Beam‐Induced Fe Nanopillars as Tunable Domain‐Wall Pinning Sites

Focused‐electron‐beam‐induced deposition (FEBID) is employed to create freestanding magnetic nanostructures. By growing Fe nanopillars on top of a perpendicular magnetic domain wall (DW) conduit, pinning of the DWs is observed due to the stray fields emanating from the nanopillar. Furthermore, a different DW pinning behavior is observed between the up and down magnetic states of the pillar, allowing to deduce the switching fields of the pillar in a novel way. The implications of these results are two‐fold: not only can 3‐dimensional nano‐objects be used to control DW motion in applications, it is also proposed that DW motion is a unique tool to probe the magnetic properties of nano‐objects.     

The {alpha}/{beta} hydrolase fold

We have identified a new protein fold—the /ßhydrolase fold—that is common to several hydrolytic enzymesof widely differing phylogenetic origin and catalytic function.The core of each enzyme is similar: an /ß sheet, notbarrel, of eight ß-sheets connected by -helices. Theseenzymes have diverged from a common ancestor so as to preservethe arrangement of the catalytic residues, not the binding site.They all have a catalytic triad, the elements of which are borneon loops which are the best-conserved structural features inthe fold. Only the histidine in the nucleophile-histidine-acidcatalytic triad is completely conserved, with the nucleophileand acid loops accommodating more than one type of amino acid.The unique topological and sequence arrangement of the triadresidues produces a catalytic triad which is, in a sense, amirror-image of the serine protease catalytic triad. There arenow four groups of enzymes which contain catalytic triads andwhich are related by convergent evolution towards a stable,useful active site: the eukaryotic serine proteases, the cysteineproteases, subtilisins and the /ß hydrolase fold enzymes.     

Lysine144 is essential for the catalytic activity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae transaldolase

Replacement of lysine¹⁴⁴ by glutamine in the pentose phosphate pathway enzyme transaldolase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is associated with the complete loss of activity indicating the essential role in catalysis. Neither histidine nor cysteine is important for catalytic activity as proposed for the Candida utilis enzyme. Also we could not find any evidence for a half-site character of the enzyme as described for transaldolase of C. utilis. Therefore, the reaction mechanisms for the two enzymes are different.     

Systematic and random errors in the determination of respiratory impedance by means of the forced oscillation technique: a theoretical study

The measurement of the impedance of the respiratory system by means of the forced oscillation technique is disturbed by the breathing signal of the subject. The latter introduces systematic and random errors on the obtained impedance values. The size of these errors depends on the relative power of the breathing signal with respect to the forced oscillatory signal x2.     

Immunization with human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) oncoprotein-loaded dendritic cells as well as protein in adjuvant induces MHC class I-restricted protection to HPV16-induced tumor cells

Human papillomavirus (HPV) E6 and E7 oncoproteins are attractive targets for T-cell-based immunotherapy of cervical cancer. In this study, we demonstrate that dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with HPV16 E7 protein are not only recognized in vitro by E7-specific CTLs but also elicit E7-specific CTL responses in vivo, associated with protection against a challenge with syngeneic HPV16-induced tumor cells. Vaccination with soluble E7 protein in incomplete Freund's adjuvant likewise induces E7-specific CTL responses associated with tumor protection. The presence of HPV16 E7-specific CTLs in vivo and the observation that depletion of CD8+ cells completely abolishes tumor protection demonstrate that CTLs are the major effector cells in mediating antitumor activity. The in vivo involvement of DCs in the activation of protective CTLs is suggested by the surface display of E7 peptide-loaded MHC class I molecules on these cells after E7 protein immunization. These data show that HPV16 E7 protein-pulsed DCs, as well as the administration of E7 protein antigen in adjuvant, can effectively stimulate tumor-specific MHC class I-restricted CD8+ T-cell-mediated protective immunity to HPV16-induced cancers.     

Random Point Processes Applied to Availability Analysis of Redundant Systems with Repair

An approach to calculate the stationary state probabilities and in particular the stationary point availability of redundant systems with repair is presented. The approach is based on the theory of random marked point processes. The tractibility of the results is demonstrated by an example.     

