzed by constructing the Evans function for a network with a sigmoidal gain function and then taking the high-gain limit. In the case of synaptic depression, we show that linear stability can be formulated in terms of solutions to a system of pseudo-linear equations. We thus establish that sufficiently strong synaptic depression can destabilize a bump that is stable in the absence of depression. These instabilities are dominated by shift perturbations that evolve into traveling pulses. In the case of spike frequency adaptation, we show that for a wide class of perturbations the activity and adaptation variables decouple in the linear regime, thus allowing us to explicitly determine stability in terms of the spectrum of a smooth linear operator. We find that bumps are always unstable with respect to this class of perturbations, and destabilization of a bump can result in either a traveling pulse or a spatially localized breather. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Optical smoothing of laser imprinting in planar-target experiments on OMEGA EP using multi-FM 1-D smoothing by spectral dispersion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hohenberger, M., E-mail: mhoh@lle.rochester.edu; Shvydky, A.; Marozas, J. A.; Bonino, M. J.; Canning, D.; Collins, T. J. B.; Dorrer, C.; Kessler, T. J.; Kruschwitz, B. E.; McKenty, P. W.; Regan, S. P.; Sangster, T. C.; Zuegel, J. D. [Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road Rochester, Rochester, New York 14623 (United States); Fiksel, G. [Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences (NERS), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States); Meyerhofer, D. D. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

    2016-09-15

    Direct-drive ignition on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) requires single-beam smoothing to minimize imprinting of laser nonuniformities that can negatively affect implosion performance. One-dimensional, multi-FM smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) has been proposed to provide the required smoothing [Marozas et al., Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. 55, 294 (2010)]. A prototype multi-FM SSD system has been integrated into the NIF-like beamline of the OMEGA EP Laser System. Experiments have been performed to verify the smoothing performance by measuring Rayleigh–Taylor growth rates in planar targets of laser-imprinted and preimposed surface modulations. Multi-FM 1-D SSD has been observed to reduce imprint levels by ∼50% compared to the nominal OMEGA EP SSD system. The experimental results are in agreement with 2-D DRACO simulations using realistic, time-dependent far-field spot-intensity calculations that emulate the effect of SSD.

  4. Six-term exact sequences for smooth generalized crossed products

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gabriel, Olivier; Grensing, Martin

    2013-01-01

    We define smooth generalized crossed products and prove six-term exact sequences of Pimsner–Voiculescu type. This sequence may, in particular, be applied to smooth subalgebras of the quantum Heisenberg manifolds in order to compute the generators of their cyclic cohomology. Further, our results...... include the known results for smooth crossed products. Our proof is based on a combination of arguments from the setting of (Cuntz–)Pimsner algebras and the Toeplitz proof of Bott periodicity....

  5. Differential topology of complex surfaces elliptic surfaces with p g=1 smooth classification

    CERN Document Server

    Morgan, John W

    1993-01-01

    This book is about the smooth classification of a certain class of algebraicsurfaces, namely regular elliptic surfaces of geometric genus one, i.e. elliptic surfaces with b1 = 0 and b2+ = 3. The authors give a complete classification of these surfaces up to diffeomorphism. They achieve this result by partially computing one of Donalson's polynomial invariants. The computation is carried out using techniques from algebraic geometry. In these computations both thebasic facts about the Donaldson invariants and the relationship of the moduli space of ASD connections with the moduli space of stable bundles are assumed known. Some familiarity with the basic facts of the theory of moduliof sheaves and bundles on a surface is also assumed. This work gives a good and fairly comprehensive indication of how the methods of algebraic geometry can be used to compute Donaldson invariants.

