Inside Front Cover: Photonic Crystal Structures as a Basis for a Three‐Dimensionally Interpenetrating Electrochemical‐Cell System (Adv. Mater. 13/2006)

The inside cover shows an SEM image of a 3D‐interpenetrating electrochemical cell with submicrometer features, as reported by Stein and coworkers on p. 1750. The pores of an inverse‐opal carbon electrode are coated with a conformal layer of a polymer separator and infiltrated with vanadia to form the opposite electrode after lithiation. The idealized scheme illustrates lithium‐ion transport between the electrodes through the polymer membrane.     

家用冷藏冷冻箱关门状态下的湿汽运动研究

本文介绍了一种评价家用电冰箱箱体内部和外部水湿汽运动扩散的试验方法。研究了水蒸汽从冷藏室内新鲜食品表面迁移到蒸发器以及冰箱周围环境中水蒸汽迁移到冰箱内部的传递速率，同时评估了家用电冰箱中的水湿汽迁移扩散对能耗的影响。希望本文能引起国内冰箱制造商对该领域的了解和关注，并以此为依据，对电冰箱的综合性能进行改善。     

Distributed Job Scheduling in Rings

We give a distributed approximation algorithm for job scheduling in a ring architecture. In contrast to many other parallel scheduling models, the model we consider captures the influence of the underlying communications network by specifying that task migration from one processor to another takes time proportional to the distance between those two processors in the network. As a result, our algorithm must balance computational load and communication time. The algorithm is simple, requires no global control, and yields schedules of length at most 4.22 times optimal. We also give a lower bound on the performance of any distributed algorithm and the results of simulation experiments which suggest better performance than does our worst-case analysis.     

Development of a lane departure monitoring and control system

The lane departure avoidance systems have been considered promising to assist human drivers in AVCS (Advanced Vehicle Control System). In this paper, a lane departure monitoring and control system is developed and evaluated in the hardware-in-the-loop simulations. This system consists of lane sensing, lane departure monitoring and active steering control subsystems. The road image is obtained based on a vision sensor and the lane parameters are estimated using image processing and Kalman Filter technique. The active steering controller for avoiding the lane departure is designed based on the lane departure metric. The proposed lane departure avoidance system is realized in a steering HILS (hardware-in-the-loop simulation) tool and its performance is evaluated with a driver in the loop.     

Response properties of corticotectal and corticostriatal neurons in the posterior lateral suprasylvian cortex of the cat

Lateral suprasylvian cortex (LS) is an important source of visual projections to both the striatum and superior colliculus. Although these two LS efferent systems are likely to be involved in different aspects of visual processing, little is known about their functional properties. In the present experiments, 86 neurons in halothane-anesthetized, paralyzed cats were recorded along the posterior aspects of the medial and lateral banks of LS (PMLS and PLLS). Neurons were selected for analysis on the basis of antidromic activation from electrodes chronically implanted in the superior colliculus and caudate nucleus. The segregated nature of corticostriatal and corticotectal neurons was apparent; in no instance could a neuron be antidromically activated from both the superior colliculus and the caudate nucleus. Many common features were revealed between corticotectal and corticostriatal neurons; the majority of neurons in both populations were binocular and contralaterally dominant, showed similar responses to stationary flashed light, and expressed within-field spatial summation and surround inhibition. However, a number of information-processing features distinguished between corticotectal and corticostriatal neurons; the former were generally tuned to lower velocities than were the latter, and, for a given eccentricity in visual space, corticotectal neurons had smaller receptive fields than did corticostriatal neurons. Moreover, most corticotectal neurons displayed a marked preference for movements toward temporal visual space, whereas corticostriatal neurons revealed no specialization for a particular direction of movement. In addition, whereas corticotectal neurons were selective for receding stimuli, corticostriatal neurons were selective for approaching stimuli. The presence of these two corticofugal pathways is discussed in relation to their presumptive functional roles in the facilitation of attentive and orientation behaviors.     

