Iterative Reconstruction for Transmission Tomography on GPU Using Nvidia CUDA

The iterative reconstruction algorithms for X-ray CT image reconstruction suffer from their high computational cost.Recently Nvidia releases common unified device architecture(CUDA),allowing developers to access to the processing power of Nvidia graphical processing units(GPUs),in order to perform general purpose computations.The use of the GPU,as an alternative computation platform,allows decreasing processing times,for parallel algorithms.This paper aims to demonstrate the feasibility of such an implement...     

Method of Stabilizing the Surface Energy of Fabrics Coated with Silicone

Silicone coatings have been used in this study. The method adopted was the liquid drop analysis on the coated fabrics. The contact angle between a liquid drop and the fabric surface was measured with two liquids continuously and recorded by a computer. The surface energy was calculated by means of Owens method. Kinetic measurement was adopted. The contact angle of liquids on the fabric coated silicone decreased with time was found. A compound solution DX has been found, so that the contact angle of the liquids on the fabric washed with DX becomes constant, and the surface energy of the fabric can be reduced to below 15 mJ/m2.     

Ydc1p ceramidase triggers organelle fragmentation, apoptosis and accelerated ageing in yeast

Saccharomyces cerevisiae dihydroceramidase Ydc1p hydrolyzes ceramide, resulting in accumulation of free long-chain bases and their phosphates. Yeast mutants lacking YDC1 are characterized by increased chronological lifespan. Moreover, we found YDC1 up-regulated in a yeast mutant displaying reduced chronological lifespan. These data suggest an important role for Ydc1p in chronological lifespan determination in yeast. Mitochondria are known to play an important role in chronological lifespan and apoptosis. In this study we demonstrated that overexpression of YDC1 results in reduced chronological lifespan and increased apoptotic cell death. We found YDC1 overexpression to result in mitochondrial fragmentation and dysfunction. Interestingly, vacuoles also appeared to be fragmented and dysfunctional upon YDC1 overexpressing. Exogenous addition of ceramide to YDC1-overexpressing cultures increased chronological lifespan and restored organelle function. In conclusion, this study describes a direct link between ceramide metabolism in yeast and mitochondrial and vacuolar fragmentation and function, with consequences for chronological lifespan in yeast.     

The mode of antifungal action of plant, insect and human defensins

Defensins are small (~5 kDa), basic, cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides that fulfill an important role in the innate immunity of their host by combating pathogenic invading micro-organisms. Defensins can inhibit the growth or virulence of microorganisms directly or can do so indirectly by enhancing the host's immune system. Because of their wide distribution in nature, defensins are believed to be ancient molecules with a common ancestor that arose more than a billion years ago. This review summarizes current knowledge concerning the mode of antifungal action of plant, insect and human defensins.