  6. Diffusion tensor smoothing through weighted Karcher means

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carmichael, Owen; Chen, Jun; Paul, Debashis; Peng, Jie

    2014-01-01

    Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) quantifies the spatial distribution of water Diffusion at each voxel on a regular grid of locations in a biological specimen by Diffusion tensors– 3 × 3 positive definite matrices. Removal of noise from DTI is an important problem due to the high scientific relevance of DTI and relatively low signal to noise ratio it provides. Leading approaches to this problem amount to estimation of weighted Karcher means of Diffusion tensors within spatial neighborhoods, under various metrics imposed on the space of tensors. However, it is unclear how the behavior of these estimators varies with the magnitude of DTI sensor noise (the noise resulting from the thermal e!ects of MRI scanning) as well as the geometric structure of the underlying Diffusion tensor neighborhoods. In this paper, we combine theoretical analysis, empirical analysis of simulated DTI data, and empirical analysis of real DTI scans to compare the noise removal performance of three kernel-based DTI smoothers that are based on Euclidean, log-Euclidean, and affine-invariant metrics. The results suggest, contrary to conventional wisdom, that imposing a simplistic Euclidean metric may in fact provide comparable or superior noise removal, especially in relatively unstructured regions and/or in the presence of moderate to high levels of sensor noise. On the contrary, log-Euclidean and affine-invariant metrics may lead to better noise removal in highly structured anatomical regions, especially when the sensor noise is of low magnitude. These findings emphasize the importance of considering the interplay of sensor noise magnitude and tensor field geometric structure when assessing Diffusion tensor smoothing options. They also point to the necessity for continued development of smoothing methods that perform well across a large range of scenarios. PMID:25419264

  7. Topological properties of function spaces over ordinal spaces

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Gabriyelyan, S.; Grebík, Jan; Kąkol, Jerzy; Zdomskyy, L.

    2017-01-01

    Roč. 111, č. 4 (2017), s. 1157-1161 ISSN 1578-7303 R&D Projects: GA ČR GF16-34860L Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : Ascoli * rK-space * ordinal space Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics OBOR OECD: Pure mathematics Impact factor: 0.690, year: 2016 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13398-016-0354-7

  8. Thermohydraulic analysis of smooth and finned annular ducts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Braga, C.V.M.

    1987-01-01

    The present work is concerned with the turbulent heat transfer and pressure drop in smooth and finned annular ducts overage heat transfer coefficients have been obtained by means of the heat exchanger theory. In addition, friction factors have also been determined. The experiments were performed by utilizing four double-pipe heat exchangers. The flowing fluids, in the heat exchangers, were air and water. The average heat transfer coefficients, for air flowing in the annular section, were determined by measuring the overall heat transfer coefficients of the heat exchangers. In order to attain fully developed conditions, the heat exchangers had a starting length of 30 hydraulic diameters. The thermal boundary conditions consisted of uniform temperature on the inner surface, the outer surface being insulated. The heat transfer coefficients and friction factors are presented in dimensionaless forms, as functions of the Reynolds number of the flow. The results for the smooth and finned annular ducts were compared. The purpose of such comparison was to study the influence of the fins on the pressure drop and heat transfer rate. In the case of the finned nular ducts, it is shown that the fin efficiency has some fluence on the heat transfer rates. The, a two-dimensional at transfer analysis was performed in order to obtain the n efficiency and the annular region efficiency. It is also shown that the overall thermal performance of finned surfaces epends mainly on the Nusselt number and on the region eficiency. These parameters are presented as functions of the Reynolds number of the flow and the geometry of the problem. (author) [pt

  9. Large area smoothing of surfaces by ion bombardment: fundamentals and applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Frost, F; Fechner, R; Ziberi, B; Voellner, J; Flamm, D; Schindler, A