Redox properties of human medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, modulation by charged active-site amino acid residues

The modulation of the electron-transfer properties of human medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (hwtMCADH) has been studied using wild-type and site-directed mutants by determining their midpoint potentials at various pH values and estimating the involved pKs. The mutants used were E376D, in which the negative charge is retained; E376Q, in which one negative charge (pKa approximately 6. 0) is removed from the active center; E99G, in which a different negative charge (pKa approximately 7.3) also is affected; and E376H (pKa approximately 9.3) in which a positive charge is present. Em for hwtMCADH at pH 7.6 is -0.114 V. Results for the site-directed mutants indicate that loss of a negative charge in the active site causes a +0.033 V potential shift. This is consistent with the assumption that electrostatic interactions (as in the case of flavodoxins) and specific charges are important in the modulation of the electron-transfer properties of this class of dehydrogenases. Specifically, these charge interactions appear to correlate with the positive Em shift observed upon binding of substrate/product couple to MCADH [Lenn, N. D., Stankovich, M. T., and Liu, H. (1990) Biochemistry 29, 3709-3715], which coincides with a pK increase of Glu376-COOH from approximately 6 to 8-9 [Rudik, I., Ghisla, S., and Thorpe, C. (1998) Biochemistry 37, 8437-8445]. From the pH dependence of the midpoint potentials of hwtMCADH two mechanistically important ionizations are estimated. The pKa value of approximately 6.0 is assigned to the catalytic base, Glu376-COOH, in the oxidized enzyme based on comparison with the pH behavior of the E376H mutant, it thus coincides with the pK value recently estimated [Vock, P., Engst, S., Eder, M., and Ghisla, S. (1998) Biochemistry 37, 1848-1860]. The pKa of approximately 7.1 is assigned to Glu376-COOH in reduced hwtMCADH. Comparable values for these pKas for Glu376-COOH in pig kidney MCADH are pKox = 6.5 and pKred = 7.9. The Em measured for K304E-MCADH (a major mutant resulting in a deficiency syndrome) is essentially identical to that of hwtMCADH, indicating that the disordered enzyme has an intact active site.     

Features of autoimmune hepatitis in primary sclerosing cholangitis: an evaluation of 114 primary sclerosing cholangitis patients according to a scoring system for the diagnosis of autoimmune hepatitis

Overlapping features between primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC and autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) have previously been noted. To assess systematically similarities between these disorders, we have evaluated 114 PSC patients (36 women; 78 men), all confirmed by endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (ERC), according to a scoring system proposed by The International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group for the diagnosis of AIH. The scoring system attributes positive or negative scores to the parameters sex, ratio of elevation of serum levels of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) vs. aminotransferase, serum levels of immunoglobulins and autoantibodies, viral markers, history of drug and alcohol intake, genetic factors, liver histology, and response to therapy. Two of the PSC patients (2%) obtained scores above 15 before treatment, satisfying the diagnostic criterion of "definite" AIH. Thirty-eight patients (33%) scored between 10 and 15 points and could be classified as "probable" AIH. The serum level of immunoglobulin G (IgG) was elevated in 68 patients (61% of 111 cases tested), and positive titers of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) or smooth muscle antibodies (SMA) were detected in 24 patients (22% of 111 cases tested). Thirty-five of the PSC patients (33% of 105 evaluable biopsy specimens) obtained positive scores for histological features similar to those of AIH, but the total score for histology was in the negative range in 72 patients (69%) because of the presence of biliary changes. The frequent finding of high scores in PSC patients underlines the similarities PSC may have with AIH. A modification of the scoring system, in particular by increasing the negative score for histological biliary changes, would improve its potential to discriminate between AIH and PSC.     

Tree Recovery in PIM Sparse Mode

A PIM–SM-built multicast tree must be restructured when the underlying unicast routing tables change. We describe the PIM–SM recovery mechanisms and evaluate the recovery performance, showing its dependence on a range of network and session parameters. Our results show that a substantial packet loss can be caused by nonreductive, benign events in the network, such as an addition of a new link. We propose and evaluate an improvement to the standard PIM–SM recovery procedure aimed to reduce the packet loss caused by the benign events. Our evaluation shows that the data loss caused by these events can be significantly decreased regardless of the topology and session parameters.     

Economic Approaches for Cognitive Radio Networks: A Survey

Efficient resource allocation is one of the key concerns of implementing cognitive radio networks. Game theory has been extensively used to study the strategic interactions between primary and secondary users for effective resource allocation. The concept of spectrum trading has introduced a new direction for the coexistence of primary and secondary users through economic benefits to primary users. The use of price theory and market theory from economics has played a vital role to facilitate economic models for spectrum trading. So, it is important to understand the feasibility of using economic approaches as well as to realize the technical challenges associated with them for implementation of cognitive radio networks. With this motivation, we present an extensive summary of the related work that use economic approaches such as game theory and/or price theory/market theory to model the behavior of primary and secondary users for spectrum sharing and discuss the associated issues. We also propose some open directions for future research on economic aspects of spectrum sharing in cognitive radio networks.