понедельник, 31 октября 2011 г.

Games

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Sensors, Vol. 11, Pages 10308-10325: Chip Implementation with a Combined Wireless Temperature Sensor and Reference Devices Based on the DZTC Principle

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

This paper presents a novel CMOS wireless temperature sensor design in order to improve the sensitivity and linearity of our previous work on such devices. Based on the principle of CMOS double zero temperature coefficient (DZTC) points, a combined device is first created at the chip level with two voltage references, one current reference, and one temperature sensor. It was successfully fabricated using the 0.35 μm CMOS process. According to the chip results in a wide temperature range from −20 °C to 120 °C, two voltage references can provide temperature-stable outputs of 823 mV and 1,265 mV with maximum deviations of 0.2 mV and 8.9 mV, respectively. The result for the current reference gives a measurement of 23.5 µA, with a maximum deviation of 1.2 µA. The measurements also show that the wireless temperature sensor has good sensitivity of 9.55 mV/°C and high linearity of 97%. The proposed temperature sensor has 4.15-times better sensitivity than the previous design. Moreover, to facilitate temperature data collection, standard wireless data transmission is chosen; therefore, an 8-bit successive-approximation-register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a 433 MHz wireless transmitter are also integrated in this chip. Sensing data from different places can be collected remotely avoiding the need for complex wire lines.

Crystals, Vol. 1, Pages 229-235: The Crystal and Molecular Structure of (2Z)-2-[3-(4-Methoxybenzoyl)-4,4-dimethyl-1,2-oxazolidin-2-ylidene]-1-(4-methoxyphenyl)ethanone

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

The crystal and molecular structure of the title compound, viz., (2Z)-2-[3-(4-methoxybenzoyl)-4,4-dimethyl-1,2,-oxazolidin-2-ylidene]-1-(4-methoxyphenyl)ethanone (4), is reported. Compound 4 crystallises from toluene/hexanes mixtures in the P21/c space group with eight molecules in the unit cell. The unit cell parameters are: a = 20.9410(11) Å, b = 8.7523(5) Å, c = 21.2291(9) Å; β = 93.529(3)° and V = 3883.5(3) Å3. There are two structurally distinct molecules of 4 found in the solid-state which differ primarily in terms of the observed torsion angles and the overall intramolecular spacing between the aromatic groups. Bond lengths and angles of this tertiary amide are otherwise typical. This is the first crystallographically characterised example of this class of oxazoline precursors, which have previously found application in the syntheses of other heterocycles. Density functional theory (b3lyp 6-311++G** level of sophistication) has likewise been applied to estimate the gas-phase structure of the title compound.

Sensors, Vol. 11, Pages 10293-10307: An Optical Wavefront Sensor Based on a Double Layer Microlens Array

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

In order to determine light aberrations, Shack-Hartmann optical wavefront sensors make use of microlens arrays (MLA) to divide the incident light into small parts and focus them onto image planes. In this paper, we present the design and fabrication of long focal length MLA with various shapes and arrangements based on a double layer structure for optical wavefront sensing applications. A longer focal length MLA could provide high sensitivity in determining the average slope across each microlens under a given wavefront, and spatial resolution of a wavefront sensor is increased by numbers of microlenses across a detector. In order to extend focal length, we used polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) above MLA on a glass substrate. Because of small refractive index difference between PDMS and MLA interface (UV-resin), the incident light is less refracted and focused in further distance. Other specific focal lengths could also be realized by modifying the refractive index difference without changing the MLA size. Thus, the wavefront sensor could be improved with better sensitivity and higher spatial resolution.

Microarrays, Vol. 1, Pages 25-41: A Transcriptome—Targeting EcoChip for Assessing Functional Mycodiversity

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

A functional biodiversity microarray (EcoChip) prototype has been developed to facilitate the analysis of fungal communities in environmental samples with broad functional and phylogenetic coverage and to enable the incorporation of nucleic acid sequence data as they become available from large-scale (next generation) sequencing projects. A dual probe set (DPS) was designed to detect a) functional enzyme transcripts at conserved protein sites and b) phylogenetic barcoding transcripts at ITS regions present in precursor rRNA. Deviating from the concept of GeoChip-type microarrays, the presented EcoChip microarray phylogenetic information was obtained using a dedicated set of barcoding microarray probes, whereas functional gene expression was analyzed by conserved domain-specific probes. By unlinking these two target groups, the shortage of broad sequence information of functional enzyme-coding genes in environmental communities became less important. The novel EcoChip microarray could be successfully applied to identify specific degradation activities in environmental samples at considerably high phylogenetic resolution. Reproducible and unbiased microarray signals could be obtained with chemically labeled total RNA preparations, thus avoiding the use of enzymatic labeling steps. ITS precursor rRNA was detected for the first time in a microarray experiment, which confirms the applicability of the EcoChip concept to selectively quantify the transcriptionally active part of fungal communities at high phylogenetic resolution. In addition, the chosen microarray platform facilitates the conducting of experiments with high sample throughput in almost any molecular biology laboratory.