    2009-01-01

    Ion beam erosion can be used as a process for achieving surface smoothing at microscopic length scales and for the preparation of ultrasmooth surfaces, as an alternative to nanostructuring of various surfaces via self-organization. This requires that in the evolution of the surface topography different relaxation mechanisms dominate over the roughening, and smoothing of initially rough surfaces can occur. This contribution focuses on the basic mechanisms as well as potential applications of surface smoothing using low energy ion beams. In the first part, the fundamentals for the smoothing of III/V semiconductors, Si and quartz glass surfaces using low energy ion beams (ion energy: ≤2000 eV) are reviewed using examples. The topography evolution of these surfaces with respect to different process parameters (ion energy, ion incidence angle, erosion time, sample rotation) has been investigated. On the basis of the time evolution of different roughness parameters, the relevant surface relaxation mechanisms responsible for surface smoothing are discussed. In this context, physical constraints as regards the effectiveness of surface smoothing by direct ion bombardment will also be addressed and furthermore ion beam assisted smoothing techniques are introduced. In the second application-orientated part, recent technological developments related to ion beam assisted smoothing of optically relevant surfaces are summarized. It will be demonstrated that smoothing by direct ion bombardment in combination with the use of sacrificial smoothing layers and the utilization of appropriate broad beam ion sources enables the polishing of various technologically important surfaces down to 0.1 nm root mean square roughness level, showing great promise for large area surface processing. Specific examples are given for ion beam smoothing of different optical surfaces, especially for substrates used for advanced optical applications (e.g., in x-ray optics and components for extreme

  10. Metropolis-Hastings Algorithms in Function Space for Bayesian Inverse Problems

    KAUST Repository

    Ernst, Oliver

    2015-01-07

    We consider Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods adapted to a Hilbert space setting. Such algorithms occur in Bayesian inverse problems where the solution is a probability measure on a function space according to which one would like to integrate or sample. We focus on Metropolis-Hastings algorithms and, in particular, we introduce and analyze a generalization of the existing pCN-proposal. This new proposal allows to exploit the geometry or anisotropy of the target measure which in turn might improve the statistical efficiency of the corresponding MCMC method. Numerical experiments for a real-world problem confirm the improvement.

  11. Metropolis-Hastings Algorithms in Function Space for Bayesian Inverse Problems

    KAUST Repository

    Ernst, Oliver

    2015-01-01

    We consider Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods adapted to a Hilbert space setting. Such algorithms occur in Bayesian inverse problems where the solution is a probability measure on a function space according to which one would like to integrate or sample. We focus on Metropolis-Hastings algorithms and, in particular, we introduce and analyze a generalization of the existing pCN-proposal. This new proposal allows to exploit the geometry or anisotropy of the target measure which in turn might improve the statistical efficiency of the corresponding MCMC method. Numerical experiments for a real-world problem confirm the improvement.

  12. Smooth interface effects on the confinement properties of GaSb/Al xGa 1- xSb quantum wells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adib, Artur B.; de Sousa, Jeanlex S.; Farias, Gil A.; Freire, Valder N.

    2000-10-01

    A theoretical investigation on the confinement properties of GaSb/Al xGa 1- xSb single quantum wells (QWs) with smooth interfaces is performed. Error function ( erf)-like interfacial aluminum molar fraction variations in the QWs, from which it is possible to obtain the carriers effective masses and confinement potential profiles, are assumed. It is shown that the existence of smooth interfaces blue shifts considerably the confined carriers and exciton energies, an effect which is stronger in thin QWs.

  13. Gaussian-Based Smooth Dielectric Function: A Surface-Free Approach for Modeling Macromolecular Binding in Solvents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arghya Chakravorty

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Conventional modeling techniques to model macromolecular solvation and its effect on binding in the framework of Poisson-Boltzmann based implicit solvent models make use of a geometrically defined surface to depict the separation of macromolecular interior (low dielectric constant from the solvent phase (high dielectric constant. Though this simplification saves time and computational resources without significantly compromising the accuracy of free energy calculations, it bypasses some of the key physio-chemical properties of the solute-solvent interface, e.g., the altered flexibility of water molecules and that of side chains at the interface, which results in dielectric properties different from both bulk water and macromolecular interior, respectively. Here we present a Gaussian-based smooth dielectric model, an inhomogeneous dielectric distribution model that mimics the effect of macromolecular flexibility and captures the altered properties of surface bound water molecules. Thus, the model delivers a smooth transition of dielectric properties from the macromolecular interior to the solvent phase, eliminating any unphysical surface separating the two phases. Using various examples of macromolecular binding, we demonstrate its utility and illustrate the comparison with the conventional 2-dielectric model. We also showcase some additional abilities of this model, viz. to account for the effect of electrolytes in the solution and to render the distribution profile of water across a lipid membrane.