Finite-Element Analysis of Ceramic Multilayer Capacitors: Failure Probability Caused by Wave Soldering and Bending Loads

A two-dimensional numerical model that predicts the reliability of multilayer capacitors (MLCs) during soldering and bending is presented. The Weibull parameters used in the model are based on measurements of soldered MLC devices. The preheating and soldering temperatures have a dominant impact on the failure probability, in comparison to the thickness of the nickel layer, the soft solder geometry, and the number of inner electrodes. Comparison of calculated and measured reliability of three MLC sizes leads to the assumption that residual stresses due to the manufacturing process or size-related microstructure are important.     

Clinical significance of human sperm-zona pellucida binding

OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between sperm morphology and motion parameters and sperm-zona pellucida (ZP) binding capacity under hemizona assay (HZA) conditions and to determine the discriminatory power of the HZA for the prediction of in vitro sperm fertilizing ability. DESIGN: Prospectively designed study. SETTING: Academic tertiary centers. PATIENT(S): One hundred ninety-six couples undergoing IVF therapy participated in this study. INTERVENTION(S): Hemizona assay and IVF results were determined for each couple. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Computerized sperm motion analysis, sperm morphology (strict) criteria), and HZA results were correlated with fertilization outcome. RESULT(S): Among sperm parameters from the original ejaculates, morphology was the best predictor of sperm-ZP binding ability; hyperactivated motility was the best predictor of HZA results after swim-up separation of the motile sperm fractions. The HZA index provided the highest discriminatory power for fertilization success/failure, with an overall accuracy of 86%. CONCLUSION(S): Sperm morphology and hyperactivated motility showed a high correlation with the capacity of sperm to achieve tight binding to the ZP. The excellent positive and negative predictive values of the HZA for fertilization outcome provide additional support for the use of this functional bioassay in the decision-making process within the assisted reproduction setting.     

Zona pellucida mediated acrosome reaction and sperm morphology

PURPOSE: The Octopus program Octosmart is able to classify visual fields into six classes. In the program a horizontal bar indicates these classes, and an indicator points to the most probable position, related to the measured pathology. The width of this dashed indicator shows the range of possible fluctuations in the measurement and, therefore, its precision. This study sets out to analyse the suitability of this display mode using other visual-field index data. METHODS: The visual fields of 83 glaucomatous eyes of 61 patients of various etiological groups and glaucoma suspects were studied for periods varying from 1 to 5 years in a retrospective study. All examinations were performed with the G1 Octopus program and analyzed with the Octosmart program. The statistical significance of linear trends of the visual-field indices, mean defect (MD) and corrected loss variance (CLV), and the class shown by the indicator (POI = position of indicator) were determined, and their regression coefficients were analyzed by means of a linear trend test as a function of time. RESULTS: Of the sample of 83 tested eyes, a total of 18 significant trends were recorded after five examinations. All visual-field indices showed a trend towards amelioration. CONCLUSIONS: The 18 significant trends observed must be attributed to perturbing long-term fluctuations and, despite their statistical significance, are of little clinical value. It is questionable whether an increased number of examinations per eye would have attenuated the threshold fluctuations sufficiently to make the change in field class more reliable.     

Minimizing user intervention in registering 2D images to 3D models

This paper proposes a novel technique to speed up the registration of 2D images to 3D models. This problem often arises in the process of digitalization of real objects, because pictures are often taken independently from the 3D geometry. Although there are a number of methods for solving the problem of registration automatically, they all need some further assumptions, so in the most general case the process still requires the user to provide some information about how the image corresponds to geometry, for example providing point-to-point correspondences. We propose a method based on a graph representation where the nodes represent the 2D photos and the 3D object, and arcs encode correspondences, which are either image–to–geometry or image–to–image point pairs. This graph is used to infer new correspondences from the ones specified by the user and from successful alignment of single images and to factually encode the state of the registration process. After each action performed by the user, our system explores the states space to find the shortest path from the current state to a state where all the images are aligned, i.e. a final state and, therefore, guides the user in the selection of further alignment actions for a faster completion of the job. Experiments on empirical data are reported to show the effectiveness of the system in reducing the user workload considerably.