Atmosphere, Vol. 2, Pages 617-632: Emission Ratios of the Tropospheric Ozone Precursors Nitrogen Dioxide and Formaldehyde from Australia’s Black Saturday Fires

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

The 'Black Saturday' fires were a series of devastating forest fires that burned across Victoria, Australia, during February and March of 2009. In this study we have used satellite data made publically available by NASA from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) to track the smoke plume from the Black Saturday firestorm and explore the chemical aging of the smoke plume in the first days after emission. We also determined emission ratios for formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide within smoke from fires actively burning across Victoria between 7 and 17 February 2009. The mean emission ratios with respect to carbon monoxide derived for these two tropospheric ozone precursors are (0.016 ± 0.004 mol.mol−1) for formaldehyde and (0.005 ± 0.002 mol.mol−1) for nitrogen dioxide. The mean emission ratio for formaldehyde with respect to CO is in broad agreement with values previously quoted in the literature for temperate forest fires. However, to our knowledge there are no previous measurements of emission ratios for nitrogen dioxide from Australian temperate forest fires.

IJMS, Vol. 12, Pages 7481-7494: The “Autothixotropic” Phenomenon of Water and its Role in Proton Transfer

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

In an experimental study, significantly higher conductivity values than those of freshly prepared chemically analogous solutions were found in aged (~one year old) aqueous solutions, except for those stored frozen. The results surprisingly resemble a previously noticed phenomenon in liquid water, which develops when water is stored in closed vessels. This was observed as a disturbing phenomenon in gravimetric measurements and in luminescence spectroscopy measurements. The phenomenon was termed "autothixotropy of water" due to the weak gel-like behavior which develops spontaneously over time, in which ions seem to play an important role. Here, according to experimental results we propose that contact with hydrophilic surfaces also plays an important role. The role of the "autothixotropy of water" in proton transfer is also discussed.

Echofon 1.5.2 - Syncs unread Tweets with your iPhone.. (Demo)

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 03:04 AM PDT



The Echofon interface was carefully designed to be comfortably left open all day, it stays out of the way when necessary and expands to support all the advanced features you need, when you need them.

Easily attach photos to your tweets with drag and drop. You can also attach screen captures, current iTunes song, or current page in Safari. Echofon uses handy indicators to show which tweets have photos, videos, location, conversations etc.

Use all of your Twitter accounts in Echofon, account switching is easy and you'll see a subtle notification for mentions and messages you receive in background accounts.

Unread tweets stay in sync with your iPhone. If you read tweets on your mac, and later open up Echofon on your iPhone, you can pick up right where you left off. Never again will you read the same tweet twice!

Echofon has a unique drawer interafce that is used for supplementary tasks such as viewing a user's profile, timeline, favorites, followers etc. It is also used for people search. This helps you keep focus on the main timeline while pulling up other information as needed.

Version 1.5.2:

  • Preview images in search results.
  • Added show toolbar menu.
  • Added show compose bar menu.
  • Updated trends API endpoint.
  • Fixed a bug that all HTML entity references should be supported.


  • Mac OS X 10.6 or later
  • Twitter account


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iClip 5.0 - Get past the limitations of a single Clipboard.. (Shareware)

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 03:21 AM PDT



iClip is the premier multiple clipboard & scrapbook tool that enables you to keep a history of almost anything you copy, instead of only the last thing.

iClip was designed to be accessed as simply as the Mac's Dock. Just move your cursor to the side of the screen and iClip pops out for instant use.

Get things into and out of iClip with hotkeys, drag & drop, or just 1-click.

Organize your stored clips into multiple sets and have them ready to paste in an instant.

Imagine having common email replies, logos and signatures, code-snippets, and more just a single click or keyboard shortcut away!



Version 5.0:
  • iClip has a new owner, Irradiated Software
  • Major update to support Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
  • Limited time special promo price!


Mac OS X 10.4 or later

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Race into Space 1.0.0.270 - Strategy game covering the space race.. (Free)

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 03:13 AM PDT



Race Into Space is the free software version of Interplay's Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space, a strategy game covering the space race, from Sputnik to landing on the moon.

