Characterising protein,salt and water interactions with combined vibrational spectroscopic techniques

In this paper a combination of NIR spectroscopy and FTIR and Raman microspectroscopy was used to elucidate the effects of different salts (NaCl, KCl and MgSO₄) on structural proteins and their hydration in muscle tissue. Multivariate multi-block technique Consensus Principal Component Analysis enabled integration of different vibrational spectroscopic techniques: macroscopic information obtained by NIR spectroscopy is directly related to microscopic information obtained by FTIR and Raman microspectroscopy. Changes in protein secondary structure observed at different concentrations of salts were linked to changes in protein hydration affinity. The evidence for this was given by connecting the underlying FTIR bands of the amide I region (1700–1600 cm⁻¹) and the water region (3500–3000 cm⁻¹) with water vibrations obtained by NIR spectroscopy. In addition, Raman microspectroscopy demonstrated that different cations affected structures of aromatic amino acid residues differently, which indicates that cation–π interactions play an important role in determination of the final structure of protein molecules.     

Protein variant separations by cation-exchange chromatography on tentacle-type polymeric stationary phases

A method previously developed for the analysis of organohalogenated compounds in dairy products is now validated for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) determination in soybean infant formulas. The results of this study are consistent with those found for PCBs in powdered full-fat milk. The methodology is based on a solid-liquid extraction step enabling a semi-selective extraction of the apolar lipids of the matrix without affecting the efficiency for the recovery of PCBs. Mean recoveries for the spiked coplanar congeners studied were in the 88-114% range, with relative standard deviations (R.S.D.s) lower than 9.8%. The R.S.D.s related to the determination of endogenous PCBs were in the 1.5-10.0% range. The validated methodology was applied to the PCB analysis in different trademarks of soybean infant formulas commercialised in Spain. Toxic tetraequivalents of tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and daily intake corresponding to each one were calculated and compared with values previously published and with those found in literature for human breast milk in different countries.     

One method for electric field determination in the vicinity of infinitely thin electrode shells

One numerical method, the so-called equivalent electrodes method (EEM), has been applied to electric field calculation at planar and axially symmetric, extremely thin electrodes. The results obtained for characteristic impedance and effective relative dielectric constant of strip lines are presented, as well as electric field and potential distribution at geometrically modelled cable terminations. The accuracy of results of EEM depends on the number of used equivalent electrodes (EEs) and the error is inversely proportional to the selected number of EES. The method is very simple and exact and in limit process, with the number of the EES, gives exact results. However, in calculations certain problems may appear because of the increase EEs number, especially at very thin electrodes. The electric field being extremely high at the sharp electrode's ends, compared to other parts of the electrode, so it is possible to use smaller and denser EEs. The improvement proposed in this paper enables accurate calculation using a smaller number of EEs. Since the density of equivalent electrodes is higher, equivalent radii are smaller and EEs are not set at the same distances. The number of EEs in other regions is reduced. Some results obtained by the application of EEM have been compared with values obtained using the finite elements method (FEM) and very good matches have been identified.     

Adaptive Video Fast Forward

We derive a statistical graphical model of video scenes with multiple, possibly occluded objects that can be efficiently used for tasks related to video search, browsing and retrieval. The model is trained on query (target) clip selected by the user. Shot retrieval process is based on the likelihood of a video frame under generative model. Instead of using a combination of weighted Euclidean distances as a shot similarity measure, the likelihood model automatically separates and balances various causes of variability in video, including occlusion, appearance change and motion. Thus, we overcome tedious and complex user interventions required in previous studies. We use the model in the adaptive video forward application that adapts video playback speed to the likelihood of the data. The similarity measure of each candidate clip to the target clip defines the playback speed. Given a query, the video is played at a higher speed as long as video content has low likelihood, and when frames similar to the query clip start to come in, the video playback rate drops. Set of experiments o12n typical home videos demonstrate performance, easiness and utility of our application.Nemanja Petrovic received his Ph.D. from University of Illinois in 2004. He is currently the member of research staff at Siemens Corporate Research at Princeton, New Jersey. His professional interests are computer vision and machine learning. Dr. Petrovic has published 20 papers in the area of video understanding, data clustering and enhancement.Nebojsa Jojic received his Ph.D. from University of Illinois at 2001. His currently a researcher at Microsoft Research at Redmond, Washington. His professional interest include computer vision and machine learning. Dr. Jojic has published over 40 papers in the area of computer vision, bioinformatics and graphical models.Thomas Huang received his Sc.D. from MIT in 1963. He is William L. Everitt Distinguished Professor in the University of Illinois, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a full-time faculty member in the Beckman Institute Image Formation and Processing and Artificial Intelligence groups. Professor Huang has published over 600 papers in the area of computer vision, image compression and enhancement, pattern recognition, and multimodal signal processing. He is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Chinese Academy of Science, and recipient of IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal.     

