Loss of heterozygosity on the long arm of human chromosome 7 in sporadic renal cell carcinomas

Cytogenetic and molecular analysis of DNA sequences with highly polymorphic microsatellite markers have implicated allele loss in several chromosomal regions including 3p, 6p, 6q, 8p, 9p, 9q, 11p and 14q in the pathogenesis of sporadic renal cell carcinomas (RCCs). Deletions involving the long arm of chromosome 7 have not been described in RCCs although they have been seen in several other tumor types. However, there have been no detailed analysis of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of 7q sequences in sporadic RCCs. We therefore studied LOH for DNA sequences on 7q with 10 highly polymorphic markers in 92 matched normal/tumor samples representing sporadic RCCs including papillary, nonpapillary, and oncocytomas in order to determine whether allelic loss could be detected in a tumor type with no visible 7q rearrangements at the cytogenetic level. We found chromosome 7q allele loss in 59 of 92 cases (64%) involving one, two, or more microsatellite markers. The most common allele loss included loci D7S522 (24%) and D7S649 (30%) at 7q31.1-31.2, a region that contains one of the common fragile sites, FRA7G. By comparative multiplex PCR analysis, we detected a homozygous deletion of one marker in the 7q 31.1-31.2 region in one tumor, RC21. These results support the idea that a tumor suppressor gene in 7q31 is involved in the pathogenesis of sporadic renal cell carcinomas.     

Optimal and control of hybrid multirate systems

The problem of using a synchronous multirate digital controller for a continuous-time plant is considered. The performance objectives considered are the H^∞ and the H² norms of the periodically time-varying continuous-time input-output behavior of the closed loop system. A continuous-time lifting technique is used to solve these hybrid sampled-data problems. This approach yields equivalent purely discrete-time problems while preserving the multirate causality of the systems. The later problems can then be solved using known techniques.     

Evaluation of hydrogen production methods using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

In this paper, seven common hydrogen production processes are evaluated using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in respect to five criteria. The processes to be evaluated are steam methane reforming (SMR), partial oxidation of hydrocarbons (POX), coal gasification (CG), biomass gasification (BG), the combination of photovoltaics and electrolysis (PV–EL), the combination of wind power and electrolysis (W–EL) and the combination of hydropower and electrolysis (H–EL). The selected criteria that were used in the evaluation, for each of the seven hydrogen production processes are CO₂ emissions, operation and maintenance costs, capital cost, feedstock cost and hydrogen production cost. According to the evaluation, the processes that combine renewable energy sources with electrolysis (PV–EL, W–EL and H–EL) rank higher in classification than conventional processes (SMR, POX, CG and BG).     

Covalently Bonded Graphene–Carbon Nanotube Hybrid for High‐Performance Thermal Interfaces

The remarkable thermal properties of graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been the subject of intensive investigations for the thermal management of integrated circuits. However, the small contact area of CNTs and the large anisotropic heat conduction of graphene have hindered their applications as effective thermal interface materials (TIMs). Here, a covalently bonded graphene–CNT (G‐CNT) hybrid is presented that multiplies the axial heat transfer capability of individual CNTs through their parallel arrangement, while at the same time it provides a large contact area for efficient heat extraction. Through computer simulations, it is demonstrated that the G‐CNT outperforms few‐layer graphene by more than 2 orders of magnitude for the c‐axis heat transfer, while its thermal resistance is 3 orders of magnitude lower than the state‐of‐the‐art TIMs. We show that heat can be removed from the G‐CNT by immersing it in a liquid. The heat transfer characteristics of G‐CNT suggest that it has the potential to revolutionize the design of high‐performance TIMs.     

