Presence of acetyl coenzyme A (CoA) carboxylase and propionyl-CoA carboxylase in autotrophic Crenarchaeota and indication for operation of a 3-hydroxypropionate cycle in autotrophic carbon fixation

The pathway of autotrophic CO2 fixation was studied in the phototrophic bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus and in the aerobic thermoacidophilic archaeon Metallosphaera sedula. In both organisms, none of the key enzymes of the reductive pentose phosphate cycle, the reductive citric acid cycle, and the reductive acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) pathway were detectable. However, cells contained the biotin-dependent acetyl-CoA carboxylase and propionyl-CoA carboxylase as well as phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase. The specific enzyme activities of the carboxylases were high enough to explain the autotrophic growth rate via the 3-hydroxypropionate cycle. Extracts catalyzed the CO2-, MgATP-, and NADPH-dependent conversion of acetyl-CoA to 3-hydroxypropionate via malonyl-CoA and the conversion of this intermediate to succinate via propionyl-CoA. The labelled intermediates were detected in vitro with either 14CO2 or [14C]acetyl-CoA as precursor. These reactions are part of the 3-hydroxypropionate cycle, the autotrophic pathway proposed for C. aurantiacus. The investigation was extended to the autotrophic archaea Sulfolobus metallicus and Acidianus infernus, which showed acetyl-CoA and propionyl-CoA carboxylase activities in extracts of autotrophically grown cells. Acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity is unexpected in archaea since they do not contain fatty acids in their membranes. These aerobic archaea, as well as C. aurantiacus, were screened for biotin-containing proteins by the avidin-peroxidase test. They contained large amounts of a small biotin-carrying protein, which is most likely part of the acetyl-CoA and propionyl-CoA carboxylases. Other archaea reported to use one of the other known autotrophic pathways lacked such small biotin-containing proteins. These findings suggest that the aerobic autotrophic archaea M. sedula, S. metallicus, and A. infernus use a yet-to-be-defined 3-hydroxypropionate cycle for their autotrophic growth. Acetyl-CoA carboxylase and propionyl-CoA carboxylase are proposed to be the main CO2 fixation enzymes, and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase may have an anaplerotic function. The results also provide further support for the occurrence of the 3-hydroxypropionate cycle in C. aurantiacus.     

ON TRANSITIVE SOLUTIONS OF $-FUZZY RELATION EQUATIONS DESCRIBING FUZZY SYSTEMS

The set of solutions of the $-fuzzy relation equation over finite spaces with values from linear lattice is considered. It is shown, that there exist solutions with various known types of the fuzzy transitivity, while the maximum solution has a special new type of so-called α-transitivity. An interesting convergence property of natural powers of the maximum solution is presented. That result and analogous ones, which hold for other types of transitive solutions, are applied for the analysis of the convergence of fuzzy systems described by $-fuzzy relation equations. In such a way, a new conceptual model for the behaviour of fuzzy systems is provided.     

A Web-based tool and a heuristic method for cooperation of manufacturing supply chain decisions

Supply chain issues have been given much attention. Various technologies and concepts have been applied to improving and optimizing supply chain performance. However, few methods to explore supply chain inter-relationships, detect process key problems and co-ordinate planning processes in different supply chain partners are available. A Web-based co-ordinated planning process supported by quality function deployment (QFD) approach is proposed in this research. The planning method is focused on integrating planning processes in supply chains by optimizing each planning process and interactively adjusting key parameters in different business processes. The QFD approach is employed to inter-relate different business processes and detect key problems through Internet technique application, so that the global solution can be heuristically improved. The planning method imitates the real-world supply chain planning environment and provides a mechanism for decision-makers to communicate with quantitative information in planning processes through the Web system. An illustrative case study in packaging industry is conducted to describe the planning procedure. The result of the example shows prospect of the method in improving supply chain cooperation. The approach is expected to facilitate supply chain planning and support managers to solve targeted problems more efficiently.     

The effect of pentaerithrityl-tetranitrate on parameters of the microcirculation

AIM OF THE STUDY: The effect of organic nitrates on microcirculation was first studied in 1964 and with regard to glyceroltrinitrate (GTN) an "internal hemodilution" (i.e. a fluid shift from the extravascular fluid to the intravascular compartment) was observed. Therefore, we found it of interest to study the effects of the long-acting PETN on parameters of hemorrheology. METHODS: The effects of single doses of 25, 50, and 80 mg PETN, 0.4 mg GTN, and of placebo were investigated on the capillary erythrocyte velocity (CEV; Capiflow), the tissue oxygen tension (tcpO2), the deformability of red blood cells, the plasma viscosity and of the fibrin content of the plasma in a single-blind, randomized study over 12 h in 12 healthy female and male volunteers. The CEV and the tcpO2 were measured in the nailfold of the fourth finger and on the skin of its end phalanx, respectively. Statistical analysis was performed by analysis of variance, the calculation of epsilon (Greenhouse-Geisser), and the multiple t test. RESULTS: After administration of 50 or 80 mg PETN the CEV decreased by 30% over a period of 2 or 4 h (p = 0.02 or 0.002). A decrease by 11% was measured 1 and 2 h after administration of GTN (p = 0.034). Under the same PETN doses tcpO2 increased from 1.41 to 1.78 mm mercury (p = 0.002). The deformability of red blood cells was slightly increased after 50 and 80 mg PETN under share rates of 60 Pa from 55.5 to 58.0% 8 and 12 h after intake. The plasma viscosity was decreased after intake of 50 mg PETN 4 to 8 h (1.36 vs. 1.34 Pa x s, p = 0.023) and after intake of 80 mg 2 to 12 h post dose (1.36 vs. 1.33 Pa x s, p = 0.015). The systolic or diastolic blood pressure decreased, but was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: The PETN-induced decrease in CEV can be explained with the pre- and afterload decreasing properties of the nitrates. The increase in tcpO2 and erythrocyte deformability and the decrease in viscosity are additional advantageous effects on the microcirculation. If the results are transferred from the nailfold of the finger to the myocardium, the benefit of nitrates could not only be seen in the decrease in preload due to their vasodilating properties, but also in improving the parameters of microcirculation. The internal hemodilution and the slightly enhanced deformability might provide an additional supply of myocardial capillaries in case of myocardial ischemia.     