  14. MicroRNA-125b Affects Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Function by Targeting Serum Response Factor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhibo Chen

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Background/Aims: Increasing evidence links microRNAs to the pathogenesis of peripheral vascular disease. We recently found microRNA-125b (miR-125b to be one of the most significantly down‑regulated microRNAs in human arteries with arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO of the lower extremities. However, its function in the process of ASO remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the expression, regulatory mechanisms, and functions of miR-125b in the process of ASO. Methods: Using the tissue explants adherent method, vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs were prepared for this study. A rat carotid artery balloon injury model was constructed to simulate the development of vascular neointima, and a lentiviral transduction system was used to overexpress serum response factor (SRF or miR-125b. Quantitative real‑time PCR (qRT‑PCR was used to detect the expression levels of miR‑125b and SRF mRNA. Western blotting was performed to determine the expression levels of SRF and Ki67. In situ hybridization analysis was used to analyze the location and expression levels of miR-125b. CCK-8 and EdU assays were used to assess cell proliferation, and transwell and wound closure assays were performed to measure cell migration. Flow cytometry was used to evaluate cell apoptosis, and a dual-luciferase reporter assay was conducted to examine the effects of miR‑125b on SRF. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence analyses were performed to analyze the location and expression levels of SRF and Ki67. Results: miR-125b expression was decreased in ASO arteries and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF-BB-stimulated VSMCs. miR-125b suppressed VSMC proliferation and migration but promoted VSMC apoptosis. SRF was determined to be a direct target of miR-125b. Exogenous miR-125b expression modulated SRF expression and inhibited vascular neointimal formation in balloon-injured rat carotid arteries. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate a specific role of the mi

  15. TREK-1 Channel Expression in Smooth Muscle as a Target for Regulating Murine Intestinal Contractility: Therapeutic Implications for Motility Disorders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ruolin Ma

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Gastrointestinal (GI motility disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS can occur when coordinated smooth muscle contractility is disrupted. Potassium (K+ channels regulate GI smooth muscle tone and are key to GI tract relaxation, but their molecular and functional phenotypes are poorly described. Here we define the expression and functional roles of mechano-gated K2P channels in mouse ileum and colon. Expression and distribution of the K2P channel family were investigated using quantitative RT-PCR (qPCR, immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy. The contribution of mechano-gated K2P channels to mouse intestinal muscle tension was studied pharmacologically using organ bath. Multiple K2P gene transcripts were detected in mouse ileum and colon whole tissue preparations. Immunohistochemistry confirmed TREK-1 expression was smooth muscle specific in both ileum and colon, whereas TREK-2 and TRAAK channels were detected in enteric neurons but not smooth muscle. In organ bath, mechano-gated K2P channel activators (Riluzole, BL-1249, flufenamic acid, and cinnamyl 1-3,4-dihydroxy-alpha-cyanocinnamate induced relaxation of KCl and CCh pre-contracted ileum and colon tissues and reduced the amplitude of spontaneous contractions. These data reveal the specific expression of mechano-gated K2P channels in mouse ileum and colon tissues and highlight TREK-1, a smooth muscle specific K2P channel in GI tract, as a potential therapeutic target for combating motility pathologies arising from hyper-contractility.

  16. Intermittent Smoothing Approaches for Wind Power Output: A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Jabir

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Wind energy is one of the most common types of renewable energy resource. Due to its sustainability and environmental benefits, it is an emerging source for electric power generation. Rapid and random changes of wind speed makes it an irregular and inconsistent power source when connected to the grid, causing different technical problems in protection, power quality and generation dispatch control. Due to these problems, effective intermittent smoothing approaches for wind power output are crucially needed to minimize such problems. This paper reviews various intermittent smoothing approaches used in smoothing the output power fluctuations caused by wind energy. Problems associated with the inclusion of wind energy resources to grid are also briefly reviewed. From this review, it has been found that battery energy storage system is the most suitable and effective smoothing approach, provided that an effective control strategy is available for optimal utilization of battery energy system. This paper further demonstrates different control strategies built for battery energy storage system to obtain the smooth output wind power.