This is the reworked version following the source release for the computer version of the Liftoff! board game by Fritz Bronner. This was originally developed by Strategic Visions and published by Interplay in as a disk based game in 1992 and a CD-ROM in 1994.

Version 1.0.0.270:

Notes:
This release improves the interface a bit to make the game easier to administer. It also includes a few bug fixes and improvements to the back end of the code, and some small changes to gameplay.

Bug Fixes and code improvement:

  • Fixed bug in the order of missions in 2-player games
  • Fixed bug in 'naut morale calculations--changed penalty/bonus when crewmates are (in)compatible
  • Removed extra duration step on duration missions (the game used to roll against Duration A, which isn't actually a duration level)
  • Sound sampling upgraded from 8-bit to 16-bit
  • Zombie Crew Bug fixed (we hope) (bug #2085366)
Changes:
  • The game now offers an advanced preference option to temporarily raise components' Max R&D when they are flown (Max R&D is reset in case of a catastrophic failure). This allows players to benefit from dummy tests flown prior to reaching Max R&D, and should allow them to research back to where they left off if hardware safety is reduced by a newscast.
  • Safety penalty in non-catastrophic failures reduced from 10 to 0-10 (0 if "All systems are GO")
  • Boosted rocket Safety calculation can now be changed: default remains to multiply rocket*booster Safety, but players can set it back to the average of the two (the way it was in BARIS) in Advanced Preferences
  • Launch Facility screen now shows morale boxes next to assigned crew members
  • Reduced penalty in manned missions when no one dies to -7
  • Mission Review screen now shows prestige firsts (and seconds) achieved on a given mission
  • Viewing Stand now shows all missions flown, not just the last three
  • Autopurchase now shows the cost of selected equipment
  • Some Soviet hardware names changed to be more historically accurate
  • Lunar missions have been shortened & made more accurate: Earth Orbital Insertion Burn, Earth Orbital Activities, and Earth De-Orbit Burn steps have been replaced with a single Reentry Corridor step
  • Damaged equipment (i.e., where you said No to pay xMB or suffer y% Safety) shows the damaged Safety in R&D and other screens, and R&D also lets you change your mind during the turn and fix it after all, if you want to
  • The game now lets you select which crew member is first to set foot on the Moon (your choice is displayed in the endgame screen)
  • Players are no longer required to assign a backup crew to missions (the requirement can be turned back on in Advanced Preferences)



Mac OS X 10.4.4 or later

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Insects, Vol. 2, Pages 462-468: Termite Resistant Properties of Sisal Fiberboards

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

A study was carried out to test sisal (Agave sisalana Perrine) fiberboards properties as building materials against Asian subterranean termite, Coptotermes gestroi (Wasmann). Evaluation was in the laboratory according to the JWPA Standard-TW-S.1-1992. To improve mechanical properties of fiberboards made from sisal fibers, the boards were overlaid by rubber veneer, betung bamboo matting or formica. Result showed that the formica-overlaid sisal fiberboards performed better than other overlaid fiberboards against C. gestroi.

IJMS, Vol. 12, Pages 7469-7480: Development of a Human Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) Toolkit for Environmental Pollutants

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models can be used to determine the internal dose and strengthen exposure assessment. Many PBPK models are available, but they are not easily accessible for field use. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has conducted translational research to develop a human PBPK model toolkit by recoding published PBPK models. This toolkit, when fully developed, will provide a platform that consists of a series of priority PBPK models of environmental pollutants. Presented here is work on recoded PBPK models for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and metals. Good agreement was generally obtained between the original and the recoded models. This toolkit will be available for ATSDR scientists and public health assessors to perform simulations of exposures from contaminated environmental media at sites of concern and to help interpret biomonitoring data. It can be used as screening tools that can provide useful information for the protection of the public.

IJMS, Vol. 12, Pages 7459-7468: DNA Sequence Analysis of South African Helicobacter pylori Vacuolating Cytotoxin Gene (vacA)