Viscoelasticity of living cells allows high resolution imaging by tapping mode atomic force microscopy

Application of atomic force microscopy (AFM) to biological objects and processes under physiological conditions has been hampered so far by the deformation and destruction of the soft biological materials invoked. Here we describe a new mode of operation in which the standard V-shaped silicon nitride cantilever is oscillated under liquid and damped by the interaction between AFM tip and sample surface. Because of the viscoelastic behavior of the cellular surface, cells effectively "harden" under such a tapping motion at high frequencies and become less susceptible to deformation. Images obtained in this way primarily reveal the surface structure of the cell. It is now possible to study physiological processes, such as cell growth, with a minimal level of perturbation and high spatial resolution (approximately 20 nm).     

AN AUTOMATED APPROACH TO EXTRACTING RIVER BANK LOCATIONS FROM AERIAL IMAGERY USING IMAGE TEXTURE

A fundamental challenge in river analysis and modelling is the lack of readily available and reliable information on river bank geometry. Traditional survey methods are expensive and time consuming and often difficult to execute in many river systems because of hazardous terrain or lack of access. However, as high quality aerial and satellite imagery becomes available for more of the globe, it is increasingly possible to extract these bank locations directly from imagery. The most direct method of doing this involves manually designating edges based on visual criterion. This, however, is often prohibitively time consuming and labour intensive, and the quality is dependent on the individual doing the task. This paper describes a quick and fully automated method for locating water surface and river banks in high resolution aerial imagery without recourse to any multispectral information, by segmenting based on the local entropy of the image. This method is demonstrated on imagery of several rivers and its advantages and limitations are discussed. Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

Semantically-based crossover in genetic programming: application to real-valued symbolic regression

We investigate the effects of semantically-based crossover operators in genetic programming, applied to real-valued symbolic regression problems. We propose two new relations derived from the semantic distance between subtrees, known as semantic equivalence and semantic similarity. These relations are used to guide variants of the crossover operator, resulting in two new crossover operators—semantics aware crossover (SAC) and semantic similarity-based crossover (SSC). SAC, was introduced and previously studied, is added here for the purpose of comparison and analysis. SSC extends SAC by more closely controlling the semantic distance between subtrees to which crossover may be applied. The new operators were tested on some real-valued symbolic regression problems and compared with standard crossover (SC), context aware crossover (CAC), Soft Brood Selection (SBS), and No Same Mate (NSM) selection. The experimental results show on the problems examined that, with computational effort measured by the number of function node evaluations, only SSC and SBS were significantly better than SC, and SSC was often better than SBS. Further experiments were also conducted to analyse the perfomance sensitivity to the parameter settings for SSC. This analysis leads to a conclusion that SSC is more constructive and has higher locality than SAC, NSM and SC; we believe these are the main reasons for the improved performance of SSC.     

A ultra-high-vacuum wafer-fusion-bonding system

The design of heterojunction devices is typically limited by material integration constraints and the energy band alignment. Wafer bonding can be used to integrate material pairs that cannot be epitaxially grown together due to large lattice mismatch. Control of the energy band alignment can be provided by formation of interface dipoles through control of the surface chemistry. We have developed an ultra-high-vacuum system for wafer-fusion-bonding semiconductors with in situ control and measurement of surface properties relevant to interface dipoles. A wafer-fusion-bonding chamber with annealing capabilities was integrated into an ultra-high-vacuum system with a sputtering chamber and an x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy system for preparing and measuring the surface chemistry of wafers prior to bonding. The design of the system along with initial results for the fusion-bonded InGaAs/Si heterojunction is presented.     

基于降阶模型的斜拉索振动的半主动神经网络控制

根据模态降阶理论,获得了斜拉索-阻尼器系统的降阶模型,有效地缩减了系统的自由度.根据ER/MR阻尼器特性和主动控制中LQG控制理论,建立了面向速度剪切的半主动LQG控制方法,并获得了很好的控制效果.本文设计了神经网络的观测器,使用的传感器数目大大减少,根据智能控制理论,设计了神经网络控制器,并提出采用该神经网络作斜拉索半主动控制的控制算法.振动仿真的结果表明,经过离线训练后的神经网络观测器和控制器,有效地抑制了斜拉索的振动.