  17. Spectral synthesis in certain spaces of entire functions of exponential type and its applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Odinokov, O V

    2000-01-01

    We consider certain spaces P Ω of entire functions of exponential type in C n associated with a domain Ω element of R n that are in fact Laplace transforms of distributions in Ω. It is shown that any shift-invariant subspace of these functions admits spectral synthesis, that is, coincides with the closure of the linear span of the exponential polynomials contained in it. As an application of this result, we describe the solution space in P Ω of a system of homogeneous equations of infinite order for differential operators with characteristic functions infinitely differentiable in Ω

  18. Quantum metric spaces as a model for pregeometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alvarez, E.; Cespedes, J.; Verdaguer, E.

    1992-01-01

    A new arena for the dynamics of spacetime is proposed, in which the basic quantum variable is the two-point distance on a metric space. The scaling dimension (that is, the Kolmogorov capacity) in the neighborhood of each point then defines in a natural way a local concept of dimension. We study our model in the region of parameter space in which the resulting spacetime is not too different from a smooth manifold

  19. Kir2.1 regulates rat smooth muscle cell proliferation, migration, and post-injury carotid neointimal formation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qiao, Yong; Tang, Chengchun; Wang, Qingjie; Wang, Dong; Yan, Gaoliang; Zhu, Boqian

    2016-01-01

    Phenotype switching of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) from the contractile type to the synthetic type is a hallmark of vascular disorders such as atherosclerosis and restenosis after angioplasty. Inward rectifier K"+ channel 2.1 (Kir2.1) has been identified in VSMC. However, whether it plays a functional role in regulating cellular transformation remains obscure. In this study, we evaluated the role of Kir2.1 on VSMC proliferation, migration, phenotype switching, and post-injury carotid neointimal formation. Kir2.1 knockdown significantly suppressed platelet-derived growth factor BB-stimulated rat vascular smooth muscle cells (rat-VSMC) proliferation and migration. Deficiency in Kir2.1 contributed to the restoration of smooth muscle α-actin, smooth muscle 22α, and calponin and to a reduction in osteopontin expression in rat-VSMC. Moreover, the in vivo study showed that rat-VSMC switched to proliferative phenotypes and that knockdown of Kir2.1 significantly inhibited neointimal formation after rat carotid injury. Kir2.1 may be a potential therapeutic target in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis and restenosis following percutaneous coronary intervention.

  20. Kir2.1 regulates rat smooth muscle cell proliferation, migration, and post-injury carotid neointimal formation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Qiao, Yong; Tang, Chengchun, E-mail: tangchengchun@medmail.com.cn; Wang, Qingjie; Wang, Dong; Yan, Gaoliang; Zhu, Boqian

    2016-09-02

    Phenotype switching of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) from the contractile type to the synthetic type is a hallmark of vascular disorders such as atherosclerosis and restenosis after angioplasty. Inward rectifier K{sup +} channel 2.1 (Kir2.1) has been identified in VSMC. However, whether it plays a functional role in regulating cellular transformation remains obscure. In this study, we evaluated the role of Kir2.1 on VSMC proliferation, migration, phenotype switching, and post-injury carotid neointimal formation. Kir2.1 knockdown significantly suppressed platelet-derived growth factor BB-stimulated rat vascular smooth muscle cells (rat-VSMC) proliferation and migration. Deficiency in Kir2.1 contributed to the restoration of smooth muscle α-actin, smooth muscle 22α, and calponin and to a reduction in osteopontin expression in rat-VSMC. Moreover, the in vivo study showed that rat-VSMC switched to proliferative phenotypes and that knockdown of Kir2.1 significantly inhibited neointimal formation after rat carotid injury. Kir2.1 may be a potential therapeutic target in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis and restenosis following percutaneous coronary intervention.