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

Sequence diversity and population structures can vary widely among pathogenic bacteria species. In some species, all isolates are highly similar, whereas in others most of the isolates are distinguished easily. H. pylori is known for its wide genetic diversity amongst the various strains most especially in the genes involved in virulence. The aim of this study was to evaluate by PCR and sequence analysis, the genetic profile of H. pylori vacA gene (s1, s2, m1 and m2). We sequenced small DNA segments from 13 vacAs1, 10 vacAm2, 6 vacAm1 and 6 vacAs2 strains which were amplified with amplicon size of 259/286 bp, 290 bp and 352 bp for vacAs1/s2, m1 and m2 respectively. Based on similarities among our strains accession numbers were provided for seven vacAs1 (HQ709109–HQ709115), six vacAs2 (JN848463–JN848468), six vacAm1 (JN848469–JN848474) and six vacAm2 (HQ650801–HQ650806) strains. Amongst the strains studied, 98.07%, 98.58%, 97.38% and 95.41% of vacAs1, vacAs2, vacAm1 and vacAm2 of the strains were conserved respectively. Findings of this study underscores the importance of understanding the virulence composition and diversity of H. pylori in South Africa for enhanced clinico-epidemiological monitoring and pathophysiology of disease.

Energies, Vol. 4, Pages 1840-1857: Battery Management Systems in Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

The battery management system (BMS) is a critical component of electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The purpose of the BMS is to guarantee safe and reliable battery operation. To maintain the safety and reliability of the battery, state monitoring and evaluation, charge control, and cell balancing are functionalities that have been implemented in BMS. As an electrochemical product, a battery acts differently under different operational and environmental conditions. The uncertainty of a battery's performance poses a challenge to the implementation of these functions. This paper addresses concerns for current BMSs. State evaluation of a battery, including state of charge, state of health, and state of life, is a critical task for a BMS. Through reviewing the latest methodologies for the state evaluation of batteries, the future challenges for BMSs are presented and possible solutions are proposed as well.

Marine Drugs, Vol. 9, Pages 2164-2175: An Acute Case of Intoxication with Cyanobacteria and Cyanotoxins in Recreational Water in Salto Grande Dam, Argentina

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

Cyanobacterial blooms and hepatotoxic microcystins (MCs) usually occur in summer, constituting a sanitary and environmental problem in Salto Grande Dam, Argentina. Water sports and recreational activities take place in summer in this lake. We reported an acute case of cyanobacterial poisoning in Salto Grande dam, Argentina, which occurred in January 2007. Accidentally, a young man was immersed in an intense bloom of Microcystis spp. A level of 48.6 µg·L−1 of microcystin-LR was detected in water samples. Four hours after exposure, the patient showed nausea, abdominal pain and fever. Three days later, dyspnea and respiratory distress were reported. The patient was hospitalized in intensive care and diagnosed with an atypical pneumonia. Finally, a week after the exposure, the patient developed a hepatotoxicosis with a significant increase of hepatic damage biomarkers (ALT, AST and γGT). Complete recovery took place within 20 days. This is the first study to show an acute intoxication with microcystin-producing cyanobacteria blooms in recreational water.

Prince Charles exercises a secret veto over a wide swath of UK legislation

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 02:24 AM PDT


UK government ministers have been secretly offering Prince Charles a veto over proposed legislation since 2005, under a little-known law that gives the prince the right to silently kill or amend legislation if it might negatively affect his interests. The legislation the prince was consulted upon includes bills on the Olympics, road safety and gambling. No one knows the full extent of these consultations, nor what changes the prince made to the legislation before it went to Parliament. Among the prince's assets are the Duchy of Cornwall, worth £700m, and he received £18m/year in income.

When I took my "Life in the UK" test before becoming a permanent resident, I was struck by the incoherence of the section on the UK's "unwritten constitution," which, to my Canadian eyes, seemed to suggest that the UK didn't really have a constitution, just a mismash of badly articulated principles that have to be tediously litigated and contested every time they collide. Now that I'm a British citizen, it becomes clearer and clearer that this is, indeed, the case.

MPs and peers called for the immediate publication of details about the application of the prince's powers which have fuelled concern over his alleged meddling in British politics. "If princes and paupers are to live as equals in a modern Britain, anyone who enjoys exceptional influence or veto should exercise it with complete transparency," said Andrew George, Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives in Cornwall. "The duchy asserts that it is merely a private estate. Most people will be astonished to learn that it appears to have effective powers of veto over the government."

"We should know why he is being asked and the government should publish the answers," said Lord Berkeley, who was last month told to seek Charles' consent on a marine navigation bill. "If he is given these powers purely because he owns land in Cornwall it is pretty stupid. What about the other landowners who must also be affected by changes to legislation?"

Revelations about Charles' power of consent come amid continued concern that the heir to the throne may be overstepping his constitutional role by lobbying ministers directly and through his charities on pet concerns such as traditional architecture and the environment.

Prince Charles has been offered a veto over 12 government bills since 2005

(Image: Prince Charles, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from victoriajohnsonphotography's photostream)

Open Sea!