On low‐complexity adaptive wireless push‐based data broadcasting

This letter addresses a low‐complexity adaptive wireless data broadcasting system. Specifically, it proposes a way for reducing the computational complexity of the estimation process for the item demands, which in turn leads to a lower computational complexity to the broadcast server for selecting a data item to broadcast. We assume no a priori knowledge of the client demands for information items as happens in real environments. Simulation results reveal that the lowering of the computational complexity of the proposed system does not affect the performance offered to the system clients. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Automatic generation of 3D outdoor and indoor building scenes from a single image

In this paper, a novel approach for creating 3D models of building scenes is presented. The proposed method is fully automated and fast, and accurately reconstructs both outdoor images of a building and indoor scenes, with perspective cues in real-time, using only one image. It combines the extracted line segments to identify the vanishing points of the image, the orientation, the different planes that are depicted in the image and concludes whether the image depicts indoor or outdoor scenes. In addition, the proposed method efficiently eliminates the perspective distortion and produces an accurate 3D model of the scene without any intervention from the user. The main innovation of the method is that it uses only one image for the 3D reconstruction, while other state-of-the-art methods rely on the processing of multiple images. A website and a database of 100 images were created to prove the efficiency of the proposed method in terms of time needed for the 3D reconstruction, its automation and 3D model accuracy and can be used by anyone so as to easily produce user-generated 3D content: http://3d-test.iti.gr:8080/3d-test/3D_recon/     

Coherent differential absorption lidar measurements of CO2

A differential absorption lidar has been built to measure CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The transmitter is a pulsed single-frequency Ho:Tm:YLF laser at a 2.05-microm wavelength. A coherent heterodyne receiver was used to achieve sensitive detection, with the additional capability for wind profiling by a Doppler technique. Signal processing includes an algorithm for power measurement of a heterodyne signal. Results show a precision of the CO2 concentration measurement of 1%-2% 1sigma standard deviation over column lengths ranging from 1.2 to 2.8 km by an average of 1000 pulse pairs. A preliminary assessment of instrument sensitivity was made with an 8-h-long measurement set, along with correlative measurements with an in situ sensor, to determine that a CO2 trend could be detected.     

Flavour compounds of Greek cotton honey

Finding marker compounds is a powerful tool in the determination of the botanical origin of honey. For this purpose the flavour fraction of Greek cotton honey was investigated. A striking characteristic of this type of honey is the presence of more than 35 phenolic compounds in the extract, accounting for almost 60% of the total amount of compounds positively identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. In comparison with honeys of nine different origins, a total of 15 compounds could serve as potent markers for cotton honey, namely cinnamaldehyde (0.44%), cinnamyl alcohol (1.79%), cinnamic acid (1.13%), neryl and geranyl nitrile (0.16 and 0.41% respectively), benzenepropanol (0.5%), homovanillyl alcohol (0.6%), (E)‐ and (Z)‐p‐methoxy‐cinnamic acid (0.48 and 0.14% respectively), 2‐methyl‐p‐phthalaldehyde (0.22%), coniferaldehyde (0.47%), p‐coumaric acid (1.77%), ferulic acid (0.51%), scopoletin and scoparone (0.47%). Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

A Novel Tool for the Analysis and Detection of Copy Number Variants Associated with Haemoglobinopathies

Several types of haemoglobinopathies are caused by copy number variants (CNVs). While diagnosis is often based on haematological and biochemical parameters, a definitive diagnosis requires molecular DNA analysis. In some cases, the molecular characterisation of large deletions/duplications is challenging and inconclusive and often requires the use of specific diagnostic procedures, such as multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA). Herein, we collected and comprehensively analysed all known CNVs associated with haemoglobinopathies. The dataset of 291 CNVs was retrieved from the IthaGenes database and was further manually annotated to specify genomic locations, breakpoints and MLPA probes relevant for each CNV. We developed IthaCNVs, a publicly available and easy-to-use online tool that can facilitate the diagnosis of rare and diagnostically challenging haemoglobinopathy cases attributed to CNVs. Importantly, it facilitates the filtering of available entries based on the type of breakpoint information, on specific chromosomal and locus positions, on MLPA probes, and on affected gene(s). IthaCNVs brings together manually curated information about CNV genomic locations, functional effects, and information that can facilitate CNV characterisation through MLPA. It can help laboratory staff and clinicians confirm suspected diagnosis of CNVs based on molecular DNA screening and analysis.