Inverse Displacement Mapping

Inverse displacement mapping is a variant of displacement mapping which does not actually perturb the geometry of the surface being mapped. It is thus a true texture mapping technique which can be applied during rendering without breaking viewing pipeline discipline. The method works by first projecting probing rays into texture space and solving for a ray-texture intersection there. Shadows can also be determined by mapping a probe from the intersection point towards the light source into texture space and seeing if an intersection results. Our implementation uses as much knowledge about the base surface as possible to speed up the ray-surface intersection calculation. We have limited our treatment to spheres, cones, cylinders and planes, and our rendering method to ray casting, in order to contain the scope of this work up to the present. The inverse displacement mapping technique can, however, be applied more widely, for example as part of a full ray-tracer, and also as part of the rendering pipeline for a wider class of smooth surfaces.     

Kinetics of the oxidation of carbon black by NO2: Influence of the presence of water and oxygen

In a fixed bed reactor, the rate of carbon black oxidation by NO₂ is significant for temperatures above 300°C, leading to NO, CO and CO₂ formation. The presence of O₂ in the feed gas increases the rate of oxidation, as well as the presence of water. A cumulative effect is observed when both water and oxygen are present. An oxygen balance shows that oxygen atoms of water molecules are not consumed. Water acts as a catalyst for the C-NO₂ reaction. A kinetic mechanism in which intermediate nitro-oxygenated species are formed in the presence of NO₂ during an initial step is in agreement with all these observations. Oxygen and NO₂ are able to react with these species at 300°C. A parametric study of the effects of the temperature, NO₂, O₂ and H₂O concentrations was performed. With a one-dimensional model of NO₂ consumption along the thickness of the carbon black bed, kinetic constants were derived and a phenomenological law was proposed, accounting for the effect of the presence of oxygen and water.     

Inverse Displacement Mapping in the General Case

Inverse Displacement Mapping is a form of displacement mapping which allows the ray tracing of displacement mapped surfaces. The technique performs all calculations in the inverse (parametric) space of the surface thus avoiding the need to explicitly model the complex three dimensional geometry. This produces a compact and general algorithm, Only when the solution, in parametric space, has been determined is it transformed back to 3D space. The algorithm works by projecting the ray into the parametric space of the surface. This ray is then split into a series of segments, each of which can be efficiently handled to calculate the intersection points. The algorithm presented here has been used to ray trace displacement mapped objects from a variety of underlying surface types.     

Keratosis follicularis spinulosa decalvans: confirmation of linkage to Xp22.13-p22.2

The authors report a case of presumed idiopathic chronic iridocyclitis in which an intraocular foreign body (IOFB) was finally identified. There was no history of prior eye trauma. Ophthalmologic and laboratory evaluations were inconclusive. Seven months following unsuccessful medical treatment of the iritis and given the patient's occupational history, a skull x-ray was performed followed by computed tomography of the orbits. A metallic IOFB was identified in the pars plicata and was surgically removed with resolution of the inflammation. The possibility of an IOFB should always be entertained in idiopathic iridocyclitis refractory to medical treatment, even when there is no history of ocular trauma.     

Core and Corona Modifications for the Design of Polymeric Micelle Drug-Delivery Systems

Polymeric nanoparticle micelles are formed from amphiphilic polymers with a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic corona. Often comprised of a biodegradable, biocompatible polymer core and a poly(ethylene glycol) corona, these nanoparticle micelles encapsulate a hydrophobic drug and enable surface modification with targeting ligands. Strategies to enhance hydrophobic drug encapsulation are described as chemistries that facilitate covalent modification with antibodies using water-based click chemistry.     

Phosphocatalytic Kinome Activity Profiling of Apoptotic and Ferroptotic Agents in Multiple Myeloma Cells

Through phosphorylation of their substrate proteins, protein kinases are crucial for transducing cellular signals and orchestrating biological processes, including cell death and survival. Recent studies have revealed that kinases are involved in ferroptosis, an iron-dependent mode of cell death associated with toxic lipid peroxidation. Given that ferroptosis is being explored as an alternative strategy to eliminate apoptosis-resistant tumor cells, further characterization of ferroptosis-dependent kinase changes might aid in identifying novel druggable targets for protein kinase inhibitors in the context of cancer treatment. To this end, we performed a phosphopeptidome based kinase activity profiling of glucocorticoid-resistant multiple myeloma cells treated with either the apoptosis inducer staurosporine (STS) or ferroptosis inducer RSL3 and compared their kinome activity signatures. Our data demonstrate that both cell death mechanisms inhibit the activity of kinases classified into the CMGC and AGC families, with STS showing a broader spectrum of serine/threonine kinase inhibition. In contrast, RSL3 targets a significant number of tyrosine kinases, including key players of the B-cell receptor signaling pathway. Remarkably, additional kinase profiling of the anti-cancer agent withaferin A revealed considerable overlap with ferroptosis and apoptosis kinome activity, explaining why withaferin A can induce mixed ferroptotic and apoptotic cell death features. Altogether, we show that apoptotic and ferroptotic cell death induce different kinase signaling changes and that kinome profiling might become a valid approach to identify cell death chemosensitization modalities of novel anti-cancer agents.     

An Internet study of prospective memory across adulthood.

In an Internet study, 73,018 18–79-year-olds were asked to “remember to click the smiley face when it appears.” A smiley face was present/absent at encoding, and participants were told to expect it “at the end of the test”/“later in the test.” In all 4 conditions, the smiley face occurred after 20 min of retrospective memory tests. Prospective remembering benefited at all ages from both prior target exposure and temporal uncertainty; moreover, it resembled working memory in its linear decline from young adulthood. The study demonstrates the power of Internet methodology to reveal age-related deficits in a single-trial prospective memory task outside the laboratory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Propranolol in hypertension: a dose-response study

The effect of propranolol was studied in a double-blind crossover trial in 24 carefully selected hypertensive outpatients. Each patient received propranolol 60 mg/day, 120 mg/day, 240 mg/day, and placebo for four weeks each according to a randomised sequence. Propranolol 60 mg/day was no better than placebo in reducing blood pressure. The effects of propranolol 120 mg/day and 240 mg/day were not significantly different. Both doses reduced lying blood pressure by about 20/10 mm Hg from an initial level of 173/104 mm Hg. No difference was detected between the effects of the different doses of propranolol and placebo on weight or on the occurrence of adverse reactions.