Detection and imaging of atmospheric radio flashes from cosmic ray air showers

The nature of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) at energies >10(20) eV remains a mystery. They are likely to be of extragalactic origin, but should be absorbed within approximately 50 Mpc through interactions with the cosmic microwave background. As there are no sufficiently powerful accelerators within this distance from the Galaxy, explanations for UHECRs range from unusual astrophysical sources to exotic string physics. Also unclear is whether UHECRs consist of protons, heavy nuclei, neutrinos or gamma-rays. To resolve these questions, larger detectors with higher duty cycles and which combine multiple detection techniques are needed. Radio emission from UHECRs, on the other hand, is unaffected by attenuation, has a high duty cycle, gives calorimetric measurements and provides high directional accuracy. Here we report the detection of radio flashes from cosmic-ray air showers using low-cost digital radio receivers. We show that the radiation can be understood in terms of the geosynchrotron effect. Our results show that it should be possible to determine the nature and composition of UHECRs with combined radio and particle detectors, and to detect the ultrahigh-energy neutrinos expected from flavour mixing.     

Spektrale Phototaxis von Planktonrotatorien

Summary The spectral sensitivity of 3 species of planktonic Rotatoria (Asplanchna priodonta, Polyarthra remata, Filinia longiseta) were measured by means of the positive phototactic reaction.Asplanchna andPolyarthra both have a broad maximum sensitivity range around 540 nm and a near maximum at 440 nm. In the UV direction (to 360 nm) the spectral sensitivity increases. In contrast,Filinia has only a maximum of 460 nm in the visible spectrum, but behaves similarly to the other species in the UV region. The ecological significance of these results is discussed, as well as their bearing on a possible dermal light sense.     

Bid-deficient mice are resistant to Fas-induced hepatocellular apoptosis.

The protein Bid is a participant in the pathway that leads to cell death (apoptosis), mediating the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria in response to signals from 'death' receptors known as TNFR1/Fas on the cell surface. It is a member of the proapoptotic Bcd-2 family and is activated as a result of its cleavage by caspase 8, one of a family of proteolytic cell-death proteins. To investigate the role of Bid in vivo, we have generated mice deficient for Bid. We find that when these mice are injected with an antibody directed against Fas, they nearly all survive, whereas wild-type mice die from hepatocellular apoptosis and haemorrhagic necrosis. About half of the Bid-deficient animals had no apparent liver injury and showed no evidence of activation of the effector caspases 3 and 7, although the initiator caspase 8 had been activated. Other Bid-deficient mice survived with only moderate damage: all three caspases (8 and 37) were activated but their cell nuclei were intact and no mitochondrial cytochrome c was released. We also investigated the effects of Bid deficiency in cultured cells treated with anti-Fas antibody (hepatocytes and thymocytes) or with TNFalpha. (fibroblasts). In these Bid-/- cells, mitochondrial dysfunction was delayed, cytochrome c was not released, effector caspase activity was reduced and the cleavage of apoptosis substrates was altered. This loss-of-function model indicates that Bid is a critical substrate in vivo for signalling by death-receptor agonists, which mediates a mitochondrial amplification loop that is essential for the apoptosis of selected cells.     

多参考预测链的时域可扩展性和抗错性

网络的带宽抖动和数据传输错误是影响视频传输的重要原因。该文提出了一种新的多参考帧图像预测的视频编码算法,即多参考预测链,使视频具有时域可扩展性和抗错性解决网络的这两个潜在问题。该算法中P帧之间的参考预测关系构成多条链状结构,使视频具有时域可扩展性。链间的不相关性使每个链可独立解码,从而增强了码流抗错性。该算法采用R-D框架动态的管理预测关系链,从而适合网络带宽的变化而获得最佳的终端视觉效果。仿真实验表明,采用多参考预测链编码的码流时域可扩展性的应用非常可行,且表现出较高的抗错性。     

