IS6110 homologs are present in multiple copies in mycobacteria other than tuberculosis-causing mycobacteria

A surgical technique for safe early repair of ventricular septal rupture is described. The technique consists of exclusion of the infarcted area, septal stabilization, and remodeling of the left ventricle with an internal two-patch method. This technique is simple and reliable, and it appeared favorable in an elderly patient group. Six of 7 patients were treated with good results.     

Robust principal component analysis for functional data

A method for exploring the structure of populations of complex objects, such as images, is considered. The objects are summarized by feature vectors. The statistical backbone is Principal Component Analysis in the space of feature vectors. Visual insights come from representing the results in the original data space. In an ophthalmological example, endemic outliers motivate the development of a bounded influence approach to PCA.     

Influence of MgO content as an additive on the performance of Ni/MgOSiO2 catalysts for the steam reforming of glycerol

Ni catalysts supported on MgOSiO₂ were assessed in the steam reforming reaction of glycerol for the study of the H₂ production and carbon deposition with different MgO contents as additives. The catalysts were prepared with commercial SiO₂ by the aqueous impregnation method and characterized by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, specific surface area, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction in situ with O₂, temperature programmed reduction with H₂, X-ray diffraction in situ with H₂, temperature programmed desorption with H₂ and scanning electron microscopy. The glycerol steam reforming reaction took place at 600 °C for 5 h, with a water/glycerol molar ratio of 12/1 at 5 mLh^?1. N₂ was used as the carrier gas. The characterization of the samples showed the interaction of Ni with the support increases with the MgO addition, due to the formation of a NiMg silicate hydrate and MgNiO₂ solid solution; as a result, both metallic area and dispersion also increased. Catalytic results showed similar gaseous products yields (H₂, CH₄, CO and CO₂) for mixed-matrix catalysts, however, a lower carbon deposition on 10 wt%Ni catalyst supported on 30 wt%MgOSiO₂ was observed.     

ARMADA Middleware and Communication Services

Real-time embedded systems have evolved during the past several decades from small custom-designed digital hardware to large distributed processing systems. As these systems become more complex, their interoperability, evolvability and cost-effectiveness requirements motivate the use of commercial-off-the-shelf components. This raises the challenge of constructing dependable and predictable real-time services for application developers on top of the inexpensive hardware and software components which has minimal support for timeliness and dependability guarantees. We are addressing this challenge in the ARMADA project.ARMADA is set of communication and middleware services that provide support for fault-tolerance and end-to-end guarantees for embedded real-time distributed applications. Since real-time performance of such applications depends heavily on the communication subsystem, the first thrust of the project is to develop a predictable communication service and architecture to ensure QoS-sensitive message delivery. Fault-tolerance is of paramount importance to embedded safety-critical systems. In its second thrust, ARMADA aims to offload the complexity of developing fault-tolerant applications from the application programmer by focusing on a collection of modular, composable middleware for fault-tolerant group communication and replication under timing constraints. Finally, we develop tools for testing and validating the behavior of our services. We give an overview of the ARMADA project, describing the architecture and presenting its implementation status.     

A marine unicellular alga in diets of pregnant and lactating rats as a source of ω3 fatty acids for the developing brain of their progeny

The period of brain development in rats occurs during the late pregnancy and early lactation periods. During that time a large quantity of omega-3 (ω3) long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, mostly decosahexaenoic acid, is deposited in the brain lipids of the developing and growing pup. A dietary source of ω3 fatty acid should be provided during this period to the dams' diet to assure sufficient of ω3 fatty acids to the developing progeny. Although a wide variety of lipids from plants and marine animals was examined in this respect, we provide herein for the first time, experimental data that indicate that the marine unicellular alga Nannochloropsis can be efficiently used as a dietary source of the ω3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid for pregnant and lactating dams. Furthermore, the dietary ω3 lipids of the alga are efficiently transferred to the developing foetus and pups to support the requirements for normal brain development.     

RF数模转换器促进通信信号的直接合成

本文讨论RF数模转换器对于通信系统的实际应用,例如有线通信、无线通信基础设施基站、无线回程及其他此类系统;另外回顾了推动RF DAC技术发展的重要规范,以及一些用于实施此类系统的常见无线电架构;解释了与RF DAC设计相关的挑战,并讨论了一些权衡取舍和可能的解决方案;评论了封装设计考虑和印刷电路板设计;介绍了适合电缆前端发射器的RF DAC的测量结果。RFDAC的特性和性能适合为针对多载波、多频段、多标准无线电发射器的软件定义无线电系统提供解决方案。     

Particle Accretion Mechanism Underlies Biological Crystal Growth from an Amorphous Precursor Phase

Many biogenic minerals are composed of aggregated particles at the nanoscale. These minerals usually form through the transformation of amorphous precursors into single crystals inside a privileged space controlled by the organism. Here, in vitro experiments aimed at understanding the factors responsible for producing such single crystals with aggregated particle texture are presented. Crystallization is achieved by a two‐step reaction in which amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is first precipitated and then transformed into calcite in small volumes of water and in the presence of additives. The additives used are gel‐forming molecules, phosphate ions, and the organic extract from sea urchin embryonic spicules ‐ all are present in various biogenic crystals that grow via the transformation of ACC. Remarkably, this procedure yields faceted single‐crystals of calcite that maintain the nanoparticle texture. The crystals grow predominantly by the accretion of ACC nanoparticles, which subsequently crystallize. Gels and phosphate ions stabilize ACC via a different mechanism than sea urchin spicule macromolecules. It is concluded that the unique nanoparticle texture of biogenic minerals results from formation pathways that may differ from one another, but given the appropriate precursor and micro‐environment, share a common particle accretion mechanism.