Fast Transformation-Invariant Component Analysis

Dimensionality reduction techniques such as principal component analysis and factor analysis are used to discover a linear mapping between high-dimensional data samples and points in a lower-dimensional subspace. Previously, Frey and Jojic introduced transformation-invariant component analysis (TCA) to learn a linear mapping, invariant to a set of known form of global transformations. However, parameter estimation in that model using the previously-proposed expectation maximization (EM) algorithm required scalar operations in the order of N ² where N is the dimensionality of each training example. This is prohibitive for many applications of interest such as modeling mid-to large-size images, where, for instance, N may be as high as 786432 (512×512 RGB image). In this paper, we present an efficient algorithm that reduces the computational requirements to order of Nlog N. With this speedup, we show the effectiveness of transformation-invariant component analysis in various applications including tracking, learning video textures, clustering, object recognition and object detection in images. Software for TCA can be downloaded from .     

An Enhanced Green Cloud Based Queue Management (GCQM) System to Optimize Energy Consumption in Mobile Edge Computing

Interference alignment (IA) adjusts signaling scheme such that all interfering signals are squeezed in interference subspace, and obtains the maximum degrees of freedom in an interference channel. However, IA mostly achieves its performance via infinite extension of the channel, which is a major challenge in practical systems. In this paper, we schedule part of interference to be strong and achieve perfect IA within limited number of channel extensions. A single-hop 3 user single antenna interference channel (IFC) is considered and it is shown that one of the interfering signal streams needs to be strong so that perfect IA is feasible. Practical implementation of the proposed scheme is discussed in detail for the case of two extensions of the 3 user single antenna IFC.

     

Optimality conditions and a solution scheme for fractional optimal control problems

We formulate necessary conditions for optimality in Optimal control problems with dynamics described by differential equations of fractional order (derivatives of arbitrary real order). Then by using an expansion formula for fractional derivative, optimality conditions and a new solution scheme is proposed. We assumed that the highest derivative in the differential equation of the process is of integer order. Two examples are treated in detail.     

Lunar Astronomical Observatories: Design Studies

The best location in the inner solar system for the grand observatories of the 21st century may be the Moon. A multidisciplinary team including university students and faculty in engineering, astronomy, physics, and geology, and engineers from industry is investigating the Moon as a site for astronomical observatories and is doing conceptual and preliminary designs for these future observatories. Studies encompass lunar facilities for radio astronomy and astronomy at optical, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Although there are significant engineering challenges in design and construction on the Moon, the rewards for astronomy can be great, such as detection and study of Earth‐like planets orbiting nearby stars, and the task for engineers promises to stimulate advances in analysis and design, materials and structures, automation and robotics, foundations, and controls. Fabricating structures in the reduced‐gravity environment of the Moon will be easier than in the zero‐gravity environment of Earth orbit, as Apollo and space‐shuttle missions have revealed. Construction of observatories on the Moon can be adapted from techniques developed on the Earth, with the advantage that the Moon's weaker gravitational pull makes it possible to build larger devices than are practical on Earth.     

ARTreat Project: three-dimensional numerical simulation of plaque formation and development in the arteries

Atherosclerosis is a progressive disease characterized by the accumulation of lipids and fibrous elements in arteries. It is characterized by dysfunction of endothelium and vasculitis, and accumulation of lipid, cholesterol, and cell elements inside blood vessel wall. In this study, a continuum-based approach for plaque formation and development in 3-D is presented. The blood flow is simulated by the 3-D Navier-Stokes equations, together with the continuity equation while low-density lipoprotein (LDL) transport in lumen of the vessel is coupled with Kedem-Katchalsky equations. The inflammatory process was solved using three additional reaction-diffusion partial differential equations. Transport of labeled LDL was fitted with our experiment on the rabbit animal model. Matching with histological data for LDL localization was achieved. Also, 3-D model of the straight artery with initial mild constriction of 30% plaque for formation and development is presented.