Genetic evidence for the role of isocytochrome c2 in photosynthetic growth of Rhodobacter sphaeroides Spd mutants

In Rhodobacter sphaeroides, cytochrome c2 (cyt c2)-deficient mutants are photosynthetically incompetent (PS-). However, mutations which suppress the photosynthetic deficiency (spd mutations) of cyt c2 mutants increase the levels of a cyt c2 isoform, isocyt c2. To determine whether isocyt c2 was required for photosynthetic growth of Spd mutants, we used Tn5 mutagenesis to generate a PS- mutant (TP39) that lacks both cyt c2 and isocyt c2. DNA sequence analysis of wild-type DNA that restores isocyt c2 production and photosynthetic growth to TP39 indicates that it encodes the isocyt c2 structural gene, cycI. The Tn5 insertion in TP39 is approximately 1.5 kb upstream of cycI, and our results show that it is polar onto cycI. The cycI gene has been physically mapped to a region of chromosome I that is approximately 700 kb from the R. sphaeroides photosynthetic gene cluster. Construction of a defined cycI null mutant and complementation of several mutants with the cycI gene under the control of the cyt c2 promoter region indicate that an increase in the levels of isocyt c2 alone is necessary and sufficient for photosynthetic growth in the absence of cyt c2. The data are discussed in terms of the obligate role of isocyt c2 in cyt c2-independent photosynthesis of R. sphaeroides.     

An extended minimax disparity to determine the OWA operator weights

This paper contributes to extend the minimax disparity to determine the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) model based on linear programming. It introduces the minimax disparity approach between any distinct pairs of the weights and uses the duality of linear programming to prove the feasibility of the extended OWA operator weights model. The paper finishes with an open problem.     

MC-CDMA with exponential power profile in Nakagami fading channel

A refined study of multi-carrier code division multiple access transmission over a Nakagami fading channel is proposed. The channel power is modeled with an exponential power profile rather than the uniform profile prevalent in other papers. An expression for the bit error rate (BER) is then derived. Numerical results show that MC-CDMA performances depend on the power dispersion of interferers around the desired user power.     

Threshold cryptography based on Asmuth-Bloom secret sharing

In this paper, we investigate how threshold cryptography can be conducted with the Asmuth-Bloom secret sharing scheme and present three novel function sharing schemes for RSA, ElGamal and Paillier cryptosystems. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first provably secure threshold cryptosystems realized using the Asmuth-Bloom secret sharing. Proposed schemes are comparable in performance to earlier proposals in threshold cryptography.     

A 3.3-V single power supply 16-Mb nonvolatile virtual DRAM using aNAND flash memory technology

A 3.3-V 16-Mb nonvolatile memory having operation virtually identical to DRAM with package pin compatibility has been developed. Read and write operations are fully DRAM compatible except for a longer RAS precharge time after write. Fast random access time of 63 ns with the NAND flash memory cell is achieved by using a hierarchical row decoder scheme and a unique folded bit-line architecture which also allows bit-by-bit program verify and inhibit operation. Fast page mode with a column address access time of 21 ns is achieved by sensing and latching 4 k cells simultaneously. To allow byte alterability, nonvolatile restore operation with self-contained erase is developed. Self-contained erase is word-line based, and increased cell disturb due to the word-line based erase is relaxed by adding a boosted bit-line scheme to a conventional self-boosting technique. The device is fabricated in a 0.5-μm triple-well, p-substrate CMOS process using two-metal and three-poly interconnect layers. A resulting die size is 86.6 mm², and the effective cell size including the overhead of string select transistors is 2.0 μm²     

EFFECT OF CRACKING REACTIONS KINETICS ON THE MODEL PREDICTIONS OF AN INDUSTRIAL FLUID CATALYTIC CRACKING UNIT

Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is one of the most complex processes in the petroleum industry. The large degree of uncertainty in the kinetics of the cracking reactions and catalyst deactivation by coke deposition in the riser reactor are among several factors that contribute to the process complexity. The model developed by the authors (Ali and Rohani, 1995) is used lo investigate the effect of the three-lumped kinetic scheme (Weekman and Nace, 1970) and the four-lumped scheme (Lee ct ah, 1989) on the model predictability and reliability. The effect of changes in the catalyst circulation rate, gas oil feed rate, and oxygen feed concentration on various process variables is compared. It is shown that the three-lumped kinetic scheme, despite its extensive use in the literature (McFarlane et ah, 1993; Elnashaie and Elshishini, 1993; Theologos and Markatos, 1993; Arandes and de Lasa, 1992; Lopez-lsunza and Ruiz-Martinez, 1991), leads to erroneous results and should not be used in the dynamic simulation of the FCC units,     

Synthesis of artificial neural networks by transconductors only

Hardware implementation of artificial neural networks has been attracting great attention recently. In this work, the analog VLSI implementation of artificial neural networks by using only transconductors is presented. The signal flow graph approach is used in synthesis. The neural flow graph is defined. Synthesis of various neural network configurations by means of neural flow graph is described. The approach presented in this work is technology independent. This approach can be applied to new neural network topologies to be proposed or used with transconductors designed in future technologies.     

SPARC deficiency leads to early-onset cataractogenesis

PURPOSE: To determine the role of SPARC (secreted protein, acidic, and rich in cysteine) in cataractogenesis by examining mice deficient in a matricellular protein SPARC. METHODS: Mice were rendered SPARC-deficient by a targeted disruption of the gene. Slit-lamp microscopy and histology were used to examine the eyes of SPARC-null and wild-type mice from birth to 14 months of age. RESULTS: SPARC-null mice developed opacities in the posterior cortex of the eye as early as 1.5 months after birth. The diffuse cataracts appeared to progress toward the anterior cortex and reached maturity in many animals by 3.5 months of age. Early stages of cataractogenesis in SPARC-null mice included inhibition of normal lens fiber cell differentiation, degeneration of fiber cells, vacuole formation at the equator, and liquefaction of the cortex. No cataracts were detected in wild-type mice up to the age of 8 months. CONCLUSIONS: The early onset of cataracts in SPARC-null mice establishes that the gene is essential to the maintenance of lens transparency.     

A basic program for calculating subsurface water temperatures using chemical geothermometers-implication to geothermal reservoir estimation

GEOTHERM is a computer program written in BASIC language to estimate geothermal reservoir temperature using the well-known chemical gèothermometers. The empirical equations used in the program were obtained from the literature. Three different chemical geothermometers are included in the program: Na-K, Na-K-Ca, and silica geothermometers; this gives the user the opportunity not only to select the most reliable geothermometer in estimating subsurface temperature, but also to select the type of geothermometer according to available data. A sample input file of geothermal waters obtained from Iceland has been tested, so as to show the applicability and usefulness of the program.     

A comparison between reliability analyses based primarily on disjointness or statistical independence: The case of the generalized indra network

A switching expression is readily convertible to a reliability expression if (a) all ORed terms are disjoint, and (b) all ANDed sums are statistically independent. The usual approach of system reliability analysis makes a primary use of (a) and a secondary use of (b). An alternative approach reverses the roles of (a) and (b). Symbolic reliability expressions for the source-to-terminal reliability of a generalized Indra network (GIN) with nonidentical components are derived by the two approaches. For this particular case, the second approach leads to a shorter, more elegant derivation and simpler novel results. Typical plots of the GIN reliability functions are presented and their properties are discussed.