Posted: 29 Oct 2011 04:01 PM PDT

[Platform: Mobile (Windows)] Aah, the salt of the sea. Deadly waves threatening to drown passersby. Armed frigates firing on civilians. Mummies scuttling across the sandy beaches, infecting helpless folks with their embalmed charm. It's just an ordinary day for the citizens in Open Sea!, a satisfying and great-looking mobile arcade game by The Pixelizers. To get everyone to safety, you're going to need a little bit of luck and a whole lot of lightning bolts.

Algorithms, Vol. 4, Pages 285-306: An Algorithm to Compute the Character Access Count Distribution for Pattern Matching Algorithms

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

We propose a framework for the exact probabilistic analysis of window-based pattern matching algorithms, such as Boyer–Moore, Horspool, Backward DAWG Matching, Backward Oracle Matching, and more. In particular, we develop an algorithm that efficiently computes the distribution of a pattern matching algorithm's running time cost (such as the number of text character accesses) for any given pattern in a random text model. Text models range from simple uniform models to higher-order Markov models or hidden Markov models (HMMs). Furthermore, we provide an algorithm to compute the exact distribution of differences in running time cost of two pattern matching algorithms. Methodologically, we use extensions of finite automata which we call deterministic arithmetic automata (DAAs) and probabilistic arithmetic automata (PAAs) [1]. Given an algorithm, a pattern, and a text model, a PAA is constructed from which the sought distributions can be derived using dynamic programming. To our knowledge, this is the first time that substring- or suffix-based pattern matching algorithms are analyzed exactly by computing the whole distribution of running time cost. Experimentally, we compare Horspool's algorithm, Backward DAWG Matching, and Backward Oracle Matching on prototypical patterns of short length and provide statistics on the size of minimal DAAs for these computations.

Genes, Vol. 2, Pages 829-840: Isolation and Characterization of the Etheostoma tallapoosae (Teleostei: Percidae) CENP-A Gene

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

Both centromeric alpha-satellite sequences as well as centromeric protein A (CENP-A) are highly variable in eukaryotes. CENP-A, a histone H3 variant, is thought to act as the epigenetic "mark" for assembly of centromeric proteins. While most of the histone fold domain (HFD) of the CENP-A is fairly well conserved, a portion of this HFD as well as the N-terminal tail show adaptive variation in both plants and animals. Such variation may establish reproductive barriers that may lead to speciation. The family Percidae contains over 200 species most of which are within the subfamily Etheostomatinae. This subfamily represents a species rich radiation of freshwater fishes in North America and these species exhibit both allopatric and sympatric distributions. In order to study the evolution of CENP-A in percid fish species, we have isolated and characterized the CENP-A gene from Etheostoma tallapoosae by PCR based gene walking. As a result of this study we have demonstrated that the Tallapoosa darter CENP-A gene HFD sequences can be isolated from genomic DNA by nested PCR in a manner that does not lead to the amplification of the highly sequence related histone H3 gene. We also demonstrated that PCR based walking can be subsequently used to isolate the rest of the CENP-A gene and adjacent gene sequences. These adjacent gene sequences provide us with a primer binding sites for PCR isolation of the CENP-A gene from other percid species of fishes. An initial comparison of three percid species shows that the N-terminal tail of the percid CENP-A gene shows adaptive evolution.

Daily Sudoku - October 31 - Easy

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 01:04 AM PDT

The key choices may seem unusual, but the navigation has to avoid key presses that are reserved for the browser, for example we couldn't use CTRL+1 to highlight all squares that contain a as this is opens the first window in Firefox, nor SHIFT+P as it is reserved for printing, etc.

Genes, Vol. 2, Pages 804-828: Ecological and Temporal Constraints in the Evolution of Bacterial Genomes

Posted: 31 Oct 2011 12:00 AM PDT

Studies on the experimental evolution of microorganisms, on their in vivo evolution (mainly in the case of bacteria producing chronic infections), as well as the availability of multiple full genomic sequences, are placing bacteria in the playground of evolutionary studies. In the present article we review the differential contribution to the evolution of bacterial genomes that processes such as gene modification, gene acquisition and gene loss may have when bacteria colonize different habitats that present characteristic ecological features. In particular, we review how the different processes contribute to evolution in microbial communities, in free-living bacteria or in bacteria living in isolation. In addition, we discuss the temporal constraints in the evolution of bacterial genomes, considering bacterial evolution from the perspective of processes of short-sighted evolution and punctual acquisition of evolutionary novelties followed by long stasis periods.
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