Molecular cloning, sequencing, and heterologous expression of the vaoA gene from Penicillium simplicissimum CBS 170.90 encoding vanillyl-alcohol oxidase

The cDNA encoding vanillyl-alcohol oxidase (EC 1.1.3.7) was selected from a cDNA library constructed from mRNA isolated from Penicillium simplicissimum CBS 170.90 grown on veratryl alcohol by immunochemical screening. The vaoA-cDNA nucleotide sequence revealed an open reading frame of 1680 base pairs encoding a 560-amino acid protein with a deduced mass of 62,915 Da excluding the covalently bound FAD. The deduced primary structure shares 31% sequence identity with the 8alpha-(O-tyrosyl)-FAD containing subunit of the bacterial flavocytochrome p-cresol methyl hydroxylase. The vaoA gene was isolated from a P. simplicissimum genomic library constructed in lambdaEMBL3 using the vaoA-cDNA as a probe. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence of the vaoA gene with the cDNA nucleotide sequence demonstrated that the gene is interrupted by five short introns. Aspergillus niger NW156 prtF pyrA leuA cspA transformed with the pyrA containing plasmid and a plasmid harboring the complete vaoA gene including the promoter and terminator was able to produce vaoA mRNA and active vanillyl-alcohol oxidase when grown on veratryl alcohol and anisyl alcohol. A similar induction of the vaoA gene was found for P. simplicissimum, indicating that similar regulatory systems are involved in the induction of the vaoA gene in these fungi. Introduction of a consensus ribosome binding site, AGAAGGAG, in the vaoA-cDNA resulted in elevated expression levels of active vanillyl-alcohol oxidase from the lac promoter in Escherichia coli TG2. The catalytic and spectral properties of the purified recombinant enzyme were indistinguishable from the native enzyme.     

Block position dithering in DCT-coded sequences

An attempt has been made to hide the false edges perceived at block borders in DCT-coded image sequences. The standard H.261 codec is extended by simple pre- and postprocessing: shifting the input image over small pseudo-random horizontal and vertical distances and shifting back the output image by the same amount. A subjective comparison by a panel of 20 observers has established a quality improvement for interframe coding, if both the current image and the previous image are subjected to the same shift. Masking the block borders by adding a time-invariant noise image to the output is found to be a desirable option.     

Rheology of a miscible blend of SAN and SMA

We present results of oscillatory shear rheology experiments on miscible blends of commercial styrene‐acrylonitrile (SAN) and styrene‐maleic anhydride (SMA) copolymers. We find that this blend system upholds the empirical time‐temperature superposition principle. We compare the thermorheological behavior in this system with other blends, on which oscillatory shear data have been published in the literature. We show that thermorheological behavior in these blends is indeed comparable to other known thermorheologically simple blends. Thermorheological simplicity in this blend is nicely anticipated by a thermorheological phase diagram in the parameter space of dynamic asymmetry and free volume, which we have recently proposed. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 78: 1245–1249, 2000     

Applying PTF/VTF routing policies in multilayer IP/MPLS-based ASON/GMPLS multi-domain networks

The IP/MPLS-based ASON/GMPLS hybrid network architecture enables the interaction between the IP layer and the optical dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) layer. This architecture makes it possible to transfer huge amounts of traffic data on DWDM networks, while supporting Internet Protocol (IP)-based service applications. Additionally, this architecture provides a unified routing scenario, which allows the dynamic routing in both the IP layer and/or optical layer. Cross- layer routing has been addressed in single domain networks scenarios, where the routing policies Physical Topology First (PTF) and Virtual Topology First (VTP) have been proposed and applied. However, applying cross-layer routing using both routing topology policies PTF and VTF has not been investigated in a multi-domain networks scenario yet. In this study, we address this issue and propose a routing scheme to establish traffic connections in the optical WDM layer and the IP layer, which makes the applicability of PTF and VTF in multilayer multi-domain network feasible.     

Coexpression of Kit and the receptors for erythropoietin, interleukin 6 and GM-CSF on hemopoietic cells

Schizophrenia is a devastating illness for the affected individuals and their families. Health care providers and researchers are also challenged by the clinical heterogeneity of this disorder. The goal of the present paper is to offer an updated overview of the aetiology, definition, clinical manifestations and pharmacological and psychosocial treatments of schizophrenia. Finally, some future directions for psychiatric nursing will be suggested in light of the existing knowledge of schizophrenia.     

Interpolatory Quadrature Rules for Oscillatory Integrals

In this paper we revisit some quadrature methods for highly oscillatory integrals of the form $\int_{-1}^{1}f(x)e^{\mathrm{i}\omega x}dx,\omega>0$ . Exponentially Fitted (EF) rules depend on frequency dependent nodes which start off at the Gauss-Legendre nodes when the frequency is zero and end up at the endpoints of the integral when the frequency tends to infinity. This makes the rules well suited for small as well as for large frequencies. However, the computation of the EF nodes is expensive due to iteration and ill-conditioning. This issue can be resolved by making the connection with Filon-type rules. By introducing some S-shaped functions, we show how Gauss-type rules with frequency dependent nodes can be constructed, which have an optimal asymptotic rate of decay of the error with increasing frequency and which are effective also for small or moderate frequencies. These frequency-dependent nodes can also be included into Filon-Clenshaw-Curtis rules to form a class of methods which is particularly well suited to be implemented in an automatic software package.     

Vision Based Intelligent Wheel Chair Control: The Role of Vision and Inertial Sensing in Topological Navigation

This paper describes ongoing research on vision based mobile robot navigation for wheel chairs. After a guided tour through a natural environment while taking images at regular time intervals, natural landmarks are extracted to automatically build a topological map. Later on this map can be used for place recognition and navigation. We use visual servoing on the landmarks to steer the robot. In this paper, we investigate ways to improve the performance by incorporating inertial sensors. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Identifying and exploiting commonalities for the job-shop scheduling problem

For many combinatorial problems the solution landscape is such that near-optimal solutions share common characteristics: the so-called commonalities or building blocks. We propose a method to identify and exploit these commonalities, which is based on applying multistart local search. In the first phase, we apply the local search heuristic, which is based on simulated annealing, to perform a set of independent runs. We discard the solutions of poor quality and compare the remaining ones to identify commonalities. In the second phase, we apply another series of independent runs in which we exploit the commonalities. We have tested this generic methodology on the so-called job-shop scheduling problem, on which many local search methods have been tested. In our computational study we found that the inclusion of commonalities in simulated annealing improves the solution quality considerably even though we found evidence that the job-shop scheduling problem is not very well suited to the use of these commonalities. Since the use of commonalities is easy to implement, it may be very useful as a standard addition to local search techniques in a general sense.