Archimedean-like tiling on decagonal quasicrystalline surfaces

Monolayers on crystalline surfaces often form complex structures with physical and chemical properties that differ strongly from those of their bulk phases. Such hetero-epitactic overlayers are currently used in nanotechnology and understanding their growth mechanism is important for the development of new materials and devices. In comparison with crystals, quasicrystalline surfaces exhibit much larger structural and chemical complexity leading, for example, to unusual frictional, catalytical or optical properties. Deposition of thin films on such substrates can lead to structures that may have typical quasicrystalline properties. Recent experiments have indeed showed 5-fold symmetries in the diffraction pattern of metallic layers adsorbed on quasicrystals. Here we report a real-space investigation of the phase behaviour of a colloidal monolayer interacting with a quasicrystalline decagonal substrate created by interfering five laser beams. We find a pseudomorphic phase that shows both crystalline and quasicrystalline structural properties. It can be described by an archimedean-like tiling consisting of alternating rows of square and triangular tiles. The calculated diffraction pattern of this phase is in agreement with recent observations of copper adsorbed on icosahedral Al(70)Pd(21)Mn(9) surfaces. In addition to establishing a link between archimedean tilings and quasicrystals, our experiments allow us to investigate in real space how single-element monolayers can form commensurate structures on quasicrystalline surfaces.     

The complete genome of an individual by massively parallel DNA sequencing

The association of genetic variation with disease and drug response, and improvements in nucleic acid technologies, have given great optimism for the impact of 'genomic medicine'. However, the formidable size of the diploid human genome, approximately 6 gigabases, has prevented the routine application of sequencing methods to deciphering complete individual human genomes. To realize the full potential of genomics for human health, this limitation must be overcome. Here we report the DNA sequence of a diploid genome of a single individual, James D. Watson, sequenced to 7.4-fold redundancy in two months using massively parallel sequencing in picolitre-size reaction vessels. This sequence was completed in two months at approximately one-hundredth of the cost of traditional capillary electrophoresis methods. Comparison of the sequence to the reference genome led to the identification of 3.3 million single nucleotide polymorphisms, of which 10,654 cause amino-acid substitution within the coding sequence. In addition, we accurately identified small-scale (2-40,000 base pair (bp)) insertion and deletion polymorphism as well as copy number variation resulting in the large-scale gain and loss of chromosomal segments ranging from 26,000 to 1.5 million base pairs. Overall, these results agree well with recent results of sequencing of a single individual by traditional methods. However, in addition to being faster and significantly less expensive, this sequencing technology avoids the arbitrary loss of genomic sequences inherent in random shotgun sequencing by bacterial cloning because it amplifies DNA in a cell-free system. As a result, we further demonstrate the acquisition of novel human sequence, including novel genes not previously identified by traditional genomic sequencing. This is the first genome sequenced by next-generation technologies. Therefore it is a pilot for the future challenges of 'personalized genome sequencing'.     

Bit-Depth Scalable Coding Using a Perfect Picture and Adaptive Neighboring Filter

Bit-depth scalability is a new research field in the on-going scalable extension of the H.264/AVC (SVC) video coding standard. The key point is to accurately predict the enhancement layer, whose bit depth is 10 or more, from the 8 bit base layer. An improved inter-layer prediction scheme for bit-depth scalability was developed that ensures compatibility with the standard and improves the encoding efficiency. The scheme uses a “perfect” 8 bit picture with an adaptive neighbor filter whose coefficients are optimized by minimizing the block distortion between the 8 bit reconstructed picture and the “perfect” picture to achieve a more precise 10 bit prediction based on the filtered picture. Double arithmetic precision is used to further improve the encoding efficiency. Experimental results show that the scheme outperforms the recent joint video team (JVT) proposal in the joint scalable video model (JSVM).     

Systematic pathway analysis using high-resolution fitness profiling of combinatorial gene deletions

Systematic genetic interaction studies have illuminated many cellular processes. Here we quantitatively examine genetic interactions among 26 Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes conferring resistance to the DNA-damaging agent methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), as determined by chemogenomic fitness profiling of pooled deletion strains. We constructed 650 double-deletion strains, corresponding to all pairings of these 26 deletions. The fitness of single- and double-deletion strains were measured in the presence and absence of MMS. Genetic interactions were defined by combining principles from both statistical and classical genetics. The resulting network predicts that the Mph1 helicase has a role in resolving homologous recombination-derived DNA intermediates that is similar to (but distinct from) that of the Sgs1 helicase. Our results emphasize the utility of small molecules and multifactorial deletion mutants in uncovering functional relationships and pathway order.